Wanted

Josh woke with a feeling of impending disaster. Then he remembered the news Lemmy had given them. Five hundred years in the past and who knew how far from where he had found the pirates.

  Moaning a little as he swung his legs over the side of the bed, he muttered, "I'd better go see if those two have killed each other yet. They're just like a couple of little kids."

  Josh pulled himself into the cockpit to find Cherry still surveying the Alcantaran spaceship. Lemmy's spacesuit lay in a corner. Funny little noises emanated from it. Cherry, sensing something behind him, turned. He asked, "Your head better today?"

  "Yeah, a lot better. Seems like I don't do good with surprises now. I hope this is just from the concussion and I get over it soon."

  "You most likely will."

  Josh grinned and pointed, "What's with the noises there?"

  Cherry grunted disgustedly, "I don't know if that's normal sleep noises or she's eating in there. I'd hate to be around a bunch of those critters. They'd drive you crazy – awake or asleep."

  "Did she give you any kind of a list? What are we looking at?"

  "I've got quite a list. It's a good thing we know about the rare earth minerals. We may need some to buy this stuff."

  "Yeah, but how do we get the minerals and then get to the parts store? I think we're going to wind up searching the city. Did Lemmy have any idea how long it would take to get that ship serviceable?"

  "At least two months without any help. Somehow, we've got to get my arm working. I think —"

  "We're going to have to go into the repair depot."

  Cherry nodded, "Yeah. How do we do all of that with the Nagini around?"

  "I don't know. If it takes two months to get that ship flyable, how long to get us to a planet? Will it do us any good to go to the one out there? Do they have any parts, fuel or food?"

  "I don't even know what planet it is yet."

  Josh said, "Speaking of food, I'm hungry now. Cherry, what do we do about —"

  Cherry's glare and shake of his head stopped Josh. Lemmy said, "Did I hear something about food? I could sure use some."

  Cherry said, "We need that food replicator. At this rate, our food will only last another two weeks."

  Josh frowned at him, "We'll do what we have to do. Come on, Lemmy. Let's go get something to eat, then get to work. Did you say you'd spotted equipment to fix Cherry's arm in the repair depot?"

  "I can straighten it some. I don't think everything I need is in there to completely fix it."

  At breakfast, they kicked around ideas about how to get the things they needed from the city and the repair depot. None of them seemed a hundred percent foolproof against the Nagini. No one wanted to volunteer to test them out.

  As they finished, Josh said, "For now, let's move Naca closer to that other ship. Cherry, what have the snakes been doing?"

  "I haven't seen hide nor hair of them. Of course, I didn't move the sensor back in the city."

  "So as far as we know, none of them are out here."

  Lemmy asked, "What are you two talking about?"

  Cherry said, "About the Nagini. I don't think any of them are out here. They're all in the city. If we move the ship and none come out, I could —"

  Lemmy asked, "What about the five somewhere out there? They'll be coming back."

  Josh said, "We can't sit here forever. We have to do something. Did you find any shield generators?"

  Cherry said, "No, but they could be in any of several storage areas. I'll have to go over there to be sure."

  Josh said, "I can go."

  Lemmy said, "I won't."

  Cherry puffed out a breath, "We didn't expect you to. I'll go, Josh. Your legs still won't let you maneuver like you need to."

  Five minutes of argument brought the conclusion that Cherry would have to go. Cherry hurried to the shield generator he had set up. He changed the setting to let Naca move. The others waited on him in the cockpit.

  When he arrived, Josh settled in the pilot's seat to move the spaceship. He watched the view screens and jockeyed the rear of Naca up to the other ship. As he settled down, Cherry announced, "No Nagini. They've kept their heads in the city."

  Lemmy said, "But you still don't know about the big ones."

  Josh said, "I'm going to launch our last remote detector. I'll set it just off the asteroid. If anything heads this way, we'll know."

  Lemmy said, "I hope Twinkles there can move fast when you get the warning. I know those things can."

  Josh said, "Me, too. I had the cycle full power and that thing still caught me."

  All the talk of Nagini speed didn't make Cherry any too happy. He stomped out to reset the shield. Josh flew the sensor a short distance into the city, but didn't see anything. Backing it out, he set it to give a warning if anything moved within passive detection range.

  Cherry called, "I've got my breathing apparatus on. How do you read me?"

  Josh answered, "Loud and clear. Are you going over now?"

  "If there's no snakes around."

  "I don't see any on the detector or sensor. I flew it a little ways into the city, but nothing showed up."

  "OK, I'm off."

  "Cherry, is the power unit still there?"

  "Yes."

  "You might want to hook it up so you could turn the ship's shield on."

  "I won't have enough power to withstand much of anything."

  "Maybe just some little Nagini. They could get through the same holes you do. The big ones can't. Take a vibro-knife too. If one swallows you, it'll take off a head slicker than a whistle."

