Footfall

“Bandits,” Franklin said. “Half a dozen pulsing lights, west and a little south… more of them… start just above the arc of the Earth, you can follow them up to the primary target. They’re all accelerating.”

“Got them,” said Gillespie.

Harry slammed his faceplate shut. So did the others, but more slowly, deliberately. The lights were far apart, and they changed with relation to each other. Don’t panic. Calmly and deliberately as he could, Harry adjusted his straps. No one was watching. Pity.

Michael’s nose was a thick shield, and the butt plate ought to stand up to anything. Turn either of those toward danger and you couldn’t be harmed. But if danger came from half a dozen directions …

WHAM

WHAM

WHAM

Michael was pulsing too, and the spurt bombs were throwing gamma-ray lasers. Death rays! Eat hot gamma rays, foolish Centaurans!

WHAM

WHAM

One of the pulsing lights went out.

“Another one… Bandit, south, just above Europe.”

“Stand by. Maneuvering.”

Harry heard the faint hiss of steam jets. The drive explosions stopped, and Michael was turning, before Harry spotted the other lights.

“Bandits to starboard. I think those are missiles.” Tiny flames, wavering against the stars.

“Roger.”

Blam. Blam. After the shocks of the drive bombs, the big antimissile guns were almost gentle.

“Stand by. Maneuvering. Acceleration.”

WHAM

They attack at night. They know us that well. For us it is night. For them it is day. I should have expected this. Do the prey have other surprises for me?

Already the Herdmaster knew that he had been tricked. He had been strapped to his acceleration pad for an hour now, on duty to handle further emergencies; but this was not what he had expected.

It pulsed like a digit ship, but more slowly. Half a breath passed between explosions. We taught them that, the Herdmaster thought. It looked bigger than a digit ship, smaller than Message Bearer.

Four digit ships, the lowest in their various orbits about Winterhome, converged on the intruder. The Herdmaster saw the pulse drive fail on one of them. He watched, and another died.

How did they do that? They’re killing my fithp! “Defensemaster, you lead Message Bearer now.”

“I obey.”

There were sounds. The screens showed sixteen mounted digit ships released from their ring around Message Bearer’s stern. They formed an expanding ring about the mother.ship.

“Prepare. No spin. Prepare.” The Defensemaster’s voice was sent through the ship.

Spin decreasing. Digit ships launched, to form a defense screen. And where are the others?

He had lost several himself, an hour ago.

There had been eight digit ships in twelve-hour polar orbits, passing repeatedly over various parts of Winterhome. Two of those had been attacked by missiles from the sea. Attackmaster Koothfektil-rusp had agreed with his assessment: the missiles were a diversion like the attack that preceded the bombing of the Kansas foothold. The prey had already aimed one missile at the fithp base in Joha

Wrong! Five, perhaps six could not reach the intruder in time to fight.

He tapped rapidly, summoning knowledge. Four digit ships were already rising from the Moon. Those carried material to wherever the war effort needed meteors. But, though two were empty, though they had risen as soon as the enemy ship was sighted, they would not arrive in time. Still, meteors would be needed. The enemy ship had to come from somewhere.

The ships patrolling Africa: could he use them? Sixteen were in eccentric geosynchronous orbits: dropping low while they moved east, falling outward, drifting west while they arced around and fell back; but always over Africa. Ten of those were in the upper arcs of their orbit, above Message Bearer. Lower above Africa, the remaining six were low enough to engage the enemy. The Defensemaster was doing his frenetic best to coordinate their efforts… and three were not responding.

He eavesdropped … The fi’ talking to the Defensemaster sounded sick, or mentally deficient. He had something like hiccups. “… like a laser attacked us, but not like. Heat all through the ship, fuel pressure very high, as if light we ca

“Can you fight your ship?”

“No. We ca

Enough of this. Mourn in daylight. “Defensemaster.” Tantarent-fid broke contact with the sick fi’. “You will be certain Attackmaster Koothfektil-rusp is aware of the situation.”

“Herdmaster, I’m doing all I can. What could he tell us?”

“Possibly nothing. This is your thuktun. I will see that he is told.” He gestured to one of his aides. “It is important that you and the Attackmaster coordinate digit ships for simultaneous attack.”

“It will be done, Herdmaster.”

“Talker, get me Takpusseh-yamp.” Be glad even of small benefits: the mating season was over. “Breaker-two, is Tashayamp available too? Good. Send Tashayamp to fetch Rogachev from the human restraint cell and bring him to the bridge. You come straight here.”

Night. Jeri lay curled against his chest. It was a frustrating experience, sleeping with a woman in a public place, a woman who did not care that her daughter knew what she did with Arvid Rogachev, but who would not let anyone see her behave improperly. Alien speech sounded. The room tilted sideways. Arvid felt Jeri’s nails dig into his arm.

The others stirred. “What is it?” Jeri demanded.

She believes that I know everything.

Dmitri shouted in Russian.

So does he. “Wait. What else can we do?”

Presently the door warning light came on. Tashayamp stood at the entrance. “Rogachev. You will come.”

Takpusseh-yamp moved at a slant. It wasn’t exactly a run, yet it was fast. His body tilted against Message Bearer’s awkward acceleration. Message Bearer was losing its spin. The Herdmaster must be preparing for acceleration.

The bridge was frantically busy. The Herdmaster summoned him with a wave, and pointed. “I want to know what to expect from that.”

Takpusseh-yamp looked at three displays of the sky. Black, star-sprinkled, with a crescent of Winterhome showing large — and a black dot that flashed light around its edge. There were sparkles in the flash.

“I am not a technician.”

“How did I know you would say that? Breaker-two, I can learn about that craft. Assume that there are humans in it. Assume length of twice eight-cubed srupkithp or less, and half that in width. It moves in the ma

“Yes.”

“Assume at least one weapon which we can’t describe. Query what do they want to do with this?”

“Win a war.” — The intruder had stopped pulsing.

The Herdmaster said, “But of course they—”

“No, listen, Herdmaster. This is no demonstration, to give them higher rank after surrender. If there were two of these, they would have sent two. If they know it to be inadequate, they would not send it until they could build two. I am no Predecessor. I guess my best guess is that this device is expected to set a human foot on the Traveler Fithp.”

“How?”

“You spoke of a new weapon. Remember that the human fithp must write their own thuktunthp.”

At that moment the unknown ship seemed to explode. Message Bearer must have looked like this when the digit ships were loosed on the USSR space station. Ships were spreading out around it … “Defensemaster, how big are those ships?”