“I’ve got the ship running smoothly now,” Linc said.
She looked down at him and let one hand rest on his shoulder. “Yes, I know.” Her hand felt cold through the thin fabric of his shirt. She seemed tense, almost afraid.
“We’ll be able to make it to the new world.”
“Perhaps.”
“You could help us—”
“I have helped you,” Magda said.
Linc stared up at her. “You have? How? By meditating? A few hours with a screwdriver would have been more help.”
“Don’t joke about serious things,” Magda said softly. “I’ve helped you by staying here and fasting, concentrating, meditating—and by preventing Monel from stopping your work.”
“Monel couldn’t—”
“Monel tried to rouse all the people against you,” Magda said. “But Slav and his farmers refused to follow him. Thanks to the priestess.”
Linc didn’t understand. “What? Are you saying…?”
It was difficult to see her face in the shadows. Magda seemed to be staring off somewhere in the darkness. “Ever since you went to the Ghost Place,” she explained, “Monel has tried everyday to make me say that you are evil, and you must be stopped. I have not said it. Slav asked me for guidance, and I told him that he should not fear you, or the Ghost Place.”
“But you told me—” Linc didn’t bother finishing the sentence. None of it made any sense to him.
Magda went on, “You are such children, all of you. You each want to be the mighty leader, the one who gives orders, who decides what must be done. You know you’re right. Monel knows you’re wrong. At least Slav doesn’t pretend to know everything, he asks the priestess for guidance.”
Shaking his head, Linc asked, “I thought you believed—”
Her hand tightened on his shoulder. “The priestess is always in command. Monel thinks he’s the leader; he’s a fool. You think you can save us all from death; you’re a fool, too. I am the leader here, and all of you do as I wish. I am letting you try to fix the machines because you might be right about them. I am letting Monel think he’s giving orders to everyone because then I can make him give the orders that I want him to give.
“When you tried to overthrow everything we have believed all our lives, even the power of the priestess, I used Monel to balance your new power. When Monel wanted to stop your work in the Ghost Place and have you cast out, I used Slav to balance him. You men do all the struggling and I remain the priestess, the real leader, the one who brings Jerlet’s wisdom into the lives of the people.”
Linc felt stunned. “You’ve been playing us against each other?”
Magda’s voice smiled. “Of course. I’ve been directing all of you ever since I became priestess. Before that time, even when we were children, I could make any one of you do almost anything I wanted to.”
“But you didn’t want me to fix the machines in the bridge.”
“True. I was afraid for you. And afraid that if you succeeded, it would ruin my power and the people’s belief in Jerlet. But when I realized that I couldn’t stop you, I decided it was foolish to resist. This way, you counterbalance Monel’s power. And Slav and his farmers have become a third power, in between the two of you.”
Sagging against the edge of the bunk, Linc said, “I just can’t believe it. You can’t play with people’s lives like that. No one can. You just think—”
“Why do you think you came here tonight?” Magda asked.
“Why do I think…? I came here because we’re going to light off the rockets tomorrow for the first course change, and I’d like you to be there.”
“No, that’s not why you came.” And her hand gripped his shoulder hard. “Linc, I summoned you. I called you. That’s why I knew who it was when you knocked.”
He puffed out a disgusted breath of air.
“I know you don’t believe me.” Magda’s voice was so quiet that he could barely hear her. “But you might at least ask why I called you.”
“All right: why?”
“Because I have a terrible fear. Your rockets are not going to work tomorrow. We’re all going to plunge into the yellow star and be burned… or… something terrible is going to happen.”
“Don’t be silly.” But her hand was a claw biting into his shoulder now. “Magda, everything’s checked out. The computer—”
“Don’t tell me what machines say!” she snapped. “I know something is wrong. And I need you to help me find out exactly what it is.”
“Need me?”
She nodded and closed her eyes. “I have to touch you, feel your vibrations, to find out what’s wrong.”
He stared up at her. “You’re serious about this, aren’t you?”
But she was no longer listening to him. Her fingers were digging deeply into his shoulder. Her eyes glittered, but she was staring at empty shadows. Her entire body was shaking spasmodically.
Magda’s mouth worked, tried to form words, but no sounds came out. Despite himself, Linc felt drawn into her spell. “What is it? What do you see?”
She didn’t answer.
He waited. The minutes stretched tautly. Still she seemed possessed by something invisible.
Then she sagged and nearly collapsed against him. Linc got to his knees and held her.
“Magda, what is it? What’s wrong?”
She was cold with sweat. “I…trouble—” she gasped weakly. “Trouble with the engines—”
“What kind of trouble? What will go wrong?”
“I don’t know… couldn’t see.”
He held her tightly, his mind racing. Foolishness! You’re letting yourself get caught up in this whole superstitious nonsense. But his own inner voice asked, What could go wrong?
Where could a failure happen? The answer: Anywhere.
“But what’s the most likely way that a failure could happen?” he asked himself. And the answer flashed into his mind like an explosion. “If someone tampered with the engines…or the connections between the astrogation computer and the controls… or—”
Magda stiffened in his arms. She pulled away and stared into Linc’s eyes.
“Monel,” she whispered.
18
Monel was. not in his room.
Linc and Magda raced down the corridor and banged on his door. When there was no answer, they pushed it open. No one was there.
“There’s a hundred places he could be,” Linc said.
“What should we do?” Magda’s eyes were wide with fear.
He grabbed her hand. “Let’s go to the bridge.”
Linc tried to force himself to think calmly as they ran toward the bridge. But his mind was a hopeless jumble of fears, hatred, darting wild thoughts.
He didn’t even realize that the bridge was totally new to Magda. He just made his way to the main computer desk and plunked himself down in the chair. With one hand he waved Magda to the empty chair beside him, with the other he switched on the computer screen.
“Show me the locations of the main rocket thrusters, the control systems, and all the links between them and the bridge,” he commanded.
A series of diagrams flashed onto the screens that lined the wall above the curving desk. The areas that Linc asked about were circled with bright colors.
“How could Monel know where these are?” Magda wondered, staring at the screens.
“Somebody told him,” Linc snapped. “Rix… the guard that stayed here to help us. A traitor. That overfed, rat-faced… he’s been telling Monel everything, I’ll bet.”
Linc hauled himself out of the computer desk chair and hurried over to another station. He punched buttons madly and studied the pictures that the screens there showed: TV camera views of a half-dozen different parts of the ship. All empty.