Temporary Duty (69 page)

He was still puzzling over the gadget when Ander Korwits returned to stand at his elbow, dressed fully if still less than modestly in the skintight suit. «What are you doing?» she asked. «Do you intend to land on the planet?»

«I’m entering the navigation identifier for
Llapaaloapalla
. No, I don’t intend to land on the planet. There are only two places upon it, both essentially points, where I might receive assistance, and I have no notion where they are or how to find them.»

«That’s a pity. I’ve never seen the surface of a planet,» she said a little wistfully. «I understand that it’s wild and very, very large.»

«Yes, that’s correct as far as it goes.» He finished entering the sequence, and observed with satisfaction that the instrument was active. The indicator was a ball painted in quarters of white and black instead of a pair of orthagonal pointers; he rotated the ship until the intersection was under the circle in the center and looked. Nothing. He inspected the instrument more closely. If those were numbers along the black-white boundaries, these were large… he rotated the ship a hundred and eighty degrees. There was a bright spark in about the right place, and he nodded. Then he looked up at Ander. «You’ve never been Down?»

«I’ve never been off the ship.» When he looked at her in incredulity she corrected, «Well, once before, of course. I was born on a different ship, and when I reached the age of bleeding I was traded to this one. So, yes, I’ve been off the ship before, but only once, and never to a planetary surface.»

«Isn’t this exciting?» said Alper as she took the right-hand seat again. «Just like Belsar Flen escaping Ptarne Keep, with the Jewel of Ropta and his first tuwe.»

«Details intrude,» Ander objected. «Belsar Flen had his loyal retainer Kuniss and a stalwart crew of andar to help him, as I recall. And we hardly constitute a valid tuwe; there are only two of us, and we are far too old.»

«You have no imagination,» Alper Gor said cheerfully. «He even looks a little like I imagine Belsar Flen to look: dark-haired, tall, at the height of his vigor, with noble features.»

Ander considered her–captor?–sidelong. She had long beautiful lashes. «I can’t quite visualize Belsar Flen in an airsuit, though.»

The blonde girl waved that off. «Of course not. But he was wearing the uniform of the Keep guardsmen at the time; that’s how he got access to the jewel in the first place. The situation is exactly parallel.»

«What are you two talking about?» Peters asked.

Ander was smiling. «Alper refers to a book of history, or to be more accurate, historical romance. Belsar Flen was one of the early figures in our history. There are squares of stories about his exploits, each less credible than the one before it.» She held out a hand as if in presentation. «In the incident she refers to, he coerced the Jewel into providing him with great wealth, and used that to essentially found our society.»

«Bah. To the extent I understand your society, I would be more likely to destroy it than found another. It could certainly use a few innovations.»

«And if you did so, you would become a figure of romance for later generations,» Alper pointed out. «Just think, Ander, here we are at the beginning… »

Wham!
came from aft, the vibrations transmitted through the fabric of the boat. Peters twisted the sidestick at random; the craft swerved and tumbled. The compensator was obviously not set correctly, because the rapid motion almost pushed them out of their seats. They caught sight of a bright spark. It flared green, and simultaneously another jolt tingled their feet. «What was that?» Ander asked in alarm.

«I would suppose it’s your relatives, come to object to my making free with their possessions,» Peters said drily. «I should have been taking precautions, but I was distracted.»

A crackling voice emanated from somewhere on the control panel, saying something demanding. Peters jumped. «It seems you are correct,» Ander Korwits remarked.

«What did he say?»

«Shorn of the imprecations, he demands that you return to the ship,» said Ander.

Peters eyed the panel. «I wasn’t aware this craft had a communicator. Do you know how to operate it?»

Ander shrugged. «Only in theory. If the books have it right, the mechanism should be on the panel in front of Alper.»

«Yes. Here.» The blonde girl handed him an object that trailed a long cord. «Speak into the grille, there. You have to push or activate something, all the stories are clear on that, but I don’t know what.»

His fingers found a smooth lever on the side of the object. He pressed it, felt a click, and said, «Do you hear me? This is John Peters.»

«I hear you,» said the voice. «Return to the ship. You cannot escape.»

