Spindrift (54 page)

“You may release the controls.” Jas looked back at her. “Your craft will take you there on its own.”

Emily looked at Harker. He silently nodded, and she removed her hands from the yoke. On its own, the shuttle moved away from the giant station, its prow lifting upward and out, until she saw that it was aligned with a tiny silver ring that hovered a short distance away.

Another starbridge, identical to the one
Galileo
had found in orbit above Spindrift. As the
Maria Celeste
hurtled toward it, Emily instinctively grasped the armrests of her seat. “What do I do now?”

“You do nothing.” The
hjadd's
voice was calm. “You'll soon be where you should be.”

She was about to say something when the ring's interior lit with a cold blue fire. Emily had just enough time to grab Ted's hand, then…

JANUARY 18, 2344—47 URSAE MAJORIS

…T
hey were through the starbridge.

The second time wasn't nearly as grueling as the first. Although Harker was careful to close his eyes just before the
Maria Celeste
entered hyperspace, nonetheless he caught the brilliant flash of transition. Yet there was none of the violence he had experienced aboard the
Galileo
when it passed through KX-1; a brief moment of vertigo, as if the shuttle were executing a barrel roll, then everything was calm.

Opening his eyes, he took a deep breath. Through the cockpit windows, nothing but stars.
Talus qua'spah
had disappeared, but there was no clear indication of where they'd emerged. Emily was still holding tight to his hand, but already she was beginning to stir. Looking over at him, she gave him a wary smile.

“That's it?” she murmured. “That's all?”

“Guess so.” He gently released her hand. “Maybe we're getting used to this.”

“Forgive me for the sin of pride,” Jas said, hisher voice coming to them from behind Emily, “but our hyperspace technology is more sophisticated than your own.” Another stuttering hiss that Harker had learned to recognize as the
hjadd
equivalent of a chuckle. “We have been doing this for quite some time now.”

Harker craned his neck to look back at Jas. The
hjadd
sat calmly in hisher seat; as before, Harker saw only a distorted reflection of himself in hisher helmet visor. For some reason, he found that irritating. “If you're so confident,” he asked, “then why…?”

“Hold on,” Emily said. “Picking up something on the com.”

Clasping her right hand against her headset, she reached up to the communications panel to adjust the frequency. “Please repeat,” she said. “Not clear.”

Harker reached up to his own headset, only to find that it had fallen down around his neck. He pulled it back in place in time to hear a male voice, fuzzed slightly by static: “
…to unidentified spacecraft, do you copy? Please identify yourself. Repeat, this is Starbridge Coyote to unidentified spacecraft. Please respond and identify yourself.
”

“We copy, Starbridge Coyote.” Emily's eyes widened. “This is…”

“Let me handle this.” Emily gave him an irritated glance, then apparently remembered that, even though she was the pilot, Harker was still the senior officer aboard. She nodded, and Harker touched his headset wand. “Starbridge Coyote, this is European Alliance shuttle
Maria Celeste
. Do you copy?”

As he spoke, he turned to gaze through the window to his right. Just off the shuttle's starboard wing, he spotted a silver ring: the starbridge through which they had just emerged. About ten kilometers away, he caught a glimpse of a spindle-shaped object that faintly resembled the
Galileo
, although without the torus of its diametric drive. The gatehouse, no doubt.

“They're never going to believe this,” Ramirez murmured behind him.

“Quiet.” Yet Harker exchanged another glance with Emily. What if he was right? Nothing they could do about it, though, except try to be persuasive. “Repeat,” Harker said, “this is EAS
Maria Celeste
, responding to…”

“
We copy, unidentified craft.
” A different voice now, older and more authoritative. “
We have no knowledge of any EAS starships called
Maria Celeste.
Supply proper registry number at once.
”

“Told you so,” Ramirez said.

“Oh, for the love of…” Impatient, Emily reactivated her mike. “Starbridge Coyote, this is EAS
Maria Celeste
, registry Alpha Romeo One-One-Nine-Two-Beta, an Ares-class shuttle belonging to EASS
Galileo
, registry Alpha Romeo One-One-Nine-Two-Alpha. Lieutenant Collins, Emily Anne, responding as pilot, with Commander Harker, Theodore Edward, responding as commanding officer. Check your database, or go read a history…”

“Cut it out.” Harker reached over to jab the lobe of Emily's headset, rendering it inactive. “For all they know, this could be some sort of prank. We can't…”

“Commander? Lieutenant?” Ramirez was becoming annoyingly persistent. “Hate to interrupt, but you may want to notice where we are.”

Turning to look back at him, Harker started to tell Ramirez to shut up, but Emily's startled gasp caused him to glance instead at the cockpit windows. And suddenly, everything changed.

While they'd been arguing, the shuttle's prow had slowly drifted on its own accord. Where once had been only a starfield lay an immense planet. A gas giant, banded by swatches of light blue and purple, surrounded by a vast and elegant silver-gold ring that cast a dark, narrow shadow upon the cloud layers far below.

47 Ursae Majoris-B, also known as Bear. Harker stared at it in wonder, forgetting his quarrel with Emily. Just beyond the ring, glowing in the mellow light reflected by Bear from the system's distant sun, lay the jovian's family of satellites. Even though he'd never seen them before, he knew their names from the ESA database. Dog, Hawk, Eagle, Snake, Goat…

And largest and brightest among them, Coyote.

He was still staring through the cockpit windows when the voice of Starbridge Coyote came through his headset. “
Roger that,
Maria Celeste.
We have you confirmed. We…
” A moment passed. “
Never mind. Wherever you've been, welcome home.
”

Emily reactivated her headset. “Thank you, Starbridge Coyote. We're glad to be back, too.”

