by Speer, Flora
“If you can reach the release button just above my head,” Perri said, “the bands will retract and I will be free to help you stand up.”
“Yes. Good idea.” With some difficulty Halvo got his right arm over his head. His searching fingers found the button and pushed. He tried to make his mind a blank so he would not react out of passionate desire when Perri touched him. She seemed to be unaware of his response to physical contact with her, but Halvo knew he would not soon forget the sensation of her lithe body sliding out from under his or the gentle strength of her small hands. Then he was on his feet, and the pain in his spine was minimal. After carefully straightening his back, Halvo made his way to the controls.
“Perri, come and help me move Rolli.”
“I’m here.” She was right behind him, and she gave him an encouraging glance before turning her attention to the robot. “Oh, poor Rolli,” she said, regarding the blackened fingers still resting on the control for Starthruster.
“Don’t touch anything that’s metal until I have shut down the panel,” Halvo said.
It only took a moment, then he let Perri roll the robot out of the way.
“We’ll fix it later, when we have more time,” Halvo said, seating himself.
“Do you know how to pilot the ship?” Perri crouched down beside him, eager to help. Halvo wasn’t sure why she was so calm when she had previously been so upset, but he blessed her self-control.
“I was flying ships like this before you were born,” he said. “I haven’t forgotten how. Your knees and back are younger than mine, so you are going to have to do the repair work. I want you to crawl under this control panel and follow my instructions.”
“Don’t say that.”
“Don’t say what?”
“You are not so much older than I.”
“Tell that to my doctors.”
“Your injuries will heal in time, Halvo.” Did she know what the soft touch of her hand on his thigh was doing to him? “It seems to me that you are not as pale as you were when you first came aboard the Space Dragon.”
“I’m sure that’s true.” Halvo looked down upon her dark red hair and barely restrained himself from twisting his hands into it and lifting her face to his. “Here is what I want you to do. It’s fairly simple. You won’t even need tools.” Swiftly, he gave her the repair instructions.
“Are you certain I won’t destroy the ship?” she asked. “I have no mechanical ability at all.”
“It’s a perfectly simple adjustment,” Halvo said. “If you aren’t sure about something, just ask a few questions.”
“That I can do.” After giving him a wry smile, she lowered her head and went to work.
Halvo tried not to react when she brushed against his legs as she moved around down there beneath the control panel. However, he did find it impossible to keep his eyes off the beautifully rounded buttocks that shifted and moved back and forth just beside his seat. His gratitude knew no bounds when Perri finally completed the repairs and crawled out again to stand behind his chair.
“Will it work now?” As she bent forward to look at the control panel, her breast pressed on his shoulder and her warm fragrance filled his senses.
“Stand back,” he ordered brusquely. “You are in the way.”
She said nothing more, but she did move. Halvo breathed a sigh of relief and refused to think about his growing frustration. Then he brought the control panels back on-line and deactivated Starthruster. At last he was able to fire the braking rockets. The Space Dragon slowed, and as it did, the dangerous vibrations gradually stopped.
“Oh, thank you.” Looking as if she might cry, Perri collapsed into the navigator’s chair. “You saved us. The ship will hold together, won’t it?”
“I think so. For the time being, at least. You did the actual repairs, Perri. I should be thanking you.” And he knew just how he would like to thank her, too. Gods of Demaria, what was wrong with him? Why did he think about making passionate love to her every time he looked at her? “Because it has been too cursed long a time,” he muttered, answering his own questions.
“I beg your pardon, Halvo?”
“It has been too long since I last piloted a ship like this,” Halvo said hastily. “In my younger days, I used to be a hotshot pilot.”
“I think you still are.” The brilliant smile Perri gave him nearly took Halvo’s breath away.
Chapter Six
There had not been much reason for Perri to smile in recent days. Nor was there cause for rejoicing at that moment. Her relief at the knowledge that death by disintegration was no longer imminent quickly gave way to pangs of guilt.
“Halvo, I do not know how to express my regret for what I have done to you.” She was still seated in the navigator’s chair, with Halvo in the copilot’s chair. The pilot’s place was empty because it was Rolli’s place and the robot did not require a seat.
At her words, Halvo turned to look at her with a burning intensity that Perri interpreted as anger.
“I am truly sorry,” she whispered, hoping she might avert his rage by enlarging her apology. “I will do anything I can to make it up to you.”
“We will discuss it later. I’m sure I will be able to think of something you can do for me.” A silver light smoldered in Halvo’s gray eyes.
“I ought also to thank you for being clever enough to save our lives.” Perri was disconcerted by Halvo’s steady gaze. Remembering Elyr’s cold anger whenever she did something wrong, she was a bit fearful of Halvo’s present mood. “You were right about everything, Halvo. I was a fool to trust the story I was told without asking questions. Elyr, his servant who first brought the tale of his arrest to me, the Chief Hierarch himself – all of them lied to me. None of them cared a bit for my life. Nor was my concern for Elyr an adequate excuse for committing a criminal act. I am deeply ashamed.”
