Crisis On Doona Read Online Free

their own scout, and not unlike the escape shuttle they had mistaken it for. What their efforts had acquired was a full-sized orbital beacon, an unmanned buoy similar to the ones hanging above and below the proscribed system, still screaming out its Mayday message on the Albatross’s receiver as they stood staring at it. The needles on the VU meters leaped back and forth in their glass settings.
    “So we’ve been suckered into an interdicted system by a recorded Mayday,” Todd said, unbelievingly. “I’ll report this illicit use all the way to ...” He paused, since the top of Spacedep was Al Landreau and he knew what short shrift that report would get. “We have fallen into deep kimchee, my friend. I should have listened to you.”
    “No, friend Zodd, you listened to a distress call and acted conscientiously,” Hrriss said with a heavy sigh. Neither needed to discuss the ramifications of this.
    “Let’s get this sucker hauled in and see if we can salvage that Mayday beacon. That’ll add credibility to this incident.”
    “Good thinking, Zodd,” and Hrriss programmed the winch for a slow wind while Todd monitored the progress from the external camera.
    “Hold it!” Todd held up one hand. “There’s something attached to it. Oh-ho! Double trouble. Did we record the capture? Good. Unless I’m vastly mistaken there’s a device riding along a very suspicious-looking thickening of the longitudinal spar. That thing is rigged to blow on contact!”
    “Rrrreelease,” Hrriss said, almost spitting in disgust at the stratagem. “Can you get a close recording of that section?”
    “I have so done.” Todd was immensely satisfied by that much of this episode, but as Hrriss plotted their course out of the area, his elation drained from him. “Someone’s been getting awful clever, Hrriss. Our course was known from the time we left Doona, so there was plenty of time to set this up where we’d stumble into the trap on our way back from Hrretha.”
    “All too trrrue.” Hrriss nodded, his expression as bleak as his friend’s. Even the markings on his intelligent felinoid face seemed to have faded in his concern.
    “I could wish boils on the hide of whoever perpetrated this. We could have been killed!”
    “Waz that the object? To kill us? Or to lure us into interdicted space?”
    The eyes of the two friends met — the yellow-green and the clear blue.
    “I know someone who wouldn’t shed a tear at my demise,” Todd said grimly.
    “I have similar well-wishers,” Hrriss replied, tapping the console with the tips of his claws in a rhythmic fashion.
    “Our deaths wouldn’t mean as much as our broaching interdicted space,” Todd began, rubbing his chin. Stubble was developing, and there were moments, like this, when he wondered what he’d look like with a full beard, or at least sufficient face hair to make him more Hrruban.
    “But not only is there prrroof of our samarrritanism, but also I, Hrriss, made all the vocal contacts.”
    Todd dismissed that notion. “Everyone knows we’re together, so I’ve certainly been wherever you were, legal or not. What I don’t understand is exactly why the tactic was planned in this fashion. Was killing the real end? Or discrediting us?”
    The two exchanged few words on the rest of the journey back to Doona. Both of them were deep in thought as how best to mitigate their situation. Violating one of the main stipulations of the very agreement they were hoping to see renewed this year was not good, however inadvertent.
    “Have you convinced yourself that the recording is enough, Hrriss?” Todd asked after they had identified themselves to the Doona/Rrala buoy.
    “Our people will believe us.”
    “Let’s devoutly hope that’s enough. Too bad that false beacon didn’t blow up. We could at least have brought a section of it home as additional proof.”
    “We do warn everyone that there are bogus Maydays out there!”
    “That is obligatory. Bogus or not, we were in