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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

"When I asked Lady Deshes about the humans that had been driven into Clan Nrgun's sector the lady said, and I quote, `They are a sick and twisted people who lie and kill without provocation.' "

Huntmaster Sum-sef spoke as calmly as though he reported directly to his queen at the end of every mission, let alone to five of the towering females. They were intimidating, as was the place of their meeting, but for the pride of his clan and his queen the huntmaster made himself behave as though it were a matter of indifference.

"I then asked the lady why Snargx had not called upon the other clans to help them in this fight. The lady replied that Snargx could take care of itself without needing to crawl back to their elder sisters for help."

"Arrogant!" Saras muttered angrily.

"Did the lady say why Snargx had not apologized for pursuing their enemy into Nrgun territory without warning us?" Tewsee asked.

Sum-sef hesitated, then answered, "The lady said that her huntmasters were in pursuit of their lawful duties and that she would not apologize for that."

The queens were stunned to silence.

"This is a very bold attitude for a lady to take," Lesni said at last. Her pedipalps indicated profound disapproval of Lady Deshes' attitude. "It would be too strong coming from Syaris herself. But from a lady . . ."

"Go on," Tewsee said to her huntmaster, wearily certain of what she would hear.

"I then asked the lady's permission to continue my journey to bring my queen's greetings to her queen. Lady Deshes told me that it would not be necessary, that she would convey my queen's message. I then asked if she was forbidding me to continue my journey and she replied that she was."

"Did she explain?" Saras demanded.

The huntmaster shifted his stance, an irrepressible indication of his nervousness.

"The lady said that as a sub-queen it was her choice and that she chose not to accommodate me. She told me that she knew her queen would stand behind her decision because Queen Syaris had no time for every little huntmaster who claimed to bear the greetings of his queen when all he really had to offer was impertinent questions."

"Sub-queen?" Saras of the green clan said, her voice low, her stance vaguely threatening. "Oh, I don't think I like the sound of that at all."

Tewsee rose from her couch and looked around at her fellow queens.

"Then I shall bring her my greetings in person," she announced.

"And so shall I," Saras instantly agreed.

Cembe, the orange queen, rose. "Bletnik will join you," she said.

"And Streth," Cesat added.

"And Vened." Lesni tilted her purple head. "Five queens come to call. That should get our young queen's notice."

* * *

"Sir!" Truon Le's voice woke Raeder from a sound sleep.

"Yes?" he answered hoarsely.

He rose and groped his way to his desk. Even half awake he'd recognized the worry in the XO's voice. The light in his quarters rose slowly, something he'd programmed, so that his eyes wouldn't be stabbed by a sudden increase in illumination. Flopping down in his desk chair Raeder hit the com button and his wall screen filled with the anxious face of his XO.

"What's happening, Mr. Truon?" the commander asked, sleep falling away rapidly.

"Fibian ground control has told us to make ready to depart the system. We've been asked to escort the queens to Clan Snargx territory."

Peter's mind froze for a beat. As prisoners, observers or active participants? he wondered.

"Patch me through to Lady Sisree immediately," Raeder said. He ran his fingers through his hair and regretted his ungroomed appearance. Of course she might not even notice, he comforted himself.

"It is Has-sre you see, Commander Raeder," the sleek-looking Fibian said when the screen cleared. "My lady is unable to attend you. However, in anticipation of your call she has left this message."

Without waiting for permission or comment Sisree's first assistant transmitted the recording.

"Commander," Lady Sisree said from the screen, "on behalf of my mother and all of the queens we request that you not be alarmed by this turn of events. Please accompany them on their journey to confront Queen Syaris directly. It is the hope and the wish of Nrgun and her sister clans that we can make things right between your people and ours. We wish you to know that the Invincible and all of her people are under Nrgun's direct protection."

The recording ended and Has-sre appeared in its place.

"If there is anything which your ship requires to make its departure certain, Commander, please let me know and I will expedite matters."

"Thank you, First Assistant," Raeder said, his hands in the position of the second degree of respect. "I will confer with my officers immediately and call you if we have any such needs."

As soon as they disconnected Raeder called a teleconference, waking some of his officers from sleep.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he told them, "our Fibian friends have decided to go see Clan Snargx at close range and they have requested us to accompany them under the express protection of Clan Nrgun."

"It's a trap!"

Oh, for crying out loud! Raeder had forgotten to cut Booth out of the loop.

"Trap or not, Mr. Booth, we're going. What I need to know is if there's anything missing that we need to make us mobile. Skinner?" Raeder asked the engineering officer.

"We completed the engine tests today, more than satisfactory. We're stocked up on antihydrogen, bulkheads in engineering are shipshape. We're ready."

A virtual Shakespearean monologue coming from Augie, Raeder thought.

"Water? Food?" Peter said, turning to the quartermaster. Toilet paper? 

"We're set, sir!" The young temporary quartermaster grinned like a demented chipmunk.

"We could probably use a good set of coordinates," Ashly Lurhman said through a yawn.

"They've sent them up," Truon Le advised her. "I can download them to you there."

"Please," she said. "The sooner I look at them the sooner I'll know if I need anything else."

