Tucker’s wild hypotheses were not made public, which was a good thing, for the fear and speculation about where the Periglus would emerge from the gates was building with each passing day. The longer they took to emerge, the more extreme the theories grew.
“Of course they’re not going to make it across the galaxy!” Connell had said in exasperation when Yennifer had mentioned one rumor. “It took them ninety years to get from the Last Gate to Kashya! Ninety years! Do the math, Yennifer. If that’s as fast as they can go, even travelling through a short wormhole will take time. It’ll take them a lot longer than any human ship still using the gates. Even the slowest human ship can get close to light-speed.”
However, there were not many ships still using the gates. Everyone was afraid to use them, even though experts, scientists and even Devlin had tried to explain that no one could possibly meet the Periglus inside a wormhole.
“Each wormhole is unique, formed at the time of the jump, between the start gate and the end gate. It only forms long enough for the ship to pass through, then disappears,” Devlin had explained in a clip that had spread around the feeds faster than gossip. “In fact, it closes up behind the ship and opens up in front of it, as the ship travels from gate to gate, which is why one ship can use the gate for one destination and a second ship can use the gate for an entirely separate destination straight after the first ship has departed.”
Saying so didn’t assuage gut fears and instincts. Traffic through the legacy gate system dwindled, which put the developing Varkan transport system under pressure to fill the gap.
Connell went back to piloting in between his research with Bedivere and Catherine heard that Bedivere was jumping passengers and freight all over the known worlds, too.
Devlin encouraged any of the Varkan still aboard the Hana who had found Interspace to take up some of the slack, including Cleon and Wayna, his two official pilots. He asked the silent Mael Maedoc to stay, and while the Hana was in dock, to train new Varkan and guide them to find Interspace for themselves.
“The Varkan are finally coming into their own,” Devlin told Catherine in a private moment on the flight deck after discussing training schedules with Mael. He looked out the windows at the observation deck of the docking bay, where there was always dozens of people observing the ship. “Instant transport was just a luxury. Now, it’s becoming a necessity and Varkan are finally finding themselves useful and needed.”
“They were useful before,” Catherine pointed out. “That’s the reason they woke. We needed them.”
“As computers, yes. Now they’re coming into their own as a race with a purpose…something humans have looked for throughout history.” He gave a small smile. “I almost envy them.”
He was teasing in his low-key way. Devlin was the most goal-oriented man she knew.
She looked at him across the cleared table, as she reflected on how busy all their lives were now. He didn’t look tired or stressed. The overload of decisions and crises didn’t impact on him. He thrived in such an atmosphere.
“You said there was something you wanted to talk through,” she reminded him.
Devlin nodded. He put both hands on the table and pressed his fingers together. A tiny furrow appeared between his brows, then smoothed itself out. He was debating something in his mind.
“Out of curiosity, I looked up when you first moved onto the Hana. It will be ten years next month and I confess it feels like only the other day.”
“Time subjectivity,” Catherine said. “You’ve packed a lot into that ten years.”
“So have you,” he replied. “Tell me, have you achieved everything you hoped to when you came aboard?”
She stared at him. “It’s your agenda, Devlin. Your ambitions. I just follow you.”
Devlin smiled. It was one of his warm smiles, that made his eyes dance. “You have not followed another leader your entire life, Catherine Shahrazad, so I will assume that you are merely trying to flatter me and will accept the compliment as such. You didn’t agree to work with me because I convinced you what I was doing was so important. You had your own reasons for joining up with the Hana and the Varkan who work here. I don’t know what those reasons were and I didn’t pry at the time, although I made some rough guesses. Now I know I was wrong on at least one count.”
“Bedivere?” she asked. “You think I used you as some sort of recovery program because he left?”
“The timing was right,” Devlin said easily. “I didn’t mind, back then, because it was an opportunity to work with you.” His smile was brief. “Your reputation as someone who can get things done, no matter the obstacles, was so great that I would have welcomed you no matter what motivated you.”
“You didn’t mind back then, but now you do?”
Devlin’s hands tightened together. “Now, I find myself weighing possibilities. I’m not used to being uncertain, especially about personal matters and it’s an uncomfortable feeling.”
Catherine tried to read his expression, his posture, as faint alarm touched her. “I promise I won’t tell anyone I saw Devlin Woodward in a quandary,” she said lightly.
His smile was fleeting. “I think you’re one of the very few people in the known worlds who could put me in one.” His voice was low.
Her heart skipped a beat, then hurried on. “Devlin...” she began, then halted. What if she was wrong? Misinterpreting? Trying to redirect him before she knew for certain would be presumptuous.
He held up a hand. “No, let me finish.”
The sinking sensation in her belly told her she was right. How could she avert this? How could she avoid the hard feelings and the hurt that would absolutely end this moment? She didn’t want to hurt him….
“I can tell from your face that you’ve already guessed what I’m going to say. The shape of it, anyway,” he said. “Before you rush in to say no, give me a fair hearing.”
