Chapter 8: Final Preparations

Horti and Craig settled into the silk hammock.

“How are you feeling, Horti?”

“I am optimistic, but it is cautious optimism. What about you?”

“I am relieved to find the bizarre political system was a figment of the distorted education system Zyla’s minions implanted,” said Craig. “Last night, I had a nightmare. Your people turned out to be psychic vampires, and so did we. I was in a Machiavellian court and didn’t know what was happening. I was your consort, but you fed on me every night and locked me in a room all day. I was a decoration on your arm. Annjus was your love partner. You spent a lot of time with her and your friends. Your people despised me as I was not born in the Enphaet Dominion.”

Horti laughed. “Was there any more?”

“Heather led Charlie around on a leash. I felt terrible jealousy towards Annjus as she was the only one of us your people accepted. Your mother despised me. She pressed you to marry a true Enphaet.”

“Craig, what do you think it means?”

“I fear being rejected and being a spare part when you return to your people. I suspect I am jealous of the relationship you and Annjus developed, even though she and I are equally as close. Rationally I know neither of us can predict how things will work out. My dreams reflect my fears,” said Craig.

“I think it was a great interpretation of your dreams. I feel inadequate facing the tasks we have ahead of us. Craig, I won’t treat you as an appendage; we both know Annjus is an empress. She will be our good friend, as will your father and many Empresses. We are far from having any control of our destiny,” said Horti. “I want to find my mother, so I don’t need to think about running the Dominion. I am not ready.”

“I will do my best to support you no matter what you do,” said Craig.

“Make love to me,” said Horti. “As a Colza, it is fast and efficient. Even though I am hyped up, we both need our sleep.”

“I wonder where Chak is?” Horti asked as they reached the gym. “She said she would be down here to meet us.”

The Mother Superior climbed out of her exercise machine. “She is not in her room, the canteen, or the conference room. I will get security to look at the holo-vids.”

Horti picked up her alarm from her pheromones. The Mother Superior excused herself and left the gym.

Horti became increasingly concerned as they sparred, but Chak had not returned by breakfast.

“Do you think Zyla could have infiltrated agents among this group?” Craig asked rhetorically.

“We could alternately ask if there are dissident groups among the Colza?” Horti asked.

Annjus joined them.

“Several Colza left the gym looking agitated. Whatever is going on, they are taking it seriously. Would Chak decide to explore this place last night to find out what is going on? She has no reason to trust the Colza, but I can’t imagine her getting up at night to explore the place.”

The Mother Superior joined them in the canteen half an hour later.

“We looked at the security holo-vids. One of our Colza entered Chak’s room. A minute later, she dragged Chak to the nearest portal and through it.

“This is odd on many levels; I will show you in the conference room after you have eaten,” the Mother Superior noted.

Horti waved to the others to walk to the conference room.

Mother Superior told the group Chak had been abducted, but the abduction was odd. She showed the holo-vid. The Colza moved jerkily as she pulled Horti out of the room and to the portal. It looked like she was arguing with someone. She finally pulled Chak through the portal.

“I have seen movements like that before,” said Craig, “several times. Our enemy intelligence people implanted crystals in people that only activated under certain conditions. Usually, it made people assassins. The jerky movements originate from the person fighting the crystal. After my father saved the royal family in the Coven, the Coven Emperor insisted they replace billions of crystals to reduce the risk of assassins and involuntary spies.”

“I was unaware of that concept,” said Mother Superior. “Thank you, Craig, that was enlightening.”

“We know the Enphaet cannot infiltrate you directly, but they can capture Colza and replace crystals. They also used implanted telepathic commands and controls similarly but less effectively. Crystals can direct more complex actions,” Craig explained.

“She had a capture band on her foreleg; she could have used it,” said Mismy. “She was fighting whatever it was and is trying to help us find her and Chak.”

“It is plausible and could explain what we saw. We could not explain the odd conduct. We know to which portal the Colza traveled. She went towards the hangar, then deeper underground. She does not have clearance to use a shuttle or a portal to get to one of our ships.”

“How long ago did she capture Chak?” Mystera asked.

“Fifteen minutes before we went to the gym. The Queen has given us every opportunity to find them,” said the Mother Superior.

“Can we help find them?” Horti asked. “We will be practicing how to work in the tunnels, and I am sure we will learn something useful about how you work to find someone.”

The Mother Superior nodded. “We will split you into two groups, and you can join teams searching for them.”

“Charge yourselves fully and use what I taught all of you,” said Horti. “Recharge when you can. Watch out for other rogue agents. If in doubt, stun. The kidnapper will try to give us clues to help us find them.”

Horti joined the Mother Superior. “What objective could she be trying for?” She asked.