  "I'll pass on getting swallowed. I don't have an external skin like you did. I will take the knife though."

  In a few minutes, Josh and Lemmy saw him work through the shield and climb into the Alcantaran ship. The sensor followed him through the hole. Cherry worked his way to the power unit in the cockpit. He carried it back to the mechanical room.

  The sensor provided light for him to see when he opened the door. Stepping inside, he looked around. Lemmy said, "There, to your left. What does that say on those gauges?"

  Cherry stared for a few seconds. He muttered, "How did I get the junky translator? It's still just gibberish."

  Josh glanced at Lemmy. She had her ears back and they were working in a worried manner. Josh said, "Cherry, you might want to adjust your translator a little."

  He snarled, "Fur ball's been at it again, huh? I'll get her for this."

  Lemmy ducked into her suit until she could just peek over the neck. Josh had to wipe his mouth to keep his grin from showing. Cherry said, "Now. The gauges are divided for front, center and rear shields. There's about a dozen for each section. Lemmy, you little flea bag, do you have any idea how this works?"

  "Most likely they have several nodes on the hull. Those gauges are used to set and balance the field strength. Similar ones on other ships can be controlled and set from the situation room and cockpit. You're standing in front of the primary controls."

  "When I crawled through that hole, I saw a lot of cut wires. Do you think that will affect the shields?"

  Lemmy half closed her eyes as she thought, "Could be. There should be redundant wiring. The big question will be if anything is shorted. Are there some switches down below the gauges?"

  "Yes. There's a console full of them."

  Josh asked, "Lemmy, what happens if wiring is shorted?"

  "I hope some of those switches are breakers. Otherwise…"

  Cherry said, "Otherwise we have a useless power unit."

  Josh asked, "How are you going to connect it?"

  Cherry answered, "I have no idea. I can't see any place in here to plug this unit in."

  Lemmy said, "You're going to have to cut the cable on your power unit and splice it into a cable to the ship's shields."

  Cherry said, "I guess that means I'll be tearing this panel apart. I don't know how I'll tell which are incoming wires and
which are outgoing."

  Josh said, "If you run into a problem, Lemmy can give you a hand."

  Lemmy stuttered, "I'm – I'm not going over there. The big Nagini are due back. You haven't seen them. I have."

  Josh said, "We can move the sensor and you can look at the images. We can even do it in 3D."

  "Oh, I can do that."

  They both heard a grunt from Cherry.

  Cherry worked for two hours to get the panel and console apart. Josh tried to watch him while keeping an eye on the detector and sensor. Lemmy watched for awhile, then retreated into her spacesuit. Josh could hear munching and smacking.

  Josh asked, "Lemmy, why don't you take that spacesuit off? You breathe the same oxygen mix that we do."

  He heard a couple more munches then her head appeared above the neck. She answered, "It's not safe. Demmy and I agreed to stay safe. See, he's still in his."

  Cherry, tuned into their conversation, muttered, "Crazy as a twitterbug."

  Josh interrupted him before Lemmy heard, "Are you going to cut the incoming cable or just tap into it?"

  "Tap into it. I don't want to have to come back after we get some fuel in this bird. There's enough work without adding to it."

  "I wish I could get over there and help."

  "Just keep an eye out for the Nagini."

  Josh sat quietly for a few minutes, then said, "Cherry, do you ever remember hearing about the Nagini before?"

  Cherry jerked his head up to stare at the sensor. He frowned and his jaw clenched. "No, but that doesn't mean anything. We were in a different galaxy. These snakes might be a local phenomenon or be known by other names elsewhere."

  "Yeah, I guess you're right. All this thinking is making my head hurt."

  "Well, stop thinking and monitor those sensors. I want some warning if the monsters come out to play."

  "I've got them all set to automatically give a warning."

  Cherry stood up, "There, I've got one wire hooked up. I'm going to give it a little power to test connections."

  Josh watched him walk to the power unit and push some buttons. The sensor inside the Alcantaran ship showed no difference, but Naca's sensors dinged to let him know that another spaceship had appeared.

  Josh said, "I can see some shield towards the nose. It looks pretty spotty."

  "That's what the gauges say, too." Cherry flipped switches on the console. "Now what do you see?"

  "A better pattern. I think there might still be one or two holes."

  "I'm going to go with that for now. Once I have something up, I'll work on one section at a time. It doesn't seem to be drawing too much power from the unit."

  "That's good."

  Lemmy said, "That means you don't have a short in that section. The holes could be from nodes that are out or unhooked."

  Cherry said, "What happened? Eat all of your morning snack?"

  "Not all of it. Demmy ate some."

  Cherry just shook his head. He turned the power off, then went back to work on the other cables. Josh glanced at Naca's sensors to see that the shields were still visible on the old ship. He said, "Cherry, didn't you shut off the power? Your shields are still up."

