The lander swooped down into Aglaya"s atmosphere, and down. Janja"s DS men made excited noises, jittering in their fire-seats. Ready to say the word to voice-actuated fire-control systemry. Janja twisted a focuser to read the name on the side of the s.p.a.ceboat lander. Her weapons were not tracking it; they were aimed at the mother ship.
"Fire," she said.
s.p.a.ceship Kirin, unsuspecting that such a little craft might have mounted in its missile tubes a weapon that was so old it was nigh-forgotten, died.
The depro bolt simply sucked forth all Kirin"s protons, liberating the electrons with their strong aversion to each other; electrons that had been held together in an uneasy truce by the protons. The electrons parted at speed, to rush off in all directions. Kirin became a bright flash just at the outer reaches of Aglaya"s atmospheric sheet.
(The depro guns had not lasted long, a few centuries ago. Defense was too simple. So was turning the bolts back on their senders. After less than a century the weapon was all but forgotten. The ever-progressing members of the Galactic race had long since ceased bothering to rig the simple defense. Ratran Yao had used a crossbow more than once, he had told Janja, and once he had taken out a ranting speechifying menace to the Tri-System Accord . . . with a slingshot and a ball bearing.) Kirin died, with all hands.
Kirin"s s.p.a.ceboat was just landing. It dared not try to rush away, now. Whoever was...o...b..ard knew he would never make it, not against this murderous little ship. Perhaps a conference, some trickery . . .
144.
"The same weapon that just destroyed your stinking slaving ship, Captain Shieda, is now trained on your boat. Come out."
"Who are you?" the pirate and slaver wanted to know; Janja turned up the volume because his voice was poorly amplified from his portable talker.
Unfortunately someone on the lander with him went a bit fraggy and starting swinging a gun to bear on Hornet. Surely Shieda would never have ordered such an act under the circ.u.mstances.
"Captain!" That was Kemahtejas, at Hornet"s forward DS.
"Fire, Kemah," Captain Jansanerima said, and with a swift nod and a little smile Kemah said "Fire," and his DS-puter todc care of the rest.
s.p.a.cer Kirin"s lander went to pieces, spectacularly.
"About as it should be," Janja said quietly. Her heart was pounding so hard that she could scarcely breathe. She had killed Jonuta, and he was back. Why bother to kill him again-and besides he had saved her life, which remained an unpleasant fact to live with. Shieda, pirate and slaver, user of females and males, murderer, became a perfect subst.i.tute for the woman who needed one. The s.p.a.ceways were better for Shieda"s departure, and yet he had died as much as a Jonuta subst.i.tute-simulacrum, for Janja"s peace of mind, as Shieda.
"Impersonal," Janja muttered, staring at the screen. "Undramatic. The touch of a b.u.t.ton. Sorry I failed to tell him who I was."
She sighed, going limp but forgetting to smile as she might have expected to do. "All hands a.s.semble."
They gathered in the con, glancing at her and at each other. s.p.a.cefarer and DSer Kemah was visibly excited.
"Better than good job, Kemah!" his captain told 145.
him. "Twice! We have just relieved the s.p.a.ceways of the burden of Captain Shieda, and if any of you hasn"t heard of him, don"t admit it. All of you were on the ship that did it. I can"t think of any tight friends he had; people who might hold his death against you. I"d say it"s a plus for you, should you be looking for berths in future. We-"
"Happy to be on s.p.a.cer Hornet, Captain Jansa! What do we do next-fill the cargo holds?"
"Thanks, Chan," Janja said, and allowed herself to look away as if in embarra.s.sment. Chanthawan"s words tended to support her a.s.sumption that right now her popularity rating with her crew was higher than ever, after its sagging while they remained here on Aglaya, doing nothing. She hoped she was right; she had a bomb to drop on them. She also had to do some acting and some lying. She had begun.
