by A. C. Ellis
“Is that him?” Clayton asked.
Susan nodded. “Who is he?”
“Just as you thought, he’s a belter. Fourth generation. Name’s Haxton—Raul Haxton.”
“Any ties to Aldebaran?”
“None that we could uncover, but he’s been in and out of trouble most of his life.”
“You think he was paid to come after me?”
“I would say so, yes.”
Susan didn’t say anything for a few seconds. Finally she asked, “You don’t have him yet?”
Clayton shook his head. “That’s the strange part. According to our people on Ceres, Haxton is in prison there, serving a thirty year term for attempted murder. They say he’s been in prison for the better part of a year.”
“But I saw him only three days ago, here on Luna. He tried to kill me.”
Clayton remained silent. Susan couldn’t read the large man’s expression.
“Where did you get that chip?” she asked.
“The image was recorded less than two weeks ago, as Haxton got off a ship here in Luna City from Ceres Colony.”
“Then you’re saying he’s in two places at once?”
“I’m saying no such thing; I’m merely repeating what I’ve been told.”
Susan nodded. He didn’t believe it, just as he refused to believe her when she told him her attacker had disappeared. But she couldn’t blame him for that. She wasn’t sure she believed any of it herself.
“Anyway,” Clayton continued, “he fits the description of a man observed stealing a Base Security uniform a bit more than a week ago.” He stepped to the phone and pulled the memory chip. The image disappeared.
Susan felt a few seconds of uneasiness. What was this all about? How could this Haxton fellow be in jail on Ceres, and here on Luna at the same time? It made as much sense as…
As any of this had made so far.
Clayton went to the door and it irised open. For an instant Susan thought she should tell him what had happened with Bill Darcy, about her not remembering him as mayor of Luna City and her remembering the destruction of the solar power satellite. Then she decided against it. How could she possibly convince him that the satellite that gave power to the city he was now in did not exist in her memories, and that the man who was that same city’s mayor should not be? She had no proof. And, strange as it seemed, her LIN/C’s memory did not agree with her own.
“How can I get in touch with you?” she asked instead, stepping over the clutter to follow him to the door.
“You can’t,” he answered, without turning. “I’ll be in touch with you.” He stepped out into the corridor, and the door irised closed behind him.
Susan stood unmoving, just outside the door’s sensing field, her mind and body paralyzed with shock. Clayton had hit her with too much all at once. The identity of the dark man and the fact that he seemed to exist in two places. Her assignment’s destination. But the most shattering item had been his statement that Admiral Renford might be behind the attempts on her life. That was something she simply could not believe.
That night, in the guest room in Darcy’s apartment, only three hours into her fitful sleep, the phone awakened her from the nightmare. It was Fredrik Hyatt.
“Meet me in hangar four,” he said, then clicked off.
His technicians were finished with the ship!
Chapter Sixteen
Hyatt waved Susan through the ship’s outer hatch. She stepped into the airlock. The inner hatch stood open and she continued through, onto the small bridge. Hyatt followed.
Walls, ceiling, floor—everything was painted a light blue, and there were no sharp angles or edges. An acceleration web hung before a conspicuously bare control panel. There was no view screen, and none of the myriad push-buttons and slide-bars Susan was accustomed to seeing on the bridges of Fleet ships. Gone, too, were the indicators and status lights that traditionally displayed ship’s functions.
“This is it?” she asked, unable to hide her disappointment.
“You don’t seem to understand, Captain. Photon is different than any ship you have ever been aboard.”
“I can see that. How am I supposed to pilot it?”
“Through your LIN/C.”
“What?”
Again he used the feminine pronoun: “You will control her through your LIN/C.” He stepped past Susan to indicate a narrow slot cut into the panel before the acceleration web. “You will insert your LIN/C here, and instantly you’ll be tied into Photon’s main computer.”
“You’re serious, aren’t you?”
Hyatt nodded. “While tied into the computer, for all intents and purposes, you are Photon. And you can forget everything you thought you knew about astrogation, insertion points, and tensor math. If you know your destination, Photon’s computer will see to it you get there—without prior acquisition of an insertion point.”
Susan couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Although travel through hyperspace was nearly instantaneous, it was necessary for a ship to travel to a specific insertion point in normal space in order to arrive at a desired destination at the other end. That journey through normal space to the hyperspace insertion point was what consumed so much time in hyperspace travel. If the point of entry into hyperspace was not calculated precisely, a ship could not achieve its desired exit point. It might re-enter normal space anywhere—even within the heart of a star.
“You’re saying I won’t have to figure for insertion?”
“That’s precisely what I am saying. With Photon, you may enter hyperspace at any point to achieve any desired destination. Photon actually maneuvers while in hyperspace!”
“That’s impossible.”
“It was until now. With this ship we are opening up an entirely new era. Finally, Man’s dream of an interstellar empire might actually be within his grasp!”
Susan was silent for a few seconds; she didn’t know what to say. Hyatt’s attempt at Lunar independence was only the first step in what she now saw as a far grander bid for power.
