Virginia was now sobbing, her face pressed into Chip’s shoulder. “There, Ginny. Don’t talk to it any more,” he said gently. Chip thumped on the wall with his fist. “You in there! I don’t understand what you’re saying, but I’ll come in and beat your fucking brains out if you don’t shut up and leave her alone.”
He started guiding her away. “Come on, Ginny. Let’s go somewhere else.”
The creature on the other side of the wall didn’t understand his words, despite Chip’s faithful obedience to the First Law of Translation. Shout. It kept babbling something.
Ginny sniffed determinedly. “No, Chip. I’ve got tell it how wrong it is about the Korozhet.” She turned and faced the wall again. “You. Jampad. There are a few things you should know. Firstly, we’re not prisoners like you. We are trapped in this brood-chamber, but we’re not walled up and we got here by fighting our way in. We killed many Magh’. And we did that with a brave Korozhet at our side. He was also a prisoner.” And she briefly told it the story of how they had got there.
There was a long silence. Then it asked. “Where is this Korozhet now?”
“It got separated from us. At the last. Just before we were trapped in here,” she said.
“Ah. So. How many did it kill with its killing spines and its gas spines?” asked the alien.
She was spared having to answer that one, by the sound of falling masonry.
The alien continued. “It sounds as if the Magh’ have broken in. Well. Should you not be able to escape immediately, I suggest the gesture of submission. At home there are stories of several prisoners who managed to escape. Magh’ are stupid. Live to fight another day.”
“How do we do that?” she asked, curious despite her anger.
The alien jangled. “Do you have anterior limbs? If so lie, down on your backs. Do you have backs?”
“Yes.”
“Then lie down on them and cross your anterior limbs above your head. Magh’ are creatures of instinct. The lower castes are not really intelligent at all. The different nests communicate with gestures. Our xenobiologists think that is the gesture whereby one nest would accede to another in a territorial struggle. But beware of the Korozhet!”
Chip shook Virginia gently. “Ginny, the Maggots have busted in somewhere else. No explosions.” He hugged her fiercely. “Sorry, kid. We’re gonna die. Can we spare the talking and have a last kiss?”
She hugged him fiercely. “No, Chip, we must lie down.”
Despite the situation, he grinned. “Haven’t we left it a bit late for that now?”
She blushed. “Unfortunately. But no, that’s not what I mean. The alien says if we lie down on our backs and cross our arms above our heads, that’s the gesture of surrender.”
Chip snorted. “Ha. I’ll be dipped in shit first! I’ll go out fighting.”
She held him. “Please. The alien is right. We’ll just get killed. If we pretend to surrender . . . we just might escape. It says its kind have, in the past. Please. For me.”
“It’s not honorable,” he said stubbornly.
“Stop being so Batty!” She caressed his chest. “Think what . . . Doc would say.”
He sighed. “All right, Ginny. We’ll try it your way.” He pulled the four-pound hammer from his belt. Pushed it into the ventilation hole which led into the alien’s cell. “They’ll probably search us, and take everything away from us. Tell him to break out if he can.”
“My mate,” she said in Korozhet, and she said it with pride, if not perfect truth, “gives you this tool to break out with.”
The alien jangled. She figured the noise must be the equivalent of a sigh. “Thank you. Good luck, alien,” it replied.
She smiled at Chip. “It said ‘good luck.’ Lie down next to me, please. I can hear them coming.”
“I should get invitations like that every day from beautiful girls.” He lay down next to her, and then burrowed a hand into his pocket. He produced Melene’s chocolate. “Can I offer you some candy? I’m afraid that’s probably as near as we’ll get to the rest of it,” he said tenderly.