The Bright Black Sea (51 page)

'All that. I'd have to examine the ship's support
structure to make certain that can even be done, and there's all
the fuel pipes and controls that would need to be extended, fuel
line supports and the injector module remounted... and, well, the
list goes on,' replied Lilm. 'We can manufacture the extra piping,
and jury-rig the mountings and such, nothing beyond our expertise,
but we'd have to have everything working within 35 days with no
margin of error. Run into something unexpected, and well, we'll be
in the drifts beyond Zilantre before we've killed our velocity.
We're going to have to look very closely at everything involved in
the operation before we can give you a definite answer.'

'Ten?'

'As I said, I've seen some pretty jury-rigged engine
rooms in my time, so I'm certain it's possible, Skipper. But on a
ship this size... well it's not the way we did things in the
Patrol.'

I turned to Vynnia. 'Anything to add Vyn?'

'Speaking without knowledge of Tally's credit
balance, I'd say that since we can make it to Zilantre on our
balancing rockets, late, but reliably so, we might want to consider
long and hard about making such a semi-permanent adjustment to the
ship. In orbit we can price out our options and if this still seems
viable, we can go for it .'

Thank you, Vyn, I said to myself. That was pretty
much my opinion too, but she saved me from having to say it.

'Can it be done while under power? If you work while
we're decelerating using balancing engines, we'd not be taking the
big chance, save the trimming down of the nozzle to the last when
we're certain it'll work, and depending on when we start and how
aggressive we are about decelerating with the balancing rockets, we
might be able to make our schedule...'

'That'd make the work harder just because we'd be
looking after the balancing engines at the same time' said Lilm.
'Plus, we'd have to set up and work from a lot of scaffolding which
would make the work more time consuming. Perhaps in the final
stages it wouldn't matter as much.'

I glanced at Min and gave her a Your call look.

She swatted it back with a look and a shrug. 'What do
you think, Wil?

'I'm thinking along the same lines as Vyn, on this
one.' I had rather hoped to avoid sounding like cautious old
Captain Crofter, but well, I had to be honest too, though I did
add, 'I'm willing to be convinced, but it'll take a solid,
unanimously agreed on plan from our engineers.'

'Right. Still it sounds like it's worth looking
into,' said Min. 'But we'll need to see a detailed outline of every
step you'd have to take and how long it would take you to
accomplish each step. We need to be certain of success since we'll
be digging ourselves a hole in the deep drifts if we hold off
decelerating only to find out it won't work. Take the time over the
next few days to go over every little detail. We'll resume our
course change using the balancing rockets and that'll now take us
the better part of four days, and we won't need to start
decelerating with them if we go that route for a few days after
that – so you have time to go over the whole idea very
carefully.'

After the engineers had left, Min, Vynnia and I sat
about talking over our various options. Owners and captains have
slightly different priorities. My first priority was getting the
ship to orbit safely. Repair costs were not my direct providence
and I didn't know Min's credit balance. Our trade goods should
provide immediate credits if needed, and the insurance down the
line would cover our loss for missing the delivery date, so I
didn't view the situation as a dire crisis requiring desperate
measures. I was happy to see that Vynnia was taking the same,
safest, course I'd prefer, but except for voicing my support of
Vynnia's caution, I kept my personal opinion to myself as much as
possible. Vynnia, I was certain, could get away with being a lot
more direct than I, so I'd let her push the sure and safer course,
especially since I knew enough about Min to suspect that she's
wouldn't shy away from taking a chance to deliver the boats on
schedule despite our misfortune. It would be a coup, and could
establish a very useful reputation for the
Lost Star
.

I suppose, in the end, my luck had to run out
sometime. We'd been pretty lucky, and were lucky even now. We could
be in the small boats with several months of travel ahead of us. Or
we could be dead. We'll see what the engineers come up with.

