A Larger Universe (30 page)

That was his theory.  To be more than a theory, it had to be
tested.

The ship emerged from transit on the fifteenth day, within
an hour of the time predicted by his programs.  He hadn’t found any information
to improve on the time-of-exit formula in the old program.  However, the exit
location was much less accurate, and almost five days of insystem travel
remained.  With his new understanding of the drive, the exit would be more
precise on the next transit.

First, he wanted to test the new insystem drive controls
from the new bridge console he had built.  The old console had built-in
governors restricting maximum acceleration.  The array cells corresponding to
the strength of the gravity field could contain much larger numbers than those
produced with the old console set on maximum "pull."  Tommy's program
didn't have that limitation.  If he were correct, those parameters could be set
large enough to create miniature black holes. 

Creating black holes might be a little premature
, he
decided,
but we should be able to go a lot faster.
  With Ull's
permission, he used his new controls to slowly increase the acceleration to
twice the old maximum, then reduce it to back to zero.

That brought one of the bridge crew scurrying to Ull on the
command podium, and Ull, in turn, to Tommy's side.

"What did you just do?"

"I proved the drive is capable of more acceleration
than anyone realized, and it could do a lot more."  Tommy smiled at Ull. 
"But you told me to be careful."

"Yes, I did, and I hope you will," she said,
"but if that can be sustained, we would reduce our approach by over 34
hours."

"Actually, I have a better method," he said,
"though we can do it that way.  Why don't we just take a short transit
jump to where we want to go?"

"Because sometimes that gives the result you want, and
other times it does not," she said. 

"How was
The Extended Claws
able to use transit
to close with us the first time we met?"

"They had no choice except to try if they wanted to
capture us.  They were just as likely to have emerged a light second away, traveling
in the wrong direction.  That time they succeeded in getting close enough to
fire at us.  Other times their prey would have escaped unharmed.  Transit exit
is too inaccurate as to place and velocity for reliable insystem movement. 
With the insystem drive, we trade time for distance, but at least we get to
where we are going and arrive at the desired velocity."

"The transit drive is not inaccurate, at least not to
the extent you think," he replied.  "At interstellar distances, some
of the error could be caused by the drive, but most is in the reference points
you use and the calculations.  And I have discovered how to set the exit vector
to whatever you want.

"I used astronomical data from the last twenty jumps
you made to triangulate closer reference stars than those you have been
using" --
And now I know Earth's location
-- "and Earth's
computers are capable of much more accurate arithmetic."

He paused for effect.  "Do you mind if I try to get us
there with a transit?  After all, if I'm wrong, the insystem drive will correct
my mistake a lot faster than before."

"Is there no end to your surprises?" Ull asked. 
"You are certain we will not exit in the star?"

"Yes," he said.  He wasn't, but he was sure he
shouldn't say so.

"Show me," she said.

Finding the new reference stars took longer than the
transit.  Thirty minutes later, the ship emerged sixty thousand kilometers from
a blue planet, traveling in a parallel orbit at twenty-nine kilometers per
second.

"I could have gotten closer," Tommy said,
"but you told me to be careful."

#   #   #

Ull gave Tommy a pond chamber on the same deck as her own. 
The day after they arrived at the blue planet, Tommy brought Potter up to
explore.  He also wanted a swim in the pond.  Baths in the human part of the
ship consisted of a dribble of water and a block of soap.  The pond would be
heaven.  Not to Potter, of course.

He had just taken off his clothes and dived in, when a
chiming sound came from the door.  No one had told him how the metal plate
worked for anyone else, so he climbed out of the water, pulled his tunic over
his head, and opened the door.

"It had to be you," he said to Ull.

"I asked the deck guard to tell me the first time you
came here with your cat.  That you appear to be living here is
important."  She glanced down at his exposed legs and feet and whistled. 
"You humans have such odd extremities.  Maybe I should have come later. 
Did I interrupt anything?"

Tommy ignored her question and asked one of his own. 
"Deck guard?"

"At least one warrior guards every deck," she
replied.  "He should not be seen, of course.  Since you took these
quarters, I understand there has been a competition for the position."

"Why would they do that?" Tommy asked.

"It is a mystery to me how you could do all you have
done and not understand the response you receive from those you have saved. 
The warriors want to serve you, but they cannot go below the commons unless
they are ordered to do so."

Tommy shrugged his shoulders, a movement that, even as he
made it, he realized may have been lost on Ull.  "I have never been much
with people and relationships.  Why do you suppose I spend so much time with
computers?"

"Because you enjoy working with computers?"

"Well, that is true, too,” he grimaced, “but computers
always do what you tell them to, unlike humans, or The People for that
matter."

"Computers always do what you tell them to?  They never
make mistakes?  Our navigation computer made a large mistake!"

"That was a special case.  Your navigation computer was
two thousand years old and had been poorly maintained.  In normal
circumstances, they do make mistakes, but the programmer almost always causes
the mistake.  An examination of the error invariably reveals the computer did
as it was told. "

"You said 'almost always.'  How could that be true if
the rest of your statement is true?"

"Rumor has it a cosmic ray once changed a program in
the middle of execution.  That rumor has never been verified."

"I can never tell when humans are joking," she
said.  "The People have the decency to whistle after a joke.  Perhaps you
should learn to do the same."

"Who said I was joking?” Tommy suddenly got a whiff of
Ull’s drying fur and gestured toward his pool.  “May I offer you a swim while
we talk?”

Ull’s whistle carried some of the grinding noise that Tommy
had heard during the telling of Stream’s destruction.

“Finally.  I need to have someone teach you proper manners,”
she said as she dove past him into the water.

