Fall of the White Ship Avatar (44 page)

Heart looked up to the blue-lit motes floating in the dome. "My father won't give her to you," she said, hugging her arms to herself. "Maybe you believe it's better that the Ship be destroyed rather than fall under his control. Maybe you're even right! I don't know anymore! But he's just as ready to die as you file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20krui...%20-%20Fall%20of%20the%20White%20Ship%20Avatar.htm (224 of 242)23-2-2006 17:03:14

[Fitzhugh 3]-FALL OF THE WHITE SHIP AVATAR

are, and I thought you were better than him, that way. But you're both so
fucking
ready to die!"

"If I really was, we wouldn't be here, Heart. You should've heard some of the other Sampson Options."

Alacrity set the pisco sour aside without having tasted it. "I'm not betting on your father; I'm betting on those soulbenders he's in with. He's not some heroic one-man expedition this time; he's saddled with a bunch of greedy, self-centered slime smears."

There was a furor on the footpath. Higgins came down the trail, leading the others. Wulf brought up the rear, dignified and deliberate, Yester trailing him.

Higgins came up close. "Master Fitzhugh, this has gone far enough! The issue is not worth innocent lives!"

Alacrity almost laughed. "You seen any of those around here?"

"Stop talking nonsense!" She took a step nearer and her small brown hands took on odd, martial shapes.

Alacrity tried not to sweat, but everybody knew stories about those superhumans, the undefeated Strike Recondos who'd trained her and given her her enhancements.

"You
will
revoke your instruction to the White Ship, Master Fitzhugh, or I shall be obliged to make you do so."

Alacrity thought about nerve holds or maybe even injections, if she'd brought along styrettes. Recondos had infamous ways of getting information, but those probably weren't a patch on what somebody learned in ten-odd years running a penal ward.

Alacrity leaned back a bit, afraid; height and weight and reach didn't mean a damn in this context.

Gentry Standing Bear would probably be easier to deal with. He debated plunging into the undergrowth, dodging and hiding, anything to give his plan time to work.

But he chose to stand his ground in his grandfather's ship, glowering. "No."

Floyt intervened, facing Higgins and the rest. "You gutless
children
! Get back! He's right and you know it!"

Heart came from the other side, shoulder to shoulder with Floyt, protecting Alacrity. "You're all so free with words!
What happens to the White Ship decides what happens to the human race
! Stand back, now, or strike the first blow at me."

Most of the group was undecided, but Alacrity saw Wulf slip in to stand at Higgin's shoulder, and knew a pang of disappointment. He'd liked Wulf.

Higgins went into a martial crouch. "Yes, I think we will have to. And later there will be time to try to file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20krui...%20-%20Fall%20of%20the%20White%20Ship%20Avatar.htm (225 of 242)23-2-2006 17:03:14

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get what
we
want."

Alacrity, astounded, watched as Wulf brought up his big, dojo-hardened fist for a hammer blow on Higgin's neck, a risky attempt to put her out of the action with one shot, which was the only feasible way. Higgins was saying "Your last chance, Fitzhugh. Cooperate! I don't wish to do you harm!"

Alacrity must have betrayed something with his eyes; Higgins caught some hint from him and/or Heart and/or Floyt, and swung around with reflexes that reminded Floyt of Hecate. She caught Wulf's arm on its lightning descent, arresting it there, and appeared to tap him.

Wulf fell back, all the color leaving his face, blocking Yester from leaping to his assistance. Alacrity, Floyt, and Heart were about to launch themselves at Higgins when they realized somebody was yelling

"Stop it! Look! Look!"

There'd been a weighty metal grinding for a few seconds as the confrontation went on, Alacrity realized, and the creak of bending alloy. And now there was a growing slice of strong artificial light across the top of the footpath, overwhelming the soft bioluminescence of the Vale.

A voice called down, "Fitzhugh! We've opened the hatch! Stop the Ship! You win!" It was some Old Guard veteran, not Dincrist. It was sweeter than anything Floyt had ever heard in his life.

Alacrity was off and running like one of Lord Marcus Perlez's rover lightshapes, dodging around the scene at the table, racing for the light. Floyt and Heart were first to follow, then the others in a rush, except for Yester, and Wulf, whom Yester had leaning on him weakly, and Higgins, who took Wulf's other side and kneaded pressure points to undo the paralysis.

