A Bug's Life Read Online Free PDF Page A

reliving my memories,
starting from the first time I’d met Roy, up through the last
couple of jobs we’d just done. I wondered if Tresia and Dr. Wufren
were doing the same, and figured they probably were.
    This took some time, but we
certainly had it – the cruiser wasn’t going anywhere fast. However,
they also weren’t sending out scout ships or blasting the Hummingbird from the sky,
so I chose to believe things were going well. I just hoped the
cruiser didn’t have any kind of telepath on board, though they were
required, by their own laws, to advise any other ship, Diamante or
otherwise, if they had an Espen working on their ship. One of the
many Diamante laws we tended to ignore but, for whatever reason,
they usually didn’t.
    Finally Roy said, “Roger that, over and out.”
The cruiser took off slowly, not going to warp, but not searching
around, either.
    The three of us remained quiet – just because
the cruiser appeared to be leaving didn’t mean it wasn’t some kind
of a trap or trick. But it continued on until I couldn’t see it
anymore.
    “All clear ,” Ciarissa said in our minds. “ Doven
will keep the illusion in place, just in case. Advise when you are
unable to navigate properly and only then will he remove
it. ”
    “They just went to warp,” Roy said. “Get out
of there and back into the ship immediately. Faster if you can
manage it.”
    Tresia flipped the laser cutter up and cut
away the part of the chamber that we’d crawled through. This took
longer than any of us would have liked, but she had to be careful
not to cut our tethers or get them caught up in the debris, and Dr.
Wufren and I had to keep a hold of the Birthing Sac with the young
in it.
    “Last piece is away,” Tresia said as she once
again hooked the laser cutter over her arm. “Shall we return?” she
asked me and Dr. Wufren.
    “Why wouldn’t you?” Roy asked, sounding
testy.
    “Because we’ve had an emotional time out
here,” I replied. I had to figure the others had been treated to
the same emotional stress that I had, because it made more sense
that they would than not.
    Tresia and Dr. Wufren both turned to me. “You,
too?” the Doctor asked me. Always nice to be right.
    “Yes. Tresia?”
    “Oh, yes. Ciarissa, did you pick up anything
from any of us?”
    “No,” Ciarissa replied. “You three were all
amazingly quiet, both audibly and telepathically.”
    “Yeah, well, as to that, we have a situation.”
Which we’ll handle, I thought to myself. And we’ll handle it in
such a way that our new charges will not be harmed or deserted.
“Ciarissa, did you hear what I just thought?”
    “No, DeeDee, I did not, but I was not
monitoring, either. I am…rather tired.”
    “I’m sure. The rest of you on the ship, were
any of you worried about things?”
    “Well, yeah,” Kyle said, sounding confused.
“You three were outside of the ship when we needed to run. Doven
and Ciarissa were extending their powers for a long period of time
and big bro was faking it like he’d spent his life in a Diamante
uniform. Of course we were worried.” The others chimed in with
similar concerns.
    “We were here, with them,” Dr. Wufren said.
“We three risked all to get them. That’s why they focused on
us.”
    “Plus they, like we, were hiding,” Tresia
pointed out.
    “Who are you talking about?” Roy
asked.
    “Tell you once we’re all on board. We have a
dozen Pillar young, by the way. While the three of us are
maneuvering back into the bosom of our home, the rest of you try to
come up with how we protect them at warp speed. Even if it’s a
crazy idea, we’re going to want to hear it when we’re
back.”
    “We will need to go into the cargo hold,”
Tresia added. “The section of Birthing Sac we have is too large to
go through the regular hatch.”
    “Of course it is,” Roy muttered.
    “I’ll handle it, bro,” Kyle said.
    “I’ll help,” Bullfrog said. “Getting into my
suit now.”
    Getting back to