Star Road (7 page)

Rodriguez. A doctor. He appeared to be disinterested. Looking away. Nodding. But maybe he wasn’t about to admit that he liked what he saw.

Before she could scan the others—she’d already taken McGowan’s measure in the cargo hold—people noticed her and looked up.

I should start,
Annie thought.

But she paused when she finally noticed the figure wearing a hooded cloak sitting in the backseat.

Annie glanced at the manifest: Ruth Corso. A Seeker. Not much on her.

Seekers.

Then: That,
I don’t get. As if we need
—
what?—a new religion?

Shaking her head, Annie focused on the job at hand.

“Good morning.”

She waited. Now, everyone—even the Chippie—looked up.

“My name’s Captain Annie Scott. I’m your pilot for our trip on the Road today. Normally”—she gestured up to the cockpit area—”pilots do the announcements from the cockpit. We’re going to be together for a while, so I like to make things a little more personal.”

Just then, Jordan emerged from the back gun turret and started up the aisle.

“I’d like to introduce our gunner—Jordan. Maybe the best gunner there is.”

He looked up at Annie and—was that a smile?

“No maybe about it.”

“He’s modest, too.”

The Chippie laughed, looking at Jordan like he was something she wanted to eat.

“We’re cleared to leave Mobius Central, but before we do, there are a few things I want to go over. More for myself than for the Star Road Authority.” All eyes were on her.

Good,
she thought.
I want their eyes and ears wide open.

“We can never predict what might happen on the Road. Who was the anti-Road politician who said it’s the Wild West out here? He called the Road ‘too dangerous.’ Said that anything can happen. And you know what? He had a point.”

Rodriguez, the scientist, owlish in his glasses, dark eyes, sitting behind the Chippie. He looked like he didn’t like the word “dangerous.”

“What about what happened at the boarding gate today?” Nahara said. “And,” Rodriguez said, “the news. I heard there was an attack on some mining colony.”

The scientist’s face was tight with tension.

Had he been carefully checked out?

“Runners?” Annie said “Yeah. Sure. They’re a problem. That’s why it’s damn good we have Jordan along for the ride. Runners are his specialty. But there are other things, Dr. Rodriguez—”

Sinjira looked up. All attention.

“You’re a doctor?” She leaned close to Rodriguez. “Think you can drop a few scripts on me? I’ll swap you for some ... interesting chips. Real personal stuff”

“I’m not
that
kind of doctor.”

This trip is already turning interesting,
Annie thought.

She glanced at the miner up front. Not a newbie. Relaxed but still listening.

Good reason to do that,
Annie knew.

For even an experienced Road traveler.

Check out your pilot. Your gunner. The people you’re traveling with.

All that could be vital information.

“Once we start moving, this SRV is under my command. On this vehicle, my word is
law.
Any of you get roadsick, you signed the waiver, and I’m permitted to collar you to keep you calm. We all good with that?”

She paused a few seconds as everyone nodded. Even the cloaked figure at the back.

Bill Nahara, who worked for the authority, held her with his steady gaze.
What’s he doing, taking mental notes?
she wondered.
Will I get a report card?
“Final things, then. The Road manual you all got tells you what to expect as we leave. Your CL devices will all work internally, but once we’re on the Road, they’re useless for any standard commlink purposes. The only way we’ll stay in touch with Earth is through the pod stations at our stops along the way.”

She took a breath.

“Any questions?”

Nothing.

“Good. Well, then, welcome to SRV-66. Once you strap yourselves in, we’re set to go.”

She turned and started up the stairs, back to the cockpit.

“Oh—one last thing. Only Jordan and I can open the cockpit doors. If you need to tell us something—if there’s an emergency or something—use your CLs and fire us a message. We will—as they say—get back to you.

Despite having done more trips than she could remember, she couldn’t help but feel excited as she entered the cockpit for final prep.

Because no matter how many times you’ve done it... getting on the Star Road
is
one hell of an amazing experience.

She felt good as she slid into the pilot’s seat.

“All clear, Mobius Central.”

“Clear at this end, SRV-66.”

“You good, Jordan?”

A nod. Nothing more.

Annie shook her head. A small laugh.

Then: “You’re something else, you know that, Jordan?”

And she started the vehicle’s engine. The entrance ramp leading to the Road portal was straight ahead. Annie turned quickly enough to see the hint of a grin on the gunner’s face.

He likes it, too.

~ * ~

6

THE FIRST PORTAL

Sinjira looked out her porthole,
a chip in place. Nothing out there yet to interest anyone, and the chip recording her feelings would show that.

But you never know,
she thought.
Things happen.

She looked at the guy across the aisle. The one she had flirted with in the bar.

Why didn’t he pick up on it?
she wondered. He was good-looking, although maybe a tad on the ordinary side.

Intense, though. Like he’s hiding something. But then again, who of us isn’t hiding something?

He might be a fun ride,
she thought.

“First timer?” she asked.

He nodded.

For some reason, she didn’t believe him.

Still not talkative.

She moved her legs, leaned a little closer... as far as the criss-cross straps would allow. The straps lifted and separated her breasts.

Oh, yeah. Now he’s looking.

