Torchship (27 page)

“What about their pilgrims?” asked Bing.

“I don’t know. They could have dropped them at any AI world.
But . . . the crew all backed the captain’s story. Maybe they all got a cut of
the book. Maybe they’re covering up a crime.”

“Spacing the passengers?”

“Don’t tell me you haven’t been tempted.”

“Not on this trip.” The first mate laughed. “I’ll have to
tell you about some groundhogs we had on the
Jefferson Harbor
.”

“What bothers me most is this was our proof it could be
done. That it was possible to go to Earth and live. Now I’m looking at a story
from twenty-two years ago as the most recent trip, and how do we know those
guys told the truth?”

Journey Day 89. Vouvant System. Acceleration: 10 m/s
²

Captain Schwartzenberger slid down the last few rungs of the
ladder. As soon as his feet hit the deck he drew his pistol. Mitchie and Alexi
spread out behind him, hands on their guns, wishing they had permission to draw.

“Break it up! That’s enough!” ordered Schwartzenberger. The
outer ring of the brawl made way in front of the captain. The rest kept
fighting until he swung his gun at their heads. They scrambled out of the way,
revealing Billy holding the two instigators.

“Thanks for coming, Skipper.” The deckhand’s grin dripped
blood from a split on one side. One eye was swollen up. The captain surveyed
the rest of the damage. Broken finger, ripped pants, some sandwiches stomped
flat between the combatants.

“Everyone get in your bunks,” commanded the captain,
pointing his pistol straight up. Most of the passengers fled. In a minute just
Reed and the ones Billy held were left.

“Sir,” said Reed. “I’m willing to handle disciplining these
two. I’m sorry we dragged your crewman into it.”

“Damned straight,” said Schwartzenberger. “Mr. Lee, hand
them over.”

“Aye-aye.” Billy flung them at Reed so hard they nearly
fell. “You ought to make them eat those sandwiches they stepped on.”

“Let’s go,” said the captain, waving his crew ahead of him.
Billy went up letting his right leg drag. Schwartzenberger pulled a rag out of
his cargo pocket and wiped the blood off his pistol before holstering it.

When everyone was in the galley the captain activated the
intercom to bring Bing and Guo into the discussion. “Okay, Billy, what the hell
happened there?”

“They did a normal meal line. About two-thirds of the way
through a guy looked at the one behind him and accused him of going through a
second time. Knocked the sandwich out of his hand. So I called in then grabbed
them. But their friends mixed in so it went critical.”

“Uh-huh.” Billy shifted uneasily under the captain’s stare. “Did
it occur to you that they might have been trying to grab you as a hostage?
Ransoming you for food?”

“Um . . . no,” said the deckhand.

“Well, it’s occurred to me. And now they’ve seen how easy it
was to isolate you I’m sure it’s occurred to some of them. So. New rules. We’re
not posting anyone in the hold any more. No one goes through the hold alone.
Everyone stays armed while on duty. Twelve hour shifts. One on the bridge, two
in the converter room, three off-duty.”

“Skipper, there’s not enough work here for two,” said Guo
over the intercom.

“There will be if the passengers figure out how to unlock
your hatch.” The mechanic had no answer. “First Mate, work out a watch
rotation.”

“Aye-aye.”

***

Tonight’s rotation had Billy and Alexi in the converter
room. By the time they reached the bottom of the ladder the passengers were
well clear of the path to the converter room hatch. A week of mutual suspicion
had ended the previous casual contact between the groups.

The corridor was quiet. When they opened the hatch to the
converter room Guo was saying, “—then she asked how it felt. I told her just
like being secured for high-acceleration maneuvers. So she untied me, threw me
out, and never talked to me again.” Mitchie held her sides, helpless with
laughter. Guo looked at the hatch. “What are you two doing here?”

“Shift change,” said Alexi.

“Already?” Guo looked at the chronometer. “Huh. Okay, we’re
relieved. No anomalies. Readings in the green. Fuel needs to be restocked at
2030.”

“Got it,” said Alexi.

“Chow time! Y’all have a good shift,” said Mitchie as she
led Guo out.

Alexi waved good-bye. Once the hatch closed he said, “Those
two didn’t mind being cooped up together.”

