The Long Way Home

by Darrell Bain

  Chapter Eleven

  "Where's Costa today?” Commander Brackett asked Joyce, soon after she reported to the control room.

  "Chief Dugan has had the whole squad in the exercise room since right after we lifted off, sir. I suppose they're working out or something. Costa commed to tell me he couldn't be here until after the Chief finished with them."

  "I see. Well, carry on with Waters, then. Assist Lieutenant Whistler in showing her how we start getting the boat lined up for transit."

  "Yes, sir. Waters, come over here and stand beside me, so that you can see the route we're taking on a star map. When Lieutenant Whistler begins the lining up procedure, we'll step over and stand behind him and watch the details on the big screen, with his permission."

  Whistler gave a bare, grudging nod. It irritated her. She would just as soon have done the lineup herself, but Brackett was still being meticulously fair in not letting an interloper like her insert herself into a position already held by one of the boat's crew. She thought it somewhat odd, but perhaps he was playing it safe by keeping Whistler mollified until she got the youngsters trained. Personally, she thought the man was unstable and should be replaced, but it wasn't her call. And of course, where would he go if he was? Hurricane Jack was it—their whole world, until they returned.

  The screen she was using to show Waters the course they proposed to travel displayed an unwavering pattern of stars, unlike what was seen in hyper, where each time a ship blinked momentarily back into normal space the vista would have changed. At present it remained steadily in place, with the pinpoint of a G type star circled. It was their target.

  "You know the reason for picking stars in the G sequence, of course?” she asked.

  "Yes, ma'am. They're more likely to have planets with free water and the type of organics we need for the recyclers."

  "Right. What you're seeing here is our next target star. Now let's expand the map to show enough of the galaxy to include Earth's sun and our present position.” She fiddled with the keys for a moment and the display changed. It now showed part of the face of their galaxy. “Here's Earth's approximate location, right at the edge of the Orion spur. We've traveled from there to the other side of it and along this path to where you see our present position. Now look at the scale."

  Jana looked closely and made a quick estimate. “No wonder it's going to take so long to get home."

  "Uh huh, but the Sam Johnston could have made it back in a couple of months, probably less. Now let's look at our route and you'll see another reason. On this scale we can't show the exact stars we think we'll use in the near future and we don't even know which ones we'll use as targets after another month or two, but here's our rough line of travel.” After she caused a blinking dot to appear on the star map, the dot changed to a line. It traveled up the Orion arm at an angle and arrived on the opposite side of where Earth was located, and then made a sharp turn toward the home world. “See? That's much farther than the way we came, isn't it? Sam Johnson could take the short way directly toward Earth, but we don't dare, until we know for certain the Monkeys aren't following us. Right now we know they are."

  "Yes, ma'am.” Jana said, and frowned. “I wonder how big their empire is? I mean, did they originate in the Orion Spur or have they made a big enough thing of expansion to have come from the Sagittarius arm?"

  She eyed the questioner. “I rather doubt it, given the technology we saw, but I suppose it's possible. And they may have more in the hole than what we saw their starship do. But that's not our worry now."

  "The hell it isn't,” she heard Whistler mutter.

  She didn't think he intended to be overheard. Or possibly he did. He hadn't agreed with this route to begin with, by discounting any chance of being followed by the Monkeyclaws. Surely, he'd changed his mind by now. Whatever, after Costa spotted the Monkeyclaw ship, or another like it, and proved him wrong, he had become even more surly than usual.

  Whistler didn't start the lineup until after Commander Brackett glanced his way more than once, and with increasing impatience each time. Finally he began the procedure, and she moved over behind him, drawing Waters with her. He spoke in a low, almost unintelligible voice as he gave incomplete explanations for what he was doing. She gritted her teeth and stood for it. She could always go over it again when Whistler wasn't around. In fact, she would have to with Costa, so Waters could sit in with him.

  * * * *

  "Okay, Kaneha and Smith. You're up. Let's see if you can't look more alive than you did dirtside. Those Millipedes almost ate you both for lunch."

