The Stars Blue Yonder (18 page)

Haines said, “Answer the commander, Stefan.”

“We had to stop mapping the system years ago,” Beranski said. “Stop exploring. The Roon were everywhere we went. They're much more adept at the technology than we are.”

Jodenny thought back to Garanwa's station. “They seized the helm? The hub?”

“We don't know,” Haines said. “We've never found the station that you, Admiral Nam, and the others abandoned under duress. If we possessed it, we might be able to find and invade their world.”

There wasn't much accusation in his voice, but Jodenny heard it
nonetheless. She tried not to lose her temper. “If we'd stayed there, you might have kept the hub but lost Earth to the Roon.”

Ovadia looked suddenly interested in what Haines was saying.

Haines lifted his chin. “No one's saying that would be preferable, no. But it was an option.”

Jodenny turned back to Beranski. “So you're going to deflect the blue token? You think you can?”

“Oh, yes,” Beranski said. “It's very simple. It'll continue on without him just fine.”

Myell, who'd been listening, asked, “Will it continue onward and then loop back again? That's what rings do, right? Go around and around.”

Beranski rubbed his chin. “We can keep you surrounded by protective shields for as long as necessary.”

“For the rest of his life?” Adryn asked, and Jodenny was glad she wasn't the only one to see the problem with this.

“Er, maybe. We usually run the deflectors in our Spheres on a constant basis, so the Roon can't slip in. I can make a portable one that Chief Myell can wear. That might work.”

Jodenny was sure the idea had flaws, depending on how much power a deflector shield required and how cumbersome the equipment might be. She was distracted from answering by a particularly heavy set of kicks from Junior, who was apparently practicing his—her, she reminded herself—soccer skills today.

Beranski turned back to Myell. “Chief, you said this blue ouroboros is shaped like a man?”

Myell nodded. “Holding his own feet. The first one we ever used was shaped like a snake. And then there was one shaped like a crocodile.”

“It's kind of fascinating how the incarnations change—” Beranski started, but a look from Haines quelled him. “Right. So do you hear a horn when it's incoming, or some other sound?”

“I don't hear anything. But all of a sudden the air goes away, like I'm standing in a venting airlock.”

Jodenny hadn't known that. Myell didn't seem upset about it, but if someone took her air away, she'd have been perturbed. “I didn't experience that.”

Beranski was smiling. “This is fabulous data. Mind you, we've never
had a case of an ouroboros traveling on its own, linked to a person. But I'm sure we can deflect it anyway. We just have to run some experiments, try a few scenarios—”

Jodenny didn't feel reassured. “Dr. Beranski, if the ring is on a twenty-four-hour schedule, it'll be here around oh-four-hundred. That's fifteen hours from now.”

“Fifteen hours,” Beranski repeated. “Oh. No problem.”

Myell looked less confident than ever.

More of Beranski's team arrived with equipment in tow. Jodenny tried to keep an eye on things but she was way too comfortable in her chair, and exhausted, too, and it was possible she dozed off because the next thing she knew, a handsome chief from Adryn's department was bringing in an oversized tray loaded with hot sandwiches, fresh salads, and chocolate cake.

“This is Chief Tom Cappaletto,” Adryn said. “Thorn in my side.”

“That's me.” Cappaletto put the tray down and offered his hand. “Nice to meet you, Commander Scott.”

She had never felt less like a military officer, but Jodenny appreciated the courtesy. She grabbed half the food and asked Cappaletto to take the rest of the tray to Myell, who was trapped in a circle of equipment answering questions. For conversation, she asked Adryn, “So how are your mom and dad?”

“Mom's great. She's teaching at the university on Warramala.”

“And your dad?”

Adryn chewed on a pickle. “They're not together anymore.”

That statement brought Jodenny's head up from her cake, which she'd decided to eat first. “What happened?”

“Drifted apart.” Adryn reached for another pickle. “Different ideas, different goals. You know how it goes. People change.”

The chocolate frosting in Jodenny's stomach curdled. She didn't think Myell would take the news well. “Was it a difficult breakup?”

