The Void (19 page)

Captain Gravely stared up at the screen, watching the computer's graphical representations of two dozen black holes spinning in mid-space, black on black. Perhaps it was best, she thought, if the other ship was unsafe. It made the decision to stay or go all the easier. “Mr. Connor, what do you suggest, given what we know?”

“Well, Captain, although I can't say that our current location is the one I prefer, our ship is at least safe. That ship, however, is not. Our options are few, but if we are going to try to save the ship or its crew, we will have to send a boarding party. And while I can give estimates and say with some degree of certainty that we have time on our side for now, much of what I am giving you is little better than a blind guess. I believe we have a day and a half until that ship slips into the void. Could be less, could be more. But once it happens, that's it. If anyone is on board when it goes, there will be no getting them back.”

“Any signs of life? Communication? Energy spikes?”

“No communication, Captain. The computer's been hailing them continuously since we arrived. Nothing. As for of signs of life, we don't have that kind of equipment. I can tell you that we aren't reading any activity within the ship. I think she's dead in the water. That would mean that life support systems are also off-line. If that's the case, a ship that size, depending on the crew, malfunctioning life support system, no air circulation? They could last a few days, maybe?”

“Hull breach?”

“None that we can find. If I had to make a call, I'd say the hull's intact.”

“Then what we have is a derelict ship floating uncontrolled toward a black hole. No signs of activity and a dead system. They could have been here for days or weeks.”

“No, Captain, not weeks. I checked the navigation log. A week and a half ago, there was a supply ship that left Riley bound for Earth. Its warp path would have taken it through this same quadrant. If the derelict had been here, we would have heard about it. So I've got to think it couldn't have been here for longer than a week.”

“So what you're telling me, Mr. Connor, is that if there are people on that ship they have no way to contact us or anyone else, and depending on when their life support systems failed, they could be alive. But in less than thirty-six hours, they will slip into the black hole?”

“That's what I'm telling you.”

For a long moment Gravely took in the two images on the screen. One of the map and its swirling chaos and the other of that mysterious triangular ship. “I'd like to hear from everybody on this. Any actions we choose are going to affect us all.”

Ridley didn't wait for anyone else to take Gravely's offer. “I say we go, Captain. I've got a man two decks down in sick bay and I need to get him to a hospital as soon as possible. We've already lost enough on this trip. It seems to me there's probably not anyone alive on that ship. And even if we go over there, what are we going to do? I know I've never seen a ship like that before and from what all of you said earlier, you haven't either. What makes you think we can fix it? Especially without Cyrus?”

“Captain,” Aidan said, “I certainly respect Dr. Ridley's position. But the truth is, I think we have some time. And according to our regulations, we are supposed to give it twenty-four hours in any event.”

“Actually,” interrupted Ridley, “I think with Cyrus in the condition he is in, leaving would be justified. The longer we stay, the longer a crew member is endangered. Not to mention the fact, if you send someone to that ship and they don't make it off, we don't know what fate you are condemning them to.”

“Be that as it may, if there is anyone alive, I think they deserve at least a shot of getting off. If we leave them, then their blood is on our hands. If it were me, I'd hope someone would at least take the opportunity to see. I say we send a party to the ship, see its condition and the situation of the crew. Maybe we can fix her fairly easily. We'll take her with us and all make a lot of money. Either way, at least we will know.”

“Alright, Mr. Connor. While I share Dr. Ridley's concerns, I know that if it were me on that ship, I'd want someone to try and get me out. I think it is safe to at least bring the
Chronos
alongside her. When we are in range, we can reevaluate the situation. Perhaps the sensors will be more useful at that point. What time frame are we looking at?”

“Eight hours. Any faster puts the ship at risk.”

“Then eight hours it is. I recommend you all get some sleep. The next twenty-four hours may be long ones.”

*  *  *

An hour later, Rebecca was lying in Aidan's bed, her head on his shoulder and his arms wrapped around her naked body. Later she would lie to herself and say that she wasn't really sure how it happened, that it had just been something that came over them both and that they had given in to the moment.

