Journey Beyond the Sea - 16. Chapter 16

Master Gwinn Portland, Captain of Chregar, sat at a table in his vessel's mess and ate heartily. "I feel like I haven't eaten in a week," he said for the second time, as he speared another chunk of ustric with his fork.

"I don't think you have," Moira told him quietly.

The man had been found in his own bunk, beneath another of the fine living meshes, apparently simply asleep. Yet after Bzup had dispensed with the mesh the man had been slow to awaken, causing Moira to suggest he had been in some sort of suspension rather than simply asleep. The rest of Chregar's crew had also been found in their bunks beneath a fine mesh, also apparently asleep - all of them, none missing, which seemed to fly in the face of the account of the large quantities of blood found in the lifeboat floating at sea. Both shotsmen were present, and the one whose blood had been matched with that in the lifeboat seemed no more worse for wear than the rest. The mystery of what had happened to Chregar had only deepened with these revelations.

After finding Chregar's master slow to respond, Moira had suggested waking the crew one at a time, in order to focus on each and bring them into the present gently. So at this point Master Portland was the only crew up and about on his vessel.

Master Terpin sat across from him, with Mister Sharples and Mister Mikulsa to each side. Moira was there, standing near Portland and monitoring the newly revived master. Nita and Ana simply sat silently on the same side of the table as Portland and watched him eat, their thoughts hidden from their faces. But that the two biologists were puzzled had seemed evident to Jem. What had really happened to Chregar's crew?

Til Majors was also there, seated with Jem and Nico. He had seemed a little confused to be included in the current debriefing session, but Master Terpin had simply asked him to sit and listen for the time being, which Til was doing with his usual intensity. Jem had already decided that Master Terpin did nothing without a purpose in mind. Til was there for a reason.

Master Portland had been alarmed at the first sight of Bzup, but had calmed when Master Terpin had explained that the alien was responsible for his release. Still, Jem and Nico sat at a table behind Master Terpin and Mister Sharples, with Buzp standing between them, to keep some distance from Portland, in case he was in any way disposed to react badly.

"You were telling us about finding the black disc," Master Terpin reminded gently, after the man had finished his ustric and started on something else.

Master Portland paused, and looked over at him. "I feel a little out of sorts." His eyes moved briefly to land on Bzup. "It all seems unreal now, somehow."

"You were sailing along the ice pack, and saw the black disc," Mister Sharples prompted again, smiling.

Portland moved his eyes to him, and nodded. "Um...yes. It was just suddenly there, with some of" -- his gaze moved back to Bzup -- "some of them standing around it." The man frowned. "At first I was simply...I had no idea what I was seeing! But, you know how the mind works, and quickly draws conclusions. Almost immediately I realized that these had to be space travelers of some sort."

"They were," Mister Sharples agreed, smiling. "What did you do next?"

"Called a full stop." Master Portland frowned, as if trying to remember. "Something happened then...I know. The sonar went a little crazy. Orx, coming at us from all directions." He blinked in surprise, and then a look of anger took its place. "And then they were climbing on deck!"

Moira moved behind the man, and placed her hands evenly on his shoulders. "Easy. You're among friends."

Gwinn Portland's gaze returned to Bzup, and the man pointed at him with his fork. "Even him?"

"Yes." Master Terpin nodded. "This is Bzup. He's an emissary from our new friends." He turned to the alien. "Bzup? This is Master Portland."

"Bzup," the alien acknowledged. "Mazterportland. Pleazedtomeechoo."

"It's a greeting," Jem said after a moment, when the man didn't respond. "He's saying he's pleased to meet you."

Portland turned back to Master Terpin, as if for confirmation. The master of Vespris smiled encouragingly.

Portland squinted in thought a moment, and then nodded..

The master of an orxhunter apparently holds that position for a reason, Jem decided. They are uncommon men and women, all. Portland could have wasted time being angry or upset, or fuming about what had happened. But instead, he took his cue from Master Terpin, and those humans around him.

