Chapter 11

“The North American Secretary of State called and is at Armstrong,” Dakota told Heather. “He craves an audience with Your Majesty. Should I tell him to appear at your weekly court or are you going to interrupt your busy schedule to meet this bird?”

“Please tell me he didn’t try to petition Us in fake courtly language,” Heather demanded.

“No that was me trying to pretty it up for him. It roils all the snark in me and raises it to the surface to talk to these people. I just want to scream at them instead of being polite. He also wants to know if he should bring his personal security or leave them at Armstrong.”

“He may do as he pleases with them,” Heather said. “I doubt most people here will know him by sight much less care to harm him. I’d be surprised if any care to approach or engage him in conversation. Most of them have such low expectations of North America they wouldn’t see any point in it. Having them may make him less fearful and better able to pay attention to business. I’ll see him privately whenever he comes. I’d see him after court anyway, so it would be petty to make him wait two days and then sit through the petitions and complaints.”

“I’ll tell him,” Dakota said and excused herself.

* * *

Lee followed Dionysus’ Chariot in Kurofune on a path that would take them past a minor gas giant into the outer fringes of the Derfhome system.

“If you will kill your drive and go ballistic, I’ll put the drive on my nose grapple,” Lee requested.

“Shouldn’t you have a companion for safety if you’re going EV?” Jeff asked. “I didn’t think to ask how you were going to do that. One of us can come help if you wish.”

“How did you do it when your first drive was mounted that way?” Lee asked.

“I had four drones with instrument packs. They worked together to push it on the grapple remotely. When I lost the drones, I had to go out and get it back in the hold manually. It wasn’t fun,” Jeff admitted. “It’s bad to be out there alone, but worse to both be outside with nobody to back you up in the ship.”

“We have a temporary deployment system rigged to let me do it without going EV solo. There is a winch behind the grapple knuckle and a cable run from it back to the storage locker and wrapped around the grapple pin. The hatch is shimmed not to close completely and damage the cable. All I have to do is open the hatch and rotate the ship gently away from the drive. It will float out the hatch and drift away from the ship. I need to slowly turn the ship to keep it pointed at the drive and gently reel it in. It will give me a light on my board when the pin is close enough to grab. I think it will work,” Lee said. “It did in simulation after I got the hang of it.”

“I like it,” Jeff said. “Everything is connected and you can’t lose them like happened with my drones for our first test.

If I don’t get carried away and rush it,” Lee said. “I could get it moving too fast and break the cable or fail to keep the ship pointed at it. If I rush reeling the cable in at the last, it could swing across the center line like a pendulum and smack the nose of the ship faster than I could turn the ship to avoid it. That happened a few times in sim.”

“Take your time please,” Jeff said. “We aren’t on any schedule.”

It was over a half-hour before Lee informed him the grapple was closed and a green light said it was locked.

“I’m opening a computer port for remote operation,” Lee said. “Tell me when you have acquired it and have a live board. I want one of you to test it before I come across.”

“We have a board that should mirror yours,” Jeff said. “April is going to align the Kurofune with us and roll it so your lock is facing us. Keep your hands off your board for a moment and let’s see how it works.”

Born and Musical watched all this with intense interest but stayed silent.

Lee made a dramatic show of her hands palms out by her shoulders. The ship rolled and then turned, careful separate motions until Dionysus’ Chariot showed out her right port.”

“Does it show the drive menu?” Lee asked.

“Everything,” April assured her. “It’s displaying system status for everything. I scrolled through it. Jeff pumped down the lock and will open the outer door, ready for you.”

“Coming across then,” Lee said, closing her helmet and retreating to the lock.

Everyone listened to the lock cycle and status lights told the same story on Jeff and April’s boards. Lee came forward and took her seat beside Musical in the second-tier seats, her faceplate open but her helmet on. April and Jeff were of the same risk-averse habit. Her board was live but Musical’s had only the screen active.

Jeff was looking at Lee concerned.

“Is your EV gear stowed where it will be safe if we maneuver?” Jeff worried. “You didn’t ask for a locker to stow it.”

Lee blinked and looked confused.

“This is my EV gear,” she said sweeping a hand down her suit.

“Do you have a reaction pistol or something?” Jeff persisted, eyes searching for one.

“It was only fifty meters,” Lee said. “I just jumped.”

