are other data that I do not have represented graphically.” She positioned herself so that Winters could see her without strain. “The dreams I had, the screaming dreams, I suspect those represented some sort of contact with the thing in the reactor.” Winters’ expression said why even though his voice could not. “One model of four-space, of the four-space our conduit was seeking, includes very different geometry for the axis of duration from our own. Here, duration is somewhat variable based on the observer’s proximity to gravity wells. Our target four-space, that would not have been true. If a creature, an entity, from that four-space realm were close to a singularity here, it might be experiencing duration along an axis tangential to the curvature of space near that singularity. When I transitioned from one axis of duration to another, I probably, at least momentarily, shared that axis of duration. I cannot understand why that would elicit a scream, but apparently it did.
“Also, the fact that the conduit generator has been reactivated, that points to an intelligence. I do not wholly understand why the origin and terminus of the conduit are attempting to co-locate in our three-space and I do not understand precisely what happened to the station, although both would seem to be related to some intent, some purpose, of that entity.
“I do know that we need to release the tension that is forcing this three-space/four-space intersection before it pulls the underlying m-brane structures into a new configuration. If we do not, everything we have ever known will be gone before we are aware of the disaster.”
Winters found his captain at the command station explaining to the pilot AI that Bug One should rendezvous with Bug Two, dock with it, and then drag it to a position about half a kilometer sunward of Howard.
“I thought you weren’t a pilot,” he said.
“This is not piloting,” she said. “I am not telling it how, only what.” When she finished up and turned to look at Winters, she realized he already knew that. “Did you check on Cathcart?”
“Yes. He’s in the other autodoc. I used your ID to order him restrained until further notice.” Natalia nodded assent. “Harsh, but we just don’t have any way to watch him and do what has to be done, too.”
“Ensign. . . .” Natalia couldn’t complete the sentence. Winters gave her some time and then prompted her.
“You don’t know what to do,” he said.
“I know what, I do not know how.” She waved at the AI interface still up on the monitor. “There is no AI to guide me, to guide us.”
“No SOP, either, ma’am.” Winters smiled. “Now is the time to be clever.” She laughed.
“Can you stand watch and sleep, too?”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll tell Kestrel to wake me for anything above a routine alert. If something very serious happens, you might see me . . . out of uniform if I have to respond immediately, but I can keep watch adequately and rest at the same time.”
“Please do so. I have some thinking, some planning to do. I do not know what we will need to do, specifically, but I will likely need you well rested in order to do it.”
Winters accepted this as a dismissal. “Good night, ma’am.”
Kestrel had been back on station half a kilometer from Howard for two days now. Since waking from that first sleep cycle after emerging from the autodoc, Winters had been kept busy with a long series of chores left for him by his Captain. The initial list had been added to three times. He hadn’t spoken with her even once. She sent her orders by electronic memo, took her meals (if she ate at all) during his sleep cycle, and stayed in her cabin. He was content to obey. She had embraced decisiveness with a passion.
Following her instructions, he’d had the pilot AI fetch Howard’s two final auxiliary craft—the “Truck” and the “Bus,” according to their very non-standard IFF designations. He’d moved Cathcart, still under chemical restraint, to the autodoc in Bug One. He’d prepped two booster modules, but they hadn’t been installed on anything yet. He’d just completed creating the computer fiction of convincing Kestrel that “Ensign Pai,” in reality the pilot AI program, was newly assigned to the ship and was rated and authorized to conn it.
This last task he had suggested himself, and had pushed hard for. Natalia hadn’t wanted to consider the possibility of his own death, but with that of Ensign Parker, and with Cathcart out of commission, he’d convinced her that she needed a margin of safety. Kestrel wouldn’t ordinarily accept commands from a civilian AI program. SOP forbade it. That sort of thing was fine for civilian vessels, but armed military ships, well, TSFHQ took a dim view of even marginally self-aware machine intelligences going about armed. As a sop to that concern, Winters had physically severed the command and power connections to Kestrel’s one small battery of guns.
