To the Stars Trilogy Part 14

"You know what you'll have for afters." She laughed and pulled away, sitting on the far side of the table from him.

"Maybe my sister is right," Jan said. "I might be the falling-in-love kind after all..."

"Please don't talk like that. Not now~r ever. There is only ten minutes before your car comes back, we must finish this."

He opened his mouth to speak-but did not. He nodded instead and she relaxed. But he noticed that she was wringing her fingers together, unknowingly. They would talk tomorrow. She pushed the recordings over to him.

"This is the important one, the organ recital," she said. "I don't know how it is done, but a computer memo-ry has been worked into the background noise, the static."

"Of course! 'What an interesting idea. Any computer memory is composed of two signals,~a yes and a no, that is all you have in binary. So a memory could be stretched out, modulated, changed in frequency, dropped in as apparently random bits of surface noise. And without the key no one else would be able to read it."

"I'm sure you're right. This is the way we have com-municated in the past. But it is clumsy and slow and many of the recordings go astray. A new system has been worked out-and details are on this disc. This one must get through. The situation out there is ready to blow, and it will go up as soon as we can establish reliable communication. This will be just the beginning. Other planets will follow."

'All right," Jan said, putting the envelopes into his shirt pocket and b.u.t.toning the flap. "But why two of them?"

"Our contact on the deep s.p.a.cer is sure he has been spotted, that the recording will be intercepted. So you will give the dummy to the first man that contacts you. Save the second for the real agent."

"How will I know what to do?"

"You will be watched. As soon as you are used to working in s.p.a.ce you will be on your own. You will be contacted then. Whoever approaches you will use the phrase, 'Have you checked your safety line lately?' Give him the recording."

"The dummy?"

"Correct. The real agent will then come to you for the proper recording."

"It all sounds hideously complicated."

"It has to be. Just follow orders."

The cabin door creaked open slightly and Fryer spoke through the crack.

"Car coming in two minutes," he said. "Let's go.

Eighteen In the beginning the shuttle trip was very much like a flight by normal jet. Jan had flown often enough for the novelty to have worn off. He had read most of the way across the Atlantic, and the only aerial view he had had of Cape Canaveral was of the tropical cloud bank that cov-ered it. A ramp had sealed the jet to the terminal, and it was through another ramp that he had boarded the shut-tle. Except for the lack of windows the interior was just like that of a normal aircraft. The TV screen before each pa.s.senger showed a rea.s.suring meadow landscape, with nodding lilies and billowing white clouds, matched by the equally rea.s.suring strains of Beethoven's "Pastoral." Lift-off, with a maximum of one and half G acceleration was surely greater than a normal takeoff, but not of a surpris-ing order. Even when the shielding had slipped back from the nose camera and a view of s.p.a.ce had replaced the lilies, there was no great feeling of difference. It could have been just another TV program. Only when accelera-tion ceased completely and they were in free fall was the real change apparent. Despite the antinausea drugs the pa.s.sengers had taken, the psychological effect was strong enough to affect a number of stomachs.

The attendant was busy with the barfbags, and a hand-vacuum for the bits that missed the bags.

The reality of the occasion finally penetrated when a star ahead grew brighter, then took form. Satellite Station. A specialized satellite for s.p.a.ce vehicles. Here the deep s.p.a.cers came, ships built in the vacuum of s.p.a.ce and destined never to enter a planet's atmosphere. They were served by stocky, winged shuttles like this one, vehicles that could land and take off from the planet below. There were spidery s.p.a.ce tugs as well, skeletal ships that serviced the Earth satellites, repairing or replacing them as needed. This was the reason for Jan's presence here. A presence that would, hopeftilly, serve a dual purpose.

With quick blasts from its maneuvering jets the shut-tle drifted toward the great bulk of the station, guided to final contact by computer control from the station itself. There was a slight tremor when they touched the contact pads, but no rebound as the magnetic grapples took hold. Short moments later the green light came on above the door and the steward spun the unlocking wheel. Five more uniformed men came aboard, kicking off easily and floating the length of the cabin, then grabbing the hand rails for graceful stops.

"Now you've seen them do it," the steward said. "But please don't try it yourself if you are not experienced. Most of you gentlemen have technical knowledge so you will know what I mean when I remind you that a body in free fall has no weight-but it still has ma.s.s. If you push off and hit the wall headfirst, you will feel as though you have hit the wall headfirst. So please remain seated as instructed, with your belts secured. The a.s.sistants will guide you out one at a time. Gently as though you were in your mother's arms.

While the steward was talking, four men in the first rows unbelted and kicked themselves free.

Experienced s.p.a.cers by their moyements. Jan knew better than to even try. He unlocked his belt when instructed, felt himself lifted and floated the length of the cabin.