“I wasn't there for that part,” Adryn said. “I was at the academy by then. Mom sent imails and Dad—well, he was off with his new crowd. Didn't hear much from him.”

“I'm sorry.”

“Nobody's fault,” Adryn said with a shrug.

They talked about Adryn's experiences as a pilot serving in Team Space and on foreign exchange, and how she'd met and fallen in love with Dr. Laura Ling.

“We were married six months after our first date,” Adryn said. “I changed my name to hers so it was easier for me to get foreign exchange billet. Plus, the Ling family name goes pretty far in ACF. They're all over the place. Captains, doctors, a few admirals even.”

Jodenny was watching Myell, who had taken only one bite of a sandwich before putting it down. “Isn't it risky for both of you to be here, facing the Roon?”

“Neither of us would have it any other way,” Adryn said firmly.

A few minutes later Commander Haines returned from Security with a list of question for Jodenny. She didn't like the man, but it wasn't the worst interview Jodenny had ever undergone. For nearly an hour she talked about Garanwa's station, the
Kamchatka
, and Providence. She gave Haines the coordinates of the planet, as best the onboard computers could ever figure it. She insisted that Team Space or the ACF send a ship to rescue them.

Haines looked doubtful. “How? It's too far.”

Adryn said, “If we could steal the Roon interstellar engine technology, we could get to them in a few years.”

“Or if we figure out a way to control your husband's personal token ring,” Haines said.

“To do that you'd have to grab it,” Jodenny said. “Not just deflect it.”

Haines's gaze shifted sideways.

“No.” Jodenny struggled out of her chair. She called over to the scientists. “Dr. Beranski! What are you going to do with the blue token?”

“Commander, calm down,” Haines said.

“Aunt Jodenny, maybe you should sit,” Adryn said.

“I'm not an invalid,” she snapped at them both.

Myell stood up from his stool and caught her by the arms. “What's the matter?”

“He's not going to send the token away,” Jodenny accused. “They're going to try and catch it. That's what destroyed the
Yangtze
.”

Haines said, “Maybe we should take a break. Rethink and regroup.”

“Maybe you should stop lying to us,” she snapped.

Myell said, “I think a break is a good idea. Is there somewhere we can rest for a few minutes?”

“I don't want to rest,” Jodenny said, but apparently today was the day that no one listened to her, because soon Ovadia was escorting them up to the cabin Adryn and Laura Ling shared in officer country. Another armed guard trailed behind them. Jodenny hated the idea of being watched as if they were prisoners or threats, but she kept that to herself. Things were stressful enough already.

“They want us back in an hour,” Ovadia said. “Let me know if you need anything.”

The cabin was small but had homey touches, including Laura's medical diplomas and a blue quilt on the bed built for two. Jodenny was in no mood to appreciate the accommodations.

“We can't trust any of them,” she said. “You can't believe anything they say.”

Myell sat on the edge of his bed and pulled off his boots. He wriggled his feet and examined his socks. “Even Admiral Nam?”

“Even him,” Jodenny said. “
Especially
him. Remember how you met?”

“Come on. Lie down for a few minutes. You've got to be as tired as I am.”

She considered denying it, but it was nicer to stretch out on the soft mattress. Myell reclined beside her, his gaze on the overhead. The look on his face meant he was beating himself up over something.

“You can't blame yourself for Kyle and Twig,” she said, a lump in her throat. “For all we know, they're fine where we left them. Louise and the others, they'll take care of them.”

His voice was bleak. “Or the eddy dissolved and they ceased to exist.”

“Which means the originals are still alive back in their own time period. So it's still okay, right?”

Myell took her hands. “If you're right and someone or something changed history at Garanwa's station, sent me off in the blue ring, then I'm just a copy of the original dying Terry Myell. I turned around and pulled you out of Providence. Do you feel like a copy? Is the baby unreal? Am I?”

She stared at the bulkhead. If she was a copy of the original Jodenny Scott, it didn't matter one bit. She still felt like herself, and thought like herself, and was going to fight like hell to keep him and her baby both.

