Upon a Sea of Stars (24 page)
Read Upon a Sea of Stars Online
Authors: A. Bertram Chandler
Chapter 20
IT IS SAID
that a drowning man relives his life in the seconds before final dissolution.
So it was with Grimes—but he relived his life in reverse, experienced backwards the long history of triumphs and disasters, of true and false loves, of deprivations and shabby compromises, of things and people that it was good to remember, of things and people that it had been better to forget. It was the very unreality of the experience, vivid though it was, that enabled him to shrug it off, that left him, although badly shaken, in full command of his faculties when the throbbing whine of the ever-precessing gyroscopes ceased at last.
The ship had arrived.
But where?
When?
Ahead in Space and Astern in Time—that was the principle of the Mannschenn Drive. But never Full Astern—or, never
intentionally
Full Astern. Not until now. And what of the governors that had been fitted to the machine, the flesh-and-blood governors—the human telepath and the saurian philosopher, with his intuitive grasp of complexities that had baffled the finest mathematical brains of mankind?
What of the governors? Had they broken under the strain?
And what of himself, Grimes? (And what of Sonya?)
He was still Grimes, still the Commodore, with all his memories (so far as he knew) intact. He was not a beardless youth (his probing hand verified this). He was not an infant. He was not a tiny blob of protoplasm on the alleyway deck.
He opened the door.
Serressor was still there, still entangled in the shining filaments. But his scales gleamed with the luster of youth, his bright eyes were unfilmed. His voice, as he said, “Man Grimes, we were successful!” was still a croak, but no longer a senile croak. “We did it!” confirmed Mayhew, in an oddly high voice.
The telepath was oddly shrunken. The rags that had been his loin clout were in an untidy bundle about his bare feet. No, shrunken was not the word. He was smaller, younger. Much younger.
“That was the hardest part,” he said. “That was the hardest part—to stop the reversal of biological time. Serressor and I were right in the field, so we were affected. But the rest of you shouldn’t be changed. You still have your long, gray beard, Commodore.”
But my beard wasn’t gray,
thought Grimes, with the beginning of panic.
Neither was it long.
He pulled a hair from it, wincing at the sudden pain, examined the evidence, (still dark brown) while Serressor cackled and Mayhew giggled.
“All right,” he growled. “You’ve had your joke. What now?”
“We wait,” Mayhew told him. “We wait, here and now, until
Sundowner
shows up. Then it’s up to you, sir.”
Sundowner
, thought Grimes.
Jolly Swagman
. . .
Waltzing Matilda
. Names that belonged to the early history of the Rim Worlds. The battered star tramps of the Sundowner Line that had served the border planets in the days of their early colonization, long before secession from the Federation had been even dreamed of, long before the Rim Worlds government had, itself, become a shipowner with the Rim Runners fleet.
Sundowner
. . . She had been (Grimes remembered his history) the first ship to bring a cargo of seed grain to Lorn. And that was when this alternative universe, this continuum in which Grimes and his people were invaders, had run off the historical rails.
Sundowner
. . . Serressor knew his history too. The Wise One had planned this rendezvous in Space and Time, so that Grimes could do what, in his universe, had been accomplished by plague or traps, or, even, cats or terrier dogs.
“I can hear her. . . .” murmured Mayhew distantly. “She is on time. Her people are worried. They want to get to port before their ship is taken over by the mutants.”
“In this here-and-now,” said Serressor, “she crashed—will crash?—in the mountains. Most of the mutants survived. But go to your control room, man Grimes. And then you will do what you have to do.”
They were all very quiet in the control room, all shaken by the period of temporal disorientation through which they had passed. Grimes went first to Williams, hunched in his co-pilot’s chair. He said softly, “You are ready, Commander?”
“Ready,” answered the Executive Officer tonelessly.
