Chapter 34

It was shortly after they'd completed their transit of Eden's sun that MacPherson abruptly notified Meiersdottir, Heisinger and Igwanda that he needed to see them on the bridge. When they arrived they found both the captain and Cromartie waiting for them.

"Thank ye forr comin' sae prromp'," MacPherson welcomed them. "'Tis needed tha' I speak wi' ye aboo' wherre we stan' th' noo. Warren, firs' tell 'em wha' ye tol' me."

"Well, like I said to Mac, there's sort of good news and bad news," the mate began. "The good news is that we've picked up an incredible amount of time. When we left Eden we were thirty-eight hours behind schedule. That is, we were going to be thirty-eight hours short of reaching minimum worm speed when the radiation from Chen's nova hit this system. We would have had no chance at all of survival, you understand?"

"We've got it," said Igwanda brusquely. "So what's the good news?"

"By the latest calculations we've picked up thirty-two of those hours. All of it's Mac's doing, lightening the ship, the slingshot around Eden's sun, a bunch of smaller things that have cut the time—"

"Kiss me arrse anitherr time, Firrs'," interrupted MacPherson. "Tell 'em th' rres'."

"Well... ," said Cromartie, clearly loathe to cut short his fulsome praise of his captain's maneuvers. "The rest, I'm afraid, is the bad news. We're still six hours short."

"What does that mean?" Heisinger pressed. "That we'll have to endure six hours' worth of the nova's radiation? Can we stand it?"

"Well, actually yes, we could," the mate told her. "The ship itself offers some shielding, and the first wave will be mostly gamma rays, we'd all have a pretty sharply increased risk of cancer somewhere down the line, but—"

"'Tis no' material," MacPherson cut him off. "We canna wai' t'see hoo we migh' fare, if we'rre herre when th' rradiation rreaches th' ship we'll ha'e nae chance o' ge'in' away."

"What do you mean, Captain?" persisted Heisinger.

"Warren ask' me th' same when I tol' him, an' 'tis no' a stupi' question," he answered. "'Twoul' seem if ye look a' i' quickly tha' we coul' simply wai' i' oo' an' endurre th' rradiation forr th' wee time rremainin'. Bu' we canna."

"Why not?"

"'Tis the worrmhole i'sel'. We cas' i' oo' in frron' o' us when we'rre movin' fas' enough an' then dive inta i', ye ken. Bu' we canna do tha' in a storrm o' rradiation. Th' hole willna open rrigh', too disrrup'ed. We mus' be gone beforre."

For a moment no-one could find anything to say. Then Meiersdottir spoke.

"Is there an answer, Angus?" she said calmly. "Or have you just called us here to tell us that we're dead?"

"How about another slingshot?" asked Igwanda. "A planet maybe, or double back to do it again on the sun?"