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Xia, flinging herself at the door, stopped short and stared at the fused and
ruined area.
Stilman glanced down the corridor. ' "The guards," he said urgently.
"We need an accident," Lan-Lu hissed. "Trust me," she said softly to Xia.
CHAPTER 19
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Kiondili, holding the beamer as if it would bite her, stared at the ruined door.
Stilman's last thought echoed in her head among the images and instructions for
installing it. He had wondered if she had picked up his instructions. He would be
irritated if she dispersed herself like his other assistant. She laughed, but the
sound was almost hysterical, and she cut herself off abruptly.
"Well," Argon said flatly. "Now what?"
Yes, now what? Kiondili realized. Xia was their pilot, and she was on the other
side of that ruined door. They could not bypass another entrance to the engine
room, and if fee guards were already on their way, Xia would be in their custody
before Poole and Argon could cook up another way to get her in.
Poole wheezed, and the other two turned to stare at him. "Ayara's eyes,
Poole," Kiondili said. "What are you laughing about?"
The Dhirrnu broke into a new set of fur ripples. "Stilman," he wheezed. "Much
ti'kai to him again, Kiondili Wae."
"Poole," she returned slowly, "this isn't a joke."
Argon snorted. It will be if he doesn't stop wheezing and help us figure out
what to do now. Otherwise, Central will lock us out of the ship before we can get
the access open. Cut it out, Poole."
"Xia is the pilot." The Dhirrnu gasped as another ripple loosed itself down his
stomach fur. "Stilman pushed me in here with you. I am no pilot."
He began wheezing again, and Kiondili turned away, setting the beamer down
carefully on the cold floor and squatting beside it. "Yes, sure, Poole. Lots of
ti'kai to him."
Argon spit, his spittle forming a perfect sphere in the low-grav room before
the fluid hit the meta-plas of the hardening door. "So now what?"
Poole shrugged. "We launch."
Kiondili stared at Poole's calm assurance. "Launch? Just like that? We launch?
We're missing our pilot, or didn't you realize that?"
The Dhirrnu just grinned, his sharp teeth hanging over the edge of his lower
lip. "You have training to be a pilot, Kiondili Wae; the record of your history
with the traders is clear.'' He acknowledged her expression with a shrug. "And I
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have learned a great deal by watching Xia and the other pilots on the simulator. I
have even run some simulations myself. Look around. We have access. We have
tools and equipment. We have the control sequences. Why not put the beamer
in the Lightwing and see if it will fire up."
"And when the chute guards figure out we got through?" Argon retorted.
"We launch," Poole returned.
"A Dhirrnu pilot, one sensor, and one linker. . ." Kiondili muttered.
Argon looked around and shivered. "At least it will be warmer in the Lightwing
than here on the dock. We might as well get to work.''
Up in the lab triad, Tior slipped into the Lightwing control room. She was late.
She had waited for Poole as long as she could, but neither he nor any of the
other assistants had shown. She could only hope they were in the ship already.
As it was, there was only half an hour left to load the dummy program and get
the tracking stations online. She crossed to her console, then turned and traced
her steps back to the door. Popping the door panel, she reached down, pulled a
cable from one of the unused machines, and gave it a wrench. Then she jammed
it into the panel and watched dispassionately while the shimmering door slowly
coalesced into a blank shade of solidity.
Kiondili peered into the recess that held the drive's control cubes. "Argon,
hand me a light."
"Just don't change the wrong cube," Argon warned from below. "I have no
desire to be shot all over hyperspace because you cannot read the labels."
"I do not see what you are worrying about," she retorted, her voice muffled
from inside the recess. "We have only half a pilot to get us near the light barrier
in the first place. The chances of your getting dispersed are about nil."
"Don't remind me," he returned sourly. "I'm trying to think of this as an
exercise in maintenance, which is probably what my new career will be when the
chute guards come back and break in to get us."
She did not answer. "Take the old ones," she said, holding them out blindly
behind her. "Give me the new ones."
"Yes, mighty Wae," Argon intoned sarcastically. "Here. Don't drop them."
She bit back her comment, wondering what Poole was doing in the control
cabin. He had said he was programming their coordinates, but he should have
been done by now. "What time is it?" she called over her shoulder. She shifted,
touched the frozen wall of the cubby, and shuddered visibly.
"Fifteen minutes to blast."
She backed out of the circuit recess and turned off the
pencil free-grav beam she had used to set the cubes into the slots. "We are
ready, then." She shivered again, pulling her jumper close. "I hope Poole found
some of those thermal jumpers." She popped the recess cover back on, jamming
her hands back in her pockets to warm them as soon as she was done. "We don't
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