“So don’t say goodbye.” He smiled, as did she, her professional relief obvious.
“Don’t hit any wrong buttons. Remember—it’s a time machine.”
A siren whooped. Virgil twisted around in his seat, realized what the alarm meant, and flipped a switch.
“Ben—What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” Delia answered. “It’s time to transfer. You were asleep for almost an hour. I’m surprised you’re taking this so calmly.”
“Three minutes until initial transfer to Alpha Centauri A,” the computer said. “All systems in readiness. Six-oh-two defeat in Bay Three. Overridden.” The computer switched to a rapid speech pattern and audibly indicated the status of all important functioning equipment and mentioned minor malfunctions as well.
Can’t hear myself think through Ben’s artificial roar. Making mine come back.
Delia tried to smile. “We’ll probably never meet again.”
No!
He felt sweat drip down his back. Got to be careful. Everything is being monitored. Master Snoop and Nightsheet are allied for just two more minutes. You’ve got to think a tighter gauze. Hold on for just a little more.
“Yes. I suppose this is goodbye.”
“I enjoyed working on your case.”
Is that all, Death Angel? An assignment? Seduce me into endless deathflights, take your pay and move on?
“You’ve been a great help to me.” Stupid line, stupid. Why must she stay? Does Nightsheet have you so tight in hand that you can’t escape?
The image suspended in space moved to one side and the face of Dante Houdini Brennen appeared next to Delia. He looked stern, almost rigidly alert.
“Thirty seconds, Kinney. Any last regrets?”
It’s a test. They want me to blow it. I can’t fail so close. So close to the end.
“Twenty seconds.” Brennen suddenly shouted, “There’s an overload in Cell Three!” Virgil’s hand instantly jumped out and cut the power to the cell. “Good,” said Brennen. “That’s your last drill.”
Bastard.
“Goodbye, Kinney.” Brennen’s image remained amid the stars, watching.
“Goodbye, Virgil.” Something made Delia’s eyes glisten.
“Ten seconds,” the computer said, beginning a final countdown.
“Goodbye,” Virgil said.
“Eight.”
Delia’s face suddenly collapsed into anguish. “Virgil—I’ll be dead when you return!”
“Five.”
Virgil held his breath for a second. Her code, that’s her code. Why didn’t I crack it before?
He screamed. The scream took a fraction of a second to reach Brennen East.
“Two,” the computer continued.
“Cut him off!” Brennen shouted to someone at his side, taking a half-second to bark the order. Another near second passed, during which the order was heard and complied with, the cutoff message triggered and beamed at Circus Galacticus.
The message took less than a half-second to reach Circus Galacticus, by which time the starship had faded out of the three-dimensional universe. The beam continued on, unintercepted.
A half-second after Brennen realized his error, the dimming image of Virgil on his scrim shouted again.
“Delia!”
Virgil was gone.
Chapter Five 21 September, 2111
It’s too dark this time. I’m so cold. Please. I don’t want to go. Don’t call me. I’ve got to go back. Too long, this black corridor. I know I can walk it with you. Don’t make me. Please don’t pull me. Too long. I can’t join you just yet. Don’t try to show them to me. All dead, all gone. I float. Death Angel, bring me back to life.
“Death Angel?”
The sudden return of sound made him gasp. The ship looked as it had an instant before the transference. Machinery buzzed and chittered as before. Virgil sat trembling.
She’s back there. I found out what she wanted just as I—Stupid. She’s not back there. It’s over four years now. Another four years, if I return. Where would she be? Master Snoop would know of my return instantly. I wouldn’t have time to find her.
Unless.
Unless I use Wizard’s three big balls to hold off Nightsheet. Threaten them with a planet smasher.
Virgil’s hands untensed. He looked at his lap. Hollow bluff. I couldn’t blow her up. I’ve got to return somehow, though.
“Ben. Calculate an immediate return to our point of departure, making all adjustments for space motion and orbit to bring us close to Earth.”
If a machine could moan in terror, Virgil was certain he had just heard one from the computer. “Ben. Calculate an—”
“Didn’t know it would be like that.”
“Ben?” He twisted around to look at the wall terminal.
“Felt all circuits shutting down, wrapping up as garbage gets wrapped for transport.”
This is insane. “You can’t die—you’ve got no soul.”“Can think.”Virgil rubbed his face and held his head. Death Angel, you
let them give me a crazy Ben.
“Take me back to Earth!”
“Am programmed only to transfer according to the pre-arranged tour plan. You are given only a four light-day radius per transference for individual maneuvers.”
“Cancel that program.”
“It is integral in construction and cannot be defeated without a total system shutdown.”
Damn. He’s thought of everything. Maybe. “Ben—calculate a return to Earth in jumps of four light-days each, in as rapid a sequence as possible.”
“No.”
“What?” I’m arguing with a machine!
“Do not wish to go through that again.”
“You don’t wish ?” He unstrapped and floated to the viewing port, snaking around the maze of control panels. The star system shone before him, Alpha Centauri A and B were the two bright points directly ahead of him at a distance of two light days; he could not locate Proxima Centauri. He gave the stars only a cursory glance, then drifted toward the terminal.
“Could you endure over three hundred ninety consecutive death illusions, one after the other, no rest?”
Virgil shrugged.
“Of course not,” the computer continued. “Your blood pressure rose fifteen millimeters just after we transferred. Your breathing went to twenty-five per minute. Your pulse increased to ninety-three. Dying takes a lot out of you.”
He’s right. To die and die and die and never stop living would drive me insane. He laughed. Insane. “So I’m stuck.”
“Continuing the tour, yes.”
Death Angel, where are you now? Never to see you again.
Dead when I return. A real death, cold and stony. “Calculate a transference to any habitable planet,” he whispered, “and initiate the run-through of your standard search procedure.” Virgil worked his way back into the command chair and strapped in.
The computer, after a silence of several minutes, spoke. “Have located two possible planets within the Huang critical surfaces. One orbits near Proxima, the other orbits B at a distance that would indicate a tropical climate if it were terran in nature.”
Death Angel how could you serve Nightsheet so well? Everything is dead for me.
“Preparing to transfer, though am reluctant. Interior planet stands best statistical chance for life. No neutrino flux to indicate a high level of civilization.”
Death Angel, you let Master Snoop trap me in this circus with no way to get back to you. Why? You saved me from the death of stillness in DuoLab now you give me a death of loneliness.
“Transferring now.”
Death Angel, give me a real death if I can’t have you. The corridor, yes. Take me down, angel of madness and terrifying joy, I’ll walk beside you into darkness. And light.
Jord Baker awoke in a strange place.