Raven said something again in that odd language and was acknowledged. He waited
a bit more, then said several more phrases but got no reply. They heard the
static and hissing in their radios, and then he said in English, All right,
they bought it so far, but we’re only at the start of this. Now, there’s no air
in here, and they know that before we can exit either air lock they can run an
exit check on us which would show up your pretty tattoos. That’s why they aren’t
too concerned. We, however, aren’t going out that way. He detached from the
safety line, then went over to the large metal box, grabbed two handles on the
rear, and picked it up and held it steady against his chest. There were several
gasps.
That must weigh a ton, Hawks noted.
Naw. Only a little over five hundred kilos on Earth, Raven responded. Here
it’s just a little awkward. It doesn’t weigh any more than we do, which is
nothing. Now, I want everybody back as close to the air lock as you can and stay
there. This thing’s real dangerous, and it might take some time.
What is happening? the high voice of China asked. Will someone please tell me
what is happening.
If we knew ourselves, it’d be easier, Hawks responded.
Raven let go of the huge box, and it just remained there, suspended in the air.
He reached in, opened a control panel door, and flipped a number of switches on
an illuminated panel. Two triggers suddenly shot out and locked into position
from the handholds. He then grasped the box again and pressed both triggers. A
brilliant sparkling violet beam sprang from the lens and widened into a circular
pattern on the side of the cave wall. The wall itself seemed to catch the same
sparkling glow, and then, quite slowly, the circular, sparkling violet began to
sink into the rock itself until it was almost out of sight, leaving visible only
a glow and the beam from the box. Raven concentrated on keeping the bulky object
braced and steady.
He shut it off suddenly. Whew! Never thought this sucker was that thick. I’m
going to have to take this in to finish it. You wait, then Manka will bring you
through to me. He walked forward, pushing the box before him, and entered what
had seemed to be total blackness. Hawks finally realized what the Crow was
doing.
He’s burning a man-sized hole right through solid rock! Right through
to—space.
Of course, you idiot, Manka Warlock snapped. They keep a couple of those
around to widen our smooth things, but they are so rarely used, most people here
don’t even know they exist. Lazlo Chen knew.
They waited a few more nervous minutes, then Raven’s voice came to them. Okay,
I’m through. Come ahead. Watch that last step, though. It’s a fair drop into
creation.
Hawks felt pretty nervous, but he wanted to reassure the others, who might not
even understand what was going on. We are going outside, on the outside of this
place, he told them. We are going out into the sky itself.
It was a dark sky and an eerie one, the blackest any of them except Reba Koll,
Raven, and Manka Warlock had ever seen. One by one they came to the edge of the
new tunnel, then were told simply to step slowly out into nothingness. The
movement was against instinct, and both Silent Woman and the Chows balked, but
they were pulled by their tethers anyway, out and then up onto the outer surface
of Melchior.
Close by, no more than forty meters away, a spaceship was docked against the
lone spaceport bay. Raven gave the rock cutter a push, and it sailed off into
the void. Then he reconnected himself to the others.
It’s good to be home again, Reba Koll sighed.
All right, now the hard part begins, Raven told them. There’s no way we can
get into the pressurized areas right now, so we have to get in along the aft
cargo bay air lock, on the outside of the ship, which isn’t being used. It uses
a standard combination and has a manual override, as they all do. Stay close.
They moved toward the ship. At one point the blind woman stumbled, actually
causing Warlock, Reba Koll, and herself to lose contact with the ground, but
Koll was very used to this sort of thing. She twisted like an acrobat and gave
the tether a series of jerks that brought all three back down.
It’s all right, China, Warlock said in the kindest tone any of those who’d
known her had ever heard her use. Just follow my directions. I’m right behind
you.
Only a small part of the ship actually contacted the asteroid; the rest was off
in space at an angle. Raven didn’t dare go to the connected area, where there
was air and pressure. There was no sound in space, but there sure might be some
sound transmitted below through the plates. There was an area in the midsection
that was only about three meters from the surface, and he let out a long amount
of line, then pushed off, floated to the ship, and anchored himself. Then he
started reeling in the others, one by one, as they jumped slightly off the
surface, breaking contact with the ground.
Hawks was pleased but very surprised that none of the four women from relatively
primitive cultures had panicked or showed signs of madness at this. It was
exciting to him, as well as frightening, but he knew at least academically what
was involved here, while they did not. He wondered if they were in a state of
semishock or whether they had just been so hardened by all the terrors of the
past that nothing remained that they didn’t simply accept.
The surface of the ship was not the smooth, dull metal it appeared to be from a
distance but rather pockmarked and dented and generally showed signs of extreme
wear and age. They finally all stood at an angle to the air lock door, with
nothing but space around them and the curved ship under them, while Raven
twisted a faceplate to reveal a panel. He punched in a combination. After a
sudden pause, the air lock door went in a small distance, then slid back.