“That’s what you tell the people who sit on the other side of the table from you in negotiation sessions.”
“Then you know what I’m going to say next.”
“That I should put aside all my prejudices and beliefs just for the next few minutes and listen as if I was hearing everything for the first time.”
He drew in a breath. “Exactly. You’re carrying around a very long lifetime of opinions and experience and they shape your reactions, which in most circumstances is a good thing. It’s what has allowed you to adapt and survive yet it leaves calluses in places you’re not aware of.”
“Calluses.”
“It’s not a romantic analogy, but neither you nor I would tolerate insincere flattery and poetics.”
“I’m more flattered by action,” Catherine admitted. “Behavior speaks far more clearly than any words.”
Devlin nodded. “Exactly. Your behavior over the last few weeks tells me you have turned some sort of corner in your life and I saw you after you spoke with Bedivere that last time. It has also been weeks since you staggered onto the flight deck under the twin burdens of a hangover and shame.”
Catherine drew in a breath, trying to calm her heart, which was thundering. “I have…settled some things,” she said, prevaricating.
“So have I,” Devlin said. He got to his feet. “Stand up for a moment.”
“Why?”
“A demonstration. Oh, don’t worry, I’m not going to be so crass as to try and kiss you.”
That had been exactly what she had been thinking. She could feel her cheeks heating as she got to her feet. Devlin picked up her hand and drew her away from the table. His hand was cool in comparison to hers.
Then he let her hand drop. There was a meter of space between them. “Look at me,” he said, his voice low.
She made herself look him in the eye. His eyes were almost totally black and surrounded by thick lashes.
“You’ve spent hundreds of years with just one man and you haven’t yet started to think about what it would be like with anyone else in your life. I want you to put asi
de all that old thinking and consider the possibilities for a moment.”
“Devlin—”
“No, let me finish. Remember?”
She pressed her lips together and nodded.
He reached out toward her. “Don’t panic,” he said softly. “I want to show you something.”
Her heart tried to climb out of her chest as he drew his arm around her waist. He moved closer and closer still, until their bodies were very nearly touching and his arm was firm across her back. “Breathe,” he told her.
She tried. His proximity was firing off all sorts of alarms in her mind and body. She was holding back the need to dump him on his back and add a kick or two by sheer willpower, because he had asked her to. She swallowed.
“I mean that literally,” Devlin said gently. “Breathe. Relax. This is all I’m going to do to you.”
It took even more discipline to draw air into her lungs in deep, controlled breaths. Slowly, though, the worst of the reaction subsided until she was just standing there, looking at him.
“See?” He gave her a small smile. “You didn’t melt.”
Catherine pressed her lips together. “Is melting in your arms not what you want, then?”
“Eventually,” he said frankly. “For now, I want you to think about possibilities and I have to move you past your own history to do that. This is a small taste of what it would be like in my arms. Let down your internal shield just for a moment or two and absorb it.”
She tried, only because it was Devlin who was asking. Her resistance was huge. He watched her struggle with it for a moment, then shook his head. “Stop trying,” he said softly. “Stop thinking. Feel, instead.”
It was impossible. Devlin was just…wrong. He wasn’t tall enough, strong enough, warm enough.
Then he pulled her up against him, so their bodies met. The unexpected move sucked her breath from her. She gasped and gripped his shoulders but before she could push him away, he lifted her chin so that she was forced to look him in the eyes again. “Hold still. Feel it,” he said. His voice was very low now and she could feel the vibrations against her torso. The heat was…how had she thought he was cool?
“I’m going to let you go in a second,” he said. “First, I want you to remember how this feels. I want you to agree to consider this moment in the days ahead. Think about what it might feel like if I were to kiss you. That’s all I ask…that you think about it.”
“I’ll…try,” she said at last.
“For now, I’ll be content if you try.”
He let her go and moved away from her and Catherine sucked in a deep breath, the first proper breath since he had pulled her up against him. She pressed her hand to the table, not quite propping herself up.
“I…I should go.” Her voice was weak.
“You should,” Devlin agreed, with a small smile.
She almost stumbled out of the suite, her mind whirling and her body wracked with hot and cold waves of emotions. Guilt and horror were the strongest of them. Just for a second, for a tiny fraction of a moment, when he had let her go….had she really felt regret?
Chapter Fifteen
Charlton Space City, New Cathay (Ji Xiu Prime), Ji Xiu System, Perseus Arm. FY 10.187
“You’re still down that rabbit hole, Connell?” Bedivere asked, looking over Connell’s shoulder at the boards on the table in front of him. “It’s been months. I don’t remember how I ended up in the pits. When are you going to give up on that?”
Connell sat back in his chair and blew out his breath. “Never,” he said shortly.
“It bothers him that there isn’t a nice, neat answer,” Lilly said from her desk. “Just like any good Varkan would be bothered.”
“I don’t see Yennifer digging through the bioscans,” Connell said with a growl.
“That’s because she has a full-time job already,” Lilly replied. “And aren’t you supposed to be jumping your bus over to Sunita today?”
