the circuit. "We've got to find out what's going on."
"I'll tell you what's wrong," Bisman snarled, slamming a fist down on the back
of
Zonzalo's chair. "Somebody's trying to take over our territory. They're going
to regret it, damn them."
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JODY LYNN NYE - [The Ship Who Sang Series - 06] The Ship Errant
Thunderstorm turned away from the little console. His wingtips and claws
trembled as he tottered back to his desk sling. He collapsed into it. The
Cridi, who had stayed well out of range of the communication cabinet's video
pickup, clustered around him with concern. Keff raised his eyebrows in a
question.
"It is done," the Thelerie said, nodding weakly. 'They are coming."
"Good," Keff said. "Tell Noonday. Then we start the ball rolling."
"We are ready," Narrow Leg said, nodding to Tall Eyebrow and Long Hand. "I
regret this, in many ways. I do not like being defenseless. I do not like
having my ship all to pieces all over a field."
"It won't be for long," Keff assured him. "And you aren't defenseless. You'll
all be staying with Carialle in our ship."
"Is not the Watcher nervous, too?" Big Eyes asked.
Carialle answered via helmet speakers, audible to them all. "I certainly am,"
she said.
"But we're on the way to unraveling a lot of mysteries. It'll be worth it,
whatever comes."
The crew of the raider ship united instantly against the notion of a
stranger's impinging on their domain. Glashton was in favor of killing the
intruder on the spot.
When the idea began to gather approval from others, Minna pushed into the
midst of them and in spite of the possibility of danger to herself, shouted
them down.
"Quiet! What's the matter with you?" she asked, waving a forefinger under all
their noses. "There may be a whole host of ships behind this one trader. He
could be the vanguard for a traveling fleet! Did you think of that? Sooner or
later someone was bound to stumble onto Thelerie. Well? Now someone has!"
"I want to know all about this Circuit," Bisman said, forgetting for the
moment that
Minna was persona non grata
. "I've never so much as heard a rumor about them."
"It's a big galaxy," Mirina said, her hands on her hips. "I learned that back
in
Exploration when we could find whole systems that had been hidden from scans
by spatial anomalies. You'd be surprised how easy it is to hide an empire, let
alone a rival& trading group."
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JODY LYNN NYE - [The Ship Who Sang Series - 06] The Ship Errant
"Send a message to Varvon, Frost, Hannah, and anybody who might have access to
a
CW news computer station," Bisman ordered. "I want details. Is the scanner
working?"
"Intermittently," Glashton said, with a grimace.
"Take a look and see if this characters alone."
"And what are we going to do in the meantime?" It was an automatic question,
responsibility kicking in again. Mirina realized it as soon as the phrase left
her mouth.
"We?" Bisman glared down at her, also recognizing the incongruity. She saw his
face change from annoyance to the old, worn groove of cooperation. It was
stupid of her to get involved again when she had so nearly cut the traces, but
she owed the Melange some measure of gratitude, too. She nodded. Bisman smiled
grimly.
"We're going to pay a visit to this Keff." He glanced up at Zonzalo and
Glashton.
"He'll be leaving pretty quickly. Prepare to track where he goes. If the
scanner's not working, follow him. We've still got the Slime Ball. We can
destroy him and his ship if he gets funny."
"What a junker!" Carialle exclaimed. Keff had carefully turned his torso so
she could see the huge, red ship land on the field near Thunderstorm's
pavilion. It was immediately surrounded by Thelerie of all ages, some flying
forward pushing wheeled ramps, others wrestling refueling hoses from the
mighty tanks nestled in the crags at the edge of the plain.
"No doubt about it now," Keff said, the consonants blunted because he was
speaking sublingually. 'The style is all of a piece with the ships we
confronted circling Cridi.
We have our culprits. The only question is, are these the leaders of the whole
shebang, or will we have to go hunting further?"
Carialle conveyed the question to Noonday, who was in her main cabin with two
of her bodyguards and the ^Cridi. The Sayas glanced up from her perch on the
weight bench as Carialle zoomed in as the hatch opened.
"This is Aldon Fisman," Noonday said. "I recall him much younger. It is
shameful that
I and the Ro-sayo did not take closer notice of our involvement with the
Melange. But all was so beneficial, and we never questioned their good
intentions."
Jody Lynn Nye
"It is natural to think they would be as morally good as yourself," Long Hand
said
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JODY LYNN NYE - [The Ship Who Sang Series - 06] The Ship Errant kindly. In the
ammonia-free atmosphere of Carialle's cabin, the Cridi went without their
travel globes. The visiting Thelerie were fascinated, and studied their
neighbors openly. In particular, they seemed interested in the Cridi's hands,
which were nearly the size of their own claws, which in turn were the same
size as Keffs hands. It was a sign, Noonday had said, that they all ought to
be friends.
"Bisman is their Sayas, in cooperation with the female who now descends,"
Noonday told Carialle.
On the screen, a woman and a younger man who resembled one another followed
Bisman down the ramp. Next out of the ship was a young Thelerie, his eyes and
jaws wide, taking in gulping breaths as if he could not get enough of the air.
He took the ramp at a bound, spread his wings, gathered his mighty haunches
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under him and sprang into the air for pure joy. All of Carialle'spulses seemed
to halt for that one moment as he took flight.
"Beautiful," she said. She checked her datatapes. Yes, that lovely moment was
recorded forever in her memory banks.
"Freihur!" the young Thelerie cried. "Fanasta, theleriyagliapalo!"
Thunderstorm, a row or two down from Keff, looked up, and his eyes widened
with relief.
"Farantasioyera, shafur," he said, with the booming cough that was a Thelerie
chuckle, as the apprentice came to a scrabbling landing beside him. The two
embraced warmly, claw hands and wings wrapped around one another's bodies.
"Did you get any of that, Keff?" Carialle asked. IT laboriously sorted through
the syllables, and produced "greetings, (unintelligible) homeworld joy your
coming."
Thunderstorm had said, "Proud (unintelligible) return, young
(unintelligible)."
Carialle guessed that the missing words were names or endearments. Even days
of intensive cramming wasn't enough to fill in the blanks in IT's lexicon and
grammar.
Keff turned away to answer her. Carialle was disappointed when her view was
cut off, but one couldn't have everything.
"I did," he said. "I'm going to have to rely on the Thelerie speaking
Standard. The
Cridi will be at a double disadvantage. Standard is new to them, too."
"They're very adaptable," Carialle reminded him. "They're doing just fine. And
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JODY LYNN NYE - [The Ship Who Sang Series - 06] The Ship Errant besides, they
are better at reading body language than you are."
"Are you sure they won't jump in too soon this time?" Keff asked, a little
more forcefully than he intended. "We need information, not statues. The
second these people find out we're affiliated with the Cridi, they'll clam
up."
"Absolutely," Carialle said. "Tall Eyebrow swore to me he will not act unless [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]