"This is a mistake!" Booth said.

"Thank you for your input, Mr. Booth," Peter said. I could buy a better closed-loop audio recording for a decicredit. "And thank you all. I'll be on the bridge if you need me. Raeder out."

The commander tapped a few keys and found himself confronting Has-sre again.

"We seem well supplied, First Assistant," Peter said. "For which we offer our thanks to your people. But we would like to have a Fibian officer accompany us and brief us on things as we go along. We wish to make no mistakes on this mission."

"Of course, Commander," Has-sre said smoothly. "We would also like to offer you the services of Sun-hes, your instructor in protocol."

"We would be delighted to have him accompany us," Raeder assured him. "In which case we will need supplies suitable to the sustenance of two of Clan Nrgun's citizens."

"It shall be done, Commander," Has-sre assured him. "Good journey to you."

"Thank you, First Assistant."

Raeder stared at the blank screen for a moment. He couldn't help but feel uneasy at the suddenness of this departure. But he was willing to trust Queen Tewsee. For now.

* * *

Two days later Queen Tewsee looked at the face of a very young lady, who claimed to be second to Lady Deshes.

"You?" the queen asked. She permitted her pedipalps to indicate her astonishment, but hinted at admiration in the tilt of her head.

Sheek bowed her head profoundly low, her pedipalps unquestionably demonstrating the first degree of respect.

"My mother wishes me to have as much experience as I can gather. She says that one can never know too much."

"Your mother is correct," Queen Tewsee said graciously. "Knowledge and experience are very valuable. But it is to your mother that I must speak. Though I mean no slight to you, young lady. Where is the lady Deshes?"

Sheek froze for a moment. Then, with an undeniable air of satisfaction, she said, "My mother is working on her experiments." A gesture of her pedipalp expressed disgust.

"What experiments are these, child?" Tewsee asked.

The young Fibian drew herself up but turned her head aside in a clear indication of embarrassment.

"She is experimenting with obtaining sexual gratification without fertilization."

Tewsee went absolutely still at that. At first she was simply numb with shock at the implications of what the child had told her. It was, quite simply, unheard of.

"You mean . . . with males?" the queen asked.

All females could easily manipulate males with their pheromones, causing them to become hypnotized into a state of mindless lust. But it was to be used strictly for the purpose of mating and it was considered, quite simply, wrong to do so for no justifiable reason.

"Yes, your majesty." Sheek was looking out of the screen with a distinctly eager tilt to her head. "Quite a few don't survive," she added.

Now Tewsee drew herself up to her full height, suppressing the hiss of rage that would only have frightened this child and the males who were working beside her.

"I am Queen Tewsee of Clan Nrgun," she said in a voice of command. "I am taking over Isasef Station as of this moment. Neither messages nor ships are to leave this system until I have permitted it. Do you understand?"

"Yes, your majesty."

This time Sheek bowed from the waist. She was a little frightened now at her boldness. But she was more frightened for her mother than for herself. Too late she thought of consequences and guilt assailed her. Still, there had been only good reports of this queen, which made her believe that while Deshes was in terrible trouble she would survive it. At least for now.

"You will broadcast my voice throughout the station, with the exception of your mother's quarters," Tewsee said. "We wouldn't want to disturb her, now would we?"

* * *

"She is my daughter," Cesat insisted.

The yellow queen gazed out of the screen with a determined set to her head, but her chelicerae showed her repugnance. Whether it was for the task or Deshes or both was less clear.

"She was your daughter," Tewsee agreed. The position of her body indicated sympathy, her pedipalps showed resistance and determination of the first degree. "That is why you should not involve yourself in this. Now she is a daughter of Clan Snargx and no longer your responsibility. Let another handle this unpleasant task. I put myself forward to do it: it was I, after all, who started us on this journey. Or choose another if you prefer, but spare yourself, for she was your daughter."

"What do you plan?" Lesni asked. Her own body language was carefully indeterminate, though her purple exoskeleton was far less glossy than usual from shock and stress.

"I plan to imprison her," Tewsee said. "And I plan to claim this station for Nrgun until such time as we can find a new queen for this system."

The other queens froze while they considered this. Clearly they couldn't leave the station deprived of its lady. Not least because it would be dangerous to leave so many rudderless males bound to Deshes and Syaris and the other sub-queens at their rear. The child, Sheek, was far too young to be left in charge, despite her apparent competence, so obviously one of the queens would have to claim both the station and the males.

"Should we consider now who we will ultimately place in charge of this sector?" Cembe asked. The orange queen's whole manner was elaborately disinterested, a response to the tension her fellow queens were undoubtedly feeling.

"Certainly we should be considering candidates," Tewsee said impatiently. "Though I do not think that we can allow anyone from Clan Snargx to go unclaimed or unpunished. From what we've learned most of them are very young or still children, and all of them have been raised in a most perverted fashion. I advise that we bring them home, some to each clan, thus dissipating the strength of the evil that has been done to them. Let us reseed this sector with new colonists."

"Yes," Saras said immediately. "This is a good plan. Punish the leaders, the malefactors—reeducate their victims." The green queen bowed her head. "I salute you for your wisdom, Tewsee. Go to the station, do what needs to be done."

