Chapter 20

Sir Joshua was talking to the multinational regarding assets it was considering divesting in three days.

He had organised the 'puters the next day and by that day's end Polack had made the connections with the disorganised assistance of Bollinger- the blighter wouldn't stop drooling and dashing away to enter something else he wanted to explore on the system. In the end, Polack tossed him at Sally to keep out of everybody's way and borrowed some Avers from the 'shop. Polack had Sally organise bunkering from the mobile tanker and then left Sir Henry at it.

The layer translation by R2 had been successful except that a bulkhead hatch had not been properly secured and the hatch was now a permanent accessway.

McCock had then ordered a stand down and then had to physically drag Bollinger away from the 'puter

During the stand down, McCock noticed a glow from the bridge area of the "Trader" and had investigated anticipating delivering the offender a large rocket. He found Evan Evans reading with a half empty glass of whiskey on the table next to him. Evan stood up and greeted his boss.

"Can't sleep?" enquired McCock waving Evans back into his seat and joining him on a lift chair on the other side of the small alcove.

"Haven't slept much at all since the battle" Evans paused,

"It's not so much the nightmares it's the horrors and the night sweats. The nightmares are all in the hospital ship.

You know, I don't have any recollection whatsoever of events that day. I remember an impact without any noise which hit just aft of the Boat Bay and then nothing until the hospital ship.

I used to try to sleep but I wake up screaming nonsense, feeling so terrified I can't think, absolutely drenched in sweat; the bedding would be stained yellow and stink of death. During the day, I get flashbacks of parts of my ship with various damage and friends' bodies blown apart, gaping holes in the hull seeing ships explode into puffs of smoke and a thousand little bits of silvery metal.

Mostly, I just want to disappear inside myself and never come out; watch the universe pass by without involving me, but I know if I let that happen, I'll never come out. I find it best to be among my own, people who accept me and where I can feel that I'm useful in a structured environment which tells me what to do and I don't have to think about things.

I lightly sleep and catnap enough to be functional and I have to watch the 'pussers', I've already seen too many of my acquaintances drown themselves in it and they don't come out of it. I'll be alright, Boss. You need your sleep so you don't make a mistake and take away my home. Go to bed, Commodore. Good night."

McCock, Slow, Denny, Polack and Sir Henry gathered in the A tween deck.

"Gorgipest is at 32 degrees parallel of latitude in the northern hemisphere and the north pole here is cosmos ward; an ideal location from our point of view." according to Sir Henry, "here on the corner of this orbital platform we have unobstructed line of sight, electronically speaking, to the sub layer vessels. Any vessels above the layer will have to be at least fifteen kay klicks above the layer to beam to us directly because of diffraction; to be on the careful side, I have asked for rebro through R2. U96 will go through first and then the stream from R1 will pass up. A chain of UVAs will move in their respective directions led by U94 to Old Earth and U95 to Harbouria. I have amended the star maps of the routes removing the Milky Way stars. I think there are enough stars with their identifying spectra to confirm our track. That said, I would not like to rely upon them to enable me to locate myself if I were lost in space; and I might observe, Aggy, that I was not impressed with the strength of the Amiranti signal and the margin for error put us anywhere between Sol and Betelguese."

U96 was dispatched without incident and established eleven kay klicks out into the cosmos space. Observations of the stars correlated with the star maps in the 'puter's memory. Cross readings from the UVAs already above the layer further backed up the placement. U94 and U95 were dispatched through the layer and after checking coms and having the 'puter affirm their position based on star maps, were sent outwards. A stream of UVAs followed them; those to Old Earth were designated UGS one through five and to Harbouria UGH ten through twentyone. Each stream of UVAs was linked by an electronic string back to U96 sitting above Gorgipest.

Sir Henry busied himself with the mapping performed by the advancing U94 and U95. The others broke from time to time to replenish coffee levels, eat, answer calls of nature and not leave Bollinger alone in case another pair of hands was needed. Approaching the six hour mark, U94 was going into reverse thrust as were the UGS vehicles. Sir Henry was confidant that U94 was 'spot on'.

"It is rather pleasing when your experts are 'spot on'" commented McCock "now for Harbouria. What's it looking like on that run, Henry?"

"I would like to be able to say on track on time, but would you settle for "on track"? Contact should be sometime in First Watch. I've set the 'puter listening watch for key words in received TX and I'll have a closer look in late Morning Watch to see how the selection is working out.

As for Old Earth, we are receiving so much that it is impossible to filter. You were saying that there was to be a filtering body in Mountserrat; do you think you could set one up here. One way would be to make a selection of public and economic affairs analysis programmes to pinpoint ... Your problem, Aggy."

"Thank you so kindly, Henry, remind me to return the favour sometime."

Sally, in her new role of Executive Secretary of GmBH, had made the arrangements for a com between the CFO GmBH and his opposite number in Generic Engineering Corporation which was based in New Wincester in Noracom. This com was the test of the link via the chain and it worked wonderfully. Sir Joshua had a satellite com for his use when he visited Old Earth and the Telco apparatus was recording the com link as arising from that com. It worked in both directions as GEC's CFO's PA had returned the com to confirm the CFO was available.