Yuen-Mong's Revenge (15 page)

     
"If the AI unit is given the coordinate destination, then the propulsion
jet and the maneuver controls are all operated automatically, but the pilot
can also control them manually with this stick." He pointed to the right
one of two levers in front of the pilot seat. "You move it right or left
depending on the direction you want to roll, forward for down pitch,
backward for up pitch, and twist the knob clockwise or anticlockwise for
yaw. Small sideways horizontal and up-and-down movements are
controlled with the other stick. Obviously, each individual action could
be activated from a separate switch, a total of twelve. That’s no problem.
The problem is to coordinate different actions. The two sticks make this
possible, particularly since the AI unit interprets the hand movements
made." He shook his head. "I can’t see how this can be done by operating
individual switches. It looks impossible." He knew his doubts were
written all over his face.

     
"I see it would be easy to lose control and crash before one can
recover. Managing all twelve may be difficult for one person, but we are
two. We could each control six. For example, I look after roll, pitch and
yaw, while you operate the main engine and the vertical and horizontal
movements."

 
     
"Roll, pitch and yaw are more difficult to manage."

 
     
"I am confident that I could. It is not as if we would have to get to
Palo or Andromatis like that. It is only to get to my parents’ ship… Atun,
it is our only chance."

 
     
It was said with great confidence, and he trusted her. He had seen her
dexterity and instant reactions. It had saved his life. But there was more.
He wanted to believe her. "We may have to practice and waste some
fuel."

 
     
"Could we not lighten the weight of the shuttle by dismantling and
discarding anything that we do not absolutely need for the shuttle to be
operational?"

 
     
"Yes, I thought of that too."

 
     
They continued discussing and arguing about how to make switches
since there were no spares in the shuttle they could cannibalize, and
about a convenient way to control the propulsion unit, as well as the best
location and arrangement for the switches. When night fell, they had
solved most problems that had looked almost impossible on first thought.
Although Atun still had the occasional bout of doubt and panic, he began
to feel more positive about their project. He loved working with her.
Time and again she amazed him with her ability to reason through
difficulties, spot any flaws, and come up with simple solutions, nor was
it only one-sided. Every time he came up with a good solution, such as
switches that went automatically into the off position when released and
how this could be done with the materials available to them, she
rewarded him with a big smile that went right to his core.

     
Next morning he made a list and sketches of all materials needed. It
was the first time in several years that he used pen and paper. A block of
paper and a pen was stored in one of the drawers. By late afternoon, they
were back in the cave.

7

Over the next eighty days they visited the shuttle more than a dozen
times, working on the conversion two to three days each time. On their
first visit, they searched for a systems backup cube in all the obvious
places.

     
"My guess is that there is none, since the mother ship has a backup on
its system. It would have been too fortuitous," remarked Atun.

     
"Let’s not give up yet. There are still places we have not looked…
Maybe the paper service manual shows where a backup is stored." She
shifted some things on the floor. "Here it is," she said, picking it up, and
holding it out for Atun. But rather than take it, he quickly bent down and
opened the panel giving access to the interior of the control console, and
then triumphantly held up a cube.

     
"Thanks for reminding me," he said grinning. "Let’s hope this
works."

 
     
"But should you not also be prepared in case this has also been
wiped?"

 
     
His smile vanished. "You are right. That means programming in
machine language… I can do this while we’re at the cave."

 
     
"In the meantime, let’s return this precious cube to its rightful place."

* * *
 

The time at the cave they spent renewing their food and fuel supplies.
Whenever there was some free time he practiced using his bow. Initially
he despaired that he could not match Yuen-mong’s deadly accuracy.

     
"But I have been doing this for at least fifteen years," she exclaimed
exasperated, when he once voiced it. "Please, Atun, stop trying to
compete with me. Do your best, that is all I ask, and I will not respect you
any less or like you any less if you cannot match me. There are many
things that you are better at than I."

 
     
He doubted that, but it still felt good to hear her say it. Often, when
he did something wrong or through lack of experience failed to think of
survival and she corrected him, he expected that she would remind him
of his early acts of stupidity. But since that evening, when she had told
him not to dwell on the past, she had never mentioned it again. Gradually, he gained back some of his battered self-esteem and confidence.
With it grew his love for her, because he dared to admit it to himself. He
guessed that she knew. She could read his mind like a book — it did not
bother him anymore — so she surely must have read that too.

     
That she could read his mind often simplified things. Many times she
anticipated his needs. But if she knew his love for her, it did not change
her behavior. The women he had known on Palo all would have exploited
this, played with his feelings, made him do things against his will. Not
so Yuen-mong. She included him, but she also kept her distance. She
never flirted or was provocative, only to push him suddenly away. He had
never encountered a more even-tempered person. She also told him more
than once that she liked his company, that it was fun to have another
person to share things and that she was glad that he was with her. Her
uncompromising honesty and openness encouraged him to be equally
open and honest. Only his love for her he kept and cherished deep inside.