“I was going to tell you on the last day before you left. I might as well tell you now. It is a tightly guarded secret. We have a gate. I intended you to go through our gate to avoid the problems you will face going through your own. Six of us built the gate. Security near the gate is intense,” said Mother Superior. “She is heading for our gate, but she cannot get there, or if she did, she could not get through.”

“One of the six of you had a crystal implanted in her and will take her through security and to the gate. They will destroy your gate after they take Chak through. We must get down there immediately. Bring a platoon of guards with us,” said Craig. “We will need them and more.”

Mother Superior looked alarmed and immediately did as Craig recommended.

Sixty Colza, heavily armed, were waiting as they left the conference facility along with Horti’s half of the team. Another platoon followed behind.

They dashed through a portal down to a level where the tunnels were narrower. The Mother Superior set the pace and led them all. They sprinted through a doorway where the tunnels were lined with a rough surface with tatters of old silk remaining.

“There is a fight ahead,” said the Mother Superior.

They jogged past several Azloc lying stunned on the ground, then speeded up again.

Ahead of them, there was a mass of fighting Azloc.

“Stun the ones moving jerkily,” Horti ordered and carefully moved around the fray with the Mother Superior, Craig, and half the remaining troops.

“The gate is fifty meters in front of us,” said the Mother Superior. “They are switching it on.”

Horti and her people pushed their way forward. A Colza was holding an unconscious Chak in her claws near the gate, and another was using a hologram controller. Several guards protected them.

Horti fired at the Colza holding Chak while the troops engaged the guards and the Colza controlling the hologram. Horti’s two legs on the left side went numb, and as she stumbled, she saw the transdim saddle pack Colza used.

The Mother Superior shut down the gate. Horti retrieved the pack from under the gate and uncovered a bomb counting down.

“We have sixty seconds before the bomb goes off,” said Horti. “Help me.”

She felt numbness creeping up her cephalothorax and lost consciousness.

Horti woke in a pod five hours later. Craig and Mother Superior was waiting for her.

“Our troops hit you accidentally with a paralysis beam,” said Mother Superior. “It stuns and paralyzes you for five hours. You won’t have any residual effects.”

The team and Mother Superior sat at the conference table two weeks later. Mother Superior rose to her feet to address them. “While you did your last day of training, we completed our evaluation of our captives. Craig, I am grateful you told me about crystal assassins. We extracted the crystals from those in the tunnels and found crystals that had been crudely tampered with. We confirmed from crystal records Enphaet captured them and reprogrammed their crystals before we went on our mission.”

“Do we know which group did it?” Annjus asked.

“No, we do not know who the humanoids represented. I have further disturbing news; someone used the gate yesterday. One of us left here after I told our original senior group that built the gate we would send you tomorrow. The one operating the gate we captured knows nothing about the senior’s intentions or mission.”

“Could they have gone across to destroy the gate on the other side?” Asked Lisirra.

“The two taking Chak across don’t know why they were taking Chak. The second one is the assistant of the senior. They were to hand her to someone else they could only identify when they smelled them. The guards only knew they would guard the senior and her assistant and help them with whatever task they were assigned.”

“This is odd. Do you know the missions of the others; were you briefed together?” Asked Lisirra.

“Those of us in the senior group had individual briefings before we came here, and they gave us private assignments,” said Mother Superior. “We were never to speak of them.”

“Could there be factions among the Colza? Is it possible?” Emic asked.

“Unlike the Azloc Queens, none of ours have gone off to start a different group,” said Odalis. “It is possible as we are not limited to one supreme queen on the network, and unlike the Azloc, we have subnetworks. We could plot against the other Colza, but usually, we reach consensus, or if we are stuck, the senior Queen decides.”

“Could the Senior who has gone warn the Colza we are coming?” Emic asked. “Could that have been her mission?”

“it is unclear to us why she would do that,” said the Mother Superior. “Yet, I think it is possible.”

“I can guess,” said Jiskassa, “You behave much as we do. We challenge each other. Every day you have given us tough challenges in the tunnels. You have given us training. The Colza want the mission to succeed but would not trust a weak person as a leader.”

“That is true. We can only become queen by issuing a challenge. We will test Horti, as we will you all, to the limits of your ability and beyond. If you fail, our people will die with the Enphaet in that multiverse,” said Mother Superior.

“We are the same. Many fights are to the death,” said Jiskassa. “Someone warned the nest to defend itself against intruders.”

“You may well be correct, Jiskassa,” said Marcela, “Mother Superior, Odalis can you feel what I am sensing?”

“Yes,” said Horti, “they are moving the tunnels around exactly as you have done here to confuse us.”

“I love life and death tests,” said Lisirra. “If it were my decision and involved only me, I wouldn’t go along, but I must be there to watch you, Horti. You are young and inexperienced and will need my help, just as I helped uncover Chak’s deception.”