Gallant decided he was lonesome and wanted people to talk to. He laughed when Alice gave him the location of a group of humans. She knew him very well. She flashed, "And it's a dangerous place." He told her to give him data and hurry. He knew what 'kind' of danger when she landed. The fact she landed close, told him she was worried. He walked around a small outcropping and introduced himself.
"Hello, I'm Gallant."
"You have no business being here!"
"Hey! The weapon is hardly necessary. I'm unarmed and intend injury to no one."
"Commander Telas?"
"He's as unarmed as he claims, Captain. My sensors detect nothing that could be construed as dangerous."
"Cybernetic augmentation. Isn't that a bit unusual?"
Gallant smiled and cautiously lowered his hands.
"It wasn't a choice. Captain, he's not human. Very advanced physiology. Two hearts and a unique cell structure. Slow continual replacement. He probably has a life span of thousands of years."
"Thank you, Commander. Now, Mr. Gallant, why don't you tell me what you're doing on a planet that's, basically, falling apart under our feet."
"Looking for someone to talk to. Your scientific teams attracted my attention. I just decided to be friendly and say hello. Hello."
The captain laughed and Gallant's smile widened. He'd missed humans.
"You've picked a pretty unstable setting for a chat. I'm Justin Merris, captain of the Federation Exploration Vessel Curie. We're trying to find out why this is the fourth planet in this region that's disintegrating."
"I think I know what's happening to the planet. If I'm right, it will spread. I'll give you the data I've collected."
"Thank you. It'll probably give my security chief fits, but why don't you come back to the ship and have a cup of coffee with me?"
"I'd love to. With your permission, I'll land my craft in your shuttle bay. Captain, I'm going to take a very unusual step and invite Commander Telas aboard my ship, to make the journey with me. He's already deduced more than I really want known about me. I'd like the opportunity to convince him not to reveal everything he learns. The best way to do that is let him know everything, then choose not to reveal it."
"Commander?"
"It's rather convoluted logic, Captain, but a very accurate judgment of my personality. I believe Lt. Ochis would feel a great deal more comfortable about having both his craft and him aboard if I arrived in it."
"Agreed. Commander Duchelle!"
"Yes, Sir! Where did he come from?"
"A ship. Mr. Gallant, Lieutenant Commander Athena Duchelle."
"Athena?! How interesting. Just Gallant. Now, Commander, if you'll come this way, I'll show you my ship."
Gallant just turned and walked off. He couldn't think of anything to say to her. He noticed Telas followed at a nod from his captain, but he was a bit surprised he did. He wasn't surprised by what the woman named Athena said behind him.
"Well! I've never had quite that reaction to my name before. Or quite that response to an introduction. Not the politest person I've ever met."
"Commander Duchelle, your greeting was not exactly fleet protocol. He's not human. Telas seems to find him more than a little intriguing. He also seems to have some idea what's happening to this world. Finish your tests, then report to me aboard the ship."
"Yes, Captain. Non-human. Hmm."
"Commander, your intense interest in non-human anthros almost got you left behind on Base Six Four. This is not the place to be thinking of other things. I'd like as much information as we can get before this world becomes an asteroid belt."
"I know, I know. Curb my curiosity and get on with the job at hand. Yes, Captain. Still, he's very interesting."
"Yes, and he has data to add to yours, so I suggest you assemble some."
"Yes, Sir. We're about done."
Gallant didn't take Telas directly to the Curie. It was nearly three months before he took him there. Of course, it was only ten minutes as far as the captain was concerned. In those months, they became very good friends. They had a great deal in common.
Telas' cyber augmentation had been done by an alien scientific group when he was a child. He had been, basically, a slave to the computer that ran their ship. A fleet ship had tracked the abducted human children and freed them, but too late for Telas. Federation medical knowledge was incapable of reversing the augmentation. Telas would live for thousands of years as part man, part computer. He laughed when he told Gallant Alice was the first girl he'd ever truly loved. Gallant smiled and ached for him. The laugh was real, but tinged with longing.
