The Wizard of Karres

* * *

The twenty or so suns in the cluster marked on the charts were never all visible at one time. Planetoids, asteroids and intersolar dust hung in gravity-whirled skeins. It was, the captain admitted, the perfect place for an ambush. He'd been planning on being well-slept and alert when they went into it, but, thanks to Hulik's call when she'd spotted the following ships and the excitement that followed with searching the Agandar's gear, he'd never gotten it.

Ha. Some treasure! No alien crowns or head-size diamonds. Toiletries and clothes, as he'd predicted. A few personal items. The most exciting thing was a pack of cards with hand-painted face-cards that the Leewit had appropriated to play with. The captain supposed that it was all right for her to do so. After all, the late Agandar still owed him for damages his war-robot had done to the ship. A pack of cards was a pretty cheap exchange.

What was worrying Pausert far more was that they'd had to cut speed here in order to dodge all the space- debris. And they'd lost sight of the Agandar's fleet. The captain had tried every dodge in the book to make sure that they weren't actually being followed, but the dust, rocks and moonlets made this a perfect place for the enemy to hunt, rather than the Venture to hide. The pirates had a number of ships to cover the possible routes through the lenticular cluster.

The captain had gambled on the most difficult route also being the one least likely for them to encounter an ambush. So far, he'd been right. But it was slow going, and the trip was taking a toll on the ship's crew. Even at reduced speed, they had very little time to react to obstacles. The ship simply couldn't run on automatic systems. One of the senior ship-handlers, either Vezzarn or Pausert himself, had to be there. Pausert had been teaching Goth and Hulik—even, when he could get her attention, the Leewit—but none of them were good enough yet for this kind of seat-of-your-pants flying, with all the instant decision-making it took.

On the other hand, the Leewit was bidding fair to become a superb shot with the nova guns. She seemed to have a gift for anticipation; which, considering her witch background, could actually be real precognition starting to develop.

Looking ahead, Pausert realized he might just need her gun skills. That was definitely a ship's drive registering on the detectors. Some of the Agandar's fleet must have gotten in front of them, perhaps taking a course that had less debris to avoid. A few seconds later, there was a second blip from the detector. Pausert decided he'd had enough. He was tired and angry. The Venture had her nova guns and more speed and maneuverability than they would expect. He held to his course.

A third set of blips appeared.

That was too much. In the maze of dust-walls and drifting asteroids and moonlets, there had to be a way of avoiding the pirates. The captain turned the Venture, running back the way they had come.

The detectors began squalling again. More ships, this time coming up the Venture's course.

'I thought space was supposed to be empty,' groused Pausert, hitting the communicator switch. 'We've got bandits!'

With all the obstacles, the Sheewash Drive couldn't get them out of trouble. But using it for a few seconds could make a lot of difference to their success in evading their enemies. An opportunity, in the shape of a light- second-wide gap in the drifting debris, presented itself off to the starboard. The captain took it. The ships had all been at extreme detector range. They might still be able to lose the pursuing bandits.

* * *

'It's impossible! Wherever we go they seem to follow us, or get there before we do. It is almost as if they know our vectors and they're anticipating us.'

Hulik do Eldel grimaced. 'Captain, I think we must have a leech.'

'A leech?'

'Imperial security hooks them onto suspicious ships, if they get a chance. I suspect these pirates must have got hold of one, and put it onto the Venture's hull, somewhere. It's a simple subradio transmitter. All they have to do is follow their signal-strength indicators.'

'How do we find it and get rid of it?'

'We search the outside of the ship.'

Pausert chewed on his lip. 'Which we can't really do, while we're running. And we can't stop running because they're nearly on top of us.'

Vezzarn looked thoughtful. 'I could use the spare communicator unit and a couple of directional aerials to pinpoint it, Captain. When we get the chance,' he added, a bit lamely.

The communicator buzzed again. 'Empire hailing frequency,' commented Goth, not touching it. 'Want to talk to them, Captain?'

Pausert shrugged. 'Why not? We might convince them to leave us alone if we drop the Agandar's gear out of an airlock.'

He clicked the communicator on. An officer in the uniform of the Imperial Space Navy appeared in the screen.

'This is ISN patrol vessel Saraband. You are ordered to halt and be searched.'

Captain Pausert gaped at the speaker. Then recovered. 'Not a chance, pirate! We're not being fooled that easily. The Empire takes a hard line on those who impersonate her officers.'

Now it was the other man's turn to gape. 'How dare you, sir!'

Pausert snapped the communicator off. 'That told the fraud where to get off!'

'Except that was no fraud, Captain,' said Hulik do Eldel wryly. 'I did my Imperial Security marksmanship course with that man. He was a pompous prig then and it doesn't sound as if he's improved.' She smiled. 'He was a terrible shot, too.'

'Let's hope that that hasn't improved either!' exclaimed the captain. 'I suppose I'd better try and explain.'

Balls of purple fire exploded in space to portside. 'I think it's too late for that. Great Patham! Those ships ahead are also firing on us, Captain.' Goth's eyes widened. 'Look at the size of that thing!'

'It must be the Agandar's flagship,' said Pausert, hastily programming in evasive action. 'He boasted about how big it was. It's terrifying!'

The crew of the Imperial ships must have had a similar reaction. A hasty 'What ship? What ship?' came over the general hailing frequency that Pausert had been about to use to call the ISN Saraband on.

The captain snapped his fingers. 'What was that frequency that you got the ship-to-ship talk from the pirates?'

'.00g53,' said Hulik. 'But . . .'

Pausert had already changed to it. He put a hand on the Leewit's shoulder. 'Tell them it must be a trap. An ambush. That the quarry has led them into the Empire's clutches.'

She nodded, seizing the microphone and began jabbering away. The captain recognized one word. Beelzit. She said it with great satisfaction. Pausert had the feeling that it was just as well he couldn't translate or he'd have had to go through a lot of kicking and biting to wash her mouth out with soap.

* * *

Pausert wished he'd managed a better landing. The Venture stood at an awkward angle on the ice-moonlet which was now following its orbit away from the combat zone. Still, things could be worse.

'Great Patham! They're clumping well giving it to each other, aren't they,' said Goth in delight.

The Leewit pounded his shoulder. 'See what I did!' she said proudly. It was true enough. When orders came pouring out of the Agandar's flagship, she'd added to them. In the resulting confusion, the firefight had spread between the pirates themselves, as well as between the Imperials and the pirates.

'Neat idea of yours, landing here, Captain,' said Vezzarn. 'It'll fool their mass-detectors anyway.'

'And it'll give us a chance to suit up and go out and look for this leech.' Pausert rose to his feet. 'Just as soon as I know we've slipped away safely and don't need to blast off immediately.'

Hulik nodded. 'They certainly seem to have lost us, or lost interest in us. It could be that the leech is one of