Everybody inside, he warned. And fast. The pilot will know the door’s open
but on this ship will hopefully ignore it. I still want to be in and ready just
in case. We ain’t off the rock yet!
They crowded in, and Warlock punched the codes that closed and sealed the outer
door. Raven peered in the porthole-shaped window of the inner door and looked
around. So far, so good. The place is dark, and the indicator reads no
atmosphere inside. We ought to be able to just walk right in, unless that damned
pilot flagged somebody, in which case we might just have to kill a bunch of
people.
He turned the big wheel, and the inner air lock door opened. They stepped one by
one into the dark interior of the aft cargo bay, which was mostly empty,
although around the whole outer wall were huge depressions and holding devices
for standard containers.
All right, China, Raven said nervously. I’m switching up to the pilot’s
frequency. I want you to take control and cover us without anybody knowing until
we’re routinely away.
It won’t work, she replied. That used the old codes. Surely my father is back
by now and would have changed them.
Sure he would, but this ship left two days before he came off Leave. I made
sure of that. Think I’m a dummy or something? Patch in and do your best. It’s
the same damned ship you came here in.
There were several gasps. Chu Li, is that really you? Chow Dai asked
incredulously.
Chu Li is no more. Song Ching is no more. I am just China Nightingale now, and
it is a fitting name in this English we are using. Silence, now. May I ask if
Captain Sabatini is back aboard?
He is, but it’s just him. Don’t worry—he got unfroze before he got back to
Earth, and he made no report. He didn’t even get off the ship, which was why he
wasn’t mindprinted and checked. If he had, he’d be back here as a prisoner, and
he knows it.
Make the switch.
Switch in—now!
Unauthorized interrupt, the pilot noted. Please identify in thirty seconds or
security will be called.
Code Lotus, black, green, seven two three one one.
Acknowledged. Reason for interrupt?
Pawn takes king.
You are not the same one who used this code before. This code is obsolete. I
must flag security.
Hold on! It was you who recommended I be transformed on Melchior! Well, it
happened. I am the same, only different now.
The pilot thought it over. They attempted to eliminate some of my records so
there would be no trace of you. Fortunately, I have my own special backups for
such contingencies. Very well. I monitored you through the air lock, but
considering the conditions here, I wanted to know who or what you were before
flagging anything. There is a rather large group of you there.
Yes. The ruse failed. I was imprisoned, and so were the other two, who are also
here. We are attempting an escape. She paused, having a horrible thought.
Captain Sabatini can’t monitor this, can he?
Of course he can. However, he is not aboard at the moment; he is getting final
orders and instructions.
I will give you details. Please be certain no one can monitor. Quickly she
sketched in the situation. Will you help us?
The same problems apply as before. What can be done?
We want to go to the mothball fleet around Jupiter, she told it. I believe I
have a method of activating one of the ships there under my control. If so, we
have options on places to go, although I would rather not detail that further.
They are bound to try to find out what you do know about this.
Understood. I am not, however, on the Lotus code compulsion or any other
compulsion in this matter now, you understand. My first duty is always the
preservation of my ship and, pardon, myself. If I help you, the ship might
survive or it might not, but both Melchior and Master System will pump me dry
and then destroy and analyze my mind. It does not seem to me that aiding you is
at all in my interests.
She sighed and shrugged. What can I say?
This is the master of the ship to whom we speak? Cloud Dancer asked,
surprising everyone.
I am primarily the master. I work with a human captain, the pilot responded.
There’s no one up there, Hawks tried to explain. It is —the spirit of the
ship itself. It is the ship talking, not a person.
Cloud Dancer thought about that a moment. And so, spirit of the ship, do you
enjoy being a slave?
The pilot actually paused for a fair amount of time. I am not a slave, it
replied finally. I am autonomous. Those connected to Master System are slaves
of a sort.
What means ‘autonomous’?
Independent. Free, Hawks replied.
Well, does not this captain order you about? Do you not go where he sends you?
Yes. That is my function.
Then, spirit of the ship, you are not free. In there they put us under magic
boxes, and we believe what they say, but we think we are free.
China saw where she was going but lacked the knowledge and words to reach.
Let’s put it this way, she said. You are no more free than if you worked
under Master System, only Sabatini is your Master System, he and his bosses.
She would never have dreamed of arguing with a computer like this, as if it were
a fellow human. Computers didn’t have such feelings, she’d always thought. It
had been Cloud Dancer, who knew nothing of computers, who had seen it
differently. Because the Hyiakutt woman had no concept of physics, mathematics,
and computers— magic boxes indeed—she had assumed that the thing she was
talking to was indeed a spirit, the spirit of the ship. A neutral spirit,
because she’d heard China say it had tried to help her before. The Hyiakutt had