J. F. Bone, page 3
I snapped the acceleration web over us and stabbed at the release button. The hatch slammed shut, the boat jerked. A crushing force drove the breath from my lungs and the blood from my brain as the boat tore free of the mother ship and began dropping like a stone through the Cth components. A warm purplish blackness, enfolded me.
CHAPTER 5
I struggled back to consciousness, feeling as though I had been passed through a meat grinder. I ached in every muscle and joint from the tremendous buffeting of the descent through the Cth continuum. Something had hit me in the face, leaving a thick lip, a bloody nose, and a bruised cheek as mementoes of its passage. The dried blood on my scalp testified to another collision. Drops of coagulated blood still hung in solid red balls in the air and drifted slowly about with the currents.
The woman beside me wasn’t in much better shape, although her face was unmarked save for a swelling blue bruise on the side of her jaw, and I’d given her that. She was still unconscious but her breathing was regular and her heartbeat was strong. A real tough chicken, I thought as I looked at her with proprietary pride.
I felt good. My guess had been right. A ship as advanced as Bennett’s would have to carry advanced design lifecraft. The lifeboat would have to have Cth capabilities. And it did. But its capability wasn’t that of the parent ship. Far from it! But so long as the fuel wire lasted, we could operate the converters and travel in the lower portions of the Cth red, and thus aim for interstellar distances. The fuel spools should last perhaps a month, which gave us a fair radius of action and a chance to reach a system that would support our kind of life.
I released my web and pulled myself gently away from it into the floating mess. It would take hours to restore a semblance of order to the confusion. I set about trapping the larger items and putting them back where they belonged, glancing occasionally at the control board and the woman under the web. Both were blank-faced and apparently lifeless, the control board because the pounding had defocused the jets, which had automatically thrown safeties on and killed the drive. Fortunately the decelerators had worked in those first frantic seconds of falling through Cth components. Subjective time had slowed almost to a standstill as we swept on across the interstellar gulf toward a star cluster lying athwart our path a parsec ahead. It would take about three weeks subjective—a bit over four years objective—to reach it, and since we were heading in the right direction, I decided to leave well enough alone.
I kept an eye on the woman while I worked, not particularly concerned, but wanting to be ready when she regained consciousness. As it was, I almost missed. I was busy securing the dowser when she moved with speed and purpose. Her body bowed upwards against the web as she reached for the control with her left hand. A small webcor blaster blossomed in her right.
She never had a chance to use it. I dove for the web control and reached it well before her struggling hand found it. I twisted the control knob to maximum and the blaster jumped from her hand as the web crushed her into the resilient deck of the cabin. Air hissed out of her lungs as the pressure increased.
“That wasn’t nice,” I said as I picked up the webcor and thrust it into a tunic pocket. I loosened the web a little so she could breathe.
“Damn you!” she said. She eyed me suspiciously. “You move fast. I should have remembered.”
“I was watching you.”
“Not closely enough. I ought to have beaten you.” She twisted her face into an oddly eloquent expression. “Don’t make the mistake of thinking that this temporary success will do you any ultimate good. Bennett will be on you like a hawk as soon as he gets a fix on you.”
“It might not be as soon as you think. Even if he stopped dead the instant we left the yacht, our own course down through the components would be hard to follow. He could miss us by several parsecs. And if he didn’t stop instantly we could very well be in another fold of Reiman Space at breakout.”
“Of course he’ll have to get special equipment to track you,” she shrugged, “but he’ll get it. And in due time he’ll get you. I’m too important to his plans.”
“How much is due time?”
“Does it matter?” she asked.
“It does indeed. If due time is long enough, I’ll be back in the confederation.”
She laughed. “You don’t know what you’re saying. You don’t know where you are, where the confederation is, or what you’re going to meet inside that cluster. You have a lifeboat—but you can’t travel more than a few parsecs. It doesn’t have that kind of fuel, so unless you have some quick way of getting a few miles of copper wire, you’ll never get off the planet you land on. Therefore if you want to get back home you can’t make planetfall unless you can figure some way of getting into space again.”
“I can get help.”
“Where? You should know from confederacy history that planets seldom help star travellers, but you don’t seem to have learned. In any case, how many worlds are there in the confederacy?”
“Fifty-two,” I replied.
“And how many have a more advanced technology than Class Two?”
“Two.”
“So your chances are about one out of twenty-six of finding an inhabited world with a technology as good as Earth or Lyrane. Actually the figures are closer to one in a hundred if Del Armand’s figures are to be believed. And your chances of finding a habitable world are even less. About one in a thousand I’d guess. There are figures on that, but I can’t remember them. However if you do find a livable world, about the best you can expect is an ecology about a degree above the apes.”
“You don’t sound encouraging.”
“I’m not. I’ve been kicking around a lot and I’ve had an opportunity to see things. There’s more to this galaxy than the confederation.”
“Well, I’m not going to worry about it. We’ll try the G-type suns in that cluster ahead. There ought to be one that will have a suitable planet.”
