The thrusters kicked in again. Hammersmith rolled slightly, and slowed almost to a matching velocity with the body. It passed out of the forward view and appeared off to port.
“You okay, Solly?”
“Yeah. I’m fine. I’ll have her in a minute.”
She watched him lean out the open door. A moment later he hauled the body inside, laid it gently on the deck, placing it so it was out of the view of the imagers.
“Let me see her,” said Kim.
“You don’t want to,” he said.
But she insisted and Solly moved her.
The body had withered and caved it on itself. Yet the uniform was sharply pressed. She wore black grip shoes and white ceremonial gloves.
Her black hair still framed her face, which even in its mummified condition registered bewilderment and shock. Death, Kim thought, had come on her suddenly and unaware.
“Kim,” said the AI, “I have movement. At nine hundred kilometers.”
“What kind of movement?”
“Non-orbital.”
“Coming our way?” Her hopes soared. Not unmixed with a dash of apprehension.
“Yes. It is closing at almost one kps.”
“Close the door and repressurize, Ham. Solly, you hear that?”
“Yes, I did. Ham, is it on an intercept course?”
“I would describe it as a collision course, Solly.”
“Is it slowing down? Maintaining speed?”
“It is accelerating.”
“Okay. Prepare to leave orbit.”
“Wait a minute,” said Kim. “We don’t know that it’s hostile.”
“It’s sure as hell behaving that way. If they want to talk to us they can get on the radio.”
“Solly, for God’s sake, this is why we came. If somebody’s out there and we run for home, what good will it all have been?”
“Kim, trust me. It’s coming after us.”
He was right. She knew he was right, and it filled her with fury. What kind of stupidity was she facing?
Run.
“Ham,” she said, “can you put the object onscreen?”
“Negative, Kim. It’s too far away. But I can tell you it has no identifiable propulsion system.”
Kim jabbed a fist in the air. “You hear that, Solly? No tubes. It’s the same technology. The Valiant is the real thing.”
“I hear it, Kim. You’ve been right all along. But it’s still dangerous. Ham, are we ready to move out yet?”
“In fifteen seconds.”
“Come on, Solly. Think what you’re doing.”
“I am thinking.”
“Look how small it is.”
“That’s what bothers me, Kim. Mines are small. Nukes are small. Ships with friendly celestials are not small.”
“Solly—”
“Trust me. I’d like to make this work the way you want it to. But we don’t want to get killed over it. Ham—?”
“Ready, Solly.”
“Take us out of here. Accelerate at two gees for the moment. Take best course away from the object.” And to Kim: “If that thing’s directed by a friendly intelligence, it’ll recognize we’re scared, and it’ll pull off. If it continues to charge, that’ll tell us everything we need to know.” He opened one of the cargo containers, put the body inside, and secured it.
“They might not think the way we do,” she objected.
“Nobody friendly would launch something without trying to talk to us first. Ham, are we getting any kind of radio traffic?”
“No, Solly.”
“Put me on the multichannel,” Kim said. Solly threw her a pitying look. “It might be a misunderstanding of some sort,” she added.
Solly sighed loudly enough for her to hear. “I’m lost out here with a mad scientist,” he said.
She spoke into her throat mike: “Hello. This is Kim Brandywine on the Hammersmith. We come in peace.”
Static.
“Is anybody out there?”
“Just us goblins,” said Solly. “My guess is that the whole operation is automatic. You fly in, trigger the alarm, they shoot.”
“That couldn’t be. It’s stupid.”
“Maybe it is, but I’ll bet you that’s what’s happening. I’d say these people are a pretty ugly bunch.”
Kim tried several more times before giving up. “Where’s the object now?” she asked Ham.
“Closing fast. Range sixteen hundred kay.”
Solly waited impatiently, trapped in the hold while it repressurized.
“Solly,” she said, “Why don’t we take a chance here?”
“Kim, they are hostiles. What does it take? We’d better admit the reality.” A bell dinged and he pulled off his helmet and hurried out of camera range. “Ham,” he said, “what else can you tell us about this thing?”
“Its casing deflects sensors, Solly. Regrettably, I can offer little additional data. I can report, however, that it has adjusted course and velocity and continues to gain on us, although it is now doing so at a constant rate. It is still on a collision course.”
Kim listened with growing dismay. The thing had all the appearance of a missile. How could they be so goddamn dumb? Like everything else in this business, it made no sense.
Solly came into the room, sat down, and buckled in. “Exciting, huh?” he said.
“I guess I was wrong.”
“I guess so.” He looked up at the image of the pursuer on the overhead. “Okay, Ham, let’s rev it up. Go full ahead.”
The Hammersmith leaped forward.
“How long until we can make the jump?” asked Solly.
“Twenty-one minutes, ten seconds. Object is still closing.”
Estimated time to intercept blinked in the right-hand corner: 17:40. “We can’t do it,” she said. “We might as well turn around and try to talk to them.”
“Talk to a torpedo?”
She tried to think. “Don’t we have any defensive systems at all?”
“We could go outside and hit it with a stick.” Solly looked unhappy. “I wish it were burning fuel.”
“Why?”
“It’s small. It would run out quickly. What kind of power plant does it have?”
“I can speculate,” said Kim.
“Go ahead.”
“Magnetic force lines is one possibility. Antimatter’s another. Maybe quantum cells.”
“How do they move without thrusters?”
“Maybe they’re using the same kind of technology we use to produce artificial gravity. Except in their case, the field forms outside the vehicle. In whatever direction they want it to go. So they just fall into it.”
“In either event,” said Solly, “they’re going to have long-range capability.”
“Oh yes,” she said. “Certainly. But they might not be able to keep up with us. Keep pouring on the coal.”
“You’re more optimistic than I am. The damn thing’s at seven hundred kay, currently closing at forty-eight per minute. That closure rate’s been a constant regardless of our acceleration.”
“How about maneuvering?”
“We can try that when it gets closer.”
The object was close enough now to have acquired definition. It had hyperbolic lines. In fact, it looked like a flying saddle. It even had a horn and side panels that resembled stirrups. Ham drew bar scales to show its size: thirty centimeters long, half as wide. Four centimeters thick. It was smaller than a saddle. The exterior was a smooth gray shell, save for a row of black lenses set along the side of the seat. It was white, and she could detect no markings. “It doesn’t look like a bomb,” she said.