Death to the Insects

Chapter 6: The Insect Spacegate

Chapter 6: The Insect Spacegate

From the Personal Log of Clifford Croft, 17 years and four months after the Invasion:

It's times like this, when I'm in a slimy bug suit and bugs are coming onto me sexually, that I wonder how I ever get into situations like this.

***********************

It had all started a few days earlier, when Croft had received a telepathic visit from Mr. Towel.

"Clifford... wake up, Clifford..." Croft looked at the towel, which was suspended above the other sleeping soldiers in the room.

"Can't you contact me during normal business hours?" Croft grumbled, waking up two soldiers, who, not seeing the glowing towel, simply glared at him.

"Let's go to another room so we can talk in privacy, shall we?" Mr. Towel suggested.

Nodding mostly to himself, Croft left the room and went to an isolated makeshift office.

"What is it, Mr. Towel?" said Croft, putting his hands on his forehead. "I just want to let you know that I don't perform heroic missions on less than eight hours of sleep."

"I have an important mission for you," said the voice.

"They're all important," said Croft.

"You have to locate and destroy the Insect Spacegate."

"The Insect what?"

"Spacegate," said the voice. "That is your new word for the day, Clifford. Spacegate. Have you ever wondered where the Insects came from?"

"No," said Croft. Then, waking up a little in spite of himself, "Yes, I suppose so. We were never able to locate their home worlds. It's like they just came out of nowhere. Our best scientists hypothesized that their worlds were somehow hidden."

"Your best scientists were wrong, Clifford. Their worlds are very open to see; they're just in a distant part of the galaxy."

"What?" Croft quickly thought through the implications. "Then how did they get here? Their fastest ships travel at about the same speed as ours."

"A spacegate, Clifford, they used a spacegate."

"What is that, some kind of...

"Gate through space, exactly," said Mr. Towel. "They always come in pairs, and they allow ships to instantly travel from one point in the galaxy to another. That's how the Insect ships suddenly appear in your part of the galaxy."

"I didn't know the bugs had that kind of technology," said Croft hazily.

"They don't, it was given to them, but they still don't fully understand it. They just know barely enough to maintain it," said Mr. Towel.

"And how do you know so much about this?" said Croft.

"There are two Spacegates, one at their worlds, and one somewhere in the vicinity of Alliance space. You have to find the local Spacegate, and destroy it."

"Sure thing," said Croft. "Shall I take my cruiser, or my battleship?"

"This is serious, Clifford."

"I'm serious too," said Croft, sitting up. "Something's happened, hasn't it, something involving War Admiral Norman North's fleet, perhaps?"

"I can't tell you-"

"You want to prevent the Insects from bringing in reinforcements to crush his fleet," said Croft. "The only thing I can't figure out is why you care. You're almost certainly not human."

"Is being human a prerequisite for caring?"

"No, but if I'm going to risk my life, again, I'd like to know the motivations if not the identity of the person I'm risking it for, Mr. Towel," said Croft.

"My people..... are not people as you know them," said the voice. "We are not permitted to interfere."

"But by helping me, you are interfering," said Croft.

"Precisely, which is why I have to stay hidden, in the background," said Mr. Towel.

"If I saw you, would I recognize you?" said Croft.

"You might recognize what I am, but not who I am," said Mr. Towel.

Croft sighed. "Well, I suppose that's the best I can get from you tonight, Mr. Towel. So how do you suppose I find this information and get off-planet?"

"You're the expert infiltrator," said the voice. "Surely you must have some ideas."

"Yes, but only if I have the right tools-" said Croft, in midsentence. He had an idea.

**********

Four days later he was in Inglorious's lab deep underneath Sarney Sarittenden. "At one time, during the war, I had heard of experiments to make suits, elaborately designed costumes, which could let us pass for Insects," said Croft. "They've probably all been lost or destroyed in the invasion, but I was wondering how long it would take you to-"

"No, we have one right here," said Inglorious.

"What?" said Croft. "All these years, you had an active Insect camosuit and you didn't tell me?"

Inglorious held up a restraining hand. "Not one of the few finished models, just one of the early prototypes. I discovered it last year when I was cleaning up one of the storerooms."

"Let me see it!"

Inglorious brought it out. It looked like the fully finished version that Croft had once used, many years ago before the invasion. He said as much.

