# Find, Find,
Find and Kill,
# Kill
Soft-skin human
Hairy ape
# I wait, wait
Here
# Wait Here — #
The fen gave out a shrill assent in unison, and turned as one to go crashing back into the forest, heavy manipulator arms brushing aside saplings like twigs.
The man groaned. Takkata-Jim looked down at him and considered putting him out of his misery. He wanted to. But he couldn't bring himself to do direct violence against a human being.
Just as well, he thought. There are still repairs to do. I must be ready when my monsters return.
Takkata-Jim stepped daintily over the supine human and climbed into the airlock.
'Dr. Metz!' Toshio pulled the wounded man to one side and lifted his head. He whispered urgently as he applied a spray ampule of pain killer to the geneticist's neck. 'Dr. Metz, can you hear me?'
Metz blearily looked up at the young man. 'Toshio? My boy, you've got to get away! Takkata-Jim has sent…'
'I know, Dr. Metz. I was hiding in the bushes when they shot you.'
'Then you heard,' he sighed.
'Yes, Sir.'
'And you know what a fool I've been…'
'Now's not the time for that, Dr. Metz. We've got to get you away. Charlie Dart's hiding nearby. I'll go get him now, while the Stenos are searching another part of the island.'
Metz clutched Toshio's arm. 'They're hunting for him, too.'
'I know. And you've never seen a more stunned chimp. He honestly believed they'd never think he helped me! Let me go get him, and we'll move you away from here.'
Metz coughed, and red foam appeared on his lips. He shook his head.
'No. Like Victor Frankenstein, it seems I am murdered by my own hubris. Leave me. You must go to your sled and depart.'
Toshio grimaced. 'Their first stop was the pool, Dr. Metz. I followed and saw them sink my sled.
'I ran ahead then to chase the Kiqui off the island. Dennie taught me their panic signal, and they split like crazed lemmings when I called it out, so at least they're safe from the Stenos…'
'Not Stenos,' Metz corrected. 'Demenso cetus metzii, I should think. 'Metz's mad dolphins'… you know, I think I'm the first dolphin-perpetrated homicide in…' He brought his fist to his mouth and coughed again.
Metz looked at the red spittle in his hand, then up at Toshio. 'We were going to give the Kiqui to the Galactics you know. I wasn't too happy about it, but he convinced me…'
'Takkata-Jim?'
'Yes. He didn't think offering the ETs the location of the derelict fleet would be enough…'
'He's got tapes?' Toshio felt stunned. 'But how… ?'
Metz wasn't listening. He seemed to be fading fast. '… He didn't think that would be enough to win Streaker's freedom, so… decided we'd give them the aboriginals, as well.'
The man grabbed feebly at Toshio's arm. 'You must set them free, Toshio. Don't let the fanatics have them. They are so promising. They must have kind patrons. Maybe the Linten, or the Synthians… but we're not suited for the job… we'd… we'd make them into caricatures of ourselves. we'd…'
The geneticist sagged.
Toshio waited with him. It was all he could do for the man. His tiny aid kit could do nothing but ease the pain.
Metz roused once more, a minute later. He stared up without seeing.
'Takkata-Jim…' he gasped. 'I never thought of it before. Why, he's exactly what we've been looking for! I never realized, but he's not a dolphin. He's a man… Who in the world would have thought…'
His voice faded into a rattle. His eyes rolled upward.
Toshio found no pulse. He lowered the corpse to the ground and slipped back into the forest.
'Metz is dead,' he told Charles Dart. The chimp looked out from the bushes. The whites of his eyes shone.
'B-b-but th-that's…'
'That's homicide, I know' Toshio nodded, sympathizing with Charles Dart. The one standard technique of uplift humans had taken unmodified from the Galactics was to ingrain a revulsion of patron-murder in their clients. Few thought it particularly hypocritical, considering man's liberal record in other areas. Still…
'Then they w-won't think twice about shooting you and me!'
Toshio shrugged.
'What're we gonna do?' Charlie had dropped all professorial mannerisms. He looked to Toshio for guidance.
He's the adult and I'm the kid, Toshio thought bitterly. It should be the other way around.
No, that's foolish. Age or patron-client status has nothing to do with it. I'm military. Keeping us alive is my job.
He kept his nervousness hidden. 'We'll do as we have done, Dr. Dart. We've got to harass them, and keep them from taking off as long as possible.'
Dart blinked a few times, then protested. 'But we'll have no way off, then! Can't you get Streaker to come for us?'
'If it turns out to be at all possible, I'm sure Gillian will try to make arrangements. But you and I are expendable now. Try to understand that, Dr. Dart. We're soldiers. They say there's a kind of satisfaction in sacrificing oneself for others. I guess it's true; otherwise there wouldn't ever be legends.'
The chimp tried to believe. His hands fluttered. 'If they get b-back to Earth, they'll tell about what we did, won't they?'
Toshio smiled. 'You bet.'
Charlie looked at the ground for a moment. In the distance they could hear the Stenos crashing through the forest.
'Uh, Toshio, there's something you oughta know.'
'What is it, Dr. Dart?'
'Uh, you remember that thing I wanted to make them wait a few hours for, before taking off?'
'Your experiment. Yes, I remember.'
'Well the instruments I left aboard Streaker will take the data, so the info will get home even if I don't.'
'Hey, that's great, Dr. Dart! I'm happy for you.' Toshio knew what that meant to the chimp scientist.
Charlie smiled weakly. 'Yeah, well, it's too late to stop it from happening, so I figure you oughta know so it doesn't surprise you.'
Something about the way he said it made Toshio feel uneasy. 'Tell me,' he said.
Charlie looked at his watch. 'The robot will be where I want it in eighty minutes.' He glanced up at Toshio a little nervously. 'Then my bomb goes off.'
Toshio fell back against the bole of a tree. 'Oh, great, that's all we need…'
'I was gonna tell Takkata-Jim just before, so we could hover when it exploded,' Charlie explained sheepishly. 'I wouldn't worry too much, though. I looked over Dennie's map of the cavern below the island. I'd say there's at least even money the mound won't fall in, but, you know…' He spread his hands.
Toshio sighed. They were going to die anyway. Fortunately, this latest twist didn't seem to have any cosmic implications.
94 ::: Streaker
'We're ready.' He made the announcement quite matter-of-factly.
Gillian looked up from the holo display. Hannes Suessi gave Gillian a two-fingered salute from the door jamb. Light from the bright hallway cast a stark trapezoid onto the floor of the dimly lit room.
'The impedance matchings… ?' she asked.
'All darn near perfect. In fact, when we get back to Earth I'm going to suggest we buy a bunch of old hulls from the Thennanin to refit all Snarks with. We'll be slow, doubly so because of all the water in the central bay, but Streaker will lift, fly, and warp. And it'll take a hell of a punch to pound through the outer shell.'
Gillian put one foot on the desk. 'There's still a lot of punch out there, Hannes.'
'She'll fly. As for the rest…' The engineer shrugged. 'The only constraint I'd suggest is that you let the engineering staff get an hour or so under sleep machines if you don't want us sagging on takeoff: Other than that, it's up to you now, Madame Captain.'
He stopped her before she could speak. 'And don't go looking to us for any advice either, Gillian. You've been doing too good a job so far, and neither Tsh't nor I are going to say anything but aye aye, sir, and jump when you say so.'
Gillian closed her eyes and nodded. 'All right,' she said softly.
Hannes looked through the open door from her office to Gillian's laboratory. He knew about the ancient cadaver. He had been there to help Tom Orley bring it back into the ship.
