Read Beowulf's Children Online
Authors: Larry Niven,Jerry Pournelle,Steven Barnes
Tags: #sf, #Speculative Fiction
Beowulf's Children (31 page)
His mind buzzed. Who? Why? Jesus... what was going on?
He made it into Communication in another twenty seconds. Edgar saw his face and turned his chair from the screen, his lips pursing in an unhappy whistle.
Carlos grabbed the pudgy boy by his shirt and lifted him up out of the chair, pivoting and slamming him into the wall. "What in the hell have you done?!"
Edgar's lips worked without producing any sound. Carlos hit him, quite hard, with his right fist, in the center of his fat little mouth.
Edgar licked his lips. He waited, politely it seemed, to see if Carlos would hit him again. Carlos held back, somehow. Edgar said, "Something killed my dad, and Linda too. You Earth Born have been trying to track it down with computer games. It can't reach you from the mainland, whatever it is, so it's all very, very safe, but you must have ice on your minds to think you can-"
"We're trying!"
"Do you think you know computers better than I do, Tio Carlos?"
"Don't call me Uncle. No, I don't."
"Joe Sikes and Linda Weyland are still dead. Whatever killed them is still running loose. You can't find it with computer games. You need data for that."
"Jesus." Carlos wiped water out of his face, and hit the communication board. "Cassandra."
"Yes, Carlos."
"Patch me to Cadmann."
"There is interference on that frequency."
"Speculate."
"Artificial origin. It seems that someone has deliberately scrambled that frequency."
"Cabron!" he shouted.
Blood bubbled from Edgar's nose, but in his eyes was a quiet challenge. Edgar had pulled it off. The mad genius had faked a fucking storm, right down to the rainswept image of Robor. Supplies had been stolen, and the communications link with Cadmann had been broken. Precious time was lost. What else did they have planned?"
"Dios mio," he said. "They're stealing Robor to go back to the mainland, aren't they? Aren't they, you little shit!" Edgar didn't answer. Something had to get through the boy's armor. "You've taken back the mainland for Aaron Tragon!"
That stung, maybe. "Oooh, no," he said, and stopped.
Zack and Harry Siep appeared in the doorway. "What's going on?" Zack asked, staring at Edgar.
"He'll tell you," Carlos said. "Tell them all about it, bizquerno, or I'll break every soft bone in your head. I'm going for Cadmann."
Carlos jumped into Skeeter III and pushed the button-and nothing happened.
He jumped out and tried Skeeter I. Nothing. They had sabotaged the skeeters. He threw his head back and screamed frustration to the clouds.
Wait. Hendrick had just come in. It was likely that the saboteurs hadn't had time to damage his machine. He tapped his collar. "Hendrick. What was your skeeter number?"
There was a moment's pause as Cassandra routed the call, and then Carlos heard: "Number eleven. What's going on here?"
"We've got big troubles, that's what. Get a posse together. I'll be back in touch in ten minutes."
Carlos raced across the skeeter garage, and found XI. He punched the button, uttering a short prayer of gratitude when it coughed to life. He taxied it across the garage and revved, gathered speed along thirty feet of paved runway, and took off.
He wiped his forehead, only it wasn't rainwater now, it was sweat.
Where was the radio blockade? "Hello. Cadmann. Come in, Cadmann."
Nothing. No reply, "Calling command center. Can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear. What's the problem?"
"The problem is that whatever this interference is, it's on Cadmann's end."
He had gained the altitude he needed to dive down toward Cadmann's Bluff, hitting the red line. The engine couldn't be cool yet. Hendrick had barely brought it in. He rose up over the edge of the Bluff, and dropped down to land off-center on Cadmann's skeeter pad. He hopped out and had made it halfway to the house before Cadmann met him at the door. "What the hell is going on?"
Justin stood behind him in the doorway.
"I've got to talk to you," he said. He didn't want to say what he had to say in front of Justin, and that made him feel even worse.
Cadmann nodded and said, "I'll just be a minute."
And closed the door behind him.
