— by night — to farm, but they would not dwell there by choice.'
'The point of all this history and archeology is that Keth is being kept in one of the supply caches, not in the main base. He is under very little guard, and is in fact very easy to get at. There is nothing remarkable about the cell he is in, just an ordinary storage room like millions of other rooms in the eighty-seven major cities across the planet, but he is on a level so deep that Union technology could not possibly scan for him.
'So they stuck him in a hole as quickly as they could and are trying to pretend that nothing has happened, ready to feign bewilderment to any Starwolf that might descend upon them. But they made two mistakes. They do not know that we were aware of Keth's location from the moment they put him into safekeeping. And they have that half-wrecked carrier tied up at the station for repairs, right in plain sight. I can excuse the first, but hardly the second.'
'Can you show me where they have Keth?' Dveyella asked.
'Simple enough,' Valthyrra said as she began to display graphics on the viewscreen, beginning with a map of the planet. 'Because of the great size of the major cities, the Union has always assumed that the native population was between two and five million each. We know, from actual observation, that few populations ever exceeded fifty thousand. Because of their naturally stable temperatures, these cities are to be found from the tropics to just within the arctic regions… just as long as a major crop could be grown in the region. The only exceptions are a few that were more dependent upon coastal fishing. They lived long lives, nearly as long as that of your own kind. They built to last, and they were very careful in their building.'
Valthyrra paused to rotate her map of the planet, moving in on a single city. 'The place where they have Keth is on the far northern coast of the larger continent, one of those fishing centers on the edge of the arctic sea. The city itself is just a few kilometers inland in a fold between ridges of a rather rugged band of mountains. The city is a fairly large one, for its coastal cliffs had caves enough for a vast fleet.' The image focused on a section of the city. 'Keth is here, in the southwest corner. You can land your ships here on this wide ledge on the ridge overlooking the city, no more than a kilometer from the southwest entrance.'
Valthyrra indicated the ledge and drew out a careful map down from the heights to the entrance and on into the interior of the city. 'After entering, you will proceed a short distance to the main stairs leading down. Here you will descend twelve levels to the very bottom. That is a deceptively far distance down, nearly half a kilometer, since there is considerable space between levels. Fortunately there is a freight elevator installed in the stairwell itself. The remains of the fighter are stacked together in shielded boxes not far from the entrance, beside a landing pad used by freight transports.'
'So what we have is a round trip of three kilometers or more, one of which is an elevator ride,' Dveyella commented to herself before looking up at the hovering camera pod. 'How much time do we have?'
'The nearest fighters are at the main base on the other continent, and much farther to the south.' Valthyrra indicated the two locations on her map projection. 'That is just over nine thousand kilometers. The fighters will undoubtedly go subballistic to make the best time. Count on no more than thirty minutes, but be prepared if they only give you twenty.'
Dveyella nodded thoughtfully. 'And we can enter through the polar magnetic corridor and fly in low?'
'Yes, that is what makes this easy. There is not much in the way of surveillance equipment, since there has never been any need. The Union has always disdained radar because of its limited effective range due to its speed- of-light time lag, and the planet has a strong enough magnetic field to deflect achronic sensors and scanners.'
'And what of guards?'
'There are no living personnel at the complex, although there are perhaps a hundred automatons walking the halls.' She quickly drew up the schematics for a curious machine. Its heavy, rounded upper body was carried on four spindly legs, with guns sprouting like antlers from its head and upper back and a long whip of an antenna like an upraised tail. 'They are all of the new Shepherd design, smarter and quicker than the old Prowler sentry model.'
'I am familiar with the design,' Dveyella said. 'What do you want done with the wreckage of the fighter? We cannot leave it, and I would rather take it with us than try to destroy it. Our fighters are too well-built; it would take quite an explosion to blow it to worthless bits, especially if it is in shielded containers.'
'Do you propose that we should haul it out on our backs?' Velmeran asked. 'Is that why you wanted to know if I was strong?'
'No, hardly,' Dveyella said, smiling. It was a ridiculous thought, even though they could lift twelve tons between them. 'Our transport has an oversized cargo door and heavy-duty handling arms. We can get those boxes on our way out.'
Threl nodded in agreement. 'All I have to do is set us down beside it, and Marlena can snatch them up in half a minute.'
'There is surveillance equipment, visual and infrared scanners, at the complex. That is why you cannot come in for that fighter until you are ready to depart. Most of the planet's security is designed to guard the world as a whole and keep anything from approaching too closely in the first place. That is why you will not have to worry about automatic cannons tracking you. There are none.'
'Unfortunately, that is also why your packs are going to have to stay well back,' Dveyella added. 'If they see fighters coming in, they are going to be on their guard.'
'That is true as well,' Valthyrra agreed. 'But my drone will be watching you closely, and I can time matters close enough so that my packs will be there to support you on your way out.'
Dveyella nodded. 'Our problem with fighters is going to be inside the atmosphere, since we have to keep our speed down to their level. Outside it is going to be stingships and destroyers. Out transport is good, but it is still no fighter and it will be the most vulnerable to stingships. We have to keep them off her tail.'
'I will have nine packs there to help you by then,' Valthyrra said. Then, seeing Velmeran's look of dismay, she turned her camera pod to stare at him. 'Nine packs, not ten. I will not allow your children to launch. Short one, perhaps…'
'But not without me, no,' Velmeran agreed. 'They already know that they will not be going out, and they have been taking it fairly well. But Treg wants to go with me so badly he is positively begging. I wonder if it would not be easier to simply lock him in his cabin until this is over.'
Mayelna laughed aloud. 'Now perhaps you will be able to appreciate how hard it is for me to try to tell you no!'
Velmeran sealed the last closure of his new suit and opened the chestplate, flipping down the hinged mirror so that he could see to set the controls. The visual display was cleverly designed; the monitor displayed normally for an assistant's use and, at the touch of a button, backward and upside down so that the wearer could see it in the mirror. He quickly set the controls and the cooling unit cycled on strongly but silently. The one flaw in the Kelvessan's impressive design was that they generated a great deal of heat even when they were inactive, and reached dangerously excessive levels during hypermetabolism. Outside the cool environment of their own ships, they depended upon their suits for comfort or even life in temperatures that ordinary humans found normal.
Valthyrra might not have been able to improve upon the construction of the suit, but she made a vast improvement in the fit. The armor itself fit much closer about the suit inside, and was no longer free to shift and turn during swift or difficult movements. She had made suits for both himself and Dveyella to very precise measurements, so precise that they would have to be careful of both gaining or losing weight. And that was a problem in itself, for Starwolves had to eat enormously to maintain their powerful metabolisms.
'Now this is the way it was supposed to be!' Dveyella declared as she lifted both sets of arms high over her head and shifted her shoulders back and forth. 'It feels as if you have articulated the backplate.'
'I have,' Valthyrra said, hovering near in the form of a probe. 'Both the front-and backplates are split down the middle and joined by a continuous hinge, with the protective plastic coating molded in one piece over the top. All of our suits are built that way, although it seems that no other ships have adopted the design.'
'Can you give me plans for that design?' she asked.
'Of course,' Valthyrra said, and turned to Velmeran. 'I have also made you a pair of special guns to carry in the belt of that new suit. More powerful than anything I have in reserve. They will not pierce the armor of those automated sentries, but their high-output generators will allow you to shoot more rapidly. Up to four times a second.'
'You will not find better than that,' Dveyella said. 'Take them.'
