The Worlds of the Sheaf

Lost in Space - Part 4

     Time dragged slowly aboard the Jules Verne, and no sign of the portal was found. Karog had some specialised navigation and surveying equipment teleported up from Tharia and spent hours out on the walkway, making careful measurements of the positions of the two suns, eventually announcing that they were right where they were supposed to be. Right where the felisians had said the portal was. It was a triumphant vindication of shayen control of the Orb of Propulsion, but even so the trog couldn't pinpoint their position to within twenty million miles, and the Helms of Farsensing only had an ultimate maximum range of a hundred thousand miles.

     Captain Strong gave orders for the ship to begin a search pattern, therefore, spiraling out in three dimensions from their starting point, with all the bridge officers wearing their Helms continuously in search of anything that might be the portal or the ship stationed there. Other people were drafted in to cover for them while they were off duty, and Thomas found himself spending his nights in one of the bridge chairs, his eyes closed as the heavy bulk of the metal helmet sent images continually into his head. Images of nothing, of featureless emptiness.

     Only one moment of excitement broke the dull routine, when one of the alchemists spotted a lone object floating slowly through the void, but when the Jules Verne changed course to investigate they found it to be only a chunk of powdery ice a hundred yards across. The disappointment depressed their spirits even further, and people began to complain that they were wasting their time. That they were being kept away from their wives and families for no good reason.

     Men were still stationed on the railed walkway outside the ship, and Matthew took the time to talk to them now and again, making sure they were bearing up under the soulcrushing vista of deep space. He'd already noticed some disturbing symptoms that all was not well. The men who'd spent the longest outside were developing a look in their eyes. An unfocused expression as if they were staring at something that only they could see. They tended to speak in short, clipped sentences as if resenting having their attention disturbed from something far more important. Some of the less affected were calling it The Far Look, and Matthew could only hope it was something that would wear off once this was all over and they'd had a chance to recover.

     He was doing his rounds of the walkway when he was shocked and surprised to see Bobby Fell ahead of him. "I ordered you off this duty!" he exclaimed once he'd managed to drag the young man's attention back from whatever distant world it had fled to. "What are you doing back out here?"

     "Commander Callan ordered it," the young infantryman replied, his body trembling as he struggled to maintain control of himself. "He said we need every available man out here and that he had no need for... for idle slackers. I told him I'd be okay, that I could take it. Sir, I..."

     "Get back inside, Fell," ordered Matthew firmly. "You're on guard duty until I, I myself, say otherwise."

     "Sir, I'll be okay, I'm alright. I'm not a slacker, I can do whatever the others do..."

     "He had no right to call you that. I'll speak to him myself. Now get inside. Now!"

     Fell nodded gratefully and pulled himself towards the nearest airlock, Matthew following, his thoughts an inferno of fury. Once inside, he marched straight to the hanger deck, where Callan and two of his men were inspecting the scout ships, discussing the relative merits of various modifications that had been suggested, including a couple Matthew had made himself after their return from the Southern Continent. He politely asked the Commander whether he could talk to him in private, and Callan excused himself to the two navy men while he and Matthew entered the Trill-Dal, the shayen name for the second scoutship. Translated into the common tongue, it meant Silk Wing, the name of a large, lacy winged insect that lived in the jungles of the shayen homelands.