'Passengers are all aboard, locks closed,' declared Berya as she returned to the control center.
Durmak followed her. 'Cargo is set and the lower locks sealed.'
After a last recheck of the systems, I was ready to uncradle the Mambrino. 'Ready for departure.'
'Make sure your harness is securely fastened. We will be departing shortly.' Berya's calm voice was clear through both center speakers and through the system.
'Orbit Two, Mambrino, ready for departure.'
'Mambrino, no inbounds this time, area clear. Understand destination Nabata.'
'Orbit Two, destination Nabata.' With the release of the cradles, I slipped the ship away from the station with the ionjets, adding power gradually as the separation increased.
'Orbit Two, Mambrino clear of lock three. Departing this time.'
'Stet, Mambrino. Clear trip.'
'Orbit Two, thanks.' I stepped up the power flow from the fusactors, bringing the ionjets to full power until we were clear enough to spread the nets for the photondrive. Then, once the configurators came on-line, I switched from ionjets to photonic drive and began to establish the orientation necessary for Nabata as the acceleration built for insertion.
'Minus ten for insertion.' The clamshells above us - and above the passengers - clicked out of their restraints, waiting for the signal from Berya to drop into place.
'You must be in your harness at this time,' announced the second officer.
'Minus five.' With all passengers secured, the clamshells dropped into place. 'Minus three.'
After setting the orientation, I pushed the acceleration closer to fifteen gees, more on a feel than a requirement. Even before the lattices were all locked, the barriers between the Now and overspace had thinned. Slipping the Mambrino beyond the Now, into a momentary silence, was smooth, so smooth that it was an instant before the dark purpled green of overspace swam up around me, with the great white pulses of the moon beacon receding behind me.
As I'd been briefed by the system, the gradient toward Beta Candace - and Nabata - was supposed to be a slight incline for the first portion, and then a steep drop, and that was what I sensed, except the incline was long, longer than that coming back from Santerene.
First, while I/we climbed, came the lock on to the distant beacon pattern, verifying the ID of Nabata. I could sense other beacons - perhaps a dozen, scattered at various distances, distances I knew to be deceptive.
In that timeless depth, we reached the 'crest' beyond which lay a void of uncertain depth, a depth that I/we/'Mambrino must cross. Sparkling lines of fire, like fireflies or an incandescent brume that shimmered in the winter sunlight over a silent lake, cascaded around me, around the Mambrino, and a whispering rumble, holding words that I could not quite decipher, folded around us.
Ignoring the urge to twist the ship around the fire veil, I could sense that it was without the substance of singularities, and without the depth of cold mass of stars, nebulae, or heavy planets that intruded upon overspace, and pushed off the cliff top and into a glide over the purpled drumming depths that separated us from the white-yellow beacon that was Beta Candace and Nabata.
Time condensed, folded, then stretched, simultaneously.
Silent voices beneath and beyond the vanishing brume made a last plea and then vanished.
And, nearly on top of the beacon, I untwisted the unNow, and Mambrino dropped into normspace, with a slight sense of falling.
I swallowed.
So did Berya, loud enough that I could hear it over her inline.
'We're here,' I pulsed the second and third. 'Good.'
Not even a hint of raggedness came through the nets as I reoriented the ship into a 'climb' upward toward the system ecliptic and Nabata Orbit Control.
'Nabata Orbit Control, this is Mambrino, inbound this time. Captain Tyndel, second Berya, and third Durmak. Sixteen passengers. One-six, I say again. Condition green. Estimate arrival in...' I still had to pause to calculate.'... twenty-five standard minutes.'
The Mambrino had just begun deceleration when the return transmission arrived.
'Captain Tyndel, we have the Mambrino at the locks in approximately twelve-plus your time. Subcommander and maintenance chief Jukor will supervise unloading.'
'Stet. Understand subcommander Jukor.'
'A subcommander. Must want the cargo,' Durmak said.
I nodded, realizing that Nabata Orbit Control wouldn't know that the previous needle hadn't made it - not for certain - but the number of passengers was a good indication of some difficulties.
We were there - almost there. I frowned to myself. What about coming back? Or did it really matter to the Authority? The whole cargo and passenger list had been set up as if there wouldn't be too many trips to Nabata.
I shrugged. There was little enough that I could do except make sure we returned to Orbit Two intact.
71
To tell another what one has sensed is to paint a scene without color or perspective.
The return trip to earth and Orbit Two was without incident, and the Mambrino fairly soared through the purpled green of overspace with almost no cargo and but two passengers. Orbit Two Control did request my presence in operations after postflight and shutdown. Again, Astlyn and Erelya were waiting in the gray-walled and almost dank operations room.
'It's good to see you,' Astlyn said. 'How was the trip?'
His words conveyed true happiness that I had returned in one piece, and I had the feeling that his warmth wasn't just for the fact that I'd gotten a necessary cargo to Nabata and brought back an expensive needle ship. All the same, I understood the concern beside and behind the warmth. Needle ships were what held the Rykashan stars and colonies together, and the Authority could not afford too many missing ships - either in resource or psychological terms.
'It's good to be back.' I shrugged. A bit strange on the way out, routine on the return.'
The black eyebrows lifted over the deep brown eyes.
'I can't say there was anything exactly new.' That was certainly true. 'There might have been a voice whispering beneath overspace - but I couldn't make out anything. I wasn't about to try.'
'Any color to the voice?' asked Erelya.
'No. It seemed to throw up a gauzy veil of sparkling things. I went straight through it.'
'Was there any impact on the hull or the ship? Afterwards, that is?' Astlyn pursued.
'No. Not a sign.'
The black-skinned controller nodded. 'Engee?' suggested Erelya.
'What do you think, Tyndel?' Astlyn's voice was neutral.
'There was something there - something not like anything else I've sensed in overspace.' I had to shrug. 'I don't have enough experience to know more.'
'Was ... is there any record in the ship's systems?' Erelya pressed.
'I couldn't find any indications. The second didn't sense anything at all.' The two nodded at each other.
'Is there anything else we should ask you? Or you'd like to ask us?'
'Have other pilots sensed this sort of thing?'
'Five that we know of.'
I nodded. Another thought occurred to me. 'Do most pilots sense overspace as a deep black?'
Erelya nodded. 'Most do. You're one of a handful that see more than blackness and highlighted objects.'
'I can't think of anything else,' I said.