The Collapsing Empire (The Interdependency #1)(4)

“Another thirty seconds, ma’am.”

“How are we for the push fields? We’re going to be moving fast.”

“It depends on how much you force the engines, ma’am. If you draw everything to drive the ship, it’s got to take that last bit of energy from somewhere. It’ll take it from everywhere else first, but eventually it’ll take from the fields.”

“I’d rather die fast than slow, wouldn’t you, Hybern?”

“Uhhhh,” came the reply.

“Engines are online,” Inverr said.

“I see it.” Gineos punched at her screen. “You’ve got navigation,” she said to Inverr. “Get us out of here, Ollie.”

“We have a problem,” Bernus said.

“Of course we do,” Gineos said. “What is this one?”

“The shoal is picking up speed and is shrinking faster.”

“On it,” Inverr said.

“Are we still going to make it?” Gineos asked.

“Probably. Some of the ship, anyway.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that depending how big the shoal is, part of the ship might get left behind. We’ve got the stalk and we’ve got the ring. The stalk is a long needle. The ring is a klick across. The stalk might make it through. The ring might not.”

“That’ll destroy the ship,” Dunn said.

Gineos shook her head. “It’s not like we’re hitting a physical barrier. Anything not inside the shoal circumference will just get left behind. Sliced off like with a razor. We seal the bulkheads to the ring spokes and we survive.” She turned her attention back to Inverr. “That is, if we can shape the bubble.” The bubble was the small envelope of local space-time, surrounded by an energy field generated by Tell Me, that accompanied the ship into the Flow. Technically there was no there inside the Flow. Any ship that didn’t bring a pocket of space-time with it into the Flow would cease to exist in any meaningful sense.

“We can shape the bubble,” Inverr said.

“Are you sure?”

“If I’m not, it won’t matter anyway.”

Gineos grunted at this and turned to Dunn. “Put a ship-wide alert to get everyone out of the ring and into the stalk.” She turned back to Inverr. “How long do we have until we reach the shoal?”

“Nine minutes.”

“A little longer than that,” Bernus said. “The shoal is still speeding up.”

“Tell them they have five minutes,” Gineos said, to Dunn. “After that we seal off the ring. If they’re on the wrong side of the seal, they might get left behind.” Dunn nodded and made the announcement. “I assume you’ll let out some of the people you sealed into their quarters,” she said to Inverr.

“We welded Piter into his,” Inverr said, of the security chief. He was looking at his monitor and making tiny adjustments to the path of the Tell Me. “Not much time to fix that one.”

“Lovely.”

“It’s going to be a close thing, you know.”

“Making the shoal?”

“Yes. But I meant if we leave the ring behind. There are two hundred of us on the ship. Nearly all the food and supplies are in the ring. We’re still a month out from End. Even in the best of circumstances, we aren’t all going to make it.”

“Well,” Gineos said. “I assume you’re already planning to eat my body first.”

“It will be a noble sacrifice you’ll be making, Captain.”

“I can’t tell whether you’re joking or not, Ollie.”

“At the moment, Captain, neither can I.”

“I suppose this is as good a time as any to tell you I never really liked you.”

Inverr smiled at this, but still didn’t turn his attention away from his monitor. “I know that, Captain. It’s one reason I was okay with a mutiny.”

“That and the money.”

“That and the money, yes,” Inverr agreed. “Now let me work.”

The next several minutes were Inverr showing that, whatever his deficiencies as an XO, he was possibly the best navigator that Gineos had ever seen. The entrance shoal was not retreating linearly from the Tell Me; it appeared to dodge and skip, jumping back and forth, an invisible dancer traceable by the barest of radio frequency hums where the Flow pressed up against time-space. Bernus would track the shoal and call out the latest data; Inverr would make the adjustments and bring the Tell Me inexorably closer to the shoal. It was one of the great acts of space travel, possibly in the history of humanity. Despite everything Gineos felt privileged to be there for it.

“Uuuuuhhh, we have a problem,” Interim Chief Engineer Hybern said, over the communication lines. “We’re at the point where the engines have to start taking energy from other systems.”

“We need push fields,” Gineos said. “Everything else is negotiable.”

“I need navigation,” Inverr said, still not looking up.

“We need push fields and navigation,” Gineos amended. “Everything else is negotiable.”

“How do we feel about life support?” Hybern asked.

“If we don’t do this in the next thirty seconds it won’t matter whether we breathe or don’t,” Inverr said to Gineos.