"What…what happened?" Tara gasped.
I stared stupidly at the tacmod. It showed Gildron was still at the other end of the ship, and he undoubtedly had his own problems. I looked around the bridge, panting. Black smoke was rapidly filling the room—we'd have to get those fires out. And then I saw him.
Willard. Willard, our own little boy, standing there in the doorway holding Tara's glowing E, and it was almost as big as he was. I gaped at him, totally astonished. He gazed back at me, his tiny little face quivering with anxiety.
"Is it going to be angry with us?" he asked fearfully. I was so amazed that I could not even answer.
"Willard!" Tara called out hoarsely. "Willard!" He dropped the E and ran into her arms.
"Do we have to take the medicine now?" Willard still had the cyro clutched in one grubby hand.
"Give me that!" Tara snatched it from his grasp. She was close to collapse, trembling and exhausted. "We won't leave you again, Willard," she vowed. "Never again! I promise!"
I struggled shakily to my feet, fighting a growing panic. "We'd better see about Gildron," I said. "There's two more O's down there! Where the hell is my E?"
Chapter 15
Black Stars
"Aah! Take it easy, will you?" Tara was working on my wounds. I was on my back on a little ledge under a bank of alien instruments, stripped to my waist and glistening with medgel again. We had set up shop on the bridge. I was covered with wounds and flying on mags. Tara was badly dinged up as well.
We had not had to worry about the two O's in the stardrive. Gildron had butchered them both with his E. The O's, who were so formidable downside in armor and mag shields, proved strangely vulnerable in their own ship. Not a single mag force field had gone up during the entire operation. I could hardly believe it—the ship was ours.
I was in no shape to appreciate it.
"You'll be all right, trooper," Tara said. "I'd recommend a few years' sick leave."
"Well, the way things are going, we may have more than a few years. How're your ribs?" I was dizzy and light-headed.
I did not want to move.
"Two of them—clean breaks. I'm topping out on mags." Her face wrinkled in pain.
"You avoid any sudden moves, Tara. You be careful. What did the medprobe say, now? About those devices—I was in agony when you were telling me."
"Dissolved, both of them. The devices had released high concentrations of a substance that countered the neurotransmitters which contract our voluntary muscles."
"Huh?"
"According to the medprobe, it causes almost instantaneous loss of voluntary muscle control throughout the body when introduced into the bloodstream. I don't recognize the substance but it interfered with the strands of actin and myosin in our muscles, effectively paralyzing us."
"Clever! So that's what happened to us during our attack on the O's."
"That and the O's psypower. Insurance, maybe. Something triggered the destruction of the devices and the release of the material into our bloodstreams. Lucky for us the stuff isn't fatal, and only has a temporary effect."
A huge O materialized on the bridge, flickered momentarily, and vanished. Adrenalin shot through my system.
"Damn!" I exclaimed. "This place gives me the creeps! Can't you turn that thing off?" The holos had been appearing and disappearing at random, flickering on and off. We had done a job on the bridge. Most of the instrumentation appeared to be damaged. Smoke still hung in the air. Sparks snapped out of some of the displays, and things darted through the air, then flashed away to nothingness. A dull red glow flashed on and off, monotonously. Gildron bristled, holding his E at the ready.
"It's all right, Gildron," Tara said. "Those V are not real. Not real, understand?"
"Rot reer," Gildron rumbled, evidently unconvinced. I sat up. Every muscle ached and my skin was burning.
"You sure we don't have to worry about that stuff in our bloodstreams anymore?"
"Not according to the medprobe."
"And Gildron never had it?"
"No."
"Because he was recognized as a superior being."
"Presumably."
"Who are they?" Willard asked. He was by my side clutching a Systie ratpak, examining the faces of the dead burnt onto my knuckles.
"Those are ghosts, Willard," I said. "Friends of mine."
"Ghosts?" He laughed, delighted. "What's that?" He traced a finger over the dark tattoo on my left arm.
"That's the Legion cross, kid. That's the Legion."
