“What’s that, sir?”
“I’m not sure that any homemade nuclear bomb would be very useful against the technology that opened that gate.
I’m going to take a more flexible weapon.
I’m going to take Giles Habibula—”
“Wa-a-a-a-a-ah!”
Old Habibula’s broken cry echoed dolefully from the transite dome.
“I ain’t no mortal weapon.
I ain’t even in the Legion now.
I’m just a peace-loving veteran.
I came to Nowhere Near to find immortal youth—not to die in a foreign universe!”
“Giles, I’ve heard you tell of your own exploits.”
Ken Star grinned like that small black skull.
“I’ll take your own word that you are more formidable than any machine—and I’ll hear no more about it.
I want you aboard in fifteen minutes.”
“For life’s precious sake, I—I—” Old Habibula floated unsteadily, blinking his rust-colored eyes at Ken Star.
“Yes, sir,” he wheezed.
“I’ll be aboard.”
Lilith caught Ken Star’s arm.
“Shouldn’t I come?” she whispered.
“Don’t you think there might be a different space beyond the anomaly, where my weapon might work again?”
His dull-eyed skull shook bleakly. “Wait here,” he said.
“We’ve yet to find a target on the other side, and we have no assurance that AKKA would function there.
Your duty is to guard it faithfully.”
I heard the hurt gasp of her breath.
“I’ll guard it.”
I caught a faint flash of red and black and platinum, as she glanced at her deadly ring.
“I’ll guard it faithfully.”
Ken Star swung urgently to me.
“Captain, is the capsule ready?”
“It will be ready, sir,” I promised. “In fifteen minutes.”
The cable-way was closed now, since that shot from the invader had punctured the air-space we had dug out and sealed off inside the ice asteroid.
We had to leave the dome through emergency tubes— and we found that the automatic valves had closed most of them.
Nowhere Near was badly crippled.
That micro-missile had exploded against it like a tiny supernova.
The blast had torn an enormous crater in the asteroid.
The shock wave had shattered equipment everywhere.
Debris had carried away half of the full-G ring.
Hard radiation from the initial impact had poisoned one whole quadrant of the asteroid.
But we found the capsule intact.
Two broken lines from the supply pumps had to be patched, but within that desperate quarter-hour it was filled with fuel and air and water, loaded with space rations, stocked with survival gear.
Old Habibula came rolling dolefully aboard, stumbling under a load of wine and caviar that would have buried him at full gravity.
Lilith came with Ken Star to the lock.
Standing ready at the lock monitor, I watched their farewell.
He kissed her briefly.
She mur-mured something.
He started into the lock and stopped to call back sharply:
“Guard your secret well.
Trying to use it, we may have compromised it.
Avoid capture.”
“Trust me, Ken.”