"I-I can"t do it. I"m sorry. I apologize for what you may see as weakness. All right, I am a sentimental a.s.s. I came here for slaves, and I"ve been dithering. Shieda"s appearance made me realize that I just can"t do it. I can"t be a Shieda-it was Shieda who-you all know that I am an Aglayan. It was Shieda who stole and sold me. I can"t do that to any other Jansas."
"You sure overcame being a slave, Captain!"
"I know. I did. I also know that most don"t. I ask you to forgive your captain its sentimentality, and support me in leaving here. You will all be paid-I did well enough on the last. . . transaction."
Eyes sent nervous glances this way and that, until DSer Kemahtejas spoke forcefully into the silence: "I"m slicin" proud to"ve shipped with the captain as didn"t give Shieda a chance to destroy us all. I was on DS, Captain, but you give the orders." His face changed just a little in the slightest of smiles. "I reckon 146.
I"m not too unhappy that my captain"s sentimental about her own people-especially since right now I"m one of her people! So are the rest of you!"
"Hey, you"re right, Kemah."
"Firm. I"m with you, Cap"m Sentimental!"
Two more nods and a few enthusiastic words made it unanimous. Janja nodded, with a grateful look to Kemah. She had two excellent reasons to be grateful to him, now.
"I thank all of you. Let"s. .h.i.t it for Terasaki!"
They did that cheerfully, and maybe two Aglayan lovers saw a bright flash in the sky. Maybe they took cover and maybe they didn"t; lightning and thunder they were familiar with, but everyone had been warned about the sky-demons who sometimes came down and carried people off.
Not this time.
Having sent the others elsewhere about their duties, ensconced Kemah in the mate"s chair beside her, and made sure the commsender was off, Janja watched Hornet"s SIPAc.u.m set them on course. She glanced over at Kemah.
"I congratulated and thanked you in front of the others, s.p.a.cefarer Kemahtejas. Now I want to thank you privately, Kemah. I was nervous about crew"s reaction to my . . . weakness, and I really appreciate your speaking up. You got the job done for me."
"Meant it," he said, hardly able to glance at her. "And don"t you go calling sentiment "weakness," Captain. We know you"re not. We"ve talked about the strength of a woman who freed herself from slavery and has a ship of her own. We"re with you."
Janja wished she could tell him more, and knew she couldn"t. "Thanks still again, Kemah. I"ll print out a recommendation and sign it for you. That way if we 147.
should ever fall out, you"ll have it just the same."
"Fall out? Us?"
Janja flipped her fingers. She couldn"t tell him that some day she would be leaving all four of them, somewhere. Tell him who and what she was now and at worst he"d change his mind completely and she"d be dead; at best he and the others would blow her cover anywhere they went.
"It"s just that I"m grateful, Kemah. Ask just about anything of me, and you"ve got it."
His voice took on a new note; that of a man speaking to an attractive woman. "Anything, Captain?"
Janja heard him and his tone, and knew what he"d said. She turned to him with a small smile. "No, Kemah."
He looked away, glanced back at her, grinned. He rapped his knuckles against the rounded edge of the console. "s.h.i.t," he said, and both of them chuckled.
"All right, Captain Jansanerima. "You got no problem with me."
"All right, s.p.a.cefarer Kemahtejas, we"re going to do fine!"
Adjusting course slightly so as to avoid the settled planet Luhra"s fat bright star, Sipac.u.m sent Hornet toward the Hubble-Durga system, and Terasaki.
13.
Never, never back a rat into a corner. Not unless you"re wearing armor.
-Ratran Yao The second challenge came out among the stars, and this time it was not from a slaver-pirate. SIPAc.u.m sounded its proximity-and-closing alarm and was instantly the entire, focus of attention on s.p.a.cer Hornet. This time Chanthawan was oncon with Captain Jan-sanerima, and it was he who swung to the scanner and made hasty adjustments.
"Tao"s eyes!" The Saipese banged a fist on the console"s padded edge. "We do not deserve this!"
"What? What is it?"
