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A flash of yellow and red passed under a doorframe in Gau’s peripheral vision. He’d jacked back in, monitoring the hangar by telepresence to better direct Arkk. One of his bots stationed above a side entrance caught the Urd entering the hangar. Gau queried the bot’s position and swore. The entrance was on the east side of the ship, the same as the blind spot he’d picked out for Arkk to make its ascent.
The Urd’s tail had just cleared the doorframe; Gau bit the inside of his cheek and launched the bot toward it. The bot’s tarsal pads gripped scales and dug in for balance as it climbed from the tip to the base of the tail. A claw that looked from this perspective like a ridged, off-white mountain descended and scratched the red and yellow plain of pebbly skin, accompanied by Urdeki curses in a voice Gau remembered from the jungle.
What was the Urd doing here?
Gau found out when the Urd stopped scratching himself and moved toward the transport shuttles lined up against the east wall.
Krenkyr’s blood, he swore subvocally, aware even now that Arkk would hear anything louder. He thought about warning the Arashal it was about to be exposed, then discarded the idea. It would only throw Arkk into a panic. Best to keep Arkk focused on reaching the top of the Skycatcher’s scaffolding.
Yet soon it wouldn’t matter what Arkk did. Once the Urd reached the shuttle area, he only had to look up to see the Arashal. Arkk had only thirty seconds to climb; it needed at least ten more. It wouldn’t get that time. Unless Gau created a distraction of his own.
He firmed the bot’s grip on the base of the Urd’s tail, then deployed its probes and jabbed them deep.
#
Meersh yelped and spun as the tickling at the base of his tail was replaced by a sharp pinch. He craned his neck to look back along his body, searching his skin for the biting insect. But he could see nothing, and the stabbing sensation disappeared almost as soon as it had arrived. Whatever jungle pest had come to bedevil him must have flown away.
Cursing, he brushed at the base of his tail with a claw to ensure it was gone, then turned back to the line of berthed shuttles. A weapons platform would be faster, but speed was of less consideration when he was merely going to retrieve a corpse. And that little encounter had further instilled in Meersh the desire for a windscreen between him and Rreluush-Tren’s native ecology.
A commotion on the other side of the docked freighter made him turn from the shuttle’s hatch. Meersh glimpsed a white cloud descending from a spot near the top of the freighter’s scaffolding. Shouting in Urdeki mixed with the hiss of escaping gas. Meersh pelted over to that side of the ship, where a small knot of Urd gazed up at the rapidly obscuring Skycatcher. One, a male he recognized from Logistics, spotted him and called him over by name.
“What’s happened?” Meersh asked him.
The other Urd pointed. “One of the coolant lines blew.” Meersh followed his outstretched claw and saw a thick coolant tube flapping free against the top of the scaffolding. It was hard to tell through the thickening mist, but the tube didn’t appear to be ripped or torn.
“How did it come loose?” Meersh asked.
The other Urd shrugged. “The repair drones are already containing it. No need to report it.”
Meersh was about to beat the other about the head for shirking his duties when something made him look up again. Through the shroud of white slowly engulfing the top and sides of the ship, he caught a flash of green and knew.
That Arashal vortna fodder was alive! But the Arashal had made a tactical error; the Skycatcher’s crew were in Administration, not out here with the ship, and in its efforts to gain access to the freighter, the Arashal had exposed its position to Meersh.
Well, he would see that the Arashal’s foolishness was appropriately rewarded. As unobtrusively as he’d joined it, Meersh slipped out of the crowd and ascended a set of stairs against the hangar wall, slipping a stun baton out of his vest. If he was quick, he could catch the Arashal unawares.