"We're all set to go when you give the word,” she said. Though her voice was calm, Firebrandt could see the sweat on her forehead.
"We're at the jump point,” reported Roberts. He reached over, shut off the thrusters, and then drifted back over to the computer console next to Anne McClintlock. Once again, he lowered the chair to the grating and clamped it onto the deck.
"Sound the jump warning,” called the captain.
"All decks report ready,” reported Anne.
"Jumping,” called Firebrandt as he pushed the button on the wheel console.
In spite of the fact that he was seated in the hover chair, Roberts felt as though the floor had fallen out from beneath him as the ship fell into the galactic core. Colors swirled and drifted like some kind of psychedelic smoke drifting around his head from the captain's pipe. He looked around and saw the captain on his knees, gripping the handles on either side of the ship's wheel for dear life. He thought he could hear the old man's determination to see the mission through right as the ship came out of jump.
Anne belched loudly next to Roberts and then stood and stumbled out of her chair. Roberts quickly looked around. “Scanners came on line; they're searching for the EQ jump point."
Anne got herself to her feet, held her stomach and ran to the head.
"Gravitational stresses on the hull are off the scale,” said Mary from the engineering console. “I have no way of estimating hull integrity.” She stood up and stepped over to the captain. “Even if we find that jump point, we may vaporize the minute we jump,” she said.
The captain's nod was barely perceptible. He looked over to Roberts. “Turn on the display. While we're here, let's at least take a look."
The galactic core became visible in the holographic tank. Anne came out of the head, her hair hanging straggly around her face and gasped at the sight. Firebrandt stepped forward and stood next to Roberts. They both looked at light being warped around the black hole and the millions of stars that surrounded them, bathing the battle deck in light. “This sight alone almost makes the trip worthwhile,” mused the captain. He continued to gaze spellbound at the image. Finally, he saw a silver glint and pointed. “There,” he said. “There's one of the Clusters.” They saw it fire a yellow beam at a star and the star began to move. A loud groan from the ship's hull broke the captain's reverie. “Make sure everyone remains at jump positions,” he called. “We're going to need to get out of here in a hurry."
"Sir, we've got a lock on the Cluster's signal,” said Roberts. “I'm feeding coordinates to your station now."
As Firebrandt started moving the ship toward the coordinates, there was a loud pop, like a gunshot. There was a second pop, followed by a scream. The captain looked up and saw Juan Raton kneeling on the deck, his hand to his arm. A third pop sounded, and the captain saw that the rivets around the battle deck were giving way.
Mary Seaton rushed to Juan's side and carefully pulled his hand away to look. “It just grazed him, she said. “But I'm sure it hurts like hell.” She quickly reached down and untucked her blouse and tore off a corner, folded it and handed it to Raton who put pressure on the wound. She then strapped him in and returned to her station just as another groan sounded throughout the ship. The mechanic thought she heard the sound of structural supports twisting.
"We're at the jump point,” reported Roberts. “We better get out of here."
"I couldn't agree more,” said Firebrandt and he activated the jump.
* * * *
Eva Cooper double-checked a series of sensors attached to Samuel Coffin's all-but-lifeless body. She then activated the life support monitor that was on the nightstand next to Coffin's bed. His heartbeat seemed to be strong and steady as was respiration; kidney function was nominal. She breathed a sigh of relief as she reached down and patted his hand. “Hang in there,” she whispered.
She stepped from the room. Out in the hall, she discovered that a door that she assumed belonged to a closet was open. She poked her head in and was surprised to see daylight illuminating a set of stairs. She climbed the stairs and found herself on a platform of sorts on the roof of John Mark Ellis’ home. Standing by one railing was Kirsten Smart, looking out toward the ocean.
Kirsten looked around and saw Eva. “They call these structures widow walks,” said Kirsten, pointing out similar platforms on other houses. “They say the wives of sailors used to come up to these and watch for their husbands’ ships to return from the sea. There is a great view of the bay,” she said, pointing. “I even think I see G'Liat and John Mark's boat."
