STARDANCER

by Ed Howdershelt

  T'Mar shook his head and took the grenade, then tossed it into the room without activating it. There was a scream and a flumping thud. T'Mar rushed into the room and aimed his rifle at a man on the floor who was frantically trying to wish himself somewhere else.

  The man looked up into the muzzle of T'Mar's E-rifle and froze. His eyes found the unexploded grenade on the floor nearby as L'Tan picked it up and put it back in her pocket.

  "We don't need prisoners," said L'Tan.

  "We won't have one, ma'am. He's going out the emergency exit."

  "Why not just shoot him and be done with it?"

  "If you feel that way, you shoot him. I'm throwing him off the ship."

  T'Mar pointed at the exit hatch and then at the man on the floor, who gabbled at him in Eiranian.

  L'Tan said, "He says it's too far to jump."

  "It's only fifteen feet or so. Tell him he jumps or I shoot him. No other choices."

  L'Tan relayed the message and the man hesitantly moved to the exit.

  "Open it!" yelled T'Mar. "Out! Now!"

  The man scrabbled at the controls and tried to slide through the opening so that he hung from the edge. T'Mar used the toe of his boot to nudge the man's fingers, but he apparently still thought it was too far to drop.

  T'Mar aimed his rifle at the man's head. When the guard looked up, he let go. He hit the pavement hard, but he managed to get to his feet and run.

  "Good enough," said T'Mar, pulling the hatch shut and resetting the controls. "Get this thing moving while I make sure we're alone and close the airlock."

  As he started for the corridor, L'Tan said, "Oh, yes, sir, sir! I do so love a man who takes charge!"

  When he glanced back at her with a look of incredulity, she burst out laughing.

  "Batten the hatches and all that nautical stuff, then get back up here."

  "Well, yes, sir, ma'am. You sure you can manage without me?"

  "Oh, for a little while, anyway. How long do we have until the flitter blows?"

  "About ten minutes. Time enough, if you can get this thing moving."

  L'Tan laughed again and tapped the console. The transport lurched into the sky and headed toward the town.

  Chapter Fifteen

  T'Mar ran from cabin to cabin, then from hold to bay looking for more people and weapons. He found two more rifles in a locker and took their energy packs, then tossed the rifles into the transport's side airlock.

  Shoving the bodies and their weapons into the airlock took only a few minutes, and cycling the lock so he could heave them off the transport in the general direction of Eirania ate a few more minutes.

  Finding two lifesuits and hauling a month's worth of rations to the control room in trash bags took another five or so. As T'Mar dumped the last armload of rations in a corner, L'Tan broached a question that had been on her mind for some time.

  "Our rescuees are going to see us coming in this Eiranian troop transport and think they're being raided."

  "Can't help that," said T'Mar, dropping himself into the first officer's chair. A thought struck him and he turned to L'Tan with an intent expression.

  "Wait a minute. Maybe we can. Flash the fields to opaque them twice quickly, then do it again every few seconds. Maybe '97B' will figure it out."

  The flitter exploded behind them with the force of a small nuclear weapon and the intensely bright explosion wiped nearly a mile of ground zero clean and cratered the blast site. By the time the shock wave reached the transport, six miles distant, it was greatly weakened, but it was still capable of rocking the transport.

  "Well, forget that question," said L'Tan. "That should get their attention, anyway. They'll have to realize that something's going on."

  "I just hope it didn't blind them. My screen went white."

  "Something we didn't think of earlier just occurred to me," said L'Tan. "This thing may be too big for the street."

  T'Mar tapped up the ship's specifications as they neared the building.

  "It'll fit, just barely. Be glad the doors don't open outward."

  L'Tan nodded and guided the ship into place above the street, then began lowering it between the buildings.

  "Um..." said T'Mar.

  L'Tan glanced up from her console. "Um, what?"

  "Where's the hatch in relation to the building's doorway?"

  L'Tan grinned and said, "Ha! At this very moment, the doorway is exactly..." she glanced at the screen, then continued, "Eighteen feet below the hatch. I already thought of that, T'Mar."

