Sirius Academy (Jezebel's Ladder) (38 page)

Red’s team grew to eighteen in the next few months. The
first woman was a friend of Trina’s, a space hand who’d been on the team that
rescued her from the two week ordeal in orbit. The second woman was a
technician from Mori Electronics. The third was a gravity-mechanics expert,
Mary Smith’s oldest sister Mercy, chosen because she was the lead scientist on the
Tetra project. Mercy had inherited her father’s Icarus page and grown up
surrounded by math geeks. She rode along for the maiden voyage to make sure
nothing went wrong with the prototype’s four synchronized space drives. Old
friends, Red told her everything about the team and their plans.

They easily set the speed record
for the test course using only half the prototype’s capacity.

People on the radio whooped with
excitement. “Taz, you’ve exceeded every expectation. Come on home, kids,”
Professor Horvath said from Mission Control on moon base, pride in her voice.
Daniel was on moon base as well, but he’d never regained consciousness.

“Permission to take a victory
fly-by over Russian moon base,” he requested.

Trina almost fumbled the reply. She
hadn’t planned for the final run to be this early. “Roger. Everybody to the
break room for champagne. Clear the tower.”

When the last supervisor not
wearing an Academy uniform objected, she drew her sidearm and recited a UN
clearance code. Guards came in to escort the reluctant partier away. Only a
skeleton crew remained. Over the open channel, she confirmed, “Taz, you could
do anything you wanted; everyone here is celebrating.” Over a private channel,
she added, “Mira, you were the best thing I ever did.”

Red held back tears as she signaled
the passengers to shut off all unshielded electronics. Herk helped the spy from
Mori strap in. Confiscating her transmitter, he announced on the ship-only
channel, “Ears are off.”

Risa said, “It’s time, Mercy. We’re
going to open it up full bore.”

Mercy checked a few readouts and
switches. “Right front field is fluctuating 1 percent. Try to stabilize it.
Otherwise, seven-league boots are ready to stride.”

Super-goo began surrounding them in
a cocoon. Herk sat in the less-protected rumble-seat.

Sojiro took out a glass globe and
began interfacing. “Gravity lens has been aimed away from our approach. Eyes
are off.”

In the copilot chair, Lou checked
off a long list of items. “Radiation counters on. Shielding between the command
module and cargo in place. Full power to Icarus fields. Fuel injectors primed.
All brace.”

Red nodded at her husband. He
announced, “Video log: on. Changing ship name to
Ascension One
. Bearing
on slingshot course four around the moon. On my mark.”

“Roger,
Ascension One
,”
Trina echoed. “Godspeed.”

“Adjust azimuth point five
degrees,” Zeiss said after triple-checking.

“Point five exact,” Red adjusted.

“Full burn!” called Zeiss.

Lou lit the fuse and Red flew the
ship like she’d stolen it—which, technically, she had.

The copilot announced. “Radiation
red-lining. We’re leaving a trail of hot carbon. Drive flare bigger than
predicted. All eyes are closed.”

Zeiss reported. “Clear of the moon’s
umbra in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1. Give me four more minutes maximum burn.”

Red realigned toward their target
and Lou opened the fuel flow. Forces pushed them back in their seats. The
fluctuation in the acceleration filters made their faces ripple. “Adjust phase
of right field,” Zeiss tried to say.

Lou tweaked the control a hair’s
breadth. Now the vibration was merely uncomfortable, not bone-jarring. After
two minutes, he announced, “Critical buildup of carbon around injector three.
Halt thrust.”

“Zero thrust.”

“Cycling to a clean nozzle. Go!”

“Full thrust,” Red announced.

“Add three seconds,” Zeiss ordered.

At almost four minutes, Lou said,
“Buildup in injector four. Request—”

“Negative, she’ll hold,” Red
insisted. “Hollis was a safety freak.”

“Wait for it,” Zeiss decided.
“Begin slowing to approach speed now.”

After Red adjusted the curve and
Lou switched fuel to the front fields, the copilot complained, “Sir, these are
dangerous risks. Don’t think with your Johnson, Taz. Permission to speak
freely?”

Red interrupted, “Lou, trust me.
I’ve been playing with parts of this ship since I was in diapers. I knew Hollis
better than anyone. She was so afraid of killing someone, she’d over-engineer
by a factor of ten. I can see the equations in my head. We’re good.”

“I’ll follow Taz into a court martial
because I trust him; however, your judgment has been suspect in the past, Red.”

