Forging Zero (83 page)

Now he
knew what his Dad had meant. 

The
Jreet was huge, almost forty feet, one of Na’leen’s personal guard.  It circled
Joe, sliding through the bodies of the Huouyt, hesitating to use its poison.

It
still thinks I’m going to help them,
Joe realized.

“Joe,
get out of the way!” Rat cried, from behind him.  “I can’t get a clear shot!”

But something
had taken a grip on his soul, and Joe walked forward, so that he was almost
touching the point of the fang jutting from the Jreet’s chest.  It hovered
above his forehead, its dark tip glistening red in the hazy light.  It would
have only taken a twitch on the Jreet’s part to end Joe’s life right there.  Yet,
as massive and ancient as the warrior before him was, it did not strike.  Looking
past it, Joe saw the indecision in the Jreet’s tiny golden eyes.  And, in that
moment of clarity, Joe understood. 

Kill
me and I won’t fulfill the prophecy,
he thought,
looking up into its face.
  And you don’t want to fail.
  He could
understand its dilemma, and respected it on a deep inner level.

Joe
lifted his knife and the Jreet slid backwards, away from him.  It dropped the
tip of its translucent spear between them, keeping him at a wary distance.

“You’re
going to have to kill me.”  The words Joe spoke were neither Congie nor
English.  He wasn’t sure how he knew them, but he did.  “My blood or yours,
brother.”

The
Jreet gave him a startled look, the tip of its spear wavering minutely.

Joe
stepped forward, until his chest was touching the spear.  He felt the tip sink
into his chest, up and to the right of Libby’s scar, before the Jreet started
to pull back, preventing him from impaling himself.  Warm blood began to slide
down his skin as he moved forward, dripping onto the ground between them. 
Joe’s eyes never left the Jreet’s.

The
Jreet tentatively lowered its spear.

Joe
jammed his knife into the vital area in the Jreet’s throat, above the poisoned
fang.  The fang twitched once, stopping only a hairsbreadth away from Joe’s
skin before it retracted.  Dropping its spear, the massive Jreet slid into a
corner and collapsed.

With no
more enemies to fight, Joe’s fury drew him back to Zol’jib’s corpse.  The
Huouyt who had taken Lagrah’s form.  Na’leen’s assassin, who had poisoned him
so Libby thought he had betrayed her.  The same Huouyt who had pretended to be
Yuil, to make him betray his friends.  Joe buried his knife into the corpse,
dismantling the body bit by bit, stabbing the hated blue-white eyes out.

“He’s
dead, Zero.”

Tril’s
voice cut through the haze.  Joe glanced up.  The Overseer was watching him
from the wall, along with the rest of the Ooreiki survivors.  The other kids in
the room were staring at him in open fear.  Rat looked startled, her lips
parted, the plasma gun half-hanging from her limp hand.  Joe realized he was
covered in sticky Huouyt blood, the transparent slime glistening upon his body
from head to toe.

Joe’s
eyes found Maggie.  She was standing beside Libby’s corpse, her usually adoring
gaze containing something Joe had never seen before.  He got goosebumps.

“So it
was all a trick?” Rat demanded.  “That thing with Libby and the Trith…it was a
trick?”

Maggie’s
eyes never left him and Joe realized that she had come to the exact opposite
conclusion.

“Very
clever.”  Tril twisted on the wall.  “Where’d you learn Voran Jreet, Zero? 
It’s a very rare dialect.”

Joe
dropped his knife and stood, suddenly feeling every spatter of alien blood as
if it were acid.  He stared at his palms.  “I didn’t.”

Tril
frowned at him a moment, then said, “I knew you Humans had a talent for
languages.  You’ve done the work of a fully-trained Planetary Ops squad. 
Congress will reward you well.  Now hurry and release us.  This structure is
rigged as an Overseer’s bunker.  There should be a command center nearby where
I can call for help.”

Joe
ignored the Ooreiki and stood.  “Come here, Mag.”  He held out his
gore-encrusted arms.

Maggie
ignored his gesture, her eyes locked on his face.  “You’re a traitor.  That’s
why you didn’t help Libby.”