But that wasn’t her problem. Right now, her sole concern was the ship, and what it would take for her to pilot it.
“Is my LIN/C compatible with the ship’s computer?” she asked.
“It will be made so before you leave Luna. It requires only a minor adjustment to the standard Fleet LIN/C.”
“When will I leave?”
“In three days.”
“Three days! But that can’t possibly allow sufficient time for me to become familiar with this ship. I’ve never before piloted anything like it.”
“The time will be more than sufficient, Captain, I assure you. Familiarization is little more than a formality; Photon does it all. But what little familiarization you will need must wait until tomorrow. I want my technicians present for your initial interfacing with the ship’s computer, and they must make the necessary adjustments to your LIN/C.” He held out his hand, palm up.
Susan took the card from its pouch at her waist and handed it to Hyatt. The Survey Service Director slipped it into his breast pocket.
“Have you located your double yet?” she asked.
“Not yet. It has been determined that is no longer necessary.”
Susan was silent for a few seconds. Finally, she asked, “Is this ship armed?”
Hyatt nodded. “Three laser phase-cannons. They’re tied into the computer, and you’ll control them through your LIN/C, just as you will all her systems.”
“Isn’t the inclusion of weaponry a bit unusual for a Survey Service ship?”
“She is an extremely unique ship, Captain, and that uniqueness must be guarded against falling into the wrong hands.”
Susan nodded. “What about propulsion?”
“For normal space, an anti-matter engine. And we have completely modified a Grace/Hannover drive for hyperspace. Those modifications allow us, among other things, the ability to maneuver while in hyperspace using the anti-matter engine.”
“I’m still h
aving trouble with that.”
“Believe me, Captain, Photon is capable of doing precisely that.” He paused, then said, “Let’s take a look at the rest of the ship, shall we?” and stepped past her, into the short corridor to his left.
“Cold storage and labs on the deck below this one,” he said without turning around, “and large equipment stowage below that. We won’t bother with either for now.”
The bulkheads on both sides of the corridor were lined with small access hatches. He rapped one with a knuckle on his way by. “For life-support systems repair. But I don’t expect that sort of trouble; all her systems have been checked, and every possible bug has been worked out.”
“Still, it’s good to know I’ll be able to make repairs if I have to,” Susan said. Hyatt didn’t respond, but turned around and stepped past her, heading back to the bridge. Beyond where he had been standing Susan saw a small kitchen and a latrine, and that was all.
Something wasn’t right; something was missing.
Then, suddenly, she knew what it was. She hadn’t seen the bulky cold-sleep coffin that was standard equipment on every ship she had ever served aboard—in fact, on every ship she had ever heard of. She asked him where it was.
“Cold-sleep won’t be necessary onboard Photon. Remember, you will spend relatively little time in normal space.”
But those coffins were designed for more than making the usually long periods of time in normal space bearable. “You mean, I will actually experience hyperspace?”
No ship’s crew had braved hyperspace in more than a hundred years; each had gone into cold-sleep prior to entering hyperspace, trusting ship’s functions to the computers. Too many crews had either come back hopelessly insane, or never returned from their missions at all in the first few pioneering years of hyperspace travel. The strange elements that made up that other existence seemed to be totally incompatible with the proper functioning of the human mind.
“That is not entirely correct,” Hyatt said. “You will not experience hyperspace directly, but you won’t enter cold-sleep, either. Unlike any ship before her, Photon has been completely shielded against the effects of hyperspace.”
Again Susan fell silent for several seconds. The answer to the hyperspace problem had eluded man for more than a hundred years. Had the Survey Service finally solved it?
“What is this shielding?” she asked.
“Sixteen small yet highly efficient force field generators form an unbroken shell around Photon’s outer hull. They will hold out any form of radiation, wave, or force.”
“You said small.”
“Don’t worry, Captain, they will be more than adequate. That I can promise you.”
“How extensively has this shielding been tested?”
“I’m afraid it has not been tested.”
“It hasn’t been tested?”
Hyatt shook his head. “Your mission will be Photon’s maiden voyage, Captain.”
Susan couldn’t believe what she was hearing. This ship had not undergone a shakedown cruise. She certainly hoped the shielding worked—her life would depend on it. If the shielding failed for even an instant while she was in hyperspace, and she became exposed to its raw elements…
She forced that thought down. “You said there’s a sister ship. Where is it now?”
“The last message we received from Tachyon was broadcast as she approached the system at the heart of the Crab Nebula. Captain Larry Spearman, the ship’s pilot, reported everything was in order. That was nearly a year ago.”
Susan’s breath caught in her lungs as she remembered what Clayton had told her about her assignment. “And you want me to follow Tachyon out to the Crab Nebula.” It was a statement rather than a question.
“Correct.”
She remained silent for a few seconds. That explained why Hyatt had wanted a Fleet pilot; he had already lost one of his own.
