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  Eric spent a portion of the wait washing the gold oil from his face and hands. When he returned to the bridge with his skin its usual light brown, Vani, to his dismay, acted horrified, cowering from him. But then she laughed at his pained expression. She was picking up their sense of humor fast. He hoped they weren’t ruining her.

  Finally, their sensors spotted a shuttle leaving Vani’s world that was not heading toward Excalibur, but appeared to be making for the flagship.

  “Prepare to dump the opant cartons in space,” Eric said, following the movement of the shuttle in the cube. It was a thousand miles from Vani’s world at the edge of the fleet to the flagship at the forward tip. They had tracked the shuttle over halfway before deciding upon its destination. The later they performed their rescue, the more confident they could feel that the tiny ship was indeed bringing their friends to Rak. Nothing was certain, however, and Eric knew if they didn’t catch the right ship the first time, they wouldn’t have another chance.

  “I dislike using the graviton flux to sweep the clothes outside,” Sammy said. “It’s dangerous. We should have done it manually.”

  “Had we dumped the cargo already, it might have tipped them off to our plan.” Eric was not worried about these minor technical difficulties. Something else was nagging at him, something he couldn’t quite pinpoint. He had asked Sammy, what are we overlooking? Something we’ll kick ourselves for if we fail, Sammy had replied.

  Vani was not aware of any major weapon systems built into the fleet. But that did not mean they weren’t there.

  Vani tugged on Eric’s arm. She had taken to touching him in small ways. Presumably, most Kaulikans, after reaching a certain point in friendship, were very affectionate. He was not complaining.

  “Are you throwing away all these beautiful jackets?” Her opant coat, which she had removed for her sit under the Healer but otherwise would not part with, was glowing a bright orange, which Eric assumed meant she was excited.

  “Yes.”

  She looked unhappy. “They are so pretty to waste.”

  Sammy agreed. “If Strem’s uncle were here, he’d have something to say about this.”

  Eric chuckled. “He’d say, save the cargo and to hell with my nephew.” Once more, he consulted the course of the shuttle in question still making a beeline for the flagship. “How much longer?”

  “It will be there in five minutes. It’s beginning to brake.”

  “All right. Drop the goods and let’s go.”

  Excalibur shook, like the old freighter was coughing up its insides, which was not far from the truth. They rolled out of the ion wake and Sammy opened the windows, and they were able to see the trail of left-behind opants ignite in the ion wake, turning to a cosmic ash. A number of the rocket-powered ships could be seen off their bow, multipronged flares scampering to keep up.

  They didn’t stand a chance. The hundreds of Kaulikan worlds stretched above and below and to the left for thousands of miles, purple candles on a circular slice of space. Then a bar of light pierced Excalibur's holographic cube, representing the freighter’s plotted course, and before the eye could blink, their relationship to the purple candles altered drastically. Vani practically fell over. Now they floated above the blue nine-wheeled flagship, staggering in its dimensions even after their experience with Vani’s world, the remainder of the fleet trailing behind them like sparks on an infinitely receding cone. Bay doors were slowly opening atop the flagship’s central shaft. And they sighted a shuttle, heading directly for those doors.

  “Such speed,” Vani gasped.

  “Get in front of it,” Eric ordered. “Force it to slow down.”

  Sammy maneuvered Excalibur between the shuttle and the flagship. To their immense surprise, the shuttle opened fire on them, pulses of bright red beams, which were soundlessly absorbed by their force field.

  “Lasers,” Sammy complained. “If we take them inside and they keep shooting, they could hurt us.”

  “We took them by surprise. Rak will order them to halt their fire. He doesn't want Excalibur damaged.” And as if his voice had a power all its own, the lasers stopped. “See! Stay in front of them. Do you have our rear door open?”

  “Yes.” An alert began to sound on their sensor beams. “More ships are coming in from behind,” Sammy muttered absently, concentrating on their approach to the shuttle.