In reality, she should have gone straight to her cabin. She was exhausted, both by the dream-filled sleep that gave no rest and the events of the past few hours. There was no reason that the path to the derelict—checked and rechecked by Aidan and designed by the computer—needed checking again. Still she found herself in his room, charts in hand, one thought in her mind, even if it was buried deep.

Aidan had seen it as soon as she walked in the door. The eyes were the most obvious—windows to the soul and all—but it was other places too. Her hair, the way she held her hips, the fact that she was biting her lower lip, even though he was pretty sure she didn't know it. He had made sure his hand brushed hers as he took the console. For a moment, they stood still, staring across space at one another. What followed was not unexpected. Neither regretted it.

“We should get some sleep,” he said. She just laughed, and then he was laughing too.

“We should,” she said. “But now I'm not tired.”

“I could take a look at those calculations.”

She slapped him playfully on the chest. “I don't think that will be necessary.”

“Are you nervous?” he asked after a few more minutes of lying in silence.

“About what?”

“The ship. We're going to need you, you know. If the captain decides to try a salvage. I know my way around an engine, but you're the expert. Well, Cyrus was the expert, but obviously . . .” He didn't finish. There was no need.

“I hadn't really thought about it. Yeah, I guess I am nervous. What about you?”

He was, and he wanted to tell her that. Instead, he lay there in silence, thinking about the one time he had come in contact with a black hole.

It had been fifteen long years prior. Aidan had been a private fighter pilot tasked with escorting science vessels beyond the Parseus Transit. It was deep space, far beyond the charted regions and spacing routes. It was a routine job, left over from a time when pirates were an actual threat instead of mere legend.

That day, he’d been assigned to the
Hyperion
. It was a ship they only whispered of now, one of those legendary disasters that men sing folksongs about. They had dropped into a stellar cloud, their mission investigating the nebulae of the region. Aidan kept his fighter at a safe distance, listening to music and slowly circling the science vessel as it crawled along through the charged gases and swirling particles that would one day form stars and planets. Important work, he was sure, but nothing he understood or cared about. So he floated, spinning lazily around the ship, wishing somewhere in the back of his mind that something would happen to justify him firing his weapons.

They had completed two out of three surveys when it happened. The third nebula was the most distant. It was across a great blank void of space, a distance that would take four hours to traverse. The captain of the science vessel offered to let Aidan cross that distance on board the ship. He had seriously considered it. But his job was to remain outside, to guard against any threat, real or imagined. It was a decision that would save his life.

The investigators who descended on the area said that it was a preventable disaster. The scientists on board should have seen the signs. They should have recognized what they were dealing with. Maybe if one of the nebulae had been closer, the steady stream of energized particles leading to a vacant space of pure, coal-dark blackness would have warned them. Maybe they did know. Maybe they recognized their situation. Maybe there were frantic calls to the bridge, calls filled with confusion and misunderstanding, the dawning truth coming too late to prevent the tragedy.

All Aidan knew was that he had rolled his fighter to the port side of the ship a few minutes before it happened, and if he had been on the other side, he wouldn't have lived to see it. It started as just a feeling of discomfort. He felt sick, as he had in flight training when spun in a machine designed to demonstrate changes in gravity. Even his thoughts seemed sluggish and his mind didn't work like it should. When it happened, he thought it was an illusion, a hallucination.

The ship had just scraped the event horizon. As it did, the entire right side seemed to blink out of existence. It dissolved in an instant, and then the whole ship shuddered to a stop. The rest of it still existed, somewhere beyond that shroud. Aidan just couldn't see it, as the light it should have reflected was sucked down into oblivion. Then the visible part of the ship began to follow, sliding away from him, disappearing from the world that is into one beyond.

