Tiger in the Stars

by Zach Hughes

  checked her safety line, coiled it carefully. When the ship was a mere three meters away, closer than safety allowed, she said, «That's close enough, Plank.» A light glowed on the dark sphere and in the soundlessness of space a port opened to reveal a lighted air lock. Cutting the power to her boots, she gauged the distance and floated slowly across the gap to catch herself, hands on either side of the open lock. «Disengage,» John Plank's voice told her. She undipped the lifeline to the shuttle, breathing now on the lsg system. She moved inside the lock and the port slid closed. As the lock filled, she could hear the hiss of incoming air. She tested the ship's atmosphere and found it to be Earth normal. That was a bit rich for shipboard living but not surprising in view of the advanced technology evinced by the ship itself. The inner door to the air lock hissed open. Ahead of her was a corridor. «Down the hall to the left,» Plank's voice told her. She walked ahead and felt her weight. «Gravity Earth normal?» she asked. «Would you like it lowered?» Plank asked. «I've been either in space or on the moon for a long time.» «Moon standard, then,» Plank said. She felt the immediate easing of weight. «That's quite a trick, Plank.» «You ain't seen nothin' yet,» said Plank, chuckling. She had reached the main compartment. There was, of course, no one in it, but it was more luxuriously furnished than any ship cabin she'd ever seen. The huge viewports offered the blackness of space, and, at a distance of several hundred meters, the shuttle ship. She had detected no movement. She watched to see if the ships were still moving apart. There was no apparent motion. «You'll be more comfortable out of lsg.» Plank said. She took his suggestion. «Actually,» he said, «I just wanted to look at you.» He was seeing her as he'd never seen her before, from all angles, from a viewpoint that enveloped her. And she was more beautiful than he remembered. «I always thought you looked good in uniform,» he said. «I'd like to see how you look,» she said. «All right,» he said. «First, however, I want you to take the grand tour. See how you like the new Plank's Pride.» «Something's wrong, isn't it, Plank?» «It depends on how you look at it,» he said. She began walking, taking a route that led toward the center of the ship. She looked into living quarters of spacious comfort, a galley equipped with gadgets whose use was uncertain, but guessable. She saw the huge cargo hold and the small vehicle there, lingered for a moment in front of the manlike thing standing silent and obviously mechanical in a niche in the cargo-hold wall. «A statue of Plank?» she asked. «Something like that,» Plank said. In the power room she saw the first evidence of what made the ship work. Nowhere in her tour had she seen any exposed controls, gauges, dials. Nor were there any in the power room; only a small cube, totally encased, with shielded conduits running from it was evident. «Care to explain this?» she asked. She was talking to an empty room, but obviously the entire ship was wired for sound. When Plank spoke his voice seemed normal, but it came from specific points of origin in each room, hidden speakers. «It draws on the power of the stars. It's a sublight drive.» «Like the blink generator?» «I'm not familiar with that,» Plank said. «No, I guess you wouldn't be,» she said. «It was top security.» «Tell me about it.» «Not yet,» she said. «Not until I see you.» «Back along the central corridor. I'll open a door.» The door opened in a blank wall. She entered a small room. Four bare walls met her. Then, in one wall, a port. «Here,» Plank said. She stepped forward. The brain was encased in a clear, circular crystal. From the crystal a worm's nest of conduits and tubings disappeared into the walls of the compartment. For the first time she felt a small surge of anxiety. «I guess it's time to talk,» Plank said. «I think so,» she agreed.

  «It's not a long story,» he said, «but I'd feel better if you go back to the lounge and make yourself comfortable.» «All right,» she said. Plank was waiting for her there. He sat, relaxed and confident, legs crossed, in one of the luxurious chairs. Her heart accelerated for a moment, until she saw the slightly unnatural gleam of his skin and knew that she was facing the thing from the cargo hold. «I thought you'd be more at ease this way,» Plank said, «rather than talking to the walls.» «It's a heck of a choice,» she said, laughing nervously. «Would you rather I sent it back?» «No,» she said. «All right. First, to answer the most obvious question, I have no idea. I don't know how it happened. I know roughly when it happened. We lifted off from Armstrong on the way home and that's the last I remember

