"Scope," Acorna said, and the viewscreen suddenly zoomed so that the mantis-shaped Khieevi vessel was indeed readily identifiable, though still quite distant.
"So that's what one of the little buggers looks like." Becker said, quietly, as if afraid they would hear. Meanwhile the klickings and klackings continued. "We seem to have intercepted one of their transmissions. Anybody have any idea "what it's all about?"
"Klickety-klack," the Khieevi vessel's message seemed to be tapping directly onto Maati's spinal cord. She sat for a moment with her eyes squeezed shut.
"You don't have to close your eyes and pretend they can't see you," Thariinye said, but not as scornfully as he might have. "We're cloaked."
"What does the noise mean?" she asked.
"I don't know. I didn't hear a lot of their language when we were up against them on Rushima. And I wasn't alone. So far, nobody has gotten enough of a sample into the LAANYE for reliable translations. All our contacts with them have pretty much been at the wrong end of a 'weapon. Maybe it's Khieevi for 'come out, come out, wherever you are.' But don't worry, youngling. We may not be coming out, but we're moving out right now. I'm putting us into the nearest wormhole and-"
Maati's eyes blinked open and she reached to intercept his hand on the controls. "But . . . my parents! They're still on that planet! The Khieevi will get them." A brief struggle ensued, which Thariinye won.
He gave her a pitying look and reached again for the navigation controls. "I'm sorry, Maati, but we don't know for sure they're still alive. If so ... well, they've escaped the notice of the Khieevi so far. Perhaps they can continue to do it until we can find help. We-"
He never finished his sentence.
A heavy blow thudded against the Niikaavri, knocking both of them forward, straining the straps that held them into their chairs. At the same time, the lights on the control panel flared and two blinked out.
"Oh, no!" he cried, and punched frantically at the board again.
"Oh, no, what?" Maati asked.
"Somehow, in that little maneuver of yours, -we turned our camouflage off. They know our position now."
"Put the cloaking device back on and move, then!"
"I'm trying to, but the ship is not responding!"
A bolt of light shot in front of the viewport and they were once more rocked by the force of some sort of energy weapon striking their starboard bow.
Suddenly the egg-like ship was spinning dizzily, and the blue planet grew larger and larger in their viewscreen.
Thariinye grabbed the corn unit and yelled, as if it could carry across space, "Mayday, Mayday, we are the Linyaari vessel Niikaavri and we are under attack from a Khieevi vessel."
Maati thought he had lost his mind. Surely no one would hear them, but then she cried, "Tell them -who we are, Thariimye. In case my parents can hear us. Tell them it's me, so they'll know what happened. Tell them to hide!"
I am Ensign Thariinye of clan Renyilaaghe. My second in command is Maati of clan Nyaarya. We are under attack by a Kleevi vessel. Our coordinates are . . ."
Maati thought she was hearing things for a moment when the klickings and klackings and sound of failing systems were replaced suddenly by a familiar comforting voice.
"Thariinye, Maati, it's Khornya. You've been badly hit. Use the escape pod. We'll pick you up and get us all out of here."
Another, harder thud and the ship was spinning dizzily, the blue planet looming larger with every revolution.
Maati floated up from her seat. "G force has been cut."
"Khornya, the Khieevi! Save yourselves!" Thariinye bellowed into the corn unit. To Maati he said, "No time to deal with it, youngling. Unstrap. Climb into the pod!"
The pod was located behind the command chairs. Maati snapped her restraint open and did a handstand on the back of the chair, flipping herself down to the top of the pod and popping its catch.
"No sweat, sport," Captain Becker's voice was saying. "We got 'em covered."
"Thariinye, the escape pod," Khornya said again.
Maati climbed inside the pod. She suppressed a nervous giggle. The zero G popped her up to the top.
"Oh," Thariinye said, and she saw the top of his head as it swrveled to take in the wildly flickering console lights, the sparks flying from the board at many points.
Maati waited. It felt like forever. She felt sick from the spinning and thought that the stars swirling past the viewport looked like what she'd thought she would see in the wormhole.
She heard the snap of Thariinye's restraint, and saw his feet, then his legs as he bounced over the top of the chair and off the deck.