"Listen," Carlos said as soon as they were alone, "Edgar fixed the weather report to get us off guard. Supplies have been stolen. Most of the skeeters have been disabled."
"Is Robor secure?"
"No way of knowing. Communications are sealed-we couldn't even contact you."
Cadmann ran, yelling back at Justin, "Bring the other skeeter down, Justin. We've got trouble."
Cadmann was at Carlos's skeeter before the blades had stopped spinning, and Carlos could do little save hang on. Below them, he saw Justin rev up the other skeeter, and take it into the air.
"Justin. Can you read me. Testing. Justin."
"Static clearing up now." Justin's voice crackled and then clarified.
"Cassandra. Interference originating from the house? Please track my message to Justin, and its rate of reception, and give a probable epicenter for disruption."
Cassandra barely paused. "The main house."
"Thank you very much. Justin. Get down to the colony. Pick up Zack, and get someone on skeeter repair. We need shock rifles. Meet me at the beach."
They aimed the skeeter into the wind, and flew northward. The distant mountains laughed at him.
Jessica looked back toward the mountains as if expecting that any moment they would part, and her father would appear.
Aaron's hand touched her shoulder. "Jessica. It's time to go-"
The loading was done. Radio messages from the main colony were sheer chaos. It would be hours before any effective force could be mounted against them. They had prefabricated huts, weapons, and a year's worth of food for twenty people. They had all of the instruments and apparatus needed to found a research station. There was mining equipment on the mainland.
Jessica carried her bags up the gangplank. Robor was theirs, by stealth and by subterfuge. She had planted the disrupter in her father's house. By the time anything could be done, they would be far from land. Any negotiations could be carried out by radio.
It was bad. In some deep sense it was even wrong. But the Earth Born had left them with no options.
The door slammed behind her. On the roof of Robor, the skeeter engines whirled to life. Robor lifted from the ground.
"Edgar," Cadmann mused. "He set it up before we took him off watch.
He's got them monitoring the lines. All right. Cassandra. Code Beowulf.
Are personal code lines corrupted?"
"Code Beowulf acknowledged. Voice pattern Cadmann Weyland acknowledged. Request second password."
"Ragnarok."
"Acknowledged. Your line is secure. Standard emergency frequencies are not under my control."
"Thank you. Secure the message to Justin Weyland."
"Can you trust him?" Carlos said nervously. "He might be a mole."
"Not in him," Cadmann said darkly. "This is Jessica's doing. And Aaron's. But Justin's not involved. I know it."
They swept in through the mountain passes, and looked down onto the half-deserted village of Surf's Up, the rain-drenched swept thatch roofs glistening in the clouded moonlight.
Some small figure pointed up at them, but then they were over the water and swinging south to the dirigible dock.
"What are you going to do?" Carlos asked nervously.
"Talk some sense into them, I hope." He cleared the ridge of coast, and saw what he feared-a black emptiness where Robor had once nested. Waves crashed against the sand, and the concrete pad was completely empty.
"Damn." Cadmann swung the skeeter north. Carlos cleared his throat. "Cadmann-we're low on fuel," he said. "We need to go back and get a new cell."
"We can't," he said grimly. "We don't have time. We're the only ones, Carlos. If we turn around, by the time we get to the colony, and switch batteries, and get back out here-they'll be out of skeeter range, and that's our only link to the mainland. It's now or never."
"And to the mines," Carlos said absently. "But is it worth what this will cost, compadre? They are our children."
"They're running without lights," Cadmann said under his breath.
"Cassandra. Can we have a trace on Robor?"
"I'm sorry," she said coolly. "That information is not available at this time."
"Damn!"
"Damn indeed, my friend," Carlos said quietly. "We're almost out of juice."
The rain pelted against their windows, and wind buffeted them. The storm might not have been Edgar's fictional typhoon, but it was no summer breeze. Lightning flashed at the horizon. A fist of wind slammed into the skeeter, knocking them sideways, and Cadmann almost lost control. His knuckles were white on the wheel, and he cursed under his breath.
There was nothing to be seen below them but blackness. "Getting altitude isn't going to help us. If the engine quits, we can autorotate, but we won't glide."
