Firmament: Radialloy

by J. Grace Pennington

  August maintained his silence.

  “There has to be some way we can get the ship back.”

  “Careful, Captain,” I ventured. “If we aren’t careful, he might hurt the Doctor.”

  “What is all that about, anyway? I don’t understand. How does he know Gerry will go insane?”

  I choked, and let my eyes plead with August. He quietly explained about the machine, while I picked at my food, my appetite suddenly gone.

  The other men were quiet when he had finished. The Captain looked at me. “Why would he do that?”

  “I don’t know,” I managed. “I think—he just wanted a hostage.” I also thought that he hadn’t wanted me to be able to consult the Doctor, but I kept quiet about that. I still wasn’t sure who to trust—there were three other men at the table besides the Captain and Guilders. Sure they’d worked there a long time, but who knew beyond doubt which side they were on?

  “Where is the machine now?” the Captain asked.

  “He’s locked it in his quarters,” August answered.

  “As Captain, I can override all security systems.”

  “Could,” Guilders pointed out.

  August nodded. “He’s overridden your clearance. No one can override but him.”

  “How did he do that?”

  August shrugged. His father wasn’t informing him about everything, I supposed. After all, he’d made it pretty clear that he didn’t agree with the mutiny. I doubted Commander Howitz would turn to him.

  The Captain muttered something I couldn’t understand, and wasn’t sure I wanted to.

  “Do you have a plan, Guilders?” I asked hopefully.

  The helmsman spoke stoically as he took a bite of his food. “It’s much easier to do something without being noticed if one is invisible.”

  “Invisibility? And just how do you plan to accomplish that?”

  Ignoring the Captain’s interjection, I asked Guilders, “You mean not draw any attention to yourself? So he won’t think of you as a threat?”

  “Precisely.”

  “Does anyone know where the Doctor is?” I asked.

  The men all shook their heads. “He’s not in his quarters?” the Captain asked, brows furrowing in worry.

  “No sir. I checked there on my way to the mess hall. I haven’t seen him all day.”

  The Captain reached out and touched my hand. “We’ll save him, Andi. I promise.”

  I wasn’t reassured. But I tried to sound brave. “Does anyone know how Almira’s doing?”

  Mr. Ralston, the data controller, spoke up. “I carried a tray into the galley just a moment ago, and saw her. She seemed fine.”

  I tried to think. If we could contact Crash for help, we’d be well on our way to getting out of this whole horrible mess.

  “Captain,” I began, leaning forward, but before I could go further, Commander Howitz approached. I jerked back in my chair, hitting my shin on the table leg. I winced, but didn’t say anything.

  “Hello, Andi,” he said with a smile.

  I had to fight to keep from grimacing. Did he really think that I was still going to believe him? “Hello.”

  “I would like to see you in engineering.” He said it politely, so politely, that he almost reminded me of August for a moment. But it was a dark politeness, while August’s was always soft and rather timid.

  “I can’t go into engineering,” I reminded, sounding more haughty than I intended.

  “Did it hurt you before?”

  I blushed. “I’ll be right down,” I said reluctantly.

  “Excellent,” he smiled. Then his expression turned to a stone that matched the gravelly voice much better as he surveyed the men at the table. “Back to your stations please, gentlemen.”

  August flushed, and the Captain looked furious, but he knew as well as Guilders that there was nothing they could do, as much as he might rail and complain. All six men stood up, glanced at me, and left.

  “Be down in five minutes,” he said, trying to soften his face but not exactly succeeding. I nodded, and watched his broad back as he turned and left the mess hall.

  XIX

  After clearing the table where I’d eaten and washing my hands, I started down to engineering, butterflies forming in my stomach. The closer I got, the more they fluttered, until I felt like I was going to be sick. I felt as though I were walking directly into a trap, but since I was already in a giant trap, it couldn’t possibly make much difference.

  I walked down the C-Deck corridor to the elevator, and a cabin door slid open as I passed it. I turned to look, and stifled a gasp as I saw Sigmet’s odd face peer out at me.

