Infinity's Shore (97 page)

T
HRILLING AS IT WAS TO BE MOVING AGAIN, GILLIAN knew this wasn't the same old
Streaker.
It ran sluggishly for a snark-class survey ship. The nearby landmass receded with disheartening slowness compared with the rabbitlike agility she used to show. Suessi's motors weren't at fault. It was the damned carbon-carbon coating, sealing
Streaker'
s hull under countless tons of dead weight, clogging the probability flanges and gravitics radiators, costing valuable time to gain orbital momentum. Minutes of vulnerability.

Gillian glanced at the swarm display. A scatter of bright dots showed at least twenty decoys out of the water, with a dozen more now rising from their ancient graves, screaming joy—or agony—over this unwonted mass resurrection. Groups of bait ships speared away in different directions, disbanding according to preset plans, though empty of life.

All empty, except one.

Gillian thought of the human girl, Rety, self-exiled aboard one of those glimmering lights. Would it have been better to break into her hijacked ship? Or try to seize control of the computer, reprogramming it to bring Rety ashore?

The Niss didn't think either effort would succeed in the slim time allowed. Anyway, Alvin and Huck had convinced Gillian not to try.

“
We know what you Earthlings are trying to do with this breakout attempt
,” the young g'Kek had said.

“
And yet you volunteered to come?
”

“
Why not? We risked the Midden in a hollow tree trunk. All sooners know life is something you just borrow for a while. Each person must choose how to spend it.

“
All our families and all our septs depend on your venture, Dr. Baskin. This Rety person selected her destiny. Let her follow it
.”

As
Streaker
gradually accelerated, Gillian turned to the dolphin in charge of psi-ops. “Let me know when you get anything at all from the observer,” she ordered.

“No sssignal yet-t,” the fin answered. “It'sss well past due, if you ask me.”

“No one asked,” Gillian snapped.

Without wanting to, she glanced at the Jijoan mathematician, Sara Koolhan, whose brother took off in a hot-air balloon, knowing that if the gale did not get him, the Jophur probably would. Sara floated in a swarm of bubbles, watching intently. But behind the visor of her breathing helmet, Gillian saw a single soft tear, running down the young woman's cheek.

Gillian did not need more guilt. She tried hard to think pragmatically.

I just wish the boy hadn't died for nothing. We're going to have to decide…

She checked the swarm monitors.

 … in moments.…

Dwer

T
HE DAZZLING BLAST JOLTED HIS REWQ, CAUSING IT to retreat, almost comatose. But the creature served its purpose, saving Dwer's eyes. Except for a few purple spots, vision soon returned almost to normal.

There'll be a shock wave
, he thought. After the abuse of last night and morning, he wondered if the balloon would survive another shaking.

Dwer readied his hammer over the row of crystals, each jammed into the wicker gondola. He peered east, trying to figure out which message to send.

All the decoy balloons were gone—no surprise there.

But dammit, where's the Jophur ship?

Dwer could not act without data, so he held on and rode out the explosion's booming echo when it came rolling by, flattening the serrated grass of the Venom Plain.

The balloon survived. Solid urrish workmanship. Picking up binoculars, he sought again for the Jophur, scanning the horizon.

Could it have been blown up by the aerial mine? Gillian Baskin had thought the prospect nearly impossible. No weapon in
Streaker
's arsenal could pierce the defense of such a dreadnought, even with the element of surprise. But it might be possible to inconvenience the enemy for a crucial time.

Finally, he made out the distant glint. In fact, the ship seemed to be
receding
! He had the illusion that it was heading toward the rising sun.

Dwer hesitated over the message crystals. There were only four. None of the prearranged codes took in this possibility … that the foe would flee the scene. Not upward toward space, or west back to the Midden, or even standing still, but
away
from any chance to spy the Earthling ship!

If I don't send anything, they'll think I'm dead.

He thought of Sara, and was tempted to smash all the crystals, just to reassure her.

But then they might make a wrong decision, and she might die instead of me. Because of me.

By now, squadrons of salvaged decoy spaceships would be heading out beyond Jijo's atmosphere, spiraling toward orbit and beyond. Gillian Baskin had to decide which group to go with. Dwer's signal was supposed to help.

Frustration locked him in a rigor of indecision. Raising the binoculars once more, he found the Jophur ship again, a bare pinpoint near the horizon.

Then he noticed something.

The distant dot … it had stopped receding. Instead, it seemed to hover beyond a range of craggy highlands.

The Gray Hills
, Dwer realized.
If only I can give the right signal, I'll be able to start descending in time to land where I want!

The glittering pinpoint hesitated, then began to move again. Dwer soon confirmed—it was growing larger. The Jophur were heading back this way!

Now I know what to send
, he thought with satisfaction. Dwer raised the hammer and brought it smashing down on the second crystal. That instant, his back swarmed with a curious tingling. The feeling came and left quickly.

His duty done at last, Dwer reached for the gas-discharge rope. The battleship was going to pass close again, and the only way he had to maneuver was to lose height.

Easy does it
, he thought.
Let her down slowly. Might as well reach the foothills before you have to…

The great ship loomed rapidly, then streaked westward while gaining altitude, missing him by hundreds of arrow-flights.

Alas, this time it did not ignore Dwer.

As it hurried by, the mighty blue globe dropped a tiny speck. A minuscule dot that arced away and then dropped rapidly, glittering as it came. Dwer did not have to know much about Galactic technology to recognize a missile when he saw one.

Gillian mentioned that I might attract attention when I signaled.

Dwer sighed, watching the fleck turn a gentle curve and then plunge straight toward him.

Ah, well
, he thought, picking up his prize possession—the bow made for him by the master carvers of Ovoom Town, in honor of his skill as tracker for the Commons of Six Races.

When the explosion came, it was unlike anything he expected.

Gillian

T
HAT'S IT!” SHE CRIED OUT, GLAD OF THE NEWS.

Even more elated was Sara, who let out an urrish sounding yelp, on learning that her brother yet lived.

The signal also confirmed Gillian's best guess. The Jophur had been slow reacting, but they were doing as she hoped.

“
They are predictable
,” commented the Niss, whose whirling hologram passed through oxy-water bubbles unperturbed. “
The delay only means we get more of a head start
.”

Gillian agreed, but in her thoughts added:

We'll need ten times this much of a lead, in order to make it all the way.

Aloud, she told the pilot:

“Punch us out of here, Kaa. Stay with swarm number two. Put us second from the front of the pack.”

The pilot shouted,“Aye!”

Soon the low, driving harmonies of the motivators notched upward in pitch. Gillian glanced at the engineroom display. Morale seemed high among Suessi's crewfen. As she watched, Emerson D'Anite threw his head back to
sing!
Gillian only picked up a fragment, though the lyrics had Emerson's coworkers in stitches.

Even suffering from brain affliction, his puns were terrible. It was good to have some of the old Emerson back again.

External displays showed the planet swiftly receding, a gentle blue-brown globe, swathed in a slim envelope of life-giving weather. Numerous sharp-bordered green patches testified to where some metropolis once stood, before the site was scoured and seeded. Whether now covered with swamp, forest, or prairie, the regions still showed regular outlines that would take eons to erase.

Earth has such scars
, she thought.
In even greater abundance. The difference is that we were ignorant and didn't know better. We had to learn the hard way how to manage a world, by teaching ourselves.

Gillian glanced at Sara, whose eyes bore pain and wonder, watching her homeworld diminish to a small orb—the first of her sooner line to look down at Jijo, ever since her ancestors fled here, centuries ago.