Slow Train to Arcturus Read online

  A minute later and Howard was again holding onto her waist as they followed the little car down the passages, and into a cross-passage. They stopped in a wide chamber, where a mechanical-shredder asthmatically chewed plant-matter.

  Lani pulled up next to the car-window. "What are we stopping for?" she asked.

  For an answer the woman pointed to the screen of the little black box next to her. "A group of people in our way. A force patrol by the looks of it, judging by the individual weights."

  Howard got off the scoot and looked at them. "It's me they're looking for, isn't it?" he asked. "If they catch me they'll leave you alone. I'll go."

  Lani looked at her gentle giant. He was an idiot, besides being confused about his status as her man. He'd also waded into a pack of wild ones for her. And then stopped her blowing one of them away. She might just understand him, one day. She was beginning to think it might just be worth waiting for, aside from the physical gratification.

  "I can't go back either, Howard. I… I thought they'd, uh, done something to you. So I'm afraid I beat up three of the station-cops to try to get them to tell me where they'd taken you. Your cell was empty, no sign of a forced exit."

  "I went out through the ceiling," said Howard, sounding as humble as ever. "I put the planks back. I thought they might put me back in the same cell, or perhaps some other poor person. I'm sorry. I just was afraid they'd…" He blushed. Bit his lip. "I'm sorry. I think I have ruined your life."

  She shrugged. "It was just a matter of time, I guess. I've been heading for trouble with everything I do." She paused. "Howard, will you take me to this New Eden of yours?"

  She bit her lip nervously, and tried something unfamiliar. "Please?"

  ***

  Howard cringed internally, looking at her. It was amazing just how fast you forgot about being naked. Well, with her body, it was impossible to forget entirely, but you did become accustomed to anything, to some degree. However, his now-broadened mind admitted, New Eden would not get used to her. Brother Galsson and his ilk would have fits. It had taken Howard-while out of his home environment-a lot of time to acknowledge that she wasn't just a painted Jezebel. If he'd been at home in New Eden, it would never have happened.

  And that, as far as he could see was just the smaller part of the problem. He simply couldn't see her becoming Goodwife Lani, wearing clothes and obeying her husband in all things. That would kill her. Anyway, besides the undeniable physical attraction, she was a long way from the ideal wife he'd dreamed of. There was no getting away from the fact that she was bad-tempered, violent at times, and used to ruling the roost.

  His long silence plainly worried her. "Don't you like me?" she asked quietly.

  Howard tugged at his beard, trying to find the right words. He did like her, in spite of his better judgment. He'd been raised to speak the truth. But… she would be much happier here, his conscience said. Even if they punished her for her wayward actions, they accepted violence here-and reaped the bitter fruit of it, too, of course.

  He saw the tears starting to form in her eyes, and tried for compromise, which, as he knew, usually ended up pleasing no one. "It's not that I don't like you. It's just… New Eden would kill you, Lani."

  She looked doubtful. "I thought you said that they were gentle people who never killed anyone."

  "Well, yes," said Howard, diffidently. "But they do put people out of the airlock. You can make people's lives a misery too, without actually killing or imprisoning them. That's not what I meant, Lani. It's… well, we don't have any machines. We wear clothes all the time. We work, every day-except Sundays-for our food. We eat meat. Real meat, not this vat stuff. A wife promises to honor and obey her husband. She doesn't have as many men as she likes. You would have to give up everything."

  She cocked her head on one side, and looked at him with eyes full of uncertainty. "So you do like me, a little? Do you love me? If you do… I think I could do that."

  Howard swallowed, hard. "I don't think it would be right for me to ask that of anyone."

  "So do you love me?" she asked directly.

  Love? Did this place even know the difference between love and lust? He'd always thought of love as some remote ideal flower, not.. . well a rather earthy bad-tempered woman. "I… I like you. I didn't mean to like you. It is too early to speak of loving." He sighed. "We come from different worlds, Lani. Yours would kill me, I think. And mine would kill you."

  She sighed. "We need a world of own, I guess."

