Джек Макдевитт - A Voice in the Night

His face lit up. “Are you kidding? Do I want to be the first guy to cross over to another universe?”

“You really think it’s going to work?”

He laughed. “Who knows? Maybe it just opens up across the galaxy somewhere. Or runs into a brick wall. I’ll let you know when I get back.”

“You’re taking a substantial chance.”

“How many times are we going to go over this, pal?” Horace was a quiet, middle-aged guy, a physicist from the University of Maryland. He was short, about five-six, with usually amiable brown eyes that had recently acquired a substantial degree of intensity. If the two robot vehicles had gone through the wormhole and disappeared, what were his chances? But he was driven by the possibility of confirming a theory that had been fascinating physicists for almost three centuries. Maybe there really was a multiverse. And if so, what would they find in the cosmos next door?

Though he wouldn’t admit this, it was obvious he was enjoying the possibility that his name would go into the history books with Newton, Galileo, Einstein, Dickinson, and the others.

“What do you think happened to the first two missions?” Max asked. They’d been robot vehicles. They should have crossed over, spent a half hour looking around, and come back. They should have. But they were never heard from again.

Horace shrugged. “You want to play guessing games, Max? I’ll let you know when I find out. Maybe if it really leads into another reality, AI’s don’t work there.”

“That sounds spooky.”

“The laws of physics may be different. Listen, are we ready to go?” He’d backed off a bit, looking out at the black hole, which twisted the light coming in from nearby stars and constellations. The black hole, of course, was the reason the wormhole existed. Horace had tried to explain why that was so, but the equations were a bit too much for Max.

“Yes,” he said. “You’re sure now?”

“Of course. Eventually somebody’s going to have to do it.”

Max thought going with a human pilot was not a good idea. He glanced back at the physicist and delivered a quick smile. Normally, when someone is about to put his life on the line, you won’t see him hanging around with a look of smug satisfaction. Horace Alterr was an exception. “All right,” he said. “If you insist. Let’s get started.”

The failures, two and four years earlier, had resulted in reluctance by the World Space Authority to continue the project. But the multiverse issue was not something they could put aside forever. Consequently, they’d caved. Horace had argued that, whatever was happening, they needed a human pilot. “Send me,” he’d said. “You need somebody who can react to whatever’s going on.” And shuttles were expensive. He was their best bet, a specialist in black holes, who was also a licensed star pilot.

So they’d gone along with it. When Horace broke the news to Max, whom he’d known from an earlier mission, he had a hard time concealing the fact that he was almost delirious about becoming the first human being to leave the known universe. “Would you like to come along?” he’d added. “I can make it happen.”

No, no,” Max had said. “I’ll pass on that.”

Horace had visited several black holes over the past few years. But this would be his first encounter with the only known wormhole.

As they approached the entrance, Max took a better angle, braked until he had the Breckinridge effectively in drift mode, and shut the engines down. “Ready to go,” he said.

“Okay. Wish me luck.” He got out of his seat and started for the passenger cabin. “I’ll go below and get ready. Let me know when.”

He held up a hand to signal that he should wait. “Let the AI do the piloting in the wormhole.”

“Will do.”

“And stay in touch as long as you can.”

“Of course. And I’ll come right back. I won’t keep you in suspense.”

Max hated this. There were too many ways things could go wrong. One of the other two physicists on board, Jay McClelland, had pointed out that if they really succeeded in arriving in another universe, they had no guarantee that everything would work the same way. For example, the shuttle’s drive unit might not function.

“That sort of thing is possible,” Horace had said. “But it’s unlikely.”

He stopped in the passenger cabin to talk with Emily and Jay. They were not going with him, of course. Both were along simply to provide encouragement. Or, as Max suspected, the WSA was hoping they would talk Horace out of making the effort.

Officially they were listed as advisors. But they took every opportunity to try to dissuade him from following through on the mission. Horace was a major figure in the physics world, not so much because of his accomplishments, but due to his connections with money. He came from a wealthy family with influence around the globe. Consequently his presence brought in substantial contributions and support. And now the directors stood a good chance of losing him. They would undoubtedly have preferred that someone else take the risk. They could of course have simply said no, but that would have cost them Horace’s support.

There was more talk of good luck, and Emily asked if he was sure he wanted to proceed. “Who knows what’s out there?” she said. “Maybe a hostile civilization. Somebody who doesn’t like visitors.”

Horace laughed. “That’s unlikely, Emily. You know that as well as I do.”

“There are a lot of possibilities.”

“Listen, you guys take care. I’ll see you when I get back.”

Max got out of his chair and watched from the open doorway. “What do you think happened to the two shuttles?” asked Jay.

Horace sucked his lips. “I’d guess a natural phenomenon of some sort. That’s why we need me to react to the problem, if it turns up. I’ll let you know if I run into any evil aliens.”

They’d had the conversation several times. “What happens,” said Emily, “if the gate opens a half mile from a sun?”

“Listen, guys, I have to go.”

Max wondered if possibly it might open at the bottom of an ocean.

“Don’t do it,” said Emily.

Horace sighed. “You guys are starting to sound like the people back home.” He paused. “You sure nobody wants to come?”

They stood and looked at him and shook their heads. Then Horace grinned. “See you soon.” He proceeded down the ramp to the launch bay. Two minutes later he reported he was inside the shuttle.

Emily thought the whole idea was crazy. She didn’t have a personal link with Horace. Max thought the WSA had sent her along because she was persuasive and might be able to talk him out of it. Jay, on the other hand, was a lifetime friend who also had no interest in watching him sail off into the wormhole. He was about six feet, with a beard just beginning to show gray streaks. “He’s been in my life a long time,” he said. He had never before been on an interstellar. He’d admitted to Max that he wasn’t sure the artificial gravity would work for him, and that he’d possibly be sick throughout the flight. That hadn’t actually happened, but he had suffered a few bouts of vertigo.

The wormhole snaked across the sky, its outline formed of twisted reflections of stars and clusters. The entrance, the gateway, was about a dozen kilometers ahead. Max didn’t like missions with serious risks. He hated having anything to do with it. Ordinarily he’d have turned down the assignment. But Horace had asked him to come. Please. There’d been no way to refuse. So now he waited on the bridge feeling helpless. Then Rex, the AI, made his announcement: “ Ready to go, Captain.”