by David Drake
"Tonight. In case there's another attempt at murder. We don't know if the Suidotal is safe." She looked around the cramped driving compartment. "The sooner we're out of here, the better."
Parkerman sighed. "All right. We'll increase speed, if that's what we have to do."
"It's a start," said Sventur.
As they lurched over the hill at sunset they could see the brilliant spatter of disruptor fire, all aimed in the direction of the hidden Suidotal.
"Now what?' asked Parkerman as he studied the monitors.
The crawlers idled, their computers digesting the scene below; the Bunters linked with the computers and began to prepare their analyses.
"They're waiting for us," said Sventur, and made sure her messages were coded and screened. "Has anyone located the crawlers from the Yamapunkt?" she asked the other four crawlers.
"I think they're two ridges to the west of us," said Navigator Beaumont. "We're getting signals from there."
"Coded?" asked Group Line Chief Sventur quickly.
"And screened. It's got to be them." Beaumont's face on the monitor looked haggard for the forced pace had taken its toll on all of them.
Sventur watched the firing below. "We'd better stay right where we are. Stop, and screen the crawlers," she declared. "Then I want a ground force ready to go as soon as it's dark. I want night gear for everyone and full screen suits. Is that clear? Two Petits from each crawler—that's ten. If anything happens, the rest of you can still get away."
"You're not thinking about going down to the Suidotal?" asked Duykster in complete disbelief.
"It's the only thing that makes sense. We'll try to get the crew out." She signaled the Senior Bunter. "We'll need high-energy rations and a stimulant so that we won't fall asleep. The deflector suits will need screening, too, so that they can't track us."
The Mromrosi, who had been listening to all this with rapt attention, now bounced twice. "You suspect that the attackers are expecting a rescue attempt."
"Yes," said Sventur. "Or they would have blown the Suidotal to bits long before now. Those disruptor beams could smash a Glavus with one direct hit." She looked around, considering who should come with her on the mission. "Lauy-Rei, get your equipment ready."
The Protocol Officer grinned in anticipation. "My pleasure, Group Line Chief, and thank you for the opportunity."
Some of the gloom that had hung over the Petits was lifted by Lauy-Rei s enthusiasm.
"I'd like to go along," said the Servo-tech.
"Sorry," Sventur told him. "I need you here. The Bunters are going to have to keep watch of this whole operation, and that means they need to be in perfect working order."
"I'd rather be out there," said Stepherin.
"Not this time," Sventur said. "But do your job well and I'll recommend you for higher rank. That's one way to get into the field properly."
"Right," said Stepherin, and turned back to the Bunters.
"I want one of the monitors on the Reiwald at all times," Sventur went on. "As long as we're active down here, the Reiwald will be a target. You keep watch on her, and maintain coded contact with Group Line Chief Goriz. If there is any trouble, anything at all, notify me at once."
"But you're going to be out there," said Parkerman.
"It's risky but do it anyway," she said, doing her best to sound calmer than she was. "Look, ever since this mission started we've been reacting—it's time we acted, instead. I need to know what's happening here, and Goriz has to have current information to protect us. Goriz won't be able to help us if we don't report. So it's a greater risk to go on without the contact than to have it. Got it?"
He did not like it and made one last attempt to change her mind. "It might make more sense to send regular crew. Officers like you shouldn't have to—"
"The codes on the other ships recognize the Group Line Chief and Group Chiefs of all the ships. The rest could be fired on because of lack of ship's recognition," she said. "Relax, Stepherin. You'll have your chance."
"I'd like to volunteer to go with you," he said, but more to let her know he was serious than because he expected her to include him in the rescue attempt. "I mean it."
"Maybe later," she said, and went off to get into her class-three combat gear, with screens.
The rescue party assembled in the center of the crawlers. There were ten of them, two from each crawler, and they were all dressed in screened battle garb and armed for skirmishing. There was a small red horse-head on the right epaulet, and gold-and-black flashes on the left. Their weapons were ready, they had rations for two days, and they were determined.
