Alder's World Part One: Mass 17 (17 page)

There was some softening
in Allayah
’
s face. She sensed
and responded to human suffering.
’
Perfect.
’  
Thought Elana.

“You
’
re a remarkable
woman Allayah. I
’
ve really
enjoyed watching you over the years
…”
She paused again.
“
I need to ask you to do something
for me
…
something
important.
”

Allayah leaned forward,
the roles of Doctor and patient forgotten. Her eyes were
warm.
“
Tell me.”
 
She whispered.

“It
’
s
…
it
’
s not about me you
understand.”
 
Elana
whispered back, her voice thick with emotion.
“
It
’
s about Sam. I need you to help me with
Sam.
”

Alder fidgeted. There
wasn
’
t much to do but fidget.
He would have liked to have been hiding somewhere with El, be back
‘on the couch,’ letting the pressure out of seeing Pilton go
completely mad. Unfortunately, the immediacy of landing day had
trumped all other concerns.

The atomic had gone off as
planned, ripping a miles wide hole in the cloud and tipping the
Duster toward her fateful encounter with the planet below. The ion
pads were burning full strength now, setting the angle of descent.
Rolls of numbers were scrolling across the screen in front of
Alder, altitude, pitch, velocity, a dozen others, but, until they
got far enough into the atmosphere for the pressure to build, there
wasn
’
t much to do but watch
them scroll by. Hopefully, there
wouldn
’
t be anything for him
to do even then. He shifted in the harness he was wearing and
pulled at his neck brace. The 11g finale to the stunt they were
about to pull was enough to snap a neck if the angle was just
wrong.

They had moved the bridge from the
main ring to a converted room high in the bio-dome not far from
where he and Elana had watched the surface of mass 17 burst. The
original bridge was just above the edge of the ring and likely to
get subjected to intense heat as the ship turned the thickening
atmosphere into plasma as it descended. It was possible that the
engineering section and parts of the bridge would burn through
without destroying the rest of the ship.

It had been hard work to convert what
was meant to be a leisure room into the new nerve center of the
ship. The optical lines had been re-run, analog lines had been laid
down in parallel, and crew members at key controls around the ship
were connected wirelessly with battery powered radios in case all
else failed. They had had to build a small step in the doorway to
help people over the mass of cables.

Pilton
’
s final command
had been taken in stride by most of the crew. Lieutenant Commander
Alder was now Ship
’
s
Commander Alder. Even Garson, who should have been next in line
seemed relieved that the burden had passed to Alder. There were a
few crew members who were still missing and could cause trouble;
some of Tallen
’
s men who,
while leaderless, seemed unwilling to admit that their plans for
domination had been crushed by a madman in white dress
uniform.

Elana had nodded when
Alder told her the incredible tale of his encounter with Pilton.
She patted his cheek and said,
“
Really, you
’
ve been in
charge for years Sam. Pilton was just too proud to admit
it.
”

Alder knew he
wasn
’
t really in charge.
Everyone knew their jobs and would do just fine without him. If
they needed to have a name at the top of the list, he
didn
’
t mind that it was his
that was there, as long as everyone remembered that they were in
charge of themselves. He was sitting in the center chair meant for
Pilton. He
’
d tried to get
Mbaka or Gibson to take the seat. Gibson refused on the argument
that the flight controls were hard wired into the chair in front of
the command chair. Mbaka just laughed and patted him on the
shoulder.

So he sat in the command
chair and fidgeted. To his left was Wei monitoring systems. To his
right was Mbaka who seemed to be joyful, almost giddy. The only
other person in the room, and the one who should be in charge, as
far as Alder was concerned, was Gibson in the
pilot
’
s chair. She was
charged with seeing that Muuk
’
s program executed correctly. There
wasn
’
t really much she could
do. While she might be able to turn critical systems on or off or
re-route power, if the computer
couldn
’
t fly the ship, there
was no way she could. The line was so fine that a flight error
would send them into a high-g tumble faster than
Gibson
’
s brain could send
signals to her fingers. Still, they were flying so there was a
pilot. A damn good one at that, Alder thought.

The rest of the crew, with
the exception of those hardy souls who had agreed to take wireless
radios and be strapped in next to the machines they were
responsible for, were lashed into harnesses in the core of the
biodome. It was uncomfortable; every available space inside the
inner most set of pressure doors had been converted into a padded
cell complete with harnesses and a strap that went around the
forehead. They
’
d had to turn
off the gravity well generators in two sections to even get people
mounted in some of the more outlandish locations. Worse, they had
started loading eight hours before the atomic. Already, some people
had been in their harnesses for over fourteen hours. In theory,
everyone on board was bolted into a harness capable of withstanding
11 g
’
s. In theory.

Elana had chosen to be strapped in
with the horticulture crew near the also harnessed animals. She
felt the gardeners and livestock handlers were the most unprepared
for the dangers of spaceflight and therefore the most likely to be
frightened by the mad descent.