  Jeremy wished that he and Lann could have gone first and gotten it over with. During the entire time he had spent watching the previous pairs, he had been thinking so much he hardly remembered who'd come out on top. He and Lann were up next, as soon as this bout was over. His pulse had slowed, but it speeded back up as he thought of the coming fight, just as it had done several times already. And as he had previously, he tried to remember all that he'd learned at the academy and all that Juanita had taught him. Each time his mind was a blank. All that came to him was her telling him that he could be really good at hand-to-hand if he practiced regularly. Had he known this was coming, he would have urged her to spar with him here more often, instead of in bed. Even so, he had been with ‘Nita frequently enough that he should have learned something, even if he couldn't remember it right now. He'd better start, though, or Johnny Lann would wipe up the mat with his battered body.

  "Lann, you and Costa get in your gear,” Dugan said without taking her eyes off the two figures in the center of the gym flailing at each other's cammie-clad body. The only punches that had to be pulled were ones to the head and neck. The cammies became rigid almost instantly and protected against damage from hard blows but the force of them could be felt.

  He held the helmet in his hand while he waited for the bout between Kaneha and Smith to be finished. He had no idea who was ahead on points. He sighed, listening to Lann laugh and talk with Russell, who was an odd man. Casey would probably take him on for a few minutes once the others had finished and demonstrate how she could plaster the ship with the skin of anyone who went to the mat with her.

  "Costa, Lann. You're up."

  He came back to his senses, realizing he'd been daydreaming and had not even noticed when the bout he thought he was watching was over.

  He slipped the helmet over his head and tightened it down. He walked slowly to the center of the gym. Lann was already there, waiting.

  "Go to it,” Dugan said simply, not plying either of them with words as she'd done the others. It made him realize all the more this was a grudge match, set up by the Chief for reasons of her own. Maybe she wanted to see him get his ass kicked, although he couldn't think of any rationale for why she'd want that.

  He ducked back suddenly as Lann whipped a left-footed kick at him. Without even thinking about it, he stepped out of the way and countered with a kick of his own to the inside of Lann's right knee. Whirling backwards, he came in low as Lann completed his turn and threw an off-balance punch. Jeremy ducked it easily. Having captured his opponent's other arm, he bent it away from him. It made Lann have to use both knees to try flipping backward to take the tension off. It broke the hold he had, but left him in a perfect position for a kick to the head. He completed it, not hitting as hard as he really wanted to. He stepped back, surprised at how easily it had gone.

  Thinking about what he'd done was almost his undoing. Lann rolled and came to his feet with rage written on his face. He was cautious, though. He feinted, and Jeremy fell for it. He rolled with the punch but even against the helmet it made him dizzy. He was barely able to keep his balance and avoid the next blow. After that, he stopped thinking and let his trained reflexes take over, just as ‘Nita had taught him. He proceeded to batter Lann silly, using both hands and feet. Towards the last, when he could see his opponent was about finished, he moved in close for a grab, avoiding Lann's feeble effort to knee him in the groin. He held La
nn tightly for a moment while their faces were close together.

  "Lay off me, or I'll catch you alone and break every fucking bone in your body!” he said through his mouthpiece. He shoved Lann away and finished him off more slowly, trying deliberately to hurt him. He didn't even realize what he was doing until he had Johnny on the ground and was preparing to punch his lights out.

  "Break! Break! The match is over!"

  He heard Dugan's shrill voice as through a fog but nevertheless a trained obedience to it kept him from delivering the final blow. He stood up and walked away from Lann, not deigning to wait for the formal bows. No one said a word as he prepared to pull off his helmet, but he wasn't allowed to finish.

  "All right, Russell,” Casey said. “Get in there and see what you can do with Costa. It ought to be easy. He's tired."

  And he was tired, but not so much that he couldn't defeat Russell too, when he saw the man coming in scared. Within a minute, Russell was covering up and simply trying not to get hurt too badly.

  "Break! Break! Match over!"

  This time he heard Dugan clearly.

  "Put up your gear and fall out,” she said. “Take an hour, and then report to the day room. Costa, you're overdue in the control room. Get a move on."

