The E.S.P. Worm by Piers Anthony

Author:Piers Anthony
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781401044008
Publisher: Xlibris Corp
Published: 1970-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9:

There were stars outside our port. The near ones passed rapidly behind, the far ones seemed hardly to move. I was reminded of land features as seen from a speeding car: perspective made things nearest at hand seem to pass most swiftly. Here it reinforced the three-dimensional effect; the view was phenomenally impressive.

But one of the stars was moving out of phase with the others. It blinked on and off like a space-borne traffic light, and I wondered about brave Captain Fuzzpuff and the Devian and the open airlock....

A larger dot came into view; then a row of dots rotated into evidence. No stars—those lights represented the Comets Tail! I had thought it was gone, but it was traveling alongside of the pirate, since the Strums had matched velocities for the raid. Now the cargo vessel was falling behind, crippled, losing the phase. The lights blurred, became a Solarpool comet in an infinitely expanded game-table, dwindled and were gone.

Nancy sighed. "I hope all those heroics weren't in vain. I hope those spacesuits...."

"The captain and the Devian will have gotten inside," Qumax said almost confidently. "But they could have saved themselves the trouble. Did you see the way' that tube shattered? The Strums were starting to accelerate without drawing in the umbilical cord. It would have cracked off anyway in a few more moments, under that stress."

Nancy trembled. "All those poor crewmen. W-will the Strumbermians blow up the Comets Tail?"

"No. They might like to, since they're outlaws and killers, but if they violate the code of space that blatantly they'll have the entire space force down on them, and that would be the end."

"Isn't pirating a ship in high space a crime?" Nancy asked.

"Not enough of one to warrant full-scale action. Oh, there'll be a couple more police ships assigned to this locale, and the Strums will feel the pinch. But nothing like the pinch they'd feel if they wiped out an entire cargo ship. So they—"

Something slammed us. I was thrown to the floor along with Nancy and Qumax. Lying on my side, I saw a bright green dart flash by the port. I knew that this was a strange vessel and that our ship was being fired on.

"Galactic police ship already!" Qumax cried. "No wonder the Strums started moving out so fast.

We're saved, if we're not destroyed along with the raiders. "

"They wouldn't shoot down a ship with hostages aboard," I said, somewhat feebly.

"They don't know I'm aboard, and you don't count," Qumax said. He didn't seem very happy.

I wasn't very happy either. I hoped the raider would not be blasted out of space while we were aboard, but I didn't see much future for us if it escaped, either.

The ship shivered and shrugged. Overwhelming disorientation took hold. I imagined I was lying on the floor with my feet over my head. I was! I looked at the others. Qumax, poor worm, was rolled into something resembling a green pool ball, bouncing this way and that. Nancy was fortunate to be wearing coveralls, though these were beginning to tear again.

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