Part 24 (1/2)
Ya.Find him! Find him!
Yes - help us!Jael was fumbling with the controls. It was awkward, piloting the s.h.i.+p in normal-s.p.a.ce from within the rigger-net.Ar -can you pull out of the net and handle the s.h.i.+p from the bridge?
The Clendornan's face loomed large before her.All right, Jael - but I'm not giving you much time.
We can't last long this close to a star, and I'm not going to kill us trying!
Just do it! He must be close. We left the Flux almost together.
Ar's face vanished, and a moment later, she felt the normal-s.p.a.ce controls slipping out of her grasp. She waited, nearly frantic, as the sudden silence seemed to stretch forever. She found herself shaking withfear, and under the terrible strain she felt something shake loose from her subconscious mind. s.p.a.ce itself seemed to quiver as a face rose up and floated before her, in her mind, exactly as Mogurn had appeared in the Flux after she'd killed him. She panted, struggling not to scream. It was her father's face, and she recognized the memory at once. It was her father in his final, tormented year, babbling, ”Master your demons, Jael, master your demons!” He had never made peace with his own failures, yet still he haunted her with his failed advice. And yet ... without him, she realized, she would not even be here ...
The face disappeared as Ar's voice reverberated into the net:Incredible, Jael - there's a small asteroid nearby. Its...o...b..t is taking it into the sun's photosphere .
Her heart jumped.Is there anything on it?
Checking now. The imaging is very difficult ...
Jael's heart pounded as she waited for his report. Then she heard:There issomething on it. I can't tell what. We'd have to s.h.i.+ft our orbit inward to approach, and we don't have much maneuverability.
Do it!she shouted.Don't waste time talking!
She felt a shudder and knew that Ar had activated the maneuvering drive. Focusing from within the net, she located the asteroid, almost lost in the glare of the sun. She brought to bear all of the computer-imaging powers she had available ...
And she saw something k.n.o.bby on the asteroid's surface. As they closed on it, the asteroid swelled in her view: a gnarled, airless rock, burning up in the glare and heat of the sun. Closer ... larger ...
Do you see it, Jael? We've got to make our identification and get out!
She strained, and saw that the object on the asteroid was ... moving. Or was it her imagination?
Closer ...
As the image grew, the k.n.o.b began to look like something flapping in a breeze, an old bag, or a wounded animal struggling pathetically. It looked like nothing resembling a dragon, certainly not Highwing. And yet ... she felt a tickling at the edge of her thoughts, the presence of something or someone familiar.
Highwing!she whispered in agony.
Jael, you don't know it's Highwing!she heard Ar protesting; or perhaps it was her own inner voice, trying to keep her from doing something insane. But she felt no doubt, sheknew that her friend was out there, burning up in the sun. She had no idea what physical manifestation a dragon from the Flux would have in normal-s.p.a.ce, in the ”static realm,” but she knew she had to get to him fast.Ar, get us closer!
Jael, we can't help him! We can't land, and we can't go outside for him in this!
She could imagine his consternation as she asked the impossible. But she didn't care about that; she didn't care about possible or impossible.If you won't do it, I will! But even as she spoke, she realized that Ar was already trying to do what she'd asked. The asteroid was looming very close now, but its rotation was carrying the thing on its surface from sight.Can you match its rotation, just for a minute?
Can you get me close, Ar? Get me close, and I can reach him!
Her friend was doing just that, and better than she could have done it, even as he protested,You can't reach anything, Jael! Don't you understand? But they were close enough now for a clear image, evenin the terrible blood-glare of the sun. Ar was bringing them around in a loop to catch up with the rock's motion, and what they saw struggling at the edge of their view, foundering on the surface of that asteroid, was clearly a living being ...
A dying being.
Dying. Even here, even now, the dragon's spell was at work. She remembered her father dying, a broken man ... and knew that she could no longer hate him. Pity him, yes, but not hate him.
Highwing was dying ...
My sacred word, Ar whispered, in disbelief.
Though the creature in the image was little more than a pathetic bag of bones, it nevertheless had a head, and something like wings crumpled at its sides; and it had eyes full of pain, eyes that peered vacantly, searching the sky as though it knew something was close but couldn't quite see it.”Here, Highwing! she cried softly.
