“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said.
“Why not?”
“How are you going to know when you have to come over? You wait a few seconds too long, and you’ll all go down with the Gremlin.”
“You have a better plan?”
“Why not put the lander alongside the Gremlin? You’d be able to get to it quicker.”
“We can’t run the engines. There’s too much chance it would get blown away when we start running into atmosphere. No. It’s okay. We’ll be careful, and we’ll leave in plenty of time.”
“How long—?”
“We’ve got a couple of hours on the Gremlin. Then, our lander should be able to sustain three people for about nineteen hours. If the Thompson’s still not here, we can fall back on the Flickinger units. We’ve got five sets of air tanks between the two ships. That’ll give the three of us an extra four or five hours each. We should be okay.”
“What happens if it doesn’t get here in time?”
“You know, Priscilla, I never realized you could be so negative. We are doing what we can. If you can’t handle your end of this, you should find another line of work.” He looked down at her. “Anything else?”
She stared into Jake’s brown eyes. Shook her head. “No, sir.”
He turned away and went back to gathering the Flickinger equipment. When he’d finished, he pulled the bag into the air lock. Then he said good-bye to everybody. “Be back in a few minutes.” He activated the field, and the hatch slid down. Priscilla heard the low, muffled sounds of decompression.
Ishraq appeared beside her. Her smile turned into a frown. “Priscilla,” she said in English, “are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” She was grateful her offer to go in his place had been rejected. And it embarrassed her. Coward, she thought.
* * *
THE THREE GIRLS wore jumpsuits with GREMLIN emblazoned on the back, and the scroll-carrying hawk on the front. They spread out on the seats in the passenger cabin. “We have some games in the library,” Priscilla said. Ishraq translated for Adara. Lana apparently had enough English to get by.
They seemed happy to hear about the games although nobody made a move to consult the library. They were pretty, the way teenage girls always are. Adara said something and Ishraq translated: “How serious is the problem with the Gremlin? They don’t want to tell us.”
Priscilla sat down with them. “It’s serious, but they’ll be okay.”
Lana chewed her lip, and Adara raised both hands to her mouth and switched her gaze to Ishraq while assuming an I-told-you-so expression. Then all three were talking. What’s going to happen now?
“We’re playing it by ear,” said Priscilla. “The important thing, though, is that you’re safe here.”
“I mean,” said Ishraq, “is something going to happen to the Gremlin?”
“I’m not sure what’ll happen with the Gremlin. But you won’t go back to it. You’ll be going home with me. Or on the Thompson.”
Lana’s eyes showed anger. “All this trouble,” she said, “because a lunatic put a bomb in the engines. Captain Miller thinks it has something to do with terraforming.”
“That’s the general suspicion,” said Priscilla. “Listen, would you guys like more to eat?”
That promoted another exchange. But they decided they’d had enough. And then they began to laugh and point at something behind her. When she turned, she saw Tawny.
The cat distracted them for a few minutes. But eventually Ishraq began looking around and frowning. “Priscilla, are we going to be able to fit everybody in here? This ship seems kind of small.”
“We’ll be okay. As soon as the Thompson gets here, we’ll be able to spread out a bit.” She smiled. “One day, you’ll be telling your grandchildren about this.”
Lana folded her arms.
“Are you cold?” asked Priscilla.
“Oh, no. It’s very comfortable in here. I was just thinking—” She hesitated. “Coming over from the Gremlin was scary.”
“Was that the first time you’ve been outside a ship?”
“Yes. For all of us.”
“Well, you guys did pretty well. The first time I went out, I had heart palpitations.”
“Really?” said Ishraq. Tawny had climbed into her lap. “You don’t look like somebody who’d scare very easily.”
“You don’t know me well. But I’ll tell you, if somebody walks out of an air lock out here, and her heartbeat doesn’t pick up a little bit, she’s a pretty tough cookie.”
Barton’s moon hung in the dark sky. She wished the diamond monument were visible somewhere, but she’d already checked. It was on the other side of the world.
* * *
COPPERHEAD LOG
So far so good.
—November 17, 2195
Chapter 6
JAKE CAME THROUGH the air lock into the Gremlin passenger cabin to the sound of raised voices. One of the girls was in tears. Another was pointing angrily at Josh. “Limaza satutrukuna huna?”
Shahlah interpreted for the captain: “She wants to know why you and I are staying behind.”
“Tell them it’s all right, Shahlah. Nobody’s staying behind. We just have some reports and things to take care of.” Then Joshua smiled at Jake. “Hi, partner.”
The girls looked at Jake. “It’s okay,” he said, trying to keep it light. “We’re all going to cross over. Look, I’ll be here with them.” Then, with a laugh: “Believe me, I wouldn’t do it if it weren’t safe.”
Shahlah translated, but the girls’ suspicions did not subside.
“Jake,” said Joshua, “did you enjoy the trip over?” He grinned at the girls. “Captain Loomis likes to spacewalk.”
