The Bright Black Sea (119 page)

'Dragons are quite intelligent,' Tri'n said, her long
weapon at her shoulder aimed at the dragon. 'I believe she knows
what we are and what these weapons can do. She knows that if she
were to try to get at us, we'd very likely kill her with our fire
weapons. She knows she lost this meal,' and , strangely enough, she
raised her voice and said, 'Fly away my dear! There's nothing here
for you to eat but us, and we have many fire weapons to defend
ourselves. Try your luck on some other island.'

The dragon gave a long low hissing snarl that sounded
neither intelligent or congenial, and it didn't make any move to
fly away either. It seemed content to perch in the upper branches
of the fist-tree and consider its options.

'Fly away now, before more of us come to kill you,'
Tri'n replied boldly. 'We're hungry for meat. So unless you want to
be
our
dinner, fly now, before it's too late. Our weapons
reach far, and our aim is unerring.'

I didn't think threatening to eat a twenty meter long
dragon was exactly diplomatic for people in our position, but ,
what did I know? Still, after a few more moments of studying us
with her gleaming dark eyes, she either took Tri'n's warning to
heart, or noticed the large band of running, armed sailors emerging
from around the short uneven horizon of the island. Venting a loud
hissing snarl of disappointment, she sprang upwards. Spreading her
four winged limbs, she soared up into the pale sky, the backdraft
from her wings and tail, pushing us back a step.

We let out our collective breaths, in a long
sigh.

'Could she really understand what you said?' asked
Vynnia.

'Some of us believe so. They're unable to speak our
language, of course, and likely have no interest in doing so if
they could. But I believe she can understand our intent by reading
something of what we think. She seemed to know us for people who
could bite back, otherwise she would've attacked us straight off.
If we'd been armed, like many of the islanders with only spears and
arrows, we'd have little luck avoiding being her lunch. The fact
that she didn't attack either means she was familiar with our
weapons, or could read the pictures I was forming in my mind of
what our weapons would do to her. Either is possible, since dragons
range far and wide and live very long lives, so it is possible that
she knew our capabilities even in this remote place.'

Then she looked at me, 'You're not afraid of dragons,
Captain Litang?'

'Not afraid? I assure you, I was running as fast as I
could, Sub-captain.'

'Yet you felt no need to draw your weapon?'

'Oh, that, I'm not very handy with weapons. I tend to
be rather wild in my firing – mere fireworks for the most part.
Couldn't hit the
Indomitable
at ten paces. The dragon was
too far out of my effective range to bother. '

'And if it had decided to attack us?'

I shrugged. 'I've no doubt that you, Sub-captain, or
my shipmates would've dealt with it. I believe our weapons are
deadly enough to have dealt with it long before it was in my
range.'

'You rely on others for your protection?' she asked,
giving me a rather dismissive look.

'I rely on experts to do their job,' I replied giving
her a level one in return. 'I expect, Sub-captain Tri'n, that
you're such an expert or you wouldn't have been assigned to escort
the Empress on this excursion. I doubt I'm wrong.' Which, I
thought, was a nicely balanced double edged thrust. I wasn't
prepared to be rebuked by a mere sub-captain, especially at the
start of this expedition, when we were all taking each other's
measure, but I didn't want to ruffle her feathers too much
either.

She gave me another, unreadable look, nodded, and
turned to wait for the rescue party from the base to arrive. Tenry
gave me a grin, but said nothing.

We treated it like a carefree adventure, but it was
clear that DarQue, who was leading the rescue party, which arrived
shortly afterwards, was treating it as anything but a carefree
adventure.

05

With the
Raven
gone I slung a hammock in one
of the cabins aboard the
Indomitable
, that I shared with
Vynnia and Tenry. They were closely involved in the planning of the
campaign, so I didn't see them often, and made it a point to sleep
when they weren't.

Stepping out onto the dim lit quay side, after one
awakening, I found the grotto harbor busy once more. The
Raven
had returned. Hurrying to the cavern mouth, I saw that
they were already attaching the cables on to the first of the large
crates that held the scout boats – the 15x 3 meters boats with
sleek, rounded hull, several steering vanes and a large propeller
aft, that were built for speed. Emerging into the sunlight I
greeted my (former) crew. Molaye had left only Illy and Sar in
charge of the ship. They hadn't needed Glen Colin's help, so he
stayed mostly sober the whole passage and Botts had done most of
the piloting, on the sly, so it had been a pleasant passage
especially once through the shell-reef.

