The Bright Black Sea (113 page)

'You're looking at the true
Lost Star
– the
fabled Tenth Star,' said Vinden. 'Or at least the outer shell of
it. The shell is about two aus in diameter. Our final destination
lies within it, but this is as far as the
Starry Shore
goes.
Let's get the sleepy-heads awake. I'll explain it to everyone.' He
was in such good spirits that he seemed to have forgotten our
mutual dislike. I made a point not to remind him, and eagerly
agreed. I wanted company.

He revived Min first. She gave me a brief, secret
smile when he wasn't looking that sent my poor heart racing, but
otherwise was as cool and competent as ever, asking questions while
we pulled the sleeper-pods from the racks and one by one, revived
the crews – Vinden's and mine.

Once we had something to eat we stood about the
awning deck, staring at the blackness of the viewpanels.

'Where, exactly, are we?' asked Riv.

'We're just off the outer shell of the Tenth Star,
the strangest star you'll ever cross orbits with,' Vinden began
eagerly. 'Below us is its outer crust, or shell-reef. It was molten
at one time, but has since cooled and fractured into a billion
pieces. Because it is fractured, we can penetrate it. Our
destination lies within the Tenth Star itself. We will use the
Rift Raven
as a lighter to carry our cargo this last leg of
the journey.'

'Within a star?'

'Yes – a very unique star. It is composed of many
layers or stratums. This outer layer is only the first of many. Our
destination is a stratum within the shell.'

'The hollow world you hinted at?' I asked.

'Yes, but, as you can see, it is so much more that a
hollow world. It has to be experienced, so the sooner we get the
Rift Raven
loaded and on its way, the sooner you'll
experience it. You'll not be disappointed.'

'Right,' I said with a nod to Vinden, and turning to
the crew added, 'Vyn, Ten, if you'd care to run across to your
ship, I'll send Elana and Sar along with you to get the Raven up,
running and ready to receive cargo... with your permission,
Captain,' I added quickly to Min, realizing it was no longer my
place to issue orders.

'Oh, carry on, Captain,' she replied with a taunting
smile and a look. It may have been more than two years, by the
clock, since we made love in the passenger strongroom, but it was
only hours ago subjectively for her and days for me. The sense of
intimacy lingered in memory and senses. She seemed to be enjoying
toying with that memory and sensation. Neb, I wanted her now.
Again.

'We'll need to make several trips – do you have any
specific order for transferring the cargo in mind?' I asked turning
to Vinden, desperately trying to keep my composure and give nothing
away. These people knew me very well indeed after twenty years.

'Yes. Everything has been planned down to the last
detail. We will take the
Indomitable
, and number one through
four containers containing its supplies and fittings in first, with
the
Ghost
on the hangar deck. We'll follow that up with the
two scout boats and boxes five through eight and the old flyer, and
finish with the
Triumphant
and boxes nine through twelve and
the longboat for the return of the crew.

'Right. Let's get working. I'm damn eager to see what
we've come so far to see,' I said, with a nod to the crew.

02

The
Rift Raven
is an eight-box trader – 78
meter long, by 24 wide by 14 high – with two holds, each taking
four boxes in two rows of two. Its engine room is aft and connected
to the bow's living and control centers by a long passageway
running along its spine between the upper and lower holds. The
Indomitable
, in its skeleton shipping crate, just fit in the
Raven
's hold, though was too tall to close the cargo hatches
over it. Vinden was unconcerned since it was a D-matter built
hybrid space/airship and could take whatever the
Raven
could. It took us two days to maneuver and secure it in the Ravin.
That done, we quickly transferred the four boxes and gathered for
the first trip in. It was a large crew, most of whom would be
staying on. It consisted of Vinden, his crew of eight, Min, Vynnia,
Tenry, and myself, plus Molaye, Sar, and Dici who'd pilot the
Raven
back for the next shipment.

