The walls fell silent.
“Intercom to Watch and Houston,” Al Shei called out. “Conference room now. We’ve got a problem. Intercom to FTL and Ensign, I want a download of the readings we’re getting up there. Shim’on, get down here and compare them with the readings we’re getting on the direct displays. Keep everything on film and bring it to the conference room. Stay suited up, just in case.”
She unhitched her belt and started climbing back toward the main ladder.
It would have been easier if it was the valve, she bit her lip as she started up toward the hatch. At least then we would have known what we were dealing with.
The conference room was already filled when she got there. Schyler had a list of the defective systems and their corresponding diagrams up on the main memory board. From the looks on their faces, everyone had already had a chance to study the display.
Al Shei let the hatch cycle shut behind her and seated herself at the foot of the table. She nodded to Schyler.
“So,” he tapped the memory board with one knuckle, “we already know we have a problem, and that it’s growing worse. As of now, we are on emergency duty until we have it cleared out.”
Al Shei looked at each face in turn, waiting for a challenge, waiting for someone to say they had already found a solution. No one so much as blinked, not even Dobbs sitting quietly in her corner.
“All right,” Schyler went on, “all section chiefs are to work double shifts. Work out a relief schedule so there’s someone attending to routine at all times while you’re out hunting. I do not want any system left unmonitored. I do, however,” he stabbed the table with his index finger, “want this cleared up before we make the Farther Kingdom delivery.”
“You know the one about the needle in the haystack?” inquired Lipinski.
Schyler nodded. “If you’ve got a suggestion, I want to hear it. Otherwise, I want a schedule worked out and I want all efforts coordinated through me.”
“I’ve got a suggestion,” said Yerusha.
Schyler faced her. “Which is?”
Yerusha’s face was absolutely dead-pan. “You could let me hatch the AI stack I’ve got into the Pasadena’s system. We’d get a dynamic picture and intelligent help.”
The blood drained from Lipinski’s face. He leaned forward, mouth open. Schyler glanced at Al Shei and waved Lipinski back.
“Thank you for volunteering, Pilot. We’ll save that as a back-up option. I don’t want to lose the loading time.”
Somewhat to Al Shei’s surprise, Yerusha didn’t try to argue. Good, maybe she was cooling off.
Next came some of the usual wrangling about resources and priorities and coordination. There wasn’t much, though, because they were all very aware of what this latest incident meant. If the instruments were reporting false disasters, they might have lost their ability to report real ones.
Schyler laid down the last coordination order and broke the meeting so the chiefs could alert their teams and work out their individual schedules.
Al Shei let the crew filter past her. The last one out the hatch was Dobbs.
“In case Schyler hasn’t mentioned it, you’re also on emergency duty,” Al Shei told her. “If we’ve got a virus running loose, things might get worse before they get better. I am going to need you to help keep us from overload.”
Dobbs bowed. “God gave them wisdom that have it, and fools, let them use their talents.”
Lipinski was waiting by the stairway hatch when Al Shei came out. He had regained some of his color, but he still looked sick.
She knew what was coming before he even opened his mouth.
“You’re not going to let her hatch that thing, are you?”
Al Shei sighed and pressed her fingers against her temple. “I might.”
“We have got an unidentified dynamic system fault and you’re willing to chuck an AI in there?” he was trying to whisper and not managing too well. “A Freer AI?”
Al Shei let her hand drop. “If you don’t want the AI hatched, Lipinski, you find out what’s causing our problems.” She drew herself up to her full height. “Get a lock on this paranoia, Houston. You’re running the risk of disrupting my ship.”
A strange light came into his eyes. “She thinks she can use that thing to catch a human soul. That’s blasphemy in your book too.”
Al Shei took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She reminded herself firmly about Lipinski’s unparallelled skill and commitment. She reminded herself how, as a young man, he had helplessly watched his whole world die around him.
“My book also says ‘tolerate patiently what unbelievers say and part from them in a polite manner.’” She cycled the hatch back. “And I believe yours has a few things to say about faith and trust in God.” She looked him straight in the eyes. “I’ve been doing some talking too. I said to Resit at the beginning of this run that you were a reasonable man. I do not want to have to say to her I was wrong.”
She watched his face shift as tone of her statement sank in. He straightened his shoulders. “You won’t.”
Al Shei let out a silent sigh of relief. “Thank you, Lipinski.” She let him precede her up the staircase.
When Al Shei returned to her cabin, Resit was kneeling on her prayer rug. Al Shei realized, with a small wince, that maghrib prayers must have just finished.
The look her cousin gave her was without reproach, however. “You’d better do two sajdatus sahw for forgetfulness,” she said mildly. “You haven’t made prayer once today.”
“There you’re wrong, Cousin.” Al Shei dropped wearily into the desk chair. “I’ve been doing nothing but pray for the last three hours.”
“I heard the alarm, of course.” Resit unfolded her legs and stood up. “Do you want to tell me about it, or should I read the report from Watch?”
Al Shei pulled out her pen and activated the desk. “Read the report, would you? I’ve got to get my ducks on a new schedule.”
“Uh-huh.” Resit draped her prayer rug over her arm. “Anything I need to be immediately worried about, then?”
“Not immediately.” Al Shei did not turn around. She pulled up the engineering schedule for the next three days and stared at it.
“You know, I get nervous when you don’t look at me,” Resit remarked. “Tell me, should I start drafting up a call-in on Tully?”
“Yes,” said Al Shei, quietly. “That you should do.”
“Then that’s what I’ll do.”
Al Shei heard the bathroom door open and close.
She forced herself to concentrate on the schedule. After the first attempt at reorganization, she realized that she hadn’t left herself any time to sleep. She had to blank everything out and start again.
Finally, she wrote TRANSMIT across the boards. Her gaze strayed to the drawer where she’d put the day book recorder. She stared at it for a moment, thinking about the next run, when Asil would be hearing this. What would the ending be? Would he know already that it had all worked out? Or would he be sitting silently listening to how she had slid so far down they’d be years digging themselves out? For a moment, she missed him with such appalling force that her throat closed around her breath.
“Only one way to make sure it doesn’t come to that.” She stood up and strode out the door.
Hours later, Al Shei forced herself back into her cabin. There hadn’t been any more system failures, but there hadn’t been any progress toward finding the cause of their troubles either. She prayed long and intensely, reaching for a peace that didn’t come, made her day book recording and, at last, lay down on her bunk beneath her emerald green coverlet.
Al Shei lay on her side and listened to the soft hum of the ship around her. Usually, it lulled her. It was the sound of everything behaving as it should. Not tonight. Tonight, the gentle sound was a disguise, covering up an unseen problem. Pasadena was haunted tonight, and she had no idea how to draw the ghost out.