“Ummm,” she said.
“Would you like some water?” Patrick asked.
“Yes, please,” she whispered. Her voice sounded strange.
Nicole tried to sit up and drink the water. She could not make it.
‘Take it easy,” Patrick said. “There’s no hurry.”
Her mind began to work. / must tell them that Richard and Archie are dead. The helicopters are coming. We must be very careful and protect the children. “Richard,” she managed to say.
“We know, Mother,” Patrick replied.
How do they know? Nicole thought. I’m the only one left here who can read colors.
“The octospiders went to a lot of trouble to write everything down. It wasn’t perfect English, but we certainly understood what they were telling us. They told us about the war too.”
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Good, Nicole thought. They know, I can sleep. From somewhere in her head there was still an echo. Richard is dead.
“From time to time I can hear die bombs, but as far as I can tell none of them yet has hit the dome.” It was Max’s voice. “Maybe they haven’t figured out where the city is.”
“It would be completely dark from die outside,” Patrick said. “They have thickened the canopy and there are no lights on the streets.”
‘The bombs must be hitting the Alternate Domain. There would be no way the octos could hide its existence,” Max said.
“What are the octospiders doing?” Patrick asked. “Do we even know if they’re counterattacking?”
“Not for certain,” Max replied, “but I can’t believe they’re still sitting around doing nothing.”
Nicole heard soft footsteps in the hallway. “The boys are really developing a bad case of cabin fever,” Nai said. “Do you think it would be all right if I let them play outside? The all-clear flares were half an hour ago.”
“I don’t see why not,” Patrick said. “But tell them to come in if they see a flare or hear any bombs.”
“I’ll be out there with them,” Nai said.
“What’s my wife doing?” Max asked.
“Reading with Benjy,” Nai replied. “Marius is asleep.”
“Why don’t you ask her to come over for a few minutes?”
Nicole rolled over on her other side. She thought about trying to sit up, but she felt so tired. She began daydreaming, remembering her childhood. What does it take to be a princess? little Nicole asked her father. Either a king for a father, or a prince for a husband, he answered. He smiled and kissed her. Then I’m already a princess, she told him. For you ‘re a king to me. …
“How is Nicole?” Eponine asked.
“She stirred again this morning,” Patrick replied. “Dr. Blue’s note said that she may be able to sit up tonight or tomorrow. It also said they have verified that the attack was
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not severe, that the heart was not permanently damaged, and that she is responding well to the treatment.”
“Can I see her now?” Benjy asked.
“No, Benjy, not yet,” said Eponine, “she’s still resting.”
‘The octospiders have really been great, haven’t they?” Patrick said. “Even in the middle of this war, they have taken time to write us such complete messages.”
“They’ve even made a believer out of me,” Max said. “And I never thought that was possible.”
So I had a heart attack, Nicole thought. / didn ‘t just collapse because Richard . . . she could not complete the sentence at first. Because he is gone.
She drifted in the twilight zone between waking and sleeping until she heard a familiar voice calling her name. Is that you, Richard? Nicole said excitedly. Yes, Nicole, he answered. Where are you? I want to see you, she said, and his face appeared in a cloud in the middle of her dream screen. You look great, she said, are you all right? Yes, Richard answered, but I must talk to you.
What is it, darling? Nicole asked. You must go on without me, he said. You must set an example for the others. His face began to alter as the shapes of the clouds changed. Of course, Nicole said, but where are you going? She could not see him anymore. Good-bye, his voice said. Good-bye, Richard, Nicole answered.
When she woke up the next time, her mind was clear. Nicole sat up in bed and looked around her. It was dark, but she could tell she was in her own room in the house in the Emerald City.
Nicole could hear no sounds. She assumed it was night. She pushed off the covers and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. So far, so good, she thought. Nicole eased herself off the bed and stood up very slowly. Her legs were wobbly.
There was a glass of juice on the end table beside the bed. Nicole took two cautious steps, holding on to tlje bed with her right hand, and picked up the glass. The juice was delicious. Pleased with herself, Nicole started toward the
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closet to find some clothes. She became woozy after a few steps, however, and headed back toward the bed.
“Mother,” she heard Patrick say, “is that you?” She could see his silhouette in the doorway.
“Yes, Patrick,” she answered.
“Here,” he said, “why don’t we have some light?” He knocked on the wall and a firefly flew into the middle of the room. “Goodness,” he said, “what are you doing up?”
“I can’t stay in bed forever,” Nicole answered.
“But you should take it easy at first,” Patrick said, coming over beside her and helping her the rest of the way to bed.
She grabbed his arm. “Listen to me, son,” Nicole said. “I have no intention of being an invalid, nor do I want to be treated like one. I expect to be my old self in a few days, a week at the most.”
“Yes, Mother,” Patrick said with a concerned smile.
Dr. Blue was delighted with her recovery. After four more days Nicole walked, albeit slowly, and, with a little help from Benjy, all the way to the transport stop and back to the house.
“Don’t push yourself too hard,” Dr. Blue told Nicole during an evening examination. “You’re doing great, but I worry.”
When the octospider was finished and was preparing to leave the room. Max entered and announced that two more octospiders were waiting at the front door. Dr. Blue hurried out, returning a few minutes later with the Chief Optimizer and one of the members of her staff.
The Chief Optimizer first apologized, both for coming unexpectedly and for not waiting until Nicole had completely recovered. “However,” the octospider leader then said, “we are now in an emergency situation and we felt that we needed to communicate with you immediately.”
Nicole felt her pulse rate rise and tried to calm herself. “What has happened?” she said.
“You have probably noticed that there have been no bombings for the last several days,” the Chief Optimizer
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said. “The humans temporarily stopped the helicopter attacks while they were evaluating our ultimatum. Five days ago we took the same written message to each of three troop encampments. The message said that we could no longer tolerate the bombings and that we would use our superior technology to launch a decisive attack if the hostilities were not ceased immediately. As an illustration of our technological capabilities, we included in the message a nillet-by-nillet chronology of everything both Nakamura and Macmillan had done during two workdays last week.
“The human leaders were frantic. They suspected that we had somehow bribed some high official of the government and now knew all of their war plans as well. Macmillan recommended accepting our cease-fire and withdrawing from our territory. Nakamura was furious. He banished Macmillan from his presence and reorganized his command structure. Privately, he admitted to his security chief that any retreat would ruin his position in the colony.
“The day before yesterday someone suggested to Nakamura that perhaps your daughter Ellie might have some knowledge of how we had obtained our information. She was taken to the palace and interrogated by Nakamura himself. At first slightly cooperative, Ellie acknowledged that in certain fields we were more advanced than the humans. She also said that she believed it was entirely within our capabilities to obtain information about events in New Eden without using any spies or other conventional means of gathering intelligence.
“Because she was so forthright, Nakarnura became convinced that Ellie knew more than she was telling. He asked her questions for hours, about many subjects, including our military capabilities and the geography of our domain. Ellie astutely avoided giving away any critical information—she never mentioned the Emerald City, for example—and repeatedly answered that she had never seen any weapons or even any soldiers. Nakamura did not believe her. At length he had her thrown in prisgn and beaten. Since then Ellie has remained defiantly silent, despite additional rough treatment.”