The vessel surged around Brodersen, plunging toward her next way station.
Twinkles in heaven- “Gunner to captain,” von Moltke intoned, “they stopped our barrage.”
“They were meant to, this first time,” he reminded her. “A lesson. Stef, have you got contact?… Okay, put me through.”
His intention was to repeat his original threat, negotiate for the escape of his command. He did not, repeat and repeat not, wish to kill more men who were doing what they’d been assured was their duty.
The stars were beginning visibly to crawl in the viewscreen. Soon he’d be in such warped space-time that no rocket would have a prayer of tracking him down. Of course, any signal he transmitted from there would be hopelessly garbled. Well, everybody would be satisfied, sort of-
“Missiles!” Dozsa bawled. He spat an oath and rattled off RA, dec, approximate vectors. They had to be from Copernicus.
Judas priest, this was my worst fear, that Quick’s influence would be strong enough to compel Janigian’s honest crew- “Missiles!” Those came from Alhazen, one, one, one, one, as
fast as the tube could launch them.
“Captain,” von Moltke said starkly, “I do not belieff we can strike that many in a flock.”
Granville’s wail: “No, I compute we cannot. Mon pere-” Joelle, like steel striking steel: “We can reach the next beacon and accelerate straight inward before they arrive.”
Brodersen surged against his harness, even as weight returned. “No!” he bawled. “We’ll end up anywhere-” Knowledge smote home. “Carry on.”
The ship blasted. Almost, he imagined he saw the T machine grow before him, whirling and whirling.
He did see the first few splashes of flame, as Frieda parried. Then Sol was gone from its screen. The stars were an altogether different horde. The sun was not white nor yellow nor the bloodorange of Centrum, but ember-hued and shrunken. Tawny beneath colored bands, thrice the width of Luna seen from Earth, stood a planet. Frighteningly close gyred a great iridescent cylinder.
Brodersen let himself tumble for a minute into a night that roared.
Winter fell downward, white around the tower in Toronto.
“Well,” Quick said at last. “They’re gone.”
“You are sure?” Makarov demanded through a choking haze of smoke. He lacked the scientific education to follow each detail of what had just come in.
“Yes,” Quick told him. “Whatever scheme they had – if they did – I suspect they were in fact running off at random, except for trying to… to maximize their probability of- Oh, how can you estimate it?… Never mind. They were forced to make their gate entry from the spot where they happened to be.
They are gone, Makarov. I beg your pardon. They are gone, Premier Makarov. Like the thousands of probes our species wasted, searching for new guidepaths. We can forget about them.”
Makarov hunched his bulky frame. “You are quite certain?”
“Yes. Absolutely.” Quick sagged and covered his eyes. Exhaustion shuddered in him.
“Ah.” Makarov puffed. “Good. What a simplification.”
Quick looked back up. “Hm?”
Makarov smiled. He seldom did. “A factor less in the equation, perhaps the least known factor, do you see?”
I see you’re a mathematical illiterate, went through Quick.
He gathered strength together. A civilized man had better stay the equal of a barbarian warlord. “Right. We’ll have the personnel of Alhazen and Copernicus interrogated, of course, but apparently they heard nothing they shouldn’t. This leaves us Lomonosov for any special missions we decide on- plus a welcome breathing space, I’d say.”
Side 110
Anderson, Poul – Avatar, The
“We do not sit and pant much,” Makarov warned. “In the bright light of the new situation, we act. First, after notifying our major collaborators, I think we should send Lomonosov to the Wheel. If they find no undue complication, they dispose of those who are there, including Troxell’s group. Afterward we have leisure to make complete arrangements. Is this agreed?”
I’ve had an inferno’s worth of hours to agonize over the moral issues, Quick thought. A time finally comes when the civilized man must attack alongside his ally of expediency, or be left behind and have no voice at the peace conference. “Sir, let’s sleep on it and then talk further, but at the moment I am inclined to believe that in principle you are right.”