The pride of Chanur by C. J. Cherryh

Author:C. J. Cherryh [Cherryh, CJ]
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science fiction, Fantasy, Adventure, General, Science Fiction - General, Fiction, Children: Young Adult (Gr. 10-12), Science Fiction & Fantasy, Short stories, Science fiction, American, American Science Fiction And Fantasy, Action & Adventure, Psychological, Chanur, Pyanfar (Fictitious character)
ISBN: 9780932096456
Publisher: Phantasia Press
Published: 2010-01-21T16:04:21+00:00

VIII

“Aunt.”

It was not com; it was Hilfy in person, leaning over her bed, shaking at her. “Aunt.” Pyanfar came out of sleep with a wild reach to get her elbow under her, shook herself, stared into Hilfy’s dilated eyes. “It’s Starchaser,” Hilfy said. “They’ve come through. They’re in trouble. They can’t get dumped. The word just came in-“

“O gods.” Pyanfar kicked the coverlet off, scrambled out dressed as she was and seized Hilfy by the arm on her way out of the room. “Talk, imp: has anyone scrambled?”

“Station’s called miners in the path . . . some mention of an outbound freighter being able to change course. ...” Hilfy let herself be pulled through the doorway into the corridor and loped along keeping up with her on the way to the bridge. “They’re twenty minutes lag out, crossing Lijahan track zenith.”

“Twenty now?”

“About.”

Haral was on the bridge, standing by scan, with the area-light on her face, and her expression was grim when she looked around at their arrival. “They’ve got to get to the pod,” Haral said. “No way anyone can get to her in time. No way any rescue can haul that mass down, even if she’s stripped.”

“What’s our status?”

“We can’t get there,” Hilfy objected, plain logic.

“Not for rescue,” Pyanfar said quietly.

“Repairs underway,” Haral said. “Vane’s unsecured. If they’re running ahead of company-we’re in trouble.”

Tirun came limping in, loping haste, and there was a query from lowerdeck. “You’re getting all we’ve got,” Haral relayed to Geran and Chur below. “Can’t tell anything yet.”

“Come on,” Pyanfar muttered to the blip on systemic image. “Do it, Faha. Get out of there.” She sank down into the com cushion, an eye still toward the screen, and punched through the station op code. “This is The Pride of Chanur. Urgent relay the stationmaster, Pyanfar Chanur speaking: warn you of possible hostile pursuit on tail of incoming emergency. Repeat: warn you of possible hostile pursuit of incoming emergency.”

“This message receive clear, Pride of Chanur. Mahen ships answer emergency. Please stand by.”

She watched scan, rested a knuckle against her teeth and hissed a breath. Ships showed in the schematic, traffic at dead standstill compared to the incoming streak that was Starchaser, motion slowed enough to see only because of systemwide scale. Everything was history, the images on the scope, the voices from the zone of emergency. Unable to dump velocity, Starchaser would streak helplessly across the system and lose herself on an unaimed voyage to infinity. It was a long way to die.

“Lost the transmission,” Haral said. Hilfy edged in, looking desperate, tried the switches herself past Haral’s side. Pyanfar gnawed the underside of a^ claw and shook her head. The business of getting a jump-mazed crew on their feet and headed to the escape pod-in Starchaser’s type, high up on the frame- and get it away, all this within the minutes they had left. . .

Then they could only hope, if they could make it that far, that the pod’s engines could hammer down the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.