The Forlorn(104)

"Well, I've got them. All 14 core sections. And a psi. We should be inside in a few minutes. And we got rid of the Morkth."

"What the hell happened back there?" Leyla asked.

Cap smiled savagely. "The Alpha succeeded in hormonally neotenizing workers and warriors to produce a queen egg. They used to have the capability, way back in their evolution, to breed, if queen dominance was removed. They managed to do it again . . . but they got themselves a queen from that part of their evolutionary history. With no recent racial memory. Just a memory of doing her own killing, mating and laying her own brood. If you think they're having it rough now, wait till she starts hunting a mate. She'll tear that landing craft apart."

"So you wanted to be rid of the Morkth all along?" Leyla said, wondering.

Cap looked at her coldly. "Naturally. I needed the core sections the Beta had. So I pretended to make a deal with them. It also got them to stop their planet-buster program and concentrate on this."

"Why? I thought you said the Morkth just wanted to destroy us all. Why do they want the core sections? Why should they want to come here?"

Cap snorted. "Our ship is still capable of interstellar flight. The surviving Morkth ships are small stuff, none of which are really capable of interplanetary flight, let alone interstellar voyages. The Morkth navigation systems are still working in their main landing craft, even if it is a hopeless wreck. They know where we are, and how to get back to Morkth space. The rest of their species don't know where we've got to. We're a dangerous breeding patch of humans. Also, this is a habitable planet, and quite a prize for them, if they can bring the rest of their forces in to capture it, instead of just trashing it. Bioviable planets aren't exactly common. So, of course, capturing our ship was first prize to both the Alpha and Beta groups. But she was just too big for a frontal attack. They might get wiped out instead, leaving us humans to breed. So, after their queen was killed they fought about how to best achieve the second prize—killing us all off."

"So this was all your plan?"

Cap shrugged. "Of course. I've had to take some radical steps, but the end justifies the means, you know. Did you think I'd betrayed my species to the enemy?"

Before them the great doors slid open.

* * *

"It's still touch and go. I'd like to be more positive, but quite frankly it's amazing he survived the trauma of those injuries, let alone getting him here. Let's just say he's stable at the moment. I'm reviving an operating team to help me deal with the internal injuries. But why didn't you bring his legs along? All the equipment for maintaining them is on board the mechamby, after all. Now, I've answered your questions about the patient. You answer mine."

Keilin paused, unsure where to begin.

The man prompted. "I know some of it. I was revived four and a half hours ago, and I finished post cryo treatment nearly two hours back. I was at the computer terminal until you came in. I know I've been frozen for 349 years, instead of the fifty we were supposed to be. I know Morningstar I General Medical, which is linked to this unit, isn't replying. I know Morningstar II central computing is functional, but in a siege status. It's not replying, except to medically delimited questions."

Much of what he said was meaningless to Keilin. But he grasped at the straws he could. "The other command center . . . in the north?"

"Well, I don't know where. But the set-down was planned to be in polar regions." He looked faintly uncomfortable. "To keep the colonists away. They had to learn to be self-sufficient."

"The Morkth destroyed it."

"But this isn't Earth. We must have made it to at least one Earth-type colony world. They couldn't have killed Captain Evie, or we wouldn't have gotten any of you passengers off the ship. Why wasn't Morningstar II activated?"

Keilin shrugged. "I don't know. I just know the transmitter core was scattered, and we've been trying to collect it to bring it here and get the starship working again. I also know somebody betrayed the crew to the Morkth. Cap . . . that is, First Mate Jacoob Ahrens, said it was Evie Lee."

The surgeon snorted. "That'll be the day. He must've got it wrong . . . Captain Evie, she was like everybody's little sister . . . or girlfriend . . . or even mum. She was as soft as marshmallow, but as true as steel. Everybody loved her. And she was also such a caring, kind person. She'd have cut her own arm off rather than hurt as much as the pinky finger of one of her crew. I saw her crying all over the unit half a dozen times. More likely this Ahrens fellow is your traitor, whoever he is."

Keilin nodded. "He's the one who did that to Bey. He's got most of the core sections . . . he thinks. And he's kidnapped one of Evie Lee's descendants. That's why I have come here."