CHAPTER 28
Our trip out from the Cuchulain had been no great triumph of ship manoeuvering. Compared with our return it was a masterpiece. After endless effort I managed to free from its moorings the corkscrew ship—I still found it hard to think of that misshapen object as a home for the Godspeed Drive. More hard labor attached our prize to the cargo beetle. But what I could not do was balance masses, and once we were under way we yawed and rolled this way and that in every direction that I could imagine. Sometimes the hawsers were taut, sometimes they floated slack and then tightened with a great jerk. Sometimes, don't ask how, the Godspeed ship we were towing flew out ahead of us.
I was not pleased with my performance, and Mel was outright rude. But Jim Swift didn't say one bad word. He was so full of the idea that we had succeeded. When we got back to the Cuchulain we would be hailed by the others as conquering heroes.
I wasn't so sure. If the crew of the Cuchulain had found a Godspeed Drive for themselves in their search of the space base, then what we had done was no big deal. If they had found nothing, we had made them look like a bunch of lamebrains. Dr. Jim Swift was a lot older than me, but in my experience you didn't become popular by showing people what fools they were.
Donald Rudden confirmed my opinion when we called him on the beetle's communicator, to say we were going to moor the object we were towing alongside the Cuchulain. "Wondered where you'd got to. Found something, have you?" He laughed. "Just as well, because Tom Toole called a while ago. Said they'd come up with nothing. Crew's all as mad as a pack of Limerick pipers. They'll be on their way back any time now."
That gave me one more thing to worry about. I had to get Mel on board the Cuchulain and safely into Doctor Eileen's quarters before the other party returned. Jim was too full of himself to worry about that or much else, so as soon as I had fought us to a rough docking I left him to gloat. I steered the beetle to the Cuchulain's cargo region, and Mel and I made a quick run through the interior to Eileen Xavier's empty rooms.
"Sit tight," I said as I left her. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
"How long?"
"Don't know. But hang in. We'll soon be on our way home."
I was at last beginning to believe it myself. It's an odd thing, but when you wait for something long enough you can't believe it has arrived, even when it does. But Jim Swift, in spite of his uncontrollable temper, was Erin's top expert on the Godspeed Drive. If he was convinced that the oddity hanging next to the Cuchulain had inside it a device able to bring the stars close enough to touch, who was I to question?
As for his worries about disturbing space-time, I dismissed them. He had been dwelling too much on his own specialty subject. Jim with his space-time obsession was like the Lake Sheelin fishermen, who saw all the whole world in terms of hooks, lines, baits, and nets.
By the time that I returned to the Cuchulain's bridge, Donald Rudden was showing signs of stirring. "Chief's on his way over there," he said. He nodded his head to a display screen showing the corkscrew ship, hanging where Mel and I had left it. "And I hafta go over myself, with some tools they want. Rory's supposed to spell me here."
That wasn't good news. Rory O'Donovan was the worst possible choice—not very bright, but full of energy. I couldn't trust him to stay put in the control room.
"What's going on at the other ship?"
"That thing's a ship?" Rudden puffed out his cheeks. "I'll believe it when I see it fly. Anyway, Rory says there's hell to pay over there. That redhead friend of yours, Swift, he's full of it. Been laying down the law about ships and drives. He don't know beans about ships, and anyway the lads won't take that stuff from a Downsider. He's been warned twice by Pat O'Rourke, but he takes no mind."
I wondered if Jim Swift knew how much danger he was in. After seeing Walter Hamilton shot, I wouldn't argue with an angry crewman. The only thing Jim had protecting him was Danny Shaker's control of the crew—a control that Shaker said became less every day.
As soon as Rudden left the bridge I made another quick run for the top level. I had to tell Mel what was happening, and warn her to lie low once O'Donovan was aboard and running loose. She didn't take it well.
"I've had it with skulking away. You say hang in, but when do I get out?"
"Soon. But don't take risks."
I headed for the control room, wondering when I was going to take my own advice. Every trip to the upper level was a risk, for me as well as Mel.
