Death to the Insects

Chapter 11: Levi's Last Stand

Chapter 11: Levi's Last Stand

Several months passed. The resistance continued to grow in strength. But their secret weapon, the blue light device, they still kept hidden, preferring to build more and more units for the day when they decided to make an overwhelming attack. But that day was coming soon.

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

The eastern coast of Mohonk was devastated. The Insects had clearcutted the land and planted hundreds of hatcheries, as well as grove after grove of grubfruit to feed them. Grubfruit was vital to their existence; it was virtually the only food the young Insects could digest, in the vital days before they reached maturity; and even fully grown Insects had difficulty adapting to other foods.

The eastern quarter of Mohonk was now filled with these hatcheries and grubfruit plantations. New Insects slithered out of their hatcheries daily, crawling the short distance to the grubfruit trees, which were always planted nearby.

But something different was starting to happen. Tiny white moths were starting to appear, and they were eating the grubfruit too. They multiplied rapidly; these moths could mate and reproduce every three days. For now they were few in number, and not yet noticed by the Insects, but their numbers were increasing rapidly....

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

"We need more support!" came the Queen's voice.

"Calm yourself," came a second voice.

Levi, listening in his earpiece, assumed it was Baraki. He had put a monitor in the Queen's chambers some time ago, using an ingenious method unlikely to attract attention, an organic listening device planted in some of the plants in her chamber. While a risky maneuver, it was one of his prime sources of intelligence.

"Where did all those ships come from?" came the Queen's voice. "That irritating human never had so many ships!" Levi didn't know it, but the Queen was studying a map of formerly Alliance space. Most of the area was red, but an angry blue splotch was growing in the middle of it.

"We don't know either," said Baraki slowly. "It seems somehow that the humans have been amassing new forces, somewhere outside in the fringe."

"This is getting out of control!" said the Queen.

"Calm yourself!" said Baraki, this time more sternly. "You still have more than enough ships to defeat them."

"How? They have some kind of new weapon."

"What do we know about it?"

"Nothing! So far no one has survived to report any details."

"Then that must change," said Baraki. "Send another fleet to engage them, but hold two or three ships back to conduct scans."

"Another fleet? They will be destroyed like the others!"

"Yes, but we will gather the necessary information," said Baraki. "We also need to discover how the humans have been obtaining information about your fleet movements."

"Tsarina is looking into it. She thinks she is close to the answer. We think the humans are using some of our transmissions to send messages of their own."

"What is the nature and origin of these messages?"

"We don't yet know," said the Queen. "Tsarina is investigating, as I've said. We are also unsure if the messages are being altered here or on one of our orbital relay satellites."

"What about the human, the cook?"

"I don't see that it can be him." said the Queen. "We have him under constant surveillance."

Baraki glared at the Queen. "Then you may have someone else on board, a spy or saboteur."

"We will get to the bottom of the matter quickly," said the Queen.

*********

Levi put down the earpiece and hid it, and then pressed the button that allowed the live feed from the holocameras monitoring him to resume, taking the place of the doctored feed he used in such circumstances. He didn't have much time.

There were now so many ways in which he could be discovered. The blue light technology could fall into the hands of the Insects, and they knew he had performed blue light experiments. Additionally, the Insects would soon discover the butterfly infestation on Mohonk and trace it back to him. They knew he had done experiments with butterflies, ostensibly for culinary purposes, but they would remember nonetheless.

And then there was Baraki. Could he read minds? Levi wasn't sure. He had tried to stay as far as possible away from Baraki and hope for the best.

Either way, his position was very tenuous. The safest thing to do would be to leave.

But he still hadn't found out the details of the backup plan. From what he had heard in past conversations, it seemed to be almost ready.

Maybe he had done enough; he had already provided the resistance with enough information to win this war, and now the fleet was back. The downfall of most spies was staying long enough to be discovered.

What to do? Levi agonized for a moment. He stared at a photo of Mindy, who was safely hidden on Mohonk. He knew what she would want him to do. But there were more lives at stake.

He had to get out of here soon, that was for sure.

