by, aided by a small voice of hope insisting that they had
to be keeping him alive for a reason.
Up on the next floor he was led straight through a
dark open door into a small, wedge-shaped room lit by
a long console of screens and displays. Several large,
indistinct figures were gathered on either side of a high-
backed chair on a swivel pedestal. Kao Chih was
alternately dragged and pushed over to the chair then
made to kneel, close enough to hear an odd-sounding
dialogue. There were two voices deep in conversation,
except that one of them seemed to have a whispery
echo. Then the chair turned.
A pair of reddened, piercing eyes regarded him from
the hollow-cheeked face of a Henkayan who Kao Chih
took to be Munaak. Lenscups protected those eyes,
magnifying their appearance, while puckered cicatrices
criss-crossed the hairless scalp. The Henkayan wore
long black robes marked with symbols in pure white,
and Kao Chih almost failed to realise that he was miss-
ing both right-side arms. But the upper shoulder had
something else attached to it - a head.
'This is the Human creature we reluctantly brought
under our protection,' Munaak said in a smooth, rich
voice, and as he did so the head muttered and whis-
pered, quickly repeating the sentence but mingling its
phrases while the shrivelled eyes stayed tightly shut.
'Does it meet your requirements?'
Over Munaak's shoulder, something moved on one of
the screens, a shadowy cowled form against a dim back-
ground, shelves, racks, yellow light gleaming on glass
and chrome objects.
'My ... my requirements call for many, but you have
only one.' The hooded figure's voice sounded vaguely
metallic and blurred. 'Was this one alone?'
'It was travelling with a Roug but we killed it rather
than let some biter vermin gain a commodity . . .'
'A Roug?' The shadowy figure leaned back. 'An old
race with strange abilities - might they not pursue, seek
redress?'
Munaak made a derisive sound. 'An old race, but
weak and without allies - they will not venture this far.
Now, you know the price so will you pay?'
The cowl inclined. 'I will enable the fund transfer
now and arrange collection of the specimen in three
odas.'
The screen blanked and was replaced by swirling blue
patterns. Munaak regarded Kao Chih for a moment
with his large, gleaming, unwinking eyes then switched
his gaze to the two guards.
'Take our specimen down to the vehicle bay,' he said,
with the head whispering disjointedly. 'Lock it in the
storeroom, and no delays for any reason!'
Kao Chih kept his head bowed and his mouth shut as
the Henkayan guards roughly and swiftly dragged him
out of the room. He had learned early on the value of
silence and now all he could do was hold to both his
sanity and a few shreds of hope.
But now my fate rests on my value as merchandise of
some kind, he thought bitterly. We were foolish to come
here so rashly - where there are no laws the weak
become property.
Neither of his escorts said anything as they hurried
him down a steep stairway in which the gravity plating
was decidedly uneven. Soon they arrived at a heavy,
moulded pressure door that swung sideways to admit
them to a gloomy parking bay with curved walls. A
pathway of spongy, grubby gravplates led along one of
the walls, between the reinforced struts, to what looked
like a rectangular box with a window. The brawny
Tekik opened a door in its side, paused to snap another
restraint around Kao Chih's ankles, then thrust him
inside. He gave the cluttered interior a brief look and
stepped back, but before the door closed the scrawny
Grol poked his head round.
'Human scum going to new owner,' he sneered. 'Soon
wish he was back with good Henkayan friends - we not
scientists!'
He let out a burst of cackling that stopped abruptly
when a large hand grabbed him by the throat and
yanked him back out. The door slammed, a locking
click, squabbling voices receding, the pressure door
closed with a soft clank and the hiss of the seal. Silence.
Kao Chih squirmed onto his back in the darkness
and managed to get into a seated position, leaning
against the wall. Feeling drained and shivering a little,
he tried to take stock of his surroundings. A faint blue
radiance came from a small console set into the grimy
window's lower right corner and as his eyes grew
accustomed a few details became apparent. Dozens of
small objects, parts maybe, were scattered over most
of the floor, and the air stank of degraded machine
oil. Cupboards gaped, revealing rolls of some mysteri-
ous material and heaps of tools, wires, junk. A large
metallic cylinder, a lubricant tank perhaps, was fixed
to the wall, above a few rows of indistinct tools on
hooks...
'Are they gone?' said a voice.
Kao Chih caught his breath in surprise, senses sud-
denly alert.
'Who's there?' he muttered. 'Where are you?'
'First look out of the window and see if either of
those cretins is standing guard.'
Guessing that the hidden speaker might be a survivor
from Avriqui's household, Kao Chih struggled to his feet
and shuffled over to the window.
'No one there,' he said, peering out. 'Must have gone
back in . . .'
