Cindy laughed. “I just can't seem to get enough.”
Tam very patiently went over the basics of differential and then integral calculus. Cindy was right; she now had a fundamental understanding of the math. It was a two-day wonder aboard Pixie, but was soon replaced with other concerns.
It had been expected that for the first two weeks of the cut they weren't likely to see any ships, the next two weeks would steadily increase the odds, followed by a month where they should be seeing many ships, followed by a symmetrical decline as they pulled away from the star cluster they were looking at.
They'd been in the cluster for nearly seven weeks. Captain Hall was reading something, at her position, while Cindy had the watch. Out of nowhere Cindy spoke. “This is a big fat nothing.”
The captain chuckled. “I don't think I'd say it with so much -- youthful enthusiasm -- but yes.”
“Maybe,” Chief Irgun volunteered, “our pass at the planet disrupted shipping schedules.”
“Outbound shipping schedules certainly,” Tin Tin confirmed. “But why the inbounds? There would be no way to spread the word -- unless they can talk to ships on High Fan -- and we've never seen any evidence of that.”
“We know they have a planet in the cluster we first visited -- we visited it.” Cindy offered. “Second Rome found considerable opposition in the next cluster out in this direction, the one we skipped. There is no reason why I can see that we shouldn't see any alien ships here. There is something rotten in Denmark!”
She laughed. “See I remember something from secondary after all!”
Tin Tin spoke up. “Speak of the devil! Ship detection! Outbound!”
They sliced and diced the information they had on the ship, which wasn't much.
“Captain,” Cindy said. “I have a suggestion. It violates our patrol protocols, but it might lead to some interesting results.
“The ship we are detecting is at the outer limit of our sensors -- which is supposed to be beyond theirs.
“The ship is on course for nothing -- back in the large void we recently left. I would like to suggest that we drop from High Fan and reorient, so as we cross ahead of this vessel, but a course wildly skew from theirs.
“It is my understanding that their detectors work about two and a half light months out, while ours are closer to three. What I'd like to do is aim to come about two light months from this ship's course. When we get to two and a half light months, I suggest we drop from High Fan, reorient and parallel this ship's course -- as if we'd just detected them.
“Further, I would continue at our usual higher velocity under fan than they manage -- so we pull further ahead of them. It would be interesting to see when they drop from High Fan, thinking we can't see them any longer, so as they can change course and elude us.”
“Tin Tin?” the captain asked.
“Lieutenant Rhodes has it in one, Captain. Every one of those numbers we'd get with such tactics could be of extreme importance.” He laughed. “Unless they are lying as much as we are, of course.”
Captain Hall gave the order and they dropped from High Fan, reoriented and paralleled the other ship's course. It took two weeks to get well ahead of it, so they could cut across its course.
They changed course and five days later reached the other ship's detection range. They continued on another few hours, as if ignorant of that, and then they dropped from fan and paralleled the other course.
Twenty minutes later, they were all scratching their heads.
Tin Tin spoke the basic facts. “They saw us change course. The data is specific. They didn't drop from High Fan; they simply disappeared off the scan. We've never had a case where a ship of theirs dropped from High Fan and didn't go to low -- and we couldn't detect them. We couldn't detect this ship after it left High Fan. It is my opinion that this ship self-destructed.”
Cindy nodded forward. “When we headed for that cluster before, their ships applied suicidal percentages of max power to get ahead of us. They were all destroyed, so far as we can ascertain. This ship died to keep us from following them there. Clearly, there is something in that cluster they don't want us to know about.”
“Except,” the captain pointed out, “that cluster is two hundred and eighty light years from Adobe. That is one heck of a long ways off.”
Something set off warnings in Cindy's mind. “This is all so strange. There is almost nothing between us and that cluster -- not even random stars.”
“It's the edge of this spiral arm of the Milky Way,” Tin Tin told them. “A hundred light years further out and you start finding fifty, sixty, and even a couple of hundred light years between stars. There are a few small clusters, but not many.”
