Tera had told us that on Meima the alien gravity generator in the large spherehad been able to cancel out all other gravitational effects, but that wasbefore Cameron's techs had gotten in and started messing around. If it failed toovercome Palmary's gravitational attraction I was going to suddenly findmyselflying on my back in my seat as I tried to pilot the ship to the ground. Orworse, our jury-rigged seating system might fail completely and I would findmyself, my seat, and possibly my entire control board falling to the bottom ofthe sphere some twenty meters below.
That particular set of fears proved groundless. With the removal of the metalbaffling that had been created by the inner hull, walls, and corridors, thealien generator had come back to full strength, and I didn't feel so much as aflicker of change in the gravity as I eased the Icarus down onto theundersized plot of ground we'd been assigned.
"Now what?" Tera called to me from across the sphere, her voice echoingthroughthe open space as I keyed the ship's systems back to standby.
"I go scare us up some borandis," I said, craning my neck to look up at her, watching the top of her head as she got up from her seat at the computer andwalked toward the wraparound.
"What about the rest of us?" Shawn called up from a quarter of the way aroundthe sphere, at the natural bottom point of the ship. I'd stationed everyoneelse except Nicabar down there on the theory that there was no point in lettingeveryone fall to their deaths if the alien gravity failed. "I suppose we'reall going to sit around here like we did before and just wait for you? Twiddlingour thumbs or whatever?"
"You're welcome to twiddle whatever you want," I told him, walking down thecurve toward them, "since you and Everett are staying in here where he can tryto keep you quiet until I get back with the medicine."
I pointed at Chort and Tera, the latter approaching the group from the otherside. "You two and Nicabar, on the other hand, aren't going to have time totwiddle much of anything. I want the three of you to collect all the emergencylights we've got and start stringing them just inside the gaps in the shroudout there, with the lights shining outward. All nice and decorative for the GrandFeast, and with any luck the glare will keep everyone from seeing past them tothe linked spheres underneath."
"Maybe we could also get hold of some colored transparent sheeting to coverthem with," Tera suggested. "They'd look even more festive that way."
"Probably would," I agreed. "But I don't know how well they've got thistemporary spaceport equipped. I don't want anyone wandering too far afieldhunting for anything that's not really vital."
"They've got tram systems leading from the port into each of the two citycenters," Nicabar put in from the wraparound, apparently having arrived intime to hear this last exchange. "I spotted them on the monitors while you wereputting us down. If they had time to set those up, they've surely got an outfitters' shop or two in place. I can go check—it won't take me long."
"Forget it," Shawn growled before I could answer. "He never lets anyone goanywhere except him, remember? Just him."
"Shawn," Everett said warningly, putting a massive hand on the kid's shoulder.
"Don't 'Shawn' me," Shawn snapped, angrily shrugging off the hand. "I'm not achild, you know."
"If you want to make a quick check, go ahead," I told Nicabar. "Just watchyourself, and be back in half an hour to help Tera and Chort with the lights."
"I will," Nicabar promised. "Don't worry—it's a zoo out there. I won't even benoticed." Turning, he disappeared back down the wraparound.
"What about him?" Tera asked, nodding toward Ixil, who was standing slightlyoff to the side keeping out of the conversation.
"He'll be in overall charge here," I told her, ignoring the glare Shawn wasgiving me, this particular bile probably a result of me proving him wrong byletting Nicabar go. Even at his best Shawn hated being proved wrong, and inthe middle of borandis withdrawal he was a long way from his best. "He'll also beusing Pix and Pax to keep an eye on things outside the ship."
"How do you plan to get it this time?" Tera asked. "The borandis, I mean."
I focused on her face. She was gazing evenly back at me, her expression notgiving anything away.
But then, the fact that she didn't want her expression giving anything awayspoke volumes all by itself. "Why, you feeling squeamish?" I countered. "I'lldo whatever I have to. Leave it at that."
"Fine," she said, not taking offense. At least no visible offense. "I justwant to remind you that we can't afford for you to get into any trouble. If youdon't make it back, we don't lift."
"I'll make it back," I assured her, brushing past her and heading up towardthe wraparound. "Don't worry about me," I added over my shoulder. "You justconcentrate on getting those lights up and running."
The transition between the different gravity vectors of the sphere and thewraparound was as always a bit tricky to navigate, but I managed it withoutanyserious loss of balance or dignity. Nicabar had already opened the hatchwayand lowered the ladder the ten meters to the ground; checking to make sure myplasmic was riding loose in its holster, I stepped to the top of the ladderand looked down.
Nicabar had been right: It was indeed a zoo out there. The close packing ofthe parked ships was funneling the prospective merrymakers down the relativelynarrow lanes between them, lanes they were further having to share withfuelingtrucks, the occasional token customs vehicle, and about a million little two- man runaround cars that were obviously intended to alleviate the pedestriancongestion but were only succeeding in making it worse.
All of which boiled down to about as ideal a situation as I could have asked for. Even if the Patth and their lumpy Iykami allies were out there lookingfor us, the sheer volume of people they would have to sift through ought to make this as quick and clean as possible. Getting my bearings toward the nearestspurof the tram lines Nicabar had mentioned, I headed down the ladder and elbowed myway into the river of pedestrians.
My first thought had been to try to corral one of the cars for myself. Butthere weren't any unused ones in sight, so I set off on foot. Which was just aswell, I quickly realized, as I saw how easily the cars were getting snarled up inthe traffic flow. The tram spur wasn't that far away, and I could use theexercise.
And the time to do some hard thinking.
But not about how I was going to acquire Shawn's borandis. Despite my somewhatmelodramatic pronouncement to Tera about doing whatever I had to, that partwas actually going to be the least of my worries. With borandis a perfectly legalsubstance for at least a dozen of the species jostling against me, everypharmacy on the planet would have the stuff in stock, with few if anyquestionsasked. No, the immediate and burning question right now was the same one thathad been gnawing at me for quite a while: how to get the Icarus to Earth aheadof the Patth.
Along with the subsidiary question of whether that was even the smart thingfor me to do.
Because lurking in the back of my mind was my most recent conversation withIxil, and his half-joking question of whether I would be offering the Icarusto Brother John instead. Then, I'd assured him I had no intention of doing so; now, though, I wasn't nearly so sure it wasn't the best solution we had. It wouldkeep the stargate in human hands—bloody hands, certainly, but humannevertheless—as well as giving me the kind of career boost someone in myposition could usually only dream of. I might even get to meet the elusive Mr.
Antoniewicz, which would put me in exalted company indeed.
Cameron wouldn't be pleased by such a move, of course. Neither would Tera; andif Tera wasn't happy, Nicabar probably wouldn't be happy, either. The two ofthem seemed to have become quite chummy since that confrontation on the bridgeregarding my shadier business associations. Still, at this point, otherpeople'shappiness or lack thereof wasn't particularly high on my priority list. We'dcovered barely a fifth of the distance from Meima to Earth, and already we'dhad far too many close calls than I cared to think about. The others, believingthat the Icarus was a superfast alien stardrive, undoubtedly still had their hopespinned on using it to beat out the Patth net; Ixil and I, on the other hand, knew that hope was nonexistent.