"A very bad bargain indeed, Aaron," he said with a sort of smile, "and a bad decision to come here with such merchandise."

"But what could you do with such a cargo of such expensive and specialized equipment, Captain . . . Viking?"

"If you are going to pause over the name you decided upon, Aaron, we may as well call me by name. If I could not find another, reasonable buyer, I would thank the powers and my past dealings that I'm no poor man who has to take a buyer's offer, and either dump it in s.p.a.ce or aim it at a sun."

"All that equipment? Worth millions?"

120.

Corundum shrugged.

Aaron regarded the pirate, who looked at his ease . . . and formidable, in the black s.p.a.cesuit he had chosen for this occasion. Deliberately, his stopper's holster was not black. It called silent attention to itself, as did Corundum's calm face and emotionless optics. Aaron glanced at Janja, a faceless bulk in what some called sky blue. At last he looked at the screen.

"Sarcon" had long ago "written" half the original figure. It still comprised millions of stells.

"I offer half and the seller asks three-quarters, Sarcon, and he's independent, too. Think we should bargain?"

"Since you ask, Aaron," the program said, nodding (without saying "and since you have programmed me so"), "yes. If this buyer departs you have saved nothing and you two are not friends."

"Nor will the equipment you need," Corundum said softly, "be soon to arrive."

Aaron glanced at him. Yes. He had a.s.sumed that this "merchant" had hijacked machinery intended for Dot-probably en route to Dot. Hardly easy or customary, but anyone who thought Jonuta was a normal ordinary thief had rediscovered rust-in the circuitry of his own brain.

"Perhaps you'd best give us a figure for sixty percent of the market value, Sarcon."

"No sooner said than done, Aaron," the program said, and proved it.

"I'd like to see a figure ten percent higher than that, Honored Sarcon," Corundum said.

"You two will wear a poor overworked economist out," Sarcon said almost petulantly, and Corundum smiled.

"A superb program!"

"Thank you, Captain. Captain-" Now Aaron spoke to Corundum but looked at Janja's oneway viewplate. "Pardon me, but why does your poor aide remain helmeted? Our air is as superb as our programs."

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"I will tell you quietly," Corundum said, and moved a step nearer. "My aide's face would not be wise to display on womanless Dot."

Aaron stared. "Ah. I-I see what you mean . . . that is, I don't see, but do understand. I appreciate your discretion but wish you hadn't told even me. Already I'm starting to p.r.i.c.kle in the armpits." He looked the cerulean suit up and down, as if visualizing female contours within. "I am working now to say nothing . . . untoward." His sigh was both visible and audible. "I think we should strike a bargain and get you off Dot. Sarcon, show us the original market value of this s.p.a.cefarer's cargo as listed."

"s.h.i.t," a voice said succinctly, but the speaker was across the room with his eyes as if glued to his contour-curved viewer. His reaction had to be something done-or not done-by the machine that was his responsibility.

"And now half that," Aaron said, looking at Janja, or rather at her suit. She saw his Adam's apple bob. She was very glad for her fabroprene suit.

"An ugly figure," Corundum commented.

"Oh, surely not," Aaron said. "Slim, certainly . . ."

Janja bit off her chuckle while Corundum dryly advised the other man that he had been referring to the monetary figure displayed behind Aaron.

"You see how I am distracted," Aaron said. "If the helmet were to be removed I might agree to the three-quarters figure."

"No," Corundum said softly. "No, Aaron, my friend. If the helmet were removed you would wish to see more. Eventually we would come to some trouble. You would end up dead and I've little doubt this chamber's defense systemry would atomize me. At that instant a light would go out on my ship and an alarm would sound. Then this installation would be destroyed."

Aaron looked at him for a long moment. Slowly, he 122.

nodded. Deliberately, he turned his back on the pale blue s.p.a.cesuit he now knew contained a woman.

"Sarcon, what is point six-six of the original sum?"

"Point six-six to infinity," Corundum immediately amended, for he had already decided that they would settle on a price of two-thirds market value.