'Good - one less obstacle to overcome.'
Pale, bleached light bloomed in the small room and
Kao Chih turned to see the wall cylinder flicker like a
display with a bad feed. Then, in an instant, it went
from a two-metre drum-like fixture with flat ends to a
somewhat dumb-bell-shaped object about a metre tall.
The meagre light from microfield projectors showed up
the scratched and battered casing as it drifted over to the
window.
'Nice trick,' Kao Chih said slowly. It was a sentient
mech of unusual config, yet there was something famil-
iar .. .
'Camouflage projection,' the mech said. 'It has its
uses, now and then.'
Recognition dawned. 'I've seen you before, at that
market in the big corridor where ...' He faltered, vividly
recalling Tumakri's last moments.
'The Roug who was killed yesterday was your
friend?'
'Friend and travelling companion,' Kao Chih said.
'And you are a Human.' The machine paused. 'Your
race is most uncommon in these sectors, yet greatly dis-
liked.'
'So it seems,' he said. 'Were you an associate of Rup
Avriqui?'
'You speak in the past tense so I assume that the vile
Munaak has taken his life, and now he's looking for a
buyer for you . . .'
'He's found one, a scientist of some kind.'
'Ah, a vivisector in other words.' The mech's
; microfields showed a glittery diffraction pattern for a
brief moment. 'Now I shall be most honest with you -
although I knew Avriqui slightly I could not be consid-
ered his associate. However, when your Roug friend was
ambushed and killed on Nibril Concourse I was nearby
and chased off those Gomedran scavengers. Even with a
bolt in his head he was still conscious enough to urge me
to take certain items from his garment while repeating a
name over and over, saying I had to find this person,
Gow-Chee. This is you, correct?'
'Indeed, yes,' Kao Chih said, hardly daring to hope.
'You may call me Drazuma-Ha*, although my full
name involves audio frequencies your species is
unequipped to hear.'
The last syllable of the mech's name sounded like a
strange metallic chime, but he made no mention of it
and gave a short, formal bow.
'I am very pleased to meet you, Drazuma-Ha*. Now
that you have found me, are you prepared to help me
escape?'
'I would be more than happy to help you flee this
moron-infested junkheap altogether if you take me
along with you.'
A number of questions came to the forefront of Kao
Chih's thoughts - why did the mech want to leave and
where was it heading, among others - but none seemed
urgent.
'That would be most acceptable - could you begin by
removing these bonds?'
Microfields extended tendril-like from the mech's
upper and lower bulbs, there were faint clipping sounds
and Kao Chih's ankles, knees and wrists were free.
'My sincerest thanks,' he said, trying to ignore the
uncomfortable needling of returning circulation. 'What
plan do you have for leaving this place? Will we have to
fight our way out?'
'That is one possible route,' said the mech Drazuma-
Ha*. 'However, I did think that leaving by the bay doors
in one of Avriqui's lugosivators would be less hazardous
to life, limb and circuitry.'
Kao Chih's eyes widened. 'Like the odd cart that
Tumakri and I rode in? Are they fit for hard-vacuum
travel?'
'Barely,' the mech said. 'Well, we only need to get
from here to a general maintenance lock, near the
Secondary Docking Lacuna, which it should manage
adequately.'
'There is a small problem,' Kao Chih said. 'Rup
Avriqui was to provide a hyperspace course dataset for
the next stage of our journey, which he was supposed to
join us on. It must still be in his system somewhere ...
would you be able to access it from here, perhaps?'
The mech was silent for a moment, its aura display-
ing strings of geometric symbols that pulsed with a soft,
pearly glow then vanished.
'These controls,' the mech said, pointing a microfield
extensor at the small window console, 'are not linked to
the hold's higher data functions. I will have to go up
into the hold itself and hope to find a terminal nearby
without encountering any of Munaak's thugs.' The
machine glided over to the door, which clicked and
swung open. 'Wait here, and please don't make any
loud noises.' It left the storeroom, crossed to the pres-
sure door, which opened and closed behind it.
Kao Chih gazed around him, looking for something
he could improvise as a weapon, and came up with a
long-shafted autoauger and a good, solid panel sledge.
That took about five minutes. Fifteen nail-biting minutes
later the pressure door opened again and Drazuma-Ha'
re-entered the garage hold.
'Do you have the course data?' Kao Chih said, emerg-
ing from the storeroom.
'I do but time is against us - I had to stun one of the
guards, which means he'll be missed before long. Quick
climb up to those stalls while I open their shutters. And
you may as well leave the low-tech arsenal behind.'
