Invaders (a sequel to Vaz, Tiona and Disc) (7 page)

Stopping by the airlock, they got a large helmet and slipped it onto Torch. Tiona turned down the power to the electroactive filaments in Torch’s suit and, once the suit had tightened up, they went over it looking for folds or twists that might pinch him. Tiona over pressurized Torch’s helmet a little to make sure it was sealed to the suit then said, “Okay, let’s suit up ourselves.”

A couple minutes later, Jeremy was towing Torch out the airlock on the space side. Tiona gave a little giggle, “For some reason I had a sudden picture of Torch’s helmet blowing off and flying away into space. Let me get my AI to check his programming.”

As she mumbled to her AI, Jeremy realized he was looking at Torch’s back and that the back of his thrust harness was substantially different from the standard one. It had two large discs on it; one with about a 10 inch diameter down over the buttocks and another one of about 12 inches up over his back.

“Okay, here he goes,” Tiona said. As they watched, Torch pivoted in place, then rapidly moved away from them.

To Jeremy’s experienced eye, it looked like the thruster over his buttocks was applying the main push. Torch was dropping away, downward toward Earth. Jeremy looked at the direction the Earth was moving past below them and realized that the thruster was de-orbiting him! Worried that Gettnor might not know to check and be sure Torch wasn’t going to hit one of the satellites beneath them, Jeremy said, “Um, what’s he doing?”

Tiona said, “Well, you guys probably noticed he’s got a modified harness. Right now it’s giving him a retro-thrust to drop him out of orbit.”

“Um,” Jeremy said uncomfortably, “did you check to be sure… he’s not going to hit another satellite?”

“No,” she said, “but his AI did. And my AI confirmed it. That’s part of what we’re testing.”

Nancy said, “You’re calling him Torch because he’s going to burn up in the atmosphere?”

“He is if we screwed up,” Tiona said. “If we got it right, the big disc on his shoulders is going to pop out and keep him descending slowly enough that he
won’t
overheat.”

Gobsmacked, Jeremy stared for a moment. He said, “You mean we’ll be able to land from
orbit
in our suits?!”

Tiona laughed, “Not routinely! But, assuming Torch lands in one piece, and it was a real emergency, yes.” She looked in the direction that Torch had gone. He’d faded from view. She said, “Well, I guess the show’s over. Shall we go back inside?”

***

Levon blinked in confusion. Sixth Officer stared at her, head cocked to one side apprehensively. He said something and she thought that he’d probably said it before. “What?” She asked, her voice sounding hoarse.

“Are you okay?” Sixth Officer said.

“What happened?”

“We made transition to Obi,” he said, as if it was obvious.

Levon reached up and wiped at her numb muzzle, finding it matted with drool. Her mind working a little better, she remembered the heat and feeling of illness as they approached perihelion with the sun. Then she remembered watching Obi reach the center of the aiming reticle and hearing the thrum of the capacitors. Then came the agony.
We’ve made transition to Obi!
She thought without really realizing that was exactly what Sixth Officer had just said to her. “We’ve confirmed transition?” She asked.

Sixth Officer nodded, “We’ve identified our own sun just off the center of the aiming reticle.”

Levon looked around the bridge, seeing dazed expressions on the rest of her officers. As predicted by the records of earlier generations, the younger ones seemed to have awakened and recovered more quickly than the older ones. Everyone on the bridge appeared to be alive. “Did the hibernators make it?” she asked hopefully.

Sixth Officer turned to look at the fifth officer. Sixth said unhappily, “Fifth reports five deaths among those in the hibernation pods.” Sixth leaned a little closer and spoke in a barely audible tone, “And, I’m worried about Second Officer as well.” His eyes flicked meaningfully toward Second.

Levon looked toward Second now, noting as she should have earlier that Second didn’t seem to be holding his head upright. In fact, Second’s head wavered listlessly back and forth. “Second,” Levon called, hoping to get an alert response.

