“No, you’re right. Sorry.”
“You learn by asking questions.”
“If we could get back to the matter at hand?” Burnside asked.
“Okay,” Carson said. “You were talking about splitting up. You go to Verdigris, I go to Kapteyn’s star?”
“Exactly.”
“Since I have no idea where on Kapteyn’s II this wreck is, although I could probably find it from Tevnar’s description, I’m guessing you want me to take you to Verdigris?” said Roberts.
“Actually no. You and the Sophie are known there. Tevnar said she had detailed scans of the planet, she can give you the details on finding it. Right, Tevnar?”
“I can, but that means you’ll want me to take you to Delta Pavonis. If Jackie ran into trouble on Verdigris, am I going to have issues as a timoan? You mentioned a strong Velkaryan presence. Besides, I’m not sure if Jackie, is okay with me stealing her charter.”
“My commission was to bring the artifact back. What Burnside does is between him and you. I was refused landing at New Toronto, but had no problem at Verdigris City. You should be okay landing there. Jordan, does that work? Or . . . .”
“Or what?” Burnside asked.
“I located my other suit, or rather Sophie did. If you want to emulate Hannibal, I have a retro-pack you can use, if Tevnar doesn’t.” A retro-pack was a kit with retro-rockets, expandable foam heat shield, and a parachute, used for emergency entry from orbit. If he used it, Burnside would be landing on Verdigris the same way Carson had on Tanith. “But you’d be on your own getting off-planet.”
Burnside looked at Carson, who was smiling broadly. “What?” he said.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Carson said. “You’ll love it. Just keep your legs together and steer clear of the trees.”
“I’d prefer to land with a ship around me. Verdigris City would be fine, but yes, I’ll take the suit and retro-pack just in case. Tevnar, does that work for you?”
“Just as long as I get paid before you bail out,” she said.
“Of course.”
Roberts added “You should charge him extra for the Kapteyn’s scan data. As for the wreck, I’m not sure if that’s considered salvage or an archeological find.”
“We’ll work something out,” Carson said. “Tevnar, if we get back to Taprobane before you, are you okay with bringing Marten in on this?”
Before Tevnar could answer, Burnside added, “Standard charter rates to Verdigris, plus a bonus if we run into problems, plus the fee for the artifact, and I’m thinking a finder’s fee for the wreck if it’s interesting? Which it sounds like it is.”
Tevnar agreed. “That sounds more than satisfactory.”
“We’re agreed, then?” Burnside said, bringing the group back into focus. “Carson with Jackie on the Sophie to Kapteyn’s, me and Tevnar on the Razgon to Verdigris, and ultimately back to Sawyers World.”
“Can we rendezvous on Taprobane?” Roberts suggested. “Sophie has a flight plan filed for there.”
“That would work better for me,” said Tevnar.
Burnside thought a moment, then nodded to her. “That’s not very far out of our way from Verdigris, and would save you a trip if you have no reason to go to Alpha Centauri. Unless Hannibal has an objection, Taprobane it is.”
“No, that works for me,” Carson said. “We’ll need to transfer the artifact from the Razgon.”
“Jordan,” Roberts said, “I’ll get you the suit and retro-pack. Return them to me when we meet at Taprobane.”
“Of course. Thank you,” Burnside said. He looked at the group. “Captains? With your permission, let’s get to it.”
CHAPTER 42: SECOND DIVERGENCE
Aboard the Sophie, deep space
“HEY, HANNIBAL,” Jackie Roberts said, “have you ever watched another ship go to warp?” The Sophie and Razgon had undocked and secured themselves. Tevnar had just radioed Jackie that she was ready to depart.
“No,” Carson said, “I can’t say that I have. Is it worth watching?”
“It can be, depending on how hard or soft the local vacuum is. If the warp boundary rips apart enough atoms and molecules, there’s a briefly visible ionization trail.” And if there were too many, bad things happened. But they were too far out for that. “The Razgon’s about to warp out. Want to watch?”
