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Authors: Alexander Jablokov
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clever engineers of the desert.
I arrowed my way to Aya’s control station.
“Aya!” Panic tinged my voice, though I tried to sound calmly competent. “Our life-system is malfunctioning. Soon it will cease to operate altogether.”
“Yes, Vikram. That’s true.” I waited for her to say something else, but that was apparently it.
“We have to turn back. We can get to Ceres—”
“No.”
“Don’t be crazy, Aya. They have automated repair facilities there. We can’t go on. We’ll be dead in days.”
“We’re not turning back, Vikram. Is there anything else?”
Her eyes, though still open, were no longer looking at me. The stink of the bad air washed over me. I realized that Aya was completely crazy.
I turned from her, heart pounding. What could I do? There was no way to override her control of the ship. Not without killing her. I looked at her, floating placidly in her mystic trance. I could put my hands around her neck and squeeze.... I could never pilot the ship on my own. It was part of her. I was just a parasite.
But in a few days we would both be dead and our ship would be a lifeless hulk hurtling through the Asteroid Belt. I went back down and stared at the life-system. Aya had played with the diagnostics. I was certain of it. Had she indeed gone insane?
There was only one thing left to do. The thought terrified me, so I moved as quickly as I could, hoping to move faster than my doubts. I didn’t even go back to my cabin but instead shot toward the access bay.
Hanging there among the exterior repair equipment was a dull cylinder only slightly larger than I was. This was our singleship: a tiny vessel capable of a journey of several million kilometers, if the pilot was crazy. Or desperate.
I started the launching cycle. For a moment I wondered if Aya had blocked this too, if she wished for both of us to die here of suffocation, but the singleship descended and opened its hatch for me. The diagnostics cheerily told me that it was completely operational. There was no way of checking whether this was a lie. I climbed into the ship, strapped it around myself, and felt the acceleration as it was spit out of the bay. Stars appeared around me. I input the coordinates for the Ceres repair post. The panel blinked acknowledgment and the ship accelerated.
We swept past the pile of orbital junk that was Aya’s spaceship. Cylinders, spheres, long cones of drive pods. It showed no signs of life whatsoever. In a few moments it had vanished and I was alone among the stars.
It was the worst experience of my life. I had no idea of where I was and whether I would ever get anywhere. There was not enough room to move to scratch my shoulder, while all around me space was infinite, with no support for me. All I could do was lie there.
I think it was that trip that turned my hair white. If I’d remained on Earth like a sensible person I would still have that thick head of black, black hair, which everyone always thought was dyed.
And if I hadn’t left Aya Ngomo’s ship at that point, perhaps I would have witnessed one of the most important discoveries in human history. I would have died soon after seeing it, of course, but that might have been a small price to pay. It is so seldom that one finds a good end to anything.
The base at Ceres was automated and uninhabited, built to satisfy some mysterious Imperial purpose. The interior chambers were dark, since the machinery in them didn’t need light to operate. Using my Imperial authority I requisitioned the appropriate ecological and life-system modules. Silent devices moved to obey. As they did so, an electronic bell played the tune of the Lord’s Prayer. The air was cold and thin.
I began to weep. What was I doing there? Why was I so near the edge of death? I had done nothing. If I was not both skilled and lucky I could be dead sometime in the next few days. It wasn’t fair, not at all. It didn’t make any sense. I had suffered so much. Would the future
I arrowed my way to Aya’s control station.
“Aya!” Panic tinged my voice, though I tried to sound calmly competent. “Our life-system is malfunctioning. Soon it will cease to operate altogether.”
“Yes, Vikram. That’s true.” I waited for her to say something else, but that was apparently it.
“We have to turn back. We can get to Ceres—”
“No.”
“Don’t be crazy, Aya. They have automated repair facilities there. We can’t go on. We’ll be dead in days.”
“We’re not turning back, Vikram. Is there anything else?”
Her eyes, though still open, were no longer looking at me. The stink of the bad air washed over me. I realized that Aya was completely crazy.
I turned from her, heart pounding. What could I do? There was no way to override her control of the ship. Not without killing her. I looked at her, floating placidly in her mystic trance. I could put my hands around her neck and squeeze.... I could never pilot the ship on my own. It was part of her. I was just a parasite.
But in a few days we would both be dead and our ship would be a lifeless hulk hurtling through the Asteroid Belt. I went back down and stared at the life-system. Aya had played with the diagnostics. I was certain of it. Had she indeed gone insane?
There was only one thing left to do. The thought terrified me, so I moved as quickly as I could, hoping to move faster than my doubts. I didn’t even go back to my cabin but instead shot toward the access bay.
Hanging there among the exterior repair equipment was a dull cylinder only slightly larger than I was. This was our singleship: a tiny vessel capable of a journey of several million kilometers, if the pilot was crazy. Or desperate.
I started the launching cycle. For a moment I wondered if Aya had blocked this too, if she wished for both of us to die here of suffocation, but the singleship descended and opened its hatch for me. The diagnostics cheerily told me that it was completely operational. There was no way of checking whether this was a lie. I climbed into the ship, strapped it around myself, and felt the acceleration as it was spit out of the bay. Stars appeared around me. I input the coordinates for the Ceres repair post. The panel blinked acknowledgment and the ship accelerated.
We swept past the pile of orbital junk that was Aya’s spaceship. Cylinders, spheres, long cones of drive pods. It showed no signs of life whatsoever. In a few moments it had vanished and I was alone among the stars.
It was the worst experience of my life. I had no idea of where I was and whether I would ever get anywhere. There was not enough room to move to scratch my shoulder, while all around me space was infinite, with no support for me. All I could do was lie there.
I think it was that trip that turned my hair white. If I’d remained on Earth like a sensible person I would still have that thick head of black, black hair, which everyone always thought was dyed.
And if I hadn’t left Aya Ngomo’s ship at that point, perhaps I would have witnessed one of the most important discoveries in human history. I would have died soon after seeing it, of course, but that might have been a small price to pay. It is so seldom that one finds a good end to anything.
The base at Ceres was automated and uninhabited, built to satisfy some mysterious Imperial purpose. The interior chambers were dark, since the machinery in them didn’t need light to operate. Using my Imperial authority I requisitioned the appropriate ecological and life-system modules. Silent devices moved to obey. As they did so, an electronic bell played the tune of the Lord’s Prayer. The air was cold and thin.
I began to weep. What was I doing there? Why was I so near the edge of death? I had done nothing. If I was not both skilled and lucky I could be dead sometime in the next few days. It wasn’t fair, not at all. It didn’t make any sense. I had suffered so much. Would the future
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