“If it looks like a blockade,” Veirn said. “And blocks like a blockade…”
“It probably is a blockade,” Kellen said. “But why? What’s there?” Besides their shuttle? he added to himself. But what kind of draw was it?
They had clear access to the shuttle, but they still lacked the information they needed to get home.
“You go first,” Tim said. “I’ll cover you and T’Korrin.”
But before Riina could move, the large avian reappeared, dropping down almost like a stone and landing on top of the shuttle. It was a strange sight, since the shuttle was still cloaked. It looked like the bird was perched in midair. She’d have smiled, except for the fact that the large bird was now sitting on their ride.
“Who let the dogs out,” Lt. Dish said, “or rather, who brought them back?”
They were indeed back and making no effort to hide.
“My mom used to say that no good deed ever went unpunished,” Lt. Dish added.
It might be the first time Riina understood something Lt. Dish said.
The canines, the dogs as Lt Dish called them, crouched on their haunches, not in attack positions. That seemed like a small positive. The avian settled in like a bird on a perch, its wings tucked in at its sides.
T’Korrin flew up, once more facing the larger avian on its perch. Riina studied them. It almost looked like they were chatting.
“The other ship is back,” Tim said.
“I confirm that,” Trac said.
“What’s it doing?” Riina said.
“Circling this location, but at a safe distance,” Trac said.
Was there such a thing?
“Has anyone seen our host recently?” Riina asked.
“I’ve been keeping an eye on him,” Lt. Dish said.
She had? She exchanged a surprised look with Tim.
“He and his little friend,” a note of irony crept into her voice, “are still hiding in that derelict, or what’s left of it. It took a lot of incoming. So, they might be…”
She didn’t finish the thought.
“We need to check it out,” Tim said.
Riina nodded. They still needed someone with star chart data. At the moment, he was their only option.
“I could check it out,” Trac offered.
To her surprise, Tim shook his head.
“There is a damaged Q’uy ship here,” he said, as if that explained everything.
And perhaps it did. The presence of the ship could mean that the doughy alien was also familiar with the Q’uy robots.
“There was an energy field and other protections in place here until…” Tim paused. “Something took them down. But they could have been designed for my kind, before we, well, before,” Tim finished.
Riina knew some about before, knew more about after. She knew what had been done to upgrade their virus protections and other things. She knew how close a virus had come to taking them down. Had this place been rigged with them? It sounded as if that was what Tim was implying.
Veirn’s fragment had talked about something attacking the ship.