Instead, Second turned his muzzle awkwardly toward Levon. His eyes wandered about and didn’t meet hers. “Yes,” he said in a slurred voice.

“Are you okay?”

“I think so,” Second said, sounding like he had something in his mouth.

Definitely
not
okay
, Levon thought.
But hopefully it’s temporary.
“I think the transition hit you pretty hard,” she said. “I’m sure you’ll feel better in a few minutes.” Levon wondered if she should send him to the medic, but decided it wouldn’t hurt to leave him there sitting on his rest for a little bit. Going to the medic could raise all kinds of questions in subordinates’ minds.

“Fourth,” she said to the officer assigned as backup for navigation.

“Yes ma’am?”

“Until Second is feeling better, I’ll need you acting as Primary Navigator. Determine whether we’re still on the elliptical orbit we should have brought with us from home.”

“Um, we
have
to be, don’t we ma’am?”

“We’re
supposed
to be. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t check to be sure that we
are
!” Levon snapped crossly, “If we need to modify our orbit, the sooner we start, the less reaction mass we’ll have to use.” She settled back on her rest. With nothing else to think about, her mind focused back on the oppressive heat. Of
course
the heat was still present. Transition would place them the same distance from the gravitational center of Obi as they’d been from their own sun before transition. She luffed her wings irritably. Having thought of the oppressive heat, now she felt like she could feel the radiation from this
new
star sleeting through her.

Levon reminded herself that their orbit was quickly moving the ship away from perihelion and they’d be cooling soon.

It didn’t help…

***

Raleigh, North Carolina—Yesterday large numbers of people poured out of GSI’s temporary headquarters in Raleigh to watch a space-suited figure descend from the sky. Many initially appeared to believe that it was some kind of publicity stunt, after all, thrust-disc harnesses capable of lifting someone into the air have been available—at GSI, though nowhere else—for some time now. Although they can’t generally be obtained by the public, no one would have been surprised to find that GSI itself was using them. However, it shortly became evident that people were seeing a mannequin in a spacesuit which had actually descended all the way from GSI’s habitat out in low Earth orbit. Though the descent had taken several hours, GSI reported that the mannequin suffered no damage during its return to Earth. Recordings made by instruments mounted in the mannequin confirmed that a human would have survived the trip unharmed.

GSI has all of its orbital employees wearing their skin-tights, a form of spacesuit, at all times. They keep helmets for the suits in many locations about their habitats and saucers. Now GSI reports that it plans to outfit all of its astronaut-employees with new thrust harnesses like the one that lowered the mannequin. They emphasize, however, that the harnesses are not intended to be a means by which people might descend from orbit in anything but in extreme emergencies.

One cannot help but think, however, that knowing you could descend to the planet’s surface in nothing but your space-suit would markedly ease one’s mind regarding the various catastrophes that might occur in space…

Nolan wandered in from the pool area to the clubhouse. Aaron was holding his party in the clubhouse at his apartment complex, which was much like the clubhouse at any other apartment complex Nolan had ever been to. He kept hoping he’d see more people he knew. So far, other than Aaron, Sophie and Ted—grad students who’d shared many of Nolan’s classes—he’d only been seeing people he vaguely recognized but didn’t know well.

He didn’t know any of them well enough to start a conversation.

Thinking that he might find somebody he knew in the crowd near the alcohol Nolan tossed back the last of his beer and headed for the kitchen and the keg. Once there, he again found only people whose faces he vaguely recognized. He chided himself for being too shy to start a conversation with someone he didn’t know, but knew that—no matter how much he scolded himself—he wasn’t suddenly going to gain the courage to begin speaking to strangers. Standing in line at the keg, he saw Sophie across the room. She was spiritedly arguing with several other people. He resolved to go try to join that conversation.