“Once the city is spinning,” Connell said. “Another Sunita-Soward-Sunterry run.”
“Profitable?” Bedivere asked curiously. He preferred freight runs, which had higher overheads, and none of the headaches of moving people around. Connell had built up a fleet of public transports, including the “bus” that could carry eighty people, and a handful of smaller capacity vessels.
“Very profitable, thank you,” Connell said with a grin. “I can’t keep up with demand.”
“No one can,” Brant said from the sofa.
“We cut travel time between systems down to the few minutes needed to maneuver away from the sides of the station and back…and all that saved time is being used up by people travelling even more.” Connell shook his head.
“Basic economic theory,” Bedivere told him. “Travel has become a commodity, not a luxury. The price and inconvenience has dropped to the point where travelling between systems is built into the culture instead of being a rare oddity.”
“I know that,” Connell said dryly. “I was a datacore coordinator, originally, remember?”
“Here we go,” Lilly called.
Bedivere sat next to Brant to watch the heads-up floating just above the coffee table. The feed was the city’s official one, coordinated by one of Yennifer’s AIs. The view on the screen was an on-high viewpoint of the main market square in City Central, with the blue flooring, the sweeping stairs up to the various levels and the dome over the top of it all. Sunlight was dappling the floors and making the stairs gleam.
The old city core where this suite was located was showing signs of age and was riddled with corridors and closed-in levels because it had begun life as a derelict space station. City Central had been the first deliberately engineered component added to Charlton and the public area had been designed for spaciousness and light. It was a meeting place, a market and a public venue.
Right now, the first landing on the central staircase was being used as a stage. It was a big landing and oval in shape, echoing the curve of the steps above and below. There was a display board set up at the back of the landing, showing a brilliant white screen.
Devlin Woodward stood in front of it. Catherine was next to him, looking comfortable and at ease under the scrutiny of the feeds and the thousands of people packed onto the floor below, and leaning over the railings of the tiers around them.
That was a new thing for Cat, Bedivere realized. She had spent a lifetime avoiding public attention. He didn’t for a moment think she welcomed it now, or sought it out, but Devlin had taught her how to deal with it in a constructive way. She used her fame to help him.
Bedivere let out his breath.
“Okay?” Connell asked quietly, from right behind him.
“Yeah,” Bedivere said.
“How is it that you’re not there with Devlin, Lilly?” Brant asked.
Lilly came and sat on the arm of the sofa next to him, to watch the screen. “It’s their project. Their idea.” She nodded at the screen, where Nichol August and Yennifer and a handful of Varkan stood around Devlin and Catherine. “I didn’t think it was possible to put spin on the city, yet they proved me wrong. So they should get the limelight today.”
Brant picked up her hand. “I’m still proud of you, even if you are a stubborn little engineer underneath all that sophistication.”
Lilly rolled her eyes. “You love the sophistication too, buster. Or should I throw out all my dresses?”
“Not the green one, please,” Brant said quickly.
“It’s starting,” Connell warned. He brought the sound up.
“...thought we’d keep the ceremony very short today,” Devlin said, “as actions speak louder than words.” He glanced to his left, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. With a start, Bedivere realized he was looking at Cat. A private joke?
Then Devlin’s attention returned to the crowds of people below. “You’ve all come to see our city spin. So let’s kick it into gear. Yennifer, let’s start stage one.”
Yennifer nodded. “Star
ted,” she said flatly, in processing mode.
“For those of you who haven’t been bored to death by endless repeats of the process, let me summarize for you,” Devlin said, earning a small ripple of laughter. “Stage one is the firing of all the engines. The trick is to make sure they all fire and thrust simultaneously. Each engine must provide the same amount of thrust as all the others. If they did not, if one side of the city was pushed harder than the other, the resulting torque would stress the structures of the city itself, like a giant wringing it in his hands.”
“Did someone write this for him?” Brant asked.
“He uses crib notes only,” Lilly said, her voice distant as she concentrated. “No rehearsals, no reading. Straight off the top of his head.”
“Show-off,” Connell said shortly, sounding disgusted.
“Stage one is the ignition stage,” Devlin added. “We switch very quickly into—”
“Stage two achieved,” Yennifer said, interrupting him.
“—into Stage Two,” Devlin continued smoothly. “To avoid the same sheering stresses, each engine must ramp up the degree of thrust at the same rate. The rate of thrust will increase quickly, until all engines are at maximum, where they will hold until the desired speed of the spin has been achieved.” He lifted his gaze to the dome overhead. “Listen…”
Silence.
Under his feet, Bedivere could feel a mild tremor.
“Vibrations,” Connell said.
“Sweet savior….” Brant murmured. He leaned down and put his hand on the floor. “We’re actually moving?”
“A calendar could outpace us at the moment, but yes, we’re moving,” Lilly said.
“And now, as the rate of spin increases,” Devlin said, “we should all be able to see it. Watch and wait.”
Cat and Company Page 13
