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  “All right,” Nicole said. “Here’s how it’s going to work. The dispenser is about to allow five measures. Each of you will get two and a half. That should be enough—”

  “Two and a half will barely feed a tenth of my children,” the Maven protested.

  “That should be enough,” Nicole said, ignoring the interruption, “to hold you while we figure out how to tap into the system and bypass the machine completely. If I’m right about how it works, all of you will have all the food you need soon, and without having to fight for it.”

  “Do you think we fight merely for food?” Sofkat demanded, pointing toward the Thii side with his sword. “They have injured many of our people. That balance has yet to be redressed.”

  “The balance is indeed skewed,” Vjoran said darkly. “But the scale of injuries rests to their favor, not ours.”

  “All right, let’s try it this way,” Nicole said. “You do as I say, each of you taking half of the next delivery and then helping me solve the problem; or I have Kointos here weld the lever to the box so that it doesn’t give you any more food again. Ever.”

  For a moment no one spoke, and Nicole held her breath. Bluffs were always dangerous, and she’d suffered more than her fair share of grief back home when one of them got called. She could only hope both groups of aliens were tired enough and hungry enough to go along.

  To her relief, they were.

  “The Ponngs agree,” Moile called down.

  “As do the Thii,” the Maven said. “Who will operate the lever?”

  Nicole looked at Kointos. “You, or me?”

  “I’ll do it,” Kointos said. He pulled out a marking pen and pointed to Sofkat. “You—come show me on your bag where a full five measures comes.” He shifted his eyes to Vjoran. “You’ll do the same on yours. If one of you tries to cheat, his side will get a little less.”

  One at a time, the two aliens stepped up and marked their individual collection bags. As far as Nicole could see, the levels were identical. “Good,” Kointos said. “You can both step back now. Sibyl, any idea when this one-armed bandit is due to pay off?”

  Nicole frowned. “This what?”

  “One-armed bandit,” Kointos repeated. “Old slang for a slot machine. You never heard that before?”

  “I don’t think so,” she said. “Sofkat, is there any signal?”

  “A light appears above the lever,” Sofkat said. His eyes were on his Thii counterpart, and the gaze didn’t look friendly. “It will be very soon.”

  “Great.” Kointos beckoned Nicole closer. “So what’s the plan?” he asked quietly.

  “These arenas were set up to be zoo-type places for animals to live,” Nicole told him. “I figure—”

  “Hold on,” he interrupted. “Did you say a zoo?”

  “That’s what I was told,” Nicole said. “I was thinking that maybe the way they set this place up to feed the animals would be to do it like you would a fish tank, dropping the food on top of the ground. Only instead of dropping it from the ceiling, I thought maybe they fire it up from the ground.”

  “Like a sprinkler system,” Kointos said thoughtfully. “Only with food instead of water. That makes sense too—I’m thinking now that most of the mechanism in there is a kind of step-down depressurization setup, like the stuff is coming in under pressure. But why would they put it in the middle of a pit?”

  “I don’t think they did,” Nicole said. “I think the Shipmasters tapped into the original system and ran extra tubes down here so that the aliens they bring in have a good place to fight over it.”

  Kointos shook his head. “I hope you realize this makes zero sense,” he warned. “If I wasn’t sitting here looking at it, I’d figure you were lying through your—oops. Showtime.”

  Nicole nodded as she saw that the light had gone on. “Make it as even as you can.”

  “No kidding,” Kointos said dryly. “Here we go…”

  The lever, it turned out, wasn’t just an on-off thing, where any movement translated into a rush of food. A small movement caused a trickle of the multicolored pellets into the bag, while a larger movement made the flow increase.

  Which made sense, Nicole decided, at least from the Shipmasters’ point of view. They didn’t want a given fight to be over too quickly, with the first side to reach the lever winning it all. They wanted the battle to continue as long as possible, going back and forth, each side having the chance to turn it around or gain some of their own food until that session’s five measures total had been doled out.

