By the time that I returned to the Cuchulain’s bridge, Donald Rudden was showing signs of stirring. “Chief’s on his way over there,” he said. He nodded his head to a display screen showing the corkscrew ship, hanging where Mel and I had left it. “And I hafta go over myself, with some tools they want. Rory’s supposed to spell me here.”
That wasn’t good news. Rory O’Donovan was the worst possible choice—not very bright, but full of energy. I couldn’t trust him to stay put in the control room.
“What’s going on at the other ship?”
“That thing’s a ship?” Rudden puffed out his cheeks. “I’ll believe it when I see it fly. Anyway, Rory says there’s hell to pay over there. That redhead friend of yours, Swift, he’s full of it. Been laying down the law about ships and drives. He don’t know beans about ships, and anyway the lads won’t take that stuff from a Downsider. He’s been warned twice by Pat O’Rourke, but he takes no mind.”
I wondered if Jim Swift knew how much danger he was in. After seeing Walter Hamilton shot, I wouldn’t argue with an angry crewman. The only thing Jim had protecting him was Danny Shaker’s control of the crew—a control that Shaker said became less every day.
As soon as Rudden left the bridge I made another quick run for the top level. I had to tell Mel what was happening, and warn her to lie low once O’Donovan was aboard and running loose. She didn’t take it well.
“I’ve had it with skulking away. You say hang in, but when do I get out?”
“Soon. But don’t take risks.”
I headed for the control room, wondering when I was going to take my own advice. Every trip to the upper level was a risk, for me as well as Mel.
When I reached the bridge Rory O’Donovan was not there, but Doctor Eileen was, staring at the displays. Her shoulders were slumped and she seemed half-asleep. She knew I was present, though, because as I moved to her side she said, “Jay,” in a far-off voice, as though I was some sort of ghost.
“Are you all right, Doctor Eileen?” As she turned to me I saw that her eyes had dark rings under them.
She gave me a faint trace of a smile. “As good as I’ll ever be. I’m tired. And I’m beginning to think I’m mortal.”
“What happened?”
“Oh, nothing much. We had an exhausting and aggravating sixteen hours, that’s all, and we didn’t find anything inside the big lobe except confusion. I gather you did better.”
“Jim Swift says we found the Godspeed Drive. He’s sure of it.”
“And I’m sure he believes he can fly it better than any crewman in the Forty Worlds.” Doctor Eileen sighed. “You know, this ought to be the greatest day of my life. Erin will get what I’ve wanted and worried about for fifty years: a new future. That’s what I ought to be thinking. But I can’t get out of my head the notion that things aren’t as they seem to be. That’s what being old does to you, Jay. It won’t let joy have a clear run in the sunlight, not even for one hour.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“At your age, I should hope not.” She stared at me, studying my face. “Jay Hara, I hardly know you.” Instead of explaining what she meant by that, she nodded at the image of the corkscrew and the twisted bubble on the end of it. “That little mystery will give us the stars, eh? Well, maybe. In my life I’ve seen stranger things.”
She reached out as though she was going to tousle my hair, the way she had ever since I was tiny. But this time she didn’t do it. She stroked my cheek instead. “Another month or two and I won’t know you at all,” she said. “I guess I ought to be pleased. Keep an eye on things here, and let me know if anything happens. I’ve got to take a little rest.”
Doctor Eileen left me on the bridge, wondering what on earth she had been talking about. She was the one who had changed, and that upset me. Doctor Eileen had always been as constant as the stars.
I went across to stand in front of the big convex mirror at the exit to the bridge, situated so that people entering and leaving through the angled doorway would not run into each other. Its rounded surface reflected a miniature and distorted image of my face, thin and dark-shadowed.
I stretched my arm out in front of me. My jacket sleeve showed three inches of bare wrist. It was the same coat that mother had made for me the night before I left home. It used to fit perfectly.
How long I stood standing in front of the mirror is anyone’s guess. I had intended to take one quick look and get back to the controls, but as I examined the neat stitching on the jacket sleeve my mind went spinning away: to lamplit winter evenings in the comfortable house by Lake Sheelin, to long summer days with old Uncle Toby, and finally to my secret sailing trips across the lake to Muldoon Spaceport. That wasn’t just a different world, it was a different universe.
When I came back to life and returned to the control room displays, I learned that in this universe things had been happening. The ship containing the Godspeed Drive had turned, so that the axis of the corkscrew now pointed away from the Cuchulain. Shimmering rings of violet haze were running back and forth along its length before spiraling away off the end. They moved on like ghostly smoke rings through open space for a few seconds, then at last faded.
Was the crew going to use the Godspeed Drive at once, without Doctor Eileen (or me) there to be part of it?
I hated that idea, but my worry vanished when all the shimmering rings suddenly disappeared. The Godspeed ship again hung motionless in vacuum. A minute later, a cluster of suited figures appeared from the distorted bubble at the end. They moved along the line of the corkscrew, apparently inspecting it, then jetted as a group toward the Cuchulain.
Doctor Eileen had to be told what was happening. For the third time in an hour I started at top speed for the upper level. The door of Doctor Eileen’s quarters was open, and I hurried in without knocking. She was there, sitting at a table with Mel next to her. I also saw—my heart jumped inside my chest—a broad male back, in a blue-clothed spacer jacket.
The man turned, and I realized with huge relief that it was Duncan West.
“Uncle Duncan!”
He nodded at me, and smiled as though my sudden appearance was the most natural thing in the world. “Just came to tell Doctor Eileen the good news. The ship that you and Jim Swift found has a Godspeed Drive, we’re all sure of it. And from the first look it seems in good working order.”
If the whole universe was ready to change, Duncan West didn’t show much sign of it.
“Have they tested it?” I asked. “I saw the violet rings.”
“Fly it here, inside the Eye? That would really be asking for trouble. What you saw was just preliminaries.” The deck of the Cuchulain groaned, and gave a dreadful quivering lurch. Duncan put his hand to the table top, feeling the continuing vibrations. “That’s our own drive going on—what’s left of it. We’ll be leaving the Eye and towing the Godspeed ship along with us. I came to tell you and Mel and Doctor Eileen what’s going on, and say it’s captain’s orders that you stay in quarters while we’re flying out. When we get clear of the Eye, he’ll announce it. You can take it easy until then.”
Duncan ambled out, not back to the bridge but along the corridor that led to his own berth. Doctor Eileen stared after him enviously.
“Know where he’s going, don’t you?”
“No,” said Mel.
“To take a nap,” I said. “He won’t worry about the vibrations.”
Doctor Eileen nodded. “Or the fact that the fabulous Godspeed Drive is being pulled along behind our ship. You know what your mother says, Jay.”