QUETZAL'S FLOCK had been there when the Ship had left the Home World and he had known Tursac - and Siyulk when they were young men. "You know best, my father." Quetzal was not his father, he didn't correct him. Kane Ashford was the physical being, but Hammadi would not have understood the distinction. "Computer Control. This is Hammadi, he is the descendant of Tursac, the last commander of the Ship. He is now the commander, you will recognise him." There was a slight pause. "Commander Hammadi has the genetic profile of Gens Tursac. He is Commander of the Ship." Hammadi breathed urgently. "What about Obeid, my father? He is the son of Tursac." Quetzal knew and answered. "Obeid will not take the Ship away from Jubal. My Masters have decreed otherwise! Obey them without question, Hammadi!" He looked as if he would have liked to argue, but the look in the Quetzal's eyes quenched the rebellion. "Very well, my father." The computer interjected. "Your instructions, Commander." Hammadi looked at him wide eyed and helpless. Quetzal smiled slightly, he was being cruel to be kind. There was little time, Hammadi would have to pilot the Ship in due course. Now, he had to learn, whilst he still had a teacher. "Take the Ship into orbit, just beyond the atmosphere. Then, slowly orbit the planet so that we are able to view the land mass on the light side and the dark side." "Is that the instruction of the Commander?" Kane relaxed, it was what he wanted. Hammadi was to have sole control until he stipulated otherwise. He nodded to his son, who had lost his facial colour again. He swallowed and croaked. "That is what I wish." Kane hoped he wasn't going to throw up again. There was no sensation of movement as the Ship lifted off. No noise, not even a hiss. The opaque concave of the ceiling appeared to melt away and so did the walls. They rode up from the planet's surface, as if they were seated on two chairs on the outside skin of the Ship. In reality, they were protected by a force field, matter had been converted into energy and they were given a breathtaking vision of space and the stars. The great egg of the Ship rose above the plain, from the nest in the mud into which it had settled twenty thousand years earlier. It rose higher, so that those in the Encampment of Obeid gaped in wonder and fell to their knees in fear at the sight. The great herds of Picun moved restlessly and broke the spell on the herdsmen, who were brought back to their senses by the imminent threat of a stampede. Afar off, in the Encampment of Eridos, his excited followers called him from his tent and he watched the phenomenon without emotion. It told him something. His enemy had returned, for there was no way in which the Shartas in the Encampment of Obeid could have made the Ship to rise without external assistance. Kane Ashford, the upstart who called himself Quetzal, had returned. Eridos absently fingered the hilt of his short sword. Soon it would be buried in the alien's body and the blood feud would finally be at an end. The death of Siyulk, his father, would be avenged. 86
QUETZAL'S FLOCK CHAPTER 14 The Ship rose three hundred kilometres, to the fringe of the atmosphere. Below them was the vast expanse of undulating red plain which stretched down to the featureless black ocean. Only a quadrant of the planet was revealed. Kane realised for the first time, just how huge Jubal was. The Ship changed course and slowly gathered speed to meet the night line and then to cross over on to the dark side. Two days earlier, the two men had probed tentatively into the outermost edge of that bleakness. Kane had hoped to see more detail, but they were to be disappointed for, as soon as Jubal started to eclipse its great red sun, it was hard to distinguish any detail on the surface. 87
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