Pilot

  Chapter 37

  "What do you mean you didn't use any of the instruments?" Smith demanded. Elena ground her teeth and calmly answered him for what seemed like the millionth time. They were only three hours into the passage to the Docking Facility and Elena dully wondered how many times she would have to answer it.

  "I mean that I didn't use any of the electronic instruments in the pilot house to see the channels." Tiredness pulled at the edges of her voice.

  "That is impossible," he bellowed.

  "That is a Pilot," Alexandro said. Smith jumped, not realizing the man had joined them. "Elena your shift ended half an hour ago."

  "Of course," Elena said. She turned to leave. She hadn't really expected Smith to believe her anyway. The only technology still running was built into the hull of the ship and would have been below the water line when the ship was earthside.

  'And that doesn't even look that impressive,' she thought. The system when viewed from the outside looked just like fine lines tracing the ships hull. She knew they worked and left the details to Mateo.

  "And you will refrain from yelling at my pilot," he told Smith.

  "Your pilot is supposed to be answering my questions," Smith insisted.

  "She has done so. You just don't want to believe her. I believe that makes your lack of knowledge your fault and not hers." Elena knew it was cowardly, but she wanted nothing to do with this argument and kept walking away.

  "You were telling the truth weren't you? They are something you can just see," Jonathan asked. Elena looked over to where Smith and her grandfather were glaring at each other. She was too far away to make out the words.

  "Yes I was. That is why I am a pilot. Now if you will excuse me. I am only off duty as long as there is no trouble so I need to rest while it is quiet." Elena turned and walked away, ducking behind Anthony and Marco as they went about their tasks. She knew full well they had overheard. They discreetly moved to block Jonathan from following.

  Instead of going to her cabin Elena found a quiet stretch of deck and sat down, her head resting against the exterior wall of the cabin. From here the ship was at her back and only the dark was in front of her. The entry into the channels always tired her out as if sensing as well as guiding the ship took more of her energy than it seemed. This trip out Elena felt the tiredness, but there was also a jumpy sort of energy that made the thought of sleep sound silly.

  'Perhaps it is being on a ship after so long being gone,' she thought. Elena waited for the whisperings that she remembered from the Calling. They didn't come and she felt a little of the jumpy tension ease. She rested her head against the wooden wall and watched the stars slide by in the distance. With a start she realized it hadn't been so long since she had seen these particular stars.

  This was the section of space where her dreams always took her. Elena looked around. By now she knew exactly which sectors of space to look for the heat ripples. Elena focused her sight as they passed one such area. For a second the spot remained the same. Then slowly it began to ripple as it had in her dream. Elena sat up straight and leaned forward.

  "No not like my dreams," she whispered. The heat shimmer was different. Instead of rippling as if it were hot air above burning asphalt it looked more like the heat was behind the stretch of space and that the heat was slowly melting the fabric from behind, like a lit cigar held up to a piece of over exposed film. In the center it looked as though the heat was starting to melt a hole. Elena blinked, not sure what would happen if a hole formed.

  At the edges of her hearing she could make out the angry tones of Smith and her grandfather. More clearly she could hear scraps of information leak through the small tear. It didn't sound like the Calling, but more like the sounds and images she got from the other side of a channel before she had decided whether or not to take it.

  "Perhaps it's not a good idea to experiment with the military on board." For a moment Elena wondered what would happen if she turned away. Would the hole continue to form or would it stop? Would her headaches return as they did in the dream? A hole was definitely starting to form. Elena decided to try shifting her sight so that she was not using the inner sight she used to see the channels.

  Instantly the hole stopped growing. She could still see the heat shimmer, but it was fading and the hole was being repaired, as if patched from the other side. She could still catch vague images and sounds from the other side but they were faint, as if they were being muffled by the intervening space.

  Elena blinked hard and leaned back against the wall. A wave of exhaustion rose up and made her dizzy. She closed her eyes a moment to allow the dizziness to pass. Behind her eyelids she replayed the incident. For a moment, she could see how the new channel could be opened. She could see where it led and that it was a two-way channel. She could even sense its depth when opened fully. If she could succeed in opening it, she could go through and come back.

