“I’m going to carry these rations straight across to the shoreline,” I said. “I don’t want all of anything we need to be in one place.”

  “Right,” said Joss. “And I’ll see what our friends across the water are doing. If they start to cross, though, sir—it’s the gun we’re going to need. And they’re going to be shooting back. Sure that you don’t want to let me borrow it?”

  “I’m sure,” I said. I hated the thought of shooting another person, but I’d been ready to do it to free Rick and I was ready to do it now. Maybe the boat from Island 1 would appear momentarily.

  We had fishing supplies as part of the collecting kit. When sunlight warmed the water in the bay, it created a slight outward current. I hung three buoyed hooks at intervals on a twenty-foot line and set them to drift out. I didn’t expect we’d need to supplement the remaining ration packs but it gave me something to do while waiting for the collecting boat to come by.

  Kent had set up one of the tent sections in a swale and carried most of the truck’s contents to it. He’d cut the brush with a saw of notched monofilament. A single unit was too cramped to hold the open cots, and the ground would be extremely rough to sleep on. I figured I’d find a place of my own and fit myself between the trees instead of cutting them off into sharp stumps.

  I figured Joss was watching the far shore. I left her alone, hoping that she’d say something if she thought we ought to be doing things other than I’d thought of. I was completely at sea in this mess.

  It had only happened because a guard had been trigger happy—and because I hadn’t successfully warned the garrison of Island 23 that we were coming, Maybe if I’d insisted that Kent take us up to a thousand feet before we set out, the better radio propagation would have made the difference. It just hadn’t seemed to matter.

  I thought I heard something but decided it was just the weather. Joss called through my handheld, “They’re running up the thrusters of the ship! Over.”

  “Great!” I replied, making sure that Kent was copied. “That means the Shinings are running before the security forces get here. They can pass off shooting at the aircar as surprise, so they’re fine so long as we keep out mouths shut. Ah, over.”

  “They won’t take that chance,” Joss said. “Out.”

  The freighter’s thrusters roared, overwhelming the voice on my handheld—if Joss was still speaking, which she probably wasn’t since if I’d heard correctly she’d signed off. My goggles were self-dimming so I could watch the vessel rise out of the huge plume of steam without the plasma exhaust burning holes in my retinas.

  The ship had risen about a hundred feet in the air. It looked odd. They’re in so much of a hurry that they haven’t closed the hatch!

  The freighter wobbled and started back down—very rapidly at first but pausing in midair and resuming in a series of slow jerks. The roar doubled as the ship landed in the bay, so close to the shore of our islet that you could jump from the outrigger to the land.

  The steam that boiled out of the bay dissipated more quickly than I was used to when ships landed. It was three hundred feet away from where I huddled. The thrusters had been run only a brief time and the hull hadn’t been heated by reentry.

  In the boarding hold appeared figures in yellow fatigue uniforms, the laborers who’d been manhandling the dead Grinders when we arrived. They were now carrying carbines and submachine guns. I didn’t see any of the company’s security force, but the guards had clearly provided weapons for the Shining work crew.

  The Shinings threw a boarding bridge from the end of the hatch. They were crying and coughing from steam and the ions. The bridge pivoted on the end attached to the ship and banged in an arc to solid ground. They rushed across it in a mass.

  A man wearing the more tailored outfit of the military officers I’d seen on Mindoro stayed on the boarding ramp where it rested on the freighter’s outrigger. He was wearing some sort of vision-enhancing headgear and held a loudhailer through which he shouted orders to the laborers spreading out below.

  He’s got a better view than the others because he’s several feet higher.

  The Shining officer drew a pistol from his belt and pointed it in the direction I’d last seen Kent. He fired three shots. The laborers turned and began spraying the brush in that direction with automatic fire.

  I rose from my crouch and fired when I had a clear view of the officer. A hundred yards was a decent range even for a slug, but I took him squarely at the base of his throat. The Shining officer pitched backward, flinging the pistol to one side and the loudhailer to the other.