"Pair off," said Sventur as she brought the group to order. "Lauy-Rei with me; Tsabuki with Ancelott; Mondragon with Hoad; Porree with Crozzer; Godwendo with Thorgemann. Keep your partner with you at all times. No one is to undertake anything alone, is that understood? If something happens to your partner, notify me immediately and do nothing. Work with a partner or keep out of the way. I don't want anyone acting solo, not in this situation. Is that clear?"
This was met with mutters of acknowledgement.
"All right. In form. Godwendo and Thorgemann at the rear. The rest of you sort yourselves out for the middle. Double file." She clapped her helmet over her head, checked the communicator, and signaled the rescue party. "Hiking stride."
With her gesture the ten Petit Harriers set out toward the place where the Suidotal had been shot down.
"Does anyone know if there are predators around? And are they nocturnal?" asked Godwendo when they had been walking for the greater part of an hour.
"There are some predators," said Sventur, recalling the warnings she had received through her childhood. "The nastiest is something like a wild boar crossed with a leopard, but it isn't found in this part of the country." She, like most members of the Magnicate Alliance, had never seen the animals she mentioned but had done reports on them in school, as she had done reports on dinosaurs.
"Anything else we ought to know about?" Godwendo persisted.
Sventur sighed. "There are several good-sized reptilelike creatures, but they're skittish and they don't get near people if they can help it. There are some nocturnal flyers, not birds and not reptiles but a bit like large bats, that can be dangerous in flocks. They don't come out until after midnight. That's about it. The flyers are called volants; they're about as big as a good-sized owl. They eat meat." In her mind an owl was half her height. "And there's a kind of millipede that has a painful sting that can make you sick, but they don't live in the hills." She had turned and was walking backward. She would have stumbled if Lauy-Rei had not caught her arm and steadied her. "We should reach the Suidotal before dark."
"A night rescue could be tricky," warned Moran Thorgemann.
"Don't kid yourself: so could a day one," said Sventur, once again facing forward. She kept to the wooded and brushy parts of the hills, making sure that their movements were as hidden as possible.
By the middle of the afternoon they were a single ridge away from the downed Glavus, and Sventur became more careful, warning her rescue party to proceed with care, making note of all traffic glimpsed in the distance. "They've left the ship intact for one reason."
"That's assuming they've cared enough to look for it," said Godwendo.
"What use is a downed Glavus to them?" asked Thorgemann.
"It's bait for a trap," said Tech Leader Kurdy.
Ancelott, sounding disgusted. "And here we are, predictable as rats." He had learned about rats the same way Sventur had learned about wild boars and leopards, and dinosaurs.
"We can't leave them behind," said Sventur reasonably, signaling to the other nine to gather around her. "I need your concentration. We have to be very careful how we approach. They're expecting us to try a rescue. What I hope is that they aren't expecting us to come overland on foot." She tapped her weapons belt. "If we can get in and out without firing, I'll be just as pleased."
"Why?" demanded Crozzer.
"Because th
ey're better armed than we are and it wouldn't take much to wipe us out," she said. "They have disruptors, and I don't have to tell you what they could do to us. Fire draws attention to us, tells them where we are, and they can guess what we're up to."
"Splat," said Medi-Tech Tikin Tsabuki, her comprehensive gesture showing how devastating a single disruptor blast would be. "No chance to get away."
"Precisely. And for that reason, if fire starts, don't stay to fight. Get out of the area if you can, and head back for the ship." Sventur looked from one of the rescue team to the others. "I'll need two of you to stay in the brush to keep watch and provide cover. You stand the greatest risk of getting hit if we have to fight."
Group Chief Godwendo waved. "I'll take it."
"And me," said Tech Leader Ancelott. "We're both armor. We're best trained."
Little as she liked it, Sventur knew that the two were right. "You've got it," she told them. "Make sure you keep covered, suit screens on high and don't use your communicators unless it's absolutely necessary."