Gallant showed Telas what was causing the breakup. The device was small and nearly undetectable in the vast reaches of the neutral territory. The Empire had invented a new weapon. Soon it would begin to destabilize stars. Soon after, it would affect inhabited worlds. They landed on the Curie and Gallant joined the captain for coffee. They'd just begun to chat when Telas' voice came over the com.
"Gallant! Now!"
Gallant ran from the captain's ready room. Telas had a man in his arms and was stepping into a lift. Gallant leapt consoles and people and dove into it just as the doors began to close.
"Emergency one, shuttle bay two. Emergency two, medical. He's a mess inside. I don't know how he got from the pad to the lift. 'Something' destabilized the transport system. You stunned the bridge crew."
"If I didn't know better, I'd think you planned it. You timed it perfectly. Shuttle bay first."
"Doctor Marsh says we can save him, but Commander Duchelle is still on the planet and it's coming apart. I couldn't get her on comm."
"Damn! Telas, convince him he must violate neutral space. Destroy that thing."
"I will."
Gallant ran for Alice as soon as the lift doors opened. He hadn't given the captain an easy job. The Curie would take a real beating just getting close enough to blast the device. He'd take a real beating saving Commander Duchelle. He didn't quite reach her before it began.
Athena got a shoulder under him and got him to his feet. The landslide had rolled him about three hundred meters, then near buried him. She was amazed he was alive and astounded he was conscious.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"Would you believe rescuing you? My ship's over that cliff that used to be a ridge. Your transporter is nonfunctional."
"This job would be easier if you weren't quite so... "
"Comfortable. I'd still weigh more than a human. This won't work. There just isn't time. Here. Go. Take this. It's the key to my ship. Push the green button on the navigation console. It'll take you to the nearest inhabited planet."
"Look, big, blond, and 'comfortable', you'll get out of this with me, or we'll not get out of it together. Don't argue! Just keep going."
"Why do I keep meeting stubborn women named Athena?!"
"Explain that statement while I 'stubborn' us to a bit more stable ground. If there is any."
"There isn't. This whole planet is about to crumble around us. LOOK OUT!!"
She cried as she rigged a travois. He'd pushed her out of the way, then thrown himself between her and the falling, bouncing rock. It would have killed her. She didn't know why it hadn't killed him. She reminded herself the travois "put basic physics to work" and she knew she could do it, dragged him to a spot that didn't have tumbling cliffs on both sides and dropped to the ground, exhausted. The planet was coming apart, but she had to rest.
Gallant awoke and looked around. Athena Duchelle was curled on the ground near where he lay. She'd gotten him a long way while he was unconscious. He decided it was probably his turn. He assessed his condition and smiled. He'd always liked a challenge. He struggled to his knees, waited for his head to stop spinning and his vision to clear, then got to his feet.
She was small and ordinarily he'd have found her weight an easy load, but this wasn't ordinarily. He decided she'd been asleep when the rock hit her. She'd probably regain consciousness in a few hours. But they
didn't have a few hours. He got his bearings, put her on the travois and set out.
He faced the hill and laid down the travois. He'd have to carry her. He begged for just a little luck. If the hill would stay stable just a few minutes, he thought he could make it to Alice with her. He picked her up and started up the hill. He got about two-thirds of the way before the hill began to disintegrate. Suddenly, Alice was around him.
He laughed, told her he loved her, gently laid Commander Duchelle on the floor and collapsed, before he could get his healing unit out of his pocket.
****
Athena looked around. They had to be in his ship. She felt a faint vibration, so she knew they were in flight. How had they gotten there and where was he?
She found him. He was unconscious on the floor not far from her. She rolled him over gently and began to examine him. Broken clavicle, scapula, ribs, badly bruised leg, she thought his sternum might be cracked and his mass of blond curly hair was matted with blood. And somehow, he'd gotten her to his ship and off the disintegrating planet. She'd found the one she'd been looking for. She smiled at the thought her little-girl white-knight dreams fit with grown-up girl plan, after all, even if he was a bit plump for the armor. Now to keep him alive to accomplish it.
