by Darrell Bain
Grindstaff's expression became even more serious as he took in Travis’ words. “What could have caused the original failure? Do you know?”
Travis shrugged. “If Effert doesn't know, I sure as hell don't.”
“Could it have been sabotage of some sort?”
“To what end? Who could possibly gain by getting us lost?” He picked up his cup and sipped at his coffee while running over who might gain from sabotaging a ship. The Islamic Empire was his first thought. They were more oriented to that sort of thing but it still didn't make sense. Killing one ship wouldn't gain them anything but suspicion and there was enough of that to go around in the galaxy already.
Grindstaff reacted by rubbing his chin where his beard was beginning to show. “I could name a couple of empires, but let me ask you this: is it possible? Could the computer really have been sabotaged?”
“I don't know and right now, I don't think it matters,” Travis said evenly. “I think we'd put our time to better use by making plans on what we're going to do afterwards.”
“You mean after we find a place to live, I presume?”
“Yes. I'm glad you understand that much.”
“I do, believe me. Right offhand I can't think of a ship that ever came back from going missing. So what are our chances there? Finding a decent planet, I mean.”
“Oh, they're very good according to the odds,” he assured Grindstaff. “We're well within range of a fairly large star cluster and we should be able to find a habitable planet in it.”
“Wait—aren't star clusters one way of determining where you are in the galaxy?”
“Yes,” Travis said, “but it hasn't worked out this time. I'm thinking it means we're probably on the other side of the galaxy or at least several spiral arms farther around from where earth is located. And most likely at a different point in the galactic ecliptic. That's directly from the chief astrogator. Take it from me, Captain, we're really lost.”
“Call me Bill so long as we're together in this predicament but I'd appreciate you using the title in public.”
“I'm Travis. And I feel the same. Titles are important in maintaining discipline and unless I miss my guess, we're going to need a lot of it before we're through. Especially if the captain doesn't get his ... if the captain doesn't recover.”
Grindstaff smiled wryly. “I couldn't agree more. So what do you have in mind for the immediate future?”
He took a deep breath. “I'm going to try to see the captain and get him moving. If I can't, and if I don't get thrown in the brig, the next step is to see the surgeon and go from there.”
“Suppose Captain Gordon comes out of his stateroom but you don't think he's capable of command?”
Travis had thought of that before ever approaching Grindstaff. “My duty as I see it is to get the passengers, which includes you and your people, to a safe haven. If the captain isn't capable of doing that, and if Doctor Parham agrees, I'll have to take command.”
“And if he refuses to relinquish it?”
“Then I'll be shot for mutiny and the next person in line assumes the burden. But let's not borrow trouble. I asked to talk to you as a ... a contingency I think you military people call it. A contingency in case Captain Gordon isn't well yet still tries to give orders. In that case I may call on you for assistance in maintaining order.”
Grindstaff nodded. “I see. Just be damned certain it's necessary before you do. Starting off by forcing a command change might do more harm than good unless the crew and passengers also see the necessity.”
“I shall, Bill. I certainly shall be certain. In fact, I'm going to talk to the surgeon before I do another thing!”
* * * *
Maria was surprised that very little of the rum had been consumed. She lay in bed next to Jimmy early the next morning and thought over what had happened. She wasn't normally promiscuous but the thought of never being able to go home again had opened a need for closeness to another person that Jimmy apparently shared. Not an hour after picking up the bottle and following him to his stateroom, she'd found herself in bed with him trying to satisfy a ravenous sexual hunger. It had been like struggling desperately for a lifeline in a raging storm. It surprised and appalled her with its ferocity and it hadn't stopped with one coupling. It went on through the night until they were both exhausted and satiated beyond belief.
“We didn't drink much of the rum, did we?” Jimmy said as he woke up. The almost full bottle on the bedside table was the first thing that met his gaze.
