Jack McDevitt - Cauldron

“ Two of them, in fact. No, three.”

“It’s getting ready to shoot at us, Jon. I guess it’s figured out—”

The sky flared.

“ Close, ” said Jim. “ Building again. ”

He angled off in another direction and heard Jon yell. Heard something crash.

“Sorry. Can’t help it.”

“ Do what you have to. ”

Another bolt ripped past. It illuminated the hull and was gone.

At the same instant the sky behind them exploded.

“ That was the Preston , ” said Jim.

He turned again. And took her hard up.

Lightning rippled across the screens. They went off momentarily, and came back. He could smell something burning. “Jim?”

“ We’re okay. Best not to get hit again, though. ”

“Okay. I’ll see what I can do.”

“ It appears the Preston ’s engines went. I do not think much will be left. ”

“Jon—”

“ Still here. ”

“Any sign of Hutch?”

“ Hard to see from down here. ”

“You’re on the deck?”

“ Another one building, Matt. ”

It had begun trying to outguess him. This time he stayed on course. Just kept piling on distance.

The sky brightened again.

“ Matt, ” said Jim, “ we should be out of range in about a minute. ”

Matt didn’t believe it. “How do you get out of range of a lightning bolt?”

“ You become a small enough target that it’s virtually impossible for the cloud to mount an accurate strike. ”

“Okay.” He would have liked to ease off a bit, but he didn’t dare, and in fact it took all his discipline not to go to full thrust. But neither Jon nor Antonio and maybe not Hutch would have survived. “Jon, how you doing?”

“ No sweat, Matt. The bone’ll set in thirty days. ”

He opened the commlink. It didn’t much matter if they were overheard now. “Antonio, how about you?”

“ I’m all right, ” he said.

“Where’s Hutch?”

Her voice came through: “ I’m here. In the lander. ”

“You okay?”

“ I’m fine. ”

The sky brightened again. Less intense this time.

“What did you do?” he demanded.

“ Pretty dumb. I trusted that thing. I still don’t believe it. ”

“I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the bomb.”

“ Going up again, Matt. ”

“Why the bomb? Why’d you do it?”

“ I wasn’t going to allow that damned thing to take my ship. ”

“You put us all in danger.”

“ I know. ”

Jim broke in: “ We are getting a transmission from Frank. ”

“Okay. Let’s hear what it has to say. Hutch, you still there?”

“ I’m here. You’ve been talking to Frank? ”

“Yes. Good old Frank.”

“ You’re kidding. ”

“I never kid. Put him on, Jim.”

But there was only the whisper of the stars.

“ It was here a moment ago, Matt. ”

“ I am here now. ” Matt’s own voice again. Sounding angry. Or maybe hurt . Disappointed. “ You broke your engagement. ”

“ Promise . It’s called a promise .”

“Nevertheless, am I not able to trust you?”

“ What was the promise? ” asked Hutch.

Another bolt rippled through the sky, far away.

Matt’s voice responded: “ Who is that? ”

“ I’ll tell you who, Frank. I’m the person who’s been blinking lights at you the last few days. The one you tried to kill a few hours ago. ”

“ Priscilla Hutchins. From the Preston.”

“ Yes. I was her captain, until you took us down. ”

“ I am not familiar with the phrase. ”

“ Until you seized my ship. Is that clear enough for you? ”

“ I regret the loss. I needed it. The ship. ”

“ Sorry to hear that. ”

“ You promised it would not be damaged if I allowed the persons on board to be rescued. ”

“ I didn’t promise anything, Frank. You want to know the truth, Frank. I don’t —”

Another bolt soared past. Enough to dim the lights. But only for a moment.

“ You want to know the truth, Frank? ” she said again. “ I don’t like you very much. ”

“ I am stranded. Have a measure of empathy. ”

“ I think you lost that chance. Enjoy your time here, Frank. I think you’ll be here awhile. ”

“ I had no choice but to do as I did. ”

“ You could have had help. All you had to do was ask. ” Maybe, Matt thought. But probably not.

“ You have nothing left, Frank. Even if you get lucky and hit us, you won’t be able to recover the ship. ”

“ I know. ”

“ Good-bye, Frank. ”

“ I think we’re out of range, ” said Jim.

The sky behind them came alive with lightning strikes. “ All that power, ” said Hutch, “ and it’s helpless. ”

Antonio was limping. He’d picked up some bumps and bruises, but otherwise he was fine. Jon had ended splayed against the after bulkhead, but he discovered he could walk, and nothing seemed to be broken.

He’d been startled—and happy—when Hutch had begun speaking to Matt. When she hadn’t gotten out of the spacecraft, he’d feared she’d stayed behind to detonate the bomb. He’d seen no other explanation for her absence.

“What could I do?” she asked Jon as they strolled into the common room. She was carrying the black box that housed Phyl. “I knew Matt would have to go evasive, and I couldn’t get out of the launch area before that started. I’m getting a little too old to get tossed around. Antonio was enough of a gentleman to carry the note.”

Matt took a seat opposite her. They were about ten minutes from making their jump. “Hutch,” he said, “explain something to me.”

“If I can.”

“Why was the bomb such a close thing? Why didn’t you give us more time before detonation? Give yourself more time? You guys were barely inside the ship before it went off.”

She laughed and the room brightened. “I’d have done that in a minute if I’d known how.”

“What do you mean?”

“Look, Matt, I don’t know a thing about making bombs. Do you ?”

“No. Not really. Never had reason to learn.”

“Me, too.”

“So how’d you do it?”

She smiled at Antonio. Tell them.

Antonio sat back and folded his arms. “The original plan was to dump some fuel in the engine room, but we needed a fuse. The cables are all fireproof, so we tried tying together some sheets. But they burned too fast. We would never have gotten out of the ship.”

“So what did you do?”

“We took a laser to one of the fuel lines. Then used our clothes and the pages from the Sigma Hotel Book to build a fire.”

“Transmission from the cloud, ” said Jim.

Matt nodded, and Frank’s reproduction of Matt’s voice filled the bridge. “ Please don’t leave. ”

Hutch was beside him. Her eyes were clouded, and she looked as if she were going to speak, but she said nothing.

And again: “ Please come back. ”

The cloud occupied the navigation screen. It seemed now to be all eyes, all staring after them.

“ Please, help me. ”

“You know,” Matt said, “it was in a bind.” He hated the damned thing. But it didn’t seem to matter. Now that the shooting was over. “It would have recognized how powerless we were to help. It took the only course open to it.”