“I understood two words. Korozhet and Magh’,” said Chip. “What is it saying?”
“Um. It asked whether we were Magh’,” Ginny translated.
“I’d like to know what the hell it is, even if it has the shittiest sense of timing in the entire universe.” Chip’s tone of voice was pure irritation.
* * *
She looked into his eyes, her mouth easing into that tiny almost anxious smile, revealing those slightly skew teeth. Hell, to make her smile he’d forgive anything. Chip sighed. “I suppose it is a Crotchet. Ask if it can get you out of here.”
“Not without you.” Her long fingers crumpled his shirt. She spouted a string of alien. It talked back.
“It says it is a prisoner too. Live larvae food like us. Its ship was tracking the Magh’ slowship routes to offer alliance to whoever the Magh’ were attacking this time.”
* * *
Ginny was glad to have the language mystery cleared up. “So that is why you speak Korozhet. They are our allies. They also came to give us warning. We owe them our lives.”
There a long silence. Then whatever was on the other side of the wall replied. “Yes. The Korozhet warned us too. They had some very useful war materials for sale. Very convenient. Very expensive.”
“What’s it say?” demanded Chip. She translated.
“I’ll say!” Chip sounded as if he might almost forgive the alien for being there. Almost. “Ask it whether they got slowshields from them. I’m really suspicious about those, after Doc’s comments. I’ll bet they sold them soft-cyber stuff and not an FTL drive.”
Ginny shook her head violently “I’m sure you’re wrong! You just don’t like the Korozhet! But I’ll ask. I’m certain you’re wrong!”
She asked.
The alien made a noise like steel pan being caressed with a castanet. “Apologies. That is just ticklish . . . I mean . . . funny. Yes, they sold us kinetic movement shields and tried to sell us ‘enhancement’ cybernetics. Of course we would not buy such a crazy thing. No sentient is going to put alien-built logic-circuits in its head. And no, of course they didn’t sell us an FTL drive!”
“So. What did he say?” demanded Chip.
Somewhat reluctantly, she told him.
“You can say that again. Well, at least we’re not crazy enough to put soft-cybers into human heads. Ask it whether they managed to beat the Maggots.”
Miserably, Ginny asked.
“Once we discovered that the Korozhet were passing all our military information to the Magh’, it wasn’t that hard,” replied the alien voice.
“That’s a lie!” shouted Ginny furiously, as soon as she finished translating. “The Korozhet saved our colony! The Magh’ would have taken us by surprise and wiped us all out.”
The creature on the other side of the wall sounded heated too. “The Korozhet farm wars. The Magh’ are their animals.”
“You LIE! You LIE!!!”
“We Jampad do not lie.”
She turned instinctively to Chip. He held her gently and stroked her head. “What’s wrong, Ginny?”
“It says . . . It says.” She found the words impossible to get out. “It says it is a Jampad. They killed my parents.” She turned on the wall and pounded it with her fists. “You murdered my parents you . . . monster. I hate you. Come out here and I’ll kill you.”
The creature on the other side of the wall appeared equally upset, if volume was any way to judge Jampad emotion.
“My ship—and my people only had the one FTL ship built—was destroyed! I saw how the Korozhet destroyed helpless lifepod after lifepod. My clan-kin are dead. My pod was damaged by their fire as I entered the atmosphere. I had no directional controls. I made a forced landing on the top of the Magh’ force field. Then, when it opened, I fell through. I made the gesture of submission to the Magh’. I was brought here, for larvae food. I would hope that what you say is true. I would be delighted if my clan-kin had killed your silly kind. It would mean someone else survived. But they are all dead. Do you hear me. Dead. Who told you that the Jampad had killed your kin? Who? The stinking Korozhet told you. They lie. About everything!”