“I could try to send them a command to release the ship,” he said.
“Three of the ships are dead,” she told him. “But if we fire on them to break the beam, I’m afraid ‘we might damage the Acaffeclu.”
“Perhaps the other Khieevi ships in the limb will have a remote mechanism to control the tractor beams of the dead ships,” he said.
“I suppose there’s no harm in trying.”
He transmitted command-style Hacking and klicking using the identification code from the mother ship of the shuttle.
Four ships fell away from the Acaaecki at once and when he repeated the command, so did the fifth.
But the sixth ship sent back a message saying, “This is the driver of the ship designated Fourteen Klaclu aru) Two Klicki). How is it that you escaped the Planet of Doom, Fifty-three Klaclu am) Seven Kliclu, when most of our shuttles were lost?”
Mac shrugged. “What do I say?” he whispered.
Aari had joined them and suggested, “Respond with this message,” and he gave Mac a series of klacks and khcks to transmit.
The last ship immediately released the Acaoecki, which shot away from it and fired a round at each of its captors. Three of the ships were hit at once and flew to bits but the other three maneuvered out of range and returned fire. By then, however, the Acaoecki had cloaked and shielded, as ordered.
“That worked,” Acorna said. “What does it mean?”
“I have no idea,” Aari said. “Except that it is not very polite and those in charge seemed to say it when they were particularly annoyed-although with a Khieevi if was difficult to tell, of course.”
The other three ships accelerated away from both the Aca