“Not me. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it.”
Nagy’s inert body suddenly shook with spasms and he began to cough long and hard, bringing up blood. They rushed to his side, but there was nothing they could do, and the attack finally subsided. Nagy wasn’t all of it, but he as part of it, Raven knew. To die here, alone, in this sterile junkheap, and be cast out into the darkness... it was wrong. All human beings died, the great and small alike, but he had always envisioned his own death out in the free, clean air, his body either cremated and scattered or simply allowed to feed the Earth and return to it. Either was a noble way to die.
I’ve been kidding myself, he thought sourly. This sort of thing is not for the likes of me. Nagy and Sabatini or whatever it is—this is their element. I’d take on a Val if I had to, but on my turf, not its. Damn you, Lazlo Chen! If we ever get away with this you ain’t gonna depend on old Raven for support. Not with you sitting back there fat and lazy in your desert domain. I’ll do your damned dirty work, but this is too much.
“Raven—Warlock—Sabatini” came Nagy’s electronic voice through the speakers. “I don’t think I’m gonna make it. I want you to know a few things just in case.”
“You go into shutdown and don’t think. You can’t afford the energy,” Sabatini cautioned.
“Forget it. Listen, I’m gonna tell you a few things. All of you. First, I already showed you a Val can be taken in space if you’re crazy enough and unpredictable enough. They have a weakness and it’s called conceit. They think they understand human beings perfectly, and maybe they do, but they don’t think like human beings. They’re machines. Logical devices. When they see a predetermined course of action, and the sequence is logical, they tend to assume the conclusion will be the obvious. That’s why we nailed the Val. On the ground they’re just as vulnerable, but they have a lot more tricks. Don’t let one get too close to you or you’ll never know what hit you. They can be had, though, even on the ground. Use high-intensity lasers that’ll carve through walls. That won’t stop ‘em, but it penetrates. The head’s a dummy. Ignore it. Their brains are in their asses—about seven to eight centimeters above the crotch. Just imagine that they have a navel and aim for it. Crisscross. X patterns. The hind is more vulnerable than the front, though. Try to ambush it and don’t stop until it’s down. Don’t get within four meters until you’re sure it’s totally dead.”
This way interesting. Raven felt torn between telling Nagy to shut up and take it easy, and learning what he could from a dying man. He said nothing.
“Don’t assume, too, that all your dangerous enemies are machines. There are times when machines just can’t do the job, and the supply of Vals is small,” Nagy continued. “Master System has human troops, as well, out here, on several bases. Mindprinted, genetically bred, as devoted and loyal and singleminded as Vals. You can even argue with a Val—it’s just doing its job. You can’t argue with these troops, and not all of them are human.”
Raven looked at Sabatini. “You know about them?”
Sabatini nodded. “I heard about them. Never saw ‘em —that is, none of my people ever did.”
“When you take the first ring,” Nagy went on, “everything else will stop except for you. Vals and troopers and everything else will be pulled out for the hunt. There’s help out there—I’ve started you on your way—but the odds are still way against you. You’ll need more people and you’ll need for everyone to be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. Except for Sabatini here, none of the rest of you can even get in to scout around and case an area. None of them are Earth-human—except for Chen.”
“What the hell do you mean by ‘ultimate sacrifice’?” Raven wanted to know. “Death? You know we are prepared for that.”
“Not death. Life. You can’t just put on a mask and stick up a Center, particularly when you are the one who looks and acts alien. Out here, you are the monsters. Dying is one thing. Could you, for the chance at a ring and action, become a monster to yourself? You better ask that. You better have Hawks ask that of everyone. The only way you’re gonna steal those rings under the noses of chief administrators and Master System on worlds that aren’t really human is to become one of them. You better face that fact and also face the fact that Chen’s counting on just mat. Nobody left who’s Earth-human. Nobody who can come for his ring without being pretty damned obvious.”
“For one who came unexpectedly along for the ride he seems to know a great deal about this,” Warlock whispered.
Raven nodded. “You not tellin’ us something we ought’a know, son?”
