Orache was indignant. ‘I’m still planning on being aboard my ship.’
‘Me too,’ said Charlock.
‘Ships can be replaced,’ Galingale responded. ‘The least of us is worth more than any ship.’
‘And if this fails?’ Betony asked. ‘If we lose three ships, where does that leave us?’
‘My ship has the best chance of closing the gap,’ Galingale said. ‘I also have armour and weapons the equal of anything else in the pursuit squadron. I’ll be the next to go, if it comes to that.’ He smiled tightly. ‘You can be sure that I’m making this suggestion with a full appreciation of the consequences.’
‘If you go in, we all go in,’ I said.
‘That’s very noble of you, Campion, but we have to think of the Line - too much selfless bravery, too many heroic gestures, and there won’t be a Line. To survive, we have to indulge in a little tactical cowardice.’ Galingale smiled again - it was the smile of a man who did not place a high premium on his chances of seeing out another circuit. ‘I’m not the bravest of men. None of us are natural cowards, of course, but we all have a healthy sense of self-preservation. Nonetheless, I have the fastest ship, so I am obliged to use her in the way that best benefits the Line.’
‘You do nothing until we’ve closed the distance with the first three ships,’ Betony said. ‘Even then, no action is to be taken unilaterally.’
‘So it’s decided, then?’ Orache asked. ‘Our ships become expendable?’
‘Better them than you,’ Betony said, his tone of voice letting us all know that he considered the matter closed. ‘We’ve held at a thousand gees since leaving Neume. Is there anyone who isn’t prepared to increase to twelve hundred, as an emergency measure?’
None of us answered immediately; we all knew that we would be pushing our ships harder than we ever had before. Even if the engines held, we would be at the mercy of inertia nullifiers operating well outside their normal regime. There was a slow exchange of glances, a shared sense that we were in this together, prepared to shoulder a collective risk.
‘I’ll do it,’ I said.
‘We’ll all do it,’ Charlock said. ‘All or nothing, the Gentian way.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Hesperus turned from the console aboard my shuttle and shook his magnificent golden head. ‘It isn’t good, Purslane.’
‘Could the shuttle have been damaged when we tried to escape?’
‘I doubt that there is anything at fault with either the sending or receiving apparatus. Most likely,
Silver Wings
is blocking her signals, or obstructing the return signal from Neume or from the ships that we may be certain are following us.’
‘It’s just a shuttle,’ I said, wondering how he could be sure that we were being pursued. We could not have been under way for more than three hours, by my reckoning. The Line took that long to have breakfast sometimes. ‘Nobody ever imagined it would need to send a signal across more than a few seconds, or through another ship’s drive field,’ I said, gloom rising in me like a black tide.
Nothing was going to daunt my companion. ‘I asked you to give some thought to moving to one of the other craft, if it could serve us better either as a place of sanctuary or a means of escape. Have you made a shortlist?’
Tiredness was beginning to dull my thoughts. It was still only early evening by Neume time, but I felt as if I had lived through several days since the robots’ takeover. ‘There are some possibilities.’
Hesperus crossed his massive gold arms. ‘Good. Tell me about them.’
‘There’s a ship about two kilometres up-bay, back in the direction we came from.’
‘So even further from the door?’
‘Afraid so. But I’ve thought about all the ships in the bay and this is the one I keep coming back to. It’s as if it’s telling me to take shelter inside.’
‘Can it keep us alive indefinitely?’
‘It’s an old ark, built by nascents. Some other civilisation found it drifting and refitted it with a stardrive and a few other bits and pieces. It should be able to send a signal beyond
Silver Wings.
It’ll have power and functioning makers.’
‘Abeyance devices?’
‘I think so.’
‘You think so.’
‘I’m trying my best, Hesperus. It’s been a while since I was last inside, but yes, there should be caskets - something I can use, anyway. I don’t know about you.’
‘I’ll manage. We should leave now, before Cadence and Cascade turn their minds to us. Is there a maker inside this shuttle?’
‘Only a small one. What were you thinking of?’