"Grab the cable and don't let go until you reach the far end."

A rubbery endless cable emerged from a hole in the boarding tube's wall and moved steadily toward the sta-tion. A silvery panel on the tube must have had a weak magnetic field-there was undoubtedly an iron core to the cable~for the cable clung to the wall, sliding with an irritating squeaking sound. Yet it came away easily enough. Jan grabbed onto it and was towed the length of the tube, to the circular bay at the far end.

"Let go now," the man waiting there called out. "I'll guide you to a stop." He did it easily and swung Jan toward the rail to which his toes were hooked. "Do you think you can pull yourself hand-over-hand to that open-ing in the transfer room?"

"I can only try," Jan said, attempting the not too easy task. It worked well enough, though his legs did tend to float up over his head-if over were the right word. A ladder went down into the transfer room, leading to an open door. Four men were already in the small room beyond and the attendant closed the door as soon as Jan was in. The room began to move sideways.

'As we accelerate to match the station's rotation your weight will gradually return. Th~red wall will become the floor. Please orientate toward it so you will be able to stand on it.

As the spin increased so did their apparent weight. By the time the transfer room had matched the rotation speed of the station they stood solidly on a floor and waited for the attendant to open the hatch.

Perfectly normal steps led downward into the station. Jan went first. The stairway led to a larger room with a number of exits. A tall, blond man was waiting there, looking at the new arrivals. He walked toward Jan.

"Engineer Kulozik?" he asked.

"That's right."

"I'm Kjell Norrvall." He put his hand out. "In charge of satellite maintenance. A pleasure to have you here."

"My pleasure. Getting into s.p.a.ce."

"We're not exactly interstellar here-but we're still a long way from Earth. Look, I don't know if you're hungry or not, but I just came off shift and I'm starving."

"Give me a few minutes and I think I'll be able to eat. This going in and out of gravity isn't the easiest thing on the stomach."

"Neither is coming in on the wee-waw express with all the white bags...

"Kjell, please...

"Sorry. Change the subject. Good to see you here. First engineer from the London lab in over five years.

"It can't be."

"Certainly is. They sit there on their fat balder-present company excepted-and tell us what to do up here with-out the slightest idea of what our problems are. So you are welcome, I mean that. So you'll excuse my bad Norwegian jokes, yes?"

"Yes, of course. As soon as I settle down I'll make some myself."

"Right in here."

There was quiet background music in the dining room which had been decorated with some degree of taste. The flowers along the wall only looked like plastic when o~e came close. A few men were queuing at the self-service counter, but Jan had no desire to get that close to food quite yet.

"I'll find a table," he said.

"Can I get you anything?"

"Just a cup of tea."

"No problem."

Jan tried not to look too closely at the meal Kjell was wolfing down with great enthusiasm; the tea went down very well and he was happy with that.

"'When do I get to see the satellite?" Jan asked.

'As soon as we finish here, if you like. Your bag will be in your room waiting for you. Before I forget, here's the key, the number is on it. I'll show you how a s.p.a.cesuit works and we can go out."

"Is it that easy-going into s.p.a.ce?"

"Yes and no. The suits are about as foolproof as they can be made, so that's not a worry. And the only way to learn to work in zero-G in s.p.a.ce is to go out and do it. You won't be flying, that takes a long time to learn, so I'll take you out in a powered suit and anchor you. Bring you back the same way. You can work as long as you want, to get the hang of tool using, then shout into the radio when you've had enough. You'll never he out there alone: T)ne ot us will get to you within sixty seconds. Nothing to worry about."

Kjell pushed his plate away and started on a large and violently red sweet. Jan turned his eyes away.

The fabric paneling on the walls was attractive.

"No windows," Jan said. "I haven't seen one since I arrived."

"You won't either-only one is in the control tower. We're in geosynchronous...o...b..t here, where most of the satellites are. Also right in the middle of a Van Allen belt. Plenty of radiation out there-hut plenty of shielding too in these walls. The suits we use have heavy shielding as well, and even with that we don't go out during solar storms."

"What is the situation now?"

"Quiet. And it should stay that way. Ready?"

"Lead the way.

Everything that could be automated in the s.p.a.cesuits was-with multiple standby and fail-safe circuits.

Internal temperature, oxygen demand, humidity controls were all computer controlled. As was the control input.

"You just talk to the suit," Kjell said. "Call it suit control, tell it what you want, then say end suit control when you are finished. Like this." He lifted the bowllike helmet and spoke into it."Suit control, give me a status report."

"Unoccupied, all internal controls off oxygen tank full, batteries fully charged." The voice was mechanical, but clear.

'Are there specific commands or phrases?" Jan asked.

