Reality Dysfunction - Emergence

Syrinx�s mouth dropped open. The man was intolerable! How did he twist phrases like that? It was almost as if she was in the wrong. �I never said you were a mud-chewing primitive,� she hissed. �That�s not what we think at all.�

Joshua�s eyes slid pointedly to one side. Syrinx realized everyone in the bar was staring at them.

Are you all right?Oenone asked anxiously, picking up on the flustered thoughts in her skull.

I�m fine. It�s this bloody Calvert man again.

Oh, is Joshua there?

�Joshua?� She winced. She�d been so surprised at Oenone �s use of his first name it had slipped out.

�You remembered,� Joshua said warmly.

�I .�.�.�

�Have a stool, what are you drinking?�

Furious and embarrassed, Syrinx sat on a barstool. At least it would stop everyone from looking. �I�ll try a wine.�

He signalled the barmaid for drinks. �You�re not wearing your naval stripe.�

�No. Our duty tour finished a few weeks back.�

�So you�re an honest trader now?�

�Yes.�

�Have you got yourself a cargo?�

�Yes, thank you.�

�Hey, that�s great news, well done. These Norfolk merchants are tough buggers to crack. I got the Lady Mac stocked up, too.� He collected the drinks, and touched his glass to hers. �Have dinner with me tonight, we can celebrate together.�

�I don�t think so.�

�Do you have a previous engagement?�

�Well .�.�.� she couldn�t bring herself to lie outright, that would make her no better than him. �I was just on my way to bed. It�s been a long day with some tough negotiations. But thanks for the invitation. Another time.�

�That�s a real shame,� he said. �Looks like you�ve condemned me to a terminally dull evening, then. There�s only my pilot down here, and he�s too old for my kind of fun-seeking. I�m waiting for him now. We seem to have lost our paying passenger. Not that I�m complaining, he wasn�t the party type. Apparently there�s a good restaurant in town called the Metropole, we were going to check it out. It�s our one night in town, we�ve been invited to an estate for the midsummer itself. So, tough negotiations, eh? How many cases did you get?�

�You were a decoy,� Syrinx said, jumping at the chance to get a word in.

�I�m sorry?�

�You were smuggling antimatter-confinement coils into the Puerto de Santa Maria system.�

�Not me.�

�We were trailing you all the way from Idria, we�d got you in our sensors every kilometre. That�s what we couldn�t understand. It was a direct flight. The confinement coils were on board when you left, and they were gone when you arrived. At the time we assumed you hadn�t rendezvoused with anybody, because we never detected them. But then you didn�t know we were there, did you?�

Joshua drank some of his brandy, his eyes never leaving her over the rim of the glass. �No, you were in full stealth mode, remember?�

�So was your friend.�

�What friend?�

�You took a long time to manoeuvre into each jump coordinate. I�ve never seen anyone so clumsy before.�

�Nobody�s perfect.�

�No, but nobody�s that imperfect either.� She took a sip of the wine. Oh, he was a canny one, this Joshua Calvert; she could see why she�d been fooled before. �What I think happened was this. You had your friend waiting a light-month outside the New California system, in full stealth mode, at a very precise coordinate. When you left Idria you jumped to within a few thousand kilometres of him. It would be difficult, but you could do that. With the nodes the Lady Macbeth is equipped with, and your own astrogration skill, that sort of accuracy is possible. And who would suspect? Nobody is that accurate jumping out of a system; it�s when you come insystem you need precision to jump into the correct emergence zones.�

�Go on, this is riveting stuff.�

She took another sip. �Once you jumped outsystem, you shoved the illegal coils out of the cargo hold, and jumped away again. We couldn�t detect that sort of dump of inert mass, not by using passive sensors at the distance we were operating from. Then as soon as Oenone and Nephele jumped in pursuit, your friend moved in and picked them up. So while you were taking an age to get to Puerto de Santa Maria, and keeping us occupied tracking you, he was racing on ahead. The coils were already there by the time we arrived.�

�Brilliant.� Joshua tossed down the last of his brandy and called the barmaid over. �That would work, wouldn�t it?�

�It did work.�

�No, not really. You see, your hypothesis is based on one assumption. Tragically false.�

Syrinx picked up the second glass of wine. �What�s that?�

�That I�m an ace astrogrator.�

�I think you are.�

�Right, so on a normal commercial run I would use this alleged skill of mine to shave hours off the journey time, wouldn�t I?�

�Yes.�

�So I would have used this skill to get here, to Norfolk, wouldn�t I? I mean, I brought a cargo to trade, I�m not going to waste time, money, and fuel getting it here, now am I?�

�No.�

�Right, so first of all ask the captain on the good ship Pestravka when and where I emerged in the Norfolk system. Then you can go and check my departure time from Lalonde, and work out how long it took me. Tell me after that if you think I�m a good astrogrator.� He gave her an annoying toothsome smile.

Thanks to Oenone , she was instantly aware of Lalonde�s spacial location; how long it ought to take an Adamist starship of Lady Macbeth �s class and performance to make the trip. �How long did it take you?� she asked in resignation.

�Six and a half days.�

It shouldn�t have taken them that long,Oenone said.

Syrinx said nothing. She simply couldn�t bring herself to believe he was innocent. His whole attitude spelt complicity.

�Ah, here�s Ashly now.� Joshua stood and waved at the pilot. �And simply because you committed an extraordinarily rude faux pas don�t think you have to pay for the drinks to make up for it. They�re on me, I insist.� He raised his glass. �Here�s to mutual understanding and future friendship.�

Chapter 17

The Coogan �s battered prow was riding heavily over the steep wavelets the Zamjan tributary sent rushing down its length towards the Juliffe. Lori could feel the length of the light trader boat exaggerating each pitch as they drove against the current. After four and a half days nothing about the Coogan bothered her any more; it creaked continually, the engines produced a vibration felt throughout every timber, it was hot, dark, airless, and cramped. But enforced routine had made it all inconsequential. Besides, she spent a lot of time lying inertly on her cot, reviewing the images the eagles Abraham and Catlin provided her.

Right now the birds were six kilometres ahead of Coogan , gliding five hundred metres above the water, with just the occasional indolent flick of a wing needed to maintain their flight. The jungle on either side of the swollen river was choked with mist from the rain that had just fallen, swan-white wisps clinging to the glistening green trees like some kind of animate creeper. There was no understanding the jungle�s immensity, Lori thought. The sights she saw through the eagles brought home how little impression the settlers had made on the Juliffe basin in twenty-five years. The timorous villages huddled along the riverbanks were a sorry example of the human condition. Microscopic parasites upon the jungle biota rather than bold challengers out to subdue a world.