Uplift - Startide Rising Part 44

"You've cut them?"

"Yesss!" The neo-fin tossed its head.

Takkata-Jim nodded. "Dr. Metz, please prepare the Kiqui. They are our second greatest trade item, and musst be ready for inspection by whichever race we contact-t."

"Where are you going?" Metz asked.

"You don't want to know."

Metz saw Takkata-Jim's determined expression. Then he noted the three Stenos. Their eyes gleamed with an eager madness.

"You've been goading them in Primal!" he gasped. "I can tell! You've taken these fen over the edge! You're going to make them homicidals!"

Takkata-Jim sighed. "I will wrestle with my conscience later, Dr. Metz. In the meantime I will do what I must to save the s.h.i.+p and our mission. Since a sane dolphin cannot kill human beings, I needed insane dolphins."

The three Stenos grinned at Metz. He looked at their eyes in terror, and listened to their feral clickings.

"You're mad!" he whispered.

"No, Dr. Metz," Takkata-Jim shook his head pityingly. "You are mad. These fen are mad. But I am only acting as a desperate and dedicated human being might act. Criminal or patriot, that's a matter of opinion, but I am sentient."

Metz's eyes were wide. "You can't take back to Earth anyone who knows ..." He paled, and turned to run for the airlock.

Takkata-Jim did not even have to give the order. From Sreekah-pol's spider a burst of actinic blue light lanced out. Ignacio Metz sighed and fell to the muddy ground just outside the longboat's hatch. He stared up at Sreekah-pol, like a father betrayed by a son he had doted on.

Takkata-Jim turned to his crew, hiding the nauseated feeling that churned within him.

# Find, Find, Find and Kill, # Kill Soft-skin human Hairy ape # I wait, wait Here # Wait Here -- # The fen gave out a shrill a.s.sent in unison, and turned as one to go cras.h.i.+ng back into the forest, heavy manipulator arms brus.h.i.+ng 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!" Tos.h.i.+o 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. "Tos.h.i.+o? 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 Tos.h.i.+o'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."

Tos.h.i.+o 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 Tos.h.i.+o. "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?" Tos.h.i.+o 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 Tos.h.i.+o's arm. "You must set them free, Tos.h.i.+o. 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.

Tos.h.i.+o 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.

Tos.h.i.+o 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" Tos.h.i.+o 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!"

Tos.h.i.+o shrugged.

"What're we gonna do?" Charlie had dropped all professorial mannerisms. He looked to Tos.h.i.+o for guidance.

He's the adult and I'm the kid, Tos.h.i.+o 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 hara.s.s 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?"

Tos.h.i.+o smiled. "You bet."

Charlie looked at the ground for a moment. In the distance they could hear the Stenos cras.h.i.+ng through the forest.

"Uh, Tos.h.i.+o, 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." Tos.h.i.+o 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 Tos.h.i.+o 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 Tos.h.i.+o a little nervously. "Then my bomb goes off."

Tos.h.i.+o 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.

Tos.h.i.+o 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 h.e.l.l of a punch to pound through the outer sh.e.l.l."

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 s.h.i.+p.

He saw a glimpse of a silhouette suspended within a gla.s.s case. He s.h.i.+vered and turned away.

Gillian's holo display showed a small, Ping-Pong-ball sized representation of Kithrup, and a scattering of small BBs as the planet's moons. Two cl.u.s.ters of blue and red dots were accompanied by tiny computer-code letters suspended in s.p.a.ce.

"Don't seem like too many of the nasty b.u.g.g.e.rs are left," Suessi commented.

"Those are just the s.h.i.+ps in nearby s.p.a.ce. The expanded view, about a cubic astron, shows two still substantial Galactic squadrons. We can't actually identify the fleets, of course, but the battle computer a.s.signs colors on the basis of movement. They're still changing alliances out there.

"Also, there's a plethora of survivors hiding out on the moons."

Suessi pursed his lips. Almost he asked the question that was on everyone's mind, but he bit it back. Gillian answered anyway.

"There's still been no word from Tom." She looked at her hands. "Until now we didn't really have any use for the information, but now ..." She paused.

"But now we've got to know whether taking off would be suicide." Suessi finished her thought. He noticed Gillian was studying the display again.

"You're trying to figure it out for yourself, aren't you?"

Gillian shrugged. "Go get that hour, Hannes, or three, or ten. Tell your fen to take their naps at their stations, and toggle their sleep machines to the bridge."

She frowned as she looked at the drifting dots. "I may be wrong. We may wind up choosing the lesser evil-hiding down here until our gums start turning blue from metal poisoning or we starve. But I have a feeling, a hunch, we may have to act soon." She shook her head.

"What about Tos.h.i.+o and Hikahi and the others?"

Gillian did not answer. No answer was necessary. After a moment Suessi turned and left. He closed the door behind him.

Dots. No more could be resolved by Streaker's pa.s.sive sensors than drifting dots that occasionally came together in sparkling swarms and separated smaller in number. The battle computer went over the patterns and drew tentative conclusions. But the answer she needed was never there. "Would the surviving fleets be indifferent to the sudden reappearance of a long-lost Thennanin cruiser, or would they join forces to swat it out of the sky?" The decision lay with her. Never had Gillian felt so alone.

"Where are you, boy? You live, I know. I can feel your distant breath. What are you doing right now?"

To her left a green light started flas.h.i.+ng. "Yes," she told the comm link.

"Dr. Ba.s.sskin!" It was the voice of Wattaceti, calling from the bridge. "Hikahi callsss! She is at-t the relay! And she has Creideiki!"

"Put her through!"

There was a hiss as the operator raised the gain on the attenuated signal.