Her laugh sounded on the edge of hysteria. “Not good enough.”
“Wait,” he said, “I hadn’t finished. I’m catching the next available shuttle to Haida Gwaii – even if it’s one of Twin Star’s. They can pick it up when they get there. I’ll relieve Matt, tell him he was right – it’s time for me to take up the slack. Meanwhile, we need the Head of the FTL away from here, setting up our temporary headquarters.” He let out a short laugh. “There’s nothing to do there – just jammed to the gills with ships waiting for orders, waiting to see what’s going to happen.”
“Thanks, Johannes. See you when you get here.”
His head went back in shock as she didn’t even wait for a reply. That was it? Thanks, bye?
“Jill. I–”
“I heard. You have to go to Haida Gwaii.”
“It’s Matt. Too much strain for too long. Jump to it. Get packed. We’ll finish up from Haida Gwaii.”
She shook her head. “One of us has to stay here – at least for now. Someone has to take charge of the loading, getting the passengers in Sendai Maru, and then out of the system. We still have Maid Marion standing by, ready to take off crew if this station take-over takes place. Someone has to coordinate everything.”
He shook his head right back at her. “Not you. What if Space Force won’t let you go?”
“Then I’ll head for the Catastrophe Core first chance I get. You should be able to negotiate us – however many that might be – off the station later.”
“I don’t like it.”
She stood, and gave him a small kiss. “You don’t have to like it, big man. Go. Do your duty. Let me do mine. I’ll see you on Haida Gwaii.”
“For a Paxton, you’re not bad, Jill.”
She laughed. “For an Yrden, you’re not bad, yourself. Now go.”
She turned back to the comm board. “Sendai Maru, we need one of your shuttles. No, no argument. We’ll get it a quick load, and you’re bound for Haida Gwaii with it and some passengers. Orders from FTL Head.”
Johannes laughed at her. “I’m FTL Head?”
“Apparently. I have it covered.”
“I reckon you do. Thanks, Jill. See you soon.”
* * *
Scotland
Thursday 26 August
Scotland was ... well, Scotland. The taxi driver, who brought them out to the castle, spoke in a brogue that Sidney could barely understand. That didn’t matter. What mattered, he dared not say. But he fretted over every minute that the ride took. He wanted to tell the driver to go faster, but that wouldn’t do.
Tourists, people wanting to get away from it all, didn’t ask for speed. They wanted to take in the sights, to ooh and ahh over the loch, to ask if this one had any legendary monsters, too. It didn’t.
Thus, Sidney pretended to relax with Kiera, who did ooh and ahh over the sights. Who did ask the driver if the loch contained any monsters. He might have said that she sat with her face pressed against the window, however, in this case she had already opened the window, and the wind blew her hair around.
“Look at that, Sidney,” she said as they turned a corner, and found sheep in the road ahead of them. Sidney, who had accessed the ’Net during their train trip north, knew that the locals had these sheep here for just that purpose – give the tourists a thrill. He imagined that they brought them out whenever they sent the taxi to pick up new guests.
“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” she gushed. “I’ve never seen a wild sheep before.”
“I haven’t, either,” he replied, thinking that he still hadn’t. Like as not, these beasts were well-fed in a barn somewhere, brought out only for these occasions. But then, what did he know about sheep?
As they passed the gardens, his eyes immediately went to the plants. He saw one that he felt sure violated Agri-Inc.’s patents. Then he shook his head. What did he care about patents any longer? What did he care about Agri-Inc.?
If Fontaine had sent word to get him here, the odds suggested that he would never return to London. What a waste. What a terrible waste.
“Are there many other guests at the castle?” Kiera asked.
“Nae, Miss. They only hae four suites for visitors. Very low-key, are the owners. Those who come here don’t want the fancy treatment. They want to live the real life.”
Sidney shook his head. And to “live the real life”, they paid a pretty hefty price. He would have found it cheaper to stay in a four-star hotel in London or Paris. But then, at this point, what did he care about money? And even if things didn’t go as expected, he could afford to pay.
