At the galley he paused. "Over here," said Dacia. With hands outstretched to detect obstacles he walked quickly to her and sat; a moment's listening spotted his target for a good-morning kiss. Only one other person breathed nearby. "Morning, Jeremy." At the man's intake of breath, Ivan laughed. "Dacia said you were here."

  Chuckling, Crowfoot said, "One on me, that." While they ate, Ivan told his ideas for tactics at Shaarbant. When he mentioned the scoutship, Crowfoot asked, "Are you thinking of it as a major factor, or some sort of decoy?"

  Ivan leaned forward. "So far, I'd figured on the Deux drawing attention so maybe the scout could slip past and land first. I admit, I haven't considered all the angles. Or I wouldn't be asking."

  Later, in Control, he talked with Ellalee. Concerning the scoutship, she said, "I wouldn't try landing that thing, but I'm

  186

  bloody sure I could fly it, elsewise. So if-" She took a deep breath, as though preparing for exertion, then continued. "Riding copilot, say I was, and the flarnin' Tsa do their mind-clawing trick. Well, you see, if I could hang onto control of me, might be I could get us out of range, what with the planet's curvature and all. You see?"

  "Maybe." Ivan nodded. "And then what?" "And then, given time and safety, the real pilot would be recovered, and could land us, wherever."

  Ivan felt himself smiling. "That's not bad, Ellalee. Dacia- you've got it noted?" He heard her stylus on the paper, and nodded as he spoke.

  Crowfoot thought the scout should be an unmanned weapon, its drive hyped past red-line to max, and set to blow on impact. Ivan shook his head. "In a big operation, yes. In fact that's the way-on Ilse Krueger's advice-I got Admiral Ozzie Newhausen, in the battle for Earth. But here we have just the ship and the scout, and neither's expendable on a one-shot gamble."

  It all came down to Ivan's own decision, and now he'd made it. In quarters, over after-dinner tea. He got up and went to the intercom; from Control, Anders Kobolak answered. "Any orders?''

  "Yes. For now, red-line max decel. When we know our distance better, we can adjust from that."

  Silence. Then, "Right, Captain. You've chosen your plan?" "I've made the choice that gives the most options. That's all."

  Kobolak sounded hesitant. "If you say so." I "After your watch, we'll talk. Marchant out." Feeling the wall to get his angle right, he made his way back to his chair. Dacia asked if he wanted anything; he settled for a beer. Then he talked, and the more he explored the sling idea, the better he liked it. "The dead sling, they won't spot us early, with luck. When they do, we have-" On his fingers he ticked the options. "Go to a power sling; tighter in, that would be." If need be, use the accel to boost them off toward Stenevo. "Or with real luck, get Shaarbant between us and the Tsa, pour on decel and sit down. Dive and plow air. Have to spot Sassden and Shtegel first, though; once we hit air there won't be time to find our ass with both hands. Not with the Tsa chasing us."

  187

  "And do you think there's any chance we can land?" Through his tension, Ivan tried to smile. "I purely hope so."

  Ivan was in no mood for sex, but Dacia was, and when he went along with her wish he was surprised how well things went. It was odd, he thought; sometimes they'd leave each other alone for days, and then it'd be all the time. Well, now might be their last chances, ever-so why not?

  Then, sitting up, she asked more questions about Shaarbant. He was tired; his most recent sleep was long hours ago. But he knew she wanted to help, so he tried to concentrate. And it paid off-because suddenly he knew how he was going to use the scoutship.

  "Whatever move me Deux makes, Dacia, that looks crucial-" Ivan blinked; there was no pain to it now. "-that's when the scout drops free. To land, or play decoy, or whatever-we can't know yet."

  She touched his cheek and said, "There's one thing you know, that you haven't told me. Ivan-who goes on that scout?'

  Well, he hadn't expected to fool her; he sighed. "Ellalee rides copilot, as we discussed, in case she can get the scout through any Tsa attack. For the rest-the scout's detectors have auxiliary audible alarms, and of course, the landing sensors have to work that way. In case of dust, and all. So-" He waited; she made no protest.

