9
Ammonia Storm
SparrowHawk reentered the North Temperate Belt some 20,000 kilometers east of the Dardanelles Cyclone. As quickly as they returned to clear air, Sands sent his ship toward one of the high traffic lanes used by heavier-than-hydrogen passenger craft. The cargo carrying airships generally flew at a much lower altitude where the higher atmospheric density provided greater lift. Thus, SparrowHawk had the sky to herself save for a few distant transponder blips. As far as Sands could tell, they had left their pursuers far behind.
Sands and his crew had spent a Saturnian standard day-and-a-half making good their escape. Three times the world had cycled between pitch black and dark gray as they flew through the turbulent clouds at the northernmost boundary of Saturn’s North Tropical Zone. Their flight had kept them well away from clear air to avoid being tracked from an orbiting sensor satellite.
They had flown blind for more than six hours after departing the Dardanelles Cyclone. It was only when Sands was sure they were well out of detector range that he ordered the ship’s active sensors turned on.
As soon as they could “see” again, Sands sent his craft into a gradual climb in search of ammonia. Except for specially equipped tankers, most vessels avoided any form of liquid precipitation. Sands would normally have steered clear as well. Liquid entering a ship’s engines could damage them by thermal shock. However, his need of the moment overpowered his fear of abusing his drive reactors. Bolin’s people had used ammonia soluble paint to apply their ersatz markings. Liquid ammonia would wash away the traitor’s coat the ship wore and return SparrowHawk to her former shabby appearance.
The chemistry of the Saturnian atmosphere was complex, especially inside a major upwelling like the North Tropic Zone. Generally, however, liquid ammonia was found much higher in the sky than where the cloud cities flew. Indeed, SparrowHawk lacked the ability to climb all the way to the white clouds of ammonia ice that give Saturn its characteristic look from space. The best they could do was climb into the layer of brown ammonia hydrosulfide clouds a hundred kilometers above the cities. After that, the hydrogen-helium atmosphere became too rarified for the ship to support its own weight, despite a pressure of five standard atmospheres.
They flew for an hour before their questing radar found a region of sky where ammonia droplets were forming. Slowly, over several minutes, the radar painted a picture of an anvil-topped storm buried among the dark clouds of the zone. Sands altered course to send his ship into the heart of the storm. It was not long before the first droplets were splattering against the windscreen. The sprinkle turned quickly to a downpour and the sound of liquid drumming against the hull rose to a dull roar.
They spent twenty minutes flying through the storm to make sure the incriminating markings were completely washed away. Then Sands sent SparrowHawk sliding back down to a more comfortable altitude, confident that there was now no way the Northern Alliance would be able to tie his ship to the raid on Cloudcroft. However, as Halley took perverse delight in pointing out, it was no longer necessary for the Alliance to recognize SparrowHawk to connect them to the raid. Thanks to Sands, they merely had to discover what ship it was that had Kimber Crawford aboard.
As soon as they left the storm Sands ushered his guest into Dane’s empty cabin and locked the door. Once back in the cockpit, he keyed for an “all hands” circuit.
“All right,” he announced, “let’s hear your comments about our passenger.”
Ross Crandall was the first to speak. “How the hell did she talk you into bringing her aboard, Lars?”
Sands explained the circumstances he’d found in the Cloudcroft landing bay after agreeing to help the Titanians escape the Alliance. He dwelled especially on Kelt Dalishaar’s reaction to the idea, and finished by saying. “There was no time to consult any of you. I had to make a decision. I chose to take one more revenge on the people who murdered Dane.”
“Are you sure that was your only reason?” Halley asked, facing him from across the narrow console of flight controls.
“Speak your mind!”
“She’s uncommonly beautiful. Are you sure that didn’t sway your judgment?”
His ears burned at her implication. “I brought her aboard because it irritated Dalishaar and aided the task our employers set for us, which, if any of you have forgotten, was to sow confusion among our enemies.”
Hume Bailey was the next to comment. “We went along with this raid, Captain, because we had a good chance to hide out afterwards. That chance is now gone. She has seen our faces. She knows who we are, for God’s sake!”
