“Rudy, that’s very nice of you.”
“It’s true.”
That brought an awkward silence. “So when do we leave?” she asked. “Do we have anything firm yet?”
“November. The fifteenth.”
“You’re kidding. That’s less than two months.”
“That’s the launch.”
“Okay. I’ll be there.”
“Sorry about the short notice. There’s a move in Congress—”
“I heard.”
“We’re concerned about the possibility of a cease and desist order, prohibiting further testing.”
“They’re worried we’ll stir up whatever’s out there.”
“That’s what they’re saying.” That was nonsense, of course. But the Greens had gotten elected by trying to scare people to death. We’ll protect you, they claimed. We want them to stay away from us, so we’ll stay away from them.
Two days later, they did a conference call. “I’ve been looking into getting adequate shielding for the ships,” said Rudy. He made a face, looked unhappy. “It’ll be expensive.” Radiation within sixty light-years of the core was substantial.
“How much?” asked Matt.
Rudy quoted the figure. For the investment to armor the two vessels, they could have bought a third ship, new. If new superluminals were on the market.
“That’s painful,” said Jon, “but it shouldn’t be a problem. The corporates want to give us money now.”
“But it always comes with strings,” said Hutch. She turned back to Rudy. “Can we raise it from donations?”
“We have a decent chance. My question is simply whether it wouldn’t be smarter to go somewhere else. Not go to the core. Maybe save that for later.”
Jon glanced at Matt. “What’s your feeling, Hutch?”
They all looked at her, and she realized the three of them had talked earlier, had debated the issue, had been divided, and that somehow they’d agreed to abide by her opinion. They could make for one of the nebulas filled with ancient class-G suns. Who knew what they might find there?
Or they could head for Cygnus X-1, the original black hole, the historic one. And thereby become the first mission ever to tread on that particular sacred ground. So to speak. It was, what, six thousand light-years away? Three weeks’ travel time.
Or maybe Eta Carinae, the mad star. Occasionally four million times as bright as Sol, bright enough to outshine Sirius, even though it lay ten thousand light-years from Earth. At other times, invisible. With luck they could get there in time to watch it explode.
“Hutch?” Rudy looked at her, waiting for an answer.
The omegas were the great mystery of the age. “Make for the core,” she said. “Let’s find out what’s going on.”
They exchanged glances. Nods. Jon delivered an unspoken I told you.
“Good enough,” said Rudy. “Hutch, I’ll need you to help raise the money.”
Campaigning for the Foundation became sheer joy. Money poured in. They were also getting requests for passage on the Mordecai flight from around the world. It seemed as if everybody on the planet wanted to go.
Much of the enthusiasm could be credited to Antonio, who depicted the mission to Alioth as one of the great human achievements, up there with the invention of democracy, the discovery of Jupiter’s moons, and Hamlet. For a while, it was impossible to turn on the VR without seeing Antonio modestly explaining how it had felt to travel with the Locarno. And what the implications were.
She also found time to conduct an inspection of the McAdams. She took Matt with her. The ship seemed serviceable, so Rudy completed the deal with Orion. No money changed hands. The corporate giant got some good public relations and a tax break.
When that had been completed, work began to mount extra shielding on both ships.
Rudy pressed her about piloting one of the ships. “It’s been a long time,” she said.
“Are you still licensed?”
“No.” She laughed. “It’s been a while.”
“Can you requalify?”
“I don’t know. Why don’t you hire somebody who’s a bit more current?”
“I’d prefer having you to bringing a stranger on board.”
“You figure you get more publicity this way?”
“That wouldn’t hurt,” he said. “But it’s not the reason. This will be a historic flight. And we don’t really know what we might run into. You’ve been through some wild stuff already.”
“And—?”
“I trust you.”
Hutch had enjoyed herself thoroughly during the Alioth flight and its aftermath. When they’d returned, she was still on a high, and could have gotten down from the space station without a shuttle. It obviously showed because she’d quickly become the media’s darling for interviews. They’d decided before they came home that they’d try to downplay the Mordecai aspect of things. Antonio agreed to go along with it, although he insisted the omegas were simply too big a story to be hidden. “I won’t push it,” he’d promised, “but if it takes off on its own, I’ll have to jump on board.”
It had. And he did.
All the exciting stuff was at the core. Stars crammed together like commuters on a train. Giant jets. Black holes. Astronomers had been arguing for centuries about details at the center. It was the big boiling point for the galaxy, the Cauldron.
This was the time when the term came into wide use. They’re going into the Cauldron.
God knows what’s being cooked up.
The Texas Rangers, a popular singing group of the period, even came up with a song, “The Cookpot Blues,” which went right to the head of the charts.
Hutch would have discouraged it had she been able. It was the wrong image.
The reporters loved the story and kept it alive. They even covered the crash training program she underwent to get her license renewed.
Hutch was asked constantly whether they’d get close enough to see the central black hole?
No, she said.
That was a pity. You go all that way and don’t get to see the core.
Too much radiation, she explained.
Can’t you put more shielding on the ship? And what about the omegas? You keep denying the mission is about them. But aren’t they the real reason you’re making the flight?
That last question surfaced at every press conference, at every appearance.
Well, she said, we’ll probably take a look, see what it’s about. If we get time. Mostly what we want is to demonstrate that the new star drive can manage this type of initiative.
Yes. Initiative. That doesn’t sound dangerous. Have to be careful how you respond to these things.
She treated herself to some new clothes for the flight. In the old days, she’d have been running around in one of those jumpsuit uniforms that made her look like a boy. Not this time. She might have to perform as pilot, but she was not going back into uniform.
The people at Orion, at the signing ceremony that handed the McAdams to the Foundation, suggested to Rudy that he was making a mistake allowing her on the bridge. “It’s not that they don’t trust you,” Matt told her over dinner the following night at Max’s German Restaurant on Wisconsin Avenue. “They’re just concerned because you’ve been inactive for so long. They think you should step down.”