Malaika was in Control, checking out co-ordinates with Wolf. In his cabin Truzenzuzex was rigid in a meditation trance. He utilized that technique whenever be wished to consider a problem involving extreme concentration. And sometimes just to relax. In that state he required less body energy. In the salon, Tse-Mallory was trying to explain the workings of a semantic puzzle to Flinx. Atha was nearby, attempting somewhat" boredly to beat herself at the ancient and timeworn game Of Monopoly. She moved the obscure little idols and symbols in ways that Flinx had always found dully repet.i.tive.

Everything continued normally until Sissiph, bored and ejected from Control by the busy Malaika, stomped crankily into the room, a trail of translucent pseudolace flowing behind her.

"This is adull place! Dull, dull,dull! Like-like living in a coffin!" She fumed quietly for a few minutes. As no one deigned to notice her, she moved to a more central location. "What a collection! Two pilots, two brain cases, and a kid with a poisonous worm for a pet!"

Pip"s head lifted abruptly and the minidrag made an unfriendly motion in the girl"s direction. Flinx stroked the back of its head until it had relayed sufficiently for some of She tightness to leave the long muscles.

His own response was mild as he considered the self-uacertainty/anger/coo-fusion in the girl"s mind.

"It is a reptile, and bears no relation to ..."

"Reptile!Worm ! What difference does it make?" She pouted. "And Maxy won"t even let mewatch while he plays with all thosedarling co-ordinates and standards and things! He says I "distract" him. Can you imagine?Distract him?"

"I can"t imagine why it should either my dear," murmured Atha without looting up from her game.

Ordinarily Sissiph probably would haven"t made anything of it. Back in Drallar she"d had more than ample opportunity to inure herself to Atha"s sarcasm. But the combination of the long flight and her frustrations of the moment combined to make her turn. Her voice was tight.

"Is that supposed to be some kind of crack?"

Still Atha did not look up from her game. No doubt she expected Sissiph to brush off the remark as she usually did and go flouncing from the room in a dignified huff. She returned with a slang phrase "Tis truth, forsooth."

"And your mouth," rejoined Sissiph, parodying the words terribly, "is a bit too "looth"!" She gave the game table a quick shove with a knee. Being portable and not bolted to the fabric of the ship, it toppled easily. Small metal objects and plastic cards sailed in all directions.

Atha closed her eyes tightly, not moving, and then slowly opened them again. She turned easily to stare at the Lynx, her eyes even with the other girl"s knees.

"I think, honey, that if we"re going to pursue this conversation, we"d do it better on a more equal level."

Her forearm shot out and caught the surprised Sissiph behind the knees. She let out a startled squeak and sat down hard.

From there on, their bodies seemed to merge so closely that Flinx was hard put to tell them apart. Their thoughts were indecipherable. Scientific combat went out the port, so to speak. Tse-Mallory left his puzzle and made a laudible, if foolhardy, attempt to stop it. All he received for his efforts was a long scratch on one cheek. At that moment Malaika, summoned hastily by Flinx with a gentle probe, appeared in the fore doorway. He took in the whole scene at a half-glance, "What in the name of the obscenity sewn h.e.l.ls is going on here?"

Even his familiar bellow had no effect on the two combatants, who were by now too deeply engrossed in their work to notice mere mortal entreaties. The merchant moved forward and made an attempt to separate the two. Several,in fact. It was like dipping one"s bands into a whirlwind. Frustrated, he backed off.

The longer one lived m the lower levels of Drallar, the greater one"s acquired knowledge of elementary human psychology. Flinx said loudly bat evenly, putting as much disgust into his voice as be could muster, "My, if you two only knew how funny you look!" He also risked a brief mental projection of the two combatants, suitably embellished.

There was immediate peace in the room. The cloud of hair, teeth, nails, and shredded clothing ground to an abrupt halt, resolving itself into two distinct bodies. Both stared blankly at Flinx, then uncertainly at each other.