She yawned, rolled toward him and answered, “No, but then I don't think that was what I was really after.” She snuggled into his shoulder and ran her hand over the hard muscles of his chest. The sheet fell off her arm and descended to their waists.
“Whatever it was you wanted, I hope I satisfied it,” he said and grinned boyishly. His neat brown hair was cut short making the sprinkling of freckles across his nose and cheeks seem to stand out and appear larger than their actual size.
She returned his grin. “Oh, you did, Jimmy, you did.” She nibbled on his chest. “I think. We never did talk much, though, did we?”
“Did you intend to?”
“Yes, but I guess we got sidetracked. Jimmy, we aren't ever going to go home again, are we?” She tilted her head up so that she could see his face.
He shook his head slowly from side to side, looking as solemn as a priest at confession.
“I didn't think so.” She sighed and held him closer. “I'm still in the army for whatever that means now but ... I think I'd like to stay with you. As a couple, I mean.”
“That suits me fine, Maria,” he said as his face brightened. “I like you a whole lot and whatever happens, the crew and military need to stick together. I just wish...”
“What?”
“I wish we had a captain with some balls. Or even a little common sense. You didn't hear me say that, though.”
“Say what? I didn't hear anything.” She closed her eyes and tried to put the condition of the ship out of her mind. She still had three hours before she had to report for duty.
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* * *
Chapter Three
“...and that's exactly what went on in the control room, Wesley, just as accurately as I can remember.” Travis glanced at the light on the surgeon's com, indicating it was recording. Good, he thought. Smart man.
“I suspected something like that,” Doctor Wesley Parham said.
Travis surveyed him quietly as he leaned back in his chair with hands clasped and his face knitted into an amiable frown. He stared at his hands for a moment then looked up. His mild blue eyes radiated trust.
“Would the rest of the control room crew who were there at the moment testify to the same thing you did?”
“I believe so,” Travis said. He was fairly confident they would all back him up. It had been an extremely fearful handful of minutes, with the captain screaming and accusing anyone within his sight of causing the flight disruption, if such a word could describe being thoroughly lost in space.
“So what do you intend to do about it?” Parham's mild blue eyes held him captive.
“I suppose I'll go see Captain Gordon and try to talk him into giving some sensible orders. We sure aren't going to find earth again.”
“He knows this, does he?”
Travis shrugged. “He's a captain. He's had the same training as me. He has to know that when the inconstants go squirrelly, there's no telling where a ship will wind up. Hell, we're lucky we're still in the same universe!”
“Well, I can't tell you not to go see him but I can't give you much encouragement, either. I've seen him three times now and he's not ... communicating well.”
“What does that mean?”
Parham smoothed his prematurely white hair back from his temples. “It means nothing yet. After you talk to him, if he'll talk, and if you feel like you have to take some sort of action, come see me and we'll talk about it. For the time being, he
's my patient and still the captain.”
“Right. Thanks, Wes.” He stood up to go.
“Good luck, and I mean that,” Parham said.
“Right.” He left the surgeon's office and headed for the captain's cabin.
* * * *
“Who is it, Goddamn it!?” Gordon yelled from the other side of his door.
“Captain, it's me. Travis Callahan. We need to talk.”
Silence reigned for a moment. Travis stood shifting his feet nervously until the door slowly opened. Gordon was in uniform but it was as wrinkled as if it had been slept in. He wondered if it had been. His face was haggard. The captain looked ten years older than the last time he'd seen the man.
“Well, don't stand there like a dunce,” Gordon said irritably. “Come on in if you're going to. Can't you do anything right?”
He stepped inside and closed the door behind him. He looked around. It was the first time he had been inside the captain's cabin. The man wasn't a socializer. So far as he knew, the captain had never invited anyone to this most private of places. It was furnished pretty much like his own, other than having more room and two sofas rather than one. It also contained a small side office and conference room he hadn't known was there. What he assumed was the bedroom had the door closed.