  before I woke up like this. I'm integrated into this ship, and it's some ship. It can leap an infinite distance with no passage of time. It's self-perpetuating. It has all the comforts of home, including the complete library of the old Pride.» «And you've had no contact with whatever or whoever did this to you?» «None.» «No indications aboard ship?» «None. I think it's safe to say that this ship was not built by Earth.» «Yes.» «I seem to be perfectly normal.» He laughed. «At least as normal as I can be under the circumstances.» There was a pause. A section of wall slid away and a star chart appeared on a screen as the lounge lights dimmed. «When I awoke, or whatever, I was here.» A lighted arrow showed his original position. «I seemed to be very interested in getting home, but I didn't know where home was. So I started star hopping along here.» Again the arrow. «The distances are incredible,» she said. «In a year, we could equip 100 ships with this drive,» Plank said. «The theory behind it is deceptively simple. Once you know what to look for you wonder why someone hasn't thought of it.» «Someone has,» she said. «Or at least something similar.» She explained, as best she could, the blink drive. «Yes,» he said. «That's it exactly. And we've had this thing for years?» «It works,» she said, «but then something happens.» When she finished telling of the results in the blink tests, including the last one just before Plank arrived, he was silent. Finally he said, «I have detection equipment aboard which reads a jump. There's a signal that a ship sends ahead of itself.» «I know.» «If the jump is a long one I can locate the point where it will end.» «That's how you got here? You detected the blinks…» «Blinks?» Plank asked. «Our drive was invented by a man named John Blink. Since a blink ship seemed to just blink out of existence and blink into existence somewhere else they called it blinking.» «Yes, I detected the blinks. You must have done two very short ones, then two longer ones. I arrived at the end of the second long blink.» «When the ship disintegrated,» she said. «Yes.» «Did you have anything to do with that?» «No.» «Then the beings who made this ship must have,» she said. «Yes.» «Why?» she asked. «I don't know. There are a lot of things I don't know. Why couldn't I remember the location of my home system? It was blanked totally out of my mind. I would run coordinates and end up in empty space outside the arm. And I had this overwhelming urge to find my home.» «That's only natural,» she said. «And now that I'm here, it's all falling into place,» he said. «I can look out—I have some pretty powerful eyes—and see all nine of the planets. Now I know where old Sol is situated in relation to the big marker stars. It's as if I'd never forgotten. But I feel uneasy.» «Uneasy?» «Why did someone go to all the trouble of integrating my brain into this ship? Why no contact? It happened on the return trip from the Centauri systems. How did I get so far away?» «I think the most important question is this: what are the intentions of the people who built this ship and put you in it?» «I have a sneaky feeling that they wanted me to find Earth. That they wanted to follow me here.» «If that's the case, then they're here,» she said. «I've been scanning,» he said. «The nearest ship is Mars-bound and it's an Earth ship.» «Plank,» she said. «I think it's time we called for help.» «Who?» «Let's start with Commander Heath and Matt Webb. They must be dying of curiosity.» «They've been trying to contact you for ten minutes,» he said. She leaped for her lsg, lying on a nearby couch. «I can patch them in,» he said. Heath's voice was agitated. «If you don't answer,» he was saying, «we're coming in if we have to cut through the hull.» She glanced up quickly. The shuttle, using steering jets, had closed to within a few meters. «I'm all right,» she said. «Hara?» «Yes.» «What's going on?» Heath demanded. «I'm all right. It's John Plank. He's b
een telling me some very interesting things. Now we want you, both of you, to come on board.» «We'll come one at a time,» Heath said. «All right,» Plank said. «I understand.» «Webb will board first,» Heath said. Matt Webb, weapon in hand, was met at the entrance to the lock by Hara and Plank's mobile form. He insisted on a quick inspection of the ship. He was not shown the compartment where Plank lived. Satisfied, he reported back to Heath and the Commander was soon aboard. «I think you'll have to go through it again, Plank,» Hara said, when the four of them were in the lounge. «First,» Heath said, «what about your friend?» He looked steadily at Plank's mobile form. «I don't understand,» Plank said. «The ship lying 40 kilometers off your stern.» Plank's mobile form showed no visible reaction, but frenzied activity went on inside himself as he used every instrument on the ship. «There is no ship within two light-minutes,» Plank said. «You got visuals on this crate?» Heath asked. «Certainly,» Plank said. Viewports opened. The volume of space behind the new Pride was magnified, searched. «You see? Nothing there.» «It was,» Webb said. «We had it on instruments and on visual. It was contoured like you, round. It was black and silent, except for low-end magnetic disturbances.» Plank's mobile form moved away, turning its back on the three. «You're sure?» «Of course,» Heath said. «He could have blinked out,» Hara said. «Did you feel it?» Heath asked. «No,» she said. «Neither did we.» «You're assuming that his drive is the same as our blink drive?» Hara asked. «We felt him blink in.» «We didn't feel Plank blink in,» Hara said. «Because he arrived at the same time as our test vehicle,» Heath said.

  «But we felt the other ship blink in. That's how we spotted it. It was black, light-absorbing. We had to use radar to see it. But it was there.» Plank was feeling a vague uneasiness. «Commander Heath,» he said, «would you please return to your ship and run a check with your instruments?» «Aren't yours better?» Webb asked. «Please,» Plank said. «I'll go,» Webb said. They waited, Heath prowling, investigating, asking questions, which were answered by Plank. Then Webb was on the radio. «It's there,» Webb said. He read the coordinates. Plank searched the area and still found nothing. «Webb,» Plank said, «I can follow your radar beams. I want you to hold the beams on him for a moment.» «Right,» Webb said. Plank was computing. Atop the sphere, a weapon pod rotated. It was aimed at nothing, but the shuttle's beams said there was something. Just before Plank was about to fire Heath gasped. Not far away from them, the shuttle ship was breaking into colorful planes of chaos. Then it was gone. Plank fired at the same moment, but the release of energy from the weapon came just after he felt the blink that told of movement of the unseen ship. Then his wild searching revealed nothing. CHAPTER TEN Matt Webb was gone. Hara would not think the word, dead. He was

