Jack Chalker - Kaspar's Box

“Well, good luck, Commander. I don’t know which one of us is goin’ into the worst situation,” Murphy replied. “But at least I’m goin’ someplace.”

Finding Shuttle 24 was not all that difficult, but it did take some time to get to on the vast frigate.

As Mohr said, the shuttles did double duty as emergency lifeboats, and because of that they were laid out like lifeboats along every other deck from top to bottom and from stem to stern, each with an airlock entrance and a separate small launch bay. Each was angled slightly, so that it needed only the emergency code or a pilot to shoot it out at high velocity into space, whereupon it could be either piloted by the human aboard or go on automatic if in lifeboat mode. Mohr had not been lying when he said that a pilot was needed if they were to get to Barnum’s World; on automatic, it would simply head for the nearest inhabited world, and if no such world were in its range, it would head for the nearest stable wormgate and go through it and go through the procedure again. If more than half the supplies were used up, it would put everyone aboard into a cryogenic state whether they wanted to be or not and continue on, possibly forever, certainly until it found something in its programming.

With a pilot aboard it became a shuttle. The pilot generally brought a detailed flight plan from the central computer with him or her and simply inserted it, adjusting only as circumstances required. In this case, though, they hadn’t trusted the computers aboard the frigate to do a solid plan, and so the pilot would have to complete it on the shuttle and make daily adjustments. From this point, Barnum’s World required two jumps and would be about eighty hours subjective time at the highest speed the shuttle was capable of making. The larger ships weren’t likely to follow at that rate; they would be a week or more behind at full throttle. This was going to be a long time with the three witches, subject to their powers and whims.

When Murphy finally got to the bay, the outer lock was open and lit up from within. He had no idea who had made it and who hadn’t, but he was kind of hoping to be the last one inside.

He wasn’t. Maslovic was there, in a new, clean uniform and looking more official, but that was it, or so it seemed. He came to near attention when Murphy entered, a marked difference from the way he’d greeted them as head of the boarding party when they’d been taken aboard not all that long ago.

“At ease, Sergeant. I’m nobody’s captain here. Nobody else here yet?”

“No, sir. At least so far as I know. The pilot is on her way and should be here any minute. As for the other passengers… Well, I hope they’ll let us know because we certainly can’t leave without them!”

“Well, we could, but it would make your navy pretty unhappy, and I doubt if even me girls would like it after they finished playin’ their games. They could have them babies any time now, and I don’t think any of ’em wants to have ’em on board your big, antiseptic ship.”

He looked around the shuttle and nodded approvingly to himself. “The bunks should be more than adequate, and there’s decent toilet facilities I see.” He moved from the aft compartment to the center and found a comfortable middle room, as it were, with a padded leatherette bench seat going completely around the walls and breaking only for the fore and aft doorways, all flanking a rather cleverly designed segmented table with inserts that could be raised, lowered, tilted, inverted, and moved every which way. More bunks of a more basic sort could be strung from the ceiling. Cut into the side bulkheads, one side mirroring the other, were compartments that clearly slid back.

“Serving bays,” the sergeant told him. “We’ll get our food there and drink through there. It’s mostly made from various wastes using a separate computer-controlled device with matter to energy to matter conversion, but the food it produces is nearly identical to what we get in the galleys and is really not that bad. Drinks are from those inserts there. You simply say what you want and it will make it for you. There’s a great deal of recycling here, but some loss each turn, which is why there is a limit to how long we can go. Still, we’re set for weeks here if need be, and we don’t need nearly that long.”

Murphy nodded. “I think it best we don’t mention the process and origins of the food and drink, Sergeant. Let’s let it just be magic, all right?”

The marine froze for a moment, not quite understanding what the old man was saying, and then realized the context. “Oh, yes, sir. I see. Yes, we want everyone to be happy and relaxed here.”

Murphy smiled. “I think we might just get along here for the duration, Sergeant. So, do you know this pilot?”

“Yes, sir. Picked her myself out of the group. Very skilled. When we have things we must do with some, er, delicacy, she’s who we pick. I’m not sure anybody’s ready for this trio of yours, but if anybody is, Lieutenant Chung would be. She’s had some ground experience, mostly in finding and selecting the best things we need for repairs and replacements, but she shouldn’t be thrown by a different sort of culture, no slight intended, sir.”

“None taken. Your people have gone a different way than most, but I suppose it works. You’re still basically extortionists, but it’s an elegant sort of extortion, the kind that even you think is a public service. I suppose I can live with that. I deal mostly with ones who just pick it up by choice or as a job of opportunity.”

“So our protection is extortion while your smuggling is just unrestrained business. That right?”

“That’s about it, laddie. But the big difference is that to you this is the end, the purpose of things, while to me the gatherin’ of money and whatever it brings is just the means to an end. You’ll never even understand the sort of dreams we mortal folk have.”

“Just because we’re built differently and to different purposes doesn’t mean we can’t understand such things,” the sergeant noted.

Murphy gave a low chuckle and muttered to himself, “Aye. I had a neutered dog once.”

“Sir?”

“Never mind. Nothin’ of importance. But where is— ah! Looks like our pilot has arrived.”

Lieutenant Chung was smaller and thinner by far than Maslovic or any of the others Murphy had seen aboard. Not that she had a figure; she reminded Murphy less of a warrior caste than of a girl permanently frozen before reaching puberty, and, like all the others, she was hairless. But if most of the navy types were built for weight lifting and fighting, the pilot class were acrobats, built for lightning-fast action and reaction, with perfect balance and genetically heightened senses, all the better to meld with their machines almost as if one and the same. He also suspected she wasn’t as helpless as her tiny form suggested. That same lightning quickness and superior senses made for ideal experts in the martial arts.

Her voice, too, was high and seemed more a child’s voice, yet the tone and confidence it projected suggested a lot of experience.

The sergeant came to attention but did not salute. You didn’t salute inside when on a mission. He towered over her; Murphy figured that three or four of the pilots could be made out of the protoplasm in that tough marine. Still, he was properly and professionally deferential. She was, after all, an officer.

“Stand easy, Sergeant,” she said crisply, putting down her own kit. “Is everyone here?”

“No, sir. The three passengers have yet to arrive,” Maslovic told her.

She nodded. “Very well. I’ll get everything prepped up front. Then we’ll wait. They’ll either show up or they won’t.”