"All clear?" "All clear, mates," Bruce's voice responded fromFeynman. "Got clear images comin' in from all the Beholders in range, too. Includin' the one you put on the long orbit, A.J."
"Thanks, Bruce. I think we'll appreciate the long view if this thing works." "All right, Bruce," Jackie said, voice somewhat tense. "We're in orbit around Ceres right now at an average altitude of fifteen hundred kilometers. I'm going to have Joe and A.J. try to kick in the drive as we start coming around in the direction away from the sun. If it works, we'll be able to accelerate for about half of each orbit and break free into the outer system pretty fast. A few orbits will do it.
If it doesn't work, no major problem. Eventually, we'll haveFeynman drag us back in." "Right, just as planned. How are the control systems looking? You got out all right, but is the geometry set?" "Very good, actually. We can keep even this much water liquid with the waste heat from the reactor and the insulation we already have, and that allows us to use the water as a sort of balancing agent. We can move it around in response to minor changes of the center of mass during acceleration. Lots of calculations involved, but the design models seem to be working out." "Good. So, how's your feeling on running her dry out near Jupiter or Saturn, then?" Jackie gave a strained laugh.
"Not totally relaxed about it, but I feel a lot better than I did. All the other systems are working well. We do have auxiliary radiation shielding set up just in case, but Larry and Joe assure me the dusty-plasma drive should shield us pretty well. We've got all the food you could spare, entertainment stuff to keep us from getting bored, and all the equipment we could squeeze out of the research staff. According to Madeline, Nicholas has promised that he'll getNike out here with another reactor as soon as possible, no matter how many favors he has to call in, assuming this thing works." A blinking light showed at the edge of her vision. "A.J.'s just signaled. Coming up on sail deployment." The screen showed a view of the long, tri-ridged alien vessel, tentacular sail-control vanes extending from the midline, four Earth-designed habitat modules on long booms just aft of them, with the bulky Earth-built fuel tank and NERVA rocket nozzle easily visible at the rear. The clash of engineering styles was jarring; the Bemmius preference for almost organic-appearing curves versus the squarish, sharp-edged Earthly add-ons. The interior was in some ways worse, she mused, watching the control vanes continue to reach out. The main supports and parts of the hull remained, but much of the rest had been replaced, chopped, modified; you could still see the lower Bemmie-style designs in some areas, where others clearly were high-headroom designs forced into the space of one and a half or two Bemmie rooms. The resulting vessel might be spaceworthy, but she suspected that neither human nor Bemmius passengers would be entirely comfortable in the setting. Enough musing. "All right, A.J. Set sail!"
"Deploying dusty-plasma sail, aye, Captain," A.J. said, perfectly seriously. "Main magnetic field now generated. Releasing gas now."
Jackie thought she saw a faint shimmer in the areas of the release nozzles, but that might just have been imagination. The status graphics in the upper right, however, showed the sudden expansion of the magnetic field, ballooning outward at incredible speed. "Field inflation confirmed. Releasing Faerie Dust." Now she was sure she saw something. And wasn't the view of the stars around them a little… dimmer? A tiny bit washed out, almost fogged? "Ionization of plasma confirmed. Energy consumption within calculated limits.
Everything holding, Joe?" "We're doing fine. Field's just about expanded to maximum." The professional tone disappeared for a moment.
"Justlook at that, will you?" The long-range images, taken from a Beholder nearly five thousand kilometers away, showed what short range simply could not. The vast tenuous sail was nearly invisible to those within it, as a mist or light fog may only slightly dim the light and soften edges to those viewing it from within. To the Beholder's view, projected on the screens of the alien vessel, Feynman, and Ceres base, the tiny dot that was the actual ship suddenly seemed to radiate a mist, a mist that expanded outward vastly, covering more than eleven degrees of the sky, looming up like a pearlescent stormcloud. The mist shimmered, and as more light and energy impinged upon it and the Faerie Dust dispersed within, delicate hints of color and interplay of light glowed out, became a spectral shadow occulting the entirety of the immense asteroid Ceres itself. "Magnetosail? Dusty-plasma? Bah."
A.J.'s voice held a combination of awe and triumph. "We are riding one of the living forces of creation, a miniature version of the cradle of stars. Captain, ladies and gentlemen, I give you the legacy ofBemmius secordii to their namesake Captain Jacqueline Marie Secord. I give you… thenebula drive." Jackie found her voice a moment later.
"You were totally correct, A.J., and I'm glad. Joe, is the champagne ready?" "Rigged for breaking!" A.J. continued, overdramatic lines being his specialty, and in this case, somehow appropriate. "We're giving chase to the King of the Gods, in a ship drawn by a cloud lit by the power of the sun and of the thunderbolt." Jackie nodded. "And so we christen thee-theNebula Storm!" A faint additional sparkle of glass and mist was visible from the bow of the vessel. "Dramatic, but I like it," Bruce said. "Is the sail actually working?" "If you can see it, it's working. We're getting several percent reflection.
Acceleration is… about half a percent of gravity. We'll reach Ceres escape velocity by the end of this orbit, I think, and then it's outward bound." A.J. turned from his seat to look at Madeline, who had been quietly watching the launch. "Maddie, you can send the go-ahead.
