LINKS
____________
The Christa Affair
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Jashi screamed -- a lingering scream of agony as if his very soul had been ripped from his body. "Karli-i-i-i-i !!" He sank to his knees sobbing. No one else moved. The five remaining Raiders stood frozen in place, weapons still slung over their shoulders; three needlegun and one Uzi were a strong incentive for them to stay that way.
Rang eased past the group and around to his brother, never taking his eyes off their prisoners as he moved. "Jashi?" His query went unanswered. He reached out to touch Jashi's shoulder -- Jashi slapped his hand away. Roi caught his eye from his position behind their prisoners; Rang shook his head in answer to the unspoken question. "Take their weapons," he instructed softly.
At last the sobbing quieted and Jashi rose from the street. His face was blank, an emotionless mask holding back unfathomable pain. With obvious effort he straightened and walked toward their prisoners; he moved as a person who had just regained consciousness after being beaten senseless.
There had been no comm transmission from Mowii since her warning of the Raider's impending liftoff; Jashi was the only one of those present who knew what had happened to Karli, and the only one who knew that the Raider ship had exploded... Except for the telepath among the prisoners.
"Jashi?"
"Shut up!" He stood in front of the Raiders, searching their faces one by one. His eyes locked with those of one to the left side of the group; slowly, painfully, Jashi walked toward him. He could see it in the other's eyes -- the knowledge that only the two of them possessed, and the pain felt when a telepartner is literally ripped from a connected mind. In spite of himself, Jashi felt compassion -- empathy -- with this being who was responsible for Karli's death. The butt of Jashi's assault rifle swung in a lethal arc; the Raider died instantly as his neck snapped with an audible crack.
"Leave those two to rot," he said. His voice was flat, without emotion. "Strip this garbage, and lock em up somewhere. Meet me in the star-room... A long moment of silence, then: "Karli's dead." Jashi said it almost as an afterthought -- the way a person would tack on an unimportant detail to the end of a conversation. He stepped into the transport booth and vanished.
*********
Mowii summoned the courage to look at the display just as Jashi burst thru the star-room door. The pickup had been locked onto Karli's boat as it tumbled toward the surface; a pile of twisted, crumpled wreckage now filled the screen. Mowii gasped in surprise -- there should have been nothing but a crater! "It didn't blow, Jashi... It didn't blow! The crash-field held!"
"Impossible!" gasped Jashi. "The velocity was too great... I was with her!"
A crash-field was just that -- a force-field designed to protect the occupants, the flux-powered generator, and the hydrofusion powerplant in the event of a crash; it was designed to take six hundred gee's. If the field had held... Was there a chance? Did he dare hope? He probed, then again... Nothing.
"Where's Suu?"
"I don't know."
"Outta the way!" Jashi roughly elbowed his bond-sister aside and switched the display to near-space scan. He triggered his communicator. "All hands! Emergency recall, prepare to lift! The boat didn't blow! She may be alive!" Thank the gods he hadn't powered down the \Klondike's\ FPG... If Karli \was\ alive, only quick pickup would save her from freezing.
It took only a moment to find the other landingcraft. About two hundred miles out, it too was tumbling out of control; short bursts came from the maneuvering thrusters as Suu fought to stabilize the runaway vessel. She would be taking a pretty good beating from the tumbling, but was in no immediate danger; she also would be no help in making pickup on Karli. Jashi turned and fled from the room, across the lobby and into the transport booth. He probed again as he ran... Still nothing.
*********
As the outer door of the lock slid into place behind him, Jashi felt the ship begin to lift; his weight fluctuated as whoever was at the controls engaged the artificial gravity. Stumbling at first from the lighter weight, he hurried toward the control room; by the time he arrived, the \Klondike\ had cleared the hanger.
The main powerplant was shut down. In the reduced magnetic field of L'sa'ria, the output of the FPG was insufficient to even hover; the starship maneuvered slowly, sluggishly -- like a huge lumbering animal just awakened from a sound sleep. Jashi glanced at the flight console. Drain on emergency power storage was in the red; about fifteen minutes of this and reserve power would be exhausted. "Emergency start on the reactor!" he ordered. "Full override... I need power in two minutes."
"It's been shut down for three weeks!" protested Rang. "You've got fifteen minutes reserve."