Suddenly Aaron half-turned. "Sixty even, in pnam-prum."

"Semi-refined," Corundum said at once. Aaron was offering payment in extremely valuable ore, and surely about to cheat his employer into the bargain. That put Corundum two up. When A cheated B to deal with C and C knew it, C had a hold on A. That hold meant power, a future call. "How many kilos is that?"

Blank-faced, Aaron told him.

"So few," the pirate said, while his heartbeat speeded. A fortune in a go-bag-again! Pnamprum was close to TZ in value with the redeeming virtue of being legal and instantly salable anywhere, to anyone with the cred. Still, to add to the Murpher's feeling of having bargained well, Corundum said, "Let's just add a half-kilo-"

Blank-faced, Aaron said, "No."

Captain Corundum heaved one of those great big sighs Janja had learned were artificial; pure drama. "Outbargained again," he murmured, as if it were so. "Ah, someday I shall learn! Someday I shall truly merit being called Captain Cau-" He stopped as if catching himself at the point of slipping, and now Aaron was absolutely sure that he was dealing with Jonuta. "But oh, what friends we shall be after this, Aaron! Done. Record it and effect it any way you wish, my friend."

8.

When a fleet can incinerate a -world, I prefer that governments not have fast reflexes.

Dominic Flandry They had transferred the crated, sealed machinery to the surface of Dot. It all had to be genuine and new. The guarantees were on tape inside each crate, which still bore the manufacturer's seals.

The s.p.a.cesuited Aaron, with Janja and Corundum, had loaded the semirefined, blue-green pnamprum into Firedancer's airlock. The 'lock had no trouble containing it. The ore ma.s.sed that little! During the process Janja had been stumbled against and twice rearwardly fondled, by Aaron. She let it go. Corundum affected not to notice. There were no men on Murph's fourth moon and this idiot must not be taking the pill that did not just curb desire but virtually eliminated it.

Perhaps women, Janja mused, were less greed-driven than men, to accept such long employment. Or too smart, she thought, cherming Aaron's l.u.s.t for her just because he knew she was female. For all the suit showed, Corundum might have been lying and Janja might have been male. Not to Aaron. Suggestion was 123.

124.

sufficient. He doubtless imagined that the short bulky figure looked very female indeed.

"I sure do wish you'd invite me onboard for a drink to consummate our bargain, and to give me a glimpse of your charming aide at least, Captain Jonu-I mean Viking."

"Ah Aaron my friend, I fear that we-"

Corundum was interrupted by a siren: Firedancer's. It was overridden by the sound of King's voice, hollow in the airlock: "Two incoming s.p.a.cers. One's a Janissary pardon me new model RT-Quad cla.s.s Janissary, closing fast! Fast, Captain!"

"That has the sound of TGW to me," Corundum said. "Aaron, our business transaction is ended and I must be away. I suggest that you redshift."

"What?"

"It is difficult to believe that you are unconversant with s.p.a.cefarers' slang, friend Aaron. I suggest that you return to your bubble, at the run."

The s.p.a.cesuited mining boss provided a new surprise. He flipped his fingers and said, "No."

The moment Corundum drew his stopper, Janja did. Aaron looked into the snouts of two tub-pistols.

"We have transacted good business and are both happy, Aaron. I cannot imagine why you wish us to await the arrival of what seems to be a policer ship. Surely you did not somehow call for such; for if I thought that, you would not outlive the next two seconds. Farewell."

Aaron nodded, turned, and redshifted. He moved at a( long-striding, semifloating lope back to the dome. Firedancer's closing airlock occluded their view of him. Janja turned as Corundum did, bolstering his stopper. The pressure gauge changed and the inner hatch opened. They entered Firedancer to find Sakbir standing ready, awaiting instructions. Corundum's helmet was off before Janja had hers undone. She resolved anew: practice, practice.

125.

"The ore will travel just fine in the lock," Corundum said briskly. "Stand by for multi-G acceleration ASAP. Stand by defense systemry-and arm those guns, Sak."