"Let us not reseed this sector until we have determined that it is safe," Cesat spoke up. "Perhaps there is something here that has caused this insanity."

The others indicated their agreement with the yellow queen. There wasn't one of them that didn't hope that this whole mess had to do with some external factor.

"I shall have Deshes imprisoned on one of my ships," Tewsee said. "And I will leave my third assistant in charge of the station. While I am about this work, think about what we should do with Syaris and her rather too numerous ladies. I shouldn't be gone long."

With that she broke off communication and rose, suppressing a sigh. No, this shouldn't take long at all.

* * *

"No, Sheek, you may not meet me at the lock. I wish our time together to be undisturbed and when I first come aboard I will have pressing business with your mother."

"I can show you to her quarters," the young lady said eagerly.

Tewsee was both oddly charmed and disconcerted by her eagerness. Her mother was fairly young and it was possible that the budding daughter instinctively reacted to Deshes more as a rival than as a parent.

"You may send me a guide who can escort me to your mother's chambers, my dear. But I am relying on you to begin indoctrinating Suv-aus, my third assistant in the running of the station. Both you and your mother will accompany us on our journey and there will be little enough time for you to teach him."

Sheek abandoned her unnatural maturity and actually wriggled with excitement at that.

"I shall teach him very well, your majesty!" the child assured her. "I shall have one guide for you and one for him waiting to welcome you."

The screen went blank and Tewsee stared broodingly into it for a few moments.

"Poor child," Suv-aus said, watching his queen to see how she reacted.

"Yes," she agreed. "Poor child. I suspect she's been given far too many duties for one so young. But I think she is also very clever, Third Assistant. I think she shall keep you very busy indeed."

* * *

Deshes watched the slightly larger male vanquish his rival and gloried in the carnage. The males had both released their own pheromones and the rich male scent that filled the room exhilarated her to the point of intoxication. She was delighted with this experiment and couldn't wait to share the idea with the queen. Syaris would be most amused.

The winner of the combat staggered towards her, and Deshes toyed with the idea of letting this one succeed in depositing his seed with her. Then laughed at herself. It wouldn't do to let her excitement carry her away. Though the idea was tempting. She lay back, inviting the male closer, and released the scents of her own elation and desire into the air.

The door to her chamber flashed aside and the sterile air of the corridor swept in to taint the delicious atmosphere she'd created so carefully. Deshes flung herself to her feet and faced the door with murder in every line of her stance—and froze.

Before her stood a queen. Instinct tempered her stance without her knowledge; her mind was too stunned to believe what she saw. Then she was stunned again as the queen assailed her with a wash of pheromones that completely overwhelmed her.

Deshes dropped to the floor, exposing her neck, her pedipalps raised in a plea for mercy. She didn't think. She merely felt and what she felt was pure terror.

The male had likewise flung himself to the deck, but he simply lay there, too exhausted emotionally and physically to even plead for his life.

Tewsee looked at him, looked at the crumpled body at the far side of the room. She turned to the small escort Sheek had sent her.

"See to your brothers," she commanded. She turned to her own soldiers. "Take this female to the Fledrook Hunter, imprison her in a sealed room. No one is to speak to her or to approach her."

The males moved forward and seized Deshes, who looked up in wonder to find herself spared. There was much in the wash of scent coming from the blue queen that indicated she was extremely fortunate.

"Thanks and praise, great queen . . ." she began.

"Be silent!" Tewsee ordered. "Do not speak to my soldiers! And if you release the smallest trace of scent I will give myself the pleasure of tearing you to pieces personally."

Deshes bowed, totally quelled, and allowed herself to be led trembling away.

Tewsee stared at the bloody stain on the floor of Deshes' chamber and felt a stirring in her digestive sac, and a great loathing filled her. She and her sister queens had much grim work ahead of them.

"Come," she said to her guide, "lead me to your young lady."

* * *

Sheek ran to her as though Tewsee were her own mother, gently stroking the queen's pedipalps and forelegs. The younger female trembled as she did so, babbling her gratitude all the while.

Tewsee began to stroke the child's head and back, and before many moments had passed Sheek's chitin had begun to cool from red to blue. Over the child's head Tewsee gave a nod to her third assistant and he made some adjustments to the station's atmospheric plant.

Within moments the queen's scent permeated the station, telling those who labored there that they now belonged to her and she to them. With utmost relief the males surrendered, beginning their change to Clan Nrgun without the slightest hesitation.

* * *

It was immediately apparent to the watchers on the Invincible that Isasef Station had undergone a sea change. For one thing the running lights switched from red to blue and many small craft began to run from Nrgun's ships to the station.

"Send a polite inquiry to her majesty's flagship," Raeder said. "I don't care who answers as long as someone is willing to give us some information."

"Aye, sir," communications said.

"I'll be in the office," Peter said.

He rose from the captain's chair and made his way to Knott's ready room, adjacent to the bridge. He sat at the desk and called Stuart Semple, the captain's secretary, on the com.

"Get me Sim-has, Mr. Semple, and Sun-hes as well."

