That will come anyway, he thought, no need to hurry.
The old resolve was still there, among the superficial self-pity and growing concern over his physical state, still holding
together. He was glad of that. Right to the bitter end, that’s where he was heading. The star glinted strongly, virtually
a heliograph. It seemed nearer.
No, not quite a dream.
Chas jerked up with a start, rocking the boat hazardously. The twin villages guarding the tributary mouth were behind him
now. He was out on the Juliffe itself. There was no sign of the Hultain Marsh which made up the northern side. The river could
have been an ocean for all he could tell. An ocean paved with snowlilies as far as his enhanced eyes could see. This was their
meridian, the end of their continental crusade. They were packed four or five deep, crumpled up against each other; decaying
now, but wadded so tight they formed a serried quilt. It was a perfect reflector for the carmine light falling from the cloud,
turning his world to a dimensionless red nebula.
The flimsy boat creaked and shivered as the current forced it deeper into the floating pulp. Chas gripped the gunwale in reflex.
He had a nasty moment when something popped and splintered up at the prow, but the hull was so shallow it was squeezed up
rather than in. He was sure it was riding on a patina of rotting leaves rather than actual water.
For all their stupendous mass, the snowlilies had no effect on the river’s unflagging current. The boat began to pick up speed,
moving further out from the southern bank with its near-continual chain of villages and towns.
Now he was sure he wasn’t going to capsize, Chas relaxed his grip, and eased himself down again, breathing hard at the simple
exertion of lifting himself. Up ahead the massive ceiling of red cloud became a bright tangerine cyclone with a concave heart,
its apex hidden by distance. He could see the gravid billows of stratus being torn out of their constricted alignment, sucked
over the lip to spiral upwards in a leisurely procession. It must have been twenty kilometres across at the base: an inverted
whirlpool which drained away into the other side of the sky.
He realized its sharp living tangerine hue came from a fierce light shining down out of its secret pinnacle. Below it, the
city of Durringham gleamed in empyrean glory.
Gaura floated through the floor hatch into the
Lady Macbeth
’s bridge. He took care not to move his neck suddenly, or his arms come to that; his whole body was one giant ache. He had
been lucky not to break anything in that last agonizing burst of deceleration. Even watching the starships attacking the station
he hadn’t felt as utterly helpless as he had then, lying flat on the groaning decking of the lounge feeling his ribs bowing
in, while blackness tightened its grip on his vision. Three times he had heard bone splintering, accompanied by a mental howl—it
was impossible to make any sound. Together the Edenists had toughed it out, their minds embraced, sharing and mitigating the
pain.
When it was over he hadn’t been alone in wiping tears from his eyes. Aethra had followed their entire heart-stopping plummet
into the ring, showing it to them. He had thought the end had surely come, for the second time in an hour. But the Adamist
starship’s exhaust had obliterated the ring particles as it crashed below the surface, eliminating any danger of collision;
and the captain had matched velocities perfectly (for the second time in an hour), slotting them neatly into a circular orbit
buried right in the middle of the ring. The swarm of pursuing combat wasps and their submunitions had impacted seconds behind
them, kinetic explosions tossing out a ragged sheet of fire. None had penetrated more than a hundred metres below the surface.
It had been an astounding piece of flying. Gaura was very curious to meet the person who had such sublime control over a starship.
It rivalled the union between a voidhawk and its captain.
There were three people standing on a stikpad around one of the consoles, two men and a woman, talking in low tones. It didn’t
help Gaura’s composure to see that it was the youngest, a man with a flat-featured face, who had the captain’s star on his
ship-suit shoulder. He had been expecting someone… different.
Don’t prejudge,
Tiya admonished sternly. Most of the Edenists were using his senses to observe the scene.
Voidhawk captains are only eighteen when they start flying.
I wasn’t going to say a word,
Gaura objected mildly. He swam past the ring of acceleration couches to touch his toes to a stikpad on the decking. “Captain
Calvert?”
The young man shrugged. “It’s Joshua, actually.”