We're on our way to Jupiter, and we are going to catchOdin just about the time they get there." He grinned over at Jackie. "And wouldn't I justlove to see their faces whenever they finally look over their shoulders and see what's coming after them!" *** Horst sat impatiently in front of the screen. It had taken some time to work around the idiotic communications blackout that Fitzgerald had seen fit to impose. Had it been the general's direct order, Horst might have felt more inclined to either obey, or at least to make a polite inquiry as to exactlywhy they weren't supposed to communicate directly with other organizations. As it was, though, Fitzgerald had been such ascheisskopf -as Horst's grandmother would have called him-that Horst took a positive pleasure in ignoring him.
Especially since he had promised Jackie that he'd send her a message every day after they left, and the blackout was making him break his word. Having managed to finally send a message back to Jackie at Ceres, he was now waiting for the response. Nervously waiting. Their relationship when he left had been at that twitchy stage where nothing was entirely clear. At this range, assuming she replied pretty promptly, round-trip would still be less than ten minutes. But it had been more than thirteen days, and if the people still on Ceres had guessed what was going on, Jackie could have more than one reason to be angry at him. He was pretty sure she'd eventually understand. After all, taking the information didn't hurt anyone directly, and she must have guessed what he was supposed to do for the E.U. He'd even-sort of-told them. His best bet, he guessed, was to just admit that what they did was a sleazy trick and throw himself on her mercy. If they'd guessed. No point in borrowing trouble. Of course, that didn't sit well with him, anyway. Sneaking around wasn't his idea of the way you were supposed to behave, especially to friends. Which was another reason why he didn't like Fitzgerald and his cronies. Odd, too, that there were other areas of the system he'd run into that seemed to have security on them he didn't remember installing. He might have to look into that himself. Well, no, he should probably ask the general. What was taking her so long? She should be off-shift but not asleep now. He noodled around with some of the data he had on the secure areas. Some looked like they had to do with the engine controls, which made no sense at all. He'ddone all of that, and there wasn't any need for more security on them. But it was there, nonetheless. The screen suddenly flickered, and he leaned forward eagerly. Then sat back in startlement as the face of Bruce Irwin appeared, looking none too friendly, When he spoke, his Australian accent was thicker than usual. "Mr. Eberhart!
So sorry to be the one respondin', but Jackie isn't here. I'm not sure that she'd even want to be speakin' to you, but you might try just waitin' a bit. She'll be catchin' up to you lot around Jupiter way."
The transmission cut off as abruptly as it had begun, leaving Horst staring at the blank screen in total confusion. Catching up to you lot… What could he mean by that? The astronomical telescopes were accessible with a little work, since they weren't being used as much at the moment. One could be focused back the way they came on Ceres.
That wasn't hard now that they weren't even doing much catching of the mass-beam. He drew in a breath, startled. Something was visible behind them, something monstrous. At nearly fifty million kilometers, it was still visible as a pearlescent disc in the high-power telescope, implying a size beyond comprehension, and giving no clue at all as to what it actuallywas. Who to call? The general eventually, of course.
Not Fitzgerald. Anthony! He was the astronomer. He might know what it was. Internal communications, of course, worked just fine. "Anthony, it is me, Horst. I was looking through one of the telescopes, and I have seen something very strange. Could you take a look and tell me what it is?" "Of course, Horst. Give me the coordinates." A few minutes later he heard Anthony LaPointe curse. "Good God! Moving on our own course, or near to it… and the size-it is huge, a thousand kilometers across." Horst could not avoid thinking of a line from an old movie. That's no moon. It's a space station. "A thousand kilometers? It is bigger even than Ceres!" "Yes. And moving in what appears to be a powered orbit, acceleration roughly on the same order as our own. Now, how…" LaPointe trailed off. Then: "Ahh, let us see the spectrum… reflected light and ionized gas… ingenious. With traces of manufactured material. And with enough enhancement I believe I can make out something at the center.
No detail, but… it is a ship. A variant of magnetosail, I believe. I may have heard of such a thing before." "A ship athousand kilometers across?" "The ship itself is small, Horst, smaller than ours by far. Perhaps five hundred tons, a thousand tons, no more. What we see is a cloud of gas and dust, held by a magnetic field. A nebula, one might say, chained to the ship." Horst laughed suddenly. "Sothat was the other secret they were hiding, the one that Joe and A.J. didn't talk about. TheirNobel couldn't catch us, but they fooled us anyway. I think we need to talk to the general." "Indeed. Let me record this data and bring it with us. I will meet you in a few moments." Horst shut down the terminal and laughed again. This was getting exciting. And perhaps he might see Jackie again sooner than he thought. If they were going to catch up, she wouldn't really have much to be mad about at all. Things were looking up!
"It would seem, Mr. Fitzgerald, that your little plan has not quite worked out as expected. We are being pursued." Fitzgerald barely registered the general's acid tone. He was too busy staring in disbelief at the screen. The bloody bastards had pulled a newship out of nowhere. Well, not nowhere. He'd known they were working on some kind of ship, but none of the prior alien vessels had been of any use to anyone. The idea that these boffins could have made something older than mankind workable was utterly ridiculous. But ridiculous or not, it was clearly coming after them, and according to the data from LaPointe it could almost certainly catch up to them at Jupiter.
Fitzgerald shook himself mentally. Gaping was undignified, and dignity mattered. It mattered a great deal. Moreover, it was time for, what was the term? Ah, yes, spin control. "Well, now, that makes it interesting, doesn't it, sir?" "That may be one way of putting it. I find it less amusing than you appear to find it. Perhaps you can help me find the humor?" "Can certainly make a good try at it, General.
