Chapter 11: Stranded

Rand lay stretched out on his bunk. He was wide awake, and alone. He should have been sleeping, had tried with all his might to force sleep to come. No luck. He could close his eyes, but sleep just would not come.

'... Skryben?... '

Nothing...

She'd been hard to talk to, lately. Harder with every jump she took, every burst of pain she felt. Few of the crew members wanted to be seen with him. Tasca... She wouldn't even talk to him, except in the line of duty. Berniss was cool, distant. Always pleasant, always willing to talk, but nothing more. Never close, never warm.

He got along all right with Homr, but there was nobody else among the crew who seemed willing to be more than just a casual friend. Even the gunners had shut him out of their interminable games of sabback. Rand grimaced, not liking the pictures his mind painted; most of the crew on one side, Captain Jeryth, First Officer Tshegh, and a few of their supporters on the other. Each looking at Rand as though he belonged to the other group.

He sometimes wondered whether his parents had been right, telling him that he was foolish to leave the warmth and comfort of home and family. He could have been an assistant purser, or third assistant environmental officer on one of the Core Suns ships...

'... Skryben?... '

'... (?)... '

'... talk to me. Say something... '

'... (something)... '

'... Skryben!... '

Nothing...

'... calendar?... '

'... year one, day twenty nine, hour seventeen, minute forty three, second twelve... Mark!... '

'... time to next jump?... '

'... ( )... '

'... Skryben?... '

Nothing...

'... Skryben! Give me the time until our next jump... '

'... (no)... '

Rand sat upright on his bunk. This wasn't like Skryben! Clock and calendar functions were supposed to be automatic.

'... time to next jump?... '

'... (never)... '

'... SKRYBEN!... '

'... (pain)... '

Rand was out of his room and down the hall to the bridge before he even had the front of his tunic seamed shut. He burst through the doorway at a dead run, as fast as he could move in the heavy gravity pull of acceleration. He was used to it, now. Most of the crew was, too, though there had been some bruises, sprains, and even a few broken bones along the way.

"Third Officer Korsun?" Captain Jeryth looked up in surprise as Rand flung himself into the seat before his console. "Is there something wrong?"

"It's Skryben! She's not answering, won't give the time until our next jump." He pressed keys on his console, but all that came up on his screen was a hash of numbers and letters, shifting and changing. Nothing appeared that made sense.

"What are you talking about?" A couple of long strides brought Captain Jeryth to Rand's side. He reached over Rand's shoulder to press the 'CLEAR' button. "Now, try again."

Rand typed in a request for the time until their next jump.

' two minutes and thirty seconds from '

"Beep!" The electronic tone sounded from the bridge speakers.

"You see? Nothing's wrong." He thought that he heard a derisive chuckle in Captain Jeryth's voice. "She's just giving you a bit of a bad time. Since you're here, though, you might as well see that everything's set up for the next jump."

The numbers flowed and changed on Rand's console as he performed the calculations that would tell them where they would be after their next jump, and how to get there, but Skryben's mind was closed to him. They were almost halfway to their goal, that much he knew without help from Skryben. Across the bridge, Homr was setting the controls for their jump.

Nothing complicated there, either, except that they would be jumping at an angle to the heading of Skryben's hull. Their acceleration was skewed from their course, since they had to neutralize the velocity that they'd gained in their first wild jump away from the Vortigen Drift.

'... thirty seconds from... Mark!... '

"Third Officer Korsun, report!"

"Inertial guidance tracking. Capacitors charged. Ready for jump."

" Pilot An Inpi, report!"

"Ship heading steady. Ready for jump."

"Do it!"

Nothing...

"I said, 'DO IT!'"

Homr seemed to crouch over his console, stabbing repeatedly at the offending button.

Nothing!

Captain Jeryth's thought was almost a scream. '... Skryben, JUMP!... '

Nothing!

"Third Officer Korsun." Captain Jeryth's voice was almost a whisper, seeming to be dragged out of him by an almost transcendental act of will. "Please attempt to... Please contact Skryben. Determine what the trouble is, and report to me."

'... Skryben?... '

Nothing...

'... Skryben, this is Rand. Why aren't we jumping?... '

'... (pain)... '

'... because of the pain?... '

Nothing...

'... Skryben, please answer me. This is Rand. Is it because of the pain that we aren't jumping?... '

'... (pain... Can't jump)... '

'... Skryben, check your power circuits. Send a test pulse to the jump engines. That won't hurt... '

In fragile rapport with Skryben, touching only the part of her that controlled their jumps, Rand watched as a tiny pulse of energy was fed out of her capacitor into the conduit that led to her jump engines. Everything seemed to be as it should, all test instruments reading correctly.

'... nothing is wrong with your circuits, Skryben. Try again to jump... '

'... (pain!... Can't jump!)... '

'... send another test impulse, a little stronger, this time... '

She complied. Again, nothing seemed to be wrong with her circuits.

'... Skryben, why does it hurt?... '

All that Rand received from Skryben's mind was a blare of swirling confusion, as though a dozen impulses battled for expression. Finally, a weak thought emerged.

