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He turned when he heard her steps on the tile.
She didn't like the look in his eyes, but couldn't read his expression for the
jutting green beak that covered nose, mouth and chin. The beak opened, showing
a slender pink tongue. Jindigar's own voice asked, "What are you doing here,
Krinata?"
"I asked her to come," said Arlai from behind her.
"I thought..." she started breathlessly. "From Arlai's panic, I thought
something awful had happened to you."
Jindigar turned so the scurries could continue to cover and reshape his body.
"Arlai," he began as if angry. Then he subsided. "No, you're right. Krinata,
Terab is captain of the rearguard ship. Her husband and two of her children
are aboard." He turned away from the scurries and came to tower over her.
"When you walked onto the bridge, Grisnilter was trying to get me to cut out
of orbit and pace the Dushau ship, to follow it home, help them as needed, and
forget Terab. I wasn't going to but now you see what kind of person Terab is.
She's rescued herself and dozens of others! Or she would have if their ships
were in any better condition. As it is, they're not going to make it, and I'm
desperate enough to try a wild plan. Arlai doesn't want to."
"It's suicide!" said the Sentient.
She looked from one to the other. "What's the plan?"
"We develop a malfunction, a real one. Their sensors would detect a fake one.
Truth is now identified as Hyperbird, Zitur registry, and Arlai has a
Lehrtrili simulacrum. We careen out of control into the zone between the
seekers and the ships. We're legitimate. They dare not fire on us. If we give
Terab enough of a lead, she and the other ships can detime before
the seekers can get a shot off. Once they're detimed, even seeker craft can't
follow them."
"Don't bet on it," said Arlai morosely.
Krinata put that down to the odd emotionality Arlai had shown since Jindigar
had freed him. But she also felt his alarm. Holot were notorious for a
bull-like pursuit of their goals, disregarding all logical reasons to desist.
Yet she wasn't sure Jindigar was wholly rational, considering the pressure
Grisnilter was putting on him. Could it drive him into Renewal? But she shoved
that aside. "Jindigar, do we have the right to make a decision like this
without consulting the others?"
"The Dushau won't like it," said Jindigar, "but morally, they can't refuse.
Trassle, though, has children aboard. Even though he and his female have known
for days we were going to take risks, they may be too Cassrian to be able to
say yes now as they did before. Trassle would hate himself forever for
yielding to instinct."
"This isn't a risk," said Arlai, "it's a sacrifice. Those are seeker craft!"
Krinata said, "I don't know anything about seeker craft except that they're
new and highly experimental. But if the Holot have orders to get those
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fugitives before they can detime, they just might blow us up to get at them.
Arlai, couldn't you use your projectors to confuse them?"
"No. Their sensors are too sophisticated."
"Why are you being so defeatist, Arlai?"
"He's scared," said Jindigar. "The Allegiancy programming kept him from
experiencing raw fear for so long, his nerves aren't up to it."
"That's part of it," admitted the Sentient. "But I also have the specs of the
seeker craft design here, and I know what Truth's made of. We can't withstand
those guns!"
"You have the seeker craft design?!" exclaimed Krinata.
Sheepishly, the Sentient admitted, "I stole the plans to the Emperor's yacht
when we were in orbit at Cassr. Thought it might come in handy. And it's a
modified seeker."
"There has to be a way to use those plans to increase our odds to an
acceptable level," said Krinata, sweating with sud-
den nervous tension. "Jindigar, let them dress you. You may yet need that
disguise to buy us some time."
Krinata turned and paced, trying to think. Then it came to her. "Truth's
landers! Arlai, are the landers disguised as Hyperbird's?"
"Just two of them. I can convert the others "
"What about the lifeboat from Intentional Act?" asked Kri-nata, suddenly
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