than usual.”
“Maybe nothing’s wrong, Nicky.” She attempted a smile. “I’ve got to be
careful. You understand that, don’t you? You’re an Imperial officer and
I’m riding Leon Ammon’s rocket. Maybe we can keep on working together.
And maybe not. What’s happened here?”
He collected his wits. “Int’resting question,” he said. “If you think
this is a trap for you–well, really, my sweet, you know quite well no
functional trap is that elaborate. I’m every bit as baffled as you …
and worried, if that’s any consolation. I want nothing at the moment but
to get back with hide entire to vintage wine, gourmet food, good
conversation, good music, good books, good tobacco, a variety of
charming ladies, and everything else that civilization is about.”
He was ninety-nine percent honest. The remaining one percent involved
pocketing the rest of his million. Though not exclusively …
The girl didn’t relax. “Well, can we?”
He told her what the condition of the boat was.
She nodded. Wings of amber-colored hair moved softly past delicate high
cheekbones. “I thought that was more or less it,” she said. “What do you
figure to do?”
Flandry shifted stance and scratched the back of his neck. “Another
interesting question. We can’t survive indefinitely, you realize.
Considering the outside temperature and other factors, I’d say that if
we throttle all systems down to a minimum–and if we don’t have to fire
the spitgun again–we have accumulator energy for three months. Food for
longer, yes. But when the thermometer drops to minus a hundred, even
steak sandwiches can only alleviate; they cannot cure.”
She stamped a foot. “Will you stop trying to be funny!”
Why, I thought I was succeeding, Flandry wanted to say, and
incidentally, that motion of yours had fascinating effects in these
snug-fitting pullovers we’re wearing. Do it again?
Djana overcame her anger. “We need help,” she said.
“No point in trying to radio for it,” Flandry said. “Air this thin
supports too little ionosphere to send waves far past the horizon.
Especially when the sun, however bright, is so distant. We might be able
to bounce signals off Regin or another moon, except that that’d require
aiming and monitoring gear Jake doesn’t carry.”
She stared at him in frank surprise. “Radio?”
“To the main computer at the mining centrum. It was originally a
top-level machine, you know, complete with awareness–whatever it may
have suffered since. And it commanded repair and maintenance equipment
as well. If we could raise it and get a positive response, we should
have the appropriate robots here in a few hours, and be off on the rest
of my circuit in a few days.”
Flandry smiled lopsidedly. “I wish now I had given it a call from
orbit,” he went on. “But with the skewball things we saw–we’ve lost
that option. We shall simply have to march there in person and see what
can be done.”
Djana tensed anew. “I thought that’s what you’d figure on,” she said,
winter bleak. “Nothing doing, lover. Too chancy.”
“What else–”
She had hardly begun to reply when he knew. The heart stumbled in him.
“I didn’t join you blind,” she said. “I studied the situation first,
whatever I could learn, including the standard apparatus on these boats.
They carry several couriers each. One of those can make it back to
Irumclaw in a couple of weeks, with a message telling where we are and
what we’re sitting on.”
“But,” he protested. “But. Listen, the assault on us wasn’t likely the
last attempt. I wouldn’t guarantee we can hold out. We’d better leave
here, duck into the hills–”
“Maybe. We’ll play that as it falls. However, I am not passing up the
main chance for survival, which is to bring in a Navy ship.” Djana’s
laugh was a yelp. “I can tell what you’re thinking,” she continued.
“There I’ll be, along on your job. How many laws does that break? The
authorities will check further. When they learn about your taking a
bribe to do Ammon’s work for him in an official vessel–I suppose at a
minimum the sentence’ll be life enslavement.”
“What about you?” he countered.
Her lids drooped. Her lips closed and curved. She moved her hips from