Sakbir rushed away in one direction while Janja and Corundum hurried bulkily to the bridge. TGW, Janja reflected, calling up memories both artificially implanted and gained the hard way, from library master edutapes on Franji. TransGalactic Watch. The uniformed arm of TGO-The Gray Organization. Sun-mother's light! We are in trouble! TGW is the competent policer force!

"Janja: buckle in," Corundum snapped as they joined Hing in the con-cabin. Shining instrumentation, blipping telits and blinking lights in several colors, constantly displayed updates on the oncoming s.p.a.cecraft. There were two. "Hing, is that miner back inside his dome yet?"

"Back in! That flainer's already sending to those ships! He's telling on us and they are TGW, Captain, sure as starshine."

"Away!" Corundum snarled, too loudly, and Janja buckled herself in while the captain, s.p.a.cesuited but without his helmet, slapped both keys that gave all control of Firedancer into his hands.

His gaze flashed over his console and read it as easily as another might read a book-display. Corun-dum's control panel was covered with clear plates of manufactured crystal, in various geometric shapes. -The colors were to his specifications, designed in calibration with the abilities of his artificial eyes. There was the cold frozen flame of pale cobalt blue; a warm almost ethereal orange; a chill, pulsating lavender and radiant, translucent ultramarine composed more of pale blue than yellow; the "green" of traffic signals. Quartz-shining circles glowed with the luminous aura of white, faintly beige-tinged to soften it into glarelessness. And there were the hexagons, which lit hotly with the pure, intense crimson of danger and warning, blood and 126.

death. The paired vertical ovals flashed roseate only with the beat of words; communication incoming from outside the ship.

Blue and green and lavender twinkled and flashed as he began keying a sequence of inputs with swift-moving fingers. The console imitated that ancient superst.i.tion called a Christmas tree.

He was well practiced; he was more than experienced at hurried evasion and elusion. None was so foolish as to call Captain Corundum less than a master at ship handling and at escaping the figurative nets and fixing pins of ... collectors. He depressed the keys smoothly, almost lovingly, and Jinni responded with instant electronic obedience. Its response and activity were signaled with flashes of flame yellow from thin horizontal quartz bars.

Two standing ovals flashed roseate and the strange voice that crackled into the cabin, which was the bridge on Firedancer, was about as friendly as the snout of a leveled stopper.

"You are guidelined to stand by for I.D. and interview. Remain in place"

" 'Interview,'" Corundum sneered, in a mutter. "That's policer-ese for 'search and hara.s.sment'!"

"Guideline" was not worth comment. It had meant "rule" or "order" for centuries, when it emanated from the authority of government or its enforcement arm, policers.

Janja was in communication with herself, acclimating herself. She was making her body-mind, the entire ent.i.ty that was Janja, aware of the imminence of a lessened lack of weight to be followed by real weight. The pressure of acceleration and actuation of Fire-dancer's grav-systemry were seconds away. Janja of Aglaya had more control of self, resulting from greater awareness of mind-body linkage and contact with her self, than these Galactics thought possible. They, a race different from hers, alien to hers. She had just convinced her self, her ent.i.ty, that it did not really 127.

want to float and would soon be weightier, and should prepare for the effect of high velocity departure. Then the voice entered the con-cabin and Corundum and his SIPAc.u.m yanked Firedancer off Dot's surface, all at once.

For that, Janja was not prepared.

The acceleration was not just sudden. It was almost instantaneous, the most ma.s.sive she had ever experienced. Inconceivably mighty forces strove to hurl Fire-dancer into s.p.a.ce and at the same time to squash the snip's biological components-the crew.

A frightening, horrible weight crushed Janja. She could not breathe because someone seemed to be standing on her chest. Her body swore that the weight was insupportable. After a few moments of panicky fighting back of panic, she began a.s.suring her ent.i.ty to the contrary. The weight had to be supported, to be borne; she had to breathe. The alternative was to be strangle-smothered, and she could not believe that Corundum had imparted that much lift. Suicide while attempting to escape was hardly productive, or Corundum's style!

