“Did you?”
“Oh, yes. Several times. And tried to hide it from Ganfer, too. Don't try again, Bain. It just gets more frustrating as time goes on.”
“Why won't it record? The music is real, isn't it?” he pleaded. Bain didn't care what he sounded like right then. He needed to know.
“Oh, yes, it's real,” she whispered. “Maybe it won't record because it's too real. It's part of Creation, the magic and mystery that Humans aren't strong enough to handle yet. I think Fi'in puts up a wall, sometimes, to protect us from things we just aren't smart enough to understand. Sometimes we get glimpses—like when we hear the music in the dome. But they're just bits and pieces. Like hearing one track of a twenty-track recording of a symphony orchestra.” She stopped and chuckled. “Does that make any sense?”
Bain nodded. He was surprised to realize he really did understand Lin's lopsided explanation.
“So it's something the tape can't handle, either? Maybe Fi'in said machines can't record the music?” he ventured.
“Oh, I don't know about that. You see, I have this theory. Of course, I'm no theologian or philosopher, but the way I see it, machines are locked into the physical side of things. Humans are physical, but they're also spiritual. Maybe the music is ... “Lin sipped at her tea for a few seconds. She shook her head. “The music touches our souls, and we think we hear it with our ears. That's my theory, anyway.”
Bain nodded. It made sense. More sense than believing he was going crazy. He liked the idea that there was proof of something beyond the touchable, seeable, hearable, taste-able, smell-able world.
“How many times did you try to record it?” he asked after a long silence, broken only by the sounds of eating.
“Eight.” Lin snorted, and the sound turned into a chuckle.
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* * *
Chapter Seven
When Lenga appeared on the long-distance sensors, Bain breathed a sigh of relief. At every Knaught Point along the way, he had held his breath and waited for a Mashrami ship to show up and chase them. But there had been nothing. Either they had been frightened off when Lin spewed stellar dust at them and ignited it, or it had been a total accident that Sunsinger had run across the Mashrami ship at the Knaught Point in the first place.
Governor Cowrun came to the spaceport when they signaled for permission to land. He was waiting when Sunsinger landed at nearly midnight, Lenga time.
“We're ready to go,” Lin called, trotting down the extended ramp at the back of the cargo hold. “Have your technicians give us the once-over, load us with supplies and the children, and we can lift. Four hours at the most.” She stopped, hands on hips, and looked around the nearly empty spaceport.
Beyond the glaring lights spilling over Sunsinger, Bain couldn't see anything. He stayed in the cargo hold-turned-dormitory, giving one last check to the fastenings for the new bed nets. Beyond the pings and groans as Sunsinger's outer shell cooled from the super-heating of re-entry into the atmosphere, he couldn't hear anything. Not the wind moaning, not the rumble of other ship engines, not the rattle of supply trucks and carts nor the voices of people at work.
“The last ship left three hours ago,” Governor Cowrun said. His voice came clear through the background sounds. “Every last orphan and non-essential civilian is gone. We're down to a skeleton crew to support the military, and they're on the other side of the planet, setting up defenses where they think the Mashrami will hit us first.”
“Where's the next planet in their path?” Lin said without hesitating.
Bain felt his heart skip a beat. He hadn't considered there were other planets that needed to be evacuated, to protect the people from the Mashrami invaders.
It felt odd, knowing that all the farms, all the villages and isolated settlements on Lenga were abandoned, empty. No one moved on the entire planet except the Fleet soldiers, who would try to protect the planet when the Mashrami finally reached the atmosphere. Would the aliens use more plague bombs? Would they hurl space debris or use electronic jamming, or did they have other weapons nobody knew about yet, to destroy all life on Lenga?
“Dogray. It's four times more populated than Lenga was, and the people are more spread out. They'll appreciate all the help they can get. The last communication I received said the settlers don't believe the Mashrami are heading this way.”
“Putting up a fight, huh?” Lin's voice sounded strained, thick, like she wanted to laugh, but knew if she did she would start crying instead.
