The Forever Man Read Online Free Page B

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    Fourth Helen was always a laggard. Jim had warned her pilot about it a dozen times. But now was not the hour for reprimands. They were deep in Laagi territory, and the alien alert posts would have already picked up the burst of energy not only from their initial transmit from Picket Nine, which had been precalculated by the com-ship there over the hours since La Chasse Gallerie had been discovered—and which consequently had been able to send them with some accuracy half the distance to her—but from the succeeding jumps that had brought them lightyears deep into Laagi territory. Communication between the ships of the Section must be held to a minimum while the aliens were still trying to figure out where the chain of shifts had landed the intruders.
    Shortly, since they must know of the approximate position of La Chasse Gallerie , and have ships on the way to try to kill her again, they would put two and two together and expect to find the intruders in the same area. But for the moment Wander Section, if it lay low and quiet, could feel it was safely hidden in the immensities of enemy space.
    Jim blocked off outside transmission, and spoke over the intercom to Mary.
    â€œAll right, Mary,” he said. “What was it you wanted to say Frontier?”
    There was a slight pause before the other’s voice came back.
    â€œMajor—”
    â€œNevermind that,” said Jim. “You had it right before, let’s not go all formal now we’re in space. I apologize for the ‘Captain,’ earlier. What was it you wanted, Mary?”
    â€œAll right, Jim,” said the voice of Mary. “I won’t bother about military manners either, then.” There was a slight grimness to the humor in her voice. “I wanted to say I’d like to get in close enough to La Chasse Gallerie , so that we can keep a tight-beam connection with her hull at all times and I can record everything Penard says from the time of contact on. It’ll be important.”
    â€œDon’t worry,” said Jim. “We’re spread out and searching on instruments for him now. If Picket Nine did a reasonable job of calculating his progress, we should have him alongside in a few minutes. And I’ll put you right up next to him. We’re going to surround him with our ships, lock him in the middle of us with magnetics, and try to shift out as a unit, since he doesn’t seem capable of anything more than regular acceleration on his own.”
    â€œYou say he’ll be along?” said Mary. “Why didn’t we go directly to him?”
    â€œAnd make it absolutely clear to the Laagi he’s what we’re after?” answered Jim. “As long as they don’t know for sure, they have to assume we don’t even know of his existence. So we stop ahead in his line of travel—lucky he’s just plugging straight ahead without trying any dodges—and wait for him. We might even make it lock like an accidental meeting to the Laagi—” Jim smiled inside the privacy of his suit’s headpiece without much humor. “—But don’t bet on it.”
    â€œDo you think you can lock on to him without too much trouble—”
    â€œDepends,” answered Jim, “on how fast he starts shooting at us when he sees us.”
    â€œShooting at us?” There was incredulity in Mary’s voice. “Why should he—oh.” Her voice dropped. “I see.”
    â€œThat’s right,” said Jim. “We don’t look like any human ship he ever knew about, and he’s in territory where he’s going to be expecting aliens, not friends.”
    â€œBut what’re you going to do, to stop him shooting?”
    â€œThey dug up the recognition signals of the Sixty Ships Battle,” said Jim. “Just pray he remembers them. And they’ve given me a voice signal that my blinker lights can translate and flash at him in the code he