Then the Commodore went to sit beside his wife. She was pale, subdued. She looked at him carefully, and a faint smile curved her lips. She murmured, “You aren’t changed, John. I’m pleased about that. I’ve remembered too much, things that I thought I’d forgotten, and even though it was all backwards it was . . . shattering. I’m pleased to have you to hold on to, and I’m pleased that it
is
you, and not some puppy. . . .”
“I shouldn’t have minded losing a few years in the wash,” grunted Grimes.
He looked at the officers at their stations—radar, gunnery, electronic radio. He stared out of the ports at the Lorn sun, its brightness dimmed by polarization, at the great, dim-glowing Galactic lens. Here, at the very edge of the Universe, the passage of years, of centuries was not obvious to a casual glance. There were no constellations in the Rim sky that, by their slow distortions, could play the part of clocks.
“Contact,” announced the radar officer softly.
The Commodore looked into his own repeater screen, saw the tiny spark that had appeared in the blackness of the tank.
The radio officer was speaking into his microphone. “
Corsair
to
Sundowner
.
Corsair
to
Sundowner
. Do you read me? Over.”
The voice that answered was that of a tired man, a man who had been subjected to considerable strain. It was unsteady, seemed on the edge of hysteria. “I hear you, whoever you are. What the hell did you say your name was?”
“
Corsair
. This is
Corsair
, calling
Sundowner
. Over.”
“Never heard of you. What sort of name is that, anyhow?” And there was another, fainter voice, saying, “
Corsair?
Don’t like the sound of it, Captain. Could be a pirate.”
“A pirate? Out here, on the Rim? Don’t be so bloody silly. There just aren’t the pickings to make it worth while.” A pause. “If she
is
a pirate, she’s welcome to
our
bloody cargo.”
“
Corsair
to
Sundowner
.
Corsair
to
Sundowner
. Come in, please. Over.”
“Yes,
Corsair
. I hear you. What the hell do you want?”
“Permission to board.”
“Permission to board? Who the bloody hell do you think you are?”
“R.W.C.S.
Corsair
. . .”
“R.W.C.S.?” It was obvious that
Sundowner’s
Captain was addressing his Mate without bothering either to switch off or to cover his microphone. “What the hell is
that
, Joe?” “Haven’t got a clue,” came the reply.
Grimes switched in his own microphone. He did not want to alarm
Sundowner
, did not want to send her scurrying back into the twisted continuum generated by her Mannschenn Drive. He knew that he could blow the unarmed merchantman to a puff of incandescent vapor, and that such an action would have the desired result. But he did not want to play it that way. He was acutely conscious that he was about to commit the crime of genocide—and who could say that the mutated rats were less deserving of life than the humans whom, but for Grimes’ intervention, they would replace?—and did not wish, also, to have the murder of his own kind on his conscience.
“Captain,” he said urgently, “this is Commodore Grimes speaking, of the naval forces of the Rim Worlds Confederacy. It is vitally important mat you allow us to board your ship. We know about the trouble you are having. We wish to help you.”
“You wish to help us?”
“If we wished you ill,” said Grimes patiently, “we could have opened fire on you as soon as you broke through into normal Space-Time.” He paused. “You have a cargo of seed grain. There were rats in the grain. And these rats have been multiplying. Am I correct?”
“You are. But how do you know?”
“Never mind that. And these rats—there are mutants among them, aren’t there? You’ve been coming a long time from Elsinore, haven’t you? Mannschenn Drive breakdowns . . . and fluctuations in the temporal precession fields to speed up the rate of mutation.”
“But, sir, how do you
know?
We have sent no messages. Our psionic radio officer was killed by the . . . the mutants.”
“We know, Captain. And now—may we board?”
From the speaker came the faint voice of
Sundowner’s
Mate. “Rim Ghosts are bad enough—but when they take over Quarantine it’s a bit rough.”
“Yes,” said Grimes. “You may regard us as Rim Ghosts. But we’re solid ones.”