Ull spent a few moments exploring his pool then stopped by
the flat rock on the far side, where he joined her.

“Your pool is sterile and too warm,” she said.  “Your guests
should be able to catch fish to eat.” 

Tommy changed the subject.  “How are the repairs
progressing?"

"They will not be finished before we must leave in two
weeks.  If we leave then, we will arrive on the Gathering's first day. 
Whatever is still to be done must be completed there."

"Is the Gathering what it sounds like, a gathering of
your ships?"

"Yes.  Every five years we gather to trade among
ourselves, tell each other news and stories, and sometimes court and mate.  All
animosities are put aside.  Even those like
The Extended Claws
are
welcome for the good of the species."

"What will they think of me?" Tommy asked.

"We have been discussing that in the council.  Accepting
you will be as difficult for them as it was for us."

"And there are a lot more of them," Tommy said.

"True.  A more critical issue might be the work you
have done on this ship.

"All of our ships, except perhaps some of the raiders,
are in much the same condition as were we.  What you have done, what you could
do, is more valuable than any cargo.  Some will want you to provide the same
for them.  And to them, you are still property, a human slave."

Tommy swished his bare legs in the water.  "We still
have most of the computers you got from Earth.  You could trade for some of
them.  They don't need me, just the computers and the programs and someone to
install them."

"We would not be able to convince everyone of that. 
Someone would certainly try to steal you."

"We could hide what I have done."

"We discussed that as an alternative, and it would not
be a satisfying solution.  All of them are of The People.  Any ship we do not
help may not return for the next Gathering."

"Are you planning on doing this for free?"

"Of course not.  We are traders.  We will offer, and
they must provide something in return.  But we must offer.  How we can without
endangering you is the question."

"If my work cannot be hidden, then I will hide,"
Tommy said.

"If you do, how will we sell and install your
computers?"

"I will create teams of my artisans.  When you have
arranged for the trade, we will send a team on board with the equipment.  I
will hide in my chambers until the Gathering is finished."

"They may steal the teams you send."

Tommy stared into the pond.  "There is that.  We could
offer to train humans as part of the trade." 
Humans who would continue
to be slaves.
  He was beginning to like the Nesu, at least the ones he
knew, but that didn't mean he accepted their treatment of humans.  He had
talked with Ull once about power.  As long as the ship humans had no power,
nothing would ever change for them.

He looked at Ull.  "But only if they agree to form a
new guild modeled after my own.  I will interview and appoint the guildmaster,
who must receive additional training.  How long will we be at the
Gathering?"

"Two months," Ull responded.

"That is not much time, but it will have to do."

"I will take your proposal to the council, but continue
to consider other alternatives."

I will
, Tommy thought,
but this is the one that
will work for me.

"I have been seeing a number of landers going back and
forth to the world below," Tommy said.  "Why do you come here?"

"Three-fourths of this world is covered with water. 
Usually, we harvest and freeze marine life for food.  In addition, we are
bringing up many cubic meters of fresh water."  He decided her gaze
directly into his eyes must be a gesture of respect.  "You have repaired
so many of our lakes and ponds, we have used most of our reserve and have many
more lakes to fill.  We are also filling every possible enclosed tank, even
temporarily converting many dry storage chambers.  When we trade the expertise
you have brought, many ships will need additional water to repair their living quarters
and will not want to wait.   We will be able to trade for water, too."

Without warning, she turned away and swam around the pond.

"I left something out of my story about the Kadiil,”
she said when she joined him again.  “Many years after the destruction of
Stream, one of our ships tried to colonize a world similar to the one we now
orbit.”

Her snout pointed up at him, her black eyes glittering, and
then she looked away.  "Nothing happened for a while.  The group on site
was small, and their ship continued to trade.   We often set up temporary
stations on uninhabited worlds, and this might have been one of those.  Soon,
other ships of The People went there for trade, and some from their crews
stayed.  The station became a community at the convergence of two rivers with
many kits being born.  The world was so perfect, all that remained of the
original crew eventually abandoned their ship in orbit.

“Soon after, a Kadiil ship arrived.  They demanded the
colony be dismantled, but The People of the community ignored them.  After all,
it had been over a thousand years since Stream's destruction, and these people
had done nothing to anger the Kadiil.  A week after the demand was made, that
world was also destroyed." Again her gaze met his.  "We are doomed to
wander until we all are gone."

Vent and Sanos stood outside the guildhall engaging in a
most unmanly activity:  they were hugging each, other almost like lovers, and
dancing in circles.  Guildmaster Tommy had called a meeting of the entire guild
and promoted both of them to master!  They were both too young and
inexperienced.  No one had ever been promoted from journeyman to master so
quickly. At the same meeting, several apprentices had been promoted to
journeyman.  He had even asked for their recommendation on whom that should be!

"Thanks for waiting for me," Tommy's voice came
from inside the guildhall.  "Now that everyone else has left, we have more
to discuss."

They released each other, straightened their clothes, and
entered the hall where Tommy led the way past the cleared area in the corner of
warehouse that had become their meeting place to an undisturbed group of
pallets in the center.  He sat down on the floor where he was surrounded by
pallets and motioned for them to sit down in front of him.

"You are aware that every guild has secrets?" he
asked.

"Yes," they replied, almost in unison.

"I have inquired, and the other guilds begin sharing
their secrets with apprentices and journeyman as part of their advancement.  I
could have done that, too, by sharing my knowledge of computers only with you,
except I wasn't able to keep that knowledge secret.  Others could learn what
you know by reading the books Valin's group continues to translate.  Lean
closer to me."