Another Word for Magic

by Mackey Chandler

  “Testing with Lee?” Vic asked after the call. “I wish they’d share some details instead of dropping one isolated fact.”

  “I know,” Eileen agreed, “I just don’t feel it’s my place to pry.”

  * * *

  “Are you ready to run a test on the device?” Jeff asked Lee on com.

  “It’s on my ship,” Lee said. “We’ve been ready for two days. The software is installed and the normal radio links are sufficient to run it remotely. Is it possible to bring my two researchers along? They are keenly interested and they do deserve to see their work function in the field if it is possible. We have suits borrowed for both of them.”

  “I have an extra couch for the Badger, but if you want to bring Born along, he’s going to need to be content with a pad on the back bulkhead and a cargo strap for a seatbelt. That means we’ll have to limit acceleration to what a Derf can handle. I can’t see that as a problem since we shouldn’t have any need for high acceleration. How much can a Derf handle anyway?”

  “Three and a half g sustained. Five g for maybe fifteen minutes,” Lee said. “They have more physical strength but don’t breathe much better than Humans under acceleration. Gordon said he experienced eight g for a few seconds as an explorer and didn’t blackout. I’d rather not find out what his or my limits are. He’s older now than back before he worked with my parents. He’s middle-aged for a Derf, but I’m not going to mention that to him if I can avoid it.”

  “I forget age can be a sensitive matter,” Jeff admitted. “He’ll lose that when you get Derf life extension working.”

  “You sound awfully confident,” Lee said.

  “Why not?” Jeff asked. “The metabolic paths are so similar and the genetic expression much the same. If there is a slightly different protein operating at some point they’ll adjust accordingly. If you doubt me, just go to a Fargone gambling site and ask them what kind of odds they’ll give against it ever working.”

  Lee laughed. “That seems to be the new standard for probability. Let the Fargoers calculate it for you.”

  “They’re very good at it,” Jeff agreed. “If you have no other destination in mind, I’d like to test your drive with a couple of short jumps and then one to Fargone. We’d like to see how Beta is getting on there.”

  “That’s fine. If it all goes well, we’ll ride it back instead of running it remotely,” Lee said.

  “Braver than me,” Jeff said. “Whatever you feel comfortable doing.”

  “Says the guy who did it by accident,” Lee said back to him.

  “Oh, they told you that story.” That’s all he said about it. “You’ll want to take the Kurofune from the station manually. Station masters don’t appreciate automatic docks and undocks without a person sitting ready to override, but we can take your techs aboard on the station so only you have to transfer in the outer system. Contact us on com when you are on approach to dock and send them on over.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Lee agreed. “We’ll be up on the next shuttle in about six hours.”

  Chapter 11

  “The North American Secretary of State called and is at Armstrong,” Dakota told Heather. “He craves an audience with Your Majesty. Should I tell him to appear at your weekly court or are you going to interrupt your busy schedule to meet this bird?”

  “Please tell me he didn’t try to petition Us in fake courtly language,” Heather demanded.

  “No that was me trying to pretty it up for him. It roils all the snark in me and raises it to the surface to talk to these people. I just want to scream at them instead of being polite. He also wants to know if he should bring his personal security or leave them at Armstrong.”

  “He may do as he pleases with them,” Heather said. “I doubt most people here will know him by sight much less care to harm him. I’d be surprised if any care to approach or engage him in conversation. Most of them have such low expectations of North America they wouldn’t see any point in it. Having them may make him less fearful and better able to pay attention to business. I’ll see him privately whenever he comes. I’d see him after court anyway, so it would be petty to make him wait two days and then sit through the petitions and complaints.”

  “I’ll tell him,” Dakota said and excused herself.

  * * *

  Lee followed Dionysus’ Chariot in Kurofune on a path that would take them past a minor gas giant into the outer fringes of the Derfhome system.

  “If you will kill your drive and go ballistic, I’ll put the drive on my nose grapple,” Lee requested.

  “Shouldn’t you have a companion for safety if you’re going EV?” Jeff asked. “I didn’t think to ask how you were going to do that. One of us can come help if you wish.”

  “How did you do it when your first drive was mounted that way?” Lee asked.

  “I had four drones with instrument packs. They worked together to push it on the grapple remotely. When I lost the drones, I had to go out and get it back in the hold manually. It wasn’t fun,” Jeff admitted. “It’s bad to be out there alone, but worse to both be outside with nobody to back you up in the ship.”

  “We have a temporary deployment system rigged to let me do it without going EV solo. There is a winch behind the grapple knuckle and a cable run from it back to the storage locker and wrapped around the grapple pin. The hatch is shimmed not to close completely and damage the cable. All I have to do is open the hatch and rotate the ship gently away from the drive. It will float out the hatch and drift away from the ship. I need to slowly turn the ship to keep it pointed at the drive and gently reel it in. It will give me a light on my board when the pin is close enough to grab. I think it will work,” Lee said. “It did in simulation after I got the hang of it.”

  “I like it,” Jeff said. “Everything is connected and you can’t lose them like happened with my drones for our first test.

