Part 20 (1/2)
Plan B: Korval was in grave danger He drew a breath and felt Aelliana stir, take note, and finally murmur in his ear: ”Whatever has happened? Surely the Juntavas have not caused this?”
The intershi+p chatter had been tense with other ru spaceshi+ps, Juntavas walking openly in ht
Daav had debated destinations Lytaxin-world of a solid ally Liad itself was surely to be avoided with Plan B in effect!
He sat to board, finally, and having thought Lytaxin, his fingers unhesitatingly tapped in another code This was a destination only for scouts and the adventuresome curious; there was no trade there, nor ever had been Well
”Well,” Aelliana affirave the shi+p its office
Noith an hour yet to Junals No need to give away all his secrets, even to Scouts He set the tiin his exercises Ride the Luck would call him before they arrived at Nev'Lorn
SHADIA REACHED TO the canister overhead, pulling the red knob that was both handle and face e, the plate descending to shoulder height Grasping the disk carefully she twisted the red handle It turned properly in her hand and the initial three an taking shape She pushed it toward the floor, stepped into the tube, and as it inflated by her head, she grabbed the blue handle and pulled That closed the Cloak over her head and with a twist of vapor fro the old
Now she reached for the blade on her belt and carefully pierced the di aardly, stepped out of it, perhaps spicing her language a bit to help, and then a bit led on her ankle and left her sitting in mid-air With exasperation she used a few ent questions of the universe at large and cut a bit more with the knife In another moment, the old Cloak was a h the pockets of the new Cloak with relief
She stuffed it into the waste bin, which was filling rapidly, and surveyed the work area, realizing as she did that she hardly registered the more minor sounds of the space dust on the hull
Over in the corner, Clonak ter'Meulen, supervisor of Pilots, was ta thereby a truly iulations He had replaced his Cloak nearly a standard hour before and now sat i the suit, with an eye toward keeping the electronics intact
More or less conversationally-the atotten up to near 20 per cent of normal-he bellowed inside his Cloak
”Shadia, I hadn't realized you'd spent so e to snort
”Doubtless, I hurt your ears”
”Well, at least you've hurt s”
She looked at hi his hand inside the Cloak to pull out a bit of paper towel and
”I clearly heard you ask whose, ahhh whose idea the Cloaks were Very nearly they are mine!”
Shadia blinked
”Are you Momson, then?”
”Me, Momson? Not a bit of that, at all” Clonak continued, still busily taking the suit apart ”Moather No, but the Cloaks-they've only been on Scout shi+ps for about 25 years But then, I guess you could blaement to need a Cloak when he didn't have one”
”But I thought the naave us the ht you are The Richard A Davis Portmaster Aid Foundation But I'm afraid that's my fault They have a wonderful archive-at least equal to the open Scout collections-and I was looking for quick solutions Headquarters was alreadyme into this pilot support track I've ended up in, you see, and dea'Cort himself set me on the all that esoteric, really, the research librarian was pleased to hand me over to the so-called I around in one of these things inside a day I brought a dozen dozen back for testing and barely a relumma after I had posted off my thank-you note, Headquarters sent me off on a secret s, complete with dispenser canisters”
”Secret mission?” Shadia snorted ”They didn't want other Scouts to know you were getting all the plush flights?”
Clonak chuckled briefly at his work
”Actually, it was far more sinister than that There's always a faction in the Council of Clans that wants to shut funding for the Scouts off, or reduce it Soht benefit Terrans, or they want us to charge for our work, or be turned into pet courier pilots for the High Houses
The idea that we ht somehow be in debt to a Terran foundation had to be kept super mum,”
Shadia heard the crinkle of the Momson Cloak about her as she shook her head Terran-style and then flipped the hand signal roughly translating as ”stupidly assessing the situation, theht”
One-handed Clonak replied with ”Affirm that twice”
Before Shadia could turn back to her work Clonak stretched hiher than his head, and held up a series of electronic modules linked by tiny flat cables At the end of the cables were several tiny power units
”Shadia, what you see here is the work of a genius””Of course,” she said politely
Clonak ignored her ”It's too bad that I nearly destroyed it getting It out of the suit I can see several more modifications I'll need to make, and then a box-lot of paperwork once we are joyfully returned to Headquarters”
Shadia sighed ”What is it?”
”A working transceiver set, of course! What else could it be? Now all we need to do is decide e ht safely say, on what frequency, and how often, for the right people to hear and fetch us away from this lovely idyll of shared pleasure” He moved a shoulder and his feet sank deckward ”I believe ill need your location report by the end of the shi+ft, and since I'm essentially done with this I'm available to act as your clerk”
RIDE THE LUCK broke into normal space and reported that all ell Three breaths after, the position report center screen was replaced by a tile of alars as the meteor shi+elds went up a notch and the Scout's private hailing frequency was crowded by ments: ” and Jumped out before I could cross-hair him; he definitely took out dea'Ladd!”
” was destroyed Have adequate munitions to continue search pattern”
Daav's hands touched the switches which arht the scans online
” have returned fire and am hit Breath's duty-notify my clan of our enemy-I have three hours of air, heavy pursuit and no Juive the counterchance debts Notify my clan of Balance due these”
Scans showed debris in orbits that should have been clean, and ays at Nev'Lorn itself
Into a battle had co on all ID ports No way to tell iht be- Daav thumbed a switch ”Daav yos'Phelium, Scout Reserve Captain, co-pilot of packet boat Ride the Luck, requesting berthing infornment Repeat”
Before he was finished the second iteration he heard a cry of ”Korval!” over the open line, and, fainter, ”The Caylon's shi+p!”