The Gap into Madness: Chaos and Order (15 page)

“But
that’s not the good news,” Vector put in calmly. “The good news is that this
orbit gives us acceleration. We can slingshot off the far side fast enough for
a gap crossing twice the size of the one we took to get here. If,” he added, “that’s
what Angus has in mind.”

“So it
makes sense.” Davies was taken aback by the sharpness of his desire to trust
Angus. “Coming here makes sense.”

Mikka
didn’t hesitate to contradict him. “Only if you assume it makes sense not to
head in the opposite direction.” Her stance — the way she cocked her hips and
held her arms — was unselfconsciously assertive. “Instead of coming here, we
could have crossed three light-years into human space. Maybe this is safe.
That
would have been safer. Especially if you believe what we’ve heard about
Angus working for the cops. In that case, they probably have an entire fleet waiting
to protect us.”

“Which
means?” Vector asked, not as if he didn’t understand, but rather as if he
wanted everything to be explicit.

“Either
he isn’t working for the cops,” Mikka finished, “or we haven’t even begun to
understand what this is all about.”

Nick
snorted contemptuously, but didn’t speak.

“But
that’s crazy,” Sib protested. “He
must
be working for the cops. How else
did he get his hands on a ship like this? How else did he manage to arrive just
when we needed him?” Forgetting Nick in his anxiety, he turned toward Morn and
Davies. “Why did he rescue you? This is Angus Thermopyle we’re talking about.
Maybe he didn’t commit the crime we framed him for, but he’s a rapist and a
murderer, we all know that. None of it makes sense unless he made a deal so the
cops wouldn’t execute him.”

“Sib,”
Mikka warned, “pay attention.”

With a
gulp of chagrin, Sib swung back to face Nick.

Nick
hadn’t moved.

Morn
studied the display for a moment longer, then looked away. “That doesn’t
matter,” she pronounced finally. “Maybe he made a deal and then decided to
break it. Maybe he and — what was his name, Milos Taverner? — really did steal
the ship and come here on the run.” She glanced at Mikka, at Vector, at Davies.
“Maybe the UMCP is engaged in something corrupt, like taking Intertech’s
mutagen research to keep it secret.” Anger echoed in her voice, but it didn’t
distract her. “None of that matters.

“We’re
here
.
We have to face the situation as it
is
. And if we’re going to do that,
we’d better figure out what we want. We’d better agree on it. There are too
many of us. If we don’t stick together, we’ll all be useless.

“Let’s
talk about
that
. Let Angus take care of himself.”

A
sudden silence took the bridge. For a moment there was nothing to hear except
muffled breathing and the faint electronic hum of
Trumpet’s
equipment.

Davies
understood Morn’s condition clearly: what looked like assurance in her was
really exhaustion and a sense of absolute necessity. Her willingness to take so
much on herself amazed him.

He
yearned to believe that he could do the same.

Then
Nick muttered sardonically, “You think you’re going to be able to make him do
what you want? Good luck.”

At once
Sib spoke as if he’d been stung. “You decide,” he told Morn. “Leave me out of
it. I got what I wanted when we ended up here, instead of dead on
Captain’s
Fancy
, or trapped on Billingate.” Half apologetically, he explained to
Mikka, “I never really belonged with him.” He indicated Nick. “I never liked
what we were doing — even before he started selling people to the Amnion. After
that I guess all I wanted was for somebody to make me brave enough to go
against him. Maybe that’s all I’ve ever wanted.” Addressing Morn again, he
concluded, “As long as he’s not in command, I’ll go along with whatever the
rest of you decide.”

Mikka
snorted in response, but her disdain wasn’t directed at Sib. “You know, it’s
funny,” she mused. “For the longest time it never occurred to me to want
anything except what he wanted. I never questioned what he did — or why he did
it. I even got you into this,” she told Ciro, “because I couldn’t think of an
alternative. I couldn’t imagine there were any alternatives. There are worse
ways to live” — she glared straight at Morn — “than being illegal.

