Spindrift
Chapter 14: The Sisters of Arachne

Anak was accompanied by several of her kind. They were all different in feature, age andsize, as people tend to be, but the same in basic form and color. We were led over catwalks and down astairway. I bore Ari on my back, whichthe younger spider-folk found amusing for some reason. I’m not empathic or sensitive in any fashion,but I could feel a distinct lack of hostility.

As we continued we saw more and more of the Sisters, withtheir helper-creatures, all moving along with us, no doubt to the same destination. I began to appreciate the unique grace withwhich they moved through the Machine, rarely using their arms, occasionallyleaping or using their threads. Asunnatural as the Machine was, it was clearly their true environment. It would take only a little effort to imagineit as a great forest.

We saw that some carried infants; the younglings wrappingtheir legs about their mothers’ waists while they suckled. Slightly older children clung to theirparents’ abdomens.

“You know, love,” I whispered in Ari’s ear. “I could grow to like these people much morethan I like the Rii.”

“I know what you mean.” Her tail-fin quivered slightly. “I wish phobias were easier to fight.

“Ironic, isn’t it?” She then whispered. “The Sistersare the epitome of what they despise, but the Rii would be doomed withoutthem.”

Eventually, we came to the intersection of two of the largeravenues, which formed a kind of square or plaza. There must have been hundreds of thespider-folk gathered there. Ari wasalmost overwhelmed; she shook as she clung to me.

“Are you alright? Ican do the speaking if you’d like.”

“No, I’ll be fine, really.”

When we reached the middle of the square, I gently loweredAri to the pavement. She then sat downand composed herself. The thing that Ifound most disturbing was the near silence. There was no murmuring, no crowd noise, just the swishing of many bodiesmoving.

Anak continued to a small raised area and sat next to a veryold spiderling. The elder woman’s hairwas long and white; the fur on her legs and abdomen was also white. Her legs were folded awkwardly around herthorax.

Ariadne of Spindrift,the Sisters of Arachne are gathered to hear you and your mate explain your presencein the World-Heart. It was Anak.

Ari closed her eyes, lifted her head and beganspeaking. At first, her voice wavered,but she soon settled and even opened her eyes. She related the story of her mission on Rii. She did so plainly and truthfully as thoughreporting to the Emperor himself. Ourfuture, of course, depended on her honesty. She ended with our discovery of the Machine, the World-heart as Anakcalled it.

“We did not know that such a thing even existed,” statedAri. “We thought the water system heredepended on gravity and runoff from the mountains.

“Now that we have found this facility,” she continued. “I’m certain that our government will want tostudy it. I’m also certain that we willnot interfere with its functioning. Thiscolony, Rii, is part of our empire. Wedo not wish harm to its people.”

Anak, the fish-womantells the truth as she knows it to be, however, she has some small doubt abouther government’s wisdom. She has anagging fear that they may be too impatient.

This must beKhiel. I thought to myself. I guessed that she would be the oldwoman/spider.

“That is true, Anak.” said Ari. “We are all human hereand aware of human failings. Butremember, it is not our empire that controls Rii today, but the Free WorldsAlliance. Khiel can tell you that I speakthe absolute truth when I say that the Alliance will respect neither you northe Rii.”

The old woman nodded. Indeed, that is so.

“If my mate and I can make it somehow to one of our worlds,I am more than certain that the Empire will fight to regain Rii before theWorld-Heart is discovered and abused by those who would misuse it.”

It is already toolate. Anak stated calmly.

Ari couldn’t suppress a gasp. “How can that be?”

I received a messagefrom one of our scouts, only moments ago that a group of armed men arefollowing the path you took to the World-Heart.

Ari bowed her head. “I…I…” she began but couldn’t continue.

“They must really want to make sure we’re dead,” I muttered.

“Anak, are we at fault? If so I…” Ari tried to replace words to express her dismay.

Do not beconcerned. You were not followed. Also, we are not defenseless. They will be dealt with.

“You must eliminate them quickly then; before they can see andreport anything,” said Ari as she recovered her composure.

Would that include thewoman who is with child?

“With child?” said Ari.

“Wait a minute!” I said. “How many are in that group?”

One of the younger Sisters passed a tablet, much like theones we use, to Anak. Nine armored men, one unarmored man and apregnant woman. She read.

