No two words were the same. Every one had its own string of six nine-digit numbers. I settled down, determined to record a complete list. I would begin with the topmost point of the display and move the green marker systematically down through the whole thing, light by light.
I was becoming very tired, and maybe what I was doing was my way of avoiding further real thinking. But I went on, through name after meaningless name. Rockcorry, Ardscull, Timolin, Ballybay, Culdaff Annoy, Tyrella, Moira…
And then, almost without realizing it, I found that I was copying the words, Paddy’s Fortune.
I stopped, tingling all over. It could be a name, no different from any other. The usual six nine-digit numbers that sat below it supported that idea.
Or Paddy might be Paddy Enderton. Paddy’s Fortune might be his own words to describe what was shown in the data box.
It was the middle of the night, but that made no difference. I went through to Mother’s room with the display still on, intending to wake her up. She was not there.
She was downstairs. The three guards were in the living-room, sound asleep—so much for their value as protectors. Mother and Doctor Eileen were sitting facing each other at the kitchen table, glasses and an open bottle between them.
It was the first time that I had seen Mother drinking wine when we did not have one of her spacer visitors. I suddenly realized that I might not be the only one having trouble sleeping. Although my own past couple of days had been hard, Mother’s had been far more filled with stress. She had been questioned, and beaten, and threatened with worse. She had been the one who had to sit with Paddy Enderton’s corpse, and dispose of poor Chum’s body.
“What woke you up?” she said, when I approached the table.
“I never went to sleep. I couldn’t.” I put the wafer onto the table along with my written list, and pointed at the displayed data.
“That green point is on something called Paddy’s Fortune. Do you think it means Paddy Enderton?”
Mother stared at the glowing nimbus of lighted points, but Eileen Xavier seemed more interested in the data box and the list that I had written.
“Where did you get this from?” she asked.
“It’s the words that the calculator seems to give to the points. Each one has a different name.”
“Just a name? Nothing else?”
“Lots and lots more. I just didn’t know what it meant, so I didn’t write it all down.”
Doctor Eileen put down the paper. Her eyes were gleaming as she turned to the display. “Show me.”
I moved the green pointer to a glowing red point that I had looked at before, and said, “First data level.”
Ardscull, read the data box. Beneath that, as before, were the usual six mysterious numbers.
Mysterious to me, I should have said. Because Doctor Eileen exhaled her breath, as though she had been holding it for the past minute, and gasped, “Jay, you’ve done it! Molly, you ought to be proud of him.”
“I am proud of him,” Mother said. “Most of the time. But I don’t know what he did.”
“Those little sparks of light.” Doctor Eileen pointed. “They represent places. Those names that Jay wrote down are the names of some of the bigger worldlets, out in the Maze. I think the whole display is of the Maze. And Paddy’s Fortune, for a bet, is the place where Paddy Enderton believed you’d find Godspeed Base.”
“But that doesn’t tell you how to get anywhere,” Mother protested. “It’s just a picture.”
“It would be—if it weren’t for these.” Doctor Eileen indicated the six nine-figure strings of digits below the word, Ardscull. “I’m no spacer, and I don’t know that much about planets and moons. But six numbers are enough to fix the location and speed of any object in space. I’ll bet that five of them, the ones that hardly change, describe the form of the orbit. And this sixth one, the one that keeps increasing, tells the object’s position in its orbit. It’s all you need to reach a place.”
“There’s other information, too.” I returned the green marker to coincide with the point of Paddy’s Fortune. After the name and the usual six numbers had been displayed again, I intoned clearly: “Second data level.”
The display box became annoyingly empty. “That’s funny,” I said. “It worked for the others I tried. Why doesn’t it work for this one?”
“Because Paddy’s Fortune is different from all the natural worlds of the Maze.” Doctor Eileen stood up and began to walk round and round the table. “My God, Molly, do you know what this means? No wonder the men last night were willing to beat you and smash your house to pieces to get this. We have to tell everybody what we’ve found. Then we have to hire a ship and go there.”
“Just a minute.” Mother held up her hand, stopping Doctor Eileen in midstride. “You’re doing what you accuse me of—-jumping to conclusions. First, you’re assuming that Paddy’s Fortune has to be the same thing as Godspeed Base.”
“That thing Jay is holding was never made in the Forty Worlds.”
“Maybe not. But you were the one who insisted that Paddy Enderton had not been to Godspeed Base. If that’s true, where did he get the calculator and display?”
“I don’t know. You’re worrying over details. There’s one good way to settle everything—go and see.”
“All right. But the last thing you can afford to do is let a lot of other people know you’re going.” Mother glanced around and lowered her voice—though it would have taken a lot more than ordinary speech to wake up the snoring louts in the next room. “Let people learn where you’ve been and what you’ve found, after you come back. The more we keep this to ourselves, the less trouble we’ll risk. The bruisers who were here last night would love to know your travel plans.”
Doctor Eileen flopped down again on her chair. “Well, somebody has to know. You have to help me find a ship, and a few reliable spacers.”
“All right. We’ll find a ship. But I can’t be directly involved, Eileen.”
“Why not?”
“The men who were here last night. I would recognize them—and they’d recognize me. If they saw me, you might as well hang out a sign saying where you are going.”
“Then I’ll find a ship for myself.”
“That’s nearly as bad. You need a man to do it, Eileen, if you don’t want to be conspicuous. Whoever heard of a woman going to space?”
“That’s for quite different reasons, and you know it.”
Mother might know it. I didn’t, and at the moment I didn’t care.
“They didn’t see me!” I said. “They wouldn’t recognize me. I’m a man. Let me help find a ship.”
Mother shook her head. “You’ve done wonderfully well, Jay. But you’re much too young.”
Too young, after everything that I had done and been through! I grabbed Paddy Enderton’s calculator and held it close to my chest.
“Too young to find a ship,” said Doctor Eileen. “Yes, I agree. But is Jay too young to go? Look at his face, Molly. He’s earned the right, if anyone has.”
Mother did look at my face, and I at hers. It was the longest few seconds of my whole life, until finally she nodded.
“All right,” she said slowly. “You have earned it, Jay. You truly have. You can go with Doctor Eileen—if she goes.”
“I’m going,” Doctor Eileen said firmly.