The Long Way Home

by Darrell Bain

  "Sir, to begin with, it goes back to what you said right after we lost Sam Johnston about allowing for human nature. I believe you were purposely vague about what you meant in order not to be on record disregarding regulations."

  "And?” he said when she paused to get her thoughts in order.

  "And Chief Hindhi and Erica Dumas were sleeping together. Apparently Chief Hindhi had become careless about inspections. He depended on his relationship with Dumas to protect him. Some of the troops, in turn, saw no reason to burden themselves with breathing masks once the air had been declared safe. When the trees began poisoning the air, the troops’ nannites were unable to cope with the poison in time to prevent the symbiotic insects from killing most of them."

  "Did you know the Chief was slipping? And that Dumas was allowing it?"

  "I counseled Dumas on the matter not a week before."

  "And her reaction?"

  "It was less than optimal, sir. She seemed to be of the opinion that our best course of action would be to find a suitable planet and colonize it rather than trying to return to Earth."

  "What was your course of action then?"

  She sighed. “I assured her that we were going home and told her she had ten days to get her squad of explorers back into shape or I would recommend that both she and Chief Hindhi be relieved and reduced in rank. I only gave her that much time because I was attempting to find out how many others she and Hindhi might have convinced that colonization was preferable to continuing our voyage. Unfortunately, the calamity happened first."

  Brackett leaned back in his chair and stared into space, while she waited to see what he intended. At length she spoke before he did.

  "Sir, under ordinary circumstances I would have recommended her relief immediately. Our position isn't a usual one, though. In fact it is extraordinarily unusual. If we don't allow for some leeway, we'll have a mutiny on our hands."

  "You really think so, Lisa?"

  "Well, no, not really. At least, not at present. And however else you want to look at it, we have lost two of the chief dissenters in the boat."

  "Hmm. Let me ask you this: without naming names, do you know of any other such arrangements among the crew which are prohibited by regulations?"

  "Yes, sir. However, I haven't seen the arrangements, as you put it, affecting discipline other than the case I mentioned, so I have not taken official cognizance of them. Not only do I think you intended it that way, I personally believe the boat can't survive without us allowing some give in these matters.” She felt a slight blush returning to her face. She knew it was easily seen, considering the fair skin that redheads carried—the same skin Jeremy had so thoroughly explored.

  "I see. And would you, perhaps, be one of those I should allow some give to, as you put it?"

  "No, sir,” she said regretfully. “The Commander and XO should be exempted, at least for the present. At some future time we might have occasion to address the matter again, but I think we need to get through our encounter with the Monkeyclaws before even thinking about such recourse."

  "I agree, XO. And speaking of that, how are the preparations coming along?

  "Lieutenant Wong and the new spacer, Siegfrer Sorenson, have the disc and its bomb ready to go, and either of them can command it now. The others in on the plan are simply waiting. I would almost say waiting eagerly. They want it over and done with."

  "It's going to have to be fairly soon,” Brackett said. “In about six months we'll be at the point of turning the corner and heading crossways toward Earth. I'd like to see it happen before then, even if the system where we initiate the action isn't the optimal one. I don't want the Monkeys to know even as little about us as which direction we're from, so I'd like to have it behind us before we head directly toward Earth. Besides, much farther along the Spur and the Monkeys might decide to attack anyway. I certainly can't gauge their feelings but I know if it were me, I'd be getting impatient. How are the drills going?"

  "The last two went very well, sir, so I assume you want to know what the crew is saying about them."

  "You're a mind-reader, XO."

  "Perhaps.” Lisa finally allowed herself the first smile since the confrontation had begun. “Sometimes I wish I could read the minds of the crew. At any rate, so far so good. The only real rumors are about the disc. The crew knows where it's located. The fact that Terrell and Siegfrer go there during battle drills tells them something is up with it. I doubt that they have any idea of what you're really planning, especially for the rest of us."

  "Good. So we're ready to go whenever I give the word?"

  Lisa shrugged minutely. “Whenever you say, sir."

