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The guys in the Cybertech Unit felt they were getting close now to being able to pluck their people out of the malfunctioning Holodream Suite. 'The Captain and Pierpoint are in that baby performing miracles,' one geek told Latonia. 'I only hope when we get friend Venner out he'll appreciate what they've been through.' 'If they had let me in there I could have done something, I'm sure of it,' said Lonnie Pascoe, who was standing beside Latonia. 'Well, the Captain overruled everybody,' said the geek. 'If anyone on that level went in it should have been Commander Flax, but Captain Cutter pulled rank you might say and barged in to do his bit. And I must admit he has coped OK so far, sticking to the parameters we were talking about earlier, and that's not so easy when you're in there. If you go in and start chipping away at the illusion of it you will throw the margins out, man. Then everything could pop, just literally POP.' 'So there's Venner, the Captain, and of course, Hollis in there,' said Lonnie. 'Yes, we authorised Hollis Pierpoint for various reasons, the chief one being his security clearance. How much he knows about anything is anyone's guess, but I would put it high.' 'He underplays himself, that man, but I would value his contribution in a fight above that of practically anyone else on board,' said Latonia. Lonnie reddened. 'I just wish I coulda done my bit too,' he said, 'particularly as I was the only one hip to Drax's game when he threw Venner into the Holodream.' 'That's true, Lonnie, no one might have known what was going on otherwise,' said Latonia, putting her hand on Pascoe's shoulder patronisingly. Anyone else might have squirmed, but Lonnie liked any kind of touch from Latonia. Commander Billy Flax, Cutter's First Officer, entered the studio with a handful of passengers. 'They are not really allowed in here,' the geek said to Latonia. 'Talk about clearance, theirs must be nil,' she replied. 'They could be bug-eyed agents from anywhere and we wouldn't know. What's the idea of bringing them in here, they'll get in the way, won't they?' 'Billy is throwing them a bone, They're on some sort of a panel the passengers got up,' muttered Lonnie, who had been enjoying the confidence of the Captain and Billy Flax ever since his tussle with Drax Deerfield in the corridor of the Holodream Suite. 'Why has he got to throw them a bone?' asked Latonia. 'Because,' said the geek, 'so much of the Tortuga's energy is being directed into the Holodream Suite right now that it's safer not to continue the cruise, which is what they've all paid for. It's better just to hang fire.' 'For now, anyway,' said Commander Flax, who had caught the tail end of their conversation. 'We can get about on impulse power if we need to, of course, but there's insufficient energy to go into warp, if we should need it. That means we are basically hanging in space. So the passengers just have to amuse themselves on board. We'll soon be in orbit around the next planet on the itinerary, and everything will be jake.' Commander Flax introduced the geek to the passengers, and the geek explained what was being done in the Holodream Suite: programs were being rewritten around an unfortunate passenger who had got into the machinery and must be got out without being mangled. In addition to this, a lot of the ship's power had had to be diverted into the Holodream Suite to create new environments off the cuff as it were. This meant that temporarily they had to 'feather their oars', as he put it. Afterwards, the passengers came around and shook hands with them all and left. 'It's great that he was able to calm them all down with a satisfying explanation,' said Latonia. 'They could have caused a lot of trouble.' 'Yes, but if that didn't work, we've still got 'em you see,' said Billy Flax. 'Look at this.' He handed Latonia a piece of paper with a section underlined. 'The Captain or his surrogate' she read, 'may change course or adhere to no course, as necessary, to maintain the safety and integrity of his ship.' 'Every one of them signed it when they booked their passage,' said Flax. There was a commotion at the door and a red-haired girl in a cotton dress and cloak appeared. She brushed dust off her clothes. 'You got out already? Through the vent?' said the geek. 'The route out just naturally led that way,' she replied, taking off her red wig to show pixie-cut fair hair. 