by Diane Duane
"Preferable," said Delde Sota, "especially for extraction of brain tissue. Hard to know whether one is in the right spot, otherwise. You are unlikely to miss it, in any case."
Wide-eyed, Gabriel pushed back his chair. The end of Delde Sota's neurobraid came up and patted him on the wrist. She smiled at him and said, "Stress may actually be a factor. Unable to recognize joke when presented with one. Examination can wait, but not too long. Some concern about physical status." "Uh," Gabriel said. "Uh, all right." He was having trouble with the concept of the removal of his brain tissue. He liked it where it was.
Helm was glancing around and drinking kalwine as if it was much later in the day. "No sign of them," he said. "Must have flown the coop."
"Must have. Helm, what's a 'coop'?" Gabriel asked.
"It's a small hangar," Helm replied. "Haven't seen our cranky guy here, either. What's his name, Alwhere?"
"Alwhirn," Enda said. "No, he too is conspicuous by his absence."
"Statement: no surprise, since departing plus minus twelve hours with data load," said Delde Sota. Helm gave her a bemused look. "You been in their system?"
Delde Sota looked innocent. "Value judgment: hard to avoid," she said quietly, "since port scheduling system security similar to air in opacity and impermeability. ShipQuatsch in pre-loading cycle, purging tanks, overwriting data solids, usual security routines running."
Gabriel knew that some mechalus Grid pilots did not even have to physically touch a computer to infiltrate it, but knowing that in the abstract and being presented with it as an accomplished fact were two different things.
"You could get in trouble for that!"
"Requirement: have to be caught first," said Delde Sota. She lifted her glass and drank. "Well, one less thing to worry about," Helm said. "What about us?"
"I have been up one side of the main street and down the other," said Enda, "and have found no one willing to ship data with us. Now we know why. Indeed I can hardly blame them when there is a scheduled departure imminent, and the local hauler is probably offering them better than usual rates to keep us from taking his business."
"If you'd moved a little faster," Helm growled as he downed another drink, "we might not be sitting here with empty holds our only option."
Enda looked annoyed. "Helm," she said, "it was not /who slept in this morning."
"It wasn'tmy business to be up early.I was up late taking care of you-know-what. If you had been a little sharper off the pad, we wouldn't have to—"
"Wait a minute, you can't talk to her tike that," Gabriel said.
"Who says I can't, you runty little—"
It got loud and relatively content-free after that, but that was how they had planned it. Lunch was over, and the community center was beginning to empty out, but that process stopped as the inhabitants paused to watch a fraal, a mechalus, a human, and some kind of mutant all shouting at one another. Even Oraan the chef stopped in the middle of scouring a pan to watch the argument scale up. Enda caught Gabriel around the arm and dragged him away from Helm. Delde Sota, in turn, grabbed Helm and hauled him out of range of the other two. People seemed generally impressed by how strong Enda was, to be able to control such a big young man. She pushed him out the front door and marched him down the street, yelling at him like an annoyed grandmother. Behind her, at a distance, came the doctor with Helm roped up in her braid while the mutant blared threats and imprecations.
The two parties went into their separate ships and did not stir for the rest of the afternoon. Later that evening, Gabriel and Enda came out to go to dinner. They sat by themselves, looking sour and pained. The locals noticed this and commented quietly to themselves. A couple of others noticed this as well. One was a small, dark-haired woman with striking pale eyes. Another woman, dark-haired as well, but with brown eyes, was petite and dressed like someone from one of the Aegis worlds. They sat on opposite sides of the room and took no notice of one another. All their attention was on Gabriel and Enda, eating their dinner stiffly and in haste, like people anxious to get something over with and leave. Finally, they left without a backward glance. Shortly thereafter — though not so soon as to arouse any particular notice — one of the women, then another, went out as well.
"And?" Enda said down the comms to Helm a while later.
There was a slight pause, due to an extra layer of encryption that Delde Sota had laid into the ship-to-ship network channels.
"Nothing new," Helm replied. "Both of them are at their ships at the moment. They haven't filed any plans with Joel at the port's systems. We'd know right away if they had."
