The Wizard of Karres

'Because of Pul.'

'Pul? Him?' Captain Pausert looked at the blue-furred animal with its impressive mouthful of teeth.

Hantis patted the grik-dog affectionately. 'Yes. Grik-dogs were bred to smell out Nanite exudates. Pul here can tell if someone has been infested. No Nartheby Sprite would ever consider leaving home without one.'

'And I can tell you that ISS agent from the Imperial cruiser had been invaded and taken over,' growled Pul. 'It was all I could do not to bite him.'

'Grik-dog fangs can inject a venom that kills Nanites. Unfortunately it kills the host too, and also takes quite a long time.' Hantis looked even sadder.

'Which means that anyone who is infected can't be saved.' Pausert felt very cold, suddenly.

'The Empress Haile is going on her procession through her territories and dependencies soon. We've learned—suspect, at least—that there is a Nanite plot designed to reach fruition when she returns to the Imperial Capital. It is essential that Pul and I get there before then. Unfortunately, the Nanites have obviously taken over some of our own agents. They know who I am and where we are going. They will stop at nothing to prevent us from getting there.'

 

CHAPTER 4

'Captain, that fleet is still following us,' said Vezzarn worriedly. 'They'd be out of detector range if you hadn't had that new stuff fitted on Uldune.'

Captain Pausert looked at the small blips on the detector screen. One large and fifteen smaller spots of light, traveling in formation. The fleet was still outside the range of the visual screens. He wished he could see them.

'Let's try stepping up the power—slowly, so it isn't obvious—and changing vector slightly. This is the most direct route to the Sheris system. It is possible that they aren't actually following us . . . I suppose.'

Two hours later they were able to say for certain the fleet was following them. Moreover, the fleet could also follow them despite their slow increase in speed to the Venture's maximum.

'I don't like it, Goth. I think you and the Leewit should get ready to use the Sheewash Drive,' said Pausert finally. Getting rid of their followers was worth the risk.

Goth nodded. 'Good idea, Captain. Let's lose them while we can. I'll go and get the Leewit.'

'And I am going back to my cabin,' announced Vezzarn. Witch-stuff made the old spacer nervous. If it couldn't be explained in terms of space-time physics, he wanted to be elsewhere when it was happening,

A few minutes later, a globe of orange fire danced above some twisted black wires in the control cabin. Outside, the viewscreens showed that space suddenly blurred. Captain Pausert eyed the process with interest. During the Venture's last voyage, Vezzarn, Hulik do Eldel and Laes Yango—who had also gone by the name of 'the Agandar' and had commanded a fleet of pirates that were fast becoming a navy—had all wanted to steal the Sheewash Drive. They had all thought that it was something technological, and could be stolen. What they hadn't known was that it didn't work without a witch; all they had known was that it was really, really fast.

The Sheewash Drive wasn't something Pausert had mastered yet and with klatha powers you had to be ready . . . or you could get hurt. You could even be killed—or, as one witch had said, darkly, 'worse.' Pausert wasn't prepared to contemplate what 'worse' could mean, though sometimes he had uneasy images of being turned inside-out for trying. But the pattern of the Sheewash seemed to be almost in his grasp. The two witch sisters kept it up for about a minute, but that would be enough to make the Venture disappear from tracking screens. As the wire collapsed and the globe of orange fire winked out of existence, the captain was already setting another course-vector and pulling the engines back to normal cruising speeds. This detour would avoid their next scheduled stop, the Sheris system, and take them on a rather odd tangent to the Alpha Dendi stars instead. That was quite a dense cluster which ships in a hurry avoided. There was a lot of intersolar dust there, and that would make visual tracking difficult. Captain Pausert relaxed, and went to fix the two young witches some food. Using klatha energies, especially for something as powerful as the Sheewash Drive, left the young witches exhausted and starving. So it had to be used judiciously. Neither Goth nor the Leewit could do the Sheewash Drive again too soon.

* * *

It was two days later, just as they were entering the first of the dust-veils around the Alpha Dendi cluster, when Hulik do Eldel paged the captain. He got up, and, still sleepy, headed into the control room.

'Vezzarn told me about our followers, Captain.' She pointed an elegant finger at the detector-screen. There was one large and fifteen smaller blips, in the same formation. 'Looks like they're still behind us.'

Pausert blinked at them. This was only a couple of hours into his sleep period, and he wasn't at his brightest. It certainly looked like the same pattern. But how could the Imperials possibly have caught up with them, or even followed them at all?

'Shall I try hailing them, Captain?'

Pausert shrugged tiredly and flopped into the command chair. 'It can't do any harm, I suppose. But I don't think they're chasing after us to buy Councilor Rapport's tinklewood fishing-poles.'

There was no response on the Empire general beam-length, but as Hulik flicked the dials, they picked up a jabber of some unknown language. 'Ship-to-ship communication over there, I think,' said Hulik. 'They've obviously forgotten to switch over to narrow beam.'

Pausert had already hit the ship's intercom.

'What is it, Captain?'

'Goth, we need the Leewit's translation skills down here. Fast. We've got ships on our tail and they're talking to each other on broad-beam.'

'We're coming.'

'I'm recording, Captain,' said Hulik. 'Also trying to get visuals, but they're at long range.'

Goth and the Leewit tumbled into the control room. The Leewit, besides her equipment-shattering whistles, was also a klatha-translator. She could instantly translate any language, even robot and machine tongues.

She started immediately. 'They say . . . tubes overhot. This pace very much longer cannot be kept to.'

She paused, before continuing. Obviously, only the communication officer of the ship in trouble with its tubes had forgotten to set his equipment to narrow beam. They were only getting half the conversation. 'The one who spoke earlier says it matters not. If their tubes blow they will get none of the Agandar's loot anyway.'

She paused again. 'Oh! He says he hopes . . . Beelzit . . . I'm not going to translate that. Filthy mind! Should wash his mouth out with soap.' She reached for the transmitter-switch, without a doubt, to give the com-officer a lesson.

Hastily, Captain Pausert slapped his hand over it. 'Easy now. Let's save it. They don't know we know their ship-channel. That could be useful.'

The Leewit scowled at him. 'S'pose so,' she said reluctantly. 'But I was looking forward to it. That was really filthy.'

Hulik shook her head in amazement. 'The Agandar's loot! But . . . what loot, Captain? Did he leave anything on the ship?'

Pausert tried to think. 'Well, there was his personal gear, and the crate the Sheem robot was in. We dumped the crate. I think his gear is stashed in the corner of the hold, with a few bales of unsold cargo. I've got a few of those educational toys, some tinklewood fishing poles and those allweather cloaks left over from the cargo I loaded on Nikkeldepain.'

He saw that Hulik, Goth and the Leewit were all heading for the door. 'Go and look then,' he said crossly. 'It'll be nothing more than his clothes and toiletries. You can't hide a ton of loot in a couple of holdalls.'

'He did raid the Star diamond concession on Coolum's World,' pointed out Hulik.

Goth grinned at the captain. 'I remember Wansing, that crook of a jeweler you rescued me from on Porlumma, talking about it. They found some top-quality stones there as big as your head.'

'And if you do find them there, I'll return them to their owners!' he called after them, irritably. There were times that he felt at a distinct disadvantage, being an honest man. Then he rather determinedly turned to face the screens again.