“It all comes down to money, doesn’t it?” She couldn’t keep the venom from her voice.
“That is correct.”
Susan sniffed, not bothering to hide her contempt. She felt anger building within her. First, the lack of a cold-sleep coffin, then the realization that the ship had not been properly tested. Now she finds her mission is to follow a Survey Service ship into the unknown—a ship that has been missing for nearly a year. And Hyatt had waited until now to tell her.
“Damnit!” she said, putting as much thunder into her voice as she possibly could, “Why couldn’t you tell me all this before?”
Hyatt’s face went beet red and contorted with rage. “Listen, Captain, if you can’t live with the way I do things, I’ll find a ship’s pilot who can!”
“But—”
Hyatt held up a hand to stop her. “That’s it.”
Susan wanted to tell him what he could do with his assignment, but she couldn’t. This was her first chance in ten years to get back into deep space—very likely her final chance—and she could do nothing to jeopardize it.
She nodded. “I can live with it,” she said, keeping her voice calm and level with an effort. She only hoped that, in fact, she could.
Hyatt turned and started back down the short corridor, toward the bridge, and Susan followed. “One more thing,” he said without turning around.
“What is it?” she asked, her voice sounding flat. Anything else would be anti- climactic.
“Commander Alterman will accompany you on this mission.”
Susan stopped as a sudden numbness filled her mind. Karl would be going with her! His life would again be in danger, and she would again be responsible for it, just like ten years ago in Aldebaran system.
Again she saw the strange apparition that had appeared in the briefing room— the image of Karl charred nearly beyond recognition. Had her ability to detect danger in the immediate future somehow been responsible for that?
“This is a single person ship,” Susan said. “There is no room for him.”
“Of course, it will be tight, but you can manage.”
“But he’s Survey Service.”
“He will be going with you none-the-less. I want him onboard as my representative, and he will double as ship’s physician.”
“No!” Susan said, before she could stop herself. “I won’t have him aboard this ship!”
Hyatt stopped and turned toward her in the cramped corridor. “This is not negotiable, Captain,” he said.
And Susan suddenly knew nothing she could say would dissuade him.
Chapter Seventeen
By the time she returned to Darcy’s quarters, undressed, and slipped beneath the comforter, her wrist chronometer read 0407. She set its alarm for 0700, then lay on her back in the dark, unable to sleep, staring up at the invisible ceiling as if she could make out something there that would answer all her questions. She had come up against too much in the past hour and a half, facts and concepts she had not been able to absorb at the time. Now they bubbled up in her mind, jostling for prominence.
Foremost among them was the thought that Karl would accompany her on her mission to the Crab Nebula. He would join her on an assignment in search of a lost Survey ship, a ship that had been missing for nearly a full year.
She didn’t want Karl along, but there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. Hyatt had made it clear that if she wished to pilot his ship, it would be on his terms. It was either take Karl along, or not go herself. And that was no choice at all.
Again she would be responsible for his life. And again she thought of that strange vision.
It always came down to being responsible for the lives of others. And if it happened again as it had in Aldebaran system…
A shiver rattled up her spine and she pulled the comforter snugly around her neck. There was nothing she could do about any of it. She could chase the questions around in her mind all night, and by morning be no nearer a solution than she was now. She needed sleep—in only a few hours she would have to be alert, ready to absorb what little ship’s familiariza
tion Hyatt would permit.
Closing her eyes, she pushed the thoughts from her mind and forced her breathing into a regular pattern, then concentrated on relaxing her tense muscles.
Again the nightmare came, the dream/memories knifing into her sleeping thoughts. She was again in Aldebaran system, onboard the Fleet cruiser Defiant, and Karl’s body worked gently against her own as she held him in her arms…
Chapter Eighteen
“Incoming call for Captain Susan Tanner,” said the phone’s soft monotone.
Susan woke with a start, her body bathed in perspiration. Although she was not cold, she trembled uncontrollably beneath the comforter.
“Incoming call for Captain Susan Tanner.”
She stood and went to the phone. Slapping at both the signal off and audio only buttons, she stepped into the lens cluster’s field.
“Who is it?” she asked, glancing at her wrist chronometer glowing in the dark. It read 0532.
“Put this on secure.” She recognized Hyatt’s voice and instantly came awake, then pressed the appropriate button glowing on the wall.
“I’m on secure. What is it?”
“Something has happened. We will lift in less than two hours.”
Susan shook her head to clear it. There was something wrong with what Hyatt had just said. We. And there was something else…
“What about the familiarization session you promised?”
“It won’t be necessary. Besides, there is no longer time for that.”
“Why? What happened?”
Hyatt hesitated an instant, then said, “I’ve just talked to Commander Alterman. We are in agreement that I should leave Luna at once, under both yours and his protection. My impostor has been spotted on Luna within the hour, and Alterman believes the attempts on your life are somehow connected to him.”
“You told Karl about the attacks?” Then it struck her—Hyatt should know about only one attack. He shouldn’t know about the one in the exchange area.