The width of the ship narrowed as he moved aft. It was down from a maximum of seventy meters in its central part to maybe forty. He was beyond the old captain’s quarters, beyond Dag Korin’s chosen suite, into the region which had in the old days been reserved for visiting VIPs. Korin himself had placed Chrissie Winger and Tarbush in suites there, and the other team members had asked to be close by. Team members. Let’s hope you could still call them that after his meeting with Deb Bisson.
He slowed down and examined the glowing numbers that identified each corridor. It was well past midnight, and unless Tully O’Toole was suffering bad withdrawal symptoms Deb should be alone. She would probably be asleep, and if he had to he would wake her. He had to get this over with as soon as possible, or he himself would never sleep.
This side branch. This door. Not locked — it was even slightly open.
He hesitated. On Europa he had entered Deb’s apartment without permission and she had almost broken his neck. If she had known who he was, she probably would have.
He was encouraged by a flicker of light from within. She was awake, and she was watching some sort of display. He gave a token knock, slid the door wide, and entered.
Deb was awake all right, dressed in a black skintight suit and black slippers and sitting quietly on her bed. Unfortunately she was not alone. It was not just Tully, suffering from night shivers. Chan did a quick head count. Danny — Tully — the Tarbush — and, on the other side of the bed, Chrissie. They were all absorbed in a display on the far wall, and no one had seen him enter. Chan glanced at the imaging volume, and stood staring.
It was the Geyser Swirl, in three dimensions and in more detail than he had ever seen it. Gas clouds, twisting like a rosy triple braid inside and outside a necklace of stars, orange and green and blue, showed how the Swirl had gotten its name. The image was striking enough, but it was the prerecorded voice accompanying the picture that really grabbed the attention.
“In the words of one of humankind, the Geyser Swirl is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma .” It was the flat, computer-generated tones of an Angel. “We are certain, beyond doubt, that a Link network point exists within the Geyser Swirl. We are equally confident that no member of the Stellar Group placed it there. At that point, knowledge becomes speculation. A test probe reported that it was entering the Link, but there was no standard return signal to report a successful transit, nor did the probe itself return.
“Meanwhile, contrary to the evidence of the probe, a recent remote survey indicates no evidence of a Link point’s existence within the Swirl. The survey did define the stellar types present in the Swirl, as follows: F-type stars predominate, and there are seven of them. There is one blue giant star, one A-type, one K-type cool giant, and one G-type dwarf of mass similar to Sol. Detailed spectra are available. Five of the stellar systems possess planetary retinues. However, of the twenty-three planets in these systems, none is able to support life of any form resembling a member of the Stellar Group. Nine are massive gas giants, five possess hydrogenous or methane atmospheres, while the remaining five lack volatiles and an atmosphere of any kind. Note that this distribution violates the widely accepted principle of homeostatic convergence, whereby worlds able to support life tend to a common limit of atmospheric pressure and composition, temperature, and humidity. In the Geyser Swirl, all surface temperatures lie in the lethal range… .”
Since entering, Chan had not moved or made a sound; but Deb Bisson possessed the heightened senses of a weapons master. Without warning she rolled off the bed and came to her feet poised ready to spring. Chan held his hands wide, to show that he was unarmed.
“Only me. I didn’t say anything, because you were all watching.” He nodded at the display. “Doesn’t look good for the teams that went there already, does it? No habitable planets. At least we’re forewarned.”
He tried to sound relaxed and casual. It didn’t work. The others glanced at him, then at once turned their eyes to the woman standing by the bed. Chrissie held out a restraining hand. Danny Casement said, “Easy, Deb, easy.” And then to Chan, “I’m sorry, but I told her. A few minutes ago. I had to, because we were on the way.”
Chan nodded, but he did not take his eyes away from Deb. “I understand. Don’t blame Danny for this, Deb. I asked him not to say anything until we left parking orbit.”
“I don’t blame Danny for anything.” She was still in the fighting posture that made the hair stand up on the back of Chan’s neck. “You think you’re smart, Chan Dalton, tricking me into being part of the team. But you don’t know a thing. I was going anyway, with or without the other team members.”
“I’m glad. This team wouldn’t be the same without you. And I’m very glad that when I came in you weren’t carrying weapons.”
“Oh, cut the crap. You just want to use me, the way you used me before. The way you use everybody. As for having no weapons, try this.”
She hardly moved, just the flick of her left index finger. Chan saw nothing, and for about five seconds he felt nothing. Then there was a curious sensation of something crawling up his chest.
He looked down and saw that a round white patch about five centimeters across had appeared in the middle of his long-sleeved shirt. While he watched, it spread rapidly. He realized that the white patch was part of his undershirt, and the outer garment was simply vanishing. The torso went, then the neck and finally the sleeves, creeping down his arms to his wrists until he was standing in a sleeveless white top. An odd smell of acetone filled his nostrils.
“I used a fabric version.” Deb’s face was stony. “I’ll give you thirty seconds to get out of my room. If you’re not gone by then, we’ll see how the skin version works.”
“Deb.” But he saw her eyes. “All right, I’m on my way. I’ll say it again, I’m glad you’re with us.”
He left, carefully closing the door after him. There was a long silence, broken surprisingly by Tully O’Toole. He had been staring, mouth open, first at Deb and then at Chan.
“Well, there’s a surprise.” He rubbed at his arm, with its line of purple dots. “Now we know why he always wore long sleeves. And where he got the words for me. He knows it can be done, you see.”
Deb glared at him. “What are you talking about?”
“Chan told me that you can break the Paradox habit. He knew, because he did it. Didn’t you see his bare arms when your potion dissolved his shirt away?”
“Of course I did. We all did.”
“But I was nearer than you. I saw the marks. He’s a Paradox addict himself — or I should say, he used to be. The stigmata have faded to little white dots; but still they show, from long ago.”
“Long ago,” Danny Casement added. “Tully has it right. Not any more, though. Not for a long time. Chan’s over it.”
“ When?” Deb’s voice would cut glass.
“You mean, when was he on it? Oh, I’m not sure.”
“I know.” Tarboosh Hanson stirred from his cross-legged position on the floor. The head of Scruffy the ferret peered out from a gap between the fastenings of his shirt. “I was there when it happened. It was right after the beginning of the quarantine when Chan came by Lunar Farside. He had found out that we wouldn’t be allowed to go to the stars and he was in despair. He said he had let everybody down, and he couldn’t stand that. He swore he was going to do something about it. You must know all this, Deb. He was with you on Vesta right before he came to Lunar Farside.”
“He was. But the two of us had just had a big fight. He never said anything like that to me when he left.”
“The Tarbush is right, though.” Danny Casement stood up. “Chan was feeling so low — I didn’t know about your argument, so I assumed it was about the quarantine — that I wondered if he’d ever come back to normal. And I know what happened next, though I didn’t hear it until a long time afterwards. Chan left Lunar Farside and went down to Earth. He was in contact with people there who said they had worked with aliens, and he thought he might be able to make a special deal. Isn’t that right, Tarb?”