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Recommend we find out 00 s behind it. Also recommend u find
urself a seat. iss could get a littl rough. She shot a fierce grin at
Mandelbrot, then slapped a finger down on the intercom button.
Arr el? Dr. Av ry? old on tight, we re makin an unprogrammed
course correction. Now.
An acceleration couch popped up out of the cabin deck; Derec just
barely had time to dive into it before Wolruf slammed the ship into a
violent roll. The starfield in the viewplate spun dizzily.
The ship was still rolling when Wolruf hit the main thrusters.
In all, the experience wasn t as jarring as Derec had expected. The
ship s gravity fields did an exceptionally good job of compensating for
the changing gravity and thrust vectors. Unfortunately, they didn t do
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a thing for Coriolis force. Within instants, Derec was feeling
thoroughly dizzy and a little nauseated. He wondered how Ariel was
taking it.
Then he wondered about something else; about a story he d once
read. Wait a minute, Wolruf. This won t work.
Wolruf cocked an ear at Derec, but kept flying.
It can t work. The angles of incidence are all wrong. If someone s
behind that asteroid, all he has to do is use his maneuvering thrusters
to keep the rock between him and us. The asteroid s too small for us
to enter a gravitational orbit; at this range, there s no other way we
can fly around it faster than he can maneuver around it.
Wolruf kept flying. Mandelbrot, back in the corner, spoke up.
Mistress Wolruf has already thought of that. I have all ship s sensors
locked on the asteroid. If the unknown vessel emits any form of
radiation or hot gasses during maneuvering, we will detect it.
sides, Wolruf growled, aven t u ever eard of spookin im out? If
e s got some kind of remote sensor watching us, e now knows we
know e s there. No point in im staying idden any more.
As if in confirmation of Wolruf s statement, Mandelbrot said,
Contact. A stream of superheated boron-11 has just been emitted by a
source behind the asteroid.
Wolruf s mouth opened in a toothy grin, and her tongue lolled out.
We got im. , She fired a last round of maneuvering thrusters and
stabilized the ship s course. Now let s see
More contacts, Mandelbrot said. Additional thruster exhaust; I am
projecting
Cancel. Visual contact. I am putting it on the main viewer. The stars
swam, blurred again, and resolved into a much closer look at the
asteroid than Derec had had before.
A ship was creeping out from behind the right edge of the asteroid. At
first glance it looked like a fairly conventional Settler design. Then
Derec realized that he was just looking at the foremost piece of it.
The ship came out from behind the asteroid, and kept coming. It
wasn t just large, it was enormous. And yet the design had a curiously
improvised look about it, as if someone had decided to build a
supervessel by simply welding together a dozen randomly selected
hulls. Sleek trans-atmospheric hulls nestled in with ungainly cargo
pods, and a hodgepodge of angular bracing and spaghetti-like tubing
connected the whole lot. Bits of it looked like standard Spacer
equipment, or Auroran pleasure yachts, while other segments looked
utterly alien, like nothing Derec had ever seen before.
Then he felt the touch of an icy ghost finger on his shoulder, and the
hairs on the nape of his neck stood straight up. He had seen a ship like
that before.
Derec glanced quickly at Wolruf. Her hackles were standing up, and
she d bared her teeth. Derec suddenly knew he didn t need to ask
what she was thinking.
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The approaching vessel has opened fire, Mandelbrot announced.
Primary armament appears to be phased microwave lasers.
As one, Derec and Wolruf looked at each other. Aranimas!
Wolruf became a flurry of action. She slammed her fists down on
controls, jabbed buttons, and barked terse, almost hysterical
commands at the ship. In response, the ship yawed hard and pitched
wildly as the main drives erupted into life.
This is impossible, Derec said. We destroyed Aranimas in Sol
system. I saw his ship explode.
u saw im jettison second ry ulls. Wolruf punched up some kind
of intersecting curve display, peered at it anxiously, and resumed
hitting controls. On my world there s a small liz rd called a skerk. u
grab its tail, th tail breaks off. Skerk gets away, u get its tail. She
glanced up at the screen again; the flying junkyard was still closing.
u must ave got a piece of Aranimas s tail.
Derec just stared at the viewscreen and shook his head. But how in
the universe did he find us again?
Don t know, Wolruf growled. Matter of fact, don t care. Just know
we need to get away now. She leaned back to survey the control
board settings and then thumbed the intercom button. Arr el! Dr.
Av ry! Stand by for jump!
Jump? Derec shouted. We can t jump! We re too far away from the
programmed jump point.
Direct hit on the stem, Mandelbrot announced.
Wolruf! You didn t have time to calculate and enter a new course!
Wolruf punched more buttons. u care about details at a time like
thiss?
Another hit, Mandelbrot said. Hull breached in Section 17D.
But where will we go? Derec wailed.
Someplace Aranimas issn t! Wolruf took one last glance at the
control settings, and then grabbed the jump control handle and
yanked it down hard.
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