Sunborn (48 page)

    “Nappy, can you tell where that tunnel leads?”

    Napoleon dropped another bread crumb. “At first I thought it connected this cavern to another farther on. Now I’m not so sure.” His sensors were twitching and blinking. “I’m thinking it goes a
lot
 farther.” He slowed as they approached a low wall; they paused and peered over it like a parapet.

    The river of plasma entered the cavern wall through a round opening. It lit the inside of the tunnel, which looked like an extremely long, straight tube that stretched off to infinity. At the vanishing point, Bandicut thought he saw a diamondlike glint. “Collimated n-space channel,” Napoleon muttered.

    Bandicut squinted and bit off a sarcastic reply. “Naturally. Can you tell where it goes?”

    Napoleon ticked, like an engine cooling. He shifted position, trying to align a sensor on the end of a telescoping arm. A dazzling light flared through a lens on the sensor, and Napoleon jerked back. “Bright. Sorry. I think this channel leads straight from this star into the heart of the next star. Into
*
Nick
*
.”

    Bandicut tried to think how to respond to that and finally, very softly, just cleared his throat.

Chapter 29

Departure

    The walls of the message-recording booth felt like a cell around Julie Stone as she sat silent, frozen, unable to think what she had intended to say in any of her messages. Captain Iacuzio’s last words still echoed in her ears:
Surely there must be another way.
And the translator’s answer:
Perhaps. We will speak again shortly.
And her stones, as she’d stood there watching the translator go silent:
Are you willing to do what must be done?
   
Yes. I’m willing. You knew that before you asked. But it doesn’t mean I have to like it.

    She sighed, staring at the wall of the booth, clearly visible through the star-vista incompletely rendered by the VR equipment.
You don’t have much time. Let’s get this done.
She clicked on the icon to begin a recording to send to Earth. When the tiny red light came on, she drew a breath and began, “Dakota, this is Julie Stone. I’ve never really managed to say the things I’ve wanted to say. I’ve been looking forward to meeting you on my return to Earth. But our meeting might have to be delayed...”

    She couldn’t really tell Dakota
why,
 of course, just as she couldn’t tell her parents and brother. But she could let them know she was thinking of them. And perhaps set their minds at ease that she hadn’t lost her marbles. Besides, there was always the chance that she’d make it back if things went well. A chance.

    Now she was hurrying to finish; she’d spent too much time already. Clicking to send the holos, she rose and exited the recording booth. And bumped into Arlene, who was waiting outside. “Ah! Hi!” Julie said, her voice half an octave too high.

    Arlene managed a wan smile. “I guess we had the same thought,” she said awkwardly. “I feel like I need to say hi to my mom, or
something.
 Keeping quiet about all this—that’s going to be hard.”

    Julie tried to will her heart to stop thundering. “Yah. Well, I’m on my way to talk to the captain. He wanted to see me.”

    Arlene nodded and started into the booth.

    “Listen,” Julie said. “I might be...late for dinner tonight. So go ahead and start, don’t wait for me.” She grabbed Arlene’s arm and squeezed it impulsively. Before Arlene could reply, she turned and fled up the passageway.

    The captain’s quarters were just aft of the bridge. She knocked hesitantly, and heard his muffled voice tell her to come in. She slipped inside and shut the door behind her. The quarters were only modestly larger than hers, but far more cluttered, with zero-gee bookshelves, photographs, and various official-looking pieces of equipment. The captain was seated at a small desk, with a tablet, a computer, and several open books arrayed in front of him. “Sit,” he said, gesturing to the only chair. He closed his books and turned off his tablet, facing her.

    Julie sat with her hands folded in her lap. She wasn’t sure what to expect of the captain. She knew what
she
 had to do. But the captain was an unknown.

