The Agent Gambit

by Sharon Lee

  "What?" she demanded.

  "Coord book." He sat back on his heels and looked at her. "Miri, when you were gathering things together, did you come across a book, about so-" He shaped it in the air with quick golden fingers. "-probably bound in leather, containing many thin, metallic pages? It would have been in this room."

  She shook her head. "Would've showed you something like that first, in case it was important."

  He snapped to his feet and made a quick circuit of the room, checking behind and under every instrument panel and chair. Miri got up, pushed at the cushion in her chair looking for large lumps, but found none; she gave the pilot's chair the same treatment, then shook her head. Nothing.

  She turned to say so and froze. Val Con was standing in the center of the room, staring at the screen. There was no particular expression on his face.

  "Coord book's pretty important?" she ventured, coming to his side and laying a cautious hand on his arm.

  He moved his eyes to her face. "Without coordinates, there is no Jump. Coordinates define direction, shape, location."

  She considered the implications of his words. "Think Borg Tanser knows that?"

  "Yes," he said grimly. "I do."

  "Can't Jump without coords?" she persisted. "Take luck of the draw?"

  He shook his head. "I could invent some coordinates, just to initiate a Jump, but the chances are very, very good that we'd leave drive to find ourselves inside a sun, or a planet, or an asteroid belt, or another ship, or-"

  She laid her hand over his mouth. "Got it." She closed her eyes to think. Thin metallic pages? She had seen something, just recently. Not a book, but something. . . .

  "Like this?" She snapped open her pouch, pulled out the dead man's effects, and held out the metal rectangle.

  Val Con took it, his eyes questioning.

  "The guy in the hold," she explained. "I thought-maybe somebody might want to know what happened."

  "Ah." He nodded. "We will tell his family, then." He turned his attention to the rectangle. "Why carry it with him?"

  "Will it work?" she demanded.

  He was on his way back to the board. "We will see what the computer thinks." Sliding into the pilot's chair, he inserted the page in a slot near the top of the board, flipped two switches, and hit a button.

  Lights began to flicker and displays glowed to life. Miri settled back in the copilot's chair to watch.

  "Perhaps a student?" Val Con murmured, more to himself than to her, his eyes on the readouts. "A smuggler?" He shook his head as the board flickered into stillness and the slot allowed the metal page to rise to convenient gripping height.

  "Will it work?" she asked again, trying to keep the edge out of her voice.

  He spun the chair to face her. "There is one set of coordinates within our range," he said slowly. "This particular page holds four. I am familiar with only one set-far out of range. It is for orbit around a planet called Pelaun, an inhabited world that has achieved the technical expertise necessary to establish electronic communication, transworld."

  She blinked. "Spaceflight?"

  "None."

  "And the other coords? The one that's in our range?" She had a feeling she knew what the answer was going to be.

  "They are not familiar to me," he said. "The only reason I recall the coords for Pelaun is because I was first Scout in-system."

  "Well, I don't know as how I can think of anything much worse than being stuck for the rest of my life on some podunk world that thinks a planet-wide comm-net's a big deal."

  He smiled slightly. "It's a bit less spectacular than a comm-net," he said gently. "Voice transmission only; no image. And the reception is horrible."

  Miri stared at him, but he seemed to be serious. She shifted her eyes to the screen-and sat frozen for a long heartbeat while her mind scrambled to find words for what her eyes were seeing.

  "Val Con?" her voice rasped out of her tight throat.

  "Yes."

  "Something worse," she told him. "There's Yxtrang, just Jumped in-system . . . ."

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  THE YXTRANG PILOT stared at the readout in disbelief, upped the magnification, and checked the readings once more, cold dread in his heart.

  "Commander. Pilot requests permission to speak."

  "Permission granted," Khaliiz said.

  "The vessel which we captured on our last pass through this system is moving under power, Commander. The scans read the life forces of two creatures."

  "Pilot's report heard and acknowledged. Stand by for orders. Second!"

  "Commander."