  “It doesn’t matter. We’ll have these guys in a moment.” The Kaulikans were trying to squeeze past them, faking in every direction, but it was like a turtle trying to dodge a lion. Excalibur coasted to within a hundred yards, and Sammy elongated the graviton flux, the force field gripping the shuttle like an iron fist and holding it in one spot. The alert on their sensor beams grew louder.

  “Hope they have the presence of mind to turn off their rockets,” Eric said. The force field, compressing the exhaust, could cause the tiny ship to explode.

  “Their pilot knows he’s caught,” Sammy replied, deftly manipulating the flux. The shuttle’s rockets flickered out. “Not a moment too soon, with those other ones coming up on us.”

  “Yeah.” Eric nodded. Then it hit him. Even before he whirled to check the report on the long-distance scanners he remembered what he had been forgetting. They had been plotting and planning in their own little universe so long they had lost sight of the larger powers. The sensors confirmed his worst fears. The ships approaching at their rear were not small nearby rocket-propelled shuttles. They were large graviton-driven battle cruisers, millions of miles distant, but closing at speeds that would have left Excalibur standing still. “The Patrol!” he cried.

  “Who?” Vani asked, worried.

  Sammy consulted the scanner and his pale face turned a shade whiter. “There’s two dozen of them,” he whispered. “What a coincidence that they should show up now.”

  “It isn’t a coincidence!” Eric yelled, furious with himself. All along, his subconscious had computed the danger. That is why he’d had a bad feeling about zooming out to a comfortable distance. A part of him had known they would be spotted immediately. “The Patrol has been looking for us all along. The interference we had on our communications earlier must have been caused by one of their tachyon sensors groping for us. And just now, when we raced across the fleet, the graviton wave we sent out must have made it a cinch for them to lock onto us.”

  Sammy nodded. “They probably figured out that we jumped beyond the web and have been tearing their hair out since, worrying that we’d run into the Kaulikans.”

  “Who is The Patrol?” Vani cried. The shuttle remained frozen in space only a few hundred yards away. They could actually see the frantic Kaulikan personnel through the shuttle’s windows.

  “Our government’s armed forces,” Sammy said.

  “A bunch of military maniacs who sat by and watched Kashi get burned,” Eric said bitterly.

  “That’s not fair. You don’t know that for sure,” said Sammy.

  “Don’t I? I tell you what’s not fair! Last week this young lady standing here had to watch her brother go up in smoke!”

  “The Patrol did not ignite the nova.”

  Eric chuckled. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they did.”

  “Now you’re being ridiculous. And what is the point of this endless argument? The Patrol is here and there’s nothing we can do about it. Maybe it’s a good thing.”

  “Right, they’ll set everything straight,” he muttered sarcastically, turning away from the window. Everything he experienced in the last two days seemed to pour through him then, an avalanche of images that he only wished he could arrange into a coherent picture that could show him what to do: the initial broadcast they had received, the tape of Kashi’s end, the walls melting, the parks in flames, the people running; the thousands of Kaulikans laboring over the ion drive, which could not compensate for its inefficiency with its size; Vani’s face in the garden as she remembered Belri, her hand slipping through the sandy soil as she spoke of her future. All this talk of ‘racial d
estiny’ versus ‘individual interference’ had no strength next to the feeling he was left with. He looked at Vani. She was staring at him. Something in her eyes seemed to bring him to a decision. He stepped toward a supply cabinet located above the hyper drive.

  “I’m going ahead and pulling the shuttle inside,” Sammy said, watching him.

  “Fine.” Eric opened the cabinet and began to search. “How long till the cruisers arrive?”

  “About a minute.”

  Outside the window the shuttle began to arc overhead, disappearing out of view behind the rear of the ship. A moment later there came a jolt as the force field deposited it inside their cargo bay, followed by a mild vibration – the cargo-bay doors closing.

  “We have them,” Sammy said. “I’m anxious to see if our friends are really inside.”

  “So am I.” Eric found what he was looking for – a gun – and closed the cabinet.

  “Are you going to try and get their guards to surrender?” Sammy asked, seeing the weapon in his hand.

  “Not exactly.”