  "You two lovebirds can mount up again," said the woman in the car. "They're past. And I have to break this to you, Lani. There is no way he can take you back where he comes from. To do that you'd need to go out of the other airlock. This one-will take us on, not back. And I don't think we've really got any choices. They'll have been looking for Kretz here. Some of those injured men will also be caught and talk, probably. I've taken things from the office and museum that are not supposed to be removed-that I doubt if I could get back into place anyway. Lani would sit in jail for half her life. Howard here would be gelded. Kretz would die when he changed sex. His companions will die if he doesn't get to them. We haven't really got many choices. And who knows, the next habitat on might be that world of your own? Now. I've plotted a clear path. Shall we go?"

  So they went.

  Kretz clutched the alien weapon, keeping it carefully pointed at the window. He had very little idea of what it could do. He'd only learned to work it quite by accident, after his panicky flight. At least he'd found the resolve to turn back. And the alien weapon had worked when it had to. He had no idea if it would again, or if he'd exhausted its charges. But it gave courage to beat back the fear. He wasn't going anywhere without it again.

  This area of the habitat was in bad repair. Yet, on the biological side, they were far more advanced than Howard's people. So: What was going wrong? Kretz didn't know, but he was beginning to get an inkling. However, his main worry right now was that the next bead might turn out to be as inimical as this one had turned out to be.

  Amber pulled her vehicle to a halt. The female with Howard on the second seat of her two-wheeled vehicle pulled up next to the window. "There is one person at the airlock. We'll have to wait," said Amber.

  "It's probably a guard," she added. "We can't wait-the police channel tells me they're starting a systematic sweep. We might be able to hide ourselves, but not the vehicles. We can't get far enough from them not to be found by the kind of search they'd start then. I'll leave Howard with you. Let me go and deal with it."

  She grimaced and tugged at her braided hair. "Even my mother wouldn't recognize me with this."

  Riding on alone, Lani had to ask herself why she was doing this. It was crazy. But… having gone this far, how did you get out? A mercenary part of her mind said: by turning the others in.

  Could she? She'd get a plea-bargain deal, probably. Amber was too valuable for them to punish very severely. Besides… what was the scientist or the alien to her?

  The answer was clear enough: People who'd helped her, with hair dye and a pump-action shotgun. And then there was Howard. Taking on thirty men to stop her being raped…

  And then stopping her dealing with their leader, the loon!

  She'd forgotten all about that worm lying quietly on the back seat. The others could let him go now-except that she had the keys to his cuffs. And she couldn't turn around now. There was the airlock, and someone looking at her.

  She pulled the scoot up at the airlock, and, as she'd correctly surmised, a police guard.

  "You're late. As usual," said the woman, scowling. "Oh. Sorry. I thought it was Marianne."

  "She called in sick," said Lani, scowling right back. "No sign of anyone here, is there?"

  "Nah. A waste of time." The woman got on her own scoot, and, to Lani's horror took off up the same passage she'd just come out of. The passage the others were waiting down.

  After an instant's hesitation, Lani leapt onto her own scoot and set off after her.

/>   She caught up as the policewoman was radioing in "… backup. Have encountered armed-"

  She slumped as Lani hit her. "We'd better move!" yelled Lani. "Why did you apes let her call in?"

  "Because we're less good at violence than you are," said Amber, engaging the vehicle's transmission.

  They raced onward to the airlock.

  It opened in front of them. "I put the access code in," said Amber, holding up her portable. "Let's get the stuff out of the back and get in there. The cops will be here any moment."

  They leapt out.

  Their unwilling passenger chose this moment to squall. "What about me?"

  Lani unlocked the cuffs hastily. "Run, you little rat. Be lucky you're still alive."

  He darted down the passage, and Lani turned back to the vehicle.

  Amber had three large bags. Did she think she was going on holiday and needed a ton of body paint? Lani grabbed one, and Howard the other two.

  "What the hell is in here?" she asked, struggling forward.