Joe’s
arms dropped.  “Mag, I couldn’t—”

“Now,
Zero!” Commander Tril snapped.  “Do you want Na’leen to return
with more of his Jreet?  The same trick will not work more than once.”

Joe
hesitated.  He could see Maggie needed him to deny it, to assure her there was
nothing he could have done to save their friend.  But there would be time later
to explain and unless he wanted Maggie to die, too, his comforting words would
have to wait.  He moved to help Tril, ignoring Maggie’s searing look.

“Mag,
help me here,” Joe said, hefting Tril’s weight.  “Unhook his arms.”

Maggie
sat down beside Libby and began stroking her arm, humming.

“Bailey,”
Joe snapped.  “Help me.”

The boy jerked.  He tore his eyes
from Libby’s body and hurried to help slide the hooks from Tril’s tentacles. 
Once Tril was on his feet, he hurried from the room, leaving them the option of
following or staying behind for the Jreet.  Rat turned to follow.  Joe glanced
at the other Ooreiki hanging from the wall.  They would be useless in a fight,
but he couldn’t leave them behind.

“Bailey,
help me get the others.”  When Bailey hesitated, looking like he wanted to
follow Rat, instead, Joe screamed,
“Now!  Or I swear to God I’ll gut you for
what you did to Libby!”

Bailey
flinched and his eye went wide.  “Joe, I never cut out Libby’s tongue.  I never
broke her legs, neither.  The Takki did that.”

Joe
frowned.  “The Takki?”

“Yeah. 
Six of them were walking across the yard and Libby insulted them.  Right out of
the blue.  Like she wanted to pick a fight with them.  When that didn’t work,
she started insulting Knaaren.  That made them attack her.  She fought them off
as best she could—killed a couple, I think.  I started throwing rocks at them,
shouting for Rat.  That scared them off.  But by that time, Libby was hurt real
bad.  One of ‘em had got hold of her tongue and cut it out, sayin’ she didn’t
deserve it.”

Joe
stared at Bailey, uncomprehending.  He remembered the crowbar-shaped stick that
had lain in the dust beside Libby and the connection jolted him.  “Takki did
it?”

“Yeah. 
I thought she told you.”

Of
course she didn’t.  Beaten by Takki.
 
God,
Libby, I’m sorry. 
Joe felt a tired rush of despair. 

“Yeah. 
I would’ve helped her sooner, but she—”

“Just help
me,” he said, drained to the core.  “You can tell me the rest later.”  Brushing
past Maggie, they released the other six Ooreiki.  They beamed and
congratulated him, increasing Joe’s discomfort.  He wasn’t the hero.  Libby
was.  If she hadn’t thrown the knife and made them give him the antidote to
whatever Zol’jib gave him in order to keep him from bleeding out, he couldn’t
have activated the grenade.

Then a
cold chill settled in the marrow of his spine.  What if the Trith knew that? 
What if that’s why the Trith had told Libby she’d have to kill him?  To make
her do it?  To make her trade her life for his?

“Here, Zero.” 
Bailey shoved a gun into Joe’s lifeless arms.  “We’ve gotta go.  The Huouyt are
coming back.  Rat’s waiting for us in the hall.” 

Joe
stared at Bailey dumbly.

“Let’s
go,
Zero!”

Numb, Joe followed the Ooreiki
survivors out into the hall. 

Libby died because of me. 
Because of that Trith.
  He felt the beginnings of
hatred burning his intestines.

Maggie ignored Bailey’s order to
follow them and he had to bodily pull her away from Libby’s corpse.  Joe
watched in solemn silence as she fought, screaming.

Finally, Bailey rounded on her. 
He dragged her close and into her face he shouted, “Libby’s
dead.
  You
wanna die too?!”

Maggie ignored Bailey, her eyes
locked with Joe’s.  “Why didn’t you help her, Joe?”

“I couldn’t, Mag,” Joe whispered. 
“I wanted to.”

“But you didn’t,” Maggie bit out. 
“It’s your fault she’s dead.”  She pronounced it with all the finality of a
jury’s verdict.

“I know, Mag.”