“It’s exciting,” said Jake. He looked toward the young lady who’d asked the question and seemed to be at the center of the growing concern. She was the tallest in the group, almost as big as he was. Her name was Nadia. “It might seem a little scary at first, but you’ll enjoy it.”
“Alkull sayakunu bikhair,” said Shahlah. “Laisa hunaka ma yad’u lilqalaq.” Then she looked at the two captains. “I told them everybody will be okay. That there’s nothing to worry about.”
One of the girls was wearing a crescent necklace. She was watching Jake with no sign of approval. “Min fadlika fassir lana limatha lan ta’tu ma’ana.”
“Karida wants to know,” said Shahlah, “if the Gremlin is going to crash.”
“Yes,” Joshua said. “It is. We won’t be able to save the ship.”
Karida stayed with it. “How long have you known?”
“We’ve known for a while.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
“We didn’t want to say anything until the Copperhead got here.”
The students looked at one another. Priscilla, watching via the imager, thought they lost a degree of trust in their captain. And possibly in Shahlah.
Another of the girls was shaking her head. “’Ana ’ash’oro bil’asaf li’annani ’atait.”
“Layla says she’s sorry she came.”
Joshua tried to take Layla’s hand in his. But she backed away. “I understand,” he said. “This isn’t the kind of flight we’d planned. And I’m sorry. But everything will be okay.”
No translation of his comment was needed; the meaning was clear enough. There were some tentative smiles. Shahlah picked up one of the Flickinger belts and held it out for the nearest girl. “Let me help you, Ashira,” she said, alerting Priscilla that Ishraq had not been the only student who spoke English.
* * *
PRISCILLA DECIDED THAT, since everyone else now knew the fate of the Gremlin, she should share the information with her three passengers. “I don’t think they wanted to go into specifics while you were on board because they were concerned that it would be
a bit scary.”
“We’re adults,” said Lana. “They could have told us.”
“Look at it from their point of view, Lana,” said Priscilla. “They were trying to make it as easy on you as they could.”
When Jake and three more girls came through the air lock, the reception was subdued. “To be honest,” one of the newcomers said, “I’m glad I didn’t know. I was afraid something like that was happening.”
The new passengers wasted no time removing the Flickinger units and returning them to Jake. “I see you told them,” he said. “Everything okay?”
She nodded. “They’re fine.”
“Good.” He collected the belts and air tanks. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“Okay.”
“If there’s anything of yours in the lander, Priscilla, you might get it out now.” He went back out through the air lock.
* * *
THE CLOUD-WRAPPED PLANET below him seemed closer than it had been. He stared down at it as he drifted between the ships. Next time somebody takes a bunch of kids on a trip, they should pick a world with a breathable atmosphere.
He found himself thinking about his life back home. His father, who’d been so proud of him when he qualified. And his mother, who’d left them when Jake was only six. Ran off with a banker.
Jake had never married. He’d been swept off his feet a couple of times and proposed once. To Jeri Lockett. The woman he always thought about the moment after the lights went out. They’d been sitting in the Cosmopolitan in Atlanta, and he’d been about to leave on a two-month flight. So he’d taken the plunge. But she had declined. He never saw her again after that night.
He regretted that he’d never had a family. It hadn’t been by design. He’d just been too busy. Or maybe because the right woman had never shown up. Or because, when she had, he hadn’t been able to hang on to her. Now, somehow, it seemed as if those details didn’t really matter very much.
And why, just now, was he entertaining thoughts like these?
* * *
“HOW’D IT GO?” Joshua asked when he reentered the Gremlin.
“Good. Everything’s under control.” He glanced at the four remaining students. “We can only take three on this next run.”
One of them would have to wait. The blonde Priscilla had seen in the photo stepped forward. “I’ll stay,” she said. Her name was Kareema. There was a brief debate while the others also volunteered to wait. But in the end, Kareema got the nod. The others strapped on the belts and pulled the air tanks onto their shoulders.
* * *
FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER, Jake returned to pick up the last of the students. He asked Joshua if he wanted to escort his last student.
“It’s okay,” he said. “You’re doing fine, Jake.”
Jake shrugged. “I thought you might want to say something to them. Just in case.”
“Not a good idea,” he said. “It would scare the devil out of them. Don’t worry. We’re not going down with this thing.”
When it was time to go, Kareema hugged Shahlah. “Good luck,” the student said. Then she turned to Jake. “Don’t let them stay too long.”
“Thank you, Kareema,” said Josh. “We’ll be fine.”
“We’ll join you in a couple of hours,” said Shahlah.
Finally, they activated the force fields, went into the air lock, and crossed to the Copperhead.
* * *
WHEN HE’D RETURNED to the Gremlin, Shahlah informed him that Joshua had gone below to get pictures of the damage. “He’s been transmitting everything back to Union.”
“Well,” he said, “I hope they got the idiot who did this.”
“Let’s also hope we all get home okay.”
“Amen to that.”
“I’ve got a question for you, Jake.”
“Fire away, kid.”
