To Sparrow, Falconi said, “And here I thought you were supposed to be the tactical one.” Back to Nielsen, then: “We’re talking about the biggest, baddest Jelly of them all. The king or queen or whatever of the squids. They probably have escorts all around the Battered Hierophant. As soon as the Wallfish opens fire—”
“Boom,” said Hwa-jung.
“Exactly,” said Falconi. “Space is big, but the Jellies are fast and their weapons have a hell of a long range.”
Kira said, “We don’t know what the situation will be at Cordova. We just don’t. The Battered Hierophant might be surrounded by half the Jelly fleet, or it might be all by itself. There’s no way to tell ahead of time.”
“Assume the worst,” said Sparrow.
“Okay, so it’s surrounded. What do you think the odds are the Seventh Fleet can take out the Hierophant?” When no one answered her, Kira looked at each of the crew, studying their faces. She’d already made her decision: the humans and Jellies had to join forces if either of their species were to have any hope of surviving the all-consuming Maw.
Vishal said, “There are two questions that are important here, I think.”
“What would those be?” Falconi asked, respectful.
The doctor rubbed the pads of his long, round-tipped fingers together. “Question one: Can we afford to lose the Seventh Fleet? Answer: I think not. Question two: What is peace between us and the Jellies worth? Answer: Nothing is more valuable in all the universe right now. Yes, that is how I see it.”
“You surprise me, Doc,” Falconi said quietly. Kira could see the gears of his brain turning at a furious speed behind his shrouded eyes.
Vishal nodded. “It is good to be unpredictable at times.”
“Somehow I don’t think we’d be paid anything for peace,” said Sparrow. With one red-painted nail, she scratched at her nose. “The only wages to be earned out there are paid in blood.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of also,” said Falconi. And Kira believed him. He was afraid. Any sensible person would be. She was afraid, and the Soft Blade gave her far more protection than anyone else on the ship.
Nielsen had been staring at the deck while they talked, her face turned inward. Now, she said in a low tone, “We should help. We have to.”
“And why is that?” Falconi asked. His tone wasn’t mocking; it was a serious question.
“Do tell us, Ms. Audrey,” Vishal said kindly. He was, Kira noted, using her first name now.
Nielsen pressed her lips together, as if fighting back her emotions. “We have a moral obligation.”
Falconi’s eyebrows climbed toward his hairline. “A moral obligation? Those are some awfully high-minded words.” A hint of his usual sharp-edged style began to creep back in.
“To the League. To humanity in general.” Nielsen pointed back at the airlock. “To the Jellies.”
Sparrow made an incredulous noise. “Those fuckers?”
“Even them. I don’t care if they’re aliens. No one should be forced to live a certain way just because someone messed with your DNA before you were born. No one.”
“That doesn’t mean we’re under any obligation to get ourselves killed for them.”
“No,” said Nielsen, “but it doesn’t mean we should ignore them either.”
Falconi picked at the butt of his gun. “Let’s be clear. Sparrow’s right: we’re under no obligations. None of us are. We don’t have to do anything Tschetter or the Knot of Minds says.”
“No obligations but those dictated by the bounds of common decency,” said Vishal. He stared at his feet, and when he spoke again, his voice sounded far away. “I like to sleep at night and not have bad dreams, Captain.”
“I like to be able to sleep, and it helps to be alive for that,” Falconi retorted. He sighed, and Kira saw a shift in his expression, as if he’d reached a decision of his own. “Hwa-jung, thaw out Gregorovich. We can’t have this conversation without him.”
The machine boss opened her mouth as if to object and then closed it with an audible slap of her lips and grunted. Her gaze zoned out as she focused on her overlays.
“Captain,” said Kira. “You spoke with Gregorovich before we left. You know what he’s like. What’s the point?”
“He’s part of the crew,” said Falconi. “And he wasn’t completely out of it. You said so yourself. He could still follow what you were saying. Even if he’s half out of his mind, we still have to try. His life is on the line too. Besides, we’d try if it were any one of us down in sickbay.”
He wasn’t wrong. “Alright. How long will it take to wake him up?” Kira asked.
“Ten, fifteen minutes,” said Falconi. He went to the pressure door, opened it, and said to Tschetter and the Jellies waiting on the other side, “We’re going to be about a quarter hour. Have to get our ship mind out of cryo.”
The delay obviously displeased Tschetter, but she just said, “Do what you have to. We’ll be waiting.”
Falconi gave her a loose salute and pulled the door closed.
3.
The next ten minutes passed in silent anticipation. Kira could see the others thinking hard about everything Tschetter and Lphet had told them. So was she, for that matter. If Falconi agreed with the plan—regardless of what Gregorovich said—there was more than a small chance that they would end up stuck on one of the Jelly vessels without a ship of their own and at the mercy of the travel decisions of the Knot of Minds. It wasn’t an appealing prospect. But then, neither was the destruction of the Seventh Fleet, a continuation of the human–Jelly war, and the nightmares overrunning both their races.
When almost fifteen minutes had elapsed, Falconi said, “Hwa-jung? What’s going on?”
The machine boss’s voice sounded over the intercom: “He is awake, but I’m not getting anything from him.”
“Have you explained the situation?”
“Aish. Of course. I showed that one the recording of our conversation with Tschetter and the Jellies.”
“And he still hasn’t answered?”
“No.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
A brief pause before she answered. “I don’t know, Captain.”
“Dammit. I’m on my way.” Falconi unstuck his boots from the deck, kicked himself over to the nearest handhold, and hurried off toward the storm shelter.
In his absence, an awkward silence filled the corridor. “Well this is fun,” said Sparrow.
Nielsen smiled, but with a hint of sorrow. “I can’t say this is how I imagined spending my retirement.”
“You and me both, ma’am.”
It wasn’t long before Falconi came hurrying back along the corridor, a troubled expression on his face. “Well?” Kira asked, even though the answer seemed obvious.
The captain shook his head as he planted his feet back on the deck and allowed the gecko pads to fix him in place. “Nothing I could make sense of. He’s gotten worse. Vishal, you’ll have to look at him as soon as we’re done here. In the meantime, we need to decide. One way or another. Right here, right now.”
None of them seemed willing to say what Kira felt sure they were all thinking. Finally, she took the initiative and—with false confidence—said, “I vote yes.”
“Yes what exactly?” said Sparrow.
“That we help Tschetter and the Knot of Minds. That we try to kill their leader, Ctein.” There. She’d said it, and the words hung in the air like an unwelcome smell.