Eternity's End (31 page)

As the crewmen trudged forward to obey, Deutsch closed his eyes and connected to his inner com. "Narseil ship," he muttered low in his throat, "we are gathering crew as ordered. Do you have further instructions?"

The answer came quickly.
"Flechette, prepare for normal-space."

Normal-space? Deutsch thought. If he were Te'Gunderlach, he would have seized on that as one last chance to level the playing field. He hoped none of the crew would have ideas of that sort. He wanted this to be a clean surrender. "Understood," he replied.

He turned to the pilot standing watch over the bridge controls. "You have the con. Keep the ship stable, but do nothing more. Cooperate with the Narseil and be polite if they speak to you. I'll be on the muster deck."

Deutsch rotated in mid-air, and glided off the bridge and down the smoky passageway.

This wouldn't be easy, with only two in the net. Legroeder and Palagren brought
H'zzarrelik
alongside the pirate ship. Its hull was dotted with craters where the remaining weapons had been carefully eliminated.
Close enough?
Legroeder asked, feeling as if he could reach out and touch the pirate ship's hull with his hands.

I think so,
Palagren answered.
Let's extend the net and see
.

The glittering spiderweb of the net expanded as they drew more power from the flux-reactor. The net had suffered damage in the explosion of that first torpedo, and they dared not stretch it too far, or too fast. And yet, they needed to encircle the other ship. It would have been impossible if the net had not been overdesigned with this mission in mind.

All right, Legroeder—reach under. See how far your arm can stretch
.

The net gave, as Legroeder stretched his "arm" all the way under the raider ship and up the other side. Palagren reached over the top. Their fingers met on the far side of the pirate vessel, and interlocked to complete the grapple. After checking the strength of the net, they began drawing the two ships upward through the shifting, sparkling layers of the Flux. It was a hard labor, with the increased mass and just the two of them in the net. Soon Legroeder was straining, and having difficulty focusing his efforts.

// Let us help... //

Before he could respond, he felt strength flowing to him from within, from his Narseil-installed implants. He was startled for a moment, then realized that they were not providing actual power, but simply helping him to channel the strength flowing into the net from the flux-reactor, like a surge of electricity. The two ships rose, turning like a lily petal on the surface of a pond, as the clouds of the deeper Flux gave way to the expanding circlets of light of shallower layers—and finally the cold dark of interstellar space, dotted with the fires of a million distant suns.

The two scorched ships floated, bound together, a ludicrous emblem of human and Narseil power against the majesty of the universe.

Normal-space,
Palagren reported to Commander Fre'geel.

The muster deck was full of shocked and sullen crewmen when Acting Captain Deutsch arrived. About half were suited for vacuum, and the rest were standing around waiting for orders. Ensign Ganton was just completing his inspection. He handed Deutsch three sidearms removed from crew members. "They all check," the ensign said softly. "Except for... Gunner Lyle. He refuses to give up his weapon."

Deutsch looked down the line of crewmen. Lyle was an older crewman, a veteran of dozens of buccaneering flights, a former commando, now a ship's gunner. He was silversuited, but with his forcefield turned off. He sneered as Deutsch approached. "Gunner Lyle, surrender your weapon," Deutsch said, holding out his hand.

"I don't
surrender
," Lyle said, glaring down at the rigger. He stood about half a meter taller than Deutsch.

"I see. Do you obey orders?"

Lyle's head jerked a little. "I answer to the captain. And you aren't the goddamned captain."

Deutsch rose on his levitators to gaze straight into the eyes of the pirate. "I am now. Are you planning to dispute my authority?" His voice was beginning to sound ominous, echoing from the twin speakers on his armored chest.

"Captain Gunderlach—"

"Is
dead
," Deutsch said, letting his voice turn to hardened steel. "As you will be, if you do not obey your
new
captain."

"The captain," Lyle snarled, "would never give his ship up to
Narseil
." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "And he wouldn't give up his crew, either."