When I reached the bridge Rory O'Donovan was not there, but Doctor Eileen was, staring at the displays. Her shoulders were slumped and she seemed half-asleep. She knew I was present, though, because as I moved to her side she said, "Jay," in a far-off voice, as though I was some sort of ghost.
"Are you all right, Doctor Eileen?" As she turned to me I saw that her eyes had dark rings under them.
She gave me a faint trace of a smile. "As good as I'll ever be. I'm tired. And I'm beginning to think I'm mortal."
"What happened?"
"Oh, nothing much. We had an exhausting and aggravating sixteen hours, that's all, and we didn't find anything inside the big lobe except confusion. I gather you did better."
"Jim Swift says we found the Godspeed Drive. He's sure of it."
"And I'm sure he believes he can fly it better than any crewman in the Forty Worlds." Doctor Eileen sighed. "You know, this ought to be the greatest day of my life. Erin will get what I've wanted and worried about for fifty years: a new future. That's what I ought to be thinking. But I can't get out of my head the notion that things aren't as they seem to be. That's what being old does to you, Jay. It won't let joy have a clear run in the sunlight, not even for one hour."
"I don't know what you mean."
"At your age, I should hope not." She stared at me, studying my face. "Jay Hara, I hardly know you." Instead of explaining what she meant by that, she nodded at the image of the corkscrew and the twisted bubble on the end of it. "That little mystery will give us the stars, eh? Well, maybe. In my life I've seen stranger things."
She reached out as though she was going to tousle my hair, the way she had ever since I was tiny. But this time she didn't do it. She stroked my cheek instead. "Another month or two and I won't know you at all," she said. "I guess I ought to be pleased. Keep an eye on things here, and let me know if anything happens. I've got to take a little rest."
Doctor Eileen left me on the bridge, wondering what on earth she had been talking about. She was the one who had changed, and that upset me. Doctor Eileen had always been as constant as the stars.
I went across to stand in front of the big convex mirror at the exit to the bridge, situated so that people entering and leaving through the angled doorway would not run into each other. Its rounded surface reflected a miniature and distorted image of my face, thin and dark-shadowed.
I stretched my arm out in front of me. My jacket sleeve showed three inches of bare wrist. It was the same coat that mother had made for me the night before I left home. It used to fit perfectly.
How long I stood standing in front of the mirror is anyone's guess. I had intended to take one quick look and get back to the controls, but as I examined the neat stitching on the jacket sleeve my mind went spinning away: to lamplit winter evenings in the comfortable house by Lake Sheelin, to long summer days with old Uncle Toby, and finally to my secret sailing trips across the lake to Muldoon Spaceport. That wasn't just a different world, it was a different universe.
When I came back to life and returned to the control room displays, I learned that in this universe things had been happening. The ship containing the Godspeed Drive had turned, so that the axis of the corkscrew now pointed away from the Cuchulain. Shimmering rings of violet haze were running back and forth along its length before spiraling away off the end. They moved on like ghostly smoke rings through open space for a few seconds, then at last faded.
Was the crew going to use the Godspeed Drive at once, without Doctor Eileen (or me) there to be part of it?
; I hated that idea, but my worry vanished when all the shimmering rings suddenly disappeared. The Godspeed ship again hung motionless in vacuum. A minute later, a cluster of suited figures appeared from the distorted bubble at the end. They moved along the line of the corkscrew, apparently inspecting it, then jetted as a group toward the Cuchulain.
Doctor Eileen had to be told what was happening. For the third time in an hour I started at top speed for the upper level. The door of Doctor Eileen's quarters was open, and I hurried in without knocking. She was there, sitting at a table with Mel next to her. I also saw—my heart jumped inside my chest—a broad male back, in a blue-clothed spacer jacket.
The man turned, and I realized with huge relief that it was Duncan West.
"Uncle Duncan!"
He nodded at me, and smiled as though my sudden appearance was the most natural thing in the world. "Just came to tell Doctor Eileen the good news. The ship that you and Jim Swift found has a Godspeed Drive, we're all sure of it. And from the first look it seems in good working order."
If the whole universe was ready to change, Duncan West didn't show much sign of it.
"Have they tested it?" I asked. "I saw the violet rings."
