Shael and Keilin walked across to the air duct S'kith had followed down. The cover was still pulled aside. It was a narrow hole leading down for thirty levels. It was dark, and they could just see that it went . . . down. Keilin took out of his pocket a pebble he'd sucked to ease his thirst while they'd marched from the Moss, and dropped it. Counted. It was many seconds before the faint "plink" came up from the hive water supply.
"I can't!" Shael said. Keilin felt that way himself. The narrow darkness was already making him feel tight-chested. "My arms won't last twenty-seven levels," she added, looking into the darkness.
It was true enough. She was far stronger now than she had been when she'd been a pampered Princess, but . . . Keilin sighed. He felt that it was vital to go down that terrible hole. At least it was not angrily sucking air the way it had during S'kith's descent. But yet he was afraid of leaving Shael. Foreboding hung about that choice. He compromised. "I'll go. You stay with Bey. Don't leave him. Please." His voice was full of care and he leaned forward and kissed her. "See you." And he lowered himself down into the claustrophobic shaft.
There was no way one could carry a lighted torch and climb. So he had to do it in complete darkness, moving on memories garnered from those moments of close contact with S'kith, and faith. His fear of closed-in spaces clutched at him, but still he went down. After all, S'kith had come down here, somehow beating his fear of returning to the hive. Keilin felt he could do no less.
At last he came to the side shaft. The only side shaft. Only the queen level had an emergency air off-take. Keilin followed it. Finally he came to where the air line went into the filtration plant. No poison could reach the queen chambers, and as a side-effect, neither could a human cockroach. So Keilin had to leave the air duct and emerge, before the great queen door. Keilin found he didn't need the torches here. At this, the most crucial level of the hive, every fourth light still gleamed with a dull phosphorescence. Obviously this was some failsafe should disaster strike the hive's heart.
The great golden doors hung open. Bodies were strewn around. Some had obviously been trampled by storming rivers of Morkth feet. Keilin went on, past the now empty laboratory, into the wrecked comms room. The burned door of the power generator room still stood. When the power cable was severed, power for the arc cutters was cut. The hole surrounded by cooled runnels of titanium steel was still too small for a Morkth . . . or most adults. Without more ado Keilin began thrusting his slim sinew-and-muscle boy's body through the sharp-edged hole. Not for the first time he cursed the growing process.
There was not much left of his friend. What the explosion hadn't ripped apart, high voltage had cremated. But a force drew him to the far corner of the room. There, severed, but still clutching, was S'kith's hand. He had to force the rigor-set fingers apart to expose the five core sections. Their familiar blackness and oil-swirl patterns called to him. He touched them, and knew that Shael, hand on her bracelet stone, had been waiting for him to do so. He also knew that the remaining sections lay in the Beta-Morkth's technofortress. The conquest of this hive had been a child's game, compared to what that would take.
* * *
Once S'kith's barricade had been removed it was easy enough to open the door. Using a coil of wire from the laboratory Keilin set out into the queen's maze. Here he needed the torches in the bag. It was perhaps fifteen minutes later that he encountered a Hansel-and-Gretel trail of scraps. Off down a further twisting corridor he could hear Cap's voice. He called Cap's party back to where he stood.
Cap eyed him with disfavor. "I should have known you'd turn up where you're not supposed to be. What do you want?"
For an answer Keilin held the wire. "This'll lead you through the maze to where the core sections are."
"Hmph. Why didn't you just bring them with you?" demanded Cap roughly.
"Because I want you to see what you did to my friend. The man you called a traitor. The damn things are still in his hand," said Keilin fiercely, blindly.
"Watch your tongue, boy. This is for the human race. It's more important than one worthless Morkth-man. This wire'll take us there, you say?" he said, taking the strand from Keilin's limp hand.
A Gene-spliced officer took Keilin by the shoulder. "Word has come down from the top about what he did," she said quietly. "Bey wants the women he says are called the Warrior brood-sows found and freed. Can you help us?"
Keilin nodded. S'kith would have wanted that. "A floor down. S'kith told me about it. I'll lead you." They set off out of the maze and down the awkward stairs, not designed for human tread. Soon they were passing tiny lightless cells.