Sunborn (49 page)

   
Julie reached to fasten her seat restraints and said to Henry, “Can you seal me in, please?”

    “Yah—right.” Henry pulled away, then stuck his head in one more time. “Listen. Whatever you have planned...” His brow was furrowed in a scowl.

    “Shut the hatch, Henry!”

    “Right.” He slapped a control. “Be careful!” he shouted as the hatch slid shut. He waved through the window.

    Julie bit her lip, reading the inside of the hatch by her right shoulder. Stenciled on the lip of the window was the inscription:

   
MNT DPLY UNT 1

    /We’re in the army now. There
is
only one maintenance craft. Okay.../ She ran her fingers along the controls. Rows of indicator lights had come on, most of them turning from red to amber to green, as the automatic systems booted up. She leaned to her left, and through the window saw two curved sections of hull—one, part of the main ship, and the other, curving tightly rearward, the hull of this craft. Behind it all was the black of space. She jerked herself back and turned on the comm. A voice was blaring:
“...Artifact analysis team to the hold at once! The artifact has disappeared from monitors. Repeat, the artifact is no longer visible on monitors.”

    I’m sorry, Dr. Lamarr, she thought. I really am. /Where is it now?/

    She was answered by the slightly deeper voice of the translator itself.
*We are attached to the outside of your craft, near the propulsion unit. Please make ready to undock.*
 Out the left window, she glimpsed a faint flicker of light. She felt a sudden, shivering sense of electricity around her. Something very powerful had come to life around the craft.

    /What should I do?/

   
*Prepare to separate.*

   
The next voice from the comm caught her by surprise. It was Captain Iacuzio.
“All hands, the translator is assisting us with this emergency. Is Maintenance One ready? Lieutenant Cohn, are you ready to release Maintenance One?”
She glanced over her shoulder and saw Henry’s face through the window one last time.
“Release Maintenance One.”

   
She felt a jolt, and the craft began to float gently away from its docking cradle. Out the cockpit window, Julie saw a gap opening between her craft and the
Park Avenue
; more and more of the mother ship was becoming visible. Thrusters fired. They were drifting away, and to the other ship’s stern. /What now?/

   
*We must gain a clear distance from the ship.*

   
/And the emergency?/

   
*We are in the process of restoring the reactor. There will be no further malfunction.*

   
Julie could feel her eyes bulge.
“Are you saying there was never—? Why, you son of a b—”
 She bit off her audible curse and snarled inwardly, /You put this whole charade on to get me away in this little tin can?/

   
*It seemed the only way.*

   
“Damn!”
she yelled.
“Fuck!”
 She snapped off the comm.

   
*It really did seem the only way.*

   
She cursed a silent stream and snapped the comm back on. The ship was calling her:
“Miss Stone, is there a problem? Can we help?”

    “No. I’m fine. I broke a fingernail. How’s that reactor, is it calming down?”

   
“Affirmative. It is stabilizing. How the heck is that possible?”

   
“Dunno. But keep me posted.” She pushed her head back against the seat and watched the ballet as the craft glided toward the stern of the
Park Avenue.
 On the comm, she heard someone on one part of the ship yell to someone else that the maintenance craft was dangerously far from the ship, and shouldn’t they do something? The captain’s voice came back on and said, No, it was part of the plan, don’t worry. Another voice was paging Julie Stone to the cargo hold.

    Julie drew a long, slow breath as her stomach did a somersault. She didn’t feel any acceleration, but the
Park Avenue
 was moving away faster. /Is this going to be a one-way trip, like John’s?/ she asked suddenly, the frightening thought slipping past her guard of optimism.

   
*That is a possibility. We do not know what will happen.*

   
She swallowed hard. She was going to spend a long time processing this, she knew. She hadn’t even really gotten over losing John, and now she was off to do the same thing. She did not think of herself as a particularly brave or self-sacrificing person.

   
*Sometimes people learn what they are capable of only when—*

   
/And sometimes people need to close their eyes and pretend that none of this is happening,/ she muttered. And she did just that, as the two vessels continued moving apart.

*

   
Her retreat didn’t last long, but it helped. Now the comm unit was blinking insistently and buzzing at a low volume. She reached to turn the volume back up; she didn’t remember having turned it down.

    The bridge comm officer was calling to her.
“Miss Stone, can you hear me? Are you able to scan the reactor area from your present location?”

    She peered helplessly at the control console and appealed to the translator.
*The malfunction is corrected. We have made several adjustments to reduce the risk of future drive failure. They should prepare for a restart.*

    Julie relayed that information.

    A moment later, the comm officer said,
“Miss Stone, Dr. Lamarr would like to speak to you on a private line.”

    Julie told him to go ahead. He could make her feel bad maybe, but he couldn’t stop her. The comm crackled, then she heard his voice.

   
“Miss Stone, when the translator spoke of...another way...this wasn’t exactly what I thought it had in mind, taking you in a small craft that wouldn’t even get you to...”
 His voice seemed to catch.

    “No, Dr. Lamarr,” she answered. “But since we couldn’t risk the whole ship, this was the only other option.”

   
“Yes. Is the translator with you?”

   
“It is. As soon as we have confirmation that your fusion drive is working, we’ll be on our way.”

   
“I see. You know, we’d had hopes...well.”
 It was a done deal, and he seemed to realize it.