“I’m telling you all you ought to know, Raven. You can trust Savaphoong within limits. He won’t betray you to Master System, but if you had four out of five rings he’s clever enough to figure out where the fifth one is and take those four from you. Build your contacts with the other freebooters, as well. Don’t depend on a single source. The same goes for Clayben. He’ll be a real team player until you win. He really is terrified of you, Sabatini—use that, but watch your back. He created you, but he’s also the one who figured out how to capture and hold you. Being hard to kill isn’t the same thing as being immortal. You would have died with us back there no matter what.”
“I’ll remember. Clayben took me by surprise when I was immature. I will not allow that to happen again.”
“Look, I’m running out of time here. Go for Janipur first. It’s no pushover, but if you can’t take that ring you can’t take any of them. Oops! We’re punching out in just a minute. Stand by. Sabatini, get back on the console. We want to make sure that somebody here can drive this thing no matter what.”
Sabatini did as instructed and was quickly back under the ship’s interface. Neither Raven nor Warlock bothered to do more than slightly brace themselves; after what they’d been through, punches were getting routine.
“Looks to be all clear right now,” Sabatini told them. “No sensor readings of anything that shouldn’t be here in the immediate neighborhood. Let’s give it a wide sweep.”
The sensors gave information on practically everything within line of sight for a 360-degree radius, but they weren’t good enough, particularly in wide scan, to identify all objects accurately. What they could detect was the all-important murylium that would mean a ship.
“Vals can do what we can’t,” Nagy warned them. “They can power down completely. So long as their engines aren’t on and they’re just using storage power for instrumentation, they can escape detection with the shields around the murylium core, so we aren’t out of the woods yet. Still, we ought to be able to get several minutes’ warning if it powers up from nothing, unless it’s right next to us.”
“Seems to me we did pretty good from a standing start,” Raven noted.
“Sure, but we never powered down and our shields were in place. From battery, the engines have to be started, brought up to speed, and initial power diverted to the shields in order to start. I’m opening the ram scoops wide and we’ll take on as much as we can. Vals do best by psyching you out, not by their innate superiority to humans, which is only relative. They have to obey the same laws of physics we do.”
Without a Val directly on their tail, they were able to angle the scoops and take in a very large load quickly.
“Another ten or fifteen minutes and we’ll be full up. You could make it most of the way to Earth if you had to,” Nagy told them. “I don’t think you can count on Star Eagle to come with the Thunder, though.”
His words weren’t lost on them. Without the Thunder, Nagy was doomed; “we” had become “you.”
“Uh oh!” Sabatini said suddenly. “I just got a punchout reading. Stand by!”
“Maybe it’s the Thunder,” Raven suggested hopefully.
“Nope. Too small. Maybe it’s an automated ship, but I have a sinking feeling I’ve seen that kind of reading before.”
“I’m afraid you’re right,” Nagy responded. “We’ve got enough juice now to give him a hell of a run, though. Trouble i
s that damned thing that escaped from the first Val. If it contained a record of the battle and got intercepted, then the same trick won’t work twice. Maybe we can bluff it through. It’s not sure who or what we are, anyway. I’m getting a stock machine-language identity code query. I’ve just answered it by telling it that we’re the freebooter ship Finland and to mind its own damned business. I don’t think it’s buying it, though. I’m getting voice transmission.”
“Freebooter cruiser Finland, stand where you are for examination,” came a voice through the intercom. It was a woman’s voice, and very familiar, but not quite anyone Raven could place.
“China’s voice,” Warlock said softly. “Harder, younger, but still her.”
Raven nodded, placing it now. They wouldn’t have any recordings of China after the Doc had finished with her, so they’d have used the last recording they had, which was of the old Song Ching back on Earth.
“You have no authority to break the covenant,” Nagy responded to the Val. “Be on your way and let us be on ours.”
“Seems like I been through this once before.” Raven sighed.
“Highly dangerous fugitives are loose in this region,” the Val told them. “Measures must be taken that are extraordinary. I must board and verify that your passengers and crew are not among them.”
