“Then let’s get this show on the road,” Raven suggested. He felt like an admiral and he liked the power. “Captain, lay in a course for the last system we went through on the charts before switching here. Thunder will meet us there.”
Ikira looked at him sternly. “You followed us, then. How?”
“We’re just slimy, tricky bastards, that’s all. Don’t worry, this was just to simplify things. We want to move quickly now—it don’t pay to keep Thunder in one spot too long. Tell the others to follow our course, heading, and speed. It’s best we all get together, get to know each other, and get the hell out of this sector.”
There was a mixture of anticipation of action and some nervousness among the others joining the fleet.
“I just hope for all our sakes you know what you’re doing,” Ikira said tensely.
I hope we do, too, thought the little boy running beside the horses of the warriors.
They did not punch for very long. As soon as they arrived in-system they did a scan, and for a moment Raven was worried. Then a ship showed up closing on them. It was Lightning, now with Sabatini at the controls and Warlock on the guns; the Chows were on Pirate One. Raven had to wonder why the crews had been rearranged.
“Any more coming in?” Sabatini asked.
“We got six out of eight, damn it! What did you want—a miracle?” Raven retorted.
“All right. The Chows are calling in the Thunder. Warlock and I are going to check out something suspicious and we’ll be back in a few hours. We have the chart position you’re moving to anyway, so if we’re not back before you get everyone together and get moving, we’ll catch up.”
Raven frowned. Something suspicious? “Anything we should know about?”
There was a pause. “No. Nothing you should know about.”
Ikira used her scanners on Lightning as it pulled away and prepared to punch. “That is one fast ship. I have never seen a design like that before.”
“It’s a custom job. It took on a Val and won, so don’t underestimate it. I—” He stopped, then just sat there a moment, thinking, a sad frown descending on him.
We’ll be back in a few hours...
“Something wrong?”
He shook his head slowly from side to side. “No, nothing wrong.” He sighed. “Forget it.” But he couldn’t forget it, because he now understood the reason for the crew switch; he knew where they were going and what they were going to do and he didn’t like it one bit.
The only ones who knew the identities of the ships and crews that had come to their side were the two holdouts, Novovladivostok and Sisu Moduru. They wouldn’t have left yet, most likely; they’d be examining their new stores of murylium and deciding what to do next. Sooner or later one or both would fall into the hands of Master System, perhaps alive and certainly with their records intact. Master System would then know the personalities aboard the Thunder’s supplemental force, its ships, numbers, and capabilities.
Both ships were well armed and shielded, but they would be no match for Lightning, rebuilt as a killer machine and with Warlock at the armaments controls.
Raven was very glad Kaotan had decided to join in. He sighed. At least Warlock would be in a very good mood when he next saw her.
It took about forty minutes for Thunder to come in from wherever it had been lurking, and Raven always liked to hear the comments of people who had never seen the likes of a fourteen-kilometer-long spaceship before. It was more like having an asteroid with engines.
“Thunder to Raven, how are you doing?” Star Eagle called.
“Just fine, I guess. I have six ships here—including Fernando Savaphoong and his ship—all filled with veteran freebooters and a mixture of colonials, as well. I haven’t the slightest idea how many people we’re talking about, though.”
“The murylium’s all been stored or shifted to the aft processors, and with Lightning not in, all four bays are available. I don’t see any ship that wouldn’t fit in there, but with Pirate One we still have three more ships than bays. I suggest that three of you will have to use the cargo docking ports and make your way to the bay air-lock stations using pressure suits. Until we get everything organized I would like to move as a unit, acting as a mother. I am scanning the fleet and I am impressed, but I would suggest you all send me your identification codes so I can sort and direct you.”
This was accomplished in a fraction of a second.
“I have limited drydock facilities in the bays, although not what we really need. Kaotan, San Cristobal, and Bahakatan, you could all use some maintenance and refitting. So could you, Indrus, but you are in better shape than they are. I suggest Kaotan in Bay One, San Cristobal in Bay Two, Bahakatan in Bay Three, and Indrus in Bay Four. Pirate One, you dock at Bay Two after San Cristobal is inside and the outer hull closed and sealed and walk down with care. Espiritu Luzon, do the same with Bay One after Kaotan is inside and secured, and Chunhoifan, take Bay Three after Bahakatan is secured. The bays are not currently pressurized, so wear suits. We will have people to meet you in each and lead you into the ship.”
There were some special requests. Because of the artificial gravity in the interior shell there were a couple who needed some kind of rider transport, and Ikira made certain to note that she had at least one amphibian aboard who required water at intervals. It was not easy to gather everyone together; the whole process took more than three hours and a lot of grumbling. Only the fact that some of these reluctant recruits really wanted to see the inside of a ship like the Thunder kept things in hand at all. Hawks met the crew of the Kaotan, and did not comment on the odd and mostly antique and bulky space suits they wore. He did, however, make a mental note to himself to have Star Eagle work on outfitting them better.
“Take everyone into the village and make them as comfortable as we can for now,” he told Raven. “I’ll stay here and wait for the people from Espiritu Luzon. Don’t take off your suit, though. When I get back I may need you to help fetch the ones from Chunhoifan.”
