Stealing Endeavour: Book 1 of the Forever Endeavour, Amen Trilogy

by Martin Tays

She nodded. “Yeah, probably.”

  “Damn it, will someone please explain what the hell is going on?” Ami finally screamed in frustration.

  Moses looked over, distracted. Then he shook his head, turned and pointed at the view. “Remember when Cath was talking about the drive, and how if you’re not careful you’ll collapse yourself into a singularity?”

  “Oh. Oh, no. You’re kidding.”

  He shook his head. “I wish. A bit over a hundred klicks that way is a insy little naked black hole.”

  “Oh. That’s bad.”

  “No. But it’s emitting Hawking radiation like a subatomic firehose.”

  “That’s a horrible analogy.”

  “Thank you.”

  “So.” She looked at the vid window, herself. “This firehose thing means that we’re being hit with radiation. That’s bad.”

  “No. We’ve got plenty of shielding for that. But every particle it releases means that it’s lost that much mass. And it’s releasing a lot of particles.”

  Ami pushed up to look over Mattie’s shoulder. “So the singularity is shrinking. That’s… bad?”

  “No. But in about…” He looked down at Mattie.

  She shrugged. “Fifty?”

  “Fifty minutes, it will have reached the Hawking limit.”

  “This Hawking fellow gets around, doesn’t he?”

  Moses ignored the comment. “That’s going to be around a thousand metric tons of mass. When that happens the singularity goes away.”

  “And that’s…”

  “… when every damn bit of the remaining mass gets converted to energy. At once.”

  Ami just stared at him, appalled.

  “And that, as you say, is bad.”

  “Woof.” She shook her head, looked down at the readouts, then turned back to Moses. “Well, I vote we run away.”

  “Brave Sir Robin it is. Sandar!”

  Sandar looked up from her controls. “Moses…”

  “Sandar, plot us a course. Thataway. We need to get as far from here as we can as quickly as possible.”

  Sandar glanced down at her controls, then back up to Moses. “But…” She pointed down at the panel. “We can’t leave.”

  Moses blinked. “Well, I for one think it’d be a real bad idea to stick around. Why can’t we leave?”

  “There’s a beacon.”

  “WHAT?”

  “There’s a emergency beacon. Right about…” Moses was already arrowing over toward her console. He looked down just as she stripped a vid display out, one with an urgently flashing point of light displayed in the debris field. “There.”

  “Zoom in.”

  The view flickered, then stabilized on a emergency rescue bubble. Through the translucent plastic of the ball, Moses could just make out three figures inside.

  “Jesus. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.”

  Ami came over. “What’s wrong? Can’t we just rescue them?”

  He looked up at her, anguished. “I… I don’t think we have time.”

  Ami turned and reached out to touch the floating window. “So close…” She began crying again. She looked back up to Moses. “We really can’t?”

  He shook his head. “I… we just…”

  “We must.” S’Nhu-gli’s stark statement caught them all off guard.

  The words were spoken with a quiet intensity, but they cut through the bridge like a knife. Moses turned to the alien priest, took a deep breath, and nodded. “Son of a... yeah. Yeah, we must. Or, at least, I must. Damn it, I hate this shit.” He raised his voice. “Bridge to engineering! LEO!”

  A vid window from maneuvering opened. Leo looked out, but didn’t get a chance to speak before Moses started. “Shuttle three is the one with the forward cargo door, right? Is she prepped?”

  “Um, yes. And yes.”

  “You’ve got ten minutes to get down there and put one of those water transport bladders on the aft bulkhead. What’s the tenth thickness of H2O for gamma? ‘Bout half a meter, right? And fifteen or so centimeters for neutrons?”

  “What? Uh, um… yeah. About that. Bit over. Wh…”

  “Hook to the standpipe in the docking collar and try to give me at least a meter’s worth. Two’d be better.” As he spoke, Moses was desperately working the nav station, plotting a course.

  “I can’t…” Leo started to say.

  “You will. Go.” He hooked a thumb in a vaguely docking collar direction. “NOW! Cath?”