  "It was reported to me that none were left alive aboard yon vessel, Second. Discover the man who lied and bring him to me at once."

  His Second saluted. "At once, Commander." He turned and marched from the bridge.

  Khaliiz eyed the screen, perceived the ship-bounty slipping through his fingers, and was displeased.

  "Pursue."

  VAL CON CURSED VERY softly, then snapped back to the board, slapped the page into its slot, and demanded coords, position, speed, condition of power in the coils.

  They were moving at about one-quarter the speed they could muster, locally. The Yxtrang were pouring on speed, moving to intercept.

  "Could we leave now?" asked a small voice to his left.

  He turned his head. Miri was sitting rigidly in the copilot's chair, her eyes frozen on the screen and the growing shape of the Yxtrang vessel. Her face was the color of milk; her freckles stood out vividly.

  "We must wait until the power has reached sufficient level and the coordinates are locked into the board," he said, keeping his voice even. "We will leave in a few minutes."

  "They'll be here in a few minutes." She bit her lip, hard, and managed to drag her eyes from the screen to his face. "Val Con, I'm afraid of Yxtrang."

  He was aware of the tightness of the muscles in his own face, and did not try to give her a smile. "I am also afraid of Yxtrang," he said gently. His eyes flicked to the board, then to the screen. "Strap in."

  "What're you gonna do?" She was watching him closely. Some of the color had returned to her face, but she was still stiff in every muscle.

  "There is a game Terrans sometimes play," he murmured, dividing his attention between board and screen, his fingers busy with his own straps, "called 'chicken' . . . Strap in, cha'trez."

  Moving like a manikin, she obeyed; she forced herself to lean back in the chair, her eyes on his profile.

  He flipped a toggle. "I see you, Chrakec Yxtrang. Pass us by. We are unworthy to be your prey."

  There was a pause for transmission, then a voice, harsh as broken glass, replied in Trade. "Unworthy? Thieves are always worthy game! That ship is ours, Liaden; we have won it once."

  "Forgive us, Ckrakec Yxtrang, we are here by no fault of our own. We are not worthy of you. Pass by."

  "Release my prize, Liaden, or I shall wrest it from you, and you will die."

  Miri licked her lips, steadfastly refusing to look at the screen. Val Con's face was smooth and calm, his voice nearly gentle. "If I release your prize, I shall die in any case. Pass by, Hunter. There is only I, who am recently wounded."

  "My scans show two, Liaden."

  Miri closed her eyes. Val Con, measuring board against screen, eased the speed of the ship higher, toward the halfway point. "Only a woman, Ckrakec Yxtrang. What proof is that of your skill?"

  There was a pause, during which Val Con slipped the speed up another notch and pressed the sequence that locked in the coords.

  "Will it please you, when you are captured, Liaden, to watch me while I take my pleasure from your woman? Afterward, I shall blind you and give you as a toy to my crew."

  "Alas, Ckrakec Yxtrang, these things would but cause me pain." Coils up! The Yxtrang were finally near enough, beginning the boarding maneuver, matching velocity, and direction . . . .

  "It would give you pain!" the Yxtrang cried. "All things give Liadens pain! They are a soft race, born to
be the prey of the strong. In time, there will be no more Liadens. The cities of Liad will house the children of Yxtrang."

  "What then will you hunt, O Hunter?" He flipped a series of toggles, leaned back in the pilot's chair, and held a hand out to Miri.

  Slowly the ship began to spin.

  There was a roar of laughter from the Yxtrang, horrible to hear. "Very good, Liaden! Never shall it be said, after you are dead, that you were an unworthy rabbit. A good maneuver. But not good enough."

  In the screen, the Yxtrang ship began to spin as well, matching velocity uncertainly.

  Miri's hand was cold in his. He squeezed it, gave her a quick smile, and released her, returning to the board.

  He gave the ship more spin, and a touch more speed. The Yxtrang moved to match both. Val Con added again to the spin, but left the speed steady.

