The Space Between (37 page)

"Are you sure?"

He nodded. Of course he was sure. He'd seen
the room so he knew the dimensions perfectly. He also knew exactly
how far they had walked since leaving the viewing room. Since
starting to Sing his Song, he was thinking much clearer than he had
in a long time. "The wall is one meter thick, and the ship is ten
meters beyond that."

"Well, tell us when you're right."

"Move the shelf. I can't sing through metal
and books."

"Right."

The alien was as bad as Tuki, standing by
passively while Kim spent a second trying to move a shelf before
giving up and simply toppling it onto the floor.

Keeble punched his Song at the wall as he
heard the door opening. He went through the hole with the others on
his heels. The moment they were all safe, he shut off the Song with
a snap that was almost painful. He didn't notice though, because
the ship was right there. It was bigger up close than it looked
from the room above but was still a bit disappointing if it was
meant to fly between the stars. Dwarves had made steam trains that
were bigger. He started to do a lap around it, examining the hull,
running his fingers over the rough surface.

"What is the next course of action?"
Meledrin asked. "As was previously pointed out, the Americans have
been trying to gain entry to the vessel for some years. You can not
expect to succeed in the next few minutes where they have
failed."

"That bit there is stone," Keeble said. He
knew it as soon as he saw it, though the small square section
didn't look any different to the rest. It was on the side of the
ship right next to another recessed panel, 2.6 meters to a side.
"It's the densest, toughest stone I've ever seen, but it's
stone."

"Which bit," Kim asked.

As Keeble pointed it out, he started his
Song again, building it quickly. By the time Kim arrived at his
side it was filling his mind. He climbed up on the scaffolding and
slipped his hand into the stone.

"It's an access panel like they have in
planes and elevators." She probably didn't know what he was talking
about. He'd have to explain. "They let you get to equipment and
machinery in the walls."

"I get it, Keeble."

"There's a handle." He turned the handle and
the large panel slid silently upwards.

Kim's mouth was hanging open again. Meledrin
and Tuki had come to see. The alien was hanging back near the
wall.

"That was easy," Keeble said.

A pile of metal crates blocked half the
doorway.

"Easy for someone who can stick his hand in
solid stone, maybe."

Keeble saw Kim take a deep breath before
sticking her head inside to have a look. It seemed she had walked
through the stone with less trepidation. Either way, he decided,
she did show a remarkable amount of courage and decisiveness for a
dwife. She was almost like a dwarf. Almost.

"Alrighty then. All aboard, I guess, before
somebody else turns up."

Keeble nodded and went inside while Kim went
to talk to the alien, as if that was going to do any good. The
crates occupied a storage compartment 2.8 meters high and three
meters square. It was neat and tidy and everything was secure.
Keeble gave a nod of satisfaction.

"Are you able to move further, Keeble?"
Meledrin asked from close behind. "If not, then all our struggles
will have been for naught."

Keeble grunted but walked into the room.
Meledrin followed close behind, and when Tuki came in as well, the
room seemed to halve in size.

There were a dozen access panels to the rear
of the ship and another door leading forward. After a moment of
hesitation Keeble headed for the door and found himself in the
driver's cabin, the cockpit. There were two chairs and hundreds of
screens and controls. He reached out and pressed some buttons at
random and gripped the edge of the panel, choosing the next button
while he waited for something to happen. Nothing happened. Inside
the ship, anyway.

Out in the hangar, a door opened and General
Hilliard marched through with a dozen soldiers at his back. On the
other side of the ship, Kim was still trying to coax the alien
forward.

“
[You continue to amaze me,
Miss McLean,]” the general said loudly. Keeble found speaking
Tuki's language so natural that he was surprised each time he heard
a different one. Meledrin muttered a translation. The general would
soon be in a position to see the open door on the ship and would
probably be quite a bit more amazed then. “[I don't know what you
hoped to achieve.]”

The threat of soldiers seemed to do it again
— the alien stumped towards the ship with Kim urging it on.

"There's nowhere to hide in here," Meledrin
translated when the General spoke again.

That's what you
think
, Keeble silently replied. And what
made him think they couldn't just walk through the wall like last
time if they couldn't hide? Maybe nobody had believed the guard
from the cells when he told the story.

Keeble heard someone
clambering into the ship and wondered if they knew how to close the
hatch. Hurrying back, he wondered if
he
knew. Kim was still between the
crates.

"Out of the way, dwife" Keeble said, but
when Kim looked around the panel was already sliding closed. "Oh."
He checked it had been done properly.

Tuki was sitting with his back against the
rear access panels with Kim's pack by his side. He looked like he
would be quite happy to stay there for a while. "What do we do now,
mo'shi?"

Meledrin nodded. "Yes. It is unlikely this
vehicle is still operational after all this time."

"That's it Mel, optimistic as usual."

"I am merely pointing out the facts."

"Well, I don't know. It was unlikely we'd
get this far."

Keeble shook his head. "Pointing out that we
escaped the first million to one chance doesn't help us with the
next one."

"That wasn't my point."

"You had a point, did you?"

The sound of voices coming from outside the
ship increased as the soldiers discovered their quarry had escaped
again.

Kim smiled. "The day's going well, whatever
happens from here. Now, the sooner we get to work, the sooner we
can get out of here."

"Sounds easy," Keeble muttered as he led the
way back to the cockpit and sat down in a chair. "Do you always
just make things up as you go?"