  And for that whole time, both sides would be doing their damnedest to injure or incapacitate the other side’s fighter. No wonder both of them figured there were still scores to settle.

  Kointos took it slow and careful, and in the end had the food divided up about as evenly as humanly possible.

  “Now what?” the Maven called down as Sofkat and Vjoran headed up the slope with their half-filled bags.

  “Now we find out where the Masters tapped into the underground food system,” Nicole said. “Moile, you seem to have exceptional eyes, so we’ll start on your side.”

  “And then?” the Maven asked.

  “Take it easy,” Kointos said. “Have a snack or something. We’ll be over there as soon as we can.”

  A minute later, Nicole, Kointos, and Wesowee were on the Ponng side. “All right,” Nicole said. “The original food delivery system would have been buried when the grass was put in. Sometime since then, the Masters dug down to one of the pipes, plugged in a new tube, and laid it underground to the middle of the channel. Your job is to find where the dirt has been disturbed.”

  “How long ago would that have been?” Kointos asked.

  “I don’t know,” Nicole admitted. “I have no idea how long since the Masters redid the place.”

  “You can’t ask the ship?”

  “Not from here,” Nicole told him. “There’s some problem with communication from this side of the centerline.”

  “It’s of no matter,” Moile said confidently. “If part of the ground has been disturbed, no matter how long ago, we’ll find it.” He gestured. “You heard the Sibyl’s orders. Go.”

  * * *

  Nicole had hoped the Ponngs would be able to find the spot within the two-hour gap between food deliveries. In fact, it took them considerably less time than that. Less than half an hour after the searchers first fanned out, Moile announced that Teika had found it.

  “Here,” Teika said, pointing to the ground with his sword. “The dirt was disturbed at this point, with more digging in this direction.” The sword tip traced along a path toward the channel.

  Directly toward the food distribution box, in fact. “Are you sure?” Nicole asked. To her, all the dirt looked exactly the same.

  “The soil in the underlayers has been untouched by the light for many years,” Moile said. “Some of that soil was brought to the top, and there are materials in the mixture that reflect the light differently.”

  “Good enough,” Nicole said. She still didn’t understand this, exactly, but she was willing to run with it. “Start digging—here—right at this end of the trail. Teika, I need you to come with me.”

  “Where?” the young Ponng asked.

  “We’re going to the Thii side and find their junction for them,” Nicole said. Turning, she headed toward the channel.

  She got five steps before belatedly realizing that Teika hadn’t moved. “Did you hear me?” she demanded, turning back.

  “They are our enemies,” Moile said stiffly. “They have injured many of us.”

  Nicole glanced at Kointos. “So?”

  “So you may help them,” Moile said. “But we shall not.”

  “Really,” Nicole said, feeling a layer of disbelief rolling over her rising anger. Was Moile really going to play that game? “Okay, let’s put it this way. You promised to become my slaves if I got you food. I’m getting you food. Now, you’re my slaves.”

  The green moss on the top of Te
ika’s head darkened visibly. “You said you didn’t want slaves.”

  “I’ve changed my mind.” Nicole leveled a finger at Teika. “So move it. Now.”

  She turned back around and started walking, not bothering to look and see if Teika was following. She’d reached the channel, gone down and then back up again on to the Thii side before she confirmed that he had.

  Good. “Don’t just stand there,” she told him. “Find where the Masters buried the tube on this side. Maven?”

  “I’m here,” the Maven replied, stepping out from behind a clump of grass. She was flanked by two other Thii, both of whom held swords ready.

  “This is Teika,” Nicole said. “The food tube is underground, and he’s going to find it for you. Teika, this is the Maven.”

  “And then?” the Maven asked.

  “Then you’ll dig it up, and you should have all the food you need,” Nicole said. “Okay, Teika. Do your stuff.”

  This time, having seen where the Shipmasters had laid the pipe on the Ponngs’ side, it took Teika less than five minutes to find the matching spot. “It’s there,” he said, pointing at the ground.

