“Will you need help, Doctor?” Helene asked.
Martine spread instruments on the deck. She shook her head without looking up.
“No. Be quiet.”
Helen called Chen over. “Go look for LaRoque and Culla. Report when you’ve found them.” The man ran off.
Jacob moaned again and tried to rise up on his elbows. Helene got a cloth from the fountain nearby and wet it. She knelt by Jacob and pulled on his shoulders to get his head onto her lap.
He winced as she dabbed gently at his wounds.
“Oh…” he moaned and brought a hand to the top of his head. “I should’ve known better. His ancestors were tree swingers. He’d have to have a chimp’s strength. And he looks so weak!”
“Can you tell me what happened?” she asked softly.
Jacob grunted as he groped beneath his back with his left hand. He tugged on something a couple of times. Finally he pulled out the large bag the protection goggles had come in. He looked at it, then tossed it away.
“My head feels as if it’s been sandblasted,” he said. He pushed himself up into sitting position, wavered for a moment with his hands on his head, then he let them drop.
“Culla wouldn’t happen to be lying unconscious around here, would he? I was hoping I turned into a fighting fool after he knocked me dizzy, but I guess I just blacked out.”
“I don’t know where Culla is,” Helene said. “Now what…?”
Chen’s voice boomed over the intercom.
“Skipper? I’ve found LaRoque. He’s at degrees two-forty. He’s okay. In fact, he didn’t even know anything was wrong!”
Jacob moved over next to Dr. Martins and began to talk to her urgently. Helene stood up and went to the intercom next to the food center. “Have you seen Culla?”
“Nossir, not a sign anywhere. He must be on flip-side.” Chen’s voice dropped. “I had the impression there was a fight going on. Do you know what happened?”
“I’ll get back to you when I know something. Meanwhile you’d better relieve Hughes.” Jacob joined her by the intercom. “Donaldson will be all right, but he’ll need a new eye. Listen, Helene, I’m going to have to go after Culla. Lend me one of your men, will you? Then you’d better get us out of here as fast as you can.”
She whirled. “You just killed one of my men! Dubrowsky’s dead! Donaldson is blinded, and now you want me to send someone else to help you harass poor Culla some more? What madness is this?”
“I didn’t kill anyone, Helene.”
“I saw you, you clumsy oaf! You bumped the p-laser and it went crazy! So did you! Why were you attacking Culla?”
“Helene…” Jacob winced. He brought a hand to his head. “There’s no time to explain. You’ve got to get us out of here. There’s no telling what he’ll do down there now that we know.”
“Explain first!”
“I… I bumped the laser on purpose… I…” Helene’s shipsuit fit so snugly that Jacob would never have thought she had the snug little stun gun that appeared in her hand. “Go on, Jacob,” she said evenly.
“…He was watching me. I knew if I showed a sign I’d caught on, he could blind us all in an instant. I sent you away to get you clear and then went after the goggles bag. I kicked the laser free to confuse him… laser light all over the place…”
“And killed and maimed my men!”
Jacob drew himself together. “Listen, you little nit!” He towered over her. “I turned that beam down! It might blind but it wouldn’t burn!
“Now if you don’t believe me, knock me out! Strap me in! Only get us out of here fast, before Culla kills us all!”
“Culla…”
“His eyes, damnit! Coumarin? His ‘dietary supplement’ is a dye used in lasers! He killed Dubrowsky when he tried to help me and Donaldson!
“He was lying about that laser plant back on his home planet! The Pring have their own source of coherent light! He’s been projecting the ‘adult’ type Sun Ghosts all along! And… my god!” Jacob punched at the air.
“…if his projector is subtle enough to display fake ‘Ghosts’ on the inside of a Sunship shell, it must be good enough to interact with the optical inputs of those Library designed computers! He programmed the computers to tag LaRoque as a Probationer. And… and I was next to him when he programmed Jeff’s ship to self-destruct! He was feeding in commands all the time I was admiring the pretty lights!”
Helene backed away, shaking her head. Jacob took a step toward her, looming large with fists tight, but his face was a mask of self-reproach.
“Why was Culla always the first to spot the humanoid Ghosts? Why were there none seen during the time he was with Kepler on Earth? Why didn’t I think, before this, about Culla’s reasons for volunteering to have his ‘retina’ read during the identity search!”
The words were coming too fast. Helene’s brow knit with tension as she tried to think.
Jacob’s eyes pleaded. “Helene, you’ve got to believe me.”
She hesitated, then cried out, “Oh shit!” and threw herself at the intercom.
“Chen! Get us out of here! Never mind strap-in warning, just put on max thrust and crank up the time-compression! I want to see black sky before I blink twice!”
“Aye sir!” came the reply.
The ship surged upagainst them as the compensation fields were temporarily overcome, sending both Helene and Jacob staggering. The Commandant held onto the intercom.
“All hands, keep your goggles on at all times from now on. Everybody please strap in as quick as you can. Hughes, report to the loop-hatch on the double!”
Outside, the toruses began to pass by more rapidly. As each beast fell below the rim of the deck, its rims flashed brightly as if bidding them adieu.
“I should have caught on too,” Helene said dismally. “Instead I turned off the P-laser and probably let him get away.”
Jacob kissed her quickly, hard enough to leave her lips tingling.
“You didn’t know. I’d have done the same thing in your shoes.”
She touched her lips and stared past him at Dubrowsky’s body. “You sent me away because…”
“Captain,” Chen’s voice interrupted. “I’m having trouble getting the time-compression off automatic. Can I keep Hughes here to help? We’ve also just lost maser link with Hermes.”
Jacob shrugged. “First the maser link to keep word from getting out, then time-compression, then the gravity drive, finally the stasis. I guess the last step is to blow the shields, unless the other steps are sufficient. They should be.”
Helene toggled the intercom. “Negative, Chen. I want Hughes now! Do what you can alone.” She cut the switch.
“I’m going with you.”
“No you aren’t,” he said. He put his goggles back on and picked up the bag from the floor. “If Culla gets to step three we’re cooked, literally. But if I can stop him part-way you’re the only one who’d stand a chance of piloting us out. Now please lend me that gun, it could be useful.”
Helene handed it over. At this stage argument would be ridiculous. Jacob was in charge. She had no ideas of her own.
The quiet thrumming of the ship changed its rhythm, becoming a low, uneven hum.
Helens answered Jacob’s questioning glance. “It’s the time-compression. He’s already started slowing us down. In more ways than one, we haven’t very much time.”
25. A TRAPPED STATE
Jacob crouched in the hatchway, ready to dive back behind the combing at the sight of a tall, gangling alien. So far, so good. Culla hadn’t been in the gravity loop.