Glory Season

"Gone. . . ." The sailor sighed.". . . didn't say how. Just took th' cap'n, and …" His eyes rolled up in their sockets as he swooned.

A moment's stunned silence followed, then arguing broke out among the men, many of them shaking their heads with the hopeless passivity of despair.

"Don't see any other choice. We've got to surrender!"

"Cap'n blew it with somethin' he said. We should send 'nother embassy …"

"They'll come an' cut us to bits!"

Somebody helped Maia stand. Suddenly, it seemed that everyone was looking at her.

Just because I broke you halfway out of jail — and got you all into even worse trouble — that doesn't make me a leader, she thought caustically, seeing incipient panic in their dilated eyes. Robbed of their top officers, they fell back on old habits of childhood, looking for a woman authority figure. The time of year didn't help. "Wissy as a winter man;" went one expression. Still, Maia knew that seasons alone weren't decisive. The crew might stand a chance, if someone got them busy, building momentum based on action. She saw an older bosun standing next to the corner, holding the automatic rifle. "Can you handle that thing?" she asked.

The gruff sailor nodded grimly. "Yes, ma'am. I figure. Just half o' the bullets left, but I can wait an' make 'em count." . .

That fierce statement helped change the mood a bit. Other males murmured tentative agreement. Maia poked her head around the corner and peered down the gloomy corridor. "There's plenty of old trash and debris in nearby rooms. The quickest of you could dash from one to another, too fast for them to draw a bead in the dark, and toss stuff into the main hall. If not a barricade, the junk might at least slow down a charge."

The ensign nodded. "We'll look for planks and stones . . . things to use as weapons."

"Good." Maia turned to the doctor. "What can we do, in case they use smoke?"

The old man shrugged. "Tear pieces of cloth, I guess. Dampen them with—"

A sharp cry interrupted from behind them. It was Leie's voice, resonating even out here.

"Maia! Come back and see this!"

Torn by conflicting duties, Maia bit her lip. If the men fell apart now, there'd be surrender or worse just as soon as the reavers chose to push. On the other hand, even tenacious resistance wouldn't do much good in the long run, unless an overall solution was found. All hope for that lay at the end of the hall.

"As senior officer, I should stay," the navigator told her, and Maia knew he was right, by normal standards. These weren't normal circumstances.

"Please," she urged. "We need you below." She turned to the young ensign. "Can your guild and shipmates rely on you?"

The young man was but a year older than Maia. Now, though, he stood up straighter, and squared his shoulders. "They can," he answered, and seemed as relieved as Maia to hear the words. "Count on it!" he finished with determination, and swiveled to face the men, snapping orders to implement Maia's suggestions.

"All right," the navigator said, reassured. "But let's hurry."

When they turned to start down the hall, Maia almost fell as her left leg threatened to give out. The young officer took her weight on one arm, and helped her limp back toward the chamber containing the miracle wall. Behind them, sounds of brisk, organized activity replaced what had verged, only moments before, on outright panic. During the brief walk, Maia fretted. Something's happened to the Manitou. Something that made the reavers throw out their promise to Poulandres.

Had the first officer mentioned it having to do with the rads? Did Thalia and the other prisoners break out? The possibility gladdened Maia, but in a dry and hopeless way, for anything that made the pirates upstairs more desperate only provoked more dire threat down here.

Maia suppressed her worries as she let the navigator help her toward glimpses of starlight. For a moment, it made a fine illusion. As if the screen were just a great big opening in the wall, she wished. Leading straight into a winter night.

On arriving at the doorway, she and her companion cried out at the same time, in joyful recognition. Before them, splayed across a twinkling firmament like a great blot, lay the multitendriled nebulosity known as the Claw. It grew smaller, incrementally, until familiar patterns of stars crowded in along each side.

"Took you long enough!" Leie chided as they approached. "Look, I just can't get it any closer than this."

Maia glanced at the tiny window and saw that the display was greatly changed. The numbers to the right of each letter "E" were much closer to zero.

ACQ0 –94E–1

13E+0 –69E+1

"It is a coordinate system!" the navigator cried. "And it's got to be centered on Stratos. Can't you get them any smaller?"

Leie snapped, "If you're so smart, you try it!"