     
Another time she said: "Atun, let’s not place unspoken expectations
on each other, except for being honest and truthful. If you want something from me, ask for it, the same as I will ask you." And this too felt
freeing.

     
These days were not just work and nothing but work. Whenever the
opportunity arose, they snatched some fun. At the cave, they went swimming in a protected lagoon nearby. He shed his embarrassment to be in
the nude. It seemed completely natural to her.

     
She introduced him to the ancient game of chess that her father had
taught her. They regularly played a round after dinner, and he quickly
developed into a skilled opponent. The first time he won, he could not
stop smiling, and she kissed his cheek. It took all his will not to let his
fingers search out the spot she had touched.

     
"Did you let me win, Yuen-mong?" he questioned.

     
"No, I would never. I saw right away when I made the mistake and
then all I could do is to prolong the game, waiting for you to make a mistake. But I admit that I also hoped you would not. You won fair and
square."

 
     
He beamed.

     
"I like it when you are happy, Atun. It feels good."

* * *

Their movements attracted the attention of the savages. Twice a sizable
group, hiding at the edge of the forest near the field of spear grass, was
intent on ambushing them on their way home, but Yuen-mong sensed
their presence well in advance. The first time, they made a small detour
around them unseen, but they found signs that the savages had visited the
shuttle and had painted a skull on its outside. She explained that they
believed that this would ward off bad spirits.

     
The second time, Yuen-mong decided to stop that nuisance. In
uncompromising tones she said that if their headman did not want to
learn, then he needed to be replaced. She again went around them and
then they noiselessly sneaked up from behind. Once within easy arrow
range, they rose, an arrow ready in their bows, although she had instructed him to shoot only when she gave the order. She did not want any
unnecessary killing. She issued her challenging whistle call. The savages
immediately jumped up, howling as usual. There was little doubt who
their new headman was. He advertised it by wearing Atun’s badly
tattered clothing. She did not hesitate, took aim and let fly. The man fell
without a sound. Within a second, the next arrow was ready. She shouted
a few words in their tongue. "Go and never come back," she explained
to him afterward.

     
Howling, the men fled in disarray, leaving their fallen headman
behind. From then on, the savages never ventured near the field again,
although he could occasionally see movement on the rock outcrop on top
of the hill he had climbed on his first day on Aros.

     
Finally, the day came when all changes had been made and correct
operation of each one checked and rechecked. Each unit was tested separately for proper fuel ignition. They had recharged the batteries chemically since even the shuttle’s built-in solar cells did not operate. They had
also converted and tested the air-conditioning system to manual control.
Anything that was not essential for the craft’s operation and could be
dismantled they had removed. Atun estimated that the shuttle had
become at least one quarter lighter, making escape from Aros gravitational forces that much easier. It was a strange mixture of 25
^th
century
technology brought back to 19
^th
century mechanics, using stone-age
materials.

     
"Tomorrow we will make our first test flight," she said, while they
were eating a late and well-deserved cold dinner.

     
"You trust yourself to pull it off?" he asked.

     
"Yes, I do. We will practice various maneuvers some more tonight."

 
     
"But it’ll soon be dark and we won’t see the switches anymore."

 
     
"We have to be able to do this with our eyes closed, without having
to think about it." She smiled at him. "Don’t you trust me?"

 
     
"I do, Yuen-mong, I do. I’ve never heard you claim anything that you
couldn’t do. I wish I had as much trust in myself."

 
     
She graced him with one of those smiles that reached right to the core
of his being, touched his arm and said: "If you remain long enough with
me, you will one day." Then she chuckled and moved quickly away from
him, as if she had guessed that he had great difficulties restraining
himself from embracing her.

* * *

Next morning they tested each other operating the switches blindfolded.
They rehearsed the simple maneuvers of their first test several times. The
aim was only to lift off the ground, turn the shuttle around and put it
down again, without using the main engine.

     
Atun engaged the vertical lift thrusters. After three seconds, the
shuttle lifted much faster than he expected before he managed to keep it
hovering about ten meters above the ground, and it immediately started
to tilt to the left. Yuen-mong reacted instantly. She activated the left roll
thruster for a second and the craft righted itself, but overshot to the right.
A quick burst of the right thruster corrected that. Next, she engaged the
right-turn yaw switch to turn the craft around, noticing that the nose
began to dip and corrected that with a quick burst of the up pitch, but by
that time the craft had already turned more than 180 degrees and she let
it continue, counteracting the movement just before it was looking in the
right direction. Atun then moved the craft forward by about a hundred
meters to a patch in the field that they had cleared of spear grasses. Again
she corrected for roll action. When the craft was close to the landing spot,
he brought it to a halt. She gave a tiny thrust to pitch the craft forward so
that the main engine was kept well clear from touching the ground first
when he put the shuttle down. He became suddenly aware that he must
have held in his breath during much of the maneuver and breathed in
deeply.