His eyes went back to Bzup, and he nodded. "Bzup. I am pleased to meet you, as well."

"The orx attacked you?" Mister Sharples pressed.

"Attacked? Well...they started to come up on deck. Mister Balbora, on the port station, fired a round of shockers at the first one, point blank. After that, there were a lot of things being fired on both sides of the deck. But you know how our powered ordinance works. They aren't designed for short-range applications, and they can't be fired inboard. Once the orx were on deck, they quickly got behind the hunting heads, and...and--"

The man frowned again, and indicated Bzup. "And then, some of these folks came aboard. I don't...I don't...I'll have to think about that. I'm not sure what happened next."

"You don't remember?" Moira asked quietly.

"Not really. I remember them swarming aboard...they seemed to walk right up the side of my ship. I heard some very strange sounds that made me feel very oddly. There are some confused impressions after that...and then I opened my eyes, and you people were all around me." He gave a slightly worried laugh. "I was in my own bunk!"

"It was originally thought that Chregar had foundered," Master Terpin said. "A great deal of wreckage was found at sea, along with, well, some other evidence that something exceptional had happened." He shook his head. "I've been through your vessel stem to stern, sir, and nothing is amiss. Nothing missing that I can tell but one lifeboat, and nothing else damaged. Where the wreckage found upon the sea came from is another mystery."

"Bzup might know," Jem said. "Shall I ask him?"

Master Terpin agreed, and Jem did his best to explain to Bzup what he wanted to know. The little alien watched him intently, and Jem was just starting to feel a little frustrated when Bzup held up one small hand. "Jem. Azim copy Chregar pieces."

"Copied them?" Mister Sharples repeated, incredulously. "All that material from the inside of this ship?"

"Azim many," Bzup informed him. "Like Bzup many."

"What does that mean?" Nita asked.

Jem shook his head. "I have no idea." He frowned. "This goes back to our confusion on what Bzup said before, when he talked about himself as if there were more than one of him, as versus Bzup-kind, which are his people."

"Could there be more than one of him?" Ana asked.

Jem and Nico both laughed. "You're asking us?" Nico wondered.

"We don't know anymore than you on that," Jem filled in. "I think we are only now getting to a level of conversation where we can ask these sorts of more detailed questions and receive anything like a sensible answer."

"Well, don't you think we should be asking more questions?" Mikulsa asked.

Jem smiled at that. "That's easy to say. And, we have asked ourselves a lot of questions up until now that we really should be asking Bzup. There just hasn't been much time since we reached this level of communication to do that. You know that, yourself."

"No time like the present," Mikulsa said pointedly.

"Jem," Bzup said then.

All eyes turned to the little alien.

"Bzup?" Jem asked.

"Jem go to one-zhip. Learn."

A surprised silence greeted that remark.

Mikulsa finally blew out an exasperated breath. "We hardly know enough yet to go visiting these people on their own vessel!"

Bzup turned to the man. "Not go, Azim come back."

Mister Sharples whistled. "The guy in the black disc?"

"Yez." Bzup raised a small hand and placed it on Jem's arm. "Go, learn. Bzup help."

Master Terpin put his fingertips together and watched Bzup across the top of them. "We may have arrived at a pivotal point. I do believe we are being invited to meet."

"It's too early for that," Mikulsa said, an odd undercurrent to his voice. "We'd have no idea what we'd be getting into by going!"

Jem shook his head. "Bzup has trusted us ever since he came aboard Vespris. I think it's time to repay some of that." He frowned at Mikulsa. "Don't you trust him?"

The bearded man scowled at that. "That's not the point. We simply have no idea at all what we'd be facing by going north now."

"You don't have to go," Mister Sharples said, smiling. "We can get along without you."

Mikulsa's eyebrows launched upwards at that, and most everybody else smiled. The man from Colonial Administration took a moment to notice that, but then frowned when he did, and then slowly relaxed. "You're saying that it's a leap of faith."