  gone. The shuttle ship was gone, just as the last of the blink test vehicles was gone. She longed for the familiar instruments of an Earth ship, so that she might search the space around them to confirm what her eyes had told her, that the shuttle had broken into bright, geometric planes and then faded into nothing. Plank assured her that his instruments revealed nothing, but she could not see those instruments, could not read their findings. She had only Plank's word and Plank, himself, was not the Plank she had known, but a disembodied brain in a clear and beautiful crystal substance. An air of crisis hung around them. Outside, nearby as space is measured, their home system continued its eternal march around a star, which had birthed the energy to give them life. The system had not changed. The universe, save for its natural evolution, was unchanging. And yet Hara felt as if something had altered inside her, something that made her realize her life would never be the same. She stood beside

  Walker Heath, staring out the viewport, willing her eyes to see the shuttle.

  She felt a touch on her arm and turned to look into the almost lifelike face of Plank's mobile form. The hand on her arm was warm, humanly soft. She felt a shudder begin, but cut it off. «Help me think it out,» Plank said. She nodded. «Both of them couldn't be mistaken. I mean about seeing a ship out there, a ship my instruments can't see.» «No,» she said. «It's there,» Heath said. «Or it was.»

  «Yes, it blinked out just before I fired at it,» Plank said. «I felt the blink. Why couldn't I see it?» «You're not seeing with human eyes,» Hara said. «You're seeing with ship's instruments. Wouldn't it be possible for those who built you, I mean the ship, to blank away certain areas? Leaving you blind to the ship that both Webb and Commander Heath saw?» Plank considered. «I don't think so. I am literally a part of this ship. I know every micrometer of her. I know the function of every circuit, the beginning and the end of each system.» «And yet you couldn't detect the ship,» Heath said. «But I'd know if there were tampering,» Plank said. «Would you?» Heath asked. «You've been wondering why, when you found yourself out in unknown space, you couldn't relate the position of the Sol system to any known landmark. You admitted that this was strange and you wondered how it could happen. Let's say that brain tampering could explain it. Would you know if someone had been playing about with your mind?» «I don't know,» Plank said. «No,» Heath said. «You would not know.» «Are you saying it was done?» Hara asked. «Very few people know,» Heath said. «Yes, there is a certain amount of preconditioning imposed upon every man who goes into deep space.» «When?» Hara asked unbelievingly. «Remember the final physical? Did you ever hear anyone say, coming out of the physical, that the thing seemed to last forever?» «As a matter of fact, I felt the same way myself,» Hara said, «but there was no loss of time.» «At least you were not aware of any loss of time,» Heath said. «Actually, you lost some three hours and forgetting that three hours was a minor part of the conditioning. The major purpose of the conditioning was to blank out, under certain circumstances, any knowledge of home.» «I think I understand,» Plank said. «I don't, however, like the idea of someone messing around with my mind.» «I think the secretary and others would be interested to know that in your case total memory loss did not occur,» Heath said. «But perhaps your, ah, alteration did not involve enough stress or pain to complete the job.» «Are you saying that if one of us were captured or tortured, that we would be unable to reveal the point of our origin?» Hara asked. «The program was implemented when ships began to disappear,» Heath said. «It was purely precautionary. But there were those who didn't accept the disappearances as being accidents. They feared that our ships were being seized somehow, by some rather powerful aliens. I, for one, argued that if one of our ships were captured as near to home as the Centauri systems, then anyone with a grain of intelligence would be able to cast about in near space and find the only possible source. I lost. Each man going into space was conditioned so that, under stress or torture, his mind would be wiped clean of any knowledge of the solar system, its makeup, its location, its position in relationship to anything in the galaxy.» «But it's so childish,» Hara said. «All an alien would have to do is follow a ship home.» «Man has always been a slightly paranoid creature,» Heath said. «We've always feared the unknown. And something out there, something unknown, was eating our ships. The precaution was somewhat silly, but it eased a few timid minds and allowed us to continue the space program. There were those who wanted to pull in, cease all travel outside the system.» «And you think that something similar to the mind tampering has been performed on me, on my systems,» Plank said. «It's a good guess.» «Excuse me,» Plank said. «I'll be busy for a while.» The mobile extension went off in the direction of the cargo hold. Plank was already withdrawn from it, concentrating himself, sending himself out, checking with minute care each tiny integrated part of himself. Hours later he rested, having found nothing. Hara and Heath were growing impatient. He instructed them on the use of the galley and left them again to return to the crucial area of the ship, the computer. He went painstakingly through all the circuits involved in detection of objects in space and, once again, was blanked. Reason told him than any tampering would be with those circuits involved in perceiving the outside universe. His examination told him that no tam
pering had been done. His knowledge told him that tampering had been accomplished in a way he could not detect. Irritable and frustrated, he directed a total probe of the volume of space around him, increasing power steadily, extending the circuits to their maximum capacity. Still nothing. The dark ship seen by both Heath and Webb had blinked away.