Galactic North

  “Inside the atmosphere of a gas giant, right?”

  She looked at me alertly. “Yes.”

  “Fine, then. I’ll call you Weather. Unless you’d like to suggest something better.”

  She never did suggest something better, even though I think she once came close to it. From that moment on, whether she liked it or not, she was always Weather. Soon, it was what the other crew were calling her, and the name that—grudgingly at first, then resignedly—she deigned to respond to.

  I went to see Captain Van Ness and did my best to persuade him that Weather was not going to cause us any dif ficulties.

  “What are you suggesting we should give her—a free pass to the rest of the ship?”

  “Only that we could let her out of her prison cell.”

  “She’s recuperating.”

  “She’s restrained. And you’ve put an armed servitor on the door, in case she gets out of the restraints.”

  “Pays to be prudent.”

  “I think we can trust her now, Captain.” I hesitated, choosing my words with great care. “I know you have good reasons not to like her people, but she isn’t the same as the Conjoiners from those days.”

  “That’s what she’d like us to think, certainly.”

  “I’ve spoken to her, heard her story. She’s an outcast from her people, unable to return to them because of what’s happened to her.”

  “Well, then,” Van Ness said, nodding as if he’d proved a point, “outcasts do funny things. You can’t ever be too careful with outcasts.”

  “It’s not like that with Weather.”

  “Weather,” he repeated, with a certain dry distaste. “So she’s got a name now, has she?”

  “I felt it might help. The name was my suggestion, not hers.”

  “Don’t start humanising them. That’s the mistake humans always make. Next thing you know, they’ve got their claws in your skull.”

  I closed my eyes, forcing self-control as the conversation veered off course. I’d always had an excellent relationship with Van Ness, one that came very close to bordering on genuine friendship. But from the moment he heard about Weather, I knew she was going to come between us.

  “I’m not suggesting we let her run amok,” I said. “Even if we let her out of those restraints, even if we take away the servitor, we can still keep her out of any parts of the ship where we don’t want her. In the meantime, I think she can be helpful to us. She’s already told me that Captain Voulage forced her to make improvements to the Cockatrice ’s drive system. I don’t see why she can’t do the same for us, if we ask nicely.”

  “Why did he have to force her, if you’re so convinced she’d do it willingly now?”

  “I’m not convinced. But I can’t see why she wouldn’t help us, if we treat her like a human being.”

  “That’d be our big mistake,” Van Ness said. “She never was a human being. She’s been a Spider from the moment they made her, and she’ll go to the grave like that.”

  “Then you won’t consider it?”

  “I consented to let you bring her aboard. That was already against every God-given instinct.” Then Van Ness rumbled, “And I’d thank you not to mention the Spider again, Inigo. You’ve my permission to visit her if you see fit, but she isn’t taking a step out of that room until we make orbitfall.”

  “Very well,” I said, with a curtness that I’d never had cause to use on Captain Van Ness.

  As I was leaving his cabin, he said, “You’re still a fine shipmaster, lad. That’s never been in doubt. But don’t let this thing cloud your usual good judgement. I’d hate to have to look elsewhere for someone of your abilities.”

  I turned back and, despite everything that told me to hold my tongue, I still spoke. “I was wrong about you, Captain. I’ve always believed that you didn’t allow yourself to be ruled by the irrational hatreds of other Ultras. I always thought you were better than that.”

  “And I’d have gladly told you I have just as many prejudices as the next man. They’re what’ve kept me alive so long.”

  “I’m sure Captain Voulage felt the same way,” I said.

  It was a wrong and hateful thing to say—Van Ness had nothing in common with a monster like Voulage—but I couldn’t stop myself. And I knew even as I said it that some irreversible bridge had just been crossed, and that it was more my fault than Van Ness’s.

  “You have work to do, I think,” Van Ness said, his voice so low that I barely heard it. “Until you have the engines back to full thrust, I suggest you keep out of my way.”

  Weps came to see me eight or nine hours later. I knew it wasn’t good news as soon as I saw her face.

  “We have a problem, Inigo. The captain felt you needed to know.”

  “And he couldn’t tell me himself?”

  Weps cleared part of the wall and called up a display, filling it with a boxy green three-dimensional grid. “That’s us,” she said, jabbing a finger at the red dot in the middle of the display. She moved her finger halfway to the edge, scratching her long black nail against the plating. “Something else is out there. It’s stealthed to the gills, but I’m still seeing it. Whatever it is is making a slow, silent approach.”

  My thoughts flicked to Weather. “Could it be Conjoiner?”

  “That was my first guess. But if it was Conjoiner, I don’t think I’d be seeing anything at all.”

  “So what are we dealing with?”

  She tapped the nail against the blue icon representing the new ship. “Another raider. Could be an ally of Voulage—we know he had friends—or could be some other ship that was hoping to pick over our carcass once Voulage was done with us, or maybe even steal us from him before he had his chance.”

  “Hyena tactics.”

  “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

  “Range?”

  “Less than two light-hours. Even if they don’t increase their rate of closure, they’ll be on us within eight days.”

