The legionnaires listened for a moment, then Sushi turned to his companions and grinned. “Hey, guess I know what I’m doing after all.”
“Acclamations, Sushi,” said Qual, showing all his teeth. “At long last the Hidden Ones speak to us!”
“Triff,” said Brick. “But what the hell are they talking about?”
“The captain had the computer automatically checking and trading his stocks on the net,” said Sushi. “It’s sending out commands, and the Hidden Ones obviously thought it was trying to communicate to them. I’d guess they’ve been trying to get it to respond to them, and it’s been carrying on the original program, of course. Now that we’ve got the communication channel open, we can try to start them talking to us instead of to the Port-a-Brain.” He turned to Qual. “Leftenant, you’re the officer in charge. What do we want to say to them?”
“Why, that is obvious,” said Qual. “Where is the human known as Beeker?”
“OK, you’ve got it,” said Sushi, and he began entering commands as the rest of them looked on expectantly.
The unidentified ship was dropping rapidly, and the legionnaires in their defensive positions kept a wary eye out for possible hostile action on its part. “If it was gonna launch missiles, it woulda done it ‘fore it cleared the horizon,” said one private.
“Yeah, but laser beams are line-of-sight,” Brandy reminded him. “Stay low, and be ready to move when I tell you.”
“Can you make out what model it is?” Lieutenant Snipe asked Armstrong, who was still tracking it with his stereoculars. From the corner of his eye, Snipe saw one of the Synthians whiz down the defensive line on a glideboard, wearing a bizarre helmet and carrying some kind of huge weapon.