Acorna's Rebels Part 33

Becker obliged, getting them into the air as quickly as possible.

While Becker took care of the flying, Acorna studied their new pa.s.senger. She could see the appeal of the man, understanding why Nadhari had been attracted to him. Tagoth had a quiet, concentrated magnetism. He seemed to Acorna to be a man of strong convictions, with a great sense of honor, but one who had lived for many years under the constant threat that his double life would be discovered -and that his days would be prematurely ended as a result.

Acorna sent a message to Nadhari. (We just picked up Tagoth and will be taking him to the Aridimi Stronghold. Are you all right?)

(Yeah, except for being a prisoner of a man I've hated since I was a little kid,) she replied. (But you've got trouble. Edu and Macostut spotted you just now. They're speculating as to why you just dropped off their screens again. Be careful.)

Eighteen

Trying not to seem aggressive, Mac bore down on the Federation soldiers staring at him from the headquarters building. They were standing between the android and the place where he needed to go. Removing them seemed the logical solution.

"Halt!" one of them said. "Stop right there. Who the h.e.l.l are you and why were you on that s.h.i.+p?"

"Sirs, I have come to report a serious breach of the Federation's directives concerning this planet," Mac said, with a good imitation of Linyaari righteous indignation. He had observed Liriili closely and drew upon this memory for the proper tone, facial expression, and body language. "The most shocking element of this breach is that it has been committed by your own commanding officer and the present ruler of your host city."

'What's he talking about?" the guard who had not spoken asked his comrade.

"d.a.m.ned if I know. Halt! I said halt, and I meant it. Don't come any closer or I'll shoot."

A third person appeared in the doorway. This was a young female officer Mac had encountered on the inspection team and also when loading Captain MacDonald's wagons.

"Mac!" she said pleasantly. "What are you doing here? We a.s.sumed you were with Captain Becker on that flitter. In fact we searched your s.h.i.+p and didn't find you."

"h.e.l.lo, Petty Chief Officer Lea. I trust you are well and having a productive day? I was doing a bit of-uh-gardening before you arrived and shut myself down to recharge."

"Uh-huh," she said in a tone which, though skeptical, remained amiable. To the two men she said, "Down, boys. Mac here is an android. I saw him lift a box of dirt weighing a ton and a half single-handed and carry it down a gantry and load it into a wagon eight times in a row. Not only will your guns fail to harm him, they just might irritate some circuits that will cause him to go berserk and profoundly a.s.similate us into the soil of our duty station."

The more aggressive of the men blanched slightly but took a step backwards. "Just so he understands our position."

"Come on in, Mac. I presume you were planning on it anyway. Can I offer you anything? A cup of oil, a jolt of electricity, perhaps? A chip or a cookie?"

"No, Chief Petty Officer Lea, I require no sustenance or repair items at this time. However, I do need to report an irregularity, as I was telling these gentlemen when you arrived. Oh, and a kidnapping. That is a crime, is it not? Having once been a henchman of Kisla Manjari's, my moral parameters are a bit hazy and this subject confuses me. But I saw Commander Macostut and Nadhari's cousin the Mulzar stun and bind her and carry her away in a flitter. Hence the irregularity I wished to report."

One of the men snorted. "We never interfere in the Mulzar's love life. That's as off limits as technology beyond the gate."

Chief Petty Officer Lea glared at him. "Stunning, binding, and kidnapping a visiting dignitary is no part of anybody's love life, Singh. And the same rules apply to the CO as to the rest of us about what goes beyond the gate and 'what doesn't. That goes in spades for flying flitters while accompanied by local dignitaries. Come on in, Mac. Sit down, pull up a com unit and tell me all about it."

"Thank you, Chief Petty Officer Lea. Before we carry on further discussion, I would like to send a message to my captain and warn him that another flitter is abroad and that Nadhari Kando is captive aboard it."

"We'll see about that, Mac. We have to try to disable the dampening field because we need to contact our CO too and ask him whatever was he thinking to break such an awful lot of the very rules he's supposed to be enforcing. It's not going to be easy to disable the field, though. It's hardwired into the system. But I'm sure Singh can figure it out if he applies himself."

"Yes, but Commander Kando is at risk," Mac reminded her. "I'm sure I can easily disable your dampening device. I have, as you may guess, an affinity for such things. That is how I was able to get through once to Captain Becker. I'm sure if you "will be so kind as to discontinue jamming our signal, I could do it again."

"I'll just bet you could! We had to rig something special to jam you. Laser signals are not Federation approved and are not affected by the dampening field. But I just bet you knew that. However, once we realized you were able to communicate with your flitter, we located the signal and jammed it manually. We were going to pay you a visit later, "when we had reinforcements. I figured it had to be you still aboard the s.h.i.+p, since the others "were accounted for, being on the Most Wanted list and all."

"I would appreciate it if you would remove the special jam, then, so that I may alert Captain Becker."

Before she could answer, the com screen flooded with the image of another Federation officer. "Makahomia Outpost, this is Juan Verde, with the Federation Station X2niner5foxtrot4. We have a relay for you from a s.h.i.+p traveling in non-Federation s.p.a.ce. The message is being transmitted through House Harakamian channels

on Manganos Moonbase. They wish to know where to locate the wormhole someone named Kh.o.r.n.ya spoke of." "That would be for me," Mac said.

