I wondered about the drive that powered the Cuchulain. It was clearly not a Godspeed Drive, although according to Danny Shaker it dated back to before the Isolation. I did a general search on the word, “drive,” and was offered a dozen different varieties. Apparently there were cargo drives, planet-to-orbit drives, ship drives rated for humans, hundred-gee drives for urgent unmanned shipment only, low-gee drives for bulk cargo, and a perplexingly named “Slowdrive.” The last one was described as experimental and unique to the Maveen system, but it was hard for me to see why anyone might find a use for something that went especially slow. The electronic book also offered three-D images of the Slowdrive. As I rotated them they outlined a round-cornered cube, a little bit flattened, with underneath it a set of rings of different sizes, placed one above the other so that they formed a blunt cone with its thick end attached to the cube. The written description of the drive was beyond me. I tagged the whole “Slowdrive” entry with a high-level pointer, to draw my attention to it again when I had more time, and glanced over to the control panel.
We would dock at the Cuchulain in a few more minutes—and I would have a meeting with Doctor Eileen that I would rather not think about.
I skipped to the last part of the record. Walter Hamilton had swallowed his initial disappointment on arriving at Paddy’s Fortune, although he had rejected it at once as a possible site for Godspeed Base. I could almost hear his disdainful sniff as he plowed through the head-high vegetation. But then the scientist had taken over, and in spite of himself he had become fascinated by the biology of the worldlet. Before he died, it was quite apparent to Dr. Hamilton that not only was the world itself an artifact, but the present ecology must be sustained by something other than a natural biological balance.
In another half day he would have been thinking in terms of access to the interior of Paddy’s Fortune and the control mechanisms that ran the little world. If Sean Wilgus had not been such a bloodthirsty fool, Walter Hamilton might have led the crew to what they were seeking.
I closed the book. The right person to have this was not me, it was Jim Swift. He was also the logical person for the new navaid, because of the data on the Godspeed Drive that the controller had loaded onto it. The problem was that without help from Mel neither I nor Jim Swift might be able to read those data.
I hoped I wouldn’t be there when Jim was told what had happened to Walter Hamilton. He had described Hamilton as pompous and conceited, but all the same the two had been friends for many years. I found myself thinking that it simplified matters that the person who had killed Walter Hamilton was himself dead. Was that how real spacers dismissed a killer’s death, as natural vengeance?
We were docking at the Cuchulain, and the automatic procedures from the mother ship had already taken over. I felt a series of unsettling changes of direction. Danny Shaker seemed immune to them as he walked across to where I was sitting.
“I told the crew that I’d be showing you how to lock the beetle in hull storage. So we’ll be the last ones off. I’ll also be giving you bigger than usual quarters, until you get used to living spacer-style.”
There was no wink or change of facial expression, but I knew exactly what he was saying. As soon as the others were gone he and I would smuggle Mel Fury aboard. Mel would occupy the same quarters as me, and it would be my job to make sure she was not discovered until we had a plausible reason for a passenger’s presence—or until we had found a Godspeed Drive. After that, the crew of the Cuchulain would be so exultant they would not care if Danny Shaker had on board a hundred passengers.
Like everything that Danny Shaker did, the docking and crew disembarkation went without a hitch. As soon as Pat O’Rourke, the last to leave, had gone, Shaker glanced across to me. “Time to get Mel out, and safe into quarters. I’ll go and bring her. By the way, I hope she has no special food requirements?”
“No, she eats whatever we—” I stopped in horror. “How did you know?” Danny Shaker frowned down at the deck. “You should ask, when did I know. That’s a harder question to answer. The first hint was when you had been outside on the surface, and I kept Mel in the beetle with me. I asked you when you came back what you had learned inside Paddy’s Fortune. You didn’t know what Mel had said, and you were so keen to avoid that question, you pulled out the navigation aid right away and told me all about the Net and the hardware reservoir. That struck me as a desperate act. You had something to hide. Mel had admitted that there were females inside Paddy’s Fortune. Yet when I told you I was going to discuss later what Paddy’s Fortune contained, you never once asked me to do it. I could tell from your face that you didn’t want to hear about it. I started thinking, female, and after that there were a dozen clues.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to bring Mel Fury out of her hiding place. And then you are going to take her to your new quarters, while I make sure the crew are busy elsewhere.”
“You’re not going to tell them?”
“That Mel is a girl? Jay, you have a good brain. Use it. Why do you think I wanted to leave Paddy’s Fortune so quickly?”
“In case Mel became impatient, and wouldn’t stay hidden.”
“That could have happened, but it wasn’t my big worry. I was afraid something might change, and young women would start popping out onto the surface of Paddy’s Fortune like summer locusts.”
“They wouldn’t. Mel’s an exception.”
“How was I to know that? And what sort of control do you think I’d have had over the crew if girls—even one girl—appeared on that world? They would have torn the place apart. They’re good spacers, all of them, but they can’t hold the big picture in their heads. Women are important, and rare, and they could bring riches. They know that, I know that. But the Godspeed Drive is the key to the whole universe.”
“Then why did you bring Mel with us at all? Why not leave her back there?”
“That’s good, Jay. You’re asking better questions, and I’ll give honest answers. If the crew learns that she’s a girl, we both know what will happen. I won’t be able to stop it. So bringing Mel is no real risk to me, but it is a risk to you, and most of all to her. You realize that as well as anyone—and that’s why I wanted her along.
“You see, Jay, the one person on this ship who can really help or hinder me isn’t Joe Munroe, or Robbie Doonan, or Pat O’Rourke. No, and it’s not Eileen Xavier either. It’s Jay Hara. You know how to work that gadget you brought along, and I don’t. Nor does anyone else, except Mel. Now, maybe I could squeeze it out of either one of you. But isn’t it a whole lot better if a person cooperates because he has a mind to? If you and Mel work with me, you have my solemn word: Not a man on board this ship will learn from me that Mel Fury is a girl. Of course, I can’t guarantee that one of you won’t give the game away—as you did to me just now. And I’m going to rely on you to explain to Mel Fury just why she needs to stay hidden, because I don’t know if she would believe me. Maybe she won’t even believe you. But you have Dan Shaker’s word for my end of it, my mouth stays shut as long as you play straight.