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Authors: Felix R. Savage
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our only chance.”
Kiyoshi refused to be rushed into a decision. He moved to the captain’s workstation in the center of the bridge. The Startractor had one cutesy piece of kit: a holographic starmap. He switched it on. A beachball of starry darkness materialized overhead like a black moon. He cued it to display 99984 Ravilious and the Salvation— a moving spark. Not moving very fast, yet. Radar returns put the ship’s velocity at 50 meters per second, acceleration at 0.09 gees. Antimatter drive or no antimatter drive, they’d have to take their time geeing up that monstrosity, lest it pull itself apart.
“SHIP COMMAND: Extrapolate possible trajectories.”
Everyone stared at the starmap.
“We have to follow them,” someone muttered.
“Father Tom’s on board!”
“All our friends …”
“You have friends on the Salvation?” Kiyoshi asked the woman who’d spoken.
She flinched, but responded, “Sure. We all do.”
“What are we going to do?” cried a little girl, her voice a needle of fear.
“Yousu miru [We’ll see how things develop],” Kiyoshi said evenly. There was no language like Japanese for deferring decisions. “Get out of here, honey. You’re upsetting the pig.”
Though he spoke to the child, the dismissal was meant for all of them.
“Get back to work,” growled an older man, backing Kiyoshi up—for which Kiyoshi was extremely grateful.
In a few moments, only Kiyoshi, Sister Terauchi, and old Isobe-san were left on the bridge. They stared at the starmap.
“Well,we’ve got the place to ourselves at last,” Kiyoshi said.
Sister Terauchi shook her head. “Until the ISA arrives.”
“That’s just your guess. Long-range scans haven’t picked anything up.”
“If the ISA isn’t coming, our outlook is even worse. Yonezawa- sencho,” she pointedly addressed him as captain. “There are five hundred and sixty-eight of us. Packed into one small ship. Without properly working growlights. With one printer, and a water reclamation rate of seventy-two percent. We have to follow the Salvation … or die.”
There was no question but that she believed it. “How long do we have, Sister? I want your best estimate.”
“Forty days, assuming no new failures in the hydroponic systems.”
He’d been guessing thirty. “Jun’ll be back by then.”
“But what if he’s not?”
“I just talked to him a few minutes ago,” Kiyoshi said. But he knew Sister Terauchi’s fears were not irrational. For whatever reason, Jun might not come back. There was no telling what might happen when the Monster reached Mars. No telling what was happening in the inner system. The news feeds were lies, wall to wall …
The sow butted against Kiyoshi’s leg. He petted her. Sister Terauchi and Isobe-san smiled patiently, waiting.
“I was thinking about running to 39 Laetitia,” Kiyoshi confessed. Red lines, possible trajectories for the Salvation, sprang across the starmap. None of them led to 39 Laetitia. The boss-man was heading away from the sun, not towards it. “If we follow the Salvation, that option’ll be gone.”
Isobe-san said suddenly, “I vote for staying here.”
“You do?” Kiyoshi said.
“Yes. Qusantin Hasselblatter is a dangerous criminal. Follow him, we’d be putting our own people in danger.”
“Agreed,” Kiyoshi said.
Sister Terauchi started, “But—”
“But,” Kiyoshi nodded, “you’re right, Sister.”
Staring at that insouciant spark, he felt a surge of rage. After everything they’d been through together, after everything he’d done for the boss-man, the bastard had just— left . Knowing full well how marginal their situation was, he’d left them to die.
“Isobe-san, take some people down to the engineering deck and disconnect all those power lines. Sister, warn everyone we’ll be accelerating in thirty minutes.”
The nun’s face crumpled in relief. “Thank you, Yonezawa- sencho. You’re making the right decision.”
“Yup,” Kiyoshi
Kiyoshi refused to be rushed into a decision. He moved to the captain’s workstation in the center of the bridge. The Startractor had one cutesy piece of kit: a holographic starmap. He switched it on. A beachball of starry darkness materialized overhead like a black moon. He cued it to display 99984 Ravilious and the Salvation— a moving spark. Not moving very fast, yet. Radar returns put the ship’s velocity at 50 meters per second, acceleration at 0.09 gees. Antimatter drive or no antimatter drive, they’d have to take their time geeing up that monstrosity, lest it pull itself apart.
“SHIP COMMAND: Extrapolate possible trajectories.”
Everyone stared at the starmap.
“We have to follow them,” someone muttered.
“Father Tom’s on board!”
“All our friends …”
“You have friends on the Salvation?” Kiyoshi asked the woman who’d spoken.
She flinched, but responded, “Sure. We all do.”
“What are we going to do?” cried a little girl, her voice a needle of fear.
“Yousu miru [We’ll see how things develop],” Kiyoshi said evenly. There was no language like Japanese for deferring decisions. “Get out of here, honey. You’re upsetting the pig.”
Though he spoke to the child, the dismissal was meant for all of them.
“Get back to work,” growled an older man, backing Kiyoshi up—for which Kiyoshi was extremely grateful.
In a few moments, only Kiyoshi, Sister Terauchi, and old Isobe-san were left on the bridge. They stared at the starmap.
“Well,we’ve got the place to ourselves at last,” Kiyoshi said.
Sister Terauchi shook her head. “Until the ISA arrives.”
“That’s just your guess. Long-range scans haven’t picked anything up.”
“If the ISA isn’t coming, our outlook is even worse. Yonezawa- sencho,” she pointedly addressed him as captain. “There are five hundred and sixty-eight of us. Packed into one small ship. Without properly working growlights. With one printer, and a water reclamation rate of seventy-two percent. We have to follow the Salvation … or die.”
There was no question but that she believed it. “How long do we have, Sister? I want your best estimate.”
“Forty days, assuming no new failures in the hydroponic systems.”
He’d been guessing thirty. “Jun’ll be back by then.”
“But what if he’s not?”
“I just talked to him a few minutes ago,” Kiyoshi said. But he knew Sister Terauchi’s fears were not irrational. For whatever reason, Jun might not come back. There was no telling what might happen when the Monster reached Mars. No telling what was happening in the inner system. The news feeds were lies, wall to wall …
The sow butted against Kiyoshi’s leg. He petted her. Sister Terauchi and Isobe-san smiled patiently, waiting.
“I was thinking about running to 39 Laetitia,” Kiyoshi confessed. Red lines, possible trajectories for the Salvation, sprang across the starmap. None of them led to 39 Laetitia. The boss-man was heading away from the sun, not towards it. “If we follow the Salvation, that option’ll be gone.”
Isobe-san said suddenly, “I vote for staying here.”
“You do?” Kiyoshi said.
“Yes. Qusantin Hasselblatter is a dangerous criminal. Follow him, we’d be putting our own people in danger.”
“Agreed,” Kiyoshi said.
Sister Terauchi started, “But—”
“But,” Kiyoshi nodded, “you’re right, Sister.”
Staring at that insouciant spark, he felt a surge of rage. After everything they’d been through together, after everything he’d done for the boss-man, the bastard had just— left . Knowing full well how marginal their situation was, he’d left them to die.
“Isobe-san, take some people down to the engineering deck and disconnect all those power lines. Sister, warn everyone we’ll be accelerating in thirty minutes.”
The nun’s face crumpled in relief. “Thank you, Yonezawa- sencho. You’re making the right decision.”
“Yup,” Kiyoshi
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