    He ran his fingers back through his gray-streaked hair, looking tired. “Have you finished all the messages you wanted to send?” he asked. She nodded. “And you kept this business to yourself? Because we need to check all messages before we transmit. Not just yours, but everyone’s.” Iacuzio sat back, glanced at a framed image of a dark-haired woman—his wife? daughter?—and scratched his jaw. “Listen, Miss Stone. I’ve been thinking a lot about the last thing I said to the translator. Perhaps you can tell me—
is
 there another way?”

   
He knows. Will he let me do it?

   
He cocked his head, and she wondered if he was reading her mind. “You know,” he said, “that we have a small maintenance craft docked to our hull, yes? Now, I don’t know if...” His voice trailed off, and his jaw went to one side, and he seemed to be having doubts as he watched her reaction.

    Julie let her breath out—had she been holding it?—and said, her voice unsteady, “Yes, the translator told me that it
could
try the mission using the service craft. It would be more difficult, because of its lower mass, and more limited supplies, and the chances of returning are smaller. But I—that is,
we
—were going to—”

    Iacuzio rocked forward. “No,
you
are not going to do anything,” he said flatly. “Unless you’re holding a pilot’s rating somewhere that you haven’t told anyone about.”

   
*Flying experience will not be needed,*
 the stones murmured.

    “Nor am I going to send any of my crew on a one-way mission. But there’s nothing that says I can’t go myself.”  The captain was rubbing his thumb and forefinger together, studying his hand.

    “But your ship—your responsibility here—”

    He looked up, his clear gaze framed by his graying hair. “I have a highly qualified executive officer who is perfectly capable of looking after this ship without me. But I would need your cooperation in working with the translator.”

   
*We require you and your stones, not the captain.*

   
Julie exhaled, shaking her head. “Captain, that’s—not what the translator needs. It needs me.” On an impulse, she pulled back her sleeves, raised her hands, and showed her wrists to the captain. Her stones glowed accommodatingly. “And it needs these.”

    Iacuzio stared at her wrists as if
they
 were the translator. Then he looked up again. “No,” he said.

    Her voice started to shake. “What do you mean, no?”

    “I mean,
no.
You have no training and it would be a dea—” He caught himself and shook his head. “The risk would be far too great. Unacceptable. I will not send an untrained young woman into deep space to her...almost certain death. Translator or no translator.” He glanced again at the photo. Definitely a daughter.

   
She sat for a moment, her head spinning.
What about the risk to Earth?

    Before she could say anything more, there was a sharp jolt through the deck, followed by a heavy vibration and loud klaxon sound from the corridor.
What the—?

    The captain’s gaze snapped around. “Stay right here!” he ordered and clicked on his intercom. “Bridge! Captain. What’s going on?”

   
“Major power fluctuation in the fusion drive, Captain!”
 The voice from the intercom was tight but steady.

    “How bad?”

   
“Way in the red. We have to shut her down.”

   
“Do so at once.” Another alarm sounded, there was a softer jolt, and acceleration cut off. Julie began to rise in her seat, weightless. “Are we stable?” Iacuzio asked, still speaking to the intercom.

   
“Pressure in the reactor has dropped into the green. We’re stable.”

   
“All right. I’ll be there in a minute. Start assembling a repair team for EVA.” Iacuzio turned to Julie. “That one maintenance craft is the only way we have of getting to the drive for repair. So it looks like neither one of us is going. Now, if you’ll excuse me—”

    “Captain, wait!” Julie grabbed awkwardly at his desk to keep from floating into him. The stones were buzzing in her head. “The translator has something—”

    The captain had one hand on the door. “Make it fast.”

    She blinked, listening. “The translator has monitored the malfunction. It’s a critical one, and needs immediate attention. But the translator can repair it.
If
 you send me out in the craft.”

    “Send
you
—why you?”

    She gulped, listening as the stones spoke rapidly. “Because it will need the stones on the scene, and because—”

    “Fine. You can go as a passenger.”

    “No, I have to go alone, because...” She flushed. “It wants to continue on with the mission—with me—after it has repaired the reactor.”

    Iacuzio’s blue eyes widened. He growled, “Is the translator trying to blackmail me?”

    “No, sir—it’s offering a deal.”

