The Space Between (45 page)

"Good. But this won't let me start anything.
The Ohoga Engines are those two bits at the front connected to the
batteries and the antennae." He looked closer. "They are connected
to the clocks, as well, and one button."

"Really?" Kim said. "Well,
these clocks just keep getting more interesting, don't they? What
about the other one? What does
Gravitic
mean, Mel?"

"I told you, I am unaware of the
meaning."

"Doesn't help a lot, really. And 'clocks' is
in the propulsion section?" That didn't mean a lot either, without
more information to go with it. "Try the gravity thing then."

31: Alignment

Keeble fumbled through some menus with
Meledrin looking over his shoulder and carefully reading each
heading in her self-important voice. He knew he wouldn't have made
any progress without the elf's help, but that didn't mean she was
any less annoying. Eventually they made their way to a diagram that
told Keeble what he wanted to know. After examining the screen for
a moment, he got out of his chair, crossed to the pilot's console
and counted buttons. It was Kim watching over his shoulder this
time.

When he found the right button he pushed.
The whole ship hummed quietly for a moment. Then it shuddered
violently. Lights dimmed and an alarm sounded. Keeble quickly hit
the button again and stillness returned.

"What just happened?" Kim asked.

Keeble shrugged. "I think something's
wrong."

"You don't say."

Keeble looked at Kim. It looked as if she
wanted to solve all their problems in a moment.

She gave a decisive nod. "Okay then, here's
what we need to do. Keeble, you need to get to the engineering bay
and see if you can find out what's wrong with the engines. For
that, you'll need Meledrin to help with the reading."

"I don't need her help. I think I'm starting
to understand the writing already."

"Maybe, but Meledrin will make it quicker
and easier." Kim laughed. "She's our communications expert. So
bloody obvious."

"You learned to speak this language in a
matter of hours yourself, Kim," Meledrin pointed out. "As did
Keeble."

"Yeah, I know, but you're
still the expert. You seem to be able to learn
any
language. Maybe when the gods
redesigned man, they wanted to make sure we'd always be able to
understand each other enough to get by, so they hardwired a
language into us. And into elves, they hardwired the ability to
learn
any
language."

Keeble thought it sounded a bit ridiculous,
but then so did so many other things that were happening.

"Very well."

"Well, let's all get down to engineering
then, shall we?" Kim said with a smile. "Let's see about getting
the engine started. I'll be your assistant, Keeb'."

"I don't need an
assistant."
How could she assist? She'd do
nothing more than get in the way
.

"Yes, you do, and we need to learn as well,
just in case."

"Do you even know what the Gravitic Field
Generator is?"

"No. Do you? Maybe 'Gravitic' has something
to do with gravity. Or antigravity?"

"Antigravity isn't possible." But Keeble
wasn't willing to bet what might be possible any more.

"The CIA seems to think the aliens use
antigravity."

Keeble wanted to know more but wasn't about
to show that. "And what is Tuki going to do during all of this? If
you knew anything about leading, you'd know that it isn't good to
have one person just sitting around doing nothing. It's bad for
morale."

"Tuki can continue doing what he's doing. It
may be the most important job on the ship."

Keeble looked across at the moai. It didn't
look like he was doing much at all. Ever since his silly globe had
clicked into place, he had stared at the projected image that hung
in the air above it.

Kim seemed to suddenly think the same thing,
for she went over and encouraged Tuki to play and experiment.

"But what if I do something wrong?" he
asked. "What if I break something?"

Kim smiled for him. "I doubt it's possible
to do either. Just play with the controls and see what
happens."

As if to demonstrate, Kim did something and
the suspended image changed, scrolling to the left.

"There you go, see?"

Tuki's eyes lit up. He smiled and nodded and
hesitantly reached out to do something himself.

Meledrin was talking with Cuto, waving her
arms about as she did. "Cuto wishes to assist with the repairs,"
the elf said eventually.

"Great," Keeble muttered.

Kim said it as well, but she sounded as if
she meant it. "Maybe you should start teaching us Cuto's language
as well."

