By the end of the first hour, twelve lifeboats had been moved across and stored, and three were en route. They were slightly ahead of schedule, and the operation was improving as the two crews became more efficient.
Meantime, the Mary Lou Eisner arrived and took off an additional ten people, one more than expected. The Chang-Shi came in a half hour behind it and collected eleven more. Then we heard John’s voice: “Got a problem, Bark. One of the people from the Chang-Shi has gotten loose on the Capella. He’s taken control of the drive. Says he’s going to shut it down. Cease operations immediately and get clear.”
I was still getting pictures from the Randall, watching its crew continuing to move the lifeboats into the Capella. Despite the instructions, the Randall showed no sign of leaving. A few minutes later, John called me. “Chase, do you know an Archie Cicotte?”
“Negative.”
“He’s the pilot of the Chang-Shi. He’s on board the Capella. He’s the one threatening to shut down the engines. He’s telling them it’s the only right thing to do. That it will stop the ship from getting sucked under again.”
“You sound as if you expect me to do something.”
“He says Alex told him to do it.”
“What? That’s crazy, John.” Then I remembered. “Alex was on a show last week. The host—I forget who it was—asked him what he would want to happen if he were stuck on the Capella. He said he’d want somebody to shut down the engines. Take the chance. Something like that.”
“Well, wonderful. Now we have to deal with this lunatic who took him at his word.”
“I don’t think it ever occurred to Alex—”
“Let it go.”
“How’d he get into the control room?”
“Can we talk about that later? I need you to talk him down. Tell him who you are. That Alex didn’t mean it or something.”
How did I keep getting into the middle of these things? “Okay, John, put me through.”
We got a visual. I could see four crewmen keeping their distance from a short, beefy guy who was bent over the controls. Everybody’s eyes, except his, turned my way.
“Look,” he was saying, “I’m sorry I’m scaring the hell out of you people, but in a few minutes, you’ll all be glad I did this.”
“Archie,” I said. “You don’t really want to be responsible for killing twenty-six hundred passengers, do you?”
He spun around, surprised. “Who are you?” he said.
“My name’s Chase. I work for Alex Benedict. He’s my boss.”
“Really?” He straightened, and one of the people near him looked as if she was about to make a move, but Cicotte reacted, and she backed away. “Are you Chase Kolpath?”
“Yes. Please, Archie, get away from that thing before you kill everybody.”
Archie was about average size, middle-aged, beginning to lose his hair. He looked angry. “I’m not going to kill anyone. Chase, I’m glad to meet you. I’m sorry it has to be under these circumstances. But I’ve been an admirer of you and Alex for a long time.”
“Archie, if you shut that engine down, you may destroy everything. I’m serious. I’ve seen tests where they played around with the drive units, and people died.”
“Then why did Alex say that’s exactly what he’d do? That he’d shut the engines down?”
“He meant if he was alone on the ship. If he was the only one at risk, he’d take the chance. I know, Archie, because we talked about it afterward. Alex would never put other people at risk.”
“Chase, if I don’t do this, the people here will disappear out of the lives of their families for another five years.”
“Archie, do you have a relative on board?”
“No, I don’t.”
“A friend, maybe?”
“Did you and he really talk about it?”
“Sure.”
“Okay.” He looked around the room. It was presumably the bridge. “Chase, I don’t know anyone who’s on the ship. Nobody.”
“Then why are you doing this?”
“Because everybody’s been saying that the odds of something bad happening if we shut down is only about one in twenty. We can live with that.”
“That’s only a guess, Archie. It’s only a guess.” He stared at me. “If you do this, and you get lucky and nobody dies, everybody will still hate you. You really want to live with that?”
“This isn’t about me, Chase.”
“Okay. It’s about the families of the people on board. Think what you’d do to them if it goes wrong. Archie, you have no right to do this. To put other people’s lives on the line.”
He stood there, his face drained of all color. Then he backed away from the controls. “Chase,” he said, “help me.”
The Morrison came in on time and took off another dozen, consisting of three families and Guy Bentley. Bentley was the comedian who’d almost become the principal in a legal action. His studio was desperate to get him back. Their effort to accomplish his return by threatening to sue had failed, but they’d apparently cut a deal with somebody.
“I can’t believe John would sell out,” I said to Belle.
“I doubt he did. But Great Lion Studios has a lot of influence with politicians. I suspect they got somebody to put pressure on him. Don’t worry about it. To be honest, Bentley’s the funniest guy on the planet. I’m glad he’s back.”
“You’re glad he’s back, Belle? You always claimed you don’t have a sense of humor.”
“And you believed me? I’m shocked.”
We watched as the Morrison disconnected from the exit tube and moved away. Only the Randall remained, still steadily transferring its cargo of lifeboats. The smaller vehicles had taken ninety-five people off. Ninety-four if we deducted one for Archie, who’d been left behind. Schultz had supplied a spare pilot for the Chang-Shi. So we had about twenty-five hundred remaining plus a crew and staff of approximately sixty.
I’d counted twenty-six boats transferred as we got down to our last hour. Assuming we would have another hour.
I could see that the Capella cargo hold was filling up. When she went under, Schultz would have plenty of time to talk to her passengers, and get 540 of them into the first round of boats. Then, incredibly, they would arrive in 1440.
After that, there would be some time pressure. She had three cargo decks, and three boats could be inflated at a time on each deck. She’d have to repressurize, inflate the next round of boats, get sixty-four people in each, decompress again, and launch. Estimated time for the operation: slightly over an hour. If everything went smoothly.