  Jeremy was whistling by the time he arrived even though his cheek hurt from the one time Lann had gotten to him cleanly.

  * * * *

  Lt. Commander Chambers looked at him rather oddly when he reported in.

  "I'm glad to have you back, Jeremy.” She peered more closely at him. “Is that a bruise I see on your face?"

  "Uh, yes ma'am, I guess it is. Chief Dugan had all the Coyotes in the gym working on our H&H."

  "H&H?"

  "You know. Hand-to-hand combat. It's a required course at the Explorer Academy, and I guess she thought we haven't been practicing enough."

  "We called it something different when I was there. Are you as good at it as you are astrogation?"

  "Um, I guess I'm okay, ma'am. It's good exercise, anyway."

  She nodded. “If you're ready, we'll go over how to get the boat lined up again. Waters, it won't hurt you to watch again while I explain to Jeremy. Lieutenant Whistler—never mind."

  He could imagine how little instruction Jana had gotten if Whistler had been doing it. He had passed him in the passageway leading to the control room and the man had ignored his greeting.

  "...and the gravity compensator is equally as important to lining up as the thrusters are,” Chamber said. “Can you tell me why?"

  "I ... no, ma'am. I'm sorry, I don't know why,” Jeremy answered.

  "No reason why you should, since I haven't covered it yet, so you don't have to be sorry. However, you always have to remember to set it for hyper and have the computer kick in the new settings so that it changes at the same instant we enter hyper. The compensator has to be perfectly calibrated so that it switches back and forth between the gravity in hyper and the normal one G it's set for in the boat."

  "What would happen if it didn't?"

  Chambers shuddered theatrically. “I suspect the boat would come to pieces before we even realized it was happening. We could simply turn off the compensator, and that's been done before, but I promise you wouldn't like it. Hyper is weird enough as it is."

  "Why does hyperspace even have gravity?"

  "It doesn't have, exactly, just as we don't have real gravity in the boat. We're getting way out of the realm of practical astrogation and into the theoretical now, though. Let's stick to basics, and then, if you're interested, we can go into the theory after you've qualified."

  He nodded in unison with Jana, and the lesson continued. The more he learned of the art and science of astrogating, the more he realized what a terribly complex subject it was. There was much more to it than simply knowing the position of the bodies of mass involved in a transit. He could see why Commander Brackett wanted more of the crew capable of steering the boat, just as the starships carried more than one astrogator. He made notes as Chambers talked and demonstrated. He could see more hard study in his future.

  * * * *

  The queasy disorientation of transit passed. Jeremy stood carefully out of the way while Lieutenant Whistler used the gravity detector and telescope to begin searching for planetary masses. Whistler was still searching hours later when Jeremy and Jana were told to report back to COB Shinzyki in the big dayroom.

  Jeremy walked in and quickly took a seat, as it was evident that Shinzyki had been waiting on him before beginning whatever it was he had in mind. There were not only explorers there, but two spacer petty officers as well. He knew their names—CPO Clare Shinn and PO John Silks. Juanita was there, too.

  "Is that everyone?” Shinzyki asked formally.

  "Yes, sir,” Chief Dugan said.

  "All right. The Dragons had it last time, so it's the Coyotes’ turn. Commander Brackett has ordered that we get more explorers trained in spacesuit work. Chief PO Shinn and PO Silks and Spacer Martinez will be your instructors. Chief Dugan?"

  "Thank you, sir. Let's get to it. I know all of you explorers have had the training in academy, but this looks to be shaping up into a real excursion. So far, all that's been found here is a lot of junk. So much, in fact, that Mr. Shinzyki says the Commander doesn't want us going in much farther. He has ordered us to tank up on water, though, which means suited work. We'll begin practicing now, and if it turns out as I expect it to, we'll probably begin an excursion tomorrow or the next day to an ice ball of some sort. Let's split into three teams and get started."

