Death to the Insects

Chapter 8: A Visit To The June Directorate

Chapter 8: A Visit To The June Directorate

Croft blinked, opening his eyes. Were his eyes open? Gradually, he figured out that they were. He was just in a room that was almost totally dark.

He stumbled towards the doorway, the source of dim lighting from the corridor outside. When he emerged, he was made a very startling discovery.

He was in the undercity. He was back in August.

He also felt unusually... bulky. He realized he was wearing his Insect suit. It was a good thing they had brought that back with him-

-Brought that back with him? How? From the other side of the galaxy? How had he gotten back? How long had he been gone?

Even if the Capybaras had sent a ship through the Spacegate, it would have taken at least a few weeks to get back to August. But Croft, feeling his clean shaven face, felt that no more than a few hours at most had passed. Unless they had held him in suspended animation, how had they brought him back so quickly?

He trundled down a corridor, feeling reasonably secure in his Insect costume. Once he reached a main subjunction, he realized where he was. He wasn't far from Sarney Sarittenden. The spaceship hideout should be nearby.

His team was all surprised to see him. He had made sure to take off the suit's helmet before entering the hideout, to avoid the risk of encountering any jumpy trigger fingers, like the Silencer's.

They were all delighted that he had survived.

"We had gotten a broadcast from a ship, that said they left without you," said Yaney. "How did you get back?"

"It's a long story," said Croft. Speaking to them, he confirmed what he already knew: based on the date he had left August, and arrived at the Spacegate, and accounting for the time he had spent on the Capybara planet, his return had only taken a few hours. How had they accomplished that?

"I've located the enemy Spacegate," said Croft. "Now we just have to figure out how to knock it out."

"We have bigger troubles," said the Silencer. "Just two days ago the bugs started using a new tactic. Sniffers."

"Sniffers?"

The Silencer showed him a video from one of their broadcasts. They looked like they were half-insects, half dogs.

"They can smell us at quite a distance. No amount of electrical jamming works, obviously," said the Silencer. "So far they've uncovered and executed a bunch of our resistance fighters. The resistance in the west is crumbling and moving north, but even that won't help for long--spring is coming, and the bugs can go north as well."

"Why haven't you picked up and left?"

"I'm about to get to that," said the Silencer. "So far they haven't used any sniffers around here. They mostly seem to be using it in western and northern August where the resistance is strongest. The reason that we're still here is because your friend," he said in a certain way, meaning Levi, "believes he has a way of defeating the sniffers, but you have to go to meet your other friend," meaning Inglorious, "for more details."

"All right," said Croft. "Where's my helmet?"

********

"You need something called zeroscent," said Inglorious. "Lay it down like a powder around your compound, and the sniffers shouldn't detect anything."

"Will it also destroy our sense of smell?"

"No, it doesn't work that way," Inglorious sighed, as if he were speaking to an idiot. It made Croft briefly feel like he was back on the planet of the Capybaras.

"Where can I get some?"

"It's not used much on August anymore. There are a number of planets that produce it, which I'll get to in a moment. I have an equally important message to tell you from Levi."

"What could be equally as important as stopping the sniffers?"

"Only a means for destroying all the Insects."

It had been one of Levi's secret projects he had alluded to Croft during their argument about constructing a supervirus which would kill the Insects. Levi, it seems, had come up with a viable weapon that could be used against them.

"Let me show you a working model," said Inglorious. He reached over to a lab bench and brought an apparatus. It looked like a blue bulb surrounded by a wire mesh. Inglorious flicked a switch and the bulb light, casting a blue light.

"What is that, a bug light?" said Croft.

"Yes," said Inglorious.

"So what?" said Croft. "Wait a minute. That's no ordinary bug light, is it?"

"No," said Inglorious. "It's been retuned to attract Insects."

"Attract them! We don't want to attract them."

"It overrides their cognitive functions," said Inglorious. "When they see the light, they drop whatever they're doing and start walking straight to it."

"No, come on," said Croft.

"It's true. Levi's even tested it."

"How could he-"

"He's been given license to create pleasing light shows for the Queen. She's even given him Insect troopers to experiment on. That's how we know," said Inglorious.

"Well, that is really crafty....."

