Aftermath полностью

"Too bad," Kirrik said. "You might as well join the others."

Ten minutes later Arrachachak and Mychov returned. Mychov was driving a lifter, carrying a couple of cargo canisters on a trailer.

"Someone open the cargo doors!" he called out.

"I don't think we've found them," Garath shouted back from the main door. "Chuck them in here, we'll worry about storing them later."

Arrachachak jumped up into the ship. Mychov dropped the trailer and turned the lifter around. With some struggling with the unfamiliar controls he eventually managed to make the lifter's claws crab a canister.

"How long?" he shouted at the ship.

"Don't know - at least fifteen minutes. I think," Arrachachak yelled back.

The lifter headed for the ship. Mychov missed the door, and jammed the canister into the side of the ship. Swearing at himself, he backed off and tried again. This time he was closer, but in his hurry it caught the side of the door. The canister dropped into the entrance as it was jolted from the claws' grasp.

When Mychov tried to back the lifter out the claws caught on something. With more cursing he tried to move forwards again, to loosen them, but without success. He backed again, using all the lifter's power. It did not budge.

The claws had broken through the interior wall, and had caught on a reinforcing strut by the door. Arrachachak tried pulling and pushing from the inside, and had no success either.

A voice suddenly boomed out over some loudspeaker in the landing bay. "Ten minutes to destruction."

Mychov abandoned the lifter and climbed into the ship, having to squeeze between the loading manipulators he had wedged there.

Arrachachak was joined by several other people, but there were still unsuccessful in freeing the lifter until Mu turned up with a laser cutter.

"Where did you get that?" Mychov demanded.

"The hold. This ship hasn't had all its finishing touches completed, remember?"

"Sod that," Arrachachak snapped. "Get to work."

It only took a few minutes for the powerful cutter to separate the claws from the rest. With a huge heave Arrachachak managed to push the rest of the lifter out of the doorway.

"Get to the bridge and tell them to shut the door," he ordered Mychov.

The door started to move, then slowed and stopped with an unpleasant grinding noise and the scream of overloaded motors.

"Five minutes to destruction," rang out the speaker.

Again Arrachachak pushed, this time at the door. There was a sharp snap, and it slid shut.

"We're clear!" he shouted back in the direction of the bridge.

"We might have compromised air tightness," Garath noted. "We'd best get out of this section."

On the bridge, Aeyris was sitting in the command chair. Kirrik was standing by the doorway, mumbling complaints about pirates.

When they heard Arrachachak's shout Aeyris gave the launching clearance code. The engines were already running properly, and there was only a slight drop as the bay's docking clamps released them and its gravity vanished. On the main screen the read view showed the doors opening.

Without waiting for another order, Silsi backed the ship out. Once clear of the confines of the bay she turned the ship around, and the main drives moved them away.

Several ships were visible on the edge of the scanner, moving slowly away from the base.

"Intercept them," ordered Aeyris.

The Constrictor closed with the other ships quickly. The were revealed to be the ships from the listening post - a transport of some kind, and the sixth Vipers and two others in close formation around it. As they closed the message "Incoming transmission" flashed on the main screen.

"Acknowledge," Aeyris called out to the computer.

"Follow us if you will," announced the voice of the post's alien commander. "I will transmit our jump destination when we are ready to depart."

"Why not jump now?"

"The Schriy can trace our jumps from this range. I do not want them to."

"Oh, but you trust us now?"

"More than them. There are four ships approaching. They will need all of them to attack the base, giving us time to escape."

"So you hope. Aeyris out."

"You want to go with them?" Kirrik asked him curiously.

"We've nowhere else to go," Aeyris shrugged.

The Constrictor fell in behind the transport, and they flew on for three hours without further communication. Eventually an impatient Aeyris hailed the evacuee's ship.

"How long until we can jump?" he demanded.

"Uncertain. One enemy vessel is closing on our position."

To their credit the people on the Constrictor's bridge reacted calmly to this news, only a few quick intakes of breath demonstrating any signs of nervousness or surprise.

"What ship?" Kirrik demanded of the alien commander.