“What exactly are our chances of surviving this?”
“I think we’ll be all right.”
“That sounds fairly tentative.” She took a deep breath. “Josh’s been evasive about it. He says the right things, but his eyes are telling me something else. Be straight with me.”
“We should get through it okay,” he said. “We can’t be sure about anything until we see when and where the Thompson shows up.”
“All right.” She read his eyes. “Thanks. Joshua kept saying there was nothing to worry about. I knew that wasn’t true.”
“What did the girls think of the monument?” Jake asked. “I don’t guess they got a chance to enjoy it.”
“Not really. I’ll tell you what they did get excited about, though. The animals down there.” She pointed at the deck, meaning, of course, the surface of Barton’s World.
“You really think so?”
“Are you serious? They’ve got big furry creatures. The size of mastodons. And whole herds of animals that look like pandas. And giant snaky things that make your skin crawl.” She led the way onto the bridge, looking for something. “He set a countdown running here somewhere. How long we had before we could expect to go down.”
Shahlah touched a pad, and the AI responded: “It would be prudent to stay no longer than forty-five minutes.”
* * *
GREMLIN LOG
Finally, the girls are safe. Now we have to see whether our own luck holds. Let the record show that a quicker response, however that might have been arranged, would have been seriously helpful.
This will probably be our last entry. The log will be recorded on a chip, and the chip will be delivered to the Copperhead and made available to those inquiring into a more effective methodology for responding to emergencies.
—Joshua Miller, November 17, 2195
Chapter 7
THEY TALKED ABOUT their favorite assignments, about the ineptitude of the people who ran Union, about politics, about the silliness that reigned on holovision. About the lunacy of people who planted bombs on interstellars. “They go on about the sanctity of life, then they kill innocent people.”
They did not mention the occasional bumps and nudges as they descended closer to the atmosphere.
Shahlah described her feelings when she was assigned to deliver the good news to the winners of the Jamal Touma Science Award. Joshua recalled a run-in he’d had with police after taking umbrage with his sister’s husband, who had attacked her. “I wound up in jail,” he said. “For doing what someone needed to do.”
“You hit him?” asked Shahlah.
“Of course. He’s the one who should have been arrested.”
“Why wasn’t he?” asked Jake.
“My sister wouldn’t press charges.”
And they talked about the Thompson. Where was it?
They interweaved bouts of silence with comments about what they’d do when they got home. (Nobody said “if.”) Shahlah announced that it would be a long time before she tried something like this again. “I thought these things were safe. Otherwise, we’d never have allowed the girls to come on this flight. My father wanted it to be something special. He’ll be heartbroken when he hears what happened.”
“Nevertheless,” said Josh, “I think everyone will appreciate his generosity.”
“Oh, yes.” She paused. “Jake, speaking of appreciation, I’m glad you were in the area. Don’t know what we’d have done—”
“Well.” He wasn’t sure how to respond. If the Copperhead hadn’t been available, maybe they’d have sent a ship with appropriate capacity. “I’m glad we’ve been able to help,” he said.
She approached him, looked into his eyes, and pressed her lips against his cheek. “Thank you,” she whispered.
* * *
“YOU GUYS ARE waiting too long,” Priscilla said. “We’re starting to hit some atmosphere.” But Jake told her to be patient.
And, finally, the AI warned them th
at the situation was deteriorating and it was time to go. They were crossing one of the oceans, which was bright and gleaming in the sunlight. Jake let Priscilla know they were coming. Then they got into their gear. Jake and Joshua both wore jet packs. When they were ready, the Gremlin captain took a last look around. “I’ve been here almost two years,” he said. “This has been my home.” He sighed, took Shahlah’s hand, and led her into the air lock. “Don’t worry about anything,” he told her. “Just stay with me when we get outside.”
“I’ll be fine,” she said.
The last thing Jake saw before they closed the inner hatch was an image on the navigation monitor. One of the telescopes was pointed down, high mag, at the ocean. Something with a long neck seemed to be looking back at him.
The lock went through the decompression cycle and opened. The Copperhead was about a hundred meters away.
* * *
“IT’S NOT AS frightening as I’d expected,” Shahlah said.
“That’s because there’s no down,” said Josh. “No way you can fall.”
She and Joshua pushed off together. Jake followed close behind. “I’ve never felt anything like this,” she said, sounding almost giddy.
They floated across, talking about how they’d hoped to hear from the Thompson before they left, and how impressed everybody was that the kids had done this without any problems, and how breathless a world was from this angle. Joshua spotted the monument, then lost it as he closed on the Copperhead. The air-lock door was open, and they floated smoothly inside. When they stepped into the passenger cabin, the girls clapped their hands, everybody said hello and how good it was to be together again, and Jake couldn’t help enjoying the moment. Now, if the Thompson would just show up.
The air had already gotten thick. “Listen, everybody,” said Priscilla from the bridge, “please belt down or hold on. We need to do a little acceleration. Just for a few minutes.”
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