They searched patiently and carefully around the tubes. Suddenly the ground shuddered.
Pausert fell.
They all did, tumbling on the ice among blades of rock. The airless space above the moonlet was full of flying shards, too. Looking upwards as he spun across the ice, the captain saw to his horror that the Venture was toppling off her unstable landing point . . .
Towards him. He was on his back, slithering and skidding helplessly closer. The bulk of the hull would squash him like a bug. There was a terrible, helpless inevitability about it all.
The rope linking him with Hulik and Goth suddenly went taut. Hulik and Goth, wrapped around a stone monolith, were hauling at it.
It was a small ice-lump moon they'd landed on. There was not much gravity here. The Venture was falling over in a kind of ultra-slow motion, and Hulik and Goth were exerting a terrific pull on the rope. A pull that would have dragged him on Karres or Nikkeldepain or even old Yarthe.
Here, it sent him flying. Hurtling between the stone edges, steering frantically with his feet and arms, whizzing past Goth and Hulik . . . and right up a steep ridge and into space.
The Venture coughed; the briefest flicker of her laterals. Vezzarn must have taken action to stop her fall. He must have desperately weighed up frying them or crushing them.
Pausert realized that his flight had had a rather unexpected consequence. He'd plucked the other two into space after him. Well, there had been pretty little holding them down on the moonlet. They were quite safe . . . except they were going one direction and the Venture and the moonlet and a number of asteroid fragments other directions. They'd just have to use reaction pistols to get back.
Then, with a sickening feeling, the captain realized it wasn't going to be that simple. They'd set out to walk around the Venture's hull. Walk. Not spacewalk. Still, there should have been a reaction pistol at his belt.
There wasn't. Just a completely recoilless and useless blaster. And the moonlet, along with the Venture, was proceeding on its merry way. They were heading in the opposite direction: three tiny sparkle-figures in the vastness of space.
The vatch giggled. What fun!
Drifting away from them, dark against the dust veils, Captain Pausert saw three reaction pistols.
Vatches thought of the human universe as a sort of dream-game, with humans as pieces. The fun lay in challenging the pieces . . . so there had to be a solution. Besides, the little vatch seemed more inclined to mischief than anything more malicious.
Goth seized the initiative. The guns were well within her weight limit and she teleported them back.
The vatchlet squeaked indignation. It's not supposed to be that easy!
"Quick. Before it thinks of something else. Back to the ship."
The leech search was abandoned in their flight back to the Venture.
* * *
Pausert studied the screens. "It looks like our landing jarred this little moonlet a bit off-course. In a crowded zone of space like this, it only takes a tiny fraction of a degree to cause other collisions. We'd better abandon the search, because this iceball is almost bound to hit something else. I'd like to take off before that happens, and not after."
The Leewit scowled. "Captain, I was listening in to the pirates—they'd lost us, but they picked up the signal the moment that Vezzarn kicked the engines."
Hulik bit her lip. "The leech must definitely draw its power from the ship's drive, then."
Pausert shrugged. "We have to use them sometimes."
"We could use the Sheewash Drive," pointed out Goth.
"Not all the time. You and the Leewit would get too tired. And we couldn't use it very well here, anyway, in this part of space. There are too many obstacles."
"Yes, but we could hop for the edge of this cluster now. Even if they follow us, they're too far off to catch up before we get there and . . . oh-oh. Vatch."
It wasn't the little silver-eyed mischief, this time. It was a much bigger vatch, almost the size of Big Windy. Pausert wasn't surprised. The Venture had drawn much klatha force to her, and vatches were attracted by klatha. The captain had a feeling of big slitty eyes peering at them in delight. He hastily formed the pattern in his mind of a vatch lock, which would at least stop the creature reading his mind.
A BLOCKED ONE! AND SUCH A SITUATION, SUCH POTENTIAL!
And then . . . Go 'way. Mine! Mine! The tiny vatch was not amused. The words were almost glowing in Pausert's mind.
YOU ARE FAR TOO YOUNG FOR THIS GAME, PUNY ONE.
Pausert could see the tiny blackness dancing in front of the greater bulk of nothingness. Am not! They're mine! Go 'way!
PLAY YOUR PATHETIC GAMES ELSEWHERE. I AM GOING TO SEND THESE BACK.
The Venture moved, abruptly, to the center of the conflict. The hull shuddered and rang like a bell as the Venture took a hit.
With an effort of will, Pausert forced himself to ignore the terrifying noise, and formed his klatha hooks. He reached for the bigger vatch, hooking great lines of force into it and pinning it down.
The internal spinning maelstrom of blackness seethed. It began yowling. YAAAH. THE MONSTER! The vatch desperately strained against the bonds. The captain pulled out pieces of it, flinging them at the pirate vessels.
LET ME GO! LET ME GO, I BEG—THIS IS KILLING ME!
Pausert thought sternly at the squalling creature. We need to be outside this cluster. Do that and you can be free.
The Venture knew a moment of disturbed reality which left them sitting outside the cluster. CAN I GO? pleaded the creature. THIS HURTS, DREAM CREATURE! I HAVE DONE NOTHING TO YOU.
Yet, said Pausert. But be gone. And don't come back! The captain reeled in his klatha hooks and the big vatch fled.
Bravo! The little one squeaked triumphantly. Go, you bully! And don't come back!
The big vatch didn't pause to reply. In fact, it fled in such haste that the captain was left with a whirling black fragment of vatch stuff, still attached to the klatha hooks. Well, from previous experience, Pausert knew that this stuff could be useful. It could be set to work.
The little vatch moved towards it. The vatches could reabsorb the stuff at will, though pieces also seemed to survive outside of them.
Mine, said Pausert.
Suppose so, said the little vatch amiably. This is fun, Big Dream Thing! The big ones always chase me away. Now I've got you all to myself!
Pausert wondered if he should have waited just a little bit longer.
* * *
"We've got trouble still, Captain," Vezzarn said, wringing his cap in his hands. "That hit we took. Straight bad luck, sir. It damaged the outer airlock. We're losing pressure. It's a slow leak but a steady one. We'll never reach a planet with atmosphere to set down on, before we asphyxiate."
"Or before the other ships catch up with us." Goth pointed back at the cluster. "It's time for the Sheewash Drive, Captain."
Pausert could only nod.
CHAPTER 5
The two Sedmons looked at each other thoughtfully. The choice of courses available to Captain Pausert from the Alpha Dendi cluster were just too numerous. Without some sort of clue to guide the Sedmons' ship, they would have difficulty in guessing the best interception course.