  I ducked back down and reloaded. The automatic gunfire continued, but none of it seemed to be aimed in my direction. I’m not sure most of the laborers even realized they’d been shot at.

  There was a scream from some distance away. I wondered if the Shinings had managed to shoot one of their own.

  There was another horrible scream. I risked a look. I couldn’t see anything through the brush in the direction the scream had seemed to come from, but I noticed movement in the boarding hold of the freighter. A spacer was preparing to put his weight on the lever that closed the hatch.

  I shot him without thinking about it. He flew sideways; a mist of blood hung in the air for a moment. I crouched and reloaded with heavy shot. I had more slug cartridges in storage aboard the Far Traveller, but it was only whim that I’d brought even two with me on this trip to the mainland.

  The laborers had mostly stopped shooting. They’d probably emptied their weapons spraying brush. I didn’t duck after shooting this time though I was ready to if somebody noticed me. They were running back to the ship, as best as I could see through momentary openings and by the way the brush wobbled.

  The yellow uniforms crowded onto the ramp extension, then started up the ramp. My shotgun wouldn’t carry that far, not usefully, so I started through the brush myself. I wasn’t exactly running because the trees didn’t allow that, but I was moving as fast as I reasonably could.

  The ship was our best route out of here. If the crew still aboard lifted off, it was back to waiting for the boat from the base at Island 1. That had been a straw of hope when there was no other hope, but the ship was a much better one.

  I was close to the east shore and had a good view of the ramp but from my low angle I couldn’t see deeply into the boarding hold. I could see the raised hatch lever, but I didn’t have a good angle on anybody trying to use it.

  An arm reached up for the lever. The laborer was hidden behind several of his fellows. I presented anyway, planning to put a charge of shot into the yellow-clad arm. A carbine cracked from the brush. The arm dropped out of sight. Five more shots snapped out of the brush. Laborers milling in the hold dropped.

  Joss appeared on the ramp extension. She’d drawn her knife but she didn’t carry a carbine. A Shining within the hold leaped to his feet and grabbed the hatch lever, hauling it down with his whole body weight. The hatch started to grind closed. As the ramp proper rose, the extension fell into the sea. Joss caught the lip of the ramp left handed and hauled herself up, then dropped out of my sight within the boarding hold.

  I fell to one knee and panted. I needed to get back out of the way in case the ship lifted now that the hatch was closed.

  The ship had shut down the instant it landed on our islet. There’d be some warning before it could move: at least the sound of pumps starting up to cycle reaction mass to the thrusters.

  I got heavily to my feet. When I figured I was able to move, I set off to the center of the island, calling, “Kent! Are you all right! This is Harper!”

  Just in case one of the Shinings still had some fight in him, I kept the shotgun ready.

  * * *

  Kent was near the tent he’d set up. His right arm was bleeding—but, when I examined it, entirely from splinters. A slug must have come very close but hit brush and threw bits into Kent.

  Nothing looked very serious but I got the first-aid kit out of the truck. As I opened it, Kent said, “Sir, what do we do now?”

  “We wait for the ship to open up and see who comes out,” I said. “If it isn’t Joss, then I see if whoever it is wants to negotiate. I take about any offer they’re willing to make.”

  I pointed to a carbine I’d found in the brush. “You take that when I’ve got a bandage on your arm,” I said. “It’s got pretty close to a full load. Mostly just shoot to make some noise if it looks like they’re coming for you. It’ll make them cautious.”

  The bolts dogging the hatch shut withdrew with clangs, then a gear train drove it down to become the boarding ramp. Before it reached the bottom—the port outrigger—I saw Joss standing in the hold. She was bloody red all over, skin and utility jacket both. There were bodies in the hold behind her.

  “Joss, are you all right?” I called in case there was more going on than I could see.

  “Not a scratch,” she said. She’d wiped the blade of her bush knife; it flashed bright highlights when it caught the sun.

