Boundary 2: Threshold (30 page)

"Hello, Horst."

"Jackie . . . I am very sorry." The apology was the first thing he said. "For everything. I had promised . . . they hired me for this. If I had known before . . ." He shook his head. "But then I wouldn't have been hired, and I wouldn't have met you. So it might have worked out badly either way." He took a deep breath and suddenly met her gaze directly, with an intensity that startled her. "But I never lied to you. Never. Not once. About anything."

A crazy part of her actually believed him. The sane part just
wanted
to believe him more than anything in the whole world. "Horst . . ."

"They didn't even want us calling back for a long time after we left, so it took me days to find a way around it. And then you didn't talk to me."

"You used me, Horst!" she snapped. "The program that hid the data—A.J. told me how it worked. You couldn't possibly have done that without everything you learned from me, and him for that matter."

"I know! I know, Jackie. But it was what I was there to do. I wasn't . . . wasn't there to . . . to get involved with anyone. But I did anyway. And when Anthony got that information and we covered it up, both of us felt . . . dirty."

He's telling the truth. Dammit, he has to be!
"Really?"

"You do not know how many times we have talked about how much it sucks, Jackie."

The dry, precisionist tone in which he said the line made her suddenly burst out laughing. She felt like something was letting go inside her, opening up like a flower. "It sure did. . . . Horst. Did you mean what you just said?"

"That it sucks?"

"No. That you got 'involved.' We never talked about it."

He smiled, quite shyly. "Hard to do—get involved, I mean—on a spaceship crammed with people. Privacy is usually required. But it is how I felt, certainly."

She blinked back suddenly startling tears. "So did I," she said softly. "That's why I was so hurt by what happened."

The change on Horst Eberhart's face was astounding. Lines seemed to vanish from his face, and she really understood what people meant when they wrote that someone's face shone with happiness. There was nothing, for that instant, but pure crystal-blue joy in his gaze, and it was that which cut the last knot binding her heart. That look couldn't possibly be faked. Somehow—impossible as it seemed—Horst
hadn't
known about the coilgun attack. Maybe he'd known the gun existed, but someone else must have fired it, and he had never known they'd done so.

A green light blinked on in her line of sight. That meant that A.J. felt he'd done all he could at this point. Time to wrap up. She hadn't thought she'd be so reluctant to do it, but then . . . 

"I have to go, I'm afraid. I guess I'll be seeing you again, at Enceladus. One way or the other."

"Yes," Horst said. "Is it all right if I don't wish your ship good luck, or will that get me in more trouble?"

She laughed. "Sweetie, that's just fine, because while I wish
you
all the luck in the world, that ship you are on isn't getting any of it!"

* * *

"So, how did we do?" Jackie asked finally.

A.J. could not restrain a triumphal grin. "We are
in
. We are so totally in that you would not believe it. Operation Bungee is a go."

"You are sure it will work?" Madeline asked.

He was used to Madeline questioning him. And of course it gave him a chance to brag more. Which was still fun, if not quite as much the absolute necessity as he seemed to remember it being back when he was younger. "Maddie, it will most certainly work. My Faerie Dust was all over their outer surfaces, and there are places where it could get inside the control runs. There's control gadgetry all along the main accelerator ribs, and I'm slowly co-opting control of it. The most important question was whether I could find a way to get inside the ship itself, which I managed while you were talking—a vent valve in the NERVA system which they hadn't changed in their design. A bunch of the dust can get in that way, then through the filtration system. It's meant to handle impurities, but not impurities that are smart enough to avoid being emptied out."

"And then you can run the engines?"

"The NERVA engine, damn straight. Jackie knows more about that thing than anyone other than Gupta. She worked on every part of its design. Between her and Joe, I could figure out how to basically shortstop any commands they give and substitute my own. And I really just need to do a couple of things to make 'em swing ship before blasting.

"Controlling the mass-beam and the coilguns—that's a little trickier. I can mess with the control nodes on the outside, but me, you, and Joe are going to have to go over what I've managed to learn about the control parameters and designs with a fine-toothed comb to figure out exactly what I can and can't do. I can't take control of every system in that ship, at least not without a lot more Dust or a lot more time, and if someone catches on, we're in real trouble."