“Not fighting, just hiding. Idiots. If I hadn't seen what the plague bombs did, I'd say they deserve what happens to them.” Cowrun coughed.
For a moment, Bain wondered if the governor was sick. Had any more plague bombs landed after Sunsinger left?
“Any answer from Refuge?” the governor continued.
“Nothing. They're still analyzing and growing cultures and seeing if it mutates,” Lin growled.
Bain crept to the edge of the cargo hatch, to look out. Lin and the governor stood in the lights at the bottom of the ramp. There were no other people in sight, no movements, no ships. Even the buildings looked half-real at the edge of the lights on the far side of the spaceport. Bain remembered the life bustling around the spaceport on Refuge, the marketplace where he had met Branda. He could almost believe that he and Lin and the governor were the only people on the whole planet.
It scared him.
“It's bad, Lin. More than half the people hit with the plagues died of them. The good news is that if you don't die within the first two days, you'll recover.”
“I'll remember that if I get sick, thanks,” Lin snapped. She managed a thin smile for the governor, and he smiled back.
Bain remembered how the governor and Lin had argued that first day he met Lin, and how much they seemed to enjoy the verbal battle. Watching and listening to this only made him sad.
“We sent more samples and data and bodies back with the other evacuation ships. That answer has to come soon—if not for Lenga's sake, then for other colonies the Mashrami hit.”
“It will.” Lin rested a hand on the governor's shoulder and squeezed. “Fi'in won't let us suffer forever. There's an answer out there, and someone will find it. Then we'll all be safe.”
“Sometimes it's hard to believe that, Lin.”
“That's what faith is for.”
Bain tried to ignore Lin and the governor standing in the bright lights of the empty spaceport, talking. He tried to ignore the worried look on the governor's face, the new lines that hadn't been there before, the dark shadows under his eyes, the frown that bent his usually smiling mouth. Bain tried not to see the frown that took over Lin's face, the way she narrowed her eyes and just nodded. He wanted to see her fuss and fume and growl at the governor. That would mean everything was all right, or that it would become all right, eventually.
“Who's that in there?” the governor said, pointing up into the cargo hold through the open hatch.
Bain froze, embarrassed that he had been caught listening.
“My apprentice.” Lin raised a hand and gestured for Bain to come down the ramp.
He knew it was no use to run away or pretend he didn't see. Bain jammed his hands into his pockets and scurried down the ramp.
“Is that—” Governor Cowrun started to chuckle. “I'm surprised at you, Lin Fieran.”
“For what?” Her voice grew tight with a touch of growl in it, and that made Bain smile.
Lin had told him at the beginning of their first voyage together, if she growled enough she never had to bite. He was glad to hear Lin growling, especially when he knew she was just teasing the governor.
“Making this boy suffer—”
“No, sir!” Bain nearly choked. Who did he think he was, interrupting the governor? But he had started, and he couldn't back down now. “Captain Fieran is teaching me to be a Spacer. The Commonwealth needs all the trained Spacers we can get, sir.”
“I could only get permissio
n for Bain to come with me on this trip,” Lin said.
She rested a hand on Bain's shoulder, squeezing a little, and she winked at him. The boy relaxed and knew he hadn't mis-spoken. This time, at least.
“Just for this trip? Lin, if I remember correctly, when you first walked into my office last trip, you were looking for—”
“I was looking for records of my kin who might have settled on Lenga. Right. You saddled me with a shipload of children and turned Sunsinger's insides into a nursery. The only saving grace was that I met Bain, and he proved to be as good a crew as I could have prayed for. If I had thought to pray for a crew,” Lin added with a snort of laughter. “When we reached Refuge, I asked the authorities if Bain could come back with me, and they granted permission for one more trip. We'll see what happens when this trip is over.”
“One trip, eh? That's not very kind.” Cowrun shook his head. He actually looked sad.
“I'm glad, sir. Captain Fieran says she'll teach me all I need to know to be a Spacer, so every captain will want me to crew with them,” Bain hastened to assure the governor.
