Tommy knew he was grinning like an idiot, but he was happy. When he removed the collar, he would know whether she liked him or not. If she didn't, he thought he could live with that. He just had to know. As for the clothes, he couldn't be faulted for trying to affect her decision by giving her presents, could he?
He made one purchase for himself. One of the shops in the district sold leather satchels. When he found one with a false bottom covering a secret compartment, he bought it.
The artisan lander pilot was waiting on the ramp when they got back. Their lander was the last on the ground, and Leegh had been fuming for over an hour. The pilot helped them stow their purchases, and fifteen minutes later the lander was on its way to the ship.
When they docked with the asteroid, Leegh immediately called a meeting of her two relatives, Tommy, and the guildmaster of the Communications Guild. The People did not intend to build the devices; that was what humans were for.
Tommy said little until the discussion turned to deployment of the finished sensors. The originals had been assembled into satellites, and everyone seemed to be assuming these would be, too.
"Leegh," Tommy said, "you are forgetting that we may have to leave suddenly. We may not have time to recover satellites."
"What do you suggest, then?"
"Several installations on the surface of The People's Fist and The People's Hand."
Leegh crossed her arms and seemed to draw into herself. After a few minutes, during which her relatives and the humans waited quietly, she said, "With the sensors that close to each other, we will be able to detect objects the size of this ship out to ten light seconds. That should be acceptable, most of the time. We will have the option of launching the satellites if we need more range."
Leegh dismissed the human guildmaster then turned to her relatives. "Now for the interesting part of this meeting." She turned and began writing complex formulae on a white board with a marker.
The other Nesu watched closely, but Tommy couldn't follow the mathematics. Finally, through the discussion that followed, Tommy understood what this was about. Leegh believed she could create a tunnel through the higher dimensions to travel as the Kadiil did, through a wormhole. She hoped the equipment she had obtained on Toblepas would confirm her theory.
One of the Nesu, Leesh, whistled softly, and Leenh quickly joined her.
“No!” shouted Leegh. “We can do this! We must do this!” She turned and dove into the water, creating a splash that reached the base of the white board.
Tommy stood and shook water off his clothes. Where can we go that’s beyond the reach of the Kadiil? If we already had a wormhole device we could jump away. Since we don’t…
# # #
After the meeting, Tommy picked up his clothing packages and went with Sisle to the group of women, never men, who altered clothing. Mom was right, there is sexism everywhere.
He left Sisle with the women and a promise to come back for her in an hour. He needed to take care of the collar activators. One activator he placed in the satchel's secret compartment. He scattered the other activators and collar devices in the, now empty, hidden storage compartments under the track room, under the targeting room, and under the stairs below the bridge. He intended to always have the satchel with him, but he had to be prepared for it to be taken from him.
After the fitting, he didn't have much time for Sisle for several days. As usual, he had to do the computer programming for the gravitation sensor project. A few of his guild's members showed promise, but too much depended on this being right.
When he wasn't doing that, he worked with Seth to build some new types of missiles. The main one was a bomb filled with metal balls and explosive that could either be detonated by a proximity fuse or by radio command. The only guns available in The People's Fist configuration were The People's Hand's forward gun tubes. A cone of high-velocity metal balls should be much harder to dodge than four solid missiles.
When the seamstresses came as a group to deliver the altered clothes, he realized that he had no way to pay them, but they wanted only his thanks. The words he said to each woman while clasping her hand were heartfelt. They had helped him prepare his present for Sisle.
With satchel strap over his shoulder and a double armload of clothes, he walked into his lord's chamber. After putting the clothes down, he punched in the code to lock the door. What he was about to do must not have witnesses.
He turned from the door to find Sisle standing at the edge of the pond, looking at him.
"Why are you doing this?” she asked. “Why are you giving me presents?"
"Because I want to" was the only reply he was willing to make. "Will you humor me and try on one of these?"
"I will, but I'll never be able to wear any of them outside this room. Everyone will laugh at me."
"I won't laugh at you. Which one do you want?"
"The blue tunic. It looks the most like what I’m used to."
"On Earth, we call that a dress. My mom had a dress like that."
She looked at him for a moment, then started taking off her tunic.
"Wait." He could feel his face turn hot as he turned his back to her.
"You can look now," she said a moment later, with a teasing sound in her voice.
Her usual tunics covered her from the base of the neck to upper calf. This dress ended slightly above her knees and, at the top, was scooped below the collar bones. The metal band glinted like a silver choker and emphasized her long neck. I've got it bad. She is so beautiful, it hurts to look at her.
"Do you like it?" she asked.
He took a deep breath. "Do you mind turning around for me?"
She spun, whirling the dress to mid thigh and exposing more of legs shaped by years of training.
I could watch her do that all day, but there's no point in delaying any further. "It needs one alteration. Look the other way."
