See how this great ship,
The Hammer of the Storm-God,
lies broken and lost.
With Atalanta guiding them like a guardian angel, and opening doors before them as if by magic, they sped down the corridors. The first leg of the journey retraced Karil's route from his cabin, and when they came upon the disabled guards, Loris stopped to collect weapons. She picked the wrist-lasers, strapped them on, and tested them by pointing, bending her wrist to raise her hand out of the line of fire, and touching the trigger-pad on her palm. A fine beam blasted a tiny hole in the bulkhead. She was an admirable sight, naked and treading air like a swimmer, firing with a graceful, balletic wrist-movement.
"Loris," Atty said. "Khadijha has become suspicious and has sent a team to burn their way into this section."
"Is Ivan coming with them?"
"They are both on the bridge. If they can wrest control of the computer away from me, they will have you at their mercy. Hurry."
At her direction, they dove into a hatch and pulled themselves down a ladder. Karil was beginning to know his way around the ship. A safety lock opened before them and admitted them to an area of sumptuously carpeted corridors that contrasted sharply with the gleaming, Spartan tunnels of the crew's section. The door to Khadijha's salon was unguarded. Inside, they drifted through one exquisitely decorated chamber after another, ignoring carpets and furniture fastened to the walls and deck, the small objects drifting about them. In the bedroom, they found Isfahan playing hide-and-seek with himself among the flapping bedcovers.
"Hey, Swivel-ears," Loris called. "Come here, you little traitor."
Isfahan stood for a moment, clinging to a blanket with his claws and looking like a magician on a flying carpet, and then launched himself toward her, sending the blanket rippling away behind. He collided with her and snuggled into her arms, sending them both tumbling.
"Your days of luxury are over," she said. "It's back to ship's fare for you. Watch the claws on the titties, please. Atty, which way?"
"Through the wardrobe," Atty said. "There's a panel in the wall that opens onto an elevator shaft. It's a kind of emergency exit for Khadijha and runs the length of the ship from bridge to hangar bay. Wait!"
"What is it?"
"I think Ivan..." She was cut off.
"What happened?" Karil asked.
"He's found some way to kill the communications system," Loris said. "My guess is he's figured out that Atty's involved. There'll be a party sent to the hangar to head us off, and more parties to search the ship for us. We'd better find that panel."
They spent several minutes searching for the trick panel. Finally, a section of the wall opened to the touch. Isfahan darted past them into the opening, delighted with their find. They followed.
It was eerie to find themselves hanging in the air in an elevator shaft, illuminated by red emergency lighting. Space dropped away beneath them for two hundred meters, past one dim light after another, into blackness. The elevator car hung far above them, at the bridge level.
"This way," Loris said, and kicked upward.
"You're heading forward," Karil protested. "That's the wrong way."
"We'll never reach Atty before they do," she called over her shoulder. "But if we can get to the bridge, maybe we can hand control back to her."
"You're out for revenge, damn it!"
"Come on!" She was disappearing fast. There was nothing he could do but to follow her, flying from girder to girder, plummeting upward like a diver headed for the bends. Sirens dopplered past at every deck, and once or twice they heard the clang of hatches punctuating muted shouts and orders. Isfahan had disappeared in the dark.
Loris reached the end of their journey; as Karil came up behind her, she was hanging by her feet, opening a hatch in the bottom of the elevator car.
"Quiet now," she said. She swung open the hatch and squeezed into an airlock. "Come on," she whispered.
Suddenly, Karil felt panic welling up within him. Any other time, we would have had no problem squeezing into a small space with a naked Loris, but for the first time in his life he knew the horror of claustrophobia. His body refused to move, except to tremble.
"I can't, Lor. I just can’t do it."
"You have to, Karil." She reached out and took his hand, tried to pull him into the lock. Visions of the lid of the sensory deprivation chamber closing over him flashed through his mind and he tried to pull away. "I know, Karil," she said. "I feel it too. But if we can't get over this, we'll be useless as spacers. And if we can't get to the bridge, we'll be dead."
Suddenly, Karil was blinded as lights flashed on down the length of the elevator shaft. A roar began to build, echoing throughout the ship. Ivan had taken control of the computer and was firing the drivers. The ship began to accelerate, and two hundred meters of gravitation opened beneath Karil. Loris' grip on his hand tightened against his increasing weight and began to slip. He dove into the lock like a frightened ground-squirrel into his hole. In the face of the primal fear, mere claustrophobia paled to insignificance. Loris sealed them in as Karil held his breath, cracked the other hatch cautiously and pushed it open. She beckoned to him and climbed through.