"A few words of caution," said Inglorious. "One, it only works on line of sight,"

"Obviously."

"Two, before we start using them, we'll have to get Levi out of there, because it won't take them long to figure out he's the source of this invention."

"Good point."

"And three, we don't have very many of the special fluidic bulbs needed to construct these."

"Where do we get them?"

"I've done a search for planets which have both Zeroscents and fluidic bulbs. One planet that has plenty of both is June."

June, the capital of the June Directorate, just as August was capital of the League. It had been Steven Quick's base of power, before he had died in a freak accident years ago.

"But, well, June is probably as equally as chaotic as August."

"I've established contact with the resistance there. They can get us the supplies we need, if we can get there to pick them up."

"Now that's very interesting," said Croft. "I didn't even know that there was a resistance on June, much less how to contact them. How did you?"

"It's hard to explain," said Inglorious. "An image appeared in my head-"

"A towel-"

"More like a sheet, but yes, perhaps-"

It seems Mr. Towel had discovered Inglorious.

"Mr. Towel!" said Croft. "Mr. Towel! Come out, come out, wherever you are!"

"Yes, Clifford," came the voice. A wavy sheet appeared in front of him.

"Inglorious, can you excuse us for a few minutes? I need to have some quality time with Mr. Towel."

Inglorious muttered something about checking some instruments and left the room, closing the door behind him.

"Good. Now we can have some privacy. How're you doing, Mr. Towel?"

"I was going to contact you shortly, Clifford. How was your journey through the Spacegate?"

"Very revealing, Mr. Towel. I could say I'm surprised to learn that you knew I went through the Spacegate, but I'm not. I went to the planet of the Capybaras, Mr. Towel. Does that ring a bell?"

"Capybaras?"

"Sure, you know, short, squat, webbed feet, you must have seen them before."

"I might be familiar with that race," said Mr. Towel.

"I thought you might be," said Croft. "They told me a lot of interesting things, Mr. Towel."

"Like what?"

"Like the fact that one of their members was expelled, for getting involved with the human race. You wouldn't know who that would be, would you, Mr. Towel?"

"No," said Mr. Towel.

"I should have figured it out from the beginning. Your voice, before you remodulated it, sounded familiar, and it was only later I figured out why--it sounded a bit like my old friend, Professor Capybara. But I only figured out your identity when I was being questioned by the Capybaras, and they wanted to know where I learned about the Spacegate from. Suddenly, our conversation popped into our head, the one where you said you had to stay hidden because the others might find out. At first, I thought the others might be your enemies, but when the Capybaras were questioning me, and I learned about their laws against not interfering, I realized that they were trying to find out if I had any connection with you."

"This is all conjecture," said Mr. Towel.

"I'm hearing the final evidence I need right now, Mr. Towel. You can modulate your voice, and you can edit out your tweatle tweatles, but you can't stop yourself from leaving blank spaces when you talk. Can you hear yourself? You could edit out your tweatle tweatles, but you couldn't make your sentences flow smoothly."

There was a deep sigh. "I was told you were an extraordinary human."

There was a shimmer in front of Croft, and he found himself staring face to face with a Capybara.

A bright, blue Capybara.

It looked like a Capybara in every way, except that its straw like fur was the color blue. And it was wearing a black bow tie. Croft was shocked; he hadn't thought the Capybara was actually in the room with him!

"What did you tell them?" the Capybara asked.

"Nothing, of course," said Croft. He quickly gave a short summary of his experience on the planet of the Capybaras. "But why are you blue? Did they...."

"They didn't banish me," said the Capybara proudly. "I banished myself. I turned myself blue to set myself apart from them. Do you know what they call me?"

"No."

"It roughly translates to 'Meddler'."

"The Meddler Capybara," said Croft. "It's catchy, and it fits."

"I can't act openly, because it may endanger their lives. Also, if I do so, they may act against me," sighed the Meddler. "In a way, it's a relief. You're only the third human I have revealed myself to."

"The third? Who are the first and second?"

"We don't have much time, your associate will come back soon," said the Meddler Capybara. "You must destroy the Spacegate."

"Good idea. Work on a plan while I gather the blue light and zeroscent materials."

The Meddler Capybara sighed. "Very well. But if you must go to June, be careful."