  “Come inside,” he whispered. “We need to tell you something.”

  “No,” I said, hoping I sounded firm, and prepared to quicken my pace. But he grabbed my arm as I tried to pass. I opened my mouth to scream, but he spoke urgently. “Please, it’s in your best interest.”

  “You can talk to me out here,” I insisted. They weren’t going to get me to voluntarily become a hostage or whatever they wanted from me.

  “Oh, whatever,” he said, as Peat stepped out. “There’s not much time—he’ll find out we’re talking to you in about two minutes.”

  I crossed my arms and planted my feet firmly apart, feeling small and vulnerable beside the muscular Peat. “I know you’re not ILA agents. And I know your real names.”

  “What are they?” Sigmet smiled.

  “You’re Leeke and Mars, scientists.” I forced my voice to sound accusing.

  “Smart girl,” Peat nodded, his firm chin looking firmer than ever. “Want to prove how smart you are?”

  I didn’t know how to answer this, but I didn’t need to, because he hurried on. “We weren’t lying about Erasmus Sandison. Oh, I know you know him as Erasmus Howitz. He changed his name to keep himself safe. He has a hundred enemies. People he’s cheated with his inventions. He’s like a con-man—except he never does anything against the law. So he can’t be caught—legally.

  “But listen to us, Miss Lloyd—he doesn’t want to help you. I think you know that now. Father or not, he doesn’t care anything about saving your life. But if you come with us—come away from here—we can help you. We’ll take you back to our boss and we’ll study the radialloy. We’ll see if we can find a way to duplicate it, study it to see if we can find an alternate cure. We won’t take it until we can make sure you’ll be safe.”

  “Time’s up,” urged Sigmet.

  Peat gripped my shoulder, so hard that I couldn’t help wincing, looked me straight in the eyes with an intensity that shriveled me, and then gave me a little push down the hall. “Go talk to him now. But don’t forget what we’ve said. Any moment of the day or night you can come to us and we’ll manage to get away.”

  His voice chased after me as I ran towards the elevator, pulse thumping in my ears. I realized when he used the word “manage” why they hadn’t taken me already. Their craft was moored, and couldn’t get away without clearance—before from the Captain, and now from Commander Howitz.

  No, I didn’t trust them. For one thing, I knew that Crash distrusted them so much, he’d taken their departure from Earth as a sign of danger to the Doctor. Second, I had no reason to trust them. They wanted the radialloy, and I stood in the way. Why should they protect me? And finally, Peat’s intense eyes and Sigmet’s odd, shifty, high ones did not inspire the least feeling of safety in me. They never had.

  I gritted my teeth as I stepped into the elevator. The flutter in my stomach was gone now. I no longer felt particular curiosity or apprehension about what the Commander wanted to say to me. It wasn’t difficult to guess that he wanted to do the same thing Peat and Sigmet had just tried to do—undermine the word of his co-mutineers and try to beat them to the prize.

  I was right. When I reached engineering he smiled at me, talked about how much he wanted to save me from them, how teaming up with them had been his only choice, since he had no way to get me away from here. How once we reache
d his speeder, he and August and I would ride off back to Earth and live happily ever after, and he would keep me safe from all who would harm me. He would take me away now, except that he couldn’t override the security on Peat and Sigmet’s speeder.

  That, I believed. I didn’t trust him any more than I’d trusted them. And they, too, were telling the truth in one respect—he had no intention of trying to save me, once he had what he wanted. As he talked I tried to figure out why he didn’t just take it out here, but then I realized—the same reason Peat and Sigmet couldn’t. They were watching each other too closely. I felt like sighing and smiling at the same time. It was both helpful and horrible to have two sets of villains after me. Honestly, I would almost be amused if it weren’t for the fact that my life and the Doctor’s sanity were in danger, and one of the villains was my father.