Joining Kirsten at the railing, Eva thought she could make out a boat leaving the harbor. What caught her eye more was the view she had of the island as a whole. She saw hundreds of nearly identical gray houses. Many had white-washed platforms—widow walks—on their roofs much like the one she was standing on, though she noticed that most were in various states of disrepair. Stepping across to the opposite side, she could make out the hospital where she and Kirsten had retrieved the life-support equipment. She shook her head, thinking about the reception they'd received. The doctor on duty in the emergency room seemed less impressed with the fact that she was the Surgeon General of the Gaean Alliance and more impressed by the fact that she was a guest in John Mark Ellis’ house. Even then, he still seemed reluctant to release the life support equipment until they mentioned that they needed it for Samuel Coffin.
"Samuel Coffin is Nantucket,” the doctor had said. “When he dies, this island will never be the same. It's possible the Earth itself will not be the same."
Kirsten joined Eva. Her own gaze was drawn to the green grass beyond the village. “It's so quiet up here,” she said, “and you can see so far. You can almost believe that Nantucket is the center of the universe."
Eva smiled and thought about the doctor at the hospital and some of Ellis’ passing comments. “Well it certainly seems the Nantucketers believe it."
"Do you think there's any chance the Cluster can be stopped?” asked Kirsten as she turned around and leaned back against the railing.
Eva looked down at her own thin hands gripping the railing. “Why ask me? I'm just a doctor."
"You work for the President herself,” said Kirsten. “You know the movers and shakers. You know the people who can work this out. Do we have a chance?"
Eva's laugh was cold and bitter. “If we had to rely on people like Jenna Walker and Dick Richards, I'd say we're doomed.” She shook her head, then stormed across the platform to look out over the bay once again. “I'll tell you who's going to save us. It's people like John Mark Ellis and his friends.” She turned around and looked into Kirsten's eyes. “It's people like you.” Her shoulders slumped and it seemed her blond hair wilted around her head. “The only thing I don't know is whether there are enough people like you.” She turned around and took in a deep breath of salt air. It seemed to revitalize her.
Kirsten was stunned into silence. After a few minutes, she said, “I don't know that I can save the world."
"You can't,” said Eva quietly. “Not alone, anyway.” She turned and stepped over to the hatch that led back inside. “Just remember, you're not alone.” She climbed down the stairs. Kirsten followed, closing the hatch behind.
As the two women stepped by Samuel Coffin's room, they heard a moan. Eva stopped short and Kirsten almost ran into her. The doctor quickly turned on her heel and entered the room. They found Coffin awake and blinking. “Water,” he said. “I'm thirsty."
Kirsten, who was standing in the doorway, left and retrieved a glass of water from the bathroom. When she returned, Eva was helping Coffin sit up in bed. Kirsten handed him the glass and the old man drank greedily. He handed the glass back and Kirsten left to refill it. When she returned, Eva was staring worriedly at the monitors. Even Kirsten could tell something was wrong. The line that indicated heart function was not a steady rhythmic pulse. Instead, it seemed a bit ragged. She handed the glass of water to Coffin and pulled a chair alongside the bed.
"What happened?” asked Kirsten.
"I was aboard a ship—a sailing ship...” The old man's voice trailed off.
"Yes, the Pequod at the center of the galaxy,” said Kirsten. “John Mark was there. He told me all about it. He said he saw a fight on the deck of the ship before he was pulled back. He tried to get back to you, but he couldn't.” She looked up at Eva, who looked a little guilty as she bent down to retrieve a bag of medical supplies.
Coffin nodded. “We were nothing but brain wave patterns stored within the Cluster,” he said, his eyes drifting shut. “The Cluster started moving stars around in the center of the galaxy. We tried to stop it. The Cluster didn't need us anymore...” Once again, the old man's voice faded away.
Eva took a vial and attached it to hypodermic sprayer. She applied the hypo-spray to Coffin's upper arm and his eyes fluttered open; the heartbeat slowly assumed a more steady rhythm, although Kirsten thought that the peaks were not as high as they were when Coffin first woke.
