Floating Worlds

raised his hand.

“As long as you’re here, you’re subject to our law,” Gordon said.

“I don’t need your laws, I have my own.”

“If you—”

The alarm wailed up so hard in Paula’s ear she flinched. Tanuojin held up one finger. Sril pulled the lever down. “Shoot one.” He glanced at Tanuojin and reached for the next lever. “Shoot two.”

On either side of Ybix points of light sparkled, like firecrackers. The hammerhead off the left wing tumbled over like a wheel. Part of the hull broke off. The Styths roared a cheer that thundered off the curved bridge wall. The men around him reached out and clapped Sril on the shoulders.

Tanuojin shouted, “Quiet!” Paula grabbed hold of the strut of Sril’s perch. Now certainly Gordon would shoot back. Her sweating hands slipped on the plastic strut.

“Akellar, Saba is calling on the ship-to-ship!”

They thundered up another cheer. The bridge stank of their excitement.

“Break this contact with Luna. Where is Saba?”

Bakan read off a series of numbers. The videone went dark. Sril pulled the wire deck out of the wall and leaned over it. Paula looked up at the holograph. A hammerhead sailed along on Ybix’s off wingtip, another behind her tail. Suddenly they sheered away.

“Akellar, the surface has launched a missile.”

Paula turned; she bumped her head on the strut. Tanuojin said, “Clear the bridge. Secure to speed.” He charged out of the cage and went up to Bakan’s post. The men gathered to watch crowded toward the hatchways. They were leaving the bridge. Paula pushed herself after them. Tanuojin shot toward her.

“You stay here, where I can keep an eye on you.” His fingers closed on her arm. Her spine shivered at his touch. He thrust her at Sril. “Hold on to her.”

“Akellar, she can’t—”

“Akellar,” the helmsman called. “I have a course to intercept Ybicsa.”

Over his shoulder, Tanuojin called, “Ready to break orbit.” He leveled his pale eyes at Sril. “You keep your mouth shut, bang-boy.” He dropped away toward the cage. The hatch was just over her head, and she reached for it. Sril pulled her by the arm against his side.

“Hold on, Mendoz’.”

“Launch on point.” Tanuojin was climbing into the cage. Behind the voices of the other men, talking in numbers, ran the beep and mutter of the machines along the wall. A red light came on near her face. Sril turned her around, her back to his chest.

“Akellar, the missile is firing a cluster. Make it five minutes behind us. Heat-chasers. Four minutes thirty-one seconds.”

The sound level rose to a low mechanical rumble that made her ears itch. She moved against Sril’s chest. The ship was sliding away from her. She sank back against the man behind her. He spoke to her. The roar drowned his voice. The pressure hurt her eyes. She could not move, wedged against Sril’s side. Painfully she strained for breath. Like footsteps her pulse beat louder and louder in his ears.

“Ybix, Ybix,” Saba’s voice shouted, above the racket.

She turned her head. Her mouth was sticky. Through a pink blur she saw the Styths sitting on their perches, doing their work. They bore the pressure without effort. It hurt her to breathe. She closed her eyes.

“Saba, hold your course. We’ll run over you. Can you dock at this speed?”

“I’ve got this sled in tow.” Saba’s voice was coming from inside the cage.

Bakan said, “Akellar, four rockets are still tracking us.”

“What rockets?” Saba cried, alarmed.

“Akellar,” Sril said loudly, “she can’t breathe.”

She could breathe. Her eyes hurt, and her ears ached as if needles were run through them. Saba said, “What’s your pressure?”

“Eight plus,” Tanuojin said.

“Compensate. What missiles?”

She fought for air. Her chest lightened. She felt her lips pulled back from her teeth, and her hands rose. She blinked her pink blurred eyes clear.

“Akellar, there’s a hammerhead coming up fast on Ybicsa.”

Paula moved around to Sril’s back, her arms around him. If she fell she would land on the cage. She wiped her eyes on his shoulder.

“Two rockets still tracking, two minutes back. I read fission warheads.”

When she leaned her head on Sril’s back she left a smear of blood across his shirt. She touched her mouth. Down past her feet, Ybix sailed through the green map. At the edge of the hologram another image was forming, a needle-shape: Ybicsa. The smaller ship fell back into the green field around Ybix. Now she saw a third ship, T-shaped, flying up toward Ybicsa from the bottom of the hologram. The three flights converged. Ybix flew over Ybicsa, covering her with her flat shape. The hammerhead veered to chase them, seconds behind them.

“Rockets closing—ten—nine—” In the green glow of the hologram the hammerhead exploded.

The men roared. Tanuojin said, “See, General Gordon, it’s all god’s will.” Against her face Sril’s back bounced in a soundless laugh.

“Saba. Can you dock?”

Ketac’s voice came through the cage, high and rapid with excitement. “Akellar, we’ll dock. We’ll need three men in the chamber to inboard this sled.”

Paula was floating. She let go of Sril and put her hands to her face. The holograph light glowed on her rumpled trouser legs. Sril said, “If Ketac is flying, I’ll wait back at Luna.” He twisted toward her. “How do you feel?”

The hatch was over her head. She stretched her arms up toward it and went out to the corridor.

She stayed in the wetroom while the ship accelerated to cruising speed. That took fifteen hours. She woke up once, in the dark in a roar of noise. She could not move at all. The wetroom held her in its supporting membranes. She was afraid but there was nothing she could do. The weight of the air against her face hurt her nose. Her eyes were shut and she could not raise the lids. The metallic ring in her ears went on and on like something heard in a seashell. She was losing consciousness. She passed into a noisy dream.

 The next time she woke she could move her head, open her eyes, and turn over. She was back in free fall. Someone was banging on the door below her feet. That had wakened her.

“Who is it?” Her stomach was clenched with hunger.

“Paula,” Ketac said. “You can come out now.”

She tried to push herself backward, fumbling with her bare feet for the door. “No,” he called, “go forward, go through the dryer. Do you have any clothes on?”

“No.” She crawled head-first through the dark.

“I’ll be out in the corridor.”

Her head poked up into the open air. With a click a blower fired a gust of warm wind into her face. She drew herself out of the wetroom into a closed dark space. Her arms and legs were painfully cramped and her back had kinked up like a rope. She turned over, working her stiff muscles. Below her a disk of light showed pale in the dark. She dove through it into the cabin.

After the wetroom the oval cabin was huge. She tumbled across it, somersaulting, rolling in the air, her arms and legs flung out. She crashed into the soft wall and rebounded. It was wonderful to move. Her skin tingled in the cold air.

“Paula,” Ketac called.

“Yes.” She brought herself up against the wall, dizzy. “What is it?”

“Are you dressed yet? Can I come in?”

“Wait.” She went around the room, looking for the compartment with her clothes. She put on two pairs of trousers and a shirt and a jacket and two pairs of socks. The cold air was delicious. She opened the hatch and went