The Black Fleet Crisis_ Tyrant's Test Part 23

"Not quite six minutes, though she'll have to start knocking her speed down pretty soon. Call it eight."

"Not enough time, Colonel Hammax," said Pakkpekatt. "Come back inside.

I need you to take over weapons control."

"Pardon me, Colonel," Taisden said.

"What is it?"

"Colonel, this other ship coming in may not be ignorant enough to think that we're the ones who rearranged the furniture on the cruiser, but they're sure as sweat going to be curious about what we know. I strongly recommend we jump out before they get anywhere near here."

"Recommendation noted," said Pakkpekatt.

"However, inasmuch as we are currently receiving a mission-critical dispatch from Fleet Intelligence, we will not be able to jump out for another"he leaned forward to read the display--"ten minutes."

Pleck and Taisden exchanged glances. "Anyone know the top speed of an Adz-cla.s.s patrol destroyer?"

"Point-five-five," said Pakkpekatt.

"And this yacht?"

"Unknown to me," said Pakkpekatt. "Agent Tais-den, tell me when the contact's velocity changes."

"We could hide in the scan shadow of the cruiser," Pleck said.

"I intend to," said Pakkpekatt, handling the yoke with a light touch that nudged the yacht sideways to port. "'But I won't be able to do so for long."

"They might come in more slowly if they see us," said Taisden. "We only need a couple of minutes."

Hammax appeared at the hatchway, finger-combing his helmet-matted hair.

"Patrol destroyer carries six fighters," he pointed out. "They can have it both ways--send the fighters in hot after us, and take a nice safe, slow approach to the wreck."

"Anyone know what kind of fighters the Prakith have?" Pleck asked, frowning. No one answered him.

"Contact is decelerating," said Taisden. "Looks like she's spotted the wreck. Colonel, the wreck's going to eclipse the contact in a few seconds."

"Tell me when."

"Coming up--d.a.m.n. Fighter launch, two birds."

"Excellent," said Pakkpekatt, pushing the yacht's throttles forward to the limit. The sudden acceleration knocked Hammax back into the companionway and sent Pleck tumbling against the flight deck's rear bulkhead.

"I suggest you both find a flight couch and strap in. We may need to discover not only how fast General Calrissian's yacht is, but how agile she is as well."

Pleck picked himself up and squeezed past Hammax, heading aft.

Hammax came forward and reached for the weapons controller.

"You may store that," said Pakkpekatt. "I have retracted the laser cannon. This is a race, not a fight. I will jump us out before I let us be caught--but I am willing to take some risks in order to receive the complete dispatch."

"What's in it that's so important?" Hammax asked.

"The code that allowed this ship to pa.s.s through the vagabond's shields at Gmar Askilon" "But we have that."

"--and the code that would have allowed D-89 to follow it in,"

Pakkpekatt continued. "The next ime the vagabond asks us a question, we should know the answer."

"If we ever see her again," Hammax said with a lopsided frown.

"We will."

"Tobay is hailing us," said Taisden.

"I have nothing to say to the Prakith," said Pakkpekatt.

"You might be able to get them to give away some information--like whether the vagabond was here."

"We do not need confirmation of that," said Pakkpekatt. "And I will not take the risk of giving some information away to them." He glanced down at the display. "General Calrissian has a very fast ship. Range to fighters?"

"One hundred thousand meters and opening quickly," Taisden said.

"Someone on the Tobay forgot that TIEs have solar-electric ion boost engines. Not much out here for them to eat. They won't catch us.

Someone else has figured that out, too---Tobay is accelerating now."

"Too late," Hammax said. "Their captain made the wrong choice."

"Yes," said Pakkpekatt, his pride teeth gleaming.

"He did."

"Three more minutes," said Taisden. "I'll set up the jumps if you'll tell me where we're going next. Back to Carconth and Anomaly Ten-thirty-three?"

"No. I have been thinking about what happened to us, being brought here by an automated system override," said Pakkpekatt. "I find myself asking what the Qella would have done if, once having launched this vessel, they found reason to recall her."

"Sounds like a card you'd want to keep in your hand," said Hammax.

"What do you have in mind, Colonel?"

"I have in mind for us to go to Maltha Obex, the vagabond's point of origin," said Pakkpekatt. "We will set up a hypers.p.a.ce beacon there and transmit the sequences we just received."

"You mean to call her home," said Hammax.

Taisden's face was lit with sudden optimism. "We can use the entire communications grid of the New Republic as a repeater to send out the signal in reals.p.a.ce, on the frequency the vagabond used to interrogate our ships at Gmar Askilon."

Pakkpekatt nodded, human fashion. "And then we will wait for her.

Who knows? If this yacht is as well named as she is outfitted, perhaps the vagabond will hear our call and come to us. The odds of that can be no longer than the odds of our stumbling on her in the dark--and I am weary of chasing shadows and echoes across the light-years."

