“Fraggit! So what have we got? Spit? We fired the last big load of cargo into Ganoosh’s bird and we haven’t acquired enough new stuff yet to do any good.” He shook his head and said, “I guess we could board ‘em and go mano a mano with the side arms and laser rifles. It worked on Rushima.”
Acorna leaned forward, “You used the tractor beam before, Captain. How much will it hold?”
“A bunch more than we’ve got to throw at these buggers,” Becker replied. “This was supposed to be a nice, simple cargo run. . ” He and Aari exchanged long looks. Acorna did not care for the grim set of Aari’s jaw or the glazed, doomed look in his eyes. Nor could she bear to think of Thariinye, much less Maati, at the nonexistent mercy of the Khieevi. She had sensed some difficulty with the pod before their ship crashed, but she had no true reading of what it was.
“Joh, listen to me and do exactly as I say,” Aari commanded, interrupting Acorna’s train of thought. His voice was clipped and hard and she was amazed to see he had appropriated Becker’s side arm, and was raising it in Becker’s direction. “You have an operational shuttle in Bay Two. You will take Khornya and Riidkiiyi and board the shuttle now. I will give you five seconds to clear and then I will ram the Condor into the Khieevi ship.”
“Over my dead body,” Becker growled, whipping around in the chair to face Aari. “That’s mutiny.”
“Over your stunned body if necessary, Joh. Khornya, you understand this is the only way to save Thariinye and my sister, don’t you? The Khieevi killed me long ago. I live only to prevent them from doing to others what they did to me. So unless you wish to lose your horn to them as I did, and worse, you and Mac will take Joh and Riidkiiyi now and evacuate.”
You’re not gonna crash my ship!” Becker said belligerently, his jaw stuck out.
Ir you will all just listen to me for a moment,” Acorna interjected. “Aari, give the captain back his weapon. We will need the ConSor to rescue Thariinye and Maati and your par61118. I have a better idea. Remember in that old vid, when the evil western agricultural workers dragged the good quick-draw waITlor the indigenous inhabitants had hired to save them?
Tksy dragged him through cactus, and over hardened trails, a he was much the worse for wear as a result. I remember thinking that actually it was highly unlikely he would have survived, especially maintaining his headgear as he did, had the event been an actual occurrence rather than a fictional one. Well, it seems to me that we could do much the same thing here. The atmospheric rim on this planet is quite dense and the gravitational pull strong. If the tractor beam will hold the Khieevi ship …”
“Gotcha, Princess! You’re brilliant!” Becker spoke to the computer. “Okay, Buck, engage the tractor beam. Hook onto that big, nasty piece of salvage off our starboard bow.” He chuckled and said to his crew members. “Heh-heh. This is a great idea! They can’t shoot us or anybody else while they’re locked onto the tractor beam’s gravity -well.”
The beam locked onto the Khieevi ship and hauled it toward the Condor until it vanished from view beneath them.
“At least, I don’t think they can, unless they got some new technology that lets them.” Becker continued in a slightly more worried tone as he maneuvered the beam so that the Khieevi was in tow behind and at an angle from the Condor, riding between the salvage ship’s belly and the planet’s rim.
The klickklack noise on the com unit was now loud, angry, and very obviously intended for the crew of the Condor.
“They are telling you to surrender, Joh. They have us in their pincers,” Aari said. He was baring his teeth, and it was not a friendly grin. Acorna reached up without thinking to wipe the sweat where it was suddenly dripping off his chin. He touched her hand lightly, his fingers stroking hers once, regretfully. She knew from the touch that he still could not imagine they -would come away from this encounter alive, much less unscathed.