“But
you broke it. Whatever it was I thought I was doing, whatever it was that kept
me in my blind little world and didn’t let me think, you broke it. You were
better-looking than me, more capable, stronger. And you sure as hell must have
fucked better than I did. Once you came aboard, there was no chance Nick was
ever going to take me seriously again. And that broke it. I started thinking
about the consequences — for Ciro, if not for me. I don’t mind playing games
with the cops, but I started thinking about what it means when you play games
with the Amnion. Especially when the stakes are so high.

“I
guess I’m like Sib. All I want is to not be aboard
Captain’s Fancy
— not
take any more orders from Nick. And maybe give Ciro a chance for something
better. I haven’t had time to come up with anything else yet.”

Her
brother shifted his feet self-consciously whenever she referred to him; but
when she was done, he nodded several times, as if he thought she needed his
support. “I want to be an engineer,” he said in a rush so that his
embarrassment wouldn’t stop him. “Vector’s teaching me. Maybe Angus can teach
me.” He faltered for a second, then went on with a kid’s abashed dignity, “Engineers
don’t kill people. They don’t betray their own crew.”

Nick
raised his head, brandished a snarl. “I couldn’t betray you, Pup. You aren’t
real enough. There’s nothing there to betray.”

“I
imagine Vector feels the same way,” Mikka put in to cover Nick’s malice. “So it’s
up to you and Davies.”

“Actually,
no,” Vector remarked promptly. “I don’t feel that way. But I would rather not
talk about it” — he faced Morn steadily with his blue gaze and his calm smile —
“until I hear what you and Davies have to say.”

Mikka
frowned her surprise, but didn’t object.

Davies
studied the damaged patches on the back of Morn’s head while she regarded
Vector. When she spoke, he seemed to know what she was about to say before he
heard it.

“What
about you, Davies? What do you want?”

I want
to be you, he answered silently. I want to be Angus. I want to make something
good out of all this.

But he
didn’t say that aloud.

“I’ll
tell you what I think we should do,” he replied instead.

“I
think we should turn this whole mess over to the UMCP. Mikka’s right — when the
stakes are this high, we have to consider the consequences. The Amnion know an
immunity to mutagens is I possible. Nick made that obvious — you confirmed it.
The UMCP need to know about that. It changes the whole dilemma of dealing with
forbidden space.

“And
they need to know about me. I mean they need to know why the Amnion are after
me. If we — if humankind is in danger | of being infiltrated by Amnion who look
just like us, we’ve got to | warn them. That’s the only defence.” The thought
of being used to help create more effective versions of Marc Vestabule filled
Davies with a nausea which had nothing to do with his stomach.

“That’s
right,” Sib put in, suddenly urgent. “And there’s something else. I just
remembered. Nick said he figured out why the Amnion gave us those gap
components — the ones that nearly killed us. If he’s right, it was an experiment.
They’re testing a way to reach near-C velocities by using a special kind of gap
drive. When Vector saved us, we came out of tach at almost 270,000kps. Nick
thinks that’s exactly what those components are for.”

Nick
nodded to himself. He still lay on the floor; yet he conveyed the impression
that everything on the bridge revolved around him.

“We
know it works,” Sib hurried on. “If they can make it work — if they can do what
we did without slagging their drives — then ships like
Calm Horizons
can
hit human space at
.
9C. Ships with super-light proton cannon.

“There’s
no defence against something like that.”

At once
new apprehensions burned along Davies’ nerves. Sib was right: there was no
defence — A much slower vessel with super-light proton cannon, a lumbering tub
called
Gutbuster
, had killed his — no, Morn’s — mother; had nearly
killed her father’s entire command.

His
nerves cracking with adrenaline, he insisted, “That’s another reason why we
should turn this mess over to the UMCP.

They
need to know.”

Morn,
they
need
to know.