Inglorious looked at him pityingly. "The exoskeleton is finished, but the internal software and hardware is incomplete. The speech analyzer is deficient-"

"I thought you knew the Insect language-" said Croft.

"The written language, well, yes, except for some nuances," said Inglorious. "But the spoken language is something else. Do you know the simple screech" and Inglorious made a whining sound that made Croft want to cringe, "can mean eat, kill, sleep, taste, or dance, depending on the slightest differences in tone, inflection, and body language?"

"Oh."

"Oh is right. Similarly, the speech generator, where the suit speaks what you want to say in convincing Insect, is also not properly calibrated, giving your desired meaning no more than perhaps 70% of the time, depending on how complex the phrase you wish to speak is. "

"Well, I'll try to use simple phrases," said Croft. "I'll take the suit. It's either using this suit, or walk around wearing a sign saying 'I'm a human, please shoot me'. So let's get started."

**********

Levi, naturally, didn't have access to the ultra-top-secret information concerning the location of the Spacegate. Indeed, in all his years he had only heard the faintest whispers that such a thing existed. It really was that secret. And justifiably so. If their Spacegate were knocked out, the Insects would be totally cut off from their homeworld.

But Levi did volunteer that there were several terminals inside the palace at Sarney itself that required the highest security access. They probably contained the information Croft was looking for.

And so Clifford Croft, dressed like a senior level Insect officer, walked into the heart of the Insect defenses.

As he walked into the palace, a guard challenged him with a buzz.

Croft's readout monitor in the suit said that the guard most probably was either asking him what his business.

Croft tried to send a simple message which translated roughly to "Me... going... to... Rotunda... Central Control.... report...."

If the guards noticed anything about his rough accent, they didn't say anything; instead, looking at his thorax badge, they simply waved him through.

What a relief! As Croft entered the building he barely glanced at the schematic that Levi had provided. He had been to the Palace before, under less happier circumstances.

He remembered the last time, during a poorly planned raid, when the Insects had cornered his group around the bend of a dead end hallway, and Croft was sure that they were about to be slaughtered.

And then Croft had heard Insect screams around the bend, and who else should appear but Professor Capybara? Croft never did figure out what the lovable rodent had been doing there, but one thing was for sure, he had saved all their lives.

What were the odds of Croft meeting another unexpected ally inside Sarney Sarittenden this time?

**********

Two levels down from Croft, in a hidden room, a wall shimmered. An old man wearing robes stepped through. The shimmer faded. The old man touched a button, and the hidden door opened; once he exited, the wall slid back in place.

**********

Mongo had made a special point of saying that Croft should undertake this mission today, not yesterday or two days before, and so Croft had delayed the mission just on his say-so, much to Mr. Towel's annoyance. But when he had asked why, all Mongo had done was repeat what he had said the last time.

"No time is good to go to the Sarney. Too many bugses. But if must go, go on this day," he said, his bony finger pointing to a specific date on the electrocalendar. "May live, or get shot at less. Who knows? Even Mongo is not sure."

**********

And so here he was. He entered the Capitol Rotunda. He was challenged by yet another guard.

Croft pressed what he hoped was the right option on his touchscreen, that he had come to recalibrate the sensors, and hoped his suit would articulate the sounds correctly.

"I.... instruments... sexy... sexy... now."

The guard came close and buzzed in a different tone, and for a moment Croft shrank back, until he read what he thought was the translation on his screen.

"Smell good... off-duty... one cycle...."

Croft nodded, and made his way into the Rotunda. There were several bugs at work there, but they only glanced at him in passing. Croft casually made his way to another room behind the Rotunda, a monitoring station which fortunately happened to be empty. It was meant for command personnel but right now the command personnel were somewhere else. Maybe Mongo was right, and maybe he had picked the perfect time to infiltrate.

Croft went to the computer terminal, and set the suit's translation and decrypting sequences to work on the interface, obediently clicking the proper keys when his suit's computer told him to. In a few minutes he had access to the database.

Hearing rustling in the Rotunda, and realizing time was at a premium, he limited his search to Spacegates. Since this was a new word, both to him and to the Insects, he wasn't sure what the Insect equivalent would be. He found one reference to a gathering place, and a set of coordinates, but wasn't sure if that was a reference to a Spacegate or simply a refueling station.