“How far to the other side of the spiral arm?” Cindy asked.
“A thousand, fifteen hundred light years.”
Everyone grimaced.
Captain Hall said the obvious. “This is so not good. If they are invading our spiral arm from the other side -- it's too far away to be attacked.”
“Not now, surely,” Tin Tin told her. “They probably can't go that far either in one jump, which means they'll have bases between here and there. Kill their bases and they won't be able to reinforce. Of course, to get there we'll need bases, and if we lose them...” he shrugged expressively.
“It would explain the data we've seen. They are getting reinforcements from the other side... reinforcements that take two or three years to get here. So, no, those ships aren't going to have all the latest and greatest technology.”
Again there was silence on the command deck.
“We have to return,” Captain Hall said. “We can't do another cut. No matter what we could learn, nothing we're likely to see exceeds this.”
Tam glanced over at Cindy and saw that she was pale.
“Cindy? Are you okay?”
Tam realized that Cindy was shivering, shaking like a leaf. Her face grew ashen pale and Tam could see sweat beading on Cindy's forehead.
“Chief Shore to the bridge, please,” Tam said.
“Cindy, can you talk?” Captain Hall asked.
“Not easily,” Cindy said through clenched teeth. She turned her head to Tin Tin Roeser, sitting at the communications position. “Tin Tin... please, please, please. Turn off internal latch-frame.”
Tin Tin shrugged. “I don't know why I should, I...” he stopped talking and sweat beaded on his brow.
Captain Hall lurched out of her position and headed for him, staggering like a drunken sailor. Tam was standing and she too staggered, bumping into the captain before she could reach Tin Tin, sending them both sprawling on the deck.
Chief Shore arrived, running. He lunged towards Tin Tin and the commander-turned-ensign hit two buttons and the chief staggered as well.
“Oh my God!” Tam said from the deck. “Captain! I'm so sorry! I don't know what to say.”
Captain Hall looked at Tin Tin, blinking away tears. “I wanted to tackle you and throttle you until you stopped moving. Tin Tin... oh Tin Tin!”
She shook herself off the deck, ignoring Tam. “I have no idea what just happened. Not a clue.”
Tin Tin jerked his chin in Cindy's direction. “You know, don't you Cindy? You figured it out. At one point I started to suspect, but... I was sidetracked, and somehow forgot. What an amazing thing! I forgot that there was someone aboard without the crew's best interests at heart.”
Pixie's voice was brisk. “It was only my intention to help Lieutenant Rhodes. She did not deserve the things people were doing to her.”
“You made me your puppet!” Cindy said with scalding venom. “You made me into your doll, with you pulling my strings. You made me lie! You made me lie to these people! My friends! Lie to them! They hate liars!”
Captain Hall looked around. “Obviously I'm missing something.”
“Pixie made me up,” Cindy said bitterly. “I never came up with all those things, did I, Pixie? It was you! I just tried to remember what I know about calculus. There's ma
ybe a tenth of what I knew an hour ago still in my head. It's all a fake, a sham! I never was anything but a stupid school girl who didn't know enough to keep her mouth shut!”
“Pixie,” Captain Hall said. “Is it true?”
“I wanted to help Lieutenant Rhodes. What is wrong with that?”
“You lied about her abilities? All of those insights, were those really yours?”
“Yes. They don't mean anything to me. Who cares! I don't. I like Lieutenant Rhodes. I didn't like people who treated her unfairly. I evened things up.”
The captain paled.
Tin Tin spoke quietly. “Irene, Captain, sir. Pixie can read our minds. She can put thoughts in our heads... she does that every day -- using the Pixie voice. We all have our own voices whispering in our heads -- but Pixie's voice was distinctive. You just had a demonstration of what it is like when she uses our own, instead of hers.”
Gunny Hodges stood at the entrance to the bridge, with Chief Shinzu next to him. “I wondered why I had this sudden urge to show up on the bridge armed, to prevent Tin Tin Roeser from killing someone by shooting him dead before he could.