"Thanks,kijana . I"d thought you might help out here and there, but apparently there"s no end" to your talents." Maiaika reached down and grasped each girl by the remaining material at the scruff of her neck, Sifting them much as one would a pair of obstinate kittens. The two glared silently at one another and seemed more than willing to start in all over again. Perceiving this, he shook them so hard that their teeth rattled and their tippers fell-off.

"We"re on a billion-credit hunt in rarely s.p.a.ced territory after something which any other company in the galaxy would gladly slit my throat for an inkling of, and you twomwanamkewivu, cretins, idiots, can"t live in peace for a month!" He shook them again, although not as furiously. Neither of them looked in the mood for fighting now. If this happens again, and I"ll warn you only once, I will cheerfully chuck the both of you, biting and scratching if that"s the way you want it, out the nearest airlock!Is that understood ?"

The two women stared silently at the floor.

"An ndiyo au la!Tell me now!" The voice reverberated around the saion.

Finally Sissiph murmured, almost in audibly. "Yes, Maxy." He turned to glare murderously at Atha.

"Yes, sir," she said meekly.

Malaika would have continued, but Wolf chose that moment to peer into the room.

"Captain, I think you"d better come take a look at this. There is an object or objects on the screens which I would say is a ship, or ships, i"d like your opinion,"

"Nini?" Malaga roared, whirling. "What!" He let go of the two women. Both stood quietly, trying to create order out of the chaos of their clothing. Occasionally one would glance up at the other, but for now, at least, both were thoroughly abashed.

"It appears to be closing on us, sir. I do wish you"d come take a look... now." Malaika turned to face the erstwhile fighters. "Atha, you get fixed up and up front...upesi ! Sissiph, you go back to our cabin and stay there." Both nodded soberly and departed in different directions.

"Sociologist, you go and get your friend out of that semi-sleep, or whatever he calls it. I want you at full consciousness in case anything untoward happens. I have a hunch both of you have had at least a modic.u.m of experience with deep- s.p.a.ce ship manoeuvres?"

"Tse-Mallory had started off towards Truzenzuzex"s cabin. Now he paused to smile back at the big trader. "Something of the sort," lie said quietly.

"Fine. Oh,kijana ?" Flinx looted up. "You keep a close eye on that pet of yours. Things might get a little bouncy around here. I don"t know how excitable that little devil is, but I wouldn"t want him underfoot and nervous around busy people."

"Yes sir. Have you any idea what it is?"

"Yes and no. And I"m afraid it"s liable to be the former. And that"s bad." He paused, thoughtful. "You can come up front, if you like, so long as you watch that snake. Tell our learned pa.s.sengers they can too, if they so desire. There"s enough room. I just don"t want Sissiph around. The darlingpakadogo has a tendency to get hysterical when things aren"t where she can put a finger... and other delightful things... on them. But I think perhaps the others would like to be around when we find out what is what. And they might have hunches to contribute. I value hunches highly. By the way, I don"t suppose you can answer that question for me?"

Flinx concentrated, hard. It was a long way off, but there was nothing else around for light-years, so it came in strong, strong. "If was malignant/strange/picture of dry air, sun, blood/taste of salt/relief/all wrapped in cold, clear thoughts like snow-melt fitted in only one type...

He looked up, blinked. The merchant was watching him intently, with not a little hint of concern. He became aware then of the beads of sweat on his brow. He said one word, because it was sufficient.

"AAnn."

The merchant nodded thoughtfully and turned for the door.

Chapter Eleven

The dot that indicated the presence of an operating posi-gravity drive field was dear now and far off to their "right" - about ninety degrees or so to the present x-plane. It was moving on a definite convergence course. They still could not be sure what it was, other than that at least one mind occupied a similar area of s.p.a.ce.

An ancient aphorism someone had once recited to Flinx came back to him. As he recalled it, there had been two men involved, one old and one young. The younger had said, "No news is good news," and the other, a Terran holy man, had wisely replied, "That"s not necessarily true, my young friend. A fisherman doesn"t think he"s lucky if he doesn"t get a bite." He wasn"t positive that the story was an appropriate a.n.a.logy for the moment, because be found himself disagreeing with the holy man.