  He reached, fumbled, and then held her. "Yes, of course, Dacia. When that scout leaves the Deux, I'll be on it."

  One hand gripped his shoulder; the nails of the other dug into his neck. "You said-you said you had to keep this ship safe, for Tregare. And you haven't-not yet. Ivan-"

  Her nails drew blood; he shook his head, and she moved the hand away. He said, "Once I commit the ship to its best choice of action, my job's done. Anders can do the rest, and I couldn't. But what I can do, then, is choose options for the scout, to help give Inconnu Deux its best licks."

  "No-Ivan, you're trying to take too much on yourself. You-"

  Both his hands found her head, running fingers through her hair and fondling one ear. "Think, Dacia! When the scout drops away, the ship's committed but the scout isn't. So where does command lie?"

  Three breaths she took, before speaking. "Yes, Ivan-you

  188

  have to go where the choices are. Of course." One more breath. "I agree-so long as I go with you."

  His answer came unthought. "I figure the scout's odds about 50-50. If that's good enough for you-well, the ship's chances are much the same, come to that. In the long run." Dacia hugged him, and Ivan decided he'd made a deal.

  Next morning, before he and Dacia had breakfast, they and Ellalee moved their "landing kits" to the scout. Then it was time to announce the decision.

  Anders Kobolak didn't like it. Alina had had breakfast with Ivan and Dacia before relieving her husband; now while the two drank coffee, he had his off-watch meal. For Ellalee it was lunch.

  Ivan repeated his arguments but Anders still disagreed. "You say you'll have given your last possible decisive command before the scout leaves the ship. How can you be sure of that?"

  Ivan shrugged. "The last big one, I said. And likely the last I could give effectively, being unable to see the situation directly. In a fast crisis, Anders, my command presence could kill you-if you waited for answers instead of making your own choices."

  "He's right and you know it." Dacia sounded irritated at her brother. "We've been over all the variations we could think of, and this looks like everybody's best chance."

  Ivan cleared his throat. "If you come up with anything new, Kobolak, we'll certainly give it a hearing. But otherwise we'll use the scout the way I said."

  The dead sling around Shaarbant was Ivan's initial choice- and its vector requirements the touchiest. With that approach, though, they could switch to another of the alternatives at any point. Anders kept Ivan informed of their speed and distance; they were close enough to Shaarbant, he said, that from this angle the planet showed a lopsided disk. And so far, neither screens nor emission detectors showed any sign of Tsa ships.

  The orbit Crowfoot gave them, to arc around Shaarbant, was a cometary-a hyperbola with asymptote-angle of about a radian. "And cutting air just enough, I hope, to let us bend our path wherever we need it." This far out, they couldn't insert yet; most of the time, comets and other debris travel slowly. Crowfoot gave them a least-time course to meet orbit outside

  189

  estimated Tsa detector range. "With a twenty percent margin, of course."

  "And even cutting it that fine," said Ivan, "we'll be a long time to Shaarbant." Couldn't be helped, though. Simulating a dead object in natural orbit-that's what Ivan was betting on.

  "Just so they don't take too close a look."

  Ivan sweat it all the way, but they did reach orbit safely. Crowfoot took readings and made adjustments, then gave Anders the okay to cut the drive, and all ship's power except maintenance and control functions. The rest was keyed to the drive switch; if the ship was brought to life, it would wake all at once, driving at red-line max. The computer chewed viewscreen data and spit out the thrust angles for changing, at any moment, to the power sling maneuver. Right now, there was nothing more anyone could do.

  Well inside estimated detector range, instruments registered the first search beam. One blip and no repeat-and twice more, hours apart, the same thing happened. "Automatic scanners?" No one knew; Ivan shook his head. The fourth beam passed but then returned, and for several seconds wavered back and forth across the Deux's position. Until the blip disappeared, no one spoke; then they could relax.

