“You think he wasn’t paying attention during the first test?” We were leaving the atmosphere by then. Below us, there was nothing but clouds and ocean.
“That’s not what I’m saying, Shara.”
“We don’t really have much of a choice.”
Our voices had been getting loud, and we were drawing stares from a woman across the aisle. I said something about how I was sure everything would be fine. We were both quiet for a minute or two. But there was no avoiding the issue. “How’s JoAnn been?” I asked.
“How do you mean?”
“Nick thought this whole process was getting to her.”
“I don’t think you need to worry about her,” Shara said. “She’s committed. There’s no question about that. And she’s pretty tough.”
“Who’s our pilot going to be?”
“We can get one at Skydeck. But I thought you might want to volunteer—”
We arrived on the platform with some time to spare, so we stopped for lunch at Karl’s Dellacondan, where the atmosphere lightened a bit. Maybe it was the string music, maybe it was that the place was filled with tourists talking about the view. Whatever had happened, we relaxed and tried to pretend everything was under control. The sandwiches were good, the manager stopped by our table to ask whether we were satisfied with the service, and a young man in a station uniform who had been one of Shara’s students appeared and told her what a great teacher she’d been, and that he was confident her presence on the Capella team would guarantee a happy result. “If,” he added, “anything would.”
We were just finishing when Operations called. “Chase,” they said, “the Casavant’s ready. It’ll be at Dock Six.”
Fifteen minutes later, we boarded the yacht and sat down on the bridge. I ran the systems check while the luggage arrived. We took it back to our cabins, returned to the bridge, and got ready to leave. As best I can recall, we were trying to divert a general sense of unease by talking about guys when the radio blinked on. “Casavant,” said a female voice, “you’re cleared to go.”
“Acknowledge, Ops. On our way.” I switched over to the AI. “Richard, release the magnetics and take us out.” On the far side, the doors were opening. “So what’s the plan, Shara?”
“They’ve put the original drive unit back into the Grainger. That makes it vulnerable to the warp. Nick and JoAnn left early because they didn’t want to emerge from hyperspace anywhere near the affected area. So it took them almost three days to get to their destination. Which is the same place we were last time. When we get close to our target, which is eight million kilometers downrange, they’ll submerge. The drive should react exactly as the Capella’s did. It’ll get them tangled. If that happens, they’ll get pushed forward like the Carver. Except a lot farther. JoAnn has it worked out so they’ll come back in about seventeen hours, in an area where we’ll be waiting.”
“Good. I’m glad to hear it’ll only be a few hours and not five and a half years.” That was supposed to be a joke.
Shara didn’t react. “When they come out of it, they’ll contact us, and we’ll join them. JoAnn says she’ll be able to get some readings on how the drive gets affected, which should help. She expects that after they come out that first time, it will take about five hours before they get pulled under again. When that happens, she’ll put the drive into acceleration. She thinks they can run the ship out of the warp. There won’t be much time to do it because she says it has to happen during the first minute or two of the process.”
“What happens then?”
“If it’s successful, they’ll come out of it immediately. They’ll surface again, and it will be over.” Her lips formed the words I hope.
I didn’t like going anywhere near warps. Most, if not all, interstellars are now equipped with drive units that theoretically don’t line up with the damaged area and consequently prevent you from getting dragged under. We’ve only lost one vehicle in the last three years, and that didn’t seem to be connected with the issue. But I’m never going to believe we’re entirely safe around those things.
We rolled out under the light of the Moon, adjusted course, and accelerated. After about a half hour, Richard announced we were ready to make our jump.
“Do it,” I said. The lights dimmed, and we passed into transdimensional space.
We’d been back on the surface less than an hour when the AI announced that he had located the Grainger. “Range is eight million kilometers.”
I looked at the navigation display. But it was too far to get a picture.
Richard again: “Incoming transmission.”
It was Nick: “Hello, Casavant. Good to see you guys.”
“Hi, Nick,” I said. “How’s it going?”
There was a delay of about a minute before his response got back to us. “Chase, is that you?”
“Sure. Who else did you expect?”
I covered the mike. “Shara,” I said, “does John know Nick’s doing this?”
“Yes. And he’s not happy. Nick said his brother threatened to cancel the attempt.”
JoAnn’s voice came in: “Right now,” she said, “we’re adrift. We’re on the bridge, which is probably bigger than the entire ship you guys are riding in.”
Shara leaned over the mike. “Everything okay, JoAnn?”
“So far. Of course, we haven’t really done anything yet.”
“Okay. If there’s any problem, we can pick you up.”
“Negative. We’ll see you downstream. There’s a slight adjustment in the area where we should come back out. Nick has forwarded it to you.”
Richard indicated we had it, and I acknowledged.
“We’re accelerating now,” said JoAnn. “We’ll make our jump in about thirty-five minutes. Nick says we’ll arrive tomorrow at approximately 1100 hours.” The current time was 1813. Seventeen hours would pass before they’d show up although for them it would be only about thirty minutes. “It’s spooky,” I said.
Shara passed my comment on to JoAnn. She laughed. “Tell Chase that what’s spooky is walking around in this giant ship and finding absolutely nobody.”
Eventually, Nick got back on the circuit and told us they were about to make their jump. “See you in a half hour.” He flashed a wide grin.
I brought up a picture of the Grainger. It could have been the Capella. The colors were different, silver rather than light blue. But those were only details. The external design of the two ships was identical.
“Everything is in order,” said Richard. “If all goes according to the plan, we will arrive in the target area approximately one hour before they do.”
We spent the evening watching comedies. Neither of us felt much like sleeping, but we would need to be awake in the morning. Nobody wanted to be alone either so we both slept in the passenger cabin. I spent much of the night staring at the overhead. Then, in the morning, we were up early. Richard would have awakened us had anything happened, but I couldn’t resist asking him anyway. “No, Chase,” he said. “There’s been no activity.”