Young Writers Society

A/N: PM if you'd like a synopsis of the story so far :)

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   Margo could do nothing but watch as the long, lanky shadow edged closer and closer to Chip round the back of the console. Chip was shouting to various workers around the edges of the room, initialising any sort of spacecraft he could get his hands on. She could see big red symbols appearing on screens when Chip pointed at their controllers and shouted for something to be readied. What in the galaxy did a spacecraft look like when you had the innate ability to fly? Oh God, this was not going to end well.

Well, Margo could tell Chip at least one extra thing about the environment, but he had muted her. That had been his order. She’d heard the words from his mouth. She wanted to slap him. She wanted to run down the miles between him and slap him right in the face, with her claws out.

But that did not mean she wanted whatever fate that big black shape heralded to befall him. He was still her best friend.

“Chip, look out!” she screamed.

But he was keeping his eyes off the screen and fixed on the control panels around him. The black shadow was almost on him, then it was right at his shoulder, then it was just … gone.

“What is that?” Aliner exclaimed, pointing at the screen with her eyes screwed up. “That little black thing.”

Margo followed Aliner’s finger to just a few centimetres left of where the shadow had been. She was pointing at the light side of the console, where of course a shadow could no longer exist. Margo let the breath rush out of her and her shoulders drooped. Kernik may have been little, but by God could he cast a long shadow.

“That’s one of our officers,” Margo said, “His name’s Kernik.”

“What’s he going to do?” asked Dreko.

“God knows,” Margo replied. Then she took a deep breath, reset her shoulders and planted her feet as firmly as she could on the ground. “But as we seem to be powerless to do anything else, I say we find out.”

Her legs were quaking, though. What could the spider, whom Chip had barely spoken to before this mission, possibly think of to sway him?

“Chip!”

Apparently they were about to find out. Chip stared at Kernik, who had raised himself to Chip’s eye level by perching on top of a monitor. The monitor was about four times the size of the average household television on Earth.

“Kernik?” Chip frowned but didn’t turn round from the display he was studying. His hand did stop and hover over his keyboard though.

“Chip!” Kernik shouted again. “What are you doing?”

“The Buzzer’s out there, Kernik,” said Chip, shaking his head and continuing whatever he was typing. “You of all people should know why I have to stop him.”

“That’s a cheap shot and you know it.”

Margo was glad the picture was too zoomed out to get a glimpse of Kernik’s fangs, which must have been bared to the max.

“Look, what is it you’re you on about Kernik?” Chip finally turned round and glared at Kernik.

“You’re making it worse, Chip.” Margo could hear the snarl in Kernik’s voice. “Mate, this is insane! Stop jumping to conclusions and grow up!”

Chip whirled round, leaned right in towards Kernik and snarled so wide Margo winced.

“God, you’re like your brother. No respect for the chain of command, that bug.” Chip’s top lip was rippling and his breath was coming out in hisses. Then he took a deep breath and stood up straight. His voice as he spoke was almost too low to be picked up by the mic. “I’m trying to do what Ochon would have wanted. He gave his life to stop the Buzzer.”

“Good Lord would you stop calling him that?” Kernik roared. “The wasp’s name is Lezeki, alright? And you’re not doing what my brother – whose name was Boinet by the way, Ochon’s the family name – would have wanted. Well, maybe you are, I don’t know. You’re doing what he would have done. And that’s charge head first into the first enemy you can think of without even knowing he’s actually out there.”

Chip folded his arms. “And what makes you so sure he’s not?”

“I’m not,” Kernik admitted with a shrug, which with his circle of legs looked like a ripple of air flowing through a parachute. “I’m not sure. But I’m fairly confident that Whipple wouldn’t look like that if she wasn’t.”

Chip frowned. “Like what?”

“Turn around, Chip,” said Kernik, lowering his voice back down to what you’d expect from someone his size. “Turn round and look up at your chief Doctor. And, if you’re feeling generous, listen to her too.”

Chip was side-on to the screen, so Margo could see him close his eyes and draw himself up to full height. He turned round slowly, with his eyes still closed. But soon he was facing the screen, with his head tilted upwards. He opened his eyes.

“Chip!” Margo shrieked, smiling in shock as she was matched in ferocity by both Aliner and Dreko. “Chip, listen to us!”

Chip gasped and looked as if the screen had been replaced by the Buzzer himself. His lips went pale and blended right into their surround fur. He heaved his arm up to point straight at Margo and stood with his mouth hanging open for at least ten seconds before speaking.

“Turn the sound on,” he said, with a massive gulp.

Margo wondered for a moment what the hell he’d seen, then she yelled as loudly as she could about the drill and about the Nokyemin and everything she’d learned in the past day.

Chip grabbed his ears with his hands and whimpered like a dog that had just been kicked. “Margo! Margo, quiet, quiet! That’s why I muted you in the first place.”

He was grinning though. Margo wasn’t sure she’d seen him grin all week.

“Chip, it’s the drill,” she rasped, “The drill is causing it. We don’t know how, but it is.”

He let out a breath with his eyes screwed up and let his head hang for a moment.

Then he jerked it up and shouted, “Abort! Abort everything! I’m sorry. Just, stop.”

“Well, that was sudden,” Margo murmured. Aliner nodded and Dreko raised his eyebrows.

“It was like you broke a spell or something,” Dreko agreed.

“What’s that?” Chip called, as everyone around him let out a collective sigh of relief, presumably that they wouldn’t have to explain to their Archess how they’d let an alien order her entire scout fleet into the moist pointless traffic jams of all time.

“Nothing,” said Margo. She smiled at him and he nodded. Then, lower, she added, “We sort of did, I guess.”

“We?” asked Aliner.

“The little black thing – Kernik,” Margo explained, “He and his brother have saved us from mayhem twice in the past seven days. Maybe we’ll actually get the chance to congratulate this one.”

“Huh?” Dreko tilted his head at her.

Margo shook her head. “No, nothing. Not important. I’ll be on the ward if you need me.”