The hatch had been crumpled open with force tools and power jacks liberated from a nearby tool locker.

Mason, Praxis, Constance, and Dincrist were gone, but the rest of the Old Guard was there. It was what Alacrity had been betting on: not that Dincrist would lose his nerve, but that his followers would.

"Stop the Ship! Turn us back!" It was a magisterial-looking, elderly man.

Alacrity held the old man back with one hand. "Sure, all right! After you tell me Dincrist and the others give up! Where are they?"

The answer was so shrill it was hard to understand. "They're crazy! They went forward to the bridge.

They say they're going to blank the Ship's memory!"

There was only one passageway tram there, a small one; by the time things got sorted out, Alacrity had jumped in along with Heart and Floyt. The other New Factioners had gathered round.

Alacrity accelerated away. "That's enough! We're too heavy already! Get more trams; follow when you file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20krui...%20-%20Fall%20of%20the%20White%20Ship%20Avatar.htm (226 of 242)23-2-2006 17:03:14

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can!"

The White Ship's bridge wasn't very far forward of the Vale in terms of the Ship's overall size, but the trip was four minutes of fear and forboding anyway, the tram whisking along passageways and riding interdeck chutes.

When they got to the bridge, Alacrity jumped off the tram while it was still moving and marched in without looking around for an ambush. He calculated that Dincrist and the others had had enough time to divine that they couldn't stop Sampson Option three or save themselves short of caving in to Alacrity.

He'd entered via the captain's companionway, looking out on a bridge that was twice the size of the Vale.
All those tech stations, slaved through the Ship's AIs,
he thought.

Mason and Praxis were standing by command stations, out of their depth, both of them having reason to fear what Alacrity and Floyt might do. Constance was perched indifferently on the backrest of the captain's chair, eyes unfocused, running a metal talon along her outthrust tongue.

Dincrist was checking something at a console, not too far beyond. He turned, holding up his hand to show the massive signet ring he wore, its crest now flipped up to reveal a button trigger.

"And what will your victory be worth if I loose this cyberwipe?" Heart's father asked with a bland smile.

Praxis and Mason stood to one side, their misgivings plain.

Dincrist held high the ring. "It will set off logic bombs in the Heavyset material I gave the Ship." He gave a fey grin. "One can hardly blame the Ship AIs; some of them go back nearly a century and are obsessed with Heavies data."

He brought a finger close to the button trigger. "I think you're bluffing, but if you're not, just stand where you are. If you don't call off the Sampson Option right now, I'll blank the White Ship's AIs and take the choice away from you. The Ship will be a helpless hulk, and we'll all go down to glory together."

But Alacrity was shaking his head, his slate-gray hair rippling. "What happens is, you sign over your shares to me. And Mason, there, does, too, and Praxis. Or we all go into the fire, and if you disbelieve me it won't be for long."

Constance hissed at him. "Stupid child! We
know
you're faking!"

"Oh, yeah?" Alacrity pointed to Praxis. "Ask him. He already knows how far I'll go. So does the baron."

Baron Mason bided his time, letting no reaction show, but Praxis looked worried.

"Right down into Spica," Alacrity said mechanically.

"Very well! All right!" Praxis burst out. "Take whatever you want! Take my shares, they're yours! Only file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20krui...%20-%20Fall%20of%20the%20White%20Ship%20Avatar.htm (227 of 242)23-2-2006 17:03:14

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turn the Ship around!"

"
Silence
!" Dincrist thundered, red coming in like a weather front under his perennial tan.

"No, he's right," Mason yielded tiredly, measuredly. "Fitzhugh, we only have a little time to save ourselves. Turn this vessel around and my shares are yours."

"Gimme those shares first, and it's a deal."

"There's no
time
!" Praxis shrieked.

Alacrity turned to look down at the self-proclaimed Saint of the Irreducible I. "There's enough if you hurry." Alacrity glared at him. "Don't tempt me to kill you, 'cause
I really want
to!"

They all knew the techniques of transfer, and the bridge pickups constituted a transactions terminal.

Dincrist yelled in rage and Constance spat resentfully, but Praxis transferred his shares to Alacrity. As far as the Ship was concerned, the transfer was valid, whatever the courts might say later.