Kim sat by his side, looking at the
controls. But they didn't get any further. A shout went up out in
the hangar and a soldier pointed into the ship. All sorts of stuff
started happening. More men rushed to surround the ship, weapons
raised though they must've hit the ship with a lot more than those
without any luck in the last fifty years. General Hilliard stormed
back into the room and stood shouting in front of the ship. Kim
waited while he blustered and threatened. She smiled the whole time
as if she was having a great time.

"What are you so happy about?" Keeble
grumbled. "We may just have to open the door eventually and let
them in."

She shrugged as if she didn't really care.
"A bit of a head start on working out how to use this thing would
have been nice, but we still have all the power for the moment. And
we've shown that it would be better if they tried to work with us a
bit more. Or at least with you, Mel, and Tuki. I'm probably excess
baggage about now."

"I'm surprised you were brought along at
all." Keeble sat back and listened to the General as well. He
couldn't understand a word of it, but he got the idea. "Well why
are we just sitting here now instead of working?" he said
eventually. He was almost as bad as an elf, sitting around
listening to someone talk when there was work to be done.

26: Going

Kim turned to look at Keeble. His whole
manner had changed since he sang his song and got them out of the
cell. It was as if he had suddenly grown up and become an arsehole
all at once. He obviously wasn't a big fan of women. In this case,
however, he was right.

"Of course. No time to waste," Kim said,
turning her attention to the controls. Unfortunately there was no
big red button with 'Start' written on it. Or maybe there was, but
she couldn't read the label.

There were what looked like three main
controls, which were centered between the two seats. A wheel, half
buried in the console, a huge foot pedal that pivoted in the
middle, and a little joystick with a ball on the end. Kim fiddled
with the joystick and discovered that it actually went up and down
and no other direction.

"Okay," she said, nodding to herself,
"that's a start."

"What's a start?" Keeble asked. "You can't
know anything yet."

"Just because
you
haven't worked
anything out doesn't mean
I
haven't. This wheel steers us, like a car, the
pedal is forward and back, and the knob is up and down."

"You
do
just make things up."

"Maybe I did, but I think they're reasonable
guesses. Anyway, none of it does us any good if we can't get the
thing started."

There was a harsh, guttural sound behind
Kim, and she turned to see the alien standing in the door. It was
talking, pointing to the controls, and waving its arms about. She
couldn't understand a word of it, and Meledrin couldn't either,
judging by the look on her face.

Outside, the General had finally started to
calm down. With an effort, Kim shifted gear into English and
listened.

"
Miss McLean,
" he said,
"
are you going to let us
in?
"

"
No, thank you, General. Don't worry though, we've already
started to make some progress.
"

"
What do you hope to achieve?
"

"
Besides lift off? Well, how about getting you to use your
resources more wisely? That would be a start. Now, if you'll excuse
me, I have some buttons to press.
"

She turned her attention to the controls but
didn't press anything. It had been more than five years since she'd
sat in a cockpit, and that hadn't looked much like this one at
all.

"We really need power, Keeble."

"Obviously. If it's even possible."

"Just see what you can find."

Kim started working her way across her half
of the control panel. She hit each button quickly, then pressed and
held before releasing. Each time she waited for a response without
joy. She flicked switches and turned dials backwards and forwards.
Keeble watched for a moment before setting to work on his side.

"How long will this process take?"

Kim almost jumped out of her seat. She
turned to look at Meledrin, who was looking over the alien's
shoulder.

"I inquire because we have only a small
amount of food and water."

"I
know
that. Can you speak to the alien
yet?"

"It isn't that simple."

"For Christ's sake, Mel, use your brain."
Kim sighed and rubbed at her eyes. She thought she could feel a
headache coming on. "Sorry. Look, this isn't Sherindel. You can't
just sit back and let things happen, otherwise a few hundred years
will go by and you'll still be complaining about Chinese table
manners."

"I do not understand."

"Don't worry about it. But we learned to
speak Tuki's language, right. Do the same thing with the
alien."

Meledrin sniffed but tapped the creature on
the shoulder and beckoned it back into the hold where Tuki waited
silently. The moai was probably going to be in charge of the
charades seeing the elf wouldn't want to demean herself like
that.

"Back to work, Keeble." But he was still
pressing buttons. They worked their way to the center reaching what
looked like half a skyglass at about the same time. "Well, I guess
that's it then." Kim sat back in the seat and sighed.

Keeble was still examining the console as if
they might have missed a button or switch in their methodical
fiddling. "Maybe we need to do things in combination. Like turning
the key and pushing the accelerator."

"Well, there are a lot of possible
combinations. We could go at that all day." The only thing they
hadn't touched was the skyglass thing. She poked at it angrily with
as much reaction as she expected.

"That won't do any good."

"Well, thanks for pointing that out."

Outside the Americans had brought in some
heavy drilling equipment. Kim doubted it was a new approach.

"I mean," Keeble said, "it looks like a
skyglass."

"Yes."

"Well, Tuki is the only one who can use the
other skyglass. What makes you think this one would be any
different."

"Right."

Keeble drummed his fingers on the edge of
the console. He looked at her and shook his head. "So let’s see if
he can do anything."

"Right. Good idea." She called Tuki, but it
was Meledrin who answered.

"Tuki is assisting me."

"Well you can do that on your own for a
minute."

The moai ducked in through the door. "You
want me to do something, mo'shi."

"Can you get that skyglass working?"

"I do not know."

Kim tried to keep her impatience in check.
"Why don't you give it a go?"

"Very well." He sidled between the two seats
and touched his finger to the crystal. "It is not turned on," he
said. He muttered the word that turned it on before Kim had a
chance to say anything.

"It is working." The ball started to glow
softly, but nothing else happened. Kim waited. She waited some
more.