"In person, sir?" Semple asked.

"On screen will be fine," Raeder said.

They tried to keep the Fibians' travel through the corridors to a minimum as a surprising number of the crew found themselves genuinely appalled by the creatures. Which naturally offended the Fibians, who were straining themselves to the utmost to endure the company of people they considered loathsome in appearance.

Meanwhile, Ticknor was still gratefully under heavy sedation in sick bay. Dr. Goldberg had shrugged hopelessly and said it was really up to the linguist himself how long this would last. When he was ready, he wouldn't start curling into a ball and screaming as he came awake.

"I know that seems unsympathetic," the doctor had said. "But I'm not his regular physician or therapist and this thing goes pretty deep. We just don't have time here to deal with this kind of problem."

All Raeder could do was thank his lucky stars that Ticknor had come up with a working translation device. Constant interaction had aided in programming the devices and the Fibians had found it remarkably easy to imitate Commonwealth speech. They hadn't told Ticknor. No sense in making a bad situation worse. The humans had learned and now understood a great deal of the Fibian language; they just found it impossible to speak.

"Commander?" Sun-hes asked from the screen. "How may I be of use to you?"

That was one of the things that Raeder had noticed about Fibians; they served their queens and ladies, they were of use to other males.

Peter opened his mouth to speak when his screen split and Sim-has, their Fibian military advisor, appeared.

"How may I be of use, Commander?" he asked.

"Awhile ago," Raeder told them, "a single small vessel went from Queen Tewsee's ship to Isasef Station. Very shortly thereafter the running lights turned blue . . ."

Both the Nrgun Fibians gave cries of joy.

"Our queen has conquered them!" Sun-hes exclaimed. "The station belongs now to Clan Nrgun as do all those within."

"Really?" Peter said. And without a shot fired. Hmm. "How did that happen so easily?"

"It is a matter of Fibian physiology, Commander," Sim-has explained. The young huntmaster paused as though to collect his thoughts. "This is an ability unique to queens. They alone can release chemicals that will change one from being a member of one clan to being a member of another. The male, or lady, must be willing to convert however; if they are not willing then the chemical will poison them."

Raeder considered this for a minute.

"What if someone only pretends to convert?" he asked.

"Impossible, Commander," Sun-hes, the protocol expert, said. "One changes. The color of one's chitin, one's scent and the scents that one responds to, all of these are changed to the signals that would make one as much a member of Clan Nrgun as though one had been born on our homeworld."

"It must be total surrender," the huntmaster said, "or it will be death. We do not claim to merely change our loyalties, we actually change what we are."

The Fibians gazed at the commander, waiting to see if he had any other questions.

"Wow," Raeder said wistfully. "I wish we could do that with the Mollies." I'll bet there's a million of 'em that would secretly love to be Welters. "So," he said, sitting forward in his chair, "this means that we can safely leave this station behind us."

"Yes, Commander," Sim-has agreed with a gesture that indicated he had gotten the concept completely.

Raeder looked at them for a moment before he said, "What will happen when the queens confront the queen of Clan Snargx?"

"Her name is Syaris," Sun-hes said. "That depends largely on her. Though I am not privy to the agenda of the queens that we are accompanying," he admitted.

The huntmaster made a high-pitched sound that Raeder didn't doubt was rude.

"Their majesties will demand that she surrender herself to their judgement," he said. "If half the rumors are as true as the facts you humans and young Sna-fe related to Queen Tewsee, they will not permit her to continue ruling Clan Snargx."

"And if she is unwilling to step down?" Raeder asked.

"Then she faces war with all of the clans as well as with you humans," Sim-has said. "But she cannot resist unless her clan is behind her. And if what has happened on Isasef Station is an indication of how her people feel about her, then there should be no difficulty."

* * *

"They change?" Doctor Goldberg said carefully.

"Change color, change scent, change attitude and loyalties," Raeder confirmed.

He looked around the conference table at his fellow officers and a universal rueful grin spread among them. They were obviously thinking the same thing he had. Wouldn't it be great if they could do that to the Mollies?

"How long does it last?" Booth asked suspiciously.

"A lifetime unless another queen comes along and claims them," Raeder said.

"So what's to stop—" Booth began.

"Only queens can do this," Raeder interrupted him. "And we know that five of them are headed for the sixth. There is no seventh, so these guys should stay Clan Nrgun until they die or Queen Tewsee turns them over to one of her sister queens."

Booth subsided darkly.

"Mr. Gunderson," Raeder said to the tactical officer, "what have you got to report to us?"

"Major traffic through this system, sir. Military signatures for the most part. Ms. Lurhman tells me they're taking the exit point that we emerged from when we entered this system in pursuit of the Fibian attack vessel. There's some heavy metal out there, sir. The equivalent of the Home Fleet, probably more."

Towards Bella Vista, and the half of the squadron that had been left there. He could only hope that Sutton had the good sense to keep a low profile if all Clan Snargx was doing was passing through. He tried not to think about the inevitable conclusion if they'd been forced to fight. Raeder leaned back slowly.

"What sort of numbers are we talking about here, Ensign?"

Gunderson crossed glances with Truon and Lurhman.