The elevator door was open onto a small galley behind the bridge. The remains of a meal lay where it had fallen after drifting about the room. They could hear voices on the bridge--both Ivan's and Khadijha's. The expression on Loris' face was unpleasant to behold.
"We can't use the comm system," Ivan was saying, "or Atalanta will take over again. She's all over it."
"We'll find them," Khadijha said. "And this time you can kill them."
"You should have let me do it when I wanted to."
Loris grinned to herself and edged soundlessly into the room, Karil creeping behind her. Ivan and a uniformed helmsman were strapped in behind a huge, curving instrument panel, while Khadijha stood looking over their shoulders. A truly enormous array of lights blinked about them, and through the port, Saturn was barely recognizable among the stars.
Loris waited while Karil feared the pounding of his heart would alert them, until the helmsman turned to check a readout and caught sight of them. He opened his mouth, his fingers flew to his weapon, and Loris caught him in the chest with a laser-bolt.
Khadijha saw him slump in his chair, and suddenly she was gone, darting through a port in a flash of veils. Loris' laser flashed after her, struck a panel in a shower of sparks, and whipped back to Ivan again. He froze, his chair still turning, his hand millimetres from the laser on his thigh. Beads of sweat broke out on his forehead. Loris stood with feet planted apart, naked and magnificent, forefinger pointed at his heart like some accusatory prophet. Her finger rested lightly on the sensor in her palm, and a dot of target-light rested on Ivan's chest.
"Well, here's the witch herself," he said. His eyes darted about the room. One could almost see his mind racing.
Loris remained silent and immobile for a moment; only the rise and fall of her breasts revealed the turmoil of emotions within. "Where's Shagrug?" she demanded. Her voice was like steel.
Ivan hesitated. Loris flicked her wrist and the laser sliced off Ivan's ear. He screamed and clapped his hand over the side of his head. Blood poured out between his fingers.
"Answer my questions or I'll slice you like a fucking salami. Where's Shagrug?"
"On Titan. He's still alive, as far as I know." Hope flared in his eyes. A chance to play for time. Khadijha was somewhere on the ship.
"Be precise. Where is he?"
"There's a special cell-block in the prison there. Only a few people know about it. It's the seventh level below ground and the only access to it is controlled by the warden."
"Who's in charge of this operation? Who's your boss?"
"Khadijha... Oh, Jesus!" He clapped his hand over his other ear, and the blood flowed down his cheek. He watched as the target-light slid down over his chest and belly to rest between his legs.
"I think being a smart-aleck would be counter-productive in my present mood," Loris said. "Who's the boss?"
"Al-Zubair. He's trying to establish a High Company in the Outer Worlds. He's playing everybody against everybody else."
Karil had a question of his own: "What's the connection with Kelley?"
"Kelley? What do you mean?" His eyes darted to Karil's and flicked back to Loris' face, watching for some hint of her next move.
"When you were putting me in the tank, you mentioned his name."
"He's al-Zubair’s only serious opposition on the Council. We know you have mutual friends and we thought if he could see what Galilean Security had done to you, he'd be angry enough to let al-Zubair do things that he wouldn't normally agree to. Besides, you're a big hero on Mars. The Rebellion leans toward the Galilean side; if they thought they were no better than the High Companies..." His eyes narrowed. "Look, you want to escape. You've earned the right. You can go. I won't try to stop you. Besides, I have to get to the fucking infirmary before I bleed to death. Will you go, for Crissake?"
Loris jerked her head toward the control panel. "Change course."
"I'll have to turn my back," he said, his eyes narrowing further. His hands would be hidden from view.
"Change course! Five degrees to Starboard."
"But we'll miss Saturn-capture."
"You're not going to Saturn. Do as I say!"
Slowly he swung about, and his hands moved over the controls. There was a slight lurch, and the stars began to slide
away. Saturn drifted out of view. Karil saw Loris wrap her arm around a stanchion, and he quickly did the same.
Suddenly, lightning darted from her wrist and the control panel exploded in a geyser of sparks and flame. Sirens and claxons began to sound. The lights flickered and died to emergency levels and gravity fell away from beneath them.
Loris tightened her grip on the stanchion as she strafed the bridge. Fire-retardant foam bubbled over the control panel and filled the air with mist and snow. But Loris continued to fire, the blizzard whirling about her, lightning bolts flashing until the computer banks that made up the walls were as blackened and pitted as an asteroid's surface.