'... (don't know... pain)... '

'... does it hurt right now?... '

'... (pain... not now... Not yet)... '

'... when does it hurt? When you jump? After you jump?... '

'... (pain... when/after)... '

'... Skryben? Can you take one more jump?... '

'... (pain!... Can't jump!)... '

'... one more jump. Just one. Jump, and let me feel what you feel. Let me feel the pain along with you, and find out when it hurts, why it hurts. Then, I can tell Berniss, and she will help make the pain go away... '

'... (pain... make the pain go away?)... '

'... Berniss can make the pain go away. She can do it, if anyone can. You must be able to jump, or we'll all die. It's a long way from anywhere, out here between the star clusters. One more jump, Skryben. One jump, with me there with you... '

'... (pain... end the pain. One more jump... Try)... '

"She'll jump one more time," Rand reported. "After that, I just don't know."

"But, why?" Captain Jeryth seemed to have a puzzled look on his face, struggling for expression through the smooth metallo organic flesh. "Is the pain really that bad?"

"Not for just one jump. No worse than the twinge of pain from a pin, poking in your finger."

"Then, why?"

"Imagine that pin prick, in a thousand places all over your body. Just for an instant. Then, repeat that every time you do a certain thing. Over and over, thousands of times. She's reached the point where she just can't jump, can't force herself any further."

"But, she will jump one more time?"

"She'll try to."

"All right, go ahead." He took up the sequence once more. "Third Officer Korsun, report!"

"Inertial guidance tracking. Capacitors charged. Ready for jump." Rand reached out to Skryben's mind, attempting to see what she saw, feel what she felt. Once again, he was a part of Skryben, larger and more vital than the soft flesh he left behind. He reached out within himself, searching for the mind whose help he needed.

'... Berniss? Medic Morss?... '

She was there, her warmth against his mind's loneliness, fitting as though they had never been apart.

'... Rand? Officer Korsun?... '

In a swift exchange of thoughts, he outlined the problem to her.

'... yes, I understand. I will observe... '

"Pilot An Inpi, report!" Captain Jeryth continued the routine for the coming jump.

"Ship heading steady. Ready for jump."

"Do it!"

The pulse of energy was released from the damaged capacitor, coursing along the conduit that led to the jump engines. Its flow was a fire that warmed and soothed, its energies right and proper. The energy spilled out through the jump engine, channeling into the space around, beneath Skryben, forcing her away from where she was, and into whatever it was that allowed her to move beyond the confines of normal space. He knew that behind Skryben the only trace of her going was a swirl of disturbed space that would soon smooth out. In about an hour, there would be nothing that even the finest instruments could detect to show that they'd ever been there.

For a timeless instant, they were untrammeled by the confines of three dimensional space. Then they were real again, and Rand felt, as though within his own body, the stabbing of thousands of needles of pain. Grimly, he held on to the linkage with Skryben, tracing out and recording the location of each and every tiny lance of agony.

'... (pain... must not feel)... '

'... hang on! We've got to feel, got to know... '

'... (no more pain. Make it go away)... '

It was as though all of Skryben's great body was open to his inspection, and he could feel the presence of Berniss as he observed and recorded each and every sparkle of pain. The mere observing and acceptance of each twinge seemed to soothe its agony, as though the very act of experiencing it made it less painful.

"Jump completed." Homr leaned back in his seat, relaxing now that the jump had been made.

"Jump completed," he made his report. "Coordinates logged into data banks."

"And did you manage to find out what is causing this pain?" Captain Jeryth's expression was unreadable, as usual, but Rand thought that he detected amused condescension in his voice.

"Medic Morss is studying the record of what we observed," he answered. "We'll have to wait for her report."

"Very good. We will hold off making another jump until she has had a chance to find the cause of our trouble. I will be in my quarters. Report to me there, the two of you, if you find out anything in the next few hours."

First Officer Tshegh was not at his console, so Rand and Pilot An Inpi were alone on the bridge. Homr cocked an inquiring eye at Rand, who shook his head, warningly.

"Keep an eye on things, will you?" Rand got up from his console, stretching the kinks out of his muscles. "I'll be with Medic Morss, if anything comes up that needs my attention."

'... calendar?... '

'... year one, day twenty nine, hour eighteen, minute thirty four, second forty five... Mark!... '

Less than an hour since he'd come charging onto the bridge. Rand shook his head. The way that time stretched out when he was in rapport with Skryben, it could just as well have been days. The corridors were almost deserted as he made his way toward sick bay. Not because of the time of day, but because Skryben was so badly undermanned. A brighter spot of light paced his movements as the dim corridor reacted to his presence.

Most of Skryben's corridors were dim, deserted. Homr had mentioned a growing reluctance of crew members to walk them alone, saying that there had been talk of unseen presences, strange sounds and shadows in the dimness. They were farther from the comforting warmth of Mother Galaxy than any ship of the Empire had ever been known to go, and getting farther from its great wheel with every second.