    With a soft curse, Iacuzio turned back and forth from the door, then said, “Stay here while I go to the bridge.” He flew out of the cabin.

    Julie followed him; the bridge was only a short distance. The alarm had stopped, but crew members were hurtling urgently up and down the passages. She paused at the entrance to the bridge when she heard the captain growl in dismay. She peered in. Captain Iacuzio was engaged in a heated technical discussion with the bridge crew. He turned and scowled when he saw her. But when he spoke, it was to snap to a crewman, “Then that’s what we’ll have to do! Don’t argue with me. Get the craft ready!” He turned again, and shouted, “Lieutenant Cohn, where are you?”

   
“Here, sir.” Henry was at the far end of the bridge, hunched over a console.

    “Henry, follow me.” Both of them barreled toward the door where Julie was waiting, and would have plowed into her if she hadn’t backed away hastily. “Henry, get Miss Stone down to the maintenance craft on the double.”

    “Captain?” Henry’s face went from worried to stunned.

    “
Fast,
 Henry. Get her aboard the craft, and make sure she has everything she needs. Air, food, extra of everything. Understood?”

    “Sir, is this a—?”

    “Not a joke, no. She and the translator are going to repair the drive. So says the translator—and further, it says it can fly the craft. Is that right, Miss Stone?” Captain Iacuzio turned to her with blazing eyes.

    She swallowed. “Yes.”

    “Then, Miss Stone, you need to know that we have a critical overload building in a secondary reactor chamber. It could rupture and destroy the rest of the drive. I don’t know how it happened, and I
would not
send you, except that we have no choice.
We
 can’t fix it in time.”

    “Yes, sir.”

    “Now, move—both of you! God help you, girl.”

    “Thank you, sir. And please don’t—”

   
“Get going!”
 Iacuzio roared.

*

   
/What about the translator? Is it coming?/ she asked the stones as they pushed off down the passageway. /Do I need to see it first?/

   
*It is preparing to join you there.*

   
“Julie, please tell me you’re not doing what I think you’re doing,” Henry said, gliding beside her and giving her a slight correction with a nudge.

    “Which way? Are we almost there?”

    “This way.” Henry caught her arm and pulled her through a side passage and into a different corridor. They went past a bulkhead door, and suddenly were in a ready room filled with lockers and cabinets, spacesuits, air tanks, and other gear. Two crewmen were scurrying in and out through a hatch with supplies. “Julie—” Henry said, and the words started flying from his mouth. “Do you have
any
 training in a craft like that? Do you want me to—?”

   
She made a sharp gesture with the flat of her hand, cutting him off. “Henry! No more questions! Just get me ready.”

    Henry nodded and spoke quickly to the crewmen. He turned back to her. “All right. There’s a fully charged spacesuit already on the craft, in a locker. You’ll only need that if you lose pressure for some reason. There’s air for five days, for two people. There are some emergency rations on board, but here—” he flipped open a storage pod and gathered up an armful of food packets “—take these, just in case. And here, water.”

    “What’s going on here?” one of the crewmen asked. “I thought she was just going to fix the reactor.”

    “She is. If it’s ready, let her board.”

    The crewmen moved out of the way, but didn’t look happy about it. “Captain’s orders,” Henry snapped. “Julie? Come on.”

    Laden with supplies, Julie ducked through the airlock into the cramped, musty-smelling cockpit of the maintenance craft. She found a place to dump the supplies and worked herself into the pilot’s seat. “Okay.” She stared uncomprehending at the bank of controls. “Where are the communications?”

    Henry reached in and pointed. “Masters, comm, propulsion, life support. Turn them all on.” She snapped the switches in quick succession, which brought lights and sounds to life in the cabin. Henry seemed suddenly to lose his voice. Clearly he wanted to say something. “You okay?” he said finally.

   
Julie nodded and closed her eyes. /Are you almost ready?/

   
*Affirmative. The translator is moving at this time. It will be attached to the outside of your craft momentarily.*