The tribune’s hands were raised and open, a sign of supplication and in any culture proof of peaceful intent. A guard lurched forward, holding his mace out in bar.
“You have wisely chosen a creature whose savagery and power were demonstrated to us all today,” Vibulenus said, still shouting. His mind considered the risk that other Romans who could not hear him would take this as some suicidal call to mutiny — and obey it.
That risk was the lesser one.
“Who could not have been amazed,” the tribune continued, gesturing rhetorically as his chest halted at the mace shaft, “at the way these terrible creatures wreaked havoc among heavily armed opponents whose skill and courage threatened to overwhelm us? Not even the bravest of us would dare approach such a creature as this.”
The carnivore snarled and gave a tentative pull on its line as it peered past its handlers toward the Roman. Vibulenus wondered whether he had halted inside or outside the arc the beast could lunge on its tether.
That risk, too, had to be disregarded.
For a moment, the Pilot leveled his weapon at the tribune. Then he pointed the laser at the deck and hopped backward, into the doorway again. The crewman had been drafted into duties beyond his normal competence. Now that the script had gone awry, the Pilot had either to improvise or to withdraw.
The Commander’s duties did not permit him the option of withdrawing. He glanced behind him, nervously aware that if the carnivore lunged toward this nearest Roman, the cable would slice across those standing in the way.
“This assembly is dismissed,” the Commander said sharply, driven to decision by the personal risk which grew if he should vacillate. “Leave at once and report to the Sick Bay for normal processing.”
There was immediate movement toward the rear of the gallery. The sudden dismissal was just one more circumstance in a disorganized day.
The Commander’s lips moved, and the voice in Vibulenus’s ears said, “Not you, Gaius Vibulenus Caper.”
Two guards advanced in response to orders grunted to them alone. They forced Vibulenus back a step as if he were a spiderlet ballooning before the wind. Rather than resist their effortless advance, he skipped ahead of them, keeping one outstretched hand on the mace helve to show that he was not trying to escape.
“Slow down, fish-face,” snarled Clodius Afer as he and Niger — Niger blanching yellow beneath the wind-burn on his skin — stepped toward the guards on the balls of their feet.
“It’s all right!” the tribune cried, sliding between the creatures in armor and the friends who would rescue him. “We’re just getting away from the, the hyena!”
Maybe. Existing on the ship was like fighting a war. Unless you intended to plunge in and slog forward, come what may, you needed to anticipate what everyone else would be doing long before they decided. And you could assume that not only would communications break down, but that everyone would put the worst possible face on whatever anyone else did.
Vibulenus didn’t think his anticipation was very good. But he’d have bet his hopes of homecoming that he was the only one aboard who tried.
Quartilla touched an arm of each centurion though she did not try to hold them. “They’re getting him away from the beast,” the woman was saying throatily. “Careful or you’ll put him in danger.”
Maybe the tribune wasn’t the only one on board who tried to think things through.
The Commander strode beyond the arc of his — watchdog’s — tether, permitting the bodyguards to release it. When they exerted themselves, the toad-things exuded a sweetish odor with a tinge of ammonia behind it.
Freed, the carnivore immediately relaxed. It strolled across the front bulkhead at the limit of its cable, sniffing at the deck which clicked beneath its claws.
“I want to —” the guild officer began. He glanced at the centurions and Quartilla, then beyond at other soldiers staying to watch the show in the knowledge that the mob ahead of them would not clear for some time. The Commander’s ears twitched; he turned toward his expectant bodyguards.
Quartilla opened her mouth, but neither Clodius nor Niger would be ruled by a woman in this.