Half closing his eyes, sonic bubbles and explosive bullets bursting all around him, Flinx let his perception range outward. Almost immediately, he identified apprehension, determination, a sense of duty, and professional pride, a combination that painted a familiar pattern. "I think they're Commonwealth peaceforcers," he announced.
Clarity's own emotions leaped in his mind. "Come to stop the fight!"
"Perhaps," observed Truzenzuzex, "or to take Philip Lynx into custody." Sensitive antennae bobbed. "It may be that we find ourselves in the middle of a three-way fight. Believing themselves to be under attack by these new arrivals, our assailants are shooting back at them. The peaceforcers naturally respond. Meanwhile, both groups may be looking to incapacitate us."
"How do you win a three-way fight?" Flinx jumped as the dull thwock of a sonic bubble dented the corridor wall beyond his head.
"By allying yourself with the stronger third to overwhelm the weaker and then hoping to defeat your temporary collaborator afterward," the thranx explained, "or by letting them beat each other while you pull back. We've been granted, if not a reprieve, at least a momentary distraction. We need to make use of it."
He commenced a thorough examination of their immediate surroundings and they found the service hatch in the ceiling of the storage niche. A small ladder, clearly designed for human feet, was welded to the wall. Flinx saw that he and Clarity could help Truzenzuzex up it and through the hatch.
First they had to see if the hatch would open.
It was secured with a professional, commercial electronic lock, but Flinx had it opened in less than two minutes. When the hatch cover motored silently aside, they found themselves doused with cloud-shrouded sunshine. Flinx poked his head through the opening and made his way up the ladder. When he leaped back down moments later to rejoin his friends, he was smiling.
"We're under the tarmac. I can see my shuttle! It's a short sprint away." Holding up his right arm, he showed them the decorative universal control bracelet on his wrist. "I'll signal the shuttle to be ready to leave as soon as we're on board." He looked down the corridor that continued to ring with the exchange of fire. "Tru, tell Bran to come over."
During a pause in the exchange of gunfire, Tse-Mallory dashed into the alcove. "Excellent. We can leave both groups of gun-happy disputants to sort matters out among themselves."
"They're all hunkered down." Clarity had crawled to the edge of the storage alcove to check both sets of combatants. "I think they're too occupied with each other right now to worry about stopping us from leaving."
"Likely don't yet realize that we can. We'd better not linger." Tse-Mallory started up the ladder.
A large explosion behind them signified that someone had decided to begin using heavier ordnance. The concussion rang in Flinx's ears. He'd send Clarity and Scrap up next. Turning, he reached for her hand. His breath caught in his throat and his heart missed a beat.
She was sitting, dazed, on the floor, staring at him. Scrap fluttered anxiously above her, rising and falling. The last big explosion had evidently knocked her off her feet.
"Clarity, what's wrong?" Beyond being momentarily stunned, she looked all right to him.
"I think-I think I'm hurt."
"Where?" he asked immediately. He could see nothing wrong. Then Scrap landed on his unoccupied shoulder and he knew that something was. The minidrag would not perch on anyone else unless his master was injured.
"Not sure," she muttered uncertainly. "My back, maybe. Feels a little funny."
Truzenzuzex was whistling anxiously for them to hurry.
"Just a minute!" Flinx shouted above the continuing roar of weapons fire. Leaning around Clarity, he saw the entire back of her jumpsuit was gone, along with much of her skin. He couldn't tell how deep the wound was because there was so much blood. He felt as if someone had slipped a garrote around his throat and was rapidly tightening it.
"Bran, Tru!" he yelled. "Clarity," he told her gently, "you've been hit. I don't know if it was combustive shrapnel, or what, but it looks-bad."
The two scholars were at his side in an instant. Flinx could see the severity of Clarity's injury reflected in Tse-Mallory's expression.
"Not good. Not good at all."
Fatal? Flinx wanted to say. He found he couldn't even whisper it.
Truzenzuzex was tearing at his backpack with both foothands. The two sensitive truhands were exploring Clarity's wounds. "Not fatal. Not if she receives proper medical attention in time."