"Do it!" snapped Jashi viciously. He had to have the tractor-beam. "Toko, can you contact Suu?" Communications had been impossible until they were out of the hanger; the comm couldn't penetrate thru the body of the planet, and the star-room provided no facilities that matched any of the communications gear in either the \Klondike\ or Suu's boat.
"She's okay," reported Toko from his position at the communications console, "but she can't stop the tumbling. All automatic systems have shut down and refuse re-start."
"Tell her to hang on... We'll come get her as soon as we pick up Karli." It would be tricky, but they \should\ be able to stop the tumbling with the tractor-beam.
They were over the wreckage. Jashi felt a wave of despair as he looked at the crumpled, twisted mass of metal below; no one could live thru that, crash-field or not. "How long till power?" he asked.
"Jashi, please! At least let me run diagnostics on the crystal. It'll only take five minutes! If it fractured when we shut down..." Rang's protest trailed off and he reluctantly touched the control that sent liquid hydrogen flowing into the reaction envelope... Nothing happened.
"There is no crystal in the fusion envelope, Captain," asserted the ship's computer unbidden.
"What?! What happened to it?"
"It was defective. I removed it."
Jashi couldn't believe what he was hearing. How the hell could the ship's computer remove a physical object? Without the crystal, the powerplant was useless; pure hydrogen would fuse only in the presence of H-catalyst.
His plan had been to pick up the wrecked landingcraft, Karli and all, and tractor it back to the hanger; now they would have to land. "Roi, Toko, Rang... Pressure suits!" Jashi shivered a little as he remembered their first experience on the L'sa'rian surface. "Lito, you have the conn. Roi, get the lasertorch.
*********
Jashi fell the last three feet from the bottom of the drop-field. There hadn't been time to adjust it, but he was prepared, and he hit the ground running; behind him came the other three. The cold of the surface immediately bit thru the soles of his boots, and he knew they would have to hurry.
The crash-field had done its work well. The cabin of the landingcraft was twisted and broken, but not crushed. Through the shattered command bubble, Karli could be seen slumped over the flight console with part of the pilot's chair laying on top of her; her suit appeared to be holding pressure.
The lasertorch made quick work of the mangled cabin wall, and Jashi was at her side. He checked the external panel of her suit -- it showed pulse and respiration, body temp was okay, but there was no brain-wave. He picked her up as if she were a small child, and sprinted for the ship, his heart pounding.
"I'll meet you in the infirmary, Jashi," came Lito's voice over the intercom as they stepped from the airlock.
"Forget it! Just get us back to the hanger. Stat!"
"But Suu..."
"How the fuck do you expect to pick her up with the powerplant dead?" His voice rose shrilly as he felt himself rapidly approaching the breaking point. "Get me back to the goddamn hanger! Now! Tell Suu 'abandon ship.'"
They crouched in the airlock for the short trip back to the hanger. Jashi opened Karli's face-plate, then removed her helmet; he could see a faint pulse in the soft skin of her neck, but her face was ashen. He reached out for her in his mind and found only emptiness... "I love you, Karli," he said softly.
From his position behind Jashi, Toko could see the biostat readout of his suit; Jashi was near collapse. The latest string of events was enough to over-stress anyone, but to have your telepartner ripped from your mind in sudden death... Toko tried to imagine what it must be like -- found he couldn't. He reached out and put his hand lightly on Jashi's shoulder.
Under Lito's expert control, the \Klondike\ settled quickly to the floor of the hanger. The door of the airlock slid open; their ears popped slightly as the pressure equalized. Jashi waited, holding Karli, until Rang could adjust the drop-field, then floated gently to the floor. He stumbled slightly as his feet touched, but recovered and trotted off toward the transport booth. Rang paused as he started to jump. He turned to the others. "Roi, Toko, stay with Lito, figure out some way to make pickup on Suu's boat." He jumped before they could ask how he suggested they do that, with the hydrofusion powerplant non-operational.
Rang sprinted for the booth and transported to their complex; by the time he emerged, Jashi was half-way across the lobby -- on his knees. "Take her..." Jashi gasped as his brother approached. "Infirmary..." His breath came in short, ragged bursts thru the open face-plate of his helmet. "Keeper will know. Tell him I can't make contact. Nothing... Just empty." As Rang took Karli from his arms Jashi tried to stand -- found he couldn't, and sank back to the floor, his heart pounding. "Go on! I'll come in a minute," he ordered.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
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