  There was no reason to act like I didn’t believe him now. I had never had a good poker face, but I pulled on every bit of deceptive or acting power in me to sound trusting. “Thank you. This is all so—scary.” I threw in a shudder. The shudder was convincing enough, when I thought about the Doctor. I longed to ask why the Commander had used the machine on him, but I couldn’t. That would only show that I didn’t trust him, and right now, that wasn’t the best idea.

  He smiled, a smile I’d come to hate, and nodded. “I wish you didn’t have to go through this.”

  “I’m tired,” I said, feeling like I was going to scream if I had to talk to him another minute. Besides, we only had less than twenty hours to save the Doctor.

  With another smile, he reached out his arms to me. Inwardly I shrank back and screamed, but outwardly I hugged him, not tightly, and not long, but I managed to do it. Then I couldn’t help turning quickly and rushing back to the elevator.

  “Goodnight!” he called after me.

  His voice was still gravelly, but there was a note of longing in it, and I had to look over my shoulder in surprise. His eyes were boring through me, hungrily, and for a split second, a very short second, I felt sorry for him. Then I turned around again, and walked the last few steps towards the elevator.

  Instead of heading to C-Deck, where my cabin was, I went all the way up to A-Deck—the bridge. I needed help. And information.

  “Second medical officer on the bridge,” I called, once the doors had slid open. “It’s time for Lieutenant Howitz’s checkup.”

  The Captain, August, and the two guards who stood with blasters on either side of the room, all looked around at me in surprise. “I didn’t...” began August.

  “But I did,” I said crisply, adding a touch of professionalism to my voice. “He needs his blood pressure checked after that episode this afternoon.”

  The Captain seemed to catch on. “You heard the doctor, Lieutenant. To sickbay. Mr. Guilders can manage the course for awhile.”

  “It might be a couple of hours,” I said as August stood and made his way towards me. “He’ll need his rest.”

  “I understand,” the Captain nodded.

  I gestured for August to exit the bridge, and he did so, his pale face still showing definite signs of puzzlement. Nodding at the two guards, I followed him to the elevator.

  “Andi, I...”

  “I’ll tell you what you need and what you don’t need. Come on.”

  Once we were in the elevator, I breathed deeply and said, “I need your help. After I check you, we’ll go to my quarters. You were sharing a cabin with your father, correct?”

  “Yes, but he wanted me out once he used the machine.”

  “So you have not been assigned new quarters yet?”

  “No. I still have two hours of duty.”

  “Then my cabin is the logical place. There’s no camera in there, so we’ll be safe.”

  He nodded, but looked worried. Before we had a chance to say more, the elevator reached B-Deck and we stepped out into the corridor.

  We had to go into sickbay, and I had to scan him, for the benefit of the cameras. Then I spouted some doctor’s talk, about the sympathetic nervous system and vasoconstriction of arterioles, before heading back out and down to C-Deck and my cabin.

  I paused outside it and spoke loudly, trying to sound professional and not obviously loud. “You can rest in here until you get new quarters.”

  He caught on. “All right.”

  I unlocked the door and pushed him in, then followed and locked the door quickly.

  “He has a camera outside your door?” he half-asked, half-stated.

  I nodded. “They’re in all the halls, and I have to assume he has one pointed at my door. Cameras don’t work inside the cabins, because of the ISA privacy laws, but he wants to make sure those other guys can’t get to me without him knowing it. As long as he watches my door, he should be safe.”

  “What did you want me for?” he asked quietly, his pale face struggling to stay calm.

  Before explaining, I asked another question. “Why do you think he brought you here?”

  He shrugged and looked away. “I don’t know. I was doing just fine on the Beagle. He doesn’t need my help. Probably he just thought it would be a good job for me, and wanted me around. I don’t think he intended for things to go this way.”

  “He wants to kill me, you know.”

  “Andi!”

  His face went paler, and his tone was utterly shocked.

  “Sit down,” I sighed. “You’re going to give yourself another episode.”

  His hands trembling, he sat on my bed. “That’s not true.”

