Night shift again. Lev Ren always assigned Jani to night shifts. Just as well--she didn't want to see him either. The lost eggs hadn't been her fault, but things were awkward between them now.
A hum vibrated along her thorax; the environmental controls were off-pitch. Her antennae flickered. An oily scent tainted the air, another symptom that something was wrong. The air vents would have to be flushed and the flow recalibrated--there went most of the shift. At least it gave her something to do.
Half the clutch members on night shift spent their time playing "Rise of Kencha." The game looked interesting enough, for a kill-them-all computer training exercise. But these weren't hatchlings preparing for space. They had molted from their last instar many flights ago; they should know better.
She thought about the game again when she settled in for her mid-shift break. Very few others were in the room. Cheka rested next to her, tearing a tsill leaf into tiny pieces as though she were nesting again. Not likely. She would have been sent off station before now if that were true; she was too high caste to risk her young here in space.
"You're not playing the game?" Jani asked.
"Game?" Cheka looked up from her shredded meal and rotated her head to scan the room. "Is that where everyone is?"
"You hadn't noticed?"
Cheka raised her primary wings a span. "I've had other things on my mind. What's this game?"
"The usual." Jani nibbled on a leaf. "Solve puzzles, kill everything that moves, hoard food and eggs. It's popular on all the stations right now, I hear."
"Thrilling," Cheka said. "Who's leading this charming escape from reality?"
"I'm not sure. I didn't see anyone on day shift playing." Her underwings rustled. "No one would dare with Lev Ren around."
Cheka pushed a few pieces of leaf over to her friend. "That plate's still cracked?"
Jani took the leaves without comment. She should have been off station herself by now. Her brood would have been almost ready to hatch. Now it never would. Once Lev Ren rejected her, the other males had hovered elsewhere. Not that she was interested in the others. With no way to transfer, she was here until her case was used for fertilizer.
"Want to put a little casing down on the semifinals?" The creaky voice of Turl interrupted Jani's litany of self-pity.
She rotated her head. He smelled oily, his pheromones as dirty as his abdomen. "What semifinals?" No honorifics for this one. How one of so low a caste had managed to get a station post, she didn't know. Somehow, though, every station had such a one.
"Kencha, of course. I had the great honor of introducing it to the station. My cousin in Sector K sent it to me." His mandibles clicked, and she turned her head away in distaste. "No? I'll check back in three shifts."
"Ttkkk." Jani pushed her leaves away. "I've lost my appetite. I'm going to check on some repairs I did earlier. The subharmonics aren't right yet." Not that anyone else would feel the difference.
"You'll get in trouble one of these shifts, when the supervisors find you're going by feel rather than using the manuals for calibration specs." Cheka began shredding Jani's discarded pile of leaves.
Jani raised her wings briefly. "Not as long as my station-shift has the highest efficiency ratings for the section." She turned away from the table and the multiplying piles of leaves.
Perhaps she should seek other companionship for her meals. Cheka accepted her, but the other's brood behaviors grated along Jani's lower spiracles. Too many reminders.
#
Lev Ren got creative with Jani's assignments, and the game didn't cross her mind for her next few shifts. Although her rating didn't allow for her to work in plant culture or food support or recycling detail (a euphemism for waste disposal), she was assigned to each. Everywhere reeked of pheromones similar to Turl's, although she worked mostly alone on shift. She had now seen each phase of the crew's meals. Her appetite was nonexistent as she headed to the break room.
The sight of Turl hovering near Cheka made her pause. Jani had been avoiding her friend, but Turl's behavior was inappropriate on so many levels. Cheka's pile of tsill leaves sat untouched near her second arms. Jani's underwings rustled; something grated.
"Blue-green would be fine from you," Turl was saying as Jani walked up. His pheromones spread through the room, heavier than before. "I wouldn't ask for your best. Not for something so trivial."
"So trivial as what?" Jani asked, steeling herself before dropping her first arm on his wing casing. Her claw rested at the joint. Subharmonics vibrated through her arm, like those she'd found in life support.
He didn't move, even to rotate his head. "You have already expressed your disinterest in the outcome of Kencha."
"And when did Vr'Cheka express her interest?" She used the honorific deliberately. Her claw tightened fractionally.