“She hates the Alliance more than we do. She certainly isn’t going to give us away.”
“We don’t know that, sir. Even if she does not intend to, she may not be able to help it. She is a public person. As soon as we let her go, the Alliance will know where to lay their hands on her again. What if they abduct her and use drugs to make her talk?”
“That would start a war with Titan.”
“That prospect didn’t exactly stop them this time, did it, Captain?”
“I hate to say it, Lars, but Bailey’s right,” Ross Crandall said. “Even if she agrees to keep our secret, it will only take them a few minutes with the right drugs to wring her dry of everything she knows.”
“Look, if she’s kidnapped again, the news will be all over the planet within a matter of hours! We’ll have time to cover our tracks.”
“I don’t want to cover my tracks,” Reese said from the reactor control room. The deep muted thrum of SparrowHawk’s dual power plants was audible in the background. “I want to spend my ill-gotten gains in peace.”
“Aren’t you all forgetting something?” Halley asked.
“What?”
“What happens when we get to Glasgow-Prime? The arrival of the Titanian Factor’s daughter will be big news. The Northern Alliance won’t have to question her under drugs. They merely have to subscribe to one of the fax services.”
“Do we know she is the Factor’s daughter?” Brent Garvich asked.
To Sands’s surprise, Halley spoke up. “I’ve been doing some checking on just that, Brent. There are half a dozen pictures of Kimber Crawford in computer storage, mostly at diplomatic receptions. She’s genuine, all right.”
“I say we don’t take chances. I vote that we toss her out the hydrogen lock.”
“That we will not do!” Sands warned. “Not as long as I am captain of this ship.”
“We’re missing a bet here,” Crandall said, moving in to defuse the tension that had suddenly crackled across the intercom circuits. “What about ransom?”
“She’s already offered a reward,” Sands replied, glad for the way out of the impending crisis.
“How much?” came the response from several voices.
“She said her father would give us anything we ask.”
“Why didn’t you tell us this before?”
“I turned it down.”
There was a long silence on the intercom, followed by an explosion of oaths.
“All right, I made a mistake. We will demand the reward for delivering her to her father. As for the problem of keeping her concealed when we get to Glasgow, we will think of something. Now, I want a vote of confidence on this. Does she stay aboard, or do you all find yourselves a new captain?”
“No need to put it that way, sir,” Garvich said. “I’ll go along.”
“Reese?”
“Aye, now that I know about the reward.”
“Same here,” Bailey replied.
“You’re the boss, Lars,” Crandall added. “I just hope you know what you’re doing.”
Sands turned to Halley. “What say you, copilot?”
“I still say that you’re thinking with your glands. Still, if she’ll agree to remain incommunicado, I’ll support you.”
“Very well,” he said, unstrapping from his seat. “Halley, let’s see if we can’t find open air. Ross, keep the sensor gain up and notify me if you see anything, even a ghost. I’m going aft to talk to our guest.”
He moved down the central passageway and unlocked the second cabin on the port side. He found Kimber lying on the doublewide bunk, which, until a few weeks ago, Dane had shared with Halley. Ever since Dane’s death, Halley had refused to enter the cabin.
“What did they decide?” she asked as she propped herself up on one elbow. Her green eyes were cool as she stared at him. She knew that they had been deciding her fate.
“The crew is willing to support my decision if you will agree to certain conditions.”
“Such as?”
“They want the reward.”
“I offered it to you.”
“We’ll have to agree on an amount. I warn you, they won’t be easily satisfied.”
“As I told you, my father will be generous. What else?”
“There’s the problem of your celebrity. Word is bound to get back to Cloudcroft if anyone recognizes you.”
She nodded. “And it won’t take long to track down the ship I arrived on. I’ll have to disguise my appearance, at least until a Titanian spacecraft can pick me up.”
He nodded. “Some place other than Glasgow. I doubt the laird will want to draw attention to himself by hosting one of your father’s ships.”
