[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

unfortunate concerned, unsighted at the time.' He smiled. Then the smile
faded. 'Besides, Major, I think you'll find Called-To-Arms Eweirl has a certain
latitude in such matters.' He reached out and patted Quilan's hand. 'You must
not concern yourself with the unhappy incident any further.'
Quilan spent a lot of time in the ship's gym. Eweirl did, too, though they
exchanged few words. Quilan had little he wanted to say to the other male,
and Eweirl didn't seem to care. They worked and hauled and pulled and ran
and sweated and panted and dust-bathed and showered alongside each other,
but barely acknowledged the other's presence. Eweirl wore earplugs and a
visor, and sometimes laughed as he exercised, or made growling, appreciative
noises.
Quilan ignored him.
He was brushing the dust-bath off one day when a bead of sweat dropped
from his face and spotted in the dust like a globule of dirty mercury, rolling
into the hollow by his feet. They had mated once in a dust-bath, on their
honeymoon. A droplet of her sweet sweat had fallen into the grey fines just so,
rolling with a fluid silky grace down the soft indentation they had created.
He was suddenly aware he had made a keening, moaning noise. He looked out
at Eweirl in the main body of the gym, hoping he would not have heard, but
the white-furred male had taken his plugs and visor off, and was looking at
him, grinning.
The privateer rendezvoused with something after five days' travel. The ship
went very quiet and moved oddly, as though it was on solid ground but being
slid around from side to side. There were thudding noises, then hisses, then
most of the remaining noise of the craft died. Quilan sat in his little cabin and
tried accessing the exterior views on his screens; nothing. He tried the
navigation information, but that had been closed off too. He had never before
lamented the fact that ships had no windows or portholes.
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
He found Visquile on the ship's small and elegantly spare bridge, taking a
data clip from the craft's manual controls and slipping it into his robes. The
few data screens still live on the bridge winked out.
'Estodien?' Quilan asked.
'Major,' Visquile said. He patted Quilan on the elbow. 'We're hitching a ride.'
He held up a hand as Quilan opened his mouth to ask where to. 'It's best if you
don't ask with whom or to where, Major, because I'm not able to tell you.' He
smiled. 'Just pretend we're still under way using our own power. That's
easiest. You needn't worry; we're very secure in here. Very secure indeed.' He
touched midlimb to midlimb. 'See you at dinner.'
Another twenty days passed. He became even fitter. He studied ancient
histories of the Involveds. Then one day he woke and the ship was suddenly
loud about him. He turned on the cabin screen and saw space ahead. The
navigation screens were still unavailable, but he looked all about the ship's
exterior views through the different sensors and viewing angles and didn't
recognise anything until he saw a fuzzy Y shape and knew they were
somewhere on the outskirts of the galaxy, near the Clouds.
Whatever had brought them here in only twenty days must be much faster
than their own ships. He wondered about that.
The privateer craft was held in a bubble of vacuum within a vast blue-green
space. A wobbling limb of atmosphere three metres in diameter flowed slowly
out to meet with their outer airlock. On the far side of the tube floated
something like a small airship.
The air was briefly cold as they walked through, turning gradually warmer as
they approached the airship. The atmosphere felt thick. Underneath their
feet, the tunnel of air seemed as pliantly firm as wood. He carried his own
modest luggage; Eweirl toted two immense kit bags as though they were
purses, and Visquile was followed by a civilian drone carrying his bags.
The airship was about forty metres long; a single giant ellipsoid in dark
purple, its smooth-looking envelope of skin lined with long yellow strakes of
frill which rippled slowly in the warm air like the mantle of a fish. The tube
led the three Chelgrians to a small gondola slung underneath the vessel. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]