'How are they doing?' Flax asked the girl. She smiled. 'Amazingly! It was like a second life all right in there, I can understand those people who go crazy for it and never want to come back to this same old game of long hours and hard-earned credits.' 'Did you manage to slip the note to Pierpoint?' 'Yes,' she said with a sigh, still exuberant, but starting to adjust back to her normal working conditions. 'The others were following me out of this cave we were stuck in. They should be coming through too by now.' 'Out to the corridor, then!' said the geek, and all of them, including the girl, trotted out to the ship's corridor to wait by the grating where, some days before, Venner had emerged and gone back in again with Julian. 'Damned weird way of getting out of a Holodream, I would have thought,' said Lonnie to Billy Flax. 'She went in the normal gateway, I take it, just like any passenger? And then she came out down there along the skirting board like a rat? Why couldn't she have just walked out the way she went in?' 'Well,' said Flax, 'the air duct was a way that worked for Venner, so, things being as they were, all improvisation like, it was decided to stick with it.' 'This is all cutting edge we've got here today, man,' said the geek. 'We're just winging it as we go.' They turned a corner and there in the corridor was the grating on the deck, and alongside it a small pile of dust. 'Hopefully they'll soon be out,' said the geek, and they all got ready to wait. Some sat on the floor, some leaned against the wall. Word had gone around the ship, and an eager crowd of passengers and off-duty crew was soon filling the corridor. Every eye was on the humble air vent. 'Send for security just in case,' Flax said to an officer with a grin, 'but the folk can watch it all, if they remain orderly. They deserve an eyeful. They'll relish the sight of their Captain emerging out of the bowels of the ship just like a big hero ready to be covered with tinsel.' There was a rumbling behind the wall and soon a head appeared and a pair of manly shoulders. Somebody crawled out. It was Lupo Venner. 'A Top Hat! Give us a song!' someone shouted, and there was laughter and a round of applause. Following him was a coffee-coloured man who was unknown to the passengers, but he too got a round of applause. Next was Captain Cutter himself, wearing a hooded robe. Last out, and with some difficulty, was that ball of fire with a laugh on his lips known as Hollis Pierpoint.
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In no time the passengers on the Tortuga, that is to say those who had noticed any difference, sank back into their holiday routines. There would be no more inconveniences now the ship was vibrating once more with the pulsations of the ship's reactor. (Though Cutter insisted the difference could not possibly be felt by either passengers or crew, many swore the opposite.) At any rate, the starliner resumed its silky pathway across the galaxy. Venner, like the others from the Holodream Suite, was put on a recuperation ward, in a room on his own. He was happy to have some bed rest, and they had provided sweets and fruit and magazines 'You are in great shape,' said a security officer who had just been briefed by the consultant who was checking out the Holodream evacuees. 'The only glitch is that scratch on your side, but since you've had the infection laser-lanced, it's now all but healed, what?' 'Yes,' said Venner, who had been surprised how quickly the suppurating cut had responded. 'The only thing is, we've been wondering about your companion, this Julian fellow?' 'Julian? Is he all right?' 'Oh yes, tip-top. Amazing, really. After all, he's only what our tech friends call an Outline. So what's he doing here in the big world?' The officer, a tall fellow with a bland face and a pencil moustache, looked at Venner as if he could be part of some kind of immigration scam. 'All I know is, he helped me, and actually saved my life, in Hilldorp in South Africa, in ancient Rome, and in the leafy depths of old Sherwood Forest.' 'You mean he travelled between scenarios too? They say that's impossible.' 'Well, he did it, and so did some of his friends. Don't forget, the Holodream world was quaking at the seams. There were any number of anomalies in there at the time, if you ask me.' 'You're probably right,' said the officer, making a note on his palm screen. Venner's next visitor was Latonia Fletcher. He had heard from Pierpoint all about her crash landing with Helen in the corridor of the To
