"Can you still see the X?" Tobit asked.
I turned around. The entrance was now far behind us. In the overcast light, I could make out the rocky area where we'd fought Jelca, but not the X itself. "The plane must see better than we do," I told Tobit. "Telescopic sights or something."
"Bet you also believe admirals are your friends," he muttered.
I opened my mouth for a retort… but at that moment, the plane rolled sideways, wing over 180 degrees, and we were abruptly dangling upside-down in our safety straps, our heads pointing at the ground. A moment later, the eagle's beak pushed itself sharply upward: up and around in a buttonhook maneuver that ended with us right — way up again and now pointing toward the target.
"Cute," Tobit said with a quaver in his voice, "but it should give us warning when it's going to—"
The plane shuddered as a missile launched.
I thought the eagle had been flying at good speed. No — the eagle was virtually standing still compared to the missile. It cracked the sound barrier as it lanced out, riding a plume of smoke that pointed straight toward the target. For a second, all we could see was the smoke, not the missile itself…
"Shield your eyes!" Tobit yelled, and I closed them fast, ducking behind Oar's lolling head in case that really offered some protection.
The flash was still visible through my eyelids.
Into the City
When I opened my eyes, there was a smoking hole in the mountain. Not a crater — a hole straight into the city, with glass buildings visible below. The blast site was circular, a hundred meters in diameter and remarkably well-contained. That pleased me; I preferred not to kill too much wildlife if I could help it.
"Eagle," Tobit said to the plane, "see that nice hole? That's where we're landing."
I stared at him. "You're taking the jet into a glass city?"
"The hole's big enough," he answered. "And I suspect the elevator's not working at the moment."
The elevator was not even visible — the whole mechanism was simply gone, unless it was part of the surprised cloud of smoke that drifted in shock around the site. The automatic repair systems would clock a lot of overtime in the next few weeks.
"All right," I told Tobit, "into the hole, then head for the center of the city. Just watch out for the killer whale."
"The what!"
"Your ride home," I answered. Then I tried to explain what was happening.
Not Dead Yet
After slipping and weaving around the skyscrapers, we touched down in the main square, not far from the whale itself. The noise of our engines should have brought Explorers flocking around; but only a handful ventured away from the whale to greet us.
One was Ullis. She stared at me for a moment, then smiled wearily. "I never believed you were dead."
"Who said I was dead? Jelca?"
Ullis nodded. "He's gone crazy. He used loudspeakers to send an announcement all over the city. You had attacked without provocation and he'd been forced to kill you." She looked at me stonily for a moment. "Why would he say that when it wasn't true?"
"To stop you sending out a search party," I replied. "I know something he wants to keep secret."
"I still tried to find you," Ullis said, "but I couldn't get outside — Jelca's locked off the elevator."
"Don't worry," Tobit assured her. "The elevator isn't locked any more." Under his breath he added, "It's hard to lock anything that's been reduced to slag…"
"Where's Jelca now?" I asked.
"No one knows," Ullis replied. "And I haven't told you the worst part. He's rigged the whale. It's going to take off within the hour."
Responsibility
I gulped in surprise. "The ship is taking off?"
"It went into its launch cycle last night," Ullis said. "Things have been frantic since then."
"But surely someone can stop it."
"Jelca must have planned this a long time ago," Ullis replied. "He planted secret activation devices in almost every system on the ship. Disconnecting them safely will take more time than we have; and it would be disastrous if some systems fired while others didn't. We can always rip out wires till nothing on the whale works, but it would take so long to repair things afterward…" She shrugged. "Besides, half the Explorers don't want to stop the countdown. They say we're ready to go; they're glad Jelca stopped any further delays."
"So," I said, "you intended to fly off without worrying what Jelca was up to?"
"Some people have waited thirty years for this day, Festina. This is their only chance to get home. Besides," Ullis lowered her eyes, "I volunteered to stay behind. To find you and to deal with Jelca." She took a deep breath. "He is my partner."
"Was your partner," I told her. "And I'm the one who has to stay behind. I can't leave this planet, Ullis. It's too complicated to explain, but believe me, I can't go. I'll take care of things."
"You may need help—" Ullis began.
"No," I interrupted. "I don't want you. And don't you have useful things to do on the ship?"
She blinked. And blinked. "Some of the communication software is in rough shape." Her voice was a mumble, filled with guilt.
"You have to go." I laid my hand gently on her arm. "And I have to stay."
"Jelca's my responsibility…"
"He's mine now," I said. "You have duties on the ship. Go. Please."
She blinked again, twice, then kissed me and walked off slowly. The other Explorers followed on her heels.
First Things First
"That was fucking maudlin," Tobit announced in a loud voice.
"What are you still doing here, Phylar?"
"Keeping you company, Ramos. When you're all by yourself, you brood."
"Go with the others," I told him. "There's space for you on the ship — you can have the cabin I equipped for myself. Or take Jelca's cabin… he won't need it."
"First things first," Tobit replied. "They won't launch for a while, and there's no way I can contribute. On the other hand, I can help you carry this little lady to get recharged with her ancestors. That's what you want to do, isn't it?"
I patted his hairy shoulder. "Thank you, Phylar. You're a tribute to the Corps."
He belched deliberately. "A fucking humanitarian — that's me."
We found a cot in a nearby blockhouse and carried Oar up the central boulevard. The city surely had more than one tower where ancestors could rest their tired brains; but I aimed for the tower containing the Sperm generator. The odds were good Jelca was holed up there, waiting for the whale to take off. Once it was gone…
I couldn't guess whether he would activate the generator as soon as the Explorers left, or put it on a delay circuit so he had time to take shelter elsewhere. Was he suicidal or not? If he turned on the generator immediately, he would die — either sucked directly into space or pulped by the windstorm that would result when air started spewing into the vacuum. But maybe Jelca didn't mind dying, as long as he got his "revenge"; and the sooner he put his plan into effect, the less time I had to stop him. He knew I was alive. Considering the monstrous explosion when Tobit and I blasted our way in, he might guess I'd gotten past the unworking elevator.
Then again, the walls of the tower were opaque; and for all the explosion's destructive power, it hadn't made much noise…
Maybe he didn't know I was coming. Maybe. But I couldn't take that chance. I had to assume he might activate the generator as soon as the ship was clear of the roof doors. That gave me less than an hour to stop him.