Second Contact (Okal Rel Saga #1)

Chapter 4.5 - Finding the Way to Paradise

The universe tried to fall out from under Ann in all directions as the two new ships caught her between their wakes. Ann's initial reaction was fury at such blatant incompetence! Then she realized they were doing it on purpose, and was unnerved. She compensated with an evasive drop in the direction currently serving as 'down' and fled for the jump, flying at the limits of human endurance, with subjective Gs pressing her down into her slug.

The killer ships gained on her. She could feel their intent creeping into her consciousness. If she was lucky, her ship would crack and spill her into hard vacuum. If she wasn't, eternity would open like a mouth and she would be gone into a future so distant it was ill defined. Lost. The physical interpretation of the math governing more than small amounts of time slip constituted every pilot's great unknown. In her terror she even forgot about Beauty.

But he had not forgotten her.

He cut across the two ships pursuing her, looming on her sensors with a reality skimming shout. One of her tormentors peeled off and another stuttered, like a pulsar, before dropping out of skim.

Beauty swept around in an arc, coming up alongside her as they reached the jump.

"Come on," she urged, waiting for him to get into position and afraid at the same time of guiding a pilot who felt so much more powerful than she was! But she waited, and when the moment came, Beauty was there, with her, in wake lock.

She experienced his presence like a shout across great distances, miraculously heard. He had never before been in a fight like they had just experienced. He was shaken, and he didn't know the way through this jump, whatever people said. His fear washed through her like a spring storm, as strong as if it was her own emotion.

If they were going to find the way to Paradise it was going to be her job. On the strength of her single jump with Thomas.

No problem! she decided, with an inner surge of confidence. Ann envisioned the roar of the waterfall she had heard before and the shedding onion layers she must fall through, and it worked! They were out, in the Reach of Paradise. On the Reetion side of the jump!

Or she was.

Beauty was nowhere in evidence.

She was afraid to stop. If she did, she didn't think she would be able to find the courage to make it back to Second Contact Station, alone. So she set off at a half a skim factor, wracked by sobs. She was still crying five minutes later when she picked up a ship bounding toward her.

Fear and hope took her by the throat.

The ship slowed down, pacing her but careful not to wake-lock. She dropped out of skim. The ship followed.

She hailed the vessel on the radio, breathless with excitement. "Liege Monitum?"

"Ann?" Beauty's voice greeted her! "Oh, Ann, I have been waiting for hours! I thought you were never going to come out! And I didn't know which way to go."

She could not understand his English any better than before, but it didn't matter. "Let's go home!" she announced, and led on.

He'd make a damn good pilot, Ann thought, and wondered if N'Goni had felt the same pride when he recruited her.

At a safe distance from Second Contact Station Ann and Beauty dropped out of skim to start their sub-light approach.

"This is mission pilot Ann, requesting dock," Ann hailed the station. "I am traveling with a Gelack vessel piloted by Liege Monitum who speaks English but no Reetion. My nav persona blanked pit in the jump so I'm boiled down to algorithmic software. I'm going to need an upload."

"We copy Ann," answered a controller. "You are cleared to dock. And we'll take care of your guest's language problem."

Ann was able to eavesdrop on the conversation, the English overlaid by Reetion translation.

"Gelack vessel? This is Second Contact Station traffic control inviting you to dock. Understood?"

"Yes. I understand," Beauty said. He sounded shaky.

"Follow Ann until we tell you otherwise."

He answered, "I'll try." And then with greater emphasis. "I will! Yes. Thanks!"

He sounded as if he was convincing himself, which made Ann smile. It was easy to dock with a zero-G hub. All he had to do was aim for the middle, slow down, and let a freshly downloaded docking persona take charge. Except his ship was unlikely to support a persona of any sort.

"Control," Ann piped up. "Monitum's ship has no crystronic block aboard."

"We've deduced as much," the controller's voice came back. "We're guiding him into an ambulance bay. We're going to cut you out of the conversation now. Must be confusing enough for him and I have an anthropologist at my elbow as well as Lurol."

"Oh, yeah," said Ann. "Of course."

It did not help that she became so much cargo herself once a docking persona was transmitted to her scout's vacant block, but she was able to observe if not contribute.

"Gelack pilot, are you with us?" The controller asked.

"Y-Yes," answered Beauty's voice. His ship was still no more than a large gray marble closing on the hub.

"What is your name?" asked the anthropologist.

"Di Mon," he said, "the liege of Monitum."

"Are you all right?" the controller interjected. "We have a doctor here to assess your risk from gap exposure."

"Are you feeling vague?" cut in Lurol's voice. "Disoriented?"

"N-No," Beauty stammered. "I am f-fine."

There was a brief pause.

"How old are you?" Lurol's voice softened.

"Sixty," he told her. "No, sixty-five."

"Uh huh," Lurol sighed. "Listen, talk to me, kid. Talk about anything."

"C-Can't," he stuttered.

Ann struggled forward in her cockpit's body slug.

"You told us your name was Liege Monitum," Lurol coaxed.

There was no answer.

"Monitum!" Lurol demanded. "Are you with us?" Still silence.

Ann set her jaw. It wouldn't happen again! Not like it had with N'Goni. She would not lose Beauty to gap! If Lurol had any legal objections, Ann would put him in the visitor probe herself!