He walked inward now, shielded from casual notice from the parked vehicles, made it past a wide turning circle and on toward the distant fence and fourth rank. He had to lean against the side of the scout to catch his breath. At least there was a light on inside it to reassure him that this was right. He tapped out the code on the door to alert them to his arrival.
The hatch opened immediately.
"Keep back, dammit, Bert," Chuck said and the Australian vanished from the brightly lit hatch. Chuck was down the steps, instantly supporting the sagging body, his eyes wide and then closing in relief as Zainal's nod as well as his presence told Chuck that, so far, all had gone smoothly.
"We've got to get out of here, and fast," Zainal said, striding back to the scout.
"Yeah," Chuck said, his voice unsteady with relief as he helped Zainal up the short flight to the hatch, "it ain't over 'til the fat lady sings;'
"What fat lady?" Zainal asked, realizing that the sergeant had answered him in English as he made his way forward. "Why a fat lady?"
"Explain later;' Chuck closed the hatch with a clank. "You got 'em? All of 'em?" Chuck persisted with his questions as Zainal made a slow way to the pilot's compartment. Bert was now in the other chair, having let Chuck help Zainal.
They'd had the harder job, Zainal knew, waiting without being able to use the com unit for fear the position of the scout ship might be discovered.
"We got all but the fourteen who were not present;' Zainal said, noting that a course had already been laid in, preparatory to his arrival. He nodded approval at Bert, who was completing the last of the pre-flight checks. "They are unlikely to remain where they are. They're too scattered to unite. In any event, once the news gets out, they may decide to leave the galaxy as we suggested. Coded messages should have gone out from the space station to our other colleagues who are waiting for our signal. Kami-ton got to the center before the execution could be broadcast…" He shrugged and grimaced at such an unwary and painful action. "If it has. Or Ugred has managed to give us more time by deferring an announcement.
Otherwise we couldn't have landed at the building. But we were able to.
Kamiton gave the word and those who could not be trusted have been eliminated by now. But let's get out of here. Just in case."
"Too right;' Bert Put said. "Strapped in, Chuck?"
"Only after Zay gets something into his belly;' Chuck said, thrusting a ration bar over Zainal's shoulder.
"I need that," Zainal said and tore off the wrapping, taking a huge bite.
"Clear us from the field, will you, Chuck?"
And the sergeant leaned across to the com board. They had to wait for a reply.
"They're all bored;' Chuck said while Zainal impassively chewed.
Bert was chewing, too, but on his lip as they waited until the line was opened.
"Schkelk," Chuck said in his hoarse Catteni voice, "Emassi has called.
I go. Clearance?"
"Given;' was the bored response and the line went dead.
The ship lifted carefully out of the crowded parking area and turned away from the city.
Having finished his slowly consumed meal, Zainal opened the com link, pausing at the various channels to check on the tone of exchanged messages.
They were, in fact, in space and heading obliquely away from the vicinity of the space station before the first report was aired.
"This is the Supreme Emassi Kamiton, informing you of a change of government on Catten and the execution of eighty-six Mentats and Juniors on the space station which is now under my control. High Emassi Ugred is now commander of the space station…:'
"Supreme Emassi?" Chuck asked, wide-eyed and grinning.
"That is the title he picked."
"What'd Nitin get?"
"Oh, he's speaker for Parliament…:'
peer. Bert said in astonishment.
"You guys don't have a parliament," Chuck protested.
"We will soon enough;'
"You learned a lot we didn't know about on Botany, didn't you?" Chuck replied but his tone was admiring. "Uh-oh, look! Bogies at three o'clock and coming in awful fast. Can't we pile on some speed? We might be able to miss KRIS WAS ON COM DUTY: she had requested the assignment and, except for those weekly visits to the closed valley and the Catteni guests, that had been her duty. Now she didn't even answer Catteni complaints but impassively saw that supplies were unloaded near enough to be easily carried to the mess hall for storage. So, she just happened to have the duty in Scott's office that evening when Ray Scott and Jim Rastancil rushed in.
"What's going on up there, Kris?"
"Up where?"
"Up near the Bubble."
Kris gave her head a little shake, reset the earpiece. "Nothing. Nothing that I can hear since all those coded messages stopped shooting back and forth."
"Well, there's something coming down. Gino says there's some sort of shooting stars. And there aren't any of them in this sector of space, especially not with the Bubble…:'
Ray stopped mid-sentence and rushed outside, Rastancil right behind him.
Kris didn't know whether to stay on duty or join their exodus to see what had made Ray and Jim move that fast. She heard startled cries, some panicky, others, loud and incoherent cheers. Her curiosity roused her from apathy. She abandoned duty and joined the others outside the hangar on the landing field. It wasn't full dark, but the bursts of flame or brilliant light were obvious to the naked eye. The shower-of whatever it was that Gino now said was burning up in upper atmosphereidn't last very long even with several tiny late flashes. What was obvious was that the Bubble was gone. The sky above them was as clear as it had been before the Bubble had been woven into place. One of the moons was even visible, the one on which the Catteni had tried to build a base. Kris gulped, frozen to the spot. Unable to grasp the significance. There hadn't been any more bombardments.
Those had ended just before the surreptitious departure of Baby and the KDL. She strained her eyes, trying to locate any glitter that would be their com sat or even the roving spy satellite the Catteni had placed in the thirty-hour orbit.
Why had the Bubble come down? Were the Farmers about to visit them? But surely they didn't need to remove the Bubble to get in. Or did they?
Ray gave her a little shake. "Back to your post, Kris. Tell us what you can hear?"
"But there's nothing up there. The Bubble's down. How could the Eosi dissolve it…"
Now Ray gave her a shove toward the hangar. "Tell us what you can hear. We need to know if the com sat's still operating."
Kris didn't ask how she could tell from just listening to static. Or maybe that, in itself, was proof the com sat was still operating? But it had been connected to the Eosi array that had been sheered off their ship in its attempt to exit. Surely, if what they'd seen burning up in the atmosphere were the bits and pieces dropping now that the Bubble no longer held them in place, everything would come down. No, no, that wasn't quite right. Pete Snyder had told them that the com sat was independent, with vanes trapping solar power so that it functioned all by itself. But, what about what it had been attached to? She had this vivid image of an umbrella with a crooked handle, the rain shield pointing downward and the crooked handle pointing out toward empty space.
Ray now hauled her with him back to the office and then took up the earpiece himself, frowning as he listened. Jim Rastancil, Gino Marrucci, and the others who had been in the hangar office stood about, anxiously waiting for his report.
"All! get is static;' Ray said, handing the earpiece to Kris who put it on and sat down, listening to the same sort of static, which might be very faint messages. "So it is still up and functioning. Nevertheless, Gino, get a skeleton crew and the KDL up to check."