“Sir, we need some direction,” Travis said abruptly, not at all how he had intended to begin the visit. He had thought to ease into a conversation but Gordon's appearance surprised him into blurting out what was foremost on his mind. “People are beginning to talk.”
“They are, huh?” He narrowed his eyes. “And I guess they're all blaming me for our predicament, is that it?” The captain was standing and had not offered Travis a seat.
He blinked. “No, sir. Not at all, Captain. It's just the crazy rumors that are going around. People are saying the ship is stranded in space or that the impellers are so bollixed they've thrown us into another universe or that aliens are after us, for God's sake. Sir, it would be really helpful if you could speak to the crew and passengers and help dispel that kind of talk.”
“What am I supposed to say, XO?” His hands clenched and unclenched at his side.
“I ... sir, I'm required to advise you. I can't put words in your mouth or decide what and how much you tell people. I just believe you need to say something.”
Gordon squinted suspiciously. “I suppose you're after my job, aren't you? You want me to say we're lost so you can assume command, is that it?”
He was shocked by the captain's outburst, at the degeneration he was showing in so short a time. The man was on the verge of open paranoia.
“That's it, isn't it? Goddamn it, I know you. You're after my job, aren't you?”
“No, sir, Captain Gordon, that's not it at all,” he said forcefully. “I don't want your job, not at all!” Travis didn't want to exacerbate the situation but did want to coerce him into taking command without seeming to be doing so. “Mister Effers assures me that he's isolated the bad boards and has the backup computers online. We just need you to address the crew and passengers and perhaps talk to your department heads so we can carry out your orders. Sir, we have to decide what to do. You have to decide.”
“A meeting?” he mused, seeming to Travis as if he were examining his statement from several different angles to be sure there were no traps in it.
“Yes, sir. A statement to calm fears and then a meeting so you can tell us what you want done.” Maybe it was going to work, after all. Just order us to begin searching for a place to live. If you'll do that, I can handle the rest.
“What do you suggest, XO?”
That was better. “Sir, we came out of drive relatively close to a large star cluster. Now that we're spaceworthy again the astrogator and I both feel we should head for it and then begin looking for a habitable planet.”
“And then what?” he asked with a suspicious frown.
The captain was going to make him say it. “Sir, we have no hope of finding earth again but Carlsbad is well supplied at present and we have excellent, well-educated personnel. I believe we can establish a viable colony.”
“A colony!” he shouted. “We should be searching for earth, not thinking of colonizing!”
Travis tried to remain calm as he argued.
“Sir, colonizing is our only option.”
Captain Gordon stared at him for long moments with eyes that radiated weariness one moment and adamant defiance the next. Finally he felt for the arms of his chair without moving his gaze from Travis. He found them and slumped into the chair like a rag doll collapsing from losing its stuffing. He waved a hand senselessly.
“Do whatever you want, XO.” His tone of voice and mannerism had suddenly become listless, as if he no longer cared what happened.
“Yes, sir,” he said, delighted to finally have some orders even if they weren't very specific, and were an abdication of responsibility on the captain's part. “We'll spin up the drive and depart for the cluster immediately. Will you log the order, sir, or shall I?”
“You can log it, XO. By direction.” His eyes roved restlessly as if searching for something, but he avoided looking at Travis directly.
“Yes, sir. How about the department head meeting, sir?”
“I don't feel like talking. You do it.”
He wasn't going to do anything substantive, that was plain enough. “Yes, sir. Shall I also make the announcement?”
“What announcement?” Now he did look unblinkingly at Travis.
“The ... the statement that we're lost, sir.”
“No!” he shouted, then seemed to reconsider. “Tell them we're ... ah shit.” His voice trailed into a near whisper. “Go away. Do whatever you want to.” He closed his eyes as if he were turning off the world.
“Yes, sir.” He exited the cabin silently, thinking perhaps the captain of Carlsbad was doing exactly that. Turning off the world because the reality of their situation had become unbearable, something he could no longer face.
