He wanted to dive away from the cacophony. Biting back panic, he forced himself to lie still.
He tried to separate the noise into parts, the human contribution first. Dennie and Toshio seemed in worse shape than he. Perhaps they were more sensitive to the assault. There would be no help from them!
The Kiqui were in terror, squawling as they crashed into the pool.
:?: Flee! Flight…
from the sad great things
:?: Somebody Help
the great sad hurt things!
Out of the mouths of babes… When he concentrated on it, the 'psi attack' did feel a bit like a call for help. It hurt like the hell of the deeps, but he faced it and tried to pin it down.
He thought he was making progress-certainly he was coping — when still another voice joined in, this one over his neural link! The song from below, that he had spent all night unable to decipher, had awakened. From the bowels of Kithrup it bellowed. Its simplicity commanded understanding.
+ WHO CALLS? -
— WHO DARES BOTHER +
Sah'ot moaned as he tore the robot link free. Three screaming noises, all at different levels of mind, were quite enough. Any more and he would go insane!
Buoult of the Thennanin was afraid, though an officer in the service of the Great Ghosts thought nothing of death or of living enemies.
The shuttle cycled through the lock of his flagship, Quegsfire. The giant doors, comfortingly massive and enduring, swung shut behind them. The shuttle pilot plotted a course to the Tandu flagship.
Tandu.
Buoult flexed his ridge crest as a display of confidence. He would lose heat from the sail of nerves and blood vessels in the frigid atmosphere of the Tandu ship, but it was absolutely necessary to maintain appearances.
It might have been slightly less distasteful to make an alliance with the Soro instead. At least the Soro were more Thennaninoid than the arthropod Tandu, and lived at a decent temperature. Also, the Soro's clients were interesting folk, the sort Buoult's people might have liked to uplift themselves.
Better for them if we had, he thought. For we are kind patrons.
If the leathern Soro were meddlesome and callous, the spindly Tandu were horrifying beings. Their clients were weird creatures that set off twitches at the base of Buoult's tail when he thought of them.
Buoult grimaced in disgust. Politics made for strange gene transfers. The Soro were now strongest among the survivors. The Thennanin were weakest of the major powers. Although the Tandu philosophy was the most repulsive of those in opposition to the Abdicator Creed, they were now all that stood in the way of a Soro triumph. The Thennanin must ally with them, for now.
Should the Tandu seem about to prevail, there would be another chance to switch sides. It had happened a number of times already, and would happen again.
Buoult steeled himself for the meeting ahead. He was determined not to let show any of his dread of stepping aboard a Tandu ship!
The Tandu didn't seem to care what chances they took with their crazy, poorly understood probability drive. The insane reality manipulations of their Episiarch clients often let them move about more quickly than their opponents. But sometimes the resulting alterations of spacetime swallowed whole groups of ships, impartially snatching the Tandu and their enemies from the universe forever! It was madness!
Just let them not use their perverted drives while I am aboard, Buoult's organs-of-prayer subvocalized. Let us make our battle plans and be done.
The Tandu ships came into sight, crazy, stilt-like structures that disdained armor for wild speed and power.
Of course even these unusual ships were mere variations of ancient Library designs. The Tandu were daring, but they did not add to their crimes the gaucherie of originality
Earthlings were in many ways more unconventional than the Tandu. Their sloppy gimmickry was a vulgar habit that came from a poor upbringing.
Buoult wondered what the 'dolphins' were doing right now. Pity the poor creatures if the Tandu, or even the Soro got hold of them! Even these primitive sea mammals, clients of a coarse and hairy wolfling race, deserved to be protected, if possible.
Of course there were priorities. They mustn't be allowed to hoard the data they held!
Buoult noticed that his finger-claws had unsheathed in his agitation. He pulled them back and cultivated serenity as the shuttle drew near the Tandu squadron.
Buoult's musing was split by a sudden chill that made his crest tremble… a disturbance on a psi band.
'Operator!' he snapped. 'Contact the flagship! See if they verify that call!'
'Immediately, General-Protector!'
Buoult controlled his excitement. The psychic energies he felt could be a ruse. Still, they felt right. They bore the image of Krondorsfire, which none of them had hoped to see again!
