Jack McDevitt - Cauldron

“How’s that happening?” His voice was a notch or two higher than normal.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe we didn’t really get clear of the cloud.” The only thing she could imagine was that something had grabbed them. Was pulling them back. She looked again at the blank screens.

“Hutch, do you read?” Matt listened to the crackle of cosmic static. It was hard to make much out at this range, but the Preston seemed to be tangled in long tendrils of cloud. “Goddam it,” he said, “I knew something like this was going to happen.”

The eyes were watching him.

“ Matt, ” said the AI, “ the other ship, the one that issued the call for help, is gone. It must have been taken inside the cloud. ”

“Jim, get us over there. Minimum time.” That meant using the Locarno, but they’d need about thirty minutes to charge. “Hutch, I don’t know whether you can hear this, but we’re on our way.”

“Wait,” said Jon.

“We don’t have time to screw around, Jon.” They began to move.

“Kill the engines. You’re doing this the wrong way.”

“How do you mean?”

“Shut the engines down. Please.”

“Why?”

“Just stop the goddammed thing.”

“Do it, Jim.”

“ Complying, Captain. ”

“Okay,” said Jon. “Now ask the AI to put me on with Hutch. And just one live mike.” He touched the one in front of him. “ This one.”

“Why?”

“Time may be short. Will you just do it?”

“Okay. Jim, open a channel.”

Jon hunched over the mike. “ Hutch, this is Jon. ”

“You understand—”

Jon shushed him, and covered the mike. “Okay, go ahead.”

“You understand she probably can’t hear you.”

“That’s okay.”

Matt sighed. Shook his head. When dealing with a lunatic, it’s always best to pacify him. “All right. Do what you have to. But make it quick, all right?”

Jon went back to the mike. “Hutch,” he said, “we don’t know whether you can hear us or not. But the thing in the cloud wants to seize the Preston . You can guess why. We’re sorry, but”—he held up a hand, signaling Matt not to interfere—“but we’re going to have to destroy you.”

Matt almost jumped out of his chair. Jon covered the mike again. “Trust me,” he said.

“What are you doing?”

“Have faith, Brother. You want to save them?”

“Of course.”

“This might be the only way.” The hand went up again, index finger pointed at the overhead, his expression warning Matt to be silent. “We’re starting a countdown, Hutch, to allow you and Antonio a few minutes for prayer and reflection. We’ll blow the ship in precisely five minutes. I’m setting the clock now.”

He shut off the mike, sat back, and exhaled.

“What did you just do, Jon? They may have heard that. If they did—”

“Matt, we don’t actually have the capability to destroy them, do we?”

“No.”

“Okay. Then what would they be worried about?”

“At a time when they’re in deep trouble? They’ll think we’ve lost our minds.”

“Matt.” He went into his professorial mode. “Hutch is pretty smart. By now she’ll have figured out what’s—”

“ Incoming transmission, ” said Jim.

Matt was beginning to feel he was in a surreal world. “From Hutch?”

“ No, Matt. I’m not sure who it’s from. It originated in the cloud. ”

Jon was wearing a large, told-you-so smile. “Let me handle it,” he said.

Matt was glad somebody had an idea what was going on. “Go ahead,” he said. “I assume you know who’s on the circuit?”

“He has big eyes,” said Jon. “Jim, connect.” When the white lamp came on, he said, “Go ahead, please.”

“ Do not destroy the Preston.” It sounded like the same voice that had called for help. The one Jon insisted sounded like Matt.

Jon switched off the mike. “Now you see what we’re dealing with?”

“No. What the hell is going on?”

Jon held up his palm. Okay. Be patient. Stay out of it. He switched the mike back on: “I’m sorry. Unless you can give me a good reason not to, I have no choice. It is standard procedure.”

“ Why would you wish to destroy friends? ”

“You were listening to us all along, weren’t you?”

“ Yes. ”

“The flashing lights. That was a game, wasn’t it?”

“ I am not familiar with the term. ”

“Game: an activity of no consequence.”

“ No. It was a way to start communication. It was a beginning. ”

“Now you want the Preston .”

“ Yes. I wish to make an arrangement. ”

“I’m listening.”

“ First, stop the clock. ”

“I’ll stop it if I’m satisfied with your answers.”

“ How do I know you are telling me the realistic thing? ”

“You mean, how do you know I can actually destroy the other ship?”

“ Yes. ”

“I can prove it by doing it. Be patient and you will see.”

“ That is not satisfactory. ”

“If you choose not to believe me, and I am telling the truth, telling the realistic thing, you will lose access to the Preston . If you allow me to take off my associates, whether I am telling the realistic thing or not, you will still have the ship.”

“ Yes. That is so. ”

Jon covered the mike and looked over at Matt. “People always told me you could be a good engineer and still be dumb.” Then back to the microphone: “All right. I have put the clock on hold.”

“ That means what? ”

“It’s not running. But I can start it again at any moment.”

“ How does it happen you have such capability? To destroy the other ship? ”

“You are aware of the Penzance pirates?”

“ No. What is a Penzance pirate? ”

“They are from Penzance.”

“ I am not familiar with Penzance. Or with the term pirate.”

“Penzance is a barbarous empire out near the galactic rim. Far from here. They are all pirates. They attack ships. Like ours. Seize them. Rob the crew and passengers. Kill people for no reason. We found only one way to protect ourselves. Let them come on board, then destroy the vessel. Either self-destruct, or from nearby.”

“ It is hard to believe you would do a thing like this. ”

“We no longer have problems with pirates.”

“ Does that not kill your people as well as those whom you oppose? ”

“They’re called enemies.”

“ Yes. Enemies.” It seemed to be tasting the word, as though something might be learned from it.

“Yes, the strategy kills our people. But they live on. It is honorable to die in a just cause. To die while fighting your enemies gives us salvation.”

Love your theology, thought Matt.

“ How do they live on? If they are dead? ”

“There is a part of them that is immortal. That lives forever. Like you, perhaps.”

“ I do not live forever. ”

“I’m sorry to hear it.”

“ What is ‘salvation’? A method to dispose of the remains? ”

“It’s complicated. But I sincerely wish you would give us cause to destroy ourselves, as well as our friends.”