"She's going into shock." Pulling off his jacket, Tse-Mallory wrapped it over the uninjured front of her body. Immediately, blood began to stain the edges.
Truzenzuzex pulled at what looked like a weapon. "Hold her," he snapped in terse terranglo. Flinx crouched in front of Clarity and gripped her shoulders firmly in both hands. Had he not, she would have fallen over. Her eyes were unfocused now, the lids fluttering.
Truzenzuzex glanced at the watching Scrap. Perceiving that the thranx's intentions were wholly benign, the minidrag stayed coiled around Flinx's neck and made no move to interfere. Truzenzuzex activated the pistol-like device, and a white mist spewed from its nozzle. She moaned as the thranx methodically played the spray back and forth over her bloodied, torn back until the device was empty.
Flinx saw that her back was now sheathed in a rapidly congealing shiny gray substance that looked like translucent plastic. Her head had slumped forward and her eyes were now closed.
"Synthetic chitin," the thranx explained, "for bandaging injured thranx, not humans. But it's calcium-based, hypoallergenic, and will bind to the bits of exposed bone long enough to get her to a proper medical facility where it can be removed with the appropriate solvent. Until then, it will staunch the remaining bleeding and prevent infection." He eyed Flinx closely. "But I won't lie to you. There are deep wounds and, as near as my knowledge of human physiology can tell, a very real possibility of serious internal injuries."
"In other words," Tse-Mallory added, "if we don't get her to a surgeon, she's likely to die."
"Then let's get her to one." A grim-faced Flinx indicated the hatchway.
Tse-Mallory put a restraining hand on the younger man's shoulder. "I saw her wounds, too, Flinx. My knowledge of human anatomy is a little more comprehensive than Tru's. I'm telling you straight-we can't go hauling her up a wall and across open tarmac. She needs hemoglu, serum, antibiotics, and a suspension gurney that will hold her steady while she's moved. Or..."
"Or," Flinx pressed him over the whine and thunder of continuing gunfire.
"Or any severe jolting movement-no matter how careful we try to be with her and in spite of Tru's fast work in closing her up-is liable to stop her heart."
Flinx sat there, still holding the unconscious Clarity upright, surrounded by friends and yet, as usual, all alone. He had finally found someone to be with. Someone he could love and, just as important, talk to freely. Someone to share the lonely moments in the empty spaces between worlds. And it looked as if it was all going to be taken away from him.
But not permanently, he vowed. Not permanently.
"Hospital." His whisper was barely audible as Pip worriedly caressed his cheek with her pointed tongue.
Tse-Mallory nodded and pulled a com unit from his belt. "The peaceforcers will be communicating on a secure closed signal. We'll have to contact them via a shuttleport frequency. When I explain who Tru and I are and what our situation here is, we'll be able to turn Clarity over to them."
Flinx's gaze came up so sharply and was so intense that even the normally unflappable Tse-Mallory was startled. "We're not 'turning her over' to anybody." He looked at Truzenzuzex. "If they're after the first group that started shooting at us there'd be no problem. But as you said, they may be after me."
Tse-Mallory glanced at his companion, then back at Flinx. "Tru and I still wield some influence in certain quarters. We can probably get you released before the local authorities realize what's going on."
"I'm not taking that
chance," Flinx replied. "It doesn't matter if the Commonwealth wants to examine me or my ship. We're both leaving. And you're going to stay with Clarity and make sure she gets proper treatment, the best."
Truzenzuzex tried to remonstrate with him. "But, Flinx, scc!lk, we were going to search for the Tar-Aiym weapons platform together. What about the education and training we promised you?"
"There'll be time for that. Meanwhile, you know nothing of the platform. The only relevant information is on the Teacher, locked in her memory. It can be used just as effectively whether you're present or not."
"And if we insist on going with you?" Tse-Mallory prodded him thoughtfully.
Flinx shrugged. "I'm not leaving Clarity with strangers, no matter what they do to me. If you won't agree to stay and watch over her, then I'll have to."
Tse-Mallory nodded. "Such a difficult thing to quantify-love," he murmured. "You'll contact us as soon as you find anything?" He held out his com unit. Flinx nodded and drew his own. It took only a moment for the two units to exchange appropriate contact information and security codes.
