Swallow the Sky: A Space Opera (8 page)

“God knows enough people
have tried. No – the Techs have gone for good.”

He did not want to
distract Aiyana with a long discussion, but in truth he was not so certain
about the ancient renegades. Regardless of their terrible crime he still hoped
that the Techs had survived, that another branch of the human family was out
there in the vastness of the galaxy. Perhaps one day he too would search the
sky.

That was enough
daydreaming. “So what’s your the curriculum for the rest of the day?”

“Oh I’m done with
studying. We’ve got some fixing to do.”

As soon as she had
arrived on the ship Aiyana had begun to tear into the maintenance backlog. He
was happy to accept the implied slight – the ship was slowly getting into shape
and the work kept Aiyana from brooding.

“Do you know that your
exterior repair ‘bot hasn’t been functioning for two years?”

“Yeah, I’ve been meaning
to fix it…”

“I’ve been begging him”
said the ship.

“Come on, let’s gear up. You
said it’s safe to go outside during flight.”

“Sure, come on.”

Aiyana followed him down
a short corridor ending at one of the ship’s many storage modules. There Carson
slapped his hand on an oversized locker. The heavy door decoded his genome,
unlocked itself and swung open. Inside was a chaotic array of ancient
artifacts: logic devices so old that no-one could still read the symbols they
displayed, exquisitely made medical instruments for investigating diseases that
no longer existed, communication devices mystically engraved with letters and
numbers, strings of stranded metal once used to transport information,
hand-sized pebbles that somehow could interface with machines, and a myriad of
cylinders, tubes, slabs and assorted shapes of unknown origin and doubtful
utility.

Carson shoved aside a
protein synthesizer. Finally he pulled out two ancient environment suits.

“When I was staying on Fomalhaut
b I bartered them for a fifth millennium music library” he explained.

“It wasn’t worth that
much – I didn’t have the instruction manual” he added as Aiyana inspected the
seals around the helmets.

“They still got the
better deal. Oh well, it’s just a quick excursion; I’ll add them to the
maintenance list.”

They clambered into the
suits and after some rudimentary checks headed for the exterior hatch. The
heavy door swung open and they pushed their way through a stiff inertial screen
into the vacuum. They were immediately surrounded by a bubble field; it was a
crude but effective way of counteracting the tug of the shell and generating
the impression of surface gravity. Nevertheless, they took the precaution of
attaching safety lines.

The basic structure of
the ship was a cube-like chassis about forty meters long with additional
modules plugged into the surface. To the left was one such unit – the hulking
cylinder of the main power source, the Higgs engine, surrounded by a tangle of
superconducting cables. Directly ahead was another module: the rectangular
shape of the conservatory.

Aiyana looked upwards and
gasped. The vessel was totally enveloped in blackness without a hint of
surrounding stars. The spinning micro black holes of the shell had created a separate
continuum, a mini-cosmos totally cut off from the universe at large. Only space
can travel through space faster than light and this was the only way that the
human race had found to do it.

“Hey, up there!” Carson said over the suit radio.

Aiyana peered at where he
was gesturing. She could see a small machine, less than a meter long, clinging
to the slate-colored outer surface of the conservatory. They clambered up handholds
to the flat top and squatted down to inspect the inert device.

“
Dead as a dodo
”

“Excellent! Soon you’ll
be speaking Ancient English better than me.”

Carson tried lifting but the
‘bot seemed cemented to the composite surface.

“Vacuum welded?”

“I don’t think so. It
clings on with retractable solenoids – the hull has an embedded iron matrix for
magnetization. Here – the electromagnets are stuck to the surface. We’re going
to have to pry it loose.”

But even with their
combined strength the machine refused to budge.

“It’s no good – we need
something more.”

With that Carson hurried
into the ship and re-emerged with a narrow metal bar.

“We can use this as a
lever; that loading ring will make a great pivot.”

He hooked his feet around
the rungs of a service ladder then threaded the bar through the loading ring and
under the ‘bot. Grabbing the other end of the bar he pulled down hard.

“Yes!” he yelled as the little
device broke free.

The ‘bot rose straight
up, accelerating towards the black void of the shell. Carson threw down his
improvised lever and leapt after the ascending machine. He intercepted it four
meters off the surface, cartwheeling as he enveloped it in his arms. At the
same moment his safety line straightened, became taught, and effortlessly
parted in two.

Everyone shouted in
panic.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got
you” said the ship as it extended the bubble field. Carson’s upward trajectory
came to a halt.

“Well pull me down!”

“Sorry, projecting a
field outside the hull isn’t easy and now you’re further up the shell’s gravity
gradient. It’s all I can do to keep you where you are. Aiyana, you’ll have to
go up and get him.”

“Oh wonderful!”

After tugging at her
safety line she jumped upwards.

“Okay” she said “we need
to take this nice and slowly. Carson, if you can free up one arm and put it
round my waist I’ll reel us both in.”

He shifted the ‘bot onto
his hip, then reached out and caught hold of Aiyana. She gripped the safety
line and pulled.

“Why aren’t we moving?”
he asked. His faceplate was shoved into her back.

“Because my goddamn line
just broke too.”

Carson let go of her.

“Hmm…” he said “tricky,
yes – tricky.”

“No matter. We’ll just
use whatever internal propulsion system these pathetic suits have got.”

She swiveled round to
look at him.

“Please tell me they
have
propulsion.”

“Oh yes, but I don’t
think they’re fueled.”

“I pleaded with him…” the
ship began.

“Oh shut up!” Carson yelled.

“I thought if I beat him
enough times at Galactic Warlord he’d get bored and actually do some
maintenance.”