"What did the Cluster need you for in the first place?” asked Kirsten, her brows knitted. “The Cluster can destroy starships. It can reason and observe the world around itself. Hell, it can move whole stars around. Why does an intelligence of that magnitude and ability need ‘appendages’ at all?"
Coffin closed his watery eyes for a moment before he looked up at Kirsten. “The first life forms on this planet were little more than conglomerations of organic chemicals that moved pointlessly from place to place,” he said slowly. “The Cluster is really more akin to those chemicals than anything else I can think of.” He was once again the old school teacher and the look in his eyes told Kirsten that he was attempting to pass on the most important lesson he would ever teach. “On Earth, those chemicals became more complex. They developed tools to survive in the world they were born into. Those tools were appendages that allowed some to hunt others; allowed the hunted to flee. Exploration of the universe was born of appendages."
Eva shook her head. “But intelligence was born as a way to more efficiently control appendages."
Coffin chuckled lightly, then closed his eyes momentarily as a spasm shuddered through his body. “Who's to say that intelligence requires appendages? What about artificial intelligence? Does it have appendages?"
"Artificial intelligence experiments never got very far,” said Kirsten, thinking about the AI aboard Sanson. “Computers can store vast amounts of information. They can interpret meanings and take actions in response to input. They can even think and reason to a certain degree. For some reason, they've always lacked motive and imagination."
"They've never wanted for anything.” Coffin was interrupted by a wracking cough. Finally it subsided. “Computers have never needed to hunt to survive. They've never been hunted. The Cluster is the same. It's not so much that they need appendages. It's that they need creatures of appendage to augment their intelligence—to give them direction."
Eva put her hand to her mouth. “We humans are obsessed with death. We're obsessed with building legacies to pass on to the next generation."
"The art is the death,” said Kirsten, remembering something that John Mark had told her about the way whales view humans.
"Precisely,” said Coffin. “When the Cluster came to the galaxy looking for the Titans, they didn't know what they needed. They only knew they needed that something that motivates creatures of appendage. However, instead of finding the Titans, they found humans; and the human drive to build something—to build a legacy to leave after death—was a very powerful idea to the Cluster."
"Now, the Cluster has a program,” said Kirsten. “It doesn't need us anymore."
Coffin coughed again and shook his head. When Eva tried to help him, he waved her off. “It still wants humans. What it doesn't need are the original programmers. We—the first ones to go to the Cluster—have done what we were expected to do. The Cluster will continue to use other humans."
"What happens to the humans it's done with?” asked Kirsten, her eyes growing wide.
"The same thing that happened to the humans it couldn't use to begin with.” Coffin closed his eyes. The pulsing line on the heart monitor dropped to a flat line and a warning tone issued from the life support unit.
Eva quickly began chest compressions, trying to get Coffin's heart to restart. Kirsten put her face in her hands tried to control the sobs that wanted to erupt to the surface.
* * * *
Manuel Raton, Suki Firebrandt, and Laura Peters had been led to the squat Admiralty headquarters building on Titan. On the way, Suki repeatedly tried to question Admiral Strauss about what was going on and what the Gaean Military was doing about the Cluster around Earth. The Admiral remained silent and when they reached the building, she went to an elevator while they were taken down the stairs into one of the basement levels, escorted to a room where they were made to remove their wrist chronos and empty out their pockets into pouches. Manuel had to remove his belt and all of them took off their shoes. Each of them was then escorted to a separate cell.
"Rather antique looking cells,” said Laura glumly as she pointed to the bars that made up the door of her cell.
Manuel appraised the bars professionally, then very cautiously tried to stick his finger between them. The shock virtually spun the sheriff of New Granada 180 degrees. “I wouldn't recommend trying that,” he said to Laura. “The bars are there just in case the power goes down for some reason."
"How long do you suppose they'll keep us here?” asked the Sanson's pilot.
Fire and Manuel looked at each other. “I have no idea,” said Fire at last. “One thing is clear, the Admiralty is firmly under the influence of the Cluster."
"What about the Ambassador?” asked Laura, her eyes growing wide at the prospect. “What about the Titans?"