"That's right," Deutsch said softly. The beating red flame of anger that drove him so effectively in the net was beginning to rise again in his thoughts, and he didn't try to keep it from his voice. "He wouldn't have. The captain thought he was invulnerable. And that's why he and a lot of your friends are dead right now. And if
you
don't obey
my
orders, a lot more will join them." Deutsch beckoned to Ensign Ganton. "Ensign, remove this man's weapon."

He could see fear in the ensign's eyes. He also saw Lyle's hand moving toward the sidearm at his waist. Deutsch caught Lyle's defiant gaze—and an instant later, Deutsch's telescoping left arm shot out to twice its normal length, and he caught Lyle's gun hand in a hydraulic vice-grip. Lyle's face went pale.

Deutsch chose not to break the man's wrist. Instead, he used his network of fingertip sensors to locate the faint aura of nerve pathways in Lyle's wrist; and as Deutsch smiled at the man, he searched his augmented memory-stores for the image he wanted. He sent it out, amplified: an irresistible image of a crushing force closing on Lyle's wrist, a vice slowly splintering the bone, and pain like nothing the man had ever dreamed of...

Lyle sank to his knees, trembling. His breath escaped with a gasp, and then a curse. Deutsch released his wrist unharmed. But Lyle remained on his knees, cradling his right arm in agony.

Deutsch motioned Ensign Ganton over. "Remove his weapon." The terrified ensign obeyed, taking care not to touch Lyle's arm. Deutsch accepted the gun and amplified his voice as he spoke to the other stunned crewmembers. "We have already paid the price of our failure. We paid it in blood. But it's done. As your acting captain, I command that no more shall die needlessly."

At that moment, he heard a small inner voice, providing an update from the bridge. He acknowledged, then linked to the intercom and announced ship-wide, "We are now in normal-space. All suited personnel move into the airlocks and open the outer doors. You are to offer no resistance to the Narseil. Essential systems crew only, remain at your stations."

Deutsch watched as the suited weapons crew flicked on their silversuit-forcefields and moved into the airlock. Lyle rose, silent with rage, and activated his silversuit. A sneer crossed his features an instant before his face turned to a blank mirror. Then he followed the others into the airlock. Deutsch waited until the inner door closed and the outer door opened, then turned his attention to the rest of the crew.

Legroeder had a clear view from the net as the Narseil boarders, looking like large metal insects, floated across space to the pirate ship. They moved efficiently, but more cautiously than their raider counterparts had. Their first priority was to scan the suited pirates who had come out of the
Flechette
's airlocks and to secure them as prisoners before entering the pirate ship itself. Who knew what traps might await them aboard
Flechette
? Legroeder did not envy them their job.

As he watched, along with Palagren, Legroeder sensed a chromatic flicker in his vision, and certain chimelike inner sounds; and he realized that his implants were busily recording, buzzing with analysis and observation. Their progress was displayed to him as streaks of color-coded light at the edges of his inner vision. He exhaled slowly, trying not to let it distract him.

In the space between the two ships, the Narseil commandos were corralling the silversuited pirates into groups. Others were preparing to move into the enemy ship. Something didn't look right to Legroeder, and he nudged Palagren and pointed to one of the clusters of pirates.

Is that raider commando moving out away from the others?
Palagren asked softly.

Yah
. Legroeder realized that three of the Narseil commandos were already moving to encircle the figure. But before he could even distinguish what was happening, there were two flashes—and one of the Narseil went tumbling backward. An instant later, the fleeing raider dissolved in a cloud of sparkling silver particles, expanding into the darkness of space.

Deutsch saw it happen on the monitor. Saw his man—had to have been Lyle—pull out a concealed weapon, take one idiotic vengeful shot, then overload his forcefield suit as the Narseil fired back. An instant later, he was ionized dust. What the hell was he trying to do, take a Narseil with him to show how brave he was? And maybe take all of his shipmates, when the Narseil decided to exact punishment?
Lyle, you stupid sonofabitch bastard
. Deutsch turned and shouted to the roomful of men, all of whom had seen it on the monitor. "Listen up! If any of you is thinking of doing some brainless asshole thing like that, tell me and I'll put you out of your misery right now. If we don't all get killed for what Lyle did." He glared across the room. No one moved. "Good."