  "Dehydrated cell culture for Kretz," said Amber, grabbing the other handle. "Spare ammunition. Clothes from the museum. Some tools. I hear sirens. Let's try to run."

  The lock was only yards off, but the siren sound showed that the Diana police force was coming in fast. Lani could almost be proud of them.

  Then, suddenly, running as if his butt was on fire, their former hostage ran straight past them and into the airlock.

  As soon as they were in, Kretz activated the closing switch. Glacially, the door began closing. The sirens were really on top of them now. The door closed just as tires screeched outside. Lani breathed a sigh of relief.

  And then the door began to open.

  Frantically Amber opened her portable and entered numbers.

  The door began to close again.

  Someone shoved a nightstick into the crack.

  The stick crushed. Lani sat down, tension easing.

  "Seal cannot be achieved," said a mechanical voice. "Inner airlock seal must be achieved to commence lock sequence."

  "What does that mean?" asked Lani.

  "It means that the airlock is inoperable," said the alien. "If it is like ours, one door won't open if the other is not closed. We are trapped here."

  Lani looked around at the chamber. Including a small alcove it was about ten meters long. "Can't we break open the outer door? Or… isn't there a manual over-ride?"

  "Probably," said Amber. "But that will kill everyone in Diana, even if it's only a slow leak. I'm not prepared to do that. I've altered the access codes, and made this an entry-code required door. We're safe enough for now. But we can't go anywhere."

  Lani felt remarkably foolish. She knew what space was, after all. She'd seen pictures and read about it. Living inside the habitat, she had just forgotten.

  Howard was on his hands and knees, studying the end of the nightstick. He tugged at it. The high-impact plastic had not broken, just crushed down into filaments. You could vaguely hear hammering on the door.

  "Can they possibly break it down?" he asked.

  "I doubt it," Amber replied. "Eventually lack of food and water will force us to go back, though."

  "If it were opened a fraction I could remove this," Howard said.

  Lani shook her head. "If we open it a fraction, they'll put more in. And then, if they can get it to open more than a bullet-diameter, they'll just call in a weapons team and let the ricochets take care of all of us." It was grim, Lani found, being on the wrong side of her own profession. "In fact, I'll bet the firearms squads are on their way right now."

  "Hmm." Amber looked thoughtfully at the door. "If we could get them to back off, we could snatch the obstruction in and close it."

  "And how will we do that?" asked Lani. "We can't even talk to them-not that they'd listen to us telling them to back off."

  "Even though they know we're armed? If we said we were coming out, shooting, and they'd better get out the way…" The scientist started typing in to her portable again. "I can access a speaker outside the airlock door. And we can count and position them onscreen."

  Lani pursed her lips and nodded. "You're going to have to do some tricks with that thing to get it all done fast enough."

  Amber pulled a face. "I'll set up the opening and closing sequence to one key-stroke macros. You want to talk to them."

  "Okay. When you're ready," Lani said. "Howard, will you pull it in? Kneel next to the door. We won't get more than one chance."

  He nodded, took up his position and a grip on the end of the stick.

  "Ready," said Amber.

  "Let's just move back from a direct line of fire." Lani pointed to the wall. "Right. What do you want me to say? Will we be able to hear them too?"

  "Can set that up. Hang on… Okay. Say whatever you think will get them to back off. Speak to the portable's pickup. You're live.. . now."

  Lani cleared her throat. "Hear this! We're coming out! We will come out shooting! Back off!"

  A pause and then someone yelled. "Let the hostages out and you men will be well treated. No harm will come to you if you lay down your arms."

  Hostages? The only "hostage" they had the police were welcome to. They wouldn't consider him one anyway. They must assume Amber, at least, was a hostage. There was no sign of movement from the screen. "Back off and we'll let the hostages out!" said Lani. "We don't trust you. Back off first."

  "We are," replied the officer on far side of the airlock door, a statement belied by the screen. They were bunching to rush the door. It was exactly what she would have done, had she been on the other side of that door. There must be mechanical pick-ups in more places than she'd ever dreamed of.

