“Us?Then you aren’t considered a single unit like—shut up!”Cassidy turned her head to shout at the imprisoned Darks, which were clamoring wildly in her skull and making it hard to think.
Egilka uttered another wordless yell as he joined her.She returned her focus to where her double stood, only to find she’d disappeared.
––––––––
In a matter of minutes, the lab was full of people.Most of them were the grim, red-armored Royal Guards.Cassidy had to bite her tongue to keep from telling the glowering Nobek security contingent to stay clear of her equipment.
“Can wesafelyassume Dr.Hamilton was speaking to the Other?”
Cassidy could understand Empress Jessica’s insistence on confirmation, but the concerns of the Imperial Clan and her clanmates could be restated only so many times before it wore on her nerves.
Ease up, moody pregnant woman.Forcing patience to the fore, she answered, “As there are no known entities capable of assuming another’s identity, I have to presume we can.The Darks Emperor Egilka and I were working on were beside themselves when my double showed up.They demanded I kill it.”
“Really?”Emperor Bevau’s stunning face appeared impressed.“Sounds like a rousing endorsement of a potential ally to me.”
“The second Cassidy didn’t speak as if she was sympathetic enough to help us defeat the All.She sounded as if she didn’t care.”Jessica’s elfin features creased in a frown.
“She cared sufficiently to warn me twice to come to terms for the end of our civilization,” Cassidy said.“It seems important to her.Or him.Them?Remember, the Other took on Emperor Egilka’s likeness also.”
“Why show itself to you?”Her Nobek clanmate Lidon’s tone was quiet.It was the kind of quiet that betrayed he was furious.He stood with an absolute stillness that put the implacable Royal Guards to shame, another hint he was inwardly raging.Not a single muscle of his composed features twitched.No doubt she and Tranis were in for a major blowup later as to why he hadn’t been told Cassidy had been approached by the Other previously.
She set her chagrin aside.“Because I’m experimenting on the Darks?There’s been evidence of interest where my work is concerned.”
“Or because you’re pregnant.”Her Imdiko clanmate Degorsk was scowling.His temper tended to be flashier than Lidon’s, but he too was holding it together for the moment.“It’s brought up the baby each time...and even appeared as you holding a baby.”
“It seems to regard your attempt to find a way to destroy the All at odds with creating life,” Jessica mused.
Cassidy thought the empress might be right.The Other did act as if it found the dichotomy curious, if nothing else.
“I wish it had answered the question on whether or not it and the All are somehow connected,” Tranis mused.
“I don’t get the sense the Other truly cares about the fate of the All despite the questions it asks,” Cassidy told them.“It’s so detached in mannerisms, but maybe it isn’t used to emotions as we experience them.When it held out the baby for me to look at, it was almost as if it was showing me an object it had picked up off the ground.”She reconsidered as soon as the words were out of her mouth.“Or something it believed I’d respond to.I think it wanted to gauge my reaction to the baby.”
Emperor Clajak ran fingers through the thick waves of his steel-gray hair, his handsome features troubled as he drew up straight.All attention immediately riveted on him, though he hadn’t spoken yet.His simplest gesture commanded the room.
Cassidy thought the Dramok ruler had aged significantly since the advent of the All.He wasn’t elderly by any means, and he certainly didn’t appear old, but he possessed a careworn sense not present a year prior.She noted how his clanmates’ expressions tightened slightly, as if they too were concerned over the grave responsibilities weighing on him.
When he did speak, his tone was threaded by quiet strength.No sign of doubt.He smiled at Cassidy.“Whatever the reason the Other has decided to communicate, it remains we must be in readiness for their next visit.Even if they won’t help us, they have information that could prove useful.”
“They don’t seem willing to share anything,” Degorsk muttered.
“But they have.They told us the Other can’t be touched by the All and the species of its dimension did fight it.”
“And failed,” Egilka sighed.
“It’s intelligence we didn’t have,” Clajak insisted.“We also know your and Dr.Hamilton’s work won’t lead to the All’s destruction.”
“How do you figure that?”
“Because the Other went through her files, and they still insist we won’t defeat it.”
“We’d decided the matter ourselves,” Cassidy said.“We’re soon to move on to biopsies of tissue samples.I wonder what the Other will think of when we do so.”
Clajak grinned.“I’m interested in the response as well.More importantly, the Other has chosen to communicate with Dr.Hamilton.Those lines of communication must remain open.Let’s talk about how we can invite the Other to give us information...and maybe convince it we’re worth helping.”
* * * *
Alpha Space Station