  “Great,” Nicole said. She gestured to the Maven. “Have your people start digging.”

  “What if he lies?” the Maven asked, her gaze steady on Teika.

  “If he’s mistaken,” Nicole said, leaning a little on the word, “then he’ll try again. Come on, come on—even with those swords this is going to take a while.”

  The Maven made an extra scratchy sound. “Swords? You surely joke.” She gestured to one of the Thii at her side. “Dig.”

  And to Nicole’s astonishment, he did.

  Not with a sword, or with an arrow, or anything else. Instead, he dropped to the ground, balancing himself horizontally on his lower two hands like he was starting some break-dance move. Then, hooking his top two hands into claws, he started digging like a dog looking for a bone, throwing the dirt behind him in a steady stream. As the pile of dirt grew between his balancing hands, his legs bent at the knees and his feet scooped it farther away behind him.

  For a moment Nicole just stared, not sure whether it looked more bizarre than graceful or the other way around. She looked sideways at Teika, saw what she was sure was an equally stunned look on his face.

  Two minutes and ten vertical inches of dirt later, the Thii found the tube.

  “That’s it,” Nicole said, feeling a sense of relief wash over her. She’d been pretty sure she was right, but there was a little uncertainty in everything. And she’d seen young men get shot when a deal like this went sour. “Let me go get a screwdriver or something from Kointos and we’ll get it open.”

  “No need,” the Maven said. “We can dig through that material.”

  “Okay,” Nicole said cautiously. “The food inside is probably under a lot of pressure, though, so dig carefully.”

  “We will. Thank you.” The Maven hesitated, then made a small gesture toward Teika. “Thank you, as well.”

  “You want to show your thanks?” Nicole asked as a sudden thought struck her. “I mean really show it, and not just talk it?”

  All four of the Maven’s hands twitched. “Explain.”

  “He showed you where to dig,” Nicole said. “It would have taken forever without his help. On the other hand, you dig much faster than the Ponngs. How about giving them a hand digging up their pipe?”

  “They are our enemies,” the Thii standing at her side insisted. “They have hurt many—”

  “And you’ve hurt a lot of them, too,” Nicole cut him off. “You were hungry. They were hungry. Hungry people do what they have to. So how about returning the favor they’ve just shown you?”

  “No,” the Maven said flatly.

  Nicole drew herself up to her full height—

  “It’s all right,” Teika murmured. “We can manage without them.” He made an untranslatable noise. “Not all are people of honor.”

  “I guess not,” Nicole growled. But really, she should have known it would go this way. The gangs back in her neighborhood would rather have shot themselves than work together, too.

  She’d hoped that people out here in the stars would be a little more classy. Apparently they weren’t.

  The Ponngs had made it about three inches down when she and Teika returned. “Don’t worry, it’s there,” Nicole assured them. “Another six or seven inches, and then you get to figure out how to get into it without the food blowing out like an open hydrant.”

  “I’ve got some ideas on that,” Kointos said, eyeing her curiously. “The other team already got to their pipe?”

  “Yes,” Nicole said shortly. “And I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Yeah, these guys are pips, aren’t they?” he said sourly. “The whole bunch of them. I heard some of the ones on this side talking about going across the pit and starting a full-fledged war once everyone was up to strength again.”

  Nicole hissed out an exasperated sigh. She’d seen that brand of macho stupidity way too many times, too. “Some of the Thii would be happy to oblige them,” she said. “Maybe we should go ahead and flood the channel. See how well they all swim with swords and bows in their hands.”

  “And then try to climb up out while someone on the other side stands there waiting to perforate them,” Kointos said. “There was a reason people liked to build castles on lakes and rivers.”

  “I thought it was for the water,” Nicole said. “Well, that’s their problem. I just wanted them not to starve—if they still want to kill each other there’s nothing we can do about it.”

  “Unless you want to rattle their skulls a little,” Kointos offered. “I’d take a number six wrench against one of those swords any day.”