Croft heard sounds of movement behind him, and was about to turn around, when he heard something that almost made him jump out of his suit.

"You look ridiculous in that costume."

Croft turned around, his heart racing, to find none other than Gaboath smiling at him.

"Clifford Croft, I presume," said Gaboath, speaking in a low voice.

Croft could only nod dumbly.

"I thought I recognized you," said Gaboath.

"I thought you were dead," said Croft, speaking softly through his suit.

"I told you I would be leaving for a while."

"But you walked right into a bunch of Insects-"

"Just like now," said Gaboath.

"Yes," Croft said. "Say, how did you-"

Suddenly it was Gaboath 's turn to stiffen. His face turned grave. "You have to get out of here, now."

"What?" Suddenly, Croft felt a wave of fear that he couldn't explain or identify.

"Hurry," said Gaboath. "Use the other exit. Follow me. Now!"

Croft walked as quickly as he could, in the Insect suit.

A moment later a hooded figure entered the Rotunda. It was empty.

The being pulled back its hood, revealing a very reptilian face. It was Rugani, Baraki's deputy. He looked around and sniffed. Then he turned to the terminal, and saw what it was set to, and he hissed!

**********

"What was that all about?" said Croft. Gaboath had guided Croft out through a secret exit that led into the undercity. They were now walking through the undercity. Gaboath seemed unconcerned that they would run into a patrol.

"I was about to be recognized," said Gaboath. "Rather, it's too late for that; I've already been recognized."

"What are you talking about?"

"We don't have much time," said Gaboath. He touched Croft's Insect head. "Look at you, how you've grown!"

Croft quickly explained his mission and what he was trying to do. For some reason he totally omitted mentioning Mr. Towel, and if Gaboath picked up on this, he said nothing.

"A worthy goal, to knock out their Spacegate," said Gaboath.

"You know about it?" said Croft.

Gaboath gave him a look that said, "Of course! Have you given any thought how you're going to get there?"

Croft sighed. "I thought maybe I could steal an Insect corvette-"

"There would be an alarm out on you before you had gotten half a light year out," said Gaboath. "Why not travel in style?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why not go on an Alliance ship?"

**********

Croft still couldn't believe after all these years that there were any Alliance ships still functioning within Alliance space. It was one thing to talk of the mythical Norman North's fleet, lost far out among the stars, but here, at home? How could any Alliance ship survive more than a minute before being hunted down and destroyed?

Well, he would soon find out the answer to that. Gaboath had instructed him to go into orbit. It was easy enough to get aboard a shuttle heading for one of the orbital stations.

But then came the hard part. Gaboath told him to head out into space, go to certain spatial coordinates, and wait for retrieval.

For retrieval? Was an Alliance ship really going to leisurely go into orbit to pick him up?

But Croft did as he was instructed. He was forced to get into an Insect spacesuit, which he struggled into with difficulty--it was like putting one suit on over another. But he couldn't survive in the vacuum without it. And then he stepped out of the airlock of one of the orbiting stations, and used a jetpack to head towards the specified coordinates.

If anyone was checking on short ranged scanners, he would be so small as to be unlikely to attract notice. They would be looking for shuttles, and ships, not objects the size of individual Insects.

When Croft got to the designated coordinates, he looked down at August. Even now, it was certainly pretty. He was over the ocean separating Concord from Mohonk. The contrast couldn't be more striking. To the west was one, big metropolis spanning an entire continent; to his right was untouched forests, mountains, and hills... or not quite untouched. Even from here, he could see a bit of eastern Mohonk, which had been devastated by the Insect breeding farms and grub fruit orchards. Croft shuddered, and turned his face towards the stars. He checked his gauges; he only had an hour of air left. He hoped they would come soon, whoever they were.

He didn't have to wait long; in a few minutes, he saw something dangling towards him, a thin strand of... rope? The funny thing was, it didn't seem attached to anything, it was just a wandering, aimless strand.

Croft jetted over to it, using his jetpack. There was a loop on one end, clearly indicating that he was meant to tie himself to it. But he could see the other end floating dead in space.

This must be it, whatever it was. Croft tied himself to one end. As he did so he gently tugged on the line; to his surprise, the tension was firm. When he had finished tying himself, he felt himself pulled forward, at a gentle but firm speed.

