She thought she heard Tal’svoice crackle out her comm-link, saying, “They still don’t copy butwe’re within visual range.”
Slapping her forehead,Naiche groaned, “Great, now, I’m hallucinating.”
Kennedy shouted, “No! Iheard that, too.” He hit his comm-link. “Jacoway – is that you? Wecopy!”
“Thank God. Looks like thecloak finally went off-line.”
“Where areyou?”
“I’m in the L2 nearingyour location. Get back out on the roof – I’ll pick you upthere.”
Deck barked, “We can’t –there’s two peerazu out there!”
“I know, I’m on it. I have‘em distracted – get out here, now!”
“If you say so,” Con said.“It beats staying here.” He turned and headed back up theladder.
Deck and Kay followed himand they all stared at the sight of the two peerazu in a furiousbattle with the L2 shuttle. Jacoway was expertly dodging the salivastreams while pelting them with particle blasts. Naiche admired theextreme piloting talent on display, declaring, “No other pilot inthe galaxy can fly like that.”
With a laugh, Kennedynudged her shoulder. “I know for a fact there’s at least oneother.”
Jacoway blasted the headoff of one peerazu, as the other began scorching the shuttle with astream of destructive saliva. The shuttle spun around and fired inthe peerazu’s open mouth – it plummeted onto the roof not far fromthe huddled group awaiting rescue. The resounding thud of itslanding shook the already unsteady rooftop.
Naiche and Con wererelieved to see the L2 shuttle swoop in and hover over them. Theback hatch opened and Bayer dropped three lines out. Deckerimmediately fashioned a harness for Kay out of one end and lashedhim securely into it; Bayer hoisted him up while Kennedy and Deckerclimbed nimbly up theirs.
They ran to the front ofthe shuttle and Naiche was about to throw her arms around Tal whenthe sight of five peerazu bearing down on them ended all thoughtsof celebrating.
Con said, “Out of thesmoke, we jump straight into the flames.”
“Same as it ever was,”Deck answered.
While wheeling into anevasive turn, Jacoway barked, “L2 to Aurora. Brodie, do you have thatsonic pulse data ready? Now would be the time. I have five of ‘emswarming.”
Bly’s voice could be heardexulting, “I’ve got it! Sending transmission now.”
Bayer had resumed her placein the co-pilot’s seat. Jacoway said to her, “Put that data streamon broadcast.”
“Broadcast? What kind ofweapon works on broadcast?” Deck got no responsesince neither pilot had band-width available – Jacoway busy dodgingthe peerazu throng and Bayer engrossed with the data transmission.Naiche said to Kennedy, “Are you sure this isn’t ahallucination?”
“No.” They both watched inamazement all as five peerazu suddenly tumbled out of sight thoughno blast had landed on any of them. Con said, “Okay, now I’mconvinced it is.”
Jacoway announced, “Theinfrasound pulse worked! All five neutralized and I’m bringingKennedy and Decker to the Aurora.”
From the comm, Ricciresponded, “Good job, Commander. Excellent work all of you – we’ll meet you atthe Aurora.”
Tal signed off and said,“Bayer, take over.” He jumped up, and turned to Naiche, pulling herinto a hug.
She readily returned theembrace, asking, “What the hell just happened?”
He drew back slightly,answering with a grin, “Isn’t it obvious, Decker? I just saved yourass.” He leaned back in and whispered in her ear, “And what a greatass it is.”
Chapter 20
TheJourney That Matters
“It is good to have an end to journey toward;but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” Ursula K. LeGuin, The Left Hand ofDarkness
When they’d settled down inthe passenger seats of the L2 shuttle, Decker had the presence ofmind to ask Jacoway, “How did you know we were in trouble? Andwhere to find us?”
“Aqila figured itout—”
“She did?! How?” Kennedyinterjected.
“She was examining the DNAdata for the peerazu and noticed the same kind of mutation as theone in those worms – only this time it was triggered by sound, notheat.”
“Oh,” Naiche said,“that’s theweapon that you used against them – it was sound-based.”
“Yes. It took some work,but Brodie was able to calculate the infrasound frequency thattriggers paralysis in the peerazu.”
Con learned forward,elbows on his knees, and shook his head. “But I still don’tunderstand how any of that let you know we were in trouble.”
“Aqila knew that twomutations like that couldn’t possibly be a coincidence – it meantsomeone had bio-engineered those animals. The logical suspect wasthe Intabet. When Lindstrom couldn’t reach you two, right after yousaid you were heading back, they did a long-range sensor scan ofIntabah.”
“They must’ve noticed thecloaked area,” Kennedy ventured, “and used the re-configuredsensors on it.”
“Not only that, but Brodiefigured out a way to get through to your comm-links. The problemwas, we could hear you, but you couldn’t hear us.”
“We?” Deckerasked.
“Yeah, by that timethe Lovelace wasin range and we were all listening in – trying to devise a rescueplan.” He stopped and took a deep breath. “As soon as Captain Riccirealized that you were trapped in that chamber, he sent us in –before the Lovelace was even in Tolu’s orbit.” Tal swiped a hand across his dampbrow. “When I heard that rock give way and knew I still too faraway to do anything….” He shook his head and couldn’t finish histhought.
Deck patted Kay’s head.“It’s okay. This guy came through.”
“I know.” Tal laughed,“Maybe we should name our first-born child,‘Kayatennae’.”
In a warm tone, Naichesaid, “Our child that we’ll raise in the Centaurisettlements.”
“No, I decided a whileback that we’ll go to Chiricahua territory – I even told your dadso.”
“Hey, I just said I waswilling to—”
“Well, I’m more thanwilling – I want to do it your way.”
They continued to gentlybicker back and forth until Kennedy waved his hand between them.“Stop. Maybe you two love-sick fools can come up with some kind ofcompromise that makes you bothhappy. What do you think?” After smilingsheepishly at each other, Naiche and Tal agreed that was a greatidea.
By that time, the shuttlehad landed and they disembarked to a rousing welcome. Naiche wasthrilled to see that the L1 shuttle had already brought her fatherto Tolu and she rushed over to accept his captainly greeting –knowing a more personal reunion between them would have to waituntil later. With a smile, she watched Aqila and Con’s immediateand extremely personal reunion and recognized
