"Thanks, Chief-we'd probably better keep an eye on that one," Brim said, drawing his sidearm as the crawling figure reached the open hatch and pointed something small and heavy-looking through its aperture.
"It's a blaster!" Barbousse warned, reaching for his own side arm. "He's gonna scuttle her!"
Brim was quicker. Leaning from the shattered canopy of the launch, he fired two powerful bursts from his ancient side-action blaster, disintegrating the Controller's upper torso in a roiling pink spray that was highlighted by spinning fragments of helmet and other debris he chose not to identify. The Leaguer's blaster twirled off into space like a child's toy top.
Forward, gray-suited crewmen clambered for cover behind any shelter they could locate, and the hammock wavers tripled their efforts to be noticed. Brim bolstered his weapon and waved to the frightened Leaguers, then turned to Barbousse and winked. "Send to Prize" he ordered, " 'One slightly damaged bender-under entirely new management!'"
Within a quarter metacycle, Jennings warped Prize smartly alongside the bender while Brim and Barbousse circled slowly in the launch, indexing their powerful seventy-five from stem to stern over the ever-organized Gray Leaguers, who had by now aligned themselves into two neat lines and were standing patiently with their hands on their heads.
Presently, hatches opened in the side of the ED-4 and a gangway slid across the void. At once, blue-suited boarding crews with high-amplitude blast pikes clambered to the opposite deck. They were led by two tall figures. One was slim and strode much in the manner of Calhoun, the other could only be Ursis. Both made directly for the open hatches, roughly pushing gray-suited prisoners out of the way as they ran. While salvage teams, rigged stout optical bollards at the bender's bow, others followed Calhoun and Ursis below.
After a number of tension-filled cycles, two blue-suited figures appeared at empty Hyperscreen frames on the bridge and waved in the direction of the launch. At the same moment, Calhoun's voice boomed in Brim's ear from the short-range channel. "Damme guid work, you twa'," the elder Carescrian asserted. "An' young Brim: your mission is accomplished, indeed. Ursis informs me yon bender logic remains intact."
"Barbousse did all the shooting," Brim answered, clapping his grinning companion on the shoulder.
"'Tis guid," Calhoun replied. "We'll see that you both gat a wee credit." Below, on the bender's deck, Blue Capes were conducting the surviving Leaguers across Prize's gangway to a specially constructed brig on the middle deck.
"Anybody left inside?" Brim asked.
"Dead meat only," Calhoun answered. "But twa' o' those wounded Controllers out on deck wull probably live." He laughed grimly. "No doubt, the Intelligence people wull luik forward to meetin' both."
"All six of them appear to have been on the bridge when you fired the shot that took out their Hyperscreens," Ursis interjected. "Three survived the blast, but each had serious wounds from crystal sprinters. They say that the one you shot at the rear hatch was their captain-a Provost, no less."
"Ye both might also be interested to know that we found scuttlin' charges just inside that same hatch, too," Calhoun added. "So whichever of you zapp'd the bastard also guess'd well. He'd ha' taken everyone with him-includin' yourselves wi' a charge the likes o' that ane...."
Soon after this conversation, Calhoun returned to Prize and sped off into a spherical patrol approximately one c'lenyt out from the bender. Brim and Barbousse were ordered to follow, limping along in their damaged launch as best they could manage. As Calhoun explained, "If Leaguer vessels do actually, travel in pairs-an' this ane's mate closes in for a closer look, I don't want yon crazy-looking ship of yours to scare them off. Who knows, we might e'en add a second trophy to our spoils."
After an amazingly short stretch of time, Prize was relieved from her patrol duties by all three of the Greyffin IV-class battlecruisers: Princess Sherraine, Gwir Neithwr, and Greyffin IV. The mighty squadron of capital starships had clearly been lingering out of sight in the event that Calhoun's old ED-4 did-however serendipitously-land a catch. The real importance of the mission became clearer still when these three magnificent warships were joined by none other than Diathom from the Vice Admiral Plutron's Fifth Battle Squadron, one of the most powerful warships in the Fleet. After circling the ugly little bender a number of times, each of the great vessels ponderously lumbered out to form the corners of a huge square-twenty c'lenyts on a side-that no force less than a full battle fleet could threaten.
Significantly, each mounted a number of strategically located N-ray searchlights that-except for power and size-resembled quite closely those designed by Ursis and Barbousse.
As Prize coasted back alongside the bender and rerigged her gangway to its deck, still a fifth colossal vessel hove purposefully into view: S.S. Gomper Throdorian, an enormous transport hauler owned by IGL Starlines and "called up" to military service shortly after the beginning of hostilities. This angular starship-nearly 526 irals in length and 75 in breadth-reminded Brim of nothing so much as a huge brick that paid casual deference to atmospheric realities with a moderately rounded bow. She extended some twelve decks from keel to upper deck, and was surmounted by a veritable clutter of low deck houses, massive derricks, and scores of gantry cranes-with a massive, overhung bridge placed close enough to her bows that she actually took on a brooding visage. As was the case with many large cargo carriers of the day, her bows swung open when it was necessary to accommodate oversized cargo-such as a bender.
Brim shook his head as he parked the launch some hundred irals out from their kill.
"Chief," he said wearily, "what do you say we put this poor old launch back aboard Prize now? I doubt if the Admiralty requires our little seventy-five anymore. They've got enough 408-mmi disruptors out there to start a new war."
Barbousse nodded. "Sounds like a good idea to me," he said with a broad grin, "but I think I'll settle for the war we've got. You get too many of them going on, and it might get difficult keepin' track of who's shootin' at ya."
Within the metacycle, two-hundred-year-old Prize- eminently successful D-ship, famed passenger liner, and one-time candidate for the breaker's yard-was on her way back to Atalanta flying Haelician colors. With PAYLESS STARMOTIVE neatly lettered on either flank, she was primed to embark on an entirely new career as a warship targeted against a whole new technology. Somehow, when Brim stopped to think about it, nothing seemed especially remarkable about the situation-especially when he considered the actual circumstances. War was always absurd-from its very origins....
As Helic's disk filled the old-fashioned V-shaped Hyperscreens, Brim slowed Prize to approach speed and began his letdown to Atalanta. Liat-Modal's troop transports were now at their staging area, with the ground troops already engaged in "secret" maneuvers.
Admiral Penda had taken official charge of the Hador-Haelic perimeter, and efforts to fortify Atalanta seemed to be racing toward an ultimate climax. He checked his instruments, then glanced at the clock. The port city was still at least a full half-day from the planet's light/dark terminator. There was even a good chance Claudia might be waiting at Payless when he arrived....
He was not disappointed. As soon as be taxied in from the main canal, he could easily pick her out among the others waving enthusiastic welcome from their blustery wharf-even through the spray-streaked Hyperscreens. Twenty cycles later, with Prize safely moored inside, he followed Ursis over the brow and onto the main floor. Claudia was waiting. The Bear stopped for his accustomed hug and kiss, then hurried off toward the iron staircase and a noisy celebration that was already well underway in the loft.