Ascending - James Alan Gardner [123]
“Let us go a different place,” I said to Festina. “It is not pleasant here.”
“I don’t like it much myself,” she replied, “but the place is soundproof. That might be important.”
“You think the Shaddill are listening for us?” I asked. “How can that be? We are surrounded by the silence of space.”
“Yes…but if we weren’t soundproofed, any noise we made would be conducted throughout the ship, eventually making tiny vibrations in the hull. If the Shaddill bounce a laser off the ship’s outer skin, they’ll be able to detect those vibrations. They’ll know we’re in here talking.”
Lady Bell made a disgusted whoosh. “Are you always this paranoid?”
Festina glared at her. “Usually I’m more paranoid, but right now I’m still hungover.”
The ship gave a sudden lurch. “What was that?” Lajoolie cried out.
“I think we’ve just been swallowed,” Festina answered.
“Do not worry,” I said, patting her shoulder. “This happens to me all the time.”
My Plan
“All right,” Festina said, “we need a plan.”
“To do what?” Lady Bell asked.
“To escape. Or at least, to survive.”
I said, “The villains will come through the receiving bay, will they not? So we should lie in wait behind the boxes cluttered in that area. When the Shaddill arrive, we shall leap from concealment and punch them in the nose.” I paused. “Provided they are such creatures as possess noses. If we leap from concealment and do not see noselike facial features, we shall have to improvise.”
“Sounds good to me, missy,” Uclod said. “Of course, if the Shaddill do have noses, they’ll probably pass out the second they get a whiff of this place.”
“Watch your tongue!” Bell snapped.
Sergeant Aarhus cleared his throat. All this time, he had been sitting on the carpet, no doubt gathering strength after being unconscious. Now he rose and told Festina, “I hate to admit it, Admiral, but Oar’s plan sounds as good as we’ll get. We sure can’t stay in the studio here—it’s got see-through walls and nowhere to hide. We’ll be sitting ducks.”
“I know.” Festina made a face. “All right—an ambush in the receiving bay. Everyone ready to fight?”
Uclod, Lajoolie, Aarhus, and I all chorused yes. Nimbus floated delicately forward. “I won’t be much use in a scuffle…and I have to protect my daughter.”
“Understandable,” Festina said. She glanced at me; I still held the little Zarett girl in one hand, and gooey though the infant was, I did not mind the feel of her so much. She was very most delicately soft, a small light person who seemed so fragile and breakable that Deep Adult Instincts made me want to take care of her. To be honest, I wanted to snuggle her a little while longer…but time was short, and I could not throw punches with a child in my fist.
“Here she is,” I said, cupping her in both hands and holding her out to her father. Nimbus swirled forward, and for a moment, I felt his cool dryness playing around my fingers. It might have been a nudge of forgiveness; one cannot tell with fog, but I do believe it was more than just the bare minimum of contact required to take the girl. Then he was gone, and baby Starbiter was gone too, wrapped in a thick ball of mist.
“All right,” Festina said, “now what about you, Lady Bell? Are you up for some fisticuffs?”
“I’ve heard,” Aarhus put in, “that Cashlings are excellent fighters. Stunningly powerful kicks.”
He said this so unctuously, even naïve baby Starbiter must have recognized his words as purposeful flattery. Lady Bell, however, was not so perceptive; she loosened slightly from her wrapped-up form, with orifices fluttering all over her green skin. It looked like the Cashling form of simpering. “I can handle myself quite well,” she answered in a creamily smug tone of voice. “If it’s absolutely necessary…”
“It is,” Festina said. “Now let’s get down to the airlock. And once we’re outside the studio, no talking. The engines make enough background noise to cover our footsteps, but let’s not get sloppy.”
“Sloppy!” Lady Bell said, continuing to