There was nothing Aidan could do. Nothing but fire his thrusters in reverse and pull as far away from the ship as he could. From there he sat and watched as the rest vanished, listened to the men and women who remained inside. Their terrified cries. Their pleas for help. Then there was silence upon the surface of the deep. Nothing remaining to tell what lives passed before. Beyond the curtain, the ship and the people within were ripped to shreds by forces that man mercifully is incapable of contemplating.

If Aidan had anything to do with it, he wouldn't watch that happen again.

“I'd be lying if I said I wasn't afraid. I think it would be foolish to not be. But that's why I know we have to do it. If there are people on that ship, we have to give them a chance. That's what I think.”

Rebecca found herself pulling Aidan close to her, hugging him tight. It was exactly what she expected from him. He was exactly who she thought he was. She just hoped that when he found out the truth about her, it wouldn't be the end of this, whatever this was.

*  *  *

Captain Gravely found Ridley on the observation deck, staring out into the swirling darkness. The black holes themselves were invisible, but now that he knew they were there, he could see the strange distortions as the light from distant stars was bent by the gravity wells. In some places there was pure darkness where light should be; there, he knew, lay the singularities they must avoid at all costs.

“You can't see them, you know.

Ridley coughed out a laugh. “Oh yes you can. If you know where to look.”

“Perhaps,” she said, joining him in front of the great windows. “I know you are uncomfortable with my decision. I wanted to give you the opportunity to discuss it, if you are so inclined.”

Ridley looked down at his feet and chuckled dryly to himself. “It's not my job to decide such things,” he said. “I just offer my opinion. I understand why you and Mr. Connor feel the way you do. I suppose it is what one would call ‘the right thing to do,’ no?”

“Yes,” she said. “Yes, I believe it is.”

A thin strand of blue electricity snaked across the glass of the observation window. It seemed to dance along it, to curve and slither around on itself, leaping and splitting and merging back together.

“Plasma,” Gravely said. “Dr. Kensington mentioned that we would see some of it. The competing gravitational fields of the black holes create a sea of highly charged particles.”

“And we are in the midst of it all.”

“Yes, we are.”

Ridley took a deep breath and exhaled. “Captain, my job is not to make the tough decisions, but it is to know something about the way people work, in all their glories and all their flaws. This is our first trip together, but I can tell already that you are exactly what I would have expected.” Ridley saw a quiver pass over Gravely's face and held up a hand. “I don't mean that like it sounds, not negatively. You were a captain in the Navy; it is no surprise that you would choose the noble course. But have you considered that you may not be getting the best advice?”

“I don't think I understand what you're . . .”

“Well let's start with Aidan Connor,” Ridley interrupted. “A man who has managed to find himself at the scene of two great tragedies. First, the
Hyperion
. Then, the
Vespa
.”

“Neither his fault,” Gravely felt compelled to mention.

“Of course not,” Ridley offered, though Gravely wondered how much he believed it. “While that is true, it is also irrelevant for our purposes. The fact is, Mr. Connor may feel, rightly or wrongly, that he has much to make up for. Perhaps he feels guilty, the guilt a survivor naturally carries with them. Even an innocent one. And here is his chance to save lives. What might he say? What dangers might he obscure, even subconsciously? No, it is not my job to make these decisions and it is not my job to be heroic. But sometimes, the heroic choice is the easier one. Sometimes it is easier to put lives in danger than it is to choose the safer path.”

They stood there, staring out into the darkness, watching the occasional blue or purple flame kiss the ship. They did not look at each other, speaking to and past each other all at once.

“Dr. Ridley, I have every intention of keeping this ship safe. You have my word on that. Aidan may have his problems, but I trust him.”

“There's one other thing you should know Captain.” Now Ridley did turn and face her. “The mind is a mystery, but it is not entirely mysterious. It is a spiritual manifestation of a physical thing, if you forgive me the phrase. And like all physical things, it can be affected, just like those particles out there.”

Gravely reached up and rubbed her temples. Suddenly she had a headache. “Doctor, if you are about to tell me that on top of everything else, the black holes can drive you crazy, too, I just may go mad right here, right now.” Ridley didn't laugh.