Zeiss told her, “Give him the
second shoe. We need him unconditionally.”

“Jezebel Hollis was my mother, Lou.
I’m the Index page. The artifact talks to me,” Red announced over the in-ship
channel.

“She
is
Miracle,” Mercy
chimed in. “I remember how bossy she was on an Easter Egg hunt.”

“That’s what it said on my marriage
license,” Zeiss confirmed. “The name, not the bossy part.”

Most people in the ship were
stunned. Herk muttered, “That explains a few things.”

Risa recalled, “She told me her
middle name was Redemption and it didn’t match her records.”

“Objection withdrawn,” Lou
muttered. “But if a contractor cut any corners, we’re an object lesson for
future generations.”

Mercy broadcast, “I double-checked
every bolt and diode myself, Lou.”

“Twenty seconds to the final adjustment,”
said Zeiss.

Several seconds elapsed before
Sojiro announced, “We’ve appeared on the feed from the gravity telescope.”

“On final approach,” Red announced.
“Confidence is high.”

“Time for those radiation pills,
Taz,” announced Lou.

Sojiro informed them, “Gravity lens
set to widest aperture. Broadcasting signal requesting it to open.”

Red saw the image of her father
next to her on the bridge. “Sing us your code of ethics,” the artifact
demanded.

“He means like the whales do, speak
it over the psi-link,” Zeiss interpreted.

“You see him too?” Red asked as she
struggled to match velocities and carry on mental exercises at the same time.

“All of you must sing,” the
artifact ordered.

“Lou, take over,” Zeiss ordered. “Hover
until it opens, and then glide through. If I’m right, there will be an increase
in gravity.”

“Drives powered off,” said Lou with
the click of a switch. “Maneuvering on thrusters.”

Then Red opened the hatch to the
cargo area. “Everyone with Collective Unconscious join hands. Yvette, we need
you to lead us in a recitation of the Ethics code.” Everyone but Lou and the
spy peeled out of the gel. Everyone except the maneuvering copilot joined hands
and closed their eyes as they reviewed the rules human beings had committed to
for their foray into space.

When the recitation was complete,
they opened their eyes. Below them, a membrane inside the Eye in the Sky pulled
back, revealing a docking chamber.

“Decoupling drive pods,” announced
Mercy.

“Are you sure?” asked a computer
interface on Zeiss’s panel. He punched “Yes” and small explosions vibrated the
hull. “Good-bye two billion dollars.”

“We tagged the drives with
beacons,” Mercy reassured him,

Lou dropped them gently into the
hole, and the hole closed again after them.

“Pile out,” said Herk, unlatching
himself and opening the hatch. “That Kumbaya session took longer than we
expected.”

Mercy grabbed a metal urn wrapped
in an odd, gray, memistor cloth—the ashes of Elias Fortune. “You made it.”

“We have missiles inbound,” Sojiro
announced. “Relaying everything through the drive beacons.”

“Weak gravity,” noted Red as she
climbed first out the front emergency exit. “That might change once we’re inside
the ecology sphere.”

As Herk ushered him out the cargo
exit, Auckland said, “The chamber outside is pressurizing with atmosphere.”

“Oxygen?” asked Zeiss as he
followed his wife out the cockpit exit.

“Mixture,” said the doctor reading
his analyzer. “Heavier on methane than Earth normal, but otherwise it’s like
home.”

“Do the aliens breathe methane?”
wondered Toby, the next through the door.

“Could be a fuel leak,” suggested
Risa as she piled out.

“Cow pies,” guessed Red. Gesturing
to the green and blue patterns on the walls and the red barn in the distance,
she said, “They sampled the field in Kansas where they made first contact. Mom
took me there once. The aliens are trying to make us feel welcome.”

Herk was nervous. “Where are the
controls? How do we get all the way inside?”

“Close the gravity lens,” ordered
Zeiss.

Sojiro stroked his controls.
“Roger. Sir, we’re now sealed under the rubber sheet, cut off from moon base.”

“On our own,” echoed the commander.
“This is what we trained for.”

Red walked up to the smooth wall
that looked the same as the golden fabric of the twenty-seven alien pages.
Taking a deep breath, she placed her gloved hand on the wall, and said, “We’re
here for our inheritance, Sensei.”

The section of wall reconfigured
into a ramp, inviting them in.

###

Look for more titles and leave
comments at
http://ScottRhine.blogspot.com

or at
http://www.facebook.com/ScottRhineBooks