Sure, they can probably catch us around Jupiter, but have you asked Dr. LaPointe if they can beat us to Saturn-given what we know and they don't?" The general tilted his head. "If they're faster than we are…" Fitzgerald grinned. So, for once he was actually ahead of the tech curve. Not always easy to do. "General, you know better than that. We could be going twice as fast as we are now if we could've arranged the right braking material ahead of time. But it won't quite be where we want it if we cranked the speed up right now. Itwill be there when we get to Saturn on our current schedule, and we've already got surprises hanging out in Jupiter system. So we'll be heading out on our second leg a lot faster than we're going now, and they can't go much faster because whatever tricks they have in mind, that ship of theirs is basically a sail in a storm. If they do more than a passive slingshot, they'll have nothing to use when they brake around Saturn, which doesn't have as big a gravity well to play with." Hohenheim nodded slowly. "True. But then…" "Then either they have to try to stop us somehow, or we're in a real race. WhichOdin is almost certainly going to win." Hohenheim's brow wrinkled. "And if theydo try to stop us, that's an attack. On us." "Exactly, General. Oh, they wouldn't be coming out after us if they weren't sure we shot 'em, but they've got nothing for proof. If they hadproof, they'd have just sent a message to Nicholas Glendale back at Mars, and we'd all be heading home to some unpleasant times right now. They've got nothing. And me and my boys, we have everything planned out on how to get rid of the evidence if we did get pulled in." "Canthey stop us?" Fitzgerald thought for a moment, sorting through the technologies he had a reasonable grasp of-which was quite a few, so it took a little time to be sure of his answer. "I don't really see how, General. We know the inspections aren't all that easy to get around, and these boys and girls weren't planning on fighting a war anyway. Even darling Madeline was looking for espionage, not naval battles. No doubt Secord and Buckley could come up with some kind of missiles between them, but nothing we wouldn't sense coming, and without some kind of really impressive terminal guidance we'd be able to avoid them just by a couple of random course modifications-which we can more than afford."
Hohenheim let out a long breath. "All right, then, Mr. Fitzgerald. We continue as planned. It's a very good thing that they are not armed, however, since we are not." "What? I don't get you, sir." Hohenheim gave him a cold smile. "Mr. Fitzgerald, if they do attack us, we cannot return fire. If we were to return fire, they would have the evidence they need that we did, in fact, have the motive, means, and opportunity to destroy their power-distribution center, as we in fact did. They will be watching usextremely closely and will not miss a single piece of evidence. You can be quite sure they are prepared to record everything, also." The point had not occurred to Fitzgerald before, and the realization was a punch to the gut. TheOdin was armed with a weapon potentially more destructive than any ever built, save for nuclear warheads, but it couldn't beused now. The general's smile widened, and got even colder. "I see that aspect of the situation had not yet suggested itself to you, Mr. Fitzgerald. Firing back would prove our guilt, and would result in further tragedy. Therefore, to protect my people and my ship, if itdoes turn out that the Ares vessel-which has rather ominously, I will note, refused to reply to any messages we have yet sent-does somehow have the capability to damage or destroyOdin, I will not fight back, but will instead surrender and hand you and myself over to the authorities." He dropped the smile. "However, as you say, it appears that we will not have to worry about that. So… you're dismissed, Mr. Fitzgerald."
Fitzgerald found himself in the main hallway ofOdin without even a clear memory of walking out the door. Never thought he'd be the type to give anything up without a fight, he mused. Then again, he has been showing a lot of conscience lately. He shrugged. No point in worrying about it. The likelihood that the Ares vessel could pose any threat to them was pretty small, especially now thatOdin knew to keep an eye on them. But even if the chance was very small, he'd better be prepared.
Just in case. The general knew military tactics and politics. But he didn't know nearly as much about espionage and sabotage. Richard Fitzgerald grinned. He'd already surprised the general before with that. He needed to have a serious heart-to-heart with his boys right away. This kind of a party needed advance planning to make sure all the guests played their parts properly. And as one of the guests might be named Madeline Fathom, only the very best planning would do. It might soon be time to really pull out all the stops.
Chapter 29 "We have a problem." A.J. turned to face both Maddie and Jackie, who were looking grim. "What's wrong?" Jackie answered. "I realized that we'd been making some unwarranted assumptions, so I had Maddie do some inquiries. It took a while, but we confirmed something that I hadn't wanted to confirm. The E.U.'s mass-beam setupwasn't idle a lot of the time. It's been running pretty much nonstop. I have no idea of the cost, but it must be huge." A.J. frowned, puzzled. "But that makes no sense. Most of the time, Odin was sitting still around Ceres." "I'm afraid," Madeline said, "it makes altogether too much sense. I had Jackie run the numbers. With reasonable assumptions about their capabilities, if they were running it that much, by the timeOdin gets to Saturn, there will be a large amount of their drive-dust in the Saturn system. Enough so that they can afford to boost their speed radically for the Jupiter-Saturn leg." A.J. stared at them blankly for a minute, then went through one of his fits of typing on invisible keyboards, grunting half-comprehensible audio cues, and staring at things invisible to others. "I see what you mean. And if the stuff's even half as smart as it probably is, you can do all sorts of tricks with it in terms of when and where you use it. They'll have fuel galore left after they stop, and so they can useMunin to land on Enceladus, and then after they get their team down they can even explore other parts of the Saturn system. Dammit!" Maddie nodded. "It also means we might have to assume that they're not limited when they get to the Jupiter system, either. No reason they couldn't have stuff waiting for them there." "Or even have it being sent on its way now," said Jackie. "This trip they might not use it, but they have to be thinking of some Jupiter trips in the near future, maybe with the next set of mass-beam ships. Maybe sending out a mass-beam relay station."
