Then suddenly the bombing fanned out from the city and ignited the tall grasses, where hundreds of people still travelled. People ran, and screamed, and fell, and some were trampled.
Circling the planet, the Khieevi -were pleased at last to feel the terror rising in nourishing -waves from the surface. The transmission of it -would appease the Young for a -while longer, until the ships could land and begin loading the prisoners.
The House Harakamian ships rallied under Nadhari’s leadership. Most of the security ships needed only to load the torpedoes in their own bomb bays to be ready to fly into battle. Cascade shipping company’s lawyer -was overruled by her bosses, although one ship was allotted to take her and some of the other less committed executives and employees back to the company’s headquarters. What Ms. Barber had failed to realize, Rafik told Acorna, -was that her company -was actually a subsidiary of one owned by Hafiz’s second cousin, “whose holdings were dependant on the backing of House Harakamian.
Acorna and the other Linyaari meanwhile spent time with the plants of the vine world. The vines actually seemed to flourish in the sea of sap they had created, growing from it at an amazing rate and sending forth a pleasant floral smell as if the whole planet was merely a large innocuous bouquet. “Apparently the sap that kills the bugs has regenerative properties for the plants,” Miiri said. “Fortunately it doesn’t work that way for the Khieevi,” Aari said with a small, tight smile.
Some of the less battle-worthy ships brought up the rear of the makeshift fighter squadron. They formed a supply line back to the vine world to reequip ships that, it was optimistically hoped, would expend all of their sap shells destroying Khieevi and their vessels.
Becker meanwhile was giving the skippers and navigators a crash course in gonzo astrophysics.
“If we use the folds in space as cover, we can pop in and out around the bugs and sap them before they have any idea where -we come from. But with this many of us, we have to do it in strict rotation or we’ll be ramming each other and lose the battle to friendly fire.”
Becker was originally going to return to the Condor, flying it into battle and leaving Acorna and Aari with the other Linyaari back on the vine world, which was the only place certain to be safe from Khieevi attack.
But the Khieevi massed quickly around narhiiVhiliinyar and, instead of sending in ground troops and shuttles as they had before, began a massive bombardment of the helpless planet. Becker stayed with Nadhari as she flew reconnaissance, spying out the Khieevi position, which was basically encircling the planet with ships, as it had done with the vine world.
“You’re on your own, kids,” Becker told Acorna and Aari in his last transmission to the ConSor before the battle was joined. “I’ll miss my old bucket of bolts, but the I frit is lighter and more maneuverable and Nadhari needs me with her to
weave her troops in and out if we’re going to have a prayer against the klackers. Aari, make sure Mac reports to you what he’s getting from the Khieevi communications and if there’s any break. …” “Lately they’ve been almost impossible to read. Captain,” Aan said sadly. “So many are klacking at once that Mac cannot decipher individual messages. And the sound of the missiles is also disrupting our sensors.”
“We’re going to start making a lot of noise ourselves pretty quick,” Becker said. “Be safe, people.”
“Be safe, Joh,” Aari said, and touched the corn screen.
“Be safe, Becker, and keep the others safe as well,” Acorna said.
But she felt so powerless. In the other battle, there had been something she could do to help, but this one, well, it almost went without saying that this was a lost cause. The sap was effective against the Khieevi. Perhaps they could be driven off in time to save the Linyaari people, if not narhiiVhiliinyar, but it was hard to believe the combination of corporate security and civilian ships stood a chance against the Khieevi hordes.
More immediately saddening was that in the course of their reconnaissance, Becker and Nadhari had seen no sign of the AcaSeckl, and Mac could discern no mention of them from the Khieevi transmissions filling the Condor with their staccato.