Infinity's Shore (96 page)

Another stack interrupted.

“
Localization! One of the nearby cognizance sites has remained active long enough to verify its location
.”

The commander vented compact clots of purple vapor.

“
PROCEED ON ATTACK VECTOR! PREPARE A CAPTURE BOX FOR SEIZURE OF SOURCE! WHETHER IT IS A SOPHISTICATED STAR ENEMY OR ANOTHER SOONER RUSE, WE SHALL SECURE IT FOR LATER INSPECTION, THEN RETURN TO OUR PRINCIPAL OBJECTIVE
.”

The ring piles reacted more swiftly than Lark had ever witnessed traeki move, setting to work in a whirl of base feet and flailing tendrils. Soon the outside monitors showed clouds and prairie rushing by in a blur, depicted in many spectral bands. On some displays, flashing concentric circles closed in.

“Targeting brackets—” Ling explained. But the circles seemed to contain nothing. Only open space.

Lark's right hand drifted under his shirt, stroking the sliver of the Egg. “I feel …”

Ling tugged his arm. “Look at the far left screen!”

He squinted, and began to make out something small and round. A ghostly shape, depicted as nearly transparent.
Blur cloth
, he realized, recognizing the effects of that specialized g'Kek weaving. All at once Lark understood. The Jophur were streaking toward an object that was invisible to nearly all their sensors, because it was made of nothing but air and fabric plaited to smear light.

If only his rewq had not lapsed into exhausted hibernation! The hazy globe loomed larger, even as Lark's heart beat faster. His amulet throbbed in response.

“What
is
it?” Ling wondered, perplexed.

Before he could answer, without warning, all the forward viewing screens abruptly went black.

One Jophur let out a shrill wail. Several vented colored steam. The commander flexed and blared.

“
HOSTILITIES ALERT! ROBOTIC DEFENSE! ALL STATIONS PREPARE FOR THE DRAWBA—
”

Gillian

D
ETONATION!”

Streaker
's detection officer shouted excitedly. “One of our proximity bombs just went off, almost on t-top of the Jophur!”

The bridge filled with neo-dolphin cheers. “Maybe that got the bastardss,” someone chittered hopefully.

Gillian called for quiet.

“Keep it down, everyone. That firecracker won't do more than scratch their paint.” She took a deep breath. It was the crucial moment of decision, for commitment to the plan.

“Launch the swarm!” she ordered. “Get us up, Kaa. Exactly the way we planned.”

“Aye!” The pilot's back showed momentary waves of tension as he sent commands down his neural tap.
Streaker
responded instantly, engines ramping up to full power for the first time in almost a year. The sound was thrilling, though the act would surely give them away once Jophur sensors recovered.

Telemetry showed the motivators running well. Gillian glanced at viewers showing the engine room. Hannes Suessi darted back and forth, checking the work of his well-trained crew. Even Emerson D'Anite seemed engrossed, running his long, dark hands over the prime resonance console, his old duty station during so many other rough scrapes. Speech seemed hardly relevant at this point, when physical insight and tactile skill mattered most.

Perhaps this time, too, the ship would hear Emerson's rich baritone victory yell.

If the repairs all worked. If we get full use out of the spare parts we mined from discarded wrecks. If the decoys run as planned. If the enemy does what we hope … if … if…

Overhead, the stress crystal dome of the control room changed color. The jet black of the abyss faded rapidly as
Streaker
aimed upward, lightening to a royal blue, then a clear pale green. The engine's roar changed tone as Jijo's ocean reluctantly let go its heavy grasp.

Streaker
blew out of the sea with explosive force, already traveling faster than a bullet, trailed by a spoor of superheated steam.

From submarine, back to ship of space. Here we go again.

Go, old girl.

Go!

Rety

W
AKENED FROM A HALF-MILLION-YEAR SLEEP, THE ancient wreck clattered and shrieked. Forced into furious effort, it howled, like some beast screaming in ag-ony.

Rety screamed back, pressing both hands over her ears. Harsh fists seemed to pummel her against the arching pillar where she had tied herself down. With each shake, strips of rope and electrical cable dug into her skin.

From Rety's belt pouch, yee's head waved toward her face.

“
wife! wife don't cry! don't worry, wife!
”

But the piping words were lost amid a maelstrom of sound. Soon his calls merged into a wail, an urrish ululation.

Overwhelmed with dread of being trapped, Rety tore at the straps with her nails, struggling for release.

She never noticed the transition from water to air. The
little holosim display showed whitecaps stretching to a sandy shore, then the tops of clouds.

Crawling across the hard metal floor, Rety toiled toward the airlock, seeing only a narrow tunnel through a haze of pain.

Ewasx

T
HE EFFECTS START TO WEAR OFF.

I emerge from stun state, blind and alone. More duras pass before I coalesce My sense of oneness. Of purpose.

Sending trace signals down the tendrils of control, I reestablish rapport with subservient rings. Soon I have access to their varied senses, staring in all directions with eye buds that flutter and twitch.

HELLO, MY RINGS. Report now and prepare for urgent movement. Clearly we have experienced—and survived—an episode of the Drawback.

The what?

Truly, you do not know, My rings? You have no experience of the chief disadvantage of the Oailie gift?

Certain weapons exist which can render us Jophur insensate for a time, forcing us to rely on robotic protection for the duration of that brief incapacity.

What incapacity?
you ask.

I/we look around. We are no longer near the CaptainLeader, but stand instead at the main control panel, our tendrils wrapped around the piloting wheels.

WHAT ARE WE DOING?

I command the tendrils to draw back, and they obey. Viewscreens show a blur of high-speed motion as the
Polkjhy
races across a landscape of jagged, twisty canyons, unlike anything our memory tracks recall from the Slope. Inertial indicators show us racing
east
, ever farther from the sea. Away from the prey.

Other stacks are beginning to stir, as their master rings
rouse from the Drawback. Hurriedly, I send our basal torus in motion, taking us away from the pilot station. We scurry around behind the Captain-Leader, who is just now rousing from torpor.

In all likelihood others will assume that our sophisticated robotic guardians—programmed to serve/protect during a Drawback interlude—had good reason to send
Polkjhy
careening in this unfavorable direction. Feigning innocence, I/we watch as the pilot stacks resume control, arresting this headlong flight, preparing to regain altitude once more.

MY RINGS, WHAT WAS YOUR AIM? WHAT WERE YOU TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH WHILE YOUR MASTER TORUS WAS INCAPACITATED? TO SEND US CRASHING INTO A MOUNTAIN, PERHAPS?

The robots would not have allowed that. But diverting the course of
Polkjhy
—that was in your power, no?

I perceive we are not finished learning the arts of cooperation.

Gillian