Peters couldn’t help himself. «Don’t be trite.»

«I fail to understand.»

«Never mind,» he said to the front transparency, and pressed the key. «I propose that you let me go. I have nothing but my own property and two individuals who seem to be of little or no value to you. The smallcraft is valuable, but you may have it back once I reach
Llapaaloapalla
if you will refrain from damaging your own property.»

«Return to the ship. We require your information, and we cannot accept your exposing us. Return to the ship.»

«I won’t return voluntarily,» Peters told the microphone. «You will have to destroy me, so the information is lost in any case. Why should I expose you? What profit would I gain?»

«Traders,» the voice said, sounding disgusted. «Return to the ship, Peters. Otherwise we will destroy you.»

«You have no imagination,» Peters responded, and lowered the mike. «Ander, if Alper’s panel has the communicator, yours very likely controls the weapons. What do we have? I can’t read the legends on the controls.»

«Here are activators and level controls for four breakbeams,» she said, pointing.

«I have no confidence in my ability to hit anything with a breakbeam,» Peters said. «Where are the controls for the–» Shit. He didn’t know the word. «There are weapons which are self-directing. Fredik Fers told me about them. Are the controls there?»

«I don’t know what you mean.»
Wham!
and another lurch. «Here are a row of activator switches, but the legends are covered with a sign that says ‘do not use’.»

«Can you remove the cover?» Wham! «Quickly. Your relatives are becoming insistent.»

«Not while the ship is jerking about.»

«I’ll try to buy some time.» He spoke into the mike. «Stop shooting, stop shooting. What treatment will I receive if I return?»

«That hasn’t been decided. Return to the ship; we will discuss it. There is no alternative.»

«I cannot return directly,» he pointed out. «The energy cost is prohibitive. I propose to loop the planet in order to redirect my velocity.»

«That is acceptable. We will follow. If you deviate from the proper course we will destroy you.»

Peters looked up and rolled his eyes. This guy had obviously not been reading the stories Ander and Alper had told him about; nobody would talk like that afterward. «I understand,» he told the microphone. «Be tolerant. I am not experienced, and my course may not be exact.»

«Just get it right,» the voice growled.

Peters grinned; here was something off script. «I’ll do my best,» he told the mike.

«You had better. End of transmission.» The other ship was now visible, a spark off to starboard and "high" from their current orientation.

Peters looked at it, then back at Ander. «What have you discovered, if anything?»

«I was able to remove most of the covering, but I broke a fingernail in doing so.» Peters growled; she grinned up at him, then looked back at the panel. Alper Gor was leaning over him, trying to see what they were doing, and pressing her anatomy against his shoulder in the process. «The legend says ‘seekers’,» Ander explained. «There are six activators; I take that to mean we have six ‘seekers’, whatever they are.»

«Activate one of them… no, wait.» He rotated the ship, Alper hanging on his seat back as he did so, until the spark of the other ship was nearly centered in the front transparency. There was a circle there, engraved in the material, with four short lines forming a centerless cross at a forty-five degree angle, and he adjusted the sidestick until the other ship was as nearly centered as possible. «Now. Activate a ‘seeker’.»

Ander threw the switch with a click. «Nothing happened,» she remarked after a moment.

«This may take time… no, we are missing part of the procedure. What else do you find in that area of the panel?»

«A lot of things. It’s confusing.»

«Is there anything labeled ‘door’ or ‘opening’ or anything cognate?»

She looked up in surprise. «Why, yes, there is, but it isn’t next to the ‘seeker’ controls.»

Peters rolled his eyes again. «What do the labels say in that area?»

«There are only glyphs. Here is a
kh
–»

«Are there four of them?»

«Yes, numbered one through four.»

«For the breakbeams, I would imagine. How many ‘seeker’ activators did you say there were?»

«Six.»

«Is there a set of six switches in the ‘door’ group?»

«No. Here is a group of switches, labeled ‘Z12 through ‘Z32.»

«Move those three switches to the ‘open’ position, please.»

«The positions aren’t labeled.»

Peters rolled his eyes again. «Then we will assume that the doors are currently closed,» he said patiently. «Move the switches to the opposite position.»