* * * *
Sissy was in the control room already. Travis entered, logged in and then called her into the privacy alcove used for private conversations. He shut the transparent door behind them.
“I've seen the captain,” he said without preliminary. He pointed to the small desk and two chairs. He sat down and she joined him.
“If you've seen him that's more than anyone else has managed, other than the surgeon. How is he?” Her foot touched his beneath the desk.
He ignored it, or tried to. “In a word, bad. He's ... somewhat divorced from reality.”
“You mean he's gone crazy?!”
“Umm, I wouldn't go so far as to say that,” he said slowly. He became aware he was twisting his hands together nervously and placed them on the surface of the desk. “I talked to the surgeon and told him how Gordon acted when we screwed the goose. He wouldn't say much but in my own opinion he's running a fine balance between paranoia and wanting to retreat into catatonia. One minute he thinks everyone is after his job and the next he doesn't give a damn about anything.”
She moved her foot away. “So what are we—you, I mean—going to do?”
He smiled thinly at the implication but it was no more than the truth. If the captain was incapacitated it was up to him to take such action as he could.
“I did get him to agree to let us make our way toward that star cluster we talked about and he gave me permission to call a department head meeting.”
“Will he be there?”
Travis shrugged. “I'll notify him, of course, but I don't know if he'll come or not.” He almost hoped the captain wouldn't be there in one way but in another Travis wanted his presence. His legal position at the moment was somewhat ambiguous, to say the least. He had verbal orders but no one had witnessed them. He thought back over the confrontation in Gordon's cabin and remembered the recording light on his com had been lit. That would help if anyone accused him of overstepping his authority. “He told me to log both orders ‘by direction'.” He mad
e quote marks with his fingers. “However, I don't know how lawful it is unless he initials the log. I'll com a copy to his quarters but in the meanwhile, get the ship oriented toward the cluster and the closest point toward it where we can search for habitable planets. Let's spin up and be on our way before he changes his mind.”
“How about the crew and passengers? What do we tell them?” He caught the concern in her voice and wondered what other rumors she had heard. But...
“We? Are you in this with me?”
She took a deep breath. “I suppose so. We're sure doing no good just sitting here.”
“You realize that makes you just as liable as me in any dispute over orders? I can't take the ship anywhere that hasn't been surveyed, not with real confidence. You or someone else in astrogation has to do it. And remember, so far my orders are verbal and rather vague at that.” He wanted her to be sure she knew what she was getting into.
“I know, Travis. But I saw him after we discovered the trouble just like you did. The man is unstable. For that matter, I've always had my doubts about him.”
“Haven't we all?” He gave her a lopsided smile. “Okay, let's get under way. Once we are, I'll call the meeting and shortly after that, announce the course change.”
She laughed. “It's a pretty big course change! How do you think the crew will take it?”
“I believe the best way is to let them come to the knowledge that we're lost gradually.”
“Travis, that won't work,” she said while shaking her head. “Everyone already suspects we're lost—or worse.”
“I know, but announcing a simple course change ... well, let's call it a major course change and then let the rest of the news out gradually, that we've now become a colony ship. After that we'll play it as it happens and hope Captain Gordon stays quiet.” He accepted Sissy's nod of assent but privately Travis was still worried. It was nice having her support, though. It made him wonder why it had taken him so long to discover how much depth there was to her character. And how pretty she was, for that matter. Why was I ever fooling around with Cathy? Being honest with himself, he knew. Once started, the easy sex with no commitment had held him, even after he'd seen how shallow she was. And because I was stupid, he thought, then turned his mind back to their duty. He opened the door and they came out into the control room where he announced the new course. There was no debate nor did any of the techs seem to think it was odd for him to be giving the orders. It made him wonder what the rumor mill was saying about the captain. Probably that Gordon was crazy if he had to guess.