"Is that a number?"
"Those are numbers, underneath. That's a twelve. And that's a twenty-two. Twelfth of the Twenty-Second, that's us. That's who we are. Don't you know your numbers?"
"No."
"Well, I tell you what, Willard. I'm going to give you a Legion cross just like mine, on your left arm. And it will say Twelve/Twenty-Two, just like mine. You've earned it, kid. You're the first kid in Blue Bear Playschool with a confirmed kill." And suddenly I flashed back to the Mound, to that brave, nameless little girl defying a whole squad of armored killers. Children, I thought—they're the future of the universe.
"My mommy says it's not polite to say 'you'."
"Wester, I hate to interrupt," Tara said, "but there is a serious problem in the stardrive. And I want you to look at it."
"I'm delighted, Tara. I'm really pleased to hear it. But I'd like you to take care of this one for me, all right? Just…keep me informed, all right?"
"No, Wester. We really need your help. Now."
"What happened to that two years' sick leave you had authorized?"
"A little later, Wester. Later."
"I'm so damn tired."
"Please, Wester. It's important."
"Important. Right." I struggled to my feet.
###
"This is wonderful," I said. I was back in my sweaty litesuit, aching all over. Tara and Gildron and I stood in what had to be the control room for the stardrive. Willard was outside in the corridor. We did not want him inside. The room was spattered with gore and body parts from the two O's Gildron had killed. One wall was entirely covered with indecipherable alien instrumentation. And it was apparent as soon as we stepped into the room that something was very, very wrong.
Up on the ceiling, a brilliant phospho-red panel was flashing rapidly like a strobe light and an emergency claxon was screeching on and off urgently, putting a chill to my flesh. It needed no translation: The sound of a warning alarm is universal. Something was wrong—something critical.
"I knew you'd be thrilled," Tara said quietly.
"Tremendous. Look at this stuff. We could work on this for thirty years and never figure it out!"
"You're right."
"Look!" I approached a thick armored plex window. The drive was beyond, a massive cylinder running lengthwise through the ship, encased in a maze of bewildering equipment. It was bathed in a soft, flickering violet glow.
"That's certainly the stardrive," Tara said. "But it doesn't look like one of ours."
"What do you think is happening?"
"I think it's getting ready to nova," Tara said calmly.
"Terrific. That's great! That's just perfect! What does your tacmod say?"
"Somebody's going to have to go in there, Wester. So we can learn what's happening. Tess can't make any sense out of these readouts." Tess was Tara's tacmod, her Persist. She had detached it from her A-suit. I took a look. A massive power source was glowing in the heart of the drive but there was something else, up at the tip of the boom that was mounted on the nose of the ship. It glittered like a star, and I had no idea what it was. It was connected to the boom—and the tip of the boom also blazed with energy.
"You're just full of good news, aren't you? Do you know how dangerous it is to poke around an antimat drive? Even when you know what you're doing, which we don't?"
"Yes—but it's not as dangerous as a nova. That much I know. That central corridor—it appears to be a walkway, or a crawlway, to acc
ess the drive. Tess says it's heavily shielded. You should be safe in there. I'd do it myself, Wester, but I can barely move with these ribs, and whoever goes in there is going to be crawling, part of the way."
"Oh, I'll go. I'm looking forward to it! Hell, I wasn't planning on having any more children anyway. But we're going to have to fix up my A-suit first. I'm not going in there without armor."
"All right, let's get to work."
###
It didn't take long to patch up my A-suit. We used the hydropak from Gildron's suit to replace mine. I put Sweety back inside and when we were through, I was sealed and secure and could move all of the limbs of the suit except for the right leg. It was close enough, for what we would need.
"Do the length of the drive, Wester. Investigate both those power sources—crawl up as close to the boom as you can get. Tess has no idea what it is. We only do it once. Just let the tacmod soak up whatever's there."
