Ninefox Gambit

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHERIS FELT WIDE awake, but it wouldn’t last. Kel Nerevor had been one of the first to get back on her feet. She had taken over the Weapons terminal, as they had had to have servitors haul Lieutenant Kel Jai to Medical, and his replacement had not yet arrived.

The entire command center was awash with alerts demanding attention. Cheris reminded herself that the trick was to prioritize, no matter how insistent all of the lights were that they had to be addressed all at once. As it stood, you could be forgiven for thinking, based on the crazed quilt of red and amber lights, that the entire moth – the entire swarm – was in danger of crashing into some kind of space reef.

A small team of deltaform servitors were cleaning up the messes, small as they were: some blood on the walls and edges of terminals where people had fallen badly, although by some run of luck there had been no serious head injuries. Fortunately, this wasn’t something that needed Cheris’s intervention. When you got right down to it, servitors were frequently better at guiding themselves than the Kel gave them credit for, and they were being very quiet and very discreet, so as not to distract from the business of battle.

“I don’t understand why the heretics aren’t shooting, sir,” Nerevor said in a rasp. “It’s not like they’d be any more fucked than they already are.”

“They’re still figuring out who we are,” Cheris said. But Nerevor was right. Besides the visual alerts, the staticky charts and diagrams and maps that she was monitoring with half an eye, there was the occasional audio alert, low deadened bell tones. Nothing that required immediate action, even though the displays on her terminal were growing more and more crowded. Each one made her flinch: she kept expecting a real emergency to come through.

“Something’s going on in the Anemone Ward, sir,” Scan said. He looked white around the mouth, but she never would have guessed it from his voice. Indeed, he sat at his terminal with a posture so correct she could only call it stiff, when even Nerevor was hunched over – just a little, with an attitude that suggested she was in pain.

“Double-check to make sure the Kel infantry are in null uniforms,” Jedao said. “The Shuos will already be dressed appropriately.” And: “The Kel must avoid being captured at all costs.” If he noticed the chaotic state of the command center, there was no sign of it in his voice. But of course, this sort of thing was nothing new to him.

Cheris sent the orders in. She wished the air were less dry, less hot, that she could have a glass of water; but in all likelihood she was flushed from the stress of the situation, and she would have to wait until she could leave the command center, like everyone else. Minutes peeled past.

Captain Ko called the command center. She almost missed it because Engineering was sending a series of updates on some situation involving the invariant drive, except she saw the blinking Shuos eye call indicator before Jedao had to bring it to her attention. “Sir,” Ko said, “we couldn’t get it released to us earlier, but there should be a list of qualified shield operators. Kel Command might release information to you now that the shields are down and the secret’s out. Just be careful of the timing: the heretics will be suspicious if they catch us chatting with Kel Command. Besides,” and his voice went dry, “it’s not as if Kel Command won’t have to drill state secrets out of our heads. My compliments to General Jedao, sir.” That was all.

“How generous of him,” Jedao said, just as dryly. The shadow’s eyes, to Cheris’s side on the floor, were narrowed.

Cheris quirked an eyebrow.

“I’m sure you Kel find Shuos infighting very amusing.”

Cheris composed the query, then saved it with a reminder to send it when their ruse was blown.

“Would rather be shooting, sir,” Nerevor said moodily. She was drumming her fingers on the arm of her chair.

“We can’t take out all their guns fast enough to clear a landing corridor for the hoppers,” Cheris said.

“I know,” Nerevor said, and sighed. “Wait for an opening in the situation and all that.”

Cheris rechecked the hopper logistics, on the grounds that she might as well do something. Her mouth felt more dry than ever. She bet she wasn’t the only one. Later, she told herself. In the meantime, she was getting better at blocking out some of the lower-priority alerts and reorganizing her displays so the most important status indicators were available at a glance. The grid was supposed to do this automatically, but its judgment was sometimes skewed.

Five hours and thirty-nine minutes later, it happened. Cheris had gone for a brief rest and felt better for it, to say nothing of the cool water she had drunk, and was now back in the command center.

