Supergiant (Gigaparsec Book 2) (25 page)

Roz prayed and flipped the
initiator switch. Before the bubble could burst, she ripped a hole in the sky.

Ivy’s wailing at the high-g
acceleration was the worst. Roz couldn’t slow down because an air leak caused
by the explosions screamed like a teakettle. Even so, the reactor shut down
again before she reached
Sphere’s
projected location. Fortunately Deke
steered the ship to meet her.

Roz had to coast for a short time.
“We’ll have you to your family in no time. Hang on, girl.”

With only battery power, Roz
managed the landing in the cargo bay with finesse because she had done this
hundreds of times. However, she was so nervous about Ivy’s erratic breathing
that she scratched the nose of the blade while lining up the docking tunnel.

As the nuns and Reuben raced Ivy to
stasis, Grady was on hand in his vacuum suit to patch the thermal-regulator
panel with one immune to the Bat shutdown signal. “Thunderation, is that
bailing wire and a wristwatch strapped to this reactor?”

Deke was less amused. “You did
bring my blade back, but you’re never flying it again as long as I’m
breathing.”

“Fine,” Roz sniffed. “Could you
find someone to carry me to Max’s office before you yell at me more?”

Herb said, “It’s okay,
querida
.
Echo sent us. She wants you to use her medical bay until Max returns. We know
you did everything you could. Now your family will take care of you.”

The shuttle repairs took longer than anticipated due to the
pressure leaks. Meanwhile in her quarters, Echo sprayed Roz’s calves with foam
to kill any infection. Roz bit back curses at the sting. Echo said, “You don’t
have to be brave here, beloved. I’m so proud of you! You’ve broken the Enigma.
Everyone will know your name.”

“I lost the professor,” Roz
lamented.

“You saved Max and Ivy. I’ll start
wading through the stack of notes you brought as soon as they finish
decontamination.” Then the Magi placed Roz in her medical pod that resembled a
magician’s prop. At a thirty-degree incline, the transparent tube could be
closed in four separate segments. The gel padding inside cradled Roz like the
high-g pilot’s couch. Closing the bottom quarter, Echo programmed the device to
apply artificial skin. “The synthetic skin mesh will contain seeds of your own
cells. The pod will keep you hydrated and stimulate cellular division. Once the
new growth is established, you can walk around this sterile area freely.”

“How long will that take?” Roz
asked as the lower third of the pod closed on her legs.

“Up to five days.”

“Imprisoned in this tube? I’ll go
stir-crazy!”

Echo smiled. “Try over a century.
This will be extremely uncomfortable. I urge you to take the drugs and sleep as
much as possible.”

“No. I need to listen to the radio
and make sure everything goes well. They may need my technical advice. Max may
need me. You might require a pilot.”

Echo lowered her head. “I suggest a
compromise. You may listen to Deke’s first voyage, and then we will suspend
operations to allow both of us to sleep.”

“Okay.” Roz winced as the automated
pod began removing the damaged skin from the burned areas. The sensation
conjured images of spiders crawling over her flesh, eating selectively. “Oh.
Ivy is burned. Can we treat her this way, too?”

“No.”

Roz gritted her teeth, wishing she
could stomp her foot, but both were firmly encased. “Why not? Because the hand
of the uplifter must not be seen?”

“Several good reasons. First, no
one is available to donate blood for her. She has a rare type. Your mother gave
enough for you when she heard about your injury. Ivy has no one this side of
Laurelin. Second, her personnel file forbids analysis on her genomes to
replicate plasma. I’m sure the Llewellyns don’t want anyone discovering they
stole from
our
DNA. Third, she’s not a Magi. The ship had to be
reprogrammed to accept you as a member of our species, which only worked
because we’re married.”

“Couldn’t you lie to the ship?”

“No, dearest. By their nature, our
medical pods can only ever accept patterns from three individuals. This one has
treated my deceased wife, me, and now you. Even if Max became injured on the
surface, I couldn’t heal him.”

Roz had a moment of anguish for her
husband’s safety. “You shouldn’t have wasted it on me.”

“Max insisted. He’s the one who
told me what protocols to use.” Echo read over the extended treatment plan on
the screen. “Next, you will be encouraged to exercise your calves to regain
elasticity. Your yoga should help with that.”

“Forget that. I want to know what’s
going on right now in the shuttle bay.”

Echo suppressed a smile. “Yes,
Generala
.”
She rigged a communications console beside the pod.

