“Really?” Berto says. “What else were you planning to do with them? If we wind up getting vivisected, nobody’s giving you a medal for being frugal with your ordnance, you know.”
Cat gets to her feet and turns to face Berto. “If those things close to five hundred meters, I will be more than happy to empty my supply of explosives and kinetic energy rounds into them. In the meantime, though, I’m going to hang on to these ones, if that’s okay with you. I don’t plan on getting vivisected either way, and you never know when the ability to hit something from really far away might come in handy.”
Berto looks like he’s about to argue, but then he thinks better of it and shrugs. “Fine. You’re probably right. I don’t like just letting those things pace us like that, but if they’re gonna keep their distance I guess there’s not anything we can really do about it.”
“At least we’re in open terrain,” Cat says. “If we were down in one of those cuts right now, they could be practically on top of us before we knew they were there.”
Small blessings. If we’re going to do what I think we need to do, we need to do it now. If we wait until they close the noose on us again, we’re finished.
“Come on,” I say. “We need to get back inside. We’ve got some choices to make.”
WHEN I GET back into the cabin, Nasha is sitting up, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees and cradling her head in her hands. The relief that floods through me leaves me almost giddy. If she hadn’t come around …
Best not to think about that.
“Hey,” Lucas says. “What’s the situation up there?”
“They’re pacing us,” Cat says. “Keeping their distance for the moment.”
“For the moment,” I say, “but that’s not likely to last. Nasha—how do you feel?”
She looks up slowly, her eyes narrowed. “What? Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Sorry,” I say. “I know. I know. You feel like shit. What I mean is, can you function? Can you stand? Can you walk?”
She sighs, then gets to her feet, one hand braced on the back of the bench. Once she’s up, she takes her hand away. She wobbles a bit, then steadies.
“Well, I can stand,” she says, then lifts first one foot, then the other. “I can probably walk, I guess. Don’t think I’d want to try to run. Why?”
“You don’t need to run,” I say. “I don’t think so, anyway. I just need you mobile. We’re abandoning ship.”
That gets me a solid five seconds of silence.
“What?” Lucas says finally.
“We’re abandoning the rover. Speaker has made it pretty clear that the metal in this vehicle is what they really want. They asked for one of us too, but I’m betting that was a distant second on their priority list. If we leave the rover undefended, their choice is to get ninety-five percent of what they wanted with no risk, versus getting five percent of what they wanted and losing half their ancillaries in the process. Speaker says they’re intelligent. I’m taking him at his word, and assuming they’ll make the right call.”
“And if they don’t?” Cat says. “We killed a whole lot of them earlier today, you know. If the situation were reversed, I’d be pretty pissed off. They could track us down and kill us first, then come back for the rover.”
“They could,” I say, “but I don’t think they will. We killed ancillaries. If what Speaker has told us is remotely true, they won’t have the sort of reaction to that that we would if they’d killed half of us. They won’t be thinking vengeance. They’ll be thinking spoils. They’ll prioritize the rover. Taking it apart will take them a fair amount of time. By the time they’re done, we’ll be long gone and not worth tracking.”
The looks on the faces of the other people in the cabin range from dubious to borderline hostile. Lucas nudges Speaker with one boot. “What about it, Wormy? Is he right?”
Speaker doesn’t react at first. When Lucas prods him again, though, he rises slowly to eye level and turns to face him. “Mickey is almost certainly correct that they will focus on the rover. Depending on how many ancillaries they have with them now, they may delegate some to pursue you. Then again, they may not. This is difficult to predict.”
“You?” Lucas says. “Don’t you mean us?”
“No,” Speaker says. “I do not mean us. I will not be accompanying you.”
That is not what I expected to hear. I open my mouth, realize I have no idea what to say, and close it again. I look to Nasha. Her face is twisted into a scowl, but I can’t tell if it’s meant for Speaker or for me.
“Yeah,” Berto says finally. “You will be accompanying us, Speaker. You definitely will.”
“I will not,” Speaker says. “I apologize for leaving you in difficult circumstances, but if I abandon this machine, the others will take all of it, and my nest will get none. This cannot be permitted. If I stay with the rover after you have abandoned it, there is some small possibility that I may be able to enforce my claim to a portion of the spoils.”
I stare at him, openmouthed. “You actually think that agreement you made still holds? We’ve killed a shit-ton of spiders in the meantime, remember? They may not be vengeful, but I’m betting they’ll at a minimum consider any concessions they made earlier to be null and void.”
“You may be correct,” Speaker says. “It is very possible that if I do not flee with you, they will disassemble me along with the rover. However, I am obligated to try to convince them to abide by our agreement. As I told you previously, if they are able to make use of all the materials in this rover, there is a strong possibility that they will become strong enough to displace my nest. For both of our sakes, this cannot be allowed to happen.”
I shake my head. “Sorry, Speaker, but this isn’t negotiable. We need you. Without you, we have no way of even finding your friends to the south, let alone talking to them. You have to come with us.”
“I appreciate your position,” Speaker says. “Please, appreciate mine. You ask me to put my own nest in great danger in order to protect yours. If our positions were reversed, what would you do?”
“Just so we’re clear,” Berto says, “we’re not actually asking you. We are telling you. You will come with us when we abandon the rover.”
“You threaten me?”
Berto hefts his accelerator. It’s not quite aimed at Speaker, but it’s not entirely not aimed at him either.
“It’s not a threat,” Berto says. “It’s just a statement of fact. We will not leave you behind—not in one piece, anyway.”
Speaker rises to face Berto, mandibles spread wide. “I am not helpless.”
“You’re not,” Berto says. “You are outnumbered, though, and you are outgunned. You might be able to take one of us down before we shot you, but definitely not two.”
“Look,” I say, far too late. “Back off, Berto. Nobody is shooting anybody. Speaker—we need you. We need you as an ally, not as a prisoner. We need your willing help. Berto is right that we can’t afford to leave you behind, but I understand your concern about how what happens here might impact your people. We don’t want your nest to be displaced by these things any more than you do. So…” I glance around the cabin. Everyone is watching me. I might be about to make the worst mistake yet in a life filled with some pretty awful ones, but I don’t know what else to do at this point. “So, I will promise you now that if we succeed in recovering the bomb and then make it back home alive, we will not permit your nest to be displaced. You see the kinds of weapons we have. There are a lot more of them back at the dome, and others as well that make these ones look like toys. If we are able to recover the bomb and get home safely, we will commit to defending your people if you are attacked. That’s what allies do, right?”
Speaker’s mandibles close, and he gradually settles back down toward the deck.