"I think we're talking invasion force, sir," Gunderson said. "At least as much as we have that's not tied down in essential patrol or system-picket work, total. A lot of heavy ships have passed through here, military signatures as I said. An incredible number of smaller craft too."

"If they're what's coming through the back door I sure hate to think about what's coming through the front," Peter said grimly.

There was silence around the conference table at that.

"We should warn the Commonwealth," Hartkopf said after a long moment.

"They passed through days ago. And the kind of numbers we're talking about," Truon said, "they have to know by now."

"Would the queens let us go anyway?" Goldberg asked.

"Yes," Sarah said firmly. "No question about that, but I don't think that would be the best use of the Invincible or her people right now." She leaned forward and placed her folded hands before her on the table. "If the queens succeed in their efforts to remove Syaris from . . . office, I guess, then they will be in a prime position to call off the Fibian invasion fleet."

Raeder's eyes had flicked from one speaker to the next as his officers hashed it out. He'd felt the glow of an inner smile when Sarah's opinion coincided perfectly with his own.

"I agree with Lieutenant Commander James," he said. "Queen Tewsee has expressed the desire to, quote, `make everything right between our peoples.' Given that it should be a simple matter to convince them to stop the invaders. Without Clan Snargx backing them, Star Command should be able to mop up the Mollies in short order. So we're going to stay with the queens and then lead them or their people back to the Commonwealth to stop the invasion."

"This could all be some elaborate hoax," Goldberg suggested. "A joke with our arrival at Queen Syaris' court trussed for dinner as the punch line."

The others looked to the commander for his response.

"It would be elaborate all right," Raeder said. "Pointlessly so since they've had us pretty much in their power since we entered Nrgun space. Besides, we've been observing these people for over a month, not an in-depth study I realize, but long enough to notice that they're very different from what we know of Clan Snargx."

There were thoughtful looks around the table at that, some nods, some lowered eyes.

"We'll do more good this way than running back to the Commonwealth to tell them what they've almost certainly found out by now."

* * *

As they entered the Snargx home system, two imprisoned sub-queens in tow, a phalanx of automated buoys swept up to demand their names and business.

"Why are there no crewed ships here to meet us?" Cesat demanded. The yellow queen seemed to take this robotic greeting as a personal insult.

"Unimportant," the buoy responded. "Identify yourselves, state your business, or be fired upon."

"Queen Tewsee of Nrgun."

"Queen Saras of Lince."

"Queen Cembe of Bletnik."

"Queen Cesat of Streth."

"Queen Lesni of Vened."

"Commander Peter Ernst Raeder of the Commonwealth Star Command ship Invincible."

"We send our greeting to Queen Syaris and request a meeting with her," Tewsee said.

They waited as the buoy sat silent before them. The tech boards on their ships showed that their greetings and request had been transmitted.

"Request denied," the buoy announced. "You must leave the area immediately or you will be fired upon."

* * *

"I don't think they're taking those things seriously enough," Peter Raeder said thoughtfully.

The Fibian officer waved his pedipalps. Raeder swallowed slightly; when they did that it always reminded him of a Commonwealth Arts Council nature documentary he'd seen once. One entitled Microscopic Jungle of Death. He'd seen it when he was seven and had nightmares about it for months.

"It is unthinkable that a robotic mechanism would be authorized to fire on a queen's personal ship," he said.

"I think that the red clan will find many unthinkable thoughts perfectly thinkable—even attractive," Raeder said grimly. To his own Tac board: "Do we have the specs?"

"Analysis from our last encounter, sir. They're loaded for bear, and fairly well hardened, but there are a couple of vulnerable points."

"Take them out."

* * *

Tewsee gave a startled jump as a flash of laser fire burst the robot apart. The other buoys simply sat there, inert.

"Who fired?" she demanded.

"The humans, your majesty," her huntmaster answered.

"Get them on the com for me," the queen said.

"I'm sorry if we startled you, your majesty," Commander Raeder said before she could speak. "We rather expected such an answer, so we incapacitated the other buoys and were ready to disarm the last one."

Tewsee stared at him. These beings were so small and so soft looking that it was easy to forget that they were also dangerous. His bland face didn't show it, neither did his posture, but the queen detected a lilt in his voice that spoke of satisfaction, perhaps even smugness.

After a moment she said carefully, "There are no pickets here."

"I suspect that Queen Syaris has stripped her sector of all the military vessels she has," the commander said. "I think that they've been sent to invade the Commonwealth."

"You never spoke of this," Cembe remarked. Her orange face popped up in a square at the top of both Raeder and Tewsee's screens.

"We didn't know that you didn't know, your majesty," Raeder said. Then wished he'd phrased that better. I hope the translator could keep up with that, he thought with an inward wince. If you knew that we knew that you didn't know that we knew . . .  

"Let us have our communications technicians create a secure link between our vessels, Commander," Tewsee suggested. "That way we won't be caught unprepared by your fire next time."

"Yes, your majesty," Raeder agreed. "Hartkopf, see to it," he said over his shoulder.

"Aye, sir."

"We go on," Tewsee said.

"Aye," Cembe agreed, trying out the human word. "We do."