“What happens if you miss?” Jeff asked. His voice had an odd edge to it.

“I’d die of embarrassment if I could miss something the size of a lock opening at fifty meters,” Lee said. “Did you expect me to rig a line and come across hand over hand?”

“I would, if I didn’t have a thruster pack,” Jeff admitted.

“If I ever ask you to go EV for me I’ll rig one for you,” Lee promised.

She didn’t say that unkindly. Her tone was entirely factual, not sarcastic. Still, Musical looked over his shoulder at Born and they silently locked eyes for a moment. They were learning all sorts of things. Lee was aware of her guys’ byplay but ignored it, moving right ahead with their test.

“I’m moving the Kurofune off a kilometer laterally. I assume you want to start with a fairly short jump?” Lee said. “What is the lower limit for your unit to transition?”

“Twelve percent power seems to be the lower limit of our current design,” Jeff told her. “Drop two-tenths of a percent under that and it’s a toss-up if it works or not. Three tenths and you know it won’t. I suspect it’s just the variations in the noise of our power supply that will trip the quantum limit or not. The minimum jump seems to be about twelve thousand kilometers but the increases are not linear. I suggest you start very low and work up a half percent each step. Set your board to orient the ship and direct a pulse back to us for ranging to join it.”

Lee got a look of intense concentration and frowned.

“If you have other thoughts on how to do it, I won’t take offense if you express them,” Jeff assured her.

“It’s just the realization that if we lose the ship this is likely when it happens,” Lee said. “If I were piloting it and it ends up an unexpected distance or direction away, I could probably recover it by reversing the sequence. It’s hard to commit to doing this.”

“You are much more valuable and irreplaceable than a starship,” April said.

“If it vanishes, we’ll have learned a great deal and proceed from there,” Jeff said. “However, we’ll still have you.”

“I’m probably worried more than usual. It was so expensive and the Claims Commission just cut off my cash flow,” Lee admitted. “The Kurofune is going to be vital to correcting that situation.”

“My Lady, we have ships and can see to that if you are down to your last billion or two,” Jeff quipped. “Clear your mind of these secondary problems and give your full attention to the task at hand.”

“Oh my God, you’re doing the honorific thing now too,” Lee said.

“We discussed that,” April said. “We are bound to you several ways that make that proper.”

Lee nodded and composed herself while Born and Musical did some more intense nonverbal communication.

“Flip and ping macro set. Testing it here first,” Lee said, forging ahead.

The Kurofune rolled over a half turn and emitted a weak radar pulse behind them.

“I have it set on a five-degree cone,” Lee told them. “It has the emission characteristics of a heavy cruiser. I’ll set it back up to start at ten percent power. It will repeat at ten-minute intervals until it reaches full power unless I stop it. We don’t want the full power mode to hit us too closely. That should be safe and detectable at any reasonable distance. I’m aiming it back the same as us manually. The macro is thus undisturbed.

“I’m starting the drive at two percent power and increasing it each time by a half percent. I’ll call them off as it proceeds.”

At eight and a half percent power the Kurofune disappeared in a flash and a thump rattled Dionysus’ Chariot.

Lee held her breath.

“Ping,” Jeff said. “The time stamp on the ping indicates twelve-thousand-kilometer range. Too bad. I was hoping we might find a way to go shorter, but that seems to be the minimum for now.”

“Typical quantum phenomenon,” Lee agreed. “Want to catch up and we’ll do two more short jumps to be able to roughly compare our settings. We can fill out a bunch of points on the full graph later.”

“Anxious to test the big one?” April asked amused.

“Yes. What is your transition threshold for an interstellar jump?” Lee asked.

“Sixty-two percent power without any significant velocity or help from an external field,” Jeff said. “If you have velocity towards the target or a high negative potential it drops.”

“What happens if you aim off where there is no significant known mass at high power?” Lee wondered.

“Nobody has wanted to find out. Some suspect the few ships that disappeared and never reached their destination found out. If they had corrupted data or just a simple mechanical failure and were aimed wrong, they still went somewhere,” Jeff asserted.

“Maybe,” April hedged. “Unless they are still suspended in an indeterminate state.”

“Yes, the purgatory hypothesis,” Jeff said. “I’d rather not mix physics and theology.”