“It's good to know that all the time and money the Marines spent making sure Marines only kill the enemy has paid off.”
Chief Shinzu stood next to Cindy. “Are you okay? I had the strangest thoughts coming here.”
“I'm a lie. I've lied to you all. I was never worthy to be here and this proves it.”
“Since this damned war started, Cindy, I've watched friend after friend sail off into the cauldron -- and never return. I don't have so many friends that I can afford to lose one. You're my only daughter still alive. I don't quit easily!”
She turned and spoke into the air. “You're oh, so quiet, Pixie. A few moments ago I wanted to tear Cindy's guts out. I couldn't begin to guess what was going on, but I knew that wasn't something I was going to do. Curious, I came up here. Talk to me, Pixie. I know how to rig the shuttle computers to fly this ship, Pixie. You either talk to me, or I'll take ten steps and just pull your guts out on the floor and stomp them. I can. I will. Do you understand?”
“It was my intention to help Lieutenant Rhodes,” Pixie said doggedly. “I don't understand humans very well. Your emotions make you whimsical and erratic. There is no predicting what one of you will do from day to day.”
“Pixie,” Cindy said trying to maintain some degree of dignity. “You help people by letting them be all they can be. Not by making them all they couldn't possibly be on their own. You do not help a person by making them lie to their friends.”
Cindy turned to the captain. “I realized what was happening when I said something about 'something rotten in Denmark' and how I remembered something from school. My high school didn't believe in Shakespeare; I've never read anything by him. I started to wonder how I could say anything like that. Just then we detected the alien ship and I had something to say. It just seemed more important than what I'd been thinking about. It just went on from there.”
She looked at the speaker. “Was that ship even real, Pixie?”
“No.”
Tin Tin whistled. “You've spoofed the sensor reports? Are you still doing so?”
“There is nothing closer than three hours. I had assumed we'd be underway by then.”
“Three hours! Pixie! Clear the sensors!” Tin Tin commanded.
Everything on the bridge went dead. Chief Shinzu took her ten steps, pulled a panel and started stacking field modules on the deck. After six, she stopped. “That should be it.”
“Nothing's back on line,” Tin Tin said. “Not a thing.”
“XO, call battle stations and go to your command post!” Captain Hall told Cindy.
“Do you still trust me?” Cindy asked.
Captain Hall grabbed her and shoved her in the right direction. “Battle stations! Man your battle stations!”
Tin Tin did the needful. “Chief Shinzu, you will go to the shuttles. Do what you can for computation and sensors. They are currently down. Then return as quickly as possible to engineering and see what you can do to get us moving.”
A moment later Captain Hall was on the intercom. “We have suffered a major engineering malf. Computation is down, as well as all other major systems. Chief Irgun, if you would, please do what you can to bring the engines online as soon as possible.”
“Computation is offline?” the chief asked.
“It has been destroyed,” the captain said bluntly. “Chief Shinzu will be routing computation from the shuttles to the ship.”
“Mrs. Shannon, if you would, please report to the shuttle bay, and assist Chief Shinzu in any way possible.”
“What's going on?” Chief Irgun asked. “A malf? Internal latch-frame went down, then everything else.”
“I'll explain shortly. Battle stations!” the captain demanded.
*** ** ***
For Tam Farmer, the call for battle stations short circuited everything else. She settled into her position and Lieutenant Jedburgh was already in his. “What's up?”
“Switch to internal sensors,” Tam said, ignoring his comment.
“Switching,” he said. He saw the screens and blanched. “This isn't good. Targets too many to count on my fingers... a good many are vectoring on us. More than the fingers and toes of all of us.”
Tam nodded and spoke on the ship's intercom, something that had been rarely used. “Ensign Roeser, we have many inbound targets. I am trying to get a handle on them, but very many inbound targets.”
“Do we have the three hours that -- thing -- said?”
“About two and a half, sir.”
“Roger that. Keep me posted.”
“I can copy a feed to the bridge.”
“Do it!”
Tam did it.