* * *

"If you so much as attempt to land, my people will shoot you out of the sky," Syaris said.

Her stance was extremely aggressive, a battle stance designed to make her look larger and more formidable. It was not mere posturing either; the color of her chitin, a glaring scarlet, confirmed that.

Tewsee considered the young queen with regret. She was so lovely, and had been so promising. When living in Clan Lince she'd been a brilliant student and capable of exquisite diplomacy. And now? Now she had apparently run mad.

The two prisoners had confirmed that they each had four daughters, all at their queen's command. Eight young females. Maybe more! They had yet to recover one of Syaris' sub-queens, and there was no reason to assume that she would not also have been ordered to have female children.

It would be very difficult for the clans to absorb so many. But it must be done. They were children, innocent in this vast evil Syaris had visited on her people.

Tewsee drew herself up. "Syaris," she said regally.

The other queens joined her as she spoke, their words going out in a broadcast that overrode all attempts at blocking the signal. It was heard by every Fibian on the planet below.

"We, the council of queens, demand that you submit yourself to us for judgement in the matter of crimes against an intelligent new species and against your own people."

"You have no power here," Syaris shouted. "Go hide in your palaces until I send for you!" Her whole body spoke of contempt and loathing.

"People of Clan Snargx," the council of queens intoned, "we require you to submit your queen to us for judgement."

Raeder, listening to the broadcast, thought that he heard a strange undertone to the queens' united voices. He tapped a key.

"Sun-hes," he said, "I assume you're listening to this broadcast?"

"Yes, Commander," the protocol expert said.

It was unusual for a Fibian voice to convey anything but mere words, but something in the tone of Sun-hes' voice made Peter look at him more sharply.

"Am I imagining it, or is there something happening there with the queens' voices?" the commander asked.

"What you have witnessed, Commander, is something so rarely invoked as to be legendary. This undertone that you hear quivering in their voices is an irresistible command. At least to all right-thinking Fibians. It depends on how disturbed this population is, or how loyal. Though to overcome such a compulsion, they would have to be very dedicated to their queen indeed."

You mean that we'll be able to take over without a shot fired? Again? Wow! For a moment Raeder wished that humans could solve their problems so simply, then discarded the idea. For one thing it would mean that, like, ninety-nine percent of the population never got to have sex. That's a bad plan, very bad. 

"So this could get very interesting," Peter said.

"Very," Sun-hes agreed.

* * *

Syaris froze at the sound of the queens' voices, froze in terror, froze in anger. How dare they interfere with her? She called the same compelling quaver into her own voice and backed it with her powerful pheromones.

"Attack these invaders, fire on them!" she commanded.

Those Fibians in the war room with her responded to her commands, turning to their boards and calling up their weapons. But in the depths of her new and modern palace a crew of lowly technicians shut down the air plant while others shut down the palace's communications system. They moved to cut power to the war room. In ten minutes the only members of her clan that Syaris could influence were in the room with her.

On the bridge of her flagship Tewsee waited for what would happen. At a technician's board a message came through from the planet below.

"Your majesty," the crewman said from a patch of her screen.

"What is it?" she asked.

"A citizen of Snargx reports that they have isolated Queen Syaris in the war room of her palace, but they do not dare to enter. Those with her are still attempting to fire on us."

Tewsee thought for a moment. "Stay in communication with him, and put me through to my fellow queens," she said at last.

The other queens appeared one by one on her screen and Tewsee waited until they had all gathered. Then she explained what the technician from below had said.

There was silence when she'd finished.

"Well, we cannot all go," Saras said at last.

"No," Cesat agreed. There was a grimness to her posture that was reflected in all of them.

"Tewsee," Lesni said at last, "you have been our leader in this from the beginning. Will you now go down and face Syaris?"

The others indicated agreement with this plan, reluctantly in one or two cases. But they all recognized that Tewsee had dealt fairly and well with their two imprisoned ladies. They knew that she would not lose her perspective now and kill Syaris before she could be brought to judgement.

"I will," Tewsee said. Inside she was resigned and unhappy, but she would do her duty.

* * *

On the Invincible they watched and listened, keeping their weapons hot and trained on military targets.

"There's not much down there in the way of defenses," Truon Le remarked quietly.

"No, there isn't," Raeder agreed. "I don't think she expected anybody to come and call her to account." Maybe this Syaris really is just crazy. 

It was tragic that one mad individual should have so much power over those around her. Of course it had happened in human society, but then it was pure charisma. If they'd wanted to, the many followers of the madmen of history could easily have turned on their masters. According to their Fibian advisors this was not an option for any of Syaris' people who were within a mile of her pheromones.

"Put me through to Queen Tewsee," Raeder said suddenly.

In a moment her face appeared on his screen.

"Yes, Commander," she said.

Raeder was impressed by her graciousness. Here she was preparing to do battle with the enemy queen below and she reacted to this importunate alien with no sign of impatience in her manner.

"May I suggest that you have your soldiers wear space suits when you go below," Raeder said.

There was a slight shift in her chelicerae that indicated mild amusement.

"The air is quite breathable below, Commander," Tewsee replied.