'The journey should take three or four days,' Vinden
said as we gathered, shoulder to shoulder in the
Raven
's
small mess room before we set out. 'Assuming the pilot bot's
estimate of the rotation of the Tenth Star is correct. If that
estimate proves too imprecise we'll shift the ship closer for the
subsequent passages. The shell-reef passage will be demanding work
and will take the better part of a day. Two hour watches until we
clear it will be the order of the day, since it will be demanding
work. Once clear of the shell, navigation becomes easier for
awhile, as the next stratum is a thin nebula peppered with a few
asteroids. Both the asteroids and gas gets thicker as we get deeper
into the star, and eventually we'll have to crawl along. Our
ultimate destination is a hidden base where my loyal followers
a'wait in sleeper-pods. Because of its remoteness from Cimmadar, we
should have no problem reaching the base without being detected –
as long as Glen Colin can find it,' he added with a dark glance at
Glen Colin, wedged in a corner.

'I'm preparing as you speak,' he said, raising a
globe of whiskey, which earned him another dark glare.

'You haven't been back in eighty years? How can you
be certain?' I asked.

'You'll see. and the sooner we get under way, the
sooner you'll have your answers, Litang. Let's divide up into
watches and get underway.

'Oh, and one last thing. We will operate in complete
radio silence. Do not respond to any radio signals. We'll use only
our line-of-sight laser radar for navigation and laser coms to link
the buoys. Though we are far from Cimmadar, we don't want to give
them any hint that we have arrived and where to find us.'

Fifteen minutes later, with Vinden and Min at the
helm, the
Raven
slowly steered clear of the floodlight lit
Starry Shore
, the sole spot of light in the blackness –
quickly reducing it to a point of light which vanished as we
approached the outer shell of the Tenth Star. The outer layer was
fairly dispersed, essentially a dense reef of flat, plate-like
rocks, but the deeper we went into the fractured shell, the
narrower the spaces between the plates became, and within two hours
we were very carefully dancing the
Raven
through these
cracks in hundreds of layers of crust.

It took twenty hours to make our way though this
shell-reef as we searched for the most direct passage and marked it
with buoys to make subsequent passages easier.

Towards the end of our nineteenth hour of passage –
and not a moment too soon, we were all pretty worn from the
demanding navigation – the sensors picked up a glimmer of reflected
light ahead, and an hour later, we emerged into a bright nebula.
The awake crew crammed into the small bridge to view the sight.

'We're now within the second stratum of the fabled
Tenth Star,' said Vinden with a sweep of his hand towards the
bridge's glowing viewpanels .

'Why call it a star?' asked Min, 'It looks like a
nebula.'

'At this point, it is just a fairly dense nebula,
since the star is very diffuse at this point. But as we move inward
it gradually gets denser in a long series of stratums, each with
its own particular characteristics. At its core, it's a tiny,
bright star, but there's no sharp, defining break between here, and
its nuclear core, that would allow you to say
here's the
star
, and
here's something else
.

'We still have several days' travel ahead of us, and
all this will become clearer the deeper in we go. We'll be
encountering dense reefs a day or so in, depending on where we are
relative to the base, but for now, we can bring the ship up to
interplanetary speed. Glen Colin will give you your bearings – I
trust,' the last louder and directed at Glen Colin, who was slumped
in a corner, snoring.

'Huh? Are we there yet?'

'I believe it's your job to tell us that,' replied
Vinden. 'At least that's why I've kept you on the payroll all these
long years. Now make yourself useful and give Vyn her
bearings.'

'Right you are, boss. Give me some room,' he said,
and pushed his way to the chair next to the helm and settled into
it next to Vynnia. He pondered the situation for a few moments
before mumbling, 'Just keep it as you are and bring her up to
speed. I'll get a bearing eventually. We've plenty of time to shape
our course while I fuel up...'

03

I found a quiet spot to sling a hammock and awoke six
hours later quite refreshed. We were back to our usual three,
four-hour watch rotation, so I'd another two hours until it was my
turn on the bridge. I slipped into the small mess to get something
to eat. Vinden's crew was sitting around the one table, playing
cards and talking. I punched up my synth-meal and found a place on
the fringe.

As I mentioned, they were a hard looking lot of five
men and two women. All spaceers, and if their looks and airs were
any indication, drifteers and likely pirates. Hopefully retired
pirates. One, at least was.

