‘The nothings?’
‘That’s what I said.’
‘It can’t be done.’
A.A. Catto began to get impatient.
‘I was under the impression that I had hired this craft, and that you would take it wherever I requested.’
‘That’s correct.’
‘Well, I’m requesting you to take the damn thing into the nothings.’
The captain took a deep breath.
‘That’s absolutely out of the question. This ship isn’t equipped for that kind of journey.’
‘That’s the kind of journey I wish to make.’
The captain spoke very slowly as though he was talking to a retarded child.
‘If this ship enters the nothings it will disintegrate. It carries no generator of its own. It will be destroyed.’
A.A. Catto looked up at him.
‘You carry a set of personal generators, don’t you? Porta-pacs or something similar?’
The captain nodded.
‘Yes, but that’s beside the point. I’m not going to take my ship to certain destruction in the nothings. I hope I make myself clear.’
‘You refuse?’
‘Absolutely.’
A.A. Catto nodded. She slowly turned and looked at the group by the observation platform.
‘Billy, could you come over here for a minute?’
Billy sauntered across the dance; floor. He glanced enquiringly at A.A. Catto.
‘Trouble?’
A.A. Catto looked hard at the captain.
‘Billy, do you have your gun with you?’
Billy nodded. He was a little confused. He pulled a .70 recoilless from under his coat.
‘I got a gun.’
A.A. Catto relaxed in her chair.
‘Would you point it at the captain?’
Billy shrugged and did as he was asked. The captain put on his cap and came to formal attention.
‘You realize that by this act of violence you have voided your hiring contract and I have no alternative but to return to the bridge and order this ship to return to the company’s docking mast.’
A.A. Catto laughed.
‘God, you’re pompous.’
‘I can only repeat …’
‘Shut up and listen. If you don’t immediately take this contraption into the nothings, Billy will shoot you. ‘Won’t you, Billy?’
Billy swallowed.
‘Um … yes.’
The captain remained at attention.
‘I’ll do no such thing.’
A.A. Catto looked at Billy.
‘Shoot him.’
Billy looked at A.A. Catto, at the captain and then down at the gun. He tried to think of a way out. There didn’t seem to be one. He pulled the trigger. The captain was knocked across the dance floor. He died without a sound. The string quartet stopped playing, but started again, rather uncoordinatedly, when Billy turned in their direction.
A.A. Catto briskly stood up. She beckoned to Nancy and Reave.
‘I think we’d better go to the bridge and take control of this machine. It would seem you can’t get anywhere leaving things to other people.’
They left the ballroom and started down one of the companionways that traversed the length of the airship’s gondola. As they walked, Billy fell into step beside A.A. Catto.
‘Do you think this is such a good idea?’
‘Is what such a good idea?’
‘Shooting the captain and pushing the ship into the nothings?’
‘You shot the captain.’
Billy looked down at the deck.
‘Yes, I suppose I did.’
‘Damn right you did. You’re as responsible as anyone.’
Billy felt a little sick. Any ideas of morality seemed to be slipping away. He glanced sideways at A.A. Catto.
‘But what about this going into the nothings? I’ve fallen into the nothings with just a porta-pac. It’s no fun. You don’t have any control over where you finish up.’
‘But you finish up somewhere.’
‘Yes.’
‘Well then.’
‘I still don’t like it. We could land in a lot of trouble, and there’s nothing we can do about it.’
‘Do you have a better idea?’
‘No.’
‘Could I be in any more trouble than I was in in Litz?’
Billy shook his head.
‘I suppose not.’
‘Then there’s nothing really to discuss, is there?’
Billy didn’t say anything more. He followed A.A. Catto up the steel steps that led to the bridge. He slid back the steel door and they stepped into the airship’s control room. The front of the bridge was a single sheet of plexiglass. The rest of the walls were covered with various control monitors. Three officers in blue uniforms were grouped round an illuminated chart table. Behind them, staring fixedly through the plexiglass windshield, was a steersman in a white sailor suit. His hands gripped the big polished wheel that controlled the rudder, and beside him were the levers that set the angle of climb or descent. The officers looked up sharply as A.A. Catto and her four companions came through the door. One of them, who from the amount of gold braid on his uniform seemed to be second in command after the captain, moved to head them off.
‘I’m sorry. Clients are not permitted on the bridge. It’s a company rule.’
A.A. Catto smiled.
‘I’m afraid company rules no longer apply. I’ve just had your captain shot.’
The officer stopped dead.
‘You did what?’
A.A. Catto continued to smile at him.
‘I had the captain shot, and I’m taking this ship into the nothings.’
The two other officers joined the first one.
‘That’s impossible. You’ll destroy it.’
A.A. Catto stopped smiling.
‘I tried to explain to your captain. I intend going into the nothings, and no one’s going to stop me. Can you understand?’
She turned to Billy.
‘Show them your gun.’
Billy pulled out his gun again. The three officers took a step back. The first one raised his hand.
‘Don’t shoot.’
Billy continued to point the gun at him. A.A. Catto looked him straight in the eye.
‘Are you going to do what you’re told?’
The officers stood together by the chart table. The senior one licked his lips.
‘I assume you’re taking over the ship by force.’
A.A. Catto clapped her hands together. It was an oddly childish gesture.
‘At last we’re getting through. Now, will you instruct the driver, or whatever he is, to take us into the nothings?’
‘You realize this is an act of piracy?’
A.A. Catto shrugged.
‘Call it what you like, only do it.’
The officer muttered for a moment with his two companions and then turned back to A.A. Catto.
‘I’ve gone on record as registering my strongest protest against your criminal acts. Beyond that I’ll follow your instructions.’
‘Then set a course for the nothings.’
The officer bent over the table and consulted a chart. A.A. Catto waited tensely. Finally he straightened up and looked at the man behind the wheel.
‘Steer one zero seven,’
‘One zero seven, sir.’
‘Steady as she goes.’
‘Aye, sir.’
The first officer looked sourly back at A.A. Catto.
‘Will that be all?’
A.A. Catto thought for a moment.
‘We’ll need porta-pacs when we hit the nothings.’
The officer scowled.
‘They’re in the wall locker.’
He indicated with his hand. Nancy opened the locker. Inside was a rack of small individual stasis generators. She took out four and handed them round. They slung them over their shoulders. There seemed to be nothing else to do until the airship hit the nothings. After all the high drama, the whole thing slipped into an anticlimactic trough. It became very quiet on the bridge. The officers went about their routine tasks, doing their best to ignore the four hijackers. The steersman stared resolutely ahead. Billy began to feel a little foolish as he stood there holding his gun. Finally, A.A. Catto could stand it no longer. She caught the eye of the first officer.