"I'm more worried about me soaking up whatever's there," I said. The door snapped open. It was an airlock, hissing closed behind me as I stepped in. Another door opened. I stepped forward gingerly. A narrow platform faced a sheer drop. The platform shot downwards—an elevator!
"ALERT!" Sweety sounded off, right in my ears. "Unstable unidentified negative energy source enclosed by unitium-based repulsive containment system, as marked, tolerances appear to be going critical, rising temperatures, analysis of ionic field indicates promat is now decelerating, imminent danger of catastrophic failure of containment unit and subsequent nova! Alert! Alert! Multiple pressure locks under critical pressure, failure expected soon! Alert! Unknown process emitting gamma radiation and unstable unitium debris! Recommend immediate retreat!"
The elevator deposited me inside the armored corridor at the bottom of the power room, a massive black cylinder looming above me, hissing white-hot steam. A bolt of lightning snapped high overhead, almost blinding me.
"Deadman!" Radioactive rain kissed my armor.
"What was that?" Tara asked.
"It's raining," I responded, "and I forgot my umbrella."
A black stardrive, I thought, for black stars. It was only terrifying, I decided—no reason to get upset!
"Say again? Are you all right, Wester?"
"Did you get all that data, Tara?" I asked breathlessly.
"That's a ten."
"Can I go home now?" I was streaming with sweat, already.
"I'm sorry, Wester. Walk the length of the corridor, if you can. Get out there near the boom! We're learning so much!"
"All right, Tara. But I expect a reward when I get back."
"What kind of a reward?"
"It involves you taking off your clothes."
Tara laughed sweetly. "We'll work something out, trooper. Now let's take that walk."
I had to crawl under the antimat power source, dragging my dead leg behind me. The whole compartment glittered a creepy violet, and every once in awhile there was a blinding flash from the boom. Sweety was talking, the whole time.
"Recommend immediate retreat, Thinker! Gamma, unitium at critical levels! I repeat, ionic field analysis indicates…"
"That's bad, isn't it, Sweety? The ionic field part?"
"Yes, Thinker. It indicates potential deceleration of promat."
"That's bad, too, isn't it?"
"Very bad, Thinker. It means the containment chamber in the boom is failing."
"Well, never mind about that, Sweety! Tell me what's going on around us! This power source above us—it's the stardrive, right?"
"I have insufficient data to respond accurately to the question, Thinker. I detect a mag field containment device enclosing an antimat generation and containment chamber."
"Right, right, that's the antimat drive! But what about that other power source, up near the nose? What does it do?"
"I have insufficient data to respond to the question, Thinker. Both power sources appear to be part of an integrated stardrive system. Analysis is continuing."
Two little balls of lightning floating up ahead exploded suddenly, showering me with sparks. I continued crawling forward along a narrow tunnel lined with mirrored surfaces. Something awful was blazing up ahead, as bright as a sun.
"Deadman. I love this. What the hell are you talking about, Sweety? If you detect antimat, it's an antimat drive, right? And the containment unit is failing, right? Talk to me, Sweety! What's the damned problem?"
"Negative, Thinker. There is a unitium-based mag field around the antimat power source midships, and it is stable. This does appear to be an antimat star drive. However, I detect a microscopic source of negative pressure in the second power source by the boom, enclosed by what appears to be a unitium-based containment unit that is failing. The unitium accelerates promat, which appears to be shielding the ship itself from the power source in the boom. Theoretically, this is D-neg. However, as this is not physically possible, I have discarded this information. Analysis is continuing."
"D-neg! Deadman! How could they do that?"
"They could not, Three. It is not possible. The force would implode the ship, instantly. Nothing could contain such power."
"Tell me again—what do you detect?"
"A microscopic point of negative energy density and negative pressure, infinitely powerful—theoretically similar to D-neg. I repeat, these observations are in error. I am running diagnostics."
"I think we've got enough, Wester. Get back here!" Tara commanded urgently.
"With pleasure!"
###
Tara unlinked me back in the stardrive's control room. I let the A-suit parts fall noisily to the deck. They gleamed with moisture.