"See for yourself, Cap"m. I don"t even want to say it." He keyed the pointer to the new light blip flashing across the screen and asked SIPAc.u.m for an ID. "Ion signature says that"s a Luhran patrol ship. They sure aren"t out here to see the sights-and they"re heading straight for us, too."
Kimry was just entering the con-cabin, a few mins early for duty. She was adjusting her clothing, a brief-skirted yellow wrap-tunic over nothing at all. She also looked flushed from . . . whatever she had been doing. With whomever.
148.
149.
"But we haven"t done anything," she blurted. "We"re absolutely clean!"
Chan gave her a stare. "So what? That spook"s SIPAc.u.m just a.n.a.lyzed our ship"s signature and recognized us as the ship that illegally blew off the surface of Rahman and fled all pursuit. So we didn"t do anything on Aglaya "cept take out that fata.s.s Shieda -so we"re already fugitives, remember?"
"Oh."
"Ready DS, Captain?"
"Neg." Janja was flipping switches and depressing keys in the manner of a woman possessed. She also actuated the speakers, flipping a finger over to direct a quick scan of all frequencies. The live one locked on: "s.p.a.ceship Hornet. s.p.a.ceship Hornet. This is Luhran s.p.a.ce Watch patrol cruiser Goshawk, Captain Khyrkh commanding, You are guidelined to off-power and receive a boarding party. You are in Luhran s.p.a.ce and this is an order of Luhran s.p.a.ceWatch. You are the subject of a Sector Seven star-search ... "
d.a.m.n, Janja thought, oh d.a.m.n, d.a.m.n it-and I can"t identify myself to them in front of my crew! And if I sent them out of the con-cabin and next thing they knew we"re free to go our way, they"ll be worse than suspicious. Oh Rat-it wasn "t such a great idea, making me instantly infamous!
She heard Chan"s explosion of sarcasm for her benefit. "Oh sure, pos, of course! Heave to and welcome "em onboard. Make it easy for the vaporizer teams, the fugitives" friends, hmm? They solve all problems and end all worries. Atoms to atoms, dust to-"
"Ease it, Chan," Janja said. She half-turned to address Kimry, at the same time easing down the toggle to close commlink sender. "Computrician! Call up the 150.
star-charts, quick! We can"t outrun these spooks in open s.p.a.ce and we sure don"t want to fight "em, not policers if we can help it! But if we can find a broken field in time, we may be able to play a little tag with "em. We are fast, you know-but they"re too fast for freefall dodge-em, bet on it."
"Can"t fight!" Chan echoed, on a rising note. "What else can we-"
"I said ease it, s.p.a.cefarer. Zip it!"
Kimry was already spinning the scanner on the computerized, richly detailed galactic charts that were every navigator"s sacred screeds.
Janja was opening the inship comm that would carry her voice throughout Hornet. The craft was small as s.p.a.ceships went, but hardly so small as to crowd her and the four crewmembers. She a.s.sumed that Kimry had just left either Kemahtejas or Swayn, but she didn"t know which, or where.
"We"re challenged by a Luhran policer. Good ship. They want to board. We do not wish to be boarded. We also don"t want to tangle with "em. // we succeeded in crippling them or worse, we"d have half the spooks in the Galaxy after us. Forget DS. Just . . . stand by. Kimry?"
"We"re in sector XT88M, quadrant 4D. Technically Luhran s.p.a.ce, firm, but mostly clear arcs. Here"s a patch of asteroids at coordinates X7B ..."
"No good," Chan said, before Janja had a chance to speak. "Asteroids are worthless. That flaining policer could crowd us in on one so tight we"d crash-graze it, at least."
"Just as bad," Janja said. "Headquarters would give him a commendation for saving Luhra the expense of sending us back to Rahman-or save TGW the expense 151.
of taking us in for trial." Again she issued swift instructions to SIPAc.u.m. The puter dropped the little s.p.a.cer sidewise, then sent it zipping off in a new direction. "Is that all, Kimry? Nothing but asteroids?"