"What about your headaches, Flinx?" Truzenzuzex put a comforting truhand on his arm.
Flinx shrugged. "I'll deal with them. Just as I always have. Or I'll die."
The thranx's head bobbed regretfully. "Try to avoid the latter, will you?"
Flinx had to smile. "I always have." Something whanged loudly in the corridor as it took a chunk out of the far wall. "It sounds like this is starting to wind down. I'd better get going." He eyed Tse-Mallory. "You're sure you two can handle the peaceforcers?"
Tse-Mallory nodded. "As soon as they stop shooting at us, yes." He brought his com unit to his lips. "Once you're through that hatch, I'll start berating them for their inefficiency and poor aim. That always commands attention."
With truhand and foothand, Truzenzuzex enfolded Flinx's left hand. "Remember, Flinx: the instant you've found the weapons platform, or learned anything else of note regarding the menace that lies beyond the Great Emptiness, you'll make contact with us."
"I will," he promised. "Within the week I'll find a way to contact you via space-minus to check on Clarity." Leaning forward, he kissed the unconscious woman tenderly on her forehead. He wanted to squeeze her tightly, to hold her as hard as he could, but dared not. Instead, he had to let her slump into Tse-Mallory's waiting arms. Scrap rose and glided to Clarity's shoulder.
Flinx looked down at her for one last moment that seemed to stretch into eternity and was simultaneously all too short. She was unable to look back. But Scrap did. Sensing the imminence of parting, Pip flew down from Flinx's shoulder. The two minidrags entwined tongues several times. Flinx had already turned toward the open hatchway and started up the ladder when Pip joined him.
"Up the Universe, boy," Tse-Mallory called out.
"The Great Hive go with you," Truzenzuzex added in both terranglo and High Thranx.
Flinx did not reply.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Bitter and detached, weighed down by the feeling that no matter what he did he was doomed to loneliness, Flinx spotted his shuttle and began running toward it. Pip took to the air immediately, scouting the ground in front of him. A couple of maintenance vehicles and one supply skimmer were busy on the tarmac. None of their operators, human or mechanical, bothered to glance in his direction.
Then he was alongside the familiar transfer craft racing beneath the fully extended port delta wing. Craft security recognized and admitted him. If the peaceforcers had come in search of him, he reflected as he settled into the pilot's seat, it was surprising they hadn't thought to impound his shuttlecraft or at least station a guard or two alongside. But then, he decided, they had no reason to suppose they would be unable to apprehend him before he tried to board.
As if in response to this thought, even as the shuttle's engine was whining to life, the craft's external sensors detected a pair of police skimmers clearing a distant gate and crossing out onto the tarmac. He did not wait for them to get any closer or for the clearance from port control. Acceleration slammed him back into the flight harness as the shuttle lifted without authorization. The shots fired from the two police skimmers fell woefully short of the rapidly climbing shuttle.
Within moments his body, if not his thoughts, experienced weightlessness. Clarity, Clarity, why did you have to go and get yourself shot? Why, when everything had been decided, when all had been resolved? He missed her already. Her smile, her no-nonsense advice, the way the light gilded her hair and glinted in her eyes. Having had no one to miss for so many years, it was astounding how quickly he now missed her. Pip did her best to console him. Despondent, he reached down to stroke the back of the minidrag's head and neck.
"You're a good gal, Pip. You can even hug back. No offense, but talking with you just isn't the same as it is with Clarity."
Not understanding, but wanting to, the flying snake stared back at him out of small, bright eyes.
The shuttle's command console indicated that he was being hailed on multiple frequencies. No doubt port control was trying frantically to get in touch with the shuttle that had taken off without clearance. Flinx tried to remember if, when assuming orbit around New Riviera, he had seen any warships. None leaped to mind, which did not mean they were not present. There might be one on the other side of the planet or one might have entered Nurian space after he had. But he didn't think it likely. New Riviera was celebrated for many things, but not as a military outpost.