"This really screws up everything," A.J. grumbled. "I would've bet that we could beat them to Enceladus. They can't go much faster than they are now without trouble, or rather they couldn't if they didn't have an ace in the hole. Now it's clear what they were up to. They guessed that the best chance for exploration finds would be in the outer system and set it all up that way. The E.U. bets big, and looks like they're going to win that bet, too." Maddie, meanwhile, was studying files from the data they'd accumulated onOdin. "Jackie, you actually did manage to gather some considerable intelligence on how their drive worked. If they're using something like cut-down, massively duplicated Faerie Dust, couldn't we-through A.J., I'd presume-keep them from using it? Shut it down?" "I don't know." She glanced at A.J. The sensor expert reluctantly shook his head. "Not without knowing a lot about the design. Which is kept seriously locked down, I'm sure. If I had some samples, no problem, but not as it stands." "Then why don't we get some samples?" Maddie asked. "Huh? I suppose we could try to figure out the exact trajectory they're sending the stuff along-it's going in the same general direction, I'd guess-but we don't have the energy figures, so we don't know how fast it's going. And a rough guess won't cut it." Jackie suddenly leaned forward. "But we don't have to guess. We can make it come to us!"
"How-damn, yes! We saw their signal laser!" Maddie caught their sudden enthusiasm. "Can you duplicate it well enough?" A.J. drew himself up with comic exaggeration. "Can youdoubt me, woman? A.J. Baker, master of all things technological? Even if they did laugh at me in the Academy! But I showed them all, I did. Yes, I can. It's basically a green laser with a very simple pulse pattern that makes it easy for the nodes to verify that it's actually the laser and not something else. Hmm, you know, if we were doing this while they were still accelerating, it'd be like real honest-to-God sailing, trying to cut each other off from the wind. Yes, yes, I can! If any of their Drive Dust is still anywhere near our path, I'll get a sample!" "Will that allow us to stop them?" A.J. thought a minute. "I dunno. Not directly, really. The stuff we'd need to control is off in Saturn system, or at least scattered around Jupiter, and there's no way I'm managing that.
It doesn't leave an easy way to trace it, and it's not going to be allthat smart, so doing any fancy programming… nah." He looked a little deflated. "We still may be able to use it," Maddie said. "I think I have an idea. But first let's see if we can actually get a sample." She smiled, and A.J. gave a delighted grin back as he saw the glint in her eye. He knew she'd come up with something truly entertaining. "This race is not yet over."
Horst felt cold and gray. So that's what they were doing. All this time, and I thought I knew them. Fitzgerald wasn't so much a surprise, but he'd thought better of the general. The modifications were extensive, yet subtle, hidden from any casual inspection, and with the proper preparation able to be disposed of with virtually no trace. The control software left no doubt as to the capabilities or purposes of the modifications, and the software logs left no doubt whatsoever of what had happened in the hours before their Ceres departure. No wonder they don't respond. I wouldn't want to talk to me, either, after that. Buckley was one of Jackie's best friends, and we nearly killed him. Stealing information was one thing, but this- "Something very odd, Horst." "What is it?" he said dully, remembering that he was on watch with Anthony. Not that there was much to watch.
Interplanetary travel was basically very boring. "It is the Ares vessel. She is doing something odd." That got a bit of his attention.
"What do you mean, odd? Turning back? Accelerating? Shutting off?"
"Nothing so drastic. It seems to me that they are doing some kind of light experiment." Horst looked at the enlarged image that Anthony sent him. "I don't see anything-oh, wait." The translucent cloud had seemed to show a faint shimmer, just a bit different than the usual slight shifts of lighting. "Let me see… The enhancement we should be using… Let us try to isolate the moment. Focus on that… enhance… What is the spectrum here, Anthony?" "It seems normal, except there is a spike in the green region of the spectrum." "Hmm." Horst rubbed his chin. He was still angry and depressed, but this was interesting. "I wonder why. Have you seen this before?" "There are at least three occurrences so far." Green. What is that making me…? "Anthony, is that spike centered on five hundred and twenty nanometers?" "Why… yes, it is. How did you guess?" That clever fellow."Not a guess, a deduction. We may be seeing the start of some trouble. I must go talk to the general." "Go to him?
Why not call him?" Horst unlocked from his chair and drifted to the exit. "Because I wanted to speak to him privately anyway." Anthony, knowing his friend's recent moods, didn't ask any more. He just gave Horst a concerned look as the slightly younger engineer dropped into the tube connecting the bridge with the habitat ring. Horst pretended not to notice Anthony's gaze. He didn't need sympathy right now. It took him only a few minutes to make his way along the connecting tube and arrive in the full-gravity corridor. He sent a query ahead of him; by the time he reached the door, it was open. Hohenheim was sitting at his desk, going over daily reports. "Yes, Mr. Eberhart?" "I believe that the Ares vessel is preparing to move against theOdin, sir." That got the general's attention. Hohenheim sat up straighter and removed his VRD glasses. "How so, Mr. Eberhart?" "We have detected regular spikes of emitted green centered on five hundred and twenty nanometers, sir." Hohenheim gave a slow nod. "I see. They are attempting to draw the Smart Fuel Dust toward them. But we are done accelerating. This cannot affect our current course, can it?" Horst shrugged. "I am not sure, really. Light can cross the space far faster than we. If Mr. Baker does obtain a sample, I suppose it is possible he could program it-or, more precisely, have someone with access to more powerful lasers program it by remote. If they are close enough to us when in the Jupiter system, however, they may be able to interfere with our maneuvers by drawing off a significant portion of the fuel.
