Prophet of ConFree (The Prophet of ConFree) (57 page)

What a woman, I thought. It was almost as if she were God's personal representative to the Legion. And she was tough as nails, afraid of nothing, focused totally on the mission, and willing to die for her squadies. What a girl! And I suddenly realized something. If I hadn't found Honeyhair first, I probably would have married Bees. If she'd have me. But Scout had got there first. I knew he'd take good care of her.

Δ

"Control, Lotus. We're about to initiate stargate entry," the general said. "If you don't hear anything further from us, well, so be it."

"Lotus, Control. God be with you. Kick ass!" the Professor said.

"Tenners. Attention all hands. Visors down and secure restraints. Stand by for DX stargate stardrive. Pilot, initiate entry."

I knew what I was doing by then. Saka watched me carefully, in case he should have to do it later. The last move was a notation in Demon script with our auto-Inter translation right next to it:
ACTIVATE STARGATE ENTRY
.

I touched the controls to activate the notation on the screen. For an instant the stars became blurred and indistinct, and then the darkness rushed in and it was dead black outside, as if we were hurtling into eternity, blind. Another notation appeared on the screen:
STARGATE ENTRY UNDERWAY
. Then the simport disappeared. The ship was now completely sealed.

"Control, Lotus. Do you read?" Silence. Only silence from the Prof. So much for the Q-link. We were on our own.

The ship shook slightly. What kind of mighty forces were we riding? How could we survive?

"We're shooting around the rim of Dragon Shoals," Bird said, "like debris around a whirlpool. We're going to be tugged towards the other side but will exit into Mid Haven before we are sucked into the black hole. Ride the edge – that's the theory. It's very tricky. Dragon Shoals connects to our universe U1 on one side and Mid Haven on the other. There's nothing we can do about it. We've got to go with the pre-programmed route."

The ship shook heavily, then settled down. "Look at that," Bird said. He was pointing to the visual representation of the ship on the control panel. It showed our little saucer was spinning madly, whirling around, slamming from side to side, bucking and bouncing and whipping back and forth, tumbling crazily, vibrating, shaking, skipping end over end like a football in some mad cosmic game of the gods.

"What the hell is that?" I asked, fascinated by the sight. The ship vibrated a bit, then settled down, but in the diagram it was still careening all over the place out of control.

"This is an amazing ship," Bird said. "You remember on Galinta how the D saucers were all over the sky in autocombat mode, doing instantaneous ninety degree angle turns and so forth. That's what's happening here. This ship has two skins, exterior and interior, like eggshells, separated by a layer of super-accelerated flash fields of pressure-responsive quantum webbing. The webbing protects us. The exterior skin is responding to all the insane gravitational forces tearing at it during our entry into Dragon Shoals, spinning around to wherever it is pulled or pushed, responding to whatever forces are out there. But the inner skin is stable. Inside that skin, we do not move. For every movement hitting the exterior skin, the quantum webbing produces an equal and opposite reaction for the interior skin. So it cancels out all the insane stresses that are hitting the outside of the ship and spinning around the exterior skin. That’s why they can do those autocombat moves without killing the crew. If we were subject to all those forces directly, we'd be splattered all over the inside of this ship like grape jelly. See that straight red line beside the ship? That shows that we are going straight as an arrow on our designated route, fully compensating for all the forces trying to deflect us."

The ship jumped again, vibrating crazily, thumping heavily, then stabilized.

"You sure it's working?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure. Because we're all still alive."

"Like eggshells, huh? That doesn’t instill a whole lot of confidence."

"No whining, please. This ship is functioning perfectly – eggshells or not."

We were all going to die. That much was certain. We spiraled in, into the ultimate dark, into Satan's realm. I felt we were falling just like a meteor, leaving a fiery tail as our last trace of our existence, against the inky dark. My heart was on overdrive. I was thinking about Honeyhair, about Delta, all of them, Ice and Saka and Bees and the Prof and Arie, all of them, everyone I loved. All right, I thought. We'll die for them, it's all right. We'll die for ConFree, for all of our people, for all those women and kids, for the future. And we'll rate a line in the history books. But that doesn’t matter. It was freezing cold.

