Vision of the future

With one final lurch, the turbolift car came to a halt. 'This it?' Zothip's voice growled.

'I expect so,' Control said as the doors slid open. 'Yes—this should be it.'

'So which way?' one of the other pirates demanded.

Easing her head to the side, Karoly lined up one eye with the crack still showing between the back doors. The pirates were half in and half out of the car now, Zothip standing in a narrow passageway outside with his fists set on his hips, all of them looking back and forth both directions down a narrow corridor.

'I don't know,' Control said, looking around once himself and then pointing to the left. 'Let's try that way first.'

'Okay,' Zothip said. 'Grinner, lock down the car—we don't want anyone coming up behind us.'

'Right,' Grinner said, doing something Karoly couldn't see with the control board. 'Done.' The pirates disappeared out of sight to the left. Karoly gave them a five-count; then, finding a toehold on the doorframe lip, she set her climbing claws into the crack between the doors and pried them open.

She stepped into the car; and she was just starting to close the doors again when she heard the sound of footsteps in the corridor outside.

The pirates were coming back.

There was no time for anything but instinctive reaction. Putting her full strength into the effort, she pulled the doors to within a couple of centimeters of being closed. They hung up there, but there was no time for her to try to free them. Crossing the car in two quick strides, she squeezed herself as invisibly as she could into the front left-hand corner.

Just in time. Even as she pressed her climbing claws firmly against the car walls to avoid the telltale clink of metal on metal should they accidentally brush together, the footsteps reached her.

'I don't see what the big deal is that he's got company,' Zothip was muttering as the first puff of air from their passage wafted in through the car opening. 'Anyway, I only heard two voices in there.'

'That doesn't mean there aren't more,' Control said patiently as the group passed the open door and continued down the passageway. 'Besides, if we're seen by the wrong people this arrangement of ours goes straight down.'

'So what?' Zothip growled, his voice fading as they all continued down the corridor. 'Canceling the arrangement— and Disra—is the whole idea, isn't it?'

'We ought to at least talk first,' Control said. 'We might be able to recast the deal.'

'Hey, Grinner, you sure know your way around a control panel,' another voice put in from the rear of the pack as the group continued on its way. 'Did you know that when you locked the car down you popped the back doors?'

Karoly held her breath; but Grinner's response was a brief obscenity and an uninterrupted tread down the corridor. She gave them another five-count; then, pulling off the climbing claws and putting them away, she drew her blaster and headed out after them.

She wasn't more than a few steps into the corridor when a subtle wave of air in her face warned her that somewhere ahead a door had opened. She picked up her pace a bit, and came around a slight curve in the passageway just in time to see a rectangle of muted light close down to a sliver as the pirates closed a door down to a crack. Hurrying silently forward, she stopped at the door and eased her ear against the crack.

'Fancy place,' she heard one of the pirates say, his tone a mixture of contempt and envy. 'Look at this—Ramordian silk sheets and everything.'

'Maybe he'll give you a set for your bunk,' Zothip growled. 'Where's the—oh, there it is.' There was the soft sound of a chair being pulled back across a thick carpet. Karoly moved her eye around the crack, trying to see what was going on. But from her angle all she could see was a small section of an elaborate wall hanging. 'What are you going to do?' Control asked.

'Put in a call to his office,' Zothip grunted. 'Whoever he's got in there, I figure he can tell them to wait.'

* * *

'I'm sorry, Admiral,' Major Tierce said, his fingertips rubbing nervously at the sides of his pant legs. 'But with all due respect, I really don't know what you're talking about. I don't think I've ever been to Yaga Minor. If I have, it would have been as part of a training cruise when I was a cadet. Certainly not—what did you say; six weeks ago?'