Karil held his breath, expecting at every moment to see the port shatter and suck them all out into space. But Loris' aim was perfect. One by one, every panel of the computer was blasted and destroyed.
Ivan had thrown his arms over his head. Sparks rained over him and he was covered in fire-retardant snow. Loris stopped.
"That was for Annie," she said calmly. "Johanna's revenge will come later."
Slowly Ivan uncovered and lifted his singed and snowy head. Terror was on his face in the blood-red emergency light. He looked like a soul in Hell.
"You've completely crippled the ship," he gasped.
Loris smiled an unpleasant smile.
"We can't change course." His eyes darted to the stars, beckoning beyond. "We don't even have communications."
"What good would that do? You're headed out of the system faster than any other ship could travel. Not even al-Zubair could help you now, even if he knew you needed help. Even if he cared."
He stared at her, open-mouthed. Ivan and Karil had the same thought: Loris' mind had been warped by her confinement.
"I suppose, if you're lucky, you'll end up on a cometary and be back in the system in a thousand years or so. I'm sorry Karil and I can't join you on this historic journey. We have an appointment with your boss."
Karil could almost read the thought on Ivan's face: Atalanta was fully fuelled. By emptying her tanks in deceleration, she might just be able to make Saturn-capture. His hand flashed down with black-belt swiftness and came up with his laser. Loris sliced his head off with a flick of her wrist and it drifted away.
Karil turned to avoid the sight, his stomach churning. He saw Ivan's laser fly past him, tumbling slowly.
"I'm sorry I had to do that," Loris said. "The sonofabitch didn't deserve to die so quickly." She saw the expression on Karil's face. "Well, what the hell do you think kept me sane in that tank?"
"Sane?" Karil said.
"Come on." She swung away and they cycled through the lock. The hatch dropped open, and they dove down the elevator shaft.
Karil followed in a daze. Not long ago, he had killed a man himself, but that was in hot blood, if not self-defence. To condemn an entire shipload of people, no matter how criminal, to despair and cannibalism and eventual asphyxiation, out of nothing more than revenge--that was something else again. Not to mention the danger to themselves, should they fail to get to Atalanta in time! He was following a mad woman.
They met Isfahan halfway down the shaft, a flying fur-ball that flashed by them in the semi-darkness.
"I thought you'd land on your feet by the time the gravity was on full. Stick close to us now, Izzie."
"Miaowr?"
"That's right. Come on."
There was a lock at the after end of the shaft. Loris flipped over and landed on her feet, braced herself against the hatch.
"I hope you've succeeded in slowing them down," Karil said. "I'd hate to come flying out of this hatch into someone's arms."
"We'll know in a second."
They slipped into the lock and Loris shut them in. Karil felt claustrophobia creeping up on him again, but he was so dazed now that he hardly noticed. Cautiously, Loris cracked the hatch and peered into the shuttle hangar. Atalanta was tethered to the deck not far away. The cutter and two other craft lay beyond her. There was no one in sight.
Loris gripped the edge of the opening with her hands, drew back and launched herself across the hangar. Karil threw himself after her and Isfahan joined in the game, purring loudly.
Halfway across the hangar, Karil saw a handful of armed figures gliding through a hatchway at the far end. He drew and fired, saw them scatter and scramble for cover. He missed Atalanta's hatch and collided painfully with her hull. Loris reached out and pulled him in before he could rebound. Isfahan flashed by him and vanished into Atalanta's interior.
They clambered like monkeys down the corridor; the instant she entered the bridge, Loris tapped a simple switch and Atalanta came alive. Hatches slammed and hissed shut. Her drivers roared into life. Lights flashed on all about them.
"I'm glad to see you made it," Atty said. "What has happened? We seem to have changed course."
"It seems that way." Loris flipped into the pilot's couch and Karil dove into the astrogator's well. As he strapped in hurriedly, he glanced through the port and saw the guards re-grouping, using the other ships for cover. More guards were pouring through hatchways, armed with heavy armour-piercing lasers.
Loris tapped a sensor. Suddenly there were bolts of lightning flashing from the forward edge of Atty's wings. Karil glanced at the screen and saw Loris, her hand on the trigger-assembly, her face grim. The guards were scattering again, except for a few that tumbled limply through the air. The cutter exploded into tangled steel, flinging bodies aside like leaves. The other craft beside it were torn from their moorings and toppled slowly away, great craters in their hulls erupting flames.
"Loris, this is Khadijha!"
