Macafee, at the controls, glanced across at the other three. "All set?"
Lilah and Jeff nodded. "Let 'er rip," said Billy.
Macafee touched a pressure pad on the board in front of him. Jeff leaned back and waited for acceleration. He much preferred weight to free fall. There was a hum like a great, spinning top through the body of the Galileo, but that was all. He turned to Simon Macafee with a questioning look. Had something gone wrong?
Macafee did not speak, but he gestured at the screens high on the wall in front of them. The forward screen showed the misty glories of the Dust Cloud, a mottling of pink and gold and purple. On the rear screen, Confluence Center was shrinking rapidly. As Jeff watched, it went from a disk to a bright dot, then became an invisible member of the star field background.
"We're at twenty-five Gs," Macafee said. "Would you rather have a bit of weight? I usually prefer it; things don't wander away from you when you put them down."
He touched the pad again. A moment later Jeff was sitting comfortably instead of barely touching the seat. Now he understood what was happening. Simon Macafee had modified the Galileo by installing an Anadem field, then arranged a coupling between the field strength and the drive. The harder the drive accelerated the ship, the greater the strength of the field. The net force on the passengers could be zero, or whatever level felt most comfortable.
"How much acceleration can you give us?"
Macafee nodded approvingly. "You know what's happening, don't you? I thought you might. Not every part of the Galileo is within the influence of the field, so there are limits set by the strength of the hull materials. I've never taken it to the maximum, but I'm sure the ship can comfortably handle forty Gs. Maybe we'll try that for a while."
Jeff finally understood what Hooglich and Russo had been getting at. With an Anadem field installed, a Space Navy ship could reduce travel times enormously and not harm the crew. The injuries that Jeff had suffered on the Aurora had all been the result of high acceleration—and that had been at only ten Gs. With a forty-G acceleration available, nothing without an Anadem field would be able to catch you.
Forty Gs. When Lilah told her mother that Simon Macafee would have them back to Confluence Center within a day, Jeff had agreed with her that they would be making a short trip. But if you accelerated at forty Gs, even for six hours, you would be a long way from home.
How far?
Jeff tried to do the calculations in his head and came up with an answer he couldn't believe. Six hours at forty Gs would put you close to a hundred million kilometers out. Two days at forty Gs could zoom you clear across the Messina Dust Cloud. So much for Lilah's claim to Connie Cheever that they wouldn't be going far.
He took another look at the forward screen. Their speed had grown so that in just a few minutes he could see changes, the field of the Messina Cloud opening before them. They were heading straight for one of the twisting dust rivers, a place where the Cloud turned and folded on itself. Even at the dust river's most dense, the dust and gas were close to a perfect vacuum. The Galileo could plunge right through the heart of the river and not be damaged. But whatever might lie on the other side . . . that was hidden from view.
Chapter Fifteen
WHERE are we going?" It seemed a bit late to be asking, but Jeff was getting ideas. Yesterday, Simon Macafee had mentioned space sounders, and he was a man whose words always meant something. But space sounders were associated with reefs, and there were no reefs within a day's travel of Confluence Center—if you traveled at the usual accelerations.
"In about four hours we'll be approaching Miriam's Fall." Macafee didn't seem to move, but a new image sprang up on one of the displays. The glow of the Dust Cloud formed a complicated swirl of light around three darker whirlpools. "As you can see, it's an unusual situation where three reefs sit close together in a regular triangle. They have official names and numbers, Ambartsumian 13, 14, and 15. But that was too much of a mouthful for the early Cloud explorers, and they called them Larry, Curly, and Moe. The fascinating thing about these reefs is that they attract space sounders in great numbers. It's a bad day when you can't find half a dozen sounders somewhere in the space between the reefs."
"Sounders," Billy said doubtfully. "I don't think I'm allowed sounders. We won't be going near them, will we?"
"Not if you don't want to. But why don't you wait and see? I've been there before, many times—and as you can see, I'm still all right."
Macafee probably thought that he was being reassuring. Jeff didn't think so. He was inclined to agree with Billy; he wasn't allowed sounders either. He had tried them once, and that was enough for a lifetime.
"Did you tell my mother where we were going?" Lilah asked suddenly.
Macafee looked at her, then at Jeff. "All three of you are worried? If so, I'll turn around and we'll go home. I thought you'd find this exciting."
His words changed everything. Jeff didn't want to head back with his tail between his legs, having been nowhere and seen nothing. It was part of the Kopal creed: Courage is a requirement, not an elective. He also imagined Hooglich's raised eyebrows. You chickened out, did you, when you might have learned something great? What son of jinner would you make?
He shook his head. Lilah, with her eye on him, said, "If you're sure it's safe . . . ."
Billy stuck his chin out and added, "I'm not afraid of any old sounders." His eyes, more convincingly, read, Yes, I am, though.
"It will be safe enough," Macafee said. "In fact, I'll make double sure of it. Lilah, do you know how to fly a ship like this?"