Levi decided to take a risk. The answers to the questions he sought should be available on the Queen's secure top-level terminal in the throne room. All he had to do was to go in and try to tap into the system from there. Regardless of whether he got the information or not, he would immediately flee and leave the ship. Levi made plans to do it the following night.

*********

"What?" said Croft. He was standing in a basement in western Concord, and he couldn't believe his ears.

"Some of our people transporting components got grabbed," said Yaney.

"Components," said Croft. "Hmm, by components, you don't mean 'components for our top-secret blue light technology', do you?"

"Yes," said Yaney.

"So the bugs know about it, and if they haven't figured it out already they soon will, which means they will start working on countermeasures, which means that we have to move up the attack."

"To when?"

"To yesterday," Croft snarled. "Get me the comm unit. I have to reach General Clay immediately, as well as our off-planet contacts."

As Yaney ran out of his presence, another thought hit Croft like a lightning bolt.

Levi.

Once the Insects figured out what they had, they would be coming after Levi.

He must get a message to Levi. And then Croft checked the day on his wrist chrono, and realized that Levi wouldn't be expecting the next static burst message for another three days. There was no time!

Yaney came back with the communications equipment.

"Drop that and get me the Silencer, the Clapper, and Mongo, on the double," said Croft.

Yaney dropped the equipment and started to run.

"No, cancel that," said Croft. There was no way he could take them into an Insect stronghold. "Just get me my suit."

*********

Croft closed the comm and started to struggle into his Insect costume. It was all set. The attack would begin at dawn tomorrow. He had that much time to steal a shuttle from a nearby base and fly to the flagship. He just hoped he would be in time.

"What are you doing, Clifford?" said the image of a towel.

"I thought we were beyond the hiding stage, Mr. Towel," said Croft, rapidly suiting up.

"You're in a public area," said the voice of the Meddler Capybara. "Anyone could walk in at any time. Besides, I'm not on-site right now."

"Just how far can you project yourself?" said Croft.

"You're going aboard the flagship, aren't you?"

"You have big ears," said Croft, activating the suit's internal systems.

"This will be very dangerous," said the Meddler Capybara.

"Danger is my middle name," said Croft, grabbing his helmet and walking to the door.

"You are needed to lead the resistance. You are taking too big of a risk," said the Meddler.

Croft turned and abruptly faced the shimmering towel. "Listen here, Mr. Towel, Levi's done more to fight the bugs than anyone else. He's given us the information, he's given us the technology, and we owe him. I owe him. Maybe for you everything is a cost/benefit analysis, and friendship and debt doesn't enter the equation, but it does for me."

And he stomped off without waiting for a reply.

*********

That night Levi walked into the outer chamber of Zsst's throne room. It was empty. He looked calm but his heart was racing. If he ran into an Insect, he could offer the excuse that he was going into the Queen's chamber to remove food trays; but if they caught him at the Queen's personal terminal, there would be no excuse.

Levi walked into the inner chamber, the Queen's throne room. As he expected, it was empty. He immediately ran over to her terminal, and started tapping. He had never broken her encryption code before, but if it was anything like the others, it shouldn't take him long.

As he tapped keys he periodically looked at the door. All was quiet.

Levi worked feverishly for several minutes, before he finally broke the code. Instead of trying to do a word search for 'backup plan', for that's surely not what it would be called, he simply pulled up a chronological list of the Queen's most recent files.

He found it quickly, it was listed all over the place. And then Levi, working out the translation in his mind, whistled to himself.

This was some backup plan!

The Insects were building another Spacegate. Had been building it, in fact, for many years. Evidently they hadn't felt comfortable relying on one Spacegate, or else it wasn't capable of handling the volume of traffic they wished, because they definitely were building another, and it looked like it was just about complete.

With another Spacegate, they could bring in tremendous reinforcements. The new Spacegate had to be destroyed before it became operational.

But where was it located?

Levi tapped feverishly, looking from one file to another. Why didn't they mention anywhere-

Levi heard the door to the outer chamber opening. Suddenly, there in front of him, he saw it. The location! There, there it was! Levi flicked off the terminal and ran over to a long table where trays of food lay. He was just reaching for one when Tsarina stepped in, flanked by two of her guards.