  [Back to Table of Contents]

  Chapter Twelve

  Jeremy had been in space suits at the academy but not since then. Those structured learning experiences proved to be much easier than what he was doing now. Starship crews ordinarily furnished most of the water and organics to their longboats, so he had little experience with excursions to asteroids. Despite having a fully fueled thruster tank on his suit, and despite knowing it was computer controlled so tightly that it was almost impossible for the suit to go out of order, he was still afraid that it would send him flying in the wrong direction. Commander Brackett had made his intentions known: no one was to do a single bit of work without first attaching safety lines. This exercise was cumbersome and different from the situation during training, where the emphasis had been on maneuvering with thrusters. It was also very tiring. He could put up with those two aspects of the job well enough. It was the com units that proved to be the hardest.

  "Damn it, Costa, get the hell off the all-suits circuit and use your single!” PO Silk's exasperated voice came to him as a surprise. He thought he'd touched the right spot on the forearm of his suit with his glove-clad finger, but apparently he had not. He quickly killed the all-suits circuit and went back to listening to Silk's directions.

  "Pull harder, Costa. Okay, that's about right. Now keep the tension on, so it doesn't whip around when it fills and hit someone."

  He was holding the big hose attached to a vacuum chipper that would feed ice into a heater attached to the armored hull of the boat. From there, water would flow into the tanks in the boat until they were topped off. Every now and then the hose had to be shifted to get the chipper away from rocks and gravel imbedded in the ice ball they'd found. Their boat now lay alongside of the mass of ice.

  It was boring work, just as guard duty at the last stop had been, but here he knew better than to let his attention wander. Space was an unforgiving realm: an empty eternity speckled with tiny lights so far away as to be unimaginable. The hose slackened in his grip. He took the occasion to flex the fingers of first one hand and then the other while waiting for it to fill again.

  "Let's move it starboard and forward a little,” he heard CPO Shinn say, and then Silk's voice came to him right afterward. Immediately, Jeremy used his recoilless piton gun to drive in another tether—he was just about to the end of his original one.

  "Heads up, Costa, Nguyen. Move forward and starboard when CPO Shinn gives
the order. Nguyen first.” There was a pause while he oriented himself. Then he heard Shinn.

  "Nguyen, move now."

  He waited until Nguyen had completed his move and driven in another piton before he started. Carefully, he tapped his thrusters. The hose moved with him. It went very slowly as he remained mindful of what might happen should he get in a hurry. He could pull the hose loose from either the ones forward or from Nguyen. He could possibly cause the bulky ice chipper to break from the grasp of its handler and hurt someone, especially if the air supply that furnished the propelling force for the ice chips was accidentally set off before the hose was secured. Once set, he drove another piton and looped a short line back through the grommet. That provided him with a loop to push his arm through and anchor him by pulling up on it.

  Once settled, he kept his eyes to the front. It was easy to get mixed up on a space walk if you tried to pay attention to anything but the job in hand. Presently the order to begin chipping again was given.

  "Secure hose; prepare for feed."

  He put both hands on the hose and waited for it to fill with the flow of millions of tiny ice chips, propelled by an air feed and suction. From the corner of his eye he could see a white cloud billowing from the head of the hose where some ice and air always escaped backwards.

  The hose flexed in his hands then jerked.

  "Shit! Grab the damned...” CPO Shinn's surprised yell was cut off in mid-sentence. Jeremy had no idea what was happening, but com discipline went to hell in a second. Voices came to him as a bedlam of confusion, one overriding another and intermingled with screams and gasping, gurgling noises that sounded horrible. The hose flexed wildly in his hand, making it hard to hold.

  "Whiteside! Belay the chipper!” Juanita's voice overrode the others but the suffocating noises were already growing quieter. “Maintain com silence unless directed! Emergency procedures! Costa, belay the hose and move forward on the secure line to the limit of your tether."

  Jeremy used his piton gun to drive a grommet. He used it to wrap a short line over the hose and clamp it loosely in place. He then moved slowly forward, letting the now slack hose slide through his hand. He felt his tether lose slack and then stop him. Automatically, he again used his recoilless gun to drive another piton grommet. He then waited for more orders. He used the time to look ahead of him and try to see what had happened. It didn't take long.