Dragonstar Destiny (14 page)

CAVOLI
and Krolczyk had been wisecracking as they walked along ahead of Mishima and Rebecca Thalberg. They were either trying to relieve tension or perhaps dispel the growing boredom of the expedition. Whatever their reasons, their coarse humor was starting to bug Takamura.

It did not seem to be bothering Becky, however. Sometimes she had laughed, and had even joined in on the banter once or twice.

Maybe he was just starting to get edgy.

They had been walking through what seemed like an endless system of corridors. There were levels upon levels of the control-section, laid out in an orderly grid-like fashion, so that the whole end of the cylindrical ship resembled an immense hive. Using the instruments he and Becky had brought along, they had plotted out the most direct route to the access to the Temple of Hakkarh. Mishima estimated they should reach that point within several hours.

“You’ve been awfully quiet for a while,” said Becky in a half-whisper so that the two troopers in the van could not eavesdrop. “Something wrong?”

He sighed, glanced at her. There was something about her dark liquid-brown eyes and thick brown hair that excited him. Just looking at her recalled the sweet smell of her hair when he had buried his face in its scented depths. The memory of her aggressive, yet submissive, lovemaking stirred him, and he felt a warm glow in his groin. He could almost experience it all over again.

“Mishima, I said is there something wrong?” Becky interrupted his pleasant fantasy and tugged his sleeve.

“Oh no! I’m sorry,” he said, feeling his cheeks flush. “I was just daydreaming.”

“For a while there, you looked like you were upset about something, then you had a funny little grin on your face. Must have been
some
daydream!” She smiled.

He nodded. “I guess I’m just getting impatient,” he said. “Walking through this place is like being in a maze! It’s taking longer than I’d thought.”

Becky shrugged. “We’re making good time. And besides, none of us have anything better to do, right?”

“I suppose so ...”

The two tactical troopers paused as they reached an intersection of passageways.

“Which way, Doc?” asked Krolczyk. He was tall and rangy and sported a gold earring in his left ear. He had a sharp wit and feral eyes. Mishima thought he would’ve done very well aboard an eighteenth-century frigate.

Becky checked the hand-held map-scanner, tilted her head to the right.

“Take a right,” said Mishima.

“You got it,” said Krolczyk, leading the way.

Mishima had noticed that he and Cavoli had long since dispensed with creeping down the corridors with their rifles leveled at the hip. The control-section was as quiet as a pathology lab. They had not even seen another maintenance robot.

“Good thing you got them instruments,” said Cavoli. “We’d be lost as shit otherwise.”

Krolczyk grunted as he walked ahead. “I feel like a rat in a maze ...”

“Well,” said Mishima, “it will—”

Another ship-quake suddenly braced the vessel with a series of severe shocks. An ominous sound like rolling thunder echoed and reverberated down the hallways. It rambled along the passageways like a beast in search of prey. The vibrations in the hull were so great they were all thrown off their feet.

“Jesus!” cried Cavoli. “What happened?”

“Everybody okay?” Krolczyk was trying to get to his knees as another series of groans and the cry of shrieking metal passed through the hull.

And then it was abruptly over.

The silence which followed seemed all the more intense in contrast to what he had just experienced. Eerie. Mishima felt a chili race down his spine.

“That wasn’t like the other ones,” said Mishima, getting to his feet.

“I know,” said Becky. “It sounded different, somehow.”

“Oh, it was
definitely
different,” he said. “Something is placing additional stress on the hull. The engines, perhaps ...”

“What do you think it means?” Becky looked up at him with a concerned expression.

“Just a guess, but it could mean that we are breaking out of hyperspace ... I don’t know, I could be completely off base.”

“What’re we doin’, Doc? Everything okay?” Cavoli moved back to assist Becky to her feet and gather up her splayed-out packs of electronic gear.

“I think so,” said Mishima. “Let’s try to get back to the Temple entrance ASAP.”

“You want us to double-time it?”

He shook his head. “To tell you the truth, I doubt if I could keep up with you. Let’s just keep up a brisk walking pace, all right?”

“Brisk,” said Krolczyk, smiling. “Okay, you got it.” He turned and started, walking with long, quick strides.

Mishima and Becky fell in behind the two troopers and walked without speaking for a few minutes. Suddenly her radio crackled and popped. Static laced the words of Bob Jakes, but at least he was coming through.

“This is Council HQ, do you copy this, Becky?”

“I can just barely hear you, Dr. Jakes,” she said as she halted and hunched down over the portable transceiver.

