Storm at Eldala

The other ship was diving straight at him. 'Helm,' Gabriel said, 'Company—' 'I see him. It's our friend Quatsch,' Helm replied.

'You mean Alwhirn?' Gabriel said. 'He wasn't supposed to be leaving for another twelve hours!' 'Damn,' came Helm's voice, sounding more gravelly and annoyed than usual. ' 'Plus minus twelve hours.' Sonofabitch must have sneaked right out past us while we were in the community center!'

'Even schedules can lie,' said Enda. Her face set grim as she broke off to starboard. Quatsch came after them.

'He's not eager to try conclusions with me, that's plain,' Helm said with some amusement as he curved around to match course with Sunshine again. 'Let's see if I can—'

The first plasma bolts lanced bySunshine much too closely for Gabriel's tastes.

'What's the matter with him?' he muttered.

'Quatsch!' he shouted over an open channel. 'What are you doing? Quatsch! Alwhirn!' No answer.

'He's not in a mood to negotiate, I would say,' said Enda. 'Helm, one of us is going to have to do something about this poor creature, at least enough to make him break this off. I dislike the idea of harming him, and it would do our return business on Rivendale no good, but it is preferable to—' She threw Sunshine to port as Quatsch dived at them again, firing. The bolts went wide. 'I'm not sure that his craziness isn't some kind of act he uses when it's going to get him somewhere with his friends,' Gabriel muttered, getting his own plasma cannon ready. 'Helm, if your sharpshooting's better than mine, you'd better do something about this boy, because I'm in no mood for him.' 'Targeting,' Helm said and fired. At the last moment, Quatsch tumbled aside, diving away from both Longshot and Sunshine.

'Let's not bother with this,' Enda said. 'Helm, is your stardrive ready?' 'Three minutes for prep,' said Helm, 'and we'll be— Uh-oh.'

Gabriel's insides twisted as he saw what Helm saw. Another ship was accelerating toward them from Rivendale.

'Small,' Helm said. 'Not much bigger than Sunshine.'

'Thanks loads,' Gabriel said. 'It's that Westhame. That's Miss Blue Eyes.'

'She doesn't have much,' said Helm. 'One plasma cannon. One rail gun. No help; she's alone aboard.' 'Doesn't make that much difference,' Gabriel muttered. It was perfectly possible to fly and fight a small ship with the computer to help you. 'Enda, get us ready for starfall.'

'Here comes the rest of the party,' said Helm. 'Third trace. Must be your brown-eyed number, I think. My good gods in a bucket of ale, whathas she got fastened onto that thing?'

Gabriel did not much care to hear this kind of language from Helm. 'Whathas she got?' he asked, eyeing their stardrive energy level indicators. They were nowhere near ready.

'Too much. I want to know where she bought it,' Helm said. Gabriel could hear more than a hint of gleeful awe creeping into Helm's voice. 'Hell, I wish I'd sold it to her, what a commission I'd have—' 'Helm!' Enda said. 'Details would be useful!'

'She's got that mass cannon we were discussing,' said Helm. 'Don't let her get within a kilometer of you. The results could be unfortunate—'

'Damn it!' Gabriel said asQuatsch dived at them again, firing.'Quatsch, stop it! We don't want to hurt you, but if you—'

Gabriel fired in frustration, intending to miss.Quatsch veered past as Enda threwSunshine out of the way. 'I'll shoot him next time,' Gabriel muttered, 'I swear I will.' He punched the comms open again. 'Quatsch, that was the last piece of slack I'm going to cut you. Next time I'm going to put one right through your hold, and there goes your business. Get out of our way!'

'Go on and try,' came a shrill response. 'I don't care! You and your kind have tried before! You're just one more of them! Won't let a man make a decent living, you and the big companies, you're all the same—'

Gabriel could hear Enda breathe out. 'He is unstable,' she said, 'but he might damage us. Maybe one through the rear hull would be the kindest thing—' 'Trouble,' Helm broke in.

He flipped Longshot end for end and came streaking past Gabriel at great speed. He was firing hard and fast. Gabriel swung in the fighting field to follow where Helm was going and saw the third trace. The third ship, more massive than any of the others, swung from side to side in quick graceful curves, skillfully avoiding Helm's fire and firing something that Gabriel didn't recognize. There were no bright bolts of power or clouds of projectile vapor, just a pale streak of cloudy fire that shot out, enveloped Quatsch and tore it to shreds. Not an explosion — though that followed, as all the air inside the craft flew out through a hundred suddenly formed gaps. Quatsch became a thousand twisted fragments, spinning away in all directions while continuing briefly along the same general course.

Gabriel stared. 'She killed him,' he whispered.'Why would she have killed him? '

Enda was as shocked as Gabriel but had her mind on other problems. 'Helm, where is that third ship?'

'The smaller one? Away up in 'zenith' direction now. No action. Watching.'

And listening, Gabriel thought. On whose behalf?

'Possibility,' Delde Sota's came over comms. 'Open communications with hostile vessel.' 'What for?'

'Stall,' said Delde Sota. 'Pump for information. Have other business to attend to.' 'Right,' Gabriel said. He swallowed, for all this was his fault. It was not Helm or Delde Sota that these people wanted. He opened a clear channel and said, 'Pursuing vessels, this isSunshine. State your intentions or be prepared to face the consequences.'

'There's no point in running,' said a very cool, very calm female voice. 'I can outrun you. If you make starfall, that won't matter either. I'll know where you're going sooner or later and find you there. Give it up now and resign yourself to being boarded.'

'You can forget that,' Gabriel said, furious. 'Why did you kill him? No one needed to do that!' 'You were about to,' said the cool voice, 'not that it matters. Everyone's going to think you did, anyway.'

A terrible shock of fear ran down Gabriel's spine like ice water. She's right. I'm the one who murdered a bunch of my best friends. Why wouldn't I kill a crazy man who gave me an excuse? 'You can just come along with me,' said the calm female voice, 'or suffer the consequences.' ' 'Come along with you.' For what purpose?'

'You know very well. There's interest in you that you've been avoiding with varying amounts of success, but the gameplay has to stop now. We're past that.'

'Oh, are we?' Gabriel said. Delde Sota, whatever you're up to, get on with it.

'Don't try my patience. If you cooperate, things will be made a lot easier for you. If you don't. .'

He felt a long tremor go throughSunshine, and all her displays and readouts wavered as if they had lost power for a fraction of a second. Gabriel shot a glance at Enda. She shook her head and threwSunshine away in the opposite direction.

'I'm willing to disable you if I have to,' said the cool voice. 'You won't be dead, but you'll have a lot of repairs to make — and this poor little place isn't set up for them. When the rescue parties come up from Rivendale — if they manage to organize anything— and they discover what's happened to poor Alwhirn—'

Enda kept running. Helm followed, not firing, possibly to avoid interfering with whatever Delde Sota had in mind. Gabriel slipped deeper into the fighting field, getting into synch with the rail cannon. If he could get off one well-aimed shot, even from a few kilometers away, she'd have a nasty surprise. 'Stop running,' Gabriel told Enda. 'What?'

'Stop running. Let her catch us.' He felt her looking at him. 'Are you sure?' 'Just do it!'

'Gabriel—' came Helm's voice.

'No, Helm,' Gabriel said, as forcefully as he could — trying to have him get the message that he was not to interfere, without saying so openly. 'I'm not going to run. I'm through running.' 'I wouldn't try anything at this point if I were you,' said the cool voice.

'You idiot,' Gabriel shouted, 'you're not as delicate with that damned thing as you think you are! I can hear