"Were you able to verify the existence of the coilguns?"

"Not yet. On our next close approach, I will. I can say there are a few anomalies along the accelerator ribs, but none that a fast-talking engineer couldn't explain away at this point. The motes will keep trying to work their way in, try to gain access, but they've got to do it as subtly and conservatively as possible, or they'll trip something."

Madeline looked satisfied. "So the whole plan doesn't need to be changed?"

A.J. shook his head, confidence filling him as usual. "Not a thing, really. We do our braking maneuver at closest approach—just about scraping atmosphere off the big guy—and then make sure they do theirs. With the right vectors we should be able to close on them again and give them the chance to make a deal."

"What if they fire?" Larry asked. "People whose ships were suddenly hijacked have been known to do that."

"I think I can screw that up even now," A.J. said. "And by that point, we'll also have the proof we need, I think. So shooting us wouldn't accomplish anything, right?"

"True enough. And it's not like we'll be offering them nothing."

"Then," Jackie said, smiling in a more natural way than she had since they started, "in a few days this should all be over."

"Just a few. Then, of course, we'll have to actually get to Enceladus, but we can both do that, especially once we're cooperating instead of competing."

A.J. had to admit, he was glad it was almost over, at least on the cloak-and-dagger side.

But he did have one more bit of fun in store for himself at the expense of the
Odin
. Harmless overall, but it would be his little reminder to Horst—and especially the unseen Mr. Fitzgerald—of just
who
he'd been messing with.

He couldn't wait.

"Maximum power burn will commence in approximately fifteen minutes," General Hohenheim said, his voice resonating throughout
Odin
. "All stations, report readiness."

"Engineering, all ready," Mia Svendsen's voice replied.

"Security, all ready," said Fitzgerald from his position to Hohenheim's far left.

"Damage control, all ready."

"Living quarters, all secure."

The remaining groups also reported readiness. Hohenheim leaned back in the command seat. The acceleration of
Odin
would be relatively small, but after months without noticeable acceleration, there were still many potential chances for minor and even major disasters. "Dr. LaPointe, is all ready?"

"Yes, General. Ready for Oberth Maneuver in . . . ten minutes."

Jupiter loomed before them, covering more than half the sky. The planetary lord of the solar system and the king of the Norse gods were speeding toward a rendezvous, a brief dance of power in which Jupiter would gift them with three times the delta-vee of the rocket burn they performed, energy drawn from a gravity well of nearly sixty kilometers per second—fifty, at the altitude the
Odin
would pass.

"Any sign of
Nebula Storm
?"

LaPointe shook his head. "She had drawn considerably ahead, sir. We will not see her again until we clear the other side of Jupiter."

"Can you tell if she performed any powered maneuvers, or a simple flyby?" The Ares vessel had preceded them toward Jupiter, collapsed its dusty-plasma sail, and disappeared into darkness some hours before.

The French-English astronomer studied other readouts. "It appears that she will have two unique accomplishments to her credit, at least. From traces of water vapor I can tell that she did indeed perform powered maneuvers. She has the first manned flyby of Jupiter, and the closest."

Horst turned at that, startled. "Closer than we will pass?"

At LaPointe's confirmation, Horst gave a soundless whistle. "They must be practically scraping the cloud tops. No wonder they had to retract the sail."

"Impressive," said Hohenheim. "Perhaps they need every bit of speed they can get. But let them have the small triumphs, as long as the end of the race is ours."

"We will know that when next we see them. Their final velocity will be our answer. Either they will be faster, and will almost certainly win, or they will be slower, and we have won," LaPointe said. "Not long at all now."

The general checked the chronometer. "Coming up on five minutes. Mia, the engine is ready?"

"As ready as possible, sir. No one has ever attempted to run these engines at this level of output before, so nothing is quite certain, but I am confident."