“Then it’s agreed? I will masquerade as a member of your crew until you can arrange to send me home. I would not worry too much about the Alliance tracking you down. As soon as my father learns that I’m safe, they will have far bigger things to worry about.”
Sands held out a hand and helped her to her feet. “That was the general idea in bringing you along.”
* * *
Kelt Dalishaar stalked into the main briefing center of Alliance Naval Headquarters and moved to take his seat in front of the assembled members of the high command. Grand Admiral Jerzy Samorset’s resplendent blue-and-white uniform appeared slept in. The rest of the admirals and captains did not look much better.
Serves them right, Dalishaar thought as he sat down at the antique table.
“Well?” he demanded. “How did it happen?”
“Captain Berghoff!” Samorset growled.
The designated officer stood up and strode to the lectern. Behind it was an oversize holocube.
“First Councilor. The raiders came in on flight wings and landed atop the gas bag.”
“Why didn’t we detect them en route?”
“Conditions for detection are particularly bad this near the cyclone, sir. The wings and harnesses were treated with radar absorbent coating and the lack of motive power minimized their infrared emissions. Their ship hid in the northern cloud wall, effectively shielding it from our sensors.”
“Are you telling me, Captain, that they glided here from the cloud wall?”
“It would appear that they did, First Councilor.”
“Impossible. No one would dare cross so much open sky on flight wings. Have you checked the ships in the vicinity?”
“Yes, Councilor,” the grand admiral said from his seat. “We have arrested the crews of every ship that passed within glide range of Cloudcroft last night and are interrogating them vigorously.”
Dalishaar stood and began to pace. “What you are telling me, gentlemen, is that we have a blind spot.”
“No longer,” Captain Berghoff replied. “We installed several long range instruments atop the gas bag and took steps to increase our perimeter patrols yesterday.”
“In other words, you are doing what you should have done before the raid!”
“Uh, yes, sir.”
“What efforts are you making to identify the culprits? You people certainly had enough time to get a close look at their ship.”
“I’m afraid that won’t be of much help,” the captain behind the lectern responded.
“Oh? Why not?”
“The air samples we took show a high degree of outgassing from an ammonia soluble coating. The ship’s outer markings were no more than a few days old. Obviously, they intend to eliminate the fake paint scheme before they put into their next port of call.”
“And the airships?”
“We might have better luck with them. They are too big to completely paint over. We have high-resolution holoscans of each and may be able to match them with records of known vessels. If not, we can at least come up with a series of characteristics for our agents to be on the lookout for.”
“That, at least, shows some promise.”
“There is also the matter of the Titanian woman,” Grand Admiral Samorset said. “They may have made a mistake in taking her. Our agents need only watch for her and notify us when she reappears.”
“You are being remarkably profligate with my agents, Admiral. Do you have any idea how overworked our espionage service is already? Now you’ll have them checking every port and hotel on Saturn.”
“It would have been better if we’d stopped them, First Councilor, but I fail to see how else we can proceed.”
“Since you bring it up, Admiral,” Dalishaar said in a deceptively soft voice, “let us move on to that particularly shameful part of this episode. How, in the name of all that is holy, did three lumbering airships and a pirate air shark escape your squadrons?”
Samorset squirmed visibly in his chair. “I may have erred when I ordered our forces to concentrate on the main privateer vessel, First Councilor. I figured that we could always overtake the freighters once we’d dealt with their leader.”
“How is it that your people bungled the intercept then?”
“I have no excuse, sir. The commander of our blocking force made a tactical misjudgment when he allowed himself to be drawn down to the same altitude. He has been disciplined.”
“I wish I could be as philosophical as you are about this. These raiders have made fools of us, gentlemen, and I will not rest until I have made object lessons of them!”
Dalishaar glared at the military men, careful not to let his hands begin trembling again. He did not tell them that the stakes were far higher than they realized. It had taken several hours to find the note the pirates had left in his desk drawer. It would not do to reveal that his personal data files had been compromised. That would lead to questions about what secrets he kept in those files, questions Dalishaar could not afford to answer. He was not about to admit that he might well have lost the most important secret on Saturn.