"The spoken words may be beyond all of us,
in the end. Just a minute of conversation hurts my throat
tremendously. But the hand signs will perhaps be easier."

"Just as long as we can start to understand
each other. Which will mean the hurgon leaders will understand us
as well."

Meledrin nodded. "In the future, I will talk
in this language and do the hurgon signs. I shall, for a while, try
to use the signs as much as possible when others are speaking." She
was already suiting words to actions, waving her hands as she
spoke. Keeble tried to match them up. The alien interrupted her,
and she stopped to listen. "Cuto says the hand signals are called
ini rituals. The kil'ini are unable to hear, so the rituals were
designed to make it possible to communicate with them."

"Cool. Be prepared for lots of questions,
too," Kim said, and the elf waved her hands.

Sick of waiting, Keeble headed for the
engineering department. The others, except for Tuki, hurried to
catch up. Now that there was power, the elevators were working so
the trip was quite a bit quicker than it had been previously. One
elevator from under the captain's chair down to level one. Then
another to level 7.

Down in engineering, Keeble immediately took
charge. He took a seat at the computer, Meledrin and Kim towering
over him as he started to go through the menus.

Like Kim had said, the computers up on the
flight deck showed only the bare essentials. It would have taken
him a lifetime to discover anything important on them. But in
engineering he was able to power forward. The computers told him
everything, slow process though it was.

Cuto watched as well, occasionally offering
suggestions, but hanging back for the most part. When a dull boom
reverberated throughout the ship the alien hardly seemed to even
notice. The lights dimmed, then came back to life.

Meledrin stopped reading for a moment. "What
was that?" She forgot the ini rituals but corrected her mistake a
moment later.

"The Americans, probably," Kim said, "still
trying to get in."

Keeble grunted. "Not much we can do about
it."

But Kim had other ideas. "Maybe not, but the
computer will probably tell us if they're doing anything we need to
worry about."

"Really?"

"Yep. Somewhere."

They went back to the start of the menus
and, in 'Maintenance', found 'Hull'. According to the diagrams, the
hull was slightly damaged, but whether that was recent or fifty
thousand years old was impossible to tell.

The muffled thud a few seconds later
helped.

"Looks good," Kim said.

"How?" Meledrin asked, waving her arms and
flicking her fingers. She looked slightly shocked, which was a lot
for her. "Surely this graphic indicates that the vessel is
damaged." She obviously didn't understand.

"Yes, we're damaged," Keeble said with a
sigh. "But nothing changed with that last explosion, so the
Americans didn't cause it."

"If you are sure?" Meledrin looked to Kim,
as if Keeble's explanation wasn't enough. She remembered the ini
rituals after a moment of hesitation, and Keeble tried to
follow.

"I think we're safe for now."

"Right, but we should still get out of
here," Keeble said. "What does this say?"

"Let me know what you come up with," Kim
said. "I'm going down to the hold to see what I can find."

Cuto said something.

"You were going to help with the repairs,"
Meledrin translated.

Kim looked at the computer. "Yeah, but I
guess I know my limits. If Cuto is a radio technician, he should be
able to help more than me."

"Cuto is not a male," Meledrin pointed out,
again.

"Whatever. Look, I'm going. Let me know if
you do actually need me."

Keeble was back at work before she had left
the room.

Another half an hour in the 'Maintenance'
program, and he discovered that the Gravitic Field Generators were
out of alignment by 9.67 percent. He didn't quite know what that
meant. But he thought he knew how to fix it.

Another explosion shook the ship as Keeble
got up from his chair and went to find Kim. He found her talking to
herself in a huge metal packing container.

"How desperately do we want to fly?" he
asked poking his head through the door.

She nearly brained him with a metal bar.

"What do you mean?" Recovering her
composure, she wiped sweat from her brow and sat down.

"I think I could have us flying in a couple
of hours, but not in optimum circumstances."

"Meaning?"