'Hey, Skipper,' hailed Riv who was idly watching the
proceedings. Cargo handling wasn't an engineer's job. 'So this your
new home?'

'For a while,' I replied, as I hauled myself aboard
the ship by one of its anchor lines to stand by him. I told him my
arrangement with Min. 'So, you see, I may be here only for a year
or two. I rather think the Pela is a bit too exciting for me.'

'Don't they need cha planters here?'

'I don't know, but I do know I'd not care to grow cha
if I constantly had to look over my shoulder for dragons.'

'That dangerous, Skipper?'

'If you hear the bugle sound, head for cover before
you even start looking around, Riv,' I replied and told him about
our encounter with a dragon.

I found Botts out of sight, on the far side of ship,
dressed like a spaceer.

'What are you? Some sort of scarecrow?'

'I am being discrete, Captain,' it replied, turning
to me. 'Thank you, Captain, for inviting me here. This is amazing.
You've made me quite famous.'

'My pleasure. I take it the Directorate wasn't aware
of the Tenth Star and its Archipelago.'

'We were not, and only now are reassessing our charts
of the nebula to pinpoint the location of the Tenth Star.'

'They can do that? I thought you couldn't access the
ship's systems or track you by your quantum link.'

'I didn't, and they can't. I did, however, provide
the Directorate with a rough estimate of our course, and duration.
Knowing the ship, as I do, I recorded the burn times and estimated
strengths of the main and steering rockets while setting the course
and building the ship's velocity. Then, during the passage I noted
the timing and the duration of the various engines used for
maneuvering during the passage. Based on this set of rough
estimates, plus our fuel consumption, the Directorate built a model
that estimated our course and velocity and from that, identified a
rather large search area of some 50 astronomical unit in diameter
by 10 aus deep in which the Tenth Star could be located. It is, not
unexpectedly, a remote and unexplored area of many dense black
reefs on the far side of the Nebula. Its estimated density could
easily hide a star. Given its remoteness and no compelling
features, the Directorate had assigned a low priority to surveying
the suspect area in detail, so that the Tenth Star would only have
been discovered by the Directorate some 34,000 years from now, when
that area was scheduled for a detailed survey.'

'Thirty-four thousand years. That's what I call long
range planning.'

'We have the time, Captain. And the computing prowess
to plan that far in the future. This,' it swept his hand to
encompass the Pela, 'is going to take a great deal of time and
computing prowess to assess and decide how to handle its
existence.'

'Perhaps even more than you think. There are hints
that a non-human intelligent race or races, exists within the Pela.
The run of the mill dragons you'll encounter may be intelligent,
and there are legends that a super advanced dragon race exists as
well. You've no doubt noticed that the wildlife has no counterpart
in the Neb, and is likely unknown within the human settlement
sphere as well. Plus there's a race of humans here that share 97%
of our DNA but are feathered and distinct enough that they cannot
cross breed with us. I believe, Botts, that the Tenth Star is going
to offer the Directorate a vast gold field for logical art, for
eons to come.'

'Indeed, Captain. From what I've observed already, I
am certain you are right. It's a micro-universe to explore. I'd
like permission to make a start.'

'Of course. How do you propose to do that?'

'Riv and I have constructed a rocket sled. I'd like
permission to take it off to explore on my own. That way I can
begin to collect a small sample of data while at the same time
avoid any unwanted attention my presence might bring.'

'Right,' I did some rapid calculations. 'Time is
pretty tenuous here, so it's hard to set a solid date. But, I think
we can count on at least twenty more days. If we're finished before
, which I doubt, I'll have them linger at the last buoy at the edge
of the Pela, broadcasting a signal on our standard frequency. Would
that be enough time?'

'Hardly, Captain, but I'll gladly take it.'

'I suppose I've no real hold on you, Botts. You don't
really need my permission, or need to return at all.'

'I am a member of your crew, Captain. While I also
have a general, roving assignment for the Directorate, my first
loyalty is still to my shipmates. The everyday, immediate loyalties
are the most important ones. The Directorate will want to study
this with specialized machines and has eons to do it, so this is
little more than a personal outing. It is not necessary, if you'd
rather not have me off and away.'