"You have been busy. Much has changed." Turl flipped his wing casing, and her claw slid off, startling her.
Her antennae bent toward him. His wings, now hull-plated, stank of oil and metal. "What have you done to yourself?"
"I grow closer to Kencha, and not just me. But then, you'd know that if you weren't buried in waste. Too hard-plated to choose sides." He leaned his first and second arms on the table next to Cheka. "I believe we were about to conclude some business."
Cheka tapped a claw on the table. "Very well. I will back Lev Ren to destroy Kencha." Her antennae spread. "You must match me in kind."
His wings thrummed. "I look forward to collecting when he falls."
He flew away to hover at another table. Several of those at the table had also been modified, and Jani's antennae waved with unease. "Why did you do that?"
"I don't understand what's going on, but I know Lev Ren would not tolerate a game disrupting his station. If he's playing, something else is happening." Cheka picked up a couple of leaves and fanned them in the air. "And the clutch aren't doing their jobs--even the food tastes wrong."
"The food? But I readjusted--" Jani sank slowly to a perch. "That's why I had to readjust. Someone altered the sugar ratios to be like those pheromones." If she were still close to Lev Ren, she would have talked over the sugar ratios with him. Now she just put the discrepancies in a report and wondered if it would be read. She had been in the right place to make a change, but it was coincidence--Lev Ren had no reason for her assignment, only spite.
Her right antenna dipped toward the leaf pile and pulled back. Why hadn't medical noticed the problem with the food? "I'm sorry. It will take at least a full cycle before it's optimal again."
And in the meantime--clutch members would eat the food, be attracted to others with the pheromones, and be exposed even more to this game, to the already modified crew. She could only presume that the subharmonics of those altered drew them together somehow; why else alter the environmental controls?
"Lot of good that does me now. I need--" Cheka broke off.
Jani raised her second arm toward her friend's thorax. A faint humming prickled the hairs at her joints. The natural vibrations from Cheka must have been masked by the grating subharmonics coming from others in the break room. Jani faltered. "You--you're readying to brood? Here?"
Cheka lifted one wing. "Quietly, please." She rubbed her claws over the leaves in front of her. "Out of caste."
Jani's antennae waved as she pondered. She didn't know why she hadn't picked up on it sooner; she had been irritated by Cheka's very real symptoms.
"How long?"
"I don't know. Not a lot of information on half-caste breedings."
"Can you at least tell me what caste and how long it's been?" Jani tapped her thorax. "I'm an engineer, numbers are my thing."
"There . . . are not many of his caste on station. Telling you his caste would be barely a step from telling you his name; I cannot. It has been a full cycle. That is all I can say." Cheka rose from her perch.
The station chime sounded. Jani hesitated. Her footclaws scored the floor. "It's not Lev Ren, is it?"
Cheka tapped her claws against her mandibles, and Jani twitched at her friend's humor. "Now why would you worry about that?" she asked. "But no." Her left wing case lifted minutely in invitation. "Would you care to watch the Kencha finals with me? I have a lot riding on it now and would appreciate the company."
"How could you wager that in your state?" Jani tried hard to keep herself under control. No point in letting the rest of the room know about Cheka's condition.
"It takes my mind off other things--shipments that haven't come, communiqués that arrive at the wrong time, all the usual headaches. You wouldn't believe the amount of inter-station chatter about this game."
"I would; I heard the hum a while back." Jani dropped her voice. "But backing Lev Ren to win?"
Cheka dropped her first arm onto Jani's head. "Loyalty isn't a game. I believe in him--you gave me that."
Jani watched Cheka leave the room. How could Cheka think she still believed in Lev Ren? The subharmonics of a passing pair of sub-caste workers irritated her wings. Yes, better Lev Ren than them, but to harbor feelings for him, who still blamed her? He obviously didn't care any longer; she should not either.
During the second half of her shift, Jani noticed how many workers had been modified. No wonder there was so much mass to be recycled. Most alterations were subtle, but one young male--from the hue of his abdomen barely molted out of his last instar--had replaced his first claws with robotic pincers. Her spiracles vibrated so intensely around him she found herself short of breath, which might have been a mercy, given the intensity of his pheromones.
