Burnt Ice (32 page)

‘Yeah, let’s do that, Topaz,
mate. You joining us for dinner?’

‘Would not miss it. How soon
before Nail scratches Stephine? And I think that Nail would like a blood sample
of Stephine. Did you also notice that friend Veg was very amused about the
whole performance? He looked as though he would burst at any moment.’

~ * ~

A
few days later, Sirius moved into Harry’s cabin. He just smiled when Marko
commented on the move.

‘Don’t stress it, Marko. Sirius
is a woman who is just getting a little of what she missed out on for all those
years. And believe me, she likes gaining the knowledge. She will not settle
down with any of us. The boss is actually relieved that she’s with me now. He
was concerned that Sirius was going to make a play for you; then we’d all have
to watch Ernst put her back together after Jan had ripped her head off. Don’t
be tempted, mate. Sirius is a fox, but not a keeper. Jan, on the other hand;
she really is a keeper.’

‘Don’t worry, Harry.’ Jan said. ‘Sirius
and I have had a little chat. She will not be sniffing around Marko.’

‘I do wish you would walk more
deliberately, Jan. I can never hear you coming up behind me. So what did you
say to Sirius?’

‘Just that I would freeze and
break off all those bits on her body she so likes to flaunt around everyone,
then arrange them so that when they grew back they would all be much smaller.’

‘You’re a very scary person, Jan!
Hey, new brew down,’ said Harry. ‘Come and have a beer. Stephine and I have
created a new yeast. Well, not exactly new. In fact, very old. Very old,
indeed. Clever person that. Believes she has re-created one of the ancient
yeasts from Earth that the Egyptians used. Has great potential. We’ll know
within a few weeks.

‘By the way, Marko, that Flint is
just the best ACE. Watches me and decides what I will need next. Great in the
workshop; been fantastic for working on Veg’s craft. He can get into the most
difficult places and he’s hellish strong. Brilliant, just brilliant.’

‘Thought you might like him,’
said Marko.

‘Sure do.’ said Harry. ‘He also
likes working on his own little projects. He’s with the captain now, helping
him rebuild his astronomical workstation. Speaking of which, we should have
that ship of Veg and Stephine’s completely operational within a few more weeks.
Yeah, I know we’ve been playing with it for years now, but hey, these things
take time! You should stroll down and eyeball the new tech we’ve developed.
Very classy design, and we’ve started to trade — some of the systems and
capabilities that Veg designed would be useful for us. Must also have a word
with the boss about offering them a contract with us. They still haven’t shown
me that thing that sliced and diced the Lotus proxy, though. You know, there’s
stuff in that ship I wouldn’t recognise anyway.’

~ * ~

‘Hello,
beautiful.’

Marko slid into bed beside Jan
and cuddled her, cupping one breast while gently kissing the hardening nipple
of the other.

‘Marko, when will you start
assembling your ACE?’

‘Late tomorrow, probably Why?’

‘I want you to do me a favour. I
have prepared two eggs and ovulated them. I would very much like us to have
children, but I don’t want to carry them yet. I want you to store them for me
in the ACE. I know that it will be an extraordinary creature. I’ve seen the
design and I know you’ve placed chunks of your own DNA into it. One day you
will decide to bring the children into existence. I hope I’m around, but there
are complications between me and the Games Board. I want this, Marko. Would you
do this for me please? I look upon it as a little insurance policy for me.’

‘Yes, of course. It’s a wonderful
idea. I would be honoured. But we had better make sure that you survive, eh?’

Late the next morning, Topaz did
not seem at all surprised when Marko gently placed a tiny gel pack, which had
been handed to him by Ernst, into the large tank. Topaz, with its
micro-manipulators, took the zygotes and created an impervious seal around them
at molecular level. It encased them in a small ceramic case and flooded it with
liquid nitrogen, and created an additional micro refrigeration plant to support
it. Topaz grew a support system around the outer case, adding two additional
layers of protection and powering systems.

‘I’ll place the case inside the
ACE’s Soul Saver. It’ll be safer there. Well, let’s proceed. Big build, Marko.
Much longer than Nail. Ernst still able to assist? Good. Stephine is also
bringing in some tech to help in the later stages — some very nice tech. I’ll
ask her if I can keep it. I’m sure I’ll find some info to trade.’

Marko checked in every few days while
the creature was being grown and assembled. Everyone, even Sirius, called in to
watch the ACE’s progress, though she was told not to record anything of the
ACE.

It was big. The bone had been the
most exciting part to design. Stephine had spent some time designing a suitable
plant material to form the structure for the diamond mesh-like tube, which in
turn formed the shape of the skeleton. Topaz then grew chain-linked ivory into
the structure, giving the ACE hugely tough but lightweight bone. The spine had
also been a challenge, with its hollow core of diamond tube accelerator
electronics and focused energy fields.

Marko swore that Topaz and Ernst
were humming little tunes as they worked around the clock. And every few days
Veg and Harry would personally deliver the next pieces of hardware.

~ * ~

‘Boss?’

‘Marko. What’s on your mind,
chap?’

‘Just ran the figures again. We
are not going to be able to slow down enough to stop and download at the
Octopoid Library. With the fuel available to us, as we enter the Octopoid
Library system, we will still be well over seventy-eight thousand kilometres
per hour — faster than optimum.’