'Of course not. I invited you here just so you could
have a look around. I certainly owe you that and much more as well.
However, I'll admit that, I'd like you back and looking after my
shipmates and the
Starry Shore
, at least until they get home
again.'

'If you have them bring along Botts II on the next
run, we could stay in communication even after we depart.'

'Something to think about... But perhaps not. I need
to make a complete break, and Molaye needs to be on her own. If
we're in communication, it wouldn't be complete. And well, there's
nothing either of us could do to help each other after they
sail.'

'As you think best.'

'I'll think about it more. but in the meanwhile, be
careful, Botts. Don't underestimate the dragons. They're eagle
eyed, fearless, and while they may not be able to digest you,
they'll certainly try.'

'I've built a fast, powerful sled, plus, I have a
wide variety of sensors, so don't worry, Dad, I'll be fine.'

'Right, off with you.'

It stepped into the engine room airlock, hauled out
the flat, three meter long rocket sled. Laying flat behind the low
control panel, it waved and shot off into the borderless sky,
quickly dwindling to a dot and disappeared completely. If the
sentries noticed it, they recognized that it wasn't a dragon, and
no one said anything about it.

Curiously, this second run also brought the bachelor
birds. They must have smelled home on the returning crew, and knew
us well enough to be waiting in the gig when the crew arrived to
take it over to the
Rift Raven
for the next trip in. Every
last one of them, I gather. And as the cats would no doubt tell you
– if they could talk – you don't mess with the bachelor birds and
their pointy beaks, so they hitched a ride home aboard the
Raven
. They were out of the airlock the moment it was opened
and they did'na return. We never figured out how they reproduced –
hence their name – but their curious behavior suggests that they
may've been the original crew. In any event, they've returned home
and it seems that they intend to stay. The little birds of the Pela
seemed pretty smart.

The sentry snake hatched a family which she allowed
to roam free. The youngsters, half a dozen of them, were a meter
long and capable of taking a large spoonful out of you if they
cared to. They were fearless and curious, but not aggressive. The
big question, at least for us outsiders, was how maternal was mama?
You'd hate to have to absently brush aside one of the little ones,
have it hiss at you and have mama take off your head over it, which
made going in and out of the grotto a nerve-wracking affair at
times. I wondered why we didn't just shoo her out or serve her for
lunch, but I've been finding that Cimmadarians have all sorts of
ideas and superstitions about the dragons and Vinden, a
Cimmadarian, apparently held sentry snakes to be lucky or
something.

I believe it took us something on the order of five
ship days to get the
Raven
unloaded and off again on its
last run. Vinden fumed, but neither Molaye nor I pushed to clear
the ship. Five days in a paradise, even one with teeth, was not an
overindulgence for a four year voyage. Molaye took only a skeleton
crew back with her, the rest stayed on to help out or just hang
about, bunking in the barracks.

06

In addition to the scout boats, the
Raven
also
brought the final fittings for the
Indomitable
– the
electric motors to drive the propellers which were to be attached
to the tips of its short after-wings. Once the
Indomitable
was fitted with these wingtip engines and propellers it'd be too
wide to pass through the cavern, so it was warped out and tied
alongside the island. Tall fern-top trees were cut down for spars
to be used to keep it clear of the island for the final
installation of its engines, propellers and propeller guards. Seen
in the open and fully equipped, the ship looked rather like an
ancient galleon, with a high forecastle and stern, but instead of
masts, it had a third island midships, which housed the ship's
bridge or wheelhouse at the very top above the grated deck. The two
open decks between the deck houses were enclosed by grates, as were
the decks on the tops of the deckhouses. There were two rows of
missile launchers protruding from each side of the hull, with
several more at the tops of the deck houses and along the center
line of the lower hull. It had two short wings set near its stern,
with large, caged propellers mounted at their wingtips. The wings,
and the two vertical tails at each of the engine mounts had movable
panels to steer the ship. It also mounted modest rocket engines in
the stern for use when crossing the airless space between the space
station and the Pela proper. Though these engines were underpowered
for the size of the ship, speed was apparently not a priority.
They, after all, only planned to sail in that little lake of outer
space between the shell and the Pela.