“He's a fast learner, and he knows how to listen and obey. His parents trained him well before he got thrown to those bullies in the orphanage.”
“Yes, well, I have to apologize about that one, Bain,” the man said, nodding to the boy.
“Apologize?” Bain was sure he hadn't heard right. An adult, the governor of his planet, was apologizing to him? For what?
“Director Chandly told us which boys were to be kept separated during the evacuation flights. She had a notation that Toly Gaber and some of his friends were not to be put on the same ships with the boys they liked to pick on. One of my assistants read the list after Sunsinger launched, when we couldn't do anything about the problem.”
“That's all right, sir,” he mumbled. Bain felt his face getting hot. “It worked out all right.”
“Toly ended up punishing himself with his own stupidity,” Lin said. “Bain is too good a Spacer to be hurt by young idiots like that.”
“Well, whatever you're doing, for whatever reasons, it's helping all of us, Bain,” Governor Cowrun said. “Your parents would be proud of you.”
Bain looked first at Lin, then the governor. Both looked serious, and pleased. He swallowed hard, knowing he had to say something, but he felt so awkward.
“I like working on Sunsinger, sir. And I'm a Spacer. It's in my blood.” Bain tried to think of something else to say—something that sounded at least halfway intelligent.
“Indeed it is. Blood will prove itself. Well, I'm glad the two of you found each other. Why don't you come over to Control and get something to eat and get a rest while the crews work on your ship? The change will do you good. Especially with that flight to Dogray ahead of you.”
“That sounds good. Ganfer, can you take care of things without us for a while?” Lin said, touching her collar link to the ship-brain.
“I always do. Go indulge and sleep.”
“Indulge, my foot,” Lin muttered. She winked at Bain and shifted her hand to his other shoulder. Nodding at the governor to lead the way, she nudged Bain to follow.
On the short walk through the darkness to the low building that housed Spaceport Control, Bain finally realized what he had been hearing. There was no one on Lenga now but the people who would stay to defend it and fight the Mashrami. Maybe if the planet looked deserted, the aliens wouldn't attack. Maybe not. Bain knew he should be glad that there were no children, no families to be hurt now, but he felt a little upset that Sunsinger had come all this way for nothing.
Bain thought about what Lin had said that first day they met, when they talked in the cemetery. He thought about the Mashrami getting past planetary defenses and destroying this planet that had been his home. He understood a little now what Lin had been feeling. He was a Spacer now. A ship was his home—Sunsinger now, and some other ship in the future. But Lenga, where he had been born and his parents were buried, was home to his heart.
* * * *
Sunsinger launched ten hours later. Bain watched the screen that showed a rear view from the ship, as it lifted from the spaceport field. He refused to blink, refused to lose even a fraction of a second of the view. The port shrank behind the ship, until he could see the buildings for administration and defense, and then houses and open fields, and then the processing plants, all shadowed in the early morning light. Bain hardly felt the press of gravity, trying to pull them back down to the surface of the planet.
When his vision blurred, he finally let himself blink. He stared at the teardrops that spattered the screen in front of him. Bain glanced up at Lin, to make sure she hadn't seen.
She didn't see his tears, because her eyes were brimming with tears of her own. She worked the controls in front of her with flying fingers, and let the tears fall, ignoring the wet, shiny spots on the board.
“Do you think we'll ever come back here?” he whispered.
“Oh, yes. We certainly will.” Lin's voice cracked a little. “Cowrun gave us another load of freezer boxes; more samples of the plague and what it does to people and animals and plants. That plague is worse than anyone here can handle. He sent samples with us, so the scientists at Refuge can start on a cure. I'm determined Sunsinger is going to bring that cure back.”
She finally turned to face him. Lin forced a crooked smile onto her lips and wiped the tears off one cheek with the heel of her hand. She reached over and did the same for Bain, her hand shaking from the pull of the gravity Sunsinger still fought. Bain sniffed and wiped at his face with his sleeve.