Lando Calrissian cursed under his breath as he dragged himself through the narrow inner pa.s.sage toward where Artoo indicated Lobot could be found.

The cyborg had stubbornly refused to return to where the droids were waiting, forcing Lando to shed his contact suit and come in after him.

But the pa.s.sages were twisty and claustrophobic, and it was difficult to find enough elbow room and enough purchase on the surface for fingertips and toes to keep him moving. The maze would have been impa.s.sable in gravity, at least for a human.

"Lobot!" he called ahead. "How about a little help?"

"You sound close by," was the faraway-sounding answer. "Just keep coming. "

"What are you doing in here? Are you stuck and too embarra.s.sed to admit it?"

"I am occupied."

"Occupied with what?" When he was answered with what seemed a pointed silence, Lando changed the subject. "You know we jumped out."

"You didn't by any chance have anything to do with that?"

"NO.".

One more toe-push brought Lando to a point where two pa.s.sages merged into one. "The jump didn't sound good," he said, pausing there.

"Lot of shaking and rattling we haven't heard before."

"There was much damage."

Lando started again in the direction of the voice.

"Yeah, I saw some of it. Are you feeling all right, pal?"

"Fine."

"Really? I gotta tell you, you sound a little flat."

"I am occupied."

"That again," said Lando. "Well, if everything's all right, it would have been nice if you'd answered the messages Artoo sent to you for me.

You could have saved me what's turning into a long and annoying climb."

"Impossible."

"What's impossible?"

There was a long silence.

"Lobot?"

"Impossible to reply. The channel was in use."

Lobot's voice was at last starting to promise that Lando might see him around one more twisting turn. "If there's some reason why I shouldn't come up there, maybe you could tell me now."

"No reason. Come ahead. You are close now."

"You said that once before."

"I was not listening with my ears."

"Of course," said Lando. "I make that mistake all the time."

Pausing, he pulled the cutting blaster from the slash pocket of his flight suit and slipped the stay loop over his wrist.

"You will not need that," said Lobot.

Lando's head jerked up. There was still no sign of Lobot in the pa.s.sage ahead. "You spying on me, buddy?"

Again, Lobot did not answer right away. "We are aware of you."

Drawing a deep breath, Lando reached out and pressed his palms against the inside of the pa.s.sage, resuming his awkward floating crawl with new determination.

"You'll have to pardon me for intruding--I thought you were alone in here," he called as he scrambled along. "I hope I can count on you to make the introductions."

"Yes. A little farther, Lando."

Ahead, the pa.s.sage turned sharply, hiding what lay beyond. Lando let the blaster come into his hand before going around the bend. Then he wedged himself into the pa.s.sage, using one foot to press his back against the wall, as he deciphered what he was seeing.

The next section of pa.s.sage had a gentle curve that limited his view to twenty meters or so. But in those twenty meters, no fewer than fifty smaller side pa.s.sages joined it. The openings were puckered in appearance, and the side pa.s.sages were dark--the pale light illuminating the main pa.s.sage seemed to stop where they joined to it.

Pulling himself forward cautiously, Lando directed the beam of his hand torch down the first of the side pa.s.sages. Barely two meters in, the branch was completely blocked by what appeared to be a rounded plug, lighter in color than the enclosing walls. The configuration put Lando in mind of concussion missiles in their launchers, or a.s.sault pods in their drop tubes.

Spinning in midair, Lando aimed his light into another side pa.s.sage, and the next, and the next. They were all blocked--no, not blocked, he thought, filled- - in just the same manner by ellipsoidal objects poten tially large enough to enclose and imprison a human being.

"Lobot, where are you?" Lando said quietly. "Molo nag aikan nag molo kron aikan sket..." The dreamy, disa.s.sociated voice came from a side pa.s.sage another few meters away. Lando pulled himself along one-handed until he reached it, then pointed the beam of his hand torch inside without warning.

Lobot was floating inside, his feet toward Lando, his head at the object filling the pa.s.sage. When the intense light reached Lobot's face, he raised a hand, squeezed his eyes shut, and turned his head away. That was when Lando glimpsed a shocking sight. The right side of Lobot's head was bare--there was only an outline of white skin and a pattern of socket holes where the interface band had been.

"Lobot, what's happened?"

"--eida kron molo sket aikan sket tupa vol..."

Drawing himself Closer, Lando grabbed Lobot by the foot and shook him.

"Hey, come back to me, pal."

Lobot flinched from the touch, jerking his foot away, but ended his recitation.

"Talk to me, or I'm going to have to pull you out of there," Lando said. "Maybe I'd better do that anyway--" "No!" The vehemence with which the word was launched was part pa.s.sion and part fear. At the same time, Lobot's hands slammed outward against the sides of the pa.s.sage, his fingers digging deep as the substance there yielded to provide him with secure handholds.