by Jim Laughter
“We’ll see you girls in the morning,” said Betty as she turned to go. Mary didn’t respond but Baby raised a mechanical arm and waved goodbye.
While Betty and Ramor made their way back to the living compound, she reflected on what had transpired these last few weeks. Since the news from Shalimar giving the estimated time that the little ship had flown away, there had been no more real progress. She’d even borrowed Ramor’s trail-sensing device to try to track the little ship but too much time had elapsed for it to be able to pick up anything.
Empress Ane had put out a call for any records of sensors aimed at Shalimar for that night but so far nothing had come up. Admittedly, it was getting a might discouraging. Not knowing the little ship’s top speed, it could conceivably be on the other side of the galaxy by now.
Ramor was also lost in thought. How different things had turned out from what he’d expected. He thought they were at a dead-end back when Mary had shut them out, but Empress Ane had straightened that out. He remembered the meeting she’d called after she got back from the Mary Belle that night.
“I called this meeting to straighten out a few things around here,” started Ane as soon as everyone had taken their seats. Neither he nor Krel said a word but Betty had stared at him with an expression he found unreadable.
Ane continued.
“I just came from spending some time with Mary and she has agreed to reopen the cargo hold.”
“Good,” Ramor said. “Then we can put the newest little ship inside and duplicate the disappearance.”
“No!” snapped Ane sharply. “That will not be done without Mary’s permission!”
“But why?” asked Ramor. “The new ship is just exactly like the missing one.”
“That’s where you’re wrong!” came back Ane. “To Mary, each of the ships is as different from one another as any of my children are different from each other.”
“How is that possible?” asked Ramor, his face showing his confusion. “We built this latest one exactly like the missing ship.”
“We’re not talking about machines here anymore,” said Betty evenly. “I don’t know what to call it, but we must treat each of these new ships as individuals. Call it what you will, but each one is different no matter how you build them.”
Ramor sat silent. Ane picked up the conversation.
“What you tried to do today was unwittingly cruel,” she began. “By trying to place another ship in her hold, you poured salt into Mary’s open wound.”
“What do you mean?” Ramor asked quietly.
“What I mean is this,” Ane said. “Until you experience it, I don’t expect you to really understand, so just take our word for it. Sometimes, when a mother loses a child, someone will come to offer comfort. Meaning to ease her grief, they will say things like ‘you can always have another one’ or ‘you still have your other children’. Such comments fly in the face of what every mother knows in her heart – that each child is an individual, and no two are ever the same. Another child, no matter how similar to the lost one, can never replace the missing one because it’s a unique individual. To suggest otherwise devalues the life and love of the lost child.”
The group remained silent.
“First, I want to convey our apologies to Mary,” Krel began. “I am an old fool who never married or had a family of my own. We ask her to forgive us this slight and we vow to never do it again.”
“Yes,” added Ramor. “I didn’t realize the effect of my action, and I apologize.”
“As for the experiment,” said Betty. “Mary has agreed to proceed if you use Baby instead. Mary doesn’t want another little ship in her hold. We’ll park Baby outside next to Mary and run the cable out to her. The sensing equipment on Baby should be able to give us the data we need to figure out how these ships are born.”
The meeting broke up and Ramor walked slowly homeward to contemplate what he’d just heard. Pausing on his way home, he turned and walked back to the Mary Belle. As he approached the nose of the ship, he noticed Baby snuggled under Mary’s bow. He stopped quietly in front and stood there for long minutes looking up at the front of the Mary Belle.
“Mary,” he whispered. “I’m sorry.”
Ramor stood silent again for long minutes and then turned to go. There had been no response from either ship since he’d spoken. As he turned to leave, he heard a double-click sound from the front speaker of the large blue ship.
∞∞∞
Workmen were coming and going to and from the sensor cabin on the cruiser. One crewmember, only his legs showing, was up inside the wall racks of equipment checking connections to make sure they were secure. He’d fought many a night with some of this equipment trying to keep it on line as mysterious glitches gave him nervous fits.
Moving to the back of the image recorders, he noticed the one for the proximity sensors still indicated data stored inside.
Good, he thought. That will make it easier to calibrate.
Crawling back out to the front of the equipment panel, he turned on the recorder and played back the data.
The images on the screen were fairly clear except for a few occasional lines cause by voltage changes. Remembering the last time he’d used the sensor, he ran the recording back. While he watched the replay, he again saw the blur he’d noticed that last night over Shalimar.
Trooper Biston Mayne was puzzled about what it could be. The repair shop had just finished with the unit and the report said that it was operating within specifications. That meant the blur wasn’t a glitch like he’d thought. He decided he’d better show this to his section commander.
Pulling the record cartridge, Mayne headed down the hall to his commander’s office. He looked in and noticed the poor man pouring over a pile of his endless paperwork. Paper several inches thick was stacked all over his desk.
“Excuse me, sir. I have something here I think you should see,” he said. “I have an unidentified image on record from our last night over Shalimar.”
“Let me see it,” the Commander said, taking the cartridge and inserting it into a player in the corner of the crowded office. Again, Trooper Mayne saw the strange blur streak across the screen while they both watched the record.
