Eric Flint: Rats, Bats and Vats

Cold sweat beaded her forehead. She couldn't say it.

"Well?" prompted the Korozhet. "We Korozhet do not sell arms to other species. Tell the Magh'mmm you lied."

Chip squeezed her hand. "What's Pricklepuss saying?"

Ginny forced her vocal chords to do what part of her brain said they should not. Her voice came out in a squeak. But it was a loud determined squeak. "I do not lie."

The ball of prickles raised a spine… and lowered it again.

Chip squeezed her. "What's happening, dearest?"

She looked at him, with victory in her eyes. "You were right about that-alien. It's just tried to claim they never sold arms to humans."

The Korozhet might have been out of gas and harpoon darts, but it wasn't out of wind. "This species is incapable of the truth, Magh'mmm!"

"Translate," said Chip quietly.

She did.

"Ask the Maggots if they haven't got another alien they can ask," he said in a whisper.

She did. The Magh'mmm seemed to like that idea.

The Korozhet did not.

Pistol had to be restrained from cheering when Chip called the Maggots hemorrhoids. But when the conversation switched to Korozhet, Bronstein backed off. She knew in her bones that this might be where she had to kill one of their rat-comrades because of the treacherous soft-cybers. She wasn't sure how well the rat psyche would deal with what she was certain would come.

It was a good thing that she was ready. She had to stop three of the rats-from clapping and whistling.

Doc could not restrain himself. "I told you all so!" he hissed. "I told you the Korozhet betrayed us."

Fal sounded positively choked. "Methinks our Ginny is as near to a rat as you'll find in human form. I'd liefer have put ratsbane in my mouth than try to say that!"

Eamon showed teeth. "She's far better than a rat!"

"Begorra!" O'Niel spat, "Be forgetting the silly arguments then. We need to get down there and help."

Nym looked at the gap. "If we made it bigger we could abseil down. The rope is a bit short, but not much…"

"That detection grid. Could the rats avoid it, Don Fluffy?" asked Bronstein.

The big-eyed galago shook his head violently. "No. The beams they move. It would not be at all of a possibility."

"Can't we just do it?" said Melene. "Some of us will make it."

"No. The first one to go will get shot at. That'll activate his slowshield and sever the rope. It is too far to fall," said Nym.

There was a long silence. "We'll have to drop the roof," said Eamon.

"No," said the galago quietly. "I will do it. For my Virginia I will do it. I can see the projector beams. I can climb down and avoid them. I alone am the one who can see them. I too am the only one who can climb upside down along the roof and the wall. Give for me a device of the explosive and I will destroy the projector." The little creature shivered.

Eric Flint

Rats, Bats amp; Vats

Chapter 44:

Fluff at the Bridge.

" 'TIS A VALIANT FLUFF! You're a hero!" said Doll, in a voice that suggested that receiving the hero's rewards didn't have to wait until after the deed.

The little creature shivered again. "No. I am just a scared galago. I… I admit. Not very brave, I am. You are all big tough soldiers… Me… I am a rich lady's toy."

Doc patted the galago's shoulder. "The true nature of courage is to know fear, and overcome it."

"I think it overcomes me!"

"Here," said Pistol, "have a stoup of Dutch courage."

The galago took Pistol's bottle with shaking hands, and took a deep chug. He shuddered. "Now I must go and pee on my hands and feet, even if 'Ginia says it is a habit of the most vile. You can please make the hole bigger for me?"

Doll was distinctly puzzled. "Pee on his hands and feet?"

"Urine washing," said Doc. "It increases the adhesiveness. The hyraxes and some lesser primates practice it."

"Art sure he's not just kinky? I wouldn't have thought you'd have to practice it… much." Melene was definitely doubtful on this one.

Pistol chuckled. "Methinks his aim is lousy. Let's nibble that hole bigger. Fal's got to get through, never mind the galago."

The galago looked doubtfully again at the trigger bar. Then at the tiny bat-mine. "Senorita Bronstein, I am not very mechanical."

Eamon grunted impatiently. "Let me be explaining to this numbskull, Michaela."

"Good luck." said Bronstein dryly, going off to take down some of the mines they'd rigged on the stanchions. That galago was definitely overdue to get bitten. Damn those rats for giving it strong drink first. She'd swear it was swaying on those glistening black feet. Mind you, at least it had stopped shivering. That was a plus.

"See, you twist this arming button. Click it to `remote.' Then you move off. As soon as you're more than thirty yards away, you depress both triggers. Simultaneously." The trigger bar was designed for bat-feet. The twin trigger at either end of the bar was a logical safety device. Eamon could work one in his sleep. It was difficult for him to grasp that any semisentient could not easily take one apart and reassemble it.

"Just show me one more time," said Fluff.

"Look. I'll arm it." Eamon was exasperated by now. "You're not supposed to move it once it is armed, but we have to take some risks. Then all you've got to do is press the triggers. Any fool can do that."

"I think so," said the galago doubtfully.

And then, because things were getting heated down there… he was off. With just a mouthful more brandy for the road.

Galagos are possibly one of the most acrobatic small primates around. Being nocturnal, however, they don't normally have an audience.

Fluff finally had the audience he'd so often craved for his magnificent, elegant gymnastic skills. However he kept finding that somehow he wasn't climbing with panache. It was odd. He felt like a superstar. He just wasn't focusing too well.

The rats and bats watched in horror as the galago swung wildly across the roof, flinging itself with remarkable drunken inaccuracy at small knobbles of Magh' adobe… and somehow sticking.

"It doth piss glue," said Nym. "There is no other…"

Everybody gasped.

Fluff's lurching progress had nearly come unstuck. A piece of adobe decide to stick to his hand instead of the curving roof.

Somehow, by giving the law of gravity a complete raspberry, the galago caught hold of something else with the other hand.

Then it was hanging there, with a piece of loose Magh' adobe in one hand and a minuscule handhold in the other.

"I shall have to throw it to you," whispered the galago.

It was surprising the Magh'mmm didn't hear the sound of gritting teeth in the ceiling. But the Magh'mmm was in debate with the Korozhet. "If it is indeed as you say, then we must redouble our efforts. This species must be pushed to extinction."

The galago weighed up the throw. Then, tossed the chunk of adobe. Eamon dropped through the hole, snatched, and was back inside the ceiling before you could say "bogtrotter."

Fortune favored them. Neither the appalling throw nor the dart into the room had been detected.

The galago continued his progress. Lower. Lower. And lower down the wall. The projector was in full view of any life-form with eyes in the hall below. It sat on a platform just above human head-height.

The roof crew watched, hardly daring to breathe. And then when the galago was mere feet from the platform…

The Magh'mmm spoke: "But we do not see the need to keep these aliens alive any longer. You asked us to keep all the specimens in good condition. But we have sufficient humans for larval conditioning. Since you say they are incapable of telling the truth, they will not give us the information we have asked for. Once we have confirmed it with the Jampad prisoner, these are of no further…"