"The reason I suggest this is that Sim-has, your military advisor, has told us that a queen can send out pheromones that persuade a male to change clans. He said that if they resist they die. A suit should protect them."

There was a slight tic as one finger of the queen's pedipalp touched the hard surface of her cheek. Tewsee indicated that he was correct.

"An excellent suggestion," she said, "for which I thank you."

"I was listening in to the communication from below that you received awhile ago," Raeder continued. "They've isolated Queen Syaris and her pheromones in a large room?"

The queen agreed with a gesture. A slight trace of impatience showed through in the quickness with which she moved.

"Make it easy on everyone and pump knockout gas into that room. Then have your people gather her up and put her somewhere safe where she can't influence her own clan and can't harm yours." Peter waited to see how she would react. Maybe there were inviolable rules about this sort of thing. "I mean, she's done enough damage, it would be a shame if she harmed one more person."

Tewsee stared at him, frozen, for a full minute. Then she slowly nodded, deliberately using the human gesture.

"An excellent suggestion," she said. "And I agree, she should not be allowed to harm one more person. We will do this, Commander. I thank you for your suggestions."

As she signed off, Tewsee reflected that humans were frighteningly acute in matters of war and mayhem. As flexible as their—she made herself be frank—regretfully disgusting faces. Frighteningly adaptable and inventive . . . Of course, she didn't know their history. I must assign experts to study it in detail, as soon as possible. 

* * *

"Everything so safe, so serene, so secure!" Syaris raged. "The whole world reduced to a nursery. Nothing ever changing, no challenge, no growth possible. My role was determined years before my planned birth! Look at us! We were designed to be warriors!"

She stood panting before the holographic images of her fellow queens, her gaze skipping from one to the other and back again.

"You don't understand at all. Do you?" Syaris said.

"We are trying to," her mother said. "We are trying to discover how a brilliant student—"

"Did you even notice what I was studying?" the renegade asked.

"History," Saras said, a bit off-balanced by the question.

"I was studying the old queens! Their wars, their methods of ruling, their attitudes towards life and those around them. And I long ago concluded that they were alive and we were simply not dead yet. Cautiously creeping from system to system . . . ugh." She turned her back to them and was quiet for a moment. "I swore that if I ever had the chance I would lead my people as a conqueror, a warrior queen who would take what she wanted and face the consequences."

"Which is why we are all here," Tewsee said. She thought it was time to put a stop to such histrionic nonsense. "We are the consequences. We have spoken to your ladies and they have told us how you led them astray."

"I did not lead them," Syaris said with contempt, turning towards the blue queen. "I did as I pleased and they chose to follow my example."

"Did you or did you not command them all to have four daughters apiece? Did you or did you not command them to have far too many young and to raise and train those children with a brutality that I never read of the old queens employing?" Tewsee's whole body radiated contempt right back at the younger queen. "Did you or did you not eat the flesh of your own clan and of intelligent aliens? Do you deny doing these things?"

"I refuse to acknowledge your authority to even ask these questions of me." Syaris turned away again and adopted a pose that spoke of wronged virtue. "I have never wronged your clans. You cannot say that I have, therefore this invasion is totally unjustified. But I see what you will do, you will persecute me for my beliefs and there is nothing I can do to stop you. But one day you will see that I am right, that the old ways are best. Watch your new human friends," she said over her shoulder. "There you'll see malice and abuse. But you'll also see a people who know they're alive!"

"Let us retire," Tewsee suggested and her form winked out.

The others followed until Syaris was left alone with her mother.

"Why?" Saras asked.

"My will," Syaris answered. "What is a queen who cannot make her will manifest?"

* * *

The holo figure of Saras was the last to join their meeting in Tewsee's quarters on her flagship. The other queens greeted her with averted heads and hunched shoulders, indicative of embarrassment.

"She's mad," Tewsee said. Her posture expressed sympathy. "She's also very clever or we would have known it before turning this system over to her."

"By her own admission," Lesni said, "these ideas were in her head when she was living with Clan Lince."

"What shall we do with our criminal daughters?" Saras asked.

Cesat looked at her quickly, then showed her agreement with the question. "They must be punished," she said.

"There is no precedent for something like this," Cembe said. She shifted her orange body uneasily. "Despite Syaris' claims, the old queens didn't eat their own young. At least not within historical times . . . in the days of myth and legend, but . . ."

They all gradually turned to Tewsee, who looked back at them for a long time before she spoke.

"I am unwilling to be the one who decides what must be done," she said.

"You are the only one of us who hasn't a guilty child involved in this horror," Saras said. "We look to you for impartiality. And wisdom. You have both."

Her fellow queens pleaded with her, their stance and their pedipalps showing longing for her aid.

"Very well," Tewsee said at last. "Here is what I think. I think that these, our daughters, are insane and weak and that they have allowed themselves to commit many evil acts. I think that we made very poor decisions when we placed them in charge of this sector. Therefore, upon us I place the task of taking in these wronged and brutalized children of Snargx and using whatever resources are necessary to heal them and to make them happy and useful citizens of our clans."

"Agreed," Saras said. The other queens indicated agreement as well.