There would be policing craft in orbit, and he would do well not to linger. Ahead, he could see the expanding shape of the Teacher, with its teardrop-shaped living quarters at one end and the Caplis generator at the other. Soon he would be back in familiar surroundings. Familiar, he reflected, and lonely.
Clarity would live. Tse-Mallory and Truzenzuzex would see to it, if only for his sake. She would live, and he would come back. As to the object of his forthcoming search, was the Tar-Aiym weapons platform powerful enough to do anything against the oncoming evil? That it possessed immense destructive potential he knew. But the looming threat was on a cosmic scale.
First he would have to find it again, he knew. And before that, he had to quickly depart the Nurian system.
The shuttle slipped silently and smoothly into the open bay in the underside of the Teacher. As soon as pressure outside had been equalized and the internal posigravity field had drawn him down into his seat, he emerged into the ship. The air of the only real home he had known for many years smelled especially sweet, he decided. Fully automated and self-contained, the Teacher welcomed him back.
His thoughts still full of the woman he had been forced to leave behind, Pip riding comfortably on his shoulder, he headed for the control room. Considering what he had just been through and what lay ahead, he found he was feeling remarkably good.
He never sensed the presence of the other two humans on board until the hypo struck him in the lower back. Feeling wonderfully happy and warm, he sat down on the deck and remained there, smiling into the distance. Pip immediately launched from his shoulder and fluttered to and fro in the control room. That there were two other humans present she saw right away. But since only feelings of contentment and satisfaction emanated from Flinx, she was not driven to attack the strangers.
A short, middle-aged woman with dark hair and eyes smiled up at the flying snake. Confused and wary, Pip settled down on the command console and relaxed as best she could. At the slightest hint of alarm from Flinx she would instantly leap to the attack.
The woman's small and wiry companion walked over to Flinx and caught him as he began to slump. "Easy there, Philip Lynx. You're going to be fine. Let me help you."
Through what seemed to be a rose-scented haze, Flinx peered up. "Thank you. Thas very nice of you." The man was much stronger than he appeared. With the woman's assistance, they managed to walk Flinx to his living quarters. A wary Pip followed, still more confused than concerned.
Once in the room, the visitors eased F
linx down onto his bed. He smiled languidly up at them as they tied him down. "I feel-wonderful," he mumbled torpidly. "Who-who are you people, and how did you get onto my ship?"
"Our names are not important." The cheerful woman was grinning from ear to ear as she secured one of the straps she had brought with her around his ankle. "We are members of the Order of Null."
Flinx chuckled softly. "The Order of Nothing. That's funny! Tell me another funny." Something was wrong, he knew. Very wrong. But he was feeling too good to worry. It was far more important to relax and enjoy life. Even the knowledge that they were tying him down was somehow amusing. It shouldn't be. He was aware enough to know that much.
"The Order of Null," the jolly man securing his upper body explained, "was brought into being only recently, yet has already gained many devoted adherents. It knows that the cosmos, or at least this portion of it, is soon to undergo a vast change. An immense cleansing. All the wickedness and corruption that has accumulated over the eons is to be wiped away to make way for a clean, new beginning."
"Thas wonderful," Flinx heard himself murmur. A tiny part of his mind was screaming to get out so it could deal appropriately with this tsunami of bogus happiness. But it was trapped in a sea of narcotized satisfaction.
Let it go, his thoughts told him. Let everything slip-slide away. Relax, be at ease. All is well. All is right with the universe. What had he been so troubled about, anyway? He fought to think, to remember, but like the soft, fresh-smelling blankets his visitors were placing on him, the air inside the Teacher seemed to press down insistently. The air, a part of him realized. The air. Desperately, a part of him tried to remember, and found neither Clarity nor clarity.
Able only to recall the most recent thoughts, he inquired contentedly, "What's going to do all this wiping away?"
It was the woman who replied. "Why, you know that better than anyone, Philip Lynx. A handful of people know of it as a potentially interesting cosmological phenomenon. Still fewer think of it as dangerous. Only you and you alone know of it as something conscious and perceptive. Regrettably, you see it as a great evil, whereas we of the Order know it for what it is: the coming of a great purification."