Dot stood on the deck and craned her neck to look up the mast.
"He'll be all right, Dot," Bob said, slipping his arms around her from behind.
She leaned her head back against his shoulder and relaxed, letting him support her weight. "He's been up there for nearly a microsecond," she murmured. "I went up, but he wouldn't talk to me. I'm not sure he even knew I was there. He's looking for Megabyte."
"Let him," Bob said. "He knows where we are if he needs us."
"Does he?" Dot asked. She turned in Bob's arms and looked into his face.
"He's not random, Dot," Bob told her.
"No, he isn't," Wayne's voice interrupted. "Confused and short-tempered, yes. Random, no." The now-uniformed physician threw a glance toward the crow's nest, where Matrix sat with a scowl on his face and his gun in his fist.
"'Short-tempered' is pretty normal for Matrix," Bob said ruefully.
"You're sure he'll be all right, Doctor?" Dot asked.
"Give him time," Wayne soothed. "He may look like he's back to normal, but he's still recompiling." A haunted expression flitted across his face, then disappeared. "Viral infection usually leaves scars that don't show up in medical scans."
None of them had anything to say after that.
Turbo rolled his little ship away from the ruined packet, and accelerated far more slowly than he had on the outbound trip. Behind him in the gunner's seat, Davic busied himself with the targeting system. Their passenger, having been bundled into the rescue pod only after significant coaxing and prying of its limbs from Turbo, kept up a constant, unintelligible monologue. The Web Riders escorting the little ship (and a good number of their mounts) hummed and clicked, their songs deeper in pitch and phrased in cascades neither Turbo nor Ray had ever heard before. Ray skimmed along ahead of the ship's nose, silent and steady on his Baud. He followed the traces of the Saucy Mare II, which had glided off toward the Supercomputer while Turbo and Davic had been on their mission of mercy.
Turbo laid in his course, and opened the throttle. "Davic, call the Mare and tell them we're coming in. Try to be polite."
"Aye," Davic answered over a soft whimper from the pod behind him.
The Saucy Mare II opened her launch hatch, and swallowed up Turbo's tiny ship like a Web Creature swallowing a pixel. The hatch closed over them again just as Turbo let his craft touch the deck. Safe beneath the ship's Web armor, Turbo powered down the engines and opened the canopy while Captain Capacitor's crew hurried up from the hold to lash the ship down.
Wayne helped Turbo and Davic unload the rescue pod and its passenger.
"Let's take it below before we open the pod," Turbo said in an undertone.
"Bad?" Wayne asked.
"Really bad," Turbo answered.
"Bring the light closer, please," Wayne murmured as he leaned over his new patient.
Bula obediently swung the lamp toward the head of the bunk, then steadied it as shadows danced across the ruined form.
"Thank you," Wayne said absently. He ran his scanner across the roughened gray skin, then probed gently here and there, watching the single functioning eye the creature had left for any sign of reaction.
"Still process?" Bula asked.
"Yes." Wayne looked up at Bula. "Do you have any heatsink bottles on board?"
"Yeah," Bula nodded.
"Good. We need ten or twelve of them, hot and wrapped in towels."
"I get!" Bula declared, stumping out of the cabin. A moment later she returned, and set the lantern down beside Wayne. "Sorry," she apologized.
Wayne lifted his eyebrows as the enormous crewwoman left, then turned back to his patient. He pressed into the skin around the base of the left limb, his face intent.
The patient let out a small cry, and the disjointed extremity swung aimlessly, finally finding the source of its discomfort and wrapping tightly around it.
"I'm sorry," Wayne said. His voice was soft and and his tone reassuring. He didn't pull away from the creature's grip, and after a long moment, it relaxed and loosened.
"How is he?" Davic set his shoulder against the door jamb and leaned there, his eyes skipping from the crooked coils draped over Wayne's wrist to the doctor's face.
Wayne looked up, then shook his head a fraction, pointing to the hallway with his eyes. Davic's eyes widened, and he backed out into the hall.
Wayne patted the scarred patient on what should have been its chest, then rose. He made sure the door was firmly closed behind him before addressing Davic.
"It's pretty bad, huh?" Davic said.
Wayne nodded, then lowered his eyes and turned momentarily toward the door. He shook his head. "If we'd found her sooner I might have been able to do something."
"Her?" Davic repeated, his eyebrows rising.
"Yes," Wayne said sadly. "What's left of the code indicates that she's a female Game sprite."
"Game sprite?" Davic's eyebrows rose still further.
"It's not unheard-of," Wayne mused.
"So now the User is playing Games on the Web?" Davic rolled his eyes back toward the ceiling. "That's a new line on my job description."
"Doctor MacHewlett?" Bob, trailed by two Web Riders with their helmets off, made his way down the hatchway. He gestured at the Web Riders. "They're here to see your patient."
Wayne closed his eyes in a slow blink and nodded.
One of the Web Riders trilled something.
"He wants to know if you can do anything," Bob translated.
Wayne shook his head. "The degradation has progressed too far. The bits and pieces of the code that still function at all aren't enough to withstand surgery." His shoulders slumped. "All I can do is try and make her passing comfortable."
Bob's face was solemn. He turned and began a phrase, but the Web Rider held up one hand, and with a staccato purr, opened the door to the sickroom as Bula reappeared at the end of the hall loaded down with the squishy heatsink bottles.
"He said the look on your face was enough," Bob said quietly as Bula squeezed into the cabin behind the second Web Rider. "They'll stay with her."
A soft thrumming began to emanate from the cabin. It remained low, but as it continued, it penetrated the walls and timbers of the ship, until the Mare herself seemed to call through the rumbling purr of her engines and to keep time with the pitch and roll of her decks.
"What in the name of the Source Code is that?" Davic asked, his eyes wide.
"The Web Riders," Bob explained in an awed tone. "They always sing to comfort the newly-lost." He listened for a long moment, then added, "They've combined a parting song with it."
"It's lovely," Wayne said in wonder. "I've never heard anything like it before."
The Web Riders' music was abruptly overlaid by chattering and a few squeals from Glitch and Caen.
Davic's eyes snapped back into focus. "Caen, what…?" His expression of faint annoyance at the interruption quickly faded as Turbo's voice came on the com.
"Davic, Bob, see if you can pull Wayne away from his patient and get up here. Now."