“And then?” Khoth asked.
“And then we take this,” Jace held up the chip that was to destroy the human pods, “and we sneak it to the core of the Hive. It can be programmed to destroy the Hive itself. Then we sneak back to this ship, and in the commotion and hubbub, we get the hell out of dodge! Gehenna will stay here and make sure our getaway is clear!”
Khoth regarded him. “This is a very risky play. I calculate our odds of success are--”
“I don’t care what they are!” Jace held up a hand. “Because… it seems to me, we have two choices. We attempt this and get away or… you cut off my head like you’ve been thinking this past five minutes.”
Khoth blinked. “You knew--”
“Of course,” Jace said with a small smile. “You wouldn’t want me to suffer and you definitely can’t let what I know get into the hands of the Khul.”
Khoth blinked again. “You showed no awareness--”
“Because if this doesn’t work… Khoth, I want you to kill me,” Jace said with seriousness. Then with a flash of a grin. “But not just yet.”
Next Step
You were very calm when I told you that Khoth was considering killing you, Jace, Gehenna said.
You also said that you would paralyze him through the suit’s electronics before he could even close his hand on his rahir, Jace reminded her with a faint smile. And tell me that you aren’t sharing this conversation with him? There was a pause. Gehenna?!
I’m not! Gehenna cried then added, I was just double checking. People can be wrong, you know? Despite the best of intentions! They can make mistakes even if they’re trying very hard!
He snorted. Gehenna’s “mistakes” were becoming legendary. But he quickly bit his inner cheek to stop any more sounds from emerging from his lips. They were being taken into the Hive now. They’d found this hiding place just moments ago with only minutes to spare.
This plan is going to work, right? Jace suddenly asked her. Talking about mistakes and best of intentions had him wondering about his own thinking. I don’t really want Khoth to go through with the head chopping thing.
That still felt a little unreal to him. Maybe that was why he wasn’t as freaked out by it, that Khoth had seriously been considering beheading him. The fact that his suit would have blocked at least the first blow gave him some comfort. Or Khoth could have tried to get him to take the helmet off. Not that this would have happened! He didn’t even want to breathe the air in here. It could be--infected--unbreathable.
I think your plan is sound, Jace, Gehenna said chirpily. With my cloaking, you’ll remain invisible to any scanners! Then I’ll get inside of their systems so I’ll be able to track Khul movement and relay to you the best way to get to the core.
Too bad you can’t just inject a virus in from here, he said.
Yes, that would be very handy, but--like the Osiris, in a way--accessing the core of a Hive remotely would cause so many alarms that we’d be discovered in moments and the Khul would just take it offline.
Jace stopped himself from nodding. So physically inserting the virus is the only way.
It hadn’t been a question, but a statement, yet Gehenna stated anyways, Yes, it is the only way that could possibly work.
How long do we have before the virus affects the Hive? He asked.
Ten minutes--
Damn! Only ten minutes? Can we--what am I saying, if we could extend the time, you’d say so.
He closed his eyes tightly to sort of get his mind around ten minutes the difference between life and death.
But I’ve estimated the time to get back to this ship--even assuming multiple battles along the way--you’ll be back in eight and half minutes! She informed him helpfully.
Eight and a half minutes? Plenty of time, he replied dryly with a soft laugh.
Indeed. There was a pause. Running. You’ll have to be running full out to get back.
Yeah, Gehenna, I assumed that, he told her.
The ship shuddered as it came to a stop inside of the Hive. On his helmet’s screen it showed him the seed-shaped hangar bay. As soon as the outer doors shut again two Omull scuttled into the hangar bay. Their seven-foot tall bodies, sheathed in that shiny black carapace, had Jace’s stomach churning more than it had so when he’d seen them in Sunrise.
The larvae wriggling under the young woman’s skin had him seeing the Khul totally differently now. He’d been scared of them before, but now he was scared but also angry on a deep level. What they did was obscene. It wasn’t just killing people, it was how they did it and it was the pain their victims went through. To keep their victims conscious throughout this process was malevolent in Jace’s mind.