  "Enough, Liaden! What do you hope to win? The ship is ours, and we will act to keep it. Do you imagine I will grow tired of the game and leave? Do you not know that even now I might fire upon you and lay you open to the cold of space?"

  "There is no bounty on ruined ships, Ckrakec Yxtrang, nor any glory in reporting that a Liaden outwitted you. But," he said, sighing deeply, "perhaps you are young and this your first hunt-"

  There was a scream of rage over the comm, and the Yxtrang ship edged closer. Val Con added more spin; ship's gravity was increasing, and lifting his arm above the board the few inches required to manipulate the keys was an effort. His lungs were laboring a little for air. He glanced over at Miri. She grinned raggedly.

  "How much faster will you spin, Liaden? Until the gravity crushes you?"

  "If necessary. I am determined that you will collect no bounty on this ship, Chrakec Yxtrang. It has become a matter of honor." He increased the spin. He paused with his hand on the velocity lever.

  "Speak not to me of honor, animal! We have toyed long enough. We shall-"

  Val Con shoved the velocity to the top, slammed on more spin, hesitated, counting, eyes on the board-

  Jump!

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  THE BLAST HIT like a tsunami, rocking the Yxtrang ship. Overloaded equipment sparked and smoked; crew members not firmly tied down joined other loose debris thrown against walls, floor, and ceiling.

  The spin made it hard to stand, to move, to understand what had happened. For the moment, chaos held the ship in its grip and squeezed lungs tight, nerves tighter.

  "Report! Report now!"

  Reports began to trickle in. The pilot was dazed beyond sense, his Adjutant thrown against the wall . . . .

  The crew slowly pulled themselves together. Khaliiz took over the pilot's chair, read the impossible readings, and used emergency rockets to slow the spin. The Adjutant came to and began his work; he found whole compartments which refused to answer in the near darkness of the emergency lighting.

  It became obvious that there was no such thing as a system: Individual processors still carried out their work, but the command computers were out, as were the backups.

  Gravity came back to near normal as Khaliiz gained more and more control of his vessel. A technician managed to get one screen working, though Khaliiz was forced to rotate the ship to achieve a full 360-degree view capability.

  "Commander, what happened?" ventured the Adjutant.

  "Work! We speak of this later."

  THEY HIT NORMAL space spinning. Hands flickered over an alarm-lit board, easing acceleration, killing spin, slowing all systems back to normal.

  Val Con, shivering with reaction, drooped in the pilot's seat and turned his head, mouth curving in a smile. Then he gave a start.

  Miri hung limp in the copilot's chair, held erect by the webbing, head lolling, face too white.

  His fingers fumbled with the straps and he was out of the chair, kneeling before her to seek the fragile pulse in the throat. "Miri?" he whispered.

  Her pulse was strong, her breathing deep. He closed his eyes in relief, then snapped to his feet and gathered her in his arms. He curled her on his lap, her head resting on his shoulder, and sat listening to her breathe and watching the unfamiliar pattern of light that was the system they were bound for.

  After a time she stirred, muttering something unintelligible, and raised her head to stare into his face, her eyes slightly narrowed, as if she were looking into too bright a light.

  "What'd you do?"

  He lifted a brow. "When?"

  She raised a hand to gesture vaguely, then allowed it to find a resting place on his chest. "With Yxtrang. Why'd they have to be so close? And the gravity-" She shuddered and his arms tightened momentarily.

  "I am sorry," he said, "about the gravity. For the rest-" He grinned. "Allow me to give you your first lesson in piloting, which is this: Never, under any circumstances at all, take a ship into drive when there is another ship or mass closer than one thousandth of a light-second in any direction. It is a very dangerous thing to do. On the occasions when it has been done, one of two things occurred.

  "Sometimes both objects go into hyperspace where it was planned only one would go. Neither comes out.

  "The second possibility is that-if you are lucky, or foolhardy, or afraid-you will do everything perfectly for your ship and make the Jump without mishap." He sighed. "But the ship that remains behind is then immediately caught in a hysteresis energy effect proportional to the velocity and spin of the vessel that Jumped . . . ."