  “It is. Maybe he doesn’t want to kill me exactly, but I know he doesn’t care that I’ll die when he removes the radialloy.”

  “What?”

  I pointed to my knee. “That’s what he wants. It’s the cure for a disease I have. If anyone takes it—the disease will kill me.” I paused, letting him breathe deeply for a few minutes. Then, “What’s he like?”

  He fidgeted and traced the pattern on my blanket with one thin forefinger. “It’s hard to say. He was always kind to me, he paid for whatever I wanted, let me do what I wanted. He can get a little angry when something goes really wrong, but he never took it out on me. He—he never talked about—either of you. It was like you’d never existed.”

  “You mean... me and—our mother?”

  He nodded, not looking me in the eyes.

  “What was she like?” I asked longingly.

  For a moment longer he traced silently, then he stopped, reached into an inner pocket of his jacket, and pulled out a photograph. He handed it to me.

  The woman who smiled up at me was less than ten years older than I. Her hair was honey-golden, and her soft brown eyes shone with a gentle, yet witty light.

  I brushed a finger across her face while August began speaking.

  “I was only five when she died. But I know she was pretty—and kind, and funny, and would always stop and play with me.”

  “Do you remember me?” I asked, handing the picture back to him.

  He made no move to take it. “Just a little.”

  I kept holding it out, but he shook his head. “You can keep it.”

  “August...”

  “Please.”

  Biting my lip to keep the tears back, I put the picture in my own inner pocket, feeling a slight warmth settle in my heart.

  “Why did you need me here?” he asked. “Was that all?”

  “No.” I walked over to my closet and opened a pair of doors in the bottom of it, revealing a set of shelves that were full of discarded machinery and other odds and ends. “We have to find some way to transmit a message to the Alacrity I. It’s the closest vessel, and our only hope.”

  “Build a transmitter?” he asked, and I imagined his dark eyes growing wide. I heard him stand up, but I didn’t turn around. I was busy sorting through different pieces, and I pulled a piece of fiber-optic cable from one shelf and deposited it in a pile on my left.

  “Remember when the Doctor told you I liked inventing?” I kept on sorting; realizing for t
he first time that I’d probably inherited this propensity from Commander Howitz. “I’m going to put it to good use now.”

  August didn’t say anything about that, but just sat down beside me and watched. “Where are you going to get enough power to transmit?”

  I turned and looked at him seriously. “There are four generators on this ship.”

  “Two in engineering, one behind the bridge, and one in the galley,” he nodded. “But you could never generate enough to transmit through subspace over two hundred parsecs, and the Alacrity I must be at least that far by now.”

  I continued my sorting, undisturbed. “I’ll have to create an amplifier.”

  “But where are you going to get the materials for that? You can’t expect to formulate a transistor with all this.”

  “No.”

  “Then how?”

  “I was thinking possibly I could construct a triode.”

  “A vacuum tube?” He looked thoughtfully at the pieces I had gathered around me. “Will that be strong enough? And are you sure you know how to do that?”

  “All I know is, it’s worth a try. Will you help me?”

  Instead of answering, he sat down across from me, and asked, “Have you done anything like this before?”

  “Not exactly. But I’ve been making little things for years. See this?” I held up a partial plastic tube, about a quarter of a meter long. “I was working on a portable chemical hand drier for the Doctor.”

  He took it and examined it for a moment. “Sensory release of silica gel?”

  “Exactly.” I pulled out a coil of wire. “He was always complaining about the blow driers.” I swallowed hard, trying to keep the tears from coming.

  Putting the drier down, he looked searchingly at me. “You really love him, don’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “I wish I could help you.”

  Frustration boiled up inside me. He could help me, I knew he could, but he was too afraid.

  As if reading my thoughts, he said hastily, “I don’t like this—what Dad’s doing. I’ll help you with the transmitter.” To prove it, he picked up a metal plate and handed it to me. “I just meant—I wish I could help you do something about your fath... about Doctor Lloyd.”