“Sure.” Carson joined Jackie in the cockpit. She dimmed the interior lighting and switched the windows to a view of the Razgon, about a kilometer away now.
Jackie clicked the radio. “Sophie to Razgon. We’re all clear, Tevnar. Any time.”
∞ ∞ ∞
Aboard the Razgon, deep space
“Burnside, prepare for gravity. Everything is secure, we’re going to warp.”
Burnside snugged his seat-belt. “Any time.”
Tevnar lifted the safety cover off the ENGAGE WARP switch and flipped it. The switch itself didn’t actually do anything but tell the ship’s computers it had been flipped, but neither would the computers initiate the warp start-up sequence without that switch being flipped. There was something visually and physically satisfying about flipping a mechanical switch that clicking an icon on a screen didn’t have.
∞ ∞ ∞
Aboard Sophie
Carson watched the Razgon intently, not knowing quite what to expect. He’d been in ships when they activated their warp drives plenty of times, but never seen it from the outside. Inside, it wasn’t much. Any view out the window just went away, gravity came back, and sometimes there was a slight tingle which the physicists said had to be imaginary.
As he watched, Tevnar must have activated her warp drive. The Razgon just disappeared. One moment it was there, the next not. At the same time, a very faint, deep violet, trail appeared in space, extending from the Razgon’s position to as far as he could see, in the direction of a yellow star Carson assumed was Delta Pavonis. Carson was glad he’d seen it, but was underwhelmed.
“That was neat,” he said, “but I was expecting something flashier.”
“Not much gas out there,” she said. “It is flashier closer to a planet. But you don’t want it too flashy, that’s bad.”
∞ ∞ ∞
Aboard Razgon
Burnside felt himself settle deeper into the seat cushion as gravity returned. “When do we arrive?”
“It’s just over nineteen light years, so three-hundred-thirty-five hours. Fourteen of your days.”
“Fourteen days.” A long trip, but Vaughan wouldn’t get there any faster, give or take. It would give him time to review the files he’d grabbed before he left, start writing a report for Ducayne, and figure out what to do at Verdigris.
“Then whatever it takes to maneuver in the Pavonis system,” Tevnar added, “but there’s not much debris so we can warp in most of the way. Not long.”
“Fair enough. Are you going to be okay? You’re still recovering from gunshot wounds.” In fact, Tevnar was doing much better than Burnside would have expected. Timoans healed quickly.
“I’ll be fine. Although we should eat more, get some protein in me. I know I’m hungry. And I’ll spend my sleep cycles in my autodoc. Nothing against Captain Roberts but I think a ship ought to have a full autodoc instead of just a traumapod.”
“You may be right,” Burnside said. An autodoc was better-equipped to handle illness and disease in addition to the traumatic injuries a ’pod was designed for. “Although, most humans are immunized against any diseases we’re likely to encounter, either as youngsters or before we head into space. Medical science isn’t quite there with non-human diseases.”
“There is that. I just hope you don’t run into a disease you haven’t been immunized against.”
“It takes a while for a germ to adapt to a potential new host. I suppose there’s always that chance, but so far the most dangerous thing I’ve run into is other humans, intent on stealing what they shouldn’t have their hands on.”
“Raiders.” Tevnar made a gesture that was the equiv
alent of a human spitting in disgust.
“If it’s any consolation, the last person—well, before Vaughan—who tried that with me is now dead.”
Tevnar smiled her teeth-baring smile. “Good.”
Burnside reflected on that. It was interesting, timoans tended to be highly social, and typically generous in their support of each other. But they did not respond well at all to theft. Burnside wondered if Taprobane had ever had tax collectors.
“But that aside,” Tevnar said, “I understand you have flown many trips aboard smaller ships?”
“You could say that, yes.”
“Good. Then you know better than to mess with the ship’s systems.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it, unless there’s something you tell me to do.”
“Good. Let me show you what you need to know, like the galley and the fresher. Pretty standard, maybe a little different from the Sophie’s. You’re travelling light. I’ll show you the laundry too.”