And by the time these beauties get to a court, I'll be long gone with this Ship.
Alacrity grinned to himself.
And the secret to Heavyset contact, maybe.

"You're next," he told Mason.

The Baron had a fey smile on his face. "How I wish I'd killed you both! You, and Floyt there!"

"Some other lifetime, maybe," Alacrity allowed.

"Very well, then … "

Mason began the transfer procedure, too, but Dincrist, unable to bear anymore, sprang at him. Alacrity had expected the first attack to come
his
way; sometimes there was no figuring people.

Mason, half a head taller than Dincrist, was borne back by Dincrist's velocity. They rebounded from the systemry.

Alacrity charged down to break it up, get the ring away from them, and incidentally do some violent laying-on of hands. Anger had hold of him and he didn't hear either Floyt's yelled warning or Heart's, or realize that he'd be passing close to Constance.

He caught Constance's movement just as one jeweled nail sheath, envenomed sting extended, swung for his neck. Floyt had a split-instant vision of Langstretch injector kits like Gentry Standing Bear's, and knew the scuffle was a ruse to draw Alacrity into range so the Old Guard could pump him full of something that would compel him to revoke the Sampson Option.

But Alacrity was brought up short, making Constance miss, and hauled back out of range, overbalanced file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20krui...%20-%20Fall%20of%20the%20White%20Ship%20Avatar.htm (228 of 242)23-2-2006 17:03:14

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and rolled out of harm's way by Heart, who had a grip on one of his tasseled shoulderboards and the waist of his form-fitting britches.

She lost a slipper that rang on the deck as they got out of striking range. Floyt leapt in, swinging the Inheritor's belt like a war-flail, braving the raking talons, making Constance shrink back rather than risk getting herself brained.

In another moment Alacrity, Floyt, and Heart were back by the companionway hatch. Panting and mad-eyed, Constance sank claws into the backrest of the captain's chair, slicing it.

Mason and Dincrist, their gambit failed, had released one another. Alacrity opened the collar of his uniform jacket so he could catch his breath.

"Time's about up. C'mon." He snapped his fingers, opening his palm again for the suicide switch ring.

"Hand it over! This Ship isn't yours! And while you're at it, you're going to sign over your shares to me."

Dincrist and Mason looked at each other. "Do like I say or I'll kill us all!" Alacrity howled at them. "You have nothing more to say about the White Ship!
Nothing ever again
! And I'm not bluffing."

Spica filled all forward displays. Dincrist looked at Alacrity with a vast tranquility that made Floyt fearful. "I don't chose to comply, Fitzhugh. Do what you will."

"You'll choose death?" Floyt demanded angrily. "For all of us? Even for your daughter?"

"No. Fitzhugh might, though."

Alacrity indicated Floyt and Heart with a toss of his head. "They already know I'm not going back on this.
I'm not going back to being what I was, understand
? Dying with the White Ship is a bigger, better death than I ever counted on. Look: you think you're at peace with an end like this? Dincrist,
I worked
my whole life for it
!"

Dincrist and Alacrity stared at one another while ten seconds went by. Heart felt Floyt take her hand.

Dincrist closed the crest cap of his ring and slouched across the bridge, defeated, meaning to slump into the captain's chair. Floyt glanced to the Nonpareil's stoic face; it was impossible to gauge how much the scene was hurting her.

Alacrity moved toward Dincrist but kept an eye on Constance. "Uh-uh, Dincrist; you can't sit there!"

The Nonpareil put a hand on his shoulder but he ignored it. "That seat was supposed to be my father's!

I'm not letting—
look out
!"

The warning came too late; Constance's claw was already at target—a different sting from the one she'd been ready to use on Alacrity—sinking into the side of Dincrist's neck. She was trying to get the signet file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20krui...%20-%20Fall%20of%20the%20White%20Ship%20Avatar.htm (229 of 242)23-2-2006 17:03:14

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ring the rest of the way off with fingers and teeth even while he was falling, her free hand-claws spread to hold off any who might try to interfere.

The flashing finger sheaths brought Alacrity up short and kept Heart back when she would've gone to her father's side. Floyt dragged Heart back, or she would've risked Constance's poisons, after a moment's hesitation, to try to save her father. Mason and Praxis stood frozen.