How could they move so far from their own kind for the sake of a game? They were like aliens on the station, taking over one worker at a time.
She couldn't concentrate with all the humming, and her antennae wanted to curl in on themselves from the stink. Some part of the station was being harvested to provide all this metal for body parts. There wasn't an endless supply on board. She had to find the source of these modifications, and her thoughts kept coming back to Lev Ren. He had scheduled her away from the engineering section, the place most likely used for these self-mutilations. She wondered what sort of abomination he had made of himself. Her claws spasmed.
Jani was not warrior caste--she could not go to them. Though not warrior born, Lev Ren had their loyalty. If she could not make him see reason, she would have to strike at him directly.
And thanks to this foolish game, she knew where to find him--or how to find out. She placed a private call to Cheka. "Where is the match supposed to take place?"
"Thinking of watching after all?" Her friend's voice had no inflection. She probably thought Jani eager to see him.
Jani was, but not for the reasons Cheka might think. Let her. It would make things easier. "I am . . . considering it. You could use some company."
"They'll display the game in the break room. Just about everyone who's off-shift will be there."
"And anyone who can sneak away on shift?"
"You said it."
"Where will the match actually be?"
"The main recreation chamber, but it will be off-limits for the duration of the match." Cheka's mandibles clicked. "I have to go. We can discuss this after work; the match should be just before tomorrow's shift."
Jani had time to plan. With most of the clutch present, the positive feedback loop of subharmonics and pheromones would be urging those as-yet unaffected to join in the barbarism. Maybe she could at least rig a damping field in the break room so she could sit through the game without the harmonics driving her crazy. Not that this would help her to see Lev Ren. Perhaps she could look for him after the match?
Jani was just closing the locker on the recycling implements at the end of her shift when the communicator screen lit up. "Your expertise is needed in environmental control." No greeting, but she expected none from Lev Ren.
"Ttkkk. I've been working all night--"
"I'm aware of your working schedule, Vr'Jani." Of course he was; he was the one who set it in the first place. "You may have a half shift to refresh yourself. See that you're not late." The picture vanished.
Whatever modification he may have made, none were visible. He looked good. This would be easier if he looked like a monster. She'd have to concentrate on how he'd treated her, the way he reminded her of her place on the station, that she was no longer Vr'K'Jani, mother to be. But the egg material had been expelled before she had been ready to brood. With it had gone her status. And her hopes.
She still wouldn't have access to the break room, but maybe she could do something with the environmental controls. The equipment had resonated wrong the last time she was in. Could she set the resonance so the vibrations cancelled the subharmonics of the modified crew? The air flow ducts would be perfect for propagating the vibrations throughout the ship and removing the contaminated pheromones.
But . . . if she interfered with Lev Ren while he played the game, Cheka would lose casing that she needed to protect her eggshells while they were forming. Jani had seen enough malformed eggs and didn't wish that on her friend. Jani hummed as she thought. If Lev Ren was himself, she could appeal to him.
Her humming stopped. If there was a way, she'd save her friend. And Lev Ren. Why was his approval still so important to her?
But the station came first.
Cheka met her in the corridor that led to their quarters. "You reconsidered just to keep me company? I'm flattered."
Jani's wings raised a span. "I might be too tired to come after all. Lev Ren--"
"The two of you?" Cheka asked. "Don't tire him out too much before the match."
Jani didn't respond to the teasing. "He assigned me a mid-shift today, in addition to the night shifts. I only have half a shift to eat and rest before reporting back for duty."
"What have you done now?"
"Nothing to deserve this."
Cheka ruffled her underwings thoughtfully. "Vindictiveness isn't Lev Ren's style."
"Tell me about his ultrablue qualities sometime when I haven't spent the night on recycling detail." This wasn't the time or place to discuss her failed relationship.
"Maybe he has a good reason."
"Reason enough, he thinks." Jani tapped her foot against the deck. "I'll try to be there. Save me a perch--I may fall asleep."
Cheka tapped her claws against her mandibles. "While watching Lev Ren? Truly you do expect to be tired." Without giving Jani a chance to respond, she flew down the corridor. She waved one claw lazily before rounding a curve in the hallway.
Jani turned toward her quarters. She'd need her rest. It wasn't every cycle she committed mutiny and sabotage.
