Duty Bound by Steve Miller, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller Read Free Book Online Page B

the slight crinkle sounding from the cloak not
quite hiding his sigh, nor the crinkling from his cloak.
    She glanced at him and saw him shaking his
head, Terran-style.
    "Next shift, Shadia, recall us both to put
on a headset. As delightful as these contraptions are, I'd like us
to be able to converse as if we weren't halflings in the first
throes of puppy-heart."
    She laughed gently, then quite seriously
asked, "So you think we'll have a next shift, at least? No one on
our trail?"
    He sighed, this time turning to look her
full in the face.
    "Shadia, my love, I doubt not that all is
confusion at Nev'Lorn. The bat is out of the bag, as they say, and
I suspect the invaders have found themselves surprised and
disadvantaged."
    He nodded into the dimness, eyes now seeing
the situation they'd left behind so suddenly when the Department of
Interior attacked them.
    "The ship most likely to have followed was
closing stupidly when last we saw it--closing into your fire as
well as the sphere of the Jump effect of the hysteresis of our
maneuvers. They would have been with us within moments, I think, if
they had come through with us."
    Clonak gestured as expansively as the Cloak
allowed.
    "Now--what can I say? We've
come out of Jump alive. If we're gentle and lucky the ship may get
us somewhere useful. Perhaps we'll even be able to walk about
unCloaked ere long; with hard work and sweat much is possible.
You will remember
to tell people that you've seen me sweat and do hard work when this
is over, won't you, Shadia? When our present situation is
resolved--then we will consider the best Balance we might bring
against these murderers."
    He sighed visibly, used the hand-sign for
"back to work," with a quick undernote of "sweat, sweat,
sweat."
    She smiled and signaled "work, work, work"
back at him.
    Clonak stretched then, unceremoniously
lifting himself off the floor and away from Shadia. Steadying his
feet against the ceiling of the vessel he brought his face near
hers and touched left arm to left arm through the cloaks.
    "Shadia, I must give you one more rather
difficult set of orders, I'm afraid. I know my orders haven't done
much good for you lately, but I pray you indulge me once more."
    With his other hand he used the Scout
hand-talk, signifying a life-or-death situation.
    She nodded toward his hand and he closed his
eyes a moment.
    "If you find that, against chance, we are
brought again into the orbit of the Department of the Interior, if
they verge on capturing us--you must shoot me in the head."
    He flicked an ankle, floated accurately to
the floor again, belying the cultivated image of old fool, and he
looked into her startled, wide eyes.
    "Just dead isn't good enough, Shadia;
they'll have medics and docs. Do you understand? There must be no
chance that they can question me. They cannot know what I know, and
they cannot know who else might know it."
    Clonak tugged gently on her elbow, and she
uncurled to stand beside him, stretching herself and near matching
his height.
    His hand-talk made the motion demanding
assent; she responded in query, his in denial... and he leaned
toward her until cloaks touched again.
    "I know, Shadia, neither of us were raised
to be combat pilots. It is thrust upon us both as Scouts and as
pilots. My melant'i is exceedingly clear in this. I can tell you
only one thing right now--and little enough it is to Balance my
order, I know."
    Her hand signaled query again and his
flicked the repeated ripple that normally would signify a humourous
"all right, all right, already..."
    "What I know," he said into his cloak and
through the double crinkly life-skins to her ears, "is the name of
the pilot they are afraid of. And having made this one pilot their
enemy, they now must be the enemy of us all."
    * * *
    THE MATH WAS easy enough, if not quite
exact. There were a dozen Momson Cloaks per canister; each of the
two installed canisters had eleven left. There were two replacement
canisters, and a backup. The emergency