The Witches of Karres by James H. Schmitz

Author:James H. Schmitz [Schmitz, James H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Baen Books http://www.baen.com
Published: 2011-12-29T08:21:30+00:00

Worm Weather appeared in the screens seven hours later…

It was very far away, but it was there—fuzzily rounded specks of yellowness drifting across the stars. They picked up five or six of the distant dots almost simultaneously, not grouped but scattered about the area. There seemed to be no pattern to their motion, either in relation to one another or to the Venture.

Within another half-hour there might have been nearly fifty in the screens at a time, to all sides of the ship. It was difficult to keep count. They moved with seeming aimlessness, dwindled unnaturally, were gone in distance. Others appeared…Goth had set up the Drive, and came back to join the captain. The lounge screens had been cut off from the beginning. Laes Yango called on intercom to report the fact, was told of a malfunction which would presently be corrected.

And still the Nuri globes came no closer. The encounter might have been a coincidence, but the probability remained that Vezzarn’s exposure of the crystal in the strongbox had drawn the swarms towards this area of space. They seemed to have no method of determining the Venture’s moment-to-moment position more exactly. But sheer chance might bring one near enough to reveal the ship to them—

“You scared?” Goth inquired by and by in a subdued voice.

“Well, yes…You?”

“Uh-huh. Bit.”

“The Drive will get us out of it if necessary,” he said.

“Uh-huh.”

In another while there seemed fewer of the globes around. The captain waited some minutes to be sure, then commented on it. Goth had noticed it, too. Their number dwindled farther. At last only one or two doubtful specks remained in space, now far behind the ship. But neither of them felt like leaving the screens.

“Being a witch,” sighed the captain, “can get to be quite a job!”

“Sometimes,” Goth agreed.

He reflected. “Well, maybe things will quiet down for a spell…Almost everything that could happen on board has happened by now!” He considered again, chuckled. “Unless one of those—what did you call them?—vatches joins the party!”

Goth cleared her throat carefully. “Well, about that, Captain—”

He gave her a quick, startled look.

“Can’t say there’s one around,” Goth said. “Can’t say there isn’t though, either.”

“One around! I thought you’d know!”

“They come close enough, I do. This one doesn’t. If it’s a vatch. Just get a feeling there’s been something watching.” She waved a hand at the Chaladoor in the screens. “From a ways off.”

“It could be a vatch?”

“Could be,” Goth acknowledged. “Wouldn’t worry about it. If it’s your vatch, he’s probably just been curious about what you were doing. They get curious about people.”

The captain grunted. “Since when have you had that feeling?”

“Off and on,” Goth said. “On the ship…once or twice in Zergandol.”

He shook his head helplessly.

“Might fade off after a while,” Goth concluded. “He starts making himself at home around here, I’ll let you know.”

“You do that, Goth!” the captain said.

***

Two watches farther along, it became apparent that not everything that could happen on the Venture had happened so far. What occurred wasn’t vatch work, though for a moment the captain wasn’t so sure.

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