“I don’t get it,” Shorty said, grabbing his plate and lifting the lid off the pot. “Even if they have robots that bring us the food, we ought to be able to see them.”
“Maybe they beam the food to our door,” Green suggested.
“Tomorrow evening I’m going to hang around the corridor and see what happens,” Shorty said.
“Watch out, you might end up in the pot!” Mac laughed.
There was a bang. It was Joanne thumping her fist on the command table. In front of her were two handhelds, a piece a paper and a pen, which now rolled across the table. “Can’t you jack-asses keep your mouths shut for just one minute? I need to concentrate if I’m going to convert the coordinates accurately.”
“Can’t you automate it?” Irons asked. He was sitting in front of his empty plate and showed no sign of wanting to eat anything.
“No,” Joanne said. “All I have is the pictures of the projection of the star map. I need to make an estimate, as best I can, there’s no other way. And then I need to do a coordinate transformation, because the axes don’t match up with the ones we use. So zip it, boys.”
“I thought women were supposed to be good at multitasking,” Shorty grinned.
“Pah! Most of the women I know can’t even manage a decent sixty-nine,” Mac gave a dirty laugh, and Shorty joined in.
Jeff could feel Irons’ gaze on him. He had to react, otherwise he’d get an earful later on. Jeff stood up. “Private Short, Private Mac! That’s enough. All right?” He shuddered at the way he sounded as if he were begging.
Mac grinned and opened his mouth to say something. Then he remembered that Irons was in the room. He glanced quickly to his left and shut his mouth again. “Of course, Sir.” He practically spat out the word “Sir.”
Shorty turned to his colleague and whispered something in his ear. Both of them looked first at Joanne, then at Jeff, and started laughing.
“Private Short, Private Mac,” Irons said. “Final warning.” Irons’ voice sounded weak and feeble, it seemed to come from a completely different person than the usually energetic and charismatic major.
“Aren’t you hungry, Major?” Finni asked.
As if in slow motion, Irons raised his head and stared at Finni. Finally he nodded, got up, and helped himself from the pot.
Jeff looked over at Joanne. Her brow was furrowed as she concentrated in turn on the two handhelds and wrote down numbers on the piece of paper. “Joanne, come and eat,” he said firmly.
She waved her hand without raising her eyes. “I want to get this finished. I’m nearly done. A few more minutes.”
“And tomorrow we’re going back to the map room?” Owl asked.
“Yes,” the major said. “I want to take a closer look at that projector. Maybe it can show us other things apart from the star map.”
“Like what?” Jeff asked.
The major briefly raised his eyes, then turned listlessly back to his stew. “I don’t want to speculate. Let’s wait and see.”
If there were chairs in the room, maybe it used to be a lecture room. Or a library for accessing the ship’s databases. Maybe they would find information about the alien builders of the ship…. It would be incredible if they could somehow connect the database to their handhelds and make copies to analyze when they got home. “I want to join the expedition tomorrow,” Jeff said, though he already knew he’d be terrified the moment he got to the other side of the gate.
“All right,” Irons answered, without looking up.
“Major?” Joanne’s voice was barely more than a whisper. Jeff looked over at his colleague, his spoon suspended midway between his plate and his mouth. Her face was ashen. Jeff knew immediately what had happened.
The coordinates! We’re not on the way back home!
“What is it?” Everyone was staring at Joanne.
“We’re not headed toward Sigma-7,” she said. “We’ve moved four light years from our original position, but not in the direction the computer told us.”
“Holy shit…” Owl said.
“That bastard of a computer lied to us,” Castle spat out his words.
“What do we do now?” Shorty asked.
Jeff closed his eyes. It was what he had feared most—and it was really happening. They were at the mercy of an alien spaceship and its onboard computer, which in the beginning had been so hospitable and accommodating. They had trusted it. No! They’d had no choice but to trust it, there had been no alternative. It had lied to them. But why?
Or was it a misunderstanding? Had the artificial intelligence misinterpreted the coordinates given to it by Joanne and flown in a different direction? But the computer had confirmed they were heading for the Sigma system.
“How far is the ship’s trajectory from what we originally specified?” Irons asked.
“Thirty degrees,” Joanne replied.
“That’s too far off to explain as a necessary course correction. Where is our present course taking us?”
Joanne picked up the handheld from the table and swiped and tapped on the screen. “Deeper into the core area of the Empire. Hang on…” She picked up the other handheld and typed something into it. “Oh….” She opened her eyes wide. “If I extend the course, then we’re heading straight for Earth!”
What the hell…?
That couldn’t be a coincidence. What did the ship want on Earth? Jeff couldn’t see the sense in it. Did the ship’s computer want to deliver them to the central planet of the Empire to enter into diplomatic relations? But that didn’t tally with what the AI had told them.
“This is crazy,” Owl murmured.
Irons stood up. “Computer,” he said loudly. His tone of voice was unusually aggressive.
No answer.
“Computer! Answer me!”
“Obviously busy again,” Green said dryly.
“I can’t wait to hear what it has to say,” Owl said.
“That son-of-a-bitch computer has been lying to us the whole time!” Castle screamed hysterically. “That’s why it didn’t want us to go outside!”
“The billion-dollar question is: where does it want to take us?” Owl drummed his fingers on the table.
“Are you dumb or stupid?” Castle snapped. “You just heard! We’re heading toward Earth.”
“But why?” Joanne asked. She was rooted to the spot in the middle of the room, still clutching the handheld.
“Maybe it wants to blackmail the Emperor and take us hostage,” said Shorty.
“Stop these ridiculous guessing games!” Irons ordered.
“Why ridiculous…?” Shorty asked before falling silent.
“And what do we do now?” Joanne wanted to know.
Irons stood up. “I have to think. I’m going to my room and will make a decision by tomorrow morning. If the computer contacts us, please get me immediately. I don’t want anyone to talk to it except me. Nobody! Understood?” He fixed everyone in turn with an icy stare. After nobody responded, he turned to Jeff. “Captain Austin, please follow me to my room.”
Jeff nodded and stood up. His plate was still almost full, but he knew he wouldn’t manage any more food today. He walked around the table and followed Irons out of the room. His thoughts were racing. What was happening on this ship? Did Irons have a theory?
When they got to his room, the major closed the door behind him and pointed at one of the two chairs by the table against the far wall. Jeff took a seat. The major sat down opposite him.
Jeff cleared his throat. “Major, why do you think—”
“Stop!” Irons’ voice was stern. “I have not asked you here to make more conjectures. I need to think about the situation alone first. Tomorrow we can talk about it.”