Gaura felt his bottled-up emotions come close to brimming over. “Thank you, Joshua. From all of us.”
Joshua nodded shortly, the faintest blush colouring his cheeks. The woman beside him caught his discomfort and smiled secretively.
There,
Tiya said in satisfaction.
A perfectly ordinary young man, if exceptionally talented. I like him.
Joshua introduced Sarha and Dahybi then apologized for the acceleration. “But I had to stop us dead inside the ring,” he said.
“If we had gone through, south of the ecliptic, the other starships would have seen us, and come after us. Their drives could
burn through the particles just as easily as
Lady Mac
did, then we would have been sitting ducks for their combat wasps.”
“I wasn’t complaining. In fact, we’re really all rather surprised that we’re still alive.”
“How are your people holding out?”
“Liatri, our doctor, says none of us have acquired any fatal internal injuries. Melvyn Ducharme is helping her review my people
in your surgery cabin. Metabolic scanning has revealed several broken bones and a lot of pulled muscles. She was most concerned
about internal membrane damage, it could prove a problem unless treated swiftly. But Melvyn Ducharme is rigging up a processor
block that can interface her with your medical nanonic packages.”
Joshua blinked, nonplussed.
“Our own medical packages all use bitek processors,” Gaura explained.
“Ah, right.”
“Liatri says we’ll pull through. Mind you, it’s going to take a long fortnight for the bruising to fade.”
“You’re not the only one,” Sarha grimaced. “And you should take a look at where my bruises are.”
Joshua leered. “Promises, promises.”
“That was an awesome piece of flying you pulled off back there, Joshua,” Gaura said. “Eluding two starships…”
“It’s in the blood,” he said, not quite nonchalantly. “Glad to be of help, really. We certainly haven’t been much use to anybody
else since we arrived in this star system.”
Go on,
Tiya urged.
Ask.
But suppose it’s an illegal flight? He was carrying combat wasps, don’t forget. We’d have to give evidence.
Then the law is an ass, and we’ll all develop amnesia. Ask.
Gaura smiled awkwardly. “Joshua, exactly who are you? I mean, why come to Lalonde?”
“Er… Good question. Technically,
Lady Mac
is part of the Lalonde government’s starship fleet, helping to restore civil order. The Confederation Navy squadron has other
ideas, and according to them we’re under arrest.”
“Navy squadron?”
Joshua sighed theatrically, and started to explain.
The Edenists crowding the cabin in life-support capsule D, which doubled as the surgery, listened with a mixture of gloomy
dismay and confusion.
“This sequestration ability sounds appalling,” Gaura said, summarizing the Edenists’ unified feelings.
“You should see the red cloud,” Joshua told him. “That really gives me the creeps. It’s an instinct thing with me, I know
it’s
wrong
.”
Gaura gestured to the console they had been consulting; its holoscreen was alive with blue and yellow data displays. “What
is our current situation?”
“I’m playing a waiting game,” Joshua said, and datavised an order into the console processor. The holoscreen switched to an
image from an external sensor cluster, showing a very dark expanse of crinkled rock. Scale was impossible to gauge. “See that?
That’s the largest ring particle I could find at such short notice, near-solid stone about two hundred and fifty metres in
diameter. It’s twenty-five kilometres inward from the northern surface. We’re keeping station directly underneath it, and
I do mean directly;
Lady Mac
’s forward hull is about three metres away. Right now Warlow and Ashly are outside drilling load pins into the rock so we
can tether
Lady Mac
in place with silicon fibre. That way I won’t have to use the thrusters to hold our position.
Maranta
and
Gramine
would be able to spot any ion plumes easily when the rings calm down. Our on-board electronic systems are designed for minimal
emission anyway, but with that rock as a shield we’ll make absolutely sure we’re undetectable to their sensors. It can also
absorb our thermal output as well; I’ve deployed the thermo-dump panels so that they’re radiating all our excess heat directly
at the rock, it will take months to seep through. All the drive tubes and the five main fusion generators have been powered
down, so our magnetic flux is negligible. We’re operating on one auxiliary fusion generator which is well screened by the
hull. All in all, it’s a very reasonable position. As long as
Maranta
and
Gramine
stay north of the ring we’ll be invisible to them.”