Rewinding it, the commander replayed it in slow motion. The image improved enough to tell that it was a small object. Advancing the sensor one frame at a time gave an indication of the direction.
The commander noted the time of the recording. Returning to his desk, he burrowed excitedly for several seconds through the mounds of papers. He emerged triumphal with a dispatch in his hand.
“Praise the Unseen One! Here it is!” he exclaimed. “I thought that time reference rang a bell.”
He reread the memo and then without a word turned back to the player. Rewinding again, he replayed the record slowly and studied both the image and the time inset. He turned off the player, removed the cartridge, and put it into a pouch. After sealing and addressing it, he handed it back to Trooper Mayne.
“You’re going on a trip, son,” he said to the bewildered trooper. “I want you to present this record and yourself to the addressee as soon as possible. Don’t let this pouch out of your sight for a moment, and don’t give it to anyone except the addressee. Is that clear?”
“Y-Yes sir!” stammered Trooper Mayne. He left the office and then read the address ‘Ebilizer Institute. Attn: Professor B. Ebilizer’. He whistled low and then exited the ship at a quick pace in the direction of the Operations Building.
A short time later, one of the new courier ships lifted off from the field and blasted toward the stars. When they cleared the atmosphere, the pilot turned and looked at his only passenger. The trooper wasn’t of any particularly high rank but he had the air of someone with a mission.
“Are you ready back there?” the pilot called. He noticed that the trooper hadn’t put down his parcel since coming on board.
“Sure am, sir. But truth is, I don’t sit up front much, so don’t laugh if I turn g
reen.”
Trooper Mayne rechecked his restraining straps with his free hand.
The drive system on normal ships cancel inertia as a byproduct of the power cell, even after the introduction of the Albert drive to the fleet years earlier, inertia was no problem. This ship, however, was still experimental. Its drive followed the propulsion system of the torps that the fleet used as weapons. It was for all practical purposes a torpedo with seats. As it exceeded the speed capability of the Albert drive, inertia started to have an effect. With the need for faster courier ships, it became necessary to bring a few of these ships into service as flying test beds for the newer ideas. The urgency that the empress had attached to this information had led the chief of operations to use this particular ship.
The trooper and the pilot grinned at each other like two kids with a new toy. As the ship accelerated past the top speed of the Albert drive, both men felt the tug of inertia. The pressure suits they wore protected their bodies from undue stress. The pilot enjoyed this ship, but still hoped that he might get one of the new little ships like Baby, which could go many times faster.
∞∞∞
On Firstas, two ships were preparing to depart. “You all have a good trip, you hear?” said Krel as he stood at the ramp of the Mary Belle.
“We will,” answered Ane.
She turned back up the ramp and closed the hatch. She found Betty already seated at the comm panel, so she strapped herself into the pilot chair. Taking the control, she rotated the axis ball and advanced the throttle. The ship began to rise for its slow assent through the protective field covering this half of the planet.
On the adjoining pad a little pink ship still rested while its pilot prepared to enter. Krel walked over to say goodbye to the young woman.
“Myra, it has been a pleasure having you here.”
“The pleasure’s been mine,” replied Myra. “To again visit where Baby was built is always enjoyable.”
Reaching over to pat the side of the little ship, Krel added, “You have a good trip too, Baby. And take care of your Mama, you hear?”
“Yes sir, Mr. Krel,” Baby answered, “I will.”
With a final nod at Krel, Myra entered Baby and secured the hatch. After strapping in, she spoke to Baby.
“Okay girl, this time it’s your turn to fly, but be careful.”
Without a word, the little ship lifted and made its way toward the stone portal. She waited her turn and quietly slipped through, upside down. Clear of the force field, Baby climbed for space and soon joined the fleet waiting above to escort the Mary Belle and Empress Ane back to Shalimar in safety.
Chapter Eleven
After his adventure in the mine, Bobby kept quiet about it for fear of embarrassment. Grandpa Gary didn’t notice the missing thermos or book for some time. Bobby hoped he never would. However, that hope would be in vain as Bobby soon discovered one evening when he came home from the village to find his grandfather waiting for him. Bobby broke into a cold sweat. He removed his coat and boots and hung them behind the wood-heating stove.
“How did your day go today, Bobby?” his grandfather asked.
“Uh, fine,” answered the boy.
“Did it go okay helping at the general store when the tourists arrived?”
“Yes sir,” replied Bobby with relief. The conversation was drifting onto safe territory.
“That’s good.”
He watched the boy’s nervousness and smiled to himself. He could remember being on the carpet many times as a boy. In many ways, Bobby was similar to himself. Gary had little doubt the boy would go into space when he was old enough.
There’s the making of a fine trooper.
He decided it was time to question his grandson more directly.
“Bobby,” he said, “come over here and sit down for a minute. I need to talk to you.”
Bobby hesitantly sat down on the couch opposite his grandfather.
“I was cleaning up today and noticed a few things missing,” Gary began. “The guide book I lent you and the small thermos are gone. Do you know where they are?”