As an experienced pilot, Deke had
already snapped the large cargo pod onto his blade. The crew loaded him up with
donated medical supplies, blankets, food, and the spare nanofabricator. Due to
the crisis, Roz sent the medical professionals in the first wave, plus Grady to
distribute the supplies and to handle any shuttle repairs.

Deke touched down at the main
prison intake facility to avoid an armed response. A few minutes later, Grady
radioed back, “We’re being mobbed.”

“People who want to escape?” asked
Roz, already planning contingencies.

“No. They’re welcoming our Bats as
heroes. They lifted Deke up on their shoulders. No one has ever come here
voluntarily before, let alone with gifts.” When the noise of the crowd died
down, the old navy repairman said, “The folks have formed a bucket brigade now,
and they’re unloading everything themselves, peaceful-like. I don’t have to
lift a finger.”

Reuben had already posted a
proposed flight schedule for the remaining supplies. Roz scanned over the list
to take her mind off how much her legs
hurt
. “Since you have nothing
better to do, ask the prince if you can jumpstart a few of their dead reactors.
Tell him it will take us five days until we can start with the big stuff, the
living modules and whatnot.” She paused. “If I send down the steel spinner,
maybe I can tie them together into a hospital complex or something.”

Echo objected, “You can’t be
risking yourself again so soon.”

“You told me I’d need to exercise.
Construction is exercise.”

“I meant in a sterile environment.”

“I’ll mostly be supervising. I’ll
wear my high boots.”

Grady shook his head. “Boss, these folks
are living in caves. You want to bring them back into the atomic age
overnight?”

“Tell them the Magi are here. No
fellow sentient is going to suffer while we can do something to stop it.”

“Yes, sir,” Grady replied, signing
off.

Echo wouldn’t meet her eyes. “We’ll
see what Max has to say.”

An hour later, the prince insisted
on talking to Roz over Deke’s comm. The Bats refused to accept the aid as pure
charity. “As a society that wants to be recognized for its independence, we
can’t just take all this without trading something in return.”

“You’d better learn to accept it,”
Roz said. “Using our Niisham children’s charity, you’ll be able to order and
pay for humanitarian supplies over the ansible for the normal Saurian
transports to deliver.”

The prince stammered, “An-anything?
Mrs. Ellison, you’ve just changed our world.”

The two haggled for a bit, and Roz
pulled Kesh in on the call. In fact, Kesh was still negotiating when Deke
returned with a sample load of artwork, copper, and rare isotopes.

Per kilogram, the most valuable
commodity on the ship turned out to be garden soil with earthworms. On the
planet, every cubic meter of dirt had to be manufactured by hand. In exchange,
the inmates offered a moderate amount of fuel, everything they had managed to produce
since the annual Saurian ship had departed.

“Real dirt,” muttered the prince.
“Is there any part of our lives your aren’t planning to improve?”

Echo replied, “Your ecosystem is
broken beyond our expertise. We can, however, ship biosamples and survey maps
to Anodyne on your behalf so skilled terraformers can analyze them.”

“The Llewellyns would do this for
us?” the prince asked.

Roz cleared her throat. “I can’t
promise anything, but our company enjoys a good relationship with the founding
family.”

Echo reached for the off switch.
“If you will excuse us, my mate needs to recover from her injuries.”

After the screen went dark, Roz
said, “We made a difference.”

“Yes, beloved, but the mountain
will still be there tomorrow.” Echo tapped the medical pad to release the
painkillers into Roz’s system. She fell asleep soon after Echo covered her with
a blanket.

****

Over the next several days, Kesh handled the cargo runs. As
their ship slowly emptied of supplies and personnel, Roz bent herself to the
task of deciphering the professor’s notes. Echo watched his drift-adaptation
presentation several times. “I have enough information to plot the special-case
jump through the subbasement to a particular star—Salizar B. I think I can make
the adjustments with brute-force computation.” That was an understatement. The
complex transformations were virtually one-way, the sort governments used to
encrypt messages because they were almost impossible to reverse.

“That could take years,” said Roz.

“We have resources enough for two
years.” Magi took the long view. “You work on a more elegant, general-case
solution. If our answers are close enough, we can present the options to the
other partners for a vote.”

“Sure, but why the change in
destination?”

“It’s the closest star to the Magi
frontier we can reach with the available fuel. Magi can be the first responders
if we … activate our distress beacon. Even if we all die, the academy might
learn from our remains.”

“That gives me confidence,” Roz
said sarcastically.

