by Aaron DeMott
“I know you want to help.” Nilre smiled and removed her hand from Bast’s nose. “But the fewer of us out there, the lower our chance of getting caught. We also need someone to stay here and make sure the coast is clear when we return.”
Bast sighed, laid her head on her paws, and curled her tail around herself. “Okay. Just hurry, please.”
Nilre smiled, then turned and placed her palm on the hatch. She stayed still for a moment, and then slowly pulled the lever.
Nilre slipped into the hallway, and listened for mental echoes or footsteps. After a moment, she headed in the direction of the storage room where Rrrark was held. She pushed her mental presence out to check for anyone, and then ducked inside.
The walls were light blue and almost covered by the numerous wood and metal crates of various sizes. There only appeared to be the one door into the room. Rrrark was in a cage atop a large wooden crate to her left. A refrigeration unit was set into the far wall directly across the room from her, with a disposable slot just to the right.
Nilre motioned for Rrrark to remain silent as she made her way through the crates. She picked the lock to his cage as quickly as she could and then made her way to the refrigeration unit. She opened the door, looked around, and grabbed several packages of ground beef and steak.
Nilre led Rrrark back to the front of the storeroom and opened an access panel next to the door.
“I need you to rip out some of this optical cable and scratch up the wall around the door.”
Rrrark grinned as he caught on to her plan. She waited for him to finish tearing at the exposed circuitry, and then she ripped the packaging off the meat and pressed it into the open panel.
“I need you to tear out some of your fur, please.” She placed the packaging in a disposal slot in the far wall.
Rrrark grimaced. “Ow. Well, I suppose it’s necessary...”
Nilre stuffed the fur in around the meat and held her hand to a power conduit. When she pulled her hand away it glowed red.
“Come on, we’d better hurry.”
The red spot grew brighter and started to give off more heat. Rrrark glanced at it before he turned and hurried to catch up to Nilre.
A muffled explosion echoed down the corridor just as they ducked into the access crawlway.
What was keeping them? Bast fidgeted in the crawlway and willed Nilre to return. She crawled forward and pressed her ear to the access panel. She jumped back at the sound of an explosion, followed by hurried footsteps in the corridor. They didn’t sound like boots, but Bast backed up and flexed her claws, just in case.
The panel flung open and Rrrark slid into the crawlway, Nilre right behind him.
“Rrrark!” Bast cried.
She rushed up to Rrrark and brushed her cheek against his. He looked down at her and gently licked the top of her head.
Bast glanced at Nilre and then down at the floor in embarrassment. “So, what do we do now?”
Nilre pulled the last latch to secure the access panel door. “Hopefully, they’ll think Rrrark died in that explosion trying to escape. If they do, we wait here until we arrive at SeQish and then start nosing around and see what we can find.”
The next week seemed to drag by to Bast. There wasn’t anything to do but sit and talk. After the first two days, all she wanted to do was get up and run. Nilre and Rrrark talked constantly in a debate of different points about human, Meskka, and SeQish cultures. Bast thought it was interesting, but she could only listen to so much before she started to doze off.
A small bump woke Bast from her nap. She stretched a paw out and pressed it firmly to the floor beneath her. If she concentrated, she could feel the metal creak as the ship slowed. The floor bumped every once in a while. Was it from atmospheric conditions, or were they landing somewhere other than a spaceport?
The ship announced its landing with a final bump and then complete silence. Bast hadn’t noticed all the noise the ship made when it was in operation until it was gone.
“Can we get out now?” she whispered.
“Not yet.” Nilre rolled onto her stomach and also pressed a hand to the deck. “We should give them time to unload the ship and get away from the hanger.”
An hour later she tapped Bast on the shoulder.
“I’m going to go take a quick look around. Wait for my signal before you come out.”
Bast nodded.
Nilre turned around and opened the access panel. She stuck her head out and listened for a moment before she crept out into the corridor.