She gave up hunting for medical supplies after she'd gotten lost twice and nearly didn't find her way back to the control center. She settled for a small basin of water and a soft cloth.
"Hello."
"Hello, Gallant. How'd we get here?"
"We staggered, until a beautiful lady performed an impossible rescue."
"What?"
"My ship just does the impossible now and then. Neither of us can figure out how. Unh. There seem to be pieces of me where there shouldn't."
"Broken ribs. Several. How in hell did you pull that travois with a broken clavicle and scapula?"
"I didn't pull it far. Couldn't get it up the hill."
"You carried me?!"
"You don't weigh much. Probably not more than a hundred twenty pounds, soaking wet."
"Pounds?! Gallant, you use some amazing terms; weeks, months, pounds."
"Showing my age. Still hovering. The Curie may be in trouble. Alice needs my help to find her. I need yours to get to the controls. Push that chair over here, then help me into it."
"At least you have sense enough not to try to stand. Lord! You're heavy!"
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to lean on you that much. I weigh near three times what you do. Did I hurt you?"
"No. I knew it and was prepared to help. I just didn't expect you to need it that fast. Concussion too. Had to be with that smack you got. You didn't expect dizzy to make slow assist fast support, either."
"I do know how strong you are. You pulled me a long way."
"We wouldn't have made it without both of us. Gallant gestures are wonderful. Teamwork is practical. What are you doing?"
"Helping Alice find the Curie. The course was plotted by Telas, a person, not a computer. There wasn't time to input the data."
"Computers can't play hunches and Telas has the most data as a base for his. You know the data he's got."
"Precisely. Got her. Put us in her engineering section, Alice. I think Telas and I can hold her together long enough to destroy that disrupter. Athena, how well do you know her systems?"
"I helped design them. She's a prototype. I hitched a ride on her for this mission. Pulled 'Mama's baby' and they let me get away with it."
"We're landing. Get someone to help me to the Curie's engineering console, then let Telas know I want him on the ops station."
She ran for help. She barked, "Work now, questions later!" at the two open-mouthed crewmen who stopped and stared at the room too big to be in the little travel trailer.
They got Gallant to the main engineering console of the shaking ship and held him up while he worked. Athena worked on the secondary station and implemented the commands that flashed across her screen. Telas did the same thing on the bridge. They tuned the shields, dampened the oscillation, the ship steadied and damage control began to catch up.
The captain gave the order and the device was destroyed. The Curie raced for Federation space. Gallant smiled and collapsed.
"Get him to Medical. Now! STOP! You can't carry him like that! Telas! Am I glad to see you! He's got a broken clavicle and scapula and ribs and a concussion. Probably a half dozen other--"
"I'll carry him. Get a lift and notify Dr. Marsh we're coming. He's his own best healer, but with a concussion, he'll need help."
As soon as they got on the lift, Telas had Athena get Gallant's healing unit out of his pocket. He looked at the readings, then told her to put it back in the pocket. She raised an eyebrow.
"He doesn't need more help than we can give him. That unit isn't a great deal better than ours, just enough faster to make the med techs too curious."
"His ship is going to drive me crazy. It's smaller than it was in the shuttle bay."
"Only the physical interface. The ship is still infinite."
"Mathematical construct."
"Yes, a programmed set of dimensions. There's a very rare non-replicable isotope at the heart of it, but the rest is all a program he wrote. He called it the mathematics of finite infinity. I managed not to say that was a contradiction."
"It exists, so it's not impossible. Of course, I'll probably spend the rest of my life reminding myself of it. Get him to teach you why it's not, someday. He has enough time, too."
"Thank you, for understanding knowing someone who does means a great deal to me."
"I also know there's far too much caring there for a few minutes. It exists, so it's not impossible. Lynn!"
"Him there. You there. Now, Lieutenant!"