Now he set about the more mundane task of preparing breakfast. With his status report memo to Captain Volonskaya at the end of his previous watch, he’d anticipated completion of all of her chores and had told her that unless she had more for him, they were ready for whatever she had planned. She’d responded that she planned an EVA for herself to transfer her axial exchanger from Bug Two to Bug One. While she was doing that, she had several EVA chores for him, if he cared to join her at the airlock after breakfast.
Winters served mushroom and onion omelettes, coffee and toast.
“That looks good.” Natalia had just belted herself into the seat.
“A shipboard favorite.” Winters was somber. “Parker made it regularly. I was feeling a bit nostalgic.” They ate in silence. After breakfast was cleared, “How much longer?”
“Today,” she replied. “We will finish it today.” She headed to the airlock. “Bring the boosters. And did you rig that cutting charge?”
“Yes, ma’am. It’s in my carryall.”
“Bring it.”
As they crossed out of Kestrel’s airlock, she explained what she needed. “I want the two boosters attached to opposite sides of the reactor module centered so as to put Howard’s gravitic reactor directly between them.”
“You want to pull the module apart with gravitic boosters?”
“Nyet. I want them aligned towards the module, not away from it.”
“Aye, ma’am.” Winters’ tone clearly expressed reservations and she was becoming more adroit at sensing it.
“Speak freely, Ensign, please.”
“Gravitic drives pointing towards each other at close range will just cancel each other out.”
“Yes, and any other manufactured singularity in their combined fields, correct?”
“Ah,” enlightenment dawned on Winters. “You seek to deprive our guest of its anchorage.”
“Da. That is part of the plan. For the rest, place that cutting charge on the conduit between the BQ and Engineering modules.” She was approaching Bug Two. “I will brief you on the full plan when we get back to Kestrel.” Winters knew she was keeping something from him. He assumed it was the necessity of their deaths.
Three hours later Winters met Natalia as she entered Kestrel. He’d preceded her by half an hour. “It took longer to calibrate the axial exchanger than I planned for,” was her unsolicited explanation.
“At least Cath will be safe,” Winters offered. Her look at his words was enigmatic, almost angry. He didn’t understand why. Perhaps she resented having to expend effort to protect a man who had attacked them both.
“Could I trouble you for coffee?” Natalia was occupied with removing EVA gear. “We can go over the plan over coffee in the wardroom.” Winters left to prepare it.
Natalia was still disturbed by one aspect of her plan. How would Winters react? He’d thought that rigging the axial exchanger in Bug One with Cathcart was for his protection. Would she have a mutiny when he found out the truth?
“You have one last service to perform for the Emperor, young man,” she’d said to an unhearing body as she tuned the axial exchanger looking for some response in Cathcart. She recalled with distaste what circumstances had forced her to do. She only hoped she had a chance to live with the guilt. So muc
h was at stake.
“Bait?” Winters was livid. “You want to use an Imperial Navy Ensign as bait to trap an alien?”
“Da.” Natalia’s voice was calmer than she felt.
“I don’t believe this.” Winters’ indignation was approaching a level that Natalia thought violence might ensue.
“Please hear me out.” She ticked off points on her fingers. “We will cut power to the entity. We will cut it loose from its anchorage. We will lure it out of the reactor, using Ensign Cathcart. We will destroy the conduit generator. We must do all four and we must do it quickly.”
“Why Cath?”
“One of us must. I cannot. I am needed to operate the axial exchanger. You cannot. We must have someone to signal the auxiliary craft and trigger the boosters and cutting charge. Ensign Cathcart is eminently expendable, particularly after committing a mutiny and assaulting a superior officer, or did you think the Imperial Navy would overlook those events?”
She had him. His indignation was receding like an ebb tide. “I don’t like it. If there were any other way. . . .” He was fidgeting in his seat. “Tell me why we’re in such a rush?” He was grasping for a different solution.
“During your second sleep cycle, I went EVA and placed a PSR in Project Control with a view of the conduit origin and terminus manifestations.” She moved to the wardroom workstation and keyed a command. “This is a live
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