The com hummed, and Hetch's voice repeated the sequence. Avila acknowledged him, then acknowledged the other six ships.

"'Grafit One' counting to grab. Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, go!"

Jes looked at the screens. The ship slid into the grab's coils, rested a moment, and the coil began shimmering, shifting, winking. As the now-familiar sickness touched Jes' stomach, the grab spat them out into tau.

"Move it on," Avila said.

"Sir." The pilot's hands danced over the panel.

"Six, five," Avila muttered. The screen over his head showed the grab.

"Three, two -- where's -- Alt'Emiri!"

The 'Folly' popped into tau and rushed toward them, by them, beyond them, before Avila had finished his curse. The general pounded on the panel.

"If that bastard's broken the coil -- "

"Two, one -- no sir, here's 'Helmsholm'."

"Can we catch him?"

The pilot shrugged. "We'd have to build up, sir. I think he must have started acceleration before he hit the grab." The pilot glanced at the screen.

"It's tricky. He's a damned good pilot, sir."

"Idiot." Avila tore his web away and stalked around the bridge. He glared at Jes. Jes stopped bouncing in the seat and stopped grinning.

"Don't look so happy, brat. Pilot, what's your estimate of 'Folly''s time to grab?"

"Two, two and a half, sir. She's pushing it."

"And ours?"

"Three. Two and a half if we open up."

Avila stared at Jes, then smiled and returned to his seat. "Don't bother. Hetch'll get to Aerie ahead of us and tell them we have the kid.

They're more likely to believe him than us." Avila stretched and put his hands behind his head. "Easy as sin," he said. "The kid'll do it all for us."

Jes sat back, his stomach cold. Avila was right. Avila was right. There had to be something he could do. His fingers touched the lock of the safety webbing.

If Hetch had blown NewHome grab, there would be only one ship to worry about. But all the fleet was in tau, and Hetch's ship plunged toward Aerie.

Racing.

Jes caught his breath. Racing. If he could get to the lifeships...

The Tri-Captain leaped to her feet. Her right arm caught the guard squarely on the chin and laid him out cold on the deck, but before he hit it she had turned with awesome speed to the control panel. One flick of her hand sent the pilot slumping in his seat, and before the general could turn around she had him by the throat, turned him in front of her to face the milling guards, and pointed a blaster at his middle.

"One move and he gets it," she said. "Take us to the lifeships."

Shit, Jes thought. It just doesn't work that way. I'm a twelve-year-old kid from a backwash planet and I'm in trouble and I've got to get myself out.

Racing. He fidgeted in his seat, then stopped and looked at the back of Avila's head.

"General," he said, whining.

"What?" Avila didn't turn around.

"I've got to go."

"Go where? Oh. You, take him to the head. And keep an eye on him, hear?"

"Sir."

Jes made a show of unlocking his webbing and followed the soldier out of the bridge.

"Can't you walk faster?"

"My leg hurts." The drop pole was just ahead. Jes looked down the corridor, praying for something to distract the soldier.

"Sir? What's that?"

"What?"

The soldier glanced away. Jes stomped on his foot, wrenched his arm free and leaped for the drop pole. The soldier shouted.

The drop end jolted him. He glanced up the shaft, then ran along the catwalk. The engine room resembled 'Folly''s, as did the control platform. His breath sobbed through his teeth as he ran through the maze of midget 'bots and up the final walk.

The bulkhead was blank, unbroken by doors. Footsteps pounded behind him. He slapped along the wall, then spotted the red emergency symbol a few meters down. He rushed to it and palmed it, and the wall opened before him.

Inside the bay lay the sleek ship, its hatch open and gleaming.

Jes slid into the control seat and pulled the webbing tight. The panel was a little different from that of the ship on 'Folly', but he found the four red spots. He pushed them in sequence, holding his breath, and when the lifer's hatch clanged shut and the main bay opened, he was torn between elation and terror. The lifer dropped from 'Grafit One''s belly, drifted, then its thrusters kicked on. Jes was pushed back in the seat. He struggled forward and ran through the screen modes until tau space opened before him, smeared with shattered stars. The dim flicker of the 'Folly' rode the screen ahead.

