Rainbow Mars by Larry Niven Page B

could position a tether with its center of mass in the second Lagrange point, with Europa between it and Jupiter. Europa’s tide-locked, so you’d still have an orbital tower.”
    Svetz relayed most of that. “And people of your world could move around there too.”
    â€œTheir plan is not mad?”
    â€œNo. I’m worried about your sky ships, though. How do you lift?”
    â€œWe use a gas that pulls up when irradiated with the sixth kind of light. Inert, the gas is still lighter than air.”
    â€œThat is weird,” Svetz said. “Bizarre! But if it works by lifting away from the mass of a planet, then you can’t get to Europa. Between the worlds you’d be adrift.”
    â€œThe Softfingers use something else, something secret.”
    â€œRockets?”
    â€œDo you mean like the recoil of a gun? Is that what you use? Can you teach us?”
    Svetz said, “I can do that. Lord Pfee, is that one of the High Folk?” Indicating the skeletal giant on the mast.
    â€œYes. Ignore him. He is with Skyrunner but not of it, with the Allied Peoples but not of it. Man, when we fought to reach you on the Hangtree, we hoped for more from you than a weapon that puts animals to sleep if they’re close enough! What would your people pay for your life?”
    â€œRansom?” He heard the gap: the translator didn’t have that martian word.
    Pfee spoke, and “Ransom,” the translator agreed. “Weapons or wealth or ideas, power to take back Hangtree City! We must command the Hangtree itself, I suppose, to hold the city. We might rule in tandem, my people and your men of Earth. But have you anything to offer?”
    â€œRockets, eventually, but maybe I can buy my way free now.” It might be worth his life. “Lord Pfee, give me some object you don’t need anymore.”
    Lord Pfee spoke to a warrior.
    The enemy ships—“They’re rising,” Svetz said.
    Lord Pfee laughed. “Why, so they are!” And he went below deck.
    What happened then looked like group madness. Twelve men boiled out from below deck, all wearing pressure suits like golden armor. They replaced men at various stations. Those disappeared below. The ship surged upward.
    Smoke and fire puffed from the nose of one of the enemy ships. Railing along the leftward side of Skyrunner splintered. Then the other ships fired too. The big tubes made a guttural drumbeat boom. Some of the crew fired devices that were more like needle guns; Svetz heard their higher-pitched snap, and a flurry of snaps from oncoming ships. It all sounded distant, harmless. Near vacuum was eating the sound.
    But impact weapons chewed the rails and the masts. The crewman who was carrying Svetz’s needle gun sprayed red mist and screamed a diminuendo behind the calm of his silver mask.
    The skeletal alien clung to a mast and watched.
    Lord Pfee emerged with his mask closed. He shouted through it. “They’re trying to get above Skyrunner. Fools! We can rise higher than they. We’re stripped to leave the air entirely!” He handed Svetz a double handful of vertebrae as big as a man’s. “A terwheeel was our dinner two days back. Will these do?”
    Svetz ignored Lord Pfee’s evident amusement. “Yes. You should not see what I do next.”
    â€œIt nibbles my mind that I should not leave you alone, Svetz!”
    Svetz shrugged. “You’ll have to fight your ship. Set me a guard you can trust with wealth.”
    â€œI do not have even one man to spare,” Lord Pfee decided. He closed his silver mask and began moving about the sky ship, giving his commands in sign language. He stopped briefly beside the High Folk observer.
    Svetz felt his suit contracting in near vacuum.
    As for the following ships, two had fallen away. The largest was spraying vermilion. But a ship marked with yellow and red lifted to keep pace while its crew threw mass overboard, and one