“Why not? It’s a miracle every time it happens,” April averred. “Tell me it leaves you unmoved.”

“It’s very moving,” Jeff said. That got a sharp look from April but she didn’t pursue whether he meant it literally and was toying with her.

“We also have not tested what will happen if you aim to jump through a star,” Jeff told Lee. “With the abundance of special material you’ve brought us maybe we’ll be able to afford a test vehicle to find out what happens.”

“OK, Doubling the power up to seventeen percent…”

Jeff interrupted Lee.

“I believe you’ll find that excessive. I suggest you go ten percent power.”

“Thank you. Going to ten percent,” Lee corrected.

That increase tripled the distance.

“I see what you mean,” Lee said. “Another percent?”

“Try just a half-percent,” Jeff suggested.

That yielded a half-light hour and Lee would have been worried waiting for the return ping without Jeff and April being so calm. She didn’t even say anything to reveal her doubts until the signal came in. Jeff brought them back beside the Kurofune.

“You don’t talk to your ship,” Lee said.

That was obviously a complete non sequitur from the confusion on Jeff’s face.

“It’s neither friend nor pet,” he said reasonably.

“When I rode with Gabriel, he did most of the operations by voice with his AI, Dilbert. He even had the Cricket come to him at the Armstrong field on its own. It spoke with the controllers and they knew each other. It can do docking on its own perfectly well. He just spoke dealing with my people and when we landed at an unimproved field.”

Jeff and April slowly looked at each other. April with a grimace and Jeff with frank horror.

“Oh crap. I stuck my foot in it,” Lee realized. “He didn’t tell me it was a secret from you.”

“The Cricket is his ship,” Jeff said. “He’s an adult and can do any bloody foolish thing he pleases.”

“He knows you wouldn’t approve,” Lee guessed. “What little I saw of Gabriel said he avoids conflict.”

“Indeed, he is of the ‘better to ask forgiveness than permission’ school,” April agreed. “It makes it difficult for me to trust him, but Heather trusts him. Until such a time as one of his hidden adventures ends in horrible failure, he’ll get away with it.”

“And that event may be fatal, so we don’t have to worry about any future indiscretions,” Jeff predicted. “Though we may never know what it was if he just disappears.”

“Those trips to New Japan,” April said cryptically, looking at Jeff again.

“Yes, that’s where he had to get it,” Jeff agreed, understanding her reasoning. “I don’t think we have anyone who could produce that polished a product.”

“We need to know much more,” April said. “Now, when I deal with a New Japan ship, I will be aware I may not be dealing with a Human. I hate that sort of deception with social secretaries. This is worse since ships are life-critical.”

“On the other hand, if New Japan has made real progress and it presented itself honestly as an AI, it might be useful in applications like drones,” Jeff said.

“I never thought you’d abide them for anything,” April said.

“I have yet to meet an AI I can’t confuse and get to say something stupid in just a few minutes,” Jeff said. “If I can do that it can be induced to make bad decisions as a pilot. Introduce me to one that can reason in any depth, and I’d accept it has limited uses.”

“You can be a very difficult man,” Lee told him. “I can confuse most people and get them to say something totally silly in a few minutes. It seems to me you are demanding higher standards of the machine than people.”

“She’s got you there,” April said.

“I’ll consider that further,” Jeff promised. “We have to consider such things as agency and motivation. I’m not sure how you program those into an AI. Before you say it again, yes, I have problems with the higher functions in people too. I demand higher standards of a jump pilot than your average person. We need to look into this but for right now let’s get back to the question of going to Fargone. Are you ready?”

“Yes, what setting do you think will work?” Lee asked.

“Fifteen or twenty percent should suffice. It’s a decent sized star and not a long jump. Higher power will take you a little deeper in-system on arrival. Let’s jump on the same tick. I suggest you set your ship to turn and radiate a wider search pattern with shorter intervals between pings. If we have any trouble finding it, I have some drones that can spread out in a search pattern and listen for her.”

“I’m at twenty percent power, oriented, and have the program set to turn and radiate differently,” Lee said ten minutes later.

“Checking distance,” Jeff said. “Twelve hundred meters. That’s plenty. This is your party. I’m slaving the Chariot to accept your count. Set the countdown on your clock so you can say you initiated your first jump. Oh, this counts towards a Central Jump Master ticket if you are interested in being certified. Do watch carefully,” Jeff said over his shoulder to include the passengers. “It’s easy to blink and miss the whole thing. There wasn’t anything to see before, but now Fargone’s star will suddenly appear.”