Δ

Six hours, and we were still in the DX stargate drive. I was sweating, inside my armor. Honey had to work overtime to cool me off. The ship continued vibrating heavily, every few fracs. Yes, we were still alive. Stop whining, Richie!

"I think I'm gonna puke," Arie said.

"Come into the medical office, and I'll help you," Bees said. "If anyone else feels bad, try opening your visor and feel free to puke if you must. Just be ready to close the visor if anything goes wrong. I've got bags if anyone needs them, just ask."

"How much longer?" I asked.

"About two more hours," the general said. "Is that right, Bird?"

"Near as we can figure it," he said. "See, this is not regular DX stardrive, it's a special mode they use just for the stargate. I'll not try to pretend we understand it. We don't. If we survive this trip and return, we should be able to understand it. Meantime, we go on faith."

"Can you hear Dragon Shoals?" I asked.

They were silent, listening. They had turned off the sound effects long ago as it was driving everyone crazy. But I could hear it still.

"It's just the vibration," Saka said.

"No. It's Dragon Shoals," I insisted. "Listen carefully." Yes, I could hear it. A faint but very deep vibration, a deep bass growling, swirling around our outside skin and penetrating the quantum webbing and rushing over the inside skin. Sliding over it slowly, ever so slowly, like a great scaled snake, a massive cosmic constrictor gliding over us tenderly, toying with us, trying to decide whether or not to crush us out of existence with its mighty coils, trying to decide if we're even worth the effort.

"I've got a splitting headache," Bees admitted.

"Physician, heal thyself," somebody said.

"Yeah me, too," Arie said. "Can I get sick leave?" Nobody answered him.

The ship shook strongly, then vibrated, then there was a large bang and the ship buckled and jumped, slamming us around in our restraints.

"What was that?"

"Don't know," the general said. "The instruments appear the same. Doggie, when things calm down, please do a check of the corridor for any damage."

"Right, will do." But things did not calm down. Things got worse. The shaking and bouncing around continued, almost without pause. The vibrations did not go away. I could hear Blackie, barking away frantically.

"Is everyone all right? Doggie, is everyone all right back there?"

"We're fine, Bees is fine. But I don't know about checking the corridor."

"Don't do it. Stay strapped in."

"According to the ship status, Dragon Shoals is still kicking us around. And the interior shell is still working like it should," Bird said. Another loud, scary bang rang out. More bad vibrations. I felt helpless. I may have been the pilot but I dared not touch anything while in stargate mode. We were all just passengers here, along for the automated ride. Anything we tried to do to alter the situation would likely just get us killed. Two more hours? I was getting a headache myself. Could we stand two more hours of this infernal banging around?

"My medical equipment is all over the deck," Bees reported.

"Just leave it, Bees," the general responded. "You can pick it up in two hours. Meantime, everyone stay strapped in and visors sealed."

We watched our progress on an instrument panel monitor that showed our ship against the backdrop of a portion of Dragon Shoals. According to the image, all was well. Except that things were so shaky that I couldn't quite focus on the image. It kept bouncing around in my view, two three four images all mixed up. Oh great, now I wanted to vomit too. I closed my eyes. Maybe I should try and sleep. Try and sleep? Bouncing around in the chair, the restraints hurling me from side to side? I closed my eyes. They say a soldier of the Legion can sleep while marching. Wonder if it's true.

Δ

I could still hear Dragon Shoals. I swear I could almost feel that mighty dragon's claws, raking lightly over our eggshell skin, a very faint screeching. And the bumping – that was the dragon himself, nudging us playfully, or maybe even unconsciously, coiling himself gently around us, throwing his head back and belching a great gout of fiery black smoke, to swirl around us. This was his domain. What were we doing here? Maybe he was just playing with us, like a curious dog, wondering what this strange little creature was that had floated into his space, lost and doomed, like an off-course fly.