“Beautiful
isn
’
t it?”
 
Mbaka interrupted
Alder
’
s musings.

“Hmm Yes.”
 
The other advantage of having
the bridge moved to the biodome was the view. The entire front
panel was a single window
 
out into the coming storm. They had chosen the shallowest
approach possible to minimize the impact with the surface. As
terrifying as it was to contemplate trying to slide out a kilometer
long ship on bare rock, hitting that rock head on was ten times
worse. They had already orbited the planet twice, letting their
orbit decay. They were on the night side now, waiting for the dawn.
The planet filled the screen, a black ball side lit by the blue
white halo of the soon to rise sun. The aurora was still below them
but close enough to see the unnatural knots whip by, giving some
indication of their speed.

It was the final orbit. If they made
it to the night side again, it meant they had survived. If not,
their remains would be scattered across the alien
terrain.

“Really
beautiful.
”

Alder looked over at Mbaka
who was smiling at him broadly.
“
What are you smiling about?
”

“You just seem
tense.”
Mbaka said.
“
You should learn to relax.”
 
For some reason, reaching the
climax of their adventure had put Mbaka in a joking mood. Different
people respond to stress differently, Elana always said.

“I
’
ll relax
tomorrow.”
 
Alder shot
back, trying to match the mood.

Mbaka smile
broadly.
“
Good.
That
’
s in about four
minutes.”

A slight shudder rumbled
through the ship.”
It
’
s nothing.”
 
Wei jumped in
immediately.
“
The number four
shield just ramped itself up to 100%.”
 
It had been decided early on
that the main communications channels would be broadcast across the
ship. This was so that crew members trapped away from the bridge,
their fate taken out of their hands, could at least hear what was
happening around them. Someone was also playing
Pietcraig
’
s
“
To the Skies
Triumphant
”
in the
background. It was more than a century old but seemed to fit in
spite of the fact that they were falling out of the sky. It was
good that it seemed to fit because no one could figure out how to
turn it off. Alder suspected that it was a going away present from
Pilton. It seemed like the kind of thing
he
’
d do.

Sunrise came a few minutes later. The
edge of the sun was hard but the sky around it glittered with water
in the halo of atmosphere. As the sunlit surface came into view,
Alder got a good look at it for the first time. It was mostly flat
and grey, black, the color of raw basalt. There were no high
mountains but in some places the hills seems to swirl into circles
and crescents as if the disturbance caused by something moving
underwater had somehow been frozen in place.

For long minutes they rode
with only the chatter from crewmembers reporting statuses as the
planet rolled under them.
“
Twelve minutes.”
 
Gibson called and a rumble moved through the ship. High
density ion engines were little use against the gravity of the
planet but they were being used to control the descent.

“It is beautiful.”
 
Alder said as the rumble
faded. His mind had filled suddenly with the thought of Elana and
their crewmates strapped into steel tubes deep in the ship, unable
to see what was happening.
“
You should see it El.”
 
The microphone picked up his voice and echoed it around the
deserted areas of the ship. He knew it would find its way deep into
the inner chambers where Elana and the others were pinned in the
padding and the fear.
“
The
surface cooled so quickly, you can see ripples from the Coriolis
effect in the underlying magma. Uh, I mean, the hills seem to
spiral in on each other in some places. Not mountains, just long
ridges of hills that form spiral patterns.
It
’
s almost like the surface
was scarified on purpose.”
The ship was
shuddering slightly as the first fringes of plasma wrapped their
fingers around the outer ring.

Wei was reading off numbers and Gibson
sat tensely at her control panel. Alder glanced at Mbaka who smiled
and nodded for him to go on.

“We
’
re low enough now
that I can see the atmosphere on the horizon.
It
’
s blue. I know you miss
the sky El, like the skyline outside of Myfor Proper.
We
’
re going to have a sky
again. It will be nice. I know you
’
ve missed it.”
 
He
felt awkward but Mbaka was still gesturing for him to go on and Wei
was smiling in an affirming way.

“We
’
re only about a
hundred and twenty kilometers up now. The plasma is something to
see. We
’
re not fully in the
ball yet but it looks like a really hot torch is running all along
the main ring. I can still see the bridge but
I
’
m glad
I
’
m not down
there
…”  
He
struggled, lost for words.
“
When we come out of the plasma storm it will be twilight. New
stars in a new sky. I remember seeing you by starlight but
it
’
s been a while.”
He stammered again.
“
You
’
re pretty in
moonlight.”
He continued talking while the
minutes spun by.

“Ten minutes.”

“Hold on
El,
”
Alder instructed.
“
The ship has one last chance to
make corrections here in about twenty seconds. If it
doesn
’
t like our posture, it
will adjust us one last time before we hit maximum stress.”
 
He
didn
’
t mention that it was
the first time that there was a real chance that the ship might
start tumbling.
“
We should be
coming up on it,
”
he glanced
at Wei who nodded,
“
right
about now.
”