He reached over and took Kiera’s hand. “Order whatever you want,” he said. “Don’t worry about price. If you want Champagne, then we’ll drink the finest. If you want....” His voice drifted off. He suddenly felt like a prisoner on Death Row getting his last meal.
He shook off the feeling.
Kiera smiled her vacuous smile at him. “Thank you, darling. That’s so special of you. But I think we don’t need to spend that much. Just coming here at all is like a dream come true. Look at it! There’s not a house in sight. Smell the air!”
It came to him that shortly he wouldn’t be able to “smell the air”. He lowered his own window, and the cross-draft whipped through his hair, too. He looked out at the sights he might never see again, breathing in deeply. Grass smelled good. Who knew that grass smelled good?
“Almost there,” the driver said, breaking into his thoughts.
The vehicle rounded a corner, and they could see the turrets of the old castle rising from the stone walls. Kiera let out a squeak that almost caused him to laugh, but her hand squeezed his so tightly that the discomfort of that overrode his urge to laugh.
“Let up a little,” he said. She relented. But when she turned to him, he could see her eyes alight with pleasure. And, if they had a few days, that pleasure would bring him pleasure, too. If he had known she would react this way, he might have taken a few days off and gone to the country earlier.
The car approached the portcullis, and slowed.
“Ye have to get oot here,” the driver said. He stopped the taxi, exited, and opened the door for Kiera. Then he went to the boot, and removed the luggage. “Have a good holiday,” he said before getting back in the taxi, and leaving.
A porter came forward with a trolley. After welcoming the pair, he placed the luggage on the trolley, and began the walk into the castle’s courtyard.
“Ye’ve come at a good time,” he said. “We have few other guests, so we can devote ourselves to seeing ye get what ye came for.”
Good, thought Sidney. The fewer people around, the better. Inside, the coolness comforted him. The sun had not brought the unseemly warm temperatures inside the stone walls.
“Welcome,” came the voice of the Laird. “Ian, here will see you to your rooms. Ye’ll find a map of the castle and environs on the dresser in yer suite. Dinner at six.”
“Thank you, sir,” Kiera bubbled. “You have a wonderful place here.”
He smiled. “And she not yet having seen the rooms. I hear yer words with pride, Lassie. Go now and relax. Ye’ve had a hot drive out. Relax. Walk around. Get to know the place. I’ll see ye at the Laird’s meal.”
The porter guided them to their suite. Kiera filled the short walk with more oohs and ahhs. Her bright eyes sought out every little thing, then turned to him shining. Perhaps a little ‘rest’ before supper lay in the cards.
CHAPTER 26
Haida Gwaii
Thursday 26 August
Twin Star’s shuttle approached Haida Gwaii – Sendai Maru needed hers if she wanted to load and get people away in time. With the clock ticking on FTL-1, and who knew what about to happen down below, Johannes had ordered Renata Yrden, the shuttle’s pilot, to burn long and hard, and forget about the cost in fuel.
Upon approach, Johannes noted that not much more of the station had been completed, but a latticework of outer girders had come up where the outer skin would eventually be. Not ty
pical construction for something of Haida Gwaii’s size.
They had minimal supporting girders erected. He would have to ask about that after he got to Command Centre. Right now, he waited for the huge landing bay doors to shut, and the station to air the bay. A slower process than outside docking such as on FTL-1, but most of Haida Gwaii’s docks hadn’t reached completion yet, and boats and shuttles already occupied the ones that had.
“Control, Twin Star Shuttle-1,” Renata called in. Then she turned to Johannes. “Well, Uncle, I have Ellen on the line.”
“Ellen, Johannes. I need briefing papers on everything. I know Matt, and he’ll not let me take over unless he’s sure I’m up to speed. I don’t need to actually get up to speed, but he has to think it.”
Her reply had him even more worried than Jaswinder’s frantic call had made him.
“Oh, thank God you’re here, Johannes. Yes, Bill suggested the very same thing. We have everything set up in Conference Room 1.”
