His link chimed. It was Frank Irasco.
“Hi, Frank,” he said. “How you doing?” He thought about using the earpod but decided he didn’t want to cut Alicia off.
“Okay. How’s life in paradise?”
“Not bad,” he said. “I’m near a lake with a beautiful young woman.” Alicia’s grin widened while she simultaneously rolled her eyes.
“The lady obviously has good taste,” he said. “Jake, we need your help.”
“What’s wrong?”
“The Vincenti’s missed a position report.”
“Where is it?”
“Last we heard, it was orbiting a nomad.”
“Where’s the nomad?”
“Four light-years.”
All right. That wasn’t bad. The jump would take a little more than a day. Figure a couple more days to zero in. Maybe a week altogether, round-trip. “When was the report due?”
“Seven hours ago. I’m hoping something just broke down somewhere, and it’ll still come in. But meantime, I need to be sure we’re ready to do something if we have to.”
“You’re not going to just reroute somebody?”
“Nobody’s close enough to get there before we could, Jake. And we’re under a little pressure these days. As I’m sure you realize.”
“Okay, I can understand that.”
“We’ll make it worth your while.”
“Why don’t you send Priscilla?”
“Jake, she doesn’t have the experience. If those people are in some kind of trouble out there, I need somebody I can trust. Not that I can’t trust her, but— Well, you know what I mean.”
“Have you talked to her about it?”
“No. She doesn’t know anything about it.”
“Why me?” he asked. “Isn’t there anybody else up there?”
“Not right now. I have to bring somebody in. You’re the guy we want, Jake.”
Damn. The whole thing with Priscilla was a farce. They claimed she was there in case of emergency. But when they get one, they don’t trust her enough to send her out. Alicia was watching him, but her face remained noncommittal. If he declined this kind of request, what would she think of him?
“All right,” he said, “I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll do it, provided you make Priscilla available. Invite her to go along.” That got a raised eyebrow from Alicia. “If there’s a problem out there,” he added for her benefit, “I might need help.”
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll take care of it.”
“And make it sound like your idea.”
“Fine. When can you get here?”
“I’ll leave tonight.” He caught a sudden bleak look in Alicia’s eyes. Jake covered the mike. “I’ll only be gone about a week,” he said.
She did not look happy.
Frank was saying something and he’d missed it. “Say again, Frank. You broke up.”
“If you hustle, you can make the evening shuttle out of Reagan.”
“Okay,” he said. “One other thing: What ship do we have available?”
“The Baumbachner.”
“That thing’s a wreck, Frank.”
“Actually, it’s in pretty good shape. And at the moment, it’s all we have.”
He signed off and gave Alicia a shrug.
“What’s a nomad?” she asked.
“It’s a planet with no sun.”
“No sun? How does that happen? Does it burn out, or what?”
He was suddenly aware he was gulping down the cheesecake. “Something happens that pulls the world out of orbit. Most likely it would be a passing star.”
“Is the mission dangerous?”
“No. There shouldn’t be a problem.”
“How can you say that when that other ship is missing?”
“It’s not missing. It just didn’t file its position report on time.”
“How does that happen? Aside from maybe that it crashed? Or got attacked by aliens?”
“Come on, Alicia, relax. There are no aliens. At least none that would be dangerous to us.”
“So what’s the routine? Does the captain file the report?”
“The captain’s responsible, but the report is normally transmitted by the AI. Automatically, every twenty-four hours.”
“You ever hear of this happening before, Jake?”
“Yes.”
“And what caused it?”
He would have preferred not to respond. “We never found the ship.”
“Oh.”
And there’d been three other cases. One ship had exploded when the star drive apparently let go. The other two also had never been heard from again. But he said nothing. Oh for four didn’t sound good. “Everything okay, Alicia?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” She shook her head.
“Alicia, I trust Priscilla. I know her. If there is a problem, she’s the one to have on board.”
She looked at him for a long minute. “Okay,” she said.