  I ran to her holding the first-aid kit in one hand—because I didn’t wholly believe her—and the shotgun in the other. There were steps in the side of the outrigger. Even before I started up the ramp, I could smell the slaughter within. Blood, too fresh to begin rotting yet, and feces that the dying had voided when their sphincters released. I swallowed and tried at first to keep my features composed; by the time I reached the hold, I was just trying not to vomit.

  “No, really,” Joss said. “Not a scratch. Well, maybe a scratch.”

  She tugged the flapping tail of her utility jacket. There was a broad tear in it and the edges were black under the soaking of blood. An impeller had gone off in contact with the cloth. The driving band vaporized by the powerful flux had charred a hole in the fabric, but the slug itself appeared to have missed Joss.

  “The bloody carbine jammed,” she said. “There wasn’t any choice but to board and do the job that way. I didn’t think there was any danger but one of ’em still had a gun and the balls to use it.”

  Then she said, “I think they’re all dead but be careful. I mighta missed one. That bloody slug spooked me. I swear it did!”

  It was the first time I’d heard her express emotion. There were six bodies in the boarding hold with her. The knife had killed two of them.

  “I’m going to find their commo and try to raise the Far Traveller,” I said. Kent arrived at the top of the ramp, looking like he was watching a tree start to fall on him.

  I looked at him and said, “Kent, get these bodies out. Just toss them in the bay for now.”

  “There’s more,” Joss said, sheathing her knife. “Come on, Kent. I’ll give you hand.”

  She’s in shock herself, but she’s trying to keep a shipmate on track, I thought. And what am I doing?

  I took the central passageway forward to the bridge. There were four more bodies there. The trousers of one showed double streaks where Joss had wiped her blade clean of blood.

  I ignored the bodies and concentrated on the command console. It was of unfamiliar layout but I thought I’d brought up the commo display. On RECEIVE I got only static. I switched to TRANSMIT and said, “Lieutenant Harper to Far Traveller. We are at Island Twenty-Three and have been attacked by interloping traders. Send help immediately. Harper over.”

  I didn’t know which frequencies I should be using, but I found a red caret which I hoped was fifteen meters, the RCN hailing frequency. I tried that, then several more frequencies. When I checked incoming between transmissions, I continued to get static.

  I heard Joss and Kent behind me as I worked, but it was only when I gave up for a moment that I realized that the bodies had been removed from the bridge. Joss was standing in the hatchway. Our eyes met. She said, “No luck?”

  I said, “Not yet. We’re close to the magnetic pole here. Maybe if I take her up to a thousand feet or so, I’ll be able to raise somebody.”

  “Could you maybe just fly us back to Island One?” Joss said, her eyes narrowing.

  “No,” I said. “The training I got in the Sheet Island Space Fencibles will let me take this thing up. I hope to bring her down.”

  Joss smiled.

  I paused for a moment, then laughed. “Yeah, I suspect gravity still works here. Put us down in one piece then. Thing is, if I’m going to be flying her, I won’t be able to fool with the commo.”

  Joss shrugged. “I’ve run commo,” she said. “Which station to you want me to use?”

  “Either of them,” I said. There were three on the bridge. “As soon as Kent sets clear, we’ll try it.”

  “I’m not going back on the island alone,” Kent said from the hatchway. “If you guys are going, I’m sticking with you.”

  “Then somebody close the main hatch,” I said. “I’ll get the show on the road.”

  * * *

  I had the pumps cycling; I could hear their deep note. I remembered Warrant Officer Greim sitting at the striker’s seat of the Sheet Island flotilla’s only ship: a pinnace with a dual control console out of a scrapped destroyer. Greim was fat and had lost both feet to diabetes but he could still get about the rigging with a speed and assurance that none of us “young gentlemen” could match.

  The thruster controls were in the same places they had been on the Fencibles’ pinnace. I flared all six nozzles, then lit them in pairs at minimum output. The Shining crew had tested the freighter very recently, so I didn’t think I needed to attempt to remember all the details of a by-the-book lift-off.

  “Here we go!” I shouted. I wasn’t sure how to switch on the ship’s PA system or if there even was one. I opened the throttles to eighty percent output, then closed the sphincter petals, using my right hand for both operations.

