He moved aside and gave her an unobstructed view of the coffin. She looked at it, turned back—face quite impassive—and pushed her way between Nicklin and Voorsanger to reach the ladder. She clung to it and began a harsh dry retching, measured and painful, regular as breathing.
She didn’t know about the extra passenger, Nicklin realised. Welcome on board the good ship Lollipop, captain.
“None of you got no idea how it was with Corey and me,” Affleck said defiantly, his nose purple against the unnatural pallor of the rest of his face. “I had to do what he told me to do. I owe my life to Corey.”
“Not any more,” Nicklin replied. The torrent of events in the past minute had numbed his mind—and the nearness of the obscenely yawning coffin was not helping matters—but it was dawning on him that none of the mishaps so far encountered by the New Eden pilgrims was in a class with the latest grim development.
Without the pinnace to ferry them to a safe landfall, the hundred-plus men, women and children on board the Tara were condemned to remain in space for the rest of their lives.
“If you ask me,” he said to Affleck, still speaking like an automaton, “you and Corey can call it quits.”
Chapter 20
Montane knew that he had to act quickly in the first few seconds after separation.
The passenger cylinder of the Tara was visible above him, its coppery curvatures glowing in the weak light of the Orbitsville sun. The mother ship was in retardation, which meant—thanks to the arithmeuc of relative velocities—that it was trying to overtake the pinnace. There was a real danger of the little ship colliding with the front end of the giant’s engine cylinders and then tumbling back along the sides to be engulfed in the invisible but lethal exhaust flare.
It was many years since Montane had done any kind of flying, but he had retained the instincts of a pilot. He slammed the throttle to the FULL POWER position and at the same time pushed the single control column forward.
The nose of the passenger cylinder immediately slid backwards and out of sight, while at the same time the view ahead of him underwent a dizzy change. The sun swam upwards and passed out of his field of view, and the vast cloud of pseudo-planets which surrounded it partook of the same motion. For a giddy moment the jewelled curtain streamed vertically, then it too was gone, and the blackness of space filled the cockpit’s forward transparency.
Montane brought the control column back to the neutral position to prevent the pinnace continuing on a circular path which would have taken it through the Tara’s exhaust. The star fields ahead of him obediently settled into place, steady and serene, and he knew that he was once again flying away from the deadly web which the Devil had spun around the sun.
God in his infinite mercy had laid the universe and all its riches out before him—and each one of the brilliant points ahead of his speeding craft held infinite promise for the future.
Montane began to laugh, and as he laughed the nightmare years were erased from his memory. He was a young man—what could have made him think otherwise?—and the optimism and potency of youth suffused every part of his body.
And the Lord had appointed him to the most glorious and fulfilling task imaginable.
“It won’t always be easy for us,” he said to his young bride. “We may have to face great hardships when we reach the New Eden, but we will overcome them as long as we preserve our faith in Him and our love for each other.”
“I know that, my darling,” Milly replied, smiling at him from the cockpit’s left-hand seat.
The pearl silk bridal gown emphasised her slimness and utter femininity, but he knew she also had an inner strength which would enable her to overcome any adversity the years might bring. The gladness he felt at simply being near her was almost unbearable.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you looking so lovely,” he said, briefly touching her wrist.
She made no reply, but her smile grew wider.
Chapter 21
The idea that he had just been sentenced to death was strangely easy for Nicklin to accept.
He felt neither fear nor anger—just a kind of sad resignation, which might have been the result of emotional overload. A more likely explanation, he decided as he stood with the others on the landing of 3 Deck, was that he had known in his heart for some time that this moment was inevitable. It had been rolling towards him, down a narrow alleyway of time, ever since that sunny afternoon in Altamura when he had first met Scott Hepworth. It had been accelerating all along, gaining momentum from each unexpected new event—within the ship or in the cosmos beyond—and now its force was irresistible.
I’m turning into a fatalist, he thought. And just in time, too!
“Might as well get this thing out of the way,” he said, putting his foot against the end of Milly Montane’s coffin. He thrust hard, propelling the coffin into the suite, then he closed the door. “Might as well keep the place tidy.”
“Corey must have gone mad,” Voorsanger whispered.
“Nobody is going to argue with you on that one. I’d say that Corey parted company with us a long time ago.”
“But where does he think he’s going?”
“He’s going where the rest of us are going, but he’ll get there sooner,” Nicklin said. “There’s no food or water on the pinnace—and not much oxygen.”
“Would somebody kindly… explain to me what’s been going on here?” Fleischer was gulping as she spoke, fighting to control her stomach, and her forehead was dewed with sweat.
“Corey’s wife died a long time ago, but he wouldn’t allow her to be buried on Orbitsville.” Nicklin, who had had years to get used to the bizarre story, was unable to imagine how it must sound to Fleischer, hearing it for the first time in such extreme circumstances. “I… ah… don’t think he could stand the idea of taking her back to…”
“You’re insane,” the pilot whispered, her eyes wide with incredulity. “You’re all insane!”
Don’t look at me, lady, Nicklin thought, then it came to him that he had little grounds for indignation. “Maybe you’re right,” he said. “That would account for a lot.”
“If only I’d known what I was letting myself in for,” Fleischer said, dabbing her brow.
“Perhaps Corey will come back.” Voorsanger’s gaze travelled around the other faces, and his eyes seemed to plead with them. “The children…”
I wish you hadn’t said that, Nicklin thought, his awareness suddenly expanding beyond his own concerns and prospects. There were many children among the pilgrims who had believed that Corey Montane was going to save their mortal bodies and immortal souls. The adults had made a serious blunder and would have to pay the forfeit, but the little ones—the innocents who had been given no say in the matter—were going to exit from their short lives in suffering and bewilderment.
There ought to be a law, Nicklin thought. Somebody should have made a law against this kind of thing. A long time ago.
The pain within him intensified as he faced the fact that Zindee White was also on board. She and her parents had placed their faith in another false prophet, and as a consequence…
His recriminations were interrupted by the faint sound of a male voice filtering through the hatchway above.
“The radio!” Megan Fleischer, who had been clinging to the ladder, took proper hold of it and rapidly climbed out of Nicklin’s sight.