“Jen!” Ari exclaimed. “And Justin with Windridge’s squad! These aren’t enemies! It’s the party we were separated from. The one I spoke of!”

That is goodnews. Thought Anak to us. Never-the-lessthey cannot be allowed to enter the facility armed.

“We will have to meet them and convince them to lay downtheir weapons,” said Ari.

“That might not be easy,” I replied quietly.

You must be quick orwe will be compelled to stop them. Thistime it was Khiel.

We will carry youthere, come! Thought Anak.

Ari blanched. “Yougo, Dri.” She added discretely. “I don’t think I could bear it, them carryingme.”

I stepped forward. “I’mready, milady Anak. What do you want meto do?”

I ended up a passenger in a sling, almost a sack, made ofwebs and carried by two of the sisters. It was a wild ride that reminded me why I don’t like roller coasters,and why I’m not a fighter pilot.

Only a few minutes later, I watched the hatch leading to thecorridor where our friends were open and saw them step out to be enthralled attheir first sight of the World Heart.

This was going to be very tricky. I knew that I had to be careful. When they first spotted me, there was a softwhirring sound as nine men in suits of power armor brought their weapons tobear. After but an instant, however, thetension dropped.

“Lieutenant Morgan! Where the hell did you come from?” It was Justin Chang looking the worse for wear but not as done in as theyoung woman who leaned on his arm.

“I’d like to ask you folks the same thing!” I replied, smiling.

Windridge raised his visor, revealing a grin, and steppedforward.

I raised both hands. “Hold a moment, Sergeant; I have to tell you something that’s going tobe difficult to believe. Please bearwith me. I’m going to try to explain thesituation as quickly and thoroughly as I can. But first, for our safety, all of you have to lay down your arms.”

Windridge’s grin faded. “You know the regs lieutenant,” he said. “This is a combat zone. We can’tdo that.”

“You’re not in a combat zone here. We’re among friends and allies.”

“Who do you mean? TheRii?”

By this time, we could all hear, through the sound of themachine, the rustle of the Sisters getting into position. We all, consciously or unconsciously scannedour surroundings, but could not catch even a glimpse of them.

“No, not Rii.” Give me more time, Anak! I was thinking mostly to myself, but Iwas also hoping she could read me. “We’re running out of time, Sergeant. You’re just going to have to trust me!”

“I’d like to, but where’s the Ambassador? Is she with you? She should be the one giving that order.”

“She’s here. She sentme.” Perhaps it would have been betterif I’d lied; denied that she was near. The sounds of movement faded behind the background noise. Things were going to start happening!

“I’m going to need some confirmation.”

Damn! There’s not time to fetch Ari!

“I can confirm that Sergeant.” It was Ari’s voice! I turned to see her head pop up from behind ametal crate. “Please stand down.” She calmly pulled herself up on to the crateand sat.

Windridge slowly lowered his rifle and placed it on theground. The other marines followed suit.

I’m sorry, Dri. I nearly let my fear ruin everything!

That’s alright, Ishould have known better as well. At leastit’s all working out, so far.

As we finally got to greet one another, I could see that thearmor worn by the marines bore pockmarks and scars. As I took Windridge’s hand, I asked quietly,“Who did we lose?”

“Kelly. It was whenwe were trying to get the young lady here out of the palace,” he nodded towardJen, who was being helped to a seat next to Ari. “It was just bad luck. It’ll all be in my report.” The weariness in the sergeant’s voice waspalpable.

Try as I might, I couldn’t visualize Kelly’s face. It was difficult to keep track of who was whowhen they all were hidden behind masks of ceramic and carbon-fiber. It made me wish that at some time I had doneas Ari had and made an effort to look at and remember each of them.

“Well,” said Windridge. “What now? Who are these newallies you spoke of?”

“They are the descendants of human chimaera left heretwenty-five centuries ago to guard and maintain this facility,” said Ari. “Try not to be too shocked at theirappearance. You should be meeting themsoon.”

“You say they guard this ‘facility’,” Justin waved at themassive structures. “What the hell isit, if you don’t mind telling me?”

“It controls all the flow of water on Rii,” I replied. “Also, we strongly suspect that it’s poweredby antimatter.”

“Really?!” saidJustin.

