A Mind For Trade Part 10

The woman's eyes shifted from Ya to Jellico and back, then she glanced down-probably at a readout corresponding to the ones running below and around the screen on the Star-and said, "We feared you might be brigands, and so we maintained silence."

What made you change your mind? Rael thought, glad she was out of view of the vid transmitter-and then she realized what bothered her. She knew what the transmit on the Star projected: the comtech, of course, and the captain as well, and if the others moved their couches into forward position, you could see at least part of a shoulder, or arm, plus a portion of the instrumentation. Behind the woman there was only a flat surface, impossible to judge; she could be sitting in a bare cabin, or else there might be a sheet of something directly behind her head. Nothing else was visible, no crew-mates, no equipment.

"We are having trouble," Umik Lim went on. "Trying to contact our landing party. Overdue to rejoin us. EM is too strong for our communications equipment."

Ya's hand barely moved; Jellico glanced at the screen, but Rael saw no corroborative data on the overlay. Only the one ship was evident. Where was the other?

"When you enter system, we see two ships," Umik Lim went on. "Your second one?"

"The Solar Queen, our second ship, is planetside exploring mineral deposits," Ya said. "We are duly authorized to exploit this planet; the contract is registered at the Garden of Harmonious Exchange, according to the treaty, and with the Free Trade Administration."

"When we come here, no one here. No one claims. Free planet to survey," Umik Lim said.

"It's a big planet," Jellico said, speaking for the first time. "Once you collect your landing party, you are free to take whatever you mined, as long as you leave the system."

Umik Lim said, "We a-re here before your contract signed, maybe?"

"If you were, then why did you not register the find at Exchange?"

"Ovaeli law states, finder of planet is new owner," Umik Lim said.

"But we are not in Ovaeli s.p.a.ce," Jellico said evenly.

Umik Lim glanced quickly aside, then jerked her chin down in a semblance of a nod. "This we know. Law here is different-I explain Ovaeli laws. We think we can claim planet, until now. We meet, my captain says, make treaty between us? Then we depart."

As Jellico hesitated, the image of the woman abruptly cleared. Ya tapped at his keys, and script overlaid the woman's face: SWITCHING TO DIRECT.

A subscreen suddenly windowed up, displaying orbital plots around Hesprid, a ship creeping up over the limb of the planet.

Rael realized the tactical situation: the others had revealed themselves in a safe orbit, leaving both parties poised to escape, yet on very slowly closing courses. So far, so good.

They're behaving as though they are what they say they are, she thought.

Another screen showed the limb of Hesprid in real time. Rael saw a dim spark above the curve, shimmering with the instability of an enhanced image.

NO SIGN OF THE OTHER SHIP, Tang Ya tapped onto the screen overlay.

"We can make a treaty by comlink," Jellico said. "You did not know that this planet, Hesprid IV, was claimed. We'll squirt over the legal data." He nodded at Ya, who tapped at his keys.

Rael saw the data-transfer light flicker. Umik Lim paused, as though reading-or listening-then said, "Our custom is for treaty to be made in meeting. No false corns when two captains meet, touch palms. We record meeting, then our treaty is legal on Ovaelo. Comlink treaty not legal."

Ya glanced over at Jellico, who hesitated, scanning the data running across the screen. Rael did as well: so far, at least, the woman's- words and the signals corresponded.

"Very well," Jellico began.

Just then the intership com bleeped, and Ya quickly transferred-the sound to his headset. A moment later he worked at his console, and on the screen a new line of data appeared- this from Van Ryke, down in the survey lab.

PUTTING THIS EXPENSIVE SURVEY GEAR TO GOOD USE. THE GEE-ANOMALY SENSORS SAY THAT SHIP IS UNDER 1.6 GRAVITIES INTERNALLY.

One-point-six? Rael glanced back at the information on Ovaelo, and there it was, just as she remembered: GRAVITY.85: One-point-six gravs. she remembered a moment later. This was the preferred gravitic pull of the Shver, the huge, ele-phantine beings who shared Exchange with the Kanddoyds and humans.

And a moment later, Ya typed on the screen: SHVER?

Jellico glanced at it, then continued. "Very well. Name a rendezvous point, please." Rael's heart was thumping in her chest; even so, she felt the urge to laugh. Jellico had asked them to name a rendezvous point, but he hadn't promised to meet them at it. Even in danger, he had difficulty lying.

No one spoke further as Umik Lim-or whoever she really was-relayed coordinates for a meet point. Ya acknowledged them; there was a brief exchange of niceties, and then the com winked out.

"Shver," Jellico said grimly.

Rael recalled what she had learned about these beings. Their homeworld was overcrowded, and their society favored strength, aggression, and ability. In their own sphere of influence, they were busy conquering worlds most favorable to Shver adaptation-whether those planets were inhabited or not.

"They have to appear to abide by the Exchange Treaty, or else they'll get the Patrol after them-and the Kanddoyds, who are much more technologically advanced," Rael said. "But it makes sense that they would only pay lip service to the treaty way out in these frontier areas."

Ya smiled sourly. "They certainly made it plain enough on Exchange that they looked down-"

"In more ways than one," Van Ryke chortled, appearing in the hatchway.

