A Planned Improvisation (14 page)

It was three hours later before Arn got back to Park on that matter and both
Independent
and
Phoenix Child
were well on their way by the time his call came in. “They’re legit, Park,” Arm told him. “They’re paying for occupation and mining rights. We told
 
Defense
not to give them any problems.”

“They haven’t so far, have they?” Park asked.

“No, Paul knows better than that,” Arn replied. “His reply to the base inquiries were that they were on a planetary survey mission. Truthful enough, I suppose. The traders invited him and his crew down for tea or something. All is happy and cozy on Titan.”

“Nice to hear it,” Park chuckled. “We’ll see how cozy Owatino is when we can get there in our own ships.”

“Any idea of where Owatino is?” Arn countered.

“Not really,” Park admitted. “Even our allies in the Alliance haven’t been free with the galactic star charts, but we’ll find it when we need to. Actually, I have a sneaky suspicion of where it is.”

“You do?” Arn asked. “Where?”

“All the ships we know are headed for Owatino space out toward Camelopardalis,” Park replied. “Narrowing that down to their actual headings, there is a star a little over two hundred and fifty light years around which a possible Earthlike planet was discovered two years before we took the big sleep. If we cannot get actual coordinates, that is where I would start looking.”

“Why haven’t you told me that before?” Arn demanded.

“It’s hardly a sure thing, Arn,” Park laughed. “Do you have any idea of how many stars there are within two hundred and fifty light years? Tens of thousands by the most conservative estimates and we don’t even know how far away Owatino is. That potential Earth out there might be an airless ball of rock and dust and if my estimate of their trajectory under star drive is off by a fraction of a degree there are dozens of stars we would have to check and that assumes all those ships were on a direct route to the Diet planet. And even if I was right, how were you planning to get there? Bicycle?”

“Okay, okay,” Arn wave him off. “You made your point. We’ll discuss it when you come back with a fully functional star drive.”

“In about three weeks then,” Park estimated. “
Independent
out.” Arn’s holographic image winked out and Park turned his attention to the new ship and its workings.

The trip outward was smooth and uneventful and soon
Independent
and
Phoenix Child
were just beyond Saturn’s orbit, the minimum distance from the Sun from which a star drive could be expected to work. They had to wait over two hours to get confirmation that Defense was in position and then finally came the moment.

“All systems ready?” Park asked. In turn each officer reported that their station was prepared for insertion into Other Space and then finally, “Commence the countdown,” Park commanded. Tina Linea counted backwards and when she reached zero, Veronica Sheetz manually engaged the star drive.

Immediately the world turned inside out, twisted around and straightened up, but when it did the colors on the bridge were all wrong to Park’s eyes. The carpeting on the bridge had been beige but was now a deep red. The brushed metal fittings were flashing back and forth between green and orange. The people were all glowing bright blue. The only things that remained the same were the panel lights and displays at the various station. Park wasn’t certain that would help or hinder anyone trying to work at them. Then he caught a look outside the external ports where instead of a black sky with many bright stars the sky was a mix of pastel color with tiny swirls in black everywhere.

The crew people on the bridge gasped, but held back signs of fright, but little Cousin, who flew with Marisea on every mission, let lose a panicked scream, jumped up into Park’s lap and held onto him for dear life.

And then, just as suddenly, the universe did another flip-flop and it was over. “Why the heck didn’t anyone warn us about that?” Park asked to no one in particular, while trying to calm Cousin down. “All hands report!”

“Engineering here, skipper,” Ronnie reported from the lower deck. “All hands fit and able. Hell of a ride, huh? Maybe we ought to charge admission.”

“Ronnie, did you expect that?” Park demanded while other personnel reported
 
in that they and their stations were fine.

“Not at all, skipper,” Ronnie admitted. “Given that we’re punching a hole out of the Universe and then back in again, I suppose we should have expected something. Where are we, by the way?”

“Park,” Marisea cut in, “
Defense
reports we’re within ten miles of her position.”