"No, just speak clearly and the discrimination circuits will sort out the command words and phrases. It'll query if there is any doubt, and repeat any commands before actuating them."

"Sounds simple enough-I hope it is. Shall we start?"

"Now's the time. Sit down and put your legs in here..."

It went easily and Jan had faith in the Suit circuitry when it warned him that his right glove wasn't sealed completely. With the helmet in place he lumbered after Kjell into the airlock. His suit unwrinkled as the pressure dropped and when it hit zero the outer door automatically unlocked.

"Here we go," Kjell's voice said on the radio hookup, and pushed them out through the opening.

They were on the dark side of the station. Words had not prepared Jan for the sight of the stars, unmasked by any atmosphere or pictured on a screen. There seemed to be too many of them, filling all of s.p.a.ce. Varying in brightness and color. He knew the arctic sky at night~but that had only been a suggestion of the grandeur and beauty that filled s.p.a.ce around him. Long minutes pa.s.sed without his realizing it, until Kjell spoke.

"It always. .h.i.ts you like that. But the first time is special."

"Unbelievable!"

"And it's not going away-so we can get some work done now.

"Sorry."

"Don't be. I feel the same way.

Kjell jetted them to the comsat which was anch.o.r.ed to a spar. The bulk of a deep s.p.a.cer was not far beyond. Some men were working on her hull and there was the sudden red flare of a laser welder. Seen in s.p.a.ce, in its correct environment, the communication satellite was more impressive than it had ever looked in the sterile room on Earth. It was gouged and eroded by years of bombardment of microparticles. They clipped onto it and Jan pointed out the cover plates he wanted removed. He watched closely as Kjell used the counter-rotating powered screw-driver. Then he tried it himself, clumsily at first but with increasing skill. After an hour of this he found the fatigue creeping up so he stopped and they returned. He turned in soon after and slept very well indeed.

When they went out again during the next work period he had the metal recording envelopes in his pocket. It was very easy to slip them into the outer leg pocket of his suit.

By the third day he was working well and Kjell seemed satisfied with his progress.

"I'm going to leave you alone now. Shout if you need some hel~I'll be inside that navsat there," he said.

"I hope not. I have these boards out where I can get ~erolW,s, to them so I'm all set for awhile. Thanks for the "More thanks to you. This equipment has been wait-mg years for your master's touch."

Jan must have been under constant observation~r his radio messages were being monitored. Probably both. He was still unshipping his monitor screen when a s.p.a.cesuited figure moved out from behind the nearby s.p.a.cer, drifting his way with skillful puffs 6f gas from his backpack. The man came close, stopped, then touched his helmet to Jan's. Their radios were off but the sound of his voice came clearly through the contacting surfaces.

"Have you checked your safety line lately?"

His features were invisible behind the mirrored hel-met. Jan fumbled the recording out of his pocket and pa.s.sed it through the beam of his work light. It was the correct one. The man took it from his hand and pushed off at the same instant, turning as he drifted away.

A second man appeared out of the darkness, moving fast, faster than Jan had ever seen one of the suits move before. It was on a collision course and he slammed into the first man with soundless impact, triggering the laser welder he held before him just as they hit.

It was a microsecond burst, a jet of brilliant red light that burned a gaping hole through suit and man in an instant. Oxygen puffed out and froze into a cloud of tiny brilliant crystals. There was no radioed alarm either; the attacker must have placed the beam to destroy the suit computer as well.

Jan was still rigid with shock when the second man let the laser swing from its line and grabbed the dead man, triggering his jets at the same time. They must have had specially fitted high-pressure orifices because the two fig-ures accelerated away swiftly-then separated. The attacker reversed thrust, but no longer held onto the dead man. The corpse went out and out, leaving a comet tail of frozen oxygen, growing smaller, dwindling from sight.

The other man braked to a stop next to Jan and held out his hand. For a long moment Jan, still shocked by the speed and deadliness of the attack, did not realize what was needed. Then he reached into his pocket and extracted the second recording, pa.s.sing it over. He could not help recoiling when the other helmet moved and pressed against his.

"Well done," the distant voice said. Then he was gone.

Nineteen.

Two days later, in the middle of a sleep period, Jan was woken by the shrill beep-beep of the phone. He blinked at the illuminated time readout; he had only been asleep about three hours. With a muttered grutnble he turned on the phone and Sonia Amarigho's features filled the screen.

"Jan, are you there?" she said. "My screen's dark:'

Still hoping to get back to sleep, he switched to infrared pickup instead of turning on the light. His image would be black and white, but clear enough for the phone.

"I was afraid you would be sleeping," Sonia said. "I am sorry to awaken you."

"That's all right. I had to get up to answer the phone anyway.