"Our errant daughters must be sterilized," Tewsee went on. "I would not have their genes continue, and they are unfit to mother another generation."

Silence greeted this.

"You do not mean to execute them?" Lesni asked.

"As I said, they are mad. Syaris is most definitely insane," the blue queen said. "I think we can all agree with that?"

The others indicated that they did.

"Somehow she convinced her ladies to go along with her insanity. Since what ensued from that was pure madness I am forced to conclude that they also are insane."

The queens looked at one another.

Cembe shrugged orange shoulders, indicating an uncomfortable agreement.

"I suppose that must be the case," she said.

"Very well," Cesat, the yellow queen, said, "they're insane. Now what do we do with them?"

"We sterilize them, then place them on a livable planet, each to her own continent or large island, and we go away." Tewsee looked each of her fellow queens in the eye. "We are each of us capable of surviving on our own, and so the old queens did. Let them emulate their admired forebears in splendid isolation. While we get on with the task of cleaning up their self-indulgent mess."

The queens stirred and hunched their shoulders.

"Yes," Saras said. "It is just and merciful. Let us do this." She gave the blue queen a sharp glance. "And their male accomplices?"

"The same," Tewsee suggested. "Find a liveable, undeveloped world and leave them there. A different one, it need hardly be said."

"What of our human . . . friends?" Lesni asked. "What if they make demands?"

"They have a right to make demands," Saras said bitterly. "Without the interference of Clan Snargx they would have defeated their enemies long since. I suggest that we find out what demands they might make from Tewsee's Commander Raeder before we make any promises, though."

"He is not—"

"I second the motion," Cesat said. She tipped her yellow head at Tewsee. "He may not belong to you, but he is most closely associated with you. I think he will be more likely to tell you what they might want than he would me, or any of the rest of us."

The others indicated their enthusiastic agreement.

"That's settled," Saras said. "Now let's get to work."

* * *

"Conquer this," Saras told her daughter, sweeping her arms out to indicate the clearing in which they stood. "And know that you are alive."

The image of the green queen winked out, leaving Syaris alone with her stack of boxed vitamin supplements. Clan Snargx's erstwhile queen listened for sounds of life from the unfamiliar vegetation around her. Then she looked up at the darkening sky and her chelicerae shifted. Her mandibles clicked once, then again and again until her whole body shook in a paroxysm of amusement. A whole world to conquer. How delightful.

* * *

"We've left a satellite above with just one job," Fuj-if said to the gathered males. "It will detect any electrical energy over biological levels; when it does it will fire a laser cannon and obliterate the source of the reading." He looked around at Queen Syaris' accomplices. "It is my personal hope that your first job will be to build a power station. But such a quick end is undoubtedly more than you deserve."

He winked out, leaving the males standing in shock, befuddled from the sheer speed with which their world had changed.

"What will happen now?" one of them asked.

He got no answer.

* * *

"Clan Snargx had no soldiers at home, your majesties, because they'd been sent to invade the Commonwealth."

Raeder paused and tried to evaluate what effect, if any, this announcement had made on the gathered queens. They'd been strangely reluctant to allow him this interview, trying to fob him off with Clan Nrgun's queen alone. But he'd been insistent. They'd only get together and talk about me behind my back anyway, he thought. At least now they'll be starting on the same page.

"I've no idea how large an armada set forth from here," he continued, "though I can tell you they left four days ago. I also know that it might be too much for my people to handle, especially with the Mollies lending their weight to the battle. I ask you to stop Clan Snargx's ships. Is there some way that you can make them turn back?"

"There might well be," Tewsee said. "Lead us to your Commonwealth; we will follow and we will do what we can to help."

"I do not wish to be so long away from my people," Cesat protested. "Nor so far that communication is impossible."

"We've all been away from our clans for at least two weeks," Lesni noted. Her stance indicated that she found this stressful.

Tewsee looked around at her fellow queens.

"You left this to me," she said. Not technically true, but very close. "I shall go with our human friends, and so should you. We have killing to stop. Or have you forgotten that Syaris crewed her ships with children?"

Shamed, the queens indicated that they would follow Tewsee on her mission. But they were not pleased to have had this thrashed out before the human and it showed to one with the eyes to see.

"We will be extremely grateful, your majesties," Raeder said, not seeing but suspecting. "I know that our people will look forward to a long and profitable association with the clans once they have this situation explained to them."

"Profitable?" Saras asked with a suspicious tilt to her green head.

"The Commonwealth thrives on trade," Raeder explained. "And we always have more dancers than we can find performance space for." At least I hope so. 

"Will they not hate us for the war Fibians have made on you?" Cesat asked.

"To be honest, your majesty, I think that some of our people, and some of yours as well, will have difficulty accepting our physical differences," Raeder said. "But I think that more of us will be fascinated by those very things. It's not our way, once the treaties are signed, to refuse to deal with our former enemies. And, of course, you never were our enemies. I think this will all work out," he finished.

And I think I'll shut up now because I'm not a diplomat and I shouldn't be saying these things. 

After a moment Queen Tewsee rose from her couch.

"Lead, Commander Raeder. We will follow you."

 

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