  “Unless we move.”

  Weps nodded sagely. “That would help. You’re on schedule to complete repairs within six days, aren’t you?”

  “On schedule, yes, but that doesn’t mean things can be moved any faster. We start cutting corners now, we’ll break like a twig when we put a real load on the ship.”

  “We wouldn’t want that.”

  “No, we wouldn’t.”

  “The captain just thought you should be aware of the situation, Inigo. It’s not to put you under pressure, or anything. ”

  “Of course not.”

  “It’s just that . . . we really don’t want to be hanging around here a second longer than necessary.”

  I removed Weather’s restraints and showed her how to help herself to food and water from the room’s dispenser. She stretched and purred, articulating and extending her limbs in the manner of a dancer rehearsing some difficult routine in extreme slow motion. She’d been “reading” when I arrived, which for Weather seemed to involve staring into the middle distance while her eyes flicked to and fro at manic speed, as if following the movements of an invisible wasp.

  “I can’t let you out of the room just yet,” I said, sitting on the fold-down stool next to the bed, upon which Weather now sat cross-legged. “I just hope this makes things a little more tolerable.”

  “So your captain’s finally realised I’m not about to suck out his brains?”

  “Not exactly. He’d still rather you weren’t aboard.”

  “Then you’re going against his orders.”

  “I suppose so.”

  “I presume you could get into trouble for that.”

  “He’ll never find out.” I thought of the unknown ship that was creeping towards us. “He’s got other things on his mind now. It’s not as if he’s going to be paying you a courtesy call just to pass the time of day.”

  “But if he did find out . . .” She looked at me intently, lifting her chin. “Do you fear what he’d do to you?”

  “I probably should. But I
don’t think he’d be very likely to throw me into an airlock. Not until we’re under way at full power, in any case.”

  “And then?”

  “He’d be angry. But I don’t think he’d kill me. He’s not a bad man, really.”

  “Perhaps I misheard, but didn’t you say his name was Van Ness?”

  “Captain Rafe Van Ness, yes.” I must have looked surprised. “Don’t tell me it means something to you.”

  “I heard Voulage mention him, that’s all. Now I know we’re talking about the same man.”

  “What did Voulage have to say?”

  “Nothing good. But I don’t think that necessarily re flects poorly on your captain. He must be a reasonable man. He’s at least allowed me aboard his ship, even if I haven’t been invited to dine in his quarters.”

  “Dining for Van Ness is a pretty messy business,” I said confidingly. “You’re better off eating alone.”

  “Do you like him, Inigo?”

  “He has his flaws, but next to someone like Voulage, he’s pretty close to being an angel.”

  “Doesn’t like Conjoiners, though.”

  “Most Ultras would have left you drifting. I think this is a point where you have to take what you’re given.”

  “Perhaps. I don’t understand his attitude, though. If your captain is like most Ultras, there’s at least as much of the machine about him as there is about me. More so, in all likelihood.”

  “It’s what you do with the machines that counts,” I said. “Ultras tend to leave their minds alone, if at all possible. Even if they do have implants, it’s usually to replace areas of brain function lost due to injury or old age. They’re not really interested in improving matters, if you get my drift. Maybe that’s why Conjoiners make them twitchy.”

  She unhooked her legs, dangling them over the edge of the bed. Her feet were bare and oddly elongated. She wore the same tight black outfit we’d found her in when we boarded the ship. It was cut low from her neck, in a rectangular shape. Her breasts were small. Though she was bony, with barely any spare muscle on her, she had the broad shoulders of a swimmer. Though Weather had sustained her share of injuries, the outfit showed no sign of damage at all. It appeared to be self-repairing, even self-cleaning.

  “You talk of Ultras as if you weren’t one,” she said.

  “Just an old habit breaking through. Though sometimes I don’t feel like quite the same breed as a man like Van Ness.”

  “Your implants must be very well shielded. I can’t sense them at all.”

  “That’s because there aren’t any.”

  “Squeamish? Or just too young and fortunate not to have needed them yet?”

  “It’s nothing to do with being squeamish. I’m not as young as I look, either.” I held up my mechanical hand. “Nor would I exactly call myself fortunate.”

  She looked at the hand with narrowed, critical eyes. I remembered how she’d flinched back when I reached for her aboard the Cockatrice, and wondered what maltreatment she had suffered at the iron hands of her former masters.

  “You don’t like it?” she asked.

  “I liked the old one better.”

  Weather reached out and gingerly held my hand in hers. They looked small and doll-like as they stroked and examined my mechanical counterpart.

  “This is the only part of you that isn’t organic?”

  “As far as I know.”

  “Doesn’t that limit you? Don’t you feel handicapped around the rest of the crew?”

  “Sometimes. But not always. My job means I have to squeeze into places where a man like Van Ness could never fit. It also means I have to be able to tolerate magnetic fields that would rip half the crew to shreds, if they didn’t boil alive first.” I opened and closed my metal fist. “I have to unscrew this, sometimes. I have a plastic replacement if I just need to hook hold of things.”