Chapter 21
HIS BIG HANDS
playing over his console like those of a master pianist, Williams, with short, carefully timed bursts from the auxiliary jets, jockeyed
Corsair
into a position only yards from
Sundowner
, used his braking rockets to match velocities. Grimes and his people stared out through the ports at the star tramp. She was old, old. Even now, at a time that was centuries in the past of
Corsair’s
people, she was obsolete. Her hull plating was dull, pitted by years of exposure to micrometeorites. Two of the embossed letters of her name had been broken off and never replaced, although somebody had replaced the missing U and W with crudely painted characters. Grimes could guess what conditions must be like on board. She would be one of those ships in which, to give greater lift for cargo, the pile shielding had been cut to a minimum, the contents of her holds affording, in theory, protection from radiation. And her holds were full of grain, and this grain supported pests that, through rapid breeding and mutation, had become a menace rather than a mere nuisance.
“Boarders away, sir?” asked the Marine officer.
“Yes, Major. Yourself and six men should do. I and Mrs. Grimes will be coming with you.”
“Side arms, sir?”
“No. That crate’ll have paper-thin bulkheads and shell plating, and we can’t afford any playing around with laser.”
“Then knives and clubs, sir?”
“It might be advisable. Yes.”
Grimes and Sonya left Control for their quarters. There, helping each other, they shrugged into their modified spacesuits. These still had the tail sheaths and helmets designed to accommodate a long-muzzled head. This had its advantages, providing stowage for a full beard. But Grimes wondered what
Sundowner’s
people would think when they saw a parry of seeming aliens jetting from
Cosair
to their airlock. Anyhow, it was their own fault. They should have had their vision transmitter and receiver in order.
The boarding party assembled at the main airlock which, although it was cramped, was big enough to hold all of them. The inner door slowly closed and then, after the pumps had done their work (
Corsair
could not afford to throw away atmosphere) the outer door opened, Grimes could see, then, that an aperture had appeared in the shell plating of the other ship, only twenty feet or so distant. But it was small. It must be only an auxiliary airlock. The Captain of
Sundowner
, thought Grimes, must be a cautious man: must have determined to let the boarding party into his ship one by one instead of in a body.
And he’ll be more cautious still,
thought Grimes,
when he sees these spacesuits.
He shuffled to the door sill. He said into his helmet microphone, “There’s room for only one at a time in that airlock of theirs. I’ll go first.”
He heard the Major acknowledge, and then he jumped, giving himself the slightest possible push-off from his own ship. He had judged well and did not have to use his suit reaction unit. Slowly, but not too slowly, he drifted across the chasm between the two vessels, extended his arms to break his fall and, with one hand, caught hold of the projecting rung above
Sundowner’s
airlock door.
As he had assumed, the compartment was large enough to hold only one person—and he had to act quickly to pull his dummy tail out of the way of the closing outer valve. There were no lights in the airlock—or, if there were lights, they weren’t working—but after a while he heard the hissing that told him that pressure was being built up.
Suddenly the inner door opened and glaring light blinded the Commodore. He could just see two dark figures standing there, with what looked like pistols in their hands. Through his helmet diaphragm he heard somebody say, “What did I tell you, Captain? A bleeding kangaroo in full armor, no less. Shall I shoot the bastard?”
“Wait!” snapped Grimes. He hoped that the note of authority would not be muffled from his voice. “Wait! I’m as human as you.”
“Then prove it, mister!”
Slowly the Commodore raised his gloved hands, turning them to show that they were empty. He said, “I am going to remove my helmet—unless one of you gentlemen would care to do it for me.”
“Not bloody likely. Keep your distance.”
“As you please.” Grimes manipulated fastenings, gave the regulation half turn and lifted. At once he noticed the smell—it was like the stink that had hung around his own wardroom for days after the attempted interrogation of the prisoner.
“All right,” said one of the men. “You can come in.”
Grimes shuffled into the ship. The light was out of his eyes now and he could see the two men. He did not have to ask who or what they were. Uniform regulations change far more slowly than do civilian appearance. He addressed the grizzled, unshaven man with the four tarnished gold bars on his shoulder boards, “We have already spoken with each other by radio, Captain. I am Commodore Grimes. . . .”