#
Obnoxious pheromones filled environmental control. The subharmonics were still present, but not as bad as elsewhere. The adjustment she'd made must not have been detected. She amplified the air flow and was gratified to find that helped with the pheromones as well. She set the controls for the air flow to slowly increase throughout the shift and beyond, coming to a peak an eighth shift into the game. The change had to be subtle enough not to be noticed.
When she went off-shift, she took a portable unit with her to amplify the effect in her vicinity. She wanted to be able to breathe.
"What's that?" Cheka pointed at the unit.
"Air fresher. With this many bodies, we can use it."
"You need to get out more, Jani."
Turl arrived with a member of the station's medical staff. The med's casing had been replaced entirely with metal plating. Jani wondered how he could breathe.
"Yes, her casing will do nicely," the med said to Turl. "It's a pity you didn't wager for the light ultrablue, though."
"I had to give her a bet she'd agree to."
"It's not as though you'll be collecting it," Cheka said.
"Are you planning to go back on your word?" Turl's arms spread into an aggressive posture.
"She won't have to." Jani turned her back on him. "Shall we find a pair of perches away from the riffraff?" She nudged her friend away.
The game was exactly as she'd expected--an avatar of Lev Ren moved through the landscape of the game, defeating clusters of enemies, destroying burrows, attempting to find weaponry he could use. Most of the weapons he found seemed to require some form of body modification to use, making them useless to him. A couple of times, Jani was certain that a weapon he'd left behind showed up in the hands of the next cluster leader he faced.
Jani glanced around the room. She and Cheka were almost the only ones rooting for Lev Ren. Her antennae wavered. Wasn't that black-and-green female with the metal stripes on her tail the cluster leader Lev Ren had just defeated? And that one over there with the light diode implanted in his hand--Lev Ren had circled around him, avoiding an immediate encounter.
They themselves weren't playing; perhaps the game adopted avatars of those who had played. But no--as Lev Ren defeated the cluster leader, Jani saw the hand with the diode vibrate as though it stung: virtual feedback through the modifications.
As Lev Ren continued to face tougher and tougher opponents, the pheromone level in the room increased, as did the subharmonics. Jani turned up her portable unit. A robot-pincered creature faltered. She turned the unit up another notch--if only she could have spent some of her shift increasing its efficiency.
She wondered why Lev Ren played the game. Was this rule through combat, an attempt to prove himself worthy of leading these abominations? Or perhaps an initiation rite? No matter. When the air flow oscillation hit its peak, even he should be affected.
Cheka said, "I wasn't paying any attention to the game until that shift-break when both you and Turl mentioned it. Then I started hearing the hum about it from everywhere."
Jani raised her left wing in an invitation to continue. "I said everyone was playing it."
"You did. I just didn't expect the clutch to be so--hive-minded. I saw others let their duties slip, and I worried enough to follow what was going on."
Jani only half listened to her friend. Two clusters of fighters converged on Lev Ren from different directions. He had almost made it to the gate that marked the end of the level, but he would have to face them before he got there. The metal-plated med led one of the fighter clusters.
The med raised his metal wings and sliced at Lev Ren's head. Jani's spiracles hummed. Lev Ren dropped prone and scuttled beneath the med, tipping him onto his back. Jani released her claws from the perch.
"This is the final level of the game." Cheka was still talking. Jani wondered what she'd missed. "He's been working toward it for a while, in bits and pieces. One way or the other, it ends tonight."
"I suppose it does." She could've released a toxin into the environment. But no--the altered ones might be immune. Her solution would work. She believed in herself, even if others did not.
The air flow increased another notch, and a low quivering of wings passed through the room. The station was at maximal flow now. It had to be enough.
Lev Ren entered a dark chamber with a sigil engraved in yellow on the floor. His weapons dissolved. He touched the symbol, and the wall before him opened; a creature twice Lev Ren's height emerged. It shone, a silvery mass of solid metal with fixed wings and a stinger for a tail.
"Kencha!" The modified crew members called in unison. The subharmonics surged. Jani's antennae wavered as though batted by a wind. She turned up the fresher to maximum.
Her antennae returned to normal.
"What's wrong with them?" Cheka spoke quietly.
