“All we need is to get close enough for them to shoot us a magnetic line,” Benden muttered.
Nev uttered a whoop. “Thar she be!” He pointed. Benden had to blink to be sure he actually was seeing the running lights of the Amherst. He was close to adding his own ki‑yi of relief and victory.
Just then the com unit opened to a sardonic voice. “That’s cutting it fine indeed, Lieutenant.” The blank screen cleared to a view of the captain, her head cocked and her right eyebrow quizzically aslant. “Trying to match your uncle’s finesse?”
“Not consciously, ma’am, I assure you, but I’d be pleased to hear the confirmation that our present course and speed are A‑OK for docking?”
“Not a puff of fuel left, huh?”
“No, ma’am.”
She looked to her left, then faced the screen squarely again, a little smile playing on her lips. “You’ll make it. And I’ll expect to have reports from both you and Lieutenant Ni Morgana as soon as you’ve docked. You’ve had time enough on the trip in to write a hundred reports.”
“Captain, I’ve got the passengers to settle.”
“They’ll be settled by medics, Ross. You’ve done your part getting them here. I want to see those reports.”
And the screen darkened.
“Got yours all ready, Ross?” Ni Morgana asked with a sly grin as she swiveled her chair around.
“And yours?”
“Oh, it’s ready, too. I said that I believed Kimmer suicided.”
Benden nodded, glad of her support. “It would have had to have been self‑destruction, Saraidh. He would have been far more familiar with airlock controls than Shensu or his brothers,” he said slowly, considering his words. “It’s really far more likely that he did suicide, given the fact that he had failed to bring along all that metal. Damn fool! He must have known that he was dangerously overloading the ship. He could have murdered us.” That angered Benden.
“Yes, and nearly succeeded. I think he was hoping that his death would have brought suspicion on the brothers, as the most likely to wish his demise,” Ni Morgana went on. “He would have liked jeopardizing their futures. And discrediting another Benden if he could.” When she heard Benden’s sharp inhalation, she touched his hand, causing him to look at her. “You can still be proud of your uncle, Ross. You heard what Shensu said, and how proud he was of the way the admiral marshalled all available defences.”
Benden cocked his head, his expression rueful. “A fighter to the last. . . and it took a wretched planet to defeat him.
“Poor planet Pern,” Saraidh said sadly. “Not its fault, but I’m recommending that this system be interdicted. I did some calculations‑‑which I’ll verify on the Amherst computers‑‑and rechecked the original EFC report. That wasn’t the first time the Oort organism fell on the planet. Nor will it be the last. It’ll happen every two hundred and fifty years, give or take a decade. Furthermore, we don’t want any ship blundering into that Oort cloud and transporting that organism to other systems.”
She gave a shudder at the thought.
“There she is,” Benden said with a sense of relief as the viewport filled with the perceptibly nearing haven of the Amherst. “And, all things considered, a successful rescue run.”
Chronicles of Pern (First Fall) Page 28