Ambassador Nevol had said the Federacy mechs were confined to part of one level of the station. In fact they had taken control of the System Lareum, and the nearly adjoining First Assembly offices and chambers, and they also held the path from there to where their ships were docked. It was an inconveniently long route that went away from the closest exit out of the docks and doubled back on itself, and for a moment Ingray wondered why they hadn’t taken the straightest way. She knew there was one—when she and Garal had arrived, just days ago, they’d taken it.
She looked closer at the information the news services were giving out. There was doubtless a lot they weren’t saying, but they had carefully mapped out the stretch of bays where the Omkem freighters were docked, and marked the location of the two freighters with bright orange dots. And down the way toward the more convenient exit a green dot marked another ship.
The Geck. It was the bay where the Geck ship was docked. This ship, which Ingray was on. The back of her neck prickled. If she went out onto the docks she could probably see them. Unless System Defense had that way blocked off by now, which she imagined they did. But so close.
She didn’t need to read the accompanying report to realize that the Omkem had been wary of interfering with the Geck in any way. Just the ship sitting there—and possibly several spider mechs or Geck humans going back and forth on business—had been enough to make them go the long way around to their goal.
There wasn’t much other information available. Station residents should remain calm. Hwae System Defense was in control of the situation. Station Administration and Hwae System Defense would provide fuller information soon; in the meantime residents were asked to keep local communications clear for official use, and to refrain from spreading false information. All the news services were sending out the same exact statement.
Everything else Ingray found was gossip and rumor. The station’s hull had been breached, killing dozens of people. The hull hadn’t actually been breached, but emergency doors had been triggered. Several hundred children had been evacuated from the lareum in the nick of time. No, dozens of children were dead or captive or otherwise missing. The Omkem troops had shot at least sixteen Hwaeans on their way out of the docks—there was an image of a man lying on the ground in what looked like a docks corridor, blood smeared across the floor beside his head. Ingray blinked that away, quickly.
Netano wouldn’t have been on the docks. Netano had come here to be seen involving herself with the Geck’s unexpected presence. She might well have been in one of the First Assembly offices. Nuncle Lak hadn’t replied to Ingray’s earlier message—which might mean e hadn’t had time to look at eir messages, or might mean e had nothing yet to report. Or it might mean communications with Hwae Station had been crushed under everyone in Hwaean space urgently trying to contact anyone and everyone they knew might be on the station, all at the same time, and a message from Nuncle Lak might take a while getting through.
None of that was reassuring. And no doubt Netano’s messages were flooded with people asking if she was all right, but surely she would understand if Ingray was one of those people.
She sent the message, a quick query that she knew would go straight to Netano’s personal attention. All Mama had to do to reply was blink an automated acknowledgment, that was all Ingray had asked for.
Nothing. Maybe Netano was asleep? Maybe she was perfectly fine but too busy to spare a thought for Ingray.
And then the message from Nuncle Lak arrived.
She had to get off the ship and onto the station. They had to let her off, she was human. She had to find someone—a spider mech, or the Geck ambassador herself—and tell them that she had to leave. She scrambled to her feet and headed back toward the room they’d eaten in.
“Garal!” she called, coming in the door. “Garal, I need to get off the ship.”
Garal sat at the table extrusion eating a bowl of soggy noodles, a bit rumpled-looking but otherwise awake and alert. “Why?” e asked. “Has something happened?”
“The Federacy seized the System Lareum and the First Assembly Chambers,” Ingray said. “And Mama was in the lareum. She’s still there.”
“How do you know this?” Garal asked, quite reasonably. “There’s nothing on the official news the Geck are receiving but warnings to take shelter and stay there.”
“I finally got a message from Nuncle Lak,” she replied. “E says they probably wanted to take the First Assembly captive while it was in session, but the Geck being here forced them to take a longer route than they’d planned on. By the time they got there the Assembly Chambers were evacuated. But the lareum hadn’t been, not all the way. And Mama was there to meet a crèche trip from Arsamol District.”
A moment of silence. Then Garal asked, “And the children? Are they still in the lareum, too?”
“Yes! Most of the children are there, and Mama and a couple other people. They have the Prolocutor of the First Assembly, Prolocutor Dicat. And some of the lareum staff.”
“If they couldn’t get hold of the First Assembly,” Garal pointed out, “Prolocutor Dicat is a good second best. Though I imagine it’s the senior Dicat they have.”
“Yes,” Ingray acknowledged. “E was meeting another crèche trip. Eir heir was in the Chambers, but he got clear.” The First Prolocutor’s heir, named decades ago, had been attending to prolocutorial business for years. In terms of Assembly affairs the prolocutor might as well not be captive at all.
“Sit down,” said Garal. “Eat something. Have some poick. It’s …” E wrinkled eir nose. “I suspect it’s an acquired taste. But sit down and eat something and make a plan before you go charging off. Netano probably isn’t in immediate danger, and if she is, well, you won’t be able to help.”
Ingray had no intention of eating anything. But she needed to talk to Garal. She sat down. “I already have a plan. I don’t think they came here to take a crècheful of children hostage. They were after the First Assembly. Nuncle Lak says there hasn’t been any communication from the Omkem—or there hadn’t been when e sent the message, but System Defense is expecting them to make demands.”
Garal reached across the table to set a cup down in front of her, and then a bowl of still-stiff noodles in a pool of tepid water. “I’m sure I’ll be on any list of demands. Not anywhere near the top, of course. Still.”
“Probably,” Ingray admitted. “Nuncle Lak didn’t say. But you’re Geck now, so they can’t have you. But I’m the one who brought you here, and I was actually there when Zat was murdered.”
E stared at her for a moment, then said, “You want to exchange yourself for Netano.”
“And the children.”
Garal was silent a moment, regarding her. “Do you think they would agree to that? I don’t doubt Hwae would be willing to make some pretty big concessions for the sake of those children. Why would the Omkem let them go just to have you?”
Ingray had already thought about that. “There are at least two crèches there—the one my mother met, and the one that Prolocutor Dicat was there with. So anywhere from forty to a hundred children or more. Even if the crèche caretakers are with them, that’s a lot of frightened children to deal with. I don’t know if there’s any kind of negotiating going on, but the longer it takes …”