The suspicious cargo-sailer did not attack. Instead, precisely at midday, the vessel anchored to the south-southwest of the station. Before long, several individuals began using giant kites to surf the waves. Then two other groups launched sea-canoes and began a series of races, stopping just short of the outer surf line before turning and paddling northward, if slowly.
Duhyle stood at the corner of the ocean wall and the canal wall in the chill breeze. He studied the vessel, its sails furled, the picture of an ancient holiday cruise vessel, except for the heavy cargo booms securely fastened and immobile…and the cool temperatures out on the waves.
Subcaptain Symra stood to Duhyle?s left.
"What are they doing underwater?" asked Duhyle.
"Preparing to attack," replied Symra. "Most likely using an underwater lock to transfer gear and equipment to an undersea installation being assembled as we speak."
"SatCom won?t do anything?"
Symra gestured toward the apparently innocent scene playing out on the deep blue-green waters of the Jainoran Ocean. "Someone doubtless has images of what we see. Can you imagine…?"
Unfortunately, Duhyle could. "There?s no way to see what lies below? No evidence at all?"
"What may lie below. The water?s deep enough, and sonic monitoring isn?t descriptive enough, especially if what they?re using is largely nonmetallic, which is what any smart operator would do, I?d judge."
"At present," suggested Duhyle.
Symra only nodded.
Duhyle turned and walked back into the station. He made his way up to Helkyria?s laboratory to see what she might need. She didn?t even look up from the screens when he came up the ramp and waited. So he hurried down to the larger supply room and began to inventory what was there and what might be useful in unforeseen ways when they were actually attacked.
He?d actually created about a kilo of biotherm and colored it to match the stone of the station when he received a private link from Helkyria.
The airships are less than ten minutes to the southeast. They may need assistance inunloading and moving supplies.
I'll take care of it. Is there anything there for you…or that you need?
No. Thank you. I'm working on something else. The link blanked.
Duhyle packed away the score of innocent-looking circular lumps of biotherm so they wouldn?t dehydrate. The detonators would have to wait.
By the time he was out on the stone to the south of the station, the first airship had arrived and trailed disembarking lines. The black cylindrical craft hovered ten yards above the ground, its bulbously asymmetrical nose pointed into the wind out of the northeast, its dark and nonreflective solar-film finish soaking in every possible photon for the four engines and ship?s systems. Security troopers slid down the lines. The soft and almost swampy ground to the south of the canal muffled the sound of their boots hitting the surface.
Duhyle could not see the cargo-sailer from where he watched the troopers leaving the lower airship. But above him and to the south, the second airship had taken station to monitor the Skadira.
Large as the two airships looked, at more than one hundred yards in length, Duhyle had earlier checked the specs. He?d found the payload to be something around twenty-five tonnes. The average security trooper, with full gear, weighed in at around 130 kilos. Theoretically, the airship could easily have carried two companies, yet each only carried half a company. That should have left mass for heavy equipment as well. Or did the payload refer to the entire gondola and crew?
He couldn?t tell from the airship specs.
After the troopers came the pallets of food, ammunition, and other supplies, lowered on cables and quickly detached by the troopers on the ground. Given how organized the troopers were, Duhyle just stood by, in case there was something else that needed to be done.
A lanky security captain, in one of the shimmering security singlesuits that changed shades depending on the environment and the needs of the troopers, trotted toward Subcaptain Symra.
Duhyle couldn?t make out what the two women said, but almost immediately about half of the first troopers moved toward the cliffs to the west and took up positions overlooking the ocean.
In minutes, the remaining troopers from the first airship were on the ground and had carried and stacked the cargo pallets on the stone of the canal wall next to the station. Then they turned and trotted toward the cliffs to join the first contingent. The first craft lifted, the engines whining gently as the airship circled skyward to cover the other ship. The second airship made a circling descent and deployed disembarking lines. The second half of the security company scrambled down the lines, following the same procedures as had the previous troopers.
In minutes, all but ten security troopers were in position on the cliffs. The ten stood in a relaxed line before Symra.
"Tech Duhyle, here, will show you where all the supplies will be stored." After a brief hesitation, Symra added, "The station is effectively proof against any known form of explosive. Its one drawback is that access cannot be blocked, except by troops with weapons."
Duhyle thought quickly, then nodded, stepping forward. "The pallets with ammunition need to be stored in the main room just inside the south doorway. Put them against the wall."
One of the troopers looked pointedly at the featureless stone wall of the station.
Duhyle smiled. "There is a door. I?ll show you."
He turned to move toward the point where the door was, but was spared that by the fact that the stone opened, and Helkyria stepped out into the weak sunlight.
"Right there." Duhyle gestured. "If it closes, just press your hand against the stone at the side. It won?t close if you?re in the doorway. The ration stores can go below inside in a secondary storeroom. I?ll show you."
"You heard the tech," came the voice from a senior ranker at one end of the ten.
"Hyldgard…you and Bhriony…"
Before heading into the station, Duhyle glanced back and skyward. The two airships climbed on a southeast course. He looked at Symra. "They?re leaving? Already?"
"They?re too vulnerable," Symra pointed out.
"Hardened air transports have historically been a waste of resources," added Helkyria from behind them.
Waste of resources? For whom? Duhyle neither spoke nor comm-pulsed that thought. Instead he walked toward the station door.
In a quarter hour, every item that had been on the pallets was stacked inside the station, and Duhyle reemerged into the afternoon sunlight. He strode toward Symra and Helkyria.
"…have to wait to see what they do."
"…makes me uneasy, ser," replied the subcaptain.
"It makes us all uneasy, but the Aesyr haven?t done anything that could be construed as unlawful or inciting violence. We might as well take a closer look at what they?re up to."
Helkyria turned and began to walk westward toward the end of the wall.
"No one?s firing." Duhyle took several quick steps to catch up.
"Not yet," added Symra from behind them.
When the three reached the ocean wall, Duhyle immediately looked for the cargo-sailer. From what he could tell the Skadira stood slightly farther off the cliffs and the narrow beach below them, but he did not see any wake.
"She?s easing away," suggested the subcaptain.
The Skadira slowly moved southward, then more toward the southwest under engine power, since the sails remained furled.
"The deck?s vacant," mused Symra. "Those boats are as far away as they?ve been all day."
Duhyle could barely make out the four sea-canoes, so far south had they traveled, and there were no kite-sailers anywhere in sight.
A long whining scream ended with a brilliant gout of fire, flaring from where the cargo-sailer had been instants before.