rtuga. He gave her a brotherly hug. 'Where's Helen?' he asked. Latonia could be irritating and cloying, but Helen was something else. 'I haven't seen that much of her since returning to the ship,' said Latonia. 'I'm sure she's heard about the great news from the Holodream Suite though. Everybody has.' 'Is there anything wrong?' said Venner. 'You're glad you got out of that Holodream aren't you? You look sort of forlorn. I thought you'd be dancing.' She grinned. 'Of course I'm glad to be out. We're all exhausted though, aren't we? But they do say you get a high in the Holodream that you will never find out here, and it's a come-down.' 'Oh yeah, I'm with you on that.' 'But Ven, I have to tell you something. I only came aboard the Tortuga in the first place, and I only followed you into the South African scenario, because I had been commissioned to do so.' 'What, someone instructed you to follow me?' 'I wouldn't have been on board otherwise.' 'To follow me, that's why you're on board? I thought you must be an heiress of some kind, sent on a trip by an indulgent father.' 'I was sent from Pellax by the Patriotic Resurgence.' 'I've heard about them, vaguely,' said Venner. 'They're still not out in the open, but they're not crackpots. They're going to throw the Galerians out if they can, and they want you, as the heir by blood descended from the Ralladarians and Kleissenbergs, to become king.' Venner went to the window and looked out at the blackness of space dotted with pins of fire. He forced a laugh. 'All my life I've known there was something strange going on somehow, something concerning Rollo Ralladar, and that I had a part in it.' 'Well yes, you've got a massive and glorious part in it and in the history of Pellax.' 'Maybe I don't want it!' he shouted. 'It is your birthright and, really and truly, your duty.' 'That may be your opinion. I'm saying I'm not sure I want all that. I wouldn't know what to do, I've had no training for the role. You have to be brought up to it, don't you? It's not just an instinct.' 'They know all that and it doesn't matter. The main thing is that you are the son of your father. And I don't mean Wallace Venner. You are healthy, you're sane and you are resourceful. There will be plenty of advisers to help you to govern, so you don't have to worry about that.' 'I would rather pass the cup.' 'You would? You must remember if you do that, go your own way, you'll be on your own so far as your security goes. The Galerians won't simply write you off and leave you to go on your merry way. They'll want to get rid of you because there's always the possibility that one day you'll change your mind, or be persuaded, or forced, to contend against them. Because that's a pretty good right to the throne of Mazarat and the whole Empire of Pellax that you've got running in your veins. I was in contact with the leader of the Patriotic Resurgence yesterday.' 'What, this Tak Vakrovar?' 'Yes, he's the man who recruited me back in Caram City and gave me my ticket for the Tortuga. Won't you at least let me tell him that you are willing to hear him out?' 'Just leave me alone for now, Tonia. I have to clear my head before deciding anything. It's like a whirlwind at the moment. By the way, do you know where Julian is?' 'Julian? Yes, he's down the corridor, next to where I was. I think he's Room 17.' 'OK, I'll go and see him.' 'Shall I call back, uh, in a little while?' 'Yes, come back tomorrow, but don't build your hopes up that I'll be leading any attack on the Galerian crowd. I don't love them by any means, but I may just decide to leave it to settle itself.' 'You'd throw away a kingdom, literally?' 'Let's talk about it tomorrow.' When she had left, giving him a sorrowful look that didn't seem to him to have anything to do with politics, he went along the corridor to Room 17. It was empty. He turned to look for a nurse to ask where Julian might be when a white oblong of paper propped against a lamp on the side table caught his eye. It was an envelope addressed to 'Mr L. Venner'. Julian must have got this from one of the ship's 'candy girls' who pushed trolleys full of magazines, sweets, and cigars around the corridors. The card inside read: 'I could stay no longer. I must return to the veldt until I can see you again, my Baasi. Yours, Julian.'