  “You don’t like it very much.”

  “It does what I ask of it.”

  Weather made to let go of my hand, but her fingers remained in contact with mine for an instant longer than necessary. “I’m sorry that you don’t like it.”

  “I could have got it fixed at one of the orbital clinics, I suppose,” I said, “but there’s always something else that needs fixing first. Anyway, if it wasn’t for the hand, some people might not believe I’m an Ultra at all.”

  “Do you plan on being an Ultra all your life?”

  “I don’t know. I can’t say I ever had my mind set on being a shipmaster. It just sort of happened, and now here I am.”

  “I had my mind set on something once,” Weather said. “I thought it was within my grasp, too. Then it slipped out of reach.” She looked at me and then did something wonderful and unexpected, which was to smile. It was not the most genuine-looking smile I’d ever seen, but I sensed the genuine intent behind it. Suddenly I knew there was a human being in the room with me, damaged and dangerous though she might have been. “Now here I am, too. It’s not quite what I expected . . . but thank you for rescuing me.”

  “I was beginning to wonder if we’d made a mistake. You seemed so reluctant to leave that ship.”

  “I was,” she said, distantly. “But that’s over now. You did what you thought was the right thing.”

  “Was it?”

  “For me, yes. For the ship . . . maybe not.” Then she stopped and cocked her head to one side, frowning. Her eyes flashed olive. “What are you looking at, Inigo?”

  “Nothing,” I said, looking sharply away.

  Keeping out of Van Ness’s way, as he’d advised, was not the hard part of what followed. The Petronel was a big ship and our paths didn’t need to cross in the course of day-to-day duties. The difficulty was finding as much time to visit Weather as I would have liked. My original repair plan had been tight, but the unknown ship forced me to accelerate the schedule even further, despite what I’d told Weps. The burden of work began to take its toll on me, draining my concentration. I was still confident that once that work was done, we’d be able to continue our journey as if nothing had happened, save for the loss of those crew who had died in the engagement and our gaining one new passenger. The other ship would probably abandon us once we pushed the engines up to cruise thrust, looking for easier pickings elsewhere. If it had the swiftness of the Cockatrice, it wouldn’t have been skulking in the shadows letting the other ship take first prize.

  But my optimism was misplaced. When the repair work was done, I once more made my way along the access shaft to the starboard engine and confronted the hexagonal arrangement of input dials. As expected, all six dials were now showing deep blue, which meant they were operating well inside the safety envelope. But when I consulted my log book and made the tiny adjustments that should have taken all the dials into the blue-green—still nicely within the safety envelope—I got a nasty surprise. I only had to nudge two of the dials by a fraction of a millimetre before they shone a hard and threatening orange.

  Something was wrong.

  I checked my settings, of course, making sure none of the other dials were out of position. But there’d been no mistake. I thumbed through the log with increasing haste, a prickly feeling on the back of my neck, looking for an entry where something similar had happened; something that would point me to the obvious mistake I must have made. But none of the previous entries were the slightest help. I’d made no error with the settings, and that left only one possibility: something had happened to the engine. It was not working properly.

  “This isn’t right,” I said to myself. “They don’t fail. They don’t break down. Not like this.”

  But what did I know? My entire experience of working with C-drives was confined to routine operations, under normal conditions. Yet we’d just been through a battle against another ship, one in which we were already known to have sustained structural damage. As shipmaster, I’d been diligent in attending to the hull and the drive spar, but it had never crossed my mind that something might have happened to one or other of the en
gines.

  Why not?

  There’s a good reason. It’s because even if something had happened, there would never have been anything I could have done about it. Worrying about the breakdown of a Conjoiner drive was like worrying about the one piece of debris you won’t have time to steer around or shoot out of the sky. You can’t do anything about it, ergo you forget about it until it happens. No shipmaster ever loses sleep over the failure of a C-drive.

  It looked as if I was going to lose a lot more than sleep.

  Even if we didn’t have another ship to worry about, we were in more than enough trouble. We were too far out from Shiva-Parvati to get back again, and yet we were moving too slowly to make it to another system. Even if the engines kept working as they were now, we’d take far too long to reach relativistic speed, where time dilation became appreciable. At twenty-five per cent of the speed of light, what would have been a twenty-year hop before became an eighty-year crawl now . . . and that was an eighty-year crawl in which almost all that time would be experienced aboard ship. Across that stretch of time, reefersleep was a lottery. Our caskets were designed to keep people frozen for five to ten years, not four-fifths of a century.

  I was scared. I’d gone from feeling calmly in control to feeling total devastation in about five minutes.

  I didn’t want to let the rest of the crew know that we had a potential crisis on our hands, at least not until I’d spoken to Weather. I’d already crossed swords with Van Ness, but he was still my captain, and I wanted to spare him the dif ficulty of a frightened crew, at least until I knew all the facts.

  Weather was awake when I arrived. In all my visits, I’d never found her sleeping. In the normal course of events Conjoiners had no need of sleep: at worst, they’d switch off certain areas of brain function for a few hours.