Supergiant (Gigaparsec Book 2) (16 page)

For ten nights, the experiments with card games succeeded.
Roz could sense the web of possibility and choice around her like a dance.
However, Max quit playing after he won with a royal flush. He used his winnings
to purchase celebration food and gave her a warning look.

Once the ship dipped into subspace,
Roz applied the same technique of analysis to the matrix model of the ship. The
moment she held the entire problem in her mind at once expressed as a
probability tree, she told Echo, “It makes so much more sense like this. I just
wish I could show it to you.”

Echo pounced. One hand feathered
the back of Roz’s neck as the other slipped over the base of her spine.
“Concentrate and open.”

Roz held her mental image in place
with an iron grip as Echo inserted herself into the planetarium of her mind.

Roz held her breath.

The sensation was rather like
putting two hands in the same glove—intense pressure and awkwardness but no
pain. Control had to be negotiated. She could feel the Magi’s excitement about
the solution, which fed Roz’s own. The feedback built to a fevered pitched.
When Echo tried to turn the matrix for a better view, they both fell over,
panting.

Roz couldn’t form sentences.

“It will become easier over time,”
Echo whispered, stroking her hair. “You’ll stretch, and we’ll learn to
communicate better.”

The next day, Echo could tell from
Roz’s eyes that she was holding the entire equation again. They joined with a
suddenness that made Roz gasp. Her vision flashed white. Concentrating, she
kept her balance for several minutes until the rotating point of view inside
her made her dizzy. She had to grip the sofa to avoid falling off.

Echo dictated several observations
in their audio log files. One theory about the data clusters led to Roz
simplifying her internal model, making the problem easier to hold.

“We uplift one another,” Echo said.
The two remained entwined, neither with much energy to spare.

Roz couldn’t walk for several
minutes afterward, and one eye had trouble focusing. “Give me another few days
before you try that again.” She was so drained by the experience that she slept
twelve hours.

This sharing technique several
times a week led to a flood of ideas for both of them. Their research made
great bounds in proving the correctness of the new cells but revealed many
potential problems lurking in the complex implementation. Roz would have to
review every piece of hardware in the ship based on this new data.
Three
steps forward. Two steps back.

After the first few joins, Roz
began to look forward to sharing. Soon, she gave Echo glimpses of other aspects
of her life: the physical rush of seeing Max, the multi-layered emotions
surrounding Alyssa, and the friendship with Ivy. One mental flash was worth ten
thousand words. Echo warned, “Don’t spend time alone with Max. I worry about
your chastity.”

“Everyone else on our ship has been
doing it. Why not me?” Roz asked. She wasn’t planning to have sex but thought
the restriction hypocritical. “The act might finally push Max into committing.
He shares so little with me.”

“Chastity before marriage is practice
against temptation. It builds the muscles needed for fidelity after marriage.
Without the Collective, you won’t psi-bond. Every day will be a new choice to
remain with your partners.”

Roz wanted to give Echo something
to remember her by because the two were only able to spend time together when
the ship was in subspace. When Echo wasn’t with Max, she retreated to her
medical stasis unit.

As her final gift of the session,
Roz replayed highlights from the shopping on Flowers because Echo had not been
out of her room for over a century. The memory of a breeze on her face elicited
tears of gratitude from the Magi.

Afterward, Roz couldn’t help but
wonder,
Why is it she never shares her memories with me? Then again, Max is
a sphinx, too. Are they using me for the ship? Is she planning to dump me as
soon as it’s delivered and working? Is that why she doesn’t want me to commit
to Max, because this is a sham?

****

Three months after the departure from Phoenix, inbound to
Butterfly station, Roz complained from the pilot’s chair, “I’m tired of bad
news.”

“I thought Max’s PTSD treatments
with Echo were going well,” Ivy said, fiddling with cargo manifests.

“Yeah.” Echo would walk through
intense memories in detail and attempt to deescalate the triggers. “He just has
so many incidents from the Gigaparsec War, and I keep adding to them.”

“Like almost getting shot?”

“The other day, I ran into him at
the pond during his exercise hour.”

“In that skimpy bikini?” Ivy
guessed.