Perhaps this wasn't home, not exactly, yet the sound of another human voice was all that mattered. Harker let out his breath, then tapped his mike. “This is Commander Harker. Please give us proper landing coordinates, if you will.”

 

Under normal circumstances, the transit to Coyote would have taken at least ten hours. The
hjadd
drive slashed this time to less than two. Yet there was no sensation of acceleration; even as the shuttle hurtled through space, everyone aboard remained comfortable, as if the
Maria Celeste
possessed its own Millis-Clement field generator that negated the tremendous g force they should have been experiencing.

Harker tried to discuss this with Jas, but heshe had become silent since leaving Starbridge Coyote. Sealed within hisher environment suit, heshe refused to answer all but the most obvious questions. Apparently Jas was reluctant to divulge any further details about
hjadd
technology than was absolutely necessary. After a while, Harker gave up; settling back in his seat, he watched as Coyote steadily grew closer.

They were little more than an hour away from touchdown, with Coyote now a planet-size moon whose mottled green surface was crisscrossed with a complex pattern of blue river channels, when the com channel came alive again. “Maria Celeste,
this is Liberty Communications, Coyote Federation.
” The voice was male, speaking in Anglo. “
Do you copy? Over.
”

Sitting up straight, Harker glanced over at Emily. Her hands remained on the yoke—she'd refused to switch to autopilot, even though Jas had told her that it was safe to do so—yet her eyes met his own. “Coyote Federation?” she asked. “Liberty Communications?”

“Damned if I know.” Harker shook his head. They'd learned little from their earlier exchange with the gatehouse. “Fifty-six years…they must have some sort of government going on down there that we…”

“Maria Celeste,
this is Liberty Communications, Coyote Federation.
” The voice became more insistent. “
Do you…?
”

Harker touched his mike. “We copy,” he said. “With whom am I speaking, please?”

“That's rather rude, don't you think?” Ramirez bent forward from his seat behind them. “After all, we're…”

He was interrupted by a new voice, female this time: “Maria Celeste,
this is President Wendy Gunther of the Coyote Federation. Would you please identify yourself?
”

“Like you said before,” Emily murmured. “They've heard we're coming…but they still don't believe us.”

“Hush. Both of you.” Harker tapped his mike again. “Theodore Harker, first officer of the EAS
Galileo
. Never heard of the Coyote Federation, ma'am, but all the same we're glad to hear you.”

A long pause, during which Harker took a moment to gaze through the window. Coyote lay half in shadow, yet even from this distance he could make out lights here and there. He reached forward to punch up the nav display on the main comp screen; the coordinates they had been given corresponded with a location just north of the equator, near the place where daylight was beginning to fade. Late afternoon down there; he didn't want to land at night if they didn't need to do so.

“I think they're trying to make up their minds about us,” Emily said. “Ted…?”

“Right.” Time to be a little more persuasive. Harker touched his mike. “Liberty, do you read?” he asked, and didn't wait for a response. “We know this must be a surprise to you, but we're coming in fast, and we'd like to know where we can land. Assuming we have your permission, of course.”

Again, no immediate response. “They must be really confused,” Ramirez said, no longer as sarcastic as he'd been before. “Don't count on a warm reception.”

Harker nodded reluctantly. Although they'd picked up telemetry from weather and communications satellites during their approach, there was no sign of either the
Alabama
or any of the Union Astronautica starships subsequently sent by the Western Hemisphere Union. Yet the starbridge was a clear indication that the European Alliance already had a presence here. No telling what the political situation was like down there, but if they had to…

“
Affirmative, Mr. Harker.
” President Gunther's voice came back online. “
You have permission to land. We're dispatching a craft to escort you to a nearby landing site.
”

“It may not be safe for them to do so.” Jas abruptly broke hisher silence. “The field generated by our drive will cause problems with their vessel if it comes too close to us.”

Now you tell us
, Harker thought. On the other hand, he seriously doubted that President Gunther or the Coyote Federation would allow a suspicious craft to enter their airspace unescorted. “We appreciate that, Liberty,” he replied. “However, please advise your craft to maintain safe distance. Our drive may interfere with their control systems if they come too close.”

“They're going to love that,” Ramirez said.

“They're going to have to.” The last thing Harker wanted was a crash caused by
hjadd
drive. He looked back at Jas. “Thanks for the warning.”

The
hjadd
had barely lifted a hand in acknowledgment when President Gunther's voice returned. “
We copy,
Maria Celeste,
and we'll take that under advisement.
” An uncertain pause. “
Mr. Harker, the
Galileo
has been missing for a very long time. Where is it? And where are you coming from?
”

“Here it comes.” Emily's mouth tightened. “The first of many, many questions.”

“Tell me about it.” Harker sank back in his seat. Simple and obvious questions, yet none with any simple or obvious answers. So much had happened in what subjectively seemed to be a short span of time, and yet he had to remember that fifty-six years had gone by since anyone had heard from the
Galileo
. Sooner or later, he would have to face a board of inquiry, account for not only his actions, but also those of others that were beyond his control.

Damn you, Ian
, he thought.
You should have never been in command. If it hadn't been for you…

“Ted?” Emily's quiet voice broke through his reverie. “You need to say something.”

He sighed, sat up straight again. “The
Galileo
has been destroyed, along with its crew, including the captain,” he said, prodding his mike. “Only three survivors, myself included. We made the jump from HD 143761, Rho Coronae Borealis…”

Feeling his voice grow tight, he paused to swallow. Suddenly, the last thing he wanted to do was to explain to anyone what he and his crew had just been through. “We're very tired, and we'd just like to land. We'll explain everything once we're on the ground. ETA”—he glanced at Emily, and she held up a finger—“um, about an hour or so from now.
Maria Celeste
, over and out.”