Maati held on to the pod lid with one hand and grabbed his foot with the other, pulling him in. He was barely inside the pod when all of a sudden the canopy slapped closed and locked, and they felt a bump as gravity returned, but increased fivefold, pressing the pod against the deck.
Thariinye pressed the release button to eject the pod and activate the recirculating oxygen supply. Oxygen flooded the ood with a hissing sound, but they were still stuck inside the ship. The ejection mechanism -was malfunctioning, just like everything else on the ship! And the gravitational force was so strong they couldn't pop the hatch again to see why the pod had failed to eject.
Thariinye's heart boomed against her ear.
"It's okay, Thariinye. The pod will help protect us during a crash. They're amazingly resilient, you know."
His breath rasped in and out a few times.
"Unless, of course, the ship burns up on entering the atmosphere or we're smashed in the wreckage when it slams into the planet," Maati said, and realized that what she was voicing was Thariinye's thought. He hadn't said a -word. What a time for her psychic powers to kick in!
The pod insulated them a bit from the noises around them, but she knew they -were still inside the ship because she hadn't felt the explosive acceleration that would indicate the pod had separated from the mother ship. They were still stuck.
(I could open the hatch and . . .) she thought she said aloud.
Tharnnye hugged her close to his chest. "Not if it's stuck, you can't. I'll keep hitting the firing mechanism. We'll just have to hope that the relay decides to engage before the crash-or maybe even during."
(Oh, no, we're trapped!) Panic welled up inside her and tears began to flow from her eyes. She couldn't spend the pitiful traction left of her life cooped up in this tiny shell. She couldn't. She just couldn't.
Then suddenly it was as if they had hit a bump. They felt themselves sliding and then their pod was launched so that at rst they were flying, then dropping.
(It will level out, won't it?) she asked. Or did she? They were wrapped so closely in each other's arms that it was no -wonder she could suddenly hear his thoughts and he could hear hers.
(Yes,) he said. (But I am doomed anyway. Even if -we survive the crash and the Khieevi, Liriili will kill me for stealing and losing her newest ship.) Becker jerked his thumb backward, gesturing for Aari to surrender the command chair. The Condor's hiding place behind one of the moons kept it out of range of the Khieevi ship's sensors, giving the crew a little breathing space to make plans.
Aari got up, but gave the captain a level look. "I am fine, Joh. The Khieevi no longer freeze my ability to think."
"I know that, buddy, but you don't know my bird like I do." He clasped his hands, intertwining his fingers, straightened his wrists and flexed his knuckles, then shook both hands out and applied them to the buttons. "Let's deploy those Winding laser cannons we picked up last year."
"Sorry, Captain," the computer said, "but you have not yet found the right mountings to affix them to the gun ports."
"Oh, yeah. Then fire the Apatchipon micron splitters."
"You have not been able to fashion suitable ports, Captain, to accommodate both the micron splitters and your latest hull modifications.''
"Well, I've had all these people around and-okay, so we'll just go for the plain old atom blasters Dad installed years ago.
"You removed those and stored them, Captain, when you traded for the Windigi laser cannons."
"Fraggit! So what have we got? Spit? We fired the last big load of cargo into Ganoosh's bird and we haven't acquired enough new stuff yet to do any good." He shook his head and said, "I guess we could board 'em and go mano a mano with the side arms and laser rifles. It worked on Rushima."
Acorna leaned forward, "You used the tractor beam before, Captain. How much will it hold?"
"A bunch more than we've got to throw at these buggers," Becker replied. "This was supposed to be a nice, simple cargo run. . * *" He and Aari exchanged long looks. Acorna did not care for the grim set of Aari's jaw or the glazed, doomed look in his eyes. Nor could she bear to think of Thariinye, much less Maati, at the nonexistent mercy of the Khieevi. She had sensed some difficulty with the pod before their ship crashed, but she had no true reading of what it was.
"Joh, listen to me and do exactly as I say," Aari commanded, interrupting Acorna's train of thought. His voice was clipped and hard and she was amazed to see he had appropriated Becker's side arm, and was raising it in Becker's direction. "You have an operational shuttle in Bay Two. You will take Khornya and Riidkiiyi and board the shuttle now. I will give you five seconds to clear and then I will ram the Condor into the Khieevi ship."