In the infantry she had envied moth soldiers the controlled environment, the easy availability of baths and water, air that didn’t choke you with dust or scorched metal or cooked flesh. Now that she was in a cindermoth, she missed having to watch where she put her feet; she missed the light of swollen suns instead of the patchwork red-and-amber, she missed the wind cutting into her eyes.

“Sir!” It was Scan, who looked badly like she wanted her shift to end. “Explosion near the communications post in the Anemone Ward. Minor armor breach.”

“Tell the boxmoths all hoppers on standby,” Jedao said.

Cheris began giving orders. The boxmoths Autumn Flute and Six Sticks Standing contained the Shuos infiltrator teams. It was imperative that they get the infiltrators into the Fortress so they could start figuring out where the heresy came from and how to stop it.

“Prepare another transmission,” Jedao said once she had finished. “Garach Jedao Shkan. We’re going to hand you back that communications post, but you should learn to hold on to your toys. I’m sending you an extra gift as a token of my goodwill. Enjoy.”

Cheris entered the message more or less automatically, then stared at the bright columns of text. “What do you mean, ‘gift’?”

“A hostage,” Jedao said. “A high officer, a moth commander for preference. Someone they’ll recognize from public records.”

“You’re out of your fucking mind,” Cheris said. “I’m not feeding the fucking heretics one of my officers.”

“Cheris, listen to me. We have to inject those infiltrators. We can’t shoot our way down there. The Fortress has too many guns, and I’m good, but not that good. If you can’t go through a problem, you have to go around it. The heretics haven’t fired because they’re uncertain, but they’re not stupid enough to let us land troops unless I convince them that I’m not, in fact, a Kel general with an unusual taste for dirty tactics. I have to convince them that I’m really Garach Jedao and that I offer them an advantage.”

“I’m still not—”

He kept talking. “The heretics are teetering right now because I took down the shields, yet there’s no way I could charm or bludgeon my way into a Kel swarm after escaping, let alone a swarm with two cindermoths. We’re going to leave the story to their imagination, because they’re right. I couldn’t do it. But they need to think I did. That’s why we have to send a commander to suggest the story to them. It’s something the Kel would never do, but I might. The Kel don’t fight like that.”

“Damn straight,” Cheris said. “Because we’re not doing it.”

“Very well then, fledge.” Jedao’s tone was formal, and a hot flush crept up the sides of Cheris’s neck. “What is your proposed alternative?”

That brought her up short. She didn’t have one. “Pull back and blow down the defenses with all the bombs we have,” she said.

“I’m happy to evaluate an alternative plan,” Jedao said, correctly ignoring what she had just said in desperation, “but there has to be something to evaluate.”

Cheris had an overwhelming desire to punch him. “Fine,” she said. “If you’re so fucking determined to send someone, send me.”

“Unacceptable,” Jedao said. “Now you’re reacting, not thinking, and when it comes to strategy, thought must trump reaction. If any records exist of you in the Fortress, they’ll have you down as an infantry captain. You’re too insignificant to be of any use as a hostage. At the same time, as my anchor and the current general, you’re too important. I can’t help the swarm if you’re drugged in a cell somewhere. Besides, your shadow and reflection will tell them what’s going on.”

“I can’t ask this of my officers!”

“Sir,” Nerevor said in a dead even voice. She had come out of her chair and was facing Cheris, eyes narrowed.

Cheris realized that she had been shouting.

Everyone had heard her half of the argument.

“Sir,” Nerevor said, more insistently. “What’s the dispute?”

Nerevor shouldn’t have asked, but it was entirely like her to do so. Besides, it was too late to pretend the dispute hadn’t taken place. Cheris said, “General Jedao believes that we need to send the heretics a hostage to persuade them not to fire on the hoppers. The hostage would have to be a high officer to be convincing.”