"Somewhat," Master Terpin acknowledged. The man smiled at Bzup. "One I feel very good about, however."

"What about my people?" Master Portland interrupted. "They have to be awakened."

"And they will be." Master Terpin agreed. "Moira here will start doing that, one at a time. You, Gwinn, should be with her, as your people will be most reassured by your presence."

"Shouldn't one of us be included?" Nita asked, indicating herself and Ana. "We still need to understand this sleep process they have been subjected to. That mesh...it's a living thing."

"One of you could stay behind, if you'd like," Master Terpin answered, smiling. "I had thought that both of you would want to go to the pole to meet with Bzup's people."

Nita and Ana looked at each other in surprise, but then they both laughed.

"I guess the mesh can wait," Nita agreed, her eyes bright with anticipation.

"Who else is going?" Mister Sharples asked.

"Mister Mikulsa, of course." Master Terpin smiled at the bearded man. "Jem and Nico, as they are closest to Bzup. Our two biologists here. And you, Frin, if you would go."

"Me?" But the engineer smiled. "I thought you might go along."

"No. Vespris is my responsibility, and I shan't leave her. You will go in my stead, if you will. I also think it a good idea to have someone along that can appraise the technology, don't you? Mister Kim will be going, but I rather suspect he will want to stay with his Raptor."

The engineer nodded, a certain satisfaction apparent in his manner now. "I'd be happy to go."

Master Terpin tapped his chin a moment with a finger. "I was considering sending Mister Majors along, too."

"Me?" Til asked, looking startled.

Mikulsa cocked his head to one side to stare at the master. "He's barely fit to travel. And the Raptor only seats five, in addition to the pilot. We'll be overloaded as it is."

"He's certified for duty," the master countered. "And while the Raptor's normal compliment is five and a pilot, it can carry ten people comfortably. I spoke to Mister Kim about it, and he said there is extra pull-down seating aboard."

Mikulsa turned to look at the shotsman, before swinging back to the master. "May I ask why you wish him to go?"

Master Terpin smiled. "Til is a very sensible man, and a very able man. And he also understands caution."

Mikulsa's eyes narrowed at that. "You don't trust me?"

"On the contrary. I do trust you, Mister Mikulsa." The master's gaze was sure. "I simply think we should send the most rounded group that we can for a first contact situation."

Mikulsa digested that, and then nodded. "Okay. I guess you're right about that." He looked around the room, and then his gaze came back to Mister Sharples. "Since Master Terpin will not be going, that places me in command once we leave this vessel." He shrugged at his own comment. "Someone needs to be in charge."

The engineer nodded. "Okay by me."

The bearded man looked to relax even more. He sighed then. "I don't mean to be a prima donna. I do think it important that someone be in a position of overall responsibility. It goes against my grain to run the show by committee."

Master Terpin allowed a smile at that. "You're going to need to at least listen to those along with you. The biologists in some areas, Jem and Nico with reference to Bzup, my chief engineer in matters technical, and even Mister Majors, when it comes to caution."

Interestingly, Miklusa smiled at that. "I think I see. Okay, I'll do my best to be cooperative."

"Good. You have been doing such a fine job of it since you arrived, I'd hate to see that change."

The bearded man nodded. "Thanks for the reminder."

"Mister Majors?" Master Terpin smiled at the man. "Would you go along?"

"Yes." Til didn't appear to even have to think about it. "I'd love to go."

Jem turned to grin at the man, and Til winked at him. This was getting better by the moment!

Master Terpin sighed, and sat back in his seat to redirect his attention elsewhere. "Gwinn, when you've had your fill, Moira will go with you to start waking your crew. Do your best to reassure them. Once everyone has been awakened and seems fit, I see no reason why you cannot take Chregar and head for home."

The man nodded at that. "I've a cargo to deliver. At least we had a good run before...before this happened."

"I have notified Hennesy about the condition of Chregar and her crew," Mikulsa announced. "They were quite relieved to learn that no one was lost and that the vessel was intact."

