Ride the Star Winds (77 page)

I’ve a son, as you know. Like most fathers, I wanted him to follow in my footsteps. As many sons do, he decided to do otherwise, and told me frankly that a spaceman’s life was not for him. He’s an academic type. Bachelor of arts—and what is more useless than a degree in arts? Master of arts. And now doctor of philosophy. And not the sort of Ph.D. that’s really a degree in science, but just a jumble of history and the like. Damn it all, he wouldn’t know what a neutron was if it up and bit him on the left buttock. But he can tell you what Julius Caesar said when he landed in England—whenever and whatever that was—and what Shakespeare made some character called Hamlet say when he was in some sort of complicated jam that some old Greek called Oedipus was in a couple of thousand or so years previously, and what some other character called Freud had to say about it all a few hundred years later.

But, to get back to Mr. J. Caesar, what he said was
veni, vidi, vici.
I came, I saw, I conquered.

And, insofar as the anti-matter worlds were concerned, I came, I saw—and I didn’t conquer. All I had to show for my trouble was this damned great hunk of anti-iron, and I just couldn’t figure out a use for it. It irked me more than somewhat. So, after worrying about it all rather too much, I retired from the field and left it all to my subconscious.

Well, John—that’s my son—littered up the house with all sorts of books when he was studying for his latest degree. There was, as I have said, quite a pile of historical material. Not only Julius Caesar and Shakespeare and the learned Herr Doktor Freud, but books on, of all things, the history of transport. Those I read, and they were fascinating. Galleys with sweating slaves manning the sweeps. Galleons with wind power replacing muscle power. The clipper ships, with acres of canvas spread to the gales. The first steamships. The motor ships. The nuclear-powered ships. And, in the air, the airships—dirigible balloons. The airplanes. The jets. The rockets—and the first spaceships.

And with the spaceships sail came back, but briefly. There was the Erikson drive. There were the ships that spread their great plastic sails and drifted out from the orbit of Earth to that of Mars, but slowly, slowly. It was a good idea—but as long as those ships had mass it was impracticable. But if there had then been any means of nullifying gravity they would have superseded the rockets.

Then it all clicked. The old-timers didn’t have anti-gravity. I
do
have anti-gravity. I can build a real sailing ship—a vessel to run before the photon gale, a ship that can be handled just as the old windjammers on Earth’s seas were handled. A ship, come to that, Captain Listowel, that can be handled just as the topsail schooners on Atlantia’s seas are handled . . .

He waved a hand towards the model on his desk.

There she is. There’s
Flying Cloud
. The first of the real lightjammers. And she’s yours.

Chapter 5

“Even so . . .”
murmured Ralph, breaking the silence.

“Even so, Captain Listowel,” echoed Grimes, a sardonic edge to his voice.

“Even so, sir,” went on Ralph, undeterred, “I don’t think that I’m qualified. I doubt if any of us is qualified.”

“You
are
qualified,” stated Grimes flatly. “You’ve experience in sail, which is more than any other master or officer in this employ can boast. Oh, there was Calver. He was in sail, too, before he joined us, but he’s no longer with us. So you’re the only possible choice.”

“But . . . I’ve no real qualifications.”

Grimes laughed. “Who has? There
was
a certificate of competency, Erikson drive, issued on Earth a few centuries ago. But don’t let that bother you. The Rim Confederacy will issue certificates of competency for the improved Erikson drive.”

“And the examiner?” asked Ralph.

“For a start, you,” stated Grimes.

“But, damn it all, sir, there aren’t any textbooks, manuals . . .”

“You will write them when you get around to it.”

“Even so, sir,” protested Ralph, “this is rather much. Don’t think that I’m not appreciative of the promotion, but . . .”

Grimes grinned happily. He said, “In my own bumbling way—after all, I’m a spaceman, neither a seaman nor an airman—I’ve worked out some rough and ready methods for handling this brute.” His hand went out to the beautiful model on his desk with a possessive, caressing gesture. “If it were not for the fact that I have a wife and family I’d be sailing as her first master. As things are, I’ve had to waive that privilege, although not without reluctance. But I can give you a rough idea of what’s required.”

He took from the top drawer of his desk a little control panel and set it down before himself. He pressed a stud and we watched, fascinated, as the spars rotated on their long axes and then, when the sails were furled, folded back into slots in the shell plating.