The ship felt different. Oh, nothing was out of place
– it was the same tiny world I've lived in for sixteen years, but
it wasn't quite the same either. The difference was subtle, and
mostly in my head, but as I made my rounds late in the 5th watch, I
could sense it. We had resumed our course change with only our
balancing rockets, and the sound of only those rockets, at full
power, was something out of my usual orbit, a sound I'd never heard
before – we rarely ran them at anything more than minimum, even
when maneuvering in the Anjur Passage. The ship under their power
alone sounded different, tinier, and each engine contributed its
own voice to the subtle vibration and muffled roar. And too, the
pseudo-gravity was unfamiliar, the eight engines did not produce
our familiar standard acceleration.

And there was the uncertainty. We were in no
immediate danger, and should be in none. If we stuck with only the
balancing rockets we'd fail to meet our promised delivery dates.
And while that was a result of the known hazards of space travel,
it still felt like a failure on my part – and on the ship's as
well. I'd always counted on the
Lost Star
to be absolutely
reliable, and this incident had shaken that assumption. You can
never be absolutely certain of anything in space. It's one thing to
know that, another to feel it. I'd come to take it for granted that
it was a certainty, so I found it all rather unnerving.

Other than the engines, the ship was quiet. Being
under power, we operated with the full three person watch, and
except for the engine room crew, the others, not on watch, had
retired for the night. I quickly made my way through the upper
decks, and down to the engine room where I knew I'd find some
shipmates at work.

Riv had the watch on the control platform and Lilm,
who'd be standing the next watch was beside him. Myes was on a
platform in the depths of the engine room below, intently studying
the main engine.

I nodded as I crossed the catwalk from the main
access well to the control center.

'How's it looking?' I asked over the multi-voiced
roar of the eight smaller rockets.

Riv shrugged, 'Well, Skipper, so far we've not come
up with anything that would rule it out. But we'll need to take a
much closer look at it once we're done with engines.'

'We'll have almost a week before we'll need to begin
decelerating, so take your time and devise a step-by-step plan. It
is, as far as I'm concerned, plan B. Though it won't be my
decision,' I added.

'You're thinking Talley will go for the delivery
date...' grinned Riv.

'I don't know. Vyn feels like I do, better to do it
by the book. Better the unfortunate, but necessary delay rather
than the uncertainty of an unproven fix. If we ran into a fatal
hitch at the end of the process, we'd end up deep in the drifts and
it would take months to dig ourselves back out and to Zilantre with
just our balancing rockets alone.'

'Aye, but pushing them at full power for 70 some days
is not going to be a picnic, either,' said Riv.

'They'll last, won't they?' I asked, somewhat
alarmed.

'Aye,' replied Lilm, 'they'll last. They're designed
to run at full power for tens of thousands of hours. It's a matter
of changing their set ways. They've always run at 10-12% power, and
usually only for several days at a time. To ask them to run full
out for the better part of two thousand hours is a big change in
their usual pattern and when you change a set pattern, you get a
lot of little things going wrong, pumps, fuel lines and injectors,
sensors and such. Nothing we can't handle.'

'But we'll be nursing them and holding their hands
the whole way,' added Riv with a grin. 'There'd be no rest for the
wicked.'

I considered that and said, 'Just between old
shipmates, would you care to tackle moving the main engine assuming
you discover no major hitches in the plan, or just stick with the
balancing rockets? It'll be between Min and me if comes down to
that, so you needn't worry about getting involved. I just want to
get a feeling about how much resistance should I put up if she
chooses to gamble on the main engine.'

Lilm glanced at Riv and back to me. 'It'd give us
something to brag about.'

I nodded. That was what I was afraid of. And they'd
make an epic of it.

'Have you looked over the final engineering
proposal?' Min asked, looking into the bistro as I was brewing a
cup of cha. We'd completed our course change two days ago and were
now on course for Zilantre.

'Several times. And I've had them walk me thorough
the whole procedure in the engine room as well.'

'Then we're ready to discuss it. Any objection to
doing it now?'

'Now's the time. I've my cha and the sooner our plans
are settled, the more comfortable I'll feel.'