  “You know, I’ve been worrying about that. We’ve got them trapped but they’ve still got Strem and Cleo and Jeanie trapped. What should we do?”

  “The unexpected.” Eric raised the gun, pointed it at Sammy. “Move away from the controls, buddy.”

  “Eric?” Vani moaned.

  Sammy seldom showed strong emotion. This was a classic exception. Pure unadulterated amazement filled his face. “What are you doing? This is ridiculous! We’ve got the others! We can leave!”

  He took a step closer. “Put your hands up. Don’t touch anything on the console.”

  Sammy stood slowly, backing away from his seat, his hands raised about as high as his belly button. “Why are you doing this?”

  “I want a future for these people.” Keeping an eye on Sammy, he expanded the image of the flagship in the cube, pinpointing the open bay doors, giving Excalibur a new destination. Their sensors had The Patrol cruising perhaps thirty seconds away. In less time than that, the cruisers could snap them up in a tractor beam.

  “You’re going to take us inside the flagship!” Sammy gasped.

  “Yes.” He reached for the button to the graviton drive.

  “No!” Sammy yelled, diving toward him. Eric saw him coming. He had the gun level and he had time to pull the trigger. But this wasn’t some alien come to arrest him. This was…Sammy. He dropped the gun and tried to shove him away. Sammy was considerably weaker but every bit as quick, and as he fell backward onto the floor he grabbed Eric s arm and pulled him with him. The confrontation was not going to last. Eric could subdue him in seconds. The problem was he didn’t have those seconds. Tangled on the floor in a knot of arms and legs, he glanced over at the screen and saw all two dozen of The Patrol cruisers entering the fringe of the Kaulikan fleet.

  “Vani!” he shouted. “Push that large white button!”

  Vani did not hesitate. She hit the button. The flagship did not merely rush toward them: one instant they were outside it, the next inside. But even here Excalibur began to wobble violently as the long invisible arm of The Patrol reached out to snap them back.

  “Tractor beam!” Eric cursed, throwing Sammy aside and jumping back to the controls. The Kaulikan docking bay was huge, brightly lit, cluttered with small craft of a variety of designs and sizes. At a glance he saw several clear control booths crowded with watching people. But the wide bay door held his attention, obviously straining to close against the pressure of a projected graviton flux. Had there been atmosphere in the bay, no doubt he would have heard loud screeching. Twice the doors appeared to make a breakthrough, almost sealing, only to be pried apart by forces, though still distant, of a far higher magnitude. He began to manipulate Excalibur’s graviton flux, setting in motion a counterforce, a far weaker field but one having the advantage of proximity. The doors paused, suspended, trembling, then rifled shut. Vani let out a cry.

  “Eric!”

  The stun beam hit him between the shoulder blades. His mind registered the spot but he was unconscious before he reached the floor.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  “I can’t believe you shot me,” Eric said, lying flat on his back and staring at the ceiling. He had awakened a couple of minutes before to Vani applying a damp towel to his forehead. She continued to kneel by his side, worried. He could probably sit up but was enjoying the ‘fallen hero’ scenario. Besides, Sammy was standing over him, still holding the gun.

  “I can’t believe you pulled a gun on me,” Sammy said.

  “That is not as bad as actually going ahead and pulling the trigger.”

  “You started it.”

  “Are we still friends?”

  Sammy glanced out of the window, and Eric did likewise. A cluster of small craft had barricaded the closed bay doors. Excalibur’s position remained unchanged. “I don’t know,” Sammy said. “Now, I’m a hostage.”

  The situation had a certain ironic symmetry to it: the shuttle guards had Strem and the girls; they had the shuttle guards; the flagship had them; and The Patrol had the flagship. He realized their words were not being translated into Kaulikan for Vani’s benefit. “You turned off the translator?”

  “I don’t want the two of you making plans behind my back.”

  “Sammy!”

  “Oh, all right.” He reactivated the bridge speakers.

  “Does all this mean we will see Lira soon?” Vani asked.

