—Oh shit,—Carl said.

Virginia realized that they had nothing to bargain with, no possible help. She thumbed to open channel. “Listen, Otis. Carl and I can get the Arcists to leave off their attack, if you’ll let us do it.”

—You offer me what? Diplomacy?—Sergeov’s contempt was plain.

—It’s all you’ve got left.—

—I have you. You shall not move a meter or I burn you.—

“What good’s that do? Your problem is the Arcists.”

—You are one having problems.—With that Sergeov began rattling instructions to someone in Russian. Virginia remembered there were several ex-Soviets among the Ubers; belief in your own perfectibility ran through both movements.

She cut comm and touched helmets with Carl. “What can we do?”

“Not a damn thing.” On the plain beyond, distant figures moved and an occasional small weapon winked. They crouched beneath the bulk, holding to struts. A bright flare burst only a few meters beyond the jagged edge of their shelter. Gouts of gas swept by them. An instant later another blue-white fireball winked on the opposite side, then was smothered by a swelling sphere of ivory.

“He’s showing off how he’s got us bracketed,” Virginia said.

“Probably start punching holes through this next.” Carl slapped the slab of metal in frustration. “One bolt alone won’t go through this, though.”

“Can he keep one of his two lasers trained on us?”

“Not for long. But he can’t afford for us to get away, either. I can’t see how—”

A heavy thump shook the strut beneath Virginia’s hands. “Hey, what—” Another solid blow, followed by a trembling in the metal. “He’s trying to break through!”

Carl shook his head, peering beneath his grimy visor. “A laser bolt doesn’t feel like that. This.”

The platform lurched on its right side, biting into the ice, kicking up dust. Carl pressed his helmet against a big cross-bar of blue-gray prestressed steel. “Listen!”

Virginia had barely touched the metal when she heard a loud crump followed by a low, persistent ringing. “What is it? I.”

The entire platform shook. The next blow came only seconds later and this time she was looking to the side, and could see that there was no momentary blue flash illuminating the surrounding gray ice.

“So he’s thought of that,” Carl said angrily.

She guessed. “The launchers.”

“Yeah. He can’t spare the laser, so he’s aimed a few launchers at us. Flinging empty casings at low speed, to prevent an explosion. Firing around this chunk of stuff, hoping to pick us off if we show.”

A jolt shook the platform and the entire bulk lifted from the ice. Virginia felt a crump, crump, crump through her hands, three quick blows that pushed the platform a meter clear of the ice. She hung on, looking wildly at Carl. “He’s pushing us off!”

—Get a good grip,—Carl sent.

“But we can’t.”

—Just hold on. We’ll have to move fast when…—

Sergeov broke in, —I did not expect this, but is good.—

“You can’t.”

—Launcher is to keep you from getting inside. Even better if it gets rid, eh?—

The platform rang and shook now with a steady hammering. Once sighted in, the launcher could pour a steady rain of the soft hollow slugs at them.

Carl said, —The pellets just splatter like a marshmallow when they hit. They can’t get through this hard alloy. But they’re pushing us.—

Virginia looked down. Already they were high above the stained gray plain, and gathering speed. The impulses from the launcher had driven them tangentially off the surface and now they passed over the battle scene. Random flashes, rising puffs of gas. She heard a click and recognised it as a symptom of a near miss by a microwave beam; the waves actually resonated with small bones in the human ear. Whoever it was didn’t fire at them again.

Someone was running toward the shelter of a low line of fuel drums and she recognized the tabard of Joao Quiverian. A laser bolt caught the tall Arcist leader in midstride and a blue sun leaped in his chest. A small cloud rose from the body as it continued on its way, hugging the ground, arms flopping outward and spinning uselessly as it skimmed into a dust pit and disappeared.

Figures glanced up at them but no one tried to come to their aid. Those below could undoubtedly see the results as a steady hail of slugs struck the other side of the platform, and knew that any approach would run that gauntlet. She called, “Sergeov!”

—I gave you place to stay. You leave dome, you bring this on yourself.—

“Look, we’ll—”

—Too late for talk. I have battle to win, Arcists to kill. Goodbye.—

“Carl, what’ll we.”

—Don’t let go!—

I’m not about to, she thought. Even if the whole thing’s making me… dizzy. Halley seemed to tilt in the sky, the speckled and blotched gray sheets rolling and veering as they swept over them, lifting…

—Just what I was afraid of. We’re turning.—

Of course. The slugs don’t hit evenly, so the platform is picking up spin. Sergeov, knows that…

“Can’t we crawl around?”

—It’ll be tricky. Come on, go left.—

Carl moved with an easy grace she envied as she clumsily followed, not daring to let go of one strut before she had the next firmly in hand. The platform was to her a mountain of crossed metal strands, which she climbed hand over hand, a slight centrifugal pull tending to turn her outward and away from it. If the platform had been spherical, their maneuvering would have been simple—just keep on the side away from Halley. But as the slab turned, there was a short interval when it was edge on to Halley and the launcher slugs were passing by invisibly close. Virginia and Carl clung to the edge of the platform as this moment came, then scrambled to the new face, feeling slugs slam into the far side again. As she struggled for a secure grip she saw spalled and dimpled impact craters. And all this comes from empty casings, launched at a millionth the normal energy!

The slab seemed to be spinning faster. “Are they trying to spin us?” She asked, panting.

—Wouldn’t surprise me.—

“How’ll we—”

—Hustle!—

She followed Carl around to the next corner and waited. The metallic sheen of the cold steel reflected the dim gray glow of Halley as the flat face slowly revolved, the curve of the cometary head rising over a warped tangle of rods and rivets. From this distance there was no sign of a battle, no indication of humans and their petty lives at all… only the smeared dust-scape, like an accidental abstract work of art glimmering in the starlight. Then she saw the long dashed Mine of equatorial launcher pits and realized that the machine which was propelling them could “see” them, too. She scrambled after Carl, around the edge.

Virginia felt a clanging thump and saw a rod near her leg dissolve into nothing as a blur struck and sent it whirling away into space. She sucked in her breath and jerked herself around the lip of the platform.

“It… it’s too dangerous, doing this.”

—If we don’t keep this between us and the slugs, we’re dead.—Carl’s eyes were wide, and yet somehow calm, steady.

“Can’t we jump off? Without something big to target on.”

—Fine, only what about the slugs that miss the platform? And if Sergeov knows we’ve jumped, he’ll let the launcher wander around the target, to try to catch us.—

Carl’s voice was almost matter-of-fact, assessing possibilities. Virginia clung to a pipe, legs drawn outward, the steady thump-thump-thump coming through her hands. It was hard to think. “Look, let’s put our maneuver jets on impulse. That’ll get us clear fast.”

—Yeah, but it’ll take a lot of push. These jets haven’t been kept up well, either.—

“We haven’t any choice!”

—We’re safe here.—

Virginia didn’t like the distant, resigned look on Carl’s face. “And every minute we get further away from Halley!”