And then the most amazing thing happened. One minute he was looking at empty space, and the next he was looking at the inside of a small landing bay. It was if the landing bay was floating around in orbit, without an outer shell. Croft saw people inside the bay, unsuited and walking around, apparently exposed to vacuum. How could that be?

It was only when he passed through the entry field and was inside, and he looked around and saw walls and ceilings again, that he truly understood the significance of where he was.

He was inside a cloaked ship.

**********

There were sailors there yelling and pointing blasters at him, and he instantly realized the problem.

"I'm human," Croft cried, but then realized they couldn't hear him through his suit.

Raising his hands slowly, so not to panic them, he took his helmet off under the watchful gaze of half a dozen blasters. Then, he said loudly, loud enough to be heard through his monster suit, "Boy, am I glad to see you!"

"You gave us quite a surprise," said Captain Hollister, of the subshipNautilus, gesturing for Croft to take a seat in his cramped quarters. "We were expecting a VIP, but we thought it would be human."

"Well, it's what on the insides that counts, Captain," said Croft. "I have to say, I'm very surprised to see you here. And this ship."

"Surprised, eh?" said Hollister. "This was still a prototype under development when the bugs attacked. We scooted out just in time with a skeleton crew, and took potshots at the Bugs for a while."

"And then?"

"We had to go to ground," said Hollister. "We suffered too much battle damage."

"How can your ship be targeted if it's invisible?" said Croft.

"We have to surface when we fire our weapons," said Hollister.

"Surface?"

"Sorry. Surface into the visible spectrum," said Hollister. "The Insect ships started travelling in packs, so that when we surfaced to attack one, the others would hit us. Finally, our raiding partners were destroyed and our ship was damaged. We hid for a while until we could make repairs."

"And then?"

"And then we met Gaboath," said Hollister, grinning.

"How did he find you?"

"He just seemed to know where we were," said Hollister. "There's no explaining it. We were suspicious, at first, but he helped us repair the ship, and sent us on missions."

"What kind of missions?" Croft asked.

"All kinds," Hollister grinned. "Ferrying people and material around, mostly." He changed the subject, avoiding Croft's question. "I hear we're taking you on a special trip, to the Coranna Nebula. Any idea what's there?"

"Yes," said Croft.

**********

Gaboath walked casually through the ground floor of an enormous building. Like most buildings on August, this one was over 200 stories tall.

Gaboath walked among the dark support pillars, but then stopped. "You can come out," he said quietly.

Rugani stepped out from behind a pillar. They slowly started to circle each other, as if waiting for the right time to strike.

"You shouldn't have come," said Rugani.

"Youshouldn't have come," said Gaboath.

"What business do you have interfering? This is none of your affair," said Rugani.

"I am helping the oppressed," said Gaboath.

"The weak, you mean," said Rugani.

"What's your excuse?" said Gaboath.

"We are improving the Insect species," said Rugani. "By helping them assimilate the assets of the humans, they will become stronger and more powerful."

"To what end?" said Gaboath.

"Power. Dominance," said Rugani, continuing to circle. "You should not have come," he repeated.

"What about the rights of individual races to set their own destiny?"

"The weak must service the strong," said Rugani. "That is the way of things."

"You may find that you've backed the wrong side this time," said Gaboath.

"And who should we have backed, those who have been conquered?" said Rugani. "Or Normal North, who leads the smallest sliver of a fleet-"

"-which manages to continually defeat your fleets-"

"Or Clifford Croft, who is headed towards a trap in the Coranna Nebula?" Rugani hissed. "I sensed his presence and saw the readout. I imagine you used your powers to smuggle him into the Rotunda. But you won't be able to help him at Coranna. I've doubled the guard there and ordered all humans to be slaughtered on sight."

"You know, you're less intelligent than I give you credit for," said Gaboath.

Rugani hissed, and lightning bolts emerged from his scaly hands. Gaboath dodged out of the way before the bolts hit, and they turned a pillar behind him into powder. The ceiling shook around them.

Rugani fired another blast at Gaboath. Gaboath dodged again and this time fired back. But Rugani was nimble too, and Gaboath 's bolts slammed into another pillar, weakening it....