Neptune Crossing (The Chaos Chronicles) (38 page)

And, he realized suddenly, they were still tethered.

"Station! Get those tethers freed!" he snapped.

"BANDICUT, STOP NOW BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!" squawked the comm. "WHATEVER'S WRONG, TALK TO US! YOU'RE GOING TO KILL YOURSELF DOING THIS!" There were some rustling sounds, then the voice added, "IF YOU TELL US WHAT YOU WANT, MAYBE WE CAN HELP YOU."

"You can help me by not interfering."

"PLEASE—"

"Cut those tethers!"

"WAIT—BANDICUT—WE'VE GOT SOMEONE HERE WHO WANTS TO TALK TO YOU. WE'RE PATCHING HIM IN NOW."

"Forget it—" he said, but a familiar voice was already booming out of the comm. It was Krackey, from Triton.

"BANDIE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? I
THOUGHT
SOMETHING WAS WRONG, THIS MORNING! THIS IS CRAZY, MAN. THERE'S
NO PLACE FOR YOU TO GO!
"

"I'm going to save Earth," Bandicut muttered.

"
WHAT? SAY AGAIN?
BANDIE, IS THIS ANOTHER GODDAMN SILENCE-FUGUE? DAMN IT TO HELL, I
KNEW
WE SHOULD HAVE TOLD SOMEONE ABOUT THOSE! BANDIE, CALL THIS OFF BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!" Krackey sounded frantic, as if he were about to burst into tears.

Bandicut drew a deep breath. "Krackey, I'm not in fugue, and I'm not crazy. At least I don't think so. I want you to watch my trajectory—all the way—" his voice caught "—across the solar system."

"BANDIE!" Krackey wailed. "THAT'S JUST CRAZY! PLEASE, IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO SHUT DOWN!"

Bandicut grunted. He wanted to turn off the comm, but couldn't bring himself to do it. "Krackey," he said, "talk to Julie Stone, tomorrow! I've explained everything in a letter to her! About the alien artifact and everything else. She'll get it tomorrow. Tell her I said it was all right to show it to you." His voice was starting to tremble; he clamped his mouth shut.

"JULIE STONE? ALIEN ARTIFACT? WHAT THE HELL—? WAIT, BANDIE—JUST WAIT A MINUTE—LET ME GET HER PATCHED IN FOR YOU!"

Bandicut shuddered, closing his eyes. He opened them again. "It's too late. I have no time to argue, Krackey. I hope I'll see you again, but if I don't—just trust me." His voice became harsh. "Station, damn it—CUT THOSE LINES! I am about to fire thrusters."

He saw a series of flashes along the station's mooring points, and the cut tether lines began drifting toward the ship. He suddenly realized that
Neptune Explorer
probably had releases of its own. He searched for the software control, found it, and fired the tethers loose on his end, as well. The lines writhed like snakes in the open space between the ship and station.

"AW, MAN—!" he heard Krackey mutter, then a click as that connection was broken off.

The chambers were ready to fuse hydrogen. He had only to feed it, as soon as they were a safe distance from the station. "Everyone clear. I'm about to fire thrusters."

"BANDICUT, WAIT!" cried a panicked voice. "WE'VE STILL GOT A MAN OUT THERE."

He cursed and held off thruster ignition. "You've got one minute," he warned, checking the monitors. If their man was already aboard, he might be stupidly giving them the time they needed to stop him. He looked up from the controls, mind still mostly in the neurolink—and nearly jumped out of his seat. A man in a spacesuit was hovering directly in front of him, staring in through the maneuvering window. It was Jensen, and he was waving angrily.

"JENSEN, GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE!" called the voice from the station.

"NEGATIVE. HE'S GOING TO HAVE TO GO RIGHT THROUGH ME. I DON'T THINK HE'LL DO IT."

"CHRIST, JENSEN—THE MAN'S INSANE!"

"Thirty seconds," Bandicut murmured aloud. He gestured with an angry hook of his thumb, wondering what he would do if Jensen refused to move. He snapped his visor shut, thinking, I don't want to hurt him—but I also don't want him crashing through that window...

"BANDICUT, WE'RE TRYING TO GET JULIE STONE PATCHED IN!"

Don't,
he whispered silently. Please.

