Jack McDevitt - A Talent for War

"Is there a contract somewhere?"

"No," she said. "We had an agreement."

"But nothing in writing?"

"Listen, Mr. Benedict." Her voice tightened. "Try to understand. Your uncle and I have done a substantial amount of business over the past few years. We trusted each other. And we got along fine. We had no reason to resort to formal contracts."

"What sort of research?" I asked. "Having to do with the Tenandrome?"

"Yes." One of the logs gave way and fell into the fire. "It’s a Survey ship. It was out in the Veiled Lady a few years ago, and apparently they saw something." She allowed her head to fall back on the chair. Her eyes slid shut. "Gabe wanted to know what, but I never could find out."

Saraglia is on the edge of the Veiled Lady, a remote, modular world of enormous dimensions, and varying gravities, last point of departure for the big Survey ships that continue to map and probe the vast Trantic Arm. "And you were going to take him somewhere from there?"

"Yes. Somewhere." She shrugged.

"What did you know about your destination? You must have had some information. Range. How long you’d be gone. Something. Were you leasing a ship?"

She glanced down at the statement she’d written out for me. "Is there going to be any quarrel about money?"

"No," I said.

"Okay." She smiled roguishly. "I’d already arranged for a ship. I asked where we were going, but he said he’d tell me when he got there. To Saraglia, that is."

"Did he expect to leave Saraglia immediately on arrival?"

"Yes," she said, "I think so. I had instructions to have the ship ready to go. It was an old patrol boat, by the way. Hell of a ship." She shook her head sadly. "He also told me we’d be out five to seven months."

"How far does that put the target?"

"It’s hard to say. If he’s going to abide by the regulations, less than half that time would actually be spent in stardrive. Say three months, going both ways, the destination is about eight hundred light years. But if he’s going to ignore the regs—which aren’t really applicable anyhow out there—and make the jump as close as he can get to his target, then we’re talking, say five months in hyper, a maximum of fifteen hundred light years."

"What did you find out about the Tenandrome?"

"Not much. Other than that it’s a spooky business."

"How do you mean?"

"The Survey ships, the big ones, usually go out for four- or five-year missions. The Tenandrome came back after a year and a half. And nobody got off."

"Is Saraglia the first stop on the return flight?"

"For that sector, yes. They traditionally stop there, and the captain files a report personally with the port director. They tend to logistical details, submit to Hazard Control inspections, and then turn everyone loose for a few days. It’s a carnival atmosphere. But when the Tenandrome came in, things were different.

"The official report, according to the one or two port officials who would talk to me, was beamed in. Nobody got off; nobody got on. Crowds came down, the way they always do, and stood off the exit ramp. I don’t know whether you know anything about Saraglia or not, but the ships come right into downtown bays. The walls are transparent, so the people who’d brought their kids for the holiday could stand in the street and see the Tenandrome, floating on its cables. The ship’s interior lights were on, and it was possible to see the crew moving around inside. But nobody ever came down the tubes. That had never happened before.

"Everyone was upset, especially the business community. They felt they’d been snubbed. It’s a big part of local income, when the ships come in."

"But not that time," I said.

"Not that time." She shivered a little. "Eventually, rumors started."

"Like what?"

"That it was a plague ship. But if that were the case, they wouldn’t have let them off at Fishbowl, which is the second stop."

"And they did disembark at Fishbowl?"

"According to Gabe. He said they cleared the ship routinely."

"That was the final destination?"

"Survey maintains its regional headquarters there. Yes: that’s where they go for general refitting, debriefing, and mounting new expeditions."

"How many were on board?"

"Crew of six. Eighteen on the research teams." Chase’s expression grew thoughtful. "The Westover came in while I was on Saraglia, and they all had a pretty good time. Stayed a little over a week, which I understand is about average. Lot of women and alcohol running loose: it’s a wonder to me anyone ever goes home. The Tenandrome was gone within a day."

"Did Survey explain why the mission was aborted?"

"They said there was a flaw in the Armstrong drive, that the problem was beyond the repair capabilities on Saraglia—not an unreasonable assertion, by the way—and that nobody got off because time was of the essence."

"Maybe they were telling the truth."

"Maybe. The ship went into maintenance at Fishbowl, and Gabe told me the records indicate that the drive did require an extensive overhaul."

"Then where’s the problem?"

"Gabe couldn’t find anyone who’d actually worked on the Armstrong units. And Survey got upset when they found out he was asking questions. He was formally denied access to their facilities."

"How the hell could they do that?"

"Easy. They declared him a safety hazard. I’d have liked to have seen that." She smiled. "I was on Saraglia when that happened. Judging from the tone of his messages, he was having apoplexy. But then he told me that Machesney had come through, and that he was on his way out to meet me. And for me to get a ship."

"Machesney?"

"That’s what he said."

"Who the hell is Machesney?"

"I don’t know. All this stuff about Christopher Sim. Maybe he meant Rashim Machesney."

I shook my head. "Is there anyone at all involved with this who hasn’t been dead over a hundred years?" Rashim Machesney: the grand old man of the Resistance. Genial, fat, brilliant, expert in gravity wave theory, touring the planetary legislatures with Tarien Sim and throwing his enormous influence behind the Confederate cause. How could he have "come through" ?

"I don’t know any other Machesneys," said Chase. "Incidentally, once repairs were completed, Survey wasted no time shipping the Tenandrome out again. They had a mission set up and ready to go. The captain and most of the original crew went with her."

"Could it have been a return flight? Were they going back?"

"No," said Chase. "At least I don’t think so. Their destination was an area eighteen hundred light years out. Too far. If we can assume that Gabe did know where they’d been, and that was where he was headed."

"What about the ship’s logs? Don’t they routinely become part of the public record? I’m sure I’ve seen them published."

"Not this time. Everything was classified."

"On what grounds?"

"I don’t know. Do they have to tell you? I just know that Gabe couldn’t get access to them."

"Jacob? Are you there?"

"Yes," he said.

"Please comment."

"It’s not all that unusual to withhold information if, in someone’s judgment, its release would damage the public interest. For example, if someone gets eaten, the details would not be made available. A recent example of nondisclosure occurred on the Borlanget flight, when a symbolist was seized and carried off by some sort of flying carnivore. But even then, only that part of the record dealing with the specific incident was held back. With the Tenandrome, it’s almost as if the mission never happened."

"Do you have any idea," I asked Chase, "what they might have seen?"

She shrugged. "I think Gabe knew. But he never told me. And if anybody on Saraglia knew what it was about, they weren’t saying."