Then Jimmy was back on the link: "Damnyou. So you gutted the weapons systems. But it doesn't matter, little man. We've prepared four kilos of S7. You never guessed we had access to explosives, did you? Lots of things were in with those electric jets that you never guessed."
"No, no." Nau was shaking his head almost aimlessly.
"As you say, Podmaster, this is your hospital ship. There are your own people here besides our armsmen in coldsleep. Even without the ship's guns, I'd say we have some negotiating leverage."
Nau glanced beseechingly at Ezr and Qiwi. "A truce. Until we've settled the rockpile."
"No!" shouted Jimmy. "You'll wriggle out soon as events don't have you by the throat."
"Damn it, man, it's your own people aboard theTreasure. "
"If they were out of coldsleep, they'd agree with me, Podmaster. It's showdown time. We've got twenty-three ofyour people in the sickbay plus the five in your maintenance crew. We know how to play the hostage game, too. I want you and Brughel over here. You can use your taxis, all nice and safe. You have one thousand seconds."
Nau had always seemed a very calculating type to Ezr Vinh. And already, he seemed recovered from his shock. Nau raised his chin dramatically and glared at the sound of Jimmy's voice. "And if we don't?"
"We lose, but so do you. To start with, your people here die. Then we'll use the S7 to blow theTreasure free of its moorings. We'll ram it into your damn Hammerfest."
Qiwi had listened with pale, wide-eyed shock. Now suddenly she was bawling. She launched herself toward the sound of Jimmy's voice. "No! No! Jimmy! Please don't!"
For a few seconds every eye was on Qiwi. Even the frantic closing of hoods and gloves ceased, and there was only the loud moaning of the temp's mooring web as it twisted slowly about. Qiwi's mother was aboard theFarTreasure; her father was on Hammerfest with all the mindrot victims. In coldsleep or "Focus," most of the survivors of the Qeng Ho expedition were in one place or the other. Trixia.This is too much, Jimmy. Slow down! But the words died in Ezr's throat. He had trusted everything to Jimmy. If this deadly talk convinced Ezr Vinh, maybe it would convince Tomas Nau.
When Jimmy spoke again, he ignored Qiwi's cry. "You have only nine hundred seventy-five seconds, Podmaster. I advise you and Brughel to get your butts over here."
That would have been hard to do even if Nau had bolted out of the temp. He turned to Xin and the two argued in low voices.
"Yes, I can get you there. It's dangerous, but the loose stuff is moving at less than a meter per second. We can avoid it."
Nau nodded. "Then let's go. I want—" He fastened his full-press jacket and hood, and his voice became inaudible.
The crowd of Qeng Ho and Emergents melted away from the two as they headed toward tqhe exit.
From the speaker link, there was a loud thump, cut off abruptly. In the auditorium someone shouted, pointing at the main window. Something flickered from the side of theFar Treasure, something small and moving fast. A fragment of hull.
Nau had stopped at the auditorium doors. He looked back at theFarTreasure. "System status says theFar Treasure has been breached," said Brughel. "Multiple explosions in aft radial deck fifteen."
That was coldsleep storage and sickbay. Ezr couldn't move, couldn't look away. The hull of theTreasure puckered out in two more places. Pale light flickered briefly from the holes. It was insignificant compared to the storm of the Relight. To an untrained eye, theTreasure might have looked undamaged. The hull holes were only a couple of meters across. But S7 was the Qeng Ho's most powerful chemical explosive, and it looked as if all four kilograms had gone up. Radial deck fifteen was behind four bulkheads, twenty meters below the outer hull. Extending inward, the blast had most likely crushed theFar Treasure 's ramscoop throat. One more starship had died.
Qiwi floated motionless in the middle of the room, beyond the reach of comforting hands.
THIRTEEN
Ksecs passed, busier than any time in Ezr's life. The horror of Jimmy's failure hung in the back of his mind. There wasn't room for it to leak out. They were all too busy simply trying to save what they could from the human and natural catastrophes.
The next day, Tomas Nau addressed the survivors on the temp and at Hammerfest. The Tomas Nau that looked out of the window at them was visibly tired and lacked his usual smoothness.
