A wordless question rumbled around me, a question without the music of overspace or the menace of singularities or star masses intruding into the Web.
Then, as suddenly, the glare dropped into sparkling lines of fire, like fireflies, or a dawn brume lit by winter sunrise over a frozen lake, and the voiceless, soundless question faded into the background, and the familiar purpled green of overspace rose up around me, around the Mambrino.
The drumming purple-churned depths that had separated us from the white-yellow beacon of Beta Candace and Nabata were past, and, once more, at insertion's end, time shrank in upon itself, then stretched, simultaneously.
Just short of the strobe of energy that was the beacon, I untwisted the unNow, and Mambrino dropped into normspace.
I slowly released my breath. 'Beta Candace,' I pulsed the second and third. 'Good,' murmured Alek.
I reoriented the ship into a 'descent' to reach the system ecliptic, and Nabata Orbit Control, then rebuilt the photon nets and began to accelerate in normspace. I didn't bother to transmit our arrival for a time.
'Nabata Orbit Control, this is Mambrino, inbound this time. Captain Tyndel, second Berya, and third Alek. No
passengers. Full cargo. Full cargo, I say again. Condition green. Estimate arrival in one-five standard minutes.'
We were half through with deceleration when I received the reply.
'Captain Tyndel, we have the Mambrino at the locks in approximately eight-plus your time. Subcommander and maintenance chief Jukor will supervise unloading.'
'Stet. Understand subcommander Jukor.'
'The subcommander again,' Berya said.
I nodded, already concentrating on the switch to ionjets and the approach, slower than usual. With all the mass stuffed into the Mambrino, I needed to watch the deceleration profile. Ionjets didn't give the response, and we didn't need to crash into the station.
I did sigh once we were safely cradled. Then, after the short shutdown checklist, I went to the lock to meet the subcommander.
The short stocky subcommander with the blond, fuzz-cut hair half bowed. 'Glad you could make it, captain. We were wondering. It's been nearly two .years, and we haven't had any word.'
'I'm glad to be here.' That's true enough. 'I have a datacube for the commander - from the Authority.'
Jukor's square face blanked. 'I'll have Messer take you up.'
'Thank you.' I wanted to tell him not to worry, but what I could have told him would still have concerned him, and it was the station commander's decision how to handle it.
'Messer?' Jukor motioned to a young-looking man in gray coveralls, the kind I'd worn when I'd been a maintenance tech on OE Station. 'Would you show the captain to the commander's office?'
'Yes, ser.'
I followed the tech without a word, up shafts whose patterns were all too familiar, up to the station's upper level.
Commander Gerala was a wiry and dark-skinned woman who looked down on me, or would have in normal gravity, by a good head or so. Jukor had used the station link to warn her, clearly, since she didn't betray any surprise when I extended the datacube. She took it with a rueful smile. 'When needle jockeys are personal messengers, the news isn't good. Do you know what's in the cube?'
'In general terms. There's a hazard problem on the direct line from Sol to Beta Candace. Needles don't have the power to make radical course shifts in overspace. The Authority will be supplying you from E. Cygni.'
'You made the direct run,' the commander observed.
I waited.
Gerala frowned. 'Weren't you the next-to-last one to get through - four years ago?'
'I made a trip four universe objective years ago. I don't know who came after that' I gave a wry smile. 'With the dilation, I have a hard time keeping track of my own trips.'
'I can imagine.' She shook her head.
'If there's nothing else, commander ...'
'I'll let you know if I have any questions.'
I made my own way back down to the ship and had barely finished rechecking the Mambrino when Berya stuck her head into the control center.
'Messenger for you, captain.'
The messenger was a man in blue, a controller, who floated just inside the lock. 'Ser, the commander would very much appreciate your presence in her office.'
Berya's smile was an exercise in both control and carefully concealed worry. Controllers weren't used for messengers, even on orbit stations.
So I made my way back through the same shafts I'd so recently traveled and hauled my body back into the commander's presence. She wasted no time.
'If what commander Krigisa states in this happens to be true, then I cannot fault the logistics ... and I do appreciate the cargo you brought. Subcommander Jukor was rather ... astounded at the mass. A hot young pilot on a risky run ...' A wintry smile creased her lips. 'But... two to three years more before the next supply run? That's a five-year lag or more in the project ... and we don't possess the equipment or expertise if something goes wrong in the final stages of the project.'
'I thought Nabata was habitable ...'
'It's hot and borderline. We're still having to supplement the water cycle with ice comets from the outer belt. Atmospheric pressure is too high, and... that's not something you have to deal with.' She shrugged. 'Can you tell me how bad this "hazard" is and how long it's likely to last?'
'It's somehow cost two needle ships out of the last four or five scheduled here.' That was true and would eventually come out.
That brought a long pause. 'That bad?'
'Yes, commander.' That bad.
'Does anyone know how long this will last?'
'No.' That was also true. 'They don't know the cause at this point, either.'
'Has anything like this happened on any other runs?'
'Not that I've heard. There aren't any other needles missing recently. Or there weren't when I left Orbit Two.'
The questions continued for a time, but I kept to the facts.
Finally, she looked straight at me. 'You've been very patient, captain Tyndel. It's clear that you've told me all you know, and it's also clear that you risked your life and your ship to bring that cargo and this information.' Gerala took a long breath. 'I don't like it, but we do what we must. I may send back several people who wouldn't be scheduled to leave until next year - if they wish. Would that be a problem?'
'Not so long as your techs can help put the passenger cabin back into working order. The couches were removed and stowed to provide space for more cargo.'
'We can do that.' The wintry smile returned.
In time, I made my second trip back down to the ship, where the maintenance techs were already working under Alek's supervision to reconvert the passenger cabin. By then, I was really ready for some rest - a nap, anything.
75
Words are not a conversation; conversation is not dialogue; dialogue does not always lead to honesty.
Almost no cargo and ten passengers - that was what the Mambrino held when I eased the ship away from Nabata Station. Commander Gerala did not see us off, leaving the task to subcommander Jukor.
I'd never made what might be called a 'sideways' transit, but the data was in the system, correctly, I hoped, and I set up the acceleration and orientation for E. Cygni and Ballentir Station, and the clamshells descended and locked, and we slipped through the needle hole of the Web and into the purpled green I perceived as overspace, finding almost a ridgeline toward a beacon. I verified the beacon twice, and then again, since I'd never approached E. Cygni from anywhere.