The Old Republic_ Fatal Alliance Part 42

"I must keep you safe!"

"But I have to-you have to..."

Thick currents closed around her throat and filled her mouth, silencing the words. She choked and coughed, unable to fill her lungs.

"Cinzia!"

The cry came from outside the tank.

Help me, she tried to shout. Save me!

With a shattering of gla.s.s and a great rush, the tank exploded. Cinzia was tossed and flung on a wave of writhing liquid. Her mother was screaming. She was screaming, too. Something hard smacked against her flesh all down her back and legs. For the first time in her life, she felt her full weight. She couldn't move. She couldn't breathe. The pressure around her throat eased, only to be replaced with another.

"She can't get enough oxygen, " someone said. The sound was all wrong. So was the light. "She's not used to breathing air. "

"What do we do?" That was the other Cinzia. "We have to keep her alive. "

Cinzia flapped weakly with one hand.

"Gene... sampler... " She pointed to the machine that would feed the other Cinzia's genetic pattern into the hexes' collective memory. "Promise... save... "

"We're doing everything we can for you, " said Satele.

She shook her head. "Save... Mother... "

"She's in the blood, right?" said the other Cinzia. "I thought she was killing you. I thought you were drowning. "

"Promise!"

"All right, all right. I promise. "

Cinzia couldn't lift, but she could still grip. "Her daughter... her daughter... "

The other Cinzia came closer, dragged into focus by the last of her strength.

"Tell me... everything. "

The body of the hairless, emaciated girl became still. Master Satele shook her head. Apart from the trickling and dripping of crimson fluid, the laboratory was silent.

Ax fell back onto her haunches and put her hands over her face. What had just happened? Had she been trying to kill the girl or save her? Not just any girl, of course: her own clone. Did that make it murder, suicide, or fratricide?

She suspected she would never know.

"I'm sorry, " said Master Satele, touching her lightly on the shoulder. "The shock killed her. With the right equipment, we might have..."

Ax shrugged her off and stood too quickly. Her head swam. She imagined she heard a voice from the far depths of her memory, weeping and demanding her attention. She ignored it.

The gene sampler was exactly where Cinzia had indicated it would be. Ax crossed to it and stuck her hand into its diagnostic chute. The cold machine p.r.i.c.ked her, drank her blood, hummed to itself, and then beeped inquiringly.

Ax felt a brief moment of panic. The machine wanted confirmation of something. A pa.s.sword? A command phrase? A code?

She remembered everything Cinzia had said in her final moments. She'd made Ax promise to save what was left of Lema Xandret. Was there anything else she'd emphasized? Anything at all?

" 'Her daughter, '" Ax said.

The machine beeped confirmation.

"What does that mean?" she asked the room in general. "Do the hexes now think I'm her? Am I immune to them? Will they obey my orders now?"

Master Satele had no answers, and neither did anyone else. The way the fluid from the tank tugged at her ankles told her nothing she wanted to know. It had nurtured and smothered Cinzia at the same time-just like Darth Chratis had Ax herself. Cinzia had broken free the only way open to her. Ax hoped to have more options.

There was just one way to find out how the hexes would react to her.

"Let's go get one and see what happens. "

CHAPTER 45.

Larin was beyond surprise. After escaping the rain of artillery from the Paramount and riding the skyhook all the way to the equator, it was with only a mild sense of concern that she felt the structure beneath her begin to drop. What now?

Jopp echoed her confusion. "I thought this thing was taking off, and now it's coming in to land. I wish the hexes would make up their minds. "

The skyhook lurched beneath them, and they gripped each other for support.

"This doesn't feel like landing, " she said. "Something else..."

She didn't finish that thought. Every hex in the structure chose that moment to let go of its neighbor, causing the whole structure to slump and sag downward. She was suddenly riding an accelerating wave of individual hexes, not one solid structure. It was like surfing, but without a board, and a sea of molten lava instead of a beach at the other end.

"Hang on!" she cried as the wave of hexes carried them downward.

Jopp clung to her arm as long as he could, but the tide inevitably swept them apart. Larin crouched down and gripped the leading edge of a single hex with all the strength of her prosthetic left hand, hoping to ride out the wave without tumbling or being crushed. The hex didn't object. It seemed utterly pa.s.sive. That surprised her, but she didn't complain. It was just another surprise on the heels of so many.

The torrent of hexes was sufficient to fill the crater that was all that remained of the former CI site. She flinched as a ma.s.s of red fluid rose up to meet her, but it wasn't lava at all. The b.l.o.o.d.y fluid came up to her knees, then stopped rising. She let go of the hex and found that she could stand.

Feeling like she was walking in a dream, she stepped from hex to hex toward the nearest crater wall. There was no sign of Jopp, but she did make out a figure watching her progress on the edge of the lake, waving encouragement. As she drew nearer, she recognized the forbidding black shape of Darth Chratis. It wasn't him waving. That was the tall, slender figure standing next to him.

Her heart tripped. It was Shigar.

She increased her pace. Dream or no dream, she was going to take advantage of this development while it lasted.

Shigar watched the green-helmeted figure crossing the seething ma.s.s of hexes in the lake. He couldn't be sure it was her, and he told himself not to get his hopes up. But his gut was certain. There was something about the way she moved, the slight stiffness of the figure's left hand as it waved cheerily back.

Darth Chratis stalked away, still trying to raise the Paramount on his comlink. Thus far there had been no answer from the fleet above, even though the comms were finally beginning to clear.

Shigar walked carefully down the bank as the wading figure approached. He held out his hand, and finally caught a glimpse of the face inside the helmet. It was indeed Larin, and she was beaming. With one powerful tug, he pulled her ash.o.r.e.

