A Mind For Trade Part 4

He and Dane started down, then Rip was startled to hear a quick hiss of static from the comlink in the hatch behind them. He paused, and AH said,, "Shannon! Thorson! I think you'd better hear this."

Rip and Dane looked at each other, and Rip retreated up the ramp. In silence Dane followed.

In the lock, Stotz hit the corn-key with his fist, and said, "They're here."

Instead of Ali's voice, there was a squawk of static, as if someone was having to find their frequency manually, and then a heavily accented voice said in Trade speech, "Do not walk forth! Bide in your transport until the sun is gone!"

Rip looked at the others.

Stotz frowned. "Tau ran tests on the air, and the scanner has cleared all known toxins to humans."

As if in answer again there came a burst of static, under which they heard the rapid chatter of voices. Rip gripped his sleeprod unconsciously, staring out at the foggy landscape.

"Danger," came the accented voice. "Monsters!"

Chapter Five.

"Creatures-monsters," came the voice. "Sunlight danger only. They move in the fog. Vacuum suits ward them not."

Dane Thorson peered out into the fog, but saw nothing. He turned back to Rip, who leaned against the bulkhead right next to the com, as if the proximity to the electronic device brought him closer to the unknown speaker. "So you want us to wait for darkness before emerging, is that right?" Rip asked.

"Wait for dark. Wait for dark."

Then the com went dead.

Craig Tau appeared in the hatchway.

"What do you think?" Rip Shannon asked him.

"Pending discussion, let's seal up."

Dane was relieved when Rip closed and sealed the outer hatch. Suddenly that thick fog outside seemed sinister. Not, he told himself, that he believed in monsters-but maybe these mystery people lurked out there with weapons.

Johan Stotz said quietly, "Our unknown friends might have a reason to keep us in here for a while."

"Such as moving in to set up an ambush?" Rip asked.

"Just what I was thinking," Tau admitted.

Rip nodded. "Then let's reactivate all our sensors and scan the perimeter as thoroughly as possible. If they notice, and comment, we're testing."

"If they notice, and comment, they are almost certainly preparing for a fight." Ali's drawling voice was heard a moment before he appeared in the inner hatchway. He leaned lazily against a bulkhead and gave them one of his ironic smiles. "Remember, there is no evidence of another s.h.i.+p. Jasper's got the com right now," he added. "In case our mystery friends feel the urge to send more entertaining communications."

"If what you say is true, then these people must be aware that their only way off might be the Queen-with us or without us," Tau said.

And again the others looked at Rip, their expressions varying. It was up to him to make the orders, but Dane wondered if Rip did not know what to say. What would Jellico say?

Almost as if from memory, he heard the clipped tones of the captain: Break out the sleeprods, and set up watches.

The others were obviously thinking along the same lines, for Rip repeated the same words out loud, and Dane had the satisfaction of seeing Stotz nod slightly, and Tau's face relax. This order was pretty much what they expected, then. What else?

Rip turned to Ali. "I know you've been up-for much longer than your s.h.i.+ft, but can you stay it a little longer? You're good at Jalking-see what you can learn from them. Even if it's all lies, at least we'll be able to pinpoint where they are. Maybe their numbers as well."

Ali lifted one shoulder in a slightly theatrical shrug. Dane recalled the time when Ali's vid-actor gestures had annoyed him. Now he felt oddly rea.s.sured.

Stotz said, "I wish the Old Man was in range-"

Ali stretched, glanced at the time, and said, "Another six hours and seventeen minutes. Except we need to remember that any message we send up will doubtless be listened to. We simply tell the captain that we've discovered others here, and wait for his instructions."

"No doubt carefully worded." Rip grinned. "All right. In six hours we can dump all this into the Old Man's lap. Until then, let's get as much data as we can."

Ali laced his fingers together, turned them inside out until the knuckles cracked, then he wrung his hands. "Even keying hurts. We were in free fall too long. I feel like I ma.s.s as much as a Dirjwartian thundersaur."

Rip laughed, or started to. Suddenly his laugh turned into a fierce, jaw-cracking yawn-one that Dane caught. He yawned himself, his eyes tearing.

Tau smiled at them. "I prescribe some rack time, you two. You know, if anyone makes contact, it'll be you-and that would go better if you're rested."

Dane nodded, feeling that he'd never obeyed an order with more pleasure.

Several hours of heavy sleep later, he woke suddenly, sat up- and nearly fell out of bed. For a moment his body seemed one big cramp, and his lungs labored for air, but he lay back down, slowing his breathing, and then got up more slowly.

