“I said,” Rebbi announced to her evenly, “don’t you talk that way about my man.”
“Reb?” Rolondo asked, sensing she might be changing her mind.
“I still hate you some, you know that?” Rebbi said to him, crying and shaking her head. She walked close to him but stopped short of touching him. “But fact is, I love you more. Do you think I’m going to let you go all the way by yourself to Ancia? Ancia the wonder-planet, without me?” Then she hugged him. “But don’t you dare cross me again. Don’t you dare!”
“I assume you’re staying?” Jupe asked Real. “Where’s your partner?”
“I have that taken care of,” Real said as a half-truth. “Meeting someone there. Don’t worry about it.”
“Then to Ancia we go,” said Jupe. “What’s left of you. And I will let you know, so you know I’m not hiding anything from you, I have no intention of staying. My plan is to drop you off there and get back to Earth as fast as I can. There will be no debate on that. And if you want to go anywhere else other than your ‘wonder-planet,’ then you can go find yourselves another ship.”
* * * *
Jupe was left with four. Two solitary men, Morgan and Real, and one couple, Rolondo and Rebbi. They were four people who, in ordinary life, Jupe would have no interest in knowing anything about. They had nothing in common, and both sides were unsure how to talk to each other. But given that obstacle, Jupe felt something unusual, something he had never imagined; they were looking to him with respect, and he liked it.
They reached the point where the ship’s main engines could be ignited, the area deemed far enough away from the station to avoid major chemical fallback. Although such laws and restrictions were not entirely scientifically proven, it made the residents of T Station feel a bit safer.
Jupe had an incoming comlink call. Assuming it was the station flight authority, he answered it casually.
“You’re brave, I’ll give you that,” TC said straight off. “Taking the ship like that. Took a fair piece of explaining, but in the end the guys here are easy to persuade. They’re not sent out here for their good grades, I guess. How I’ll explain it to Lars is another matter, and that’ll take some doing. Thanks for that.”
“I have nothing to say to you,” Jupe said, trying to sound like he was in control. He hovered his hand over the switch to turn his com off.
“Well, I do to you, so hear me out. Cut me off, it’ll be the biggest mistake you’ll ever make. Think about this first: There are many things out there you don’t know. About the deep, I mean. Things you need to know, and fast.”
“Not knowing never stopped you. Isn’t that what you told me?”
“Believe me when I tell you, there are things you are better off not knowing. It’s all in the logs, but some of it is marked, and it’s best you don’t go there. Just leave them alone.”
“Like killing your passengers? That in your logs?”
“Trust your instincts, that’s all. When it comes down to it, I know your instincts are good; they have to be, you got them from me. If everything else fails you, your skill, your education, your memory even, if that goes, then your instincts will get you through. You have to trust them, even if they make no sense. That’s what got me through, and at times, it was all that did. Getting through to Khans Star, you learn to go with the flow, and that’s a lot further than Gammond’s world. A lot further.”
There was silence.
“You’ve finished?” asked Jupe.
“Looks that way.”
“The only thing I want to tell you is this: You rescued those people, not the ship.”
“What’s that?” his father asked, beginning to show some anger.
“You told me you didn’t want to be the hero, and you were just trying to save the ship. I don’t buy that, not at all. And I think you know that too. You were after saving those people.”
There was a pause, and when he spoke again he didn’t deny what Jupe was saying. “Being a hero costs you. And I guess you’re about to find that out for yourself, aren’t you.”
At that, Jupe punched at the switch to the comlink, annoyed that TC may be right. He waited in silence for the station’s flight manager to give him the all-clear to proceed. There was no goodbye to his father, or acknowledgment that they may never talk again. Jupe did not consider saying it, and nor did he want to hear it.