'Right. My office is the closest,' she replied, so I
grabbed my mug and followed her down a deck to the owner's
suite.

She settled behind the broad desk and I on a chair
before it.

'So Captain, I believe now is your golden time to
advise caution,' she said, with a faint smile.

'I believe Vyn has already made that point,' I
replied cautiously. 'I'm here for orders.'

'Oh, come now, That's a very cowardly reply.'

I shrugged. Min kept her feelings well hidden, but
still, I had a pretty good idea that the decision was already made,
and saw no point in committing myself one way or the other. 'It's
your decision. I can tell you what I'd do if you weren't
aboard...'

'If you hadn't had me drugged and shanghaied,' she
interjected, but without any malice behind it.

'If I hadn't decided to enforce my Guild contracts,'
I agreed, with a smile.

'Oh, all right. What would you do if I wasn't
aboard.'

'I wouldn't gamble with your ship. Our insurance will
eventually cover the delivery penalties, so all I'd be facing is
the expense of relining the bell. The decision on how to proceed
with that project, whether our current credit balance and the
proceeds of the sale of trade goods would cover the standard
repair, or whether we'd proceed with cutting the bell down would
depend on prices, and a radio packet from you.'

'So you think making the repairs now is a gamble,
even after having been walked through the whole process.'

'I'm saying that the downside of failure would've
been too much of a gamble for me to take without consulting you. If
we delay deceleration and we find a fatal flaw in the project, we
could end up spending several months clawing our way back to
Zilantre, and that's turning a blind eye into any issues we might
have to deal with 20 aus deep into the Myzar Drift. On the other
hand, running two weeks over schedule, is easy to justify by the
events. A fractured engine lining is a known hazard and we took the
prudent course to insure as timely a delivery as possible under the
circumstances. A two month delay is a lot more iffy. We'd have
clearly made the wrong decision which resulted in a serious delay
of the boats needed for the safety of mining crews,' I said,
adding, 'I know Vyn's gone over this with you already, so I'm here
for my orders. I'll see that whatever you decide gets done and
works.'

'You think I'm going to go with Myes' plan?' she
asked watching me.

'Yes.'

'And you're not comfortable with that?'

'I wouldn't say that. It should work. It's only the
downside of failure that gives me pause. Still, I won't be able to
say I told you so, if we should try it and fail.'

'I'd hope not, since you're being so evasive.'

'I'm not. You know where I stand. I'm simply avoiding
a pointless argument. My engineers have assured me they can do it,
so I'm comfortable with either course. More so with one than with
another, but comfortable enough with both that I see no reason to
argue. Give me my orders.'

'Well, Captain, that being the case, I see no reason
why we shouldn't give Myes' plan a go. The way I see it, we can
fall back on the balancing rockets at any point in the process. I
think delivering the cargo on time in the face of adversity, would
be just what we need to make our mark in a new trade system, making
it worth the risk,' she said, adding, 'I'm not someone who gives up
easily.'

'No, you're not. I'll get the gang working directly,'
I replied, standing. 'I know they're eager to get going – they've
come to view this as a challenge, something they'll be able to yarn
about for the rest of their lives.'

'And, just to be clear here, you've promised that if
this falls into a black hole, you're not going to say I told you
so,' she added with a slight smile.

'Well, yes, though if we find ourselves deep in the
Myzar Drift and ten seconds away from making a small impact crater
in a large drift asteroid that we couldn't avoid, I may be at least
thinking, Next time she might want to listen to me,' I said and
gave her a grin and a sketchy salute. I wasn't feeling quite so
cocky, however.

I started my evening inspection of the ship in the
engine room. I ventured only as far as the control platform. Ten
meters below Riv, Lili and Tenry were installing the last of the
newly fabricated fuel pipes. I didn't feel the need to see more and
they didn't need to see me. I make a point these days to steer well
clear of my engineering staff whenever possible. They're not
pleasant company. And they don't like seeing me.