  "Nobody home but us comets," said Ellalee. "Absolutely nobody."

  "Let's hope they believe that," Ivan said. Shrugging tension from neck and shoulders, he was surprised it went so easily. Now that they were committed-to a fixed set of alternatives, at least-somehow the waiting bothered him less.

  Until Crowfoot told him, he hadn't considered that no comet could orbit a planet; anything doing a cometary around a moving world could only be sheerest coincidence. But if the idea had fooled him, maybe it'd get past the Tsa, too.

  One thing for sure; he couldn't afford to worry about it.

  Their orbit bent; curvature grew as Shaarbant's gravity took firmer hold. Ever faster, Inconnu Deux fell toward the calculated near-miss, and still no sign from the deadly, waiting Tsa.

  "You're sure?" said Ivan. If he could see the damned screens-!

  "Not a peep, not a glimmer," said Ellalee. "Don't fret you, Captain. First pop, I'll have Anders up here to take over, before there's time to say squat."

  190

  Ivan chuckled; Dacia, beside him, squeezed his hand. He said, "Time-distance readings again, please, to closest passage on this orbit." Ellalee read the figures; he nodded, then sighed and turned to Dacia. "Too long and far to sit up without sleep. Too soon and near, though, to chance sleep in quarters and maybe get caught out. Time we moved to the scout, do you think?"

  "Probably," she said. "Shall we check quarters once more first, to see if we've left anything we really should take along?"

  "Why not? And, Ellalee-soon as you're off watch, you move in, too. If action happens before that, come running!"

  "Sure as you know." So they left, gathered a few items from quarters, and began settling in on the scout. The left-hand screens were tandemed through to Control; Dacia checked with Ellalee to make sure the hookup was working. It was.

  Ivan sat in chief pilot's position. He put his board on test status and began to feel it out, to familiarize himself again with the controls he might need to operate. Twice he made errors, but kept his curses down to a mumble. He stayed with the chore until he felt he knew the board as well as he ever would, and put it operational again. "If I have to," he said, "and it's not unlikely, I can land this thing. Especially if somebody watches the back screens for me and picks a good place to set down."

  Dacia touched his shoulder. "That's good. I landed a scout once, but a long time ago. And Ellalee never has."

  They hadn't eaten, so now they did. Then they laid the seats back, and not bothering to undress, they slept.

  A noise woke Ivan. He sat up, and in moments remembered where he was. Quietly, Ellalee said, "Sorry, skipper; bumped my kitbag against the airlock hatch. I'll go backship now, and doss down."

  "Wait a minute." He spoke as softly as she had. "You're off watch? What's our situation?"

  "Closing in, going faster." She sounded excited, a little. First giving the time, she said, "About four hours until our tight pass starts, and still not the sign of any Tsa intercept."

  "Good. All right, Ellalee; get some rest." She left; the rear door closed gently; he lay back again, and dozed. Between sleep and waking, his mind searched the chances ahead. But he must have slept, because when he smelled coffee he had heard no sounds of whoever made it.

  Abruptly, he sat up. "The time! How long before the sling turn starts?"

  191

  "Seventy minutes, a little more." Dacia's voice. "I've been keeping tabs, Ivan. I'd have woke you soon."

  Reassured, he said, "Yes, I know. Ellalee still sleeping?"

  "She's aboard?" Dacia sounded surprised. "Oh, of course; she's off watch, long since. I didn't wake up when she came in, though, so-"

  "I did." He was getting the seat up straight again. The smell of coffee came closer, and when he had the seat properly upright, Dacia handed him a cup. "Thanks. Well-still waiting, are we?" He opened the intercom circuit. "Anders? Ivan. What word?"

  "Crowfoot here. Anders had to take a little walk. Should be back in a minute. He-"

  "Who's got the con? Jeremy-you're no pilot!" Alina was, some-but not for this. He turned aside-should he have Dacia roust Ellalee out and get her up there? But damn it all, she was needed here....

