his exhaustion and hunger and satisfied his aesthetic sense, even if it did mean everyone and his client would be down here shortly, all looking for him.
“… Paha warriors! Paha-ab-Kleppko -ab-puber ab-Soro ab-Hul! Inform the Soro fleet-mistress we have news!”
Tom chuckled as he thought of a pun that could only be phrased in Galactic Twelve and which, nevertheless, he was sure the Soro would never get.
99
Gillian
Something was making the fleets shift all of a sudden. Small squadrons raveled off the battered fleets and joined tiny groups from Kithrup’s moons, all heading toward the planet. As they merged, the groups swirled about and tiny explosions took the place of individual lights.
What in the world was going on? Whatever it was, Gillian felt a glimmer of opportunity.
“Dr. Bassskin! Gillian!” Tsh’t’s voice came over the comm-speaker. “We’re getting radio traffic from the planet’s surface again. It’sss from a single transmitter, but it keeps putting out stuff in different Galactic languages! Yet I ssswear they all sound like one voice!”
She leaned forward and touched a switch. “I’m on my way up, Tsh’t. Please call half of the off-duty shift to stations. We’ll let the others rest a while longer.” She switched off the unit.
Oh, Tom, she thought as she hurried out the door Why this? Couldn’t you have come up with anything more elegant? Anything less desperate?
Of course he couldn’t, she chided herself as she ran down the hallway. Come on, Jill. The least you can do is not be a nag.
In moments she was on the bridge, listening for herself.
100
Toshio
Cornered, Toshio couldn’t even climb a tree. They were too close, and would be on him the instant they heard him move.
He could hear them as they spiraled closer, tightening the noose. Toshio clutched his needler and decided he had better attack first, before they were close enough to support each other It would be a small handgun against armored machines and high-powered lasers, and he was no marksman like Tom Orley. In fact, he had never fired at a sentient being before. But it beat waiting here.
He crouched and began to crawl to his right, toward the shoreline. He tried not to snap any twigs, but a minute after leaving his hiding place he flushed some small animal, which fled noisily through the bushes.
Immediately he heard the noise of approaching mechanicals. Toshio slithered quickly under a thick bush, only to emerge facing the broad footpad of a spider.
# Gotcha! Gotcha! #
There was a squeal of triumph. He looked up to meet the mad eye of Sreekah-pol. The fin leered as he commanded the spider to lift its leg.
Toshio rolled aside as the foot crashed down where his head had been. He reversed direction, avoiding a kick. The mechanical reared back, bringing both front legs into play. Toshio saw no place to turn. He fired his small pistol against the armored belly of the machine, and tiny needles ricocheted harmlessly into the forest.
The triumphant whistle was pure Primal.
# Gotcha! #
Then the island began to shake.
The ground heaved up and down. Toshio was jounced right and left and his head hit the loam rhythmically. The spider teetered, then crashed backward into the forest.
The shaking accelerated. Toshio somehow rolled over onto his stomach. He fought the oscillations to rise to his knees.
There was a crunching sound as two spider-riders stumbled into the clearing. One crashed past Toshio in panic. The other, though, saw him and squawked in wrath.
Toshio tried to hold out his needler, but the island’s trembling began to turn into a list. It became a race between him and the mad dolphin to see who could aim and fire first.
Then both of them were staggered by a scream that echoed within their heads.
+ BAD! –
– BAD ONES! +
+ LEAVE –
– US +
+ ALONE! –
It was a roar of rejection that made Toshio moan and grab at his temples. The needler slipped out of his grasp and fell to the rapidly tilting ground.
The dolphin whistled shrilly as its spider collapsed in convulsions. It wailed in a foxhole lamentation.
# Sorry! Sorry!
# Patron forgive!
# Forgive! #
Toshio stumbled forward. “Forgiven,” he managed to say as he hurried past. He couldn’t deal with the fin’s schizoid conversion. “Come this way if you can!” he called back, as he tried to make it to the shore. The noise in his head was like an earthquake. Somehow Toshio managed to stay on his feet and stumble through the forest.
When he reached the edge of the mound the sea was a froth