Eternity's End (28 page)

Ho'Sung gestured a go-ahead to Fre'geel.

There was no further communication from the pirate ship, now framed in the long, narrow band of the monitor across the front of the bridge. The raider was nearly bow-on to
H'zzarrelik
's flank, presenting the smallest possible target while keeping its bow weapons trained on the Narseil ship. Three lines fired out from the frigate, snaking through the glowing mists of the Flux to attach with a thump to the hull of
H'zzarrelik
.

A company of small, suited figures emerged from the side of the raider ship. The pirates moved with alarming speed along the lines between the vessels. They would be at the airlocks in less than a minute, and they would be none too concerned about whatever damage they might cause boarding the ship. "Open the airlock hatches," ordered Ho'Sung.

Legroeder stared at the screen, fighting back memories of a pirate boarding, long ago...

"Pinpoint all targets," said Fre'geel, to Agamem and the weapons crew.

Legroeder held his breath.

"Ready," said Fre'geel calmly, as the pirates approached the ship, "to destroy targets, fire...
now
."

The screen erupted with light. The sides of
H'zzarrelik
blazed as the concealed neutrasers fired. The beams were too fast for the eye to follow, but Legroeder saw the nose of the pirate ship seem to explode, and smaller, multiple explosions zip like lightning along the boarding lines. Cinders that had been suited raiders were blown off into the Flux like so much pepper.

Before anyone could exult, the raider ship released a blossom of return fire against
H'zzarrelik
. The deck shuddered beneath Legroeder's feet as the first blast hit, but by the time he had caught and steadied himself, Agamem and his crew had pinpointed and destroyed those weapons on the pirate's flank.

H'zzarrelik
was yawing in the grip of the raider net. She was damaged—how badly Legroeder couldn't guess—and Ho'Sung was shouting commands for damage control. But what about the enemy ship and its riggers? Legroeder couldn't tell. This was a perilous moment: the Narseil had eliminated the nose weapons on the
Flechette
, plus a couple of side weapons. But the fight was just beginning; the raider captain had most likely just revised his plan from "capture" to "destroy."
H'zzarrelik
held a momentary advantage due to surprise. It was possible they could even destroy the pirate ship right now, if they wanted—but maybe not without destroying themselves in the process. The ships were too close together to use the torpedoes. And that wasn't what they had come for.

Ho'Sung and Fre'geel were snapping out orders. Deep in the belly of the ship, Narseil fighters were preparing for their own assault. If
H'zzarrelik
could survive long enough to get them on their way over to the enemy...

"Maneuvering fusor! Portside stern, hard!" Ho'Sung shouted.

A loud groan passed through the hull, and in the long screen—part of which was now dark, knocked out—Legroeder could see that the Narseil ship was rotating away from the raider, into a more protected nose-on position. But hardly had the maneuver begun than Legroeder heard a shout of
"Torpedoes in the Flux!"
Three jets of light streaked from the pirate ship. Three missiles shot away into space, and then looped back, bearing down on
H'zzarrelik
.

"They're mad!" hissed Palagren. "They'll kill us both!"

Agamem already had the Narseil defenses in action. A flash of neutraser beams took out one of the torpedoes with a splash of light, and a second went spinning away. The third streaked inward unhindered, until with a shudder, the side of
H'zzarrelik
vomited a torpedo of its own. The two connected about a kilometer from the ship, near the edge of the enemy's rigger-net. The torpedoes exploded together in a curtain of fire.

An explosion in the Flux was not like an explosion in the vacuum of normal-space. The energy from the explosion blossomed like a jellyfish, enveloping the two ships. Some of the energy flared outward into the Flux, but much was focused inward, drawn to the nets. The Narseil net was withdrawn, but the pirate's net was fully deployed, and it blazed up like a sparkler. A moment later, it went dark, dropping its hold on the Narseil ship.

"Maneuvering power!" Ho'Sung shouted. "Riggers, return to your stations!" The Narseil captain darted across the bridge, giving orders to his crew. Legroeder and the others scrambled to their rigger-stations.

