The Bright Black Sea (57 page)

I stepped closer and reached for Captain vey'Cline's
Travel Book of Faylyen
. Somehow, it seemed very ancient. It
opened to just two glowing pages, one with some sort of unfamiliar
text one side and on the other, a softly colored almost painting
like picture of a sunny place and a blue sea that I could taste
just looking at the image. I glanced away, frightened. I touched
the edges and the pages changed, new scenes, maps and a strange
text that I found I could somehow read... I closed the book with a
snap. It has been said that any sufficiently advanced technology
appears to be magic to the less advanced. This was magic. If it was
a technology, it was more advanced that what I could imagine. It
made the machine's cheque tokens seem like toys.

There was a latch on the worn leather cover and I
carefully latched it and twisting about and around the pile of
crates Dyn had moved to reach no. 33 box, I slipped the book back
into the half open drawer of the safe which was otherwise empty. I
slid the drawer closed and touched the key jewel to the lock
interface. I tried the drawer. It was locked. I looked at the worn
gold ring in my hand, and slipped it into my pocket. I couldn't
imagine ever wearing it. I braced myself against the pile opposite
and slid the whole pile back against the wall of safes and
tightened the lashings that Dyn had loosened to get at the safe. My
heart was racing, my head swirling, so I sat down and tried to
comfort the confused cats that were mewling about me. After a
while, I picked up the lantern and turned to go.

Min was standing in the shadows watching me.

04

I started. 'Min! You startled me. How long have you
been there?'

She ignored my question, asking one of her own, 'What
are you and the cats up to in here Captain?'

'I was finishing my nightly rounds and I found the
strongroom door ajar. It shouldn't have been open, of course. I
thought maybe you were communing with your inheritance again. The
cats and I investigated. We found Dyn instead.'

'I don't see him.'

That told me something. 'He was, or at least I
believe he was. Hard to tell.'

'Really? Hard to tell?'

'What with the singularity it's hard for me to tell
illusion and the real. But I'm fairly certain it was him. He's left
us.'

'If you say so,' She remarked, watching me closely.
'Care to expand on that?'

'We, that is to say, the cats and I found him waiting
in here for me, knowing I make my round of the ship before
retiring. He had the book, Captain vey'Cline's Travel Book of
Faylyen and he told me he intended to use it to go to Faylyen. He
said he realized that there is a connection between being able to
use the book to travel and the singularity – it lowers the barriers
to travel. He said that connection was never made or was lost in
the retelling of the tale.'

She gave me a skeptical look, but I carried on. 'I
believe he was never able to find his way out of his grief and
decided to take the opportunity to go away. He found Faylyen quite
enchanting – the book almost takes you there just by looking at the
pictures. Anyway, he's decided to start a new life... So he went,
leaving us. He said he's arranged to give his shipmates credits,
but that will take some time... Anyway, he's gone for good.'

'To Faylyen.'

'He was here one moment and gone the next. Just
vanished. I never thought I'd ever say anything like that, but it's
the truth, or what passes for the truth in wyrm weather,' I
replied. The still rather formal barrier between us prevented me
from volunteering any more information about the book, where it is
and how to get it. I felt bad about that, but it felt right
too.

She closed her eyes and sighed. 'Things are a little
strange, I'll grant you that, Captain, but I think it's best if
you, and your friends, get some rest now.'

This was not right. Something had to be done before
it got worse.

'Tallith, let's not go on like this.'

'Like what, Captain?'

'Like that, Tallith. I though we'd settled things,
but they're still not quite right between us. You don't have to be
so guarded around me all the time.'

'I'm not.'

'Oh, we get along well enough. I'll not complain.
It's just that I know that we could be closer. We were, for a while
down on the Yacht Club grounds. And it would be nice to be like
that again. I'm not asking for anything from you besides, well,
your trust, and friendship.'

'Friendship? Trust? I think you have both.'

'Neither in full measure.'

'You have all that I can give.'

