Cam was shoving at him, seeking a way to get to the circuits that ruled the android body. Adu leaned all his weight against it until it stopped struggling.
“Sar Born!” Adu called. “Strap in!”
The monitor on the common room showed the pair of them moving with admirable dispatch. Aria Stone laid herself flat in the lowest alcove and let Eric draw the webbing over her. He closed the catches while explaining how they worked. Then Eric climbed into the second bunk and fastened himself in.
Adu, giving Cam just enough room so that it could stay alert for any changes in the ship’s monitors, moved the android.
The U-Kenai’s emergency beacon, once retrieved from its storage hatch beneath the bridge’s deck, proved to be an old unit that had been only peripherally kept in repair. When Adu had been required to set it up in dock at Abassyd Station, he had siphoned its specifications from Cam. The beacon was supposed to carry warnings or distress messages from a ship. It had an extraordinary amount of redundant memory and it could travel long distances, albeit slowly. It could take him back to where there would be voices he could hear and room to stretch out. In the meantime, there would be a little spare room in there, where he could keep himself busy by building his own tools. In a year or three or five, he would be found and his box would be opened and he’d go on from there.
The pinpricks still hung on the ship’s skin. The transmissions from the satellites had picked up slightly, but they hadn’t changed direction, and the satellites themselves hadn’t moved. They watched closely, but they just watched.
So far.
Cam’s main processes huddled in the corner where Adu had left them. Adu encompassed Cam and pried into its insides. He heightened its perception of the task at hand; to get the U-Kenai safely down, unseen, if possible. Cam thought more slowly than Adu, and had less capacity for memory, but it knew the ship and had years of experience stored in itself. The ship could still maneuver a little, and it could still brake a little. The comet ice packed around its skin would absorb the extra heat of the accelerated re-entry and Cam could surely steer it more accurately than Adu, because it had special subroutines for flying under reduced capacity. It would all be enough, with a little added urgency. Adu had to make sure it would be enough, because there was every chance he would contact Dorias again. Dorias would know Adu had defied him, but at least he wouldn’t be able to say his child had done it carelessly.
Besides, Adu carried copies of everything Eric had learned from the Vitae datastores. Dorias wanted them back.
That is my real purpose. Not sending myself into emptiness.
Cam did not try to duck out as Adu laid the new orders in. Accepting orders was part of what Cam was carefully designed to do. When Adu was satisfied that the first thing Cam would do when left to its own devices was launch the beacon, he let it retreat to its corner.
The beacon would trail along behind the ship in the “comet’s” tail as just another piece of junk until the final descent began. Then it would break free and fly off on its own, like at least two dozen other pieces of rock would be doing at that point.
The monitors registered a rise in temperature from three of the pinpricks. Adu froze. The temperature leveled off. Maybe it was only a fluctuation. Maybe some lensing had been caused by the ice coating the ship’s side. There was no way to tell.
Adu opened a hatch on the beacon. Then he flicked back the cover for the hardwire jack on the android’s wrist. He plugged the biggest unused cable on the bridge between the two sockets. He made the android glance at the monitor again. Eric and Aria lay in their alcoves with their gazes fastened on the view wall, trying to see what was happening, and doubtlessly wondering how long it would be before they landed.
Cam will get them down, Adu told himself as he reached down the new opening that the cable provided. It will. They don’t need me. Not down there in the emptiness.
Carefully, he eased himself into the beacon.
Aria knew the ship was performing a delicate dance, skirting around the edge of the Servant’s Eyes, but it felt like nothing at all. To her, the U-Kenai was standing still while the universe churned around it Light bent into bows and knots. It was like watching fireworks recorded through a distorting tens. It was silent, and beautiful, and utterly strange. Aria wanted to touch the backs of her hands in salute to the Nameless and the Servant, but the webbing held her hands down. She just hoped her thoughts would count and that there was somebody watching closely enough to acknowledge them.
All at once the morass of color and darkness was gone. The bare back of the Realm filled the screen.
“Too low,” gasped Eric. “Adu! Too low!”
Aria forced herself to keep her eyes open. If I’m going to die, I’m at least going to see it coming.
Rock rilled the screen, silver and black, pitted, gouged, bare. Bells and chimes, mechanical shrieks filled the air and the light flashed wildly.
It’s the World’s Wall. Nameless Powers Preserve me. We’re going to hit the World’s Wall!
The ship rolled sideways and a scream cut loose from Aria’s throat. They were upright in the next breath, she had time to be embarrassed, then to realize that she was alive to be embarrassed, and then to realize she hadn’t made the only noise.
Outside the ship blurred beige, brown, and green. Total darkness hit. Dim light returned and the screen flickered back to life. Green chaos swallowed up everything else and a sharp jolt bounced her up and down until the webbing creaked in protest.
They stopped and stayed still, doing nothing but breathe.
After a while, Aria was able to notice that the room was crooked. She lay with her knees pointed toward the ceiling and her left ear pressed against the side of the alcove. A single alarm bell rang tiredly for a few more seconds before it hushed itself from exhaustion.
“We’re here,” said Eric in a hollow voice.
“We’re home.” Aria fumbled with the catches and shoved the webbing aside. She planted her feet carefully on the tilted floor, resting her hand against the wall for balance. The dim lights threw a half dozen hazy shadows of her across the room.
Eric was on his feet a split second after her, trudging up the slope toward the bridge.
“Adu!” he called. “Are you all right?”
There was no answer.
“Adu?” Eric stumbled forward before his feet found purchase on the sloping floor. Aria followed Eric onto the bridge. They entered the cabin, but Adu didn’t even look up.
“Adu?” said Eric again. The android stayed motionless, hands on the control boards, seemingly oblivious to the drunken angle of its chair.
Then Eric said “Cam?”
The android turned its head. “Yes, Sar?”
Eric swallowed hard. “What’s happened to Adu?”
“He’s left us,” Aria said. “Run away.”
“That’s insane,” snapped Eric. “Dorias would never have…”
Aria laid her hand against the threshold for balance. “That…person was not Dorias, and he was scared to death of coming here. Even more scared than you, I think.” She eyed the blank monitors. “I also think, Eric, we had better get out of here and see where we are.”
But Eric was not moving. “Cam,” he said again, “what is the disposition of the process Adudorias?”
“Adudorias transferred to U-Kenai emergency beacon. The beacon was launched fifteen-four-ten, ship’s time.”
For a moment, Aria thought Eric was going to fall over. He was counting on that creature, she realized. As long as Adu was around there was a touchstone to the outside, a tangible chance he might find a way out again. Now he’s as stuck as…A new beeping piped up from the control boards, and another joined it as the alarms began to recover from their own shock. As this ship of his.