We have more powerful dedicated lasers, but there is at least some risk, I would think." The general seemed to turn the matter over in his mind. "I thank you for this information. I will have to have it examined. Would you be so kind as to model the possible scenarios along with Dr. Svendsen? I would like to know as soon as possible if there is any likelihood of such an event." "Yes, sir." Horst stood there a moment longer, and as the general looked up again, said, "May I speak to you frankly, General?" Hohenheim's gaze was unreadable, but he sat back in a way that somehow made Horst nervous. "Please do."
Horst hesitated, then took the plunge. "Why did we attack Ceres?"
Hohenheim studied him expressionlessly for what seemed like an hour, even though it could only have been a few seconds. "Clarify your question, Mr. Eberhart. How exactly do you mean 'attack'?" "I mean that we hit them with a projectile weapon. There was no meteor at all, sir." "Ah," said the general, in the tone of someone who's been expecting bad news for a long time. "Might I ask how you came to this conclusion?" "I found a set of control applications that did not look familiar. When I examined them, I was able to determine what the exact systems were that they controlled." "I see." Horst waited. Finally the general stirred. He looked into the distance, as if he saw things in the air beyond Horst. "I do not like to either rehash the past, Mr.
Eberhart, or to seek to set blame on others for actions taken here.
For these purposes, I think the best I can tell you is that it was decided as a matter of policy, to ensure that there would be no pursuit. Whether that policy was a wise one I do not wish to discuss, as there is no practical reason to do so." He met Horst's gaze. "I am personally very sorry for the trouble it has caused, but we must accept the situation as it stands. If it makes you feel any better, that weapon shall not be used again. I have already given the appropriate orders." It wasn't much, but Horst could tell it was as much as the general was going to say. And in some ways, it told him an awful lot. "Thank you, General. I will begin the analysis at once."
"Very good. You may go, Mr. Eberhart." Horst proceeded toward the engineering section, where a status query had shown him that Mia Svendsen was located. His mind was far from settled. The general's speech had avoided a number of statements, but he thought he could read between the lines. Fitzgerald had thought up the attack; maybe he'd carried it out without orders. And if he'd done that, what were the odds that he'd follow orders not to fire again? Horst figured he might be well advised to make some preparations of his own. Anthony would help, he was sure. Mia might, too. Better safe than sorry.
The tiny mote glittered under the microscope. The faceted angles of reflectors and lenses, darker areas of solar-energy conversion, active-material actuators, and other components made a sort of geometric, three-dimensional cityscape as A.J. zoomed in. "A nice bit of work, actually. Simplistic compared to a lot of Dust-Storm's designs, but making it too complicated would be a waste of resources and increase the problems with manufacturing it in large lots. And, boy, have they needed large lots." The sensor expert shook his head in admiration. "I still find it mindboggling, actually. Masswise they've outproduced everyone else in the world on this scale. Sure, it's all been one model for one purpose, but that's still an awful lot of Smart Dust." Joe was impressed by the image. He'd seen earlier designs, but he'd forgotten how very much stuff was compressed into the microscopic motes. "Tons of it. Manufactured partly with 3D component design and fabbing, and partly assembled by assembly micromanipulators. They've kept the exact procedures and techniques a dead secret, too." "So,"
Maddie said, "does this actually get us anywhere?" "Sure does. I can program this stuff easily, within the limits of what it can do. Which is pretty limited. Even my Faerie Dust isn't particularly brainy-each of the motes doesn't have much more processing power than a 1980 desktop. These suckers are more like late 1970s programmable calculators. Working on things like this you come to understand what the old-time programmers had to go through and why they were concerned about using an extra bit here or there. "Of course, I can play some tricks they couldn't. I can split tasks up among many different nearby motes so they can perform overall computation and related active operations that no individual mote is up to. To cut to the chase, I can make this stuff work for us." "How much of it can we catch?" A.J. raised an eyebrow. "Well, relative to what they sent before, not all that much, but from our point of view, a lot. We've got well over another month before we end up in Jupiter system and start getting to the critical moments. In that time I could get hundreds of kilos of the stuff. Why?" "I was wondering if we could replace your dust with theirs in our sail." A.J. looked scandalized. "Couldwe? Well, sure, we could. It's not like the operation of the sail needs tremendously complex work. But why would we want to swap?" Madeline's smile was the devilish grin that both scared Joe and, sometimes, turned him on. Not the time for that, though, so he should probably be scared. "Because, A.J.," she said, "we can put yours to a much better use." A.J.'s offended-dignity pose vanished, replaced immediately by keen interest.
"Such as…?" "Such as sending it to our friends onOdin." A.J. stared at her for a moment. Then he burst into a laugh that was very near to that of the mad scientist of bad science-fiction movies. "As Dr. Gupta would have said, indeed, indeed we can, Miss Fathom!" "Whoa, whoa, slow down," Joe said, confused. "They're like millions of miles ahead of us. How do we get the stuff there?" "Nebula sail, Joe, nebula sail." Jackie was catching the excitement. "The motes aremeant to catch light and guide themselves with it. They can also accelerate with it, though at a slug's pace. But what we can do with the field is shape it so that it serves as a large, pretty weak accelerator-something like what theOdin does, on a less efficient scale-and shoot the stuff ahead of us. A sort of dusty-plasma rocket.
