Horizon Storms - Kevin J. Anderson [141]
Now the outflyer Soldier compies zipped in, flanking her, guiding her on the safest path. She jerked the altitude-control thrusters right and left, hardly daring to blink. Beside her, her father went pale and gripped his seat. The compy ships took a heavier toll; their hulls got damaged and battered, but Zhett’s vessel suffered only minor dents, and a small star-shaped impact on the thick viewport.
Kellum calmed himself by studying the scan readings on a small console screen. “We’re getting close now.”
Zhett gestured with her chin. “Up there. Something’s a lot more reflective than the rest of the rocks.”
Sparkling with reflected light from the clouds of Osquivel, one object shone like a diamond in a pile of gravel. Rocks formed a thick, protective coterie of obstacles around the valuable treasure. The compy outflyers circled, dove in, and indicated a safe course for Zhett to follow.
The object’s distinctive geometrical shape made it stand out as much as its shining hull had. The sphere, studded with spiky protrusions, drifted alone, abandoned in the dense minefield of rocky debris.
“It’s a drogue ship,” Zhett whispered. “Look at it.”
Kellum bit his lower lip. “One of the smaller ones, not a full-blown warglobe.”
She maneuvered closer, then jumped in her seat as a rock hammered the hull of their ship with a sound like a sledgehammer hitting an anvil. Zhett steadied them, all the while concentrating on the round alien globe. “I bet it was killed during the battle, Dad. The Eddies did cause some damage.”
“I’m not picking up any power readings or life signs…though I wouldn’t know what the hell to look for. Back off a minute and let the compies get closer. See how it reacts.”
The outflyers approached the small alien sphere, but the hydrogue vessel did not respond. “Shizz, it’s probably been drifting out here all this time. The drogues certainly haven’t missed it.”
Her father grinned hugely. “Well, in that case—it’s finders keepers for us.”
Zhett’s scout ship suffered several more impacts—including one that would require minor repairs—as she cautiously pulled away from the densest cluster of debris, while Kellum sent instructions to the robotic outflyers.
Working together, the reprogrammed Soldier compies rigged tractor beams to the slick surface of the dead alien ship and pulled it slowly out of its nest of broken rocks and into a safer zone. Several meteoroids ricocheted off the sphere’s hull, but left not so much as a scratch. The compy grappler pods looked, on the other hand, as if they’d been used as punching bags.
Her father was already full of ideas about the relic. “Could be the biggest treasure in this whole battleground. Imagine it, my sweet, our very own drogue ship! Roamer engineers can figure out how it ticks, then maybe we’ll incorporate some of those techniques into our own vessels.”
The gas planet Osquivel loomed in front of them like a skeptical eye watching everything they did.
“That’s why, as soon as we get back to the main complex, I’m going to track down Kotto Okiah. If anybody can decipher the thing, he can.”
Chapter 71 — NIKKO CHAN TYLAR
Since he was carrying wental water and distributing the powerful entities to uninhabited planets, Aquarius seemed the perfect name for his ship. Years ago, Nikko and his father had cobbled the vessel together from several falling-apart wrecks that belonged to clan Tylar. After pulling out of skymining operations on Ptoro, they had owned plenty of salvaged spaceships and cargo haulers, pieces of equipment that no longer served any purpose. Nikko had added more cargo space, engines with greater range, and larger fuel tanks. More recently, he’d installed specialized containers for holding wental-energized water samples. Aquarius was a fine, if odd-looking, starship.
Jess Tamblyn had dispatched his water bearers to unexplored spots in the Spiral Arm, using old Ildiran starcharts and planetary surveys. Not only would this quest