“And if one of them moves to a southern inclination?”
“There is fifty-five kilometres’ worth of particles between us and the southern surface. It’s a risk I’m prepared to take,
especially with the ring so electrically and thermally active right now.”
“I see. How long do you think we’ll be here?”
Joshua pulled a face. “Hard to say. Right now we’re only a hundred and seventy thousand kilometres above Murora,
Lady Mac
needs to be at least two hundred thousand out before she can jump. So if we want to leave, we either wait until
Maranta
and
Gramine
decide to call it a day and quit, or hang on until their search pattern carries them far enough away to allow us to make
a dash for a jump coordinate. Whichever one it is, I think we’ll be here for some time. Weeks at least.”
“I understand. Do you have enough fuel and supplies to last that long?”
“Yes, fuel’s down to forty-seven per cent, those high-gee manoeuvres use up cryogenics at a hell of a rate, but what’s left
can supply our present consumption rate for years. So that’s no problem. But we’ll have to monitor our environmental systems
closely given there’s thirty-six of you. The limiting factor is going to be food; that’ll have to be rationed pretty carefully.
All of which means I really don’t want you to take your children out of zero-tau just yet.”
“Of course. They will be much better off in the pods anyway. But what about your mercenary scout team?”
Joshua exchanged a significant glance with Sarha. “Not a damn thing we can do about that. They’re tough and they’re mean.
If anyone can survive down there, they can.” “I see. Well if the opportunity arises to go back, then please do not hesitate
on our account.”
“We’ll see. It would be difficult jumping to Lalonde with
Maranta
and
Gramine
following us. Ideally I’d like to hang on until they leave Murora. Our major problem is going to be tracking them. When you
came in we were discussing mounting a sensor cluster on the other side of the rock. Before we started hiding we caught a glimpse
of their ion thrusters, so we know they’re still out there. But we have the same problem as them, this ring is pure hell to
see through. Without reliable data we’re at a nasty disadvantage.”
“Ah,” Gaura smiled happily. “I think I may be able to help there.”
Aethra? Can you see the two starships which attacked us?
Yes,
the habitat replied.
They are orbiting slightly above the ring’s northern surface.
An image formed in his mind, the dusky plain of the ring slicing across Murora, blanched of most colour. The habitat’s external
sensitive cells could just sense a broad zone agitated by heat and electricity. Two dull specks were poised slightly above
it, ion thrusters firing intermittent tattoos to maintain their attitude.
Excellent.
“Aethra can see them.”
Joshua brightened. “Jesus, that’s great news. They’re both still here, then?”
“Yes.”
“How is Aethra?” he asked belatedly.
“The shell was extensively damaged. However, there is no catastrophic internal injury, its main organs remain functional.
It is going to require a considerable amount of repair work before it can resume its growth. My colleagues, the ones who were
killed in the attack, their memories have been stored by the personality.”
“That’s something, then.”
“Yes.”
“Can Aethra work out the exact spacial locations of the other starships for me? If we can keep updated I’ll know when we can
risk breaking cover and flying for a jump coordinate.”
“I can go one better than that.” Gaura slipped a processor block from his breast pocket. The slim palm-sized plastic rectangle
had produced a spectacular gold and blue bruise on his pectoral muscle during the flight. “Aethra can communicate through
the bitek processor, and if you can interface this with your flight computer you’ll be able to receive the images directly.
And the starships hunting us will never know, affinity is undetectable.”
“Wonderful.” Joshua accepted the block. It was slightly smaller than the Kulu Corporation model he used. “Sarha, get to work
on an interface. I want Aethra tied in to our navigation processor array pronto.”
“Consider it done.” She plucked it from his fingers and datavised her systems memory core for appropriate electronic module
specifications and adaptor programs.
Joshua thought the Edenist station chief still looked wrecked. “You know, we come from Tranquillity,” he said. “It’s
Lady Mac
’s home port.”