It'll slow us down a little bit, but we just replace the lost gas and dust and adjust the course. Meanwhile we've given A.J.'s motes quite a kick, and they can accelerate a bit more and guide themselves straight toOdin, especially onceOdin starts using its fuel-control laser again." "She's got it," A.J. said. "And if I can get it to the right places, I might be able to pull off several tricks." Maddie nodded.
"This being the tactical area, I hope you have no problem with my directing the action, Captain?" "None at all." "Guys," Joe interjected, "I just want to point out that this would definitely be counted as an attack on them. If we start messing with their ship in flight, that is." "Didn't they start this, Joe?" A.J. asked. "Sure, but we haven't officially said anything about it. And if you're going to be trying to control the stuff, you won't want to be a long distance away. I've been trying to figure out the range and accuracy of that weapon of theirs, and it's awfully hard to be sure-given that we don't know the exact design, firing rate, all that-but you can bet they'll start shooting back." Madeline shook her head. "I don't think they will, Joe. They're in a Catch-22 situation, you see. If they shoot at us, they'd provide us with the proof we need that they have the weapon we suspect them of having. We could break off combat right then, maneuver to make it hard or impossible to hit us at any range, and then send the record of that short battle home. They'd be completely screwed. And if A.J. can manage to mess with their systems at all, they'd have other problems." Joe chuckled. "Okay, I see what you mean. Count on you, Maddie, to already have figured why it doesn't matter that you're chasing a warship in a rowboat, and made sure that the warship can't shoot at you." "Sailboat, please," Jackie said. "A four-masted ship of the line, at least." "And by at least one measure the largest ship ever made. Telescopes on Earth can probably see us, even at this distance, though they probably couldn't figure out what they're seeing." "So, what's the plan, Maddie?" "A.J., you get ready to catch us a lot of replacement Dust. We'll need more anyway, since the sail's expanding as we get farther out. Joe, you and Jackie do the modeling to figure out the best configuration for the sail to discharge our smarter smart dust and get it refilled. After we send A.J.'s Faerie Dust off, we don't do anything until we can be sure it's in place. The problem is that even with the best advance programming, we won't be able to get back the data from the Dust-and know what we can and can't do withOdin 's systems-without active communication. And if we appear to be actively beaming them without actually talking, they'll know something's up." Jackie frowned. "Yeah. And Horst isn't anything like stupid. That jerk could probably figure out counters to anything we could do by remote, once he gets the idea. Unless we do something permanent toOdin, which we don't want to do." "You might be being too harsh on Horst, Jackie," Maddie said mildly. "The messages he's been sending have been pretty friendly, and I don't think he's so stupid that he'd believe you wouldn't be angry about them attacking.
It's possible he may not have known about anything but the information theft. Which is annoying, but itwas his job, and as I recall he even basically admitted as much." Jackie's intense, pretty face twisted into a grimace. "I wish I could believe that." A.J. snorted. "Me, too.
Except the fact that he was the system-programming engineer for their drive system, which just happens to incorporate the weapon in question. There was no other way for them to smuggle that by the inspectors. He had to know, so far as I can see." "I suppose it doesn't look good," Madeline conceded, with a glance at Helen. Helen was older, Maddie more experienced, and both of their instincts seemed to agree that Horst had been genuine. But the facts didn't seem to bear that out. "In any case, you're certainly right about his capabilities. For that reason, we will probably only be able to use the trick once, when we are ready. We will open communications with them once we are in reasonable range, and while I attempt to convince them to cooperate, A.J. will find out what sort of tricks we can play.
Depending on which scenarios appear possible, we will adjust the negotiations to reflect what we can do." "If they don't fight back?"
"If they don't, I think we would be well advised to work out the compromise that should have been worked out when they found the base to begin with. A joint custody between the E.U., Ares, and the IRI, and let the E.U. conduct the first landing and get priority. That's provided, of course, the people specifically responsible for the direct attack on our Ceres base are turned over to us. Otherwise we will do our best to beat them to Enceladus, and we can probably arrange that by disrupting the right systems for long enough." Jackie nodded. "I'd still rather kick someone in the nuts, but that really does make more sense. And I'm sure Nicholas would approve." "So am I,"
Helen said. "And I've known him a long time. He'd be very much in favor of it. It's the best approach, and if Maddie's right, it will achieve what we're really after-getting the people who shot us locked up, while not embarrassing the E.U. too much and giving us a stronger alliance." "It's settled, then," said Maddie, pleased. "Let's get to work!"
Chapter 30 Helen woke up slowly, realizing A.J. was no longer lying next to her. She glanced sleepily around their bedroom and saw his figure silhouetted against the lazily spinning stars. She got up and went over to him, sliding her arms around his waist. He jumped slightly, but then hugged her arms to him. "What's up?" He was still staring out. Less than ten days from the effective edge of the Jovian system, Jupiter was visible almost dead ahead of theNebula Storm as a brilliant not-quite-point, a tenth of a degree across and the brightest thing in the sky except for the Sun, now shrunken behind them to the same size-an intolerably bright near-point of light. "Just thinking." "What were you thinking about?" He gestured out the window.