“As you see,” he told us, “there are now only the atmospheric control surfaces left exposed—including, of course, the airscrews. In appearance the ship is not unlike one of the dirigible airships of the early days of aviation. A lighter-than-air ship, in fact. But she’s not lighter than air. Not yet.

“This model, as you’ve all probably guessed by this time, is a working model—insofar as her handling inside atmospheric limits is concerned. She has within her a tiny fragment of the anti-iron, a miniscule sphere of anti-matter complete with induced anti-gravity.” He looked at Ralph. “Now, I’d like you to get the feel of her, Captain Listowel. Go on, she won’t bite you. Take hold of her. Lift her off the desk.”

Ralph got slowly to his feet, extended two cautious hands, got his fingers around the cylindrical hull. He said, accusingly, “But she’s heavy.”

“Of course she’s heavy. When the real ship is berthed on a planetary surface to discharge and load cargo we don’t want her at the mercy of every puff of wind. All right, put her down again. And now stand back.”

Ralph stood back, without reluctance. Grimes pressed another stud on his control panel. None of us was expecting what happened next—the stream of water that poured from vents on the underside of the model, flooding the desk top, dripping on to the carpet. Miss Hallows clucked annoyance, but we just watched fascinated. The commodore smiled happily, his hands busy at the miniature controls. There was the whine of a motor inside the model ship and the two airscrews at the after end started to turn. Before they had picked up speed, while the separate blades were still clearly visible,
Flying Cloud
began to move, sliding slowly over the smooth surface of the desk. (I noticed that she barely disturbed the film of moisture.) She reached the edge and she dropped—but slowly, slowly—and then the control surfaces, elevators and rudder, twitched nervously, and her screws were a translucent blur, and her fall was checked and she was rising, obedient to her helm, making a circuit of the desk and gaining altitude with every lap. There was still a dribble of water from her outlets that fell, shockingly cold, on our upturned faces.

“You see,” said Grimes. “In an atmosphere you have no worries at all. Drive her down on negative dynamic lift, start the compressors if you have to give her a little extra mass with compressed air.” (A faint throb was audible above the whine of the motors.) “Open your valves if you think that she’s getting too heavy.” (We heard the thin, high whistle.) “I’m sorry that I can’t give a real demonstration of how she’ll handle in deep space, but I can give you some sort of an idea.” (He jockeyed the model almost to ceiling level and manipulated the controls so that she was hanging stern on to the big overhead light globe.) “There’s the sun,” he said. “The sun, or any other source of photons. You spread your sails . . .” (The spars extended from the hull, the complexity of plastic vanes unfurled.) “And off you go. Mind you, I’m cheating. I’m using the airscrews. And now, watch carefully. One surface of each sail is silvered, the other surface is black. By use of the reflecting and absorbing surfaces I can steer the ship, I can even exercise control over her speed . . . any questions, Captain Listowel?”

“Not yet,” said Ralph cautiously.

“I’ve told you all I know,” Grimes told him cheerfully, “and now you know just about everything there is to know. But I admit that this handling of her in deep space, under sail, is all theory and guesswork. You’ll have to make up the rules as you go along. But the atmospheric handling is pretty well worked out. Landing, for example.” He looked at his secretary. “Miss Hallows, is the spaceport open for traffic?”

She sighed, then said, “Yes, Commodore.”

“But it’s not,” he said.

She sighed again, got to her feet and went to a door, her manner displaying a certain embarrassment. Behind the door was Commodore Grimes’s private lavatory. I was rather surprised to see that he had been able to commandeer a full-length tub for himself as well as the usual standard fittings. Oh, well, rank has its privileges.

“And that,” said Grimes, “is a working model of the spaceport of the near future. A lake, natural or artificial. Or a wide river. Or a sheltered bay. Maintenance costs cut to a bare minimum.”

I got to my feet and saw that the tub was full.

The model
Flying Cloud
droned slowly over our heads, her suit of sails once again withdrawn and steered through the open door of the bathroom, her airscrews and elevators driving her down in a long slant towards the surface of the water in the tub. While she was still all of three feet above it a tendril snaked from her underbelly, a long tube that extended itself until its end was submerged. Once again there was the throbbing of a tiny pump and the model settled, gradually at first, then faster, then dropping with a startlingly loud splash.