“We are using a jury-rigged amplifier to boost our signal,” said Jakes. “Reception is lousy, but acceptable. Are you folks okay in there?”

“Affirmative,” said Mishima. “Did you get anything off your gear from all that noise? What happened just now?”

There was a pause as some fine tuning was applied to the transmission. Jakes cleared his throat and spoke in a voice which was degrees cleaner. “We had a feeling you might not know ... That’s why we tried to raise you ... We broke through!” The radio crackled for an instant. “We’re out of hyperspace!”

The words were scratchy and barely intelligible, but they hit Mishima like a karate kick to the solar plexus,
The ship was back in normal space.
Rationally he was pleased that the transition had been made safely, but emotionally he felt cheated. His dreams of taking over the controls and successfully bringing the ship back into normal space-time had been shattered.

“That’s fantastic!” he said automatically. Becky and the others added their own comments simultaneously,

Actually, Mishima thought, it had been a silly dream. An adolescent power-fantasy, a Tom Swift fairy tale notion. In a way, perhaps it was better this way. Now he could concentrate on getting back to the Temple entrance, opening it, and at least providing the researchers access to the alien artifact once again. At least his little foray would serve some good cause ...

“Dr. Takamura, are you there?” Jakes’s voice danced among the bursts of static.

“Yes, right here! Listen, do you have any idea where we are?”

Jakes chuckled. “Good question! It’s one we’re all asking. The scope-cam on the hull made the FTL jumps intact. We appear to be heading for an orbit around a red giant. You should see the size of the star. Incredible ...”

“With the telescope camera still working, you might be able to get some data to help dope out our location,” said Mishima. He didn’t know that much about astrophysics, but with the help of one of the DEC units, they might be able to extrapolate their location In the galaxy.

If, that is, the
Dragonstar
was
still in
the galaxy.

“We’re way ahead of you on that one,” said Jakes. “We’re working out some preliminary mappings now. It’s going to take a little time, but we might come up with some answers sooner or later.”

“Beautiful,” he said. “I figure we’re less than two hours from the Temple entrance. Plan to meet us there when we spring the locks on that place.”

“Sounds good, Doctor,” said Jakes as another burst of static encrusted his words. “We will keep in touch till then.”

“One more thing,” said Mishima. “You said we’re closing on a red giant ... do you have any readings on it?”

Jakes chuckled again. “Nothing yet. We’re working on it. All we have is what we can see of it.”

“And how does it
look?”
he asked.

“Like a big, hazy tomato,” said Jakes. “Seriously, though, I gotta tell you: This star looks very unstable.”

PHINEAS KEMP
listened to the entire radio conversation with Dr. Takamura and had to stifle a little grin. He could not help but wonder if Takamura felt as if his thunder had been stolen. It looked as if the
Dragonstar
had been able to get itself out of hyperspace
without
the help of the Good Doctor, thank-you-very-much-have-a-nice-life-and-all-that-jazz.

And there was Takamura roaming the endless halls of the ship’s control-section, his “important mission” reduced to nothing more than serving as a glorified doorman—assuming he would be able to open that door from the Hakkarh Temple. If that was a bust, the scientists would feel doubly foolish and defeated.

Phineas felt sorry for Takamura, especially since Becky had been present to witness his disappointment. It was always worse for a man to suffer defeat or humiliation in the presence of a woman he desired or loved or needed.

Now, there was a perfectly chauvinistic notion, he thought sardonically. Not that he cared one way or the other. Because he honestly believed it to be true—in fact, he
knew
it ‘was true because he’d experienced it himself. One of the most difficult things he’d ever had to do was look Mikaela in the eye after everybody had voted him out of power. Oh, sure, she’d been comforting and understanding, but it had still hurt like hell. And hadn’t he felt like a perfect fool?

But the game wasn’t over until it was over, and he felt that his chance for vindication would come—sooner or later—and he would show the whole bunch of them that they needed him, after all.

Someone cleared his throat and the area became very quiet. The absence of sound gently tugged Phineas from his inner thoughts. He regarded Mikaela at his side, then focused his attention on Dr. Robert Jakes.

After Jakes signed off the radio, he turned and stared silently at the small assemblage of science types and research assistants, The IASA had empowered him, as Project Director of the team of scientists, to study the
Dragonstar,
and Jakes had been aboard the alien vessel almost from the beginning. Even though the women had suffered through differences of opinion several times in the past, Phineas had always liked Bob Jakes. He was a perceptive, no-bullshit kind of guy, and his habit of wearing spectacles when surgery or perma-lenses would correct his eyesight indicated his individualistic nature.

