The Black Fleet Crisis_ Tyrant's Test Part 42

Never before, though, had it arrived here crippled-burned and poisoned by the intense energies that had poured in through the same aperture through which N'oka Brath fed it. The burns had healed, but the poisons lingered, and with them a memory of the form and action of the attacker.

And never before had it found others waiting--tiny creatures sharing the circles above Brath Qella, the homestone, the place of beginning.

They were unfamiliar in form and did not sing. But they did not move toward the vagabond, or reach out to touch it, and so it left them alone, no imperatives having been invoked.

Still, it noted them and watched them closely.

After the appointed time for waiting, the vagabond began singing.

And for the first time in all its journeys home, an answer came.

But the answer did not come from Brath Qellamit came from one of the tiny eggs sharing the circles. And the answer was sung harshly, without the gentle strength of Brath Qella. The vagabond searched its memories and knew the answer to be form without substance, a deception, a predator's lure.

And there were imperatives concerning predators.

When the vagabond finally broke its-silence and broadcast a fourteen- second interrogative, only Taisden was on the flight deck to hear it.

Hammax was napping in his cabin, wearing all but the boots and gauntlets of a combat suit. Pleck was on the observation deck trying to coax what he considered a more realistic measure of the vagabond's displacement from what he suspected was a faulty magnetometer.

Pakkpekatt and Eckels were behind closed doors in Lando's suite, engaged in a heated discussion prompted by Eckels's belated discovery that an NRI team was aboard the Qella vessel.

Taisden's alarm roused all of them from their other pursuits, and brought all but Pleck running forward to the flight deck.

"Don't know what the question was, but we are responding," Taisden told them. "And the target is changing orbit and accelerating."

"Toward us?"

"Toward the relay satellite."

"She sure can motor when she wants to," Hammax said, shaking his head.

"Is this good?" Eckels demanded. "Is this what you expected?"

"Maybe," Taisden said. "If she's going over there to make nice, next time we can transmit our reply directly from Lady Luck--" At that moment a blue glow appeared at the vagabond's bow, making it suddenly bright both through the viewscreens and on the monitors.

"The scythe," said Pakkpekatt.

"Impossible," said Taisden. "The satellite's three thousand klicks away from it--" Three slender but brilliant beams of energy slashed across the darkness and came together at a point 3,409 kilometers ahead of the vagabond. Where they converged, there was a small explosion intense enough to leave an afterimage in their eyes.

Then the glow vanished, and the lances disappeared, leaving a spreading cloud of atomized plasteel and metal glittering in the light of N'oka Brath.

"She did not go there to make nice," Hammax said in awe. "What kind of weapon is that?"

Even before the vagabond turned back, Taisden had shut down the autoresponder. At the same time, Pakkpekatt pulled the throttles back, dropping them into a lower, faster orbit that would carry them away from the vagabond and over its horizon.

"She could have taken out the whole task force at Gmar Askilon at any time," said Taisden, shaking his head.

"Give me voice to Calrissian," said Pakkpekatt.

"Run it through one of Penga Rift's regular satellites."

"Ready," said Taisden. "Comm two."

"General," said Pakkpekatt, "this is Lady Luck. Why are you firing on us? "

"It wasn't our doing," Lando said. "What did you say to it? Why are you running away?"

"If your yacht has a sensor cloak or a s.h.i.+eld of invulnerability, General, this would be a very good time to inform us."

Lando's answer was lost in a blast of static as the vagabond reached across nearly eight thousand kilometers and vaporized Penga Rift's ORS-2.

"Going over the horizon from that thing looks better all the time,"

said Pakkpekatt.

"Six minutes."

"Colonel---" Eckels's voice had a tremble. "Perhaps it is time to transmit it all while there is still an operational satellite that can be used to relay it. Whatever message we sent just now was not taken well.

Perhaps we need to be more convincing--or more confusing."

Pakkpekatt looked to Taisden. "I have no better ideas, Colonel."

"Then do it," he said. "Doctor--" "Yes. Let me speak to Penga Rift."

Captain Barjas's voice answered the hail. "Doc-tor-thank goodness.

We're showing two satellites have suddenly gone dead, and we were concerned."

"The vagabond has turned hostile," Eckels said.

"Is everyone back on board?"

"Except for you. We just got the last of them up."

"Good. I order you to leave orbit immediately, and jump out to the agreed coordinates for rendezvous one."

"Very well, Dr. Eckels. Good luck, sir."

"We'll be all right. Get out of here--take care of my people."

"Eight minutes to horizon," said Taisden.

"What? How are we losing ground?"

"The target is accelerating toward ORS-One, which is currently relaying the Qella database."

Hammax shook his head. "Keeping the rock between us and it might not be all that easy to do."

