ARC10

Chapter 11.4

"Apologies, sir," I say to it, locking myself into a rigid salute.

"Don't bother, Lorn, it can't understand you. None of them will." Hayomo advances as the creature's head dances on its neck. "They are a race of workers and one leader. They function very similar to the bee colonies we have on Level 4. They mindlessly perform the wishes of the Queen Xani no matter how far away it might be. Their sole purpose in their brief lives is to work. They do not speak, they do not think, they do not care. They are purely reactionary."

The Xani lowers himself back to the hunched, four-foot tall, spindle-legged insect from before. Within the shadows, it appears more horrible than I remember. Dean flinches beside me.

"Will we ever meet the Queen?" I ask, hoping I'm asking a question that wasn't already answered in my sparse informational package. I kick myself for the aluminum fact. I remember reading that bit before.

"No, Captain Lorn. We will never meet it. It resides within the core of their planet, giving orders to the workers who execute its will."

The Xani taps its pointed legs and returns to its station under the ship. The upside-down face retreats in a series of hisses and clanks. Watching the goo drip from the mouth into its own nostril, I suppress the urge to gag. When it disappears from sight, the breath I didn't know I had held escapes in a slow hiss.

Hayomo steps forward, putting a barrier between ARC10 and me.

"The Xani's craft, as you can see, is as puzzling in person as it is on file. The area we will inhabit is in a separate wing, entirely away from where the Xani command will reside. I have yet to board it to confirm my suspicions, but I'm confident they are correct," she states as if reviewing a grocery list.

Dean, Birgar, and I snap around to gape at her in surprise.

"You've never boarded?" I ask.

"The ship has been in our possession for nearly a decade, and this singular Xani has been the only one allowed in. We are awaiting permission."

Dean tenses at my side. If this race doesn't trust us, if this race doesn't want to even be participating in this mission, what is the thin line that separates their compliance from their defiance? How easily can the line be broken?

A startling uncertainty hits me.

"General, if the Xani leader is not on board and we're not allowed in the control room, how will we be sure they're taking us to the right place? Who's navigating?" As soon as the words escape, I wish I'd thought to pull her aside. Dean's eyes close as he exhales, making me regret I even opened my mouth.

"We just have to trust them and the alliance they hold with the Grays. It is only through their request that the Xani have agreed to participate at all." Hayomo shifts and folds her hands behind her. "From what I've gathered of their history, this mission will be precarious, but possible."

We stare in silence as the goo drips out of the ship's black pores. It appears to be the same orange gunk filling the filmy, transparent skin of the solitary biological part of the alien race.

We wander the room for hours. Hayomo relates little facts about the ships, the alien species, and our roles. We spend hours on the Grays and their ship. She speaks about them as if they are personal friends. As usual, any more information of the Xani is nonexistent.

She sends Dean and Birgar aboard the ARC9 to acquaint themselves with their ship. The weird twist of jealousy resurfaces. I stare longingly at the closed door on the rusty orange metal of ARC10 and wish life was more fair.

"You'll be grateful for all this time you have outside that piece of sad trash, Captain. I promise every second you're in there—" she nods to the craft, "will be just one more second added to the worst years of your life." Her clicking boots slow and stops next to me.

It's too weird how she can read the thoughts in my head as they occur to me.

"General, with all due respect, how am I supposed to prepare if we aren't even allowed on the ship until embarkation? How will I find where cargo goes? Where the people bunk?" I hope she can't smell my fear. "Can we talk to the Xani Queen and persuade her to—"

"It, Captain. The Xani Queen is actually autonomous. The Xani do not reproduce as we do. They create their own offspring in an assembly line. They appear male, but only through design."

I nod absently, not caring about Xani gender and reproduction. "But if we could start a week before boarding, maybe even two days before? One day?"

She exhales again as if she's told some naughty child to remove her hand from the cookie tray. "Captain Lorn, you are here on a need-to-know basis. All you need to know is that this is far beyond your pay grade."

Ouch.

We stew in our thoughts in strained silence, staring ahead at the scrap-metal carrier and bleak future.

Dean and Birgar descend from their ship, chatting amicably. I glower at the two of them and fall in line.

Outside the door, I find a new face, unrecognizable and male in the place. Moyra has disappeared. My mind reels with new information, new frustrations, and new questions.