The creature moved its head suddenly, as though it had heard her. And she could have sworn that she heard its voice in her own head, groaning,You can do nothing ... don't die for nothing! And she felt its pain, in a tremendous wave that surged through the net, shaking her. Ed flapped violently, in terror.
Her father had once loved her, had made it possible for her to be here. Would it all be for nothing? Yes, if she could not save Highwing, if she could not give even that in return....
She drew a breath, struggling not to cry out - and suddenly shouted,I need to be just a little closer, Ar!
No, Jael ...wecan't ... the screens are overloaded! We've got to drop back into the Flux - NOW!
Do it, Jael!
No more than a hundred or a thousand meters from her, the creature that was Highwing sank helplessly back as the asteroid's rotation brought him back into the full h.e.l.lish daylight of that swollen sun. The voice that reached her was weak, whispering:No, Jael - Ar, get in here and HELP ME?she screamed.Ed, help me!
Whatever they answered, she didn't hear. She only knew what she had to do. She stretched the net to its limit, drawing on all of the reserve power - and it wasn't enough. The instant she sensed Ar entering the net, she seized the normal-s.p.a.ce controls and contorted s.p.a.ce with the maneuvering drive, dropping the s.h.i.+p toward the asteroid's surface - dropping in a suicidal dive toward the rock, toward Highwing.
Tears burned her eyes as she thought, Not for nothing! It will not be for nothing!
Jael, no!Ar shouted, as he saw what she was doing.
Be ready to take us down!she commanded, her voice cold and furious.When I say to.
Ed must have sensed her immediate intention, because he streaked to the forward end of the net, stretching it ... and Jael's arms lengthened and reached out for Highwing ... and the burning rock rose, slanting and rotating, to collide with them ...
Highwing!she cried. She felt the net brush over him, over the rock; and she molded the net to include the dragon but not the rock, and she screamed:NOW, AR - NOW!Ar's strength in the net joined hers, and over the groaning protest of the flux-pile, they reached into the Flux and pulled the s.h.i.+p down ...
The asteroid loomed like a ma.s.sive wall, and they were careening toward it - - and it s.h.i.+mmered and became transparent - - and the fearful blazing sun became transparent - - and both were gone, and the clouds of the Flux materialized in their place.
The net nearly disintegrated from the effort of containing Highwing within it, but somehow it held. As the universe around them changed, as they sank deeper into the ocean of the Flux, pa.s.sing through layers of change, the creature they were holding began to change, as well.
No longer a bag of bones, he was growing in ma.s.s and size. His shape was returning, becoming a dragon shape again, a dragon struggling to spread his wings.Highwing! she shouted, her heart breaking with hope and fear. He was struggling, in agony. And the net that supported him was beginning to tear.
Jael, let him go,Ar urged, and his voice, though calm, reverberated in the center of her consciousness, a command that she could not ignore.Now, Jael - or we'll lose the net for good.
Yes ...she whispered. She forced herself to open her arms and release the dragon.
He fell away from them, and before she could do anything more, Ar had already drawn in the net, cutting the drain on the s.h.i.+p's power. She knew he'd done the right thing - they'd nearly lost the flux-pile, and that would have been the end for them - but she could not keep from crying out as she saw Highwing dropping through the air. She shouted to him, and dimly sensed his awareness.
Jael ...the voice barely whispered over the wind. For an instant it sounded like her father's voice. But it wasn't; it was Highwing's.
Below them now, she saw mountains, and they were descending fast from a great height, through a sky wracked by crosswinds. There was one enormous peak that might have been the Black Peak, and she wondered whether the dragons were still there, and scarcely knew whether to hope yes or no. Then she heard Ed crying,Graggons near! andFly, Highwing - CAW! - must fly!
But Highwing was falling, not flying. He was struggling to open his wings against the rus.h.i.+ng air. One wing opened a little, then the other, and then he was tumbling out of control. His strength was gone. He was falling, almost certainly, to his death. Jael warped their net into a delta-winged glider, and they dived to follow the dragon as he fell.Highwing, please pull out of it! she pleaded, and knew it was futile, crying for what could not be.