Kao Chih shrugged, tossed the autoauger but decidec
to hold on to the sledge. Then he stepped gingerly of
the gravplate walkway, grabbed one of a series of teth-
ered handholds and pulled himself along in zero-gee
over to a now-open alcove in which a lugosivator of a
cheerful blue colour was anchored. As he drew near, its
windowed cowling popped open and Drazuma-Ha *'s
voice came from the storeroom.
'You'd better get in now, Gow-Chee - it seems we
will have to depart in a hurry.'
Once he was inside, the little vehicle shuddered and
leaped out of its recess, sealing itself as it swung towards
the ribbed bay doors. Kao Chih, thrust sideways by
abrupt acceleration, held on to the seat while panicky
questions crowded his thoughts - where was the mech,
how did you steer this thing, and what if he hit some-
thing?
There was a thud from above, and looking up he saw
the metre-long shape of Drazuma-Ha* lying on top of
the cart, its microfields extended in a web that gripped
the cart's upper casing.
'No need for anxiety, Gow-Chee. A brief journey
along this side of the station and we shall be back inside
and on our way to your ship.'
The bay doors concertinaed open and the flash-
frozen atmosphere burst all about them in a glittering
cloud as they flew out. For one breathtaking moment it
was as if they were hurtling through a miniature galaxy,
past swirls, clusters and ripples of tiny gleaming pin-
points. Then the cart slewed round as braking thrusters
flared and off they sped.
The exterior of Blacknest Station was an accurate
reflection of its inner disarray, a maze of spars and
cables, conduit bundles, blobs of vacglue moulded into
handholds, bulging (and frequently damaged) nets of
trash, old pinhole leaks fantastically bearded with spiny
icicles. Improvised bucketseat funiculars provided safe
crossings while a horde of drones, probes and bots of
every size darted about on mysterious errands.
Drazuma-Ha* seemed to be steering the cart in the same
direction as a couple of diamond-shaped bots bearing a
red smiling moon symbol, and minutes later they were
sharing the filthy, battered drum of a maintenance lock.
There was a chorus of grinding, scraping noises as it
turned, flashes of bright light, the loud hiss of repres-
surisation, and the lock swung open to reveal a
cluttered, narrow workshop and a surprised Bargalil
botmaster, its stocky, hexapedal form draped with tool
belts and pouches of spare parts.
'Thank you for the use of your lock, good sir,'
Drazuma-Ha* told it as Kao Chih clambered out of the
cart. 'Please accept this excellent, deluxe-model mini-
loader as a token of our gratitude.'
Then they dashed out of the workshop, leaving
behind the pleased yet confused Bargalil, his gaze
moving from abandoned cart to empty doorway and
back.
'We must be as quick as we can without arousing
suspicion,' said the mech as a
lateral slot opened in its
upper section and a bundle of objects protruded - the
boarding passes, dock ID, Tumakri's credit stems and
hard cash. 'At the gate, be polite and calm, and if the
new attendants ask for additional payment pay it with-
out argument. Tell them that I am travelling with you -
if they ask for more details, say that I am your con-
tracted technical support adviser. If they aren't aware of
how vital commercial confidentiality is to a place like
Blacknest I shall be more than happy to enlighten them.'
In the event, their passage through boarding control
went smoothly, and Kao Chih had to pay only a fairly
small amount to meet the 'one-off staff surcharge'. He
felt almost giddy with relief as they reached the other
side of the gates and hurried down towards the vari-
ously sized portals. Following a glowing telltale on the
dock ID, they had just reached one of the medium oval
exits when the mech paused abruptly, and glancing back
Kao Chih saw the gate officials angrily gesturing at two
bulky drones who were pushing their way past the desk.
The next thing he knew, Drazuma-Ha* had bodily
lifted him with pressor fields that held him against the
mech's casing, arms and legs held straight and immobile.
'My sincerest apologies, Gow-Chee, but speed is of
the essence!'
Kao Chih let out a wordless sound of surprise as the
mech launched itself up the docking duct, swooping and
dodging around other passengers.
'Is there something you'd like to tell me, Drazuma-
Ha?' he said loudly as they slowed to edge past a family
of reptilian Naszbur.
'I shall explain it all,' the mech said. 'Once we are
aboard and safely under way. Do not be alarmed, how-
ever - my predicament is no cause for concern over my
integrity.'
Nice of you to let me know, Kao Chih thought as
they reached a circular door which detected his dock ID
and opened like a flower, leaves sliding aside.
Then they were in the flexible transfer tube, dimly lit
by a few glostrips and the docking lacuna's own floods,
filtered through the tube's opaque membrane. Released
from the mech's pressors, Kao Chih kicked and hand-
steered himself along to the Castellan's airlock, a sight
he'd thought he would never see again. He brought the
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