“Shut up. That isn’t what got his
heart racing. I dipped under the surface, and he freaked. He dove in with a
weapon to save me.”

“He’s seen friends dragged
underwater and eaten by Phibs,” Ivy explained.

“How would I know? Max doesn’t talk
to me about it.”

Ivy asked, “So what has you down?”

“We can’t treat him for the damage
caused to his hands by the sonic gloves, at least not on the ship. He took an
antidote before a Phib gas attack, and the counter-agent bonded to his nerves,
blocking out most medicines that would help him now.”

“Maybe you could try some alternate
treatments,” Ivy said. “He tends to drop things when he’s in a reinforced pain
cycle. A neck and shoulder massage could help him relax and ease his symptoms.
It’s also great foreplay.”

“I’d ask you to show me, but the
crew is already talking about how much time you and I spend together.”
Remembering how nice the foot massage had been, Roz reconsidered. “You know
what, screw the crew. I need to help my future husband.”

“That’s the spirit. I’ll show you
the basics, and then you can practice on me.” Ivy stood behind the pilot’s
couch and began stroking Roz’s neck.

“Everything okay with Reuben?” Roz
asked. The question caused Ivy to pinch too hard.

“Eh. We’ve cooled things a little
until we offload the newbies. We don’t want anymore rumors starting. I’ve been
staying in your room while you’re in with Echo.”

“Sorry.”

“Reuben’s been making commitment
noises.”

“That’s wonderful!” Roz said, a
tiny bit jealous. Max hadn’t used the L word yet.

“No. I’m assigned to be his
bodyguard, nothing more. My regional superior reamed me out for crossing the
line.”

“You’ve been in contact? Great.
How’s the professor’s trial going?”

Ivy worked shoulder muscles. “I
don’t want you to tense up again.”

“I promise I won’t. I’ve been
practicing not overreacting.”

Growling, Ivy replied, “The trial
ended in record time. One of Aviar’s messengers got nabbed, one with real
terrorist ties. I’ve read the guy’s dossier, and he’s pretty hardcore. The
government already shipped them both out toward the supergiant.”

“At least we got the cell buddy we
wanted to cover the professor. I’m sure Aviar will use his connections to slow
the transport until we rescue both Bats. This just gives him more incentive.”

Ivy turned her commentary to the
art of massage until she finished.

After checking the ship’s status,
Roz placed herself behind the communications chair. “Your turn.” Once Roz had
the basic motions down, she asked, “What killer product is Kesh buying from the
low-tech world?”

“A delicacy that the Bats at the
research station in the next system should pay a premium for—grubs.”

“Ick.”

“Hey, I talked him out of ivory.
Don’t worry. Reuben says he’s tried these bugs, and they’re tastier than lemon
pudding.”

An intense pressure in her ears
made Roz stop the massage for a moment.

“Are you okay?” asked Ivy. “Have
you been overdoing the PM practice?”

“No. Mostly, I’ve been learning the
interconnected patterns and intentionally
not
affecting the outcome.
When I do, Max gets a little luckier, or the last person to make fun of my
cooking misses a straight by one card.”

“Oh, hi, Echo,” Ivy said to an
empty space across the room.

Could the out-of-body astrogator be
the cause of her discomfort? When Ivy said good-bye, Roz’s hearing cleared like
she had shaken water out of her ears.
My connection to the Collective
Unconscious is healing, or I’m bonding to Echo.
She decided not to tell
anyone else until she could confirm the symptoms were related.

****

Three of the Bat specialists, including the ceramics and
plasma experts, didn’t get hired on Butterfly. The planet didn’t have enough
infrastructure to capitalize on them yet. Kesh assured the partners that the
research facility would purchase everything the ship still had aboard,
including the engineers. He kept two Bats in cargo stasis and didn’t ask their opinions
on the matter. Yenang wanted to remain awake to work with Roz and Ivy on the
photovore prototypes. He was fascinated by the glass alloy radiator fins and
the gravitic stabilizers. “You’re adding a feedback system to make the ship
self-adjusting. Your design is almost like a living cell.”

While they debated in broken Banker
and AI Bat over the proper alignment of the abstract sculpture, Roz heard a
garbled voice say, “Use the two existing holes in the deck to mount it.”