A hot shower woke him some more, enough so that his mind filled with questions. But before he went in search of answers, he checked on Tooe, who responded weakly to his knock. She lay in her bunk, her color more gray than her normal healthy greenish blue. Her crest lay limp, and her eyes seemed dull.

Dane frowned, noting the full gla.s.s of liquid next to her. "Have you eaten?" he asked. "Drunk?"

"No," she said. Even her voice seemed flattened. "My in-sides like it not." She wound her fingers together. "It strangles me." The little alien scratched at a bandage in the crook of her elbow. "Hate needles, tied up."

"That stuff in the gla.s.s," Dane persisted. "Looks like one of Tau's medicinal concoctions. Why don't you get it down- it might help."

"No," she said, sounding wistful. "Food-liquid. Strangle my throat."

Dane bit back the impulse to stand over her and make her try to drink. He nodded, then said, "I'll check on you later," hoping that would be enough to get her to take whatever Tau had given her. Then he withdrew.

He found all the others except Johan Stotz gathered in the tight quarters of the mess cabin. They all had food and drink before them; Frank Mura tipped his head toward the galley, and half a minute later Dane had a plate of fresh, hot food in one hand and a mug of good, strong coffee in the other. As he sat down, he saw Sinbad bound in, a plump orange streak.

"What's the news?" Dane asked, picking up his fork.

Jasper Weeks said, "They contacted me just a while ago. They are indeed from the Ariadne."

Dane whistled softly. "That's bad."

"Besides the obvious, there's another problem." Rip set his mug down and leaned back in his chair. "They no longer hold the Charter-"

"Of course," Ali said, bending down to stroke Sinbad, who wound round his legs and purred happily.

"-which means," Rip continued, unperturbed, "whatever they've mined since the date of the transfer is ours. How to establish that is going to take some ticklish negotiating."

Dane Thorson looked up, his expression pained. "And Van Ryke is on the other s.h.i.+p."

Tau smiled a little. "Which means it's your problem."

Dane swallowed some coffee, then said, "I need to know what kind of people I'm dealing with before I can think out an approach."

Rip said, "How about this. At sunset you and I will go out and see if they'll come to us within the light perimeter of our s.h.i.+p. The plan is the same as this morning: the rest of you can be armed and ready just behind the hatches. If we establish any kind of reasonable communication, then we'll take it from there."

Mura nodded. "May's well get started on the negotiating now. We can't start mining until we've gotten this straightened out with those people out there."

AH said, "Jasper received the initial contact, but I've been trying to chat with them. As far as I can tell they weren't shareholders, just crew, so they probably had no legal claim on the s.h.i.+p."

"We can't know that," Dane said. "It was presumed that the entire crew had died when Flindyk's pirates took the s.h.i.+p and changed the name. Who exactly were considered heirs?"

"We have that on record," Mura said rea.s.suringly. "We just checked. The heirs were listed as kin to the captain-as long as these out here don't have a nearer kin claim to the captain, then we can safely a.s.sume they were just paid crew."

"I don't know the ins and out of Trade Law," Jasper said quietly, "but I've never heard that paid crew have claims. Instead, I've heard of people being stranded on planets when their s.h.i.+ps have run into various kinds of legal trouble."

"So have I, come to think of it," AH put in, giving them a slanting smile. "I'm sure we're protected legally by anyone's system. Whether these gentle people outside will agree-and abide by Trade's decisions-is what Dane and Rip need to ascertain. I don't envy them the task, either," he added with his usual smiling drawl.

"Go get some sleep," Tau said, jerking his thumb behind him. "You can find out the next exciting installment when you wake up."

AH sauntered out.

Rip sighed. "Let me see if Stotz has heard anything, and then we may as well get it over with, Thorson, after you eat. The sun has just set."

Dane nodded, and Rip went out-moving with care, Dane noted.

Frank Mura retreated to the galley, and soon sounds emanated from there. Dane turned to the medic, who was just finis.h.i.+ng his coffee. "Tooe won't eat," he said.

Tau frowned. "Did you tell her she will not recover her strength unless she does?"

"She knows. She said the food will choke her. Even liquids choke her."

Tau's brow cleared suddenly, and he almost laughed. "Weight."

Dane stared, puzzled. "What?" Suddenly he got it. "I never did see her eat during the Hesprid adaptation s.h.i.+ft. Of course. Her throat's used to the ma.s.s, but not the weight. I never asked, but I'll bet my next year's pay that Tooe only worked out in heavy-grav, and never ate there. / sure never ate anything down in Shver territory on Exchange-couldn't get used to foods weighing sixty percent more than usual. She's going from virtually zero to point-eight-five, eighty-five percent of Terran gravity!"

