Glory's People (39 page)

Debris tumbled out of the Gateway. Metal, ceramics, small bits and large, all tumbling out of the singularity. The Gateway began instantly to close around the Terror. Tighter and tighter, until it became once again a brilliant point of light. Which imploded into total darkness, leaving shuttle and Goldenwing alone, ten thousand kilometers from Moon Hideyoshi.

Near Space was glittering with debris.

Broni and Buele stared at one another. The debris had the shiny, polished look of Yamatan metalwork.

“No, oh no,” whispered Broni.

“Kantaro was piloting,” Buele said in a low voice. “I have heard that the ancestors of the Yamatans sometimes committed suicide by diving their craft into their enemies....”

Broni stared, aghast.

But the cats were purring.
Purring
. The young syndics turned bitter, their grief suddenly renewed and their anger frustrated.

Then from
Glory
came a simple radio signal:

“Shuttle. There is an escape pod in the debris. Recover it and return. “

It is the end of Duncan's fourteenth day in a recovery pod. Dietr Krieg, the Cybersurgeon, is proud of the results he has had with healing Duncan's injuries. It also delights his Germanic soul that he has complete charge of the Master and Commander.

Glory
is about to leave orbit around Planet Yamato and the physician has decreed that the Master and Commander is not required for so simple an evolution. The junior syndics, under the supervision of the Sailing Master, will conduct the departure.

Minamoto Kantaro, about to descend to the planet, has come to bid Duncan Kr farewell. He carries Hana in a special pocket in his travelling clothes.

He stands beside the gel-filled pod and grasps Duncan’s hand in friendship.

“Will you be Shogun?” Duncan asks.

“Perhaps. There are careers I would rather follow. “

Duncan smiles.

Kantaro says thoughtfully, “ We did not learn how it is done. We had no time. But we found that it could be done. That means it will be done. “

“Not in my lifetime, “ Duncan says.

“Do not be so certain, Kr-san. We are an inventive people. “

Duncan, still weak, regards the Yamatan steadily. “Have you told them?”

Kantaro runs a hand thoughtfully across his smooth cheek. He shakes his head. “Not yet. Have you?”

“Not yet, “ Duncan replies.

They discuss changes on the planet. The Shogun has stripped Yoshi Eiji of his Domain and ordered him to trade with the Genji Lord Kai for frigid Hokkaido. And he has been ordered to war with the Order of Ninja. “The fright has nearly killed him, “ Kantaro says.

As they speak, cats have been coming into the surgery. Kantaro recognizes only a few of them. Mira is there. Big, Clavius, Artemis, Paracelsus. A dozen others.

They sit in silence watching him.

He hears a soft mew. Hana has climbed from his pocket and sits on Duncan’s pod, regarding Kantaro somberly. “Hana,” he sends. “You are not coming with me?”

From the others he gets only a question: “What would her life be?”

His eyes dampen. He feels a fool. To Duncan, he says, “She wouldn’t be the same on the planet, would she?”

“No, “ Duncan says.

Kantaro cups Hana's small head gently. There is a lump in his throat.
“A long life, sweet Hana,”
he sends.

The cats weave about his legs for a moment and then depart. Hana follows them.

Broni Ehrengraf, who will fly the shuttle to Honshu, appears to announce that it is time for departure.

“Good-bye, Master and Commander, “ Kantaro says. “I will regret all my life that I was not chosen on Search to be a Starman. “

“Good-bye, my friend. Remember. You have seen Andromeda. “

It is a sending Minamoto Kantaro will remember for a long lifetime.