"That was fun!" I stripped off my soaking liteshirt and threw it to the floor. I was streaming with sweat. The alarms screeched on and the ceiling flashed violet. Gildron had hauled out the dead O's and Tara had let Willard into the control room. Gildron squatted down, showing Willard his teeth, and Willard laughed, popping his tiny fists in and out of Gildron's massive jaws.
"We've got a problem, Wester," Tara said.
"No, I'm the one with a problem. You didn't just get fried with gamma."
"Your A-suit kept out most of it, Wester. No, we've got a bigger problem than that."
"Tell me something I don't know."
"The immediate problem is the imminent failure of the unitium containment system which holds that D-neg in stasis."
"I agree with your analysis. But this is crazy, Tara! The only thing we know about D-neg is that it can't be created, captured or contained—by unitium or anything else!"
"Everything else is secondary—the radiation, the pressure locks—let it happen, we can deal with it all. But we've got to keep that D-neg under control!"
"How can we worry about things that are beyond our understanding? Our best scientists don't understand D-neg. It's a reality, but nobody's ever gotten close to it—and here we've got Sweety saying this starship is powered by it, and the unitium containment is failing. Great! Thank you very much, Sweety. Information overload! Now please tell us what to do!"
"My analysis is continuing, Thinker," Sweety interrupted, a trifle defensively.
"I agree we can forget the D-neg," Tara said. "There's no way we can understand it. But the D-neg itself is not the problem. The problem is the unitium containment unit that's failing. Let's concentrate on that."
"Fine! What do you suggest? Nobody understands unitium, either!"
"I don't know. But we have the entire power compartment on the tacmap now, and I've asked for a solution. Unfortunately, the tacmod can't give us any help on the controls, Wester. No help at all. Unknown energy fields between the controls and the drive. Indecipherable!"
"This is terrific," I said glumly. "We'll be going nova any time now."
"Gildron says this is a new problem. There was no alarm—no flashing lights—when he attacked the O's."
"What! Are you sure?"
"Absolutely. The O's may have had a problem with the stardrive, before—but i
t didn't involve alarms or red lights."
"Then it's something that happened as a result of Gildron's attack! Or maybe as a result of our attack."
"Yes—I think so," Tara said. "But we don't know what caused it, or what will stop it!"
"It could be something simple—one of these controls jammed into the wrong position."
"Or it could be something so complicated we have no possible way of understanding it, much less fixing it."
"Don't panic!" I was beginning to panic. I took a deep breath. "Let's think. What if this was a Legion starship—or a Systie ship, for that matter. The antimat containment is going critical. What do we do?"
"There's nothing wrong with the antimat containment unit on this ship."
"I know that! Damn it! Why the hell do they need two power sources? Look—we're going to have to assume the D-neg containment unit works the same way, aren't we? What do we do?"
"It doesn't work the same way. D-neg would probably work the opposite way. But to answer your question, in antimat drive, we'd stabilize the iomag stream. If that fails, we'd be forced to eject the antimat from the ship, and go to the alternate drive."
"Nice! Well, we're certainly not going to be able to stabilize the iomag stream. Are we even dealing with iomags? I can't even find an ON and OFF switch in this mess." I gestured to the wall of alien instrumentation.
"It doesn't appear we are dealing with iomags. It's interesting that they use unitium," Tara said, "just as we suspected. Ever since Andrion Three, the Legion thought the O's were using unitium in their stardrive, for we knew unitium could theoretically be used to accelerate promat. Without iomag containment systems, antimat can't be controlled to produce the antigravity and negative pressure needed to hold open our artificial wormholes. We've just confirmed the Legion's suspicions about unitium, Wester. But the Legion never suspected D-neg! We thought the O's used antimat drive. What else could we think? Well, they've got antimat drive here, but it's bigger than that. D-neg! Lord! They use the unitium to contain and control the D-neg as well!"
"All right—can we eject the D-neg from the ship?"
Slave of the Legion Page 20
