“I thought perhaps we’d go with something like Epilog,” Roman said.
“Appropriate, and a little more subtle than, say, Deathblow.”
Ferrol winced at the bitterness in the other’s voice. On the other hand, the more of Roman’s mind that was tied up with resentment toward the Senate and Starforce, the less he’d have left to wonder if Ferrol was up to anything. “Yes, sir,” he said.
“Do we have a plan yet on how we’re turning Epilog and Sleipnir over to the Tampies?”
“I’ve already gotten a courier message through to the Kialinninni corral,” Roman said. “The Tampies will be sending a pair of piggyback ships here to get them.
Though it’ll probably be a few more hours before they can leave Kialinninni, so perhaps it’s just as well you took a full complement of Handlers out there with you.”
Ferrol frowned. “A few hours? They have a party going on over there or something?”
Faintly, he heard the hiss of expelled breath. “Apparently the Tampies have decided to respond to the shark threat by pulling the bulk of their fleet back to the corral,” he said. “What that gains them, I’m not really sure.”
Behind his filter mask, Ferrol felt his lip twist with contempt. So the Senator had indeed been right. The Tampies weren’t going to turn their space horses loose, but burying them all at Kialinninni wasn’t really much different. Either way, they were effectively giving up. “Gains them some time,” he grunted. “Maybe.” He halfturned.
“Wwis-khaa?”
“He is calm,” the Tampy said. “We are speaking.”
“Good.” Ferrol swallowed hard. “Yamoto, there’s a small datapack box strapped into one of the seats back near the entryway,” he told her. “Go get it for me, would you?”
“Yes, sir.” Yamoto slipped off her restraints and kicked her way aft.
And this was it. Keying the direction vector he’d so carefully worked out into the helm, Ferrol reached over and switched off the comm laser. “Wwis-khaa,” he said quietly, “bring Epilog to the indicated direction. Nice and easy.”
“Your wishes are ours,” the Tampy said, and a moment later Ferrol felt a slight pressure on his side as the calf and lander came around. “It is done.”
“All right. Now; the bright star directly ahead is Sirius. Can Epilog see it?”
There was a long pause. Above the background hum of the lander’s systems, Ferrol could hear the pounding of his heart… “He can,” Wwis-khaa said at last.
“Good.” Ferrol took a deep breath. “Jump us there.”
This time the pause was even longer. “Wwis-khaa? Did you you hear me?”
“Ffe-rho—”
“I said, did you hear me?” Ferrol cut him off, turning to face the other. Above the filter mask, the alien eyes were staring unblinkingly back at him.
“I hear.”
“Then Jump. That’s an order.”
Wwis-khaa’s eyes closed briefly; opened again. “Your wishes are ours,” he seemed to sigh—
And an instant later blue-white light flooded in through the forward viewport.
“What the hell?” Yamoto snapped, shooting forward with the datapack box clutched in her hand. “Commander, we just Jumped!”
“I know,” he assured her. “Don’t worry; everything’s under control. All right, Wwis-khaa,” he added, keying the second vector into the helm, “now move Epilog to this heading. We’ll want to Jump as soon as we’re in position.”
He confirmed that they were indeed turning the proper direction, then turned to face Yamoto. “Question, Lieutenant?” he asked mildly.
“Uh… yes, Commander,” she said, her voice cautious. Over her filter mask, he could see tension lines around her eyes. “I wasn’t informed we’d be leaving the Amity.”
“No, you weren’t,” he agreed. “Wwis-khaa, how are we coming?”
“Epilonninni is almost ready,” the Tampy said.
“Good. Keep it moving.”
Yamoto dropped her eyes to her console. “We’re going to Arachne, sir?”
“Briefly, yes,” Ferrol nodded. “Or rather, for the Tampies and me it’ll be briefly.
We’ll be dropping you off before we leave.”
She looked up at him again. “Commander, whatever you’re doing—”
“Is none of your concern,” he cut her off, putting some steel into his voice. He had no intention of getting Yamoto entangled in this, and the simplest and safest way to do that was to keep her as totally in the dark as possible. “As I said, you’ll be dropped off at Arachne, and your part will be over.”
For a long minute she gazed at him, her eyes hard with suspicion. Ferrol returned the glare as calmly as he could, listening to his heart pounding in his ears and feeling the bulge of the needle pistol pressing into his side under his tunic. The last thing he wanted was to have to start waving the damn gun around…
Almost reluctantly, Yamoto let her eyes drift away. “Understood, Commander,”
she said with a sigh. “Here’s your package,” she added, holding out the datapack box she still held. “If you really want it, that is.”
“Of course I want it,” he growled, taking it. Opening it, he selected one of the slender cylinders and handed it back to her. “This is for you: all the navigational data on Arachne and the colony there. We’ll be transferring you to a lifeboat once we reach the planet, and I’m afraid you’ll have to make your own way down. Think you can manage it?”
“Of course,” she said, professional pride momentarily eclipsing her misgivings.
“Good. Wwis-khaa, how are we doing?”
“Epilonninni is ready,” the Tampy said.
“Can Epilog see the star all right?” he asked, double-checking. A blazing star like Sirius was a dead-simple target to Jump to; Arachne’s sun was something else entirely.
“He can see the star,” Wwis-khaa said.
Ferrol gave the scanners a quick check. Luck was with him; the Amity still hadn’t caught up. His maneuver must have caught Roman completely flat-footed. “All right, then: Jump.”
The blue Sirian light vanished from the side viewport; simultaneously, an unremarkable red-orange star popped into view directly in front of them. “We’re here,” Ferrol announced, striving for a confidence he didn’t feel. Here; but if his direction vector had been wrong, here wouldn’t be the Arachne system. And if his calculation of the planet’s orbital position had been wrong… Feeling sweat breaking out on his forehead, he keyed for a proximity scan.
And found immediately that his fears had been for nothing. “Arachne, ho,” Yamoto said, peering at her own displays. “Right on the nose, too—forty-eight thousand kilometers away, bearing six port, eighty-two nadir. Just slightly downslope.”
Ferrol took a careful breath. “Make for the planet, Wwis-khaa,” he ordered the Tampy. “Two gees acceleration, or as much as Epilog can handle.”
“Your wishes are ours.”
For a minute Ferrol’s shoulders pushed against his restraints as Wwis-khaa turned Epilog nadir toward Arachne. The mottled blue-white crescent appeared in the forward viewport, the pressure eased and changed direction, and he was pushed back into his seat. “On our way,” Yamoto said unnecessarily. “Two gees acceleration.”
Ferrol nodded and keyed the lander’s scope screen, his stomach beginning to knot up again. He’d ordered the Scapa Flow to wait for him here… but that had been nearly two months ago. If they’d gotten tired of waiting…
A brief glint of sunlight caught his eye. A ship, running in geosynchronous orbit, all the way around the planet from where the human and Tampy colonies were located.
Grinning tightly, Ferrol set the comm laser to track and keyed an intercept course into the helm. “Wwis-khaa, shift direction onto the vector indicated,” he ordered.
The laser signaled ready—“Scapa Flow, this is Chayne Ferrol,” he called.
“Identification: beta hopscotch. Come in.” He held his breath—
“Scapa Flow here,” Malraux Demarco’s voice came. It sounded relieved. “Long time no hear, Chayne.”
“Much too long,” Ferrol agreed. “What’s ship status?”
“Oh, pretty much ready to go whenever you are,” the other replied. “You, uh, bringing us a gift there?”