Dushau

SEVEN

Rescue

When they arrived at the bridge, the orderly routine had been turned to furor. The internal operations screens all showed crew reporting malfunctions. At the engineering station, the overloaded screen splitter malfunctioned, to show off-duty Lehiroh in toilet rooms, sauna, or even in sexual intercourse.

Just as they were escorted down into the command well, the captain stood and roared for silence. All about him, screens died to black, the incessant chuckling and chirping of a living ship silenced, and his crew faced him in total stillness. Then his eye lit on Krinata.

She strode forward demanding, "What is going on here?"

The Lehiroh's natural coloring didn't show any darkening but his eyes bulged. In a strained voice, he answered, "A momentary malfunction, Commodore-Lady. It shall be corrected shortly. Was your visit with the cargo satisfactory?"

"The visit, yes. your treatment of them—not especially. I believe there are too many objects in the ex-sickbay which they could turn into weapons." She glanced about at the dead bridge. "Are you quite certain the snapfield is still on down there?"

'*Of course." His eyes widened still further, and he sent someone to check. "Believe me this has never happened before, Commodore-Lady."

"I don't intend to believe you, Captain. I intend to check your logs. Meanwhile. I certainly can't trust you with such a sensitive cargo. So instead of placing reinforcements aboard >our craft, I'm taking the prisoners with me to Roving Bettina. A: least we have a proper brig, and a Sentient smart enough to keep the environment in order."

A stench had reached her worse than Skhe body odor. The Lehiroh coughed, eyes streaming. "Mister Rndeel, let us collect our charges and get off this sewer."

The captain sputtered in several languages, confusing the overhead translators. Before he could regain composure, Krinata spun on her heel.

It can't be this easy! her mind shrieked as they retraced their steps toward the sickbay. But she'd gotten away with stealing Jindigar from the Emperor—surely she could steal six Dushau from a mere Duke.

When they got there, the shaftway's deck was slick with something offensive and slimy—as if a Binwon's tank had overflowed. Krinata coughed, feeling her sinuses fill up. But she kept going, and found the snapfield off.

Rndeel drew her attention to the guard on the field's console, way down the hall. He was sitting hip deep in the noxious substance, a wallfield keeping it in that branch of the shaftway. His body was slumped over the controls.

When Krinata charged into the sickbay, Thirlein's image came on the screen. "I'm not going to hurt him. I'm pumping the stuff out of there as fast as I can. This really was a malfunction. Honest. I didn't know he'd be allergic to it!"

Rndeel said, "Send a scurry to him with appropriate medication. You are not to allow harm to anyone."

Krinata asked, "Where are the Dushau?"

"Three of them have gone into my core room," said Thirlein nervously. "I can't track them there."

Rndeel looked at Krinata in grim surmise. "Jindigar told the Dushau that the armed escort ships are gone."

She couldn't deduce what the Dushau were up to, but she followed when Rndeel said, "I've got to hurry," and took off.

He led the way/as if he'd lived a century in that ship, and even with avoiding Lehiroh in distress, and crash bulkheads slammed down, they were at the Sentient's main housing in moments.

The core room was a small cave filled with gleaming towers, sparkling fields, and odorless, cold air. Three Dushau worked at a panel in one instrument-filled wall.

Just as Krinata took this hi, one of them said, "Got it!" The panel came up, and another probed the opening with a forceps, extracting a flat housing about the size of Krinata's forearm and twice as wide.

Rndeel swore protestingly, but it was too late. The lights and gravity went out, leaving Krinata floating above the deck, fighting down primitive panic. The incessant hiss of the air circulators stopped. The drive whine dopplered to silence. It was like being buried in black cotton.

But she heard a Dushau swear, at least she assumed the bitter surprise coupled with unfamiliar words to be invective. A moist hand closed over her ankle and hauled her down. Slick fingers pulled her hand onto a grip. Rndeel said, "They've a'taken Thirlein's core outta her circuits. Folly is dead in space. We've no touch with Arlai. Captain, we shoulda run for it?"

"Not without the six of them." She called to the other three Dushau, "Where are the rest of you?"

"They'll meet us at the lander bay," called one of the Dushau in Standard. "Sorry we forgot to warn you; didn't realize things would shut down so fast."

Rndeel swore. "Amateur spacers! Stand aside and let an expert get you out of here."

Defensively, one of the Dushau said, "We couldn't leave Thirlein to their mercy after what she'd done to them."

"Dushau!" spat Rndeel. "All alike! Get your fuzzy body over here un' chain up behina me, Captain. Go offn your own an you'll ram ursels agin shut bulkheads." He added some more blistering epithets as he dragged Krinata behind him.

Her questing hand met soft nap, and a warm Dushau hand closed over her shoulder as they moved in pitch darkness. "Hang on now, people, and we'll be a'lightin' in a moment."

They floundered across the cavern, but finally a light flared in Rndeel's hand. He gave it to Krinata and produced others. "Captain, we musta darken the lights out there. No use helpin' the enemy find us."

"Can you lead us through the dark, Rndeel?"

"Captain!" he reproached. "Dis 'ere Skhe professional!"

"Sorry," she apologized.

He was as good as his word. They swam over fouled floors, and through stagnated odors. Pushing off hard from bulkheads and using the overhead handholds, Rndeel propelled the living chain surely through the maze. At last they came to a portal Rndeel claimed to be the lander bay. Inside, he flashed his light and the others did as well.

"How are we going to launch a lander," asked Krinata, "without Thirlein or Arlai?" There was a jittering scream in the pit of her stomach at the idea of going back to the tube through open space, but an unassisted launch was even worse.

"Rinperee," said one of the Dushau, "can manual launch and get us across to Truth."

"If anyone can, Rinperee can," agreed Rndeel. "Where be the lady?"

"Collecting our dead, of course," answered a Dushau.

"Of course," echoed Rndeel, adding suitable invective. "I'll a'fetch the fools. Try you to board the lander without killing ursels."

Twisting like an acrobat, Rndeel reversed and dove through the hatch into the dark shaftway. Using their lights, the three Dushau spread out to the launch controls, searching for a manual way of opening the lander's hatch without opening the bay doors to space. Krinata felt lost and helpless. To watch such procedures in adventures did not equip one to face it in real life. She could not have found the controls, nor operated them. But apparently the Dushau weren't quite the amateurs Rndeel labelled them.

After what could not have been more than seconds, the lander's hatch opened, spilling cheerful light. "Let's check it out," suggested one Dushau.

They piled through the hatch and found Dushau gravity in a comfortably appointed interior, fifteen red multispecies reclining chairs, adjustable light and gravity at each, ample personal cargo stowage, and a drop-platform to a cargo bay below the cabin. The controls were set apart from the cabin by a hushwall that scintillated with interesting patterns and could display the sensors' view of the outside terrain. Two of the Dushau slid into the control cabin and called readings to another stationed at the rear of the craft checking dials inside an access hatch.