  “If I don’t get carried away and rush it,” Lee said. “I could get it moving too fast and break the cable or fail to keep the ship pointed at it. If I rush reeling the cable in at the last, it could swing across the center line like a pendulum and smack the nose of the ship faster than I could turn the ship to avoid it. That happened a few times in sim.”

  “Take your time please,” Jeff said. “We aren’t on any schedule.”

  It was over a half-hour before Lee informed him the grapple was closed and a green light said it was locked.

  “I’m opening a computer port for remote operation,” Lee said. “Tell me when you have acquired it and have a live board. I want one of you to test it before I come across.”

  “We have a board that should mirror yours,” Jeff said. “April is going to align the Kurofune with us and roll it so your lock is facing us. Keep your hands off your board for a moment and let’s see how it works.”

  Born and Musical watched all this with intense interest but stayed silent.

  Lee made a dramatic show of her hands palms out by her shoulders. The ship rolled and then turned, careful separate motions until Dionysus’ Chariot showed out her right port.”

  “Does it show the drive menu?” Lee asked.

  “Everything,” April assured her. “It’s displaying system status for everything. I scrolled through it. Jeff pumped down the lock and will open the outer door, ready for you.”

  “Coming across then,” Lee said, closing her helmet and retreating to the lock.

  Everyone listened to the lock cycle and status lights told the same story on Jeff and April’s boards. Lee came forward and took her seat beside Musical in the second-tier seats, her faceplate open but her helmet on. April and Jeff were of the same risk-averse habit. Her board was live but Musical’s had only the screen active.

  Jeff was looking at Lee concerned.

  “Is your EV gear stowed where it will be safe if we maneuver?” Jeff worried. “You didn’t ask for a locker to stow it.”

  Lee blinked and looked confused.

  “This is my EV gear,” she said sweeping a hand do
wn her suit.

  “Do you have a reaction pistol or something?” Jeff persisted, eyes searching for one.

  “It was only fifty meters,” Lee said. “I just jumped.”

  “What happens if you miss?” Jeff asked. His voice had an odd edge to it.

  “I’d die of embarrassment if I could miss something the size of a lock opening at fifty meters,” Lee said. “Did you expect me to rig a line and come across hand over hand?”

  “I would, if I didn’t have a thruster pack,” Jeff admitted.

  “If I ever ask you to go EV for me I’ll rig one for you,” Lee promised.

  She didn’t say that unkindly. Her tone was entirely factual, not sarcastic. Still, Musical looked over his shoulder at Born and they silently locked eyes for a moment. They were learning all sorts of things. Lee was aware of her guys’ byplay but ignored it, moving right ahead with their test.

  “I’m moving the Kurofune off a kilometer laterally. I assume you want to start with a fairly short jump?” Lee said. “What is the lower limit for your unit to transition?”

  “Twelve percent power seems to be the lower limit of our current design,” Jeff told her. “Drop two-tenths of a percent under that and it’s a toss-up if it works or not. Three tenths and you know it won’t. I suspect it’s just the variations in the noise of our power supply that will trip the quantum limit or not. The minimum jump seems to be about twelve thousand kilometers but the increases are not linear. I suggest you start very low and work up a half percent each step. Set your board to orient the ship and direct a pulse back to us for ranging to join it.”

  Lee got a look of intense concentration and frowned.

  “If you have other thoughts on how to do it, I won’t take offense if you express them,” Jeff assured her.

  “It’s just the realization that if we lose the ship this is likely when it happens,” Lee said. “If I were piloting it and it ends up an unexpected distance or direction away, I could probably recover it by reversing the sequence. It’s hard to commit to doing this.”

  “You are much more valuable and irreplaceable than a starship,” April said.

  “If it vanishes, we’ll have learned a great deal and proceed from there,” Jeff said. “However, we’ll still have you.”

  “I’m probably worried more than usual. It was so expensive and the Claims Commission just cut off my cash flow,” Lee admitted. “The Kurofune is going to be vital to correcting that situation.”

  “My Lady, we have ships and can see to that if you are down to your last billion or two,” Jeff quipped. “Clear your mind of these secondary problems and give your full attention to the task at hand.”

  “Oh my God, you’re doing the honorific thing now too,” Lee said.

  “We discussed that,” April said. “We are bound to you several ways that make that proper.”

  Lee nodded and composed herself while Born and Musical did some more intense nonverbal communication.

  “Flip and ping macro set. Testing it here first,” Lee said, forging ahead.

  The Kurofune rolled over a half turn and emitted a weak radar pulse behind them.

  “I have it set on a five-degree cone,” Lee told them. “It has the emission characteristics of a heavy cruiser. I’ll set it back up to start at ten percent power. It will repeat at ten-minute intervals until it reaches full power unless I stop it. We don’t want the full power mode to hit us too closely. That should be safe and detectable at any reasonable distance. I’m aiming it back the same as us manually. The macro is thus undisturbed.

  “I’m starting the drive at two percent power and increasing it each time by a half percent. I’ll call them off as it proceeds.”

  At eight and a half percent power the Kurofune disappeared in a flash and a thump rattled Dionysus’ Chariot.

  Lee held her breath.