“A clumsy landing,” admitted Grimes, “but I’m sure that you’ll do better, Captain.”

“I hope so,” said Ralph gloomily.

II: THE SHIP

Chapter 6

But I think Ralph
thoroughly enjoyed himself in the few weeks that followed. I doubt if any of the rest of us did. I know that I didn’t. Sailing as a sport is all very well on a planet like Caribbea, but it has little to recommend it on a bleak slag heap such as Lorn. Oh, there’s always a wind—but that wind is always bitter and, as often as not, opaque with gritty dust.

I don’t think that anybody had ever sailed on Lorn until we, the future personnel of
Flying Cloud
, cast off our sleek, smart (and that didn’t last for long) catamaran from the rickety jetty on the shore of Lake Misere, under the derisive stares of the local fishermen in their shabby, power-driven craft, to put in hour after hour, day after day of tacking and wearing, running free, sailing close-hauled and all the rest of it.

But Ralph was good. I have to admit that. I was amazed to learn that so much control of the flimsy, complicated, wind-driven contraption was possible. In my innocence I had always assumed that a sailing vessel could proceed only in a direction exactly opposite to that from which the wind was blowing. I learned better. We all learned better. But I still think that there are easier ways of proceeding from point A to point B, either in deep space or on the water, than under sail.

Yes, all of us had to get a grounding in sail seamanship, Sandra, Doc Jenkins and Smethwick as well as myself. We gathered that Commodore Grimes wasn’t finding it easy to find officers for his fine, new ship—after all, even Rim Worlders weren’t keen on voyages that would extend over years, even though those years would be objective rather than subjective time. There just weren’t that many completely unattached people around. So he’d been dickering with the Astronauts’ Guild and got them to agree that anybody, but anybody, could be issued a certificate of competency with respect to the improved Erikson drive.

So we all—and how we hated it!—had to become more or less competent sailors. As I’ve said, on a sunny world with balmy breezes, blue seas, golden beaches and palm trees it would have been fun. On Lake Misere it wasn’t. On Lake Misere it was hard work in miserable conditions—and I still think that it’s utterly incredible that in this day and age no heavy weather clothing has yet been devised that will stop the ingress of freezing water between neck and collar, between boot-top and leg.

And when we had all become more or less competent sailors—Ralph called it Part A of our certificates—we thought that the worst was over. How wrong we were! The next stage of our training was to bumble around in yet another archaic contraption, a clumsy, lighter-than-air monstrosity called a blimp. (Like the catamaran, it had been built merely for instructional purposes.) I don’t profess to know the origin of the name, but it looked like a blimp. One just couldn’t imagine its being called anything else. There was a flaccid bag of gas—helium—shaped like a fat cigar, and from this depended a streamlined cabin that was control room, living quarters and engine room. There was a propeller driven by a small diesel motor, that moved us through the air at a maximum speed of fifty knots. (Our speed over the ground was, of course, governed by wind direction and velocity.) There was a lot of complicated juggling with gas and ballast. There was the occasion when we were blown off course and drifted helplessly over Port Forlorn just as
Rim Hound
was coming in. Ralph told us afterwards that had the blimp been hydrogen-filled that would have been our finish; as it was, with our gasbag all but burst by the searing heat of
Rim Hound’s
exhaust, leaking from every seam, we made an ignominious crash landing in Lake Misere, from which dismal puddle we were rescued by the fishermen—who were, of course, highly amused to see us again, and in even more ludicrous circumstances than before.

But the blimp was patched up and again made airworthy—as airworthy as she ever would be, ever could be—and we carried on with our training. And we got the feel of the brute. We neither respected nor loved her, but we came to understand what she could and could not do and, when Ralph had decided that we all (including himself) had passed for Part B of our certificates we proceeded, in the little airship, to Port Erikson on the southern shore of Coldharbor Bay.

There’s one thing you can say in favor of the Survey Service boys who first made landings on the Rim Worlds, and you can say the same thing in favor of the first colonists. When it came to dishing out names they were realistic. Lorn . . . Port Forlorn . . . Lake Misere . . . the Great Barrens . . . Mount Desolation . . . Coldharbor Bay . . .