“Excellent. We have 85% pressure here, now. I can get there in about ten minutes.”
“What’s going on, Uncle Johannes?” Renata asked, now very worried.
No reason to lie to her. “Matt has worked himself down to nothing, Renata. He hasn’t had a day off in months, hasn’t had a good night’s sleep in longer than that. We’ve all counted on him too much. Time for me to take over.”
“You’re Family Head?” she asked, looking somewhat askance at him.
“No. Matt’s still Family Head. But we’re getting him away from Haida Gwaii. He’ll go to Rendezvous Alpha, and get us ready for whatever comes.” He kept an eye on the pressure. Another minute should do it.
Renata looked at the screen showing the bay, then back at him. “It’ll take at least two weeks to get to Rendezvous Alpha.”
“Which will give him time to relax, unwind. And then he’ll confer with other Family Heads there, make plans, and wait for Haida Gwaii.”
She looked doubtful. “Can she really make the jump?”
“Time for me to go. I’ll let you know after we make the attempt. You put your head down, get something to eat, relax. Soon as we can – which, hopefully, will be within a couple of hours – we’ll bring Matt and Ellen here, and you can meet Twin Star as she approaches. I’ve given her orders to come this way as soon as she’s loaded. Then get Matt the hell out of this system ASAP.”
The pressure indicator chimed. “Great seeing you again, Renata. You look well. Take care of my brother for me.”
As soon as the hatch opened, he jumped down, not waiting for stairs.
“Hi, Hank,” he said to their security chief, who had come to meet him. “How’re things holding up?”
The older man didn’t even smile, but said, “Better now that you’re here.”
“As bad as that?”
“Pretty bad.” And he led Johannes out to Conference Room 1. “Bill has everyone you need waiting in the anteroom. You’ll read the briefing sheet, then they’ll come at your call if you have any questions.”
Already Johannes felt the weight starting to come down on him. “Good.”
* * *
Johannes finished reading the final briefing sheet, having saved the most vital, and perhaps worst, for last. He shuddered at the implications, then called for his briefer.
To his surprise, Jaswinder walked out and sat across from him.
“What do you need to know, Johannes?”
His insides felt like someone had dropped a rock on them. His stomach tightened, and he tried desperately to not let his face show his despair. She treated him as a complete stranger.
He held up the reader. “This correct? No actual full-scale tests?”
“No actual full-scale tests.” She made a dismissive motion with her hands. “Can’t yet. We have three belts of nodes left to install.”
Johannes suppressed a shudder. “And no one has tried something similar to this before?”
“No. It should work. We don’t need to actually go anywhere, just jump to hyperspace. That should prevent any of the field-bending that prior acceleration imparts.”
He wondered if she believed that. “Then we’d drop right where we started. We have to get out of the system.”
Jaswinder took the point. “Yes, but we can manipulate the field in hyperspace, move off.”
With a latticework instead of a solid hull? Would anyone on board survive the experiment?
She looked him in the eyes. “It will work, Johannes,” she told him in the exact same tone she had used twenty years previously, when she had told him that field manipulation would work. “Trust me.”
And those words, too, she had used. He had trusted her then, and they had survived, survived to prosper more than he or anyone in his Family thought possible.
“Okay,” he breathed out. “Okay. But why are we still here, not moving?”
“What do you mean?”
“If you’re that close – only three belts left – and ready to do a quick jump and drop, why are we still so close to the Moon, orbiting it, in fact? You should have left here days ago to head towards deep space. This close to a gravity well like the Moon, what with trying to jump something of Haida Gwaii’s size, you’re asking for disaster.”
Her eyes opened wide. “Matt...” Her voice trailed off. “The construction.”
“Right. Matt’s decision as to when to start. Mine now. Soon as I get him into Twin Star’s shuttle, and the shuttle away, we start moving. As for construction, unless we’re actually accelerating, velocity means nothing. You should know that. Certainly Matt knows that.”
