C. J. Cherryh [Age of Explorat

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.There might be some woman someday, somehow, willing to take the kind of risk they posed.Someone rare, like Paul."Drink up," Jillan insisted, drifting down with Paul.The embrace opened.a little frown had crossed Jillan's face at the sight of his; and Paul's expression mirrored the same concern.For that, for a thousand, thousand things, he loved them.He grinned, and drank, and sent their bottle their way.Trishanamarandu-kepta was in pursuit of delicate reckonings, had chased plottings round and round and busily gathered data in observation of the region.might have missed the ship entirely otherwise.detected it in the Between, a meeting of which the ship might or might not be aware.It was small and slow, a bare ripple of presence.It too was a consequence of that ancient star-death.or came here because of it.Weak as it seemed, it might well use mass like that which had recently visited as an anchor, a navigation fix when the distance between stars was too great for it.diverted 's self from 's previous heading and followed the ship, eager and intent, coming down at another such pockmark in the continuum, where 's small quarry had surfaced and paused.(!), sent at once, in pulses along the whole range of O's transmitters.(!!!) (!!!!!) It was an ancient pattern, useful where there was no possibility of linguistic similarity and no reasonable guarantee of a similar range of perceptions.waited for response on any wavelength.Waited.Waited.Even delays in response were informational.This might be recovery time, for senses severely disorganized by jumpspace.Some species were particularly affected by the experience.It might be slow consideration of the pulse message.The length of time to decide on reply, the manner of answer, whether echo or addition, whether linear or pyramidal.species varied in their apprehension of the question.The small ship remained some time at residual velocity, though headed toward the hazard of the dark mass by which it steered.Presumably it was aware of the danger of its course.remained wary, having seen many variations on such meetings, some proceeding to sudden attack; some to approach; some to headlong flight; some even to suicide, which might be what was in progress as a result of that unchecked velocity.Or possibly, remotely, the ship had suffered some malfunction.retained corresponding velocity and kept the same interval, confident in O's own agility and wondering whether the ship under observation could still escape.observed, which was O's only present interest.The little ship suddenly flicked out again into jump.followed, ignoring the babble from the passengers, which had been building and now broke into chaos.Quiet, wished them all, afire with the passion of a new interest in existence.The pursuit came down again as had hoped, at a star teeming with activity on a broad range of wavelengths.Life.A whole spacefaring civilization.It was like rain after ages-long drought; repletion after famine.stretched, enlivened capacities dormant for centuries, power like a great silent shout going through O's body.Withdraw, some of the passengers wished.You'll get us all killed.There was humor in that.laughed.could, after O's fashion.Attack, others raved, that being their natures.Hush, said.Just watch.We trusted you, mourned.ignored all the voices and stayed on course.The intruder and its quarry went unnoticed for a time in Endeavor Station Central.Boards still showed clear.The trouble at the instant of its arrival was still a long, lightbound way out.Ships closer to that arrival point picked up the situation and started relaying the signal as they moved in panic.Three hours after arrival, Central longscan picked up a blip just above the ecliptic and beeped, routinely calling a human operator's attention to that seldom active screen, which might register an arrival once or twice a month.But not headed into central system plane, where no incoming ship belonged, vectored at jumpship velocities toward the precise area of the belt that was worked by Endeavor miners.Comp plotted a colored fan of possible courses, and someone swore, with feeling.A second beep an instant later froze the several techs in their seats; and "Lord!" a scan tech breathed, because that second blip was close to the first one."Check your pickup," the supervisor said, walking near that station in the general murmur of dismay.That had nearly been collision out there three lightbound hours ago.The odds against two unscheduled merchanters coinciding in Endeavor's vast untrafficked space, illegally in system plane, were out of all reason."Tandem jump?" the tech wondered, pushing buttons to reset.Tandem jumping was a military maneuver.It required hairbreadth accuracy.No merchanter risked it as routine."Pirate," a second tech surmised, which they were all thinking by now.There were still war troubles left, from the bad days."Mazianni, maybe.”The supervisor hesitated from one foot to the other, wiped his face.The stationmaster was off-shift, asleep.It was hours into maindark.The supervisor was alterday chief, second highest on the station.The red-alert button was in front of him on the board, unused for all of Endeavor's existence.".it's behind us," he heard next, the merchanter frequency, from out in the range."Endeavor Station, do you read, do you read? This is merchanter John Liles out of Viking.We've met a bogey out there.it's dragged us off mark.Met [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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