"Fine. But wait with it." They didn't intend to start advertising the Sheewash
Drive around here if they could avoid it. "Try the communicators again," he
said. "They could be on some off-frequency."
He hadn't thrown the override switch on the throttled main drive engines yet.
It might have been the
Venture's relatively slow progress which had attracted the creepy vessel's
interest, giving whoever was aboard the idea that here was a possibility of
easy prey which should be investigated. But if they set off at speed now and
the stranger followed, it could turn into a long chase and one long chase
could finish his engines.
If they didn't run, the thing would move into weapons range within less than
five minutes.
"Captain!"
He turned. Goth was indicating the communicator screen. A green-streaked
darkness flickered on and off in it.
"Getting them, I think!" she murmured.
He watched as she slowly fingered a pair of dials, eyes intent on the screen.
There was a loud burst of croaking and whistling noises from one of the
communicators. Then, for a second or two, the screen held a picture.
The captain's hair didn't exactly stand on end, but it tried to. There was a
sullen green light in the screen, lanky gray shapes moving through it; then a
face was suddenly looking out at them. Its red eyes widened. An instant later
the screen went blank, and the communicator racket ended.
"Saw us and cut us off" Goth said, mouth wrinkling briefly in distaste.
The captain cleared his throat. "You know what those are?"
Page 35
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
She nodded. "Think so! Saw a picture of a dead one once."
"They're uh, unfriendly?"
"If they catch us, they'll eat us," Goth told him. "Those are Megair
Cannibals."
The name seemed as unpleasant as the appearance of their pursuers. The
captain, heart hammering, reflected a moment, eyes on the grotesque ship in
the rear screens. It was considerably closer, seemed to have put on speed.
"Let's see if we can scare them off first," he said suddenly. "If that doesn't
work, you better hit the Drive!"
Goth's expression indicated approval. The captain turned, settled himself in
the control chair, tripped the override switch, fed the
Venture power, and set her into a tight vertical turn as the engine hum rose
to a roar.
His hand shifted to the nova gun mechanisms. The image of the pursuing ship
flicked through the overhead
screens, settled into the forward ones, spun right side up and was dead ahead,
coming towards them. The gun turrets completed their lift through the
Venture's hull and clicked into position. The small sighting screen lit up;
its cross-hairs slid around and locked on the scuttling bug shape.
He snapped in the manual fire control relays. They still had a good deal of
space to cover before they came within reasonable range of each other; and if
he could help it they wouldn't get within reasonable range. He'd done well
enough in gunnery training during his duty tour on a space destroyer of the
Nikkeldepain navy, but the Megair Cannibals might be considerably better at
games of that kind. However, it was possible they could be bluffed out of
pressing their attack. He edged the
Venture up to full speed, noted the suggestion of raggedness that crept into
the engines' thunder, put his thumb on the firing stud, pressed down.
The nova guns let go together. Reaching for the ship rushing towards them and
falling far short of it, their charge shattered space into shuddering blue
sheets of fire.
It was an impressive display, but the Megair ship kept coming. Something hot
and primitive, surprisingly pleasurable, began to roil in the captain as he
counted off thirty seconds, pressed the firing stud again. Blue sheet
lightning shivered and crashed. The scuttling thing beyond held its course.
Answering fire suddenly speckled space with a cluster of red and black
explosions.
"Aa-aa-ah!" breathed the captain, head thrust forwards, eyes riveted on the
sighting screen. Something about those explosions....
Why, he thought joyfully, we've got the range on them!
He slapped the nova guns on automatic, locked on target, rode the
Venture's thunder in a dead straight line ahead in the wake of the guns' trail
of blue lightning. Red and black fire appeared suddenly on this side of the
lightning, roiling towards them....
Then it vanished.
There was something like the high-pitched yowl of a small jungle cat in the
captain's ears. A firm young fist pounded his shoulder delightedly. "They're
running!
They're running!"
He cut the guns. The sighting screen was empty. His eyes followed Goth's
pointing finger to another screen.
Far under their present course, turning away on a steep escape curve, went the
Megair Cannibals' ship, scuttling its best, dipping, weaving, dwindling....
As they drew closer to Udune, other ships appeared with increasing frequency
in the
Venture's detection range. But these evidently were going about their own
business and inclined to keep out of the path of strange spacecraft. None came
close enough to be picked up in the viewscreens.
Page 36
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
While still half a day away from the one-time pirate planet, the
Venture's communicators signaled a pickup.
They switched on the instruments and found themselves listening to a general
broadcast from Uldune, addressed to all ships entering this area of space.
If they were headed for Uldune on business, they were invited to shift to a
frequency which would put them in contact with a landing station off-planet.
Uldune was anxious to see to it that their visit was made as pleasant and
profitable as possible and would facilitate matters to that end in every way.
Detailed information would be made available by direct-beam contact from the
landing station.
It was the most cordial reception ever extended to the captain on a planetary
approach. They switched in the station, were welcomed warmly to Uldune.
Business arrangements then began immediately. Before another hour was up
Uldune knew in general what they wanted and what they had to offer, had
provided a list of qualified shipbuilders, scheduled immediate appointments
with identity specialists, official assessors who would place a minimum value
on their cargo, and a representative of the Daal's Bank, who would assist them
in deciding what other steps to take to achieve their goals to best effect on
Uldune. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]