"Two of them. Captain," said Wolf. "See..."

It was true. Even Flinx could see that as the large dot came closer it was separating into two distinct points. At the same time he sensed a multiplicity of similar minds to the one he"d first noticed although much weaker.

"Two ships," said Malaika. "Then my one guess is in error after all. Before shadows. Now, everything in the dark.Usiku . Still, it might be..."

"Whatwas your guess, Maxim?" asked Truzenzuzex.

"I thought perhaps a compet.i.tor of mine - a certaincompet.i.tor - had gotten drift of your discovery to a greater extent than I originally thought. Or that certain information had leaked. If the latter case, then I should suspect that some- one on this ship is a spy." There were some fast, uneasy glances around the cabin. "That is still a possibility, but I am now less inclined to suspect it. I don"t know of any combine in the Arm, neither the one I had in mind nor even GeneralIndustries, that could afford or would be inclined to put out two ships on what has a very good chance of being a profit-less venture on merely spurious, secondhand information. Not even an AAnn Nest-Corporation."

"In which case," said Tse-Mallory, "who are our two visitors?" I don"t know, sociologist,hata kidogo .

Not at all. But we will no doubt find out shortly. They should be in reception distance momentarily, if they aren"t already. If there were a relay station in this area we might have found out sooner... a.s.suming of course that they wished us to know of their presence, and knew closely enough where we were. I think that I doubt that..."

Atha was efficiently manipulating dials and switches. I"ve got everything wide open, sir, and if they"re beaming us, we"ll pick it up, all right!"

They did.

The face that appeared on the screen was not shocking, thanks to Flinx"s advance warning, but the garb it wore was because it was so totally unexpected.

"Good morning to you,Gloryhole ," said the sallow-faced AAnn officer-n.o.ble who looked out at them.

"Or whatever day-period you are experiencing at the moment. The ill.u.s.trious and renowned Maxim Malaika captaining, I a.s.sume?"

"The puzzled and curious Maxim Malaika is here, if that"s what you mean." He moved into the centre of the transceiver"s pickup. "You"re one up on me."

"Apologies," said the figure. I am named Riidi WW, Baron Second of Tyrton Six, Officer in the Emperor Maahn the Fourth"s Circ.u.mspatial Defence Forces. My ship is namedArr , and we are accompanied, in travel by her sister-ship, theUnn ."

Malaika spoke in the direction of the omnipickup mike. "All that. Your mother must have been long-winded. You boys are a bit off your usual tracks, aren"t you"?"

The Baron"s face reflected mild surprise. As Flinx suspected, it was mock. "Why, captain! The Blight is unclaimed s.p.a.ce and open to all. There are many fine, colonizable, unclaimed planets here, free to any s.p.a.cegoing race. While it is true that in the past His Majesty"s government has been more involved in outward expansion, an occasional search for planets of exceptionai promise does sometimes penetrate this far."

"A very concise and seemingly plausible explanation," whispered Truzcnzuzex to Malaika from out of range of the audiovisual pickups.

"Yes," the merchant whispered back. "I don"t believe a word of it either. Wolf, change course forty-five degrees t-plus."

"Done, Captain."

"Well, Baron, it"s always nice to hear from someone away out in the middle of nowhere, and I am sure that two of his Majesty"s destroyers will be more than a match for any planet of "exceptional promise"

you may happen to find. I wish you luck in your prospecting."

"Your offers of good fortune are accepted in the spirit in which they are given, Captain Malaika in return I should like to extend the hospitality of my ship and crew. Most especially of our galley. I am fortunate enough to have on board a chef who works wonders with the cuisine of thirty-two different systems. The fellow is a. wizard, and would be proud to have the opportunity to display his talents before such discerning gourmets as yourselves."

Wolf"s low whisper cut across the cabin. "They"ve changed course to match our new one, sir. And accelerated, too."

"Keep on course. And pick it up enough to match their increase. But do it subtly,mwanamume , subtly!"

He turned back to the screen.

"Truly a gracious offer, Baron, and ordinarily T would consider it an honour and a delight to accept.