"Let's do it anyway," Carlos said mildly. "It will give me a few extra seconds to pray."
"If you want to confess all the sins on your conscience, you should have started last Tuesday. Nevertheless..."
Cadmann started to climb.
ROBOR
Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.
ARTHUR WELLESLEY, Duke of Wellington
It was a power relay switch. One piece, carefully removed. The problem had to be diagnosed, and new parts brought from Electronics. No real vandalism, just a twenty-minute stall.
Justin was airborne, with Zack and Hendrick beside him. He was almost blind with anger. The entire camp was in a frenzy, and there was just no telling what could come of this.
Zack looked at Justin for the tenth time. "And you knew nothing about any of this."
"Not a goddamned thing, Zack."
"According to Cassandra, someone placed a very powerful disrupter in your father's house. More delay tactics. Who could have done a thing like that?" Zack's voice was cracking.
Jessica.
"I don't know, Zack. And I won't make irresponsible guesses."
"No, I don't suppose you would."
They headed into the mountain passes.
The alarm buzzer sounded. They had only a minute or two of juice left in the fuel cell.
Cadmann flicked on the radio. "This is Cadmann. Skeeter Twelve, calling Robor. We are almost out of fuel, and cannot return to land. Please advise us of your position for emergency landing."
Nothing. He repeated his message, and then sat back, arms rigid against the wheel, listening to the static.
Jessica heard her father's voice, and then heard it cut off. She ran down the corridor, just in time to see Trish turn away from the controls. "What was that?"
"A bluff," Trish said. "And not a very good one, at that."
"What did he say?"
"He said that his skeeter was almost out of fuel, and asked for permission for an emergency landing." Jessica's mind spun. It was a bluff. It had to be. A freshly charged skeeter had more range than that. But what if it wasn't freshly charged? Christ...
"Trish..." she began.
"Aaron ordered radio silence," Trish said flatly. "And that's what we're going to have."
A shock wave hit Skeeter XII, and they jolted to the side. Wind and rain and an ugly laboring in the engine all mixed together. They plunged about three hundred feet before Cadmann managed to regain control. Carlos wiped his hand against the windscreen, clearing away condensation, peering out. It was hopeless. There was nothing to be seen.
"I'm sorry," Cadmann said—
A flash of lightning, very close by, too close. It split their universe, blinded them, and Cadmann let some inarticulate sound of effort and anger and fear escape, and they plunged so low that they were momentarily out of the clouds. Another flash of lightning and—
"I see it!" Carlos yelled. "Damn it! Two o'clock. There."
An arc of fire rolled along the underbelly of the cloud, lightning swelling in its belly. And there, gliding like a great dark predator, was Robor.
Cadmann gritted his teeth, and took the skeeter up into the cloud again. "We can make it," he said.
"If we don't, can I quote you?"
They rose up above the flat top of Robor, and Cadmann hit the lights. They were dim, all emergency power draining to the batteries, but enough to illumine the top. There were docks for four skeeters up there, and three of them were in place.
"All right," He said. "I'm setting her down. You take the right-side mooring cable, I'll take the left. If either of us makes it, we're safe."
The engines quit.
"See?" Trish said, laughing. "No SOS. It was a bluff."
Jessica stared at the control panel, and then looked out at the storm.
A bluff. She hoped it was a bluff. She freezing prayed it was a bluff.
Otherwise...
They slammed into Robor's landing deck just as another lightning flash tore a hole in the sky. Robor jolted, and then stabilized. Its gyros would compensate, and keep the deck level. It was slick, though. They skidded for three feet before coming to rest.
Cadmann wrapped a mooring cable around his arm and reeled it out. He hopped down to the deck. The wind slammed into him, and Carlos was out the other side with the right-hand cable. There were docking rings countersunk in the deck in numerous locations. The trick was finding one.
A violent shudder struck Robor, and the skeeter started sliding again. Cadmann backed up, slipped to his knees, slid across the deck and toward the edge. The damaged strut collapsed, and the skeeter slid across the plates, right at him. He screamed as he went over the edge, the skeeter right on top of him.
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