“Not something any Kel general would do, but something a crazy vengeful Shuos would do, am I right?” Nerevor said, nostrils flaring. “Because we can’t hide the fact that these are Kel moths, so we have to pretend that we were overwhelmed or blackmailed.” She didn’t sound like she thought that was far from the truth. The rest of the command center was very still.

“Yes,” Cheris said.

Nerevor lifted her chin. “Then I’ll go, sir. You won’t do better than a cindermoth commander.”

With winter clarity, Cheris realized she had been manipulated into losing her temper so this conversation would take place. “Hawkfucking prick,” she said to Jedao, remembering the subvocals this time. She studied Nerevor, resisting the urge to glare at the shadow.

Jedao didn’t deny the charge. “She’ll need to be wiped,” he said. “Get Medical to inject her with full-strength formation instinct and revert her to fledge-null. Fastest way to make sure they don’t get intelligence out of her.”

“You’d have to be wiped, Commander,” Cheris said. “Are you sure—”

“You’re wasting everyone’s time,” Jedao said.

“I understand that, sir,” Nerevor said steadfastly. “I am Kel. I will serve, even if this isn’t the service I anticipated when I was assigned to your swarm.”

“Report to Medical,” Cheris said.

“Sir,” Nerevor said, saluting sharply, then turning on her heel.

Cheris put the orders in to Medical. Her hands shook, and she felt coldly knotted inside. Going into a firefight would have been better than this pallid safety. Then she nodded at Nerevor’s executive officer, Lieutenant Colonel Hazan, who had been listening intently, mouth pursed. “You’re acting commander,” she said.

Hazan saluted her sharply, seemingly calm. But a tremor passed through the crew.

“Communications,” Cheris said, “send this message to the Fortress.” She passed it over.

“Hoppers still on standby, sir,” Navigation said, without quite looking at her.

“They’ll hold until Commander Nerevor is ready,” Cheris said. “Tactical One and Two, prepare covering fire but await my command. Scan, what is the Fortress’s current status?”

Scan said, “There’s a lot of—”

“Sir!” Communications said. “Outgoing message from the Anemone Ward, in the clear and in all directions.”

Cheris said to Scan, “You first, but make it fast.”

“There’s a fight by the communications post,” Scan said. “Not definitive, but signatures are consistent with Kel small arms and possibly civilian weapons. No major structural damage to the post. Physical breaches sealed with metalfoam. Toxics in the spectral lines indicate the explosives were class four, but I’m not seeing more of those.”

“They want it intact, too,” Jedao said. “Hardly surprising.”

“Inform Colonel Ragath and the infiltrators,” Cheris said. It was vague, but something was better than nothing. Out of the corner of her eye she watched the colors change around her, red to brighter red, red to fox-yellow. “Communications, give us the message.”

Thanks to the exchanges between Jedao and the heretics’ leader, Cheris had expected plain text. The video took her by surprise: something was wrong with the hologram, and even interpolation had left tracks of snow and cinders in the colors.

“Andan Nidario to Kel Command.” The man had a warm, rich voice, but the entire right side of his face was a mass of bruises and burns. The act of speech must have been painful. “Hell, to anyone who’s listening.” He canted his head to listen to someone off-camera. “Shuos Jedao is loose and has battered down the Fortress’s shields. Send someone to deal with him, will you? I mean, he might be on our side, but he’s opened negotiations with the heretics, so I find myself unoptimistic. I’m appending our observations, but we’re not going to be able to hold the communications post for long.”

More commentary from the side, then: “Andan Lia would like to add that we don’t have confirmation that it’s Jedao. Frankly, he blew down the shields in hours, that’s enough evidence for me.

“When you get here, shoot that tin general Znev Stoghan first. He’s been with the heretics since the beginning.” The rattle of gunfire. “Oh hells, somebody cover the door, will you? Excuse me, I’d better pick up a gun and make myself useful before the painkillers wear off. Just do something with the information, that’s all I ask. Nidario out.”

“Dump the whole thing to Captain Ko,” Cheris said.