  “Not worth it,” Nicole said, trying to sound casual. The last thing she wanted was for the Shipmasters to see Kointos and his buddies wading into battle with swinging wrenches. “Thanks for your help. As soon as you get the Ponngs into their food pipe, you and Wesowee had better get out of here. When the Shipmasters spot what we’ve done, they’re going to drop a bucket of grief on everyone—”

  “Sibyl!” a voice called distantly from somewhere across the arena. “Sibyl! I would speak with you.”

  It was the voice of Fievj. The Shipmaster who she’d tangled with before.

  The Shipmaster who wanted to sell Earth into slavery.

  five

  “Who the hell is that?” Kointos muttered, frowning.

  Nicole swallowed hard. “It’s the guy with the bucket,” she said. “Never mind the pipe—they can get into it themselves. You two get out of here.”

  “What about you?”

  “Sibyl!” Fievj called again.

  “I guess I’d better go find out how big a bucket he’s got this time,” Nicole said with another sigh.

  “You want Wesowee or me to go with you?”

  “Better not,” Nicole said. “I talked my way out of one of these before. I think I can do it again.” She gestured. “You two had better get back to work before you get in trouble.”

  “You mean more trouble than we’re already in?” Kointos asked pointedly.

  Nicole wrinkled her nose. “Yeah,” she conceded. “Sorry.”

  “No problem,” Kointos said with a shrug. “Anyway, I don’t mind a little trouble now and then. Beats the hell out of monotony.”

  “Sometimes,” Nicole said. “Anyway, thanks.”

  She walked to the edge of the channel and looked around. No one was in sight. “I’m here,” she called. “Where are you?”

  “In the gorge,” the answer came. “Meet me at the testing machine.”

  Nicole scowled. The testing machine. No doubt the Shipmasters’ name for their fancy fight-or-starve food dispenser. “I’ll be there,” she called.

  She worked her way down the slope and walked over to the dispenser. A moment later, from around one of the bends in the channel, the gleaming shape of the familiar armored centaur appeared.

  Nicole watche
d as Fievj strode toward her, feeling her pulse pounding in her neck. That wasn’t really some mythological creature inside that armor, she knew—only the front part was real, while the long horse body extending behind him was the Shipmaster version of a car trunk. The back legs were just there to hold up that end of the body, and though they mimicked the occupant’s actual legs pretty well, now that Nicole knew what to look at she could spot the slight delay in their movements.

  The armor and the sheer horse-like appearance would be frightening enough. But added to that was the fact that Nicole also knew what was kept in the horse-body storage.

  Weapons.

  Not the ridiculous toys they’d given the Thii and Ponngs. Not even the far nastier pikes and arrows they’d given the Micawnwi and Cluufes back in the Q4 arena. Nicole had gotten herself caught in the middle of that battle, and seen a lot of death and bleeding.

  But the Shipmasters themselves didn’t bother with such old-fashioned things. They didn’t need to. They had something Nicole had dubbed greenfire weapons: four-foot-long black tubes that threw deadly green bolts like a science fiction movie’s laser blasts. Nicole had seen them in action, and had no interest in ever seeing one used again. Especially not in her direction.

  And that was just the weapon she knew about. There was no telling what else they might have tucked away in their part of the ship.

  Especially since the Fyrantha had originally been a warship. In every war movie Nicole had ever seen, people on warships always had weapons.

  At least Fievj didn’t already have a greenfire tube in his hands. That was something. Maybe he really was here just to talk.

  Of course, it wouldn’t take long for him to pop open the back of the horse and grab one out. Nicole would have to watch carefully for any sign that he was getting ready to do that. If he did, she would—

  She winced. What she would do, really, was die.

  Because there was no way she could make it up the slope in time. Aside from the dispenser itself, there wasn’t any cover at all down here, and the greenfire weapon could probably shoot through the box anyway. Her only hope was to get out of the channel and into the arena’s main ground, and she already knew she would never make it.