Determination filled him. In the negotiations ahead, he would ask one more favor. The Tandu must provide one added cooperation in exchange for the help of the Thennanin.
'Confirmed, sir. It is battleship Krondorsfire,' the pilot said, his voice raspy with emotion. Buoult's crest stood erect in acknowledgment. He stared ahead at the looming metal mantis shapes, steeling himself for the confrontation, the negotiations, and the waiting.
Beie Chohooan was listening to whale songs — rare and expensive copies which had cost her a month's pay some time ago — when her detectors picked up the beacon. Reluctantly, she put down her headphones and noted the direction and intensity. There were so many signals… bombs and blasts and traps. It was one of the little wazoon that pointed out to her that this particular beacon emanated from the waterworld itself.
Beie groomed her whiskers and considered.
'I believe this will change things, my pretty little ones. Shall we leave this belt of unborn rubble in space and move in a bit closer to the action? Is it time to let the Earthlings know that someone is out here who is a friend?'
The wazoon chittered back that policy was her business. According to union rules, they were spies, not strategists.
Beie approved of their sarcasm. It was very tasty.
'Very well,' she said. 'Let us try to move closer.'
Hikahi hurriedly queried the skiffs battle computer.
'It's a psi weapon of some sort,' she announced via hydrophone to the crew working in the alien wreck. Her Anglic was calm and precise, accentuated with the cool overtones of Keneenk. 'I detect no other signs of attack, so I believe we're feeling a fringe of the space-battle. We've felt othersss before, if not this intense.
'We're deep underwater, partly shielded from psi-waves. Grit your teeth, Streakers. Try to ignore it. Go about your duties in tropic-clear logic.'
She switched off the speakers. Hikahi knew Tsh't was even now moving among the workers out there, joking and keeping morale high.
The psi-noise was like a nagging itch, but an itch with a weird rhythm. It pulsed as if in some code she couldn't quite get her jaws around.
She looked at Hannes Suessi, who sat on a wall rail nearby, looking very tired. He had been about to turn in for a few hours' sleep, but the psionic assault apparently affected him even worse than it did the dolphins. He had compared it to fingernails scratching on a blackboard.
'I can think of two possibilities, Hikahi. One would be very good news. The other's about as bad as could be.'
She nodded her sleek head. 'We've repeatedly rechecked our circuitsss, sent three couriers back with messages, and yet there's only silence from the ship. I must assume the worst.'
'That Streakers been taken,' Suess! closed his eyes.
'Yess. This psi havoc comes from somewhere on the surface of the planet. The Galactics may even now be fighting over her — or — what's left of her.'
Hikahi decided. 'I'm returning to Streaker in this boat. I'll delay until you've sealed quarters for the work-crew inside the hulk. You need power from the skiff to recharge the Thennanin accumulators.'
Suessi nodded. Hikahi was clearly anxious to depart as soon as possible. 'I'll go outside and help, then.'
'You just got off duty. I cannot permit it.'
Suessi shook his head. 'Look, Hikahi, when we've got that refuge inside the battleship set up, we can pump in filtered fizzywater for the fen and they'll be able to rest properly. The wreck is well shielded from this psychic screeching, too. And most important, I'll have a room of my own, one that's dry, without a crowd of squeaking, practical-joking children goosing me from behind whenever I turn the other way!' His eyes were gently ironic.
Hikahi's jaw made a gentle curve. 'Wait a minute, then, Maker of Wonderful Toys. I'll come out and join you. Work will distract usss from the scratching of ET fingernails.'
The Soro, Krat, felt no grating tremors. Her ship was girded against psychic annoyances. She first learned of the disturbance from her staff: She took the data scroll from the Pila Cullalberra with mild interest.
They had detected many such signals in the course of the battle. But none yet had emanated from the planet. Only a few skirmishes had taken the war down to Kithrup itself.
Normally she would have simply ordered a homing torpedo dispatched and forgotten the matter. The expected Tandu-Thennanin alliance against the Soro was forming up near the gas-giant world, and she had plans to make. But something about this signal intrigued her.