/// Pop the thrusters backward. ///

/Huh?/ Then he realized what the quarx meant. He gave the forward-pointing thrusters a half-second burst. The ship began moving backward, away from the suited figure—and toward the station, stern-first. "TEN SECONDS!" he yelled.

Still, Jensen didn't move clear. He jetted toward the window again.

/// Give me a few joules of power

in fusion chamber four.

ONLY number four! ///

/But Charlie—the station!/ He was going to have to thrust forward in a few seconds to avoid colliding with the station, Jensen or no Jensen.

/// Let me try it.

I won't harm the station. ///

He fed chamber four a tiny squirt of fuel. In the rear monitors, he saw a great bloom of light. The ship began to glide forward, toward Jensen. The entire station behind the ship appeared to be on fire.

"JESUSGODALMIGHTY—!"

The comm circuit was filled with panicked outcries and static.

/What have we just done, Charlie?/

/// Very little. Trust me. ///

In front of the ship, Jensen was turning frantically. He lit his thrusters and fled sideways, away from the ship.
Neptune Exlorer
continued moving, but the blaze of light died away, and Bandicut took control with the maneuvering thrusters. They were moving not quite parallel to a wing of the station, at close quarters—and closing. He had to fire a burst or they'd collide.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
The ship stopped closing with the station. In one of the monitors, he saw Jensen tumbling away, caught by a thruster blast. He cursed, but there was nothing he could do except get farther from the station.

/// Wait!

Open the airlock.

Maintain this distance

until we pass that hangar up ahead. ///

Bandicut obeyed, terrified that armed men would leap across into the airlock—even though he knew that they were moving fast enough relative to the station to make that unlikely. He pointed one of the external cameras toward the hangar at the end of the station—and was unnerved to see two small figures spring away from the hangar, into space. They didn't appear human.

/// There they are.

As soon as they're aboard— ///

/Who are they?/ he demanded. /Quit screwing around with me, Charlie!/ The tiny figures were drawing close enough now to see with magnification, and he felt a flutter of astonishment as he recognized them. He'd half expected them to be aliens.

/// Napoleon and Copernicus.

I programmed them to respond to a

priority call from us. ///

/But we didn't send any call—/

/// Yes, we did—

in the datanet, last night.

I didn't want to make a big deal of it.

But they came up on the shuttle with us. ///

/Why?/ Bandicut whispered.

/// Allies.

You never know what we'll need help with.

They're good workers. ///

Bandicut couldn't think what to say. If Charlie had told him about this earlier, he probably would have protested that he didn't need to steal any more property.

/// Okay, they're in.

Let's close the airlock and move away,

before anyone else

decides to come after you. ///

Swallowing, Bandicut gave a long maneuvering burst on the thrusters. The ship passed the hangar, and then the entire station was behind them, slowly receding. /Charlie,/ he asked, painfully aware of the tightness in his chest. /What happened back there, a minute ago—when I lit the fusion chambers?/

/// You mean the light show? ///

/Light show? It looked like we were incinerating the station! What kind of radiation were we throwing back at them?/

/// Visible light only, John.

The stone converted your fusion output,

mostly for dramatic effect—

 plus enough spatial translation to slip us forward

through the continuum.

They might have felt some ripple-tremors behind us,

but mostly I expect they just wondered

what the hell happened. ///

Oh, Bandicut thought. /What about Jensen? We hit him with a thruster./

The quarx was silent for a moment.

/// I don't know, John. ///

Bandicut nodded unhappily. He realized that the comm circuit had been turned down to a murmur. Had he unconsciously done that, to avoid distraction?

/// I believe there are some tugs chasing us.

I think it's time we powered up

for the long haul. ///

Bandicut hesitated, reluctant to take the final steps. Before he could respond, he heard a muted yell to him on the comm, and he raised the volume again.

"BANDICUT, ARE YOU LISTENING? WE'VE GOT JULIE STONE PATCHED IN. WILL YOU TALK TO HER?"

His heart seemed to fill his throat. Julie? Now? Please, God, don't make me go through this...

"JOHN, THIS IS JULIE!" He could tell at once that she was trying hard not to cry. He closed his eyes, imagining how she must have felt when told what he was doing. "JOHN, PLEASE TALK TO ME!"