  I knew that a skilled officer would use both hands to accomplish the operations simultaneously. My way worked, which trying to display more skill than I had might not have. The ship bobbled on the surface of the bay for a moment, then began rising on an even keel. I didn’t know what I would’ve done if the thrusters hadn’t remained in balance. Chief Greim wasn’t here to take over.

  Purple block letters reading CONTACT flashed on the upper right corner of my flat-plate display. I looked over my shoulder and saw Joss gesturing with both thumbs up.

  I reduced the thrust of the thrusters together. I almost lost control then: one of the units lagged behind the other five and the stern started to rise. I knew I’d overreact if I reacted.

  It cleared in five seconds. I’d done the right thing—nothing—but I was gripping the throttle knobs so fiercely that my knuckles were blotched in the seconds before the problem self-corrected.

  We continued dropping, a little faster than I’ve have liked us to, but the descent was smooth and I knew now not to trust throttle response. I kept the bay centered in my display. I really would have liked to engage an automatic landing protocol, but I wasn’t going to fiddle with the console in the middle of this operation.

  “Hang on!” I shouted.

  The ship guided itself onto my point of focus. In the Fencibles I’d been taught to slant down to a landing. That was certainly the best method given normal skill and a ship landing from orbit.

  I had nothing like normal skill for a ship’s officer, so this was perfect for me. This freighter may have been built for short hops after an initial landing—which would be normal for an interloper trying to keep out if sight as much as possible. In any case, it was making my job much easier.

  We hit the water hard. I shut the thrusters down at the first impact but we still rose to the surface like a leaping fish. The throttles closed completely, so at least we didn’t flip over.

  “Bloody hell,” Kent said from his couch.

  I didn’t blame him. I wished I’d practiced more on Sheet Island, but at the time I hadn’t thought that piloting a starship would be a necessary skill for a biologist.

  Joss stood up. “I’ve come down harder,” she said, which wasn’t as positive a comment as it would have been from somebody who hadn’t been in a drop commando. “I got Lieutenant Vermijo. They’re coming for us. I didn’t have time to go into detail.”

  She stretched. I glanced at her, then looked away by reflex. She saw my wince and said, “If you open the ship up again, I’ll take a bath in the bay before we have company. It won’t help my scars any, but I’ll get rid of the blood.”

  “Won’t the water be boiling?” I said. I was embarrassed, but saying so wouldn’t help.

  “Not from a landing as quick as that,” Joss said. “Anyway, I’m going to swim to shore and find a change of clothes besides.”

  “Right,” I said and found the override switch on my station. We were floating a hundred feet from the island where the truck had crashed. If she wasn’t concerned about the water, there wasn’t any reason I should be.

  Myself, I was just going to wait for help to arrive.

  * * *

  I wondered what it would take to clean the interior of the ship. More than I could manage, certainly. I got up from the command station and walked out onto the boarding ramp. Kent was already there, standing at the bottom where it rested on the outrigger.

  I joined him but neither of us spoke. The bodies he and Joss had flung overboard floated near the ship, some of them rotating in slow pinwheels. Their legs and heads hung lower than their bodies.

  “How long d’ye figure it’ll be before the ship gets to us?” Kent suddenly said.

  “They’ll probably send a pinnace if there’s one on the surface,” I said. “Otherwise they’ll probably come in APCs from the security force. That’ll take an hour and they’ll have to negotiate with Marinetti.”

  I wondered if I could hear the console from where I stood, if the Far Traveller tried to call us? Probably not. But then, we probably wouldn’t be able to receive their signals anyway, at least until the pinnace got closer. I also didn’t care if I never spoke to another human being in my life.

  When I closed my eyes, I kept seeing the Shining officer flinging his arms wide; and the spray of blood behind him.

  “What if the guards come over?” Kent said. He was scanning the shore of Island 23. I saw a man in gray-green come out of the brush, then duck back in when he realized I was looking at him.