For Love and Glory

XVIII

Jump.

Brilliance.

Slowly, she eased. Nothing had happened. She floated before the weapons console in silence and the ocean of stars. Well, she thought, we knew Orichalc’s fix was rough, and the smallest difference in astronomical distances is big beyond our conceiving.

She gazed about her, searching the strangeness for anything she might identify, as the Susaian had done. Magellanic Clouds, Andromeda galaxy, a few naked-eye sisters—clotted darkness shielded her from the blaze at the heart of her own galaxy and marked it for her—an obvious blue giant, ten or twenty light-years away, might be in some survey catalogue—

“What do you detect?” Valen breathed through the night.

“No radiations such as spacecraft emit,” Dagmar reported. “An anomalous source at 1926 hours planar, sixty-two degrees south. Radio, optical, X-ray; possible neutrino component.”

Excitement pulsed in Valen’s voice: “That’s got to be it. All right, let’s aim the array.”

“Request permission to leave my post,” Lissa said.

“Granted,” Valen answered. “Come join me. We may want to swap ideas off the intercom, not to disturb the scientists.”

You transparent innocent! Lissa thought. We could talk directly, cubicle to cabin.… Well, but if I know Esker, he’s now too engaged in his work to notice.… Never mind him. What better time to be at your side, darling?

She hastened. Glorious though the sight was, he had abandoned it for his quarters. The kiss lasted long. “Hold, hold,” he mumbled when her hands began to move. “We’d better wait a while. The team should have word for us in a few minutes.”

“I know,” she said in his ear. “Make some arrangements for later, though, will you? And not much later, either. Have I told you you’re as good in zero gee as you are under boost?”

He chuckled, low in his throat. “The feeling’s mutual. Uh, the ship—”

“Oh, Dagmar knows too, the way we kept forgetting she existed. And if we cut her off now, we might delay an emergency call. You won’t tell on us, will you, Dagmar dear?”

“I am programmed not to reveal mission-irrelevant matters to others than the captain upon command, and yourself,” replied the sweet tones. “Those will be wiped upon our return, prior to logging the permanent record.”

“Yes, yes. But it’s nice of you to, well, care.” Did the robotic brain? A philosophical question, never really answered. Certainly Dagmar was not, could not be voyeuristic. Still, her consciousness didn’t seem completely impersonal and aloof. And—Lissa felt a blush—that unseen presence did add a little extra spice.

As if any were needed! She nuzzled. “You smell good,” she murmured. “Clean but male. Or should that be male but clean?”

Half an hour passed. They required something to discuss if they were to stay chaste and alert. Valen declined their search as a subject. “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data,” he said. She got the impression he was quoting, perhaps a translation from an ancient writer; like her father, or like Romon Kesperson, or like Torben Hebo, she supposed… How was he doing?… he read widely.

Well, she and Gerward had their future to imagine, and to plan soberly. They were quite aware that much in it would be difficult, especially at first, before he had once more fully proven himself.

The intercom chimed. They accepted. Esker sounded almost friendly, or was that sheer exuberance? Whichever, Lissa was delighted to hear it. “We’ve got our preliminary data, Captain, milady. Something peculiar, for certain. I’d rather keep my ideas in reserve for the moment.”

Valen, too, showed pleasure. “What can you tell, in layman’s language?”

“Well, actually there are two radiation sources. Radial velocities seem to indicate galactic orbits, but highly eccentric. Spectra indicate mostly hydrogen, some helium, traces of metals. In short, interstellar medium, but at sunlike temperatures. Each source appears to be rotating differentially, the inner parts at speeds approaching c, but we aren’t sure of that yet. Nor of much else, aside from— It is extraordinary, Captain.”

“Good work. I hereby become your errand boy. What do you want us to do?”

“Skip around. Get parallaxes so we can determine the location in space, transverse component of velocity, intrinsic brightness. Observing from various distances, over a range of a hundred parsecs or so, we can follow any evolution that’s been taking place. That should let us figure out the nature of the beast.”

Valen frowned. Esker’s reply had been scoffingly obvious. Valen’s brow cleared. Lissa saw he was willing to overlook the matter. As keyed up as he was, Esker doubtless bypassed tact without noticing. “Fine. Give me your plan.”

“I’ll develop it as we go along and collect more information. For the present, hm, I must do some figuring. I’ll get back to you with the coordinates of the next observation point in about an hour.” The physicist cut the connection.

“An hour,” Lissa said. “That’ll serve.”

Valen blinked. “What?”

“An hour of our own. Let’s take advantage. We may not have more for some time to come.”