“Oh,” Thariinye said, and she saw the top of his head as it swrveled to take in the wildly flickering console lights, the sparks flying from the board at many points.
Maati waited. It felt like forever. She felt sick from the spinning and thought that the stars swirling past the viewport looked like what she’d thought she would see in the wormhole.
She heard the snap of Thariinye’s restraint, and saw his feet, then his legs as he bounced over the top of the chair and off the deck.
Maati held on to the pod lid with one hand and grabbed his foot with the other, pulling him in. He was barely inside the pod when all of a sudden the canopy slapped closed and locked, and they felt a bump as gravity returned, but increased fivefold, pressing the pod against the deck.
Thariinye pressed the release button to eject the pod and activate the recirculating oxygen supply. Oxygen flooded the ood with a hissing sound, but they were still stuck inside the ship. The ejection mechanism -was malfunctioning, just like everything else on the ship! And the gravitational force was so strong they couldn’t pop the hatch again to see why the pod had failed to eject.
Thariinye’s heart boomed against her ear.
“It’s okay, Thariinye. The pod will help protect us during a crash. They’re amazingly resilient, you know.”
His breath rasped in and out a few times.
“Unless, of course, the ship burns up on entering the atmosphere or we’re smashed in the wreckage when it slams into the planet,” Maati said, and realized that what she was voicing was Thariinye’s thought. He hadn’t said a -word. What a time for her psychic powers to kick in!
The pod insulated them a bit from the noises around them, but she knew they -were still inside the ship because she hadn’t felt the explosive acceleration that would indicate the pod had separated from the mother ship. They were still stuck.
(I could open the hatch and …) she thought she said aloud.
Tharnnye hugged her close to his chest. “Not if it’s stuck, you can’t. I’ll keep hitting the firing mechanism. We’ll just have to hope that the relay decides to engage before the crash-or maybe even during.”
(Oh, no, we’re trapped!) Panic welled up inside her and tears began to flow from her eyes. She couldn’t spend the pitiful traction left of her life cooped up in this tiny shell. She couldn’t. She just couldn’t.
Then suddenly it was as if they had hit a bump. They felt themselves sliding and then their pod was launched so that at rst they were flying, then dropping.
(It will level out, won’t it?) she asked. Or did she? They were wrapped so closely in each other’s arms that it was no -wonder she could suddenly hear his thoughts and he could hear hers.
(Yes,) he said. (But I am doomed anyway. Even if -we survive the crash and the Khieevi, Liriili will kill me for stealing and losing her newest ship.)
Becker jerked his thumb backward, gesturing for Aari to surrender the command chair. The Condor’s hiding place behind one of the moons kept it out of range of the Khieevi ship’s sensors, giving the crew a little breathing space to make plans.
Aari got up, but gave the captain a level look. “I am fine, Joh. The Khieevi no longer freeze my ability to think.”
“I know that, buddy, but you don’t know my bird like I do.” He clasped his hands, intertwining his fingers, straightened his wrists and flexed his knuckles, then shook both hands out and applied them to the buttons. “Let’s deploy those Winding laser cannons we picked up last year.”
“Sorry, Captain,” the computer said, “but you have not yet found the right mountings to affix them to the gun ports.”
“Oh, yeah. Then fire the Apatchipon micron splitters.”
“You have not been able to fashion suitable ports, Captain, to accommodate both the micron splitters and your latest hull modifications.”
“Well, I’ve had all these people around and-okay, so we’ll just go for the plain old atom blasters Dad installed years ago.
“You removed those and stored them, Captain, when you traded for the Windigi laser cannons.”