"Such as we're under attack," said Godwendo laconically.
"That's it," Sventur assured them both. "Channel 17-D."
"What about the Yamapunkt? Aren't we supposed to meet them here?" asked Group Leader Demtro Hoad, introducing a note of concern into their planning.
"Yes," said Sventur.
"Do you still expect them?"
"I hope so. We haven't been signaled that anything's happened to them. They'll probably show up in time." Sventur straightened up. "But that's for later. Right now we have to prepare to get the survivors out of the Suidotal."
This time the response was more emphatic and confident.
"Right you are," said Sventur, and gave assignments to all seven Harriers. When she was finished she looked through the brush toward the place where the downed Glavus waited. From her vantage point the ship looked obvious, hardly concealed at all, but she consoled herself with the knowledge that the Glavus was familiar to her and was strange to the Bastan'gal, and possibly less noticeable for that reason. "We'll have to wait a while, until we're into twilight."
"I still don't like doing this at night," said Ancelott, and added quickly, "Oh, I think you're right, it's the only way we can rescue them, but I don't like it." He scowled at Sventur and glanced up at the sky through the brush.
"The night goggles will—" Sventur began, only to be cut off by Godwendo.
They'll be fine. But I know how it feels."
"We all do," said Sventur bluntly. "All right Everyone, nap time. Use your short-term soporifics. You have forty-five ES minutes. Make the most of them."
Grudgingly the others accepted her orders, finding places in the greenery to conceal themselves for a short sleep. Four small, conical monitors were set up to protect them while they recruited their strength for the night and the rescue.
"What do we do if we can't get the crew out?" asked Mondragon.
"It'll depend," said Sventur, being deliberately evasive; she knew that if they could not be saved, the crew of the Suidotal would not want to be left alive. Just the thought of what they would have to do made her queasy.
Word came from the Reiwald just as the rescue mission was waking that the movement of troops had been spotted not far from the downed Suidotal.
"Bastan'gal, by the look of them, moving pretty quickly," reported Communications Leader Vonigal.
"Any Grands with them?" Sventur inquired.
"Not that we can identify, but they could be screened," was the cautious answer.
"Headed this way on purpose," asked Sventur, "or just coming in this direction?"
"It looks like they know what they're doing," said Vonigal. "I'm sorry to tell you."
"Don't be," said Sventur with feeling. "We would have walked into them without the warning. Any idea how they knew to come here?"
"Not any I want to think about," said Vonigal, the emotion he felt reflected in the deepness of his voice; like most Petits from Westward Ho he prided himself on his stoicism, and did not realize how much the pitch of his voice changed when he was distressed.
"Try to find out what happened, anyway," suggested Sventur, though on her own ship it would have been an order.
"We will. One other thing: the Grands have sent down two landing craft that we are aware of. Group line Chief Goriz thinks it could be a deliberate distraction. They appear to have set down on the smaller southern continent, not where you are." Vonigal reported this factually, but it was clear everyone on the Reiwald had been speculating about what the Grands were up to. "So far they've maintained silence, at least as far as our monitors can determine. They could be sending coded zaps or doing screened communications."
"Meaning you think they've been communicating?" asked Sventur.
"That's what I mean. I think all their messages are coded and screened. I think they intend to keep us in the dark as long as they can." Vonigal sounded distressed again, his voice four notes higher than its regular pitch.
"And what about the Bunters?" Sventur inquired. "Can't they pick up anything?"
"Not so far, not . . . anything they're talking about." The last admission was reluctant, and said uneasily, as if the Communications Leader had grown suspicious of the Bunters as well as of the Grands because the machines were not performing as he expected them to. He went on, "The Bunters seem out of their depth on this one. They aren't wired to handle Harriers against Harriers."
"And the Bastan'gal? Are any of them on Truschi Minore or is it just Grands?" asked Sventur, using the Lontaniani's word for the southern continent.