"I know what to do," said Tau. "We'll get her used to it slowly. I can talk to Frank, and we'll aerate her liquids for now. That'll get her swallowing-and, probably, playing with her food again. Unless I'm mistaken, she'll enjoy seeing how water behaves in grav. And when she gets hungry enough, she'll stop spritzing her mouth and start experimenting with small bites."

Relieved, Dane glanced at the time, and the medic said, "You and Rip had better get ready for your encounter. Leave this to me."

Dane was glad to comply. The truth was, even though he'd just woken up, he still wanted to go right back to his bunk and spend a good stretch of hours just lying there. The inexorable pull of gravity made his joints ache, but what really hurt was his head. Was it his imagination, that weird sense that Rip's tension was pulling energy right out of him? He'd never felt that before-which made him suspicious. Ever since Tau had told them about that possible psi link, Dane's dreams had been playing tricks on him, such as pulling up memories of stupid tri-D stories about psis and mysterious brainpowers.

He knew Rip was tense. They all saw it. They all felt tense as well.

When he met Rip out in the narrow accessway, the astrogator-pilot silently handed Dane a sleeprod.

"These going to be enough?" Dane asked.

"Hope we don't have to find out," Rip said. And he indicated the outer lock. "Let's get this over."

Once again they lowered the ramp. Dane sniffed appreciatively at the air outside, cold as it was.

Then he forgot the cold, the smells, and everything else, when he saw the four figures standing close together in a line just at the edge of the pool of light. Dane was used to towering over most humans he met, but these four made him feel short.

He heard a slight intake of breath from Rip, and looked over; there was no expression to be seen beyond friendliness in Shannon's dark, pleasant face. He stopped a few feet from the bottom of the ramp, and Dane stopped with him.

"I am Rip Shannon, astrogator-pilot of the Free Trader s.h.i.+p Solar Queen," Rip said. "My cargo master here is Dane Thorson."

They waited. What sounded like whispered growls came from the figures; the sound was partly obscured as a great gust of wind soughed through the mighty trees. In the distance, just faintly, came the rise and fall of voices in a minor-key melodic line that made the hairs on the back of Dane's neck p.r.i.c.kle.

Then one of the four stepped forward. In the deep voice that could only come from a ma.s.sive chest, he said, "I be Lossin, locutor of the Free Trader vessel AnWwe-that-was."

"I be Tazcin," said another.

"Vrothin."

"Kamsin."

Dane could tell nothing from those deep, low voices. Were they angry, afraid, indifferent? He scanned them again, fight-ing the urge to touch his sleeprod. He didn't trust the way they stood in a row like that, shoulder to shoulder, their arms touching. It seemed aggressive, except they had no weapons, and made no overt move of threat.

Dane, calculating how long it must have been since the Ariadne had left, wondered if this crew was low on supplies.

Rip hesitated, then said in his mildest voice, "Our first concern is these monsters you mentioned at daybreak. Can you tell us more about them?"

In the background the voices rose again, sustaining a high, eerie note. Dane wondered if it was mourning music.

"We have made a recording from our archives. Trade, for your data of Ariadne-that-was."

The other three made some kind of hand-sign, and two of them growled something in low voices. It sounded to Dane like a ritual phrase, though he could not guess at its meaning.

Rip approached Lossin with slow, easy steps, and held his hand out. Lossin dropped something onto his palm, then said, "Floaters-we call these ghestin Floaters-come only in sun time, and fog. We do nothing in sun time. Rains come soon." He pointed upward.

A sudden gust of chill wind swept over the rocks, sending bits of mud stinging Dane's face. Lossin and his companions did not move. Only their thick fur ruffling marked the effect of the weather; the gust brought to Dane a whiff of a distinctive odor that propelled him for a brief moment back to childhood. He could not identify it, though.

"Thank you," Rip said. "We will view it now. May we contact you with any questions?"

Lossin said, "You are here. Trade has given Charter to you. Our camp is now your camp. Our ore is now your ore. Our s.h.i.+p-"

One of the four made a sudden move, then paused. Then as Dane and Rip watched, the person abruptly ducked back a few steps and withdrew rapidly into the inky darkness under the huge trees.

There wasn't anything to say-at least, Dane couldn't think of anything, and apparently Rip couldn't either.

"Thank you for the tape," the navigator-pilot said in an uncharacteristically subdued voice, and in silence Dane and Rip retreated back into the Solar Queen.