"A few S & L's," came Darla's voice.
Sean & Liam's.
"Yecch," I said. "Any Star Cloud left?"
"No, sorry, Jake. You drank the last of it back on Ragna's world."
"Merle. Forget it."
"Are you sure you don't want an S & L?" Darla asked.
"No, thank you."
"Big ol dumb truckdriver," Sam went on. "You could have done anything you set your mind to. Been a scientist, better yet an engineer. Anything."
"What I really wanted to do was write," I said. "Poetry."
"I remember. You weren't bad, actually. Had some talent. Poetry don't pay the rent, though."
"You can say that again. That's one of the reasons I quit writing."
"And now you can pay the rent every other month. Progress."
"C'mon, Sam, don't tell me you don't like the road."
Sam gave a semicommittal grunt and said, "Well, I'll admit that life on the road has its appeal… at times. Most of the time, though, it's boring. And ding dang it, most-of the time it don't pay doodly squat."
"'Doodly squat,"' Roland repeated, tasting the phrase. "Oh, that's a fine collectible item." He turned and smiled. "I'm compiling a field dictionary of your patois, you know. Could you give a rough translation into Standard Received English?"
I got on the radio. "Hey, Carl."
"Yo"
"Roland wants to know what 'doodly squat' means. Can you give him a free translation into white-folks' talk?"
"Doodly squat? Hey, Roland, didn't you ever squat on your doodly?"
"I think I get the gist," Roland said, "and I'm extremely sorry I asked."
"Actually, it doesn't mean beans."
"I understand that," Roland muttered.
"You know," Carl went on, "I am aware that a lot of my speech patterns strike people as slightly weird. l try to watch myself, but―"
Sam cut him off. "Jake, someone on the skyband."
"Put him on."
An unfamiliar voice came from the cab speakers. "―that rig up there, do you have your ears on? I say breaker breaker, breaking for the rig with the Terran Maze markings. Are you human? Come back, please! This is an emergency!"
"You're on the skyband, Jake," Sam informed me.
"Hey, you got the Terran rig here. Flaky Jake's the handle. What's the emergency? Come on?"
"Thank God! I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to hear a human voice again… We've been cut off from humanity for two years… Almost too good to be true. We thought we'd never―"
He stopped transmitting.
"Come on back? What's the nature of the emergency?"
"Sorry… sorry. A little overcome with emotion. The emergency is that we're lost! Been outside Terran Maze for the last twenty-six months. We are the survivors of an Authority expedition sent out to explore uncharted road. There are three left in our party. Two humans, one nonhuman. Please tell us―do you know a way back? Come on?"
I sighed and said, "Sorry, no we don't. We're just as lost as you are, I'm afraid."
A long pause. Then, "I see. But we're still more than glad to have found you. We're about out of rations, no medical supplies to speak of. We're at our rope's end and would be most grateful to team up with you. We have little, but what we have we'll gladly share. We do have some possibly useful information, maps and such that we've put together. What say you to that?"
"Welcome aboard," I said. -Do you need medical assistance?"
"No, we're in fairly good shape, considering. I'm flashing my headlights now. Can you pick me up?"
I checked the rearview screen, then looked out the port at the parabolic mirror. "Okay, we're eyeballing you." I couldn't make out what kind of vehicle it was.
"Are these two vehicles in front of me part of your convoy?"
"That's a ten-four."
"How many are you?"
"Nine humans, one nonhuman, and an artificial intelligence who goes by the name of Sam."
"Pleased to meet you all. Just call me Yuri. Tell me―where are you going?"
"Yuri, that's a very good question, and one we've been kicking around for some time. We had a notion that shooting a potluck would be our best bet at the moment. Can you advise differently?"
"Unfortunately, no. We've explored this Expanded Confinement Maze quite extensively over the past two months. The planets are generally not Terran normal, and we've come to the conclusion that there's no direct route back to T-Maze."
"Have you toured a maze belonging to a race called the Nogon?"
"We've heard of it and we were trying to find our way there when we saw those first Terran-looking vehicles back there. We got no response. l assume they were just vehicles abandoned by unfortunate luck-throughs and salvaged by aliens. We've seen others occasionally. Then we saw you and thought we'd give it another try. Sorry, I'm digressing. No, we haven't been in Nogon Maze but I presume you have. Did you find anything?"
"Hold on a minute. What Terran-looking vehicles are you talking about?"
"Well, they were right behind me a moment ago, but they seem to have dropped back."
"How many?"
"Four. They looked like military vehicles. I tried calling on every channel and frequency but got no response."
"Right."
"Damn," Roland said.
"Son of a Roadbug's concubine," Sam muttered. "Speaking of which, here comes one."
Traffic merged into one lane to let the Skyway Patrol vehicle pass. It shot by.
"Which potluck do you plan to shoot?" Yuri asked.
"The cutoff should be coming up fairly soon," I answered. "You're welcome to come with us if you wish."
"Thank you. We shall."
"You think we can trust him?" Sam said. "He could be with the other bunch. His story could be a clever lie to get close to us."
"I doubt it. I've always heard rumors about the Authority sending out suicide expeditions to explore potluck portals. If he's playacting, he's giving a good performance. Sounded pretty desperate."
Carl came through over the security channel,
"Jake, I caught the tail end of the conversation on the skyband. You think this guy's legit?"
"Yeah, I think. Would you let Sean and Liam in on it? And ask Sean to give him a call. Maybe he can pick up a clue."
Carl did so. After a brief conversation with Yuri on the skyband, Sean switched back to the security channel. "I don't recognize his voice, Jake, and the accent's wrong for his being a Talltree loggermate. But that's neither here nor there."
"Nevertheless," I said, "I think he's okay."
"But he's Authority," Sam countered.
"Yeah, that makes me a little uncomfortable, but I don't think he's a cop. Do you?"
"Who knows? Does it make a difference? When he finds out who you are, he could be trouble."
"I don't know. He says they've been outside T-Maze for over two years. How could he have heard of me?"
"A point," Sam conceded. "And it is a distress call… But dammit, we're not exactly languishing in the bosom of safety either. We're running out of room on this lifeboat."
"Lifeboat ethics aside," I said, "there's always room for one more―or two or three."
Sam grumbled and gave in. A few moments later, "Hey, I'm scanning that Roadbug. He's veering off to the right. He must be on the cutoff."
I got on the horn to let everyone know we'd be executing a right turn in about half a minute.
"Any traffic following the Bug?" I asked.
"Doesn't look like it. If it's a potluck road, stands to reason there wouldn't be."
"Right."
"You think those Terran buggies will be following us?" Sam asked.
"Does a bear defecate in the sylvan glade?"
"Depends on the bear."
"Let's see what these animals do."
The cutoff swept in a lazy arc to the right; the Roadbug had already lost itself in the smog. I watched as Sean and Carl made the turn, also noting that our new soi-disant friend was following, then got on the horn.