"No."
"I can," said Billy.
"Not for a few years you can't. Lilah, come here. Jeff too. I'm going to show you how to fly the Galileo. It's not difficult. Before we reach the Ambartsumians, you'll know enough to fly home—right across the Cloud, too, if you want."
With Billy hovering enviously over their shoulders, Jeff and Lilah learned the control panel of the Galileo. In the first five minutes, Jeff decided that Simon Macafee was right. It wasn't difficult. The ship almost flew itself. All you had to do was choose a destination, drive setting, and local field. And if any one of those was outside acceptable range, you would be warned. He wondered, Was it just as easy to handle something like the Aurora? If so, it explained how an idiot like Eliot Dufferin could be a captain. Even there, the experience of Hooglich and Russo had been available to correct mistakes.
Lilah and he took turns putting the ship through its paces. When she increased the acceleration to forty Gs, the only way to tell was by a slight increase in the background hum.
Macafee had his eye on the strain gauges. "Seems I was too conservative. We could handle another ten and be fine. But I'm not suggesting it," he added hastily—Lilah was reaching for the control pads. "Maybe on the way home."
Home. Jeff knew that Simon was talking about Confluence Center, but his own gaze turned to the side screens. Sol was there, one star among ten thousand. He had learned enough about the Galileo to make the display put a flashing cursor on it easily enough. But what would be the point? He would be no nearer home.
Macafee left his seat in front of the panel and walked over to a little open hatch at the side of the cramped room. "Come on, Jeff," he said.
Jeff went after him. As Macafee squeezed through he turned his head and said to Lilah, "Don't let him get his hands on the controls."
"Hey!" Billy complained, but Lilah smiled. After yesterday, working the ship's controls with Jeff had at last taken away most of the tension between them.
Maybe she was forgetting what happened, Jeff thought, as he eeled his way round an awkward corner. He certainly hadn't. It was strange; before she spoke, the idea of spending the night with her hadn't occurred to him. Now he couldn't get it out of his head.
Macafee was high on the interior hull, where a tiny one-man ship only a quarter the size of the Aurora's pinnace sat in a miniature dock. "Just checking one more time," he said as he opened the hatch and wriggled thr
ough. "Making sure this is ready to fly."
"It's too small." Jeff was peering in. "We'd never fit."
"We would, actually—all four if we had to." Macafee was noting switch settings. "But that's not the plan. When we get to the Ambartsumians, I hope to take a little solo ride. I assume you feel comfortable with the Galileo?"
"I think I could fly her anywhere."
"Well, don't get too keen." Macafee, satisfied, was emerging from the lock. "Don't leave without me."
"Where are you going?"
"Maybe nowhere. First, we have to get lucky." He didn't offer another comment until they were back in the control room of the Galileo, and then it was to Lilah. "We're almost at the first reef. See anything unusual?"
"Just the reef itself. Does that count?"
"Not what I had in mind. We're sounder hunting. You know the signs?"
"I think so."
"I sure do." It was burned into Jeff's brain. He jumped forward and pointed at the display. "Count them!"
Where three whirlpool smudges had blackened the veil of the Cloud, four now made big, dark holes in space. One of them was moving against the glowing curtain, growing faster than the ship's changing position could explain. At the same time as Jeff spoke, a faint but familiar shreep-shreep-shreep rang out from every radio-frequency communicator in the control room.
The other three turned to Macafee. This was the point where a rational captain turned the ship and ran. He stroked his beard and nodded in a satisfied way.
"Our lucky day. It's sooner than we had any right to hope." He moved to the controls, and the hum of the ship's drive went silent. "I'll be leaving now. If I'm not back in three hours, start up the drive and head for home."
"What are you going to do?" Lilah wailed after him as he entered the side hatch.
"You'll see." The hatch closed on his words. They stood silent and heard a lock cycling, then a little later the clang of spring bolts sounded through the whole vessel.
"Ship bolt separation," Lilah said. "I've heard it a hundred times. He's taking the pinnace."
"But where's he off to?" Billy had jumped to the port, while the others were watching the displays. "I see him! Oh, no. Look over here."
They crowded around the port, jostling for the best view. Looming in the center, unmistakable now and growing in size, was the once-seen, never-forgotten outline of a space sounder. At first Jeff thought it a look-alike for the one the Aurora had met by the Lizard Reef. A few more seconds of hard inspection, and he could see differences. This one was smaller and paler on its sides, with tendrils of a translucent luminous green rather than blue white.
The mouth, hardly more than a dark point at first sighting, was like an eight-sided cavern. Toward that pit, dwarfed by it and making no attempt at evasion, the pinnace of the Galileo glided onward.
"He doesn't have the drive on," Lilah groaned. "It's going to get him."
"It's all right." Jeff didn't know why Simon was doing this, but he was absolutely sure he was not watching a suicide. "If he goes inside, it's because he wants to. See, he has the manipulators out. He wouldn't do that without a reason."