"That"s all. . . . " Kimry"s voice thrummed, taut with frustration. "The only other thing is what the index shows as a CongCorp communications relay station."
"CongCorp!" Chan snorted. "Huh-heard about the holomeller that hotcha blond and the purple jacko from Eilon"re making? CongCorp"s in deep tr-"
Once again Janja cut in on him. "A comm-relay station? Where is it?"
Kimry checked the coordinates and read them off, just as Swayn came into the con-cabin.
"Captain!"
"Just a min, Swayn." Janja had fed the coordinates into SIPAc.u.m. "We head for SwineCorp"s relay station-we"ll go in on a double ellipse. Hang on, m"dears!" Her voice sounded almost ready to chuckle in an unaccountable rush of delight.
"Just what I was going to suggest, Captain!" Swayn said happily. The man who claimed both Rahman and far Suzi as home planet moved in behind Chan"s chair.
"What"s to be gained?" Kimry wanted to know.
"Tell "em then, Swayn," Janja snapped. "I"m busy!"
Swayn laughed aloud and spread large hands at the end of long arms, the wrists thick slabs of bone emerging from the sleeves of his jumpsuit-its color was what Kemah had referred to as "grunje-brown."
"Don"t you see? It"s just what we need. No policer"s going to do any shooting with a CC relay station around! They"re fixed pseudo-satellites that handle all message traffic to and from CongCorp headquarters, 152.
for one thing. True, CC"s in a lot of trouble over that planet Eilong thing,* but they"re mighty big taxpayers on Luhra, I remember that. The relay stations are indispensable. They also cost too much! All that equipment-grabbles, they"re well equipped, believe it. Even a direct link to CC"s data banks."
"Uh-huh," Chan put in in a grumbly voice, "that"s why they set the things up like forts in s.p.a.ce. What we should be doing is getting ourselves ready to welcome a boarding party-"n then we"d have hostages!"
"You"re not thinking, Chan," his captain told him. "We aren"t bent on attacking that "fort in s.p.a.ce." We merely put ourselves between it and the Luhran pa-troller."
"Huh," Swayn said, beaming at his captain. "Let anyone attack a comm-relay station, maybe damage one-Sheol!-CongCorp wouldn"t waste time on complaints or trials. They"d just turn it over to their ruf-fos." He startled Chanthawan by reaching down and drawing a finger across the yellow-bronze throat of the seated man. "If you weren"t dead when those apes got through with you, you"d wish you were!"
"Hey, hands off," the Saipese said, twisting in the mate"s chair.
"I give up," Kimry said. "So why are we heading straight for it, then?"
Janja was smiling. "Because-"
"s.p.a.cer Hornet! We are holding fire, but-you really aren"t going to be so stupid as to make a run for it, are you?"
Janja b.u.t.toned the ship-to-ship commsender. "Goshawk, if I had known this ship was wanted when I s.p.a.cEWAYS#16, The Planet Murderer 153.
closed the deal for it three days ago on Terasaki, I wouldn"t! We"re innocent of any wrongdoing and I"m sure your scanners read absolutely no action in our DS area." She b.u.t.toned off. "There-that might keep "em thinking and conferring for a half-min, and we don"t need much more. It"s this way, Kimry: check your chart again. The coordinates you gave me for the relay station are mere kilometers outside Luhra"s official defense area. We head straight for the station with them following, but daring not fire. We zip around it and are outside their jurisdiction. We also keep right on going- fast. Stand by for acceleration!"
"Aha!" Chan cried, and Kimry made a similar exultant noise.
SIPAc.u.m cut in just then, in response to its instructions. Hornet was immediately accelerating at a rate that had Swayn clinging to the back of Chan"s chair and rammed Kimry back against the wall-and tied knots in every belly onboard. On the console"s microscreen, light-dots blurred. Someone from Goshawk was babbling at them, but the comm came through all garbled.
Then, "d.a.m.n. One problem, Cap"m," Chan said. "They"re just as fast as we are."