“The ship?” That was the only real question. Without a ship they would become Zardalu meat and might as well have stayed in Genizee’s deep interior. According to J’merlia’s original account, he had repaired the seedship and flown it closer to the Zardalu buildings. But then he had become totally vague and random, and everything he had said after that, to the moment of his immolation suicide, had to be questioned.
“The seedship,” Rebka repeated. “Can Atvar H’sial see it?”
“No sign of it.”
Rebka’s heart sank.
“But the weird thing is,” Nenda continued, “she says she can see another ship, bigger than the seedship, sittin’ in about the same place it was.” He added a string of clicks and whistles in the Hymenopt language.
“Zardalu vessel?” Rebka asked.
“Dunno. We don’t know what one looks like.”
“With respect.” It was Kallik, speaking for the first time since they had emerged on the surface. Her soft voice came from somewhere above Hans Rebka’s head. “I have also looked, and listened with care to Atvar H’sial’s description as it was relayed to me by Master Nenda. The ship resembles one on which I have never flown, but which I had the opportunity to examine closely on our journey to the Anfract.”
“What?” That was Louis Nenda. It was nice to know that he did not understand any better than Rebka.
“The configuration is that of the Indulgence — Dulcimer’s ship. And it is an uncommon design. I would like to suggest a theory, consistent with all the facts. Those of our party left behind on the Erebus must have received the message drone describing a safe path through the singularities, and decided to follow us here. They located the seedship by a remote scan of the planetary surface, and sent the Indulgence to land near it. But there was no sign of us, and no indication of where we had gone or when we might come back. Therefore they kept one or two individuals on Dulcimer’s ship, with its heavy weapons, waiting for our possible return, and the rest returned to space in the unarmed seedship, safe from the Zardalu. If this analysis is correct, one or two members of our party now wait for us in the Indulgence. And the Erebus itself waits in orbit about Genizee.”
Kallik’s explanation was neat, logical, and complete. Like most such explanations, it was, in Hans Rebka’s view, almost certainly wrong. That was not the way the real world operated.
But at that point theory had little role to play in what they had to do next. That would be decided by facts, and certain facts were undeniable. Day was approaching — the first hint of light was already in the sky. They dared not remain on the surface of Genizee, at least not close to the shoreline, once the sun rose and the Zardalu became active. And the most important fact of alclass="underline" there was a ship just a few hundred yards away. How it got there, or who was on it, was of much less importance than its existence.
“We can all compare theories — once we’re safe in space.” Rebka peered around him. He could at last distinguish rock outcrops from lightening sky. In a few minutes he and Louis Nenda would be able to walk or run without killing themselves. But by that time he wanted to be close to the ship. “I know it will be rough going across the rocks, but we have to try it even while it’s still dark. I want Atvar H’sial and Kallik to guide Nenda and me. Tell us where to put our feet — set them down for us if you have to. Remember, we have to be as quiet as we can, so don’t take us through any patches of rubble, or places where we might knock stones loose. But we have to get to where the moss and mud begins before it’s really light.”
The predawn wind was dying, and the sound of waves on the shore had vanished. Hans Rebka moved through an absolute silence, where every tiny clink of a pebble sounded like thunder and a dislodged handful of earth was like an avalanche. He had to remind himself that human ears, at least, would not detect him more than a few feet away.
And finally they were at a point where the amount of noise they made did not matter. The gray-green moss lay level before them, soft and fuzzy against the brightening sky. All that remained was a dash across it to the ship, a couple of hundred yards away.
Rebka turned to the Hymenopt, who, even with one injured leg, was four times as fast as any human. “Kallik, when you reach the hatch, you go right in, leave it open, and ready the ship for takeoff. Don’t get into a discussion or an argument with anyone on board — we’ll have time for that later. By the time I’m there, I want us ready to lift. All right?” The Hymenopt nodded. “Then go.”
Kallik was a dark moving streak against the flat mossy surface, her legs an invisible blur. Atvar H’sial, surprisingly fast for her bulk, was not far behind. The Cecropian covered the ground in a series of long, gliding leaps that took her smoothly up to and inside the hatch. Louis Nenda was third, his stocky body capable of real speed over short distances. Rebka was catching up with him on the final forty meters, but Nenda was through the hatch a couple of yards ahead.
Rebka jumped after him, turned as his foot skidded across the threshold, and slammed the hatch closed. “All in,” he shouted. “Kallik, take us up.”
He swung around to see what was happening. It had occurred to him, in the final seconds of the dash across the moss, that there was one real possibility that he had refused to consider because it had final and fatal implications. What if the Indulgence had somehow been captured by the Zardalu, and they were waiting inside?
Breathe again. There were no signs of Zardalu — the cabin was empty except for the four new arrivals. “Kallik, bring us to a hover at three hundred meters. I want to look for Zardalu.”
But the little Hymenopt was pointing at the control display where multiple lights were flashing. “Emergency signal, Captain Rebka. Not for this ship.”
Rebka was across to the console in a couple of steps, scanning the panel. “It’s the Erebus! In synchronous orbit. Take us right up there, Kallik. Graves should have stayed outside the singularities. What sort of trouble is he in now?”
The hover command was aborted and the rapid ascent began. All eyes were on the display of the dark bulk of the Erebus, orbiting high above them. No one took any notice of the downward scope. No one saw the dwarfed image of Darya Lang, capering and screaming on the sunlit surface far below.
Chapter Twenty
Darya was learning the hard way. There was no way of knowing just how much discomfort and fatigue a person could stand, until she had no choice.
The irritating little black bugs that crawled into her eyes, nose, and ears were nothing. Limbs that cried out with fatigue were nothing. Hunger and thirst were nothing. All that mattered was the disappearance of the Indulgence, the only escape from the surface of Genizee.
As the sun rose higher she sat down on a flat stone, filled with despair that changed little by little to annoyance and then at last to rage. Someone — someone of her own party, not a Zardalu — had stolen the ship, just a couple of minutes before she and Tally were ready to board it. Now they were hopelessly stranded.
Who could have done it? And finally, with that thought, Darya’s head cleared. The answer was obvious: the survivors, whoever they were, of the first group that had flown down to the surface of Genizee. They had arrived on the seedship, but it had not been there when they wanted to leave. With that gone, they must have seen the Indulgence as their only way off the surface. But if that was so, once they realized that they had left people behind on Genizee, surely they would return. Hans Rebka would come for her. So would Louis Nenda. She was absolutely sure of it.