‘I was hoping we might be able to make you a spacesuit, assuming there isn’t one already aboard.’
‘A spacesuit?’
‘You may need one. We can’t whisk to the other ship, and we can’t count on the presence of air in your cargo bay.’
I blinked hard. ‘I can’t remember the last time I wore a spacesuit. No, wait ... I got into one when I visited the Vigilance—’
‘That was Campion, if I’m not mistaken.’
‘Memory bleed. No, the maker won’t be able to help us - it would have to assemble the suit in pieces. There might be one tucked away in the back hold, I suppose.’
‘Do you consider it likely?’
‘Not at all. A ship like this, you’d only ever need a spacesuit once in a million years.’
‘Welcome to that moment. Go and look for a suit, but only spend two minutes doing so. If you haven’t found one by then, we leave anyway.’
I went and looked, but in my hearts of hearts I knew it was hopeless. This ship had logged billions of hours of safe flight without ever putting its passengers in the embarrassing position of needing spacesuits.
‘Once we are in the ark,’ Hesperus said, ‘it may be problematic to return here. Let us be certain that we are leaving behind nothing of value; nothing that can’t be fabricated by the ark’s makers.’
‘There isn’t anything. We don’t even have an energy-pistol to our name.’
‘Then we leave now. Give me explicit directions to the ship in question. Describe it well, and describe the boarding procedure.’
I did as I was asked. Hesperus nodded slowly. ‘Yes. I remember passing that ship as we attempted our escape. There was a door thirty-eight metres from the bow. Are you certain it will permit me to enter?’
‘There are no security seals in place. Why should there be? We’re on my ship.’
‘It was necessary to ask.’ Hesperus returned his attention to the console. ‘Go to the door and wait for me. I will be with you in a moment.’
‘What are you doing?’ I asked, as his hands worked the controls again.
‘I am increasing power to the drive.’
I felt the shuttle buck in its restraints. ‘We tried that. It didn’t work.’
‘I’ll explain when we’re on our way. There isn’t time now.’
By the time I had lowered the ramp and made my way to the docking catwalk, Hesperus was done. I could hear the warning alarm sounding from the console. The shuttle was straining, but going nowhere.
‘What did you just do?’
He strode down the ramp and palmed the control to retract it back into the shuttle and seal it from the outside. ‘Let me carry you. The quicker we reach the ark, the better. We are almost certainly being observed.’
‘This does nothing for my dignity.’
‘That makes two of us.’ Hesperus cradled me and accelerated quickly into his superhuman sprint, heading in the direction of the ark. His legs became a blur of gold, but the ride was as smooth as if we were levitating.
‘Hesperus, what did you do to the engine?’
‘As I have already mentioned, we are almost certainly being pursued. The shuttle’s motor is now working against
Silver Wings’
parametric engine, causing a tiny decrease in drive efficiency.’
‘You’re right - it’s tiny. That’s like trying to slow down an ocean liner by dipping a twig in the water.’
‘Nonetheless, we have many twigs.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘The bay is full of ships. When we are safely aboard the ark, I shall endeavour to turn on as many engines as possible. Even if I am only able to activate a few, it may negate
Silver Wings’
drive efficiency by as much as one or two per cent.’
‘That’s not going to make Cadence and Cascade very happy.’
‘And if I could think of something to make them even less happy, I would do it.’ Hesperus paused, then said, ‘Oh dear.’
“‘Oh dear” what?’
‘I just detected a micro-change in the air pressure.’
I looked behind him, back the way we had come. The bay door was beginning to open again, inching upward to reveal a narrow crack of interstellar space.
‘The pressure curtain—’ I said.
‘They’ve deactivated it. Take a series of deep breaths, Purslane. I believe we are about to lose our atmosphere.’
The squall hit us a moment later with the force of nearly fifty cubic kilometres of air draining into vacuum. A noise that began quietly and distantly gradually increased in power until it was the sound of the universe being torn in two.
