Pias’s ship darted and wove an intricate pattern through the upper levels of Newforest’s atmosphere, and the interceptors followed awkwardly behind him. At first Pias did not return their fire, waiting to see how serious the situation would become. When no more attack ships rose from the planet’s surface to chase him, he guessed that the pair were all Tas had at the moment.
When he was sure there’d be no further opposition, Pias turned on the automatic weaponry. Spaceship battles were haphazard affairs because of the relative motions of all parties through three dimensions, and the computer-guided weapons were never as effective as an experienced human gunner because they couldn’t be as intuitive. Pias would have liked nothing better than to have his beloved Yvette there to fire at the enemy – but since she wasn’t there and he couldn’t handle the guns and the controls at the same time, he had to let the machines do his fighting for him.
As it turned out, his ship’s computers were more than a match for their opposition, who were less adept at dodging than Pias was. Within a very few minutes both ships had been disabled and their pilots had to radio for help. Pias was able to resume his landing unopposed.
He did not delude himself into thinking he was now safe, however; if Newforest had equipment sophisticated enough to spot his little ship in the first place, they would also track him to his landing spot; Soon after touchdown the ship would be surrounded by Tas’s security force. He’d have to get away quickly to avoid being trapped in their net.
He began altering his plans. The hills he’d originally selected were too far away from town, and his reason for picking them was no longer valid. Landing there now would handicap him; he’d have to scramble across hilly terrain while his pursuers could track him comfortably in copters.
He began looking at the more inhabited regions closer to Garridan. Newforest was such an underpopulated world that there were still large tracts of undeveloped land near even the largest cities, and as he came lower Pias was able to spot an area that looked suitable – a scattered woodland near the edge of a large pond, with many small farms scattered between the woods and the capital city. The woods would give him cover as he left the ship, and the farms would provide plenty of places to hide if pursuit came after him. Once in Garridan itself, he had no doubts at all about his ability to blend in and disappear.
The landing was tricky – first, because he was having to alter his course from moment to moment to select the best spot, and second, because he didn’t have the help of ground traffic control to guide him in. He’d never made such an impromptu landing in his brief experience as a spaceship pilot – and the problem was further complicated by Newforest’s heavy gravity. Fortunately, he’d learned his landing procedures on DesPlaines, and he was able to compensate.
The ground came up to meet him almost before he was ready, and he had to fire the braking rockets hard to control his descent. There was really no clearing big enough for his ship; he’d have to create one the hard way. His vessel hit the trees with considerable force, chopping off upper limbs and pushing aside the thick trunks.
His ship landed with a tooth-jarring thump. Because of its odd Position within the woods, with trees pressing against it on two sides, it began to tilt over immediately upon touchdown. Pias quickly turned off all power systems to avoid possible explosions, leaving just enough for the lights and air regeneration systems. He held his breath, afraid to move, as the ship’s cant increased, and finally relaxed as the nose came to rest against another tree. The little vessel was in a terrible position, but at least it would fall no further.
Pias unstrapped himself from the acceleration couch. He was glad he’d prepared everything ahead of time on the long flight here from DesPlaines, and had made the ship look like a smuggler’s vessel; with Tas’s defenses alerted, he’d have less time to get away from here than he’d planned, and every second was crucial.
He staggered awkwardly through the oddly sloping corridors of the ship to the airlock, and faced an unexpected problem: how to get down. The normal boarding ramp was jammed. It was about a three-story drop to the forest floor – hazardous even in one gee and possibly fatal in New forest’s two-and-a-half gees.
There was no time to look for fancy solutions. Pias reached for the handholds in the ship’s hull and began lowering himself down the side even though, at this angle, it meant he was climbing almost horizontally, with Newforest’s heavy gravity tugging at his back trying to make him fall. The magnisteel hull dissipated heat quickly, but the handholds were still very hot from the atmospheric friction of the landing, and Pias’s hands stung from their tight grip on the hot metal. When he reached a point only a few meters above the ground he decided to risk the drop, and fell the rest of the way. Landing the way he’d been trained, he rolled to his feet unhurt and took stock of the situation.
It had been only a few minutes since his ship came to rest, yet already he could hear the whirr of approaching copters that signaled pursuit. Again the small curious voice in the back of his mind wondered what was suddenly so special about Newforest that warranted such thorough protection from prying eyes. There was enough firepower in his ship to blast any copters out of the sky and Pias had enough weaponry on his body to put up a significant fight, but that wasn’t his objective. He’d come to Newforest to observe the situation, not to engage in military battles. He’d already made a bigger splash than he’d intended; Tas would be on the lookout for an intruder, making Pias’s undercover job that much harder. Taking a stand here would only strengthen the defense’s resolve; a smuggler, as he was trying to portray himself, would much prefer to run and hide until they relaxed a little bit.
It was late afternoon in this part of the world. Pias quickly oriented himself by the dim red sun and started off in a southerly direction, toward Garridan. He moved as cautiously as he could, trying not to leave too obvious a trail for his followers to spot, but speed was his primary consideration. If Tas was as thorough about this line of defense as he was about the others, there would be infrared and other sophisticated scanners that could spot his fleeing figure without the need to look for broken branches to mark his passage. He wanted to be as far from the ship as possible so they’d have to search an area with a large radius.
Because the plant life of Newforest took its energy from the rays of a red sun, the local equivalent of chlorophyll was a substance that reflected back light most strongly in the red-orange portion of the spectrum. As a result, much of the vegetation looked as though it were stained with blood in the late afternoon light. Having grown up on Newforest, Pias gave no thought to the eeriness of this scene as he pushed his way through the brush; his only concern was to get away from the ship and the pursuit that would inevitably follow.
Small animals scattered before him as he ran, which was all to the good; the more movement there was in the forest, the more it would confuse the enemy sensors. Pias heard the copters pass near his position, and held still for a moment until they went by. The copters would go first to the ship and search it for clues; failing to find any, they’d start a wide sweep of the area in an effort to cut him off.
The forest was starting to thin out, and Pias realized he must be coming to its southern edge. Beyond the woods would be open field and he dared not let himself be caught out there. Even at night he’d be obvious to his adversaries’ scanners.
As he came to the edge of the woods he paralleled the line of trees moving around toward the east until he spotted a small farmhouse and barn a few hundred meters away. That looked like his best bet. If he could reach that habitation, he could probably hide until much of the fuss had died down. Then it would be merely a matter of taking the road into Garridan, pretending to be someone from the country who was visiting the planetary capital for the first time. Tas’s police would be on the lookout for a smuggler, so he hoped he could make that story stick well enough to fool them.