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'That damned Drax needs his ticket punched,' said Prince Barratat on the steps of the Royal Guard after leaving Spurgo's suite. 'I might get you to deal with him, Russ. He's just a flyweight. man, and needs swatting. Just an incompetent idiot. And did you see the way he sucked up to that snub-nosed pirate? As for Mr Erloch Spurgo himself, he doesn't know what he'll be missing, man. He had a chance to be in with us, but he's started to draw some heavy shit down onto himself this morning, I tell you that.' The Prince conferred briefly with Tyler, giving him couple of errands to run. 'Meet us back at Countess Palodia's residence this afternoon,' he said. Russ tried not to squirm around in the taxi headed towards the mansion of Countess Palodia for lunch. It was not the first time he had had to sit there while the Prince cursed out the latest scaly-back who had incurred his anger. As for their destination, Russ was surprised. He had expected to go back to Drax's gaff. He had not thought he would ever see the Countess's place, but for some reason the Prince did not seem to wish to part with him for now. Lounging back in the smoothly gliding air taxi, Barratat started getting nostalgic about Pellax. 'Everybody understands our claims on the throne of Mazarat are better founded than any of those put up by those pretentious guttersnipes the Kleissenberg-Ralladarians,' he assured Russ. Tyler did not show up that afternoon, nor that evening. The errands the Prince had sent him on must have been completed long ago, he should have been back. But the next morning the police called at Palodia's mansion and delivered the news that his man was dead. Barratat cursed. 'There's even more shit falling on us than we thought. Someone is close up on us all right, Russ. Those same Ralladarians, you can bet, who shot at us on the way to Spurgo's. They are making things hot, man. And Drax is probably not the only rat leaving the ship.' That was as close as the Prince went to commenting on the loss of Tyler. Russ went out to a tavern to drink a cup of wine and spill some for the spirit of his comrade. Barratat shrugged off Tyler, and he'd show the same consideration for me, Russ thought to himself. Not that he had been any great fan of Tyler's, though they had passed as friends in the scheme of things. Tyler was a pig, but they had had some comradely times together. That night another wedge went in between him and his Prince. He had served him loyally, and accepted pay regularly, but so what? His Prince? Barratat Galerian did not seem HIS at all, actually. One good thing was that at Palodia's palace, as Russ thought of it, he had been given a whole floor, with a massive bath tub and a huge deep bed of furs and silks. The Prince had made his night there even better by leeringly handing him a catalogue of girls who were available from a nearby establishment. Russ carefully picked a companion for the night. She was so good he wanted her to stay for breakfast. 'No, this lovely will have to say goodbye for now,' said the Prince, giving her a bag full of clinking baubles. He kept a supply of these about him, they eased the way on all sorts of occasions. The girl looked into the velvet bag and squealed with delight, barely waving goodbye to Russ. 'We've got some male company coming in,' Barratat said to Russ with a wink. Of the three fellows who came for coffee, two were Pellacians, from their uniforms senior officers of Mazarat's 6th Fleet. The other was an unknown man in civilian garb, but like the others he had the steady, watchful bearing of a seasoned flyer. No names were given. 'It's an attack on the Tortuga I'm thinking of. Maybe we should just blast it out of the sky,' said Barratat. 'The Ralladarian tadpole is still on there, so maybe we should just blow the whole ship. Let him join his ashes with those of his Kleissenberg-Ralladarian ancestors.' 'We were afraid that was what you were leading up to, my Prince,' said the elder of the two officers. 'The starliner is Federation Accredited and carries more than six hundred passengers from places scattered along the rim of the galaxy. If the Tortuga were destroyed and suspicion fell on you, you would find the whole Federation of Planets ranged against you and your house.' 'No one must know, that's all,' said Barratat. 'Couldn't it be made to look accidental?' This frivolous afterthought of the Prince's was simply ignored. 'We mustn't forget we have twenty-two of our secret service agents on board the starliner, in deep cover,' said the younger officer. 'Are you saying they are irreplaceable?' 'Perhaps not, but these are high-q
uality men and women, loyal officers with years of training and experience behind them. Are they to be sacrificed just so that one man can be blotted out in the selfsame blast?' 'That one man, known as Lupo Venner, happens to be the biggest threat against the Galerian Dynasty,' said Barratat. 'And what are you, anyway, a squadron commander or an accountant?' Though he coloured up, the officer held his ground. 'There are many better ways of trapping or eliminating this Venner individual than attempting to destroy a Federation Accredited starliner.' 'That's right,' said the man without a uniform. 'We should also remember that the ship would be no pushover. She's got fifteen fighter bays, each of which holds a TR60. They've also got heavy armour throughout the ship, and dozens of state-of-the-art torpedoes.' 'These details are nothing to me as they were nothing to a common pirate who was able to board the ship without any trouble. I only wish he had stayed with me long enough to work out how to destroy it. I would have given him a totally free hand.'
By the Time I Get to Pellax Page 18
