"Pick a spot big enough and land," Tessa said, then frowned. "Well, maybe do a deep surface scan first. Some of the fae, like gnomes and dwarves, live underground. You don't want the headache they'll give you if you land on one of their houses."

  Magnus's brows rose. "Good to know. Carl? Find us a spot and take us in."

  Carl, the Lacertilian navigation officer, had been studying his readouts throughout the conversation. He didn't talk much in any case, so it wasn't surprising that Tessa had forgotten he was there.

  "Sir, way ahead of you," he said now. "I have located the Blue Venture. There is enough room on the hill they landed on to take us as well."

  "Good work Carl. Zaran, hail the Venture and let them know we're here. Val doesn't like surprises and, given the circumstances, I don't blame her."

  "I'm going to go tell the twins we've arrived." Tessa made her way to the OPT. She reached the twin's quarters a few minutes later and pressed the buzzer. The door swished open to reveal both Syfe staring at her expectantly.

  Tessa's eyes widened. Unlike most living quarters on a starship, this room was furnished with feline tastes in mind. Climbing poles led to several catwalks at varying heights. Pillows lay piled in corners while an array of mechanical chase toys lay scattered on the floor. From its shelf near the pillows, the still-small voracina plant appeared to be watching the twins. But neither the decor nor the plant surprised her.

  "Hello Boss-Tessa." Hermie, the reaper Tessa had recovered on Josan, struggled out of an overly large, plush pillow to trundle toward her. "Are we there? Earth?"

  "How long have you been hanging out with Pan and Dora?"

  He is useful, Dr. Tessa. We like him even though we cannot read his thoughts, Pan said.

  Yes. He changes the channel for us, Dora added, glancing over her shoulder at the vid-screen taking up half of one wall.

  "Terrific. I didn't know you two liked vids."

  We do. Especially the old Earth wildlife shows. They are most interesting. But now, I think you should answer his question, Dora said reprovingly. It is rude to ignore a person.

  Covering a chuckle with her hand, Tessa looked at the little robot. "Yes, Hermie, we are dropping into orbit now. You three want to join me in the lounge? We can wait for Magnus there."

  “Why not go up to the bridge, Boss-Tessa?" Hermie followed her into the hall with the two Syfe trailing behind.

  Dora sniffed. She is afraid we will play with the prey animals–

  "Aderinians aren't prey, for star's sake," Tessa interrupted. They’d discussed this several times since the twins came on board. “Neither are Lacertilians.”

  Dora went on as if she hadn't spoken. Or the secretive one.

  I do not want to play with the secretive one. I do not understand why you won't let us kill her, Dr. Tessa. She is dangerous, Pan added.

  Tessa rolled her eyes. "You two just don't like it that Yolanda keeps wearing the mindshield. Can't you just live and let live? You can't read my mind, but you don't want to kill me." She refrained from mentioning that she didn't like the woman either. No sense lighting a match with this much fuel on display.

  Hmmf. Not anymore.

  Tessa startled. "What is that supposed to mean?"

  Well, we did consider it, but Foster-Val liked you too much, and then we realized you are a good person despite being non-organic, so we let you live.

  Shock rippled through Tessa, along with a shiver of apprehension at their matter-of-fact tone.

  Hermie stared, first at one Syfe, then the other. "You cannot kill Boss-Tessa," he said after a moment.

  We could. But we won't. Dora made the correction sound almost reasonable.

  "You can hear them?" Tessa asked Hermie.

  "Oh yes. They gave me a little star like yours, and now I can hear them, but I have to talk out loud if I want them to hear me. That is how it works, yes?"

  "Uh. Yes. That is how it works." As long as they don't want me dead, she thought, but kept that part to herself. Nothing to worry about, after all. I can take them if I have to.

  I hope.

  It didn't take Magnus long to get to the lounge after the Oracle was safely on the ground. "I sent a message to the Venture. They are on their way over."

  "Good. We need to know what we're dealing with before we head out. Do the natives know we're here?"

  "Yeah. And they aren't as happy about it as you might think. Got a message from someone named Dinara saying to stay on the ship until they grant landing privileges. I didn't mention that the point was likely moot since we already landed."

  Tessa laughed. "Very tactful."