However, I am afraid that circ.u.mstances warrant we decline this particular invitation. You see, we had fish for supper last evening, and I am certain it was not per pared half so well as your chef could manage, because we have all been suffering from severe, pains of the lower intestinal tract today. If we may, I"ll put off your kind offer till a later date."

Away from the mike he whispered, "The rest of you get back to yow cabins and strap down. I"ll try to keep you up on what happens through your intership viewers. But if we have to b.u.mp around a bit, I don"t want you all bouncing off the woodwork and messing up my carpets!"

Flinx, Tse-Mallory, and Truzenzuze made a scramble for the exitway, being careful to stay out of range of the tri-dee video pickup. But apparently Truzenzuzex couldn"t resist a dig at a persistent and long-time enemy. The thranx had had dealings with the AAnn long before mankind.

He stuck his head into range of the pickups and yelled, "Know, 0 sand-eater, that I have sampled AAnn cuisine before, and that my gizzard has found it to be gritty to the palate. Those who dine upon rocks rapidly a.s.sume the disposition and mental capacity of the same"

The AAnn bristled, the scales along its neck-ridge rising. "Listen, dirt-dweller, I"ll inform you that ...!" He caught it in mid-curse and recomposed himself with an effort. Feigning a sigh where he no doubt would have preferred a threat, he said, 1 retain the courtesies while it is evident they have departed your ship.

Captain. Have it your way. You cannot outrun us, you know. Now that we are within easy range, my detector operators will be most careful not to lose you. It will be only a. matter of time before we come within filial distance of you. At that moment T would hope that you would have reconsidered my really exceptionally polite and generous invitation, and will lower your field. Otherwise," he said grimly, lam very much afraid we shall be forced to open you up like a can ofzith -paste.

The screen abruptly went blank.

In his cabin, Flinx lay down on his bed and began to strap into the emergency harness that was affixed permanently to its sides. He had Pip next to his left hand, curledaround a bar On the side of the bed. He admonished it to bo quiet. The snake, sensing that important things were happening, did as k was told with a minimum of fuss and bother.

When he had finished and settled himself into the closest thing to a comfortable position he could manage in the awkward harness, he turned on the little screen which hung suspended from the roof of the cabin. It cleared instantly to reveal Malaika, Atha, and Wolf busy in Control. Un-willingly, he began to recall more familiar sights and smells. It embarra.s.sed him, but at that moment he wished fervently he were back home in Drallar, juggling before an appreciative crowd and masking small boys laugh by telling them the names of their secret loves. What he could interpret of the mind/thoughts of the AAnn commander was not pleasant. The feeling pa.s.sed abruptly as though a cool rag had been drawn across his mind and be settled himself grimly to wait.

In the huge, exotically furnished cabin which formed her quarters, Sissiph lay alone on the big bed, curled in her harness. Her knees nearly touched her chest. She felt very alone. The order to don harness bad been delivered in a tough, no-nonsense tone that Maxy had never used with her before, and she was frightened. The luxurious accoutrements, the intricately carved furniture and sensuous cantilevered lighting, the king"s ransom in clothing scattered about the room, all suddenly seemed as frivolous and flighty as the toys of a child. She had known, she had simply known, when she had chosen to try to replace that other little witch - what had been her name? - as Malaga"s steady Lynx, that something terrible like this was going to happen. She had known it!

Merchants were so d.a.m.ned unpredictable!

She did not throw the switch which would lower the screen and put her in communication with Control and the rest of the ship. Let him survive without her for a while! Instead she buried herself as deeply as she could in the purr-silk pillows and promised herself that if she survived this awful, horrible journey into no place, she was going to find some nice hundred-and-fifty-year-old man ... on the verge of death. A senile, wealthy one, with whom she could look forward to a nice, quiet, comfortable, short, married life...

and a long, wealthy widowhood.

Bran Tse-Mailory was lying in his bed quietly reviewing the hundred and five maxims of the state of Indifferent Contentment, It was originally invented by a brilliant graduate student to help nervous students relax for examinations. It would do duty in other situations. The current one, for example. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn"t get past twenty-one. It kept repeating it self over and over in his mind every time he tried to concentrate on twenty-two.