"Who's in there?" the speaker roared. "Identify or we'll open fire!"

Jes' diaphragm contracted. He tore the web loose, reached up, and stabbed the emergency switch. The acceleration slammed him into his seat.

"What happens in tau space," Simit's voice said, "is that the entire times of the universe converge in one place, simultaneously. Each and every millimeter of tau holds each and every piece of matter that has ever existed in that location. Do you understand? Everything from all times all at once.

Think of it as a mountain, or a stone wall, except that it's much denser, of course. Now, then, how do you think a ship can move through tau, remembering that two solid objects can not occupy the same space at the same time? Does anyone know? Well, it's very simple, really. The ship picks times in tau when a particular space was unoccupied and travels through those times. So, if the ship is coming to a place where there's a planet, say, it jumps to a time when that planet wasn't in that space. The computers do it, of course."

Jes had thought about that until it gave him a headache, and he still didn't understand it. But he knew now what it looked like. The screen flickered, showing the lifer about to crash into a sun, a moon, a meteor storm, another ship, each of which flickered by him so fast he could barely grasp one catastrophe before another loomed ahead. He closed his eyes, sick, and punched the screen controls. When he looked again, a display grid lay before him. The 'Folly''s bright red dot ran before, his own location seemed to be a blue circle, and behind were the five blue lines of the NewHome fleet.

The blue line closest to him pulled away from the others.

"Kid, this is Avila." Jes glanced at the speaker and pressed his lips together. "Listen, I'm sure you're having a wonderful time out there, but it's a lot more dangerous than you think. We're coming up to you. I want you to slow down and let us reel you in, all right? Do it now and you won't get into trouble."

Jes opened his mouth, then thought better of the insult and remained silent. He felt as though large hands were pushing his body into the seat, deeper and deeper, and he wondered whether he would pop through the cushions and metal and out the other side. The speed indicator wobbled higher on the face of the dial.

"Kid, I'm giving you one more chance. Cut speed now, or we'll open fire."

"Jes? Are you in there? Jessie, answer me."

Jes dragged his hand toward the cornswitch on the seat's armrest. He dropped his hand, and the switch dug into his palm.

"Mommy? I'm all right. Mish I got away."

"Hetch, have you got all the suckin' Kennerins in that tub of yours?

Cut speed, you bastard, or I'll..."

"Won't work, big man," Hetch's voice said.

Jes stared at the speaker, bewildered.

"Jes," Mish said, "speak kasiri."

"I got away. They caught me. Tham told me how to make the lifer go faster."

"Good, Jes, very good. Hold in."

"Hetch, you slow or I'll blast the kid."

"It won't work in tau, Avila. Think about times. Now, shut up."

"All right, Jessie," Mish said, "listen carefully. I want you to get out of the seat and find the lifesuit. Can you get into it? Do you know how?"

"I watched them. On the other ship."

"Good. Get into the suit and wait by the emergency hatch at the front of the lifer. Can you see it?"

"Yes. But -- "

"'Listen!' We're going to slow a bit when we get to the grab. When you hear Hetch yell, you jettison. You'll be pushed forward into the grab, and you should come out in our wake, before the grab clears. Hetch will have a net spread for you. Do you understand?"

"I can't ... move."

"I know, Jessie. Try. You've got one and a half. That's plenty of time."

Jes glanced at the grid. 'Grafit One' was closing, but still far behind him, while 'Folly' seemed closer. He pulled himself from the chair, hand over hand, and fell to the floor. He fought against throwing up, terrified that if he did the heavy vomit would stick in his throat and suffocate him.

It seemed to take forever. He had to pull himself up the wall to release the suit, then fell beside it and worked it over his legs and torso.

The acceleration pull increased. He seamed the front of the suit crooked and had to do it again. He'd forgotten the helmet, which hung high on the wall.

A siren at the panel began to wail. Jes pulled himself up the wall and looked at the panel. The speed indicator was pinned in the red. He slid down the wall with the helmet in his arms. It took almost all of his strength to fit it over his head, and when the self-seals clicked shut he didn't have the energy to feel relief. He crawled to the forward emergency hatch. As he passed the console, he saw 'Grafit One''s blue line far too close, and the 'Folly'

about to hit the grab. He put his hand over the hatch's release plate. The speaker in his helmet crackled and hummed.