She chuckled. “While you’re at it check the ion flares and the subspace communicator. You may be yelling for help sooner than you expect. And while you’re at it, how about turning me loose. It was a fool trick to try to disarm you, and I’m sorry I tried—but I’m not used to being clipped. I was angry.”
I shook my head. “No dice. You’re probably still angry. You stay right where you are until I can figure some way to keep you from killing me the moment my back is turned.”
“Look at it reasonably. What could I gain?”
“Nothing. But that doesn’t mean you wouldn’t try. No, I’ll keep you as you are until we check those worlds ahead. With luck we might even find a confederation outpost.”
The woman laughed. “You’re incorrigible!” she said. “I thought I’d seen them all, but you’re a new one. You see hope where none exists.”
“What’s so odd about looking on the bright side?”
“You didn’t even know where we were going in the yacht.”
“That’s true, but I can find out.” I bent over the celestial navigation tank and started the starmap indices rotating. “We should have a pattern soon—ah! Here we are!” The hum of the index stopped and bright letters appeared on the surface of the tank.
NO COMPARABLE PATTERN
“Huh?” My startled exclamation brought a smile to her face. “That’s impossible! There has to be a pattern.”
“No, it’s quite believable.”
“But we’ve mapped half the galaxy!”
“Then this could be the other half—or maybe not in our galaxy at all! You don’t know how fast a ship can go in the violet, or where it goes when it passes the folds of Reiman Space. Upper Cth isn’t like the lower components. The peaks are so close together that we cover an enormous distance every jump. There have been theories that we could cross the entire universe on a violet jump, and its quite possible that we could be clear across the galactic lens.”
‘“Don’t you know?”
She shook her head. “I don’t even know where Aurum is, even though I was born there. Dad and Mother keep that secret between them.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s home base, and because it’s the only place in the known universe where living organisms can be rejuvenated. It has to be kept secret.”
I swore softly under my breath. I should have stayed with the ship. Knowledge of that planet’s location would have been the biggest good news the confederacy ever had. And it would have killed any further plotting by Bennett and company.
Now what? I could broadcast a distress signal, but I doubted that anyone would be within range. And it would be more likely to attract Bennett than anyone else. Much as I would like to know the location of Bennett’s planet, I doubted that it would be wise to allow myself to pass into that pirate’s hands again. In the weeks—objective— that had passed since the lifeboat had left the yacht, Bennett had probably raised a first-class anger against me for kidnapping his daughter. And besides, on sober second thought, it might not be such a good idea to go to Aurum. Others, certainly, had gone with the intention of learning where the world of eternal youth was. located, but the women’s assertion that only her father and mother knew indicated that no one had been successful. Which, of course, again brought up the redundant question of who her parents were. There was enough of George Gordon Bennett in her big-boned body to make half the answer obvious.
“What’s your name?” I asked curiously. “If we’re going to share this boat, we should be at least that informal.”
She smiled. “It’s Martha,” she said, and stopped.
“Bennett? I thought so. Despite your hair you look enough like that pirate to be his daughter.”
“I’m going to take that as a compliment,” she said.
“Quoting your father, you should know the Sorovkin technique. Now, was it or wasn’t it a compliment?”
She shrugged. “Dad keeps telling me I have a lot to learn. I guess he’s right; give me another century or two and I may be able to analyze someone like you.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere,” I said, “so stop trying. “Incidentally,” I went on, “how many years have you used trying to be a good agent?”
She glared at me. “How old do I look?” she asked.
“Not over twenty-five.”
I eyed her curiously. She could be twenty-five, or two hundred and fifty, or twenty-five hundred for that matter. It didn’t make any difference. What counted was her experience. I drew the webcor from my pocket and pointed it at her.
“Go ahead and shoot,” she said. “I’m not going to tell you another thing about my age.”
“I don’t give a hoot how old you are. But it’s just occurred to me that you might be old enough to be smart. You’re safe enough under that web, but I can’t leave you there, for a number of reasons, including sanitary ones. Besides, I’m probably going to need your help. So I’d better see to it that you’re defanged but useful.”
She glared at me, but there was curiosity behind the anger in her eyes. “What are you going to do?” she asked.
“Pull your teeth. Now get your hands over your head. Stretch them way up.”
She shook her head. “You won’t shoot,” she said.
“Correction,” I stated calmly. “I won’t kill you, but I’ll blister your pretty hide. I can stop the aperture down to a needle, and that’d be even better. A square inch at a time might not be pleasant, but I’ll bet it will get results.” I thumbed the intensity knob and twisted the -aperture control. “Now get those hands up.”
She slid her arms beneath the restraining web until they were stretched over her head. I set the web controls to maximum, crushing her into the resilient floor, where she lay, immobilized.
“You’re squeezing the breath out of me!” she gasped. “Loosen up, please!”
“Later,” I said. Right now I have a job to do, and I can’t be bothered keeping an eye on you while I do it. Breathe shallowly. You’ll get enough air.”