  "Visitors incoming." Yolanda's aggrieved tone on the commlink took Tessa by surprise.

  "What's her problem?" she asked Magnus.

  He shifted uncomfortably. "Well, I knew the twins would be here, so I had her stay on the bridge. She wasn't too happy about it."

  The twins looked at each other, their whiskers twitching with amusement.

  "Control yourselves, you two," Tessa said, mock stern.

  "Captain? You might want to take a look at the brow." Zaran's calm tones through the intercom held an edge of anxiety that was unusual for the Aderinian.

  Magnus strode to the viewscreen. "Screen on, exterior, brow."

  The image that bloomed on the screen had Tessa sprinting for the gangway, both hands morphed into blasters. Reaching the hatch, she stabbed the hatch control, barely waiting for it to spiral open before leaping through it.

  Val and Tamar stood back-to-back at the foot of the gangway, blasters laying down a flaming barrage on the six metal monsters surrounding them. Tamar had taken a hit to her shoulder. Her right arm and paw hung useless at her side as she fired continuously with her left. Val had a streak of blood across her forehead, but seemed otherwise unhurt.

  The attackers jumped and sidled, avoiding the incoming fire with stunning ease.

  "Back off!" Tessa screamed, jumping the guardrail to land on the nearest robot with both feet, crushing its skull. From the ground, she could see that three other reapers were down. By her count, only six were still standing out of a team of ten.

  Magnus fired from the brow, taking out a fifth. Val fired again, obliterating another and the remaining four scattered. One, larger than the rest, stopped just out of range and shook its hooked fist at them.

  "Traitors! We will find it, and then we will bring Gaia to justice. Interfere and you will all die, by the will of Hi-Hi- the League!" It stumbled over the last few words as if trying to say two things at once. Lowering its fist, it disappeared into the forest, following its fellows into hiding.

  Tessa bolted after them, skidding to a halt as Val fell to her knees. "Val!" The Venture's captain held up a hand as Tessa dropped to her knees beside her. "You're hit."

  Val waved her off. "It's nothing. A scrape. Just. A little. Dizzy. Is all." Her eyes rolled up, showing white before closing.

  Magnus pounded up as Tessa held her hand to Val's chest, using her nanocytes to scan Val for injuries. "Concussion," she said. "Her own nanocytes are already repairing the damage, but she's going to need rest." She looked up at Magnus. "Can you get her to the Venture?"

  He nodded, and she turned her attention to Tamar. "How bad is it?" she asked, gesturing to the Werosian's limp arm.

  "Is bad," Tamar said through gritted teeth. "Hurts."

  Tessa pulled a knife from her boot and carefully cutting through the shoulder seam of Tamar's weapons vest. A blaster beam had punched a hole in her shoulder, leaving the flesh around the wound black and smoking. There wasn't much blood, but Tessa wasn't as familiar with Werosian physiology as she needed to be for this.

  "We need Dash. Where is he?"

  He is coming, Dr. Tessa, Pan said.

  Magnus reappeared, arms empty. "Alex has her. How can I help?"

  "We need to get Tamar to the Venture. She isn't bleeding much, but that wound doesn't look good," Tessa replied. Leathery wings flapped as Dash, the Venture's medical officer and a lesser Daemon, flew toward them.

  "Tamar?" Dash fluttered to a landing, his medical case in his hand.

  Tamar sank to the ground, and he hurried over, his wings folded tight against his back. "My arm is hurt," she said.

  "I can see that." Dash's voice shook only slightly as he took out a mini-scanner and ran it over her shoulder. Opening a wound pack, he placed the bandage over the injury. "This has antiseptics, analgesics, and an emollient. But I need to debride the wound before it can really heal. You have bits of uniform in the gash that will cause an infection if I leave them there."

  She bared her teeth in a weak grin. "Tell truth. You just want to see what is inside Werosian body to allow shape-shift." She pushed herself painfully to her feet.

  He forced a smile. "You have found me out, I see." He glanced up at Magnus. "Can you carry her to sick bay on the Venture? I have my instruments there and–"

  "Carry!" Tamar said indignantly. "I am not needing to be carried. I can–" She stumbled, her knees giving out.

