Stardeath by E. C. Tubb

Author:E. C. Tubb
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: DelRey
Published: 1983-04-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Ship's council was held in the operations room, not the largest compartment but the most convenient, and from his seat at the head of the table Varl glanced at each officer in turn. Cole had a plaster on one temple, the result of a careless step while on suit drill—he had been lucky the impact with asteroidal mass had not cracked his faceplate. Asner had a seared hand, burned while adjusting a machine; like Cole, he had been careless because of fatigue. Others had suffered similar injuries.

Varl spoke. "We're about ready to start out, and this meeting is to put you all in the picture. You all know what we're looking for. Any ideas on how to find it?"

"Trace the paths of the lost ships," Owen suggested. "Keep it up long enough and what hit them will hit us."

"And, when it does, we'll be ready for them, eh, Dan?" Stacey said.

"That's right." Owen missed the sarcasm. "We'll blast it with everything we have."

"Do we know the path the lost ships took, Commander?" Mboto asked.

"No." Varl anticipated the next question. "There is no discernible pattern to the missing vessels, and I don't think one can be found. Erica?"

"I've checked and rechecked, and the answer is zero. It's a random happening. Ships have been reported lost from all regions of the known galaxy." She leaned back, eyes shadowed by dark circles.

"So we've nothing to go on?" Mboto wanted to make the point clear for his record. "Then—"

"No one said we have nothing to go on," Varl snapped. "Only that we have discovered no regular flight pattern the victims followed. But we do have similarities and points the ships had in common." He reached for a list and began to read details. "The Virilian—a total complement of around four hundred and fifty. The Entarra—five hundred. The Beagle—three-fifty. The Mary Rose—almost six hundred. The Snark—five-fifty. You notice anything?"

"Big," Machen said. "They were all big."

"And carrying a lot of people." Mboto frowned. "Cargo ships are big too—have they been vanishing?"

"Ships have always vanished for one reason or another and we can guess why—navigational error, natural hazards, all the rest of it. But the reported incidence of loss is way below that of passenger-carrying vessels." Varl glanced at Stacey. "Doctor?"

"Just a thought: Has the fact the ships were carrying people anything to do with what happened to them?" If the doctor had been drinking, it did not show.

"Yes, I think it does," Van said. "I noticed the correlation almost from the first, possibly because it was the one fact most repeated to me. Big ships, large complements—always the emphasis was on the number of people lost. I began to wonder if there wasn't a critical factor at work somewhere."

"Is there?"

"Maybe, but I don't know what it is. The reported losses range from ships carrying as low as fifty passengers and crew to as high as almost seven hundred." Varl paused. "I know there are larger ships carrying over a thousand, but they are mostly used on relatively short and regular runs.

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