Part 8
The pain was coming in more quickly now; Liz tried to conceal it, but it was no use. Her hair was sticking to her face, and her breathing was labored. Please let it be false contractions, she thought, please. At least they weren't that close together yet.
The guards were staring at her and beginning to talk in low tones.
"What do you [I]think[/I] it is?" She shot at them in Upper Antaran. "Trauma and high stress induce labor. This baby is coming now whether you like it or not." She squeezed her hands together and winced in pain. "They're getting closer together."
The guards just stared at her for a minute, shocked at the use of their language. Surely this could buy her some time.
* * *
Max and Michael were silent in the car on the way to the granilith chamber. Tess had gone to get the others while Max and Michael were going to go ahead and start looking. Michael stared out the window as Max drove, keeping his eyes on the road. The sky was a pale pink in the east where the sun was peeking over the horizon.
They parked just far enough away to protect the location of the pod chamber and set out on a familiar path to the place where they were born. The silence between them wasn't awkward; they were both so lost in their own thoughts that they hardly noticed.
A few minutes later, Michael walked purposefully across the room to the portion of wall directly opposite the doorway. He waved his hand over the wall, and a bumpy area transformed itself into a clear, mounted crystal with an alien inscription below it.
Michael looked over at Max and grinned.
Max stared, stunned. "How…?"
"It's like when you first found the pod chamber. I just knew."
Suddenly, they both looked around to discover that there was a ring of crystals running the whole length of the circular wall, each with an inscription and mounted at the same height as the first one.
* * *
Maria sat with Serena in her room, wringing her hands as Serena lay resting. Salle had insisted that they sit and try to keep their minds clear in case Liz tried to contact them while he and several other rebels went undercover to Antar to check out places where Liz could be being held.
Maria bit her lip and looked down, realizing that she had been tapping her foot furiously. How could she possibly clear her mind when so much was going on? It wasn't possible. Maria felt her baby kick, and suddenly she started crying. This just couldn't be happening. They were supposed to be in a secure environment. Isn't that why they came in the first place?
Serena shifted in her bed, and Maria tried to stop sniffling and hide her tears, wiping them away with the back of her hand. Maria took a deep breath, and Serena opened her eyes.
"Go get Salle. I have to tell him something."
* * *
Liz paced slowly back and forth in the small room as one of the guards followed her every step with his eyes. The other guard had left for some reason, whispering something to the first, stouter guard. In her mind, she had nicknamed them Tweedledee and Tweedledum, just because they had the same blank looks in their eyes as their namesakes. Because of their shock, Liz had been able to convince them to let her walk around right before the taller, thinner Tweedledum had left.
Suddenly, she was in pain again, and she scraped at the wall for support. Tweedledee, taking pity on her, raced over and held onto her arm to help support her. As soon as contraction had passed, she smiled weakly at him.
Tweedledum walked in and glared at Tweedledee, who dropped Liz's arm. "What's that?" Tweedledum demanded, pointing at a wet portion of the floor.
"Her water broke," Tweedledee said. "I think we should move her to another room. What did he say to you?"
"He wants her in another room. Let's go."
* * *
"He's going to be at that gateway, Salle. I know how he thinks," Serena told the Gueyere leader.
"It would be very risky contacting anyone down on Antar—" Salle began.
"But it would be worth it."
"That's what I was going to say; you cut me off, Serena." Salle glared at her, but she ignored him.
"I knew him almost all his life as Zan, and I've known him for years as Max."
"Why didn't you tell us about the other gateways?" Maria asked. Salle and Serena turned to look at her, having almost forgotten she was there because of her uncharacteristic silence.
"It was too dangerous," Serena told her. "I guess I was afraid… that someone else might find out. Anyways"—her tone picked up again—"what's done is done."
"Who do you recommend we send?" Salle asked Serena.
"Me, of course."
"What?" You're in no condition…"
"You wouldn't have to contact as many Gueyere on Antar. Plus, he knows me."
"Serena…"
* * *
They took Liz into another room with something that closely resembled a medieval birthing chair. A small silver woman was standing at a table against the wall. Upon seeing Liz, she rushed over to help Liz and swatted at the guards with some kind of cloth she was holding. She helped Liz to the chair, all the while yelling at the guards in some language Liz didn't understand.
Apparently, Tweedledee and Tweedledum didn't understand either because they stared at the woman blankly. She told them, in broken Upper Antaran, "Go. Leave."
"We have orders to watch this woman; we are not to leave her alone." Tweedledum tried to stare at the woman menacingly, but he only looked goofy.
"No. Out, out." She tried unsuccessfully to herd them out the door. Finally they compromised by standing at the entrance as the little woman glared at them.
Liz screamed in pain and clutched the arms of the chair. The little woman rushed over and laid a wet cloth across Liz's forehead, murmuring quiet words of comfort that it wasn't especially necessary to understand.
As the pain temporarily subsided, Liz heard voices in the corridor—Tweedledum was talking with someone.
"What do we do once the baby has arrived?" Tweedledum was asking.
There were some unintelligible sounds, and then the second voice said, "I want her to know everything that happens. It will be her punishment for going against us."
Recognition suddenly dawned on Liz. That voice—she had heard it almost every day at the rebel base. How could he? How could he betray them? How could he betray her?
* * *