  Magnus caught her and hoisted her into his arms, ignoring her protests. "Do me a favor and relax. I've never carried a Werosian before. It's on my bucket list."

  Tamar chuffed a laugh and relaxed. "Since you are putting it that way," she said, but trailed off as her eyes closed.

  Tessa watched him walk away, knowing he would be angry over what she was about to do, but unwilling to put him in danger, or wait for him to come back. "Is she going to be all right?" she asked Dash.

  "I think so. What happened?" he asked.

  "Reapers," she replied shortly. He nodded and launched into the air, following Magnus and his patient. "Pan, Dora, you're with me." Tessa faced about, heading for the woods.

  "Wait, Boss-Tessa! You will need me!" Hermie trundled down the gangway, almost wiping out near the bottom in his haste.

  Tessa closed her eyes briefly, then opened them to look down at the android. "We have to move fast," she said. "They are already ahead of us."

  "But Hermie can track the bad ones for Boss-Tessa. We will find them together." Hermie shot a quick, dubious glance at the twins, then leaned close to whisper. "The Syfe are fun, Boss-Tessa, but they have stubby fingers and no thumbs for fighting. Hermie will protect you."

  She repressed a laugh and nodded. "All right, but you'll have to keep up."

  I will carry him, Pan said. We can move faster that way.

  Tessa thought about objecting, but Hermie was already clambering onto Pan's back, his eyes wide with excitement. "That way," he squeaked, pointing to a miniscule break in the brush.

  Pan loped into the forest with Dora at his side, following the ex-reaper's directions.

  They had taken too long. Tessa felt it in her gut, but she kept pace with the trio, hoping that Hermie really could see something she couldn't.

  Half an hour later, it was clear that the reapers had lost none of their stealth abilities in the reprogramming.

  "We aren't going to find them," she said.

  "Hermie is sorry, Boss-Tessa. They are too clever." The little android hung his head.

  "Not your fault," Tessa replied. "They had a head-start, and they are rocket fast. Let's head back to the ship. See how Val and Tamar are doing."

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Earth, The woods near Collairnach Village

  Padraic chased his sister, Oona, through the forest, her laughter leading him further and further from the village. At nine, he had better things to do than chase his sister down, but if Mam found out she'd gone missing, there'd be Hades to pay, and he'd be the one with the empty coin purse.

  "Oona!" he yelled in dwarvish. "Mam said to stay close. You have to come back!"

  The echo of her mocking laughter was all the answer he got. With a glance behind him, he followed, hoping to catch the four-year-old dwarf-child before his mother realized they were gone.

  Tough and sturdy, dwarf children seldom worried about what they might encounter in the forest, but the recent killings had everyone on edge. So far, none of their people had been taken, but as his mother said, that didn't mean it couldn't happen. The monsters had killed a dwarf in a neighboring village, after all.

  He ran along the path, dodging giant fern leaves and leaping over boulders. Finally, he stopped to listen. Oona had gone quiet.

  That made him nervous. The child was never quiet. Her chatter and laughter filled their cottage from the moment she woke until she drifted off to sleep at night.

  "Oona?" he called out.

  The sharp snap of a twig behind him spun him around, but the forest was empty. Eerily so. Even the birds had stopped their chirping conversations.

  Nervous, he called out again, louder. "Oona, that's enough, now. Mam will be ragin' that you've run off like this."

  "Paddy!" The child's scream jerked him into a sprint, his short, muscular legs pumping, fists clenched. He burst into a clearing and skidded to a stop, his feet scraping the leaf mold from the soil in two ragged furrows.

  A metal monster, no taller than Padraic, with a square head and bulbous, bright eyes, held Oona by the arm, its spindly metal fingers pinching cruelly into her flesh.

  "Let her go," Padraic said. "Or I'll eat the head off ya and spit it into the ocean."

  "Step again, and I will slit her throat as I did the dark-haired woman." The creature's voice was a cross between an ungreased wheel and gears grinding. It hurt the dwarf boy's ears, but he refused to flinch.

  "Let her go, or I'll get me Mam. You won't like that, I'm thinking."

  A rusty laugh issued from the thing's mouth. "And who will make us wait for your return? No. You will take a message to the Not-Hive. She will surrender herself, and we will give back this young one."