Finally, Nilre gave the all clear. Bast led Rrrark out into the hallway and down a maze of corridors to the ramp where Nilre waited for them. They stepped off the ramp into a hanger with dirt-encrusted corrugated metal walls. It was empty except for a small stack of boxes next to a door and two large tanks on the opposite wall that looked like they might hold water or fuel.
Where are we? She asked Nilre.
On the main continent somewhere, I think. We’re not in the official spaceport, but whoever built this has some money. This is a fairly large hanger for pirates.
They made their way to a small walk-in door at the rear of the hanger and stepped into a dimly lit hallway.
Do you think it’s a private hanger? Rrrark sniffed one of the crates. They could be renting it. Or using it without the owner’s knowledge.
It’s possible, but not likely. There aren’t any recorded spaceports on the surface other than the official one. Also, the construction is flimsy—clearly temporary.
Nilre opened each door in the hallway as they came to them. Bast peered into each room. So far, they had found four small storage rooms and two bedrooms—all were completely deserted.
They seem rather messy. She shut the door to one of the rooms.
Nilre chuckled softly. Well, for one, they’re men, and two, they’re pirates. Not the cleanest combination.
At the end of the hallway was a locked door. Nilre pressed her palm to it.
Anyone home? Rrrark asked.
Nilre frowned. Oddly enough, no.
She moved her hand to the lock and the door popped open after a few seconds. Bast flicked her ears and twitched her whiskers as she followed Nilre into the room. Inside was a gray metal desk covered with papers and a SatNet terminal in the corner of the room. Paper also covered the SatNet terminal.
“Kinda strange that they have all this paper around,” Bast commented.
“Mmm-hmm,” Nilre replied absently as she flipped through several of the sheets.
Bast glanced at a few of the papers, but none of them looked important to her. She wandered to the door and decided she’d keep watch in case any of the pirates returned. Human scent surrounded the door frame, but it was stale—at least an hour old. Did that mean the pirates wouldn’t return for a while, or did it mean they could come back any second?
She opened her mouth to ask Nilre and was interrupted by the sound of a door clicking open from around a corner down the hallway.
Someone’s coming! Bast said.
Nilre and Rrrark turned at the sound of her mental voice. Nilre led the way out of the room and motioned for Bast and Rrrark to follow. They ducked into a storage room just as the footsteps stopped at the door to the room they had just left. The lock beeped as an access code was punched in.
The person rustled items in the office for a few seconds, and then footsteps returned to the hallway.
“Do you think he spotted anything out of place?” Bast asked.
“I don’t think so,” Nilre replied. “I put everything back where I found it.”
“What did you learn about our pirate friends?” Rrrark turned to look at Nilre. “All I found were blueprints for a ship.”
“Blueprints?” Nilre’s eyebrows shot up. “Can you show me?”
Rrrark linked with Nilre’s mind and recalled the pages with the diagrams of the ship.
“This is worse than I thought.” Nilre narrowed her eyes and bit the corner of her lip.
“Oh?” bo
th Meskka asked.
“Those are blueprints for a Heim class ship.” Nilre glanced over her shoulder in the direction of the office. “I don’t know what the pirates would want with them, but it can’t be anything good. Those blueprints are classified, and the pirates shouldn’t have been able to get them.”
“So, what do we do now?” Rrrark asked.
The three of them looked at each other.
“Well,” Nilre said after a long pause, “I think we should wait here until dark. After that, I want to put a tracking device on their ship. I found a map showing the layout of the compound, and this is the only hanger. Also, this is not on the main continent. We’re on one of the hundreds of small tropical islands.”
“So, that ship is the only way off for the pirates, right?” Bast asked.
“It looks that way. Since Tomed is coming to get us anyway, I think we should poke around here and try to find out what they’re up to. Then, we let them escape and follow them.”
“That’s an excellent idea,” Rrrark said.
