"My mommy says it's not polite to say 'you'."
"Wester, I hate to interrupt," Tara said, "but there is a serious problem in the stardrive. And I want you to look at it."
"I'm delighted, Tara. I'm really pleased to hear it. But I'd like you to take care of this one for me, all right? Just…keep me informed, all right?"
"No, Wester. We really need your help. Now."
"What happened to that two years' sick leave you had authorized?"
"A little later, Wester. Later."
"I'm so damn tired."
"Please, Wester. It's important."
"Important. Right." I struggled to my feet.
###
"This is wonderful," I said. I was back in my sweaty litesuit, aching all over. Tara and Gildron and I stood in what had to be the control room for the stardrive. Willard was outside in the corridor. We did not want him inside. The room was spattered with gore and body parts from the two O's Gildron had killed. One wall was entirely covered with indecipherable alien instrumentation. And it was apparent as soon as we stepped into the room that something was very, very wrong.
Up on the ceiling, a brilliant phospho-red panel was flashing rapidly like a strobe light and an emergency claxon was screeching on and off urgently, putting a chill to my flesh. It needed no translation: The sound of a warning alarm is universal. Something was wrong—something critical.
"I knew you'd be thrilled," Tara said quietly.
"Tremendous. Look at this stuff. We could work on this for thirty years and never figure it out!"
"You're right."
"Look!" I approached a thick armored plex window. The drive was beyond, a massive cylinder running lengthwise through the ship, encased in a maze of bewildering equipment. It was bathed in a soft, flickering violet glow.
"That's certainly the stardrive," Tara said. "But it doesn't look like one of ours."
"What do you think is happening?"
"I think it's getting ready to nova," Tara said calmly.
"Terrific. That's great! That's just perfect! What does your tacmod say?"
"Somebody's going to have to go in there, Wester. So we can learn what's happening. Tess can't make any sense out of these readouts." Tess was Tara's tacmod, her Persist. She had detached it from her A-suit. I took a look. A massive power source was glowing in the heart of the drive but there was something else, up at the tip of the boom that was mounted on the nose of the ship. It glittered like a star, and I had no idea what it was. It was connected to the boom—and the tip of the boom also blazed with energy.
"You're just full of good news, aren't you? Do you know how dangerous it is to poke around an antimat drive? Even when you know what you're doing, which we don't?"
"Yes—but it's not as dangerous as a nova. That much I know. That central corridor—it appears to be a walkway, or a crawlway, to access the drive. Tess says it's heavily shielded. You should be safe in there. I'd do it myself, Wester, but I can barely move with these ribs, and whoever goes in there is going to be crawling, part of the way."
"Oh, I'll go. I'm looking forward to it! Hell, I wasn't planning on having any more children anyway. But we're going to have to fix up my A-suit first. I'm not going in there without armor."
"All right, let's get to work."
###
It didn't take long to patch up my A-suit. We used the hydropak from Gildron's suit to replace mine. I put Sweety back inside and when we were through, I was sealed and secure and could move all of the limbs of the suit except for the right leg. It was close enough, for what we would need.
"Do the length of the drive, Wester. Investigate both those power sources—crawl up as close to the boom as you can get. Tess has no idea what it is. We only do it once. Just let the tacmod soak up whatever's there."
"I'm more worried about me soaking up whatever's there," I said. The door snapped open. It was an airlock, hissing closed behind me as I stepped in. Another door opened. I stepped forward gingerly. A narrow platform faced a sheer drop. The platform shot downwards—an elevator!
"ALERT!" Sweety sounded off, right in my ears. "Unstable unidentified negative energy source enclosed by unitium-based repulsive containment system, as marked, tolerances appear to be going critical, rising temperatures, analysis of ionic field indicates promat is now decelerating, imminent danger of catastrophic failure of containment unit and subsequent nova! Alert! Alert! Multiple pressure locks under critical pressure, failure expected soon! Alert! Unknown process emitting gamma radiation and unstable unitium debris! Recommend immediate retreat!"
The elevator deposited me inside the armored corridor at the bottom of the power room, a massive black cylinder looming above me, hissing white-hot steam. A bolt of lightning snapped high overhead, almost blinding me.
"Deadman!" Radioactive rain kissed my armor.
"What was that?" Tara asked.
"It's raining," I responded, "and I forgot my umbrella."
A black stardrive, I thought, for black stars. It was only terrifying, I decided—no reason to get upset!
"Say again? Are you all right, Wester?"
"Did you get all that data, Tara?" I asked breathlessly.
"That's a ten."
"Can I go home now?" I was streaming with sweat, already.
"I'm sorry, Wester. Walk the length of the corridor, if you can. Get out there near the boom! We're learning so much!"
"All right, Tara. But I expect a reward when I get back."
"What kind of a reward?"
"It involves you taking off your clothes."
Tara laughed sweetly. "We'll work something out, trooper. Now let's take that walk."
I had to crawl under the antimat power source, dragging my dead leg behind me. The whole compartment glittered a creepy violet, and every once in awhile there was a blinding flash from the boom. Sweety was talking, the whole time.
"Recommend immediate retreat, Thinker! Gamma, unitium at critical levels! I repeat, ionic field analysis indicates…"
"That's bad, isn't it, Sweety? The ionic field part?"
"Yes, Thinker. It indicates potential deceleration of promat."
"That's bad, too, isn't it?"
"Very bad, Thinker. It means the containment chamber in the boom is failing."
"Well, never mind about that, Sweety! Tell me what's going on around us! This power source above us—it's the stardrive, right?"
"I have insufficient data to respond accurately to the question, Thinker. I detect a mag field containment device enclosing an antimat generation and containment chamber."
"Right, right, that's the antimat drive! But what about that other power source, up near the nose? What does it do?"
"I have insufficient data to respond to the question, Thinker. Both power sources appear to be part of an integrated stardrive system. Analysis is continuing."
Two little balls of lightning floating up ahead exploded suddenly, showering me with sparks. I continued crawling forward along a narrow tunnel lined with mirrored surfaces. Something awful was blazing up ahead, as bright as a sun.
"Deadman. I love this. What the hell are you talking about, Sweety? If you detect antimat, it's an antimat drive, right? And the containment unit is failing, right? Talk to me, Sweety! What's the damned problem?"
"Negative, Thinker. There is a unitium-based mag field around the antimat power source midships, and it is stable. This does appear to be an antimat star drive. However, I detect a microscopic source of negative pressure in the second power source by the boom, enclosed by what appears to be a unitium-based containment unit that is failing. The unitium accelerates promat, which appears to be shielding the ship itself from the power source in the boom. Theoretically, this is D-neg. However, as this is not physically possible, I have discarded this information. Analysis is continuing."