“Fair enough, Chief. I didn’t get much exercise lately anyway. Ladies, this way, and be prepared for gradually increasing gravity as we pass through the air-lock sequences. We have the interior at about point eight of a gee to allow for muscle toning and natural activity.”
All of them seemed awed by the village interior, and stared unbelievingly at what felt like a tiny island rather than a spaceship.
“I’m afraid we’re gonna have to double up a lot, or have some folks sleep outside for a while, depending on the crowd we get,” Raven said apologetically. “I expect we’re gonna wind up with a bunch of folks either livin’ in offices or on the better ships. Ten to one old Savaphoong would rather commute than stay here.”
“I think it is fantastic!” Ikira Sukotae told him. “I couldn’t have dreamed that such a thing was possible inside a ship!” The others echoed her sentiments.
“You ought’a seen the place before we fixed it up,” the Crow noted. “It looked like the biggest rolling mausoleum in history. We still got plenty of room back there, and if we can take the banging and other construction there should eventually be room for everybody in this kind of setting. Once we get your ships repaired and all fixed up, we’ll have to figure a way to give the ones on the outside some kind of direct access in.”
But it was Takya Mudabur, the amphibian, who said what was in back of all the colonial crew’s minds. “Our ancestors—might have come on this very ship. This is the origin, the way it began...”
He hadn’t even considered the historical and cultural impact the Thunder might have, but he was secretly glad they hadn’t seen in it in its original form. The history of colonial transport might as well remain romantic; let only the original rebel band know how ugly it really was.
Cloud Dancer arrived with another awed and incredulous crew. Star Eagle was landing them in measured order to minimize the confusion and stretch his few greeters as best he could.
San Cristobal had a mixed crew of Earth-humans and c
olonials including a couple of people that the Kaotan crew seemed to know very well, if the emotional greetings were an indication. Its crew of six included two defectors from the ships that had opted out. Captain Maria Santiago was small, brown, and Earth-human; the other two Earth-humans were both men, one large and blond and bearded, the other medium-sized with some of the characteristics of Raven’s own people. Two others were the oddest colonials yet. Their torsos and heads were very strange but at least humanoid. Their large bodies stood on four legs; the largest part of the steel-blue torso was under the humanoid part, and the rear rested on what appeared to be short, stubby back legs that almost didn’t seem up to the job. The final one was the Rock Monster, if a man could turn to rough stone, develop bumps all over, and have deep, dark recessed eyes and a mouth as wide as the whole face, this was how he might look.
Hawks arrived with Savaphoong and his entourage, which included a very tough-looking Earth-human man and two Earth-human women who looked just as tough and mean. He had also brought his favorite remakes—the air-headed slaves of Halinachi—but had left them aboard as he didn’t even have space suits for them. The two males and five females still aboard the Espiritu Luzon would be more a source of embarrassment to the rest than any real use, anyway.
Raven excused himself and went to fetch the crew of Chunhoifan as Clayben arrived with those aboard the Indrus. Captain Ravi Paschittawal was obviously more provincial in his choice of crews, or he kept it all in the family. The two men and two women with him, all Earth-human, were definitely of the same race and culture as their captain. Hawks knew enough to recognize them as the same sort of people who ran Delhi Center back home. The real Indians.
Chunhoifan proved entirely colonial, with Captain Chun Wo Har a creature who, while humanoid, wore an armor like exoskeleton that together with his stalked eyes and long feelers gave him an insect-like appearance. Two others of his kind accompanied him, both female and, oddly, looking it in spite of their alien appearance. With them were two others from one of the ships that remained behind: Small, rotund humanoids with green skin and mottled complexions, owlish faces, bulging yellow eyes, and what looked like wings on their backs although it was impossible that ones of their shape and weight could ever actually fly. Hawks decided that the wings must have another less obvious function, since no colonial would have anything vestigial.
Finally Clayben, on his second trip, brought in the crew of Bahakatan. Captain All Mohammed ben Suda looked Earth-human enough, although his appearance reflected a hard life as did that of his wife, Fatima, who might have been no older than Cloud Dancer but whose medium-length hair was gray. They looked North African or Middle Eastern, and the two Earth-human members of the crew, both huge men, had Han Chinese features very much like those of the Chows and China. One had blue eyes and the other a full reddish-brown beard and hair—half Han, most likely.
Hawks and the others had been, they thought, mentally prepared for the sight and smells of colonials, but now they realized that they had been wrong. It would be very difficult sledding before everyone was comfortable here, Hawks thought. He was a bit ashamed of himself for feeling that way and somewhat admiring that Raven had appeared to have no such problems.
It was the last member of the Bahakaton’s crew, however, that caused the most consternation and would be hardest to accept. The creature had an exoskeleton and long, flat tail terminating in large finlike appendages, but it walked on four thick legs mounted on circular joints. Although it was a glistening, shiny black, Hawks couldn’t help thinking of Mississippi crawfish. Two other sets of appendages were arranged around its head, both tiny in proportion to the body or legs and terminating in ridged pincerlike claws. The head was a set of eight tentacles, long and rubbery and constantly in motion, around two protruding eyes on what seemed to be retractable stalks, and something dark and wet and nasty that might have been a mouth.
