Jack Chalker - Kaspar's Box

“Well, Murphy here and I have been looking over the archives,” Broz told them, “and we can’t find any military ship on the list. Mostly research and exploration ships, freighters, and similar craft. Even one interstellar small city devoted to Christian evangelism, of all things. I feel confident that if we can keep them out of our control computers, we can handle the rest.”

“Then as soon as I get the coordinates I will put the proposal to the Admiralty directly,” Maslovic told them. “We will probably be approved with the limitation that we take only volunteers and then only the minimum human crew to do the job.”

“And the girls? What of them?” Murphy asked him.

“That’s up to the Admiralty. I know that if I had my own choice I’d bring them along. They may be the best, perhaps the only way of getting into direct one-on-one contact with this alien presence, and they have nowhere else to go. Of course, the Admiralty may feel that it would not be just to take them along at their age and experience. We’ll see. You, Captain, will be allowed to depart with our thanks.”

“The devil I will!” Patrick Murphy snapped. “I ain’t come this far to turn and run now, maybe never knowin’ what the hell it’s all about. No, no. You’re stuck with me, Maslovic. Nobody but nobody is gonna keep Patrick Xavier Aloysius Murphy from settin’ his old eyes on the Three Kings themselves!”

“Then it’s a done deal. I’ll go run it past the higher-ups and see what they’ll give us.”

It took almost a day to get everyone on board. The main points of disagreement were whether or not to try it with the full task force or to send just one element. Maslovic argued for real power, which meant one of the destroyers at the least, but after the Admiralty became concerned that, if everyone wasn’t going, there was the likelihood of a one-way trip judging from the evidence, it was decided that the force should be as minimal as possible while still sufficient to get the job done.

Maslovic would get his destroyer, with full weapons, but minimal crew. It would be stripped of all but one fighter squadron, put on as full automation as possible, and full discretion would be handed to the special captain appointed for the mission and to the ground force under Maslovic.

Both would also have the code strings for autodestruct.

By the time the group assembled again, Maslovic had the full set of details.

“Lieutenant Chung, you will take command of Agrippa, ” he told her, watching her face light up. She was suddenly now, at least with a brevet promotion, about twenty years advanced beyond where she would expect to be. “I am mission commander, and, yes, you can call me Sarge, Chief, Commander, or Hey you! Makes no difference. Captain Murphy, I’m going to put you in charge of your three girls.”

“You’re takin’ ’em along, then?”

“Got nowhere else to put them, and in a pinch they may be our avenue of communication with whatever’s out there. We’re pretty sure we understand now how whatever it is hacked into the system and that avenue’s forestalled. That doesn’t mean they might not surprise us, but the captain and I will have personal control of weapons and similar systems outside the primary. No matter what, I feel certain we can blow them to hell if need be. Darch and Broz will handle our involuntary guests. Feel free to call on the rest of the team if need be.”

Broz had a wicked smile on her face. “They been told yet?”

“I rather think we’ll let old Georgi know just before we jump, in case he’s fed us the wrong coordinates or is setting a trap. Until then, both he and his alter ego Joshua are to be given the impression that they are being taken back to a colonial world as part of the bargain. Clear?”

Murphy looked Maslovic straight in the eyes. “It’s not much for this kind of thing.”

“It’s what we’ve got. Now, let’s go do it!”

“You can’t do this to me! You gave me your word!”

Maslovic grinned at the little man, who had been going back and forth about this for most of the trip.

“What’s the matter, Macouri? You know we made a deal. I thought you were the agent of the devil here. Isn’t that the devil’s trademark? Finding the loopholes and sneaking in the fine print? You’re not so good at it on the receiving end, are you?”

“But you said—”

“I promised you that you would be off the Thermopylae for good if you gave me what I wanted to know, and you are. This is Agrippa, and it’s a much smaller ship, comparatively speaking. And while you are under ship’s security, you are no longer a prisoner and are free to mix with the others, walk the decks, you name it. Just be aware that if you or anyone else without the proper security codes tries to, oh, disengage a lifeboat or raid a weapons locker or something of that sort they will get a nasty and very painful experience and will, from that point, be locked away in a padded cell in the brig wearing nothing but a smile.”

“But I could have gone at any time! I don’t wish to go!”

“Nevertheless, you are going. We are lining up on your coordinates even as we speak. And if we don’t come out the other end at the Three Kings, you will have more than a little explaining to do. It is one of the major reasons you’re here. If you have anything to tell me that we don’t know about what’s on the other end and what might be expected or not, you’d better tell us soon, because whatever happens to us from this point on also happens to you.”

“This is beyond even your powers! I demand to be returned at once!”

“Remember our weighty conversation? Power is everything, isn’t it? Your money means nothing here, nothing to me anyway, or the others. You might be able to buy Murphy, but he can’t drive this ship.”

They had kept it from him until just now, when they lay off the region of wild holes waiting for the correct mathematical match to pop in. That could be any time, and at that point Chung would have to instantly commit or abort. Wild holes were unstable; they popped in and out like soap bubbles and lasted in most cases only fractions of a second before “bursting,” closing up and ceasing to exist once more. Only by putting a ship and its energy field into that hole at precisely the moment it was open could they stabilize it. Once inside, they could ride through it to the other end even as it closed itself back down. Not only space, but time itself, would be bent and twisted. It was why the route to the Three Kings had been so difficult to find even if you knew in what region to look for the entrance on the human end, and why it was as hard or harder to find your way back if you made it.

“I—I don’t know if the numbers work! They’re the right numbers!” Macouri insisted. “They’re the ones everybody else used. Who knows where they actually go? I—I—Oh, god! Don’t make me go in one of those!”

Maslovic grinned, feeling no sympathy for the murdering little fart. “Did I hear you just call on God? That might not be the best way to go there, I wouldn’t think. Not if you meet your old master on the other side.”

It was too much for the little man. He stood up and tried to look his captor straight in the eyes while getting his blood pressure down enough so he wasn’t totally beet red. It didn’t happen.

“I am Georgi Macouri! ” he thundered, as authoritative as anyone could sound. “ You can’t do this to me! ”

“You’re the same mix of a few cheap chemicals and water, born little different than anyone else and destined to die like all of us and go back to those components,” Maslovic shot back. “You have the same value to me as those girls you slaughtered had to you. How’s it feel now, Georgi? What the hell ever gave you the idea that you were somehow immune?”