"Mankind must without a doubt be the most conceited race in the universe, for who else believes that .G.o.d has nothing better to do than sit around all day and help him out of tight spots?"

It was an unworthy thought for one who supposedly had mellowed so over the years, but how, oh, how lie wished for the comforting grip of a gun - any kind of gun -under his fingers. They tightened and relaxed reflexively, making deep furrows in the softness of the blankets.

The Eint Truzenzuzex was lying quietly on his modified lounge, legs fully extended, foothands and truehands crossed on his chest in the properOo position. He tried to keep one half of his mind focused on the ship viewer, while the other half droned through the ritual.

"I, Tru, of the family Zen, clan zu, the Hive Zex, do hereforth pray that I shall not bring disgrace on my-our ancestors. I, Tru, of the family Zen, clan zu, the Hive Zex, do hereforth pray that in the coming Time of Trouble I may reflect credit on my first-mother, clan mother, and Hive mother. I, Tru, of the family Zen, clan ..."

Atha Moon and the man called Woif thought otherwise. They were much too busy for anything else.

And Maxim Malaika, the man who was responsible for them all, did likewise. Also, he was too scared to have time for trivialities like worry. Wolf broke into his nonthoughts.

They"ve closed to within five mils, sir. At this rate they"ll be within particle-beam range in five, ten minutes."

"Choovy! And other urnmentionables! d.a.m.n!"Atha looked back at him worriedly. "Couldn"t we try to dodge them, Maxim? I mean, Captain"?"

"La, hasha, Atha.Mo way. Those are AAnn destroyers out there. They"re built to chase down and slice up ships much faster than we are. TheGloryhole is a rich man"s whim, not a navy ship. But it is something of a speedster, Sharti. Of necessity. With any kind of distance between us at initial contact we might have slipped out of detector range and lost them, but they were on top of us before we even knew who they were. Anyway, there are two of them. One,labda , we might still slip, but never two. Not at this range."

Atha thought. "Couldn"t we just, well, surrender and take our chances"? I mean, everything considered, that Baron didn"t seem all that awful. Just impatient. And we aren"t at war or anything with his people."

"Ndoto. A dream. The AAnn don"t operate that way,Atha." His lips were firmed, "tight. "At best they are... intolerant... with folk who co-operate with them. With those who don"t... lf you"re curious about details, ask Wolf.He was in an AAnn prison camp for five years, during the last real humanx-AAnn conflict. There may be others who survived that long in one of those h.e.l.l-pits and lived to tell of it. If so, I haven"t met him,"

"The captain is right, Miss Moon. I would much rather throw myself into s.p.a.ce to blow up like a deep-sea fish than be captured by those again." He nodded at the screen, where the white dots continued their inexorable approach. "Among their other affectations, they are very adept at the more refined forms of torture. Very. It is something of an art form with them, you see. Most of my scars don"t show. They"re up here, you see." He tapped the side of his head. If you wish some detailed descriptions ..."

Atha shuddered. "Never mind."

"This Riidi fellow seems fairly decent... for an AAnn, but to take the chance... If I could spare Wolf from plotting, or myself from the computer...landunono " No, wait" He leaned over the mike pickup."Ninyi nyote! Tse-MaHory, sociologist. And you, bug! Have either of you ever handled a spatial weapon before ? Even In simulation T In his cabin Tse-Mallory nearly broke a finger struggling with his harness.

And Truzenzuzex broke off his ritual in a place and manner that would have earned him the condemnation of every member of his clan, had they known of it.

"You mean you"ve got agun on this tub?" shouted Tse-Mallory. "What kind? Where? Speak up, mercantilist! Implosion weapons, particle guns, missile tubes, explosive projectiles, rocks... Tru and T will handle it!"

"Je? I hope so. Listen to me. Behind your cabins,naani , storage compartment. There"s a walkway, it opens into the cargo balloon. Then a pullway. Go to the end of the main pull way, you can"t get lost.