  "What! I shut it off. Hmmm, looks like this connection fed some of the power into the power plant for this ship. It shouldn't last very long."

  "You're right. They're already starting to fade. Do you think if that ship had some fuel that systems would fire right up?"

  "Ask the expert beside you."

  Josh turned, "Lemmy, what do you think?"

  "I don't know. I've heard these Alcantaran ships are pretty incredible. I know they're supposed to be more advanced than anything I've seen, but that could be – ah – stories."

  Josh chuckled, "Yeah, I've heard some of those. Get a group of spaceship pilots in a bar and lube them up with a little rocket fuel, then let the stories roll. First liar doesn't stand a chance."

  A few minutes later, Cherry said, "I've got all of them wired now. Let's see what we've got."

  He flipped on the power and Josh stared at Naca's sensors. All of the ship except a narrow band around the damaged part had a shield. Josh said, "You've got shields. There's a band around the holes that doesn't have anything. If you can adjust size and shape, you'd have full coverage."

  Cherry said, "Hmmm, I think that's what these two dials do. How's that?"

  "Let me send you an image. It'll be easier. I'll use your sensor to make a 3D image for you."

  Josh worked with the ship's computer and soon Cherry had his image to work with. He worked for half an hour until he had a full shield around the old spaceship. As he tweaked on the last row, an alarm went off in Naca.

  Josh's eyes jerked to the view screens for the remote detector. Nothing showed on it. His glance went to the entrance to the city. He yelled, "Cherry, the snakes are coming out to play. Wow! There's over a hundred of all sizes."

  The remote detector alarm went off. Josh stared at it. Five huge shapes appeared. Four smaller ones followed behind. Josh yelled, "Cherry, get out of there. No! Wait a minute. The Nagini from the city are all over your shield. There's no way you can get back here. Don't turn off your shield."

  "You don't have to worry about that. Feed the image in here."

  Josh strained to get things set up. He fed the image from the sensor in the city, the remote detector and Naca's into Cherry. Movement to his right caught his attention. Lemmy had ducked into her spacesuit and curled into a ball under the copilot's seat.

  As the forms in space moved nearer, they came into optical view. Josh stared with his mouth open. Three of the Nagini were as big as the Alcantaran ship. The detector measured them at two hundred fifty feet long and seventy-five feet in diameter. The next two were a hundred and fifty feet. The four bringing up the rear were just a little bigger than the one he had killed.

  Cherry said, "It's been nice knowing you, buddy. I don't see how we can escape from those things."

  Josh said, "Do you think I should try to fire on them?"

  "Did your blaster do any good – on the inside?"

  "No, you're right. Firing will just make them mad and drain our fuel faster."

  The swirling mass of the smaller ones on the asteroid caught his attention. They were rushing out from under the land bridge to go meet the newcomers. The leviathans didn't even slow down. They swam through, headed straight to the land bridge.

  The smaller Nagini swarmed around the larger ones like a moving writhing cloud. When the lead monster saw the two spaceships with the shields up, it stopped. With a flip of its tail, half the group went to Naca's side of the land bridge. The other half continued on their way.

  Josh and Cherry stood in silence as they watched the nightmare unfold before them. The lead Nagini shot straight at the ancient Alcantaran ship. Its mouth opened wide enough to swallow the entire ship in one gulp.

  Cherry reached down to increase the size of the shields. The power unit gave off a whine. The mouth engulfed the front of the shield. The power unit's whine increased to a painful shriek. Smoke started to billow out from it. Cherry grabbed his vibro-knife and sliced the cable from it. The shrill sound dropped to silence.

  Another monster from Naca's side hit the shields from the side. Josh closed his eyes, not wanting to see any more. A blast of sound knocked him from his feet. The jar to his pelvis and legs made lights flash inside his eyelids. After a second, he forced them open. On the view screens, he saw the Nagini writhing back away from the land bridge.

  Josh pulled himself to his feet and stared at the Alcantaran spaceship. The shields were so big they now covered Naca. Swarms of the Nagini thrashed around outside the shield. Suddenly, one of the twenty-footers dashed forward with its mouth open.

  When it hit the shield, it hung there for a few seconds. Then smoke erupted from the tail and worked its way forward. The huge snake glowed red, turned cherry red, then brilliant whit
e. The shield blazed until the white went out. When the light stopped, the Nagini turned to ash and drifted away.

  The five largest ones backed away from the asteroid and swam to another rock nearby. Those remaining dashed for the city. Josh saw them crowding through the entrance. Soon blackness and silence greeted his eyes and ears.

  The signal from the sensor inside the other spaceship had stopped. Josh worked the computer trying to reestablish contact. Moans from the spacesuit under the co-pilot's chair went unheeded as he worked furiously on the computer.

  Chapter 11