If the curtain of fire from the explosion did not hit the ship directly, the waves of turbulence in the Flux did. The ship had begun to lift and turn, shaking horribly. Legroeder was halfway into his rigger-station, the clamshell still open, when the strongest wave hit. In the screen across the bridge, he saw the ship turn sideways to the pirate ship, then begin to tumble. He drew a fearful breath as the clamshell closed around him.

Reentering the net was like pulling on a tight bodysuit of unraveling fabric. The net had been seared, even in its withdrawn position; but it was still workable. He shouted,
Ready!
as he strained into position and stretched his arms into the Flux. The other riggers joined him, and they began expanding the net.

It was like sticking his hands out from a spinning raft into the base of a waterfall. The Flux had taken on the look of a cosmic maelstrom, and across the whirlpool of light, the raider ship was a chip spinning on a swirling stream. The pirate captain had badly miscalculated in firing those torpedoes. The two ships were some distance apart now, but the currents seemed as likely to slam them back together as to carry them further apart. It was probably a good time to counterattack, while the other ship was helpless; but
H'zzarrelik
was nearly helpless, too. Maneuvering was going to be very difficult.

Ho'Sung clearly understood that.
Get us out of here, but keep the enemy in sight if you can,
he ordered.

Let's steer out toward the edge,
said Palagren.
I'm going to change this to an undersea image—

Legroeder cried out, without even thinking,
No, not the undersea! It's a whirlpool of light; it's a galaxy; I can keep the raider in sight if you let me form it for you
.

Startled, the Narseil leader gave Legroeder the con over the net. Legroeder worked quickly, repainting the churning mists into a vaster, grander picture of violently exploding nebulas and spinning stars. The ship was being pulled hard, and it took all of their strength to keep them in a current moving in the direction he wanted—downward, and to starboard. The Narseil riggers, confused at first, gradually understood what he was doing and found the leverage points to help him, moving
H'zzarrelik
away from the center of the maelstrom. At last they were able to turn and watch the raider ship, a small black dot caught in the currents of light.

I think their net was shredded by that blast,
Legroeder said.
It might well have killed their rigger crew
.

They're helpless, then, if we want to go after them?
Ker'sell asked, from the keel position. It was a moot question, because
H'zzarrelik
was now riding a stream away from the raider.

Although the image looked like a disrupted galaxy, the power of the stream dissipated fairly quickly. As the riggers brought the ship around in the slowing current, the captain called:
Are we in a position to go after them?

Palagren took a quick poll of his team, his gaze at last coming to rest on Legroeder.
You're the expert on pirates. Can we do it?

Legroeder thought hard, staring out at the small black object still spinning in the stream, disabled by its own weapon.
No,
he said at last.
I don't think we should go in and risk getting caught in that turbulence again
.

But isn't this is our best chance to get them?
asked Palagren.

Yes, it is. But not by going in
. Legroeder grinned at Palagren across the ghostly veil of the net.
I think I know where he's going to come out. And I know right where we want to nail him when he does
.

Chapter 15

Capture!

All right, we'll follow your lead on this. Go ahead, Rigger, and—
The captain interrupted himself in the middle of his communication. Legroeder could hear him shouting to someone on the bridge.
"What do you mean they got into the airlock? Do you have it under control—?"
There was a moment of silence, and then he came back with:
Get us clear, riggers! But stay ready to engage!
Then he was gone—light-years away, it seemed.

Palagren looked to Legroeder to see what he had in mind.

Take us deeper into the Flux,
Legroeder said, praying that his certainty was not misplaced.
Now. While they can't track us
.

But we'll lose sight of them,
Palagren protested.

Didn't you bring me along to tell you how the pirates think? We'll pick them up again
.