  "What did the crew think of the new wrinkle with you and Joyce retreating to the stern and leaving Joe and Costa and me in the control room during battle stations. Any comments there?"

  "Just that the old man is a smart cookie, separating the command and astrogation staff, so if we get hit we still might be able to function and get us back to Earth. Of course, I suspect that they're thinking of collisions or a dustup with the Monkeys’ version of our longboat. I doubt that any of them are contemplating us going head to head with the same starship that waxed Sam Johnston."

  "I probably wouldn't either, in their place,” he said ruefully. “Tell the others in on the plan to be prepared and ready to go each time we come out of transit from this point on."

  "Yes, sir."

  "Fine. That will be all, then. Thank you, Lisa."

  "Thank you, sir,” she said, very sincerely.

  [Back to Table of Contents]

  Chapter Twenty-One

  "Two more months. That's the time limit the Skipper's put on us before the fireworks. Do you realize we might be dead after that, Rufus?” It was several months past the night he'd heard Lisa and someone whom Joy thought might be Costa making love. Somehow that had instigated the affair with Joy, and after a time it appeared that they fitted well with each other. She moved her fingers through the tangle of hair on his chest while he was thanking the stars for Everlife. He was forty years her senior, yet he had very few gray hairs and his body was almost as smoothly muscled as a youngster's. Of course, he worked out a lot when he had time, too.

  "You worry too much, Joy. The algorithms for the system the Skipper is looking for are in the computer. Soon as we find anything close to resembling it, he wants to get it on. We'll ream their Monkeyclaw asses good. Shit, I could almost feel sorry for the poor bastards."

  She laughed. “Only from you, Rufus. Only from you. When you go to hell, you'll probably scare the Devil into arm wrestling you to see who gets to run the place."

  "I'm not planning on going to hell, sweetheart."

  "You're not?"

  "Nope. I ain't planning on dying at all. But just in case we get too banged up in the dustup to fiddle for a while, why don't we get ahead of the game now?"

  "That has to be the weirdest seduction technique I've ever heard. On the other hand, I like weird."

  "How can I seduce you when you're already naked?"

  "Easy. You've talked me into making you really, really happy, you silver-tongued devil, you.” She slid down on the bed while her lips and hands roved over his body, and she made little quivering noises of pleasure to match his own. But presently she became unable to talk, and it was only his voice that marred the silence.

  * * * *

  "I was sorry to hear about Randall, ‘Nita,” Jeremy said. They were out of transit and down on a planet that was mostly a scummy ocean heavily populated by innumerable tiny plants and creatures ranging from microscopic to the size of shrimp. It was the first time he'd had a chance to talk to her after the disaster on Happystop.

  "Thanks, Jere. He was a nice guy. The idiot should have taken his mask, though."

  "They all should have, ‘Nita.” He couldn't think of much else to say. He had known Randall but had unconsciously been avoiding him simply because Randall had taken the place he had previously occupied with Juanita.

&
nbsp; "Yeah, I guess. So what are you going to do now?"

  "What do you mean?"

  She looked at him curiously. “Nothing, I guess. Just that life is always about changes, isn't it?"

  You've got that right, ‘Nita. Hey, I've gotta go. I get to figure out which star we tackle next."

  "Well, shit, find us a good one then, okay?"

  "Do my best."

  He was indeed going to pick their next stop despite Whistler's objections, but it wasn't the primary reason for his lack of enthusiasm. He knew ‘Nita wasn't grieving too heavily and thought he had seen a spark of renewed interest in her eyes. He hadn't felt a spark himself, though. For the time being, Lisa had wiped thoughts of other women out of his mind. Change, he thought. How many changes have I seen since we began this voyage? Too many to count, and that was considering only the major ones. He probably wouldn't recognize the boat and crew by the time they got home. And Lisa had been the biggest change of all, even if it was on hold for the time being.