PART THREE
TWO ARRIVALS
The sixteen-month journey to the Pyronna system, home to the fabled world of Ancia, was incident-free. Their safety was cause for surprise to them all, not so much because Jupe was a young pilot, or that he had no one to back him up, but that they had not been stopped by any UDE authorities. They had heard how the territory surrounding Ancia was heavily patrolled, and they considered the possibility that they would not find any access to the world. Their “plan B,” should all attempts to land fail, would be to travel to that other, less appealing colony world of Harax Pras. But no one wanted to go there, or even think about it.
For Jupe, he was privately elated at their safe arrival. The scepticism from his father, that had been hanging over him for most of the flight, had lessened, given the thoroughness of the ship’s charts. Even though TC had never been to Ancia, the amount of detail in the best ways to get there was inspiring. Jupe had somehow imagined TC to be as casual about the charts as he was about most things in his life, including his family, but now he saw that his dad actually was a professional star pilot, and perhaps someone worthy of his status as hero. And whenever Jupe started to think of him like that, he would remind himself about how he was planning to betray his passengers, as well as his son.
The three star-swings described in the charts as “high-risk,” proved not worth the worry. The swings were within the ship’s capability, and the ship’s computers gave no warnings that Jupe should fly manually. He had practised regularly for such an event when he would have to take control of the ship, but it never came. The only other point of interest was in the fifteen times that they encountered “near” objects, which called for emergency stations. The objects were nothing more than large chunks of ice or wandering asteroids. In actuality, they all passed the ship further than the Moon is from the Earth, which was still considered a near-collision in space flight. The first five or six caused excitement from the passengers, who sought to view the objects, but then such encounters became mundane and forgotten.
The main interest for the small group of five, was the unlikely friendships that developed between them. Any hidden defences did not last long, and they soon felt like members of the same family. Jupe was looked upon as the new hero, and they all held nothing but contempt for TC, given his actions toward them, and the way Jupe talked about his childhood of fatherly neglect. Morgan spent hours teaching them about how to set up their own companies and find the best land, and plan to build their own estates and future empires. Jupe didn’t say anything, but he was amused at all the talk of empire-building, since he had no interest in anything to do with Ancia. He planned to get away as soon as they moved their cargo off the ship. The return flight would be difficult if he was to do it alone, but he was determined to try.
Rebbi had almost forgotten Rolondo’s lying and scheming with Chera, but she had not forgiven Real’s involvement in his plan. She was polite to him, but she knew not to trust him, and told Rolondo that they should have nothing to do with him once they land.
As the red glow of the Pyronna star grew brighter, they shared in the excitement that they were finally at their great destination. The impossible had been obtained. As they began their approach to Ancia, Jupe admitted that he knew little about the place, and the ship’s computers were not much help. He expected to receive early contact from the local flight-control, even before they reached the outskirts. He planned to portray the ship as an official UDE flight, until they were properly identified, or he could find a cold moon to hide behind. TC had all kinds of escape manoeuvres programmed into the flight system, so Jupe felt con
fident if they were confronted by some big UDE warship.
Four enormous gas giant planets were detected in the system. They each featured numerous moons, and had deathly poisonous and frigid atmospheres. Such planets were beautiful to behold, but, as the veteran space farers liked to say, were little more than decoration, of no use, but for eye-candy. The computers told Jupe that there were five near-star planets, and he assumed that one of them was Ancia. But then he saw that they were listed as heated and baked rocks of no interest, smaller than Earth’s moon. The computer listed the moon of the largest gas giant as Ancia.
Rebbi came into the flight deck and sat at the co-pilot’s seat, as she had become accustomed. She had started to enjoy watching the sight of endless space in front of them, and try to accept the idea that they were actually travelling in deep-space, far from their home.
“We’re coming up,” Jupe said, trying to hide his confusion.
“I heard,” she said, a little breathless at the thought.
“The others aren’t interested?” he asked, sensing that she didn’t notice him.
“They are,” she said, embarrassed over their behaviour. “But they are fighting over unpacking order. Nearest the door, that’s all Ro wants. Last in, first out, he’s saying. Sorry, Jupe, but they’re only thinking about jumping out and finding stable ground as fast as they can, and getting their stake.”