She did so. «Don’t be cross,» she said with a touch of petulance.

«I’m not cross. I am nervous. You have my apology if I seemed cross.» Alper Gor giggled in his ear. A group of indicators illuminated, two rows of three at the bottom of the front transparency. «Ah. We have achieved something.»

«Those lamps are yellow,» Alper pointed out.

«So?»

«Foolish person.» That was a single word; a better rendering might be ‘silly’. «Yellow is the color for something that is working, but has some deficiency.»

«By coincidence we use it the same way.»

«You are straying farther from course than permissible, even for an inexperienced operator,» the radio said. «Correct your vector.»

The planet nearly filled their field of view. Peters operated the stick, adding velocity at right angles to their course, and picked up the microphone. «Is that better?»

«You are still far from the correct course.»

«I told you I was inexperienced. Which way should I add or subtract velocity?»

«If you roll ship so that the limb of the planet is horizontal,» the voice said, «and the present vector is ahead, you should add velocity in a direction two points to the right and one up.» The tone was remarkably similar to that he’d used to Ander Korwits a moment ago, and both girls giggled this time.

Peters complied with the instructions. «Is that better?»

«Much better. Keep your course. End of transmission.»

Peters flexed his shoulders to relieve the tension, and again rotated the ship to center the other one in the reticle. «Ander, activate a ‘seeker’, please.»

«Just one?»

«Yes, please.»

«Here is number three.» One of the lamps, at top center, went out, and a red-orange one beside it came on.

«What does that color mean?» he asked.

Alper frowned. «In normal circumstances it means ‘danger’ or ‘something is wrong’. But these are weapons. Possibly it means that the other party is in danger.»

«Hmm… I don’t care to–» he was about to say "experiment" when the red lamp went out and a blue one came on. «That looks promising,» he noted.

«Yes. Blue is the color of readiness or proper operation.»

«We can hope.» They waited for several moments, but nothing happened. «We are still missing part of the procedure,» Peters said with a frustrated grimace.

«I was thinking,» Ander began.

«Yes?»

She gestured at the panel. «These are called ‘seekers’. In order to seek something, one must be told what it is, isn’t that right?»

«Yes, that’s inherent in the concept.»

«Precisely. I activated the seeker, and the lamp changed from yellow to red. A few moments later the blue light illuminated. It seems logical to me that ‘seeker number three’ has notified us that it now knows what to seek.»

«Ander, you are a brilliantly intelligent person,» Peters said gravely. «I believe you are precisely correct. So what is missing is the command or permission to the ‘seeker’ to perform its function.»

«So I would suppose.»

Peters looked over the controls available at his chair. Navigation instruments,
zifthkakik
activator and level controls, compensator…

«Perhaps the control is on Alper’s panel,» Ander suggested.

«That wouldn’t make sense,» Alper protested. «The ship operator controls the direction. The control should be available to him.»

There were a pair of pedals or treadles in the floor. Grallt ships didn’t use rudder pedals, and he hadn’t needed any in operating this one… he pressed the right pedal. Nothing. Then the left one. A
thump
from below their feet, and a small object left the front of the ship at high speed. Simultaneously the blue lamp went out, leaving five yellows glowing.

There was a short pause; then the spark of the other ship expanded enough to see it as a sphere, even at that distance, then faded away to nothing. «That seems to have done it,» he said with satisfaction. «I’ll change our course to head for
Llapaaloapalla
.»

«Yes,» said Alper Gor in a musing tone. «I wonder who that was.»

Peters looked up in startlement. They–he–had just killed somebody, or several somebodies, the women had known all their lives.

«It sounded like Brendik Jons,» Ander Korwits remarked, her voice devoid of color.

«Yes,» Alper agreed. «I served him a few times while I was in the tuwe… I didn’t like him very much.»

Ander nodded. «So did I… I don’t think he bathed regularly.»

«No… I wonder who else was on board.»

«I don’t see that we had any real choice in the matter,» Peters said gently.

«No,» Ander agreed. She looked up at him, face sober, sidelit by reflected light from the planet.