  Cath appeared in the frame, looking over Leo’s shoulder. “Moses, what the fu…”

  “Shut up. Pull a canister of that borated foam. The second Leo’s clear, fill the cargo compartment to the brim.”

  “That shit takes twenty four hours to harden.”

  “Good. It’ll be soft. It needs to be. Bridge to medical.”

  Another window opened. The doctor looked out, an annoyed expression on his face.

  “Clive, meet me in the docking collar in ten minutes. Bring a crash kit and all the anti-radiation treatment you got.”

  A brief pause, then “On my way.”

  “See?” Moses looked up at the window from engineering. “That’s a man who knows how to take orders.”

  “Oh, fuck you, Moses.” Replied Cath, irritably.

  “You’d never go back to sheep. Move like you got a purpose, people! GO! All windows clear.” Moses turned to Sandar. “Got a ‘thataway’ course?” She nodded. “Good. Mattie? The second the shuttle’s clear, go. Full throttle. After the piñata pops look for the shuttle beacon. We should be about…” He transferred the data to her console. “Here.”

  “Got it. Moses?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You’re insane. Good luck.” Moses grinned briefly, nodded, and turned to go.

  Ami pulled herself up beside him. “I’m going with you.”

  “What? No. No you’re n…”

  “Shut up. You’re not winning this. You’ll need help, and I’m going with you.”

  S’Nhu-gli pushed over to join them. “As am I.”

  “Oh, for the love of Pete.”

  Ami looked at S’Nhu-gli, who returned her stare levelly. Finally, she nodded and turned back to Moses. “We’re going with you. Now come on, we’re wasting time.”

  “I get no respect around here. Let’s go.”

  ☼

  Moses and party flew into the docking collar just behind Doctor Smith. Leo was just exiting the hatch leading to the shuttle airlock. He was soaking wet.

  “Trouble holding your bladder?”

  “Funny. Ship’s prepped. You’re thirty seconds from hot.”

  “I’m on it!” Ami shoved past and eeled through the outer hatch and the already open interior hatch.

  Just as Ami vanished, Cath exited. She threw the foam dispenser through the companionway hatch leading to engineering and squirmed back in to shut the interior cargo door on the deck of the airlock. As she leaned into it foam squished out, covering the few areas of her not already layered in the bright yellow substance. She looked like an ambulatory custard.

  “We don’t have time right now, Cath, but remind me to make fun of how you look later. Doc?”

  Smith, towing his equipment, moved over toward the hatch.

  “I will assist the doctor with securing his equipment.” S’Nhu-gli said, pushing off to follow.

  “Good idea.” Moses turned to the engineers. “Short version. There’s a bubble. Looks like three people in it.”

  “Oh, thank God.” Cath breathed.

  “And the singularity created when the warship blew its drive is due to pop in a bit over forty minutes.”

  “Oh. Well... fuck.”

  “Yeah. They’re about to
redline the engines. Make sure they work, no matter what. Got it?”

  “Yeah.” Cath nodded. Bits of foam bobbed around her head.

  Moses grinned, briefly, then sobered up. “Okay, we’re gone. If everything goes right… well, if everything goes right, it’ll be the first time. Wish us luck.”

  “Luck. God speed, you schmuck.”

  Moses nodded, slapped Leo on the arm, then frowned at his hand and discreetly dried it on the front of his shipsuit as he entered the shuttle. Behind him, Leo slammed the hatch shut and dogged it as he pulled himself into the pilot’s seat. Ami sat in the copilot’s seat, but Clive and S’Nhu-gli were both floating, staring at the single remaining flight engineer’s chair.

  Ami turned. “Doc? Sit. S’Nhu-gli?” She reached down, yanked a lever, and shoved her seat back as far as she could. “Here. Now.”

  The alien priest’s muzzle wrinkled as he came over. “Again?”

  “Yeah. Again. We have got to stop meeting like this.” She spread her legs out as much as possible, and S’Nhu-gli carefully sat on the small part of the seat she exposed and leaned back.