"A lot of things. Partly marveling that my sense of wonder is still holding out. We've seen so many that you'd think I'd be blase about it, but… I still look out there, sometimes, and thinkI'm on a spaceship going to Jupiter! and realize that I'm like four hundred million miles from Earth, and I get a chill, just like I used to when I was a kid and saw something incredibly awesome. "And partly marveling that I'm actually getting tired of living in little spaceship cheeseboxes. Even pretty luxurious ones. I used to think when I was a kid that I could live perfectly happily in a ten-by-twelve room for my entire life, as long as I had the right gadgets. Then I expanded that to several rooms because I had to have space to put my stuff, but still…" She hugged him. "So, what, you want to go back to Earth and follow me on a dig?" "The frightening thing is that right now the thought of pitching a tent on Earth, without a single air filter or wiring conduit for fifty miles, so I can use toothbrushes and jewelry picks to dig out a five-foot bone, sounds downright appealing." She laughed. "I'm tempted to hold you to that, whenever this crazy mission gets done. But I know you'd regret it after the first week." She sighed, hugging him tighter. "I do miss blue sky, grass, and all that kind of thing. We've been out here in space for… My God, it must be seven years." "Closing in on eight.
I actually got back to Earth for a few months, so it's only been, what, four or so for me. Still, that's a long time. I'm glad all of us don't get vertigo easily, since it let Jackie spin us up to a full G.
I griped at first, but honestly, we needed to get used to full gravity again. Partial seems to prevent the direct bone loss and other effects, but I felt like a rag doll for a lot of my one visit home."
"Like we all did for the first few weeks of this trip. You're right, though. We need real gravity, or at least a full-bore simulation of the real thing. I suspect long-term Mars residents may have problems."
"Dr. Wu is doing studies on that. He's also pushing everyone back on Mars to spend more time in the centrifuges. We really do need to do the research to make sure we don't kill ourselves settling other worlds." They were quiet for a moment. "Anything else on your mind?"
He turned to face her. "Just wondering… We've sort of tap-danced around the subject before." He took a deep breath. "Children?" "Now?"
"Well, of course notnow. Anyway, it takes time-nine months, last I heard. And I know your implant's got at least another year on it.
But… well, you're older than me, and so I figured…" "If I wanted any, we really should be talking about it now." She smiled and kissed him. He really was adorable when he looked so nervous. "Thank you, Adric Jamie Baker. I love you, you know." "I love you, too.
So…" She shook her head. A few decades ago, her age would have already answered the question in the negative, but no more.
So… "I really don't know yet. I suppose… yes, probably. When we go back to Earth. Which we should do, I think, after this is over.
Watching Bruce's little girl did make me a little wistful about having my own. But I don't want to raise her out here. Or him, if it's a boy.
We've both done enough, haven't we?" He glanced out the window, to where the stars still turned and Jupiter gleamed. "Yeah. I guess we have." He kissed her and let his hands slide down a little lower.
"Maybe we should get in some more practice on the kid-making thing."
She giggled. "Why not?"
"They'll be passing us very close by, General." Hohenheim nodded. "That is still some days in the future. What do you mean by 'close,' Dr. LaPointe? In space, that can be a rather broad term."
LaPointe brought up a display of the Jovian system and the orbital paths. Those present-the general, Mia Svendsen, Richard Fitzgerald, Horst Eberhart, and a scattering of otherOdin crewmembers-studied the image and its animated paths. "Both of us are on a course to slingshot around Jupiter. While they started out several days after us, they have been moving faster and correcting their course to close in on us.
We performed our first correction burn-effectively slowing ourselves down-just a few days ago. We are accumulating the replacement fuel, but they are now catching up quickly. Either of us could try to change that to some extent, but it should be remembered that at the critical moments wemust be following the exactly correct trajectory, or we will be very far off our final destination. At any point up until relatively shortly before the Oberth Maneuver, even small deviations in course could drastically affect our final course, so any changes we make will have to be adjusted for." "No offense, Andy, m'boy, but it seems to me that doesn't answer the general's question at all. How close?" "I am sorry you are dissatisfied, Mr. Fitzgerald. I was trying to make clear that we could easily affect the answer by a very large amount, or that they could, if either were to maneuver. But, assuming there are no further maneuvers, the Ares vessel will pass us at a distance of ten thousand kilometers." Fitzgerald sat up straighter.
"Bloody hell, thatis close for out here. You think they're planning to attack?" Hohenheim held up a hand. "I believe we have discussed this before. If they attack us, they would be initiating a war, which I think is highly unlikely." Anthony noticed an exchange of glances between the general and Fitzgerald, and a flicker of unreadable expression on Horst's face. It took some effort to keep his own face from showing a bitter amusement. We are still all trying to keep the others from knowing that we know. "They have no weapons capable of firing across such a distance, and the fact that we stole-let us not dissemble on this point-important information from them is not at all sufficient justification for them to attack. It is, however, sufficient motive to attempt to beat us to our goal. I confess to being somewhat surprised by this, but I suspect it may be a matter of offended pride, at least in part." He looked back at Anthony. "Can they beat us at this point?" This was of course the sticky point, and one over which he had spent some sleepless nights. "General, I cannot say for certain. Just as we have capabilities of which they do not know, so I would be cautious in assuming that we know all of theirs.
It is an alien vessel which they have adapted. It is true that we have determined the basic principles on which it operates. And excepting for the one short containment failure they suffered a month ago, the dusty-plasma sail has been functioning very well." He noticed the impatient look of the others and hurried on. "In any case, the answer depends on what I assume, General. If they have nothing but a dusty-plasma sail, I cannot see that they can. In fact, at their peak speed they were in danger of leaving the system if they could not stop. "Because of that, I think they have arranged something else.