"Well," Enda said and turned to Gabriel. "Now we must make our choices. We will not be getting any Rivendale-originating data to take with us on this run. Nor do I see much point in waiting here until our competition has left."
"Not when the I.I. ship is due to arrive in another two days," Gabriel said. He was sitting in one of the sitting room chairs with his feet up and his arms folded. "I don't see why we should linger with not one, but two, of someone's covert agents sitting out there and waiting to see what we do. We ought to hop and makethem do something, if only to annoy them." Helm laughed at that. "All right. Hop where?"
"I'd be tempted to say back to Grith," Gabriel said, "but that seems too predictable. Also, I've seen enough of Corrivale for a while."
"You could do Aegis in three starfalls," said Helm. "It'd make sense, anyway. Once there you could see if there's any datafor Corrivale or Terivine and haul it back out."
"It is not a bad idea," said Enda. "Unscheduled courier runs pay ten or fifteen percent better than the scheduled ones."
Gabriel was thinking more along the lines of how busy a system Aegis was, and how much easier it would be to lose a stalker or two there than here. "All right," he said. "Aegis in three starfalls, twenty light-years and some small change. Is there an established 'tween-jump recharge point?" "There are a couple spots that people use," said Helm, "just out by themselves in empty space. Star called Mikoa on your second-to-last jump."
"Fine," Gabriel said and headed forward to talk to the piloting computers.
After checking the coordinates and the timings, he came back to the sitting room and said, "Helm, how soon would you feel like leaving?"
"Any time." He paused. "Delde Sota says nothing would keep her here except the food, but she's had enough beef lichen to last her a month or so."
"Well, then," Gabriel said, looking over at Enda, "anything else that needs to be done before we leave? Did you get enough canned vegetables?"
Enda sighed and said, "The ones I was interested in were not canned, and like Delde Sota, I think I have had enough of them for the moment. When we come back this way again under less pressing circumstances, I shall see about bringing some away with us. Meantime, let us go." "Right," Helm said. "Four hours from now? Most everyone'll be in bed. No comms activity within an hour of the takeoff time. We'll do a fast heat-up to give them least warning. You'll want to program the preheat sequence for your system drive into the computer. Want a time tick?"
"Hold on and you can give it to me in the cockpit," Gabriel said, getting up to go forward again. "Wait. If we want our two ladies to follow us, shouldn't we give them plenty of warning?"
"We shouldn't give them too much of a warning," said Helm. "If they're any good, they'll catch up. In fact, how fast they catch up will indicate how good they are. If they're inept, I'd sooner find out this way." Gabriel laughed and went up to the cockpit again. A few minutes later,Sunshine's departure time was set. They would warm engines for exactly three minutes, then take off and make starfall about twenty minutes later.
"This way you've got time for a few last errands," Helm said.
"I'm not leaving the ship," Gabriel said. "I've had enough of Rivendale for now."
He glanced over at Enda. She shook her head. "Let's get out of here."
Chapter Five
FOUR HOURS LATER, Gabriel and Enda were in the pilots' seats, strapped in and waiti
ng for Sunshine's preheat cycle to start. Rivendale's long afternoon was finally shading toward evening. The sun was well down below the jagged peaks, and the eastern sky was slowly purpling. Gabriel stretched in the straps and looked out the windows. "It's a pretty place," he said, "but it's trying. So much day gets to be a nuisance, and I wouldn't even want to think about a week's worth of night. How can anyone live here and stay sane?"
"Obviously they manage," said Enda, "though I think I prefer shorter days myself." The ship wenthhup around them, a soft awakening hum, and half the system indicators that had been dormant or gray in the 3D display now began to show power readings as they slowly escalated. Gabriel glanced over atLongshot. With the sunset glancing off her windshield, it was hard to see inside; but he thought he caught a flash of motion — probably Helm giving him a thumbs-up. He returned the gesture and looked around outside the ship.
At the port building, a male figure came out the front door, looked at them curiously. After a few seconds, another human, shorter and rounder than the first, came out and looked as well. The two looked at the ships. One of them pointed; the other gestured. "Two minutes," Gabriel said.