‘Yeah, I know. Grab a pot of tea,
will you, and come up to the flight deck. Don’t forget to bring some of your
latest cookies. Arabs?’

‘Afghans. Plain, or the ones with
chocolate and walnuts on top?’

‘Both. Just don’t let Jan see,
OK?’

Twenty minutes later, after
Longbow had finished a third Afghan, he proclaimed the ones with the walnuts
the best.

The way I see it, we have two
options.’ began the captain, becoming serious. The first would be to just
hurtle through the system, yelling our heads off, and hopefully another frigate
could accelerate up to us and bring us a truckload of antimatter. It’s a nice
idea, but there are too many variables. The other option is to attach the rock
plug to the front of
Basalt,
turn us around again, dock hard up against
the cap and atmosphere-brake around the star, again around the gas giant,
unless we are dropped off fuel, and on to the Octopoid Library. Will be a hell
of a ride. I have started lasering the information that we’ve aimed at the
Octopoid Library, so whoever is waiting will hopefully send on the info and be
aware of where we are.’

‘There are additional hydrocarbon
deposits in the rock cap. Shall we use them or do you want the shielding?’

‘Thaw out Fritz. Crunch the
numbers with him and Patrick please, Marko. Tell him to just ignore Sirius.
Tell Harry that he will have to do his duty and keep her cheerful. He’s a good
soldier.’ The captain activated his comms link. ‘Oh, Harry. Come and see me
please. I need a serious turntable of sorts under the rock plug. If we don’t
spin
Basalt
soon we’ll be cooked.’

‘I’ll get right on it, boss.’

Later that day, Marko discussed
his thoughts with Topaz.

‘Indeed, this is a most exciting
existence I share with you, Marko. So we are going to aero brake around a star!
Valhalla here we come. Well, in a few months. We will have a few weeks of the
pleasure of your masterpiece — then we all get fried? Hmm, we have had private discussions.
Although the plan is the only logical one, it is still very dangerous.’

‘So long as we can keep locked
against the rock cap, we should be OK.’

Now began the hard deceleration
towards the library star system. The nanotes that Jan had infected the crew
with to help them withstand high Gs, started kicking in, allowing them to live
normally under the additional weights around them. The engineering drones, with
Harry’s direction, had welded the exhaust rock plug onto the framework of a
turntable mechanism at the front of
Basalt.
The remaining iceball around
Basalt
was being rapidly consumed by the drones, feeding the generated
water through the crackers as fast as possible. They were also programmed to
chew up some of the rock cap, feeding it to the fusion rockets.

The contents of the ship were
being prepared for the rough ride across the star,
Basalt
using the
cosmic wind and gas pressure on the rock cap to slow it. The crew worked
through the ship, locking everything down hard. Jan, Fritz and the captain
helped Stephine in the precious gardens, readying the plants and trees.
Meanwhile, Harry, Veg and Marko locked down all equipment on the engineering
deck.

‘Crew!’ called the captain. ‘Excellent
news. We are in contact with a frigate waiting at the Octopoid Library. They’ve
only been in the system a few days, but they’re standing by. The Administration
has been watching our journey between the stars. Our rockets have been visible.’

‘Fantastic!’ said Fritz.

I’ve made them aware of the
threat the urchins pose. They like our methods of dealing with them and are
building more of the oxygen/hydrogen weapons. They have also deployed a courier
ship with all the information I sent about the octopoids. You will all be
relieved to hear that the Administration is aware of the octopoids and their
plans and have dealt with a great number of issues in our absence. We’ve been
delivered a sophisticated electronic probe by the other frigate, which is
currently running through all our systems to verify that we’re clean. Stephine,
could you send your equivalent to them please? I need to know they’re clean as
well. I have flashed individual info packets to all of you. Right. We have done
our duty. We have delivered the Library information to the Administration via
that frigate. Yes, there is a great deal more to learn, but we’ve done what was
required of us.’

‘Now all we have to do is survive
the next twelve days,’ Harry grumbled.

‘Yes,’ said the captain. ‘By the
way, the Octopoid Library now appears to be in a shallow sea, down on the
planet, and the artefact we found Stephine and Veg in is nowhere to be seen.’

~ * ~

‘The
external fuel sources will be extinguished in seven hours.’

‘OK, Marko. Crew, we are
forty-three hours from event time. Double-check everything. Square away
anything personal. Transit flight time around the star will be a hectic
twenty-seven hours’. We’ve modified the plan slightly to compensate for the
additional deceleration the rock dust gave us. We will be standing off a
greater distance from the star, so our survival odds have increased by a good
margin. You’ll be happy to know Patrick believes that we now have a fifty-fifty
chance. As soon as the last fuel is expended the rock plug will be placed back
in the hole with us attached. Just as well it is still relatively thick.’

Marko opened his comms link and
said, ‘Topaz. Don’t wake our friend up. If we survive the star encounter, I’ll
wake him then. There’s little point giving him only a few days of sentient
living.’

‘I shall continue the testing and
keep him in the tank. You will observe the excellent machine that Stephine and
Veg allowed us to use to grow the ACE’s skin and pelt. It is the finest piece of
adaptive camouflage I have ever seen. It grew it onto the ACE in three days.
Most impressed. Such hardware would be very useful. Shall I negotiate for it
over Nail’s fee?’

‘Good idea.’

~ * ~

Eight