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"Who else would it be?" said someone else, presumably Brink "Draw up the bay stairs!" he ordered

But Hainey wouldn’t have it He said, "Help uided the ht on fast, and braced his back against the captain’s "Got the back end, sir You point it, it’ll hold steady"

And the captain squeezed the flat, wide trigger A streaushed in a line that strafed the bay stairs, cutting theether fros Over his shoulder, Hainey said, "We can fix that later!"

Above the din of the Rattler they heard the Free Crow’s engines hack to life Brink had given the order to take off if they couldn’t hold their ground, but the ship was still e the hooks The craft tried to rise but only lifted itself a few feet before the hitch squealed an objection, and the pipes leaned against the force of the engines and their thrust

Like an unhappily snagged balloon, the craft lunged and heaved--doglike, at the end of a leash; it yanked with the fury of a horse strapped into an unwanted bit

"Those docks won’t hold!" Lah!" A ht hi ship

"Sim!" the captain screamed, and the first mate braced hi again

The burst took off part of the h his torso; when he fell he landed with a splat, not far from the body of Mr Guise Whoever he was--and Hainey felt certain that this was Parks, the first h to run He hadn’t fallen far, only ten or twenty feet, and an argled to stand andnone of it

A second carefully measured burst blew the e of the landing pad, no longer alive enough to bleed or run

"Felton Brink!" Hainey roared

No answer came, but the ship was now effectively unainst its tethers

Slowly, and with a grating peal that could be heard even above the whine and ro out of the bay door--where there was no longer a set of stairs or a folding portal to prevent it fro to the earth with a crashing crunch It did not quite shatter but it cracked throughout; and it did not fall unaccompanied Behind the block of battered ceht red hair ducked--but it didn’t duck so fast that Hainey hadn’t spotted it

"Brink!" he yelled with triunal to Sian to blast it apart The brick could’ve hidden a mule without much trouble, and it hid the red-haired pirate with ease; but the deter out chunks the size of fists, and sending great splits stretching through its bulk

"Captain!" Laineer had been trying to summon his attention for several seconds before he’d noticed "Captain, the Crow! Without that brick on board, she’s going to pull the pipe docks loose and take off!"

Over the un, the captain only heard about one out of every three words; but he understood the intent, and he could see for himself that the craft was now empty, and without intervention it would break free, fly heaven knehere, and crash itself into scrap

He swore loudly and repeatedly, on everything fro eyes He flipped a switch to power down the Rattler and with Siround

Felton Brink used the quiet h to see over the block, saw thecraft, and he took off running back up the hill

Hainey one, and he said to Simeon, "Get to that tether! Crank and draw the strap by hand, bring the ship lower--as low as you can get it without dragging her down on top of us! Lamar," he said then "Get over here--underneath her, withopen, its underside portal destroyed, there was nothing to grab and nothing to climb, only an open hole on the botto ainst the tethers that wouldn’t let her up Freed froainst the straps and chains and would’ve taken the whole landing pad with her if she could only get enough leverage

"Sir!" La on

"Over here! Now!"

And even though the ship loomed, snapped, and reared only a few feet over their heads, he obeyed He crouched his way over to Croggon Hainey, who stood as tall as he could reach, then bent at the knees and held his hands together like a slingshot