“I was certain our first test of
the drive would be successful. I don’t want the secret of the Enigma to perish
with us.” She sighed. “Plus, this jump will take us as far as possible toward
Laurelin, the only place where your friend can receive the treatment she
needs.”

Roz wrapped her in a hug. “Thank
you. The Llewellyns could also continue Herb’s life-extension treatments, and
Max might consent to the treatments he is eligible for.”

“One goal at a time, beloved.”

“I do have one worry. That’s only a
jump away from Babel.”

“So?” Echo didn’t see the
connection.

“If anyone from Babel gets wind of
our arrival there, they’ll think we conned all the charity donors out of their
money and never went to Niisham. The authorities will arrest us.”

Echo frowned. “Your Goat can invent
a convincing story for us. I’m more worried someone will deduce the truth. To
make sure no one suspects, our destination will be the normal nexus point. We
need to look like a normal starship arriving.”

Not only did they need to fly
through the equivalent of a hurricane to reach their destination, but they had
to land on the head of a moving pin at a precise microsecond.

While Roz spent every waking moment
trying to mathematically formalize the professor’s suggestions, the ship’s Bats
fell in love with the colony. Each day, more glowing reports about the relief
effort and the charming natives came in, and the cloud of formulas in virtual
space grew thicker. Half came from Echo’s amulet and known astronomical
libraries, while the others came from the professor’s papers. The two
hemispheres were supposed to be saying the same thing but couldn’t agree on the
language.

Checking a guess could take ten
hours of computer time away from Echo, but the slightest error would land her
in the vast tranquil areas of space between stars. Too bad nobody wanted to go
there. That would be easy.

Her first step was to translate the
Enigma cubes into Crakik’s language. She had to broaden the alphabet to account
for probability and quantum patterns she had observed in her own attempts to
restate and simplify the ship’s design. She also had to simplify the question
to its core.
Pretend the ship is a cannon ball. How do we hit our target
when all we can control is the firing angle and the amount of gun powder?

On the fourth morning, Deke contacted
Roz over the shuttle link, visuals included. “Sir, I would like your permission
to remain on this planet when
Sphere
leaves.”

Roz smiled. “Anything to do with
the fact that they have civil wedding ceremonies here with no need for spousal
dispensations?”

“More than that. The atmosphere of
freedom, encouragement, and innovation inspires us all.”

“Of course. We were hoping you
might find a new home here. Why would you need my permission?”

Deke paused and then rattled off
his next request. “The stateroom I slept in was a modular unit that can be
flown to the surface the same as any other cargo pod. It would save us from
building a home and provide templates for others here. Your mother has agreed
to purchase my shares in the company. I can pay for the stateroom out of the
profits.”

“Fine. That’s less we’ll need to
haul. What’s going on here? Why are you so nervous?”

Deke couldn’t meet her gaze through
the communications device. “I want to keep my blade. I inherited it, and the
people here need it so much.”

Roz nodded. “Again, that’s less for
us to carry. Kesh will determine a fair price for what we’ve invested in it.
I’ll make certain he itemizes and doesn’t pick a value suspiciously close to
what you’ve got left in your account.”

“Your kindness is the stuff of
legends, Mrs. Ellison.”

“Aren’t you forgetting something
important?” Roz asked. “When we’re gone, who will place the ansible orders for
the charity? It can’t be any of the residents because they’re criminals. Mother
planned all along to make you the official administrator.”

“Me?”

“You’re a knight, a war hero, and
recognized by the church for your piety,” Roz said. “Your close relationship to
the doctors makes your uniquely qualified for this job. We’ll sign documents
tomorrow to make your post official. The salary will need to be negotiated.”

Deke was flabbergasted. “Salary?”

“This is a serious charity. We can
only afford one person right now, but we want it to be a permanent position.
When it’s time for you to retire, you’ll need to pick a successor. If that’s
all, I have a math problem to return to that’s kicking my butt.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. I’m sure
once the problem gets to know you, it’ll see reason and surrender. Speaking of
successors … Since Max vetoed your return to the planet during your
convalescence, we appointed Grady as the foreman for the hospital project.”

“That’s fine. I would have
delegated him to the task sooner, but he’ll need an intermediary. I speak
fluent Banker, and the translators can go back and forth from that to Bat with
ease. Grady prefers English. Without a common language, letting him direct
could be disastrous.”

Deke laughed. “Always so concerned
with control. Sometimes you have to relax and allow the universe to take you
where it wants you to go. With dozens of builders heading toward the same goal,
we’ll converge on the right solution.”