Palagren reluctantly complied, stretching out the battered fabric of
H'zzarrelik
's net to draw the ship deeper into the multidimensional layers of the Flux. As the glowing mists darkened and became less focused, Legroeder explained his reasoning. It was likely that the pirate ship had suffered severe damage to her rigger-net when the torpedo had exploded. There was no way to know how much damage, or how long it would take to repair, if it could be repaired. But Legroeder knew what most raider captains would do, in a case like this.
They'll try to sink into the deeper levels and get out of the turbulence
.

Palagren sounded skeptical.
There's not much movement down there. Are you sure they'll try it, without a working net? It'd be hard enough to steer there normally
.

Legroeder nodded, scanning the surroundings. They were sinking into a level of the Flux that was comparatively sluggish. Ordinarily no one would choose to enter such slow-moving currents, but he had learned, with the raider fleets, that the underlayers made good hiding places at need.
This is far enough, I think
. Legroeder could still perceive the whirlpool shape of the region they had left; it looked ghostly now, on the verge of vanishing. For visual clarity, they viewed it as a cloud stretched overhead.

What now?
asked Palagren.

Well—they're in serious trouble. And if their captain is anything like the ones I knew, they're going to try to slip into hiding while they make repairs. Even without their net, they can move into deeper layers by manipulating their flux reactor, just like a submarine flooding ballast tanks
.

The usually stolid Voco sounded surprised.
This is true? They would do that?

Oh yes,
Legroeder said, scanning the ghostly region.
It sounds primitive, and you need careful coordination between the flux reactor and the net sensors, or you can lose control and wind up so deep you'll never get out. But it works
.

They had lost sight of the raider vessel. The turbulence in the levels "above" had not affected this layer at all. There was a slow, steady movement of current away from the point at which they had entered. Legroeder pointed ahead and to the left.
If we take a looping path around, it'll bring us back to where we can intercept them when they drop to this level
. The Narseil riggers agreed, and they took
H'zzarrelik
in a slow arc, searching out currents one by one until they had achieved the sweeping movement he wanted—almost an orbit around the place where he guessed the raider would come out.

So far so good. They hadn't heard back from the captain or anyone else on the bridge for a little while now. Legroeder assumed that Ho'Sung and the rest of the crew were busy with emergency repairs. They had taken a couple of good hits from the pirate ship, and some of it showed in the sluggishness of the rigger-net.

We're on the verge of losing maneuverability,
Palagren warned, as they slipped unevenly through a transition layer.

All right,
Legroeder said.
Let's edge back upward a little. If we hug those clouds, we should still be in good position to spot them
.

Stretching their arms out, they worked to nudge the ship upward. The clouds sparkled more brightly, and they felt the streams of the Flux stir around them with a little more force. Beneath them, the gloom of the deeper layers remained quiet, scarcely moving.

I'm concerned about what's happening on the bridge,
Palagren muttered.
No one's answering—

There he is!
Legroeder interrupted. A small, grey shape had just dropped out of the clouds toward the darker underlayers.

Captain, we have the adversary in sight,
Palagren reported.

There was still no answer from the bridge. Legroeder found this worrisome, but there was nothing they could do about it now. The riggers focused on carrying out their last orders, bringing the ship into position for an intercept. They climbed a bit more, for mobility and for greater cover in the light-and-dark lanes of the misty whirlpool. At the same time, they scanned for currents that could carry them to the enemy more quickly than the pirate could move away. Legroeder's plan was to approach with both speed and stealth.

Palagren continued calling to the captain. As they drew closer to the pirate ship, now from above rather than below, they could see that it was still tumbling slowly; its crew had not yet regained control. But that didn't mean it was harmless. If Legroeder and the Narseil were to attack successfully, to take out the enemy's remaining weapons, they would have to coordinate closely with
H'zzarrelik
's gunners. The moment they were in a position to strike, they would become a target, as well.

Palagren tried once more to raise the captain. Finally he said,
Ker'sell, take a look outside the net. See if the com is down
.

The keel rigger acknowledged, and vanished from the net.

In the instant he disappeared, there was a momentary outcry—from Ker'sell—followed by an alarming silence.