“Hey.” 
Bailey drove a finger into Maggie’s shoulder.  “He’s a hero.  He killed a Jreet
by himself with just a
knife. 
I didn’t see
you
do anything to
save Libby.  You’re just a whining little coward, you know that?” 

Maggie’s
chest shuddered in a sob.  Whimpering, Maggie spun and fled down the opposite
corridor.

“Maggie!”
Joe cried.

The
plasma shot took Maggie in the neck and chest, knocking her off of her feet. 
Two massive Jreet rounded the corner beside her, their
shee-whomp
battle
cry ringing down the corridor.  Seeing Joe and Bailey, they cloaked.  Joe could
hear the rapid scraping of their bodies on the floor as they slithered toward
them.  Behind the Jreet came a dozen armed Huouyt, their powerful tentacle legs
working awkwardly against the floor as they ran.

Joe’s
eyes fixed on Maggie’s body, his breath burning in his lungs.  He felt the
beginnings of a sob in his chest.

I
can’t fight it.  The Trith was right.  I fought it again and Maggie died for
it.

“Get
out of here, Bailey.”  Joe lifted his rifle, aiming at the nearest Huouyt.  He
didn’t have anybody left to lose but himself.

“Joe,
come
here.”
  Bailey threw an arm around Joe’s throat and dragged him
backwards down the hall.  Joe tried to struggle free, but Bailey had put on his
biosuit—it was like fighting a statue.  Cursing, Bailey threw him into a
control room filled with maimed Ooreiki and followed him inside, blocking his
escape.

As soon
as they were in, Rat touched the control panel near the entrance and the door
oozed shut.  Joe stared at it, wondering why he wasn’t on the other side,
fighting.

“Is he
here?” Tril demanded.

“Here,
sir.”  Gokli shoved Joe in the Overseer’s direction.

“Zero,
you were given the Overseer’s stimulant drugs, right?”

Joe
frowned.

“And
Nebil illegally taught you to read?” Tril demanded. 

…Taught
me to
read?  Joe nodded, frowning, still unable to
understand why he wasn’t fighting.

“Get
over here,” Tril ordered.  “I need you to hit some buttons for me.  We’ve got
to seal off this section of the compound before Na’leen can get to the main
control hub and fire an ekhta at Koliinaat.”

Joe
stared at the glowing, multi-layered, three-dimensional map of the bunker
hovering over the central table.  Na’leen and his companions were bright red
dots moving down the staircase closest to them.  Gokli, Tril, and all the other
Ooreiki were standing beside the map, waiting for him, their tentacles reduced
to short, useless stubs.

Seeing
what they expected him to do, Joe hesitated.

Maggie
was dead.  Libby was dead.  Scott was dead.  Nebil and Lagrah were dead.  What
if the Trith was right? 

What if
more would die if he fought Fate?

And
what if they had all died because the Trith wanted them to die?  What if the
Trith fed them lies to make them act the way they wanted them to act?  To
produce a desired result?

But
then, something about the Trith’s eerie stare left him with the undeniable
impression that a Trith’s prophecy was more than smoke and mirrors.

So
what do I do?

Joe
noticed for the first time the other recruits watching him.  He knew Na’leen
wouldn’t make the mistake of letting Rat and the others live a second time.

Fate
decided you will shatter Congress, Joe.

“Burn
fate.”
 
Joe walked up to the map and, acting as Tril’s hands, attempted
to close off Representative Na’leen’s route.  Each time they had the
Representative and his staff trapped in a section of the bunker, Na’leen
somehow found a way to continue, working his way deeper into the
ferlii
with each passing minute, growing closer to the core and the ekhta inside.

“He
outranks me,” Tril cried, frustrated.  “He’s overriding my commands.”

“Let me
try,” Gokli said.  “Zero, start activating these.”  He pointed a truncated
tentacle at the purple self-destruct buttons littering the map.

Tril
pushed Joe’s hand away from the screen, glaring at Gokli.  “This building is
rigged to explode in an emergency.  He could set off a chain reaction and kill
us all.”

Gokli
gave Tril a level glance.  “So?”

Sudah
fluttering, Tril took a deep breath and nodded.  “Try collapsing the tunnels
around him.  Just don’t hit one that’s too close to the rest.