Alder's World Part One: Mass 17 (11 page)

Alder rounded a corner in
the Engineering Bay headed for
Mbaka
’
s pod and slowed. He
had requested a meeting with Mbaka but Assistant Security Chief
Fisher and two of the engineers were between him and the door. They
were posed as if expecting him. The two lower ranking men turned to
Fisher who spoke. “What’s up Alder?”
He
was tall with light brown skin and a broad angular body. Although
he was over 40 he read much younger. He was smiling broadly but his
normally laid back manner held and undercurrent of
tension.

“I
’
m looking for Mbaka,
D
’
Ray. Can I help
you?
”

Fisher
’
s smile
held.
“
No man, no help
needed. We were just wondering if you were planning on coming to
the meeting tonight.
”

Alder crossed his arms and
planted his feet.
“
What
meeting would that be D
’
Ray?
”

“It
’
s nothing. Just
some of us are thinking about the future, you know. We just want to
talk about things.
”

“Tallen wants to talk
about things.”
Alder corrected. While
Tallen was still theoretically Chief of Security on the ship,
Pilton had allowed him to return to duty, he was making a very poor
secret of his intention to try and wrest control of the crew.
Pilton’s stake had fallen precipitously among the crew and Tallen
seemed intent on exploiting the gap.

“He
’
s got some good
ideas, man. You should listen to him.
”

“Look
D
’
Ray. With all the forms of
communication on this ship, there
’
s no good reason for you and Tallen to be sneaking off to
have these meetings. If you
’
ve got an issue take it to Pilton.
”

Fisher shook his head
ruefully.
“
There
’
s some folks on
this boat aren
’
t too happy
with Pilton right now. We
’
ve
been following him for more than a decade and look where
it
’
s got
us.
”

“Further into space than
any human before?
”

“No man. Into a busted
ship that we
’
re going to be
lucky to get out of alive.”
Fisher changed
gears.
“
All
I
’
m saying is that Pilton was
picked for space, you know, discovery and all that. But things have
changed. Life on the planet is going to be rough.
We
’
d just like to hear your
opinion. People listen to you.
”

“And I listen to
Pilton.”
Alder glanced back and forth
between the three.
“
Do any of
you have anything actually useful to talk
about?
”

The three shuffled
awkwardly. Ensign Feldt, the smallest of the three finally broke
the silence.
“
Yeah. Muuk
ordered more than 10,000 feet of some kind of water proof paper be
made. That
’
s a lot of carbon.
What do they want paper for?
”

“They
’
re making printed
copies of every blue-print in the ships library, a lot of the rest
of the library too.
”

“But why?”
The other engineer asked.

“We
’
re concerned about
what will happen when the computer
’
s fail.
”

The three men
blinked.
“
The computers could
fail?
”

“Sure.
They
’
re optical computers.
Optical computers fail. Even the solid state components
won
’
t last forever.
We
’
re likely to be on the
surface a long time.
”

There was a pause.
“
Wow!
”
Feldt shuddered.
“
Man, I
can
’
t even imagine life
without computers. That
’
s
like pre-history. Like 20
^th
century
stuff.
”

“Or earlier.”
Alder pushed his way between the three.
“
You should start working on the
idea. I expect the whole system to fail around the eight minute
mark.
”

“What eight minute
mark?”
Fisher asked.

“Eight minutes before
impact; maximum re-entry stress.
That
’
s when
we
’
ll break up, or be
computerless if we live. Excuse me.”
He
slid through the door and out of sight of the men.

Mbaka
’
s pod was more
like a small factory than an office. No less than four 3d printers
lined one wall, two plastic injectors, one laser lithograph, and
one fusion micro-assembly. There were two assembly bots and a half
dozen work stations.

“Alder. What took
you?”
Mbaka called from behind a stack of
monitors.

“I
ran into Fisher recruiting for
Tallen
’
s
revolution.
”

“Oh. Well. I suppose that
kind of trouble is to be expected.”
Mbaka
had risen gingerly to his feet with the aid of cane. At
seventy-five, Mbaka was by far the oldest crew member. His left eye
had drifted steadily to the side over the years revealing a sclera
dyed yellow by the brown of his skin. The wrist on his left side
was as stiff as that side
’
s
leg, the result of an electrical accident in year four. But his
voice was firm and his disposition bright.
“
A lot of the crew were pretty
unhappy with Pilton before he went and got us into this
mess.”
He gestured at a chair and Alder
sat.
“
Now that
we
’
re stuck here,
there
’
s bound to be a
fuss.”
He had sat back down and was
fishing in a small refrigerator under his desk.
“
Need a drink?”

