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like." He smiled
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JODY LYNN NYE - [The Ship Who Sang Series - 06] The Ship Errant at Bisman. "It
may take some time to get a message through to Carialle, but I'll send one
right away and tell her you want to talk with her."
"Face-to-face," Bisman said, tapping Keff painfully in the middle of the chest
once for every syllable.
While Keff stood there thoughtfully rubbing his chest, Bisman hustled Mirina
away.
He grabbed Thunderstorm by a claw on the way by.
"Your pavilion," he hissed. "Now!"
Thunderstorm loped unhappily behind them over the stony ground. Mirina could
feel the storm of fury growing, but Bisman didn't let fly until they were
safely under the roof.
"You're avoiding me," Bisman snapped, rounding at once on the Thelerie. Waving
a finger under Thunderstorm's nose, he backed the Sayas up until he bumped
into his own desk sling. "Don't try to deny it. I've known you too long. I
told you we had stuff for you. You should be buying from us, and only us."
"Tell us about this man," Mirina said, more kindly. The Thelerie looked from
one human to the other, clattering his claws together nervously. He settled
over the sling and continued tapping his fingertips on the desktop until
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Bisman glared at him to stop.
"This Keff landed here one day. He said he had goods we might like. And so we
do!"
Thunderstorm said, miserably. "Things that the Melange has been unable to get
for many years, are here! You see the temptation is great. And others saw him
before I
did, so I could not hide him. They like these goods."
"I understand that," Bisman said. "He's got a few things I might take myself.
What I'm talking about is no apprentices. You must have some about ready to
ship out. Where are they?"
"I& I do not have any I am ready to send. There is more to know."
"Haven't they memorized the Manual?" Mirina asked, puzzled.
"Oh, yes," Thunderstorm said, at once. "In that they are proficient."
"Then what's the hangup?" Bisman asked, banging a fist on the desk. "You know
what land of rewards there are in space travel."
"Yes," Thunderstorm replied, more thoughtfully than usual. "I know."
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JODY LYNN NYE - [The Ship Who Sang Series - 06] The Ship Errant
"So why are you being cagey with us?"
"The air is bad in ships," Thunderstorm said suddenly. "The old ones who I see
have weakness in the thorax from lack of elemental acids."
"Chlorine?" Mirina asked.
"Yes," Thunderstorm said.
"Hell, then we'll work out a medical system. Miri& no, I'll work something
out,"
Bisman said, dismissing Mirina. She glared, then realized she had no right to
complain. He'd accepted her resignation, and he was letting her go.
"It will still take time before any are ready," Thunderstorm said, timidly.
"The training continues."
Bisman walked to the entrance of the pavilion. "Next time I won't take no for
an answer, Thunder. There are ships out there who need Thelerie apprentices.
Just remember who your friends are." With an apologetic glance back at the
terrified
Thelerie, Mirina followed him out.
Bisman reported the conversation to the others on the ship. The reivers
clustered in the galley grumbled about another setback.
"Dammit, this tears the trip out to Sungali," Glashton said. "Hannah had a
collection for us. It's not worth burning the fuel if we have to turn around
and bring her a navigator on a separate trip."
"At least we can't blame this problem on the trader," Mirina said.
"No, dammit, but he might have said something that set them off," Bisman said,
with growing heat. He kicked a battered cabinet door, adding a black bootmark
to the damage he'd done it in hundreds of other temper tantrums. Mirina
wouldn't miss that part of Aldon Bisman at all.
"Perhaps he's tired of talking to the families of the ones who don't come home
again,"
she said, pointedly.
"Shut up!" Bisman said, rounding on her. "You want out anyhow. This isn't any
of your business anymore." He slammed his hand on the countertop. "I've got to
find the pressure point, get Thunder back into line, and soon. These Thelerie
are a hell of a lot of trouble."
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JODY LYNN NYE - [The Ship Who Sang Series - 06] The Ship Errant
"Well, why are we bothering to go to so much trouble for them, then?" Zonzalo
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said with disgust.
"Because the soulfrigging flying barnacles can't get lost, that's why," Bisman
exploded. "You know that, you young idiot. They always know their way back
home, and everywhere in proportion to home. It happened to me once, being lost
without a navigator. I never want that to happen again. Wandering lost in
eternity may appeal to you, but it scares me juiceless!"
"And there's the fuel," Mirina said thoughtfully. "I didn't see any Thelerie
merchandise out on that field. Did Keff spot the refinery and offer to trade
for a tankload?"
"Whatever it is doesn't matter," Bisman said. "We find out what there is to
know about this Circuit, and what defenses this Keff is packing in that pretty
ship of his. He'll get a meeting set up with this Carialle, and I'll strangle
him in front of her as a lesson to stay out of our way."
"And then what?" Mirina asked.
"Then we take care of all of the Circuit," Bisman said. "We've got the Slime
Ball, remember?"
"Who knows how many there'll be?" Mirina asked. "The Ball could overheat any
day, and then we'll have nothing."
"We've got more than sixty ships and enough armament to carpet a planet,"
Bisman said offhandedly. "I'll start calling 'em in right away. If he wants to
make this system the prize in a blood game, we'll oblige him."
"I don't want the Thelerie hurt!" Mirina said, alarmed at the idea.
"Shut up," Bisman said, facing her down. "Either help, or get out of the way.
You're just waiting for an offworld ship now, right?"
It stung, but Mirina had asked for it. "Right," she said. She rose and stalked
out of the galley. Zonzalo got up to follow her, but his footsteps stopped at
the hatchway. Mirina went back to her cabin alone.
'"Are they gone?" Keff asked the air.
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JODY LYNN NYE - [The Ship Who Sang Series - 06] The Ship Errant
"Sealed up in their wretched ship," Carialle said. 'They might have a passive
scan on you, but it's nothing I'm picking up. Their telemetry equipment is as
haphazard as their engines."
"Thank heavens," Keff said. One of the servos rumbled up to him, and he put
the
Medical Waste box onto its flat top. He slapped the robot's side. "Move it
out, quickly.
Is the tub full?"
"Big Eyes has it ready and waiting, with an electrolyte shake on the side."
Keff trotted along behind the drone. The sun was setting over the
planetary-west horizon, and he glimpsed two moons rising golden above the
mountain ranges. Very pretty landscape, he thought, but too, too hot.
"Are you okay in there, TE?" he asked, through his helmet mike.
"Okay," came a faint croak.
"Hurry it up, Cari," Keff said, more concerned. He didn't like the way the
globe-frog sounded. Had he stayed outside too long? The servo rumbled around
the edge of the stone cliff, and out of sight at last from the pirates' ship.
Keff grabbed the crate bodily off its platform and ran with it into the ship.
The other Cridi flew around him as soon as he was past the airlock. The lid of
the box flew one way, and the little globe lifted straight out.
The sides of the globe were completely misted over with condensation, which
broke up as the others moved it. The Frog Prince's body lay at the bottom, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