Burnside was. Most of what he’d grabbed from his apartment had been devices and files that he might need. He’d destroyed the rest. He’d managed to throw one change of clothes into his pack. Not that it would have bothered him much. He’d been a field agent for a long time. Most of what an agent traditionally did—the boring reviews of data sources and watching people—had been automated for decades. Burnside was used to getting his hands, and the rest of himself, dirty. But yes, clean clothes would be nice. And Tevnar no doubt thought so too. What was that she had said about odor?
∞ ∞ ∞
Aboard Sophie
“Okay Carson,” Captain Roberts said, “our turn. If there’s nothing left floating around—” she knew there wasn’t, they had secured from zero-gee before the Razgon warped out “—then strap in and let’s go.” She had been rotating the Sophie to line up on the dim red Kapteyn’s Star as she spoke.
“All set, Captain,” Carson said as he tightened his seat straps.
She tapped the control. The windows went dark, and gravity came back. Jackie gave it a minute to be sure everything was functioning properly. She tapped another sequence to bring up a more detailed warp control screen on her console. She wanted to confirm that the sequence of bias adjustments she’d programmed earlier had loaded properly. It looked good. She unbuckled, and told Carson he could do the same.
“I imagine you want to take a closer look at that artifact,” she said.
“You’ve got that right,” Carson said. “Don’t you?”
“I do, but I also want to go over all the data that Tevnar gave me on Kapteyn’s-II. I’d prefer no surprises.”
Carson nodded. “I like that in a starship captain.”
Jackie wondered what else he liked in a starship captain. The man was impossible to read sometimes. But there was something else. “Speaking of no surprises, things are going to get heavier from now until we reach Kapteyn’s. The planet’s gravity is 1.7 gees; I’ve programmed the drive to increase our gravity as we go to help us adapt. We’ll get tired more quickly aboard ship, but we’ll be thankful when we land.”
“Sounds reasonable. When do we get there?”
“Six and a half days, standard.”
CHAPTER 43: KAPTEYN'S STAR
Aboard the Sophie, near Kapteyn’s Star
“WELL, THIS IS awkward,” Roberts said.
“What’s the problem?
“Our landing site, near the lake and the wrecked ship. It’s in darkness. On the night side.”
“Oh,” Carson said. He’d been looking forward to getting right at it. “Then we wait. How long is the day here?”
“Nineteen-point-four standard days. Nearly three weeks.”
“Oh.” Carson said again. “Crap. I don’t suppose it will be dawn over the crash site any time soon?”
Roberts checked her console. “About a week. I guess we’re doing a night landing.”
It wouldn’t be the first time Carson had been in a ship doing a night landing, but those had all been at spaceports. Usually off-field landings were done in daylight. Well, there was a first time for everything.
“Are you okay with that?” he asked her.
“Tevnar gave me copies of the camera feeds from her landing, so it’s not totally unknown. The area is pretty flat and free from obstacles.”
“Except for the occasional wrecked spaceship,” Carson said.
“Yes, except for that.”
“All right, Captain. She’s your ship. I’m just along for the ride.”
“Hardly that. But I’ll do some radar and infrared scans from orbit first. And don’t worry, I have good night vision,” she said, and winked.
“I’m not worried,” Carson said. Much, he mentally added.
∞ ∞ ∞
He really hadn’t needed to worry at all. Despite her comment about good night vision, Roberts set the windows to infrared with a radar overlay. Between that and the high-intensity landing lights, she eased the Sophie to a landing as smoothly as if it were high noon.
∞ ∞ ∞
“The water level is up a bit compared to Tevnar’s data,” Roberts said as she let the landing roll out toward the wreck. “It might have rained when night fell; it is cooler out there than what Tevnar’s data showed.”
“Is that going to be a problem?” Carson asked.
“I don’t think so. We can still get to the wreck. I’m going to hold the Sophie short of it though. The ground might be softer.”
