“Now, then,” Becker said. “We’ll put him in the brig and Mac can stay and guard him while the LAANYE collects language samples. As mad and as noisy as this beast is, we ought to get enough stuff to be useful. As long as he doesn’t have any friends to scream for, we should be fine. I’m told they kill their wounded, so the fact that he’s alive means he’s probably alone. men, Aari, buddy, while that’s going on, you and me are going to excavate that egg ship and make sure your little sister and that idiot punk she’s with aren’t trapped inside.”
‘I’ll start searching through the debris while you’re gone, and I’ll broadcast that we’re here, Captain,” Acorna said. “If our friends are nearby, and conscious, Thariinye will hear me and he’ll let me know where they are.” “Good idea, Princess. We’ll be right back with the plasma cutters.”
Acorna climbed inside the half of the egg that should have contained the bridge. She could see the lower edge of the crushed viewport sunken deep into the damp sand. The sea was licking at the wreckage now, wide wet fingers teasing loose bits of smashed equipment and carrying them out and back with each wash of the waves. She wondered about tides-was the wreck in danger of being flooded? Perhaps, with so many moons arrayed about the planet, that wouldn’t be an issue. Maybe they would all cancel each other out, gravitationally, instead of amplifying the movement of the seas. She could hope so, anyway.
The shadows were growing long now. Becker and Aari would not have much more daylight. She began throwing everything she could over the side of the ship facing away from the water. Becker -would certainly want his salvage. Nothing faintly resembling the bridge was visible yet. Fragments of burnt and ripped pavilion fabric passed through her hands, as did a mane comb, and the shards of a mirror. Acorna saw her own slender face reflected back in the device. She hadn’t realized she was weeping until then.
(Thariinye? Thariinye, answer me if you can!) she thought as hard as she could. But everything within the ship was still. The only movement was the settling of the rubbish as it shifted beneath her feet, and the lapping of the waves against the ruined hull of the ship.
She heard the Condor’s robolift descend again. Becker and Aari soon arrived carrying the plasma cutters with them. At Becker’s signal Acorna climbed back out of the shell. Becker gave her an inquiring -waggle of his eyebrows, but she shook her head sadly. She had been unable to make contact.
The men worked until -well after dark, seeing by the light from their cutters. At one point, Acorna went up on the robolift and turned on an exterior floodlamp Becker had rigged above ,t for nighttime salvage expeditions. The shadows it cast made t look as if the two men were mining the pits of darkness, their grunts and the raucous scorch and sizzle of the saws adding to the general impression of demonic digging. The tide had risen and the wreck was beginning to flood. The men were waistdeep in water, so that they had to dive as well as cut. Meanwhile, Acorna carried salvage to the robolift.
She made mental calls to her friends from time to time, pleading for Thariinye to answer, but she felt nothing, heard
nothing. Not then.
When the men were up to their necks in water, Becker finally threw his plasma cutter onto the beach over the broken hull of the shell ship and hoisted himself out. “C’mon, Aari. We’re going to have to wait for the tide to go out. If there’s anything there to see, it’s too far under water now. Maybe the tide will shift some of the junk still there so we can see more.”
“My little sister might be in there, Joh. A child.”
“Maybe, but I doubt it,” he said. “I’m betting that she and Thariinye were smart enough to get out.” He looked toward Acorna but all she could see -were the whites of his eyes and his teeth. “You sense anything from in there yet, Princess?”