Starhawk

Chapter 34

JAKE AND ALICIA had rented a cabin on the shore of Claytor Lake. She’d brought sandwiches, cheesecake, and lemonade and was in the process of pulling the goodies out of the refrigerator. “I love this place,” she said. “When I was a Girl Scout, we used to come here. We stayed in the cabins, played games in the woods, went swimming and canoeing, and rode the horses.” She gazed across the lake at the line of trees. “I loved camping then.”

“You don’t do it anymore?” Jake asked.

“Not really. We got away from it. I haven’t been camping in years. Haven’t been near a canoe or a horse in years.”

It had been a long time for Jake, too, but he didn’t mention it. He saw no advantage in reminding Alicia about the difference in their ages.

It was a cold, gray afternoon, threatening rain or maybe snow. Perfect for providing a warm, cozy environment in the cabin. Alicia was wearing a Madison University pullover. Her hair was cut short under a Patriots baseball cap. They’d brought sweaters, but both were folded on top of a side table. “Jake,” she said, “when you were going to other places, other worlds, did you ever do a boat ride?”

“No,” he said. “I can’t recall that we ever had a boat with us.”

“I’m trying to imagine what it would be like to be on a lake in a place where there are no people. No anything, really. Is it true that a lot of those places out there are sterile?”

“Most of them,” he said.

“I mean the worlds that are like Earth.”

“That’s what I meant. Life is rare, Alicia. People used to think they’d find it wherever there was water. That was because it got started so early here. We had living things almost as soon as it became possible for them to exist. So it sounded as if, when you got the right conditions, you automatically got life.”

“So what happened?” she asked. “Why isn’t there life everywhere?”

“Nobody really knows. There are theories, but—” He shrugged.

“Jake, what did it feel like, being in a place that’s absolutely empty, except for you and the people you have with you?”

He laughed. “In the beginning, when I was just starting, it was pretty creepy. But you get used to it. I think Priscilla found it a bit unsettling during a couple of our landings.”

“Who’s Priscilla?”

“Oh, she’s the pilot I told you about. I was the instructor during her qualification flight.”

“I don’t think I realized that was a woman.” She bit into her sandwich, and a light dawned. “Oh. She was the one in the news with you.”

“Yes.”

“Of course.” She paused and fingered her link. It was a necklace. “Priscilla Hutchins,” she said. Her image blinked on. She enlarged it, moved it into the center of the room. “She looks pretty good.”

He shrugged. “I suppose,” he said. “She’s still a kid.”

“So where did you guys go?”

“Fomalhaut. And we were out near Serenity. And Palomus.”

“Palomus?”

“It was a station. It’s near a flare star. That’s a star that puts out a lot of radiation.” He bit into his sandwich. It was tuna. “It’s good,” he said.

She was wearing an odd smile. “Who else was with you on that trip?”

He tried to let her see there was nothing to worry about. “Nobody,” he said.

“That sounds pretty convenient.”

“There’s a strict code of conduct.”

“Well, of course.” She was trying to make a joke out of it, but he suspected it could eventually become an issue.

“When I said we were alone, I wasn’t counting the AI. It’s programmed to report any questionable behavior. If anything happened, we’d both lose our jobs.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” he said. “Really.”

She broke into a wide smile. “It’s okay, Jake. I was just teasing.”

* * *

THE AFTERNOON WARMED somewhat, and they went out and sat on the deck, munching cheesecake while a sailboat cruised past. He was here with the loveliest woman he’d ever known. She pretended to be moderately aloof. But that was how he knew she was his if he wanted her. And he did want her.

But he wasn’t sure he could spend the rest of his life in the Blue Ridge. On the ground. That was the reality. He was beginning to realize retirement was not really all that he’d thought it would be. Driving up and down the mountain road, living a routine existence in which surprises were almost inevitably bad news. He wondered how Alicia would have responded to his old life.

Most of the pilots were single. You couldn’t really keep a family together when you were spending most of your time cruising back and forth to Epsilon Eridani. Some people, from time to time, had made arrangements to bring a spouse along. But that didn’t work very well either. The spouse, male or female, needed a special kind of personality to be able to live inside the confines of an interstellar that spent most of its time in Barber space, which is to say barely moving through mist in a dark place with absolutely nothing outside to look at. Not to mention the fact that one could expect to spend long periods of time with no company other than the spouse.

