Embarkment 2577 (24 page)

The explanation sounded feasible, but I
didn’t believe him. He was running away from confrontation. “Adam, wait.”

He paused right inside the door and
pressed his fingers towards a portion of the wall. The smooth surface gave way
and revealed a hidden hatch. “There’s emergency provisions in here. Should be
everything you need.”

*****

Those nineteen hours were some of the
longest of my life. When we spotted John’s ship, I was so relieved I wanted to
cry. It was much bigger than I expected, and our shuttle fit easily in one of
his bays.

The large man swept Anya up in his arms
and spun her around. At least some happiness could come out of all this
misery… Adam stood next to me, watching with his arms crossed over his chest
and a very unimpressed expression on his face.

John hugged me too, and tried to shake
Adam’s hand, but Adam just looked at it. I mouthed, “That’s so rude” and he
ignored me. John chuckled and pulled his fingers through his unruly hair. “I
guess I deserve that. It’s good to see you all.”

He led the way through the enormous,
deserted ship. Our footsteps echoed between the walls, making it sound like
someone followed us. Was he here all alone all the time? No wonder the man
drank a lot; a day or two would drive me out of my mind.

Cargo crates were stacked all over, and
Adam muttered, “I wonder where he stole all this.”

I nudged him. “Be nice.”

He rolled his eyes and I tucked my hands
around his arm. If he shook it off, I would cry. He just glanced into my eyes
and mumbled, “Alex…”

I stood on my toes and kissed his cheek,
and a shadow of a smile flew over his face.

Once we reached the bridge, John sank
down in a chair and pulled Anya onto his lap. He reached for a bottle and took
a good long swig before holding it out to me. “Want some?”

Maybe alcohol couldn’t really relieve
stress, but at this point in time, I was all for trying. It was strong enough
to make me cough, but little details like that didn’t seem important.

Adam said, “I’ll go take a look at your
tractor beam.”

“My ship is in good shape, but knock
yourself out.”

As soon as Adam left the room, John
glanced over at me. “He worries too much.”

Tell me about it…

Anya fixed her pale eyes on me. “You
know I can’t read him, right? Android thoughts are secrets even to me. You are
troubled.”

“Of course I’m worried. Our home and all
our friends are about to be crushed.”

Her eyes narrowed. She didn’t believe
me. John broke the spell through touching her cheek. “Anya, poking around in
people’s minds isn’t nice, even when the person doing it is as gorgeous as you.
I’ve been cleaning. Come see? Alex won’t mind.”

I took a seat and pulled my feet up
under me. “He’s right. Go on.”

Sitting alone on a strange bridge with
nothing to do but watch space fly by the windows got old quickly. Could I
leave? If John was really the only person on the ship, the bridge must be empty
a lot of the time. I wouldn’t be able to do anything anyway.

My insides crawled with all sorts of
fears. I wanted Adam. If he would hug me and tell me everything would be
alright, I might get through the next day without going crazy.

“Computer?”

No one answered. Maybe it didn’t have a
voice interface. Good thing no one heard me; I must seem like an idiot.
Glancing at the instrumentation offered no help at all. Touching anything would
be inviting disaster.

Where had he said he was going? Tractor
beam? The Bell had all that technical stuff at the bottom. I didn’t have
anything better to do, so I could just as well go look. Worst case scenario, I
had the better part of a day to find my way back.

It was a big ship and I walked around
for a long time. I found rooms filled with machinery, rooms filled with
supplies, and empty crew quarters. No Adam. Where did the elevators go? Someone
must have moved them… When I finally made my way back to the starting point
more than two hours had passed, and I was afraid to wander anymore. I returned
to the still empty bridge and curled up in my chair.

After another endless wait, John and
Anya came back. He seemed remarkably sober. “We’re almost there. I’m surprised
this happened to Jones. He usually has more sense than messing with black
holes.”

Anya touched some controls, and the Bell
appeared on screen. I exhaled with relief. “She’s still there.”

The doors slid open and Adam entered.
“Where have you been? I looked for you for hours.”

He gave a slight shrug. “They’ve drifted
further in. I’ve examined the ship’s systems. I don’t think we’ll be able to
hold them long enough for help to arrive.”

John sighed. “You’re probably right, but
we have to try.”

Why wouldn’t we be able to hold them? I
wanted to ask, but bit the words down. Whether we ran out of energy or
overheated something was a moot point.

“I have calculated the coordinates most
beneficial for the attempt. Any closer and we’ll be pulled in too.”

Adam’s calm words made me feel queasy.
It wasn’t just fatigue and hunger churning in my stomach; it was fear. Home as
I knew it might already be gone, condemned, even though it hadn’t happened yet.
How could I watch that and retain my sanity?

The bridge was very quiet as John
manoeuvred his ship into position. A bright light shot out of our ship and my
nails dug into my palms when it bent away from the Bell, towards the
singularity. Then, John locked onto the ship. Working together, father and son
made it look easy.

The hull under my feet trembled, but the
Bell didn’t move. I turned to Adam, hoping he would have some brilliant
solution. He had an absent look on his face, and I would bet anything he ran
some calculations in his mind normal people like me would never be able to
understand.

He left the room without making a noise,
and both John and Anya glanced over their shoulders when the door closed behind
him.

“Where’s he going?” Anya sounded
suspicious.

“I don’t know, but this isn’t working.
We can hold them from being pulled further in for now, but I’m sending too much
power to the tractor array. It’ll overheat soon.”

I got to my feet and left the room,
trying not to disturb them. Adam was already at the other end of the corridor
and I had to run to catch up with him. “Adam, wait!”