Jupe studied the comlink lines and saw nothing. He began to worry that the military was influencing his readouts, and perhaps they should draw back and think about it some more. But then, he knew that even if they weren’t yet detected, the comlink should be picking at least something up. He decided to be positive, and allow the ship to take them to what it said was Ancia; the main moon of the largest gas giant.
“Are you really going to leave us?” she asked. “What if you like the place? Don’t want to stay just a little time?”
“Does it have surf?” he asked, his standard reply that everyone reacted to with a shake of the head, tired of the joke.
“Probably does, yes,” Rebbi said, humouring him, as she liked to do.
“Coming here wasn’t my idea.”
“Part of the way was.”
“I’ll give you that.”
“You look your age, act older though. What you did to save us, that was heroic. It needs to be said. Before we get there and everyone forgets what happened here, I just want you to know that.”
“I’m not looking for praise or pity here. All I want is to spend my naturals surfing. I’m serious about that, so you can laugh all you want. Soon as I get back to ground—Earth ground, I’m never setting foot in space again, and that’s a promise.”
No, everything about this place is wrong. But the charts still say it’s Ancia.
“Does it not intrigue you,” she asked, “a whole, fantastic world to call your own, your very own?”
“I may have a look, as I fly over it. Fact is, we’ll have to remain discreet with the ship, seeing as you are not exactly registered. Don’t expect a welcoming party.”
“I think you may change your mind, stay for a while anyway. I’ll be willing to wager that.”
“Truth is, what puts me off the most, is the part about building your own cities. That sounds like nothing but work, all the live-long day.”
“That’s what the machines are for,” she laughed.
Rolondo entered with a loud cheer. “Yeah, the machines, we’re just talking about that.”
“I don’t work digging machines either,” said Jupe. “Can we have everyone up here now? You’ll all need to get strapped in.”
Rolondo nodded and went back to get the Morgan and Real. When everyone was ready, Jupe directed the ship to head for what the nav-computer insisted was Ancia, and begin a wide orbit. They still detected no comlinks, nor signs of other ships. Not just UDE; there was nothing from anyone.
They could see no clouds and the surface of the moon, which was a patchwork of dark red, with large chunks of dark brown here and there, all looking uninviting.
“That’s odd,” Jupe said to himself, not seeing any point in hiding the bad news any further.
“What’s odd?” asked Rolondo, sensing his concern. “Something’s wrong?”
“Is there a problem?” asked Morgan.
“No problem with our trajectory or target,” said Jupe. “Speed is good. Ship is good. Everything is good, actually. Didn’t do too bad a job getting us here, did I?”
“You said something was odd, what was it?” Rebbi asked quickly, knowing Jupe well enough to see that he was evading the question.
“Ancia,” Jupe admitted. “I’ve got no comlinks, no nav-guides, no contact at all. If there’s a GTD, they’re hiding it. Nothing is registering on the scopes and from what I can see visually down there, it’s nothing but a bleak rock. I can’t even see any sign of atmosphere.”
“Don’t joke with us, don’t you know how fragile we are right now?” Real said nervously.
“This is Ancia, right?” Rolondo asked, starting to panic. “You have taken us to the right place? The right star system?”
“Ro, don’t …” Rebbi shushed him.
“Yes, it’s the right system,” Jupe said, mildly insulted. “That is Ancia. There’s nowhere else in this system is anything like a habitable world.”
“What are you saying?” Rolondo asked with a raised voice, ignoring Rebbi. “We have no contact? Is there something wrong with your scopes? That doesn’t look anything like Ancia. Where are we?”
“How is it not Ancia?” Jupe said as he turned to him. “It’s the only earth-like planet here, not to mention the only planet for light years. It’s not like I missed Ancia and we stumbled on this planet instead. Is that what you think’s happened? You think I missed it? Do you think that’s what happened?”