    She remembered how surprised she’d been when Lamarr had voiced a willingness to go along with the translator’s original plan. “Dr. Lamarr—thank you for being willing to support the translator in the end. Even if it...even if it’s not the way we’d hoped.”

    There was static for a moment, before he answered,
“Yes, well—I guess I’m there with you in spirit. I hope we see you again, and...Godspeed.”

    Julie felt a lump in her throat, but before she could answer, Captain Iacuzio came back on to say,
“We’re preparing a restart of the drive, as soon as you’re at a safe distance to observe.”

    The translator muttered to her, and she echoed to the captain, “You may go ahead.”

    They were now behind and to one side of the
Park Avenue,
at a distance of perhaps a kilometer. The drive units were clearly visible. She could hear the captain issue an all-ship warning, and a few seconds later, the tail of the ship began to glow scarlet, then orange. Then, as if with a quick flick, the fire turned diamond-white. The ship began to accelerate away from her.

    She swallowed, keyed the comm, and said, “Everything looks fine from here. Good-bye,
Park Ave.
”

    An answer started to come from the ship, but was cut off by a knife-stroke, as a bright ring of light sprang up around her craft, encircling it at the middle, maybe fifty meters across. Julie craned her neck to see. She suddenly realized that the
Park Avenue
was receding impossibly fast. It dwindled in a few seconds to a twinkling point, and then it was lost in the starry darkness.
My God. What have I done?
 She turned to look the other way, and was stunned to see a series of wide, concentric rings of light stream out behind the craft.

   
*We are threading space. Radio communication is no longer available.*

   
She blinked, trying to clear the mist from her eyes as she peered into space, wondering where exactly she was going, and how fast. Against the darkness, the sun was brighter than the rest of the stars, but not by much. All the stars seemed very distant, very cold, and very lonely.

Chapter 30

Against the Flow

    “So you really think that stream of dark matter is shooting straight across half a light-year to
*
Nick
*
?” Bandicut asked, crouching low while he tried to think this through.
    “That is how it looks to me,” Napoleon said. “A straight tunnel through n-space.” He was doing something Bandicut couldn’t quite see. His left mechanical arm was raised and cocked, as though he were about to throw something. “I think, Cap’n, our best hope is to try to find where all of this is controlled. If we can turn it off using
their
controls, instead of trying to disrupt it by force...”

    “What’s that in your hand?”

    “Probe. I’m going to try sending it into the tunnel. Is that acceptable?”

    “Sure. Fire away.” Bandicut raised his head to watch. “Where’d
you
 get things like probes?”

    “Part of the latest upgrade,” Napoleon said, anchoring himself against the nearest support. His arm pivoted fast, in a flinging motion, and something rocketed from the end of it and streaked toward the opening of the tunnel. “Probe away.” The point of light vanished into the tunnel. “Getting a signal. No, wait. Temperature’s spiking. I’m losing—I’ve lost it.”

    “Burned up? That fast?”

    “Yes.”

    “That sort of argues against going much farther that way, doesn’t it?”

    “It does. Cap’n, there might be a better way. Maybe we should follow the track
upstream,
 to see if we can stop it where it comes in.”

    “Well—that’s still the thing, isn’t it?
How
 can we stop it?”

    “Control interfaces. That’s what we need to find.”

    “And if we do, can you talk to them?”

    The robot, crouching in the eerie light of the cavern, suddenly looked to Bandicut like a gnarled, half-starved man wearing mirror shades. He swiveled his head to peer back at Bandicut through his shades. “I suggest we find that bridge before we cross it.”

    Bandicut rose, floating away from the wall of machinery. “Lead on, kemosabe.”

*

   
For Ik, things seemed to be heating up. He felt surrounded not just by the voice of the star, but by its heat and light as well. The feeling was intense, though he knew logically that he was still on the bridge of the ship. But something was happening inside this star, something beyond the normal fusion-fires, something strong and deep. Something that felt
wrong,
 not just to Ik, but to the star.

       
Can you stop the pain

           
Make it stop ?

       
It will kill

           
is killing

   
Yes, Ik wanted to say. They were trying. But...“The pain,” he whispered. “Is it just yours, or is it that other star’s, too? Which of you is it killing?”

       
*
N-n-ck-k-k-k
*

               
Killing
*
N-n-ck-k-k-k
*

           
killing

               
through me

       
Making me kill

   
Ik slowed his breathing very deliberately and tried to focus. Making me kill.
What
was making
*
Thunder
*
 kill? The thing John and Napoleon were investigating? Almost certainly. “How can we make it stop?” he whispered to the star.

    There was a thunderous reverberation—and then a dazzling image that froze across his vision for an instant like a bolt of lightning: the star surrounded and penetrated by a great web of ghostly strands, and a tremendous but pale stinger that shot out from its body. Far away, another star brightened, apparently on the receiving end of the ray.

       
Must stop

           
that, you must stop

   
Ik, stunned, did not know what to say. He felt Antares also reeling from the image.
John Bandicut, you must succeed. Somehow you must succeed...

*

   
Li-Jared glanced from time to time at Ik and Antares, wishing he could guess what was happening in their inner worlds. Meanwhile, outside the ship, Bandicut and Napoleon were moving deeper and deeper into the Mindaru object, and farther and farther from any chance of his helping them.

    Li-Jared was fit to burst from the feeling of helplessness.

    Jeaves interrupted his thoughts. “You had better take a look at the long-range scanners. Something is coming our way.”