"They aren't cards at all," whispered the captain. "It's a hyperelectronic computer. Those are circuits, not just patterns."
"And a mini-subradio!" said Goth. "No wonder the Agandar was able to keep in touch with his fleet."
The captain shook his head incredulously. "He even said he had a secret shielded transmitter! The Sheem robot was also hyperelectronic. We should have guessed."
"Only question is: what's the access code?" asked the Leewit." Then, a little plaintively: "And when do I get my cards back?"
"That's two questions," said the captain. "And I don't know either answer."
ENTER CODE WITHIN THE NEXT THIRTY SECONDS.
"Or . . . ? I guess we don't dare find out," muttered the captain. "I need to be lucky. I need every ounce of klatha power." He took a deep breath and began to type a sequence of numbers.
Nothing happened.
FIVE SECONDS
"Hit enter," said Goth.
CODE ACCEPTED. DESTRUCT PROGRAM ABORTED.
A menu popped up. A very ordinary menu of choices, including subradio banking.
Pausert exhaled slowly. Then, accessed the subradio banking option.
"I think," he said, "the Leewit's cards have given us the jackpot. Let's see if we can transfer enough into my account to allow us to simply buy new engines, and forget about repairs. That'll be a lot faster."
When the figures came up, the Leewit whistled softly. "We could buy a whole new ship," said Goth.
"Buy a whole clumping fleet!" exclaimed her sister.
The captain shook his head. "The paperwork would take longer and attract more attention than a repair job. Besides, I like the old Venture. She's been places with us that no new ship would ever have coped with. But, when this is all over and we decide what to do with what's left of the Agandar's fortune—after we track down those of his victims we can trace—I will promise you both a refit and a redecoration of your cabins. And fifty decks of cards for the Leewit."
"Want that one," said the Leewit, pointing. "Always knew those were my lucky cards."
"Hmm. I was thinking about that share in the Petey Byrum and Keep," said Goth thoughtfully.
CHAPTER 35
Even spending money like water, it took three days to get the "Evening Bird" ready for space again. The captain was nervous every minute of that time, because he knew that the amount of money they were spending was sure to get someone from the ISS interested, before too long.
So, the minute the preflight checks were done, Pausert lifted the Venture. As if to make up for his brilliant landing on jury-rigged controls and with a mere three battered tubes, the takeoff was one of his worst. Still, they were space-borne before the authorities figured out just who had been spending rivers of money on little Porlumma. There were going to be some red faces if they ever they found out that they'd put in new engines for the infamous Captain Pausert, whose vid still graced Porlumma customs control offices. Still, in fairness, they could say that Captain Aron from far-off Mulm had looked nothing like the vid-picture. The stern-visaged, planar-faced Aron bore no resemblance at all to the images of the cheerful criminal Pausert.
"Right," said the captain to his two witches. "The time has come to show me how to work the Sheewash Drive. I feel I'm ready."
"Huh. Otherwise we'll have to hit you over the head or something," said the Leewit, cheekily. "I'm not going to do it with you dragging us back like a big rock, again, that's for sure."
"Only if you promise me you'll stick to the pattern exactly this time, Captain," said Goth sternly.
So Goth and Leewit talked the captain through the pattern. As it was developing, the captain thought he saw where it could be done differently. But this time he stuck exactly to the pattern as Goth and the Leewit presented it.
They kept it up for a mere fifteen seconds. The captain was sweating and beginning to feel as if the entire weight of the Venture was pressing onto his shoulders, when Goth said "Enough."
"Whew," said the captain. "It sure does take it out of you."
"Uh-huh. Come on. Let's eat."
They walked through to the mess. The captain found that Hantis had had the forethought to order the new electric butler to make them a substantial lunch. It was more reliable than the old electric butler, but he'd gotten used to the way the old one used to burn the eggs. "How did I do?" he asked.
"We did pretty good," said the Leewit, talking with her mouth half-full.
Goth swallowed and started loading up another huge forkful. She looked sideways at him with those big brown eyes. "Told you the captain is a hot witch."
Captain Pausert concentrated on adding food to a stomach that was telling him he'd been starving for a while. After he'd got to his third plateful he said, "You know, when we were doing the klatha pattern—the part where we sort of plait those strands of light—I thought, well, if we . . ."
Both witches started to giggle. In the Leewit's case, as she had a mouthful of juice, the captain had to pat her on the back while Goth fetched a pile of napkins. "Told you so," said Goth to the Leewit.
"Good thing you didn't try it," said the Leewit sternly.
The captain held up his hands. "But it felt like it would work. And I have worked out new klatha stuff that did."
Goth grinned at the Leewit. "Like our Egger trip."
"Or those clumping cocoon shields," said the Leewit, snorting. "Toll was so right, Goth."
The captain began to feel more than a little irritated. Sure, they'd had some misadventures here and there, but he didn't have a guiding pattern in his head. "I worked out how to do klatha hooks and the vatch-handling all by myself. And the cocoon shields might have been awkward to get you out of, but they worked. They worked pretty well."
"Oh, they work all right, Captain. Except," Goth scowled, "when you leave me behind and attack hundreds of Sprites on your own. They just don't work the same way that most of the witches of Karres do things. That's what Toll said when Maleen suggested you'd need a pattern to teach you. She said you were better off learning to do them on your own and maybe seeing them in new ways. So Maleen and some of the other premotes did some work on it. Came out they agreed with Toll. Came out they thought we wouldn't survive if you were taught. So we've had to let you blunder along. Sometimes I wondered if we would survive because you weren't trained. But it seems like you're pretty lucky so far, Captain. It's hair-raising, though."
"But don't do any more 'sperimetal twists while we're linked," said the Leewit, shaking her finger at him.
The captain smiled at her. "Ex-pe-ri-men-tal. Not even little ones?"
"No," both of them said firmly.
It was somehow comforting to discover that Karres had not just turned him loose untrained without consideration of the matter. He could see the point, to some extent. A schooled witch would tend to approach things in the way in which they had been taught. Coming at it cold, he had a rather different perspective, and had come up with different but effective answers, even if some of them had been rather hair-raising.
Just that little burst of the three of them working together at the Sheewash Drive had shortened their journey by several weeks. The captain had added considerable power to the drive, as they saw when they picked up beacons on the communicator. The journey from Porlumma to the Imperial Capital would now take four days instead of nearly three weeks.
The trip wasn't entirely peaceful, though. The captain was awakened from his sleep by an intercom call from Goth. "Captain. You'd better get here, quick." She was laughing as she said it, but the Leewit was yelling in the background so he had a pretty good idea what the problem was.