He slowed his steps but didn’t turn around to face me.
“Go back to the bridge.”

“No. Where are you going?”

He didn’t answer. “Adam, what are you doing?”

Glancing back over his shoulder, he looked more
serious than ever before. “I’m going to crash our shuttle into the singularity
and hope the shockwave from two black holes will be enough to push them away.”

What? Within seconds I only saw his back disappearing
towards the elevator. I ran to catch up and jumped in front of him. “With you
in it? Absolutely not. That’s suicide, you can’t do that.”

He smiled a little, but didn’t look particularly
happy. “Yes, I can. I have to. It’s the only way.”

Pushing me gently to the side, he started to walk
again. I jogged to keep up with him. When we reached the lift I was out of
breath and panted, “Please don’t do this.”

He leaned his back against the wall, crossed his arms,
and avoided my gaze through staring into the wall. What could I say?

Adam didn’t speak until the lift slowed at the lowest
deck. “It’s logical. If nothing is done, over a thousand people on that ship
will die. And if I’m gone, you’re free to do whatever you want.”

“
What?
” My feet didn’t move until the doors
started to close again. A bizarre picture was finally coming together in my
mind. It was absurd, a skewed version of reality, but it was the only
explanation.

I caught up with him in the docking bay. “Tell me
you’re not going out there to kill yourself because you’re jealous.”

He stopped and looked down at the floor for a second.
When he turned around to meet my eyes, he lifted both his eyebrows, making the
face he always did when trying to convince me some cockamamie logic made sense.
“You deserve to be with someone from your own species. John might not have been
my first choice for you, but that’s not for me to decide. I’m a machine. Anya
is a hologram. You two are human.”

Oh no, I wasn’t losing my husband over a dumb secret.
“It’s not like that.”

“You have never been as happy as with him. I’ve never
seen you laugh so much, or enjoy life so much. I’m sorry I can’t do that for
you, but it can be fixed.”

I took a couple of careful steps forward. “John is
your father. He’s the only family either of us has. He just… He doesn’t want
you to know. I promised not to tell you.”

I used his surprise to get a few steps closer. “Not
even Anya knows. Think about it. Sober him up, cut his hair a little and shave
him. You’ll end up with you. That’s why I like him so much. He reminds me of
you.”

Under our feet, the hull quivered like a nervous
horse. “I appreciate you telling me this, but it doesn’t matter. I still have
to try to save the Bell.”

I was close enough. I ran forward and threw my arms
around him. My holding him wouldn’t prevent him from going anywhere, but I had
to try.

Crying wasn’t part of my plan, but I couldn’t hold it
in any longer. I sobbed, “Please don’t leave me. There has to be another way.
Just, please don’t leave me.”

It was probably a very egotistical approach. So many
lives were at stake, and he had already decided to sacrifice his to save them.
I just couldn’t let him do that.

He whispered, “I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry too. I wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t.
I love you. You should know that by now.”

Adam looked around the room and shifted his grip on me
to reach the radio. “John, you have an old mining ship down here. Does it run?
Does it have a tractor beam?”

“Yes, but I don’t know if it’s strong enough to make
any difference.”

“We shall see.”

Their voices sounded so much the same it was a mystery
no one heard it.

Adam brushed his lips over my forehead. “I’ll try to
be back. It’s the best I can do, okay.”

“No. Not okay. I’m going with you.”

“Alex, no…” He sounded pleading.

“Yes. It’s not debateable and we don’t have time to
argue. I’m going with you.”

He shook his head, but lifted the radio again. “We’re
going out in the miner. Anya, please man the transporter and keep a lock on
Alex.”

The ship was old and rough, and there was too much
black space around us. Any stars visible were too far away, and the large ship
balancing on the edge of destruction seemed too fragile. My imagination played
a nasty sound of hull plating creaking at the strain.

I reached out to touch Adam’s shoulder. It was hard to
believe he would have chosen to fly into the horror that spread out before us.
“Do you think this will work?”

“No. It’s like trying to tow a moon.”

The little craft we were in seemed like a mosquito
compared to the Bell. I couldn’t fathom how it would make any difference at
all.

John’s voice echoed over the radio. “It’s a good
little ship. It was used to salvage asteroids.”

Adam pushed the transmission button. “Well, if I
destroy it I guess I owe you one.”

The remote voice laughed. “You mean besides coming all
the way here to pull your butt out of the fire?”

I expected Adam to say something snarky, but he seemed
to have that out of his system. “I’ll make it up to you. Engaging tractor beam.
”

Something further back in the ship screeched and gave
way with a bang that made my ears ring. Warning lights flashed all over the
board. John’s voice said, “I’m giving it all I got over here. I think she
twitched.”

Smoke billowed into the cockpit and Adam said,
emotionless as ever, “Anya, would you please teleport Alex over. Leave me here
for now.”

I didn’t have time to say anything. The air shimmered
around me, and in the next moment, I stared at a white wall in John’s
transporter room.

Anya had an open radio link to the bridge, and John’s
voice sounded so much like my husband’s it confused me and made me want to cry.
“She’s moving.”

Adam’s voice was distorted by old equipment, distance,
and disturbance from the black hole. “That’s good, because this ship is about
done for.”

In the next moment, a monitor showed the miner turning
into a spectacular firework.

My brain and my eyes weren’t
cooperating. The message from the eyes was clear. The screen was filled with
flames and debris. My mind said it couldn’t be possible. Adam couldn’t be dead.

I wanted to scream, but my lungs had no
air. The ship my husband was on exploded in front of my eyes. Whether he could
survive in the vacuum of space or not was a moot point; nothing could survive a
blast like that. I was alone.