“Bunch of old softies, that's what we are,” Lin grumbled. That earned a snort from Bain. It was as close to laughter as he could get, but it made him feel better.
* * * *
The trip to Dogray took ten days, with three Knaught Point jumps. Neither Bain nor Lin talked much about what they had heard and seen and learned on Lenga. They settled back into the routine that they had]set up on the flight to Lenga; studies and maintenance, music practice in the evenings, restful hours in the observation dome listening to the music of space.
The only time Lin absolutely needed Bain's help was during the transitions through Knaught points. The Mashrami were closer to Lenga, according to the military's trackers. Because they had encountered the Mashrami the first time they passed through the Knaught Point nearest to Lenga, they had to be ready to make multiple leaps at a moment's notice. Bain had to be ready for any emergency. He carried the disk of the ship's basic computer programs with him, and slept with it under his pillow. Maybe it was silly; maybe it could even damage the disk. Lin didn't scold him when she found out. It made Bain feel better, knowing that it was close at hand and that he could do something to help if they ran into trouble.
The Mashrami never appeared. Lin gathered stellar dust whenever their course took them through a cloud. After a time, she had to jettison some because the weight grew enough to affect their speed. Bain nearly whooped for joy when he saw the yellow dot that was Dogray's sun.
* * * *
Bain was at the control panel while Lin checked some loose fittings in the cargo hold, when they reached Dogray. The loose fittings were nothing serious, just a few nuts and bolts that had come loose in the jarring of landings and take-offs and the usual twisting that accompanied a Knaught Point jump. Since they had no passengers and no cargo to protect, Lin had demonstrated some fancy maneuvering tricks for Bain's ‘education,’ and the whole ship had spun as it went through the transition spots. Bain had enjoyed the slight touch of fear, but it seemed the dormitory fittings in the cargo hold hadn't fared so well.
The first sign Bain had of trouble was a flashing light on the shielded carrier beam receptor. No one ever used that particular communications channel except when pirates were prowling around new colonies. Since the Mashrami had first started invading Human-held space, the pirates hadn't shown their faces. The last Bain knew, the pirates had all fled back to Conclave-held space, where they were safe.
“Lin?” Bain's voice cracked. He felt stupid—why would she hear him since he hadn't turned on the connection between the bridge and the cargo hold? He hit the toggle switch and spoke again, a little louder. “Lin, something's ... weird up here.”
“Weird?” The woman chuckled. “What could be weird about Dogray? We're in visual range, aren't we?”
“Yes.” Bain checked the screen that gave him a good look at the purple, green and brown globe of the planet. “Someone's trying to talk to us on the shielded channel.”
“Shielded? I'll be right up.” The sharpness in Lin's voice made Bain feel a little better. He hadn't been silly to worry, after all.
Lin flew up from the cargo hold, pushing off the hand-holds in the passageway with feet and hands. She almost overshot her chair and caught it with one hand, twisting at the last moment to fling herself into it.
“Ganfer, what does it look like?”
“Military transmitter, judging by the strength,” the ship-brain said.
“Military, huh?” Lin nodded, then glanced sideways at Bain and gave him a crooked grin. “Makes sense, since they're trying to evacuate this planet. Why would they use the shielded channel, though?”
“Why don't you ask them?” Ganfer said.
Bain fought not to laugh and ended up snorting through his nose.
“Transmit our identification codes before opening voice communications.” Lin flipped a few switches, which turned on four more screens on the wall to the left of the control panel.
Graphs showing power fluctuations on the planet and space traffic patterns and weather activity filled the screens, along with data Bain didn't know how to read yet.
A green light came on at Lin's elbow. She glanced at it, looked at the new data on the screens once more, and then sat back in her chair.
“Dogray spaceport, this is the Free Trader ship Sunsinger, Captain Lin Fieran. Can I be of help?”
“Lin Fieran?” A man's voice came through the speaker grid at the top of the control panel. It squeaked a little, as if he was surprised, and crackled with static. “Lin, what are you doing here?”
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