We still had at least a kilometre to go. I tried to speak, but I could not hear my own voice above the howl of the escaping air. Hesperus cradled me tighter and contracted his upper body around me, his legs seeming to move even faster. The gale became a solid wall of resistance, one that would have swept me into space had I not been anchored to Hesperus. I had no idea how he was keeping himself from being blown away - his feet must have been binding themselves to the catwalk with every tread.
From somewhere in the distance I heard a sound that, as impossible as it seemed, was even louder than the wind’s roar. Through slitted eyes I saw one of my ships tumbling towards us, torn loose from its moorings. It was wheeling end over end, smashing into the larger vehicles which were still anchored. It was only a runabout, but it would pulverise us if it came our way. Just as I was thinking that, the loose ship jarred another one and sent that drifting, picking up speed as the wind tugged at its hull. The runabout dashed itself against the hull of an Eleventh Intercessionary scow, shattering like an old-boned carcass. Something came spinning towards us out of the wreck. I turned my head instinctively, as if that would do the slightest good. Hesperus let go of me with one arm, taking my full weight with the other, and I saw a flash of gold as he batted aside the spinning object. The remains of the runabout tumbled past, followed by the second ship it had knocked loose. I turned back in time to see the wreckage slip through the open door, and then I had to close my eyes against the stinging wind. I took another breath, and the air was thinner and colder than it had been before. The chamber was emptying itself even faster, as the door opened to its fullest extent. Then I took another breath and my lungs closed on nothing, like a fist reaching for a handhold that was no longer there.
I must have blacked out, although I do not remember the slide into unconsciousness. But when I came around, Hesperus was kneeling over me and we were somewhere warm and white and silent, somewhere with gravity, and I could breathe.
‘We are in the ark. You lost consciousness, but I do not think any great damage was done. Do you feel all right?’
‘No.’
‘Perhaps that was not the best way to phrase the question.’
‘I’ll mend. How long was I out?’
‘A few minutes, but you were only without air for ninety seconds. I was able to work the door as you instructed.’ Hesperus patted the white wall behind him. ‘You chose well, Purslane. This ship will serve as our sanctuary, for now at least.’
He helped me stand, his hands as gentle as a lover’s.
‘Are we all right now?’
‘The ark has brought itself to life, so there is definitely power. All indications suggest that there is now a hard vacuum beyond the door. The rest will be revealed once you have shown me to the control centre.’
‘I think the bridge is this way,’ I said, indicating a passageway.
‘Then lead on.’
We walked through the ark, taking twisting and turning white corridors until we reached the dome-shaped bulge above her whale-like bows where the bridge was situated. Along the way we passed the ancient galleries that would once have held sleepers, ranked row upon row like stone figurines on a cathedral wall. Now all that remained were the coffin-shaped alcoves where the sleeper equipment had once fitted. The civilisation that had converted the ark - nearly as forgotten as the one that had made the ship in the first place - had intended the galleries to be used for freight or recreation, widening the doors accordingly. Other galleries had been filled with the elephantine machinery of the ark’s stardrive and associated systems, which filled fully a third of the available volume. I could not remember whether her remaining cargo holds were empty, or crammed with more of my junk.
The bridge was a circular room with a low, dish-shaped ceiling. Padded, lounge-like seats in white leather surrounded a circular command core, with a transparent display sphere poised above it. Branching white control stalks emerged from the core, ending in squeezable bulbs or delicate, trigger-like grips. Illumination was provided by floating baubles. There were no windows - the walls were blank except for patterns stencilled in pale lilac. Almost everything in the room was white, with an almost total absence of shadows or contrast.
‘Do you mind?’ Hesperus asked, gesturing to one of the waiting seats.
‘Go ahead. See what you can find out.’
I stood behind him as he settled into the seat and took the controls. Almost immediately, portions of the white floor folded upwards to form display panels, bending and tilting to present themselves to Hesperus. Acres of dense red text and diagrams flowed obligingly into place. The language was a fussy series of squared-off pictograms.
‘Ring any bells?’ I asked warily.
‘I’ve seen it before. It’ll just take a moment to retrieve the translation filters from deep memory.’