Bruce Bethke - Maverick

“Your place is being prepared even as we speak. It will be ready by the time you return to PackHome with this news. ”

LifeCrier nodded again, sagely this time. “Very well. Servant, we will meet you at the Hill of Stars. ”

“As you wish, master. ” The WalkingStone bent in the middle-a gesture that Maverick found puzzling-and backed away. As one, the other WalkingStones turned to join it, and together the four of them marched out of the canyon.

Maverick turned to LifeCrier and found that LifeCrier was looking at him with an enigmatic smile on his face. “Well, Maverick, it seems that you and a few others have a little apologizing to do. What do you think about a silly old kin and his SilverSides nonsense now?”

“Sir,” Maverick said with a respectful baring of his throat, “only a fool would refuse to believe after seeing this. Where you lead, I will follow. ”

“Excellent. ” LifeCrier got to his feet and gave Maverick an affectionate nuzzle. “You are my first true follower, and my strong right paw. I shall name you-”

Maverick interrupted him with a discreet cough. “Begging your pardon, sir, but I’d really rather stick with Maverick. It’s easier to remember. ”

LifeCrier looked a little disappointed. “Oh, very well. You’re now Maverick, the First Believer. ” He looked back at the smoking corpses of the three sharpfangs-already flyers, eightlegs, and other carrion-feeders were starting to gather-and dismissed them with a sniff.

“Now let’s follow those WalkingStones and see if we can’t find a way out of this canyon. ” LifeCrier set off at a trot.

Panting, bewildered, but full of honest trust, Maverick fell in behind.

The robotics lab was dim and quiet, except for the quartet of high-intensity lamps that Avery had pulled down from the ceiling and the soft chirping of the positronic monitor. The data terminals and chairs were gone, dissolved back into the substance of the ship; the work table was reconfigured into a body-contour slab that held the immobile figure of Mandelbrot. A function robot with four long, mantis-like arms stood behind Avery, handing out utensils as he asked for them, while another floated a foot over Mandelbrot’s head, carefully monitoring his positronic brain functions and ensuring a stable supply of power to the critical synthecortex.

. Derec and Avery crouched over the robot’s open chest, trying hard not to block each other’s light. They’d already removed most of Mandelbrot’ s chest plating and disconnected the power from the cube cage. Now they were carefully cutting away the damaged portions of the data bus and fitting replacement parts.

“Micro-calipers. ” The function robot slapped them into Avery’s open hand. “Pentaclamps. ”

“Easy,” Derec said. “You’ve got a little bit of grisaille blast-welded on that buss bar. ”

“I see it. Think you can debride it?”

“I’ll try. Cutting laser. ” The robot started to hand a flashlight-sized tool to Derec, but he refused it. “Sorry. Make that the 10-milliwatt cutter. ” The large laser went back into the robot’s drawers, and it offered Derec a slim, dental-probe sized tool instead. After taking a moment to don protective goggles, Derec set to work.

“So,” Avery asked after a minute or two of silence, “where’s Ariel this morning?”

“Up in the gym,” Derec answered without taking his eyes off his work. “Working out. ” He made another tiny cut and announced, “There, that should clear it. Try to extract now. ”

“I’m extracting-no, it’s stuck on something else. Can you see what it is?”

. Derec removed his goggles and scrutinized the offending part. “Seems free to me. I can’t-ah, there it is. ” He dropped his goggles, stepped back from the table, and rubbed his eyes. “Frost, we’re going to have to remove the neck retainer. ”

“All of it?” Avery sounded very disappointed.

“That is the standard procedure. Unless you want to risk spine alignment problems. ”

Avery briefly set down the pentaclamps and put his hand on Mandelbrot’s chin. “We’ve got him pretty secure here. The head’s not going anywhere. I say we risk it. ”

. Derec shrugged. “You’re the doctor. I’ll hold while you decouple. ” He reached for the pentaclamps.

“No, son,” Avery said, taking the pentaclamps himself. “I hate to admit it, but your hands are steadier than mine. You’d better do it. Toolbot? Give Derec the two-millimeter splinedriver. ”

Wordlessly, Derec took the tool and set to work. In a few minutes they managed to decouple the front neck brace, extract the damaged sections of the cube cage, and sonic-weld the replacement bus sections in place.

They were just test-fitting a new memory cube when the first explosion rocked the ship.

“All ‘ands!” Wolruf barked over the intercom. “We’re und’r attack!”

. Derec invoked his internal commlink and patched into the ship’s intercom. In a flash he was looking out through the ship’s main optics and talking to Wolruf on the bridge. Aranimas again?

“ ‘Oo else?”

Where is he? 1 can ’ t see him.

“Dorsal port quarter. ‘Bout 25 degrees above the ecliptic. ” Derec flipped through the ship’s optic feeds until he found the correct one, and then he gasped. The multi-hulled Erani pirate ship was huge-and close. Tiny pinpricks of actinic light seared his eyes as the gunners fired off another salvo.

How ’ d he manage to sneak up on us like this?

“ ‘U took Mandelbrot off the scanners,” Wolruf said between strained pants, “an’ limited me to manual controls. Ship’s been fightin’ me-makin’ sure ever’thin’ I entered agreed w’ th’ First Law. I was ‘avin’ enough trouble-just gettin’ ready for th’ jump. ”

The jump. How close are we to the jump point?

“ ‘Bout ten minutes. Not close enough,” she barked sharply, and growled something unintelligible in her native tongue. Another blast rocked the ship.

Can you take evasive action?

“What do ‘u think I’m doin’, you stupid ‘airless ape!” Wolruf broke off her end of the commlink. Derec withdrew himself from the ship’s optic feed.

“What’s going on?” Avery demanded. He was still crouched over Mandelbrot’s open chest, a sonic welder in his hands.

“ Aranimas!” Throwing aside his tools, Derec stripped off his goggles and darted toward the lift. “I’ve got to get down to the bridge!”

Avery dropped the sonic welder into Mandelbrot’s chest and started after Derec. “Wait for me!” The lift doors hissed open; Derec dashed in and started pushing buttons. The ship shuddered under another explosion. The lights flickered for a moment, the monitor robot went crashing into the wall, and Avery was thrown off his feet. But he recovered his balance and made it into the lift an instant before the doors slid shut. The bottom dropped out of the lift car.

Seconds later, the lift doors opened, spilling Derec and Avery onto the bridge. “Wolruf!” Derec barked.

“I’m busy,” she growled back at him. The little alien was standing before the control panel, balanced on one foot like a Burmese dancer. Her other foot was up on the throttle lever, her thick, sausage-like fingers were flying over the fine control knobs and buttons, and her teeth were clamped on the yawl pitch joystick. Somehow, she was managing to control the ship.

“Damage report!” Derec yelled.

She let go of the joystick for a moment. “Th’ first ‘it took out the gym. Th’ rest ‘ave all been glancing blows. ” Wolruf bit the joystick again.