'I've been meaning to thank you, Captain, for sparing
my life,' said the man across the table from me. A lean, low grav
man – friendlier than most of his mates, but likely just as
deadly.

'I did? When?' I replied, adding as the full import
of what he was saying struck me. 'Off the Kryver Reef, or do you
hale from Despar?'

'You've spared that many lives?' he asked, with an
easy laugh.

'Well, I'm Unity Standard enough to give a crew time
to escape, when I can. I had a Despar tramp in my sights once, when
I was piloting a jump fighter for St Bleyth and I gave them time to
abandon before I blew it to atoms during the Despar troubles.
Afterwards we had to fight our way past five more commandeered
drifteer traders. Didn't bother to destroy them, since I figured
most of their crews were pressed into service. And there was a St
Bleyth frigate we fought to a draw before shaking it off in the
Despar Reef. Still, I'm guessing you're off a Falcon Rock ship...
So, yes, I've see some action, and spared a few lives when I
could.'

He gave me a skeptical look.

I shrugged, 'You wouldn't have found me off the
Kryver Reef if I didn't think I could handle drifteer pirates. Of
course, we had a skip fighter on hand as well, so I wasn't too
concerned. But if you happened to be there, you'll know I didn't
need the skip fighter.' I said grimly. I figured that with this
crew it didn't hurt to let them know Wil Litang was someone not to
trifled with, though I'd have to cut a fine orbit not to overplay
my hand.

He shrugged, 'Aye. I was there. And yes, you treated
us right roughly. Old Cap'n Bitey Sark didn't know what hit him.
Why, you didn't even give him the chance to finish his fine, pirate
speech.'

'I hazarded a guess as to where it was leading and
cut to my answer...'

'Cap'n Bitey was pretty put-off by that. Wasn't
polite. We all thought he was mad enough to call your bluff as
well. Didn't believe you'd actually blow our ship up with him in
it, not after letting the others abandon ship. It was only when you
told his girl, the lovely Flori,
better death than dishonor
and launched your second wave, that he decided that maybe you
weren't bluffing, and – what the Neb – better dishonor, than death,
and gave the order to abandon ship. I can tell you, we were
sweating it,' he said, paused before adding, 'Would you've done
it?'

I answered slowly, 'Yes...Reluctantly. I may be born
and raised Unity Standard, but I'm a half blooded drifteer, and
I've been kicking around the drifts long enough to know I needed to
do it if I didn't want to give the other hawks ideas. Plus it'd be
hardly fair to the two crews who did abandon ship. You were a
minute away from the event horizon when you left.'

'Well, as I said, thanks, Captain,' he said,
extending his hand. 'Ben Ton.'

'Glad to make your acquaintance, Ben, and under these
circumstances. And I suspect you're not the only one here who's
glad we don't play for keeps unless we have to,' I added as I took
his hand and gave the others a look. I'm sure some of his mates
were involved in the Ravin affair. 'I'm glad to see you've
abandoned your ill advised pirate ways and taken up a nice
respectable career.'

That drew some gruff laughter from the rest of the
gang, as I figured it would.

'What's it like to fly a jump fighter?' asked one of
them watching me closely. No doubt a test.

I told him, plainly, and we ended up comparing notes
on jump fighters, as I suspected, we would.. And I told them, when
asked, all about our various battles, since there was no reason not
to any more, – none of these mates would likely ever see the Neb
again. I did, however, keep my yarns short, factual, and
undramatic. I wanted to impress them with my experience, not as a
braggart. We talked pirate to pirate.

'How much did that treasure ship amount to?' asked
Ben as that yarn wound down.

I told him and he whistled. 'Of course, our salvage
share was only 1/12th of the total and most of that went into the
owner's account,' I added. 'The crew and I divided 1/12th of the
ship's share.'

'All that danger and all that gold and it just ends
up in the owner's pocket,' he said, shaking his head.

'I have to say, even 1/1728th of the total cargo was
not something I'd turn my nose up to. Would your share have gotten
you any more?'

He grinned and shook his head. 'No. I guess that's
how the Neb spins.'