One of the two humans went back inside. A few moments later,Sunshine's comms chirped. Someone was hailing them.
"Oops," Gabriel said, reaching out to kill the local network connection. "Another systems failure. We really ought to have that looked at when we make port again." "Somewhere else," Enda said, smiling.
Another half minute ticked by, and another. The man who had gone in now came out, and he and his companion stood watching the ships. They made no move to come any closer.
"Thirty seconds," Enda said, reaching into the 3D display to touch one of the driver displays into "query" mode. The telltale folded itself into a wider display of ship's power levels, all showing 100 % or better. "Everything is as it should be." "Good," Gabriel said.
He was looking around the field for any sign of activity, and also watching the street that led up to Sunbreak town proper. There was no sign of anyone. Am I. spoiling someone's sleep over there? he thought. Wouldn't that be a terrible thing?
"Ten seconds," Enda said. "Do you want to take her up, or shall I?" "You have control," Gabriel said. "I'm going to get into the fighting field."
Enda put her eyebrows up as Gabriel reached into that part of the display. "No harm in that," she said. "Five seconds."
The final countdown bled away, Enda said, "Now," andSunshine lifted straight up, gracefully but with rapidly increasing speed. That was very much Enda's piloting style as Gabriel had observed it. Smooth acceleration, but plenty of it. Up they went, through layers of mist, over the rapidly widening terrain of jagged peaks, and up into Terivine's orange light again. With Helm pacing them off to starboard, they cleared the peaks and slanted low over the beautiful but hostile landscape. Gabriel perceived all this briefly as visual input while the fighting field was still settling over him. When it took as a schematic, bright lines and curves stitched against diagrammatic darkness with lines of galactic latitude and longitude. "Out of atmosphere," Enda said.
Gabriel shifted his body in the seat to get the feeling of where his weapons were. The rail gun was reporting almost ready, and the plasma cannons were hot. "That didn't take long," he commented.
"With their gravity, I would be surprised if it did," Enda said as she spunSunshine on her axis to point away from Terivine and Rivendale, out toward the point where they had agreed with Helm they would make starfall. "Anything of interest behind us?"
Gabriel looked back at Rivendale in the fighting schematic and said, "Nothing coming, at least not at the moment."
He jumped then as the alarms howled. Something was coming, but not from the direction in which Gabriel was looking. The virtual display whipped around to show him the direction from which the threat now approached. Gabriel had instructed the display to disallowLongshot but to alert him of anything of unknown mass over a ton. Here came something, a small tight knot of light in the display with a "comet's tail" spread out behind it to illustrate course and speed.
"Another ship, all right," Gabriel said, and felt around him for the paired joysticks that were his preferred method for handling the plasma cannons.
The other ship was diving straight at him. "Helm," Gabriel said, "Company—" "I see him. It's our friend Quatsch," Helm replied.
"You mean Alwhirn?" Gabriel said. "He wasn't supposed to be leaving for another twelve hours!" "Damn," came Helm's voice, sounding more gravelly and annoyed than usual. " 'Plus minus twelve hours.' Sonofabitch must have sneaked right out past us while we were in the community center!"
"Even schedules can lie," said Enda. Her face set grim as she broke off to starboard. Quatsch came after them.
"He's not eager to try conclusions with me, that's plain," Helm said with some amusement as he curved around to match course with Sunshine again. "Let's see if I can—"
The first plasma bolts lanced bySunshine much too closely for Gabriel's tastes.
"What's the matter with him?" he muttered.
"Quatsch!" he shouted over an open channel. "What are you doing? Quatsch! Alwhirn!" No answer.
"He's not in a mood to negotiate, I would say," said Enda. "Helm, one of us is going to have to do something about this poor creature, at least enough to make him break this off. I dislike the idea of harming him, and it would do our return business on Rivendale no good, but it is preferable to—" She threw Sunshine to port as Quatsch dived at them again, firing. The bolts went wide. "I'm not sure that his craziness isn't some kind of act he uses when it's going to get him somewhere with his friends," Gabriel muttered, getting his own plasma cannon ready. "Helm, if your sharpshooting's better than mine, you'd better do something about this boy, because I'm in no mood for him." "Targeting," Helm said and fired. At the last moment, Quatsch tumbled aside, diving away from both Longshot and Sunshine.