“Okay.” Carson began gearing up for the walk. Although the outside air wasn’t breathable, there was enough pressure that he wouldn’t need a full space suit. In this gravity he was thankful for that. He wore a snug form-fitting coverall to help maintain blood pressure against the gravity, boots, breathing gear with the suit’s bubble helmet. Gloves. Carson chuckled to himself. He must look like a character from the cover of a 1940s pulp sci-fi magazine. He looked over at Roberts, similarly suiting up. Yes, she’d fit on the cover too, especially in a bikini. Hardly practical on this planet, though.
What gear should he take? He wished he had one of his full-spectrum recorders with him, but the camera in his omniphone would have to do. He tossed a few other items in a shoulder pack, mindful of the weight and rebreather gear on his back.
Roberts parked the ship forty meters from the wreck. From what Carson could see in the lights from the Sophie, it didn’t look like much. A mound of sand and silt rose from the ground at the edge of the lake, with several clearly artificial ribs and panels protruding from it. They were worn and bent, but enough had remained intact to make out the partial outlines of a ship of some kind, and there were hollow areas within the sand and debris.
“All right,” Roberts said as she finished getting her gear on. “We’ll lock out. I don’t want to get any more of that cruddy atmosphere in the ship than I need to.”
“Understood.” They moved into the airlock together. Without full spacesuits it was easily big enough to accommodate the two of them.
“Gear check,” Roberts said.
Carson verified that his own breathing system was turned on and his helmet secure, then checked Jackie’s. He gave her a thumbs-up. “Checked.”
She did the same with his, and gave him a thumbs-up in return. She started the airlock cycle, and the outer hatch opened to reveal darkness, lit only by the beams from the Sophie’s lights. She turned off the airlock’s interior lighting and switched on a “porch light” over the boarding ramp. “Okay, watch your step. Go ahead and turn on your headlamp when you’re on the ground.”
“Roger that.” Carson grabbed the rope rail, turned, and backed down the ramp. With his gear on, and in this gravity, that was easiest, and why Roberts didn’t want his headlamp on and shining into her face.
He reached the ground—it was like firm, packed clay with a thin film of water on it. Roberts was probably right about the rain. They’d have to watch their footing; it would be slippery, and a fall in this gravity would be painful.
“Ground is a little slick. Watch you
rself.”
“Got it.”
Roberts joined him on the surface a moment later. “Well,” she said, gesturing toward the wreck. “There it is. Is it what you expected?”
“I didn’t know what to expect, but this will certainly do.” Carson took a few pictures of it from where they stood. “Let’s go check it out.”
They plodded toward the crash site. Carson felt like he was hiking with a fifty-kilogram pack. He was glad they had spent the last week adjusting to higher gravity.
When they reached the wreck, Carson pulled a pair of items from his shoulder bag. Portable lights. He set them on the ground, to form a triangle with the wreck as one corner. He pointed the lights up at it. “That should help,” he said.
“Good thinking. Here, let’s see where Tevnar pulled that cylinder from.” She checked an image Tevnar had given her, then guided Carson a third of the way around the pile, where there was an opening in the hull—or rather, where the hull had been torn away entirely—large enough to get into what remained of the structure.
“There. Watch your footing, the deck is slanted thirty degrees and there are pipes and wiring scattered around.”
She was right. The level “floor” was accumulated sediment, filling nearly half the interior space he could see, guessing by the shapes of the walls. To one side, what must be deck plating jutted out of the sediment at an angle, connected to a bulkhead and what remained of the hull. There was a layer of grime over everything. Carson thought it was beautiful.
“This is fantastic! It’s better preserved than I’d hoped.” He took pictures of everything, moving around to cover all angles and photographing sediment-covered panels before carefully wiping away what he could and photographing them again.
He turned to Jackie. “Where did Tevnar find the artifact?”
She checked the image again. “On the floor there,” she pointed. “It looks like it might have been attached to this.” She turned and showed Carson a rectangular arm angling down from what was probably the overhead when the ship was upright. Indeed, the cross section looked right for the rectangular opening on the back of the artifact he had been puzzling over for much of the last week.
The Eridani Convergence Page 22