Crossways (60 page)

Ben waited until they were back on Crossways, in the office at Blue Seven, before approaching Gen and Max together. It was as much her decision as Max's. If she didn't want Ben to put the father of her baby at risk, then he wouldn't, whether Max volunteered or not. Lewis Bronsen was a good Finder, much more experienced than Max, but Max had one advantage: he actually knew a couple of the frozen settlers.

The product of a dozen foster homes, Max had once spent six months with Dora and Alvin Kirchner. An unhappy six months, it had to be said, but any kind of personal connection gave a Finder double the chance of success.

“Jussaro says you're ready,” Ben told Max. “He says that if you'd gone through regular training at the Trust academy you'd easily have a Psi-2 grade.”

“He's not going.” Gen levered herself up from the chair she'd been sitting in. “Don't flatter him.”

“I'm not trying to flatter him, just telling him he's capable of doing this if anyone is.”

“If anyone is. See, that says it all.” She paced and turned. “This is a mad scheme, Ben. Supposing you find the ark, and just supposing that thirty thousand body pods are still functioning after months in the Folds, how the hell do you propose to drag the ark back into realspace? It's twenty times the mass of the
Simonides
. You can't pull the old Benjamin Maneuver again.” She swept both hands together to indicate one ship being dragged along by the other.

Ben shook his head. “If we can't drag it out there's still the jump gate option. Another pilot can bring
Solar Wind
, and Max, back safely. I'll see to the ark.”

“So you want both of us to come.”

“I didn't say that.”

“You need another pilot. How many hours of flight time has anyone else got on
Solar Wind
?”

“The Vraxos pilots—”

“Are still untrained.”

“Jake Lowenbrun isn't.”

Gen exhaled sharply. “You'd trust
Solar Wind
to that little shit? Even if he could stay sober enough to fly her out of the Folds you'd never see her again.”

“Maybe we'll take someone to strong-arm Lowenbrun,” Ben said. “One of Tengue's. A pilot. Hilde if she's up for it.”

“Do I get a say in this?” Max leaned back in his chair.

“Yes,” Ben said.

“No. Shut up!” Gen said.

Max shrugged.

Gen glared at him. “When has what I said ever made a difference? What do you think?”

He leaned forward. “I think I'd like to see the Kirchners stuck in foldspace for a very long time, but if they're the key to finding the ark, we've got to give it a try.”

“We?” Gen said. “Me and you?”

“We. Me and Ben and Lowenbrun.”

“And Cara,” Ben added. “And Hilde if she's willing.”

“Right! That settles it.” Gen pursed her lips. “If you're all going I'm coming too.”

Max shook his head. “You should stay where it's safe. Tell her, Ben.”

“You're going to leave me behind because I'm pregnant!” She put one hand on her round belly.

Ben shook his head. “You should stay here, Gen, not because you need to be coddled, but because you're the only other pilot with jump-drive experience. Someone needs to train the Vraxos pilots. We can't risk both of us disappearing into the Folds and not coming back.”

“So you admit it's dangerous?”

“It's the Folds. It's always dangerous. This time we're trying to do something that's never been done before. Even if we find nothing, we'll be spending more time there than we should.”

“And if you find something?”

“Max, Cara, and Lowenbrun get to come back by the fastest route.”

“While you try to do a transfer between ships in foldspace.” She scowled. “And bring back a crippled ark.”

“And thirty thousand settlers.”

“Who might be dead already.”

“Who might not.”

She nodded and turned to Max. “If you get yourself killed I'll tell our daughter that she was the product of a wild night with some deckhands from Altair-4.”

“We're having a daughter?”

“It was supposed to be a surprise.”

K
ITTY WAITED UNTIL
SOLAR WIND
HAD LEFT the dock so that Ben and Cara were safely out of the way. She let herself into the outer office of Ronan's medical suite to find Ronan, Jussaro, and Nine having coffee. Nine and Jussaro had been systematically checking everyone's implants. She'd seen them around, heard people talking, but so far no one had suggested she line up for testing, a situation she was entirely happy with. She hadn't realized they were working in Blue Seven's med center until now.

She smiled to herself. It was fate.

“Kitty, nice to see you,” Ronan said. “Is this a visit for professional services?”

He'd offered her counseling when he'd done her psych evaluation way back, when she'd asked Ben to give her shelter. She'd refused, and since then she'd had no need to call on him for anything.

She didn't know about Nine, but Jussaro was a top-grade Empath, even better than Ronan.

Definitely fate.

“I came to see if I could help with Etta. I used to know her, back on Earth. I wondered if you wanted me to sit with her a while, see if an old face might cheer her up.”