Levi looked up. Now he knew where the Spacegate was. All he had to do was live long enough to tell someone.

"Human," said Tsarina. "I have learned something about perception. Would you like to hear my thoughts about it?"

Levi, holding the tray, froze and said nothing.

"You can glance at something, and see the same thing, over and over, no matter how many times you look at it," said Tsarina. "And yet, when you look very closely at it, you discover some things, things you never would have learned when you glanced at it, no matter how many times you looked. And these things one discovers usually lead to other things, so in the end, the object you're looking at looks completely different from what you first thought it was, and you wonder how you could ever have missed what it really looked like."

"That's really interesting," said Levi, picking up another tray and moving to leave the room. "But I have to return to-"

"Let me give you an example of what I mean," said Tsarina, blocking his way. "We recently came across some humans smuggling some devices with blue bulbs in them. At first, we didn't know what they were; but when we activated these bulbs, our troopers became immobilized. They were obviously weapons."

"I had to think about this for some time," said Tsarina. "It took me several full hours before I recall that you had experimented with light as well, to provide pleasing light shows."

"So?" said Levi. "I don't make weapons."

"And if you had, how could you have transmitted this information to the humans?" said Tsarina. "After all, we have you under constant surveillance in your quarters, and you know it. But, operating on the assumption that you had, I took a closer look at the surveillance logs, running them through comparative analysis. And do you know what I found?"

"18% of the time your image was performing the exact same motions, over and over, in 10, 20, or 30 minute loops. Exactly the same! What are the odds of that?"

Levi said nothing.

"It was then I took an even closer look at your terminal, and discovered what you have been doing, all these months, all these years." Even Tsarina's translated voice ran cold. "Do you know the kind of torture and execution you've earned?"

Levi turned his back to Tsarina and put his hands in his pockets.

"Your hands, where I can see them! Now!" Tsarina rasped.

Levi turned around, revealing a fine white powder in his hands.

"What is... ah...." said Tsarina, feeling her senses buffeted by a very, very powerful odor.

Levi let the powder slip from his fingers onto the ground, and Tsarina and her guards gazed down at the ground, captivated by the very pungent smell. While the Insects were transfixed by the powder, Levi slowly edged his way to the door. He made his way to the outer chamber-

-where he ran right into Queen Zsst, flanked by her personal bodyguards.

*********

"Lev-I, you have betrayed me, Lev-I," said the Queen, almost sadly.

Levi was held securely by several guards.

"I gave you a good life, better than any of your kind had a right to expect," said the Queen.

Levi stood silent. The powerful scent had been swept away, and a glowering Tsarina stood guard with the rest.

"Why?"

Levi was silent.

"Why!" the Queen persisted.

"Are you asking for an explanation?" said Levi slowly.

"Yes," said the Queen.

"You offered me the life of a well-pampered slave, and said I had no right to expect any better," said Levi slowly. "But the way I see it, I did have the right to expect better. The life of a free man." He took a deep breath. Now he could speak freely. "You can kill me, Queen, but I have already killed your occupation."

"Do you think this pitiful blue light will bring us to our knees?"

"No," said Levi. "It was always my expectation that you would devise a countermeasure at some point. That's not what I'm referring to."

There was silence for a moment.

"Well?" demanded the Queen.

"You will see," said Levi.

"Let me brainscan it, Queen," said Tsarina. "Brainscan, and then the slowest, most agonizing torture I can devise."

"Yes," said the Queen. "Yes, send it-"

Suddenly they heard loud buzzings from the Queen's outer chamber.

"What is it?" said the Queen, pressing a comm to her outer office.

"There is an unauthorized being here who says it has information concerning the humans pending attack. But it has no valid identification. It claims to be a special undercover-"

"Send it in," the Queen snarled.

An Insect walked in the chamber.

"Who are you, and why have you failed to go through proper channels?" said the Queen, quite prepared to disembowel the trooper if its information wasn't as vital as it claimed it was.

"Bzzz. bzzz bzzz..." said the creature softly and indistinctly.

"What?" said the Queen. "Speak up!"

Instead, the trooper came closer, making the same, almost random, bzzzing sound.

"Can't you communicate properly?" glared the Queen, on the verge of ordering this trooper to be taken away for interrogation.

