A Deepness in the Sky

"Lights spreading out from the hits. I guess that's ionization in the magnetopatches. And—" Rach's voice caught in his throat. There were other things, and these he recognized. "I see reentry traces, sir. Dozens of them. They're passing overhead, and to our east." Rach had seen similar things in Air Defense tests. When the warheads finally came down through the atmosphere, they left trails that glowed in a dozen colors. Even in the tests, they'd been horrible things, the stabbing hands of a spirit tarant, pouncing from the sky. A dozen traces, more coming. Thousands of missiles had been stopped, but what remained could destroy cities.

"Don't worry." Underhill's voice came softly from Thract's blind side. "My alien friends have taken care of those. Those warheads are dead carcasses now, a few tonnes of radioactive junk. Not much fun if one drops directly on your head, but otherwise no threat."

Rachner turned, followed the tracks anxiously across the sky.My alienfriends have taken care of those. "What are the monsters really like, Sherkaner? Can we trust them?"

"Heh. Trust them? What a thing for an Intelligence officer to ask. My General never trusted them, any of them. I've studied thehumans for almost twenty years, Rachner. They've been traveling in space for hundreds of generations. They've seen so much, they've done so much....The poor crappers think they know what is impossible. They're free to fly between the stars, and their imagination is trapped in a cage they can't even see."

The glowing streaks had passed across the sky. Most had faded to far-red or invisibility. Two converged toward a point on the horizon, probably the High Equatoria launch site. Thract held his breath, waiting.

Behind him, Underhill said something like, "Ah, dear victory," and then was very quiet.

Thract strained to watch the north. If the warheads were still live, the detonations would be visible even from over the horizon. Ten seconds. Thirty. There was silence and cold. And to the north, there was only the light of the stars. "You're right, sir. What's left is just falling junk. I—" Rachner turned, suddenly conscious of just how cold the heli's cabin had become.

Underhill was gone.

Thract lunged across the cabin to the half-open door. "Sir!Sherkaner! " He started down the outside steps, turning his head this way and that, trying to catch a glimpse of the other. The air was still, but so cold that it cut. Without a heated breather, he'd have burned lungs in a matter of minutes.

There! A dozen yards from the heli, in the shade of both stars and sky glow, two far-red blotches. Underhill limped slowly behind Mobiy. The guide-bug tugged him gently along, at every step probing the hillside with its long arms. It was the instinctive behavior of an animal in hopeless cold, trying to the last to find an effective deepness. Here, in a random nowhere, the critter didn't stand a chance. In less than an hour he and his master would be dead, their tissues desiccated.

Thract scrambled down the steps, shouting at Underhill. And above him, the heli's blades began to spin up. Thract cringed beneath the frigid wash. As the turbines ramped up and the blades began to provide real lift, he turned and pulled himself back into the cabin. He pounded on the autopilot, poking at every disconnect.

It didn't matter. The turbines hit takeoff power and the heli lifted. He had one last glimpse of the shadows hiding Sherkaner Underhill. Then the craft tilted eastward and the scene was lost behind him.

SIXTY-ONE

Blowouts in small volumes were normally fatal. Quickly fatal. It was one of his guards who unintentionally saved Tomas Nau. Just as the hull melted through, Tung released his harness and dived up toward the hatch. The blowout clawed at all of them, but Tung was loose and closest to the hole. He rammed headfirst into the wall melt, sucked through to his hips.

Somehow Qiwi had kept her place by the jammed taxi hatch. Now she had the L1-A hatch open, too. She turned back, grabbed her father, and boosted him into the lock beyond. The action was a single smooth motion, almost a dance. Nau had scarcely begun to react when she turned a second time, hooked a foot into a wall loop, and reached out to snag his sleeve with the tips of her fingers. She pulled gently, and as he came closer, grabbed him by main force and shoved him through to safety.

Safe. And I was as good as dead just five seconds ago.The hiss of escaping air was loud. The damaged docking collar could blow in a second.

Qiwi dropped back from hatchway. "I'll get Marli and Ciret."