“Holy Christ!” Thesergeant was pointing, wide eyed with surprise, down the main corridor. The other newcomers, including the troopers,were equally stupefied. Walking up themiddle of the corridor toward us was Anak. Jen yelped and buried her face in Justin’s shoulder.

I smiled. “This isLady Anak; she speaks for the Sisters of Arachne, our friends and allies.”

Recovering quickly, Sergeant Windridge bowed. “Milady, I must confess that your appearancestartled me.”

“No shit!” mutteredShiro.

Anak smiled. “We seemto have that effect on main line humans.”

After Anak’s introduction, we followed her back toward thecenter of the huge cavern. I carriedAri. Yuri carried Jen, who was justabout spent. Anak led us to a small openarea that had just been set aside as a bivouac for all of us. Anak had wisely decided to limit the newarrivals’ exposure to her kindred. Onlya couple came to us bearing water and food which, combined with the meagersupplies brought by the marines, was being cooked on one of the tiny foldingcamp stoves they carried. After we had achance to settle in, the troopers removed their armor. It was for the first time in days. Windridge and Chang then began filling Ariand me in on what had happened after they had left her in the water tunnelbelow the palace.

“At first things went rapidly and smoothly,” saidWindridge. “We even managed to surpriseand disarm part of the Keeper’s Guard. Some of them plainly were expecting to welcome Free Worlder troops andeven thought we were them. I supposethey hadn’t got the purple versus yellow thing down yet.

“The first shots weren’t fired ‘til after we took the Queen hereout of the women’s quarters. That’s whenwe lost Kelly. First shot went cleanthrough his armor.” The sergeant sighedand shook his head. “He was dead beforehe hit the floor.”

”We tried to recover his body, but the fire was too hot,”said Galt. “Leaving him was hard…hard todo.”

“Did you encounter any of Edgar’s men?” asked Ari.

“Not so much as a glimpse of yellow armor while we were inthe palace.”

“Edgar spoke as if it were his men that killed Kelly anddrove you away,” she added.

Windridge snorted contemptuously.

“When we reentered the water tunnel,” Justin continued, whileJen clung to him and silently wept. “You and the boat were gone. We knew something had happened to you.”

Ari made a face. “Itdid, I’ll tell you about it when you’re done.”

“We slogged back the way we had come and met with a bunch ofarmed Rii coming the other way,” Continued Justin. “They were headed for the palace to liberatethe Keeper and his consort here. Wenarrowly avoided a tragedy, but they recognized Jen’s voice and already knewabout the presence of Imperial Marines; thanks to Lieutenant Morgan.”

“How many were there?” I asked. “How were they armed?”

“Well over a hundred,” Windridge responded. “Most had Mk III’s, a few had muzzleloaders.”

“What happened then?” I was happy to hear that myefforts had borne some fruit, but was worried for these inexperiencedguerrillas.

“They were determined to rescue their Keeper,” saidWindridge.

“Parthans’ men took him away from me!” said a tearful Jen. “He told me ‘not to worry’ and patted mycheek, but I knew that they were leading him away to death!”

Ari gave me a sad look and shook her head. She’sprobably right.

“Just before that, he said that he’d been a fool to trustEdgar and that Parthans had betrayed us.” She groaned while Justin patted her on the shoulder and tried to comforther.

“We decided to join them,” Windridge looked over to me. “We thought that you and the Ambassador werelikely taken and, perhaps, prisoners in the palace.”

“You were half right,” I said. “We had been taken by then but were beingheld elsewhere.”

“As it was, we never made it back to the palace. We ran into Edgar’s regulars; companystrength at least. The Rii resistanceaccounted themselves well, but were no match. We had to fall back. The Rii commander,a man by the name of Drogar, told us to get Jen to safety while his mendistracted the enemy. Last I heard, theywere still leading the Pirates on a merry chase.”

“I hope so,” I said. “It would be easy to get cornered and trapped down there.” I felt some pride for the little army I helpedcreate, but I was also concerned for how many may have been hurt or killed.

“Smugglers like that old rogue, Drogar, know the tunnelsbetter than they know their children’s faces,” Justin grinned. “He won’t get caught. What I do worry about is Edgar gettingfrustrated and using something nasty, like gas.”

“That could poison the water!” Ari was indignant. “Kill hundreds even thousands!” Her fintrembled with her anger. “He wouldn’tdare!”