"Penga Rift is getting under way," said Taisden.

"Perhaps the reply should be coming from the surface--" Eckels began.

Pakkpekatt ignored him. "Is there any spare bandwidth on ORS-One?"

"I can make some," said Taisden.

"I want to talk to Calrissian."

The agent's fingertips danced over the controls.

"Ready on two."

"General, this is Pakkpekatt."

"Colonel," said Lando. "Looks a little warm out there. Is this a good time to mention that my yacht's uninsured? Perhaps you might consider running away just a little faster--" "General Calrissian, I don't know how long we'll be able to talk. Is there anything you can do to put a stop to this?"

"I don't think so," said Lando. "We just had a little mutiny over here-- about ten minutes ago, my good friend Lobot drained the power cell on our only blaster into one of the droids. The droids are backing him up."

"Do you know of any weakness or vulnerability of the vagabond that we can exploit?"

"Yes. Blaster cannon, cruiser-weight and up. The hull's not armored, and there don't seem to be ray s.h.i.+elds, at least not at those frequencies. You can hole it and hurt it. But you have to get in the first shot, and make it good."

They could hear a second voice saying, "Lando, it does not deserve this-- " Then Eckels found his voice in protest, drowning out Lobot.

"This is completely unacceptable, Colonel.

This artifact is unique, irreplaceable--" "And deadly," said Pakkpekatt. "Acknowledged, General. Stand by." He gestured to Taisden.

"Hyper-comm, secure, to Rieekan and Collomus."

"Go."

"This is Colonel Pakkpekatt, commanding, Teljkon task force at Maltha Obex," he said. "Confirming: We've found the vagabond and made contact with the team aboard. But the target has turned hostile, and we can't get anywhere near--" The flight deck was suddenly and momentarily flooded with light, marking the precipitous disappearance of the third satellite.

"--it. I believe we could jump out using the planet as our s.h.i.+eld, but only at the cost of losing contact with the vessel. I am opting to try to maintain contact, and requesting immediate a.s.sistance and support to secure the target and recover our people." He paused as though listening, then added, "Don't bother with a cruiser--send a Star Destroyer, or two. We're going to need a heavyweight to stop her."

Chapter 11.

The morning after the Battle of N'zoth, the Kell 1 Hath Corporation liner Star Morning entered the. system and requested a rendezvous with Intrepid for the purpose of picking up pa.s.sengers.

Since the news did not directly involve Luke, he knew nothing of it until Wialu sent him a message requesting that he come to the cabin she and Akanah had been sharing. He found the women putting the cabin in order, preparing to leave. Akanah greeted him with an eager embrace.

"Did you hear? Our s.h.i.+p will be here in about an hour."

Luke turned to Wialu. "You're going back to J't'p'tan?"

"We are going away," she said. "It is time for us to find a quieter place. We need to grieve, and heal--and-to absorb the lessons of J't'p'tan, and find a new focus."

His gaze narrowed; "Then the rest of the Circle--they're on the s.h.i.+p already?"

"We are no longer needed at J't'p'tan," she said.

"And so the Fallana.s.si disappear again."

"We do not require or desire the attention of outsiders," said Wialu.

"And events have already cost us much privacy. We will go away long enough and far enough to earn it back."

"I don't suppose I was expecting an invitation to come along," Luke said, turning his gaze on Akanah.

"I wish there were more time," she said, showing a sad smile. "I wish that I could finish what I started. It was unfair to you for me to make that promise, not knowing if there would be a chance to keep it."

"Unfair," Luke repeated. "I'm not sure that's a strong enough word.

Because when you made me another promise, the one that brought me on this journey, you must have known that you couldn't keep it--that I'd run into a wall of silence if we found the Circle." He looked back toward Wialu. "Unless you asked me here to tell me more than good-bye."

"You can't ask that of her, Luke--" "Why not?" he said, his gaze hardening. "She went to the trouble of scattering signs and markers across five sectors so that one child could come home. But she won't even come to the door when another one's standing outside knocking.

Can you explain that to me, at least--why Akanah is welcomed back, and I'm being turned away?"

"Akanah is of the Fallana.s.si, by blood and affinity both," said Wialu.

"We do not claim you, Luke Skywalker."

"You do not claim--what are you saying? That Nas.h.i.+ra isn't my mother?

That my mother wasn't of the Circle?"

Wialu nodded toward Akanah. "This is the one who must provide your answers."

Blinking, Luke stared at Akanah questioningly.

She looked away uncomfortably, then sank down onto the edge of the bunk as though it were something fragile.

"I know nothing about your mother, Luke," she said in a small voice.

"And I have not told you the truth about mine."

All of Luke's emotions save for curiosity were numbed by her words.

"What does your mother have to do with this?"