  * * * *

  Jeremy had not set foot on the ocean world, but he didn't mind. The tanks were topped off while he kept busy inside nominally supervising details but actually learning and devoting any spare hours he could wring from his schedule to studying boat manuals and astrogation charts. With the seat comfortably adjusted to his contours and with the star map open in front of him in the control room, Jeremy began his final examination of the map for the next star that would be suitable for a jump. Such a star had already been tentatively identified, since they always planned three or four transits ahead, but after each one the prospective route was reexamined. The tanks had been topped off and they would lift the next day.

  There were many factors he had to take into account. The first, of course, was distance, as had been pointed out to him way back when he first entered astrogation training. There was an absolute maximum jump limit for a longboat, but to be on the safe side, nothing near it would be attempted except in dire circumstances. After downloading the data from the boat's telescope and spectrographic studies, he began eliminating possible targets. All stars in sequences other than G were automatically eliminated unless they were the only ones available, which hadn't happened yet. It wasn't that stars than G spectrum couldn't have planets, but they were much less likely to have ones suitable to their purpose. Once he'd seen that he had a good selection of G spectrum stars to pick from, he ran a standard set of algorithms on the spectrographic returns, looking for signs of water. It wasn't usually possible to identify the H[2]0 molecule at such distances with the longboat's instruments, but occasionally they did get lucky. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case this time.

  He began concentrating on the G type stars closest to the path they wanted. As usual, though, there were none directly in line. He had several other vectors to choose from, but the nearest wasn't necessarily the best. He also had to plan ahead several jumps to consider which primaries would serve best in the future. There were many other factors to consider, and he was busy at the task when he was interrupted.

  "Boy, that isn't right."

  The surly voice was unmistakable. Lieutenant Whistler had arrived in the control room. Gritting his teeth, Jeremy slowly turned around to face him. The astrogator had become increasingly rude as Jeremy advanced in his studies. He managed to pretend that it didn't bother him, but this time the man had gone too far. He was not a boy and didn't intend to be called one by that bastard.

  "Sir, my title is Chief. I would appreciate it if you would use it when addressing me."

  "You would, huh? Well, if you want to be addressed properly, then you'd better get your head out of your ass and plan a better route than the one I see there."

  This was unbelievable, but Jeremy held his temper. “Sir, I've been tasked with planning our route myself. If you intend to find fault with it, please at least wait until I'm finished."

  "I'm not taking orders from some half-grown explorer brat, so don't bother to give them. Now I want you to..."

  "That will do, Lieutenant Whistler,” Lisa Trammell said in a neutral tone of voice.

  Whistler glared at her. He left Jeremy after directing another glare at him, and went over to the XO's alcove. There he began talking to her in tones low enough that Jeremy couldn't overhear. He tried to keep his mind disciplined and focused on the job, but it was several minutes before he dared look up, for fear that his face would show exactly what he felt: an overriding disgust at Whistler's negative attitude and unhelpful actions, which had only gotten worse since he was moved permanently into the control room as his primary duty station.

  A moment later Whistler departed, and Jeremy was able to get on with his work. The next time he looked around, COB Shinzyki had replaced Whistler on the watch.

  * * * *

  Jeremy's plan for the jump and his selection of the next few probable targets were accepted by Lisa with no comment other than “Thank you, Chief Costa.” He waited expectantly the rest of the day, but nothing was said about his efforts. The next morning Commander Brackett was present for liftoff. He said nothing to Jeremy other than offering his usual terse greeting, but then he spoke to Shinzyki.

  "COB, please take us up as soon as you have an orientation that will put us on a vector according to our next target."

  "Yes, sir. We're fine where we are now. Initiating liftoff procedure."

  The all-hands circuit played its recording, causing Jeremy to grin to himself at the thought of never again having to suffer a liftoff or landing while tractored down in a loading bay. That was a no-good way to travel so far as he was concerned, and its absence was one of the nicer rewards for all his study. He had heard nothing about what their target might be. He didn't know until after they were headed out and the big screen flickered and changed that his selection had been approved. Maybe Whistler will leave me alone now, he thought. But probably not. Whistler was the type of person who could never be satisfied with either himself or anyone else. He was doomed to sulk through life with few, if any, friends and always be on the defensive. It was sad, in a way, but Jeremy couldn't find much sympathy for him. It was a bed of Whistler's own making.