Shaking his head furiously, he linked his primary implant to the ship-to-ship com. "
H'zzarrelik
, this is
Flechette
."

"This is H'zzarrelik."

"About what just happened, Commander—"

He never finished, because at that moment the first wave of Narseil marines erupted through the airlock door—and there were more weapons than he could count, aimed at him and all of his men.

A report came back from Ker'sell, who had remained outside the net, on the bridge.
It looks as if there was one rogue pirate who didn't want to surrender. Our marine was not seriously injured
.

Legroeder growled to himself, thinking, Just one rogue pirate? Or will there be more?

Ker'sell continued,
The airlock deck has been secured, and the raider's acting captain insists that all his crew have been ordered to cooperate. But the boarding party is taking nothing for granted. The commander says to pull the net in. We're backing to a safer distance
.

Legroeder peered over at Palagren as they drew the net in. The Narseil rigger seemed to be regarding the pirate ship thoughtfully, as though wondering whether it had been worth the price they had paid for it. Legroeder wished he knew himself.

Explosion on the Flechette! There's been an explosion
.

The call from the bridge filled the withdrawn rigger-net like a jolt of electricity. Legroeder and Palagren extended the net instantly, ready to dive away from the pirate ship at the commander's order.

The silence that followed seemed to last forever.

Although
H'zzarrelik
had pulled back from the raider, Fre'geel had left the riggers in their stations as a hedge against the unexpected. There was always a chance that he would have to order a fast retreat in an emergency—such as a suicidal self-destruct of the pirate ship. Their quickest escape would be straight down into the Flux—though of course they would leave behind a lot of Narseil marines that way.

They waited.

How long had they been in this net, anyway?

The pirate ship floated, silent and enigmatic, off their port bow. Whatever was happening aboard it was invisible to the eye.

The com hissed. Cantha's voice:
Riggers, withdraw from the net
.

Legroeder stared at Palagren in surprise.
Did he just say to come out?
he said in a whisper, afraid to shatter what might have been an illusion.

Let's go,
said Palagren, and winked out of sight.

Legroeder followed.

He rubbed his eyes, looking around the bridge. Although the place was a shattered mess, a good deal of cleanup and repair had been done already.

Fre'geel, his neck-sail encased in a clear gel bandage, turned from the center console. "We had one last holdout on the raider. He blew up an engine compartment, and himself and a shipmate with it. But we had no casualties, and the raider ship is now secured." He touched his long fingers together thoughtfully. "It occurred to me that you might be ready for some relief." He gestured to a pair of Narseil backup riggers, standing by to take the stations. "I think they can get us out of here in a hurry as well as anyone can. But I doubt it will be necessary." Fre'geel's mouth remained slightly open, and for a moment his noseless face looked as if it were wearing a human smile.

Legroeder stared at the commander in amazement. He felt relief, and dread, and a dozen other emotions he couldn't yet sort out. They had captured a pirate ship. And now they were going to... what? Fly it back to its owners.

For all of his tangled feelings, when he glanced at Palagren, their eyes met in satisfaction. For this moment at least, satisfaction.

Chapter 17

Faber Eridani

"You
sure
we're on course?" the man asked, checking the satmap display for the thirteenth time. The aircar had covered hundreds of kilometers over forested terrain since they'd left Elmira, and he still wasn't sure they'd passed over the right landmarks. His personal augments weren't calibrating properly on the data streaming to him from the flyer's instruments; apparently his realignment to Faber Eridani standard hadn't quite taken. He couldn't make heads or tails of the ground below or the visual display.

His partner rolled her eyes as she scowled down over the rolling woods. "
Ye-e-es
," she said, "we're going the right way. It's another ten, twenty kilos."

"What about the woman? She okay back there?"