“Of the Rim Worlds Confederacy’s Navy. But what’s the idea of the fancy dress,
Commodore?
”
“The fancy dress?” Then Grimes realized that the man was referring to his spacesuit, so obviously designed for a nonhuman. What would be his reaction to what Grimes was wearing underneath it—the scanty rags and the rank marks painted on to his skin? But it was of no importance. He said, “It’s a long story, Captain, and I haven’t time to tell it now. What I am telling you is that you must not, repeat not, attempt a landing on Lorn until I have given you clearance.”
“And who the hell do you think you are, Mister so-called Commodore? We’ve had troubles enough this trip. What is your authority?”
“My authority?” Grimes grinned. “In my own space and time, the commission I hold, signed by the President of the Confederacy . . .”
“What did I say?” demanded the Mate. “And I’ll say it again. He’s some sort of bloody pirate.”
“And, in the here-and-now,” continued Grimes, “my missile batteries and my laser projectors.”
“If you attempt to hinder me from proceeding on my lawful occasions,” said the tramp Master stubbornly, “that will be piracy.”
Grimes looked at him, not without sympathy. It was obvious that this man had been pushed to the very limits of human endurance—the lined face and the red-rimmed eyes told of many, too many, hours without sleep. And he had seen at least one of his officers killed. By this time he would be regarding the enemies infesting his ship as mutineers rather than mutants, and, no longer quite rational, would be determined to bring his cargo to port come Hell or high water.
And that he must not do.
Grimes lifted his helmet to put it back on. In spite of the metal with which he was surrounded he might be able to get through to Williams in
Corsair’s
control room, to Williams and to Carter, to give the order that would call a laser beam to slice off
Sundowner’s
main venturi. But the Mate guessed his intention, swung viciously with his right arm and knocked the helmet out of the Commodore’s hand. He growled to his Captain, “We don’t want the bastard callin’ his little friends do we, sir?”
“It is essential that I keep in communication with my own ship,” said Grimes stiffly.
“So you can do somethin’ with all the fancy ironmongery you were tellin’ us about!” The Mate viciously swatted the helmet which, haying rebounded from a bulkhead, was now drifting through the air.
“Gentlemen,” said Grimes reasonably, looking at the two men and at the weapons they carried, automatic pistols, no more than five millimeter caliber but deadly enough. He might disarm one but the other would fire. “Gentlemen, I have come to help you. . . .”
“More of a hindrance than a bloody help,” snarled the Mate. “We’ve enough on our plates already without having to listen to your fairy stories about some non-existent Confederacy.” He turned to the Master. “What say we start up the reaction drive an’ set course for Lorn? This bloke’s cobbers’ll not open fire so long as he’s aboard.”
“Yes. Do that, Mr. Holt. And then we’ll put this man in irons.”
So this was it, thought Grimes dully. So this was the immutability of the Past, of which he had so often read. This was the inertia of the flow of events. He had come to where and when he could best stick a finger into the pie—but the crust was too tough, too hard. He couldn’t blame the tramp Captain. He, as a good shipmaster, was displaying the utmost loyalty to his charterers. And (Grimes remembered his Rim Worlds history) those consignments of seed grain had been urgently needed on Lorn.
And, more and more, every word was an effort, every action. It was as though he were immersed in some fluid, fathoms deep. He was trying to swim against the Time Stream—and it was too much for him.
Why not just drift? After all, there would be time to do something after the landing at Port Forlorn. Or would there? Hadn’t somebody told him that this ship had crashed in mountainous country?
He was aroused from his despairing lethargy by a sudden clangor of alarm bells, by a frightened, distorted voice that yammered from a bulkhead speaker, “Captain! Where are you, Captain? They’re attacking the control room!”
More as the result of years of training than of conscious thought he snatched his drifting helmet as he followed the Captain and his Mate when they dived into the axial shaft, as they pulled themselves hand over hand along the guidelines to the bows of the ship.