“I know
you think they’re corrupt,” he argued even though she hadn’t contradicted him;
hadn’t said anything at all. The mute steadiness of her gaze made him feel that
he had to justify himself — that if he couldn’t persuade her something precious
would be lost. “Nick’s immunity drug proves it. But keeping our mouths shut isn’t
the answer. We’ve got to tell them what’s going on so they can defend against
it. And we can force them to account for themselves if we make what they’ve
done public.”

He
stopped hard, almost held his breath while he waited for her reaction.

She
didn’t need to think before she answered. Her ordeals had taught her to be
sure. With the strength of hype and caffeine rather than of zone implant
emissions, she said, “I gave them more than confirmation. They took samples of
my blood when I still had the drug in my system. I don’t know if those samples
survived. If they were on the shuttle — if
Soar
or
Calm Horizons
got them — then it’s only a matter of time before they’re taken to a lab where
they can be analysed. Then the Amnion can start redesigning their mutagens.”

Before
Davies could say anything, she went on, “But you mentioned consequences. Have
you thought about what happens to Mikka, or Sib, or Vector?

“You
say you want to ‘turn this whole mess over to the UMCP.’ Suppose Angus lets us
do that. Or suppose we take the ship away from him, so he doesn’t have any say
in the matter. What happens to Mikka and Sib and Vector? They’re
illegals
,
Davies. And they saved our lives. Do you want them arrested? Do you want them
executed? Ciro might get leniency — he’s still young. But Mikka and Sib and
Vector could be executed.

“I told
you we’re cops, but I think you know what I meant. I wasn’t talking about the
kind of cops who suppress antimutagens so that men like Nick can play with
them. I was talking about my mother and father — your grandparents. You
remember them as well as I do. What do you think they would have done?”

Her
grave eyes searched Davies; her question touched him as profoundly as her
refusal to let him lock Nick out of the ship. Shortly after he was born, she’d
said to him,
As far as I’m concerned, you’re the second most important thing
in the galaxy. You’re my
son.
But the
first,
the most important
thing is to not betray my humanity
.

He
recognised her there. As if they’d reached a place where he could be her, where
they were the same, he said quietly, “They would have fought for what they
believe in until it killed them.”

Her
smile was small and fragile, as naked as glass; nevertheless to him it looked
like dawn.

Turning
her station toward Nick, she said, “That leaves you.” Her tone was impersonal,
as if she no longer felt threatened by him — or as if her loathing for him had
become so vast that it could no longer be expressed. “What do you want?”

Ciro
looked at her in surprise. “Morn!” Sib objected immediately; and Mikka growled,
“Morn —” But Vector nodded his approval; his smile conveyed a suggestion of
relief.

Because
he recognised her, Davies didn’t protest.

Morn
didn’t react to Sib or Mikka; Nick ignored them. For a moment he continued to
lie still, as if he hadn’t heard Morn. But then, smoothly, like a hunting cat,
he rose into a sitting position with his legs crossed in front of him and his
back against the bulkhead.

“I want
Sorus.” A mad grin clutched his mouth. He held up one fist with the knuckles
white, as tight as a vice. “I want her heart.”

“Fine.”
A tinge of acid gave Morn’s voice bite. “She’s yours. On the other hand, that
isn’t very useful. You aren’t likely to get a chance at her anytime soon. I can’t
help thinking there must be other things you
want
.” She seemed to stress
the word deliberately. “What were you after before you recognised Captain
Chatelaine? I presume you were going to sell your immunity drug to the Bill so
you could pay for repairs. Isn’t that still what you want?

“You
don’t need repairs anymore, but you could use leverage. Otherwise your future
doesn’t look good. You might not live long enough to have a chance at Sorus
Chatelaine. Aren’t you scheming right now? If you could find the right buyer,
you might be able to hire enough help to take on all the rest of us. Even
Angus.”

Now
Mikka understood what Morn was after. “Sure,” she rasped, “he must be. Whatever
else we do, we’d better tell Angus to keep him away from communications. He can’t
find buyers if he can’t access communications.”