This thing was no colonial; this thing had never had a human ancestor, had never been processed by Master System at all. It had been spawned on a world far different from anything the rest of them there could even imagine.
“I sssee your wooks,” the thing said in a very unpleasant simulation of a human voice from inside that pulpy mass beneath the tentacles. “I am ssschief engineer of Bahakatan. I am Makkikor. You hafff never ssseen Makkikor before. I can tell.”
That was putting it mildly. All of a sudden Hawks felt like hugging the insectival Captain Chun and calling him “brother.”
Captain ben Suda was quick to intervene. “The Makkikor are alien to all of us, sir, but they are no less under the great demon’s thumb than we. They had the bad luck to be in the way when Master System was expanding its colonial empire and they were simply co-opted into the colonial system by force. Their world is not one any of us would be comfortable on, but it is no less a part of the system than the colonials, and after these centuries it and they have far more in common with us than they should. I was lucky to get him, and you should feel lucky, too. The Makkikor carry around their own natural son of air supply and are nearly impervious to vacuums and much of the radiation that would be injurious to us. Debo, here, is the best ship’s engineer and maintenance crewman imaginable.”
Raven stared at the creature and gave a wry chuckle. “Well, Chief, you can’t say we ain’t startin’ off with no one-note crew.”
Hawks opened his mouth but couldn’t speak. All he could think was, Welcome to the universe, Walks With the Night Hawks.
The Thunder vibrated, roared, and began to move out into a universe far more complex than even the originals had anticipated.
9. THE VULTURE OF JANIPUR
THE NEXT SEVEN MONTHS WAS A PERIOD OF ADJUSTMENT and personal compromise for all concerned, but somehow the new crew settled into a group marriage of convenience, tolerance, and, in some cases, friendship and mutual respect. The difficulty did not stem only from the alienness of the colonists, though, but also from the freebooters’ starting attitudes toward the original group. It was clear that the vast majority of newcomers still didn’t really believe that the rebels’ scheme could succeed.
Hawks once again demonstrated his leadership skills by forming a council of captains and treating them with respect. Each captain was still absolute master of his or her own ship, but each was under the command of what they had come to consider an admiral—one who commands not a ship but a fleet. And that one was Hawks.
In fact, the hardest thing for the freebooters to accept was Star Eagle’s existence at all, let alone as an equal captain among them. All their lives had been spent hating machines that could think on their own. No matter how different they looked, no matter what languages they thought in or what they liked to eat or how they liked to live, all of them, even the alien engineer, were living creatures born of other living creatures. To them, Star Eagle seemed a member of the true alien race, the one they were fighting, and it was very difficult for them to trust him.
Star Eagle had certainly done his best for them. Maintenance had created more elaborate cargo access ports fitted with air locks and tubes directly into the ships that had to be carried outside, and hoped to have real pressurization throughout the ship as needed, even in the cargo bays themselves, within another month.
The interior village was still badly in need of work, but it had been expanded enough and customized enough to satisfy most of the needs of those on board who required more than Earth-human conditions. Savaphoong continued to live on his luxurious yacht with its transmuter producing luxury goods as needed and human slaves to wait on him and his subordinates; this arrangement actually made everyone more comfortable.
Each crew was given an area of the interior shell, along with working offices in the surrounding middle region, designed as much to their specifications as practicality and space and data banks allowed. Ikira Sukotae, for example, actually had a dwelling within a very dark and grass-covered mound with little or no lighting, although somehow in there was a miniaturized vaporizer toilet and running wat
er and much else. Her amphibian crewmember had a hut with a chamber in which fresh water sufficient to cover her body was available along with air. The centauroids preferred just a patch of ground with specially designed water supply and waste disposal; they didn’t care a bit for privacy.
The others, even the Rock Man, found that the normal hut could be configured to their needs. The green owlish couple, for example, used things much the same as everyone else but slept standing up. So, in fact, did the thick-tailed Buta Killomen and the Rock Man, while Captain Chun and his exoskeletal mates slept wrapped around pipes or logs. Only the Makkikor proved a problem to accommodate, since its native environment and needs were so different—even if it could breathe human air and a lot of other things, as it turned out—but it preferred to sleep in the niche it had designed on the Bahakatan and seemed delighted to help Star Eagle and the maintenance robots with the renovation and refurbishment of the freebooter ships.
The transmitter at Melchior had made China the way she was, but Isaac Clayben had figured a mechanical way to help her out at least in the area of her blindness. Although the program created by his old staff had been diabolically clever and designed not to be circumvented, Clayben and Star Eagle had devised a mindprinter interpretive routine and a gadget that gave her a son of sight when she chose to use it. Sound waves, traveling on a frequency that would not interfere with ship’s systems and was beyond the ability of any colonials or Earth-humans aboard to hear, were translated into electrical signals and sent through nerves to her brain, where the interpretive program operated. Only the Makkikor could hear the signals; he found the sounds not only pleasant but, Hawks suspected, somewhat erotic.
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