“Abject penitence does not become you, Perri. I much prefer to hear you snapping and snarling at me. Besides, this adventure isn’t all bad. I haven’t had this much fun in years. Being an admiral can be an awfully stuffy business.” His cheerful grin shocked Perri.
“Your attitude is most gracious,” she murmured. “But I still owe you some recompense for your recent trials.”
“Don’t worry. As I said, I’ll think of something you can do in return.”
“You have only to name it, Halvo.”
He laughed and suddenly he looked like a much younger man. Perri noted how sure his hands were on the controls. When a light blinked or a buzzer sounded, Halvo did not hesitate for a moment. He knew just what to do. His competence gave her a feeling of complete security. Unfortunately, she knew her contentment could not last. In her experience of life, good things never did.
“Halvo,” she said, “where are we going?”
“I have a more important question,” he said. “Where are we now?”
“Don’t the navigational instruments provide that information?”
“I’m not sure we can depend on them. All the evidence indicates that we were hit by a blast from one of the Regulan ships just as we shifted to Starthruster. Add the effects of using Starthruster for too long a time to any structural damage the Regulan shots did and you get some very peculiar readings on the instruments. We can make some repairs here in space, but we really ought to find a planet where we can set the Space Dragon down and go over her completely inside and out, checking all the systems.”
“Will it be safe to land?” Perri asked. “Won’t the Regulans pursue us?”
“They have to,” Halvo said grimly. “The Chief Hierarch cannot take the chance that we will reach a Jurisdiction outpost and report everything we know about his scheming.”
“What shall we do, then?”
“Our best chance of eluding capture lies in staying as far away from Regula as possible, which may not be too difficult, given the length of time Starthruster was controlling this ship. The Regulans have no way of knowing how long we used Starthruster. That lack of infor
mation ought to slow their search somewhat and provide us with a little time. At the moment, it’s the only advantage we have. Let’s hope it will be enough.”
“You are saying that I cannot return to my homeworld.” Perri had not meant to sound so despairing.
“Do you really want to go back?” Halvo sent her an understanding look.
“I don’t know. I have never thought of living anywhere except on Regula. For Regulans, exile is a punishment worse than death. But there is nothing left for me on Regula now. Elyr has made it clear that he does not want me.” Perri took a moment to purge her voice of any hint of sorrow before she continued. “I have been separated from my blood kin for so long that they are all strangers to me, and my parents have been dead for several years. If I were to return, I would have to stand trial for what I have done, and with the Chief Hierarch and Elyr testifying against me, as they surely would in order to protect themselves, I would be convicted and given a long prison sentence – or a worse punishment.”
“Permanent exile,” Halvo said. “Which is what you have now without the nuisance of a trial.”
“Oh, dear,” Perri said. “Just a little while ago, I was feeling so content.”
“Perhaps we can discover a way to restore your contentment.” Halvo’s voice sank to a low, caressing tone that resonated in the depths of Pern’s being. His smile warmed her heart. It told her he held no grudge against her. She smiled back at him, feeling for a brief and lovely moment as if she was not a stranger in a cold, empty universe with all the forces of her native world aligned against her.
“Now,” Halvo said, speaking more briskly, “I am going to switch to the slowest possible speed and set the controls on automatic. Let us hope we don’t have any trouble with that setting, because while it is on, you and I are going to try to repair Rolli. We are going to need that robot to help us get the Space Dragon back into top condition and to correct any defects in the navigational system, not to mention in the sensors, so we can detect the Regulan ships that are surely going to follow us.”
Half an hour later, with the ship running on its own and with the available tools laid out on the bench in neat order as if they were a surgeon’s instruments, Halvo went to work.
“I know it is only a metal construction, but I have begun to think of Rolli as a person,” Halvo said. “Removing its head feels to me like a decapitation.”
“It is.” Perri watched Halvo’s nimble fingers with growing amazement. As a female, she had never been permitted to use masculine tools. Her first attempt to work with them had been the repair to the controls that she had done under Halvo’s guidance. Now, her fingers itched with her desire to take up one of the instruments and help Halvo. Knowing she would very likely prove to be more of a hindrance than an assistant, she resisted the impulse. To distance herself emotionally from the actual work, she decided to tell Halvo some of Rolli’s history. She was just about to begin when Halvo finished removing the last screw and lifted Rolli’s head off the slender metal neck.
“Oh,” Perri murmured, looking into the opening thus revealed. “I did not know how complicated Rolli is.” She was pleased when Halvo did not order her to move away. Instead, he began to explain what it was she was seeing.
“There is the damage, right in front of us. No wonder Rolli’s hands froze on the controls.” Using a tool that looked to Perri like a large pair of tweezers, Halvo extracted several long strands of blackened fiber from Rolli’s neck. “This is why we smelled burning insulation. The mechanism for Rolli’s physical movement is located in what, on a human, we would call the chest. Information is routed from Rolli’s memory circuits in the head we just removed, down through the neck along these fibers to the secondary circuits in the chest, where a message to use the hands is implemented, or a message to move around on those little wheels. The system is roughly analogous to the human body: Your brain tells your hands or your feet what to do by sending commands through your nerves.”
