Becker looked disappointed, Acorna thought. He loved to lecture. “Very good. But that’s not all. You know what else?”
“No, Job,” Aari said.
“Well, it’s the ions we leave behind in our wake, see. They discolor some of the metals, pock others, can completely ruin a good load of salvage so it’s not worth jack. This way, you tow it at an angle, you don’t get hit in the butt or ruin your cargo. Only problem is, we can’t tow through the worms and pleats so we gotta go the long way.”
“Joh,” Aari said. “The scanners.”
The scanners had picked up the cloaked vessel ahead of them, now uncloaking to turn on them. The comscreen never brightened. It didn’t have to.
“Ahh,” Nadhari said in a hoarse and cracked voice. She had spent hours giving her deposition. “Ikky’s flagship.”
Becker bared his teeth at her in the grin Aari had learned to mimic. “So, Nadhari, I heard about what this old boyfriend of yours did to you. How about we send him a little love letter?”
Nadhari returned the grin with the first one of hers Acorna had seen since they left the biospheres. “Oh, Becker, sweetie, can we.”
“For you, no sacrifice is too much,” Becker said. “It’s a good place to die—for them. We got black water behind us-everybody strap down.”
Acorna reached for RK to secure the cat, as well, but he had made other plans. He lay inside the same harness that held the unhealthily thin form of Nadhari Kando.
Becker said, “Nadhari? Pretty name. Makahomian, isn’t it?”
A bolt of light snapped toward them.
She nodded just before he said, “Okay, here it comes, three-two-one, reverse thrusters!”
Acorna didn’t quite take it all in. One moment the ship loomed large on their screens and the Condor seemed to be standing still. The next moment, Nadhari’s smile turned down, everyone unstrapped themselves and Aari unpointed at the comscreen. And in the midst of it all, several tons of wreckage were slingshot from the tractor beam on their starboard side.
After a moment or two the Condor slowed, and all movement reversed once more for a forward thrust. They reemerged from the “black water” just as the first red ball of light was dimming and the pieces of Ikwaskwan’s flagship were making that part of space a dangerous place to be.
Nadhari Kando laughed and Becker winked at her. “Sending them a frag-load of salvage ricocheted their shot right back at them.” He shook his head regretfully. “Just like the sick sucker to explode in too many pieces to make it worthwhile to collect.”
“I appreciate your sacrifice, Becker,” Nadhari said.
“Then it was worth it,” he said, with grim satisfaction.
Karina was the one who thought of the brilliant idea of taking some of each of the grasses favored by the Lmyaan and putting them in the replicator. And belatedly, Becker and Aari remembered the sacks of seed that had been blocking the crew quarters before the KEN unit cleared them out to make room for the bones. With these resources, the Linyaari were soon restored to relative health.
Karina again offered her services and Hafiz’s to Acorna for her spiritual training. Neeva, who overheard the offer, thoughtspoke to Acorna, (Ask her to tell you how she manages to shield her thoughts so well, Khornya. When we first met her, just about the time we thought we had made contact, her mind became a complete blank.)
“Karina, you were the first contact for my people when they came to fetch me,” Acorna said. “You learned thought-speech before I did, I’m told.”
“Oh, yes,” Karina said, “And thanks to my heightened level of enlightenment, I was able instantly to communicate with your species.”
“Didn’t you find it difficult at all? I certainly did-I have had so much trouble sorting out the thoughts of those around me from each other and not broadcasting every little notion.”
“I had just the opposite problem, to tell you the truth,” Karina said confidentially. “I would start receiving them and, knowing they were trying to reach me, I naturally made my mind completely open and blank to receive their thoughtsand then I could hear nothing at all.”