"Over my dead body," Becker growled, whipping around in the chair to face Aari. "That's mutiny."
"Over your stunned body if necessary, Joh. Khornya, you understand this is the only way to save Thariinye and my sister, don't you? The Khieevi killed me long ago. I live only to prevent them from doing to others what they did to me. So unless you wish to lose your horn to them as I did, and worse, you and Mac will take Joh and Riidkiiyi now and evacuate."
You're not gonna crash my ship!" Becker said belligerently, his jaw stuck out.
Ir you will all just listen to me for a moment," Acorna interjected. "Aari, give the captain back his weapon. We will need the ConSor to rescue Thariinye and Maati and your par61118. I have a better idea. Remember in that old vid, when the evil western agricultural workers dragged the good quick-draw waITlor the indigenous inhabitants had hired to save them?
Tksy dragged him through cactus, and over hardened trails, a he was much the worse for wear as a result. I remember thinking that actually it was highly unlikely he would have survived, especially maintaining his headgear as he did, had the event been an actual occurrence rather than a fictional one. Well, it seems to me that we could do much the same thing here. The atmospheric rim on this planet is quite dense and the gravitational pull strong. If the tractor beam will hold the Khieevi ship ..."
"Gotcha, Princess! You're brilliant!" Becker spoke to the computer. "Okay, Buck, engage the tractor beam. Hook onto that big, nasty piece of salvage off our starboard bow." He chuckled and said to his crew members. "Heh-heh. This is a great idea! They can't shoot us or anybody else while they're locked onto the tractor beam's gravity -well."
The beam locked onto the Khieevi ship and hauled it toward the Condor until it vanished from view beneath them.
"At least, I don't think they can, unless they got some new technology that lets them." Becker continued in a slightly more worried tone as he maneuvered the beam so that the Khieevi was in tow behind and at an angle from the Condor, riding between the salvage ship's belly and the planet's rim.
The klick-klack noise on the com unit was now loud, angry, and very obviously intended for the crew of the Condor.
"They are telling you to surrender, Joh. They have us in their pincers," Aari said. He was baring his teeth, and it was not a friendly grin. Acorna reached up without thinking to wipe the sweat where it was suddenly dripping off his chin. He touched her hand lightly, his fingers stroking hers once, regretfully. She knew from the touch that he still could not imagine they -would come away from this encounter alive, much less unscathed.
"Strap down, crew," Becker said.
Acorna grabbed RK and strapped him in with her. Aari and Mac did likewise in the seats Becker had scavenged so that the entire crew could be together on occasion-though none of them had thought that such an occasion as this would ever arise.
"Buck, give us a visual of the cargo in the tractor beam, Becker told the ship's computer." Once he could see the Khieevi ship, Becker accelerated and the Condor shot toward the blue planet, past where the enemy vessel had originally hovered while watching the crash of the Linyaari craft. The screen showed the mantis-like ship dangling beneath the Condor's belly, while the klicking and klacking from the corn unit rose in volume and variation. Threats, no doubt.
Becker dove and the blue planet grew larger and larger, until its vaporous cover seemed ready to swallow the Condor. "Manual," Becker said, and pulled back on an actual lever among the buttons of his control panel, with the effect that the Condor's nose swooped up, slinging the Khieevi ship behind it.
Acorna felt a bump as they changed course, and on the screen the Khieevi ship jumped and shook as it dipped into the atmosphere and was pulled out again. Becker did this three times. Diving and swooping, and-at the end of each swoop- a bump. As they pulled up, the pressure of acceleration pressed all of them to their seats. RK's lips pulled back from his teeth in a fierce grimace, as did Aari's. Acorna -would have laughed but her teeth were bared, too. Only Mac's face remained just the same, robotic flesh impervious to the force. Acorna's stomach could not decide whether to go into her throat or her legs, and the variations in gravity made her lightheaded and giddy.
Just as the Khieevi ship bumped the third time, Becker commanded, "Disengage tractor beam, Bucko. We're gonna play a little game of crack the ship."
The Khieevi ship -was flung wide from the Condor and skipped three more times against the resistance of the outer atmosphere, almost as if the ship was a flat rock and the atmospheric rim was a pond. But the ship wasn't solid, and the Mantis's legs and antennae broke off with the first skip, while large cracks appeared with the next before it plunged spinning toward the surface. It disappeared into nothingness as the Condor flew deeper into space.
