“Commander Morgan left in quite a hurry,” I offered, pleasantly.
“He has difficulties.”
“He often does, I suspect. His position is one where all the responsibility for execution rests upon him, but he has less-than-optimal input into making the decisions that must be implemented.”
“Something like that,” murmured DeLisle. He forced a professional expression approximating a smile. “How are you doing?”
“Better than I might have anticipated those days when I was in the medcrib, but you had requested that I stop by in a week or so.” I shrugged.
“We’ll give you a quick diagnostic.” His eyes drifted toward the passageway behind me, his concerns still with the departed commander. “Are you following the exercise program?”
“Mostly. I’ve stepped up some of the workouts slightly.” More than slightly, but I had a far better idea of what my system could handle and required than did the doctor.
“You don’t look like a man who nearly died less than a month ago, but you shouldn’t overdo it.”
“Why don’t we see what the diagnostics indicate?” As we moved toward the diagnostic bay, I was considering when and how I might work another encounter with Jiendra without seeming either calculatedly coy or overtly predatory. She wanted to be valued, but neither pursued overtly nor ignored, and that balance was more than a little difficult for a man whose personality was as inhibitedly aggressive as was mine.
But then, I had been far from facile in managing and maintaining all facets of close interpersonal relations, even with the girls when they had been children—or later. Yet there was something indefinable about Jiendra Chang that intimated that not all dreams were only for the young.
63
Chang
I had to wait half a stan longer before shuttle two was ready to preflight. Tech Chief Patel was already going over the cargo bay when I stepped aft through the hatch from the forward section.
He looked up, shook his head. “They stripped out everything, even the emergency pods. What sort of mass load are we talking, sir?”
Frig! Morgan hadn’t told me how much they were stripping. “At least five thousand kilos, the commander said.”
“Has to be more, sir. We can carry 10 MT against T-grav.”
“That would be a little over six, with the safety factors, from Danann.”
“They stripped out a good MT of gear.”
One artifact massed close to 7 MT? Didn’t like that at all. “Ours not to reason why…” Didn’t voice the rest of the words. Showed that military stupidity had been around longer than I wanted to dwell on.
“Yes, sir.”
“We don’t have to like it, chief, but the commander said that what we’re bringing up is critical.” Could see the question in Patel’s eyes, and added, “How and why he wouldn’t tell me except that it’s the only artifact they found down there. We need to recover it before more trouble arrives.” Offered a cynical smile. “Besides having no life-support backup, how do things look?”
“Everything else is sound, sir.”
“Thanks.” I finished the walk-around, then strapped in, and started through the first part of the checklist. Brought the fusactor online and went link.
Navigator Control, Sherpa Tigress, powered up this time. Interrogative anticipated mass load for return.
Tigress, estimated mass load at 5.5 MT. Could tell Morgan was on the link.
Thirty percent safety factor? Interrogative estimated?!
Cargo mass varies over a twenty percent range. May be equipment measurement error, or the properties of the object.
Shit! Request priority of cargo.
Star double plus, Tigress.
If I were still civilian… that would rate triple pay.
No response to that.
Finished the prelaunch prep and checklist.
“Ready, aft, chief?”
“Yes, sir.”
Navigator Control, this is Sherpa Tigress, ready for departure.
Tigress, Navigator Control, bay is clear, doors open, null grav in bay, nanite barrier in place. You are cleared for departure and descent to landing zone beta. Request immediate return upon load-in.
Null grav hit even before Morgan’s link finished.
Control, understand cleared for departure and descent to landing zone beta. Will comply with return as immediate as possible.
Touched the steering jets and eased shuttle two clear of the Magellan.
Descent to Danann was easy, maybe too easy. We set down on the empty lake. Screens and energy tracks indicated that it was heating up under the ice as well. Not so far along as zone alpha had been, though.
Danann Base, this is Sherpa Tigress. Standing by for cargo load-in. Interrogative energy sources under zone beta.
Sherpa Tigress, ETA of cargo sliders less than ten. Energy sources same as zone alpha…
That meant that they still didn’t know what caused them, only that they showed the same patterns.
… Traces registered at detection levels late yesterday. Ice and surface will remain usable within all safety parameters for at least another week Have informed Navigator Control, and will keep all shuttles posted.
Danann Base, thank you. Another thing Morgan had known and hadn’t bothered to tell me. His secretiveness was getting to me. Mission was enough of a bastard without that Who were we going to tell? Decided to put it aside until later.
Liam Fitzhugh was reserved, but didn’t use information like a weapon. I frowned. More like a tool. Most men did. But Liam shared information. Maybe the difference was that for Liam, it was a tool, and he thought everyone needed the tools. Put that thought aside, too. Began a systems check.
“Have the sliders in sight, sir. Request permission to open the outer hatch and depressurize cargo bay.”
“Granted.” Checked to see that my helmet was racked in easy reach. Shouldn’t need it, but you never knew.
Sherpa Tigress, Danann Base, interrogative cargo sliders. Even over links, the base controller sounded nervous.
Base, sliders approaching this time. Preparing to begin in-load.
Stet, Tigress.
Went back and checked the emissions from below the lake’s frozen surface. They seemed lower, but I didn’t have comparative records. With almost another 6 MT— or more—being loaded into the shuttle, had to hope the science types and Morgan had it right.
“Be a while, Lieutenant,” Patel reported. “They’ve got to brace everything before they load. Sliders can’t negate all the mass.”
“Sliders? How many does it take?”
“They’ve got two and an insider.”
“Can you see what the cargo is?”
“No, sir. They’ve got it wrapped and crated in plastrene. Crate looks to be three meters by five by four… something like that. It’s barely going to fit through the cargo hatch. I hope they remembered to set outside tie rings on that plastrene and link-braced the inside.”
“Me, too, chief. Ask them about the internal bracings.”
“Yes, sir.”
I could feel the vibrations through the hull—and the sensors—as they loaded the artifact. I didn’t hear anything from Patel for almost half a stan.
“It’s link-braced inside, sir.”
“But what?” Patel wasn’t telling me everything.