“All right, people ... we have some work to do,” Jakes said. “Tom, I want the scope-cam mapping data processed ASAP. Jorge and Nikita, I want your people to finish the computer model on that star out there—I want the best projections possible. I’m also going to need a few people stationed up by the Temple entrance to assist Takamura when he gets there, if he needs it. He’ll be expecting some kind of welcoming party, too, I’ d guess.”

As Jakes spoke, various factions of the assembled group nodded and split off to work on the assigned tasks. Jakes spoke slowly, but with the tone of gentle authority which was universally respected. He doled out some smaller jobs among the remaining people until only Phineas and Mikaela stood by his desk.

“Is there anything we can do?” asked Phineas.

Jakes grinned. “You can sit down and have a cup of coffee with me for starters. How’s that?”

They pulled up chairs and sat down while Jakes poured off three mugs of black liquid. .

“So we’ve jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire, eh?” asked Phineas.

Jakes shrugged, “Maybe. We’re spiraling in toward this star,” he said, leaning back over his desk to tap a flat-screen display, which pictured a large scarlet sphere. It did look like a hazy tomato.

“Into the heart of the sun?” Mikaela spoke softly.

“No. It appears that the ship is setting itself up for a tangential rendezvous with the orbital path of the star’s sixth planet.”

“What’s the rendezvous ETA?” asked Phineas.,

“At present velocity, the stellar orbital insertion is about two hours away. Then about another hour before we could achieve a stable orbit around the sixth planet itself.” Jakes pulled off his glasses and cleaned them with the edge of his lab coat.

“Sounds like this little lost dog has finally found its way home,” said Phineas. He felt a chill race down his back at the thought of confronting the builders of this vessel.

Jakes nodded. “Yes, it does sound like that, doesn’t it?”

“And you have no idea where we
are
yet?” Phineas sipped from the steaming mug carefully. Jakes favored a strong blend of coffee.

“Not really. The idea is to feed the positions of the sky-map into our biggest computer, and by using known star positions in the galaxy as a referent, calculate where we are right now. The problem is creating the program which can perform this kind of analysis.”

Phineas nodded. “You mean you want the computer to try to recognize constellations and known stars from
this
vantage point, even though they will most likely look totally different?”

“Basically, yes.”

“God, who’s going to write
that
program?”

Jakes grinned. “We’re hoping that one of the smaller portables will do the job for us.”

Mikaela shook her head. “Computers writing programs for other computers—it’s incredible, isn’t it?”

Been going on for a long time, Mikaela. It just gets more complicated. That’s the way it’s always been with our jobs, right?” Jakes cleared his throat. “I’m also trying to get some readings on the effects of that hyperspace jump on the outer hull. Following up on what Takamura discovered.”

“You mean we might have sustained some damage in returning to normal space?” asked Mikaela.

“Too early to tell,” said Jakes. “It’s just that I want to cover all the bases on this thing.”

She nodded and forced herself to smile. Phineas could see that she was feeling uncomfortable as the newest realities of their plight were made evident.

“And what about that star?” Phineas glanced at the flat-screen monitor. “Is it really ready to blow?”

“I like to keep you on your toes, Phineas.”

Again Jakes shrugged. “But you never can tell about these things. In terms of a star’s lifetime, ‘ready to blow’ can mean any time within the next fifty thousand years ... or it can mean tonight. Odds are though it won’t go anytime soon.”

“And you don’t recognize this star from any of the catalogues?” asked Mikaela.

“We don’t have a top astronomer on board, and that would help. All we can go on is the data bases included in the basic program-bundle,” said Jakes. “But then, you have to realize, there are millions of stars far away from us—at the opposite end of our galaxy, for example—which have yet to be catalogued. This one could easily be one of them.”

Phineas nodded, sipped his coffee. No one spoke for a moment, and the atmosphere among the trio became heavy and full of ominous anticipation. It was like sitting out on a front porch, waiting for a mean summer storm to pounce on you.

“Then how did you know so quickly that this star was unstable?” asked Phineas. “How did you pick up on it so fast?”

“Some things you just can’t miss, and this star has all the classic, easily identifiable symptoms. Remember when Betelgeuse supernovaed back in ’16?”

“Of course, I was on the Uranus mission. It was the brightest thing in space.”