'Then you're a coward, Tallith Min. You know we share
more than this. You know how I feel about you. Probably even
clearer than I, for I try not to look at it too closely, if only to
give you the space you seem to want. I know you far better than
you'd like, but you must be able to see that I care for you far
more than you'd like to admit. I've seen that too, once or twice.
But I've seen it. Can we be honest with each other and ourselves,
about our feelings?'

'A coward?' she smiled. 'That's a meteor calling an
asteroid a rock. You've just admitted that you're not even honest
with yourself, much less me. But if it's honesty you want, let's be
honest. I'll even start...

'So yes, I do care for you, Wil. More than I'm
comfortable feeling. Not because of you, but because of what I must
do. Oh, you are trustworthy – sometimes. You're brave, good, and
kind, but you are not right for me. You know that. And you know
what I must do or die trying. You're wise enough to fear it's
hopeless, but too enamored to steer clear and save yourself.'

'Can I at least make that decision for myself?'

She shook her head no. 'Even if I didn't care for
you, I wouldn't let you follow me. It wouldn't be right. But I do
care. But that doesn't blind me to the fact that you're not cut out
for what the dangers that I believe lay ahead for me.'

'What do you mean? Did I not stand beside you at the
Yacht Club? Did I not...' but I'd not bring in the duel. It was a
matter of pride now. So I finished, 'Have I not face the continued
threat of assassination?'

'Oh, you're no coward, but you're too, well, soft
hearted. You're too kind, too Unity Standard to fit into what I
suspect lies ahead. You see, I've gone over the stories of the Four
Shipmates and stripped out all the romance, the humor, and the
fantastic elements that they wove into those stories. What remains
is a ruthless, deadly struggle. No quarter give or asked. It's
straight out of the deep drifts and you're not equipped to deal
with something so heartless, so uncivilized. You'd try, I know, but
at some point, you'd hesitate and shy away from doing something
hard, dark and necessary, and our quest would be over. I can't risk
that. I've hardened my heart to face those cold, cruel facts, but I
don't think you're capable of that, and that makes you a weak link,
a liability rather than an asset. So you see, Wil, the very
qualities that attract me to you, doom a personal
relationship...

'You are, however, a good ship's captain. I want you
to look after my ship and my shipmates. If you truly care for me,
that's what you will do. It is, after all, simply a matter of using
the right person in the right job. And your job is taking my ship
world to world and earning a dividend for me,' she concluded,
watching me.

I sighed. 'Well, I'll not deny that I'm not cut from
the same cloth as the Four Shipmates. I don't relish the quest
you've set your heart on, and I would certainly advise you to
reconsider it and let the past alone. But I don't think I'd ever be
the weak link if it came to your life. I would do what it took to
keep you safe. Always,' I said standing and stepping close.

'And, well, I'll not be a coward now. I am in love
with you, and probably was from the first seconds I laid eyes on
you...' And with that I drew her close and kissed her.

05

I blinked awake – perhaps – and I was alone, sitting
on a pile of junk in the strongroom, surrounded by cats. Min was
nowhere to be found.

Of course. Min had been a wyrm weather vision. Even I
was out of character. Was my visit with Dyn also a vision? I felt
my pocket, found the small circle it contained and pulling it out,
found Miccall's gold ring with the gem inside, so not all of it was
wyrm weather. I could not place exactly where the seam lay between
the real and the wyrm. Wearily I rose, made my way out of the
strongroom, and making certain all the cats were out, closed and
locked the strongroom door.

I wished the cats good night, and went down to my
cabin and retired to my bunk and turned on the sleep machine. I
wanted oblivion. With the dreams of my waking hours, I'd didn't
think I'd find sleep any less unreal.

I don't know what I would have set down, if I'd found
time to write during the turmoil precipitated by Dyn's
disappearance, compounded by the effects of the wyrm weather on us
all. Writing about them now I find I can describe the events rather
dispassionately, but this account would likely have read quite
differently if I'd written it twenty-nine days ago.