* * *
NEWSDESK
NORMAN LOSING GROUND WITH VOTERS
Campaigns Continue Smear Tactics
Belmar: President Looks Other Way as Corruption Mounts
EASTPOINT POWER COLLECTOR DRIFTING
Central Europe Bears Brunt of Outage
Stabilization Mission to Leave Tomorrow
LAST ELEPHANT DIES
Bobo Passes in West African Care Center
BAILEY CHARGED WITH SEXUAL HARASSMENT
Ontario Governor Claims Accuser “Deranged”
SHUTTLE HIT BY GEESE OVER REAGAN
Third Incident This Month at Washington Port
Migrations Taking Place Early
ECHO HARPER DEAD AFTER HEART ATTACK
Olympic Swim Champion “Just Working Out”
No Previous Indication of Problem
DOG RESCUES THREE CHILDREN FROM BURNING BUILDING
“Turbo Led the Way”
MAN KILLS EX-WIFE, BOYFRIEND, TWO BYSTANDERS,
IN NEW YORK BAR
Statewide Hunt on for Burke Caldwell
Had Long Record of Spousal Abuse
PHYSICISTS CLAIM NEW EVIDENCE UNIVERSE IS ILLUSION
Kay Clemens on Tonight Show: “It’s All in Your Head”
Chapter 35
WHEN THE GROSVENOR surfaced a quarter million kilometers beyond the Moon, the media came out in force. The intensity of the coverage didn’t quite match what the schoolgirls received when they came back on the Copperhead, but it was close. Quinn and his people and their family members had been on HV daily during the rescue effort, and consequently a wide audience had gotten to know them. The ship docked at Union, where Easy Barnicle and the five people he’d rescued transferred to a special shuttle, which they rode into DC. A large crowd was waiting for them, and a band played “The Green Hills of Earth” as they filed into the waiting area. Later that day, parades marched in Shanghai, Boston, and in Barnicle’s hometown, Baltimore. They were greeted at the New White House by President Norman and the First Lady. They made the rounds of the talk shows, where Quinn announced that he’d sold a book to Bartram Publishing, and a rumor began to spread that a movie was already in the works.
During an appearance on Live With Lennie, Barnicle described his feelings when he’d handed out the food and water and watched everybody dive in. “We’d warned them not to wolf down the chow. Not to eat too much. But I don’t think anybody was worrying much about that. I’ll tell you, Lennie, I watched those folks go after those meatballs, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt that good in my life.”
* * *
THE FOLLOWING MORNING, a summons came in from Frank. Patricia was also in his office when Priscilla arrived. They were talking, but the
conversation stopped when she came through the door. Frank pointed to a chair, and the director delivered a wary smile. “Good morning, Priscilla,” she said. She smiled again, checked the time, and got up. “I have to go, guys. Frank, it’s all yours.” And she strode out of the office.
He closed the door. “Priscilla,” he said, “you’ve made it pretty clear you want to get back on the bridge.”
“Absolutely,” she said.
“Are you familiar with Orfano?”
“Sure. That’s the world they found adrift a few years ago.”
“That’s correct. The Academy wanted to trace as much of its history as they could. So they sent a team out there three or four weeks ago.”
“The Vincenti.”
“Yes.” He nodded. “They reached the place five days ago and went into orbit. But they missed their position report this morning.”
“It could just be a communication breakdown,” she said. “The AI might have malfunctioned. Or maybe a temporary loss of power.”
“Of course. Or it could be something serious. We don’t know. And the Academy is not happy. After this Teegarden business, everybody’s a bit jumpy.”
“I assume the Academy’s sending somebody out to see what happened?”
“They don’t have anybody in position to react.”
“They want us to help.”
“Correct.”
Priscilla couldn’t resist. “Is the Grosvenor available?”
“There’s nothing funny about this, young lady.”
“Sorry, Frank. You have more experience with this kind of thing than I do.”
“I’m glad you recognize that, Priscilla.” He was trying to be patient and to let her see that it wasn’t easy. “We’re taking a lot of heat right now.”
“So what—?”
“Fortunately, Orfano is pretty close. It’s only a little more than four light-years. There’s nobody even remotely closer to it than we are.”
“Frank, I’m ready to go. I assume we’ll be using the Baumbachner.”
“It’s all we have.”
“Okay. It’s going to need a quick maintenance check. And refueling.”
“We’ve started the process, Priscilla.”
“What about the tours?”
“This is more important. We’re replacing them with the virtual tour that we used to use. It won’t be quite as lively as you’ve been, but—”
“Good enough. I’ll be ready to go in a half hour.”
The creases in Irasco’s face deepened. “I knew we could count on you. But we don’t know what you might run into out there. So we don’t want you going alone.”
“That’s not a problem. I can take somebody to help out. One of the technicians. Maybe Ursula—”
“Actually, you’re the person going along to help out, Priscilla.”
She frowned. “How do you mean, Frank?”
“You’re going to find out about this anyhow, so I might as well tell you now. You weren’t our first choice. We needed someone with more experience. Don’t think we don’t have the utmost confidence in you, but if we sent someone out there who’d just gotten her license, and anything went wrong—”
“Who is it?”
“We called Jake. And asked him to go.”
“Oh.” She shrugged. “Okay. So we’re both going?”
“Yes.”
“And he said that he’d go if I was included?”
He raised a hand in defense. “Don’t get me wrong. We were going to offer you a spot as well. And do me a favor: Don’t tell him I told you.”
“Where is he now?”
“On his way. He’ll be here on the evening shuttle out of DC. So, all we need is for you to be ready when he gets in.”
* * *
SHE MOVED HER gear down to the ship and called Ops. Yoshie answered. “Have we heard yet from the Vincenti?”