Thin robot arms, designed to pick up and move objects in space, had deployed at the front of the pinnace. The little ship was moving, still with an inactive drive, right into the maw. It was visible for a few more seconds, then abruptly vanished. Space inside and around the sounder spangled with orange lights.
"Don't—he told us not to leave." Jeff was shouting at Lilah. She had left the port and was over by the control panel.
"The sounder!" she shouted back.
"It's still there," cried Billy. "It's not moving."
"Keep watching," Lilah said. "If it comes nearer, or if another one shows up—"
"We'll be out of here. Just hold it there." Jeff was crowding Billy at the port. The front of the sounder was changing, a new pattern in among the flickering lights. A blacker-than-black patch seemed to eat the space around it. "Get ready. I think something's coming out."
One more second, and he knew what it was. The pinnace was emerging, backing slowly out of the mouth.
"What's it holding?" Billy cried.
Jeff could see it too, a round object that glimmered in the grasp of the robot arm. It changed from moment to moment, and he could not quite make out what it was. The little pinnace eased clear of the sounder. It hung in space, and after a few more seconds a hatch opened. The suited figure of Simon Macafee appeared. He jetted toward the Galileo.
"What's he doing?" Lilah's finger was on the drive pad. She could see the screen, but the picture for her was not as sharp as the view from the port.
"He's abandoned the pinnace," Jeff said. "And the sounder is still there. It isn't moving."
"What should I do?"
"Nothing. Be ready to leave if he tells us to. He's coming back and boarding."
The sound of a lock cycling could be heard in the cabin. A few seconds later Simon Macafee came struggling through the hatch. It was an even tighter fit with the suit on, but his helmet was open and he was smiling.
"As nice and easy as you could wish. We have our insurance policy. Now we can go."
"Home? "Billy asked.
"Good heavens, no. Not after all our hard work. Make room for me." Simon nudged Lilah out of the way and made three quick stabs at the control panel. "There."
"We're going the wrong way." Jeff had his eyes still fixed on the sounder. "It's getting closer. The mouth is opening again."
He turned his head. Simon Macafee was taking no notice. Jeff stared out of the port at the approaching sounder. He was watching a dreadful slow-motion repeat of the Aurora's encounter near the Lizard Reef, except that this time there was no Hooglich to produce a last-minute reprieve and escape. The mouth of the sounder did not slide away to one side and vanish. It opened, wider and wider. Inside he could see a whirlpool of night, slick and black as old oil. The Galileo slid smoothly into that gullet, leaving behind the friendly glow of the Messina Cloud. The great mouth closed. Outside the port Jeff saw nothing but darkness. He turned to face the others. Their faces were pale in the lights of the control room.
"What do we do now?"
"We wait for a few minutes." Simon Macafee settled himself comfortably on one of the control-room chairs. "It won't take long."
"Have we been eaten?" asked Billy. "Are we dead?"
"Not eaten, and certainly not dead. We are not going to die, either. We will be taken somewhere, very fast. I'm sorry I can't be more precise, but I haven't yet fathomed how the sounders decide where to go. Think of this as—what shall we call it?—a mystery tour."
Jeff had stronger words than that. He couldn't break down and scream, not with Billy and Lilah watching. But he wanted to.
Billy's mouth was trembling, and he seemed ready to cry. Lilah put her arm round him and glared at Simon Macafee. He regarded them both with genuine astonishment.
"We'll be all right, you know," he said. "We're perfectly safe."
"But we may never get home," Jeff said. "Sounders come and go in a way you can't predict."
"Normally that's true—unless you do something to make them predictable." Simon's expression changed from bewildered to apologetic. "Look, I'm sorry, and I ought to have explained more about what I was doing. I thought this would be an adventure for you, something you'd find exciting. This is old for me, I've done it dozens of times."
He moved to sit next to Billy. "We'll be going a long way. We are moving now, even though you don't feel anything. But the sounder will come right back to where we left the pinnace."
"How do you know?" Billy did not sound reassured.
"That's what I'm going to explain to you. Do you know what Cauthen starfires are?"
"They're a sort of jewel. Worth lots and lots."
"That's the way we think about them, particularly the people back Sol-side. There used to be a big trade in starfires, but that stopped when too many rakehells hunting them were lost. The starfires have a special meanin
g to the space sounders. I don't know if they make them, or if they just collect them, but the starfires are important. Some people claim that a starfire is a kind of sounder egg, something that forms part of the process of producing a new sounder. I don't agree, I think it's more complicated than that. But I do know that if you go inside a sounder and take out a starfire, the sounder may leave for a while, but it will always come back to where the starfire is."
"That's what it was holding!" Jeff exclaimed. "The thing in the robot arm of the pinnace—it was a starfire."
"Exactly. As I said, the starfire is our insurance policy. We'll take a ride in the sounder, but at the end of it we'll return to where we started."
"Where are we going?" Lilah asked.
The Cyborg from Earth Page 16