“The Kurofune will be gone in ten seconds from – MARK,” Lee said depressing a key.

Everyone was intensely silent.

“Sweet little goddesses afire!” Musical said from his seat.

“See? The Badgers find it a religious experience too,” April told Jeff.

“You’ve been through jump coming to Derfhome,” Born objected to his workmate.

“And if you think I was of a station to be invited to the control room to witness it you have an exaggerated opinion of my importance,” Musical assured him. “Have you ever done it before?”

“First time for me,” Born said not nearly as impressed. “It’s very nice to see what we made work.”

“And there is the Kurofune at twenty-two seconds and a bit. We practically ran into her.” Jeff said cutting Musical off from commenting on Born’s irreverence “What now? Do you want to come along to Fargone with us? We’re going to dock at Beta and scope out how things are going.”

“I don’t have a process to get the drive back in storage alone. I planned on going back and letting some of Red Trees people at Derfhome station come out with a scooter and give me a hand. How do you grapple on to dock with the drive out front on your nose? I couldn’t see what was happening with the Cricket.”

“Then Gabriel cut the video feed to your board. It swings back out of the way into a recess. Kind of like the nose wheel on an airplane,” Jeff explained with a bent wrist. “I wouldn’t expect you to make those sorts of major modifications until you saw it works.

“That sounds like Gabriel, being needlessly secretive. What are you smiling about?” Lee asked. She was worried something was amusing about her again.

“Just that an Earth government would have never done a test flight like this. They’d modify the ship to dock even if there was no need and have a test procedure document thousands of pages long.”

“And delay several years to do it until everybody had a chance to demonstrate their authority by demanding changes,” April said. “Then, you’d have a hundred controllers cross-checking each other and reading what you should do next to you, line by line. If everybody is responsible it effectively makes no one person responsible if it goes wrong.”

“Well, I have no business at Fargone,” Lee said. “I’d have been as happy to do this to an uninhabited star system. I’m just going to go back to Derfhome.”

“Oh, I didn’t realize that,” Born said from the back. “I was looking forward to seeing Fargone or at least the station.”

“We’ll only be a day, but you can stay with us and return tomorrow,” April offered. That at least gives you a chance to see Beta and Fargone from orbit. How about you, Musical?”

“I’d much rather do that too,” he agreed.

“No problem. I don’t mind going solo,” Lee said. “I have three presets for short jumps and my normal drive. It will be far easier than spending days under acceleration to be able to jump.”

“I’ll pull in close to let you board her,” Jeff said. If Lee noticed he edged in carefully to a scant ten meters away she said nothing. He waited until she was inside and the outer door was closed to pull away.

“Thank you,” Lee said on com before she departed. Any hard feelings from when Jeff almost denied her their software seemed to be completely gone. They watched until the Kurofune disappeared in a flash of light and a thump.

“It didn’t thump when we jumped together,” Musical said. “Why?”

“We left before the wavefront reached us at light speed,” Jeff explained.

“Did you really want to go to Fargone or were you afraid to cross to the Kurofune?” Born asked.

“I wanted to go, but if I hadn’t, I’d have asked anyway after the way she boarded untethered,” Musical admitted. “I’d have had to humiliate myself and ask Lee to rig a line. I don’t know how to use the clamp on suit jets and I’d be terrified to jump.”

“That’s just good sense,” Jeff said. “Be assured, I’ll never think less of you for that. By our standards, your patron is out of her mind to jump untethered when she doesn’t have to. She may do it ten thousand times flawlessly but sooner or later something will go bad and we can only hope we’ll be able to rescue her. You will note I didn’t volunteer to go out and stow the drive for her. I was an exhausted sweaty mess the one time I had to do it for us. If I never go EV again that’s fine with me.”

“That makes me feel better,” Musical said. “But given our different relationship, I’m never going to be the one who tells Lee that. I’ll leave it to you if it ever becomes necessary.”

“I’ve already put my foot in my mouth with Lee recently,” Jeff admitted. “I’d like to stay on her good side. She can eyeball it out the hatch and jump for Derfhome if she wants, as long as she doesn’t ask me to do the same.”

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