While he waited, Nolan glanced around the kitchen again, hoping vainly to see someone else he knew. His eye caught momentarily on the stunning girl standing behind him in line at the keg.
What’s a gorgeous girl like her doing at a physics party?
he wondered. Not that he considered it impossible, mind you, but the kind of people who were interested in physics seldom seem to invest much time in their appearance.

For a moment, his mind arrested on the dichotomous Tiona. Someone in physics who’d seemed to purposefully dress unattractively, but who, when she
wanted
to look good, could look even better than the beautiful girl standing behind him.

Nolan’s hindbrain searched for a reason to look back at the girl behind him again. A reason to provide his eyes the opportunity to appreciate the artistry and work the girl had put in to make herself look so good. His forebrain forcefully reminded him that she looked like an undergraduate. Someone many years his junior. A girl he shouldn’t be ogling.

There was a tap on his shoulder. Nolan ignored it for a second with the thought that he didn’t know anyone behind him. But then he realized that it provided his desired opportunity to look back in appreciation at the girl behind him. Turning, he lifted a querying eyebrow as he looked to see who might’ve tapped his shoulder.

The beautiful girl was just raising her hand, apparently to tap again. She dropped her hand, studied his face for a moment, then broke out a brilliant smile. “You’re Nolan Marlowe aren’t you?!” She looked nearly ecstatic.

For a few months after he and Tiona had returned from rescuing the astronauts, and again for a short while after they’d gone to Mars, Nolan had been recognized frequently. It’d happened almost enough to make it annoying. He’d even gotten a call from an agent in Hollywood asking if he’d ever thought about acting—which he had not. For a while Nolan had thought this would go on forever, but now, a few years later, his 15 minutes of fame had long since evaporated. Much as he wanted to think that recognition meant nothing to him, he still felt a warm feeling rush over him. Especially to be identified by someone this pretty. He nodded, “That’s me.”

Touching his arm and grinning like someone who’d won the lottery, she blurted rapid fire, “Oh! I’m so excited! Are you still in school? I thought you’d graduated.”

“Yeah,” Nolan shrugged, “I already graduated, but Aaron’s an old friend and he sent me an invitation. I thought I’d come help him celebrate.” He glanced around the room, “Not many people left that I know, so I’m feeling kind of old.”

Her eyes widened, then she beamed and gave him a conspiratorial look, “Well! We’ll just have to help you make some
new
friends then!” She put her hand on her chest, “I’m Carolyn.” She turned to the people behind her in the keg line, “Jimmy, Vivian, Edie! Look who’s in front of us! Nolan Marlowe!”

A few moments later, Nolan found himself shaking hands with all of them. Once they’d gotten their beers and moved out into the room, Carolyn proceeded to introduce him to an ever widening number of people, so many that he quickly lost track of names. She questioned him about the trips to Kadoma, the Moon and Mars, hanging on his every word. Not only excitedly listening herself, but drawing out his stories with perceptive questions and exclaiming on them to all her friends.

Her friends who seemed to fully populate the room. It seemed to Nolan that Carolyn knew
everyone
by name and that they all circled about her, captivated by her enthusiasm, her smile, and, no doubt, her good looks.

In one moment, when her attention wandered—drawn by one of her friends whispering in her ear—Nolan thought to himself,
This is what charisma is.
He’d met some people in the past who’d had more personality than average, but he’d never met
anyone
like Carolyn.

As the party wound down, Nolan found himself accompanying Carolyn to another party, this one inhabited by people more like Carolyn. Pretty; handsome; attractive; well-dressed; self-confident. Nolan knew he was fairly good-looking and at the physics party he’d thought of himself as one of the handsome ones.

At this party he felt like a three or a four.

On the other hand Carolyn remained the shining light. She was the beauty everyone else could aspire to but never achieve. Sometimes, when Nolan glanced quickly at her, he thought that perhaps she wasn’t
truly
beautiful. But then she’d smile, her eyes would sparkle, she’d say something witty—and everyone else dimmed by contrast.