Bast’s tail drooped. Hiding in confined spaces all day wasn’t appealing. “Well, I guess I don’t have a better idea.”
Nilre waited until nightfall before she slipped out to place the tracking device on the pirate ship. Rrrark returned to the office to finish going through the pile of papers.
Bast crept from building to building, trying to glean something useful. Loud snores or slurred murmurs came from most of the buildings she passed. Most of the conversations weren’t even coherent. After she had sat and listened outside five different sheds, she crept toward the last one on the street.
Light poured out of a window near the front of the building, but no noise came from it. That was odd. In her experience, humans tended to make a lot of noise if they were awake.
Bast took another look up and down the street before she stalked up to the building from the rear. She kept her belly low to the ground and slipped behind a crate. Low voices drifted out into the night air. It sounded like there were two men inside. Bast froze for a moment until she was sure she hadn’t been spotted and then sniffed the air and swiveled her ears to listen for any sign of activity. She took a slow step forward and paused beneath the open window.
“I don’t like it. I still can’t find any trace of that blasted cat,” one of the voices said.
“Eh, it’s just as well the dumb thing fried itself. Saves us the trouble.”
“Yeah, I’m just not convinced it’s dead. There wasn’t enough mass in what we found, and there weren’t any bones.”
“Well, you might as well let it go. The cat’s not important anyway. We’ve gotta dump that barrel then get the supplies to Ceres.”
“I suppose you’re right. Have you found a spot yet?”
“Yeah, there’s a small city in shallow water just off-shore from here. We’ll fly right over it on our way out too, so it’ll look like an accident.”
“Good. I just wish we had enough stuff to kill more than one city though. Ceres is right—those dang fish are using up stuff that should be going to humans.”
“Well, I don’t really care one way or another, but he pays well.”
Bast winced when a chair scraped across the floor. She waited for several heartbeats, afraid she had been discovered. She slowly let out her breath when the second voice spoke again.
“Well, I’m going to bed. We’ve only got one more day to load up before we’re off to... that new cat world…”
A shiver went down Bast’s spine. She didn’t know why these people were going to her home, but it couldn’t be for a good reason. She inched away from the window and made her way back to the hanger. Nilre and Rrrark were already there.
Nilre paled after Bast recounted the conversation she’d overheard.
“I’ve informed Tomed and UGAL Command, but they won’t be able to get a ship here before the pirates leave.”
“Can’t the SeQish do anything to stop them?” asked Rrrark.
“Well, yes and no. They have ships that could intercept the pirates when they reach orbit. However, most of their ships are out of the system on missions. They have a strong presence underwater and enough technology to eliminate the danger if it’s caught early enough.
“UGAL has already contacted the SeQish government, but we’ve been ordered to make contact with the Earth ambassador to SeQish to make sure the message doesn’t get lost in the bureaucracy.”
“How do we find the ambassador?” Rrrark asked.
“—and why can’t we just contact the local SeQish directly?” Bast said.
“Not all SeQish speak English.” Nilre frowned. “And unfortunately the SeQish aren’t telepathic—so we can’t communicate that way. The Earth ambassador to the SeQish can speak both our languages, and he can swim faster and dive deeper than we can.”
“Is the ambassador close to us then?” Bast asked.
“UGAL sent a message to him as soon as I contacted them. He’ll meet us at the beach in a few hours. It should take us about a half hour to get there, so I want to look around and try to find the toxin. If we can, we might be able to swap it out with a barrel of water or something.”
Bast spent the next hour and a half searching the buildings along with Nilre and Rrrark. They ran into a small snag when Bast found one of the sheds full of unlabeled barrels. Nilre didn’t think it likely that a deadly poison would be mixed in with unmarked supplies—and they didn’t have time to check all of them.
The Psygen led the way down a trail to the ocean at a fast trot. Bast was used to lots of running—especially since training for her Scout trials—and she was still winded by the time they arrived at the beach.