“You want to visit?”

Kitty caught the way Ronan glanced toward Jussaro before he replied.

“I guess you can. She might recognize you, she might not.”

Ronan stood up to lead her down a short corridor to the last room on the left. The room was bright and airy, with a false window showing a garden scene and a bowl of scented roses on the table in front of Etta's chair. Etta's legs were wrapped in a snuggle blanket. She had a book on her lap, but the screen had reverted to the cover image, an elfin child in a cornfield.

“Hello, Etta, you've got a visitor,” Ronan said.

Etta looked up, her expression far away, then she blinked and recognition lit up her face. “Mr. van Blaiden's girl, how are you, my dear?”

“I'm fine, Etta, thank you. I came to see how you were.”

Kitty leaned over to take Etta's outstretched hand, murder uppermost in her troubled mind.

“I'm . . .” Etta screwed up her eyes. “Why are you here? You're with them.”

“Alphacorp? Not anymore.”

“Are you sure about that?” Ronan said.

Kitty stiffened and turned. Jussaro, Ronan, and Nine stood behind her, shoulder to shoulder.

“We've been looking for the leak for some time now,” Jussaro said. “Turns out we were looking in the wrong place. Your reports to Alphacorp are being leaked to Crowder, did you know that?”

“I don't know what you're talking about.”

“Don't you?” Jussaro said. “You're good, Kitty Keely, if that's your real name. You fooled Ronan here with your original psych evaluation—”

“Something I'm going to find very hard to live down.” Ronan frowned. “But murder is a hard thing to hide.”

“I'm not . . . I wasn't . . .” Kitty felt panic rising. Wasn't this what she'd hoped for? Even so, denying it was automatic. “Why would I?”

“Why indeed?” Jussaro shook his head. “Unless you'd been ordered to.”

Kitty breathed out and relaxed. The decision was out of her hands. Etta was safe—from her, at least.

Ben hadn't given Lowenbrun any choice about staying sober. He'd left him on
Solar Wind
with Gwala and Hilde for company. On the third day he figured that Lowenbrun had dried out enough to fly. Ronan had declared him medically fit if not psychologically sound, but that would have to do.

“You're serious about this, Benjamin?” Lowenbrun met him at the top of the ramp, face pale.

“Deadly.”

“That's not a good word.”

“As I see it you've got two choices,” Ben said. “Come with us to find the ark or I'll just give you up to Garrick's justice. The last criminals he dealt with on our behalf had a serious accident in an air lock. This way you have a chance to redeem yourself.”

“Is that really a choice?”

“Not at all.” Cara came up the ramp behind him, followed by Max. “There's no way you're getting off that easy. You're in this for the long haul.”

Hilde hit the ramp control.

“You guys don't both need to come,” Ben said.

“You might need someone on tactical,” Gwala said.

“And I can cope with a few days of endless grapple league talk if I have to.” Hilde grinned at Gwala.

It took three days to trace the ark's last journey: Dromgoole to Pinch Point, Pinch Point to Stamford Haven, Stamford Haven to Terracotta. Traveling via the jump gates, they encountered no void dragons. The otter-like younglings, if that's what they were, swirled through
Solar Wind
on the middle leg of the journey, but that was all.

Between Pinch Point and Stamford Haven, Gen told them that Ronan, Jussaro, and Nine had found the source of their information leak.
*Kitty!*
Ben swiveled around in his chair to see Cara's reaction.

*I said something didn't add up about her account of York,*
Cara said.

*I bought her story,*
Ben said.

*It was probably substantially true. I saw the way Ari treated her. But she must have been watching him, and when the opportunity arose, switched to watching us.*

*Reporting to Alphacorp,
* Gen said.
*So Crowder's mole got all her information.*

Ben tasted the bitterness of betrayal all over again.
*What have you done with her?*
he asked Gen.

*In the cells. Tengue is watching over her and a field damper is cutting out any telepathic communication. What else do you want us to do?*

*That's fine for now until we get back. Have Jussaro talk to her. See if he can get more information.*

*Will do.*

From Stamford Haven they flew to Terracotta. Then it was Terracotta to nowhere.

The jump gate hung in space, the larger crew and control module and the smaller gate impeller framing an ellipse of pure blackness.

Cara called Gen as they prepared to enter the Folds via the gate, just as the ark had done. They exchanged progress reports. Ben was pleased to hear that Gen's Navigator students were doing well in the small runabout Dido Kennedy had retrofitted with a jump drive.