The boy thought furiously for a minute and decided that the best way out of this was the direct approach. “Yes sir,” he answered meekly.
“And where might that be?”
“Still in the Zahab mine where I left them,” Bobby said quietly.
The room was silent for several moments while Gary contemplated how to handle this. It was obvious the boy was extremely agitated about something and that he was hesitant to talk about it with his grandfather.
“Have you considered going back for them?” Gary finally said.
“Y…Y…Y…Yesss,” replied Bobby with definite hesitancy.
Gary thought for a moment and decided on a course of action.
“Tell you what, Trooper,” he started. “How about we go back together tomorrow and retrieve them?”
“That would be great!” agreed the boy enthusiastically.
He was happy he didn’t have to go back alone. He knew it was only his imagination that said he’d seen a ghost, but sometimes one’s imagination refused to bow to reason.
After that they set about making supper and doing the usual chores around the cabin. Late winter still had the area in its grip, which meant chopping and bringing in extra wood for the fireplace. Gary tried to keep the cabin authentic to the time period of the village, so he had few conveniences.
Grandpa Gary felt that letting Bobby learn about life by using his own hands and mind instead of through some teaching machine would benefit him later. When the boy was ready for high school, he would get one of the things so Bobby could learn how not to be confused by one in adult life.
Computers were everywhere, and Gary understood the rationale that said all children had to learn how to use one. He just wanted to be sure Bobby knew how to think for himself first.
Gary had been a computer technician during his career in the Galactic Axia service, at one time even serving on the Mary Belle, the empress’ personal ship. Of course, that was with the previous empress. Gary didn’t know the new empress, Empress Ane, but he knew her ship.
The next morning they set out early for the mine. As usual, Gary left word with the stationmaster where they’d be and when they expected to be back. They made good progress up the trail and over the ridges and soon sighted their destination. Snow still covered the site and Gary was surprised to see that the tunnel entrance was gone.
“You didn’t tell me about this,” he said to his grandson. “I checked that entrance in the fall and it was still in good shape. I wouldn’t have agreed for you to explore it otherwise.”
“It was like that when I was here last,” replied Bobby.
“Then how did you get in?”
“Up this way,” said Bobby pointing up the slope. He led his grandfather up to the vent, which was still uncovered.
“I was standing here and the boards under the snow gave way. I fell in,” Bobby volunteered, grinning at his grandfather.
Gary gave his grandson a concerned look but said nothing. Examining the vent opening, he decided it would be safe to enter the mine.
They slid down the slope and soon stood in the main tunnel. Bobby spied the remains of his lunch. Mice had nibbled at the unfinished sandwich but he was unable to locate the missing book or thermos.
“I don’t understand it,” he said. “I left them right here when I ran out of the mine.”
The boy realized he’d slipped, so he shut his mouth but his grandfather didn’t miss what he had said.
Something scared the boy, thought Gary. He decided he’d better lay Bobby’s fears to rest. He knew the mine, and he knew there were no serious dangers here.
“How about we go explore the mine?” Grandpa Gary asked. “Maybe some animal dragged it off.”
“Sure,” gulped Bobby as they started down the main tunnel.
Gary noticed the blaze marks his grandson had left and was pleased that Bobby followed the good example he’d
tried to teach him. Gary was pretty confident that they were Bobby’s blaze marks. No one else would make marks at that low level.
Bobby and Gary proceeded along the main bore of the tunnel for some ways, and Gary re-blazed the timbers at each junction. Although he knew the mine fairly well, he wanted to reinforce the lessons he’d taught Bobby.
Looking at the floor, Gary noticed only the smaller footprints of his grandson and nothing else large enough to carry off the lost items. This puzzled Gary. He wasn’t sure what to make of it. He knew Bobby hadn’t lied to him. That was obvious by the boy’s genuine surprise when he didn’t find either the book or the thermos where they’d found the remains of Bobby’s lunch.
As Gary made his blaze mark on one of the timbers, he saw that an old spike looked different. Upon closer examination, he discovered a scrape of blue paint on the spike. He didn’t remember seeing it when he’d had been here in the fall.
Looking lower, he saw Bobby’s blaze mark on the timber. He knew the paint didn’t come from his grandson. In fact, he knew they didn’t have any paint that shade of blue anywhere in the cabin.
Very strange, he thought. Very strange indeed.
“Let’s go down this tunnel,” said Gary.
He watched Bobby’s face turn ashen at the suggestion. The boy didn’t offer any objection but was obviously very uncomfortable with the idea. Trying to ease the boy’s fear, Gary resumed the lead and let Bobby follow closer than usual.
They followed the passageway some distance without saying a word. Bobby was nervous and stumbled a bit when he started at something he thought he saw.
“Hey Trooper, easy now,” Gary said to reassure the boy. “It’s all right. I’m right here.”
Gary knew they were getting closer to where this tunnel opened up onto the top of a large cavern. Out of concern for the boy, he slowed their pace.
∞∞∞
The little ship was sitting in its nest again reading the book. He read it once each cycle and practiced saying the words out loud.
