Jack McDevitt - The Devil's Eye

"None."

There are rules everywhere about how high skimmers can go. In most places the limit's about three klicks. Although they are by law restricted to low altitudes, they're nevertheless equipped with a life-support system. Any piece of equipment with an antigrav unit can go pretty high if something unforeseen happens, like a drunk, so an air supply was standard. It, plus the tank, would give me roughly six hours, but if I didn't get rescued long before that, I would be in deep trouble. I connected the mask to the oxygen tank and tied everything down so it wouldn't float around in the cabin when we lost gravity. I put one of the blankets on top of the tank and tucked it in so the tank wasn't visible. Then I put tape around doors and windows and anywhere else I could find where air might escape. When I'd finished, I told the AI to take us up. We lifted off, but the taxi immediately started asking questions. It was designed to refuse foolish instructions in any case, so I disconnected the AI and took over manual control. That's illegal, too, of course, barring an emergency. I suspected it had automatically sent out a signal to law enforcement, but I didn't see anybody in the area. We rose gradually out of the traffic streams and headed for the clouds. I took it easy, in order to conserve fuel. I was going up to thirty-one thousand kilometers, the altitude of the space station. Once I reached it, I would need as much as was left to keep me up there. The sun was beginning to sink below the horizon when a red light began blinking. The radio burped and came to life. "You in the taxi: Please answer up. Push the black button to the right of the meter to reply."

"Hello," I said. I tried to sound panicky. "It keeps going up."

"This is Sky Traffic Fourteen. What's happening? You're too high."

"Don't know. It won't talk to me. It just keeps going up."

"All right. Keep calm, ma'am. Let me talk with the AI, please."

"That's what I'm trying to tell you. The AI isn't saying anything."

"All right. Apparently you must have done something to shut it off. You need to reactivate. In order to do that, you need first to get into the front right-hand seat. Are you alone in the vehicle?"

"Yes."

"All right. Now let's start by opening the main function panel. It's to your left. Are you in the front right-hand seat yet?"

He gave me detailed instructions. I reported back, step by step, that I was following everything he told me to do. "It still won't work."

"Okay. Keep calm, ma'am. There's no reason to worry. We'll get you down. Do you know how to operate the vehicle?"

"No," I said. "All right." The voice was male. It was calm. Reassuring. Everything would be okay. "Please take control of the taxi in the following manner-" I could have shut the radio down, but that might have given the game away. So I listened while he gave instructions, warned me against the hazards of high altitudes, and assured me that Sky Traffic Operations knew of the problem and was doing everything necessary to return me safely to the ground. "I can't hear you," I said. "The radio's shut off."

"Taxi, can you hear me now?" I almost said Negative . Instead: "Are you still there? I can't hear a thing." I was passing through white cumulus clouds. Minutes later I got another call: "You in the taxi, this is Traffic Control. Do you need assistance? What is happening?"

"I don't know. It just keeps going up." I wanted to sound scared, and I guess the truth is that it didn't take much effort. "All right." It was a male voice again. "Don't be frightened. We'll get you down." "This is the first time anything like this has happened to me."

"It's okay. It happens all the time. Is the taxi responding?"

He was talking about the AI. "No, sir," I said. "She just stopped talking. I don't know what happened." "Okay. Help is on the way. Meantime, let's try something." He gave me instructions on how to maneuver the taxi, how to get it under control. "No," I said. "I've never operated one of these things. I'm afraid I'll kill myself."

"All right. Just relax, Miss. Everything's going to be all right."

I could see them coming. Lots of blinking lights a few klicks behind me. The operator kept talking to me, trying to reassure me. I was above the clouds by then, picking up speed as antigrav units tend to do when they get higher and the air gets thinner. It was all I could do not to pour the juice to it, to get out of there before they arrived. But I didn't dare. I couldn't afford to use the extra fuel. I sat tight and eventually the patrol vehicle pulled alongside. There were two officers in it. One waved. Relax. Take it easy. Then her voice came over the radio: "Miss? Are you okay?" "So far."

"All right. Good. Listen, we want to get you out of there before it goes any higher."

"How do you mean?"

"Let's try the controls first. Have you popped the panel?" She was talking about the controls, which rotate out when you go to manual. "What do you mean by 'popped'?"

"Let it go. Look, here's what I want you to do." She gave me the same instructions the earlier guy had. One step at a time. "Withdraw the yoke." "I can't," I said.

"Just take it easy."

I was thinking if they told me one more time to relax, I would scream. "It won't come loose. It's stuck." We continued like that for another minute or so. Then she sighed. "Okay. Look, I want to get you out of there before we get any higher."

"Good. I'm for-"

"- We're going to get above you. I'll come down and help. But I need you to open the door. Hang on to something when you do because the air pressure in your cabin will try to drag you outside."

"Outside the door?"

"Yes. So hold on."

"Listen, I'm not going to open anything up here. That's crazy."

"Miss, we're running out of options fast."

That was good news. "I'm not opening up. Please find another way." "There is no other way." "No. I'm sorry." I found it easy to show them some hysteria. "I can't do it." They tried anyhow. The woman was gutsy. They got above me and matched my rate of ascent. They dropped a cable, and she climbed down on it. Right from the start she was getting blown all over the sky. Then she was outside, pounding on the door. I put on my best look of sheer terror and sat frozen in my seat. Her partner, a guy with a voice like a tractor engine, told me how I should grab hold of the chair arm. Hang on to the chair arm and don't let go, and simultaneously hit the pad and open the door. Jara would take care of the rest. Right. I didn't answer. I sat there and shook my head violently no, not on your life, while the wind bumped her around on the hull of the taxi. She looked through the window at me, and I had to give her credit: She kept the contempt she must have been feeling out of her eyes. She continued to beat on the door, while I felt about as guilty as I ever have in my life. But I stayed put. Pushed back down into my seat, frozen with terror. Finally, she gave up.

"She won't let me in, Kav." "Try it one more time." "Miss, please. The higher you get, the more difficult this will become. You'll be perfectly safe." Her eyes were a luminous blue, and they pleaded with me. Open up. Get up off your sorry ass and let me in. If this ended happily, I decided, I would find Jara, apologize to her, and buy her a drink.

Finally, they gave up. We were piling on too much altitude. Kav assured me they'd be back for me, and they pulled away as an airliner passed in the distance. Now all I needed was to get to thirty-one thousand kilometers and get rescued. I was hoping that Sky Traffic Operations was notifying Samuels that a vehicle with a hysterical woman on board was heading up out of control and would need help. I checked the doors and listened for the sound of escaping air. I didn't hear any. The taxi seemed as secure as the AI had promised. I checked the altitude gauge. It was marked up to three klicks, which wasn't much use in determining how high I'd gone. But I could estimate my rate of ascent, so it wasn't hard to calculate. I was maybe halfway to my target altitude when Traffic Control started talking to me again: "Miss, are you okay?"