Hazan said, all black humor, “I’m glad we’re not responsible for spin control, sir. The Andan are usually more discreet, but I suppose he was desperate.” He showed no sign of discomfort at being in Nerevor’s chair: the right approach, even if it nettled her.

“I killed that man,” Jedao said, not amused, but without regret either. “However, we can only rescue the loyalists if we have troops on site, so the fact that he’s helping my credibility with the heretics is useful.”

“You expected something like this to happen,” Cheris said slowly. Why was she surprised?

“I believe in planning ahead. The loyalists have no way of knowing I’m here on Kel Command’s orders and there’s no way to let them know. When I announced my arrival, it wasn’t just to intimidate the heretics. It was to provoke the loyalists into revealing information, which would persuade the heretics in turn. And it forced your swarm to adjust to the fact that they’re being led by a madman and traitor.”

“That’s a lot of objectives.”

“It’s only three, and the last one is marginal. You want to accomplish as many different things on as many different levels as you can with each move. Efficiencies add up fast.”

“Call from Medical,” Communications said. “Commander Nerevor has been prepared, sir.”

“Load her onto Hopper 1 with the others and send her on her way,” Cheris said, hating herself. In a just world she would feel sick, but instead it was as though she stood outside herself, in a world turned to iron and crystal and cryptic facets.

“It’s done,” Navigation said after an agonizing eight minutes. “Hopper 1 launched.”

“Launch the rest,” Cheris said.

More waiting. Cheris’s guts churned. She was starting to think she would see the color red in afterimage flashes, as she walked out of the command center – if she ever did – and even in the hallways of her dreams.

No; she had to be honest with herself. What she would see over and over was Nerevor’s face as she volunteered to do exactly what Jedao wanted her to do, what Cheris had let her do.

“Fortress retrieving Hopper 1 with servitor teams, sir,” Scan said. Her voice wavered. “More fire in the Fortress, source uncertain, but no serious damage to the hoppers.”

“Instruct Colonel Ragath that loyalists are to be returned to the heretics unless they turn on him,” Cheris said. “He’s to send urgent status reports only.”

“The colonel acknowledges,” Communications said after a pause that was longer than Cheris liked.

“Nerevor will suffer very little,” Jedao said then, “although I won’t insult your intelligence by claiming she’s safe. In fledge-null she will only know that her duty is to endure until a Kel officer gives her instructions, and only an unscrupulous Kel will be able to damage her mind. I judge it unlikely that the heretics have Kel among them. Your people do loyalty well.”

Cheris put pieces of a puzzle together in her head. The pieces didn’t match up. When he had first been anchored to her, he had asked about formation instinct almost as if he had no idea. Subvocally, she said, “For someone who affects not to know much about formation instinct, you’re awfully familiar with its workings.”

The last of the hoppers was starting the return trip. Cheris wished she was on one of them, away from the cindermoth and the ninefox’s dreadful shadow. Her shadow. Strange how she could distinguish its eyes so easily from every other amber light around her, even if they were the same color.

“Think about it, Cheris. I learned to judge soldiers’ morale and loyalty when the Kel were individuals. Why would it be hard for me to figure out the standardized version?”

Then the game with the luckstone, Jedao taunting her to shoot herself, his show of penitence –

“That’s right,” Jedao said. “I knew exactly when you’d break. I needed to make a point and it was the fastest way.”

Cheris kept hold of her temper, remembering how she had lost Kel Nerevor. “If you were lying about that all this time, why reveal it now?”

Was it a new game? And here she had thought she was done being a web piece. At the moment she could have happily incinerated Shuos Academy.

“Because I know you’re worried about her.”

She stiffened. “I doubt you ever cared about your soldiers,” she said.

His voice was rough. “People say that about me, yes. I won’t argue.”

“Commander Hazan,” Cheris said abruptly. “I’m going to rest. Alert me immediately if there are new developments.”

“Of course, sir,” Hazan said.

Cheris knew perfectly well that she couldn’t escape Jedao in her quarters. She had a better idea.