"I will," said Croft, as Inglorious opened the door and returned.

"Who are you talking to?"

Croft looked around. The Meddler Capybara was gone.

********

Getting to June was easy enough. Croft only took the Silencer with him. They stole an Insect shuttle and carefully docked inside theNautilus. TheNautiluscrew, having abandoned Croft on the alien Spacegate, was very surprised to see Croft again, but Croft didn't reveal any details of his miraculous escape. "Full speed to June," was all he said.

When they arrived at June, they left in the Insect shuttle. The only risk at either end was that a sharp bug watching the sensors would suddenly see a shuttle appearing out of nowhere, as they left theNautilus, or disappearing, as they returned to the ship.

When they got out of the shuttle, the Silencer, wearing a slave collar, went first, followed by Croft, in an Insect suit, brandishing a blast rifle.

June, as the capital of the June Directorate, was a little like August, only smaller. The planet had not yet congealed into one, enormous city, but the cities there were grand and spread for miles in every direction.

But the occupation had also taken a toll here. Croft could see the burned out and abandoned hulks with his own eyes, as well as the hive-shaped new buildings that the Insects were creating, to remake the planet in their own image.

No one paid him much attention as he marched the Silencer on the streets of the city. It wasn't until they got underground, that Croft handed the Silencer his blaster. June's undercity was not nearly as extensive as August's, but it was big enough. They reached the rendezvous point, a dead-end in a corridor on a sublevel, and waited.

"There's something not quite right about this," said Croft, as they waited.

"How do you mean?" said the Silencer.

"'m not sure," said Croft. " We haven't heard a peep from June in 20 years, and now all of a sudden we learn they have a resistance organization."

"Interplanetary communications haven't exactly been regular during this time."

"No they haven't," said a new voice, as a side of the wall opened up and men with blasters peered out. "And if you hadn't been talking, we would have shot you dead for the bug you look like. That is a human being inside, correct?"

"That's right," said Croft, raising his hands.

They blindfolded both of them, and took them for a long walk. Obviously the meeting point wasn't their hideout.

When the men took off their blindfolds, Croft looked around appreciatively.

He was in a very well lit and well equipped room. It didn't look like some temporary piecemeal hideout, but rather a very well maintained operations center.

"Can you take off that helmet, it's very disconcerting," said a bald man.

Croft removed his helmet.

"That's better," said the man. The weapons that were trained on them were lowered. Croft was very conscious of the fact that his and the Silencer's weapons had been taken. But they didn't know about his reserve gun inside the suit.

"If you'll remove the suit please," said the man. "We'd like our techs to have a look at it."

Our techs. This resistance was growing by the minute. They had well-lit and maintained laboratories and technicians? What kind of resistance was this?

"My name is Bildin, Shiro Bildin," said the man. "I take it you're Clifford Croft and the equally infamous Silencer."

Croft nodded.

"Glad to have you here. We haven't heard much about the resistance on August. How have you fellows been holding up?"

"We're fighting," said Croft. "What about you?"

"So are we," said Bildin. "The bugs discovered two of our underground bases last week using sniffers, so we had to switch to backups, like this one."

"This is a very well supplied backup," said Croft. "Exactly how big is your resistance?"

Bildin gave a smile. "Now Mr. Croft, that's on a need to know basis. I know of your reputation with the Column, but here at Internal Security, we also have our protocols."

"Internal Security," said Croft suddenly. "You mean Directorate Internal Security survived the invasion?"

"Oh yes," said Bildin. "Most of our infrastructure survived intact, and we have extensive link with the ground military-"

"Your ground forces survived intact?"

Bildin frowned. "Of course, we've taken losses, but yes, we survived as a cohesive unit. Hasn't yours?"

"No," said Croft dully. "Our military was all but wiped out, as was our Column infrastructure," he said. Changing the subject, he said, "About our supplies?"

"We're gathering the equipment and chemicals you requested," said Bildin.

"It isn't a problem?" said Croft.

"No, we can get you as much as you like, a bit of time. But your shuttle space is mighty small. Would you like us to arrange a transport to ship the goods?"

"A transport," said Croft. "How do you intend to get a transport-"

"An Insect transport. They've been using human laborers for some time for loading, unloading, and in-flight maintenance. We have a network inside the Insect network and can ship anything almost anywhere. As long as we're discreet, of course."