"Yes, Commander."
Gallant was unconscious for two days. Dr. Marsh told them it was actually some kind of trance state. Once she'd healed his concussion, his own system had taken over and begun healing his other injuries. She complained about tripping over people every time she turned around, but smiled when she groused. Athena, Telas and Captain Merris smiled back.
He awoke and asked for water, drank deeply and drifted off to sleep. Lynn Marsh sighed and tripped over people for two more days. Midday of the second day, Athena asked for her help.
"I think you're crazy."
"We've talked about this before, Lynn."
"Theoretically, not as a course of action."
"I'm going to the Pauling. She's got the finest medical facilities in space. I want this and I do know what I'm doing."
"I'm not sure it will work. Athena, he's very, very different."
"Yes. And very, very special."
"You're in love with him!"
"Oh, yes, since I was eight. I always helped the white knight rescue me in my fantasies, but I know he's going to leave. Lynn, he's not even from this universe. Came through a 'doorway,' he called it."
"Two hearts, continual cell replacement, another set of chromosomes, for heaven's sake!"
"And two arms, two legs, blond curly hair, beautiful voice, the gentlest smile."
"I give up. If gray-eyed Athena, connoisseur of the fleet, thinks a slightly plump alien is the most perfect male in existence, who am I to argue?"
"Did you notice? He has gray eyes too. Sort of a sea mist blue-green gray and the fairest skin--"
"Stop, already. I'm convinced. Climb on the table and let's get this started before I regain my sanity. But I get to be there for the finale. If it works."
"Yar Hulen's work says it will."
"Yar Hulen's work says it probably could, maybe."
"You don't really doubt it will, either."
"I'm a doctor. I believe in good science and miracles."
****
"You mean you can cook?!"
"Gallant, I can do almost anything. Following a recipe isn't that different from following a chemical formula. Not that I need a recipe. Traditional New Orleans fare. Seven bells. My quarters. See you then."
"I
'll be there."
Telas watched Athena walk away and grinned.
"Gallant, you're in for a treat. Athena grew up in New Orleans. Everyone in the fleet has tried to talk her into cooking dinner at one time or another. Every man has tried to get an invitation to her quarters."
"Uh, oh."
"Relax. You're not really her type, too comfortable. She likes slender with lots of muscle."
"More than half the reason I'm the way I am is to avoid being someone's type."
"Gallant, you've had thousands of years of experience. Women shouldn't make you that nervous."
"Telas, those thousands of years of experience are why women make me nervous."
He decided he was in trouble right after he pulled a rose from a nontime pocket and gave it to her at her door. Her smile was warm enough to raise the ship's ambient temperature two degrees and his a bit more than that. She'd looked so lovely framed in the doorway with the glow of candlelight behind her, he'd done it without thinking about it first. He was too lost in her smile to notice she hadn't asked how he'd made the rose appear.
Dinner was superb. He enjoyed it, the soft jazz playing in the background and her company. He also enjoyed the excellent wine she served him.
"Athena, thank you. It's been a very pleasant evening. Dinner was wonderful. I enjoyed it immensely."
"Good, then you'll stay a bit longer."
"I really should go."
"Can you dance?"
"Of course I can dance."
"Here, one glass each of wine left. And a dance before you leave. Gallant, I know you're going to slip off to Alice and leave for wonderland."
"Not many people catch that allusion. Yes, Athena, it's time for me to return to my own universe. Oops! My, you're quick."
"Fastest reflexes in the fleet. Other than Telas. Barely spilled a drop. Why don't you drink it instead of wearing it? Would you believe I represented the Americas in the pan-Federation games? Hundred meter sprint. Took the silver. I was still in the academy at the time."
"You really are a very surprising young woman. I was told you attained the rank of Lt. Commander faster than anyone else had ever done it."
"That probably won't stand long. The Fleet's growing. Rank's going to come a bit faster for some of the bright young looies. I'm glad to see it."
Choice of the Gallant_Paradox Equation I Page 5