"I have also placed a report," Master Terpin agreed. "And been told to proceed, with caution, as my judgment sees fit."

Mikulsa sighed. "I was told the same thing."

Jem looked from one man to the next. "So, we're going north?"

"I think it's time," Master Terpin agreed. He smiled. "Jem, lad, you've come a long way in your short stay on my vessel."

Mister Sharples chuckled. "Ambassador of good will to a foreign power. That was not in the job description I posted at the port authority office!"

Nico jabbed Jem gently with an elbow, and Jem could feel the other boy laughing silently.

He turned to look at Bzup then, and found the alien watching him. "Bzup?"

"Jem?"

"Bzup, Jem go north to one-ship. Learn."

The alien couldn't smile, but Jem was certain he could detect something pleased in Bzup's gaze.

Zzzzz. "Jem-kind go one-zhip. Learn all."

 

* * * * * * *

 

That night, Jem and Nico relaxed in their own cabin again, the feeling being that the immediate need for a quick response was over. Whatever Bzup and the other of his kind - Azim, it appeared to be - had talked about on the deck of Vespris, it had apparently disarmed the possibility of a sudden confrontation. Bzup had seemed content to return to his own quarters in the catch room for now, a further sign that anything that happened next would only occur after they went north.

Or...if they failed to do so, after a reasonable period of time. The latter threat was hazy at best; Bzup suggesting that Azim would return in the black disc if the humans did not come to meet had not been explained, and since they planned to go anyway, not pursued by the master or Mikulsa. Jem had wondered what it might mean, but so far had decided not to press Bzup about it.

"I thought of that, too," Nico admitted, after Jem had voiced his wonder over the matter. "I was thinking maybe they wanted Bzup back, and that either we could take him north, or they would come back and get him."

"There's an idea," Jem agreed, thinking back to the meeting on the deck of Vespris between Bzup and Azim. The other alien had seemed very insistent about something, and perhaps even annoyed with the humans for getting in the middle of that. Bzup had called the other alien a protector, and it had been offered that maybe Azim was concerned with the security of the alien ship and crew. But...maybe it went deeper than that?

"I wonder what Bzup's function is on his vessel?" Jem asked now. "He had to have had one. The way he seemed curious about what we each did on Vespris."

"You think he's important to that alien crew?" Nico asked. He smiled then. "Not just some swabbie, pushing a mop across the deck?"

They both laughed at that, there being no such function on a modern orxhunter, let alone a star-going vessel. One thing they had soaked up a little bit of lately were some of the historical vid serials about sailing ships of Old Earth. The idea of taking to the sea in ships made of the cellulose-matrix building materials in existence at that time was a frightening prospect, and even though the seas of the mother planet were not nearly as dangerous as those of Benteen, the notion that a vessel could rather easily sink from under you hardly inspired confidence. The people of those times had certainly been brave souls!

Yet they had found the serials exciting, the impermanence of the vessels themselves adding an element of danger that was hard to imagine on Benteen. Even the steel hulls of later earth oceangoing vessels had not had the impenetrability of ironwood, only the carbon fiber matrix hulls of much later years even coming close, yet still inferior to what nature had provided in the forests of this alien world. It was one reason that the thought that Chregar had actually been sunk was such a shock to everyone.

"They also didn't know anything better, those Old Earth sailors," Nico had pointed out, the last time they had discussed the matter. "You can't miss what you don't have. To them, their ships were as secure as they could make them."

It was still a wonder, the things some people had done, and where they had dared to explore under the most amazing of conditions. First the four corners of the mother world, and then the planets of the home system, and then the stars. And they were still moving outward, of that Jem was certain.

But the idea of Bzup's function on his own vessel continued to intrigue them.

"I'm going to ask him, when I have a chance," Jem decided.