"Whoa, Buck," Becker said.
When the Condor had slowed, Becker returned to the atmosphere and reversed thrusters. The Condor's screens were picking up signals from the Lmyaan escape pod as well as several from the Khieevi ship.
The planet appeared even bluer than it had from the air as the ship approached the surface.
Acorna didn't know she was humming until Aari asked, "You are singing-is it your death song?"
"Gill used to sing it sometimes," Acorna said. "It is an old Terran folksong of military origin."
Becker laughed and sang in a gravelly and tuneless voice, "Off we go, off into the wild blue yonder."
Seven.
Thariinye?" Maati said. "Tharnnye, we've landed. JVly arms are pinned. Can you open the canopy?"
His heart still beat in her ear slow and steady. He was alive, anyway. "Thariinye, are you okay?"
He blasted her other ear with a loud snore. She elbowed him in the ribs. "You fell asleep! We could have been killed and you fell asleep!"
He stirred and groaned. "Not asleep. More like unconscious, I think."
"Unconscious people don't snore. You were snoring." Where are we, anyway?" he asked, changing the subject. "I don't know. But it feels like we landed. That was too much of a thump for us to be still in space. Can you open the canopy?"
What if we have landed on some hostile planet where there is only nitrogen to breathe?" he asked. "If I open the canopy, we die."
Look at the sensors, you dope. The air's fine. Remember, "y parents lived here for long enough for the Niriians to find roem. They must have breathed the air and still survived. And if you don't get us out of here, I wet my pants now and we both die of hunger or worse later anyway," she said. "Do you just want to sit here and wait for the Khieevi to snatch us?"
"Okay, you've got a point." He opened the hatch. While he was at it, he turned off the locator beacon. "Don't know who'll be looking for us, do we?" he asked. Through the open hatch, they saw periwinkle blue sky, lacy fronds of vegetation, one sun and half a dozen moons simultaneously, and some large and very beautiful birds with blue and green iridescent plumage soaring above them.
"How could you fall asleep -when the Khieevi were after us and maybe even got Khornya and Aari, too?"
"I couldn't do anything about it, could I? When you are older and more experienced, youngling, you will learn to utilize whatever quiet moments you can grab from the constant excitement of a spacefarer's life to conserve your energy and mend any damage done by life's travails."
"Right," she said, and tried to sit up. The pod moved under her, bouncing up and down. "Whoa, stop!" she said, and looked over the edge to see what was causing the motion. Lacy, fernlike growth held them in the air. "Thariinye, look. These are the tallest bushes I have ever seen!" All around them and high above them, blocking off the view in most directions, other lacy fronds fanned briskly back and forth.
He sat up, too, and the pod rocked even more perilously.
"They're not bushes, youngling. These are treetops. Can you climb down? If the branches support your weight, then maybe they'll support mine. I don't think we're up very high. All of the other trees appear to be higher."
She leaned over the edge and touched something solid, big enough it let her spread her whole hand. Thariinye leaned against the opposite side of the pod to balance it as she felt her way along. When she was sure the support was wide enough for her to step out on, she did, slithering her belly, pelvis, and legs over the side to follow her outstretched hands and arms.
She crawled along the limb on hands and knees, peering through the fronds to try to find more sturdy branches. When she reached the trunk, she had to lift more fronds to find the way down. "No wonder it wasn't very tall," she crawled back to Thariinye.
"Be careful, you'll . . ." "Oooops!" she cried, windmilling her arms as she let her legs shoot out from under her.
"Maati!" Thariinye cried, and toppled the pod reaching for her. It fell from the nest of fronds and landed below-about three feet below. Thariinye had covered his head with both hands anticipating the crash.
Maati laughed and laughed, and stood up. The fronds and the part of the trunk still in the ground rose only as high as her waist. "Gotcha!" she cried, clapping her hands. "We broke the tree when we landed and its branches cushioned our fall!" "Brat," Thariinye grumbled, extricating himself from the pod.
"Now what, 0 experienced spacefarer?" Maati asked cheekily.
"Standard protocol is to stay near your pod," Thariinye told her. "Which would be a good idea if Khornya and her crewmates are looking for us."