“Negative, Priscilla. They’re still quiet.”
“Let me know if anything comes in. Okay?”
“Absolutely. I understand they’re sending you on the mission.”
“Looks like.”
“Well, good luck.”
Then she called her mother. “Heading out on a flight, Mom.”
“Good for you,” she said, pretending to be enthusiastic. “Where to?”
“A runaway planet. It’s not far. We’ll only be gone a few days.”
Mom’s breathing changed. “What’s a runaway planet, dear?”
Priscilla explained. “Sounds cold,” Mom said.
“I’ll take a sweater.”
“Okay. Just be careful, all right?”
“Sure, Mom.”
“Well, enjoy yourself. When are you leaving?”
“In a few hours.”
“Call me when you get back. Okay?”
* * *
THERE WAS A better than fair chance that the people on the Vincenti would fix the problem and announce that everything was okay. And the mission would be scrubbed. She desperately didn’t want that to happen. But what kind of human being am I that I’m hoping they don’t call in? That a potentially lethal situation doesn’t turn out to be minor because I don’t want to spend the next few days in my office?
She stowed her gear and tied her link into the ship’s comm system. Then she ran a systems check. When she’d finished, she reviewed everything that was known about Orfano.
There wasn’t much. The wandering world had been discovered several years earlier when it got between the Marcellus Cloud and the L2 Space Telescope. Nobody paid any attention to the shadow until a researcher going over the records noticed it. They went back to the L2 and, although the operational staff thought the effort a waste of time, instituted a search and relocated the object. It was, they realized, a planet that had become detached from its parent sun and was now headed gradually outward toward the galactic rim.
A mission had been dispatched last summer to take a look. They’d spent several days in orbit. The surface temperature was somewhat warmer than they’d expected, reaching, in some places, -170 degrees Celsius. The atmosphere was about 10 percent oxygen, but otherwise they found nothing out of the ordinary. After they’d returned, however, analysts at the Academy detected surface features they found hard to account for. Ridges curved across the landscape with near-geometric precision, almost as if they’d been carved from the rock. Mountains in many places were smoothed, rounded, generally shaped like domes. In other areas, they resembled turrets. The mission reports indicated that the crew had taken a close look but had dismissed the configuration as natural surface features. “No sign of life,” they’d concluded. “Life not possible under these conditions.”
Nevertheless, there were doubts. So, eventually, a second mission had been dispatched. That was the one that had missed its most recent position report. The Vincenti.
* * *
PRISCILLA’S JOURNAL
Ready to go.
—February 4, 2196
Chapter 36
FRANK WAS WAITING at the terminal with a tentative smile. He offered Jake his hand. “Good to see you. We hated to disrupt your retirement, but we really needed someone we could rely on.”
“You still haven’t heard from them?”
“Nothing.”
“Okay.”
“Does the terminal know to deliver your bags directly to the Baumbachner?”
“Yes.”
“All right. We want you to get going as soon as you’re able. We’ll have a room waiting at the Starlight when you get back.”
“Thanks.” They walked out onto the concourse.
“Jake,” said Frank, “I know you blame us for what happened with the Gremlin. But—”
“I don’t blame anybody, Frank. The system is what it is. It’s what we signed up for. Is Prisc
illa waiting in the ship?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.” They stopped in front of the elevators. “I assume you guys did a thorough check of the Baumbachner?”
“Yes. It’s in good shape.”
“I hope so.”
They reached the elevators. Frank pushed the button. But he never took his eyes from Jake. “Have you been in touch with Priscilla since you left here?”
“A couple of times, Frank. Why?”
“I don’t think she’s been very happy working for us. I just wanted to let you know so you go easy on her. She tends to get a little emotional sometimes.”
The elevator opened. Jake got in. A woman in a station uniform joined him. “I never noticed a problem,” Jake said.
“When she was with you”—Frank held the door open—“when she was with you, she was doing what she cared about. But she’s had to make some adjustments here. Anyhow, just in case, you may want to cut her some slack.”
“All right, Frank. And we’ll let you know as soon as we have something.”
* * *
PRISCILLA WAS WAITING on the bridge. She broke into a big smile as he came through the hatch, got up, and threw her arms around him. “Jake,” she said, “you have no idea how glad I am to see you again.”
“Just like old times, huh?”
“Umm—I wanted to thank you.”
“For what?”
“Well, Frank asked me not to say anything. But I know you put pressure on him to let me go along.”
“My pleasure, Priscilla. I figured you were probably tired putting together payrolls.”
“I don’t have much to do with payrolls.”
“Well, making sure they have a decent supply of lubricants, then. Whatever. How’s it been going?”
“Okay,” she said.
“How’s Tawny?”
“Tawny’s fine. She likes Princeton.” She sat back down, and he climbed in beside her.
Starhawk (A Priscilla Hutchins Novel) Page 24