“Perfectly on target,” Park replied to both of them. Ronnie, I thought transition was supposed to be instantaneous. It felt to me like we were in Other Space for a finite amount of time, three or four seconds, maybe?”

“Felt like that to me too,” Ronnie admitted. “I may have something to work on. The star drive batteries are already recharged, though. Do you want to try again?”

“Let’s wait an hour,” Park decided. “I want everyone with go through their pre-flight checklists again and make sure everything is as good as we think.”

They flipped back and forth five more times over the next day as Ronnie attempted to track down the cause of time sensation while in Other Space. After the third time, even Cousin became used to odd sensations and stopped holding on to Park or Marisea with a painful death grip. Ronnie eventually came up to the bridge to talk to Park about the problem. “Either I did something wrong,” she admitted, “or that’s just the way it works. We ought to talk to Dannet and Sartena about that.”

“They should be free to discuss star drives now that we’ve built a putatively working starship,” Park agreed.

“Putatively?” Ronnie demanded.

“We still haven’t left the system in it,” Park pointed out.

“You want to make a quick hop to Alpha Centauri?” Ronnie asked archly.

“I do, yes,” Park admitted. “How long would it take to work out the course calculations?”

“Park,” Iris cut in, “Maybe we should try for Pluto or Eris instead. Something inside the system.”

“Why?” Park countered with a grin on his face.

“Because if it took three or four seconds to transit from one point in Saturn’s orbit to another, how long would it take to get to another star system?”

“We don’t know if the distance has anything to do with the time spent in other Space,” Ronnie argued. “It could even be in an inverse proportion, getting shorter the further you have to go.”

“But you don’t know that,” Iris pointed out. “The math says it’s instantaneous, but in practice that does not appear to be the case.”

“I hate to admit you could be right,” Ronnie told her.

“Park!” Marisea broke in excitedly. “I’m picking up a distress call from Earth. They’re under attack!”

At maximum acceleration it still took five days for
Independent
,
Phoenix Child
, and
 
Defense
to return from their respective positions. During that time the news from Earth was sporadic. “Our people are too busy to talk to us,” Park told his crew when they were still a day out. “Marisea, try contacting Luna.”

“Collins Base,” came the almost instant reply when she tried.

“Collins, this is
Independent
,” Marisea identified, “responding to the distress calls from Earth, but we haven’t been able to contact anyone there.”

“It’s bad down there in places,” the voice of Collins Base responded, “but someone should have answered your calls. We haven’t lost all contact.”

“Collins Base,” Park cut in, “This is Captain Holman. What is your status?”

“We’re fine up here, Captain,” came the response. “The attackers ignored us.”

“Okay, good,” Park nodded, forgetting that over the radio contact that gesture could not be seen. Holographic video signals could be used, but frequently were not bothered with by experienced spacers in the Alliance. Park, likewise rarely used a video channel simply because he never thought of it. “Now what can you tell of us Earth?”

“There were three ships, sir,” the voice of Collins Base responded. “They were the shape changing kind. One went straight for the Questo shipyard. We haven’t heard anything from there, but telescopes can still see the smoke from the fires there drifting westward over the ocean. They caught a lot of our ships on the ground there.”

“Damn,” Park swore softly. “And the others?”

“One strafed Ghelati on its way to Van Winkle town,” Collins told him. “There was massive damage in both cities, but it was shot down over Van Winkle.”

“Good!” Park nodded again.

“The third did a number on Porgantis and Sanatis, but two of our ships,
Dillit
and
Starblade
intercepted it and blew it into next week. Meanwhile, the ship that destroyed Questo moved on up the coast toward Planaco. That one shot up a few smaller towns along the way but two more of ours,
Sassy
and the
Face of Therens
got in the way and traded blows with it. Both of our ships were badly damaged, but managed to land in Planaco. That last surviving enemy ran for it. We attempted to give chase, but it was much faster than anything we have. We just heard that it went into Other Space an hour ago.”

“Any word from Van Winkle since then?” Park asked.

“Oh, yes. They’re on the other side of the planet, but I can patch you through.”

“Please do,” Park requested.

