Boundary 2: Threshold (28 page)

A.J. looked scandalized. "
Could
we? 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 on
Odin
."

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 are
meant
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 the
Odin
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 to
Odin
, especially once
Odin
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."

"
Sail
boat, 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 with
Odin
'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 to
Odin
, 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 it
was
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!"

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 the
Nebula 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 blasé about it, but . . . I still look out there, sometimes, and think
I'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 not
now
. 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 other
Odin
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 we
must
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, that
is
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.