“Easily
the brightest. Back on Earth, I can remember, you could see it up in the sky during broad daylight,” said Jakes. “Well, they learned a lot from that explosion. Betelgeuse had expelled ring-like clouds of nitrogen gas, and possessed a heavy iron core which ultimately caused the outer shells of burning gases to collapse, then the shock wave and the explosion.”

“And this star looks like Betelgeuse?” asked Mikaela.

Jakes harrumphed. “It could be its brother. Betelgeuse was about twenty times as massive as Sol. The star out there is about the same size as Betelgeuse, and it ejected a nitrogen clump quite some time ago—more than sixty thousand years—so it is very near the end.”

“How can you tell how long ago?” asked Mikaela.

“By noting the distance the nitrogen is from the star and measuring its outward velocity,” said Jakes, “That part’s pretty simple, really, and you don’t have to be a hotshot astrophysicist to figure it out.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” said Mikaela.

“Thanks,” said Jakes, smiling. “Because I’ve just about exhausted everything I know about astronomy. I’ve been sounding good up till now, but anything beyond this, and I’ll be doing it with mirrors!”

Phineas had been thinking about all the facts Jakes had been reciting. Some of the things didn’t make sense. “You know, this is sounding crazier and crazier all the time,” he said.

“Yes
.
..?”
said Jakes.

“Well, think about it—if that star is as unstable as it appears, why would the ship want to park right up under its nose?”

“I’ve been thinking about that, too,” said Mikaela. “And I don’t like the conclusions I’m coining up with.”

Jakes nodded. “I think we’re
all
thinking the same kinds of things ...”

“You mean we’re providing taxi service to a bunch of aliens who’ve decided it’s time for a little planetary exodus?” Phineas looked from Jakes, to Mikaela as he sought confirmation.

“I’d say that’s got to be a possibility,” said Jakes.

Phineas felt his blood pounding behind his ears. The very idea that there might be some kind of confrontation with alien beings was getting his adrenaline pumping. Getting up from his chair, he began pacing within the confined space of Jakes’s desk and the rows of lab benches.

“I know this isn’t really my place to be suggesting. policy, since I’m’ not part of the Council,” he said, looking at Mikaela and then Jakes, “but
both
of you sit upon that lofty dais, and maybe you can convene an emergency session and make a few suggestions in my absence ...”

Mikaela smiled. “And you were disclaiming all rumors to being the power behind the throne!”

“I’m serious. If what Bob says is correct, and our initial instincts as to
why
this ship is heading for a planet encircling a dying star, then I think we might be in for a scrap.”

“Of course, they might be friendlies,” said Jakes.

“And I
might
live to see one hundred twenty,” said Phineas. “But I’m sure as hell not counting on it.”

“So you’re saying we should prepare for the worst?” asked Mikaela.

“Damn straight! We’ve only got about three hours before we achieve a planetary orbit. Christ knows what’s in store for us after that ...”

“He’s right, Dr. Lindstrom,” said Jakes. “Even armed and ready, we’re most likely going to be at a sad disadvantage. But if they come in here and catch us with our drawers around our ankles, we won’t have a chance.”

Phineas grinned. He couldn’t have phrased it better himself, and it pleased him to know that he had the support of a man like Jakes when it looked like showdown time was fast approaching.

Mikaela considered their words for a moment, then stood up. “You’re right. Let’s get in touch with Joy Davison and Dennis Patrick. We’re going to need a
plan
very quickly.”

Mikaela moved to the radio console on Jakes’s desk and began calling the two available members of the Council. Phineas continued pacing, looking out at the activity going on all around him. The ragtag collection of scientists were doing their best to quantify what was happening all around them, and then, with luck, maybe explain it correctly.

He wondered how he could best help out in the present situation. He wasn’t really much on military strategy or tactics—old Coopersmith had had a real knack for that sort of thing—but there weren’t that many among the survivors who
were
qualified. Maybe the best tiring to do was get together with the best tactical heads available and come up with a basic defensive alignment. Probably the hardest part of the whole operation would be explaining it to the Saurians—especially Visigoth and his bunch.

Well, at least they had Thesaurus in their corner, and Kate seemed to get along with him fairly well.

Kate.

He hadn’t had much time to think about her since all the excitement started, but she had definitely become a factor in his life. Even though he tried to prevent it, she had gotten to him, slipping under his armor almost effortlessly. It surprised him that he could even be concerned with such things when there was a good possibility that they all faced major problems, but such was the power men and women exerted over one another. He feared it would never change.