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I don t, Ferrol said. We re going to leave space and normal star systems alone
and concentrate instead on a much more select group of places: namely, the
accretion disks around large black holes.
Demarco twisted his head around, a stunned look on his face. I think it makes
sense, Ferrol continued, ignoring the other. That s where space horses are
supposed to have originated; and if so, there must be some remnant of the ecology
left. You game to take a look?
For a long moment Wwis-khaa was silent. Ferrol held his breath, fully and
painfully aware that if the Tampies refused the whole thing would die right here and
now. Your wishes are ours, the alien said. When do you wish to leave?
Quietly, Ferrol exhaled. As soon as Epilog is in position, he told the other. Let
the helmer Randall know when you re ready.
Your wishes are ours, Wwis-khaa repeated.
Feeling a little limp, Ferrol switched off the intercom. It had worked& and they
were on their way. He looked up
To find Demarco gazing hard at him. I trust, the other said carefully, that all of
that was just so much spun sugar.
Some of it was, Ferrol said. Most of it wasn t. We are going to poke around
a few black holes, and we are hunting for a scaled-down version of a shark. But not
for the reason I gave Wwis-khaa that was just to get his cooperation.
You should have just told melt-face it was an order, and that you were his
superior officer, and that was that, Demarco sniffed. That s all the explanation the
stupid plant-lovers deserve.
Ferrol frowned at the other, a strange feeling curling through his stomach.
Somehow, he didn t remember Demarco as being quite this crude. If I m right, he
said quietly, we ve probably got a good chance of running into some sharks along
the way. Wwis-khaa and the others deserve to know what they re letting themselves
in for.
Demarco raised his eyebrows. I see some of the Amity s heart-bleeding has
rubbed off on you. Sir. So if we re not recruiting watchdogs for the melt-faces, what
the hell do we want these miniature sharks for?
We want them for transport, of course, Ferrol growled. Demarco was teetering
right on the edge of insubordination here. We ve been in a long, dead-end track
here, trying to capture and train space horses. Human beings are predators, and the
space horses can t or won t stand for that. But a space-going predator species
might. Clear now?
Demarco snorted. If you say so. Sounds like the sort of wishy-wok stuff your
melt-faced chummies would spout, though. If you ask me.
Quite suddenly, Ferrol decided he was tired of Demarco. All right then; try this,
he said coldly.
We re going because I ve given you an order, and I m your captain, and that s
that.
Demarco s lip twisted, but he nodded. Yes, sir, he muttered, and turned back
to his console.
Chayne? Randall spoke up tentatively. Your melt-fa your Tampy signals
he s ready to go.
Ferrol took a deep breath, fighting for calm. Tell him to go ahead and Jump, he
ordered.
And wondered what had happened to his crew in the past year, to make them so
harshly bigoted.
Chapter 25
Arachne s director said they d alerted Earth and Prepyat via tachyon, Yamoto s
voice came over the comm laser. She sounded tired, and about as emotionally
drained as Roman felt. Not really surprising, under the circumstances. I guess the
message didn t get through.
It got through, all right, Roman told her. Just not soon enough.
Yamoto sighed. My fault, Captain. I should have alerted the colony as soon as
we arrived in the system, and the hell with any consequences.
Roman shook his head. It wouldn t have helped. Once we d Jumped to Sirius
and then back to Solomon system, we were already out of position to hit anywhere
near Arachne itself. We couldn t have gotten here in time to stop Ferrol no matter
when you blew the whistle. It wasn t in any way your fault.
Yes, sir. She didn t sound like she believed it. I m ready to boost orbit
whenever you re ready.
Roman gave his helm display a quick scan. After four hours of a hard three-gee
acceleration/deceleration drive through Arachne system from their arrival Jump
point, Amity had finally reached the planet itself. The tactical showed their course
swinging close in to cut across Yamoto s own geosynchronous orbit& You might
as well just sit tight there, he decided. It ll probably be faster for us to catch up
than for you to fiddle with your orbit. Though what the hurry was for, Roman really
couldn t say by Yamoto s numbers, Ferrol and the Scapa Flow were a good six
hours ahead of them already, and Amity s chances of tracking them down at this
point were just fractionally above absolute zero. We ll be alongside in about ten
minutes.
Yes, sir.
At the helm, Kennedy half turned. Captain? I ve got a probable vector for them
now, if you d like to take a look.
Thank you. For a minute Roman studied the tactical and visual maps she d
produced. In the direction indicated
Was, basically, nothing. How probable is this? he asked.
Only about seventy-five percent, actually, she admitted. The tapes Yamoto
made of Epilog s Jump are good and sharp, but you can only be so accurate from
half a kilometer away. Computer gives a ninety-nine percent probability for this
area a small circle appeared on the visual, centered around the original
vector but there are at least fifteen stars in there that ought to be visible to a space
horse.
Even one as young as Epilog? Roman asked.
Kennedy shook her head. I don t know. Neither do the Tampies; I asked them.
And of course they wouldn t do anything so vulgar as to speculate& Roman
clenched his teeth, fighting down a sudden surge of anger at the aliens. This wasn t
their fault, either. Get me everything we have on those stars, he directed Kennedy.
Let s see if we can figure out what Ferrol s up to.
He hadn t expected there to be much; and there wasn t. Estimated sizes,
estimated distances, spectral classes, estimated probabilities of solar systems each
listing had barely half a dozen lines. Not much there anyone could want, Marlowe
muttered.
Unless Ferrol knows something about one of them we don t, Roman pointed
out. Kennedy, do you have a list yet of what those datapacks he had might have
been?
Near as I can tell, all he accessed from the Amity were the navigational locator
program and the full Cygni Telescope stellar mapping list, Kennedy said. Plus the
Arachne data he gave Yamoto. She told us he took six datapacks with him, which
would be about right for dumps of the nav and Cygni packages. She eyed Roman.
Which implies to me that whichever of these stars he Jumped to was just a
transition point to somewhere else.
Roman nodded, his throat tight with frustration and bitterness. He d already come
to the same depressing conclusion& and if Ferrol was doing a multi-stage Jump
here, then he was gone. Period.
His console two-toned a proximity alert: the Amity was coming alongside
Yamoto s lifeboat. Kennedy, have the hangar doors opened; as soon as we ve
matched velocities Yamoto can go ahead and bring the boat in.
And when she was aboard, he knew, the decision would have to be made.
Whether to fight the massive probabilities stacked against them and try and go after
Ferrol, or to accept that any such attempt would be a useless gesture.
To accept that, whatever Ferrol was up to, he d won.
I should have stopped him, Roman thought wearily. And he could have done it,
too that was what galled the most. He could have had Ferrol off his ship right from
the very beginning, or at any point since then. It was his own damn fault all of it.
The intercom pinged. Rro-maa?
Roman looked down at the lopsided alien face. Here it comes, he thought,
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