Nilre slipped off her shoes and rolled her pant legs up to her knees before she waded into the water. Bast and Rrrark waded in after her. Nilre knelt and dipped a hand into the water, palm down.
A moment later, a fin broke the surface of the water with a high-pitched chattering noise.
“Here he comes now.” Nilre stood and flicked the excess water from her hand.
“Wait—the ambassador from Earth isn’t a human?” Bast peered at the rapidly approaching fin.
Nilre’s lips curved up into a small smile. “No. He’s a dolphin. They’re an aquatic mammal. Long ago, humans experimented with extensively modifying DNA. They did all manner of horrible things before it was outlawed. The ambassador to SeQish is a descendant of the dolphins with modified intelligence which allows them to speak to humans.”
“Wow. I can’t image why someone would want to do that.” Bast said.
Nilre looked up at the stars and spoke in a barely audible whisper. “Neither do I.”
A large gray head with a toothy grin popped out of the water a few meters in front of them.
“’Ello Nilre!” it squeaked.
“Hello, Ambassador. This is Bast and Rrrark from Alkask. Bast, Rrrark, this is Ambassador Fluke.”
The ambassador turned sideways and swam up next to them. Bast tried not to stare as he eyed her over.
“You not make mammal joke?” he asked.
What? Bast asked Nilre.
For a long time the first dolphins that could speak were kept in captivity and forced to tell jokes and such to entertain people. Legend has it that one of the audience at some point made a comment about how entertaining the fish were. One of the dolphins happened to hear it and said: ‘Not fish, mammal!’ Apparently, people thought this was funny, and the dolphins were forced to add this line to their routine and repeat it over and over. They still hold a grudge about it. I have no idea why he’s asking you.
“No, I won’t make any mammal jokes,” Bast said.
Apparently she met his approval as he nodded and swam back to Nilre.
“What problem?” he asked.
“Some pirates are planning to drop a barrel of poison into the water above the SeQish city.”
“Heard that.” The ambassador blew water from the blow-hole atop his head, as if to dismiss this bit of news.
“We wanted to make sure the residents of the city heard about it and were prepared.”
“Prolly not heard. Too many ‘fins, not enough fish.”
“Yes, that’s rather what we thought as well.”
The ambassador rolled over in the water. “What time?”
“Sometime late tomorrow, or the day after.”
“Okay. I go warn ‘kish.”
Ambassador Fluke splashed Nilre in parting and then did a back flip and sped out to sea.
Tomed stood and waved at Jake to get back when the doorbell in his room beeped. Jake stood and flattened himself against the wall. The door opened at the press of Tomed’s hand. Major Hood stood on the other side. Tomed waved him in and motioned to Jake that it was okay.
Jake smiled when he saw the major.
“Well, Major, what brings you here?” Tomed asked.
“We’re almost to the drop off point, and I’m here to escort you back to your ship.”
Jake grabbed his bag—along with the last of the cookies—and followed Tomed and the major back to the shuttle bay.
Tomed waited in the shuttle bay until Jake’s ship was clear of the bay doors before he headed to the bridge. He entered and sat in a spare chair next to the captain and looked up at the MHD, the main holo-display at the front of the ship. A dot that represented Jake’s ship moved away from a dot at the center of the display that represented the Goddard. Jake’s ship moved slowly at first and then zipped off the screen as it went to hyperspace.
The grid lines blurred for a moment then rapidly scrolled as the Goddard activated its hyperdrive. Jake’s ship slowly came back into view then stayed at the edge of the grid.
“Our current ETA is twenty minutes,” Ensign Smith announced from the helm.
Nineteen minutes and forty-nine seconds later the ship dropped out of hyperspace.
“Full scan. Let’s find out if anyone else is here yet,” Captain Trenton ordered.
“There’s another ship at the edge of sensor range, sir.”
“Helm, follow the pirate transport. Weapons Station, raise shields and fire a few potshots. Be careful not to damage it.”