Ascending - James Alan Gardner [153]
I too may have uttered the occasional grunt. A creature of Esticus’s size may not be as heavy as a human, but it took great strength to hold him hanging in that position. There was no chance of keeping him suspended for more than a minute…but with luck, that was all the time I needed.
“Let Festina go!” I shouted into his face. “Whatever you are doing, stop at once.”
Esticus did not answer. Neither did Immu. As for Festina, she was clutching her throat and making horrible wheezing sounds. It had to be the work of the missing translation clouds…for Immu’s cloud had disappeared too. I could imagine billions of translation nanites crowding inside my friend, sealing off her windpipe, clotting up her lungs. She was still on her feet, having staggered back to get away from Immu’s tail; but her face was turning dark with blood, and her eyes were bulging. With the hand that was not at her throat, she raised her stun-pistol and fired at Immu.
Immu gave a raspy laugh. “I told you. Those guns don’t work on us.”
“Let Festina go!” I yelled at the two Shaddill. “Perhaps the gun cannot hurt you, but I surely can.” I gave Esticus a shake and he gasped out a hiss.
“You’re the one who should let go,” Immu said, speaking in my own language. Without the translation cloud, her voice was nothing more than a whisper. “We have enough nanites to choke you too.”
“Do not try,” I said. “If I feel the smallest tickle in my throat, Esticus will regret it.”
At that, Esticus wriggled and squirmed, trying to slip from my grip. He could not. The foolish Shaddill had made me stronger than they were themselves.
Immu got to her feet, her tail lashing angrily around her haunches. I turned quickly, placing Esticus between me and his wife as a protective shield.
“Lajoolie!” I shouted. “Sergeant Aarhus! Nimbus and Uclod! Could you please lend me assistance?”
“Save your breath,” Immu said in her whispery voice. “Did you think we’d be stupid enough not to deal with them?”
She clapped her hands: a sharp smack with an after-clatter of claws clicking against each other. It was obviously a signal of some kind; I looked around quickly, wondering if I would be attacked by robots or nanites. But the attack was not aimed at me…and by all evidence, the attack had taken place some minutes earlier, so quietly I had not noticed it.
Four stringy blobs rolled in through the door. They looked like human-sized versions of baby Starbiter—gray threads sunk into damp goop that glistened wetly in the dim light. In this case, however, the goop was not white but murkily clear…making it possible to see dark silhouettes embedded in the heart of the blobs. I had no trouble identifying the silhouettes by their shape and size. Lajoolie. Sergeant Aarhus. Uclod. The last blob had no figure visible inside, but I did not doubt it contained Nimbus and his child.
Somehow my friends had been taken by surprise. They had been encased in guck, caught like mosquitoes landing on pine gum. If they were trying to struggle free, I could not see any evidence of it—they seemed frozen in place, helplessly stuck as the blobs rolled across the floor and stopped in a ragged line behind Immu’s back.
“You see?” Immu said. “You’re all alone.” She glanced toward Festina. My friend had toppled onto her knees and was doubled over now, her head almost touching the floor. Her whole face was approaching the port-wine color of the birthmark on her cheek.
“I won’t let your precious friend die,” Immu told me in a raspy smirk. “I’d never do anything so non-sentient. But I’ll let her pass out before I call off the nanites in her throat. And,” Immu continued, raising the sharp end of her tail above Festina’s head, “once she’s unconscious, I won’t have trouble cutting off her ears…lopping a few fingers…scooping out an eye…unless you put Esticus down. As long as I don’t actually kill this human, the League of Peoples won’t stop me.”
“Then the League will not stop me,” I said, “from ripping off parts of Esticus…which I shall certainly do if you hurt Festina.” I gave the Shaddill in my arms another fierce shake.