We were closing fast. “Maximum magnification, Darla.”
“Whatever you say, boss.” The screen flickered.
The unmistakable outline of a ship.
“Holy God!” The Pilot was on his feet.
Vax looked up from his calculation and froze.
The Pilot whispered, “One of ours!”
I swallowed. Not again. All those people. “Focus on the disk, Darla,” Pointless; we were already at maximum magnification.
The image expanded slowly as we neared. Darla obediently narrowed her view to the ship’s disk.
A gash ran across all three levels, right down to the engine room, as if parts of the hull had melted. The entire disk was open to vacuum.
The name stood out against the gray metal of the hull.
“Telstar!”Vax whispered. “Gone, like Celestina.No lights, no power. No signals.”
There might somehow be survivors. “Pilot, bring us alongside. Mr. Holser, organize a boarding party. Three seamen.
We’ll take the gig.”
“Aye aye, sir. Shall I go with them?”
“No.”
“Lieutenant Tamarov, then?”
“No. Me.” I saw Vax’s expression and added, “I need to know firsthand what happened.” For a brief moment I recalled Captain Van Walther, and the crowds of travelers who visited the memorial he’d left on Celestina.With shame I suppressed the comparison.
Vax was stubborn. “It could be dangerous, sir. Don’t leave the ship.”
“This time it’s in good hands. Mr. Chantir, Alexi, you.
I’m going across; don’t argue.”
I’d left him no choice. “Aye aye, sir.”
I made it even clearer.”Lieutenant Holser, you will remain aboard under all circumstances.”
“Aye aye, sir.” His tone was glum.
I smiled. “Besides, I’ll be all right. I’ll carry a rad meter and stay away from jagged metal. Don’t be my nanny.” That produced a reluctant smile.
The Pilot carefully maneuvered us to within two hundred meters of U.N.S. Telstar.With gentle applications of the thrusters he brought us to rest relative to the stricken vessel.
“Vax, be prepared to Fuse as soon as I’m back. Derek, come help me with my suit.”
We went down to Level 2. I took my regular suit from its bin in the launch berth lock and began to struggle into it.
Then I stopped; I might want to clamber around the outside of Telstar’shull. “Get me a T-suit, Derek.”
A thrustersuit was cumbersome but had the advantage of greater mobility. In my own suit I could walk, step by magnetized step, across the surface of Telstar’souter hull, but in a T-suit I could lift off from the hull and skim over for a better look. At Academy I hated regular suit drills but loved the Tsuit instruction.
I stepped into the semirigid, alumalloy reinforced suitframe. Derek handed me the helmet; I slipped it into the slots and gave it a half turn. Derek locked the stays into place; I double-checked them all. I had no intention of accidentally breathing vacuum.
With a grunt Derek lifted the heavy tank assembly and clipped it to the alumalloy supports on the back of my suit.
We strapped the propellant tanks into place. My helmet’s sensor lights flashed green; I was ready-to go. Derek’s hand fell on my arm and lingered. “Be careful, sir,” he said softly.
“Please.”
I shook loose my arm. “Remember you’re a Naval officer, Mr. Carr.” He meant well, but a midshipman must know better than to touch his Captain, no matter how many vacations they’d taken together. Sometimes Derek had no sense of propriety.
The three sailors were suited and waiting. We cycled through the lock and clambered into the gig.”Open the hatch, Vax,” I said into my suit radio.
“Right, sir.” I jumped; his voice was loud in the speaker.
All seamen were given a modicum of training on small boats; I gestured to a sailor I knew had additional experience.
“Go ahead, Mr. Howard. Take us across.”
A couple of squirts sent us gently out the hatch. We glided across the void. From Hibernia’sbridge, the distance to Tel-starseemed small, but from the tiny gig it was immense. We neared the silent ship.
“Steer past the disk, Mr. Howard.” At negligible speed we drifted past the rent in the fabric of Telstar’shull. The edges of the tear appeared to have melted and run. What could have generated so much heat? “What’s the radiation reading, Mr. Brant?”
The sailor held the rad meter steady.” None, sir. Nothing at all.” Odd. If Telstar’sdrive had blown, we’d find substantial emissions.
When the trouble arose, Telstar’sdrive couldn’t have been ignited, or we’d never have found her in normal space. Telstarhad Defused at the usual checkpoint, as we ourselves had, to plot position before proceeding past Hope Nation to Miningcamp. With a six percent variation for error, that meant she could have Defused anywhere within eight million miles of where we’d emerged. Pure luck that we’d stumbled upon her.If Telstar’sdrive was turned off, what could have vaporized her hull? I had no answer. Whatever it was, we had to know, lest the same happen to us or other vessels in the fleet. I remembered Darla’s glitch and shivered. “Mr. Howard, take us to within a meter of the hull. Mr. Brant, open the hatch and get another reading up close.”
A moment later Brant put down the rad meter. “Still nothing, sir. The hull isn’t hot.”
“It could have been hull stress, sir.”
I jumped. “Damn it, Vax, lower your voice before you give me a heart attack. And that’s no stress fracture. We’ll see what we find inside.”
I had Mr. Brant transfer to Telstar’shull. He planted a magnetic buoy from our gig at his feet, activated it, hooked our mooring line to it. Now, if one of us pushed against the boat as he stepped off, the gig couldn’t drift away and leave us stranded.
We climbed out onto Telstar’shull. Her locks were sealed from within; the simplest way to board was to drop through the gaping hole into one of the cabins. The edges of the tear were rounded and smooth, minimizing the risk of ripping our tough-skinned suits.
“You first, Mr. Ulak. Take a light with you.” The seaman jumped down through the hole, into Telstar.“What do you see?”
“Just a mess.” He opened the cabin hatch, peered into the corridor. “Come on down, sir. We can walk around easy enough.”
“Be careful, sir.” Vax sounded anxious.
I climbed into the opening in the hull and jumped down.
I was in a passenger cabin.
Everything loose had been swept out in the decompression.
A bed remained, bolted to the deck. A sheet drooped forlornly from one corner. I swallowed.
“Vax, we’re on Level 2. The corridors are dark, but we all have lights. Mr. Brant, explore Level 2. Mr. Howard, Mr.
Ulak, go down to the engine room; see if you can figure out what caused the damage. Vax, it doesn’t look like any of the disk sections are sealed. I’ll go up to Level 1 and try to get onto the bridge.”
“Take one of the men with you, sir.”
“Don’t nag, Mother.”
I clambered along the debris-strewn corridor. Flotsam flung about by the decompression had settled everywhere, making the ship seem grossly untidy. I walked slowly, checking hatches as I went. Many were closed, but none were sealed from inside. I climbed the ladder to Level 1.
I passed the wardroom, then the lieutenants’ common room. The hatch was slightly ajar. I opened it, stuck my head in.”Oh, Lord God!” My scream echoed in my suit. I flung out my arms, stumbled back in terror.
“Captain! What is it?” Vax was frantic.
I gagged, swallowing in a frantic effort to hold down my gorge. “Unh! God. I’m all right, Vax. A corpse. Somebody in a suit, with a smashed helmet. The head is damaged, like it was eaten away. Something must have penetrated the helmet.” It had been inches from my nose.
I breathed deeply over and again, in an effort to slow my pounding heart. The adrenaline had left me trembling. I sagged against the bulkhead, steadying myself. “Sorry.”