Julie, please—what can I say? he whispered soundlessly.

"I'VE READ YOUR LETTER—"

His eyes blinked open. "Julie? You've—read—"

Her voice quickened at his response. "YOUR FRIEND—GORDON KRACKING—BROKE IT OUT OF STORAGE FOR ME TO READ. JOHN, I—I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY, THIS IS CRAZ—IT'S—"

I know...

"IT'S...INCREDIBLE, IT'S...I DON'T KNOW..."

"What to say?" he whispered, supplying words to her faltering voice. He tried to make his own voice strong. "Julie, I know what you're thinking," he croaked. He tried again, and this time his voice held. "Julie, every word of that letter is true! The artifact...the alien...the comet...the danger to Earth..."

"JOHN, I...BELIEVE YOU." Her voice was full of doubt. "BUT YOU CAN'T JUST...HIJACK A SHIP!"

His eyes were starting to well with tears. "I can't
not
do it, Julie! Do you think I want to? I know you can't believe me—not really—not until you find the artifact yourselves."

/// Or until they see what this ship can do— ///

He blinked the tears from his eyes. "Or—the alien tells me—" he said huskily, over the sound of Julie struggling to find words, "until you see what this ship...can do..."

/// —when we start threading space. ///

"...when we start threading space."

For a few moments, there was no answer, but several rasps of static—probably the result of someone cutting Julie in and out of the connection while they argued over who should talk to him.

/// We've got to accelerate.

Those tugs are gaining on us. ///

/Yeah./ He gave the thrusters a blast to increase their velocity away from the station. "Julie—?"

"JOHN," Julie called, her voice barely holding together. "IF IT'S REALLY TRUE...AND I WANT TO BELIEVE YOU, THAT IT IS...CAN'T YOU WAIT JUST A FEW MINUTES LONGER, SO WE CAN TALK? SO YOU CAN EXPLAIN?"

He closed his eyes again, squeezing them shut. No, Julie, I can't. And I'm so sorry, more than I can tell you. He cleared his throat, several times. "Julie, I—I wish I could. But I have to go—
now
. Please trust me. This must be...done. I hope you'll see why." He swallowed with difficulty. "Good...bye, Julie."

He shifted his thoughts inward. /
Do
something, damn it!/

/// Give me a squirt of fuel. ///

He touched a control and watched in the monitor. The station, and the pursuing tugs, receded at an impossible rate. He felt no sense of physical acceleration. His heart had not stopped pounding yet. He wasn't sure it ever would.

/// Okay, that's enough simple translation.

Let's pour it on, John.

We have a long way to go. ///

"JOHN? WHAT'S HAPPENING?" whispered Julie.

Unable to breathe or speak, he opened the flow to chamber four, trusting the quarx to know what he was doing. In the rear monitor, he saw a sunburst of concentric colors expanding outward: white in the center, radiating to blue, to green, yellow, orange, and deep red on the outside. For a few seconds, he couldn't see the station at all. Then the quarx pointed it out—a tiny point of light, vanishing behind the horizon of a shrinking, orange-grey disk of Triton. /Charlie? How are we—?/

/// We're threading space, man.

Say good-bye to Neptune. ///

His heart almost stopped as he realized that the great blue ball of Neptune was also shrinking visibly, and with frightening speed. He could not tear his eyes from it. He wondered what the people on the station had seen, what they thought now. What Julie thought. He imagined a choir of voices...he felt his thoughts spinning toward silence-fugue. He felt the quarx putting the brakes on the process.

/// Stop it, John!

Just say good-bye.

Think of what's ahead.

Think positively. ///

He could not breathe, could not swallow. /Good-bye, Neptune. Good-bye, Triton,/ he whispered. /Good-bye, Julie./ And after a moment: /Good-bye, life./

Chapter 28

Sunward Bound

A half hour later, Charlie announced that the course was set, he'd confirmed their trajectory via one last linkup with the translator back on Triton, and Bandicut could relax. Relax? Bandicut watched the white diamond in his right wrist flicker one last time. The black one on the left had throbbed with heat during the linkup. Other than that, he had felt nothing. But he stared at the stones suspiciously, rubbing his wrists.

/// They're intelligence and communications

accessories.

We're passing out of range of the translator,