While Cara acted as the conduit for Gen and Max to have a few moments to speak to each other through her link, Ben turned his attention to Lowenbrun.

“Try and remember exactly how it went after you transited via the gate. How far in did you abandon the ark?”

“Not far, but you know as well as I do that you can't measure distance traveled in the Folds by speed and time taken.”

“I know, but it's a starting point.” Ben relinquished the control of the
Solar Wind
. “Try to duplicate everything you can remember of that journey.”

Lowenbrun licked his lips and his hands trembled as he placed them on the control pads. Not a good sign. Ben sat in the copilot's seat ready to snatch back control in an instant if Lowenbrun went to pieces.

And who will do the same for you?
he asked himself. Don't think like that. He wasn't going to go to pieces. He'd reconciled with the void dragon and hopefully the void dragon had made its peace with him.

“Terracotta Gate has cleared us to jump,” Cara said.

“Okay, take us in, Jake.” Ben tried to sound calm, as if
jumping into the Folds without any clear intention of jumping out again was an everyday occurrence.

The air pressure changes as they pass through the ellipse of black. The overhead lights dip as if something has interrupted the power.

The lights flicker and regain their normal brightness.

Gwala locks down tactical and sits back.

“Thirty seconds,” Hilde says from the systems station.

“Forward screen on,” Ben says.

“I'm sorry to tell you, it is on.” Cara stares at the black screen.

“Okay. Max?”

“Find Dora and Alvin Kirchner. Right.” Max closes his eyes. “Considering that most of the time I spent in their household I was trying to hide from them, this is going to be a bit weird. Did I ever tell you about them?”

“Some,” Ben says. “Foster parents when you were thirteen, yes?”

“Fourteen. Strict as all get-out. They had four of us to look after and I guess none of us made it easy for them. They tried to make us a family, but Madoc had just lost his parents and cried all the time. Eirich had been in care since he was four and had bounced back from more foster homes than I had. He was a bully and Madoc was fair game. Gonzo was—”

“Gonzo?” Cara says.

“One minute,” Hilde says.

“He had a real name but no one ever used it. Gonzo had had a tough time at home. I guess he was about ten or eleven. He used to climb as high as he could on the bedroom furniture in the middle of the night and pee on his bed. Pee on our beds, with us in them if he could. It was—”

“Does all this talk help?” Ben asks, quelling rising impatience.

“Yeah, it does, actually. Helps me to remember the days, focus on the Kirchners. They were aiming for the impossible. Thought they could make us into brothers, respectful of them and just as devoted to the Ecolibrian cause as they were.”

“And I guess you were sweetness and light?” Cara says.

“Hell, no. I was determined to get out of there as quickly as I could. There was this girl back at the orphanage, a year older than me and ten years wiser. I wanted to get sent back, so I was an obnoxious little squirt. Yeah, I know. Can you believe it?”

Gwala laughs.

“Two minutes,” Hilde says.

“The Kirchners thought they were being strict but fair, but that's not how I saw it. Fair went out of the window when Gonzo set fire to his bed one night.”

“This is as close as I can get,” Lowenbrun says. “Sorry to interrupt your life story, pal.”

Max shakes his head. “No worries. I'm not getting a flicker. Are we even sure that it's possible to Find in foldspace?”

“It's never been tried before, as far as I know,” Ben says. “But Navigators and Telepaths can all function in the Folds.”

“Though I can't contact anyone outside the Folds,” Cara says.

“Three minutes,” Hilde says.

“Lowenbrun, what did you do when you left the ark?” Ben asks.

“Alexandrov . . . shot the pilot and the copilot. He had me at pistol point. He set the ark controls to neutral and powered down her drive, then we made our way back to the hold and into the Monitor flyer. That took maybe five minutes. We exited the ark's air lock and I brought us out of the Folds as quickly as I could via the first gate I could find.”

“How long between entering and exiting the Folds?”

“I'm not sure. An hour maybe.”

“And how long had elapsed when you returned to realspace?”

“If I'm honest, I didn't log it. I thought Alexandrov was going to shoot me next. Get rid of the evidence. It might have been days.”

“Okay, we'll keep trying.”

By the time Hilde calls thirty minutes they are ready to give up. The longer you spend in foldspace, the less likely you are to escape it successfully.

“No one said it was going to be easy,” Ben says. “We'll take a break and try again.”

He lets Lowenbrun find the line out of the Folds, shadowing him carefully in case of errors, but Lowenbrun is careful and steady. In other circumstances, with another pilot, Ben would have been impressed, but Lowenbrun still has a long way to go to raise himself above zero in Ben's estimation.