  "I can see you," said Lani. "Move away from the door."

  "Speak up. Sorry, we can't hear you clearly." Negotiating technique. Keep them talking…

  Lani saw how a sudden brightness leapt into Amber's eyes. "Heh! Thank you!" She hastily opened a screen window. "Wav. File generator. Block your ears, all. They say they can't hear us. Let them hear us. At full volume."

  Even on the other side of a meter-thick door, the shriek was penetrating. By the scattering of people indicators on-screen, on the other side of the door, it was intolerable.

  "Now!" The door began opening.

  Howard twitched the nightstick inside. And the door… closed.

  "Seal achieved," said the mechanical voce from the speaker-box. "Depressurization will begin in ten minutes. Please don your suits and run through pre-vacuum checks. Depressurization may be interrupted by pressing the red buttons, at any point. To reinitiate the sequence press the green button on the control console."

  Behind them, the burned bridges fell.

  Howard sighed with relief. Yes, it meant going out into the vastness of space again. But that was a less frightening place to him now, compared to coping with a female-dominated world. He breathed a little prayer of thanks. Why God saw fit to send not one, but two, of these women with them, he did not know. Part of him admitted he was glad Lani was here. Another part rejoiced because he was going to don clothes again, even if they were heavy, bulky spacesuits.

  He smiled at the two women. It was a minor pleasure to feel that for once he knew more than they did. "The suits, helmets and boots are in alcove-cupboards. Let me show you."

  "Clothes?" said Lani warily.

  The other woman-the one Lani referred to as Amber, laughed. It was a little tinged with hysteria, but it was still laughter. "Skin may be beautiful and natural, dear, but it doesn't deal well with vacuum. We're going into space, remember."

  "How do we get out of here?" asked a scared voice from the huddle in the corner.

  Howard had forgotten the man. "What do we do with him?" It was rather their fault that he was here, he supposed.

  Lani had also obviously forgotten his existence. "Damnation, what the hell did you run in here for, Perp?" she snapped.

  "It was you or the cops," he said defiantly. "And if they catch me, I'm dead meat. Or I mi
ght as well be."

  "You might as well be dead as here too," said the Amber woman. "We're going to have to get him out there."

  "Can't. I'll bet they have ear-muffs and are just about solid at the door. If we open it, we'll never get it closed again," said Lani decisively.

  Howard remembered the bones in the airlock on New Eden. "We can't leave him here," he said with equal firmness. "He will die."

  Lani scowled. "And the world would be a better place without one perp. What else can we do with him?"

  "At least help him into a suit," said Kretz "Vacuum will kill him."

  Howard nodded. "He can wait here and go out when the hue and cry has died down."

  "That could be difficult," said Amber. "I have reset the doors so they will not open without a pass-code input direct to the computer. We don't dare change that. I wouldn't put it past the Matriarchy to try to follow us. I could maybe set a time delay and he could sneak out later, I suppose. Long after we've gone."

  "After this, there'll be guards on the airlock doors until doomsday, I reckon." Lani scowled. "You're going down, you little perp scumbag."

  He stared in defiance at her, but said nothing.

  22

  "While I consider it extremely likely that the isolated societies will develop a high level of inward focus, I suspect that-because of the gene-pool we're selecting from-there will always be explorers, visionaries and dreamers. People who revel in pushing the boundaries."

  Transcript of testimony given by George Walsingham, Professor of Psychology, University of New Colorado, to the Senate Select committee of SysGov. on the mental health stability of the Slowtrain colonists.

  Nothing, Amber Geraint realized, prepared you for deep space. You could look at a million pictures but it wasn't the same as being there. The darkness and vastness of it all crushed her. Paralyzed her. How could the others be so casual about it? She thought that she'd prepared so well. Old vacuum-tight bags, relics of the initial founders, and everything from food to tools. The part that wasn't ready was her mind. She'd wanted to do this. Believed it would be a whole new world, away from the frustration of her life in Diana… but you always took yourself with you. It was a difficult time to discover she was agoraphobic.