“Me, too. Going to be something, hmm?”

“Could be.” He took a breath. Another look at her. “Guess so.”

All on the chip.

Why so damned cold?
she wanted to ask.

Lighten up and enjoy life.

Then the vehicle began moving. She looked outside. Then back to the man.

He was doing a great job of showing absolutely no interest in her.

But then again:
Things can change.

“I like things that are intense,” she said, still trying to draw him out. “People say my chips are—”

The vehicle bumped, its frame shuddering, the engine noise a low hum. And then she—and everyone else—got pushed back into her seat with an acceleration that grew steadily stronger.

Another quick look outside.

Still nothing exciting.

Then back to the man: “How about you—?”

But the guy had turned away and was staring out his porthole.

She thought...
Plenty of time to make something happen there.

She smiled over her shoulder at the hooded woman—the Seeker— sitting in the back, so still... so calm. Spooky.

She turned to look out her porthole window again.

Something was going to happen soon.

Yeah. She could feel it.

~ * ~

“Approaching escape velocity,” Annie said, toggling switches while her eyes darted back and forth across the controls.

It all looked good.

Jordan grunted, his eyes narrow. Focused.

The wheels of the SRV, a nearly indestructible combination of traditional and off-world alloys, now rolling at a steady speed.

The first time a ship approached a Road portal, it had exploded. Brilliantly. Over time—and at the cost of so many lives—pilots learned when and how fast to hit the portal.

Too slow, and you boomeranged down to the ground, a white-hot fireball. Too fast, and once you passed through the portal, regaining control was impossible. They couldn’t even find the crew’s atoms at that point.

But people, brave and foolish, kept trying ... experimenting, and eventually they figured it out... within certain parameters. Still plenty of margin for error because no one knew exactly
how
any of it worked.

The simple fact was, it
did
work.

Why? Scientists were working on the physics.

As to who designed and built this system in the first place?

Not a damn clue.

Leave that to the Seekers and all the other crackpots, like the people who claimed the Star Road was God’s nervous system.

Now
there’s
a thought.

Annie touched the intercom button.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we’re on the entrance ramp and coming up to our escape velocity. Might be a bit bumpy with those ‘wheels’ digging in. Like a roller coaster, if you remember what those are. If you look ahead, where you see ... nothing. That’s the portal. As I like to say, ‘seeing is not believing.’ For this trip, you just gotta believe—and hold on. If you have any concerns, don’t hesitate to contact us.”

She flicked the switch off. And smiled.

Jordan didn’t turn to her, but he spoke: “That’s supposed to reassure them?”

“Might as well make sure they get as much fun from their trip as they can—especially if it’s their first.”

The control panel dials glowed and flashed with colors that tinted the cabin with faint, pulsing waves. The SRV rocketed on the ramp, its metallic wheels not really touching the Road’s surface but still making the vehicle feel like it was going to shake itself apart.

Annie hit more switches, slight adjustments, centering the SRV.

And where a holoscreen had showed only empty space dotted with stars, there now appeared a shimmering, multicolored ring—a hole, with a deep, starless blackness at its center. Swirls of bright rainbow colors ringed the outer edges, getting bigger and brighter by the second.

The imaging sensors intensified their readings on the Portal.

All the screens confirmed the SRV’s speed and trajectory.

“Looking good,” Annie said, not expecting a reply from Jordan.

To anyone watching from down below on the planetoid, it would appear that the vehicle was about to go
flying
off the ramp and careening over the horizon.

Amazing sight to see.

She held the controls in both hands now, trusting the computers to adjust for any fluctuations. Some SRV captains still called it “the helm” but that sounded way too military and old-school for Annie.

For her, it was simply “the wheel,” and she held it tight.

The SRV rolled on nicely, at the crest of the ramp, leveling off, heading straight now.

Once she was through the portal, she’d really start to earn her pay.

Things could get weird in a nanosecond once they were through.

They had long since passed any “stop” or “turn back” position. No more exit ramps.

Still, she asked Jordan: “Everything okay on your readouts?”

“Perfect.”

“Good.”

Exiting ... amazing... She had done this too many times to be scared or even unnerved, but still—the experience never lost its power.

Through the cockpit window, nothing ahead. But the vid screen showed the swirling circle of colors with its rapidly decreasing dark center.

What kind of reality
is
this?
Annie asked herself as she shifted her gaze back and forth between the nothingness she saw ahead of her and the quantum fluctuations the nav-screens indicated were lying straight ahead.

She held the steering wheel tightly.

The SRV shaking wildly now, but the sensation odder than that.

She felt a disturbance on a molecular level. A primal, disturbing feeling.

If any of her passengers—or her, for that matter—was going to get roadsick, now would be the time.

In her mind, she counted down.

Ten ... nine... eight...

It seemed like the right thing to do.

Seven ... six...

~ * ~

Rodriguez grabbed the arms of his seat although the criss-cross straps made any movement difficult.

He told himself he wasn’t really
scared
just
... uncomfortable.

Doing this was all new to him, and he had no one to talk to express what he was really doing.

Not good at secrets,
he acknowledged.

And there was this:
How much did he really know about what had happened on Omega Nine?