The Rim of Space by Bertram A. Chandler

Author:Bertram A. Chandler
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-02-23T08:13:37+00:00

8

The following morning, before daybreak, Lorn Lady lifted from Tharn.

When Calver and Jane Arlen returned on board, delivered to the ramp of one of the triumphant tanks, they found the ship secured for Space, ready to blast off at a second’s notice. Old Captain Engels had greeted them at the airlock, had allowed a momentary warmth to dispel his usual coldness. He had said, briefly, “I’m glad,” and then, with a swift return to his old manner, “Go to your quarters, Mr. Calver, and remain there until sent for.”

Calver felt a sudden chill. Was his mutinous outburst of the previous day being remembered, being held against him? He realized that he knew little of the shipmaster’s psychology, knew only that it was a complex one.

“But, sir…”

“Go to your cabin, Mr. Calver. I think that the old girl is capable of clambering upstairs this once without her Chief Officer to hold her hand.”

“But sir, I’m perfectly fit.”

“You don’t look it. You look all in. I’ll have Doc Malone look you over before we raise ship.”

“But sir…”

“Go to your cabin!”

Calver went.

He tried to climb, unassisted, up the spiral staircase in the axial shaft from the airlock to the officers’ flat. Then he was remembering that other spiral staircase, the one in the tunnel – and with the memories the numbness left him and all the pain of his bruised side came back. Jane supported him, tried to assist him, then stood to one side as Brentano and the Purser, sent down by the Captain, took over. He was practically carried to his cabin, let himself collapse thankfully onto the bunk. He was dimly conscious of old Doc Malone’s probing fingers, of his voice saying, “Nothing broken. He’ll be as good as new once we’re in Free Fall. But you’d better stay with him during blast-off, Arlen.”

He heard her reply, “I already had every intention of so doing.”

It was strange for him to ride the rockets to the sky as a passenger, with Jane beside him – strange, but not unpleasant. Even so, it felt… wrong. His place was in Control, sitting in the co-pilot’s chair, ready to take over in a split second should anything happen to the Master himself. (And Engels was so very old, so very fragile.) Brentano was keen, and efficient – but Brentano was an Electronic Radio Officer, had no training in ship handling…

“What are you grinning at?” Jane had demanded, speaking with difficulty as the acceleration tended to squeeze the air from her lungs.

“Already,” he had told her, “I’m beginning to think like a Chief Officer again. Already I have an acute attack of Mately indispensability…”

“As far as I’m concerned,” she had whispered, “You are indispensable…”

They heard the rockets give a last cough, heard the whining of the big gyroscope as Lorn Lady swung about her short axis, as she was lined up for the sun about which revolved Grollor. They felt the weightlessness of Free Fall, tensed themselves for the short burst of acceleration that would put them on course, that would send them falling down the long trajectory.

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