  * * * *

  Jeremy was allowed to make another transit before Brackett allowed Whistler to take over astrogation duties again. He was a little unhappy over it, but couldn't really blame the Commander. After all, Brackett had to give Whistler time at the astrogation helm, since he (Jeremy) hadn't been used to interstellar transits and still wasn't nearly as efficient or practiced as Chambers. And personally, Jeremy thought Whistler needed all the work he could get. He frequently made errors in planning their route which had to be corrected by Chambers—something he took great pains to try concealing, but uselessly, as everyone in the control room knew exactly what went on.

  For the next six weeks all went well, other than the ever-present Monkeyclaw starship's hovering in their wake. Jeremy wondered if it would ever become tired or impatient following them in an attempt to learn their home world location and simply choose to close and blast them out of space. Its presence was a constant worry whenever they were out of hyper, for then he knew the ship could end all their hopes any time it chose. He knew Brackett must be thinking the same thing, for each time they came out of hyper Brackett called for battle stations right after the icon of the trailing Monkeyclaw starship appeared on their screen.

  Jeremy was allowed to become much more involved in astrogation duties despite Whistler's aggravation. Sometimes it felt as if Commander Brackett pushed him so hard because he thought Jeremy might really be needed soon. Perhaps he's right, Jeremy thought. They were nearing the area where it was necessary to turn toward Earth, and still Brackett hadn't seen a system to suit him. He wondered how much longer he would wait. He doubted that it would be long now.

  "Battle stations!” Commander Brackett ordered as soon as the dizziness from transition had time to dissipate.

  Jeremy moved immediately to the gravity detector station, while Whistler stood guard as astrogator and Shin
zyki stayed put in the thruster control seat. Chambers and Trammell rushed out, heading toward the stern of the ship to preserve continuity in case the control room was damaged and its crew killed. He thought if that ever happened they were unlikely to survive in any case, but contingency was the name of the game when battle was considered.

  He brought the gravity detector on line first and put it to scanning for planetary masses. He next put the passive scanners on alert to search for the Monkeyclaw ship. He had no doubt that it would soon pick them up. After that, he could only wait and watch his screens until the drill was over. He was proud of his expertise, now. He was certainly not as expert as Chambers, but he knew he was near the level of ability of Whistler, and he felt as if he already had better judgment than Whistler.

  The Monkeyclaw ship appeared as expected. Jeremy continued monitoring the gravity detector, aware that it was not only looking for planets in the life zone but was also involved in a search pattern according to a program Chambers and Shinzyki had worked up and installed in the computer months ago without Whistler's knowing anything about it. Suddenly the detector, imbued by the boat computer with the algorithms for the particular set of planetary and satellite arrangements Commander Brackett was seeking, began blinking for attention. He shut off the silent alarm and quickly checked to be sure it had found what it was supposed to. Only then did his heart almost stop in his chest, for he knew what would surely be coming next.

  "Commander Brackett!” he called. “Alpha parameters for Action Prime have been detected!"

  Lt. Whistler whirled to stare at him. “Boy, what in hell do you think you're talking about!? We aren't playing a goddamned kid game here!"

  Of course he doesn't know what Action Prime nor Alpha parameters mean, Jeremy thought as Brackett took three rapid steps over to his station and examined the screen from over his shoulder. As Jeremy looked around at him, he nodded to himself.

  "Good deal. COB! Set vectors and initiate thrust for Action Prime, bearing on Alpha parameters as per plan! Sparks! Notify battle station Alternate that this is no drill! Notify battle station Rose Toss this is no drill! Notify crew to remain at Damage Control stations! Give the all-hands no drill! COB, give me some figures on timing as soon a possible!” Brackett's voice snapped out the commands in a loud voice but it was seemingly unhurried, with every single word perfectly enunciated. Shinzyki and Sparks hurriedly obeyed.