  "Not this trip though. I promised Mateo." Elena opened her eyes and realized keeping them open for much longer was going to be a problem. Obviously opening a new channel took much more out of her than piloting an existing one. That was a fact that would need to be taken into consideration. She smiled, the exhilaration still managing to bubble through the exhaustion.

  "I could actually do this," she realized. She also realized the argument had grown more heated now that she had nothing else to distract her. Elena dragged herself to her feet and wondered if someone was about to be thrown overboard. Smith was bellowing, apparently not realizing that when on board, the only law was the captain's law.

  She was sure he would be set straight. Elena couldn't really work up much interest as she could barely keep her eyes open. She made her way to her cabin, one hand braced on the wall for support. No one noticed. She was completely upstaged.

  "They can tell me what happened when I go back on shift," Elena thought. With great effort, she pried her door open and stepped into her cabin. She closed the door behind her and fell into her bed fully clothed. Within seconds she was sound asleep.

  A hard knocking on her door woke her. She mumbled something incoherent, but loud enough to let the person on the other side know she was awake. The knocking stopped and Elena pried herself out of bed. She still felt groggy and stiff in the joints. A splash of cold water on her face helped, but not a whole lot. Elena went up to the pilothouse even though her stomach rumbled at the smells from the galley. Breakfast would have to wait until she had checked their course.

  Everything was well and the ship still retained its course towards the Docking Facility. Inertia was a beautiful thing. A course correction would be needed in half an hour, but that was expected. It was always the unexpected that threw you for a loop. Between Earth's channels and the Docking Facility was usually a quiet run. Enough ships made the trip with enough frequency that the passages were kept pretty clear. It was the space between the Docking Facility and other ports that things sometimes got tricky.

  "And they think earth's politics are bad," Elena muttered. The scent of breakfast intensified and Elena turned to see Marco enter with a covered plate. His eyes held a twinkle of mischief and she wondered what had happened after she crashed.

  "Please tell me you came to share," she said.

  "I already ate," he told her. "You slept through breakfast and since it would not be right for you to become faint, I bring it to you."

  "Purely a self serving gesture," she said taking the plate from him and setting it down on top of one of the machines that still remained turned off. There was no danger in turning it back on, but no practical point in doing so either. With Smith and Jonathan aboard, Elena was leaving off as much of the equipment as possible. She had run the plan by both her grandfather and Peter and both approved. It meant her breaks were shorter, but the military's belief in technology might be shaken, at least in regards to piloting a channel rider.

  "Of course," Marco said. "They a
re the only kind I do." Elena smiled as she uncovered her tray. Marco's willingness to offer assistance without hesitation was one of his better-known traits. Only slightly less known was his love of gossip.

  "I don't suppose filling me in on what happened after I crashed would fall into that category? Perhaps relieving you of the burden of secrecy?" Elena said. She picked up the fork and began cutting small pieces of her omelet to eat.

  "I can't believe you slept through that." Elena continued to eat her omelet. "The Captain and the Bear hurled names and threats loud enough to shake the masts." The Bear had become the crew's favorite term for Smith. Jonathan had likewise become known as Smiley.

  "And which one came out on top?" Elena asked. Marco looked shocked.

  "No one outranks the captain," he told her sternly.

  "Of course," Elena said. "I merely meant to ask if Smith actually made the captain give him any lee way or if he was now confined to quarters."

  "Ah, of course. There is no confinement. The Bear received no special favors and is grumbling, but accepting of the realities of life." Elena nodded and finished her omelet. She picked up the coffee and took a sip.

  "Thanks," she said as Marco picked up the plate and cover. He shrugged.

  "It was my turn in the galley today." He left with the empty plate. A few minutes later Elena saw Smith stalk across the deck and had to admit the crew's description of a bear was quite accurate. He was grumbling as if he had been awakened from hibernation too soon. He reached the pilothouse and to Elena's surprise he was relatively polite when she expected him to snap.

  Apparently he decided discretion was the better part of valor, at least in this instance. Elena turned away from Smith and looked ahead. Alexandro stood on deck surveying the daily operations. As his eyes turned towards her, she winked. He smiled and nodded and continued on his way. Elena wondered how long the cease-fire would last.