“I think I know what it is.”
“You probably do. This whole ambitious scheme is just an elaborate response to post-traumatic stress disorder. I could give you pills for that.”
“As you’ve offered in the past. Thanks, but no thanks. I don’t believe in chemical exorcism.”
“Charlie and I are running away with you for the same reason. Hoping to put our ghosts to rest. But we’re not leaving any children behind.”
“Neither are we. Unless they choose to stay.”
“They will. You’re going to lose them.”
“We have ten months to turn them around.”
She nodded. “Sure. If you can get Bill to go, I’ll let you stick something up my ass.”
“Best offer I’ve had all day.”
She smiled and put a hand on my arm. “Come on downstairs. Let’s have a glass of wine.”
——————————————————————————–
Chapter seven
Marygay and I were in the group of twelve, plus one Man and one Tauran, who went up to inspect the starship, to determine what would be necessary for the voyage. We couldn’t just turn the key and go, when the ten months were up. We were assuming the Whole Tree would endorse the “good riddance” policy, and it could take most of the ten months’ wait to get the ship in order.
The trip up to orbit was interesting, the first time I’d been in space since the kids were born. We went straight up, with constant gentle acceleration. That was a profligate waste of antimatter, I knew. The Man pilot shrugged and said there was plenty. She wasn’t sure where it came from; maybe from the huge supply in the Time Warp.
For a spaceship, the shuttle was tiny, about the size of a schoolbus. There were windows all around, including behind, so we could watch Centrus shrink until it merged with the countryside. Ahead, the starship became the brightest star in the darkening sky. By the time we were in black space, you could tell it wasn’t a star; slightly elongated.
The shuttle flipped and began slowing when we were maybe a thousand kilometers from it. Braking at about two gees, it was uncomfortable to crane around to watch the starship grow. But it was worth a stiff neck.
The Time Warp was an antique, but not by my standards! It had been designed and built more than a millennium after I’d left school. The last cruiser I’d fought in had been an ungainly collection of modules stacked around in a jumble of girders and cables. The Time Warp had a simple elegant form: two rounded cylinders, attached at front and rear, with a slab of shielding between them along the rear half, to soak up gamma rays. The metal was like delicate lace around the very end of the top cylinder, where the antimatter engine waited.
We docked with an almost imperceptible bump, and when the airlock door irised open, my ears popped and I was suddenly glad they’d warned us to bring sweaters.
The ship had been maintained with the life-support systems at a bare minimum. The air was stale and cold, just enough above zero to keep the water from freezing and bursting pipes.
The partial pressure was equivalent to three kilometers’ altitude, thin enough to make you dizzy. We would get used to it over time.
We used handholds to crawl clumsily through the zerogee into an elevator decorated with cheerful scenes of our Earth and Heaven.
The control room looked more like something that actually belonged in a spaceship. A long console with four swivel chairs. When we entered, the control board glittered into life, indicator lights going through some warming-up sequence, and the ship spoke to us in a friendly baritone. “I’ve been expecting you. Welcome.”
“Our agricultural expert wants the place warmed up as soon as possible,” Man said. “What kind of timetable can she expect?”
“About two days for hydroponics. Five before you ought to start planting in the dirt. For aquaculture, it depends on the species, of course. The water will be at least ten degrees everywhere in eight days.”
“You have a greenhouse you can warm up?”
“For seedlings, yes. It’s almost ready now.”
Teresa looked at Man. “Why don’t a couple of us stay up here and get some flats started. Be nice to have stuff growing as soon as possible.”