  "Well, damn," he said, a note of wonder in his voice. "They stuck me with a smart one this time. Are we there yet, driver?"

  "We'll be there when I tell you we're there. Try to contain yourself."

  "Oh, I'll try. Don't open the hatch until we know what we've found, okay?"

  She gave him a saccharinely sweet smile. "I already thought of that, too."

  T'Mar smiled back. "Figured you would have, miLady."

  They heard someone beating on the hatch before the transport actually touched the ground. T'Mar tapped up the hatch's external view on his vid screen.

  A man apparently in his sixties looked both ways and up at the sky, then banged on the hatch again.

  T'Mar said, "Identify yourself."

  "Nine-seven-b. Open up and let's get the hell out of here."

  "How many are with you?"

  "Thirty-seven. Come on, let us in and..."

  "You and your people aren't to come anywhere near the control room door. You understand that?"

  "Fine! Just open the damned door! We have to get out of here now!"

  "Are you armed? Do you have any weapons at all?"

  "No, damn it! No weapons! Nothing!"

  T'Mar looked at L'Tan. "This is our last chance to back out."

  "Use your rifle to weld the door to the control room shut. If they're infected, they'll die, sooner or later. If they die, we'll open the airlock in space, then wait until someone can get us out of here."

  "All right," said T'Mar to the man outside. He tapped the console to open the cargo bay airlock and said, "Load up and let us know when everyone's aboard."

  T'Mar set his rifle to medium spread to avoid blowing a hole in the door and placed the muzzle near the door's locking mechanism. The initial blast made him back up a pace and rethink his methods.

  He stood to one side of the door and extended the rifle as far as possible, then eased the muzzle against the doorframe and fired again. This time the excess blast blew across the room instead of back at him. In that manner he spot-welded the door so that it couldn't possibly open.

  "T'Mar, he says that's all of them. We're lifting now. How's that door coming?"

  "Done. Six welds. Check and see if we're still airtight."

  "Pressure's good. I'll add a pound in here on general principles. If there's a leak, let it be in their direction."

  "Good thinking. How fast can you get us into high orbit?"

  "Twelve minutes. Where's our cover?"

  T'Mar sat at the comm board and tapped up the Confederated band.

  "Rescue to Alliance."

  Tac's voice said, "Go, Rescue."

  "We're on our way up with the passengers. Where's our cover?"

  "Green flight, Rescue. We've been upstairs, just watching for bad guys and twiddling our thumbs, waiting for you to finally get underway."

  L'Tan said, "We're ever so sorry to have kept you waiting, Green. You know how it is with us civilian types."

  "Gold flight. Something's up, people. Stay alert."

  "Roger that, Gold. Rescue, you copy that?"

  T'Mar said, "We heard him, Green. We're hurrying as fast as we can."

  "Alliance here. Six missile launches west of your positions."

  "Gold here. They're on our screens. Can you knock them down, Alliance?"

  "No problem unless they get serious, Gold."

  There were several flashes near the western horizon, but none of them were nuclear.

  "Gold,
Alliance. Six hits. None got through. Now we'll see how badly they want you. Hold one... Six more launches. They're persistent."

  Gold said, "We did a lot of damage to the southern bases, Tac. They may be a little pissed off at us."

  Six more flashes, one of them nuclear, lit up the western horizon.

  "Green here. You hit one of the missiles on the nose, I think. Fighters coming up. Two hundred miles south."

  "Thanks, Green. We see 'em, too. Blue, break's over. Back to work."

  "Blue copies break over."

  On L'Tan's screen, Blue flight had already turned to intercept the incoming fighters. She looked at her boards and then at T'Mar's.

  T'Mar said, "Blue, Rescue. Hold back a minute. I want to try something."

  "What's on your mind, Rescue?"

  "This transport has a five-inch main gun. They never let me play with anything that big in the military. Let me take a shot at those incoming fighters."

  "Five-inch or one-inch, you can only hit one at a time, Rescue."

  "On low power, cycle time is less than a second, Blue. They're two minutes out and I only need thirty seconds. I've already got them in the computer."