"Fly it here, inside the Eye? That would really be asking for trouble. What you saw was just preliminaries." The deck of the Cuchulain groaned, and gave a dreadful quivering lurch. Duncan put his hand to the table top, feeling the continuing vibrations. "That's our own drive going on—what's left of it. We'll be leaving the Eye and towing the Godspeed ship along with us. I came to tell you and Mel and Doctor Eileen what's going on, and say it's captain's orders that you stay in quarters while we're flying out. When we get clear of the Eye, he'll announce it. You can take it easy until then."
Duncan ambled out, not back to the bridge but along the corridor that led to his own berth. Doctor Eileen stared after him enviously.
"Know where he's going, don't you?"
"No," said Mel.
"To take a nap," I said. "He won't worry about the vibrations."
Doctor Eileen nodded. "Or the fact that the fabulous Godspeed Drive is being pulled along behind our ship. You know what your mother says, Jay."
"That Uncle Duncan is the best eater and sleeper she ever met."
"We should all be so lucky." Doctor Eileen stood up. "I've got to lie down for a few minutes myself, or I'll fall apart. You two can stay if you like, I don't mind."
She wandered away into one of the rooms equipped with a couple of bunk beds. Mel and I were left to sit and stare at each other. Doctor Eileen must be feeling really out of it, because she knew as well as we did that Mel had to stay here. She couldn't safely go anywhere else in the Cuchulain.
We went through the other sleeping area and locked the door. Mel turned off the lights, and each of us climbed onto one of the side-by-side beds. We lay there in shuddering darkness, for so long that I began to think that Mel had fallen asleep despite the vibration from the engines. I envied her. For more than twenty hours the two of us had been busy with hardly a break, and now my brain would not stop running. I kept reliving the discovery of the Godspeed Base, and our decision to fly to it. My hands were again on the cargo beetle's controls, guiding us to our rendezvous in space.
Finally Mel said softly, "Jay?"
I came back from miles away. "What?"
"What's going to happen to me?"
"You'll be fine. Girls and women on Erin do very well. They are treated as something really special and precious, unless they happen to be like my mother and won't put up with it. And when we get there we'll all be rich. You can make trips to Paddy's Fortune as often as you want."
The snort in the darkness could have been disgust or frustration. "I'm not thinking of Erin, you dummy—or of Paddy's Fortune. I'm worrying about the next few days. If the Cuchulain is in as bad condition as everyone says, it won't be able to fly to Erin. And you've seen the Godspeed ship. The living space on it is tiny. Maybe the ship can reach Erin in record time, but I don't see a hiding place on board for me."
Mel was right, and I was the world's prize idiot. I could blame Doctor Eileen a little for not seeing the problem either, but I was the one who had allowed Mel to guide me to the cargo beetle, back on Paddy's Fortune, and let her stay there. Looking back on it I decided that I should have insisted that she leave me, the moment that I caught sight of the beetle.
"Well?" Mel said at last.
"I'll ask Danny Shaker. I'm sure he'll have an answer."
"You mean you're sure you don't."
"Maybe the engines on the Cuchulain just need a thorough overhaul to carry us home."
Mel didn't comment on that. A dreadful shudder through the whole ship did it for her. The engines sounded ready to die. But I had no more thoughts to offer.
We lay there without speaking, in an uneasy darkness thick enough to feel. At last I did what I most needed to do. I fell asleep.
CHAPTER 29
"Jay?"
I awoke from deep-down slumber. Sensations cut in, one after another. Free-fall. Darkness. Silence. A cold hand touched my face.
"Jay!" It was Doctor Eileen's voice, insistent, whispering close to my ear.
"What's wrong?" The ship's engines been turned off.
"Nothing. Shh! I don't want to wake Mel. Come on." She tugged at my sleeve.
"Wait a second." I had to disentangle myself. Mel was sleeping with one arm across me. As soon as I was free I drifted after Doctor Eileen, out into the general living area.
"What's happening?" I saw that the lighting level had been cut way back, and the little blip of the communicator was like a winking red eye in the darkness.