Rael bit back a laugh at the image of the tall, ma.s.sively built Shver towering over everyone else. No one got in their way on Exchange-and they never stepped aside for anyone.

"-that they looked down on everyone else," Ya finished, shooting a look of tolerant scorn at the cargo master.

"I suspect what's closer is that the Shver feel challenged by the Kanddoyd relationship with the Patrol," Jellico mused. "Within their own lights they are relatively law-abiding. More so than the silver-tongued Kanddoyds, who will praise you to your face while helping themselves to your pockets, if they think they can get away with it."

Van Ryke nodded, his white brows quirked. "I suspect the Shver, concerned with their own overcrowding problems, are also sensitive to the prospect of a growing human presence. We are one of the, most adaptable races-and one of the fastest growing, under ideal circ.u.mstances."

"But human colonization was ruled out, except in specifically agreed-on systems," Ya said. "I remember going over that treaty word by word."

Van Ryke shrugged. "Treaties get broken. And the Kanddoyds would be the ones to do it-rapologetic, flattering, obsequious."

"I can just hear them," Rael murmured, smiling as she recalled some dealings with the strange beetlelike beings.

The cargo master smiled benignly. "Exactly. Anyway, the Shver's manueverings with the Kanddoyd would be hampered by a Patrol base on Hesprid IV, bringing with it too much traffic, too many eyes, too much commerce."

"But it's unlikely they're official Shver units," Jellico said. "Not with a heavy-world human aboard."

Rael interjected, "That's one of the things that was bothering me about that vid the entire time I watched. The most obvious discrepancy was how the rest of her cabin was blocked from the vid transmit. More subtly, I realize now that the structure of her features, the deep lining, all would be characteristic of humanoids bred for heavy grav."

Jellico tapped with his fingers on the arm of his couch. "Except standard Shver tactics call for five ships, or seven, or three ships. No even numbers: there is always a flagship, even of the smallest fleet."

"If there is a third ship out here," Van Ryke said, "we can be sure they're planning a surprise when we reach the rendezvous."

"And so?" Ya asked, loosening himself once more from the com couch.

"We won't," Jellico said.

He reached forward, working his console. A display came to life, showing a swirling storm system on the planet below, with the land ma.s.ses outlined in glowing white lines. "Our present orbit takes us across the Queen's position, after this storm pa.s.ses. Instead, we'll retro in, pick up velocity, and skip off the atmosphere at the height of the storm. We'll use the EM pulses to cover our course change."

"And then Dead Dog," Van Ryke said, in a tone of delight.

Jellico nodded.

Rael repeated, " 'Dead dog'?"

Jellico gave her a tight smile. "One of those tactical achievements you come up with when you're an unarmed ship facing two or possibly more ships that are, more than likely, armed-and with illegal arms at that."

Van Ryke's expressive brows soared. "What it translates out to is: no power except some shielded DC fans to keep the air circulating."

No power. Engines shut down, cold. No jets. Rael contemplated the consequences in dismay, though she gave no outer sign of it. Engines could not be turned on and off like a water tap. The Star would be helpless if discovered. In fact, they wouldn't even know they'd been caught until a colloid blaster breached their hull-they'd be flying blind for hours after the bounce, until they were far enough away to make a quick peek safe. , "With the three moons in their present configuration, we've got the makings of a great billiards game," Jellico said, his narrowed gaze gleaming with challenge. Rael suddenly realized just how great a challenge they faced, for Jellico had never piloted the North Star through an ablative orbit. Its blockier construction would make it handle very differently from the sleek Solar Queen.

"What do we tell the Queen}" Rael asked to take her mind off the danger.

Jellico looked at Tang Ya, who shook his head. "Can't punch much of anything through an EM mess like that, not se-curely. Have to wait for the storm to pa.s.s and the wave action to die down. We'll be doggo by then."

"They'll reveal themselves when we make our break. We'll pulse the number off a moon, then," said Jellico. "Minimal information for the Shver, and enough for Rip and the others."

"What about a call to the Patrol?" Rael asked.

"They'll know it," Ya said, twisting about to look at her. "Simple enough to put a spider-eye between Hesprid and the relay."

Rael had a brief, vivid image of the gossamer web of conductive monofilament, hundreds of kilometers across, spun out of a ship between them and the Patrol relay far out in s.p.a.ce. Light pressure from the Hesprid system's sun would eventually blow it past the relay out into interstellar s.p.a.ce, but until then, it would faithfully record any signal coming from the planet's vicinity. The pirates couldn't destroy the relay, for loss of its polling signal would equally well alert the Patrol. She nodded in agreement; so did Jellico.

"The relay's fifteen light-days out," said Teng Ya. "That gives us at least thirty days until they know we've squawked."

"At that point they'll have to set themselves up to intercept the Queen," said Jellico. "They'll know they've lost the planet, and they'll just want what they can get away with."

"And they won't care how they get it," said Kosti. "If we alert the Patrol, I suggest we send a message they can't ignore-a Nova Cla.s.s Alert."