  "Go for it, Rescue. We'll stand by above one minute."

  T'Mar let the computer negotiate and fire. The booming sound that rang their hull each time the gun fired wasn't caused by the gun firing; it was caused by the air ahead of the muzzle being rent apart at the atomic level, then more air rushing in to fill the vacuums left by the energy blasts.

  On the screen, the enemy fighters simply ceased to exist.

  Twenty times the gun fired before L'Tan yelled, "We can't keep this up! Power's down almost thirty percent already!"

  T'Mar yelled back, "How much do we need to get home?"

  The gun fired twice more, then fell silent. L'Tan shook her head slightly to clear it and studied her boards.

  "Not less than fifty percent. It isn't just a matter of getting up there. We've got two weeks of isolation to figure in."

  "We can recharge from the Alliance. How much do we really need?"

  "Okay. Make it thirty percent. But no less, T'Mar. I'm cutting you off before we get down that far."

  "Cut me off at thirty-five. The fighters can handle the rest."

  "Thirty-five. Count on it."

  "You hear that, Blue? She's going to cut me off soon. How's it look out there?"

  L'Nil let out a short bark of laughter.

  "Women are like that, sometimes," she said. "They've launched a second flight, but those guys have been paying attention. They're in the air, but they aren't in a hurry to get here."

  "If they don't make an effort, they can't go back home, either, so figure they'll make a decision fairly soon."

  "Sounds about right. Can't that barge lift any faster?"

  L'Tan said, "Sorry. We stole the newest antique they had."

  Tac's voice said, "Alliance here. Gunny-six wants to try for those birds while they're getting organized. Battery two will fire at one-third power. He thinks he can hit as many as six at once. Everybody stand clear, please. There's likely to be a little beam-spread."

  L'Tan looked at T'Mar, her eyes wide.

  "Battery two is for planetary fortifications and ship-to-ship..."

  A broad actinic beam speared down from above, directly into the center of the formation of fighters. When T'Mar's screen cleared, only four of the two dozen fighters remained and there was a new crater in the landscape.

  With an element of wonder in her voice, L'Nil asked, "That was one-third power? Why the hell are we up here at all, Gold?"

  "Uhm, well, I'll be damned if I have the slightest idea at the moment."

  Tac said, "I'll tell you later if you can't figure it out on your own, people. Don't worry, you aren't out of a job yet."

  One of the enemy fighters on the screen seemed to be having problems, then another of them. The first one's engine died and it plummeted to the ground. There was no sign of an ejection before it exploded. The second one managed to set down rather than slam down.

  "What's happening to their fighters?" asked Blue.

  "Shock, I think," said Gold. "One cut his engine and the other barely made it down in one piece."

  Blue asked, "Cut his engine? It didn't just die?"

  Tac said, "They were too close to the blast and they weren't in attack mode yet, so their shields weren't up. They're probably deaf and half-blind. It's hard to fly in that condition. The one may have just flailed around and hit the engine toggle."

  T'Mar looked at his screen and said, "The last two are managing well enough. Here they come."

  "They're crazy," said Blue in a flat tone. "Two against forty?"

  Tac said, "That's their religion. Do and die. It doesn't matter which to them. They believe they're automatically going to some heaven."

  T'Mar triggered the big gun. It fired twice and then, targetless, shut itself down.

  He said, "Then let them meet their bloodthirsty damned god."

  Nobody said anything for some moments, then Gold said, "I don't see any more fighters. No missile launches. What's wrong with this picture?"

  Green said, "Maybe they've had an attack of common sense."

  "Doubtful. They're up to something."

  Tac said, "Just stay ready for anything. You're only twenty minutes from home once you're out of the atmosphere."

  L'Tan and T'Mar became aware of a pounding on the control room door. T'Mar went to the vid screen and flicked it on. The old man was yelling something.

  "...To get the hell away from this planet! Right now! Do you hear me?!"

  T'Mar held a hand up to still the old man and said, "We're lifting as fast as we can, and we have plenty of protection up here. Just sit somewhere and relax."

  The old man realized that he was being answered and stopped beating on the door to catch his breath before speaking again.