They had hoped to relax this evening, but it seemed hard to get comfortable, even on their very comfortable sofa. They were feeling a little anxious, knowing that they would be setting out the next day for Hakin Island and the star-going vessel in which Bzup's people had arrived on Benteen. There had been a sort of a planning meeting after dinner, but only the most basic of procedures were discussed, because no one had any real idea what to expect. Bzup seemed unable or unwilling to give them much to think about, perhaps feeling it was best to learn these new things first hand, without preconceptions polluting their experiences. He had simply insisted it was safe to go north, and left it mostly at that. Jem had decided that it would be very much a plan-as-you-go mission, and only Bzup's apparent serenity at the prospect of returning to his ship had allowed the boys to feel a measure of their own peace in the decision to go. Bzup would not lead them into danger, Jem was certain.

And he had to marvel a little at that certainty, too. Trusting Bzup now seemed natural, just as he trusted Master Terpin to make the right decisions for them. And just like he trusted Nico, to always have his back.

"I hope I can sleep tonight," Jem told the other boy, as he shifted once again on the sofa, trying to get comfortable. "My nerves are on edge."

Nico smiled, and moved more firmly against him. "I can suggest a remedy for anxiety."

Jem turned his head to receive the kiss, and sighed happily as a warm feeling of contentment wandered throughout his body, pushing back the anxiety. He sighed, getting into the kiss, and soon they were both smiling at the effort.

"You do that very well," Nico offered, pulling back to grin at him.

"Look who's talking," Jem responded, leaning closer to the other boy to nuzzle his cheek. "I love you," he whispered into Nico's ear.

"I love you right back," Nico replied, just as softly. "And more each day."

"I think we'll be okay," Jem said. "I just feel like Bzup would not do anything to harm us."

"I agree. I'm a little nervous about going to his ship, because I got the impression that his friend, um, Azim, was less than pleased with us. But I don't think Bzup would let us go if there was any real danger."

"I guess we'll find out," Jem returned, laughing.

Nico rolled his eyes. "Thanks. And I was just feeling good about this!"

They laughed, and snuggled for a while, and then moved to Jem's bunk for some more intimate play.

By the time they were done Jem was truly tired, and felt that sleep could now come easily. Nico stayed with him, and Jem's last thought that night was that no matter what happened next, he had found the person he hoped to spend the rest of his life with.

 

* * * * * * *

 

"My ship's well-provisioned," Hans Kim reminded them, as they met up on deck after breakfast the next morning to leave. "You really don't need to bring anything but yourselves." He was eyeballing the steaming cup that Mister Sharples had brought with him.

"It's just coffee," the engineer replied, looking surprised. He smiled then. "You wouldn't have me leave on this momentous journey unfueled, would you?"

The other man laughed. "No. But I do have coffee aboard. As we discussed at last evening's meeting, I can feed your group for two weeks on the mission provisions I have on hand, without even getting into emergency stores. Those would last another week after that, if needed." Kim smiled. "Not the best tasting stuff, though, those emergency meals." He gaze moved to Varin Mikulsa. "Do you feel we'll be staying longer than two weeks?"

"I have no idea, really," the bearded man replied, shrugging. He appeared very relaxed, but Jem thought he detected an undercurrent of tension in the man. No surprise, as Jem suspected that everyone was feeling that.

Master Terpin shook his head. "I think that's not a worry. If you stay longer, you could always make a run back to Vespris for resupply."

"Unless we're prisoners," Mikulsa said cheerily.

That brought a few smiles from the others, but a frown from Jem. "I don't think that will happen."

"I don't, either," the bearded man conceded. "I hope the worst that might happen is that we will be asked to leave." He looked around the table. "I have been reviewing in my mind that meeting between Bzup and the other alien aboard Vespris. I have kind of come around to the view that that fellow, Azim, was definitely trying to persuade Bzup to go with him."

"Jem and I were thinking that, too," Nico said. He turned to Jem. "Which reminds me...we were going to ask Bzup what he did on his ship."

Jem nodded, and turned to the little alien. "Bzup?"

"Jem?"