A tremendous boom startled me awake. A new screen had appeared on the glassy instrument panel. It was flashing red – a universal danger signal. My adrenalin exploded. Our translation unit read the Demon script:
STABILIZATION MOD DAMAGED. EXITING STARGATE
.

"Exiting stargate!" I exclaimed. "What the hell does that mean?"

"The ship is getting us out of here before we become grape jelly," Bird said. "The stabilization mode is what protects us from the forces that are spinning around the exterior shell."

"Attention all hands," the general said. "We are exiting stargate mode unexpectedly. Stand by!"

Damn it! I sat in my chair like a dummy, not daring to touch anything. Bird and the general and Saka stared at the instrument panel, trying to understand what was happening. So was I, except I wasn't learning anything. The ship shook again, bad bad vibrations. Then a new notice appeared:
AUTO EXIT STARGATE UNDERWAY
.

An instant later, the panoramic simport reappeared, and filled with distant, powdery stars. The shaking stopped. I took a breath, greatly relieved.

"Attention all hands," the general said, "we have successfully exited stargate mode. Stand by for further info."

"Where are we?" I asked. The view looked strange. We did not seem to be in the vicinity of Dragon's Shoal, which was crowded with stars and nebulae. This place looked very lonely.

"All right, we've got a location here," Bird said. "The ship knows where it is, even if we don't. Let's see…here's the current starchart view." It appeared on the instrument panel. We peered at it, trying to decipher what it meant.

"Mid Haven!" Bird exclaimed. "We're in Mid Haven, but not where we were plotted to exit. See those stars? We made it!"

I felt great. I felt glorious! We made it past Dragon Shoals! That was the first great leap of faith. We were cruising Mid Haven vac.

"Attention all hands," the general said. "We have successfully entered Mid Haven. Stand by for further info." We could hear the cheering from Delta, even without the tacnet.

I looked out the simport. Mid Haven! There were plenty of stars out there, and milky clouds of gas, lovely alien nebulae with very faint colors. But it was mostly empty in comparison to our own universe. A lonely place.

"All right, where are we?" the general asked.

"That's our location," Bird said, pointing to the starchart display on the glassy instrument panel. And that was our target." His armored finger jabbed at another point. "We never made it there. We exited early for safety reasons."

"But we still made it to Mid Haven," the general said.

"Affirmative."

"What’s wrong with the stargate mode?"

"Just a mo. Prophet, press that tab – Stargate Mode Status." I pressed it. Some alien script appeared. The translation followed:
STARGATE MODE STABILIZATION DISABLED. RECOMMEND AUTOFIX
. The word
AUTOFIX
was highlighted.

"So should we go with the autofix?" I asked.

"Oh hell no," Bird said. "I want to do this one myself."

"Shut down, Bird, that's an order," the general said. "Prophet, touch the word
AUTOFIX
with your finger."

"Yes sir," I said, and did it. The message changed:
AUTOFIX UNDERWAY
.

"Well, that's a relief," the general said. "Now, Bird, check the status of the autocombat mod. I want to see if that's working." Bird did so and a message appeared:
AUTOCOMBAT MOD 100 PERCENT OPERATIVE
.

"Good! Next question, is there any reason we can't go straight stardrive to the target stardrive exit point, or should we proceed to the original exit point from the stargate?"

"I don't see why we can't do DX stardrive to the target from here," Bird said.

"Good. Good. I was thinking the same," the general said. "First let's check all ship systems, and let the gang clean up the mess and take a little break.

"Attention all hands," the general announced. "We will be entering stardrive shortly, headed for our target. Now's the time to clean up the mess, have a snack, take a potty break, whatever. Get it all done ASAP. I'll report when we're ready for stardrive."