“Go stick it up your metallic ass!” Nagy responded. “You have no probable cause, and I’ve just wide-beamed this exchange to whom it may concern, as you must know. Let us go or all will know you break the covenant.”
“If necessary I have that authority,” the Val told them. “I would rather it be voluntary, since if I verify that you are not among those we seek, you will go your own way and nothing is broken. But if you do not drop your shields and prepare for boarding, I will be forced to fight.”
“Looks like it was all for nothing.” Nagy sighed. “Still, if I got to go out, then I’d like to go out this way.”
“Well, I wouldn’t,” Raven retorted. “Damn it, you just got through saying they ain’t invulnerable! We just blew one to hell!”
“If I had a second ship I’d turn that bastard into spaghetti,” Sabatini growled. “But, one on one, he’s always gonna be a hair faster.”
“Maybe you got something there,” Nagy responded. “I’m keeping the com channel on open broadcast. It’s why they’ve kept the covenant up to now.” He switched to the open channel. “Anyone out there want to see the covenant go down without a fight? You’re next. We can hold this bucket of bolts for a little while. You freebooters all know the truth out there. You want to defend the covenant?”
Subspace communications were not instantaneous, but an open and broad-beam broadcast didn’t take long to get to nearby areas.
“Finland, this is Kasavutu. I am one hour away and on my way.”
“Finland, this is Yokohama Maru. I am one hour and nine minutes away and punching now.”
They began coming in, one after the other. In the lonely emptiness of space, this region suddenly seemed very, very crowded.
“Hah!” Sabatini exclaimed. “That’ll teach that damned Val to jam transmissions!”
“It couldn’t without also blocking communications to us,” Nagy noted. “This is an unprecedented act and even the Val knows it. It’s used to people rolling over and playing dead or running like hell when it appears.” He turned his attention back to the Val. “All right, Val—up to you. You have the authority to break the covenant over this or not. I’m full of fuel, heavily armed, tightly shielded, and highly maneuverable. You figure the odds yourself. I can hold you for an hour, maybe two, on automatics alone. By that time you’ll be fighting a whole fleet of people in heavily armed and shielded ships who hate your mechanical guts. If you are going to break the covenant, then you will pay for it dearly and you will still not get anything from the action.”
The Val was more than taken aback by this. If there was one thing a good computer could do, it could compute odds. Its backup was gone, a fact it might or might not know, and the odds were also that any additional help was many hours, if not days, away.
“Very well, then, we will sit here,” the Val responded. “I will not fire except in my own defense, but I will not go. Your precious covenant allows me the same rights here as you, and the same freedom of action. We will sit here until you grow old and gray, and where you go, so do I.”
“Another standoff.” Sabatini sighed.
“No, not at all,” Nagy replied. “I think our friend out there is very much misreading and underestimating the people who are coming. They can’t permit this to happen to any one of them or the covenant’s gone anyway, and they stop being freebooters and start being parts of the system or hunted fugitives. Under the covenant it’s within their rights, and ours, to take whatever measures we deem necessary to go our own way. I—I don’t think I’m gonna be here then, but you blast that sucker for me.”
“Raven!” Sabatini called sharply. “He’s had an automatic disconnect! See to him! I’ll switch over to full control.”
Both Raven and Warlock rushed forward to Nagy’s body. It was heaving and convulsing, and yet the security man’s eyes opened and he looked up at them and tried to speak.
“Water! Warlock, get him some water!” Raven snapped, and she went back and got some from the food transmuting unit. Raven gently lifted Nagy’s head and let him drink. Nagy swallowed, then coughed, bringing up some blood and mucus, but he got himself under control and managed a croaking whisper.
“I—would have liked—to have—had the honor—to fight alongside you in the quest,” he got out. “But—I—realize now—that it would be—against the rules.”
Raven frowned, again getting that eerie feeling that there was something more here than they were being told. “Rules? What rules? Whose?”
Nagy managed a smile. “That—would be telling. My job—to give you—the edge—when you were outmatched. Worked—for years—in that hole—Melchior. Helping set it up.”
