`Messrs Lyon,’ and the captain gave his engineering officer a broad and genial grin as they entered the control room, `meet Commander Strai.
He rigged the tow in jig time! Neatest job I’ve ever seen.’ Commander Strai, a keen-eyed man with rustyed hair, gave the two Talents a crisp and respectful bow, and then swung round to the two conformable seats that looked out of place in the room. `Thought these might help.’ `Very kind of you, Commander,’ Afra said and motioned for the `Dinis to stand in one corner.
MAY DREAMS BE DEEP, the commander said to them, again surprising the Lyons.
`Does everyone speak some `Dini on the Beijing?
Afra asked, smiling his surprise.
`Seemed silly not to take advantage of the opportunity, Mr Lyon,’ Strai said as he keyed codes and the screens above the console lit up.
At the sight of the Hiver sphere, apparently just sitting in space, Rojer caught his breath but then so did his father so he didn’t feel he had betrayed too much surprise.
`Any idea what the hull is made of?’ Afra asked after a moment’s pause.
`Still analysing. It’s highly sophisticated alloy but with an ingredient we can’t identify,’ Smelkoff said.
`One of my lieutenants thinks it’s a coating of some kind, maybe even something the Hivers secrete from their bodies,’ Strai said.
`Doesn’t even pit, so it’s remarkable the other pod was destroyed.’ `I wonder they released the pods at all,’ Afra said, `if they knew the nova was about to happen.’ Then he added more briskly, `We’ll need your mass and volume figures, gentlemen. I think everyone will feel easier once this package is secured elsewhere.’ `Amen to that,’ the captain said, trying to sound more jovial than relieved by the prospect.
`How can I assist you, Mr Lyon?’ And Strai looked from Afra to Rojer who were both reclining on the chairs and settling themselves.
`Please tell your helmsman not to deviate from the present speed.
Our drain will not affect the ship’s speed or direction but you will hear a change in the generators.
The captain gave the appropriate orders. Rojer had been listening to them with half his mind while the rest of his attention was on the pod. The upper hemisphere was bathed in the Beijing’s external lights and glowed, slickly metallic. It didn’t look all that big, Rojer thought until he glanced for verification at the mass and volume.
`About as big as the Trefoil carriers, wouldn’t you say, Dad?’ Rojer said, flexing his mental muscles.
That’s not necessary, son, but his father’s tone was amused.
`Yes, I do believe you’re right. Almost to the gram, I’d say’ `We had a batch of them to go to Clarf only last week.’ `So we did.’ Rojer did not dare look at his father but the fact that Afra was keeping up the conversation indicated that his instinct to natter was valid. The tension in the control room abated a few degrees.
They were two specialists, organizing their thoughts, making idle technical comparisons.
Seen enough? his father asked. His parents were always making sure that the visual had been properly scanned before a `portation.
You had to know what you were lobbing before you `lifted’. Casual thrusts could cause uncasual damage.
Of the pod, yes. I just push you, right? Rojer eyed the barren moonscape and the lighted domes of their placement photos.
That’s right. Now, pick up the power. Good lad.
Rojer was also aware of the generator gauge swinging up and over, almost to the overload position.
Link!
As he had so often done, Rojer opened his mind and `placed’ it at his father’s disposal. One day, others would pay him that courtesy.
Right now he was subsumed by the deep and ruddy brown of his father’s mental touch, comfortable and comforted.
He felt power, directed it to the brown: brown expanded and, as if he had put his shoulder to the mental brown, he heaved forward and was suddenly the envelope that contained the pod. Wincing at the sudden stingpzzt, he did not flinch from his thrusting.
For the first time in his life, he heard his father let out a string of spaceman’s curses. Forgot we’d get that with this erring great ball of spit! Afra said and Rojer knew his father was feeling, tasting the revolting smell/touch/flavour of Hive. In the next second they had reached their destination and inserted the pod neatly inside the second dome.