Doomstar

couldn't guarantee the skipper or crew…'

'Skipper's no problem. Give him a vacation with pay. Same with the crew. I'll supply my own, if they aren't all in jail.'

Seri said impatiently, 'But you've got to land! You've got to service and take on supplies and at least a semblance of cargo. And there isn't a port official in the Cluster that doesn't know you.'

'And there isn't a port in the Cluster that I don't know, including the ones where I will be safer than a babe in its mother's arms. You can leave that to me.'

'But…'

Kettrick looked at him. 'Seri, friend, you are a good man with charts and figures and all the necessary labors of business. The company couldn't have operated without you. But I don't recall that you ever claimed to be an expert on my end of the business.'

Seri shook his head, 'I don't know why I listen to you.'

'Because you're greedy, like the rest of us.'

'I can't deny that.'

'And because you've been busy weighing up the risk against the possible profit and you've decided that it's worth it.'

Seri said harshly, 'I haven't had time to weigh anything. You're too sudden, Johnny.' He rose and moved restlessly across the open space where they sat, into the dappled shadows of an arching vine. There he stopped and turned, but Kettrick could no longer see his face.

'Suppose I say no, Johnny. Then what happens?'

Kettrick shrugged. 'I'll make other arrangements. And the half-million will go to somebody else. Hell, man, you were my partner. I had to give you first chance at it.'

Seri stood in the shadow of the vines and did not speak.

Kettrick laughed. 'A knotty problem to be faced with in the middle of the night, I'll admit that. I'm sorry I can't be more considerate. Ponder it a while. And remember that as far as Sekma's Interworld-Commerce boys are concerned, I'm light years away on Earth. By the time any notion that I'm not could get back to them — assuming, of course, that you and Larith don't betray me…'

Seri made a gesture of denial.

'For friendship's sake, I trust you,' Kettrick said, 'and also because if you did turn me in you could count firmly on going right along with me to Narkad, remembering various things I could have, but did not, reveal to Sekma's Board of Inquiry. So as I started to say, by the time the I–C could get word that I'm back in the Hyades, I'll be all through and gone again. Meantime, they won't be looking for what they know isn't here.'

Seri was silent while the breeze shook sweetness from the flowers and rustled the cool leaves overhead. Then he said, 'All right, Johnny. You can have the ship.'

Kettrick rose and stretched. 'Good. You won't regret it.'

New energy seemed to have been released in Seri by the simple act of making up his mind.

'You can't stay here. Too many people coming by. How about the island? Nobody will bother you there for three days, and you can come and go quite safely at night. You can even gather your crew there.'

Kettrick nodded. 'Good enough.' He did not want to stay in Seri's house, not only because the risk of being seen was great, but because he did not know how long he could maintain this attitude of practical neutrality about Larith. The less he saw of Seri the better, especially if Larith should decide to come back to the house.

Seri seemed pleased. 'I'll get the launch ready. The hut is pretty well stocked, but there are a few things you'll want. Sit still and have another drink, it won't take long. I'll send Khitu and Chai with you to help you settle in, and they can bring the launch back. The skimmer's at the island, and better for your purposes. The launch would attract too much attention.'

He went away down the stairs, Kettrick poured himself another drink and looked at the stars and tried not to think of the times he and Larith had spent together on the island. Ree Darva was too full of the sound of her voice and the graceful shadow of her passing. He would be glad to leave it.

Presently Seri called to him and he went down into the courtyard and through the back gate to the landing. The white launch hung purring softly at her mooring.

'I tried to think of everything,' Seri said. 'If there's anything more you need, tell them, and I'll send it over tomorrow night.'

Khitu said, 'Come, John-nee.' He and Chai had always loved boats. They were happy as two kittens and eager to be gone. Kettrick stepped into the launch. Seri reached over and took him by the hand.

'I'll let you know when Starbird's ready,' he said. His hand tightened and then let go. 'We'll do it, Johnny.' He pushed the launch away, out onto the quiet water, all coppery in the moonlight.

Khitu made the launch purr louder, his large hands expert on the controls. It slid away down the river, a white arrow point cutting the still water. Seri stood on the landing and watched, and grew small in the distance, and then was gone.

The city passed by on either bank. The somnolent houses gave way to mooring basins and fisheries as the river widened and then melted imperceptibly into the lake. Looking back Kettrick could see the towering shapes of the starships far to the south, where the spaceport dominated all this shoreline, and as he looked a ship went skyward with the long muted drumroll of thunder that never failed to shake his heart.

Now there was nothing but sky and lake and the small launch driving over a lifting swell.

And then suddenly the night went out in blast and fire. A great fist drove Kettrick down into the yielding water and slammed it shut over his head. Very briefly he was aware of pain. Then he ceased to be aware of anything.

5

He was still in the water. It wrapped around him, warm as milk, and he could feel it move his flaccid body. He pictured himself in the water, waving dimly like the ribboned weed, and he thought that it was rather pleasant to be drowned and have nothing to do but rock forever with this gentle motion.

Then he breathed.

The breathing hurt. He strangled and coughed, and that hurt even more. He opened his eyes. Through a wet blur he saw that he was up to his chin in water, with nothing under him or around him but more water, and panic came clawing at him because when he tried to put out his arms and swim the pain doubled him up and his head went under again.

Something, somebody, held him. Somebody dragged his head up into the air.

'John-nee, stay still. Not fight…'

Somebody. Wet fur, a powerful arm around him.

'Khitu…'

'Khitu dead. It be Chai.'

Strange to hear a furry throat sob like a woman's, to know that tears were running salt into all that fresh wetness that was trying to drown them both. Strange to be so fog-brained that only the pain in his side was real.

'Here. Hold.'

'I can't…'

Chai told him fiercely, 'Hold!' And he held, with his left hand, to some buoyant scrap of wreckage she thrust at him. He could hear her sigh, as though relieved of a too-heavy burden, and the grip of her arm on him slackened. For a time they hung there together, panting, and Kettrick's head cleared a bit. He began to understand that the launch had for some reason exploded and dumped them both into the lake, that Khitu was dead — dead? So quickly, between breaths? Dead. And Chai had kept him from being dead too.

'You hurt?' he asked her.

'Only little.'

He could feel her treading water strongly, and he thought she was telling the truth. She had been in the stern, farthest from the blast. Poor Khitu would have been right on top of it.