  Mildly, Crowfoot said, "There'll be time, Ivan. To start the power-sling, all I'd have to do is push the button; the computer's feeding the proper angle constantly, you know that. Then Anders would come running and take over."

  Ivan had to work at calming himself, but he did it. Crowfoot's view of the situation was ridiculously optimistic; yelling wouldn't help, though. All he said was, "Kobolak better hurry it up."

  Alina's voice came. "I'll go tell him." Fingers drumming, Ivan waited, and finally Anders Kobolak said, "All right, I'm back. And I think my guts will let me stay put, now. What was the emergency?"

  Ivan choked back the first answer that came to mind, and said, "The idea, I think, is not to have one. Report?"

  Anders read off speed, distance and approach-angle. "Do you still want to drop, if possible, at point-two radians short of perigee?''

  "The computer likes it," said Ivan, "so I won't argue."

  "All right," said Crowfoot. "I'll put the readout on your screen, with an audio countdown on the pickup button."

  "Good enough." Checking that button, Ivan heard the faint tones of the numerical series, counting off the seconds.

  Not long now. "Okay, thanks. Marchant out."

  And Dacia said, "I'd better get Ellalee up."

  While the Australian woman ate, Dacia got the downviewer on her right-hand screen, and kept Ivan informed. "We're

  192

  coming in over the side of Shaarbant we don't know. There's a subcontinent, of sorts, at the rear horizon. Some speckles at the far one-maybe the archipelago where Shtegel is, the port Tregare went to."

  "Then Sassden, where we were, is farside of the planet?" "Has to be," said Ellalee Ganelong. "Billy-o hiding out on us."

  Ivan grinned. "You sound cheerful enough." "So do you," she said-and he had to laugh, and wondered why. Then he knew. The Tsa had blinded him-how, he didn't know-and crippled his ship and cost it years of planets' time. But now, if those devils were still here, something was going to happen. His death, it could be; he knew that. But either way- long enough, he'd waited blind.

  All he said was, "A glum mind wouldn't help much, would it?"

  Before she could answer, the intercept alarm shrieked.

  "Two ships rising." Kobolak's voice. "Tsa, I'd expect. Coming around from darkside, and with fair speed up already."

  Ivan leaned forward. He shook his head. Words-all he could get now, and they weren't enough to tell him what he needed.

  "Can they intercept the dead-sling turn? Jeremy-what's the computer's guess?"

  He heard Crowfoot and Kobolak talking, low-voiced, but couldn't make out what they said. Before impatience made him shout for an answer, Anders spoke. "No physical intercept possible. But they can get within mind-attack range, or close to it."

  "What if we go into the power sling?"

  "A moment." Crowfoot. Then, "Close, still, but I think we can keep safe distance, just barely."

  Ivan's seconds stretched. No time to think, though-and, he decided, no reason to, either. "Drop us. Drop us and hit the power sling." He paused; another idea came. "Anders, Jeremy- are we slow enough that you could bend a tight loop, crabwise acceleration, clear around Shaarbant, and catch them from where they don't expect?"

  "Hey!" Kobolak sounded startled. "Might, at that. Should I?"

  If Anders wouldn't decide, Ivan would. "Yes! Now drop us."

  Shuddering, the scout plunged; the peeps and trills of its sensors drowned in the ionic roar of the Deux's drive, raging into

  193

  full blast. Ivan waited until sound and motion quieted; then he said, "Reports?"

  For moments, only, the scout's drive fired. Dacia said, "There. We were a little too high and too fast. I gave a touch of back-vector, to get us into air sooner, while the ship's drive still masked ours."

  "Can you see the Tsa ships?"

  "Right pouring it on, they are," said Ellalee. "Trying at intercept, but the Deux's out for showing them a clean pair of heels."

  Ivan turned up the audio on the detector circuits, but with three ships to scan, the signals were so much hash. He shook his head, and cut the sound to the edge of audibility. "Soon as they're out of sight, get us downstairs fast. Hedgehopping's the slow way to get around Shaarbant, but we're less apt to be detected."

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30