Jani let her eyes resolve myriad pictures from around the break room. The crew members curled in on themselves, arms crossed over their thoraces. A few rubbed at their implants. Turl still stood upright, claws extended before him as though taking prey, the only one in the room other than Jani and Cheka unaffected by the harmonics of the air flow.
"Watch." Jani laid her claw on Cheka's arm. If Jani was right, everything would be over soon. Turl worried her, though.
Lev Ren dove under the metal creature--under Kencha. Its tail swung at him, and his flight curved enough that the stinger missed him by the span of a claw. Then he was past Kencha, but it spun in place, keeping Lev Ren in front of it. If he were warrior caste, he would have a natural weapon to fight with. Jani wondered how the warriors had fared in this game. None were in the break room, but they always kept to themselves.
A metal arm shot out and connected at the base of Lev Ren's head. The claw pried into the joint. Ichor seeped around the claw.
No. She couldn't let this happen. Cheka was right; at least part of Jani still believed in Lev Ren. She bent her attention to the unit before her. It was already operating at its limits, but maybe she could rig it to give one heightened burst instead of steady output. It wouldn't be easy without her tools.
Lev Ren pulled away from Kencha, and yellow-green fluid oozed from his neck. Jani set to work.
It was hard to concentrate while Lev Ren dodged attacks. He tried again and again to hurt Kencha, but his blows slid off the metal carapace. He grabbed for one of the wings. Part of his claw fell, and Jani wished she could turn the broadcast off to focus on her work. Without it, though, she would have no need.
It's just a game, it's just a game. Far easier to believe that if she hadn't seen the link between crew and monsters. Surely, though, Lev Ren would not suffer physical harm. Surely. Her claw twisted the last wire into place. She added a drop of her own oil to increase conductivity.
Lev Ren stood with his back against the wall, pushing at Kencha's arms, trying to keep its claws from his neck. Kencha's wings buzzed. It lifted off the ground, its stingered tail curling under.
Jani tripped the circuit for the fresher unit.
Turl staggered as though hit. Kencha hesitated. Lev Ren released Kencha's arms, grabbed the tail with arms and legs, and jabbed the stinger at Kencha's wings. They fell together, and the game blacked out.
Cheka stretched her wings and rustled her underwings. "That was dramatic. I guess I won my bet."
"Ye--es." Jani focused on Turl, tipped over on his back and immobile. "I'm not sure collecting is such a good idea, though."
Cheka clicked her claw against her mandibles. "Perhaps not." Her claw reached down to touch the fresher, which was now giving off wisps of smoke. "Are you going to tell me what you were doing with this?"
"Evening the odds."
"I see."
"I wonder if he will."
The doors to the break room opened, and half a dozen warrior caste entered. Five fanned out and began checking the still bodies of the modified crew. The other approached Jani and Cheka. "Leave here at once and report to quarters. Medical personnel will come by to clear you for duty--assuming we find any who haven't been co-opted by the game."
Jani ignored the odd buzzing in her abdomen. She lifted from her perch; she didn't hold out much hope for a med tech, but this wasn't her responsibility any longer. "Good idea. I could use some rest."
"Wait. You're the one whose pheromones are flooding the station."
The oil she'd used for lubrication. Right. She wouldn't have said "flooding," but she didn't argue with him. Her claws crossed in agreement.
"You're to report to Kr'Lev Ren." His claw touched Cheka, who still had not moved.
"You'll be safer in your quarters until this is over. Most of the station's been affected, and one of our enemies might strike while we're weakened."
The buzzing in Jani's abdomen grew, and she realized why her friend hadn't moved. The hum resonated between Cheka and the warrior. "I'll make sure she gets there before I see Lev Ren. He's in the recreation area, right?"
"His quarters, by now." He dropped his hand from Cheka and started to turn away.
"That one over there--" Jani motioned to Turl. "He bragged about introducing the game to the station, and he was the last one standing."
"Did he say where he obtained it?"
Jani tapped her claws together in thought. "His cousin, I think, in Sector K. Another low caste like him, no doubt, another victim caught by a glittery gift from nowhere."
"We'll check on the cousin. Low castes should have stayed off-station. Still, that fits with reports of missing ships in that area. One or two showed up, late--easy for an enemy to plant the game on board."