  "You don't understand! They have a new weapon! Why is this door locked?"

  L'Tan swiveled her chair around and said, "If they have a new weapon, why aren't they using it? Who are you?"

  T'Mar asked, "Any more fighters coming at us?"

  "None. The boards are clean. I don't know why, but they seem to have given up the chase."

  "I know why," said the old man.

  L'Tan said, "I asked you who you are."

  "T'Lek-Sar," he said. "Sound familiar?"

  "Not to me," said L'Tan.

  "I know the name," said Tac. "Physics. Research. Missing for over a decade."

  "That's me," said the old man. "The Eiranians offered me big money to come work for them. When I declined, they threatened to kill my wife and kids if I didn't go along and they killed my assistant to prove they were serious. I went along."

  Tac asked, "Were you operating the signal laser?"

  "Yes."

  "What was the significance of '97B'?"

  "I was in the military once upon a time. I figured someone up there would know what it meant. Obviously, I was right."

  "Obviously so," said Tac. "You said you know why they stopped chasing us."

  "You bet I do."

  "Well?"

  "When I'm back on Saxet with enough money to hold me for the rest of my life, I'll tell you."

  L'Tan abruptly stood up and approached the control room door. Her demeanor was one of impatience bordering on rage.

  "Look, you conceited old jerk, we've just saved your ass."

  "You walk like a wet dream, woman. Are you any good in the sack?"

  L'Tan glared at T'Lek's face in the vid screen and calmly said, "That's something you'll never know. Be grateful that you aren't alone in there. Right now, I'd be happy to open the airlock for you."

  "Oh, my, she's got some spine! You know, I didn't get out much while I was a prisoner, honey. You can't imagine what seeing you has done for me."

  Chapter Sixteen

  L'Tan looked at T'Mar and said, "I don't think he knows about..."

  Tac said, "L'Tan, T'Mar, come h
ere, please. Captain T'Var wants a private word with you. Does that ship have privacy fields?"

  L'Tan tapped up the opaque privacy fields and said, "Yes. Fields are on."

  T'Var said, "Don't say anything about the virus. Tac and I think he really knows something about the Eiranians that we don't. His readings went through the roof a moment ago. If he asks about Saxet or any of the other worlds, just say you've been aboard ship for quite a while."

  L'Tan said, "I'll just tell the old fart to piss off, how's that?"

  "Why?" asked a grinning T'Mar. "Because he said you walk like a dream?"

  "A wet dream, he said. And he asked if I'm any good in the sack. And he called me honey. I hereby reserve the right to shoot the old bastard if he doesn't die from the virus."

  "We'll see," said T'Var. "In the meantime, see if you can find out what he's not telling us. I think that he thinks that the Eiranians have a superweapon. There isn't much else he could offer as a trade for that much money, and I don't want to be surprised by someone punching a hole in my ship."

  L'Tan said, "The Eiranians have shown no signs of having anything capable of reaching the Alliance, T'Var."

  "All we've seen are their antique missiles and fighters. And their virus. Who knows what else they've cooked up?"

  "What if the weapon is just a figment of his imagination? What if all this is just a ruse to get aboard the Alliance and he and the others are infected? Would they even know they were infected? They might have been allowed to escape."

  T'Var sighed and said, "I need to know what he isn't telling, L'Tan."

  L'Tan sighed back at him and said, "Well, what the hell do you want me to do, T'Var? Do a striptease to try to jiggle the information out of him? I'd rather take a chance on the virus by opening that door and dragging his ancient, lecherous ass in here for a bit of persuasion."

  She drove her right fist into her left hand with a smack for emphasis.

  At T'Mar's chuckle, L'Tan turned to face him.

  "I could warm up by questioning you first, you know."

  T'Mar chuckled again. "You need me, remember? You said so. Look, here's a thought. He's been cooped up for quite a while. He'll want to talk. We'll turn off the vid for a while and see if he loosens up, then try angling him a bit."

  L'Tan muttered, "We can withhold toilet facilities and see if he explodes after a few days, too. Then we could find out if he's full of it."