"I can ask no more." The Oberth Maneuver depended on accomplishing the change of velocity as much as possible at perigee. Ideally, of course, it would be instantaneous, but absent reactionless drives and mythical acceleration compensators, some compromise had to be made. In this case, they were "redlining" the NERVA assembly to produce the absolute maximum thrust for this burn. Modeling showed it should do no real damage for this one burn. Hohenheim knew full well, however, that models were not the same thing as the real world.

Jupiter was closer now, no longer a planet but a gigantic cream and brown-striped wall, a mass of churning clouds beyond human comprehension. The Great Red Spot was close enough to show its true nature as a titanic storm, a hurricane large enough to swallow three Earths.

Alarms buzzed, and red lights suddenly appeared on LaPointe's console, just as a faint quiver ran through
Odin
.

Hohenheim leaned forward. Jupiter was moving, the entire field of view in the forward screen rotating. "What is it, Dr. LaPointe?"

"I do not know, General! The lateral thrusters, they have fired!" LaPointe's hands moved over the controls. "I am getting no response. We are continuing to rotate."

Horst Eberhart brought up his displays. "It looks like a reversal of vector. But it's not accepting the cancellation codes."

"Dr. LaPointe, if we are even slightly off when we make this burn, it could seriously impact our outward course."

"Yes, I know, General." LaPointe was now working virtually every control in sight.

"Mr. Eberhart?"

Eberhart shook his head. "Our commands are not getting through to the thruster systems, General. It will take time to figure out why—and I don't have that much time."

"Dr. Svendsen," Hohenheim said calmly. "Are you following this situation?"

"Naturally," Mia Svendsen's cool, controlled alto replied. "I will go to manual control. This means that your controls will be cut out, however."

"They do not seem to be of much use at the moment. Get us back on course, Dr. Svendsen."

"Yes, sir."

Jupiter and the stars outside appeared to have completed approximately half a rotation when the lateral thrusters rumbled again. The rotation stopped. Hohenheim waited, but no additional movement commenced. "Dr. Svendsen, we are waiting!"

The voice was now no longer so cool or controlled. "They are not responding to manual control. The problem appears to be in the embedded controller code itself."

"Damn!" Horst cursed. "That will take hours, maybe a day or two, to figure out."

"We have two minutes," Hohenheim said. "I think it would be wiser to troubleshoot with maximum fuel for course correction in case of emergency. Since our controls are still cut out, Dr. Svendsen, please cancel the main burn. Shut down the NERVA drive for now."

"Yes, sir."

He leaned back slowly, thinking. "Dr. LaPointe, obviously without a powered flyby our course will be quite different. Please begin to—"

The entire ship shuddered, and the thundering roar of a NERVA rocket at full power filled the air.

"
Svendsen!
I told you to shut the engine down!"

"I
did
, General! The reactor is refusing to respond! I entered all the commands, I got all the regular acknowledgments, and then it went right ahead with the burn!"

Hohenheim pursed his lips, then sighed.
Nothing to be done now. All I can do is try to salvage the mission.
He waited until the entire burn completed itself. "Mr. LaPointe. I would presume that in this orientation we lost, rather than gained, velocity?"

Looking somewhat shell-shocked, Anthony LaPointe nodded. "Approximately thirty-six kilometers per second, sir."

"Please recalculate our orbit and determine whether we are headed for immediate disaster—and if so, what we can do about it." He rose. "Mr. Fitzgerald, I will see you in the briefing room in five minutes."

No one said anything as he left.

"Horst Eberhart, General," Richard Fitzgerald said. "It can't really be anyone else."

He could see by the grimness of the general's face that Hohenheim had already reached the same conclusion. "Can we be sure?" the general said.

"Look at the facts, General. He
was
control systems. He and Svendsen together, but Svendsen isn't a programmer. Oh, she can code all right when she has to, but not a patch on him. He had a hand in every single bit of control code written, from the firmware in the bloody control nodes to the main user interface. So he's got the opportunity. Motive, well, you were the one who let him talk to his little skirt over on the Ares ship. First thing out of his mouth is how sorry he is, and the two of 'em are going sappy a few minutes later. Eberhart's just the kind of guy to figure that he could make it all right by letting them get ahead of us."