Tommy had read the instructions to the collar activator three times. Since he bought it, he had woken twice from a nightmare in which he tried to use the activator on Sisle and blew off her head. Nothing to it. Much simpler than a computer. He turned the dial and touched the activator to the collar. A blue light flashed. That meant the explosive was deactivated. Another click of the dial, another touch, and the collar fell to the ground at Sisle's feet. She's still alive!
Sisle gasped, jerking her hands to her neck. "What have you done? How did you do that?" Her legs wobbled, and she sat down on the floor and began crying.
Tommy sat down beside her and waited for the crying to stop, but, instead, her crying became racking sobs. She finally took a deep breath, leaned into his shoulder, and pressed her face against his neck. He hesitated, and then put his arms around her.
She mumbled something into his neck.
"What?"
She lifted her head and looked at him. He felt her breath on his cheek.
"This won't work, you know," she whispered.
"What won't work?"
"I know what you're doing, and the collar is just the visible part.” She snuggled closer into his arms. “The artisans don't wear collars and they're still slaves. As long as the Nesu control the ship, I'm still a slave. I'm your slave. Changing the clothes I wear or taking off my collar doesn't change that.” She suddenly pulled away from him. “Only if I'm free to choose will either of us honestly know how we feel about each other."
He felt as if she had hit him in the gut. This wasn't turning out right.
"Besides,” she said, “I can't go outside this room without the collar. Don't you know that?"
He tightened his arms, drawing her close again. "Yes, I do know," he said. "Ull told me only the council could free a slave. They won't, will they?"
She sat up straight, pulling completely out of his arms. "You must put the collar back on."
"Maybe I do, but I don't have to activate it," he said.
"What?" she asked.
"For one of these," he held up his cylinder, "to explode the collar, it
must be activated."
"You can do that?"
"The instructions say I can," he said, pulling them from an inner pocket.
"And only you would know?"
"Only I would know."
She hugged him so fiercely, he was sure his ribs would break. "Oh, Tommy, you do make me wish I was free to like you!"
She let him go. "Now put the collar on me. I want to try on the other clothes you gave me."
Sisle
She had put on her sixth outfit when the doorbell chimed. Lord Ull wanted Tommy on the bridge, so of course he had to go. If he wasn't a slave, why did he jump whenever Lord Ull called?
She enjoyed seeing Fen's eyes on her while he waited for Tommy to get his satchel. She wore the "shorts and tank top," and, from Fen’s reaction, Tommy wasn't the only one who liked the way she looked in it, even if she was small. Before being given to Tommy, Fen would have been her choice, if she could have chosen. He seemed a lot smarter than the other men she knew, even if he was just as muscle-bound.
She touched the collar. Not having the collar on her neck had been a shock after wearing it for four years. As Tommy had snapped the collar back on her neck, he said if he couldn't free her without freeing everybody, then everyone must be freed. She hadn't known what to say. He seemed to care so much about her, and she didn't understand why.
She also wasn't sure how she felt about him. He wasn't handsome in a way she was used to or like anyone she could have imagined before she met him. He wasn't ugly, though, just different.
And what was the explanation for all the stories she had heard? Whenever she went to the meal room, her friends shared some gossip with her. How strong he was. How fast he was. How smart he was. Even an impossible story about Tommy beating Lord Ull in a fight.
Those same friends wanted to know what he did with her, and saying "nothing" didn't satisfy them. She had tried to tell them he was considerate and shy, but they didn't believe that, either. Those words didn't fit any male they knew. Warrior men were taught from early childhood to be aggressive and demanding.
When she had asked if they had heard stories of Tommy being the one who would free them and take them back to Earth, they had said yes, then laughed. What the artisans and farmers thought didn't make any difference. The warriors would never give up their privileges, even if given the choice. Most of them, anyway. The lords mostly left the warriors alone; the artisans feared them; and the women had to obey them. The warriors knew enough about Earth to know life would be different there.
What if he is the chosen one, though? If he is, I should be helping him.
Chapter Eighteen: Closing Doors
Tommy found Ull and Leegh waiting for him on the bridge.
"If you are done with the computer work,” Ull said, “we are ready to begin the first test of the gravity sensors.”
"I finished yesterday.” Tommy pointed at a new monitor mounted in front of the command podium. “The program will display the results on this monitor and one like it in the targeting room, if the Communications Guild has made the proper connections."
"They said they were done," Leegh responded. "We deployed two sensors for this test on the outer surface of The People’s Fist. Will that affect your results?"
Tommy shook his head. "We would have better resolution with more sensors," he replied. "But that should be enough for a test."
The original experiments on and near Stream's moon had tested the predictions of the new physics with two devices. The first was the original version of these sensors. In the three-dimensional universe, gravity waves traveled at the velocity of light. For higher dimensions, the theory expected gravitational effects to travel faster than light as seen from our universe. The sensors tapped into this higher dimensional realm. The second device generated gravity waves by creating and manipulating quantum-level, higher-dimensional, objects, as did the Kadiil drive. The passive-sensor device shouldn’t summon the Kadiil. They hoped.