“Then what’s wrong, Jupe?” asked Rebbi.
“What’s wrong,” he said, “is it doesn’t look anything like what Ancia should look like. Or sound like, given the complete lack of communication. There’s no coms—what am I supposed to do, invent some for you?”
He looked out of the viewscreen to study the surface, and it horrified him. There was no life, at all.
“Lack of communication can be easily explained,” Morgan said, sounding like he was in charge, or should be. “Since we are an unregistered ship, we will not be invited by the powers-that-be. Am I right?”
“I know the official Ancia authority would not be expecting us,” said Jupe, having no idea what to do next. “Of course I know that. Do you think I want to be shot down before we hit atmosphere? I don’t know, maybe I’m over-thinking this. There’s something I must be missing.”
“TC would know,” Real remarked off-hand.
“TC?” Jupe responded with his own anger. “What, you’re saying if TC were here, he’d figure it out? In case you’ve forgotten, TC tried to dump you all off this flight.”
“Easy up, Jupe,” said Rolondo, as if he was the only one allowed to shout.
“Perhaps we are over-thinking this,” said Morgan. “Let’s get closer. See what this place is. Should it not be Ancia, then perhaps it is another world that needs to be explored, and we may be the first humans to do so. Let’s see if we can land.”
Jupe could see no reason to object his idea, since he knew that they needed to find the truth sooner or later. As he dropped the ship closer to the surface he had the shields on full, in case it was a UDE trap of some kind. But the closer they got to the surface, the more detail was registered by the computers, and all they could detect was rock and sand.
“No, this is the wrong place,” Rolondo announced, his voice cracking with his anger. “This idiot has taken us to the wrong place! Is this some kind of plan? You brought us here to kill us, or something? Is any of what you’ve told us true?”
Rebbi went between him and Jupe. If he had really wanted, he could have tossed her aside to get to Jupe.
“Look at the nav-charts, you don’t believe me,” said Jupe, feeli
ng betrayed, but not surprised by his reaction. “It’s Ancia, or what Ancia should be where they told us Ancia was.”
“Has something happened to Ancia?” asked Rebbi. “Something terrible? Some disaster?”
“I doubt that,” said Jupe. “Look at the surface. I don’t even want to risk setting the ship on surface like that. Could be unstable; certainly looks it. And there’s no real atmosphere.”
“If this is Ancia and they suffered a great disaster,” pondered Morgan, “would there be diminished atmosphere as a result? Could that be what happened? Could we have missed a war of some kind?”
“Or alien invasion?” asked Real.
“That’s not Ancia,” said Rolondo. “How can it be? Just look at it. You think it used to be Ancia and it’s changed a little bit?”
“I have spent many an hour studying Ancia,” said Real, “and I have to agree, from what we can see, it is nothing like this place. Is there any atmosphere at all, Jupe?”
“Trace, that’s all,” he said, and that meant there was nothing that could support human life.
“There are massive crevasses,” Rebbi observed. “Look at that.”
“Not anything like what they said in the advertising,” said Morgan, not really listening and talking more to himself.
“No, there’s no question to it, we can’t land,” said Jupe.
“Then what are we supposed to do now, genius?” asked Rolondo, with a glare that looked like he was about to hit him.
“There’s another moon …” Jupe started.
“Ancia has no moon,” said Real.
“All right,” Jupe began again, “so there is this imaginary moon not far from us, looks a great deal more solid than this one, and perhaps has a little more atmosphere. We can try landing there. If you all don’t mind?”
“I don’t think there can be much doubt about what we have found,” Morgan announced. “This is certainly the wrong star system. There is no possible way this planet is Ancia. It’s a massive misjudgement in navigation, that’s for sure. I’m not blaming you, Jupe, it’s more a cause of error in the ship’s charts. Perhaps TC envisioned our taking his ship and set up false charts. Who’s to know. But it’s not your fault, and we don’t hold you responsible.”