"I don't have time for you to fish for compliments, seek reassurance, or air your grievances. You know the depth of my gratitude."
"It's a poor second for love." Adolescent agony rippled through the words.
"I have none to give you… none for anyone." She closed her eyes briefly, explored that vast echoing gulf that had swallowed her soul. She raised her head and stared into Teddy's eyes. "I've come for Blaise, and I've come for my body. Bring them to me." She indicated the Boschean demons. "I doubt he can mind-control your dream knights."
"I would be happy to oblige, but Blaise and Kelly are gone." Tach flung out a hand to steady herself. "I think Blaise was finally impressed with of Bloat when my friends turned up to play. I think he also figured out he wasn't bulletproof."
"Where have they gone?"
"I'm not sure. They had that Durg guy with them." The young man tugged thoughtfully at his lower lip. "I think maybe they were going to an island. Hawaii, Tahiti?…"
Tach made an `explain further' gesture with her hands. She wasn't sure she could trust her voice.
"Blaise is usually leaky as a sieve, but he was really working at holding his shields. All I got was the image of a seashell-"
"Baby!"
She hadn't realized the cry had been audible until she felt Turtle pivot and accelerate for the window.
The dark waters of the East River reluctantly and sullenly gave back the sheen of the streetlights. The motion of the water gave the illusion that the warehouses were rocking gently.
And cradled within one of those faded and pitted buildings was Baby, Tachyon's living spaceship. Her friend, servant, stellar steed.
Tach was once again in Tommy's arms as they flew toward the building.
"How you doin'?"
Tach threw back her hair. "I can't reach her," she panted. She licked sweat from her upper lip.
"Maybe Baby'll be suspicious. I mean Durg and Blaise ordering her to leave, and you told her not to trust Blaise."
"Yes, but they'll have the master with them. Even if this creature which has stolen my skin hasn't mastered my mental powers, Baby won't question him." Tach pressed a hand to her face. "They're loyal… they aren't bright."
"Even if she buys it," Tommy said, "they can't get far, right? You burned out the whatchacallit when you came to earth, right? You know, the warp drive, whatever you call it… "
"The ghost drive," Tach told him, her voice dull.
"Yeah," Tommy agreed. "So the ship's crippled…"
"Once," Tach said heavily. "No longer."
Tommy turned his head to look at her. His mouth opened wordlessly. Tach didn't need to be a telepath to read the dismay in his eyes.
"On Takis, we have a saying-as patient as a ship.' They are living organisms, Tommy. Given time enough, and rest, the ships can heal themselves."
"Oh, fuck," he said. "How long since…"
"It took her forty-two of your years to recover from the grievous damage I'd done her in my haste to reach earth. Two years ago, Baby told me that she was whole again." A thin hysterical laugh bubbled out between her lips. "I thought it best to keep it secret. Your government has coveted Baby before. I saw no reason to reawaken their interest. So I told no one… except of course my heir… my blood and bone… my beloved grandson, Blaise…"
They were drawing closer. Tachyon struggled to contain it, but the sound erupted like steam from a broken pipe. A shrill inchoate scream that finally resolved into words.
"Baby, listen to me! Hear me!"
"Oh… shit."
Something in Tommy's voice brought her head up, eyes searching desperately through the video monitors. It wasn't hard to spot. The roof of the warehouse was erupting like a wood-and-plaster volcano. The hull of the ship seemed almost white against the murky New York sky. The lights on her spines were glowing amber and lilac. It was a beautiful sight. Except when it was ruining your life.
"Baby, No!" Tach slewed around, one fist beating desperately at the Turtle's chest. "Tommy, do something!" Tom flipped on the PA system. "This is the turtle. Stop! That's not lord tisianne. I have the real tachyon! Stop!"
Baby was bolting for the smog layer like a falcon with her tail on fire. Tommy muttered a curse, leaned back in the contoured chair, closed his eyes. Tach felt the muscles in the human's arms bunch and jump as Tom gripped the arms of his chair and concentrated. And suddenly they were climbing, and at a greater speed than Tachyon had ever experienced with the turtle shell.
Their increased speed was not closing the gap with Baby. No matter how much Tom pushed, he was not going to match the speed of a spacecraft attaining escape velocity. But as Tach watched, she saw Baby shudder and jerk like a trout hitting the end of a fishing line.
"What have you done?"
"Grabbed her with my teke," grunted Tommy. His eyes were narrowed to slits, and sweat was starting to roll down his round cheeks.
Tach was amazed. "Can you hold her?"
"I have no fucking idea."
"So what are you trying to do?"
"I don't know yet! I just did itl Now I'm trying to work it out!"
Tach glanced again at one of the monitors. If Baby escaped, she was trapped-forever. Her mind spun in frenzied circles-this can't be happening… Tommy won't let this happen… if I close my eyes, it's yesterday, and this isn't happening.
"Shit," said Tommy, and his teeth rattled like dice on a marble floor.
Tachyon realized that she was shivering, great shuddering heaves that shook her tiny frame. "What?"
"I'm not flying the shell any longer. We're being pulled along. And I'm not slowing her at all." Tommy craned about, examining the shell as if he'd never seen it before. "First the heat goes, then the air. We gotta go back."
"No!"
"Tachyon, we've got no choice." His fingers bit deep into her shoulders.
"I'll reach her… wait… IT t-try again… I'll r-reach her." Cold and terror made her stutter.
The sky revealed on the monitors was turning an alarming shade of midnight blue, and the stars shone hard and bright through the wisps of remaining atmosphere.
Hugging herself against the cold, Tach bowed forward over the swell of her pregnancy, reached deep within herself. Touched and melded her child's feeble telepathy to her own.
Flung it out, clawing, scrabbling for the beautiful rough surface of her ship.
Baby, hear me! Stopl Stop, please, stop!
Memories flashed behind her eyelids a mocking, damning litany of mistakes and lost opportunities. Claude Bonnell hobbling away with Blaise in his arms. If Tachyon had delayed, allowed him to escape. Cody, wrenching him off the boy as Tach methodically tried to beat Blaise to death. If she had allowed him to kill the monster.
Tommy was gasping, desperate animal sounds in the icy confines of the shell. The lights on the fleeting spaceship danced wildly before Tachyon's eyes.
Noooooo! The mental shriek cut off as Tommy released his grip on the Takisian ship, and the shell tumbled end over sickening end.
Tach lost her grip on Tommy and was thrown violently from side to side in the shell as it fell toward earth. In the screens, the lights of the ship strobed in and out of view as the shell tumbled.
And as Tachyon watched, the amber and lilac lights of the ship stretched and erupted in liquid fire as Baby shifted into ghost drive.
And was gone.
The Temptation of Hieronymus Bloat
XI
The walls were still pocked with bullet holes. Most of the glass had yet to be repaired. I hadn't let them clean up the remnants of the Temptation; brightly painted bits of wood still littered the top of my pedestal. What I could see of the Rox from my vantage point looked like a battlefield.