“I
knew
you were
cheating!”

“Both of you, shut up!”

They fell into sulky
silence.

Finally the ship said “Hey Carson, do you recall that scientific paper about swimming in distorted
space-time? You always said you wanted to try it”

“Yes! Some professor
demonstrated that a steep gravity gradient could enable movement with a
swimming action.”

Minutes passed as Carson
furiously cartwheeled his limbs in the vacuum.

“Have I got anywhere?”

“You’ve risen five
centimeters”

“I guess the gradient
isn’t high enough”

“Yes, that’s what my
calculations predicted”

Carson quietly fantasized
about taking an ax to the ship’s logic arrays.

Aiyana, who had been
watching the action in tactful silence, spoke up.

“If you threw the ‘bot
upwards into the shell, do you think the reaction would be enough to propel you
to the hull?”

“No way!” he cried,
hugging the little machine to his bosom.

She sighed and searched
around.

“Hey ship, can you manipulate the inertial field to push Carson’s lever up to me?”

The metal bar wriggled on
the deck until it was free of the loading ring. Aiyana reached out and grabbed
as it drifted upwards.

“Hang tight – I’m going
to climb down you.”

Keeping her grip on the
lever Aiyana seized a fold in Carson’s environment suit and slowly pulled her
way down his body, then down his legs. At that point she looped in the remains
of the safety line.

“I’m going to tie our
ankles together. Pray that it stays in one piece.”

Once they were secured to
each other she slowly unwound her body until she pointed downwards towards the ship. Gripping one end of the lever she stretched her arms above her head. Now the other end of
the metal bar almost touched the hull.

“Hey ship, is that close enough to capture in a field?”

A gentle tug passed along
their bodies and a minute later they were sprawled across the surface of the
conservatory module.

“That’s enough
maintenance for one day” Aiyana muttered, “I need a drink.”

“Ship” said Carson once they were safely inside “you had better add two environment suits to the
procurement list.”

“New or refurbished?”

Two laser beams coming
from the direction of Aiyana struck him on the back of the neck.

“Better make them new.”

They regrouped in the
tiny galley next to Carson’s sleeping quarters. He disappeared into a locker
and emerged with a dusty brandy bottle.

“Best I can do” he said as
they sat down at the small table. He poured two glasses and passed one over.

Aiyana took a huge gulp,
breathed in sharply and laughed. She couldn’t stay mad with him.

“Never a dull moment with
you, is there Carson?”

“Never a dull moment” he
agreed with a grin.

They clinked glasses and
drank.

“Hey” she exclaimed “this
is good stuff!”

“It’s from my own
vineyards” Carson drawled in a surprisingly good imitation of Juro.

Aiyana choked and snorted
as he refilled their glasses.

“Seriously though, where
did you get it?”

“God knows. Ship – do you remember?”

“Believe it or not, it
was from a grateful client.”

“Hey that’s right. It was
that arcology in the Darvanium system – it’s on the outer edge of the Cygnus
Arm – very metal poor. Some local bigwig wanted a unique coming-of-age present
for her daughter and I found a virgin gold necklace in the stores.”

“I’ve got an image” said
the ship.

A slender young woman in
a white dress materialized in the center of the room. She gave them a shy smile
and pushed her gleaming black hair to one side to display her gift.

“Oh my God it’s
beautiful!” Aiyana cried, woozily climbing over Carson to take a closer look. The
necklace was a delicate filigree of gold inset with lapis lazuli and mother of
pearl.

“It’s authentic gold too,
dug out of the ground, not the stuff they make in factories. The daughter was
due to be betrothed the next day and the local tradition is that everything she
and her future husband wear at the ceremony should be made from virgin
materials to denote purity.”

“Oh that’s so sweet” sniffed
Aiyana plunking herself in her chair.

She refilled their
glasses and offered a toast.

“Here’s to innocence”

“Innocence”

After they drank Aiyana
reached out, took Carson’s glass from his hand, and put it down on the table.

“I know things are a bit
complicated between us” she said “but a woman has her needs.”

“I’m sorry, I’m not
following…”

Aiyana rolled her eyes
then burst out laughing.

Did the ship just send her a message on a private channel?

“Carson, dear” she said
taking his hand “are we ever going to have sex?”

“Oh, well, I um…”

“Hey, you can’t just
strut around naked all the time and –”

“Me!”

“– and come on with all
this dirty talk about virgins and initiation ceremonies and not expect a woman
to get ideas, can you?”

“I assure you –”

“Oh shut up!” she cried
and clambered over the table.

And so it was that Carson had the unique experience of twice making love for the first time to the same woman.

Many hours later they lay
in each other’s arms in the rumpled bed. The detox tablets had done their work
and they were sleepy, sober, and content.

“Carson” Aiyana said
quietly as she lay gazing up at the bulkhead “was she the same as me?”

This time he knew who she
was talking about.

“Sort of, I mean she was
physically identical apart from the tattoos but her personality was an out of
focus version of you. I don’t think they gave her many memories.”

“The poor creature, she
only lived for a few days.”

It was only then that Carson fully comprehended the obscenity of Juro’s crime. To conjure up, manipulate, and
then snuff out a life as real as the woman laying beside him showed total
contempt for the human experience.

“Don’t worry, we’ll make
sure it never happens again.”

The next day marked the
halfway point of the ten-day voyage and the anticipation of their arrival prompted
them to pick up the pace. The fiasco outside the ship finally convinced Carson to join the maintenance push while Aiyana redoubled her studies of ancient
history. Above all, there was the anxiety as to what exactly they would encounter
on New Earth.