'Packer must guard the telepath. The telepath will attack now if ever.' 'Yes-'
Meebrlee-Riit was gone.
'We have it!' Paradoxical projected what he was seeing against the cannon casing.
Still distant, backlit by Apollo, Home's sun, a sphere nestled in a glowing arc of gamma ray shield, its black skin broken by holes and projections and tiny windows. Dots-and-commas script glowed brilliant orange. 'We find heavy graviton wake. That ship is decelerating hard.'
'Built in this century,' Fly-By-Night said.
Sraff-Zisht dropped us free.
This was not much of a puzzle. I spun the boat, aimed at Leap For Life and said, 'Shoot.'
My hair stirred. Fly-By-Night's fur stood up and rippled. He said, 'Done. Doc?' 'The graviton wake is gone. You burned out its thrusters.'
I boosted us to put Sraff-Zisht between us and Leap For Life. Leap For Life had the weapons, after all. I set our gun on Sraff-Zisht and said, 'Again.' 'Done. I burned out something.'
'Graviton flare,' Paradoxical said, just as Sraff-Zisht vanished. 'Meebrlee-Riit must have tried to return to hyperspace,' Fly-By-Night said. 'We burned out the hyperdrive. But he still has thrusters!'
I rotated the boat to focus the gun on the immobilized Leap For Life. 'Projectiles. Shoot it to bits.'
Fly-By-Night punched something. We heard the weapon adjusting, but he didn't shoot. 'Why?'
I screamed, 'They've got all the weapons, our shield has flown away-' 'Stet.' The boat's lone weapon roared. It was right in the middle of the cabin/cargo hold. The noise was amazing. The boat recoiled: cabin gravity lurched to compensate. Leap For Life jittered and came apart in shreds. '-And they don't have the hostages! And now it's one less tanj thing to worry about.'
'Stet, stet, I understand!'
Paradoxical said, 'We win.'
We looked at the Jotok. He said, 'We may report all that has happened, now, via laser broadcast to Home. We fly the boat to Home with our proofs. The law of Home can arrange to retrieve Odysseus. With his hyperdrive burned out, Meebrlee-Riit is trapped in Home system. In the full glare of publicity he must follow the Covenants. He may trade his hostages for some other consideration such as amnesty, but they must be returned. Stet?'
'He's still got my family! But I think we can turn on the cabin futzy gravity now, if you don't mind-' I stopped because Meebrlee-Riit, greatly magnified, was facing Fly-By-Night.
'Some such consideration,' he mimicked us. 'You look stupid, Telepath, covered with food. Only one consideration can capture my interest! Read my mind if you doubt me. Release my entourage and surrender! The hostages for yourself!' Fly-By-Night's claw moved. No result showed except for Meebrlee-Riit's widening eyes, but Fly-By-Night had given him a contracted view. He was seeing all of us. 'Lies! You killed my Heroes? Eeeeerg!' A hair-lifting snarl as Fly-By-Night lifted Packer's ear into view.
It seemed the right moment. I showed Envoy's surviving ear. 'We had to use the other.'
'Martin Wallace Graynor, you may buy back your hostages and your life by putting the telepath into my hands!'
It began to seem that Meebrlee-Riit was mad. I asked, 'Must I subdue him first?' A killing gape was my answer. I asked, 'And where would you take him then, with no hyperdrive?'
'Not your concern.'
'We're going to call for help now. Over the next few hours all of Home system is going to know you're here. A civilized solar system seethes with telescopes. If you have allies in the asteroids, you can't go to them. You'd only point them out to the Home Rule.'
'What if you never make that broadcast, LE Graynor? And I can… thaw… sss.' He'd had a notion. He stepped out of range. Ducked back and fisheyed the view to show his whole cabin. The other Kzin, Tech, was at his workstation, watching.
A wall slid away. Through an aperture ten yards wide I could see a much bigger cargo hold and all of Odysseus' cargo modules. Meebrlee-Riit moved to one of them, opened a small panel and worked.