"Let's not bother with this," Enda said. "Helm, is your stardrive ready?" 'Three minutes for prep," said Helm, "and we'll be— Uh-oh."
Gabriel's insides twisted as he saw what Helm saw. Another ship was accelerating toward them from Rivendale.
"Small," Helm said. "Not much bigger than Sunshine."
"Thanks loads," Gabriel said. "It's that Westhame. That's Miss Blue Eyes."
"She doesn't have much," said Helm. "One plasma cannon. One rail gun. No help; she's alone aboard." "Doesn't make that much difference," Gabriel muttered. It was perfectly possible to fly and fight a small ship with the computer to help you. "Enda, get us ready for starfall."
"Here comes the rest of the party," said Helm. "Third trace. Must be your brown-eyed number, I think. My good gods in a bucket of ale, whathas she got fastened onto that thing?"
Gabriel did not much care to hear this kind of language from Helm. "Whathas she got?" he asked, eyeing their stardrive energy level indicators. They were nowhere near ready.
"Too much. I want to know where she bought it," Helm said. Gabriel could hear more than a hint of gleeful awe creeping into Helm's voice. "Hell, I wish I'd sold it to her, what a commission I'd have—" "Helm!" Enda said. "Details would be useful!"
"She's got that mass cannon we were discussing," said Helm. "Don't let her get within a kilometer of you. The results could be unfortunate—"
"Damn it!" Gabriel said asQuatsch dived at them again, firing."Quatsch, stop it! We don't want to hurt you, but if you—"
Gabriel fired in frustration, intending to miss.Quatsch veered past as Enda threwSunshine out of the way. "I'll shoot him next time," Gabriel muttered, "I swear I will." He punched the comms open again. "Quatsch, that was the last piece of slack I'm going to cut you. Next time I'm going to put one right through your hold, and there goes your business. Get out of our way!"
"Go on and try," came a shrill response. "I don't care! You and your kind have tried before! You're just one more of them! Won't let a man make a decent living, you and the big companies, you're all the same—"
Gabriel could hear Enda brea
the out. "He is unstable," she said, "but he might damage us. Maybe one through the rear hull would be the kindest thing—" "Trouble," Helm broke in.
He flipped Longshot end for end and came streaking past Gabriel at great speed. He was firing hard and fast. Gabriel swung in the fighting field to follow where Helm was going and saw the third trace. The third ship, more massive than any of the others, swung from side to side in quick graceful curves, skillfully avoiding Helm's fire and firing something that Gabriel didn't recognize. There were no bright bolts of power or clouds of projectile vapor, just a pale streak of cloudy fire that shot out, enveloped Quatsch and tore it to shreds. Not an explosion — though that followed, as all the air inside the craft flew out through a hundred suddenly formed gaps. Quatsch became a thousand twisted fragments, spinning away in all directions while continuing briefly along the same general course.
Gabriel stared. "She killed him," he whispered."Why would she have killed him?"
Enda was as shocked as Gabriel but had her mind on other problems. "Helm, where is that third ship?"
'The smaller one? Away up in 'zenith' direction now. No action. Watching."
And listening, Gabriel thought. On whose behalf?
"Possibility," Delde Sota's came over comms. "Open communications with hostile vessel." "What for?"
"Stall," said Delde Sota. "Pump for information. Have other business to attend to." "Right," Gabriel said. He swallowed, for all this was his fault. It was not Helm or Delde Sota that these people wanted. He opened a clear channel and said, "Pursuing vessels, this isSunshine. State your intentions or be prepared to face the consequences."
"There's no point in running," said a very cool, very calm female voice. "I can outrun you. If you make starfall, that won't matter either. I'll know where you're going sooner or later and find you there. Give it up now and resign yourself to being boarded."
"You can forget that," Gabriel said, furious. "Why did you kill him? No one needed to do that!" "You were about to," said the cool voice, "not that it matters. Everyone's going to think you did, anyway."