“I’m not sure what Matt knows any more.”
Johannes stood. “No time like the present. You going to back me up, or are you heading back to your lab?”
“Better if I’m there. He trusts me, still. If I say you have everything under control, he’ll believe it.”
They found him in his office, staring at a screen listing supplies that had come in weeks ago, from the date on the invoice.
“Hi, Matt. How are you?”
Matt’s eyes went wide with pleasure. “Johannes! Good to see you.” The he pursed his lips. “What about your project?”
“Done. Finished. Completely successful. We have the data; we’ve evacuated the researchers and their families; I’m out of a job.”
“You’re Captain of Venture,” Matt objected.
“You told me that I couldn’t spend time with Jaswinder until we had that Preston thing cleared up. Well, I’ve spent weeks on it without being able to see my wife. You owe me this. I’m staying on Haida Gwaii.” He put his arm around her shoulders, and gave her a squeeze. They looked at each other, and both smiled as if all were well between them.
Matt looked at them, frowned, then smiled. “Okay, Johannes, you can stay. But Jazz, she’s busy.”
“We can talk during breakfasts,” Johannes said. “And, as long as I’m here, I can take some of the weight.”
Matt looked like a drowning man suddenly thrown a life jacket. But then his hope faded. “There’s too much—”
Johannes jumped right in. “Let’s start with construction. Len’s moving well; he has the girders and beams that he needs, and the strapping for bolstering the framework. In fact we have 20% over what we’ll need for Jazz.” And he kept right on spewing out facts that he’d just read.
“As for Jaswinder’s end of it, she’s brought me up to speed. We’re going to move out immediately for the test site. By the time she’s ready to conduct her first real, life-sized experiment, we should have reached it, right Jazz?”
“Right,” she smiled up at him, the old smile that he had grown to love. Then they both turned their heads back to look at Matt.
“There is a problem, though, Matt,” Johannes said, as if he were afraid to admit it.
Matt winced. “Another problem?”
“Yes. It’s with the League. Situation here is changing – hell, you know all about that. But the Family Heads are getting jumpy. Most are alre
ady at Rendezvous Alpha, but we’ve received word that they’re fretting. We need an Yrden there to calm things down, to get them all talking together. And that means me or you, big brother.”
Johannes smiled. “I’d like to go, but I just royally pissed off the Paxtons, what with my taking a shuttle down to Nigeria, getting their government all up in arms about encroachment on their sovereignty.”
Matt shook his head. “That was a stupid and reckless thing to do, Johannes. What were you thinking?”
“No avoiding it, Matt. Either that, or my whole project fell apart. Nonetheless, the Paxtons have it in for me, now. If I go to Rendezvous Alpha as the Yrden rep, I won’t calm anything down. You’re going to have to do it.”
Matt looked like a hunted animal. “I can’t handle that, too.”
“No ‘too’ about it, Matt. I take over here. I’m up to speed. You heard Jaswinder. I’ve talked to all the groups already.” He paused. “Matt, you’ve always pressed me to accept responsibility. I’m ready. Please let me hold up the Yrden end here while you soft-talk the others. I promise, no reckless plays, no nothing like that. I can handle this.”
“You sure?” The life jacket had suddenly become a lifeboat.
“I’m absolutely sure,” Johannes said with absolute confidence. He could see tension leaving his brother’s body. Matt stood, and Johannes struggled to not wince. His brother had lost an unhealthy amount of weight.
“When do you want to take over?”
“I think I just did. Matt, we have a shuttle waiting for you. Renata will take you and Ellen to Twin Star, and she’ll light out for Rendezvous Alpha soon as you’re on board. I talked to Ellen. She’s got three people helping her pack your things.”
“But I–”
“I’ve got your notes, Brother. You always keep good notes.” He put all the surety into his voice that he could find. “I’m on top of this. And Jaswinder tells me that her theories will work in practice. She guarantees it, just like she guaranteed it twenty years ago.”
Not With A Whimper: Preservers Page 28