Back he came. 'I can reset the temperature on these machines. I thought you might wonder, but soon I will show you thawed fish. You cannot do to me what you did to Leap For Life without killing my hostages too. If you broadcast any message at all, I will set the third module thawing, and then I will show you thawed dead hostages.'
I was sweating.
The Kzin aristocrat said, 'Telepath… Fly-By-Night. I will give you a better name. Your prowess has earned a name even as an enemy. What is it we ask of you? Take a harem. Raise your sons. See your daughters grow up in the Patriarch's household. A life in luxury buys survival for sixty-four Human citizens. 'Think, then. I can wait. A boat's life support is not the match for an interstellar spacecraft. Or else-'
The mass of an interstellar spacecraft jumped into our faces. Meebrlee-Riit was tiny in its window, huge in the hologram stage. He threw his head back, a prolonged screech, mouth gaping as wide as my head. Forced his mouth to close so he could ask, 'Graynor, have you ever flown a spacecraft? Do you think you have the skill to keep me from ramming you?'
I said, 'Yes. Space is roomy, and the telepath is our hostage. Doc, can you give me a deep-radar view of yon privateer?'
Paradoxical guessed what I meant. The mass outside our dome went transparent. I looked it over. Fuel… more fuel… a bulky hyperdrive design from the last century. Gravity and reaction motors were also big and bulky. Skimpy cargo space, smaller cabin, and that tiny box shape must be a waterfall room just like ours.
I spun the boat. 'You say I can't shoot?'
Meebrlee-Riit looked up. He must have been looking right into our gun. 'Pitiful! Are all Humans natural liars?'
Fine-tuning my aim, I said, 'There is a thing you should know about us. If you eat prey that is infested… whasht-meery… you may be very sick, but it doesn't kill off your whole blood line. Shoot,' I said to Fly-By- Night.
The gun roared. Meebrlee-Riit's image whirled around. The boat recoiled: gravity imbalances swirled through my belly. In our deep-radar view the waterfall room became a smudge.
Then Sraff-Zisht was gone.
'We track him,' Paradoxical said. 'Gravitons, heavily accelerating, there.' A green circle on the sky marked nothing but stars, but I spun the boat to put cross hairs on it. 'Electromagnetic,' I shouted.
'Am I a fool?' The gun grumbled, shifting from projectile mode.
'Graviton wake has stopped.'
Fly-By-Night cried, 'I have not fired!'
I said, 'He's got no hyperdrive-'
Paradoxical said, 'Gravitons again. He will ram.'
The room wobbled, my hair stood on end, Fly-By-Night fluffed out into a great orange puffball. 'Graviton wake is gone,' Paradoxical said.
I moved us, thirty gee lateral, in case his aim was good.
Sraff-Zisht, falling free, shot past us by two miles. I chased it down. Whim made me zip in alongside the ship's main window. Grinning like a Kzin, I screamed, 'Now wait us out!'
In the hologram stage Meebrlee-Riit hugged a stack of meteor patches while he pulled on the waterfall door. Vacuum inside would be holding the door shut. We could see Tech working his way into a pressure suit, but Meebrlee-Riit hadn't thought of that yet. He turned to look at the camera, at us.
He cringed. Down on his belly, face against the floor.
Paradoxical set our com laser on Home. The lightspeed lag was several hours, so I just recorded a help call and sent it. Then, as we'd have to anyway, we three began recording the whole story. That too would arrive before we could-Tech stood above Meebrlee-Riit, watching us. When Fly-By-Night looked at him he cringed, a formal crouch. 'Dominant One, what must we do?'
Fly-By-Night said, 'Tend your cargo until you can be towed to Home. Meebrlee-Riit also I place in your charge. Set your screamer and riding lights so you can be found. You may dream of betrayal but do not act on it. You know what I am. I know who you are. Your hostages' lives will buy back your blood line.' He'd said he couldn't read minds. I still think he was bluffing.