Loris did not reply. She grabbed the steering assembly and Atalanta rocked violently, tearing herself from the deck. She turned slowly about in a cloud of vernier-gas, lumbering like a ship in a swell, and the outer doors hove into view.
"Loris, we can make a deal. I surrender my ship. I surrender myself."
"Your ship is useless. And I thought you were my friend."
"Please, Loris. Take me with you!"
"You gave the order for Johanna's death. And Annie's. You killed the only two people I've ever loved. But you'll have a long time to regret that."
"Lor..."
Loris snapped off the communicator and grabbed the trigger-assembly.
"Please, Loris," Atalanta said. "There are men still in the hangar."
"All part of the same criminal organization."
"Please, Loris." Karil realized that Loris had shut down Atty’s volition so she could kill without opposition.
Khadijha drifted into view at the far end of the hangar, her arms raised in supplication. She floated in her veils like the angel of death. Twin bolts flashed from the laser cannons on Atalanta’s bow. They flashed by on either side of Khadijha and struck the doors. The steel buckled and parted. Air-pressure tore them open, peeling them back like tissue paper. Khadijha was snatched away into space, guards slid across the deck, screaming silently in the vacuum, and followed her. Acceleration threw Karil back in his couch and Atalanta leaped through the opening.
In the screen beside him, Karil could see Mjolnir falling away, light pouring through the gash in her stern, scraps of steel and tiny, still human figures drifting away. She looked like some great shark with gaping jaws, guided by pilot fish.
"You're crazier than Shagrug," he said.
"Didn't you know that? You'd better snap to and calculate how much fuel we need to decelerate for Saturn," Loris said, "or we'll be on our way out of the system too."
"Yes, Captain," he said, and obeyed.
Atalanta was being catapulted out of the solar system by Mjolnir's momentum. They would have to reduce her velocity until the sun's gravitation drew her back into a curve past Saturn, close enough that the latter could sweep her up into orbit. Karil was tense as his hands flew over the keyboards. When the calculations were finished, he breathed a sigh of relief. "It looks like we're okay," he said.
"What?" Loris had been gazing out at the stars over his head, lost in thought.
"If Khadijha hadn't topped off the tanks, we'd be dead," he told her. "And if Atty hadn't been completely overhauled on Io, I don't think we could expect her drivers to hold up."
"Humph!" Loris said. "I guess we should be thankful to Ivan and Khadijha, then." She studied the figures. "Atty, how long can you keep this up before your drivers begin to overheat?"
"I estimate twelve hours," the ship replied, "before we are forced to shut down. We will have to alternate between one-gee deceleration and free-fall, with constant corrections. By the time our fuel is exhausted, we should be committed to Saturn-capture, but the orbit will be a wide one."
"So I see."
"During the deceleration phases," Atty went on, "progress about the interior will be difficult for you. The after bulkhead will become a floor, and you will have to climb about using the handholds. A misstep might mean a fall sufficient to cause serious injury."
"Will your showers function under these conditions?"
"They are designed to be used in a gravity field as well as in free-fall."
"Good. I'm going to take a shower, put on some clothes, and eat some solid food like a human being."
"Shouldn't we report to the authorities first?" Karil asked.
Loris looked at him like he had two heads. "What authorities?"
"At Titan."
"Who the hell do you mean? Al-Zubair?"
"He's only one member of the Council. He can be arrested by the others, you know."
Loris suddenly burst out laughing. Karil held his temper with difficulty and glared at her in the screen.
"I'm sorry, Karil," she said after a while. "I don't mean to laugh at you. It's just that you're so naive sometimes."
"What do you mean?"
"For Christ sake, Karil. Al-Zubair’s one of the most powerful and respected men in the solar system. Can't you see how preposterous our charges would sound?"
"But it's the truth. And steps have to be taken against him."
"The truth! Karil, think for a minute. What's the first thing the Council would do if some voice out of space accused one of their members of criminal behaviour?"
"They'd open an investigation."
"Maybe. Maybe not. In either case, the first person they'd talk to would be al-Zubair. If he didn't disappear first. I'm sure there's nothing the others do or say that doesn’t get back to him instantly. How long do you think Shagrug would live after that?"
"Oh, I see."