Alder nodded and Mbaka produced two
brown bottles. While alcohol was not permitted onboard, Mbaka and
his crew produced an unfermented malt beverage made with hops that
had somehow been found growing in the bio-dome shortly after
launch. It had been so long since Alder had had a real beer that he
could no longer remember if M-Brew was a good knock off or not. It
was heavy, sweet and had a fruity aroma.

“Myself,
”
Mbaka said,
after a long draw on the bottle,
“
I had us figured for dead from the
start.
”

“How
’
s
that?
”

“Well, it was clear from
the beginning that Pilton was glory mad. I never knew a glory hound
who had the sense to quit while he was ahead. I figured
he
’
d get us out here and do
some damn fool thing to get us all killed.”
He took a drink.
“
To be
honest, I didn
’
t think it
would take him near this long.
”

“If you were so sure
Pilton was going to get us killed, why did you join
on?
”

“Did I ever tell you about
my Rosie?
”

“Your wife?”
Alder scowled.
“
Died of something. Some kind of palsy
wasn
’
t
it?
”

“No. I mean, did I ever tell you about
Rosie?” Mbaka said with an emphatic gesture.

“I guess
not.
”

“Most evil woman who ever
lived. A stone around my neck day and night for thirty-four for
years.
”

“You married the most evil
woman who ever lived?
”

Mbaka waved dismissively
with his good hand.
“
You know
how it is. I was a young post-doc, she had these huge breasts. We
started arguing the day after the honeymoon ended; weird stuff; why
didn’t I like her friends, how come I didn’t remember her favorite
brand of toothpaste. The first few years, I thought,
‘
we
’
ll learn.
’
She was
young, I was young, but no, year after year she went on like that.
One year she
’
d have an
affair. The next she
’
d run my
bank account straight into the ground. The whole time
she
’
d tell me it was all my
fault. It turned out she was half crazy and not very bright. I
mostly stayed at the university. If
she
’
d have been smarter, I
might have divorced her. As it was, I
didn
’
t know what would become
of her so I just took it. My father was from Africa, real Africa
back on Earth; didn
’
t hold
with divorce. I could have moved. I could have started over. I just
couldn
’
t see explaining to my
father that I was too selfish to take care of that awful woman.
Finally, after thirty-four years, she died, and it
wasn
’
t any palsy either. You
remember that fad a while back, clear
skin?
”

“Yeah, supposed to make
your skin so translucent you could see the subcutaneous
fat.
”

“That
’
s the one. What a
fifty-five year old black woman wanted with see through skin
I
’
ll never know but it got
her, blood clots. Anyway, at the funeral I said my goodbyes and
went looking for the first ship headed out. Here I
am.
”

“So you
don
’
t care if we make
it?
”

“You remember that binary
star system we passed in year six, the one that that was ripping
that gas giant apart?
”

“Yeah, I remember. The
planet had been captured from somewhere. Tidal stresses were
shredding it and only the core was still holding
together.
”

“That
’
s the
one.”
Mbaka joined back in.
“
The whole rest of the planet was
strung out like cotton candy around the two stars; violent as hell.
Twenty million kilometer long bolts of lightning ripping through
the corpse, some of them tying right up in the coronas of the
stars. Well, one night while we were there, I went and got one of
the rooms up out of sight of the ship. I stayed up all night just
watching that poor planet. Twenty million kilometer long bolts all
night. Sometimes the surface of the suns would get all spiked up
like a plasma ball before a bolt tore loose. I thought about Rosie
and my father and I decided I was doing okay. My father was long
dead by then but I felt like I
’
d honored him by taking care of her.
I
’
d honored her with my
patience and I
’
d been
rewarded with the best light show in all of space and
time.
”

Mbaka
’
s voice trailed
off and Alder found himself staring vacantly at his empty beer
bottle. He glanced up and found
Mbaka
’
s wandering eye fixed
on him.

“I
’
m guessing though
that you didn
’
t come down
here to listen to me talk about Rosie.
”

Alder cleared his
throat.
“
Uh, no. I had an
idea that I think could significantly increase our survival odds.
It
’
s a little crazy
though.
”

“Crazier than setting an
atomic weapon off on ourselves?
”

“Maybe. How does,
‘
saw the ship in
half
’
compare.
”

Mbaka thought it
over.
“
I
don
’
t know? Would there be a
magician and woman in a leotard?
”

“Ha! No, I was thinking
more,
‘
cut off the science
bay and the hab module so that we could present a flat surface to
the atmosphere during entry.
”