Fragment

7:15 A.M.

The ship’s klaxon sounded, and all hands emerged groggily on the Trident’s foredeck. Three Navy ships bore down on the Trident from three points on the horizon.

Captain Sol’s voice reverberated over the intercom: “All hands on deck! The Navy is ordering us to abandon ship!”

Geoffrey and Nell ran to join Peach, Cynthea, Zero, Andy, Warburton, and Captain Sol on the bridge.

They heard the stern voice of a Navy officer on the radio now: “All passengers are ordered to abandon ship with nothing but their persons! The Trident will be scuttled. All passengers are ordered on deck now !”

The voice did not wait for an answer but continued to repeat its implacable demands.

“Tell him we need to speak to the President!” Nell cried.

Captain Sol cut in. “This is Trident. We have a special request and would like to appeal directly to the President-”

“Trident, you will comply with our demands immediately. Is that understood?”

“We’re screwed,” Zero muttered.

“Hey, wait a minute,” Geoffrey said. “We’re on a floating television studio!”

Cynthea looked tortured as she shook her head. “The Navy took away all our satellite transmission equipment after we lost Dante-”

“I still have a videophone,” Peach interrupted.

“Peach!” Cynthea gripped his shoulders.

Peach handed her a spare wireless headset from around his neck.

“You’re my hero!” Cynthea yelled.

“I know, boss.”

“Go get it, go set it up!” Cynthea shouted after him as Peach and Zero ran out the hatchway down the stairs.

Cynthea put on the headset and adjusted the mike.

“Set it up on the bow, Peach! Make sure to get the battleships in the frame,” she commanded through the headset. “We’ll make a human shield!”

She grabbed the satellite phone in the bridge and punched in a number. She winked at Nell as she said, “Hi, Judy, this is Cynthea Leeds. Put me through to Barry, sweetie!”

Captain Sol grimaced as the Navy ships grew rapidly on the horizon in the wide window of the bridge.

Peach and Zero tore down the passageway. Zero opened the hatch of the control room-only to see five Henders rats leaping straight at him.

Zero’s reflexes were barely fast enough to slam the hatch in time. A cold sweat washed over him. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” He looked at Peach with wide eyes.

Hender popped out of a hatch farther down the companion-way and Copepod jumped out behind him. Hender yawned, scratching his head and belly with four hands, and saw the two humans. Suddenly, he heard or smelled something that made him leap down the passageway on four legs toward them. Copepod stayed at his heel, snarling.

“Ooooooh,” Hender said, and he made a staccato call like a rising clarinet scale.

The other hendropods burst from their rooms and ran down the hall to join him, shooing the humans away.

The five hendros huddled around the hatch to the control room and then they rushed in one after another, banging the hatch closed behind them.

“Come on, Peach,” Cynthea urged over Peach’s headset.

“Um, there’s a delay, boss,” Peach said.

“There’s no time for delays!” she snarled.

Zero shook his head at Peach.

Peach winced. Then, ignoring Zero’s objections, he opened the control room hatch and ran in, slamming it shut behind him.

He grabbed the videophone, camera, laptop, and microphones while the hendropods, appearing and disappearing around him, fought off the rats launching viciously at him. One scratched Peach’s forehead with a raking claw arm but another hendro shot the rat through its arching center with a whirring obsidian disk. A few severed locks of hair revealed Peach’s brow, where a thin cut started bleeding. But Peach didn’t shout. He focused instead on the equipment he needed.

Peach lurched out the hatch with gear under his arms. Still inside, the hendropods slammed the hatch behind him, the bottom of his pant leg caught with two rat arms pierced through the jeans. He yelled and jerked his foot to rip free and the hatch opened for an instant as the rat was pulled back in before the hendros slammed the hatch shut again, freeing his leg.

“Come on!” Zero yelled.

“What about them?” Peach gestured at the hatch.

Copepod barked at the hatch, his body rigid as he jumped and clawed frantically at the door.

Andy came running in. “Where’s Hender?”

“In there,” Zero answered.

Andy reached for the hatch. But Zero stopped him.

“No,” he shouted, then turned and ran after Peach. “Get the hendros up here as fast as you can but don’t open that goddamned door, Andy!”