Roz replied, “Promised one, your
interface is breaking up a little this close to the transducer coupling. What
was that?”

“There is no interface,” Ivy
whispered. “She’s out-ay of-ay ody-bay.” Bats couldn’t follow the Pig Latin.

Roz whirled. She couldn’t see her
betrothed, but Echo clearly said, “We uplift one another, beloved.”

“I’ll be right back,” Roz said,
handing Yenang her wrench.

She ran to the lift and rode it to
Max’s room. Giddy, Roz tapped on his door.

He opened it with Jeeves riding him
like a backpack. “Hey, gorgeous.”

Beaming, Roz said, “I can hear Echo
in my mind. I don’t sense anyone else, but this means I could be normal some
day.” She was holding in the tears of joy, waiting for him to pick her up and
hug her in congratulations.

Instead, he closed the door in her
face.

She gave him a moment. Obviously,
he was upset that she achieved the link first because he had been with Echo
longer. She tapped again. When he didn’t open, she grew angry. “Maxwell, you’re
being a jealous butthead. Come out here and talk about this. Just because I’m
no longer a poor little null girl doesn’t mean I can’t be part of this triad.”

He opened the door for her to come
in. After she sat on the bed next to Jeeves, he closed them in for privacy.
“I’m not envious. I’m just worried for you.”

She crossed her arms, determined
not to hear his lame excuse. “How so?”

“At university, I took an elective
in English Literature.”

“Show off.”

Max rubbed a spot on his neck. “One
short story affected me more than the others. In fact, I was just rereading it.
A scientist falls in love with a beautiful woman with one flaw—a birthmark that
covers most of her face. Otherwise, she’s the most perfect person he’s ever
seen. Still, he becomes obsessed with a formula that will remove the one
remaining imperfection.”

“Doesn’t sound so bad.”

“It was the only thing holding her
in this flawed world. Without it, she didn’t belong and the angels took her.
The scientist lost her forever.”

“Ah.” Roz froze, reminded of the
reading-comprehension tests on the scholarship test.

“You’re the woman,
querida
.”
Indirectly, he had just called her beautiful and perfect. For Max, this was a
Shakespearean soliloquy.

“You won’t lose me.” As proof, she
pinned him to the bed with kisses.

Jeeves left through the doggie
door, not wanting to be crushed by the rolling around.

Several minutes later, several
people pounded on the door. Before they could acknowledge the interruption, Ivy
pushed inside and tossed a bucket of cold water on the couple. “I knew it! Get
off of him, or you’ll kill us all.”

Remarkably unruffled, Max took a
towel off the bedpost to give to Roz. He grabbed a second from the closet for
himself. “You could’ve used your words.”

Beside Ivy, Reuben ogled Roz’s wet
shirt for a moment before explaining, “Kesh stashed some of the grubs in the defective
stasis unit, and they went through metamorphosis on the trip.”

“So?” Roz adjusted her shirt.
Somehow her bra strap had become uncoupled.

“Locusts have flooded the cargo
level,” Ivy said. “If we don’t stop them, they could eat our primary life-support
system, the trees.”

Roz was reluctant to leave Max. “So
wake the other engineers and let them help. Give everybody nets.”

Ivy shook her head. “The black
locusts are notoriously hard to catch, and they bite.”

Max cleared his throat. “It does
seem like too much of a coincidence that the moment you … express interest in
me, a system you just repaired crashes. Maybe your mother was right.”

“Don’t take her side!” Roz shouted.
The light overhead started to flicker.

Ivy whispered, “You may need your
tranq pistol if she doesn’t calm down.”

Roz closed her eyes. “Minder, seal
off all subsections of the cargo floor, including ladders and air ducts.”

The air system whooshed and fell
silent.

Roz asked Max, “If these locusts
were enemy soldiers, how would you attack them?”

Max paused for a moment. “Wait
until evening, after things cool and darkness falls. They’ll go dormant.”

Nodding, Roz said, “Minder, lower
the temperature in the biozones to eight degrees as soon as possible. That
shouldn’t kill off too much vegetation. Kesh, man the bridge and stay alert.
Everyone else, grab the flashlights from the emergency kits in each subsection.
Once everyone reports ready, we’ll turn out the lights.”