"You didn't hear it?" Doctor Eileen was no longer whispering. "I wish I could sleep like you and Duncan. I gave him a good shake, but he went right back to sleep. A call came through two minutes ago. We're clear of the Eye. Captain Shaker wants us in the control room."
"But why were you whispering?"
"Do you want to explain to Mel why she can't go along with us to the bridge?"
And I thought I was the one who found her hard to handle.
"We may have a real problem coming up." I followed Doctor Eileen outside, and locked the door of the living quarters. "If the drive on the Cuchulain isn't able to take us back, we're going to have trouble with Mel."
As we started toward the control room I explained that the Godspeed ship was far too small to conceal a stowaway, even for a minute.
Doctor Eileen listened, but I think that her mind was mostly somewhere else, because when I was done she said, "You're overreacting, Jay. If we fly back to Erin in the ship with the Godspeed Drive we won't need to hide Mel, because we'll get there in no time. And the crew aren't animals, you know. They've had the excitement of finding the Base and the Godspeed Drive, and their mood must be a lot better than it was when they were plowing through the mud on Paddy's Fortune. I'm sure they'll treat Mel with respect when they find out she's on board."
There was no point in arguing. Doctor Eileen hadn't seen Joe Munroe's face after he ripped away Mel's shirt. She hadn't heard Rory O'Donovan and Connor Bryan talking about women. If the crew weren't animals, it was because animals were better behaved.
The trouble was, Doctor Eileen took her cues as to what spacer crew members were like from Danny Shaker, and he was simply not typical. When we entered the control room he was standing relaxed by the pilot's chair, his smooth face thoughtful and his long hair neatly pulled back and tied. Tom Toole was at his side. The screens behind them showed open space, with the Godspeed ship hanging close to the Cuchulain.
"Just the people I wanted to see," Shaker said affably. "Let me bring you up to date. First, the Godspeed Drive. It's over there in the corkscrew ship. It works, and we know how to use it. That's the good news. Now for some bad news: the Cuchulain. The engines still work, after a fashion, but neither I nor anyone else believe the ship is in much shape to fly us back to Erin."
Doctor Eileen looked puzzled. "That doesn't sound
like bad news. Can't the Godspeed ship find room for everyone?"
"It can." Danny Shaker was talking to Doctor Eileen, but he was staring at me in an odd, speculative way. I got goosebumps. Something had changed. I could see it in Tom Toole as well as in Danny Shaker. Tom was grinning at some private joke, and eyeing Eileen Xavier.
"It has enough room," Danny Shaker said. "And even if it didn't, you could make ten trips to Erin and back in the time we'd take to overhaul the engines once on the Cuchulain."
"So what's the problem?" Doctor Eileen's voice had changed. She was beginning to sense something offkey.
"It's the crew. You see, they've had a meeting. And they don't like the deal we made. Don't like it at all."
"Ah." Doctor Eileen went forward, and sat down uninvited in the pilot's seat. "So that's it. A little bit of blackmail. I have to agree to better terms for you, right, or you won't agree to fly us back? Well, Captain Shaker, I don't know if you're in on this yourself, or if it's really all the crew's doing, the way that you say. But either way, it's no deal. We needed you to fly us to Paddy's Fortune, and to get us here to the Needle and the Eye. But we don't need you now. James Swift assures me that he is perfectly capable of flying the Godspeed ship himself. Do you disagree?"
"I believe that James Swift knows how to fly the Godspeed ship."
"So we stick with the original terms of the deal. And I'm being generous doing so—because you and the Cuchulain are in no position to fly us home, which is what you agreed to do. I suggest that you go and inform the rest of the crew of that, wherever they are."
Tom Toole laughed, and Danny Shaker frowned at him in disapproval. "I don't think that the original terms are relevant, doctor," he said. "James Swift may know how to fly the Godspeed ship, but he will not be doing so. For several reasons. Here's one of them."
He turned and gave the fluting whistle that I had first heard at Muldoon Spaceport. Patrick O'Rourke entered the control room. Floating along behind, dragged by his mop of red hair gripped in O'Rourke's huge hand, came the body of Jim Swift. His face was a bloody mess. When O'Rourke released him, he came drifting toward us.
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