Exile by Al Sarrantonio Read Free Book Online Page B

navigator said calmly, "We have been locked, sir."
    "Locked! No way in—"
    The power systems in the ship faded as one, leaving its occupants in sudden darkness.
    Weens pressed his face to the pilot's window, looking back at the pirate craft, still far behind. "It ain't them bast—"
    "There is a second craft approximately point oh two parsecs to our stern side," the navigator reported evenly.
    Ween's eye swiveled madly to the other side; to Tabrel it looked as if it would pop out of his head, it widened so much.
    "Bejesus in paradise!" the captain swore.
    Tabrel looked in the same direction and felt her heart Stop for a moment.
    "We are being pulled, sir," the navigator reported.
    "No bloody lie!" Captain Weens said. "It'd be an amazement o' God if we weren't!"
    There, filling the window and growing more massive by the second, approached a ship which dwarfed anything Tabrel Kris had ever seem Its endless cone shape, widening from its pointed snout to where it overflowed the window ports with its bulk, was as smooth and chromium-shiny as any robot. At first Tabrel could make out no portholes or markings of any kind; but then, as the vessel grew ever nearer over them, she began to detect a faint long line of round windows which traversed the craft from bow to stern. They were like tiny black dots—fleas on the body of a behemoth.
    "I know that ship," Captain Weens said in awe. He turned to stare, still pop-eyed, into Tabrel's face. "This is either very good news or very bad."
    In partial answer, there was a blast of plasma energy across the bow of their ship from the very tip of the huge craft; it cut close, but they were not its target.
    Captain Weens and Tabrel once more turned their attention to the pirate ship, which was in full flight.
    The beam of plasma caught the pirate vessel in its stern and, like a raser cutting a metal can, opened the pirate ship from end to end.
    Amid popping lights of system failures, the pirate vessel split languidly into two halves. Tabrel saw tiny struggling forms flailing between, but soon all had been turned into space debris and all was silent.
    Weens whistled. "Well, I'll be! Never saw anything like tha' in all my days! Never even lied about anything that grand! Whoo!"
    "We are still being pulled, sir," the navigator reported. "We will be in the hold of the adjacent craft within two minutes."
    "Thankee, ye fool!" Weens replied, reaching back to strike at the navigator with his hand. Outside, the window was now filled completely with the massive craft, and Tabrel could make out an open bay door, toward which they were doggedly being drawn.
    Captain Ween turned his attention to the pilot, which had remained nearly motionless in its seat through this entire episode.
    "What about ye, ye hunk o' crap? Anything t' say for yeseif?"
    "There is nothing to say, or do," the robot replied implacably. "At the moment there are no piloting functions to perform—"
    "Shut up, will ye! Just shut up an' be still!"
    "Yes, sir," the pilot responded.
    The cargo door over them widened; and then they were inside a cone of yellow light. Temporarily, they were blind.
    "Leave me m' good eye at least!" Weens complained.
    As if in answer, the light dimmed, went out. They were left in soothing shadows, bathed in a low amber luminescence.
    "Oh, yes, I know who's behind this, all right."
    "Who?" i i vviiO. iaorei asked.
    "Someone who doesn't like to be spoken of," Weens said cryptically. "Someone—"
    "Depart your vessel!" a cold, very loud voice commanded. It sounded the way a robot might if given the ability to speak feelings. If the laws of robotics were disobeyed, this was what a robot would sound like.
    "Better do as he says," Weens gaid, moving for the aft airlock.
    "I think I'll wait here," Tabrel said. "After all, I have diplomatic immunity—"
    "Not wi' this fellow, you don't," Weens said, "Nobody's got tha' with this 'un. Best to come along."
    "I'll stay here," Tabrel said