Cheka said, "But we don't have any enemies in that region."
"We do now," the warrior said, "and they will regret trying to take our territory."
Jani hesitated. "Turl--he also wanted to hurt Vr'Cheka."
His underwings rustled. "I see." He moved toward Turl.
Jani pushed Cheka out the open door. In the corridor, Cheka asked, "Why did you do that?"
"He's cute. I think you'll be happy together."
Cheka stopped. "Don't say such things."
Jani shoved her forward again. "Given what's been happening here I think a little out-of-caste breeding will seem normal in comparison."
"Or in caste? I saw how worried you were about Lev Ren in there."
Jani raised her wings. "That's up to him. It always has been." She didn't think it likely, but it was all she could do to keep from humming at the thought of being in his quarters again. She hadn't been there since the trouble.
"Just promise me you won't go off-station to brood. My little ones are going to need friends." Cheka clicked her mandibles and ducked into her quarters without giving Jani a chance to reply.
If she'd have the option. Her footsteps slowed as she neared his quarters. Why did he want to see her? She tapped at the door.
It opened immediately. Lev Ren rested on a perch, turned away from the door. The lights were dimmed inside. "Come in."
He didn't sound happy to have her there. She signaled the door closed behind her. The air felt stifling inside, unmoving, dead, with the faintest hint of her pheromones. He'd closed off the ducts to his room.
"You wanted to see me?"
"Yes, I did. Get over here."
Her wings contracted against her back. He was angry. She edged forward. Her eyes adjusted, and she saw a piece of casing plastered to his neck joint and yellow-green splotches on his head. She tapped the casing with a claw. "It was real."
He didn't touch her. "Real enough."
The sight of him filled her eyes. His pheromones tickled her antennae. She took a step back. Night shift was a good idea after all. This closeness--she couldn't do this.
She turned away, but there was no second perch in the room, nowhere to go.
"I had the perch removed. There didn't seem to be a reason for it any longer."
She kept her back to him, willed herself not to move wings or underwings, not to show how much he had hurt her. Her quarters still had the extra perch; she couldn't bear to get rid of it.
"Are you going to be okay? That thing injured you pretty badly."
"I think so." He clicked his mandibles softly, and she wondered where the humor was.
"I'd hoped you would figure out what was going on. I needed the game exposed."
She did turn at that. "You hoped I'd figure--is that why you kept me on all that scut work? Couldn't you tell me what you wanted me to know?"
His wings vibrated again, but he didn't lift from his perch. "You didn't notice they controlled station communications? I couldn't say anything, even if you wanted to listen to me. I just had to believe that my best engineer could fix the problem and help me save the station."
Best engineer. "Glad I could help. Now, if you'll excuse me, I had to work a double shift. I need some rest before I start putting the station back to rights again." She flew toward the door.
"Jani." Her name hit her with a burst of his pheromones, and she dropped to the floor.
Her spiracles felt tight, which was ridiculous. Even with the flow off in here, there was plenty of air. But his pheromones--
She turned to face him. "Ren--"
His mandibles clicked. "You're the only one who's ever called me that, you know." He paused. "Come here."
She stopped just out of reach. Bits of casing and plaster dotted his limbs, covered his body. His abdomen was completely hidden.
"I almost died. Kencha almost killed me when it fell on me, but I didn't give up." Another wave of pheromones washed over Jani. "I couldn't. Not with you there, your scent surrounding me."
A light vibration started in her abdomen. "But our brood--"
His antennae drooped. "Yes, it hurt. But it was no one's fault." His mandibles clicked once. "I thought it would be . . . fun . . . to try again."
Hope rose in her thorax, a warm hum. She took a step nearer. "You need to rest. Besides, I have to go back on-shift tonight."
"I rearranged the schedule to give you a few shifts' rest."
"And who's going to put the systems back to rights again?"
"They can't be too far gone. You've been working on keeping everything optimized. I've already sent word to the nearest stations, telling them how to break Kencha's hold. Your shift reports have been thorough. Anything else can wait."
She closed the distance between them and leaned her head against his. Their antennae laced together. Yes, questions and explanations would wait. Night shift, she knew, was a thing of the past.