Rael said automatically, "Which is for war, or threatening X-Tee contact, or planetary disaster-if they determine a call is frivolous, we'd be in serious trouble."

"We're in that now." Jellico said, "We're close enough on the last two. Let's risk it." He nodded and began setting up a course. "We'll make our break at 19:20; that'll give us maximum cover from the EM."

Rael glanced at the time, realized what the cut in power would mean to the many projects she had running, and ducked out to make her own preparations.

At 19:20, they were all strapped into their couches.

"On my mark," Jellico said, his voice tight, his focus laser-narrow. Next to him, Steen Wilc.o.x, his longtime navigational officer, sat, working his console. "Three, two, one. Mark."

The swift relay of orders given and acknowledged were steady and familiar. Then Rael felt the ship hum with power through her couch. Moments later came the pressure of acceleration, like one of the Shver sitting on her chest. Two Shver, she thought hazily; they were up to 3.5 gees, and the acceleration was still climbing.

To keep her mind off the discomfort, she watched the orbital plot on the screen before her. Abruptly another blip appeared over the limb of the planet ahead-but too high for an intercept, now. Or was it? The Shver could take more acceleration than they could. The blip brightened as the computer detected its jets firing. They would try.

The next thirty minutes were a haze of growing discomfort as they dropped into the planet's upper atmosphere. The hull began to ping from stress, and Rael thought she could hear a high, faint shriek underlying the rumble of the jets.

And just as the orbital plot fuzzed out from EM overload and went static, a third blip lifted over the planet, a cla.s.sic three-point intercept.

Three ships. Forming a trap.

Her vision grayed as the gees suddenly surged, tearing at her guts as Jellico triggered the jets and literally bounced the North Star off the near vacuum of high atmosphere.

Then, abruptly, they were in free fall, falling away from the planet at high velocity without power. Invisible. Undetectable.

All but one of the displays went dark. The emergency lights came on, dim and reddish orange. The remaining screen flickered as the computer projected their course, and lines sprang from the four dots on it: three red course lines converging from the Shver ships on a point behind the fleeing green dot that represented the North Star.

Rael closed her eyes, her breath hissing out in relief. They had sprung the trap and escaped.

At least for now.

Chapter Eleven.

The Queen's crew were all gathered in the mess cabin.

"The first question is, are these Traders in league with the pirates?"

That was Rip Shannon. Tooe watched the navigator. He was nervous. Tooe thought he was a good leader, but she strongly suspected that he did not like being a leader when he had to make a decision that had two or more consequences, and which would affect everyone else. Tooe knew the signs. It had been the same with Nunku, the leader of her klinti on Exchange. They would both be happier taking all the risks, and the consequences, themselves, if they could.

"Anything is possible," Tau said. "But I don't think these Traders are in league with anyone. The situation with Parkku, and the medication, would indicate a stranded party who is low on supplies."

"Unless it's a ruse," the cook-steward, Frank Mura, said.

"Seems a very elaborate ruse," Dane said. He seemed pre-occupied. He'd been this way ever since they had returned from the campsite. "If they'd wanted us to believe-"

"Siere's data is very good," Tau said. "Some of his discoveries will probably save our lives; there are some virulent microbes in these winds, some of them brought from distant islands, so they didn't show up on the preliminary tests."

"I'll be adding the immune mods to the food," Mura put in. "But you have to consider that this could be a way to get us to trust them. After all, we could have figured out the same data, given time-"

"If-if-if!" Ali cut in. His voice was not slow now, it was quick and impatient. "We can spin out 'ifs' all day, and never get any answers. Either we trust them, or we don't. If we don't, give me a definite reason, not another load of 'ifs.' Makes more sense to trust them until we see some sign- something definite-that we shouldn't."

Johan Stotz said, "I'm with Ali. We have to get that cielan-ite, and then we've got to figure out some way to get this ship into orbit without being either hijacked or blasted out of the sky. The sooner we get started, and the more hands we have helping, the better our chances."

"The Traders will be with us when we leave this planet," Rip reminded them.

"They could always have a plan to take over the ship-" Dane said.

"We can counter that easily enough," Rip said, with a quick glance at Ali. "Steen has programmed plenty of trapdoors and the like in the computer systems-no one's going to get control of the Queen that way."

Ali chopped the air with his hands. "Enough with the far future. Almost as bad as the 'what-ifs.' Let's get Lossin and his gang on the comlink and plan tonight's work," he said. "a.s.suming, of course, the fog disappears-taking with it whatever might be riding along."

Everyone looked at the external viewport, which showed thick, swirling vapor obscuring the scenery. There was some wind, but it only made the cottony moisture weave and curl in hypnotic patterns. Tooe did not like looking out at that fog.

Ali, Jasper, Dane, and Rip looked at the viewports often. Tooe watched them doing it, wondering if they sensed the Floaters by their psi-link. She also knew that they only half believed in the psi-link, or at least that was what they had told Craig Tau. She'd delved into the data files and found his reports on the subject.

She also knew that she wasn't supposed to be mining the data files without permission. She felt a little bad, but not bad enough to regret it. What she'd found helped her to understand these Terrans a little better.