  He finally decided to sit up. He had a bump on his head, a strained muscle in his lower back, and an overall jangled nerve sensation that was an inevitable by-product of being stunned, but he would live awhile longer. “I’m working on it,” he told her, patting her knee and climbing into a chair. “How long was I out?”

  “Ten minutes. You snore.”

  “Have any Kaulikans come knocking on our door?”

  “No, and none of them will,” Sammy said, seriously. “I’m maintaining our force field. Eric, may I ask, what in the galaxy came over you?”

  Eric winked at Vani. He felt better than he had in a long time. It was because he was doing the right thing, he was sure. “I guess I’m just a sucker for a pretty face.”

  “You’ve gotten us into a very dangerous situation.”

  “No more dangerous than when you popped us out of hyper space next to the nova.” He sat up in his chair. “Would you put that gun away.”

  Sammy jammed it into his belt. “I think I’ll keep it handy.”

  “Don’t act so shocked. You saw it coming. And you know what I’m doing is right.”

  Sammy scratched his scraggly head. “What are you doing?”

  Someone started to bang against the locked door at the end of the living quarters hallway that led to the cargo bay. “Have you had a chance to see who it is we picked up?” he asked.

  “No, I was too busy trying to protect the ship from the outside, never mind the inside.”

  Sammy turned on the cargo bay’s remote cameras. The shuttle rested in the center of the storage area, wisps of smoke rising from the tips of its hot rocket nozzles. Two armed Kaulikans – the guard uniforms were gray, not black, as he had supposed when he’d had his contacts in – were bent over the door, causing the noise. Sammy shifted the picture’s angle and they peered straight through the shuttle’s side windows. Sitting on the floor beneath a third Kaulikan guard, their hands and feet bound, were Strem, Cleo and Jeanie.

  “Not a bad plan, huh?” Eric asked.

  “If we were somewhere out in space right now, I would agree with you. What are we going to do with these guards?”

  “Nothing.” He activated the cargo bay’s speakers. “Hey, Strem, what did you think of the rescue?”

  The Kaulikan guards looked up, anxious. Through the remote cameras they could see Strem smiling. “Not bad, not bad,” he said, his voice coming by way of the open shuttle doors, low but clear. “Tell me, where did you stash the opants?”

  Sammy and Eric exchanged looks. Vani burst out laughi
ng. “I’m sure they were insured,” Eric said.

  Strem stopped smiling. “My uncle never insures anything! Where are they?”

  “Cosmic dust,” Eric said. “It was either you or them.”

  “Get us out of here,” Cleo said. “I’m hungry.”

  “Cosmic dust,” Strem moaned. “He’ll kill me.”

  “Don’t worry,” Eric said. “He’ll probably be in jail by the time we get home.” He leaned over and whispered in Sammy’s ear. “I would rather not tell him where we are.”

  “He has to know.”

  Eric sighed. More arguments. “I suppose.”

  “Do something about these goons,” Strem said impatiently. “I have to go to the bathroom.”

  “I have some good news and some bad news,” Eric began. “The Patrol has two dozen battle cruisers surrounding the Kaulikan flagship.”

  “Incredible,” Strem said. “What’s the good news?”

  “We’re locked inside the flagship,” Sammy said.

  “Is this some kind of joke?” Strem asked. “How did we get here? Eric, if you had anything to do with...”

  A signal was coming in on the light-speed channel Rak ad previously used. Eric immediately put Strem on hold. He was beginning to enjoy doing so. Kaulikan men and women in pressure suits were gathering outside, beyond the limits of Excalibur’s force field. He waved to them and a few waved back. He opened the channel to Rak. “First Councillor, this is Commander Eric. What’s happening?”

  Rak needed a moment to collect his thoughts. “Commander, I was hoping you could clarify the situation. Are you aware that there are twenty-four alien craft surrounding our flagship?”

  “Yes. Have they tried to contact you yet?”

  “No. Are these your people?”

  “Yes.”

  “On their approach, they projected a force field of a nature similar to what envelops your ship and tried to drag you out of our docking bay.”