Crashlander

Right about then I should have accidentally bitten my tongue off. I didn't have that much sense. I never do. Instead I said, «They don't need ships. Whoever took Lloobee has to land somewhere.»

«The message came in on hyperwave. Whoever sent it is circling outside the system's gravity well.»

«Whoever sent it may well be.» I was showing off. «But whoever took Lloobee landed. A Kdatlyno needs lots of room, room he can feel. He sends out a supersonic whistle — one tone — all his life, and when the echoes hit the tympanum above his mouth, he knows what's around him. On a liner he can feel corridors leading all around the ship. He can sense the access tubes behind walls and the rooms and closets behind doors. Nothing smaller than a liner is big enough for him. You don't seriously suggest that the kidnappers borrowed a liner for the job, do you?»

«I apologize. You do seem to know something about Kdatlyno.»

«I accept your apology. Now, the kidnappers have definitely landed. Where?»

«Have to be some rock. Gummidgy's the only planet-sized body in the system. Look down there.»

I looked out the window. One of Gummidgy's oceans was passing beneath us. The biggest ocean Gummidgy had, it covered a third of the planet.

«Circle Sea. Round as a ten-star piece. A whale of a big asteroid must have hit there when Gummidgy was passing through the system. Stopped it cold, or almost. All the other rocks in the system are close enough to the star to be half-molten.»

«Okay. Could they have built their own space station? Or borrowed one? Doubtful. So they must have landed on Gummidgy,» I concluded happily, and waited for the applause.

Emil was slowly nodding his head, up, down, up, down. Suddenly he stood up. «Let's ask Captain Tellefsen.»

«Hold it! Ask her what?»

«Ask her how big the ship was. She saw it, didn't she? She'll know whether it was a liner.»

«Sit down. Let's wait till we're aground, then tell the MPs. Let them ask Margo.»

«What for?»

Belatedly, I was getting cautious. «Just take my word for it, will you. Assume I'm a genius.»

He gave me a peculiar look, but he did sit down.

Later, after we landed, we favored the police with our suggestions. They'd already asked Margo about the ship. It was a hell of a lot smaller than the Argos … about the size of a big yacht.

* * *

«They aren't trying,» Emil said as we emerged from city hall.

«You can't blame them,» I told him. «Suppose we knew exactly where Lloobee was. Suppose that. Then what? Should we charge in with lasers blazing and risk Lloobee catching a stray beam?»

«Yes, we should. That's the way Kdatlyno think.»

«I know, but it's not the way I think.»

I couldn't see Emil's face, which was bent in thought two feet below eye level. But his words came slowly, as if he had picked them with care. «We could find the ship that brought him down. You can't hide a spaceship landing. The gravity drag makes waves on a spaceport indicator.»

«Granted.»

«He could be right here in the base. So many ships go in and out.»

«Most of the base ships don't have hyperdrive.»

«Good. Then we can find them wherever they landed.» He looked up. «What are we waiting for? Let's go look at the spaceport records!»

It was a waste of time, but there was no talking him out of it. I tagged along.

* * *

The timing was a problem.

From where the kidnapping took place, any ship in known space would take six hours to reach the breakout Point. If it tried to go farther in hyperspace, CY Aquarii's gee well would drop it permanently into the Blind Spot.

From breakout it had taken us ten hours to reach Gummidgy. That was at five-gee acceleration, fusion drive and gravity drag, with four gees compensated by the internal gee field. CY Aquarii was a hot star, and if Gummidgy hadn't been near the edge of the system, it would have been boiling rock. Now, the fastest ship I'd ever heard of could make twenty gees …

«Which would take it here in five hours,» said Emil. «Total of eleven. A one-gee ship would —»

«Would take too long. Lloobee would go crazy. They must know something about Kdatlyno. In fact, I'll bet they're lying about not having Kdatlyno food.»

«Maybe. Okay, assume they're at least as fast as the Argos. That gives us five hours to play in. Hmmm …?»

«Nineteen ships.» On the timetable they were listed according to class. I crossed out fifteen that didn't have hyperdrive, crossed out the Argos itself to leave three. Crossed out the Pregnant Banana because it was a cargo job, flown by computer, ten gee with no internal compensating fields. Crossed out the Golden Voyage, a passenger ship smaller than the Argos, with a one-gee drive.

«That's nice,» said Emil. «Drunkard's Walk. Say! Remember the hunting party I told you about, with their own yacht?»

«Yeah. I know that name.»

«Well, that's the yacht. Drunkard's Walk. What did you say?»

«Tbe owner of the yacht. Larchmont Bellamy. I met him once, at Elephant's house.»

«Go on.»