Richard Russo - Ship of Fools

No one would look at me. No one except Nikos, who almost imperceptibly shook his head as if to say, Don’t worry about it. But I couldn’t blame them. We had taken votes, but this had been my idea, and I had persuaded the Planning Committee to go along.

“What do we do now?” Costino asked.

“We wait,” Nikos replied. “The bishop shouldn’t have gone. Our job isn’t done.”

Costino started the pot of coffee around. There was no cup for me, and no one offered to find one or have one brought in.

No one had the heart for small talk. Costino obsessively rubbed his right thumb and forefinger together while staring down into his own lap. Susanna bounced a leg up and down. Tournier chewed on his lip. Toller, Nikos, and Geller tried unsuccessfully to appear calm.

Costino finally broke the silence. “I’ll do it,” he said. “I’ll ask the question no one wants to ask. What do we do if we can’t break free? I don’t have any good ideas. I don’t even have any bad ideas. But we’d better start working on it, because I have a strong suspicion we’re going to need an answer.”

“Not now,” Nikos said.

“Why not?”

“Because we may not have to deal with that. And even if the problem does arise, we can’t anticipate the circumstances. For now, we just wait.”

“Brilliant leadership from our captain.”

“You want to take over, Costino, I will step down right now in your favor.”

Costino’s only response was to slump in his chair and jam his chin into his fist.

“Quarreling isn’t going to help,” Geller said quietly.

“Fine,” said Costino. “Why don’t you be captain? Hell, I’ll gladly support you.”

“This isn’t the time for leadership changes.”

The room lapsed into silence again. A few minutes later we were shaken by a rolling vibration. It persisted for two full minutes, rattling the coffee cups, shaking the chairs and table. I wondered if this was what an earthquake felt like. Then the vibrations abruptly ceased.

Nikos had started keying the console when Cardenas’s face appeared on the wall.

“The alien starship is coming alive, Captain. We don’t know whether that was engines starting up, or some other internal machinery, or what.”

“What about the docking mechanism?”

“The crew’s out there now. They’ve just started working on it. Nothing yet.”

“Maybe we should call them back.”

“No, Captain. If anything, it’s become more imperative we find a way to break free. I’ve given them orders to continue.”

“All right.”

Cardenas’s face disappeared.

“Maybe my idea of attacking is not so crazy after all,” Tournier said.

“It’s still not a good idea,” Toller responded.

“And why not?”

“We’re still locked together with that ship, that’s why not. We risk damaging the Argonos . Retaliation’s also much easier since we’re so close.”

“Launch missiles at those areas of their ship farthest away from us.”

“To what end, Michel?”

“Maybe it’ll frighten them enough to let us go.”

Toller just shook his head.

“How do we know that’s such a bad idea?” Costino asked. He was rubbing his thumb and finger again.

“It may come to something like that,” Nikos said. “But we’re not close. We’ve got alternatives. Give Cardenas’s crew a chance. They may get it done.”

The waiting dragged on, with increasing tension. I wanted to leave, to get away from the hostility and fear being directed indirectly at me. I didn’t know how long I could stand it.

An hour passed, maybe more. People began to talk a little, trying to fill the void, but the conversations were forced and awkward. No one talked to me. Nikos might have, but he was at the far end of the table, which made it impossible.

A faint jolt; then another. We all turned expectantly to the wall screen. It remained dormant. Maybe it was nothing.

No such luck. There was no image, but Cardenas’s voice came through the speakers. She was breathing hard.

“I haven’t got much time,” she said. “I’m suited up and on my way out. We don’t know what happened, some kind of massive energy feedback, an explosion of some kind, some… we just don’t know. The crew’s down. Telemetry tells us we’ve got three dead, the others badly injured and crashing hard. No one’s responding to our calls. We’re on our way out to bring them back in.”

“I’m on my way,” Nikos said. “What kind of support do you need?”

“Nothing,” Cardenas answered. “Med teams are on their way. You don’t need to come, Captain. By the time you get here—”

Nikos cut her off. “I’m on my way,” he repeated. “Ship damage?”

“None. And we’re still docked. Whatever happened didn’t damage the docking mechanism, didn’t damage a damn thing except our people. We’ll have to try something else later…. Okay, that’s it. We’re going out now.”

“I’ll be there as fast as I can.”

The sound cut out; Cardenas was gone.

“Okay, Captain .” It was Costino, leaning forward against the table. “Maybe now we’ll have to start thinking about other alternatives.”

“You start thinking, Costino. You come up with any ideas, you just let me know.” Nikos turned to me. “Bartolomeo. Make sure the old woman gets taken care of.”

I nodded and stood. Nikos stood as well, then said, “I declare this meeting adjourned.”

As we left the council chambers, Costino called after us.

“The bishop was right! We are all dead men!”

“MAYBEwe shouldn’t jet her,” Taggart said, watching the old woman through the one-way glass.

The woman was on the floor of the room, apparently unconscious. A security squad, five-strong with a metal coffin, a wheeled cart, and a portable welder, waited in the corridor outside, all of them armed and armored and masked. The sedative was still pumping invisibly into the room; we weren’t taking any chances. What did it matter if we overdosed and killed her?

I couldn’t look away from the old woman, the alien. Unconscious, she was having difficulty maintaining human form. She shuddered occasionally, and with each shudder it seemed a wave of aborted form-changing rolled through her—her skin shivered and glistened, turning dark and rough; the contours of her limbs expanded briefly, taking on bulk; and her facial features came apart: the flesh flowed and darkened and threatened to take some new form. But before it did, before anything could establish itself, everything coalesced and she looked like an old woman again.

“Why not?” I asked Taggart.

“Maybe we could use her as a hostage. Negotiate with the aliens. We give her back, they let us go.”

“It’s a lousy idea,” I said. “Negotiate?” If Taggart couldn’t figure out for himself why it was such an idiotic idea, I didn’t feel like explaining. I was sick of explaining, especially since I seemed to be wrong as often as not.

We waited another half hour, then I opened the door to the corridor and signaled the squad leader. I’d better be right about the timing, I thought; this section of the med centers had been sealed off from the rest of the Argonos . If I was wrong and that thing wasn’t unconscious, or if it suddenly revived, we would be trapped here with it.

Taggart and I watched through the one-way glass as the mangled door was pushed open and the security squad entered the room, carrying the coffin. They moved quickly to the old woman, set the coffin beside her, and opened it. Four of them lifted her—one on each limb—and laid her inside. Another change-wave rolled through her, startling the squad and causing two of them to draw out stone burners; when the human form restabilized, they quickly closed the coffin lid and sealed it with the welder.