"No Bastan'gal that we've identified," said Vonigal. "The Grands seem to be all by themselves."
"I don't like it," said Sventur.
"Pogging right," said Vonigal. "By the way, something you should know—the Sakibuckt reported one of their Bio-Techs found dead about an hour ago. Stabbed with one of the dissecting knives."
"In addition to Marillo?" Sventur was shocked.
"Yes; according to the report the Bio-Tech hasn't been dead more than an hour."
"What the frapping—" she began.
"Group Line Chief Praechee is very worried." This was hardly surprising, but he mentioned it to calm himself.
"He's got a lot of company," she said before she ended their communication.
When she had relayed all the information to the other nine of the rescue party, Sventur remarked, "No matter how bad it looks, we think it's worse than it is because we haven't found out what's going on. And it's worse because we have to wait, and that means we'll dwell on it. So talk it out. Otherwise you won't do your work properly."
"That's the truth," said Thorgemann. "Another murder on the Sakibuckt. Pog it!"
"What bothers me," said Tsabuki when the others seemed reluctant to speak, "is that it looks more than ever as if we've got someone in the ranks who—" She broke off. For the first time she missed the Mromrosi. Having the curly little alien along would have made her feel less exposed. As it was, she feared she was at the mercy of her own service.
Her silence was shared by the others; Crozzer looked shamed and Hoad looked angry. Mondragon coughed as if he had a wad of food caught in his throat.
"That's something to remember, that we might be set up," said Sventur. "Like it or not, the Grands are getting Petit help from someone. And someone is killing Petits."
There was a mutter of assent.
"And that means they could have been told everything we're doing." Sventur looked out into the faded afternoon. "If they know we're here, they could—" She stopped herself admitting that they were easy targets.
"We're going to have to do the job quickly and do it right," said Samede Porree. "And not get caught by anyone; not Bastan'gal and not Grands. And maybe not the Mromrosii."
"That's about it," agreed Sventur. She reached down and grabbed her spatter pistol. "Try to keep with these. If we have to use heavier weapons, we're probably lost anyway."
Ancelott chuckled. "Seems peculiar to be hidi
ng from our own forces."
"They aren't our own forces, they're Grands," protested Crozzer.
"They're Harriers," said Lauy-Rei. That ought to be more important than being Grands or Petits."
"But it isn't," said Tsabuki.
Sventur nodded. "For some reason, the Grands don't want us here on Lontano. But Fleet Commodore Grizmai does. So we better do our work right. We have to answer to the Fleet Commodore, not to our Big Brothers," she reminded them, using the pejorative nickname the Petits had given the Grands, as the Grands sometimes referred to the Petits as Step-Children.
"Whatever that means," said Ancelott merrily.
"We'll start with the Suidotal," said Hoad. "And if we live through that, maybe we can find out what's going on here."
This time the rescue party was more encouraged, most of them slapping their right hand on their left shoulder in salute.
Sventur peered out through the brush. "I don't know if anyone's left alive, but that's what matters, living Petits. If we're too late, then get any information you can and get out of there. Godwendo, Ancelott, you keep the rear guard, and make sure you put your helmets on full scan. I don't want mechanicals sneaking up on us while we're looking for biologicals. In fact, I don't want anything sneaking up on us."
"So right," said Godwendo, taking a wide-beam paralyzer from her hip-pak. This will stop most of them."
"Does that thing work on Bastan'gal physiology?" Thorgemann asked.
"We'll find out," Godwendo assured him.
Now all of the rescue party laughed softy but with the keyed-up intensity of those preparing for a serious fight. Only Mondragon sounded truly nervous; the others were accustomed to the excitement and contained it better than the young man from Chalot on his first mission.
"All right then," said Sventur as she allowed herself to be optimistic for the first time since they arrived at Lontano. "Go to the parts of the ship where you are normally assigned. You'll know how to check over everything. Do it quickly, then come to the bridge unless we're under attack. If we are, go to the emergency vane exit, and leave that way."