He sighed. "Meaning, the two Gravitic Field
Generators are out of alignment. If I disconnect them and we run
off only one, that should solve the problem. I think. But then
we're left with the question of which generator is aligned
correctly, and can I realign them once we're flying." Keeble knew
what he'd choose. He'd be flying as soon as possible and worry
about the rest later.

But he had to admit that
Kim was in charge and probably the best person for the job. It
wasn't something he
wanted
to admit. It wasn't something that he should have
to admit. It wasn't right. But Kim had managed to get them all to
this point. She was the only one who understood something of all
the areas they might happen to need. She could fly a plane, and
she'd worked out other things.

But there was more to leading than knowing
things. There was also acting, making a decision and running with
it, and Keeble had never known any woman who could do that when it
was really needed.

"Worse case scenario if we go with the one
generator?" Kim asked.

She knew as much as he did, but he answered.
"You can't fly with any sort of control at all because the
alignment is out, and we crash." He didn't know what a single
unaligned field generator could do, if anything, but it sounded
reasonable. Or perhaps the two Gravitic fields just had to be
aligned with each other and nothing else. "Or we get into space and
have to stop to do repairs and get attacked. Or the generator fails
when we really need it."

"Do you really have any idea, or are you
guessing?"

"Does it matter?"

"No, but I'd like to know anyway."

Another thing he didn't want to admit. "I'm
guessing." No dwarf liked to guess.

"Okay, well, a couple of hours to disconnect
the generators and get us flying that way. How long to align
them?"

Keeble shrugged.

"Guess."

He shifted uncomfortably. "I really don't
know."

"The computer doesn't tell you?"

"Probably, but I didn't get that far."

"Right. Well, I say let's fly. Disconnect
the things, and let's worry about the rest later. People are dying
as we speak."

Keeble nodded.
You have to know when to stop thinking and start
doing.
He smiled slightly.
And when you decide to do things, you have to
decide with conviction.

"Give me a couple of hours."

"Great. Can I help?"

"No. It's just a case of finding the right
panels and disconnecting the right wires. I think."

"Okay. Then let me know when you're
done."

At least she didn't pretend to know how to
fix anything.

"Keeble."

"What?"

"See if you can talk to Cuto about making
those adjustments to the radio."

"What adjustments?"

"So we can talk to the hurgon."

"Oh. Right."

Keeble returned to the engineering
department and the computers. Three quarters of an hour later, his
eyes were starting to ache and his head was spinning with all the
words and diagrams. He hoped Meledrin was feeling at least a little
bit of what he was feeling. If she was, she didn't show it. He
scowled at her and switched the machine off. He knew all he needed
to know. All he had to do now was find where he needed to go and
find out what he needed to do, exactly.

There was a stone panel in the corner that
led to the first of the engines. He touched the wall. The first
sounds of his Song sprang into his mind, and he started to Sing
them. He didn't need to concentrate like he had not so long ago. It
was like he was breathing, thoughtless and easy. While he Sang, he
turned away from the panel and started to search for tools in the
cabinets around the walls. After a moment, Cuto searched as
well.

A few minutes later, the alien said
something.

"Cuto has found some tools," Meledrin
said.

Keeble went to look. "Good. Just what we
need." He tried a hand signal that he'd seen Meledrin use several
times. Cuto tilted its head to the left in reply.

"What did I just say?"

"You said 'Good.' The tilting of Cuto's head
to the left is equivalent to a smile"

"Good." He took the large box down from the
cabinet and carried it across the room. It was full of all manner
of tools. Keeble recognized some of them.

Cuto followed and poked through the tools
for a moment. Keeble scowled again. He couldn't work out if Cuto
was male or female. Should the alien be allowed to work? Or should
it be made to keep out of the way? No decent dwife would consider
trying to work. Except Ari. Ari had wanted to work. He remembered
that she'd mended his socks while he worked in the tunnels. She'd
cleaned her own room in the bunker, despite him saying she wasn't
allowed. Meledrin wouldn't try to do any real work, but everyone
knew that elves were lazy.