Purrfect Plunder by John Cleve

Author:John Cleve [Cleve, John]
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

with an emergency that was not within the capabilities of even his top-of-the-line hyper-sophisticated 'Mate', SIPACUM. Human considerations and judgments were required. True, SIPACUM, if programmed for an hour or so with the information Jonuta's experience had already given him, might have reached his first decision. "Swim for it," he snapped to all stations, wishing that he and his crew had agreed on a few little codewords to apprise them of drastic steps being taken. And he took the first: he punched in the command to cut all power to the G-engine; the one that imparted spin and thus gravity.

Too bad it couldn't be braked for instant stop and thus instant weightlessness, but there it was. It would not be a smart thing to try. The white-noise hum that was any spacefarer's almost constant companion took on a different tone. Jonuta meanwhile locked every hatch and compartment he could, from here. Engine area; engine area Two, storage One, Three, and Four - let them get to the fridge and alcoholics, if they wanted! - personal cabins including the captain's. Nice if the pirates had separated and he had just locked a couple into separate rooms, he mused, without assuming a thing.

"All of you to the con," he snapped. "Cover yourselves, now," he added, assuming that he need not say "stoppers out!" "Have they got HRadem?" "Firm." (Weight was diminishing as the torque engine wound down.) That HRal Hrectum might just have to be expendable, Jonuta thought, and asked, "Anyone else?"

"Negative, but we couldn't stop HReenee - she went charging to help HRadem" "Damn." Great, oh just great. That gives them two hostages - important ones. And that blew his idea of getting everybody here and into emergency breathers - and opening both airlock hatches. No, he could kill the pirates that way without compunctions, but he couldn't coldly take out both HRal with them.

Not unless it proved absolutely necessary. The bottom line was that Coronet was more important than the two HRal, than anything. And only Jonuta was more important than Coronet. He tapped in instructions to start G-engine, and thought some more. The merest hint of a flicker of a smile touched his lips, and he started stripping. Weight began to return. Transferring one item from his dramatic scarlet coat to one of the waist-hem pockets of his tights, he reached over to punch in instructions to cut gravity, again.

He was thinking: what kind of idiot social order do these HRal have, anyhow, that he gets grabbed because he did something stupider than stupid, and she races to try to help him - against four - count-em - four strong men with far more experience in space? Boots off, he had a compartment open and was checking the labels on odd-looking skintites, or something like. Green, all evergreen in color, silky and yet rather bulky.

His was made so that it could be pulled on over his pants and undershirt and socks. That was so that he could get into the coverall fast.

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