His link chimed. It was Frank Irasco.

“Hi, Frank,” he said. “How you doing?” He thought about using the earpod but decided he didn’t want to cut Alicia off.

“Okay. How’s life in paradise?”

“Not bad,” he said. “I’m near a lake with a beautiful young woman.” Alicia’s grin widened while she simultaneously rolled her eyes.

“The lady obviously has good taste,” he said. “Jake, we need your help.”

“What’s wrong?”

“The Vincenti’s missed a position report.”

“Where is it?”

“Last we heard, it was orbiting a nomad.”

“Where’s the nomad?”

“Four light-years.”

All right. That wasn’t bad. The jump would take a little more than a day. Figure a couple more days to zero in. Maybe a week altogether, round-trip. “When was the report due?”

“Seven hours ago. I’m hoping something just broke down somewhere, and it’ll still come in. But meantime, I need to be sure we’re ready to do something if we have to.”

“You’re not going to just reroute somebody?”

“Nobody’s close enough to get there before we could, Jake. And we’re under a little pressure these days. As I’m sure you realize.”

“Okay, I can understand that.”

“We’ll make it worth your while.”

“Why don’t you send Priscilla?”

“Jake, she doesn’t have the experience. If those people are in some kind of trouble out there, I need somebody I can trust. Not that I can’t trust her, but— Well, you know what I mean.”

“Have you talked to her about it?”

“No. She doesn’t know anything about it.”

“Why me?” he asked. “Isn’t there anybody else up there?”

“Not right now. I have to bring somebody in. You’re the guy we want, Jake.”

Damn. The whole thing with Priscilla was a farce. They claimed she was there in case of emergency. But when they get one, they don’t trust her enough to send her out. Alicia was watching him, but her face remained noncommittal. If he declined this kind of request, what would she think of him?

“All right,” he said, “I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll do it, provided you make Priscilla available. Invite her to go along.” That got a raised eyebrow from Alicia. “If there’s a problem out there,” he added for her benefit, “I might need help.”

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll take care of it.”

“And make it sound like your idea.”

“Fine. When can you get here?”

“I’ll leave tonight.” He caught a sudden bleak look in Alicia’s eyes. Jake covered the mike. “I’ll only be gone about a week,” he said.

She did not look happy.

Frank was saying something and he’d missed it. “Say again, Frank. You broke up.”

“If you hustle, you can make the evening shuttle out of Reagan.”

“Okay,” he said. “One other thing: What ship do we have available?”

“The Baumbachner.”

“That thing’s a wreck, Frank.”

“Actually, it’s in pretty good shape. And at the moment, it’s all we have.”

He signed off and gave Alicia a shrug.

“What’s a nomad?” she asked.

“It’s a planet with no sun.”

“No sun? How does that happen? Does it burn out, or what?”

He was suddenly aware he was gulping down the cheesecake. “Something happens that pulls the world out of orbit. Most likely it would be a passing star.”

“Is the mission dangerous?”

“No. There shouldn’t be a problem.”

“How can you say that when that other ship is missing?”

“It’s not missing. It just didn’t file its position report on time.”

“How does that happen? Aside from maybe that it crashed? Or got attacked by aliens?”

“Come on, Alicia, relax. There are no aliens. At least none that would be dangerous to us.”

“So what’s the routine? Does the captain file the report?”

“The captain’s responsible, but the report is normally transmitted by the AI. Automatically, every twenty-four hours.”

“You ever hear of this happening before, Jake?”

“Yes.”

“And what caused it?”

He would have preferred not to respond. “We never found the ship.”

“Oh.”

And there’d been three other cases. One ship had exploded when the star drive apparently let go. The other two also had never been heard from again. But he said nothing. Oh for four didn’t sound good. “Everything okay, Alicia?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” She shook her head.

“Alicia, I trust Priscilla. I know her. If there is a problem, she’s the one to have on board.”

She looked at him for a long minute. “Okay,” she said.

* * *

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