Acorna gave Becker Nadhari's message. He nodded grimly. She quickly recalibrated the scanner aboard the Linyaari flitter to track the other flitter's progress, but the Federation vessel showed no signs of pursuing them. Instead it just sat there, back at the place where they'd stopped to pick up Tagoth. Becker said it was as though Macostut's flitter was a hound dog, scenting the wind to try to pick up their scent, but failing. Hoping they could continue to elude the Federation s.h.i.+p, Becker laid in an evasive, map-of-the-land course to the secret Aridimi Stronghold. Soon the Federation flitter was so far behind them that they could not even see it on their scanners.

As they rode farther into the desert, the suns were setting in a blaze of color, leaving claw marks of gory red clouds ripped across the evening sky. Though the day had been fine and clear up to that point, unmarred by any haze or even smoke from household fires such as they were accustomed to in Hissim, suddenly a high wind arose. The first indication they had that they were facing real trouble came when the whirlwinds that continually played across the desert floor begin joining together, as in a dance, into one large tidal wave of wind. This lifted vast sheets of sand with it, forming a dark, churning cloud that grew in volume until it obliterated the entire horizon, silhouetted starkly against the sunset. The gale pounded the little Linyaari craft unmercifully, howling like an angry Makahomian Temple cat. It scoured the flitter with a deafening hail of sand and pebbles, scoring the viewport and upper hatch, shrieking to get in.

"That's great," Becker growled. "We just lost our s.h.i.+elding." "I believe we can count ourselves fortunate if that's all we lose, Captain," Acorna told him, her words punctuated with gasps as

the craft bounced around as if it were the wind's personal juggling ball. The little s.h.i.+p skewed wildly back and forth and up and down, and four times spun end over end with the force of the storm. Becker increased their flying speed and alt.i.tude in the hope of rising above the tempest.

The cats did their part to try to shut out the noise of the wind. They yowled and screamed and made the most bloodcurdling noises Acorna had ever heard. Tagoth and Miw-Sher cuddled the kittens, and each also held two of the Temple cats, but their skins were being shredded as the anxiety of the felines increased with every shudder and dive the flitter took in the storm.

RK was the calmest of the cats. As Becker's longtime s.h.i.+p's cat, he'd seen worse. Still, he crouched low on the flitter's deck at Acorna's feet, casting a baleful eye at the hatch, now opaque from the sand. His contribution to the decibel level alternated between a menacing growl and a gradually increasing scream.

None of this had a salubrious effect on Acorna's nerves.

"Shut up!" Becker screamed at last, outshouting cats, sand, wind, and all. "Everybody just shut up and stay calm and I'll drive us through this."

Becker's hands were tight on the controls, his muscles trembling with the effort to keep the flitter in the air. Acorna could see Becker's sweating face highlighted in the soft lighting that had automatically activated inside the flitter's cabin once the suns had set. The captain's jaw was tense, and his back rigid as he bent low to survey the instrument panel.

Miw-Sher looked startled, and Tagoth grinned. All of the adult cats except for RK looked a bit shocked and highly offended. They seemed to feel that it was their right to protest such an unseemly display on the part of the environment, or perhaps they felt it was their duty to join in the noise. But after Becker's shout, they left the screeching to the storm.

Acorna wasn't sure it would be useful, but she began broadcasting calm and soothing thoughts to one and all. She also edged

over and laid her head on Becker's shoulder so that her horn touched the base of his neck. He seemed surprised by the touch at first, but it had the desired effect. His shoulders relaxed, and his hands eased a bit on the controls, "while the little craft continued plowing through the sandstorm.

"I keep feeling like I have to drive this thing, and actually, it does a real good job by itself," he told her, with a sheepish grin.

Almost more startling than the sudden storm was the sight that met them when they burst through it. The night beyond the sandstorm was still clear and bright with the striped light of the planet's two moons. They had risen during the flitters flight through the storm, and now hung heavy in the night sky, full and round save for a stripe of shadow in the center of each.

"Ho-oh-leee cats," Becker said. "If we hadn't just come from that sky just a couple of days ago, Acorna, I'd swear there was a big old p.u.s.s.ycat out there looking down on us like we were inside a mouse hole."

Tagoth and Miw-Sher began talking to each other so rapidly, while pointing through the sand-scoured hatch at the sky, that even Acorna couldn't make out what they were saying.

Tagoth finally stopped and explained. "When our moons align themselves thusly, it is a sign of a great crisis in our world."

"So that's a bad thing?" Becker asked.

"Not necessarily," Miw-Sher answered the question Acorna relayed. "While the Star Cat's eyes watch the crisis unfold, his vigilant benevolence may also serve to spare us from it, if he so wills."

"Gee, that's nice," Becker said when Acorna told him this. "We'll hope the big guy is in a good mood, then."

Tagoth tapped him on the shoulder and said, for Acorna to translate, "Steer toward the star that appears in the center below the eyes of the Star Cat."

Becker did so.

A range of low mountains, white as bones under the catty

glare of the moons, rose before them. As the flitter flew over the ridge, its occupants could see that the white knuckle hills were not set in a line, but circled a great deep crater.