There was a long delay before Arn’s head and shoulders appeared in the holographic display. He looked like he had not slept in days. Park decided that Arn probably hadn’t. “Park?” Arn asked. “Give me some good news.”

“We have a working star drive,” Park reported.

“Yeah?” Arn shot him a feral grin. “That is good news. Now we can take the fight back to those bastards who did this.”

“I’m game,” Park admitted. “Who are we attacking and where are they?”

“You had to remind me,” Arn groaned. “Park, how far out are you?”

“A little less than a day,” Park replied. “
Phoenix Child
is with us and
Defense
should be in a few hours after we are. Do we have a place to land at Van Winkle?”

“You’ll have to park on one of the runways,” Arn informed him. “They tried to destroy the terminal building again.”

“The stasis plating held, I take it?” Park asked.

“Like a good luck charm,” Arn replied. “We have that bastard Jance to thank for that. If he hadn’t shot up the old building we might never have thought of protecting the new one that way. And a lot of our people have been installing stasis safe rooms in their homes. It’s a miracle, but we did not lose anyone there.”

“So why do we have to park on the runway?” Park asked.

“The terminal may have been left untouched but the tarmac around it is all chewed up and we do have other cleanup work around the town,” Arn told him. Private safe rooms protected our people, but the homes around them are in ruins and, sadly, not everyone had safe rooms. We lost no one at the port, but in town, well, no one has been found dead yet, but there are some who are not yet accounted for. Not everyone without a safe room made it to the base for protection, so we have dozens of wounded. I’m authorizing free stasis plating for anyone who wants a safe room from here on out.”

“Good move,” Park approved, “but personally, I’d like it better if we never needed it again.”

“So would I,” Arn agreed, “but neither of us has that choice at the moment. Do me a favor, though, on your way in, fly over Questo. No one has been able to contact them at all and the other towns and cities in the Far East are too busy putting themselves back together to have a look.”

“There aren’t any settlements within a thousand miles of Questo,” Park reminded him. “I used to think that might be because they’re in Kogack territory, but apparently the Kogacks rarely go that far east.”

“Total Mer population is less than six hundred million, Park,” Arn reminded him, “and the world is as large as it ever was. There are bound to be some empty spaces.”

“But the Mer only live along the coast of Pangaea,” Park pointed out. “Atackack population is estimated to be about the same, but they like to clump together in large settlements and they prefer to avoid the water, so they never expanded out of Asia. No one lives in Australis so far as we know, so why is the area around Questo so empty?”

“I’ve never had a chance to wonder about that,” Arn admitted, “but this isn’t the time. Let’s just accept the situation as it is.”

Park agreed and signed out. “Marisea, Tell
Phoenix Child
to land directly at Van Winkle. We’ll take that side trip for Arn.”

“Aye aye, Park,” Marisea responded.

“Laying in the new course,” Tina reported without being asked to.

Passing over Questo and then landing at Van Winkle required
Independent
to fly in a low altitude polar orbit. “It looks pretty bad down there,” Iris remarked as they watched the screens showing the ground under high magnification.

“I don’t see a single intact building,” Marisea noted bleakly.

“There are ships on the ground, but I don’t know their status,” Park admitted. “Any response from our hails?”

“No, Park,” Marisea shook her head. “I don’t see their antenna either. We need to land there you know.”

“Arn wants us in Van Winkle,” Park responded.

“In our current orbit,” Tina put in, “it would be quicker to land at Van Winkle and then take off again.”

“So maybe we can do both,” Park decided.

“We have to,” Ronnie told him. “We have people in Questo. Velvet was in Questo when we left. She’s probably still there.” No one was insensitive enough to add, “if she’s still alive,” but everyone heard the words anyway.

“I’ll talk to Arn about going there as soon as we land,” Park promised. “Ronnie, how soon can we take off again safely?”

“In this ship?” Ronnie considered. “We need to go over her with a fine toothed comb after this maiden voyage, but I can have
Phoenix Child
prepped for flight in a few hours if you’ll authorize this as an emergency.”