Storm at Eldala

be another couple of days before they assign us our system address and bring the automatic router online,' Gabriel said. 'They have to finish the local network testing first.' He sighed. 'A whole new set of software to learn and no room to maneuver if a mistake gets made.'

'Opinion: software not all that complex,' said Delde Sota, 'and will be within call if you need assistance.' Gabriel leaned against the wall. 'What brought this on?' he said.

'Statement: have dealt with that issue,' said Delde Sota, but her neural braid was wreathing again, tying itself in a small tight knot. 'Addendum…' She looked through the window. 'Sense of things moving. Generalized shifts in political stances, of balance of power among stellar nations. Feeling. . that there might be wisdom in relocation elsewhere while situation settles down.'

Gabriel nodded. 'I was going to ask if you'd be willing to act as a recipient for some data for me, but since you're coming with us… Do you have anyone remaining in Corrivale that you trust to receive sensitive material?'

'Response: Ondway, certainly. Query: type of data?'

'I have some Grid searches underway for old personnel information on the man who called himself 'Jacob Ricel,' ' Gabriel said. 'The search material is coming to our local Corrivale-based Grid address. But withSunshine now designated for infotrading, she'll get a new address and routing codes, and the old ones can't be carried aboard her any more — the infotrade authorities won't permit multiple addressing for haulers. I was wondering if someone in the system could hold anything that came in for me till we pass this way again.'

'Solution: pass keywords to Ondway,' Delde Sota said. 'Research materials safe with him. Query: manage for you?'

'I'd appreciate that,' Gabriel said. 'Come on through and you can take what you need out of the ship's Grid system.'

She wandered back up the hallway with Gabriel and leaned against the bulkhead in the sitting room while her braid insinuated itself into the fold-down control panel that serviced the ship's Grid access. Gabriel leaned over the control panel and touched in his password.

Delde Sota raised her eyebrows. 'Result,' she said, 'system configuration and keyword material found.

Store?'

'Please.'

She nodded and straightened up. 'Secure. Intention: will pass this information to Ondway this evening. Satisfactory?'

'Absolutely. Thanks, Doctor.'

'Mission statement: mental health requirements not to be ignored in favor of physical/infrastructure needs,' said Delde Sota as Enda came back in, carrying the small plastic water bottle that she used to water her pet plant. 'Body, mind, dichotomy illusory/false. Query: plant sprout yet?'

Enda gave her a look. 'There is no point in hurrying something that is not ready,' she said. 'Some would say that owning aGyrofresia is simply a disguised exercise in the art of patience.'

'Opinion: too much patience bad for the bile ducts,' said Delde Sota, and turned toward the lift.

'Intention: completion of errands. Helm will contact me when departure imminent.' Delde Sota waved a hand; she vanished into the lift, and her braid followed a moment later.

Gabriel sat down. 'You said we were going out full?'

Enda nodded, putting theGyrofresia bulb in its little ceramic pot onto one of the service ledges. 'We have done unusually well for a first load,' Enda said, pouring water carefully on the bulb. 'You mean we had a lot of help.'

'From Ondway and his connections in Diamond Point. . yes.'

'Connections that would not otherwise have given their business to a first-time operation,' Gabriel said. Enda tilted her head to one side. 'Goodwill, as they call it, is worth a great deal. We have a lot of it aboard, and we must do what we can to repay it. We must make this first run with all due speed. Some people will be watching carefully how we perform.' 'And some to see how our performance can be interfered with.'

Enda sighed. 'Unquestionably. For the meantime, doing our job with care will be the best defense.' She went down the hall again, leaving Gabriel to sit and wonder whether it would be enough. Still, with Helm along to help with defense and Delde Sota there for computer and medical problems, we're as well prepared as we can be.

Gabriel sighed, got up, and headed off to the utility closet down the hall. If he was going to worry, he could at least scrub something while he did it.

Chapter Three

THREE DAYS LATER,Sunshine departed Grith. The day before departure was the tensest because of a bureaucratic problem. The ship's infotrader routing address, the complex set of passwords, encryption routines, and system information that would identify it to planetary grids, had not come through from the nearest assigning authority on Aegis. That information itself was coming in on another infotrader, since Corrivale had no drivesat relay of its own. Without that address, there was no point inSunshine leaving the system at all. Yet much of the data she was carrying was time-sensitive. The guarantees under which the data had been embarked inSunshine specified that most of it had to be dumped at Terivine within fifty-five days. If the guarantees were broken, the fees for the data haulage had to be first discounted, then refunded if the delay was more than a hundred and twenty-one hours past the designated time of delivery.

Gabriel and Enda spent the day worrying in their respective styles. Gabriel paced up and down outside the ship, since he had already cleaned everything aboard that could be cleaned. Enda sat still, looking at her favorite vista of grass flowing in an alien wind on the Grid access display.

'At least,' she said to Gabriel, 'I will find out quickly enough when anything happens.'

Two hours later, everything moved into high gear as the other infotrader made starrise in the system, cleared Grith landing control, and dumped its data to the planetary Grid. The access panel chimed, then lit up with all manner of bizarre error messages.

'Oh no, something else has gone wrong,' Gabriel moaned and ran back to the hold.

'Gabriel,' Enda called from the sitting room, 'is the holding system set to 'active'?'

'How would I know? They didn't—' He stared at the control panel set against the near bulkhead wall on the inside of the hold. 'Oh,' Gabriel said, finding himself staring at a blinking telltale buried in the black plastic of the control panel, while out of the blackness next to it, the wordsGo to Active? came burning up.

He touched the words.Active, the panel said, and then immediately after that,Storing waiting inload.

The inload process took a half-hour or so, while the system loaded the waiting information, checked itself, checked that the storage was secure, and then encrypted everything. By then the hum of in-system drivers could be heard asLongshot came to rest on the pad beside them.

Gabriel was already in the left-hand pilot's seat, runningSunshine through her pre- starfall checks. 'I thought you were meeting us at the spaceport,' he said to Helm via audio comms.

That gravelly laugh came rumbling back. 'You don't go nowhere unescorted,' Helm said, 'now that you're carrying. Let me know when you're secure and we'll make our last stop.'

It took another ten minutes for the infotrading system to convince itself that the data destined for Sunshine had been safely loaded.

'Delde Sota was right,' Enda said, looking over Gabriel's shoulder at the new sets of telltales flashing in the master 3D control display. 'This software leaves little to chance.'

'It would be nice if it would let us take off,' Gabriel muttered. Finally the readouts said,Secure. Clear Ready for transport.