"That's right. If he's really being kept in secret confinement, it wouldn't take a lot to get his throat cut and the body sunk in some methane lake, where no one would ever find it. That's the first thing al-Zubair would do. The second is to see that we never got to speak to the authorities again. We'd be sitting ducks in wide orbit, with no fuel left. The third thing is: he'd disappear, and probably take his other warship with him. He'd run to his friends in the High Companies, deliver his ship, maybe a whole fucking fleet of them. Maybe he's building the fleet for them in the first place. Who the fuck knows what he's doing! I think Ivan was scared enough to be telling us the truth, but I'm damn sure it wasn’t the whole truth." Her voice dropped. "Look, Karil, right now, we've got only one thing going for us, and that's surprise."
"What have you got in mind?"
"Well, first we've got to spring Shag somehow."
"Okay, we'll go to Kelley. He's got the authority."
"Can you trust him?"
"What do you think? We've both worked with him before. Besides, what else could we do? Stage a jailbreak? We're talking about titanium walls, mining-robots, armed guards, surrounded by a poisonous atmosphere. We might as well try to break into Venus. I broke into Io, sure, but I couldn't have done it if Ivan hadn't shut down..."
"You broke into Io?"
"Yes, trying to save your life. And I damn near died in the process."
Loris threw up her hands. "All right, we'll try and enlist the Professor's help. But Al-Zubair could easily have spies in his employ, you know."
"We'll speak to him in secrecy. You know how to do that. And after that, this partnership is dissolved."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean you're fucking crazy. I think you've been in the cloak and laser business too long and you're not a hell of a lot better than the other side."
"Karil..." Atty began.
"Oh, I see," Loris said. "Well tell me then, you dilettante revolutionary, what the fuck would you have done back there?"
"I wouldn't have come damn near killing myself to stop for revenge, for one thing. I would have gotten the hell..."
"And left Khadijha in control of her ship?"
"Atty could have sabotaged the drivers and communications and left them helpless..."
"In other words, in the same condition they're in now. Well, I'll tell you something: if I could have gone through that ship and slit the throat of every goddamn person on board face-to-face, I would have, just to make damn sure nobody could have gotten the word out to al-Zubair. But this was the best I could do in the time allowed."
"Loris..." Atty began.
"We both know the first thing on your mind was revenge," Karil said. "Do you think I couldn't see it in your eyes? I've seen statues of the Goddess Kali that were less frightening."
And less beautiful, Karil had to admit, though he didn't feel like saying it.
"I hate to interrupt this stimulating and fruitful exchange," Atty said, "but you've both got work to do."
"What's wrong, Atty?"
"You've got to build a catbox."
***
They climbed down the corridor, using the handholds as ladder-rungs, and rigged up a box for Isfahan in the recreation cabin, using a spare packing crate and a few litres of vacuum-packing material. When they had finished, and after a decent hesitation, Isfahan expressed his approval in a practical way.
They climbed back to the bridge and, using Atty's imaging screen, Loris designed a device to adapt the box for free-fall use later. With the help of laser welders, a metal-foil sunshade could be bent and braced into a centrifuge. It would not be difficult to install sensors to set it spinning upon contact with the cat's paws, providing pseudo-gravity, and to close the lid over the box when he had dismounted. It lacked some of the amenities of Isfahan's toilet facilities aboard Anais, that is, it would have to be cleaned by hand, but it would do the trick.
By this time, Karil and Loris were no longer interested in quarrelling. Karil enjoyed some solid food and a shower in his cabin, and climbed into his bed-bag, which he had detached from the bunk-frame and placed on what was now the floor. After a moment, he got up and touched open the iris to the corridor. He was still uncomfortable in enclosed spaces.
"Good night, Karil."
"Good night, Atty. It's really good to have you back."
In the middle of the night, Karil lurched awake. He had been dreaming of landslides and burial alive. He was in a sweat and momentarily confused to find himself lying on what had once been the wall.
"I'm sorry to wake you, Karil, but..."
"I'm glad you did. I was having a nightmare."
"I could tell. But so is Loris. Go to her, Karil."
"But..."
"Please, Karil."
He slipped out of the sack and swung out onto the ladder-well. The hatch to Loris' cabin was open as well, and he could see her lying in the foetal position, her body wracked with sobs. He climbed down to her.
"Loris..."
"Leave me alone."
He took her in his arms, and she clung to him, her head on his shoulder, and bawled like a baby. His own eyes filled with tears, and he held her tightly.
"I loved her too, Loris," he said.
Her response was interrupted by sobs: "I only had...three friends in the world...and one of them...killed the other two."
After a time, her wails subsided into silence broken by the occasional choking cry. He tucked her into her bed-bag and slipped in beside her. They drifted off to sleep in each other's arms while Atalanta crooned in the darkness.