Meanwhile two sirens were clamoring for attention in two separate and equally unpleasant voices and lights flashed all over the console, in six colors. Again the insistent voice commed its way into the cabin.

"Cut your power!" the ship-to-ship ordered. "Your attempt is both useless and d.a.m.ning. You cannot elude two specialized ships! We must have words with you. We need not hold you long, provided you are honest traders."

Janja reflected that since they were not honest traders, the reverse would be just as true: they would be held longer than long. Inertia was continuing to lean on her chest with mighty hands. At least it prevented any outcry that would have embarra.s.sed her with her own weakness. While he was from a high-G planet, Corundum was still standing at his controls and Hing was fighting his way out of the captain's chair. The captain actuated his comm with his knee.

128.

"Our business here on Dot is consummated and we read you as attackers," he snapped. "You have no authority to hold us."

"Freeze! Otherwise we freeze you-we do have the authority!"

"Put a tractor on us and you will be inconceivably sorry," Corundum snapped back.

"We call that bluff-now! Any attempt at making us 'inconceivably sorry,' pirate, will result in automatic activation of our defense system. Cease your threats and attempts at escape and I.D. yourself."

"I.D.-I haven't heard your identification, pirates!"

Janja had only an instant to reflect on an attacker's referring to threatening gunnery as "defense" and on a pirate's snarly name-calling of policers as pirates. The ship was straining, bucking, creaking, and lunging like a sh.e.l.l caught between contrary winds. No-like a tiny craft atop a waterspout, with winds blowing con-trarily down at it!

She heard the groans and creaky complaints of plas-teel and cyprium-monofilamental hydrogen bonded at the electron level and stronger than steel. Could the ship withstand the forces tugging at it, thrusting at it- in opposite directions? And if it could-for how long?

The console blazed hot with lights in orange and crimson, lavender and ultramarine, off-white and yellow, like an ever-changing chemical fire. Corundum's telits and warners seemed in the sweaty grip of hysteria.

Yet this new threat of Firedancer's breaking up or being crushed by elemental forces had to share attention with Janja's other terror.

She was still laboring merely to breathe. How Hing was forcing himself from chair to floor was beyond her-at least with her limited experience-just as rising from that contoured chair was beyond his power. Corundum was forcefeeding power to impel his ship into s.p.a.ce like a projectile while each of the oncoming s.p.a.cers had hit them with a reversed tractor field, a pinner.

129.

Dimly Janja was aware of the voice, and another; the crisp identification was of TransGalactic Watch and Murphs.p.a.ce Defense & Enforcement. TGW and MDE.

Firedancer struggled against the three forces. An obedient mustang, Firedancer wanted to obey her captain and computer and straining engines. They bade her jump up off Dot. The other ships applied n.o.bbles of pure force. Their paired tractors-in-reverse struck from two directions to form a wedge with Firedancer at their apex.

The ship sat uncomfortably on a hot pin at the bottom of the V, and shuddered as it fought. The effect of the policers' fields should have been to pin the ship to Dot, an insect awaiting the collectors. But Corundum had imparted thrust, and the needly point blazing under Firedancer urged her upward to escape its hurtful p.r.i.c.k. Firedancer danced on fire. They were pinned, but not on Dot. The ship danced helplessly, powerfully, just above the satellite's barren surface.

A bleeding Hing was inching along the floor. "Cap-tainn," he got out, hoa.r.s.ely. "Sit . . . Cap . . . tainn."

"Can't," Corundum grunted.

No one need ask why. If he unlocked his knees he would hit the floor in a second, struck down by ma.s.sive power irresistible as sunstorm.

His fingers fought inertial force, prancing like spiders, tapping keys in a constantly changing pattern of attempts at evasive maneuvering. At the same time he muttered, gutturally throating out words of instruction to SIPAc.u.m. He and his Jinni worked together as few men and machines were capable. The computer's narrow signal rectangles were a variable blur of flame-yellow light.

Firedancer sought to lunge upward and engines whined while hull, braces, and compartments groaned and creaked and made horrid rattling noises.