Manuel moved over to the bunk and sat down. “The problem is, the admirals have the power to keep signals from getting to the Ambassador. However, I don't think they have to. I think the Ambassador's under the influence of the Cluster, too."
Fire reached out and almost put her hands around the bars in a reflexive move, but thought better of it. Instead, she put her arms behind her back. “The Titans may be powerful, but they're far from omniscient.” She began to pace the cell. “They likely recorded us landing, but it's hard to say whether they took any note of us at all. There's a good chance they don't know we're here or why."
"What can we do?” asked Laura, who dropped onto her own bunk and looked as though she was going to break out in tears.
Manuel twirled the end of his mustache and looked up at the pilot. “There's not much we can do, besides wait for dinner."
However, the expected dinner never materialized. Without windows or wrist chronos, they had no way of telling how much time had passed. All three went through the phases of hunger pangs, rumbling stomachs and finally the quietude that seemed to come with fasting. Eventually, each of them drifted off to sleep, even though the lights had not been turned off in the cellblock.
When Fire awoke some time later, the lights were still on. She heard Manuel snoring in the next cell as she looked across the way to see Laura. Her face was in her hands and she was crying. “Hey,” called Fire softly. “What's the matter?"
Laura shook her head and wouldn't say anything.
"Laura, honey, they'll get us some food, soon, I'm sure. They're probably not used to having prisoners and they just forgot..."
"It's not that,” said Laura. “It's just that I've tried so hard my whole life to stay out of trouble, to do the right thing. How could I wind up in a jail cell like this?"
"Listen to me,” said Fire firmly, but kindly, “you didn't do anything wrong. We're being held unjustly. These people are under the control of a hostile alien."
Laura looked up and sniffed. “I keep trying to tell myself that,” she said. “The problem is that I keep thinking about their uniforms. I'm in the reserves. These are people I've sworn my life to protect..."
Just then,
the lights went out. Without windows, it was pitch dark. Fire strained her ears, but she heard no shouts or calls. It was as though there were no guards in nearby rooms—or perhaps there were and they simply didn't know what had happened. “Hey!” called Fire as loudly as she could. “Did you know the lights went out? Can we get some food in here?"
"Keep it down over there,” muttered Raton from the adjoining cell. “Hey,” he said in a happier tone. “They finally turned the damned lights out."
Fire had been facing the door. She got down on her hands and knees and crawled toward the door very tentatively, wary of the shock, but knowing somehow what she would find. As she felt the cold steel of the bars, she nodded satisfied when she could put her hand out into the corridor. “The power's off,” she announced. “I can put my hand through the bars."
"Better pull it back,” called Manuel, an edge of panic in his voice. “If the power comes back on, that forcefield could slice off your hand."
There was the thud of boots tromping down the corridor. Fire looked up to see a space-suited figure stop in front of her cell and look down at her. The glare from the helmet light prevented her from seeing the face within the mask.
"Move back from the door,” said a voice from a translator box. Fire thought it sounded like a Rd'dyggian. She scrambled back away from the door and the space-suited figure retrieved a hepler pistol from a holster at his hip and shot the lock. He wrenched the cell open, then retrieved a miniature flashlight from one of the suit pockets and tossed it toward her. He then moved on, shot Manuel's lock and then Laura's and gave them each flashlights.
"Who are you?” asked Fire, her eyes narrowed. She held up the flashlight and illuminated the side of the figure's mask. She gasped when she caught sight of the eye patch. “Arepno?” she asked.
"We must hurry,” said the Rd'dyggian. He motioned for them to follow and led them further into the cellblock to an open hatch. He motioned that they should go through.
Manuel went first and swore when he dropped about ten feet and landed hip deep in raw sewage. Fire landed next to him with a splash and Manuel raised his arms to try to keep from being too badly coated. Then Laura landed next to them. Above them, the space-suited Rd'dyggian used magnetic clamps on his suit to grab onto the walls. He pulled the access hatch closed behind him and bolted it in place, then slowly climbed down the wall to join them in the muck.
Heirs of the New Earth Page 21