I turned away and began to examine the emergency lockers, grunting with satisfaction when I found a coil of woven duralloy cable. The task of immobilizing her wasn’t going to be nearly the problem it had appeared to be at first…
Martha Bennett sat cross-legged on the deck and peered over my shoulder as I manipulated the controls of the life boat. Her face held a peculiar mixture of anger and grudging respect as she watched me calculate a course toward a G-type star. She ran an exploratory finger along the circle of duralloy cable welded around her slim waist and followed it with her eyes to where its other end was welded to the after bulkhead. The cable was long enough to give her complete freedom of the facilities and the aft portion of the little cabin, but it was too short to allow her to reach the controls, no matter how she tried. I had been fiendishly clever. She could have cut the cable with the tiny blaster concealed in her waist belt, but she wasn’t wearing her belt. I had stripped her down to the essentials before I welded the cable around her waist.
“When are you going to give me back the rest of my clothes?” she demanded.
“I’m not concerned about your comfort,” I replied. “I’m interested in my safety. That pile of assorted gadgetry you were carrying had too many lethal qualities to be reassuring, and I just might have missed one or two when I checked your things.”
“You got everything,” she said.
I shook my head. “I doubt it. Your saying so makes me sure I missed something.” I shrugged. “But whatever it is, it’s of no immediate harm, and I can check you over later. Meanwhile you’re safer for me the way you are.” I read off the course data in the navigation computer, nodded and swivelled my chair to face her. “You know, I’d just as soon not kill you,” I said. “You could be useful, and under the neurocytograph you’ll give enough details to hang your father a dozen times. So don’t worry, I won’t bother you unless I must. You’re safe enough if you behave yourself. To me you’re just a means to an end.”
“I am, am I?” she sounded displeased. “Can it be that I’ve lost my girlish charm?”
Women! I thought.
“I’m your prisoner. I’m at your mercy.” Martha contrived to make it sound like an invitation. “I couldn’t stop you if you wanted to do anything.”
“I don’t want to do anything,” I said uncomfortably, “I don’t want to be involved with you and placed in a spot where you can wheedle me into letting you out of that cable. I don’t trust you, and I don’t want anything to do with you.”
“Coward!”
“Cautious,” I said. “That’s how I’ve managed to stay alive. I don’t take chances when I don’t know the answers.”
CHAPTER 6
I turned away from the controls, “Lunch ready?” I asked.
“Is that all I get for slaving over self-heating cartons?”
“What else do you want?” I reached out and patted her and she sighed. She had been partially right. I was male and I was susceptible. We had spent more than a month together and familiarity bred. I wondered sometimes if I was enough man for her. But she hadn’t complained and I hadn’t touched her until she gave the invitation. The element of affection in our relationship didn’t mitigate my suspicion in the slightest. And while our intimacies helped relieve the boredom of our tiny world, they accomplished nothing except to prove that we were physically compatible, and should be able to populate an empty world if we were to land on one. Aside from a certain tenderness, I never lost my caution. I summed it up very nicely after one of our interludes when she begged me to let her loose. “My dear,” I said, “I’m fond of you. I admire you. I enjoy you, and I like you. Probably I love you. But I do not trust you. And I do not intend to turn you loose until you cannot interfere with my plans. Until we land, you will remain as you are. Is that clear?”
We entered the star system, located a G-type star with a family of planets and were moving toward it at about lume 0.75, which was fast enough if we wanted to get there in a year or so. I kicked the boat into Cth red, flicked out, dove in again, killed speed and popped out travelling a scant ten thousand kilometers per second, just a few million kilometers from the fourth planet of the system. It was beautiful pilotage and Martha looked at me with admiration. The fact that she probably could do just as well didn’t make any difference. She was proud of my skill.
“How much fuel have we got left?” Martha asked as she watched the world unroll beneath us in the vision tank.
“Enough for a landing. Maybe enough for a trip to the next star. No more. Hunting for this G-type took a lot more than I expected. Anyway this is a pretty good planet.”
“So it seems. Want me to run an analysis?”
“Go ahead. It should run about Earth normal I’d guess. It makes me homesick to look at it.”
“Let’s hope this Eden doesn’t have too many snakes,” Martha muttered as she set up the instruments. It was a green and lovely place with a bluish atmospheric shell, smears of white clouds curling across the visible hemisphere and obscuring the dark mass of the oceans. It looked like home, and it well could be if we didn’t find the metal we needed. And there was no assurance that we would. Copper was the standard power metal, and we would need at least a ton of fourteen-gauge copper wire to drive us across the parsecs that separated this world from the confederation. The amount wasn’t great if the culture was advanced on the planet below. If the culture wasn’t, the problem was appalling. For in all of the wandering man had done in the name of the confederation, few civilizations higher than Class III had been found and civilizations below Class II knew nothing about organic chemistry or nuclear physics, and damned little about metallurgy.
The planet was inhabited. There were small cities, vilages and farmlands visible. Possibly the dominant life was alien, but there was a statistical probability that it was humanoid. It was odd how many times Nature had chosen the upright, binocular vision, thumb-handed type as the dominant organism. But there were other life forms that had developed intelligence and intellect.