"Of course," said Croft. "Then why am I even here?"

"We... we wanted to see you before starting this arrangement," said Bildin. "We only recently heard of your exploits from Mr. Sheet-"

"You mean Mr. Towel."

"You call him Mr. Towel? That's funny. Well, we just wanted to see you for ourselves before sending the goods, as evidence that your resistance exists. Excuse me for a moment."

Croft looked at the Silencer. The Silencer looked back at Croft.

********

During their trip back to August, they had a lot to talk about.

"Well," said Croft, "It seems they've coped with the invasion quite well."

The Silencer nodded.

"So well, in fact, that they make us look like incompetent boobs."

"What are you thinking?"

"Well, it could be that their military and spy network is ten times better than ours."

"Which you don't believe," said the Silencer.

"Or this could be a very elaborate Insect trap, in which case they would have sprung it immediately upon our arrival, since we top their most wanted list."

"True."

"Or.... somehow, they were a lot better prepared for this invasion than we were. It looks to me that they must have spent years preparing for it."

"Meaning?"

"Unlike everyone else in the Alliance, the good people of June knew it was coming."

********

Time passed. As the June network supplied Zeroscent to the occupied worlds, the resistance started to use it to protect themselves. The sniffers, who had had great success in ferreting out resistance fighters, suddenly milled about aimlessly, without direction.

********

Queen Zsst was enraged when Levi entered her presence.

"Why is this happening, Lev-I?"

"What do you mean, my Queen?"

"Our sniffers are no longer ferreting out the humans! My scientists conjecture that the humans are using some kind of chemical agent to neutralize their scent."

"If you say so, My Queen."

"Why is this happening?"

"I do not know, my Queen."

"I think you do," said Tsarina, Zsst's new chief of security, stepping out from behind the throne.

Levi felt his blood run cold. "I don't understand."

"You are an expert in taste and smell issues," said the Queen. "You should be able to figure out why this is happening and devise a counteragent."

Oh.

Levi allowed himself to exhale slowly. "My Queen, if your scientists cannot help, I'm not sure what I-"

"It is interesting that the human, who prides himself on being so useful, refuses to help us," said Tsarina.

"I am not refusing," said Levi. "I will be happy to attempt to help, if I can."

"See that you do," said the Queen.

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

In the months that followed, the resistance began to build a supply of blue light devices. But they didn't use any of them, not until they had built a sufficient number. Levi had warned them that the Insects would eventually construct countermeasures, so it would be best if they used as many blue light devices at once in their initial attack, before the Insects could react. And of course, there was the small matter of extracting Levi before the devices were used.

********

Croft conferred with the Meddler Capybara, planning how to destroy the Insect Spacegate.

"A frontal attack wouldn't work," said Croft. "We simply don't have the ships. In fact, except for theNautilus, we don't have any ships. What if we planted a bomb on the Spacegate?"

"You wouldn't scratch it," said the Meddler Capybara.

"What if we blew up the control platform?"

"You'd put it out of commission for a few weeks until they built another," said the Meddler. "The critical technology is in the Spacegate, not the platform."

"Well, you're the Capybara, you tell me what to do."

"Sabotage," said the Meddler. "The Spacegate can be set to overload, if someone knows how to use the controls on the platform."

"Great," said Croft. "Do you know anyone who does?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," said a new voice.

Croft turned to see Gaboath. "I take it you two are acquainted?"

"We have met," said Gaboath, nodding to the Capybara. "I think I will accompany you on this mission."

"Hey, that's great!" said Croft, and he meant it. "What can possibly stop us?"

"Wait," said the Meddler. "There's a complication."

"What?"

"According to my sources, the Insects have recently sent massive reinforcements through the Spacegate. If we destroy the Spacegate, we will prevent further reinforcements from arriving, but the Insects may have enough ships to destroy the Alliance fleet."

"The Alliance fleet," said Croft slowly. "That's the first time you've used those words. What fleet would that be?"

"All right, Clifford," the Meddler sighed. "There's no avoiding telling you now. There is a human fleet which survived the attack of the Insects. They have been gathering their resources and planning a counterattack."