They may do an Oberth Maneuver, if they were able to arrange a rocket of some kind. They have been slowing-much more quickly than I would have expected-by interaction with the Jovian magnetosphere. The acceleration in question is still very small indeed, but the control they have over the magnetic bubble and its shape permits at least an order of magnitude greater deceleration capability than we could possibly have expected. Still, they will have to do something when passing Jupiter, as we do. Their final velocity will be the deciding factor. Unless they have some particular surprises in store for us, their speed when leaving Jupiter will tell us how fast they believe they can afford to go to Saturn." He sighed and spread his hands. "I wish I could be more certain. If I must guess, I would say no, they cannot. While some minor points of their vessel have surprised me, they would need some very effective means of slowing down in order to make it practical for them to match the speeds we expect to reach."
"There's the problem for me," Fitzgerald said. "You think that Fathom, Baker, Buckley, and Secord can't do the same figuring between them?"
"They do not know what we can-" Fitzgerald made a savage cutting gesture. "Bollocks. Maybe not before this, but you can bet your insurance that once this turned into a chase, little Miss Supergirl called in all her old chums and started digging. And tell me that I'm wrong when I say that once they figured out the mass-driver was running, they'd put the rest together very quickly, eh?" That was a painful jab. LaPointe had never liked Fitzgerald even before Horst let him in on certain secrets, and sarcasm like this didn't help engender feelings of warmth and brotherhood. Especially when Fitzgerald was right. "No, I cannot argue that. They are very good at their jobs, and if they knew the mass-beam was being constantly in use, then they would be guessing the truth very quickly." "So then, if they know that much, they must know they can't beat us. So either they've got something up their sleeves to pass us, or they have something figured that they can use to slow us or stop us." The room was quiet as everyone tried to figure out a way of looking at the situation that didn't come out to that answer. From the expressions on the other faces, Anthony saw that no one else was getting anywhere with that.
Richard Fitzgerald had a darkly satisfied look. General Hohenheim shrugged finally. "Your logic appears sound, Mr. Fitzgerald, but the other facts remain. I find it hard to imagine that they have any weapons capable of harming us at such a range, and even less that they would be willing to use them on us at this point. While they may hold a grudge against some of our people for our trickery, none of them are monsters. They would not condemn a hundred of us to death for that. It is, I suppose, possible that the alien vessel itself has some unique trick that will allow them to match our speed, but that is something we can only wait and see. Even if we had weapons capable of firing upon them, we could no more use them than they could. It is a race, and we shall see which of us shall win. I would hope, however, that they will be courteous enough to talk when we reach a closer approach.
We may learn much more in conversation." He glanced around the table and fixed on Mia Svendsen. "On the very remote chance that they do intend some form of attack, I want things arranged to minimize damage, along with a complete set of scenarios for redundant controls, escape usingMunin, and so on. Even if the scenarios appear ludicrous, they are worthwhile to consider. One day I am afraid they will not be so ludicrous." "Yes, sir," Mia replied. "I will have them to you before closest approach." "Good." Hohenheim rose. "Thank you, that will be all."
Horst caught up with LaPointe near his cabin. "You know theydo have reason to think we are a real threat, Anthony." "Yes, I do. It seems that we have at least three and possibly four factions on board.
The general and those immediately involved in the attack on Ceres Base, you and I and our friends, and the rest of the crew ofOdin who as yet know nothing of the outrage we have perpetrated." Horst looked puzzled. "But you said four?" "I am not convinced that General Hohenheim and Mr. Fitzgerald are a single faction. The security chief was responsible for the selection of a large number of our crew, and that is a concern to me." Horst's dark eyebrows drew down. "Are you saying he is working against the general? That the general did not order the attack? Why would he not say so?" Anthony found his friend's straightforward naivete endearing but, in this case, a bit frustrating. "Because this is not Earth and he cannot just fire someone and send them home. He needs to maintain a unity in the crew, and at least outward harmony. If Fitzgerald did this in any way that could be justified by something the general said, then the general would be forced to give him the benefit of the doubt. But the relationship between them, it is not the same as it was when first we started, that I am sure of. It seems much more tense." They entered Anthony's room. "Mr. Fitzgerald is not happy with our captain, I think," Anthony continued. "And while he has the same general need to keep some apparent peace, he's more than likely arranging to protect himself." "But that would be mutiny!" Horst protested. "It has happened before. In a sense, have we not been planning just that?" The young German engineer looked pained. "Not really. I mean, we are just planning on how to keep from committing another crime." Anthony spread his hands. "But it is the same thing, isn't it? If the order comes from our general or his designated representatives, disobeying and obstructing them would be mutiny." Horst slowly nodded his head. "But Fitzgerald…" "Oh, I agree. If he is planning something, it is much more likely to be something bad. But I do not think we should be sitting here ignoring the fact that we, too, may be considering the same basic crime." "It's just an ugly word." "And it would be even uglier were it to come to pass. Let us hope, that it does not, and all we see here is a race." He handed a surprised Horst one of the small bottles of wine he had brought as budgeted luxuries. "In fact, let us drink to that hope." Horst nodded. "I will drink to that." After each had a glass, they tapped the plastic rims together. "To peace in our journey." "Peace." As they drank, Anthony could not help but notice that he saw Jupiter go blood-red as theOdin 's rotation took the planet behind his glass.
PART VI: