Between the Stars (18 page)

FOURTEEN

"How are we doing?" Derek asked.

"Not bad," Sieglinde said. "One hundred twenty definites and about fifty maybes."

"Can we turn out that many drive units in time?"

"It looks as if we'd have to." She was on one of her infrequent visits to Avalon. She spent almost all her time in her lab these days. The shielding problem was highest priority now that the drive units were fully designed. Individual labs had been established to design the mounting of the units since there was, naturally, no standard design for asteroids.

"I guess it was Fu's presentation that turned the trick for us," Derek said. Chih' Chin Fu had put together a masterly holographic program for all levels of education that explained the drive and its possibilities. There was an immediate resurgence of enthusiasm for interstellar travel, encouraged greatly by the prospect of the coming war with Earth.

"I hope you're ready for some bad news," Derek said.

"I hope you never live long enough to hear all the bad news I've had in my life. What's yours?"

"Not only are some of the worlds opting for war, but there's been a revival of Shaw's private army. Apparently some of Shaw's old people are still around. They're calling themselves—get this—the Avengers."

She sighed. "I might have known. Those people have had nothing to do for years except get together and get drunk and lament for the good old days. At last they have a chance to relive their glory days. Well, there can't be enough of them to mount a credible threat."

"They're being joined by others," Derek said. "There are younger people, too. I guess, for some, the quick excitement of a war right now is more attractive than waiting for years to reach a new star system."

"Have you caught that man Vladyka yet?"

"No," Derek admitted. He brushed at the sleeve of his new uniform. He was now a captain in the security force. Ulric had recommended him for the commission because, in Ulric's words, "He's now renowned as the sneakiest little bastard in the whole Confederacy."

"No leads?"

"There was a sighting reported on Thera. Val's gone over to investigate but I don't expect much. The man's slippery, and appearance is too easy to alter. What really bothers me is the nature of his mission. I still don't understand how he failed to kill you. Val insists he had some kind of implanted laser and he was pointing it at you, but he didn't fire. "

"I don't suppose it was a sudden attack of conscience. I suspect that, when we find out what he's up to, it'll be something supremely awful."

"That's a safe bet." Derek checked his chrono ring. "It's about time." The two left the port lounge and entered the departure terminal, which had been temporarily cleared of all commercial traffic. A small group of people stood surrounded by a much larger group and a whole flock of floating holo cameras.

The crowd parted for Sieglinde and Derek. The center group all wore brilliant silver coveralls. A tall young man saw Sieglinde coming and grinned at her. He was Dieter Taggart, her eldest son, called back from the Oort Cloud expedition to lead the first voyage under Kornfeld Drive. The target system was Sigma Pavonis.

She hugged him fiercely, then held her much taller son at arm's length. "I don't like it," she said, not caring what the cameras recorded. "The shielding isn't perfected yet. In six more months—"

"We don't have six months, Mother," Dieter said. "We're not on peacetime status anymore. It has to be tested now. More important, people have to see that the drive works."

She released him. "I know you'll make me proud. Go take care of your ship." Abruptly she turned and walked away, stone-faced. Hastily, Derek shook hands with his cousin and the others, then hurried after Sieglinde. While she was here, he was charged with her safety. His men were everywhere, with shoot-to-kill orders for anyone who even looked as if he was threatening her.

"He's a good skipper," she said as he caught up with her. "Gave me hell growing up. They all did. But I suppose it's force of personality that makes a good commander." Derek had never heard her talking in this disjointed fashion. The last few months had put new lines on her face. But then, he thought, in that time she had been under personal and professional stress such as few people had ever known.

"But," she said, "I would never have expected this from Martin!" Far worse than Dieter's voyage with untested shielding was Martin Shaw Taggart's decision to stay behind. Sálamis had voted to stay and protect those Island Worlds that decided to remain in the solar system. Personnel had been given free choice to go or to stay with Sálamis.

"Everybody has to interpret his own duty, Aunt Linde," he said, feeling inadequate. "I'm having a hell of a time convincing Val to go."

She stopped and looked at him. "Derek, I like Valentina, but I think you should seriously rethink your relationship with her. She's a spy and a saboteur and an assassin. She was raised to be that way and she's never been anything else until she came here."

He shrugged, an Earth gesture he had picked up from Valentina. "Nobody's perfect. Besides, as I understand it, that's exactly what old Sam Taggart was, and Fredrike Ciano, and probably about half the founders of our clans. There's even a rumor that old Goro Kuroda could get a little bloody-handed at times."

"Make up your own mind," she said impatiently.

"Let's go to HMK," he suggested. "Fu says the show'll be most spectacular there."

The place was mobbed. Nearly everybody who lived in Avalon was there, and visitors from nearby asteroids and ships had come in as well. No personal or institutional holo system could match the one Fu had set up in HMK, with similar sets installed in much of the Belt and on the planets and satellites, all connected by the new superluminal communication system. They found him beaming up at the incredibly realistic asteroid that floated in the vast open space.

"Isn't it fabulous?" he said. "Such fidelity! Absolutely no distortion! It's the crowning point of my career!" Derek half-expected to see the old man start dancing with excitement.

The asteroid chosen was a small one, previously known only by a number, but now called
Nova
. The interior had plenty of space for the small crew, but the leading end had been left solid rock, just in case of a shielding failure.

The image flashed to the interior, where Dieter and the bridge crew were strapping themselves into acceleration chairs. They went through a preliminary check, then he faced forward. No matter where anyone was sitting, standing or floating, he seemed to be looking the viewer straight in the eyes. "I taught him that trick myself!" Fu said, gleefully.

"I wish to speak to humanity everywhere," Dieter said. "We are now at one of the great turning points of the human race, possibly the greatest. With this voyage, humankind will become a truly starfaring species. What you are about to see is a ship made and inhabited by humans, drawing its power from the heart of a collapsed star. It is the overwhelming, unlimited power we have always dreamed of, and it will be used to spread our race throughout the galaxy—someday, throughout the universe. On behalf of myself and the crew of
Nova
, good fortune to you all."

The scene shifted back to the exterior of the asteroid, where lights began to flash around the Kornfeld Drive exhaust. A series of numbers began to blink, counting down from one hundred. People held their breath and Sieglinde brushed at her eyes repeatedly. Tears have a tendency to cling to the eyelashes in low gravity.

Gradually, a mass chant started. "Ten—Nine—Eight—" The lights began to flash rapidly. "Five—Four—Three—" The lights extinguished entirely. "One!" There was a moment when nothing happened. People began to think something had gone wrong, then—

"My God!" Derek shouted, unheard in the uproar of exclamations. The display was nothing like the blinding white light of the antimatter photon drive. The torrent that shot from the rear of
Nova
was so brilliant that it was painful to look at, but everybody looked anyway because it was unthinkably beautiful. Dampers cut in to reduce the dangerous glare, but the streaks and flashes remained searing. Gradually they faded, and there was no sign of the ship. People fell silent, moved but fearful at the same time.

Derek whispered what everyone was thinking. "Could any ship have survived that?" There was a deathly hush, then Dieter's voice came across with perfect clarity.

"Starship
Nova
on course, accelerating at one g. All systems functioning perfectly." A thunderous cheer broke out. There was much whooping and backslapping. Perfect strangers hugged one another as if they had been personally responsible for what they had just witnessed.

"Come on, Derek," Sieglinde said, jerking at his sleeve. "Let's go get stinking drunk and tear up a bar someplace." He hugged her and they pushed through the crowd, leaving the ecstatic Fu to his instruments.

"They're safe so far," Derek said.

"Of course they're safe now, idiot!" she shouted, furious and joyful in equal measure. "I never had any doubts about the drive! It'll be a month before they reach dangerous velocity. That's when faulty shielding can be a problem."

"Did I ever tell you you're a terrible liar, Aunt Sieglinde?"