  “At least, friend A’Hmee, you are not naked this time.”

  Moses looked over sharply. “Excuse me? No, wait, I don’t want to know.” He turned back to the controls and settled into his seat. “Hang on, folks. This is going to be… stimulating.”

  “Oh, baby. Talk dirty to me.”

  “Not while you have a weasel in your lap, dear. Docking clamps?”

  Ami craned around S’Nhu-gli’s furry head to look at her panel. “Ah, there it is. Aaand... withdrawn.”

  “Good.” Moses goosed the maneuvering thrusters to move them away from the ship. After a few seconds, he looked back to the others in the compartment. “Here we go. Pray ‘em if you got ‘em. Doc? Still think you’re an atheist?”

  Smith glance over and quietly spoke. “’Oh, God… if there be a God… save my soul… if I have a soul…’”

  Moses’ arched his eyebrow. “’From Hell?’”

  The doctor nodded, jerkily. “’If there be a Hell’.” He shook his head and looked at the other occupants sharply. “Don’t you ever tell anyone I said that.”

  Ami looked back and smiled softly. “Your secret’s safe with us, Clive.”

  Moses snorted. “Yeah. Us and Ingersoll — wherever he is. Ignition.”

  ☼

  The small craft arrowed off toward the unknown, arcing as it went to sling around the tiny, deadly mass of the singularity. Behind it, the Endeavour turned up toward the local system azimuth. There was a bright flare as the engines ignited, and the small band of humans fought their way to safety on their burning antimatter generated pillar of fire.

  ☼

  Moses leaned forward against the acceleration and pulled back on the throttle. “Ah… that’s better. Half power.” He turned. “Everyone okay so far?”

  “Actually, friend M’Hoses, I am surprisingly comfortable.” S’Nhu-gli looked back over his shoulder. “How are you, friend A’Hmee?”

  “My tits. Are coming out. Of my back.”

  “Indeed? You are remarkable flexible creatures, then.”

  “Lean forward.”

  “Ah. I see. I apologize. Is that better?”

  “Oh! Oh, yes, thank you. I can breath. Moses?” She leaned back, spit out a bit of fur, and glanced over at the pilot’s station. “How we doing?”

  “Scanning for the pod now… and… got it.” Moses looked up from his panel. “Looks like we can come up behind them. Good. That much less difference in velocity. Clive?”

  “Yes, captain?”

  “Will you please just call me Moses? I did kidnap you, for pity’s sake… it’s not like we’re strangers.”

  “Yes, captain?”

  “Fine, be that way. I need your professional opinion, here. Just exactly how much of an impact can a human body take?” While he was speaking, Moses reached out and triggered the forward hatch. In front of the ship, the clamshell doors slowly unfolded.

  “Oh. Oh, dear. You’re insane, you know that?”

  “Nope. Well, okay, yeah… but we don’t have a choice.” Moses reached out and triggered the retros in low power, trying to slow as little as he could and still not pulp the contents of the bubble. “We’ve got to spill the least velocity possible, or else we’re not going to be able to get out of the blast radius of the singularity. So we’ve got to be going as fast as we possibly can.”

  “Without killing them.”

  “Without killing them too badly, anyway.”

  “I was correct. You are insane.” The doctor looked off, considering, then turned back to Moses. “How deep is the foam in the compartment?”

  “A bit under twenty meters.”

  “That should help. Let me see… let’s say a hundred kilometers an hour, possibly a bit more.”

  Moses checked his instruments. “I can give you a hundred and fifty.”

  Clive shook his head. “Then I can give you no guarantees.”

  “Could you have otherwise?”

  “Of course not.”

  “There you go. One fifty it is.” Moses turned back toward his instruments, swore, and triggered the maneuvering thrusters. Inertia yanked the occupants up and to the left.

  “Shit! Warn us next time.”

  “Sorry. My bad. Almost there…” Moses glanced down, delicately and minutely adjusting the heading. “Stand by…”

  Ami looked up just in time to see… something. She didn’t even have time to register what it was before it had flashed under the viewports and straight into the open doors. Bright yellow foam squirted gaily out. Moses slapped the emergency button and the doors slammed shut, preventing the bubble from rebounding back out again.

  Everyone rocked forward and back in their seats as the pod bounced in the bay and shed its momentum. Before it had settled down, Moses had the throttle firewalled. The ejected foam promptly splattered over the armorplex window like the biggest bug in the universe.

  Over ten agonizing, thrust filled minutes passed while, behind them, the singularity inexorably bled its mass down.

  “I-I-I mmmmustt s-s-seeee muh-my p-p-patttients!”

  “Ya-youuu cu-cu-can’ttt! Ssssoonnn!” Moses screamed back without turning his head. He carefully lined up the shuttle so that the aft end was aimed at the disintegrating mass, then reached out and shut off the rear view.

  There were thirty more seconds of fierce acceleration and then the singularity reached its critical point.

  Sayin ‘it exploded’ would be like saying ‘Vesuvius hiccuped’. Sheets, waves, torrents of radiation washed out from the disintegrated point source. The pitiful, tattered remains of the exploratory ship glowed and deformed as the wave reached outward, then vanished abruptly as the containment breached and the remaining antimatter added its fuel to the expanding fireball.

  The wavefront reached the shuttle.

  Thrust staggered, then abruptly cut off as the gamma radiation fried the circuitry in the rear of the shuttle. Moses slapped the emergency override and used manual control to the thrusters to keep their pitiful small amount of shielding aligned with the newborn hell. Alarms screamed across the board.

  Ami looked back. The lights were out, and the air was glowing — glowing ― from Cherenkov radiation. She looked away. Nothing to be done about it. She buried her face in S’Nhu-gli’s back and grimly held on.

  And slowly, slowly, the glow died down. The fierce flood of energized particles slowed, slowed, and finally ceased.

  They were alive.

  Moses leaned back and stared at the overhead for a moment, then turned toward Ami. “Better than an E-Ticket ride. Wouldn’t you say so?”

  “Can we not ever do that again? Soon?”

  �
��Fine by me. Doc?” Moses turned, then shook his head. “Sorry. Dizzy there for a moment. Doc? What’s the word… are we dead?”

  Smith was blinking and leaning down to study an instrument he held in his hands. He shook his head and glanced up. “Maybe. Depends on how soon we get rescued. We took a remarkably large dosage. If we survive, I should be able to get a paper out of this.”

  “Well for your academic sake, then, I hope we make it. Let’s see if we can get to the bubble.”

  “Yes. Yes, indeed.”

  “How much did we get, anyway?”

  “I’m not… completely certain. This meter only goes up to ten Sieverts.” Moses winced audibly. “Yes. Disgraceful, isn’t it?” The doctor replied, staring at his instrument. “I must complain to the manufacturers.”

  “You just do that.” Moses had reached the suit locker and was pulling out a pressure suit. “I’m going to lock out and open the cargo hatch ― it’s the only way to eject enough foam to be able to dig my way through to the bubble. You…” He turned and pointed to Ami as he stripped down and viciously began yanking the suit on. “Stand by the emergency hatch close. When I give the signal shut it and flood the compartment.”

  “What if the bubble is ruptured?” Clive asked.

  Moses shut his eyes. “Then they’re already dead.”

  “Ah. Right. I should not like that, I would think.”

  “Neither would I, Clive, neither would I.” Moses paused for a moment, looking surprised. He dropped the glove he was holding and dove for a nearby locker. He barely managed to get the sickness bag open before he was violently ill.

  “Ah. I expected that.” Said the doctor as Moses squeezed the top of the bag shut and wiped his face. “Should be happening to us all, soon. The radiation has affected your digestive tract and…”

  “I know about radiation sickness, damn it. What happens if I get sick out there?”

  “Then you will probably aspirate your vomit and die.”

  “Ah. Okay, thanks.”