Tommy sat at the new sensor station and brought his program online. The monitor came alive, changing from gray to multicolored as the sensors also powered up. The software drew fine lines on the screen, marking a sphere in perspective view. Tics marked degrees around the equator and one of the meridians.
"We are getting results, I think," Leegh said. "The spot in the middle has to be The People's Fist, between the two sensors."
"Let me adjust the range inward first, where we are sure of what we are seeing," Tommy said, as he expanded the spot to fill the entire 50-inch screen. "This should show The People's Hand and My Flowing Streams." The expanded spot showed two smaller embedded circles, one at the center and one at the edge.
"This program needs more work," Tommy said. "On a directed view, it should be possible to get a 3-dimensional view just as we do with the radar screen."
"Can we see just The People's Hand?" Leegh asked.
Tommy typed on the keyboard, and the circle at the edge expanded to fill the screen. At this resolution, the drive cylinder in the ship's core could be distinguished as a darker rectangle.
"Does anyone mind if I try to look inside the drive?" Tommy asked.
When no one answered, he adjusted the focus downward, until the drive, rotated with the long side horizontal, filled the screen.
"And again," he said, as the picture zoomed inward slightly.
At this level, vague darker objects were visible. On one side, a flickering spot, no larger than one pixel on his screen, drew his attention. The pixel took three tries to find, and its enlargement brought a gasp from Tommy and Leegh. The rippling moiré of an active dimensional tunnel, a wormhole, filled the monitor!
"Try the other ship," Leegh said.
Tommy backed off the range until they could see My Flowing Streams, and then zoomed down until another moiré appeared.
"How big is the mouth?" Leegh asked.
"I am not sure, but something less than one millimeter. I expected to measure large objects, not small ones. Another sensor would also provide more resolution."
"What is that?" Ull asked.
"A microscopic dimensional tunnel," Leegh said. "Those used by the Kadiil for travel are much larger."
"Why would there be such a thing inside the drive?" Ull asked.
The silence stretched until Tommy asked, "What else could travel through a dimensional tunnel, and where would it be going?"
"The mathematics indicates anything that could travel through our space could travel through the tunnel,” Leegh responded. “As to where it could be going, to the other end of the tunnel, wherever that might be."
"That was a stupid question," Tommy said. "Light? Radio waves?"
"Either of those," Leegh replied. "Any form of electromagnetic or gravitational energy."
"I wonder," Tommy said, as he leaned over the sensor console, "what is nearby."
The monitor jumped to the original picture, showing the asteroid as a centimeter wide spot in the middle of the screen.
"The distances you see are approximate until we do some calibration," Tommy said. "Call them a good guess, but not reliable."
The People's Fist floated six light hours from Toblepas' sun, and the initial screen showed nothing.
"That should be out to 50,000 kilometers," Tommy said.
"One hundred thousand kilometers." A single blue pixel marked the position of The People's Fist on an otherwise blank screen.
"One hundred fifty thousand Kilometers." Still a blank screen.
"As far as we are from a star, this might take all day," Tommy said as he typed in a command. "We had these on a computer game I played on Earth." The monitor showed several arrows pointing off the screen's edge.
"Earth has enough of these computers for some to be used for games?" Leegh asked.
"At some time or another, almost all of them are used for games," Tommy said. "Anyway, beside each arrow is the distance to the nearest object, out to three light seconds."
Ull leaned toward the screen. "The nearest one is approxim
ately one light second away toward Toblepas. Focus there."
The graduated sphere disappeared from the monitor as he directed the sensors toward where the arrow pointed. A rectangular object appeared on the screen.
Tommy chewed is lower lip. "That is not a natural shape," he said at last.
"Can we see more?" Leegh asked. "Can we focus on it the way you did on this ship."
Tommy made a noncommittal grunt and typed on his keyboard.
When the rectangle expanded to more than fill the monitor, they saw shadowy shapes representing objects of more mass and several flickering pixels that might be wormhole mouths.
"We are too far away for the moiré to appear," Tommy said.
After trying for several minutes to get a definitive image, Tommy turned to the two Nesu. "We have two choices. We could either launch a sensor to get greater resolution, or we could transit closer."
"We have built two," Leegh said. "If we had built more, we would have deployed them." She turned to Ull. "Shall we transit closer?"
"Las has the command this week. However, in her absence, if you will allow me?" she asked Leegh.
Leegh waved Ull to the command chair, where she got the skeleton bridge crew's attention.
"Tommy, would you set up the transit?"
"How close should I get?"
"Just close enough to answer our question about the dimensional tunnels. We can transit closer later."
The transit went smoothly, placing The People's Fist a half light second from the object. Tommy adjusted the sensors for another look. On the monitor, a flickering moiré surrounded the object. Five seconds later, the object disappeared.
"A Kadiil ship!" Tommy shouted. He set the sensors to their maximum range. At one light second from the ship, just the distance the object had been before, a circle of shimmering pixels faded beside what had to be the same rectangular object.
A Larger Universe Page 30