The trooper leapt forward, and aimed a blaster at the Queen's head. "You bet, Queen," came a muffled but very human voice from inside. "Now, no one moves or you'll be looking for a new Queen!"

The Insects all froze. The safety of their Queen was their prime directive.

While holding the blaster at the Queen's head with one hand, the other hand reached up and appeared to pull the creature's own head off. Revealing the very human features of Clifford Croft.

The Queen recognized him immediately. "You!" she cried.

"I'm glad we're on a first name basis," said Croft dryly. "Now, if you'll be so kind as to have your bugs release Levi, we can keep this amicable and be on our way."

"Fool," said the Queen. "Do you really think you can get out of here alive?"

"I've done it before," said Croft lightly. He looked around the room, and despite the tenseness of the situation, said, "You know, I really like what you've done with the place. Did you get a decorator who specializes in Early Arachnid, or did you just do it yourself?"

The Queen didn't respond, but tried to arch her head out of the way.

"Don't move!" Croft shouted.

"Do you know whom you're addressing!" said the Queen, barely containing her rage.

"The Queen," said Croft. "And if the Queen doesn't want a decorative hole burned through her ugly head, she'll order Levi released, NOW."

"Why certainly," said the Queen sarcastically. She turned to her troopers. "Guards-" And then she let forth a piercing scream, one that caused everyone, humans and Insect troopers alike, to grab their ears. Instinctively Croft dropped his gun so he could cover his ears, and before he could scoop it up again, another Insect grabbed it and pushed him against a wall.

"Now we will have two brainscans," said the Queen. "I'm sure there's a wealth of information you can tell us about your contacts and operations, as well as your plans for attack. We will use that information to destroy your pitiful resistance!"

Croft looked uncomfortable at the prospect but said nothing.

"But don't worry, I shall make sure you will live long enough to see it. I will give you to Tsarina's tender care. She will make sure you stay alive, more or less," said the Queen. "What's wrong, human? Are you expecting someone to come and save you?"

"He isn't, but you are going to (tweatle tweatle) release him anyway," came a new voice.

The Insects looked around. Where had that voice come from?

The door to the Queen's inner chamber opened. But there was no one there, aside from a solitary guard who was nowhere near the entryway. And then the entryway closed.

Suddenly the air in front of the door shimmered and who should appear but-

-the solid blue form of the Meddler Capybara. The lights from the Queen's podium twinkled off his black bow tie.

"You!" said the Queen. "A coward from a race of cowards! Your race does not interfere!"

"Obviously, you haven't been reading the news lately," said the Meddler Capybara. "Or were you unaware of our assistance to the human fleet in your region of space?"

"We learned of your subterfuge, regrettably after the bulk of our ships had arrived," said the Queen. "There was no human fleet there, and there never was. And that's the crux of the issue. You never get involved, not in a real, tangible sense. That's according to your own rules, is it not?"

"It is," said the Meddler.

"What will your people do to you when they learn that you have interfered here? What incarceration or punishment will they inflict?" said the Queen. "You see, I do know something about your race."

"Not enough, apparently," said the Meddler. "I will not allow you to brainscan these two. I will not allow you to hold them captive."

"You.... will not allow me!" the Queen was incredulous.

"I'm giving you one last chance to release them. Cut your losses, and live a little longer," advised the Meddler.

"Or what?" said the Queen.

"You claim to know my people," said the Meddler, changing the subject. "If so, have you ever seen or heard of a blue version of one of us before?"

"No," said the Queen.

"Do you have any idea why I'm blue?" said the Meddler.

"No," said the Queen. "I presume it's the result of a local mutation."

"I turned myself blue in protest against my people's policies," said the Meddler. He spoke in a soft voice. "You speak of my people and their rules, as though you know them. But what you don't realize is that I'm a renegade; I don't feel at all bound by them."

The significance of what the Meddler was saying quickly sunk in. The Queen suddenly realized that she was standing next to an extremely powerful being who was not held in shackles by self-imposed rules, a being who could kill her in the blink of an eye with no remorse. The Queen gasped and involuntarily recoiled. She started to bark a command when-