Raven’s mouth opened in knowing surprise. He understood a little more now, but not nearly enough. “Then you’re one of the ones behind all this. Who are you, Nagy? Who do you work for? Chen?”
Nagy’s chuckle ended in another of those terrible coughs. “Chen—we put the bug—in Chen’s ear. Damned idiot needed it almost—spelled out—for him.” He suddenly reached up and grabbed Raven with surprising strength. “You must destroy it, Raven! Master System—must—die!”
“Who do you work for, Nagy? Damn it! Who?”
“It’s a—war—Raven. We are at war!” He went limp, and for a moment Raven thought he was dead, but he stirred again, briefly, and took a little more water.
“For your own sake—listen carefully,” Nagy said, fighting off the inevitable. “That Val—must be—destroyed—before you—send my body—to rest. Once done, just throw me out—air lock.”
“Don’t gimme that shit! You’re gonna make it! You’re too mean and tricky to die.”
“I’m almost dead now. Don’t worry. Do what—I say. Exactly. For your—own sakes. Then I will—die—but I will not—leave. When you need me—to even odds—I’ll be there. Promise me!”
“I swear it, Nagy. Only hold on, I—” Raven stopped, checked the body, then sighed. It was too late. Arnold Nagy was clearly now very dead.
Warlock shrugged. “That fellow took longer to die than an opera singer.”
Raven looked up at her and frowned. “Huh?”
“Never mind. He is gone. Toss him and take the controls.”
“No! I gave my word. First we take the Val, like he said.”
“What’s the difference? He was out of his head at the end anyway. Dead, but he’ll come back when we need him. So many get religion at the end.”
Raven removed the helmet from Nagy’s head and pulled the body away from the bridge console. “Uh uh. Maybe that part was a little nuts, but not the rest. I don’t know who—or what—he really was, but he was one hell of an agent. He suckered Clayben and Chen and the rest of
‘em. Hawks was right—there was lots more than coincidence at work here. He was one of the puppeteers, the guys pulling the strings on all this. He had the answers, damn it!”
“He was crazy,” she maintained. “Crazier than we are.”
“His body doesn’t go out until we blow up or shake this Val. Understand? What could it hurt?”
“All right, all right. It just seems to me that you are taking on a dead man’s madness.”
Within twenty minutes, the lonely system began to get more and more crowded. The numbers astonished Raven and even impressed Sabatini. One hell of a lot of fire power and, most impressive to Raven, all under human control.
They were male and female, and some he couldn’t be sure about, and they spoke with many accents, and a few probably did not look the least bit human, but there they were. Lightning was not their cause; they wouldn’t have crossed the street, let alone millions of kilometers of interstellar space, for Lightning. But Nagy had been right—they were all freebooters, and if this sort of thing happened to any one of them and they stood by and did nothing, then it would happen in the end to each and every one of them.
“All right, Val, your move,” Sabatini said, sounding far more relaxed and confident.
“I move when you move. You have no right, any of you, to dislodge me here. I have as much right to be here as you do, and if I choose to leave by the same path as that ship out there, I also have the right to do that.”
“You can stay here as long as you want,” replied a sharp female voice that reminded Raven of Reba Koll. “Or you can pull out now. Them folks over there can also leave, but you don’t follow them. Any other course, speed, angle, and trajectory is fine but not theirs. That’s the way it is, iron ass.”
“You have no right to do that,” the Val came back. “It is against the covenant.”
Sabatini chuckled. “Look who’s invoking the covenant now! You all heard the thing—it was ready to violate the covenant at a moment’s notice. Either Master System has abrogated the agreement, in which case it’s got no rights at all, or this thing’s malfunctioning, damaged, a rogue who’d bring down the covenant, and therefore one that is outside of it. That logic says you got no right to be here at all, Val. What do you say, you others out there? We don’t want anybody damaged or hurt, so what say we give it five minutes to get up to speed and punch anywhere it wants? After that, I think we got a moral obligation to take it on.”
Pirates of the Thunder Page 18