She flipped up her visor, and he did the same.

"Fancy meeting you here, " she said.

"Are you crying?"

"What? No. I have allergies. And what if I am? It's been a long day. "

He embraced her. "It sure has. "

She returned the hug, but not for too long.

"What's with the hexes?" she asked as they pulled apart.

"I don't know, " he said. "The thing in the lake disintegrated as the skyhook arrived. I didn't even know it was made of hexes until then. They looked confused. Now they're not doing anything at all. "

He spoke too soon. The center of the lake boiled and bubbled. Hexes writhed as the leading edge of something large and gray emerged from the depths. Shigar put his left arm around Larin, ready to protect her behind a shield if this turned out to be a new kind of attack, but she pulled away.

"It's a ship, " she said, hurrying back down to the lake's edge. "Look!"

He shaded his eyes. The object did look like a starship. An older model, of Imperial make, perhaps.

The ship rolled, presenting one broad flank to the sky. A hatch opened and two figures climbed out. A strange sound swept across the surface of the lake-a clicking of metal limbs moving through thick fluid. The hexes were stirring, forming a new agglomeration.

All they made was a bridge connecting the ship to the sh.o.r.e. The bridge was aimed directly for Darth Chratis. He looked up as two figures began to walk toward him.

Shigar and Larin loped to join him. A handful of other figures scattered along the crater rim did the same. Shigar picked up speed when he recognized Master Satele as one of the pair that had emerged from the ship. He felt a resurgence of optimism. First Larin, and now her. Perhaps disaster had been averted after all!

Accompanying Master Satele was the Sith apprentice, Eldon Ax. Her helmet was off, exposing wild red hair and dark-rimmed eyes. Shigar was close enough to hear what she said as she approached her Master.

"I release myself from your service, Darth Chratis. "

"Nonsense, " he said with a look of startled outrage. "You are my apprentice, and so you will remain until I judge you fit to be called a Sith. "

"You will release me, " she said, coming to a halt two paces from him, "or suffer the consequences. "

He laughed. "What possible consequences can you threaten me with? Don't tell me this pathetic Jedi has turned you. " He raised his lightsaber and adopted a ready pose. "I will kill both of you before you take a single step toward me. "

Master Satele drew her blade in response and Shigar wished he hadn't lost his.

But Eldon Ax didn't move. "I have not been turned, " she said. "I have simply realized how I have been used. My anger was constantly directed outward, at my mother and Dao Stryver, or inward at myself. The person I should have been most angry at was standing right beside me. My teacher. My Master. You. "

Darth Chratis grinned like a skull. "Anger leads to hate, " he said. "Hate leads to power. See how well I have taught you?"

"You have indeed taught me well. And so I release myself from your service, my lord, knowing that you never would. "

A growing sound from behind her caught Darth Chratis's attention. The hexes were rising up in an enormous swell and flowing out of the lake. Dripping blood-like fluid, they came en ma.s.se for the huddle standing on the crater's edge. Larin took Shigar's arm and pulled him well out of the way. Master Satele joined them. Only Ax and her Master stood before the ghastly tide.

Lightning flashed. Darth Chratis's lightsaber stabbed and cut. But there were too many of them for one man-even a Sith Lord-to hold them back. Ax did nothing as the swell enveloped them both.

"What's going on?" asked Larin.

Over the noise of the hexes, Master Satele replied, "I think our young friend has discovered who she really wants to be. "

"And who is that?" Shigar asked.

With a high-pitched whine, a shuttle swooped low overhead. Master Satele looked up as the craft came around to land. It displayed Republic insignia, and was closely tailed by an Imperial counterpart. They touched down on either side of the tentacle of hexes that had lunged out of the lake.

A junior officer of the Republic jogged from the craft that had landed near them and saluted Larin. Keeping one eye closely on the swarm of hexes that had engulfed Ax and Darth Chratis, the Adarian spoke breathlessly: "We picked up the fringes of an Imperial transmission calling for an emergency evac and followed it down. Is everyone all right?"

"For the moment, " said Master Satele, guiding him away. "What's the situation in orbit?"

"It's hard to explain. Our comms went haywire for a while, and now all our data banks have been wiped. "

"By who?"

"I don't know, sir. Captain Pipalidi will till in you and Director Vii when I get you back to orbit. "

"Ula made it, too?" asked Larin.

"We have him aboard right now, " he said. "Found him drifting in a capsule, hollering for help, and picked him up on the way down. Won't explain how he got there, but he seems healthy enough. "

"That's good, " Larin said. "I'm glad he's okay. "

Shigar glanced at the shuttle. Was that the envoy's face he could see, peering out a viewport? He couldn't tell.

"About the hexes, " the young officer ventured, glancing back over his shoulder. "I mean, is it over?"

"I don't think so, " said Master Satele. "Not quite. "

Ula watched from the safety of the shuttle. There was nothing stopping him from leaving his seat. He wasn't under guard, or even under suspicion. He could have walked out at any time, and thrown himself to the hexes if he'd wanted to.

Jet's betrayal of him still stung, though, so he stayed right where he was.

It had started to go wrong before the skyhook had collapsed. After the deflection of the Paramount's missiles, Jet had considered throwing the Paramount itself down onto the target, in a desperate attempt to thwart the hexes' plans. Ula had argued against it, unable to bear such a waste of human life.

"A thousand or so to save trillions, " Jet had said. "Isn't that a fair exchange?"

"We don't even know if it would work! And if it doesn't, we'll be even worse off than we are now. "

"If you're worried about destroying an Imperial ship..."

"Do you really think I'd let that get in the way of doing the right thing?"

Only as he said the words did he realize that he meant it.

The issue had become entirely moot when the skyhook had gone down.