  “Ping,” Jeff said. “The time stamp on the ping indicates twelve-thousand-kilometer range. Too bad. I was hoping we might find a way to go shorter, but that seems to be the minimum for now.”

  “Typical quantum phenomenon,” Lee agreed. “Want to catch up and we’ll do two more short jumps to be able to roughly compare our settings. We can fill out a bunch of points on the full graph later.”

  “Anxious to test the big one?” April asked amused.

  “Yes. What is your transition threshold for an interstellar jump?” Lee asked.

  “Sixty-two percent power without any significant velocity or help from an external field,” Jeff said. “If you have velocity towards the target or a high negative potential it drops.”

  “What happens if you aim off where there is no significant known mass at high power?” Lee wondered.

  “Nobody has wanted to find out. Some suspect the few ships that disappeared and never reached their destination found out. If they had corrupted data or just a simple mechanical failure and were aimed wrong, they still went somewhere,” Jeff asserted.

  “Maybe,” April hedged. “Unless they are still suspended in an indeterminate state.”

  “Yes, the purgatory hypothesis,” Jeff said. “I’d rather not mix physics and theology.”

  “Why not? It’s a miracle every time it happens,” April averred. “Tell me it leaves you unmoved.”

  “It’s very moving,” Jeff said. That got a sharp look from April but she didn’t pursue whether he meant it literally and was toying with her.

  “We also have not tested what will happen if you aim to jump through a star,” Jeff told Lee. “With the abundance of special material you’ve brought us maybe we’ll be able to afford a test vehicle to find out what happens.”

  “OK, Doubling the power up to seventeen percent…”

  Jeff interrupted Lee.

  “I believe you’ll find that excessive. I suggest you go ten percent power.”

  “Thank you. Going to ten percent,” Lee corrected.

  That increase tripled the distance.

  “I see what you mean,” Lee said. “Another percent?”

  “Try just a half-percent,” Jeff suggested.

  That yielded a half-light hour and Lee would have been worried waiting for the return ping without Jeff and April being so calm. She didn’t even say anything to reveal her doubts until the signal came in. Jeff brought them back beside the Kurofune.

  “You don’t talk to your ship,” Lee said.

  That was obviously a complete non sequitur from the confusion on Jeff’s face.

  “It’s neither friend nor pet,” he said reasonably.

  “When I rode with Gabriel, he did most of the operations by voice with his AI, Dilbert. He even had the Cricket come to him at the Armstrong field on its own. It spoke with the controllers and they knew each other. It can do docking on its own perfectly well. He just spoke dealing with my people and when we landed at an unimproved field.”

  Jeff and April slowly looked at each other. April with a grimace and Jeff with frank horror.

  “Oh crap. I stuck my foot in it,” Lee realized. “He didn’t tell me it was a secret from you.”

  “The Cricket is his ship,” Jeff said. “He’s an adult and can do any bloody foolish thing he pleases.”

  “He knows you wouldn’t approve,” Lee guessed. “What little I saw of Gabriel said he avoids conflict.”

  “Indeed, he is of the ‘better to ask forgiveness than permission’ school,” April agreed. “It makes it difficult for me to trust him, but Heather trusts him. Until such a time as one of his hidden adventures ends in horrible failure, he’ll get away with it.”

  “And that event may be fatal, so we don’t have to worry about any future indiscretions,” Jeff predicted. “Though we may never know what it was if he just disappears.”

  “Those trips to New Japan,” April said cryptically, looking at Jeff again.

  “Yes, that’s where he had to get it,” Jeff agreed, understanding her reasoning. “I don’t think we have anyone who could produce that polished a product.”

  “We need to know much mo
re,” April said. “Now, when I deal with a New Japan ship, I will be aware I may not be dealing with a Human. I hate that sort of deception with social secretaries. This is worse since ships are life-critical.”

  “On the other hand, if New Japan has made real progress and it presented itself honestly as an AI, it might be useful in applications like drones,” Jeff said.

  “I never thought you’d abide them for anything,” April said.

  “I have yet to meet an AI I can’t confuse and get to say something stupid in just a few minutes,” Jeff said. “If I can do that it can be induced to make bad decisions as a pilot. Introduce me to one that can reason in any depth, and I’d accept it has limited uses.”

  “You can be a very difficult man,” Lee told him. “I can confuse most people and get them to say something totally silly in a few minutes. It seems to me you are demanding higher standards of the machine than people.”

  “She’s got you there,” April said.

  “I’ll consider that further,” Jeff promised. “We have to consider such things as agency and motivation. I’m not sure how you program those into an AI. Before you say it again, yes, I have problems with the higher functions in people too. I demand higher standards of a jump pilot than your average person. We need to look into this but for right now let’s get back to the question of going to Fargone. Are you ready?”

  “Yes, what setting do you think will work?” Lee asked.

  “Fifteen or twenty percent should suffice. It’s a decent sized star and not a long jump. Higher power will take you a little deeper in-system on arrival. Let’s jump on the same tick. I suggest you set your ship to turn and radiate a wider search pattern with shorter intervals between pings. If we have any trouble finding it, I have some drones that can spread out in a search pattern and listen for her.”