The sleep machine gave me four hours of solid sleep,
and so when I was awakened by Vynnia to be informed that Dyn, by
his vid account, had somehow left the ship, I was able to react
decisively. I decided to keep my meeting with Dyn a secret. While I
could trust my shipmates with the ring and the book, I couldn't
trust them not to spin yarns about them. If Miccall's darq gem
ring, and the Travel Book of Faylyen became common knowledge in the
various Spaceer's Rows, I feared we'd all become targets of thieves
and pirates, especially if we had to operate in the drifts for a
while. Dyn's advice to follow the Four Shipmate's policy of keeping
secrets by not telling them, seemed wise.

While Dyn's farewell to his shipmates included his
use of the book to leave the ship, he left no proof of its
existence, keeping it mythical. I ordered a complete search of the
ship, stem to stern, inside and between hulls, including the
between the hull and hold section that houses the fuel tanks and is
in hard vacuum. Knowing how susceptible I am to the effects of the
wyrm, I couldn't be certain of what actually happened in the
strongroom. Miccall's ring was still in my pocket when I awoke, so
that much seemed real, but as for the rest, even his departure for
Faylyen could have been a wyrm weather vision. I half expected to
find him holed up somewhere within the ship, but two days of
searching yielded nothing.

I also ordered the techs to conduct a full review of
the ship's environmental data and a physical check of all the
sensors installed at the airlocks and other access points to see if
we could locate Dyn or find a believable way that he could've left
the ship undetected.

None of the sensors appeared to have been tampered
with but the bio data did provide one – uncomfortable – lead.

'Well Willy, I've gone over the environmental data,
and I may have found one rather strange bit of data,' said Rafe,
with a curious glance to me.

'And that would be?' I asked carefully.

'The ship's environmental tracking data suggests the
presence of a person within the strongroom on the night Dyn
disappeared, even though there's no sensor data to indicate the
door was opened, which is very strange,' he said watching me. 'I
suspect that Dyn can move about the ship without leaving a trace if
he cares to. He is rather one with the ship...'

'Well they searched the strongroom, the safe and all
the boxes large enough to hide in... So have there been any other
indications since ?' I asked, thinking hard on how much I'd have to
tell Rafe. And how believable it might, or might not, be.

He shook his head, 'No. And it just seemed to blink
out early in the sixth watch, though not before a jump in activity,
consistent with several more people.'

'Cats,' I said. 'Only me and the cats.' If he wanted
to, and may have, he could comb through the ship's environmental
monitoring system and track me as I moved through the ship. Lying
wasn't an option.

'And Dyn?' Rafe asked quietly.

'And Dyn. He was waiting for me, knowing my habit of
making the rounds before I retire for the night,' I admitted. 'We
had a short talk, essentially along the lines of his vid, which is
to say how very unhappy he was with Fen gone, and he'd discovered a
way out using The Travel Book of Faylyen. Apparently the thin
reality within a wyrm singularity lowers the bar enough to
physically travel to Faylyen via the pages of the book. Or so he
claimed. And so he had to act or miss this chance.

'As you know, I'd already seen the ghost of Glen
Colin, so I make no pretense of being a reliable witness, but as
far as I could see, he simply opened the book and vanished. The
cats and I sat around for a time trying to make sense of it,
without any success. Last night was the strangest night of my life
and, well, I really don't want to add to my reputation as a medium
of the supernatural. Glen Colin is enough, so I've kept Dyn's
apparent supernatural departure to myself, since disappearing into
a fabled book is no real explanation but brings my sanity once more
into question,' I said, hoping that Rafe would either fail to
notice or decide not to ask whether the book went with Dyn or not
since it was safer for the book to remain a myth – though I would
trust Rafe to keep the secret if it came down to that.

Rafe considered that for awhile, and sighed, 'Willy,
my lad, we're in strange space, and as you say, it doesn't make
things any easier to accept. But you did see him vanish before your
eyes?'

I sighed, 'Rafe, I thought I did, but I'm not a
reliable witness, I saw a number of things during the night that I
know now were not real, so meeting Dyn could easily be part of that
sequence of fantasy, or at least a mixture of the real and the
wyrm.'