Crashlander

GHOST: SIX

«Sigmund Ausfaller killed three miners without a thought,» I said.

«He was right, though.»

«That weapons shop he built aboard Hobo Kelly: he was in love with it. No sane man toys with such things.»

«Saved your life.»

«He was wearing an asymmetrical beard when I first saw him. He's too short and stocky to pass for a Wunderlander. I've wondered about that for twelve years.»

«None of my business, nor yours,» Ander said. «Maybe someone was supposed to take him for a gullible tourist, or a fool, or a crazy.»

«He's not to be trusted, Ander.»

Ander laughed suddenly. Stared me in the face and laughed harder. «That's it! He needed to look crazy. He needed to look crazy enough to plant a bomb aboard a crashlander's ship!»

All I had for answer was a wordless snarl. Tanj, he could even be right.

Our dinners arrived, and Ander's chuckle died. He stared at what was on my plate. Crew snapper is a sea creature as big as a short man's leg, with rows of fins down each side and a jaw built to crush bones. It took up most of the table. It was hideous.

«Have some,» I said. «It's an order for two.»

We ate in silence for a bit. Ander's eyes kept straying to the crew snapper. He wouldn't touch it. He wouldn't speak of it. Presently he said, «For the record, any further contact with Pierson's puppeteers?»

I said, «Ander, this was an amazing expenditure just so you can hear Beowulf Shaeffer's barroom description of a species that no longer deals with any known world.»

Ander Smittarasheed nodded. «What if I say I talked Sigmund Ausfaller out of a free vacation?»

«Maybe, if I didn't know you were recording.»

He was losing patience. «Any further contact —»

«None. I've seen enough kzinti to last me. Don't they scare the ARM anymore?»

Ander Smittarasheed said, «You wouldn't remember the old Soviet Union? They used a technical term that translates as 'neutral. 'Neutral' was any nation that could not conceivably damage the Soviet Union. Puppeteers think like that. If you can hurt them, you have to be rendered neutral.»

«Better keep an eye on the planets they'll be passing on their way to nowhere.»

«They'll be in range of some Patriarchy worlds, including at least three slave species. After that they're out of known space.»

«And the Core explosion is twenty thousand years away. They'll have to turn first. Plenty of time.»

«Yeah —»

«Ander?» I set down my hashi. «Never mind.»

«What?»

«They're moving at near lightspeed through normal space? Everything comes on as gamma rays at that velocity! Those planets are repelling gamma rays that'll make the Core explosion look sickly!»

He stared. «But. They could have built … whatever … built it and never … If they can shield planets against gamma rays, they didn't need to go!»

I felt a grin pulling my lips way-y-y back. Ander had lost his aplomb. I wondered, «What are they running from, then? What are they up to?»

«Maybe it's not dependable, this shield. No, that's stupid,» he said. I dug into my fish, letting him run on. «So … what are they running from?»

I said, enjoying myself, «Consider this. Puppeteers don't like hyperdrive. Humans do. Kzinti do. By the time their traveling worlds reach the Clouds of Magellan, we'll have been there for thousands of years. After all, the Core explosion is coming for us, too.»

«We wondered if they didn't like the kzinti for neighbors,» Ander said. «Or humans. Or all of us together. Known space seems to be packed with sapient species. Maybe the rest of the universe isn't like that.»

«They could even be running from their own reputation, but they're not, Ander. They're going too slowly. They'd find all of us waiting, every species that uses hyperdrive, or else something tougher that ate us. And they're not going to where territory is cheap.»

«Cheap?»

«Well, they've got their own planets, but even Outsiders pay rent when they use somebody's sunlight. The Clouds will be packed with refugee species and locals, too. If … Ander, I can't see why they would want the Clouds of Magellan at all. They could find something closer. Something in the plane of the galaxy, for the shielding effect, maybe a spherical cluster. Did I mention I was out of the aliens business?»

He scowled. «Yeah, and settled down forever, except you weren't. What happened?»

I thought it through before I spoke. Here was my tale, and whatever Ander could check had better be the truth.

«We ran,» I said. «Bad mistake, but I still don't know what I could have done differently. Puppeteers don't come into it. Or … well, I got money from them years ago. I thought the ARM couldn't trace that.»

Of course the ARM had, and it wasn't much. But General Products had indemnified Elephant for his hull, and Elephant had given that to me when we were ready to flee Earth. They wouldn't trace that.

Ander said, «Beowulf, what if they've got a low-thrust drive big enough for a planet? The Outsiders could boost them up to speed. They'd use their own drive to turn and then stop over the next two hundred thousand years.»

I thought it over. «They wouldn't have to depend on anyone else, then. Yeah. Puppeteers wouldn't trust Outsiders for their species survival.»

«Do you think Outsiders trust puppeteers?»

Nobody knew very much about Outsiders. «Ander? There's a place where there's no Outsiders.»

«What are you thinking? Close to a sun?»

«Outsiders and starseeds. We only guess at the relationship, but the best guess is they'll try to rescue the starseeds. Stet?»

«Stet. Maybe they'll make for the Clouds of Magellan.»

«The shock wave will drive the starseeds ahead of it, wherever they're going. There won't be Outsiders near the Core. Ander, there won't be anybody near the Core.»

I was trying to picture it. Worlds in flight — «Drive up along the galactic pole, then turn toward the hub. In ten thousand years they'd meet the shock wave from the Core explosion. I saw it, Ander. A shell of exploding suns, fairly tight, fairly narrow. They'd be through it in another five thousand years. The Outsiders are gone. All the sapient species are gone, too, dead or fled or hopelessly mutated and still mutating. Thousands of worlds would have been sterilized — maybe millions — but they'd still be covered with free oxygen and organic sludge and maybe even deep-sea life. All ready for easy terraforming. That's it. They're headed for the Core.»

He said, «Well.» And thought again and said, «At least it's different.»

«Is this what you came for?»

«Beowulf, I believe I can tell Sigmund it was worth the trip. Now, will you tell me what happened to Feather Filip and Carlos Wu?»

«Yeah. And Carlos Wu's autodoc?»

He shrugged it off. «Feather Filip vanished from the same time and locale as you and Carlos Wu and Sharrol Janss. I'm supposed to find out who's dead.»

It wasn't a slip of the tongue. He put the question that brutally quite deliberately. Maybe it got him what he wanted; because the blood was draining out of my face again. I found my hand at my throat, massaging.

I said, «Nobody should have to eat with you, Ander.»

He looked at the monster on my plate and again wouldn't give me the satisfaction. «Who's dead?»

Me! I said, «At least Carlos. You want it from the beginning?»

«Why not?»