Ho’Sung clearly understood that. Get us out of here, but keep the enemy in sight if you can, he ordered.
Let’s steer out toward the edge, said Palagren. I’m going to change this to an undersea image—
Legroeder cried out, without even thinking, No, not the undersea! It’s a whirlpool of light; it’s a galaxy; I can keep the raider in sight if you let me form it for you.
Startled, the Narseil leader gave Legroeder the con over the net. Legroeder worked quickly, repainting the churning mists into a vaster, grander picture of violently exploding nebulas and spinning stars. The ship was being pulled hard, and it took all of their strength to keep them in a current moving in the direction he wanted—downward, and to starboard. The Narseil riggers, confused at first, gradually understood what he was doing and found the leverage points to help him, moving H’zzarrelik away from the center of the maelstrom. At last they were able to turn and watch the raider ship, a small black dot caught in the currents of light.
I think their net was shredded by that blast, Legroeder said. It might well have killed their rigger crew.
They’re helpless, then, if we want to go after them? Ker’sell asked, from the keel position. It was a moot question, because H’zzarrelik was now riding a stream away from the raider.
Although the image looked like a disrupted galaxy, the power of the stream dissipated fairly quickly. As the riggers brought the ship around in the slowing current, the captain called: Are we in a position to go after them?
Palagren took a quick poll of his team, his gaze at last coming to rest on Legroeder. You’re the expert on pirates. Can we do it?
Legroeder thought hard, staring out at the small black object still spinning in the stream, disabled by its own weapon. No, he said at last. I don’t think we should go in and risk getting caught in that turbulence again.
But isn’t this is our best chance to get them? asked Palagren.
Yes, it is. But not by going in. Legroeder grinned at Palagren across the ghostly veil of the net. I think I know where he’s going to come out. And I know right where we want to nail him when he does.
Chapter 15
Capture!
All right, we’ll follow your lead on this. Go ahead, Rigger, and—The captain interrupted himself in the middle of his communication. Legroeder could hear him shouting to someone on the bridge. “What do you mean they got into the airlock? Do you have it under control—?” There was a moment of silence, and then he came back with: Get us clear, riggers! But stay ready to engage! Then he was gone—light-years away, it seemed.
Palagren looked to Legroeder to see what he had in mind.
Take us deeper into the Flux, Legroeder said, praying that his certainty was not misplaced. Now. While they can’t track us.
But we’ll lose sight of them, Palagren protested.
Didn’t you bring me along to tell you how the pirates think? We’ll pick them up again.
Palagren reluctantly complied, stretching out the battered fabric of H’zzarrelik’s net to draw the ship deeper into the multidimensional layers of the Flux. As the glowing mists darkened and became less focused, Legroeder explained his reasoning. It was likely that the pirate ship had suffered severe damage to her rigger-net when the torpedo had exploded. There was no way to know how much damage, or how long it would take to repair, if it could be repaired. But Legroeder knew what most raider captains would do, in a case like this. They’ll try to sink into the deeper levels and get out of the turbulence.
Palagren sounded skeptical. There’s not much movement down there. Are you sure they’ll try it, without a working net? It’d be hard enough to steer there normally.
Legroeder nodded, scanning the surroundings. They were sinking into a level of the Flux that was comparatively sluggish. Ordinarily no one would choose to enter such slow-moving currents, but he had learned, with the raider fleets, that the underlayers made good hiding places at need. This is far enough, I think. Legroeder could still perceive the whirlpool shape of the region they had left; it looked ghostly now, on the verge of vanishing. For visual clarity, they viewed it as a cloud stretched overhead.
What now? asked Palagren.
Well—they’re in serious trouble. And if their captain is anything like the ones I knew, they’re going to try to slip into hiding while they make repairs. Even without their net, they can move into deeper layers by manipulating their flux reactor, just like a submarine flooding ballast tanks.
The usually stolid Voco sounded surprised. This is true? They would do that?
Oh yes, Legroeder said, scanning the ghostly region. It sounds primitive, and you need careful coordination between the flux reactor and the net sensors, or you can lose control and wind up so deep you’ll never get out. But it works.
They had lost sight of the raider vessel. The turbulence in the levels “above” had not affected this layer at all. There was a slow, steady movement of current away from the point at which they had entered. Legroeder pointed ahead and to the left. If we take a looping path around, it’ll bring us back to where we can intercept them when they drop to this level. The Narseil riggers agreed, and they took H’zzarrelik in a slow arc, searching out currents one by one until they had achieved the sweeping movement he wanted—almost an orbit around the place where he guessed the raider would come out.
So far so good. They hadn’t heard back from the captain or anyone else on the bridge for a little while now. Legroeder assumed that Ho’Sung and the rest of the crew were busy with emergency repairs. They had taken a couple of good hits from the pirate ship, and some of it showed in the sluggishness of the rigger-net.
We’re on the verge of losing maneuverability, Palagren warned, as they slipped unevenly through a transition layer.
All right, Legroeder said. Let’s edge back upward a little. If we hug those clouds, we should still be in good position to spot them.
Stretching their arms out, they worked to nudge the ship upward. The clouds sparkled more brightly, and they felt the streams of the Flux stir around them with a little more force. Beneath them, the gloom of the deeper layers remained quiet, scarcely moving.
I’m concerned about what’s happening on the bridge, Palagren muttered. No one’s answering—
There he is! Legroeder interrupted. A small, grey shape had just dropped out of the clouds toward the darker underlayers.