Vladyka turned from the display in the ship's holo tank. The others in the cabin still stared in open-mouthed awe. It almost looked as if they had wished they had been going along. He had no intention of letting them nurture thoughts of that sort. "Very pretty. So that is how the cowards plan to leave us. Good riddance. Those too gutless to fight shouldn't contaminate us with their presence." Vladyka was now Colonel Sparta, founder and commander of the Avengers. His followers were mostly young and all bloodthirsty. He let them design their own uniforms and most had opted for rigs including high boots, swashbuckling cloaks, jackets consisting mainly of pseudo-leather straps with a great deal of chrome metalwork, wristbands and other eccentric touches.

Vladyka was amused by the make-believe warrior look and designed his own uniform after the same fashion. With his heavy musculature, it was far more impressive on him than on most of his followers, who had the spindly physiques common to low gravity. His hair had been shaved into three parallel, upstanding strips, with a tail of artificial hair hanging behind. His skin was darkened to deep gold, his cheekbones raised and tilted, his eyes given a Mongol slant. Contacts made his irises bright red. He looked the very picture of ferocity. The final touch was a set of steel teeth.

"It can't be long now," said a boy who called himself Geronimo. They had all chosen vainglorious
noms de guerre
.

"Very soon," Vladyka confirmed. "The Earthies will be moving against us now that they know the exodus is starting. The rock bombs are already moving into position."

A young woman called Valeria approached him. She favored skin-tight black pseudo-leather and was always trying to attract his attention. "Will you take me with you on the first attack?"

He draped an arm around her waist and cupped a rather bony hip in one palm. "Perhaps. There will be a lot of competition for slots on that voyage." She had a nicely rounded bottom but little else, and he preferred his women to be more full-fleshed.

"How many cities do we have targeted?" said a man called Leonidas.

"Fifty. But don't expect to see that many cities wiped out. The Earthies have powerful defenses in place. I revere the memory of Martin Shaw, but he was too restrained. The opportunity to destroy Earth was there, but the softliners of Eos—the Taggarts and Kurodas, the Cianos and Sousas—had no stomach for big-scale killing."

"Why wait?" Valeria asked. "Why not hit them now, before they expect us?" Her abundant hair was blond and she had a black band painted across her eyes.

"Bloodthirsty little bitch, aren't you?" he said affectionately. "Don't worry, you'll have all the blood you can stand before long. But if we're to have all the support we need, we have to let the Earthies strike first. After that, it'll be all our way. With half of the islands running, who's to protect the Confederacy but us?"

He knew that Earth would strike first because he had already seen to that little detail. He had planted nukes in two carefully selected asteroids, timed to go off just as he had his rock bombs perfectly positioned. He had no idea whether any of the rock bombs would really impact as Roman Korda had said, but he rather hoped so. Even wiping out a couple of asteroids with a few thousand deaths would be nothing like destroying even a small Earth city. He had no idea what Shevket's plan was, but his orders were clear. Shevket was willing to make a few sacrifices to consolidate his power, that was plain. He laughed uproariously.

"What's funny?" asked a follower.

"Life is," Vladyka said, fondling Valeria's sleek rear.

"Drinks all around, my comrades!" They all drew liquids and Vladyka raised his. "Death and destruction!"

"They're safe," Sieglinde said, breaking into the council meeting. As usual, nobody had had any inkling that she was in Avalon. She had breezed through their security checks without bothering to show her pass.

Mustapha Isherwood, Security Council chief, looked at her in annoyance. "Welcome as always, Linde. Who's safe?"

"
Nova
. I've put the shield through its final checks and it works flawlessly. The one aboard
Nova
is a good one."

Derek had never seen her looking so relieved. She looked ten years younger than when he had seen her last. "Speaking of
Nova
," he said, "she's already at one-tenth light speed and only a little more than a month out."

"Right about now," Sieglinde mused, "the ship that left thirty years ago under antimatter drive never yet attained one-hundredth the speed of light."

"They're going to be relieved when we show up with their new engine and shielding," Derek said. "Of course, we'll need to decelerate our ships to match velocity with our slow-moving cousins."

"Wouldn't you," Ulric commented, "facing a voyage of several centuries?"

Morton Bass grumbled. "I admit I'm an administrator, not a scientist, but this shielding business sounds like magic to me."