“Yeah, they get along,” said Billy.

“They’re getting more than that.”

“Nah, Mitchie doesn’t flirt with crew. She thinks it always
goes bad.”

“Maybe she didn’t before. But that sure looked like
something was happening.”

“They were just talking.”

“That’s how everything starts.”

Journey Day 102. Vouvant System. Acceleration: 0 m/s
²

“Skipper, could you come by the bridge after changeover? I
think we may have a problem.” Mitchie’s request had the captain up as soon as
he was done with his shift in the converter room. Bing was already there for
the night shift.

“What’s the problem?” said Schwartzenberger as he flew
through the hatch. Mitchie pointed at the telescope, clamped to a bracket on
the dome frame. The captain kicked off the dome, steadied himself next to the
telescope, and looked through it. “Okay, what
is
that?”

“I don’t know, but radar says it’s in our way,” said
Mitchie.

“Never seen anything like it myself,” added Bing.

He stared some more. “Looks like a spider web with some
flies buzzing around it.” They nodded. “Okay, we need to stay clear. Can we
just get between it and the gate?”

Mitchie pulled out her scratchpad. “There’s not much room. I
took a cut at it. Wouldn’t be fun.”

Schwartzenberger took the pad. “Dogleg to line up is easy.”
He flipped to the second page. “A fifty-five grav skew turn . . . gives us six
minutes to take two sights and make corrections. Exciting.”

“We can make the turn easier, but that means going slower on
our closest approach to the whatever-it-is.”

“Also exciting, and more mysterious.”

“Can we skip it?” asked Bing. “Take another gate? There’s at
least two other systems connecting through to Old Earth we can get to from
here.”

“Good thought,” said the captain. “Let’s check. Mitchie, you’ve
got the best eyes.”

After a few minutes with the system almanac Mitchie began
looking for the nearest gates. The first was right on the predicted angles.
Shifting her view sunward . . . “Yep. There’s another one of those things.” She
shifted to starboard to search for the next gate. It was off-position enough that
she found the web first. “Damn. How much do you bet there’s one on every gate,
including the one toward home?”

“I’d put my share of Alexi’s treasure on it,” said
Schwartzenberger. The trio floated silently for long minutes.

“I wish we had one of those damn Terraforming Service
tables,” said Bing. “Then we could go through at an angle and not worry about
lining up our approach on the normal.”

“Yep,” said the captain. “But angling in without that would
make a spectacular explosion.”

Mitchie brightened up. “The drones!”

“What about them?” asked Schwartzenberger. A few more had
been expended to distract AI ships but there were over a dozen left.

“If we fire one into the gate we can see if it has a good
transition or not.”

“And if it does we follow its vector in. I like it,” said
the captain.

“And if it doesn’t?” asked Bing.

“We fire off a bunch of them,” said the pilot. “If none of
them make through then we boost to go past the gate and try again later.”

“Work out vectors for ten of them. I’ll break the news to
Guo. Nobody tell the passengers.”

“Good. I’ll start my shift,” said Bing.

***

The passengers had obediently gone to their bunks for the
maneuvers to put
Fives Full
on a direct path to the gate. Orders to
strap in six hours before gate transition did provoke some questions from Reed.
Schwartzenberger answered, “We’ll have to do some extra maneuvering this time.
It’s a bit too complicated to explain. Also, we have to do some work in the
hold. Don’t be worried if you hear some thumps.”

The ship was already ballistic after braking to transition
speed. Guo programmed cards while Billy and Alexi rigged cables and pulleys. “We’re
ahead of schedule,” said Guo. “Get latrine breaks then suit up.” He spent the
break briefing Mitchie on the status, which drifted into jokes about how pretty
exploding drones would look.

With all three of them suited it was time to pump the hold
down to vacuum. Guo pressed his helmet against the second dorm. It had been
weeks since he’d had a chance to inspect the seals he’d put in on the roughly
cut doors. Calm conversation among the pilgrims, no whistles—they still held.

“Pressure zero,” reported Billy.

“Open the main hatch,” said Guo. The massive doors moved
open in short jerks.

“Y’know, we’re supposed to relube those things after two
months in vacuum,” said Alexi.

“It’s top of my list when we land someplace with an
atmosphere,” said Guo. “Start hooking up the drones. And get yourself hooked up
too.” Alexi cursed and attached his safety line.

“Drone’s in the sling,” said Billy.

Guo switched channels. “Bridge, we’re ready to launch the
first one.”

“Clear to launch,” answered Mitchie.

All three men hauled on the cables, giving the drone enough
momentum to sail out the open hatch. Once it was completely outside Guo
reported, “It’s out, good to pivot.”

“Hang on,” said the pilot unnecessarily. All three had
gotten good grips as soon as they’d released the drone. Thrusters fired to spin
the ship. The drone went out of sight as the hatch turned away.

White light reflected off the edge of the hatch. “Damn that’s
bright.” Guo checked the chronometer in the corner of his faceplate. The drone
had fired right on time. Thrusters fired again to take the rotation off the
ship.

Guo switched back to local. “Next one.”

***

The drones were equipped with tracking lights for ease of
recovery. Mitchie appreciated the feature as she followed the first one with
the telescope. All crew were in their acceleration couches with the intercom
on. She’d promised a running narration of what happened to the drones.

“First one should be in the transition volume now,” said
Mitchie. The narrow shape was clearly visible. “Front half got clipped off. At
an angle. Rear is spinning. And gone.”

The drones were spaced five minutes apart. “Number two going
in. Whoa—starburst. Just blew into fragments. Pretty. Huh, the frags are
transitioning right to left.” Guo and Alexi traded some speculation as to
whether a steep gradient was a normal gate feature or a product of it being
left untuned.

“Let’s see if third’s the charm. No. Clipped. Clipped again.
And—okay, went through in four pieces. I wonder how far apart they wound up on
the other side?” No one wanted to speculate.

“Number four in the zone. Damn. It’s gone. Perfect
transition.”

“Get us on that track,” said Captain Schwartzenberger.

Mitchie pivoted the ship and laid in thirty gravs. The
captain held a timer, calling “Cut and reverse.” She stopped thrust, flipped
the ship end for end, and resumed accelerating. She cut thrust again just as he
called time.

“Good. Let’s get a sight in.” The gate buoys and the net
were close enough to provide precise position references. They’d never get
enough accuracy for this if they had to sight off the sun and planets.

A second sighting five minutes out showed them on the proper
trajectory. Mitchie tried not to think about Alexi’s question when he heard the
plan: “How do we know a hole big enough for a drone will be big enough for the
ship?”

The bridge was quiet enough for Mitchie to hear the captain’s
whispered prayer. She decided to join him as best she could.
God, if you’re
listening, we’ll take all the help we can get.

She almost missed transition. The new system’s sun didn’t
appear in the center of the bridge dome. It was halfway to the edge. “We made
it.”

“Yes, we did,” said Schwartzenberger. “You get some rest. I’ll
find our position.”

Journey Day 126. Solar System. Acceleration: 10 m/s
²

The Solar System. Ancestral home of the human race. The goal
of their quest. Burton Reed was thrilled. Well, he wanted to be thrilled, but
it felt the same as everywhere else they’d been. All he could see was the
inside of the cargo hold. Unchanged from when they’d first boarded the ship. He
stared at the hull, wishing he could see through it to the stars outside.

WHANG.

Now the hull did look different. There was a hole high up in
the side of the compartment. Air rushed out with a bass roar. A few pilgrims screamed,
barely audible over the air leak. The floor rose up and smashed Reed in the
face as
Fives Full
took evasive action. Reed rose to his knees, blood
streaming from his nose, and yelled “Into the dorms! Quick! Into the dorms!” He
ran toward his own. He paused at the door to look at the crowd. They were all
moving. Two men slammed into Reed’s back, forcing him inside.

“In your bunks!” he yelled. “We need a headcount!” The
pilgrims scrambled to their places. The stragglers panted in. Everyone gasped
in the thinning air. “That’s all!” someone shouted. The doors slammed shut. The
recycler pumped in more air, easing the pain in his ears.

“Burton, how long are we going to be stuck in here?” asked a
pilgrim.

“Until they fix it.”

***

“What’s our status?” demanded Schwartzenberger over the
intercom.