"Now!" Hetch's voice screamed in the helmet. Jes pushed against the release bar and was flung from the lifer. He cartwheeled through the density of tau, light and free. The still-shimmering bands of the coils closed around him, and in another second the shattered stars disappeared and he fell through an infinity of black.

"Mish!" he screamed.

"It's all right! You made it! It's all right!"

He saw the tail of the 'Folly' slide by him and Eagle danced past his faceplate. The stars seemed to whirl. A tightly woven net spread around him, tangling him. Then the sky bloomed with light and his suit was shaken and battered. His head knocked against the helmet, and he screamed again.

The suit steadied. A figure clambered down the net toward him, upside down, right side up, sideways, like a giant space-going spider. The figure reached him and took hold of his sleeve. Through the helmet's visor, he saw a strange woman grinning at him.

"Hi, spacer," she said. "I'm Merkit. Reel us in, Hetch."

Jes turned to look at the grab. The light had fled, and he saw nothing but an expanse of black sky and the sweeping stars of The Spiral. The grab was gone.

"I was hoping the grab would just jam," Hetch said. "Trying to deal with two objects and two different times at the same time. But the lifer's reactors must have blown when it reached the grab and took the entire thing out with it."

Jes nodded. Mish tightened her arms around him, and he snuggled closer.

Merkit appeared and lifted a body from the bridge deck. "Last one," she said, then grinned at Jes with black teeth and dragged the body out. Jes closed his eyes. Mish had told him how she had been knocked cold when the lurch threw her into the storage hold, how she had come to and sneaked out to find a guard over Bakar. She had killed the guard, then she and Bakar had freed Hetch and the two spacejocks. Bakar and Tham had harnessed together in the control room, pushing 'Folly' as fast as she would go through tau. 'Folly'

had come through NewHome grab so fast she'd lost a beam on her tail, and come through Aerie grab so quickly she'd lost a piece of her nose. But Jes' lifer had snapped in half as the grab closed after 'Folly'. And probably taken 'Grafit One' with it.

"Tham told me about racing the lifer," Jess muttered. "It worked, didn't it?"

"Shouldn't have," Hetch said. "That should teach you to leave space alone."

Jes opened his eyes and looked at the captain.

"I'm still going to be a spacer," he said and yawned. "Besides, I bet I beat your time."

Hetch sighed, and Mish laughed. "You'd better take us on home, Captain," she said.

Jes looked at the screen. Aerie turned blue and white and brown and green against the void. He closed his eyes. He'd be seeing his home again this way, he thought. He'd come through grab more times than he could count. He put his head on Mish's shoulder and fell asleep.

*Jason*

WE WERE HIDING IN THE BRANCHES, SILENT as fear itself, when Hetch called. At first it was hard to make out what he was saying -- something about ships and grabs and disaster. I shouted into the mike, he shouted out of the speaker, the Aerans heard me and began shouting themselves, and it was a good ten minutes before I realized that we were safe and Hetch was bringing the shuttle in. I could hear the news spreading through the trees in concentric rings of silence. We had been so prepared for doom, so convinced that we were to die, that it took a moment to understand our deliverance, to comprehend safety again. Then the cheering began, and weapons rained from the trees.

Pitchforks, brooms, handmade spears, clubs, slingshots, all the paltry defenses of Aerie -- it was a wonder we didn't kill ourselves. People leaped from the branches and ran toward the pad, and I ran with them, as loud and silly as everyone else. I passed Dr. Hoku, who almost capered, all eyes and grin. Laur stumped along beside her, announcing that she'd never doubted the outcome, that Kennerins always took care of their own. If anyone took offense, it wasn't mentioned. The doctor grabbed my arm.

"Another yearly celebration," she shouted over the noise. I looked at her without comprehension, and she jabbed my chest with one long, brown finger. "This nonsense, another reason to get drunk. Does us good, Kennerin.