  Miri stared at him. "Poor Yxtrang," she said, her tone belying her words. "And we're okay? On course? Whatever that means."

  He nodded. "The ship is intact and we are proceeding at moderate velocity toward an unfamiliar planetary system. We should reach scanning range in-" He glanced at the board. "-seven hours."

  She sighed. "Time for a good, long sleep. Or something."

  "Or something," he agreed, lifting a hand to trace the line of her cheek with a light fingertip.

  She grinned, then her smile faded and she pulled away from his caress, using the hand that rested on his chest to emphasize her words.

  "I want you to understand one thing, okay? No distress beacons. It goes off five feet from us, we ain't moving from this ship, accazi?"

  "Yes, Miri," he murmured penitently, unable to control the twitch at the side of his mouth.

  "Ah, you-" She leaned forward to kiss him.

  THE THIRD PLANET had possibilities, he thought some while later. Too far out for decent scanning yet-not that this brute had anything like the instrumentation a Scout ship carried-but it definitely seemed the most likely of the five.

  "They're all dead, ain't they?" said a voice at his elbow. "No stations, no traffic, no orbitals . . . ." Staring at the screen, her face bleak, the glow of lovemaking gone out of her, she was shaking her head at the five little planets and their lovely yellow sun. "We're stuck in the back end of nowhere and we ain't never gettin' out." Her mouth twisted and she turned to look at him. "You think there's any people?"

  He suddenly recalled the training she had not had. "Many people. At least on the third planet. See that silvery shimmer over the land mass that looks like a wine bottle?"

  She squinted. "Yeah . . . . What is it?"

  "Smog." He smiled and took her hands in his. "Miri, listen: Where there is smog, there's technology. Where there's technology, there exists the means to build a transmitter. Where there's a signal, sooner or later, is a rescue." He lifted an eyebrow, winning a glimmer of her smile.

  "You don't think Edger will let us stay missing, do you?" he asked. "He's bound to be along, in a decade or two . . . ."

  EPILOGUE

  THE ADJUTANT SAT with the Engineer and the Commander, apart from the crew.

  "Report," Khaliiz ordered.

  The Engineer reported that things were not well. The Adjutant reported that a number of men were dead, more injured: the ship would be hard put to resist a determined boarding party. The Engineer, quaking, reported that it might not be possible to have full power drive for home.

  Khaliiz tho
ught.

  "It is apparent," he said. "that the vessel we approached had been badly damaged in the previous battle. It exploded, giving up what energy was left in its drive cells."

  He pointed at the Engineer. "You will make the reports read so, as you value the air you breathe!

  "Who swore the ship empty, Adjutant?"

  "Sir, it was my Second, Thrik."

  "You will shoot him, personally. You will then record your demotion to Assistant Cook. This will be your lifegrade. You failed in your choice of assistants."

  "Yes, sir. Thank you, sir," the Assistant Cook said.

  "Get out!"

  Khaliiz played idly with the cover of the destruct switch, though he had made his decision when he ordered the man shot. If he had meant to destroy the ship, he would have ordered the Second Adjutant to push the button. But he played with the cover, anyway, wondering if he'd been tricked-wondering if the little Liaden had blown himself up on purpose. Or if it had been an accident.

  A distant boom claimed his attention, the echo ringing as an explosive gunblast will inside a ship.

  It had been an accident, the Commander decided. For centuries, Liadens had lacked the courage to emulate the Yxtrang-lacked the honor to be truly worthy opponents. That could not change.

  An accident.

  CARPE DIEM

  A Liaden Universe® Novel

  SECOND QUADRANT:

  Ramal Sector

  The pilot stared at the readout in disbelief, upped the magnification, and checked the readings once more, cold dread in his heart.

  "Commander. Pilot requests permission to speak."

  "Permission granted," Khaliiz said.

  "The vessel which we captured on our last pass through this system is moving under power, Commander. The scans read the life forces of two creatures."

  "Pilot's report heard and acknowledged. Stand by for orders. Second!"