I wasn’t so sure, but I hoped she was right.

“Eventually, we got lost and ended up in an isolated tunnelwith no wells,” continued Windridge.

“It was a red tunnel!” said Jen.

“Fortunately, it had very little water in it, so when ittook a sudden, steep downward turn, we were able to climb down it with littletrouble. We came out in a deep shaftwith water on the bottom. Curiousthing,” Windridge scratched his ear and smirked. “We found two dead coldhounds floating init. You wouldn’t happen to have hadanything to do with that would you, sir?”

“Who, me?” I pokedAri on the shoulder. “That would be herladyship here. Seems her family huntsbeasties like that with harpoons just for fun.”

“What?” She was stillfuming at the idea of Edgar poisoning the water. “Don’t complain, dear, I left one for you,didn’t I?

“Besides, whale-snakes are over fifty meters long; not thesame kind of beastie at all.” She addedsmugly.

My jaw dropped.

“Ha!” LaughedUlric. “I thought the ice-dragons backhome on New Narvik were big! You’ll haveto go hunting with my clan someday, milady. I’m sure we could rig up a sled for you. Only you’ll have to take me to Syrenka first!”

Ari’s eyes lit up. “Dragon hunting on the snow! Youhave my word private!”

Am I included in theseexpeditions? I was getting a little jealous. I never cared much for hunting, and anyway,the largest game on Caledon are the giant Irish Elk resurrected through cloningin the 22nd Century and brought there with the originalcolonists. They are big but notmonstrous.

Certainly, mysweet! I hope you don’t object to mybloodthirsty pastimes.

Not at all! It’s something I can bring up when you havecomplaints about any of my hobbies.

“Well, there was only one way out of there that we couldreach, which must have been the same route you and the Ambassador took. So that brings us to the present.” Concluded Windridge.

Ari and I in turn told our story; after which the skitterstew was ready. This time I didpartake. After eating we managed to takea much needed rest; lulled to sleep by the beating of the World Heart. We didn’t even set a guard.

I was awakened by a soft tap on my shoulder. It was Anak, crouching next to me.

I hope that I did notstartle you over much.

No, I’m fine. I have very little revulsion toward spidersand by that time was rapidly getting used to the Sisters’ appearance. I looked around. I was the only one of our party who wasawake. What’s up?

I remember that youand the mersister spoke of trying to communicate with your government. We have been keeping watch over the comingsand goings of ships since then.

I sat up. This couldbe very important. Yes?

One of our scouts sawa ship land this morning and recorded its image. She took a tablet from a pouch slung overher shoulder and handed it to me. It wasvery old and worn smooth, but fully functional and very similar to the ones westill use. On it was the image of asmall ship, sleek and arrow-head shaped. It was a courier-packet! Paintedon its side was the insignia of the Free Worlds Alliance as well as KingEdgar’s monogram.

Since the loss of sub-space radio technology,courier-packets are the fastest means of communication between star systems. They literally weave a web-like network thatholds all interstellar-empires, even small ones such as Edgar’s together. They carry everything from orders and vitalnews to high-priority cargoes and important passengers. They are also almost the only jump-capableships small and light enough to make ground-landings. It was, of course inevitable that such avessel would show up here, but one arriving at this particular moment seemedespecially fortunate.

I looked up at Anak and grinned. “This is very good news, milady! Why, in fact, I could kiss you!”

All four of her multi-faceted eyes widened and she recoiledslightly. Your mate might object.

“She may wish to kiss you too when she sees this.” I leaned over Ari and lightly pressed herlips with mine. “Wake up love; we’re infor a busy day.”

She groaned slightly and stretched, her tailfin twitched andflipped. “Just a few more minutes,please?”

“Just take a peek at this!” I stuck the tablet under her nose.

She opened one eye, then the other, and sat upabruptly. “What’s this?”

“Why, a ship, my dear.”

“I can see that, but…” Her mouth dropped open. “Acourier! Here?”

Within a few minutes, everyone was up. Jen squeaked and hid her face, but no oneelse seemed bothered by the presence of the Sister; not even Ari.

“We’ll have to come up with a plan and act quickly,” saidSergeant Windridge as he and his men began strapping their armor on. “These vessels don’t sit idle for very long.”