“I don't think you can trust Homer, and you certainly can't trust that Roon,” she said. “But one of them wants you to find Kultana and the other wants to stop you. So that's what we have to concentrate on. I asked Adryn to run a computer check but there's nothing on the list that you haven't already told me about.”

“What I don't understand is why here,” he said. “Why now. Every other trip I've made has been about you. Of all the places the ouroboros could have taken us, why to a place neither of us has ever been? Is it because the Roon are coming?”

Jodenny kicked off her boots and wriggled her feet. “I don't know. But maybe the answer will come to you if you rub my feet.”

He cocked his head. “You think that's possible?”

“Absolutely.”

He found some hand lotion in Adryn's locker. The first press of his thumbs against her archways had Jodenny groaning in pleasure. Warm flushes traveled up her legs to her groin. She watched him with half-lidded eyes, breathing deeply.

“Take off your shirt,” she said.

Myell quirked a smile. “What for?”

“It's wrinkled,” she said. “I want to iron it.”

He peeled it off and tossed it into the corner. He was thinner than she liked to see him, but the shape of his shoulders hadn't changed, nor the brown little points of his nipples. He bent closer to her ankles, his hands warm and careful and strong. His wedding ring was warm against her skin.

“You're not going anywhere,” she told him. “You know that?”

The smile faded away. “I don't want to.”

“Things are different this time,” she said. “I'm here. You don't have to go around the universe looking for one who'll keep you. I'm keeping you.”

Something shadowed flitted across his face, quickly gone, but she knew him. “Come here,” she said.

“I'm not done.”

“Here,” she insisted, and he crawled across the pillows. She turned on her side and ran her hands down his chest to his waist.

It was Myell's turn to groan. “You're going to ruin these trousers.”

“Then why don't you get out of them?” she said.

Once he was stripped bare, she forbade him to do anything but lie on the mattresses and enjoy himself. He watched her face, his lips parted and his breathing fast.

“I want to touch you,” he said.

Jodenny let her hair fall across his chest. “Nope. I'm in charge. You stay right where you are.”

His head fell back.

She wished they had more than an hour.

She wished they could lock themselves in Adryn's cabin forever.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Adryn said, “I strongly object to this plan, Admiral.”

Before Nam could answer, Captain McNaughton said, “And I strongly object to not doing everything we can to defeat the Roon, Lieutenant Ling.”

The briefing room was full of the
Confident'
s senior staff as well as Admiral Nam and his aides. The captains of the fourteen ships were tied in via vid, and some had sent representatives in person. Adryn was the youngest officer present. She was tempted to feel intimidated and outranked, but this was her family they were talking about.

“If I may repeat myself.” Dr. Beranski coughed into his hand. “We have no evidence the accident which befell the
Yangtze
will repeat itself here. We're not in the Alcheringa or near a drop point. The token ring that brought them here didn't cause any problems. I'm positive
we can deflect the next one with no trouble at all from anywhere on this ship.”

“Deflecting it is not enough,” McNaughton said. “We need to catch it.”

Beranski scratched his chin. “Capturing a normal ring is no problem. We can do that with our eyes closed. A ring that can move in the Universal Bulk through enormous amounts of space and time—well, that's an animal of a different color.”

Commander Haines said, “We don't have objective proof that it really moves through time.”

Adryn said, “What do you think, they're lying?”

Dr. Cho spoke up from his corner. “Chronologically speaking, neither of them has aged in fifteen years. Every test confirms it. You can't refute science.”

Admiral Su lifted his gaze from his gib. He was the senior admiral of the fleet, outranking both Nam and McNaughton. Adryn had the distinct impression that Su didn't like Myell, even though he hadn't met him. Or maybe Su didn't like anyone. Couldn't afford to like anyone, not with thousands of sailors serving his command and facing death by the Roon.

“Deflection isn't enough. You've got to capture it. But not while he's aboard this ship,” he said. “Captain McNaughton, ready a birdie that can carry Myell, Dr. Beranski, and all the equipment needed. Recruit a pilot who doesn't mind the fact this might be a one-way trip.”