“How fascinating. Can we fix it?” Gently, Perri touched the scorched fingers of her daily companion. “The Space Dragon does carry a few repair supplies.”
“It shouldn’t be too difficult.” After another survey of the robot’s neck and chest cavities, Halvo continued his explanation. “When Rolli’s hands were burned, a safety device automatically disconnected the robot’s main circuitry in its head from the circuits in the lower body. This prevented a burnout in the main circuits, which would have destroyed the robot’s memory banks. To put it simply, Rolli won’t require brain surgery. I can replace the destroyed fibers and reset the safety device. Then, after we put the head back on and fasten the screws to make the necessary connections, Rolli should function normally again.”
“I am glad to hear we won’t have to open Rolli’s head. Halvo, I ought to tell you about the memory—”
“Would you locate the repair supplies and see if we carry the right-size fibers?” Halvo asked, his attention on the robot. “We ought to have some. It is a standard size.”
Deciding there would be time enough later to tell him what she knew about Rolli’s main circuitry, Perri obediently headed for the small cargo bay.
* * * * *
“Your manual dexterity is remarkable,” Halvo said a long time later. “It is probably why you are a good seamstress.”
“I have never been permitted to use men’s tools before. I expected to be clumsy.”
“You weren’t, not for a moment. You have been a real help to me, Perri.”
His praise warmed her. She had been feeling guilty and worthless. But after her successes on the control panel and on Rolli, she thought she might be good for something after all.
“As a matter of fact,” Halvo said, “I think you ought to learn to pilot the Space Dragon.”
“I?” She stared at him, not sure she had heard him correctly. “Only men can pilot spacecraft.”
“Regula is one of the last male-dominated planets,” Halvo said. “On other worlds, and in the Jurisdiction Service, females are required to develop all possible skills. The first officer, armaments officer, and the navigator of the Krontar are all females.”
“They are?”
Halvo paused in his inspection of Rolli’s apparently undamaged head to look hard at Perri. He was so clever that she believed he must be fully aware of the new currents arising in the stream of her thoughts.
“You have been deliberately kept in ignorance,” Halvo said.
“Ignorance is not the same as stupidity,” Perri said at once, stung by what she perceived as an insult.
“You are not stupid, Perri. Quite the opposite.”
“If I cannot return to Regula, then I must make a new life for myself elsewhere. To do so, I will have to educate myself as quickly as possible.”
“I will be happy to help you, Perri.”
His words were said in all seriousness, but something told her that Halvo was not talking only about the various ways of life encompassed by the Jurisdiction or the study of mathematics and the sciences. When he smiled at her, standing there with Rolli’s metal head in his hands, Perri knew Halvo had a more intimate education in mind. A warm fluttering began deep inside her, a sensation that brought a blush to her cheeks.
“We can discuss your curriculum later,” Halvo said, returning his attention to the robot. “For the moment, let’s put Rolli back together. If I hold the head in the right position on the neck, will you replace the screws?”
“Do you trust me for so important a task?”
“Why not? You haven’t made a mistake yet.”
“I have made many, Halvo.” The residue of sadness and guilt sounded in her voice.
“Not on Rolli.” Halvo regarded her soberly. “You can learn from the other mistakes you have made. It will be part of your education.”
“Thank you,” Perri whispered, lowering her head so Halvo would not see the sudden moisture in her eyes. In effect, he had just said that he forgave her for what she had done to him.
Hal
vo put Rolli’s head down on the bench and took Perri’s hands in his. “Look at me.”
Reluctantly, Perri lifted her eyes to meet his.
“You have been thinking of me as a victim, but I am not,” Halvo said. “It was my deliberate choice to leave the Krontar and board the Space Dragon. Captain Jyrit disapproved of my decision. The leader of the security team warned me that I was making a dangerous move. I refused to listen to either of them. But just suppose for a moment that I had listened. Suppose I had decided to be sensible. What would you have done then?”
“Done?” she repeated blankly. “I don’t know. I was depending upon your curiosity to impel you to do as I wished you to do.”
“Exactly. Don’t you see, Perri? You could not have captured me without my cooperation. Never think of me again as a victim. I am having far too much fun.”
“I turned your life upside down,” she said.
“We did it together – the same way we escaped from Regula and got this ship under control together. The same way we are working together now to repair Rolli. I won’t betray you, Perri.” Halvo’s hand rested against her cheek for a moment.
Perri thought he was going to kiss her. She would have welcomed his embrace. But Halvo dropped his hand and returned his attention to Rolli.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us,” he said, somewhat abruptly. “And we are not out of danger yet. We can never forget those Regulan ships that are following us.”
* * * * *
“That should do it.” Relaxing in the knowledge of a job well done, Halvo sat back in the copilot’s chair and sent a glance toward Rolli. The robot was just finishing the last test on the ship’s controls.
“Most systems on the Space Dragon are now functioning within tolerable limits,” Rolli said. “Which is not to say they are in perfect working order or will continue to function. Still, the last two hours have been most productive. Admiral, I have so far neglected to express my appreciation for the prompt and technically accurate repairs you made to my own systems.”