  Beyond the creature, a face peered through the leaves.

  Mam, he thought with relief.

  She held her finger up to her mouth, then pointed to the silver monster and mimed talking with her hand.

  Padraic nearly sagged with relief. Mam was here. It would be all right. He just needed to keep the thing's attention for a few more minutes.

  "So, I'll agree to take your message to this...Not Hive, was it? Who is that, then?" Padraic asked, desperate to keep the creature's eyes on him and away from Mam's silent approach. She had a gold net in her hands and a dagger sheathed at her side. Padraic wasn't sure a dagger would work against... whatever this thing was. But he trusted his mam.

  "They call her Tessa Graham. She has much to answer for. Bring her to us and we will release your sister."

  "I'm just a kid. They might not do what I say. But let my sister go, and I'll take your message."

  The creature ground its teeth. "You will do as we say or the child dies. You are not– Aargh!"

  With a flick of her wrists, Mam flung the net over the creature. Oona strained away from it, letting the metallic netting fall between them. The thing didn't let go, though, and Mam whipped out her dagger, bringing it down sharply on its wrist. The knife struck true, lodging in the joint. Fluid spurted, black and green, and the creature let out a horrible, keening sound.

  Oona jerked away and ran to Padraic as Mam pulled the net tight. "Run, now. Get your Da."

  Padraic stared at her. "I'm not leaving you here alone with that thing."

  "I am not a thing. I am Reaper516 and filthy Earthers will not capture me." It clawed at the netting with its good hand, ripping a hole in the metallic fiber and squirming through. It swiped at Mam's leg, leaving four bloody furrows from hip to knee.

  Mam screamed, wrenching her blade from 516's arm and stabbing it between its jaw and shoulder, where the neck would be on a dwarf. It was a killing blow, but 516 screeched louder and jerked away, a trail of dark fluid streaming down its barrel chest.

  Mam pulled her arm back, the blade wet and glistening. She stabbed again, but missed as 516 hopped back and stumbled for the trees.

  At the clearing's edge, it turned. "Tell the Not Hive that we are here, and we will bring justice to the evil queen and all who protect her."

  It disappeared into the trees as Padraic ran to his mother. "Mam, are ya all right?"

  "A little scraped, is all. Let's get us home."

  He scanned her face, noting the pallor and her tight jaw. "Let me help you, then. Oona, stay with us, now. Don't run off again."

  "I won't Padraic," the child promised, tears streaming down her round cheeks. The trio limped through the forest, the trip taking far longer than Padraic thought it should. They hadn't gone far when his father pounded up the path, face white, beard streaked with sweat.

  "What's happened to you, then? Bridey, are ya all right?"

  "Not but a scratch," Mam said. "But I'd be glad of your arm Tarig. Paddy's a bit tired, I'm guessing, holding his old mam up this way."

  A branch snapped in the trees, and Padraic glanced over his shoulder. Something rustled the brush and a glint of silver shone between the branches.

  "Let's get back to the village," Tarig, Paddy's Da, said.

  "I'm with ya," Padraic replied. "But soon as Mam is mended, we got to send a message."

  "To who?" Tarig's frown squeezed his eyes nearly shut as he pulled Mam's arm around his shoulders and helped her along.

  "To the Not Hive, whoever that is."

  Earth, Barren Caverns

  Reaper 578 trundled through the broken maze of concrete and metal – all that remained of a pre-evacuation manufacturing base – a burlap sack dragging the ground behind him.

  Gaia had consumed most of mankind's buildings, their factories, resorts, and offices. Their homes. But matter cannot be destroyed, only changed, so the detritus had to go somewhere.

  This was somewhere, one of many, where the evil goddess had stashed the remnants of mankind's influence upon the planet. Here the reapers had mined the wreckage of a lost civilization for what they needed.

  First, they built a small army of reapers. Not too many, just enough to wreak havoc upon the surface dwellers. To get Gaia's attention. To force her to come and defend her people. Her favorites.

  578 gnashed the double-band of barbed wire that served it for teeth. Humans should be the apex species on Earth, but Gaia had decided otherwise. She had banished them, and now she would pay.

 

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