three-quarters of its length was a three-meter-diameter cylinder studded with thousands of pipe connections and multicolored power and control cable linkages. Carefully wrap-protected, just as carefully static-fastened to the deck, all ready for travel.
The Hammertong.
“Shada?” Karoly called again.
Shada swallowed, glancing around. The chamber seemed to be deserted, its crew or workers probably those who’d been shooting at them from the foot of the ramp. To her left, at the far forward end of the chamber, the standard Strike Cruiser bridge had been replaced by a simplified freighter-style cockpit, also unmanned. And from the looks of the status displays—and the way those drive nozzles had been humming when she and Karoly had passed them—it looked as if they’d been running an active status check on the flight systems when the Mistryl attack had interrupted them.
Which meant the ship should be pretty much ready to fly …
“Change of plans,” she told Karoly, swiveling around and gunning the speeder bike forward toward the cockpit setup. “Get in here. And seal the door behind you.”
She was running the start-up procedure at the Strike Cruiser’s helm by the time Karoly joined her. “Mother of space and time,” Karoly breathed, backing up to the copilot’s seat, her eyes goggling at the room behind them. “Is
that
the Hammertong thing Kellering was talking about?”
“I don’t know what else it could be,” Shada said, mentally crossing her fingers as she eased in the repulsorlifts. A ship this size wasn’t really designed to come this deep into a gravity well … but it seemed to be lifting okay. The Imperials must have added more repulsorlifts while they were gutting the interior. “Get the comm adjusted to our frequency, will you?”
“Sure.” Still keeping half an eye behind them, Karoly sat down and busied herself with the comm. “What’s the plan?”
“The Imperials went to a lot of work to build that thing and modify a ship to transport it,” Shada said, giving the displays a careful scan. For all their arrogance, the Imperials weren’t stupid, especially when itcame to hardware as impressive as the Hammertong. If their ground defenses had been low-profile, they were bound to have some heavy space-based weaponry nearby to back it up.
But if it was there, it wasn’t showing up on the displays. Hiding around the horizon? Or could the Mistryl counterattack have caught the whole bunch of them by surprise?
Either way, there was no percentage in waiting around for them to get their seats under their rears. “You got Cai and Sileen yet?” she asked Karoly.
“Almost,” Karoly said, her hands busy on the board. “I’m running a split-freq mix … there we go.”
“Shada? Karoly?” Sileen’s voice came over the speaker. “What in blazes are you doing?”
“We’re giving the Empire a bloody nose,” Shada said. The Strike Cruiser had cleared the boundary of the base now and was starting to pick up speed, leaving what was left of the speeder-bike force behind them.
“Shada—look, we’re all upset about Manda and Pav,” Sileen said carefully. “But this is just crazy. You’re going to bring the whole Imperial fleet down on top of us.”
“They need to know they can’t just go around killing Mistryl,” Shada retorted. “Not without paying dearly for it. Karoly and I can handle it ourselves if you want to leave.”
There was a hissing sigh from the speaker. “No, we’d better stick together,” Sileen said. “Anyway, what can the Empire do to us that hasn’t already been done?”
“I’m in, too,” Cai said. “One small question: Now that we’ve got the Hammertong, what are we going to do with it?”
Shada glanced back at the long silent cylinder behind her, the enormity of what she’d gotten them into belatedly starting to sink in. What
were
they going to do with the Hammertong? She and Karoly could nurse the Strike Cruiser along for a short flight
The Hammertong.
“Shada?” Karoly called again.
Shada swallowed, glancing around. The chamber seemed to be deserted, its crew or workers probably those who’d been shooting at them from the foot of the ramp. To her left, at the far forward end of the chamber, the standard Strike Cruiser bridge had been replaced by a simplified freighter-style cockpit, also unmanned. And from the looks of the status displays—and the way those drive nozzles had been humming when she and Karoly had passed them—it looked as if they’d been running an active status check on the flight systems when the Mistryl attack had interrupted them.
Which meant the ship should be pretty much ready to fly …
“Change of plans,” she told Karoly, swiveling around and gunning the speeder bike forward toward the cockpit setup. “Get in here. And seal the door behind you.”
She was running the start-up procedure at the Strike Cruiser’s helm by the time Karoly joined her. “Mother of space and time,” Karoly breathed, backing up to the copilot’s seat, her eyes goggling at the room behind them. “Is
that
the Hammertong thing Kellering was talking about?”
“I don’t know what else it could be,” Shada said, mentally crossing her fingers as she eased in the repulsorlifts. A ship this size wasn’t really designed to come this deep into a gravity well … but it seemed to be lifting okay. The Imperials must have added more repulsorlifts while they were gutting the interior. “Get the comm adjusted to our frequency, will you?”
“Sure.” Still keeping half an eye behind them, Karoly sat down and busied herself with the comm. “What’s the plan?”
“The Imperials went to a lot of work to build that thing and modify a ship to transport it,” Shada said, giving the displays a careful scan. For all their arrogance, the Imperials weren’t stupid, especially when itcame to hardware as impressive as the Hammertong. If their ground defenses had been low-profile, they were bound to have some heavy space-based weaponry nearby to back it up.
But if it was there, it wasn’t showing up on the displays. Hiding around the horizon? Or could the Mistryl counterattack have caught the whole bunch of them by surprise?
Either way, there was no percentage in waiting around for them to get their seats under their rears. “You got Cai and Sileen yet?” she asked Karoly.
“Almost,” Karoly said, her hands busy on the board. “I’m running a split-freq mix … there we go.”
“Shada? Karoly?” Sileen’s voice came over the speaker. “What in blazes are you doing?”
“We’re giving the Empire a bloody nose,” Shada said. The Strike Cruiser had cleared the boundary of the base now and was starting to pick up speed, leaving what was left of the speeder-bike force behind them.
“Shada—look, we’re all upset about Manda and Pav,” Sileen said carefully. “But this is just crazy. You’re going to bring the whole Imperial fleet down on top of us.”
“They need to know they can’t just go around killing Mistryl,” Shada retorted. “Not without paying dearly for it. Karoly and I can handle it ourselves if you want to leave.”
There was a hissing sigh from the speaker. “No, we’d better stick together,” Sileen said. “Anyway, what can the Empire do to us that hasn’t already been done?”
“I’m in, too,” Cai said. “One small question: Now that we’ve got the Hammertong, what are we going to do with it?”
Shada glanced back at the long silent cylinder behind her, the enormity of what she’d gotten them into belatedly starting to sink in. What
were
they going to do with the Hammertong? She and Karoly could nurse the Strike Cruiser along for a short flight
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