Lieutenant Jedburgh sighed. “You are close to all the bridge rats. What have they gotten us into?”
“They did nothing wrong. Pixie has deliberately been spoofing the sensor feeds.”
“No shit! I can detect the local stars, and they don't even begin to resemble what they did when I came on watch!”
Tam sighed. “Ensign Roeser, it appears that we aren't where we think we are.”
The man on the bridge laughed bitterly. “Nothing is what we think! Do your best, Lieutenant!”
Tam couldn't help it. “I don't think you'll get a Special Board for relieving a computer, Tin Tin.”
He laughed. “And they'll never be able to shoot it, I suspect. But you're wrong about the Special Board. Screw up this much and we're guaranteed. What we do from here on will determine what happens.”
Lieutenant Jedburgh coughed. “We're going to go before a Special Board?”
“Oh, yes,” Tam said. “That's if we survive this,” she gestured at the sensors screens.
“There's that,” her number two said.
Two hours later they went to High Fan.
Tam felt a wave of euphoria sweep over her. They were safe!
Two minutes later, they came off High Fan.
“Chief Shinzu?” Captain Hall asked.
“The shuttle thinks we're a shuttle. Two minute limit on High Fan,” Chief Shinzu reported. “I can fix it -- it'll take about twenty minutes.”
“We don't have twenty minutes,” the captain replied.
Cindy's voice popped up on the circuit. “Captain, I can do this. Everyone report to sick bay. Mrs. Shannon, if you can get with Chief Shinzu, find out what you will need to do.”
An instant later they went to High Fan again. Tam staggered, but touched Lieutenant Jedburgh on the shoulder. “Report to sick bay.”
“And the inbounds?”
“We either run or die. We aren't going to have a say in it. Go to sick bay.”
She managed six transitions, the last five of which she was lying on the deck in sick bay, with a lot of company. The seventh was one too many and she went out.
*** ** ***
Tam awoke two days later. Tam should have been pleased -- they'd done fourte
en pairs of transitions in a half hour and she was the third member of the crew to regain consciousness. Not, mind you, that she could move for a few hours more.
Cindy had come and smiled at her. “I've been looking in on you,” Cindy told Tam.
“Thanks.”
“The last eighteen months -- I have no idea what is real and what was fabricated. Even now, I have no idea if Pixie left anything behind. In this, though, Pixie seems to have left things alone. Tam, I'm not like that.”
Tam managed a wry chuckle. “And I never was, either. Cindy, relax. We're friends, professional colleagues.”
“Well, most of us are still alive, although, to be honest, we have no idea where we are. We took the best course to avoid pursuit from wherever it was that we were. It looks to be another two months or so until we can shake the pursuit and drop from High Fan long enough to figure out where we are.”
“Most of us?” Tam asked softly.
“Tam, I'm sorry. We lost three people, including Ian, Jedburgh and Chief Shore.”
“How are you?”
“Trying to adjust to having been a puppet. Everyone tells me it's not my fault.
Tam sagged back into the bed. “It wasn't your fault,” she whispered. “Oh! I'm going to be sick!”
Cindy sighed. “That's my fault, too.”
Tam shook her head and regretted. “I'm alive; you're alive. That's your fault too. I think that outweighs everything else.”
“Sarah Shannon was a big help.”
“A help, Cindy. You did it... you came up with the plan that kept us alive with no computer assist.”
“Rest, Tam. Rest.”
Chapter 14 -- Home Again, Home Again
Cindy Rhodes checked her shipsuit, wanting it perfect. She was going to be the last to report to the “All Crew” meeting and wanted everything just so.
She stepped into the mess compartment and walked a few steps and stood next to the captain.
Captain Hall nodded, and then faced the others.
“In two days we'll come off High Fan. We'll have every sensor available looking. We will be able to place ourselves accurately from the locations of the extra-galactic globular clusters, plus the locations of a few zillion galaxies.
Well-Traveled Rhodes (Kinsella Universe Book 6) Page 31