Jem smiled. "What Bzup know?"

Zzzz. "Jem. Bzup know ztarz."

Jem frowned, and puzzled looks circled the group

"I think we'll need more than that," Nita suggested, cheerily..

Jem's frown turned to a smile. "Definitely. Bzup? What stars Bzup know?"

The alien watched him now, concentrating, as if hunting among his vocabulary for the right words. "Jem...one-zhip...travel ztarz. Bzup...know way."

"By the denizens!" Mister Sharples blurted out. "Is he saying he's responsible for guiding the ship?"

Mikulsa looked amazed. "Like the astrogator, or something?"

Master Terpin watched the alien with interest in his eyes. "It would be much more complicated than that, I imagine." He turned to his chief engineer. "I must admit to my knowledge being limited on how starships are piloted."

"It's a fairly complex process. There are two types of movement a ship of space must make to get where it's going. You have the normal movements within systemic space, around planets and stars. And then you have the movements along Righoff lines, between the stars."

"And these lines are a form of dark matter gravitational web that connect objects in the universe together at some primal level beneath or behind the normal four-dimensional continuum?"

Mister Sharples blinked in surprise, but then looked delighted. "That's basically it."

The master nodded. "I know that on our own starships there is a complex artificial intelligence interface with the operator - the pilot, if you will - something like the virtual enclosure the bridge of the Vespris employs to allow me to navigate the ocean here, but far more complex. Not everyone is up to guiding a starship. It takes a rather interesting turn of mind to handle it."

Jem laughed at that. "I think Bzup has about as interesting a turn of mind as I have ever encountered."

The master's eyes twinkled. "Well...there is that." He tapped his chin with a fingertip in thought. "If he is one of his people needed to guide the ship, I can certainly see why they would want him back."

"Let's not make any assumptions just yet," Mikulsa warned. But - amazingly - the man looked like he was having fun. "He could just be the guy that knows where the maps are stored, or something."

"Or something," Mister Sharples agreed, following up with a sip of his coffee.

"That would still be a pretty valuable position," Ana suggested, smiling. "It seemed obvious to me, also, that this Azim wanted Bzup to go with him."

Hans Kim looked around at the group, a trace of worry that they might be getting into another major discussion in his eyes. "Shall we be going? We won't get any answers standing here."

The master held up a hand in agreement. "Frin, keep me posted, will you?

The engineer nodded. A secure channel had been set up between their pads and Vespris, using the Raptor's powerful com as a booster. Everyone on board could communicate with the master of Vespris as needed.

They filed aboard the Raptor, finding the interior of the craft much more roomy than expected. Its power source and motivator were apparently much smaller than anything that Jem could have imagined, yet another indicator of how much they had lost with the Old Earth technology falling into disrepair for lack of replacement parts.

"Do you believe this?" Nico asked, looking around in wonder. "It's big!"

Jem nodded, watching Bzup. The alien was also looking around the interior of the Raptor, his curiosity evident. Nico noticed then, and moved closer to Jem's side. "What do you think he's thinking?"

Jem gave a little shake of his head. "I almost feel like he's impressed."

Nico laughed softly at that. "That's a good sign. Maybe our two technologies are pretty equal then. That would be good, wouldn't it?"

Til, overhearing, leaned closer. "I'd say so. But let's not assume just yet."

Mister Kim had a seat at the rounded nose of the craft, before a deceptively simple control center. There were two seats in a row behind him, and three more in a row behind those two seats, with space enough to pass through between each. The interior of the Raptor around this seating was totally smooth, the walls a dark gray. Aft of the seating was an open area, adaptable, which could be used for cargo or for passengers. There were two pull-down seats on each side of this area for extra passengers. The walls of the interior there were covered with bins and cabinets, which Jem supposed were full of the supplies they might need. Aft of that was an area with a long, narrow table and seating to each side, a small kitchen, a lavatory, and two vertical rows of three bunks, one each to a side. Mister Kim said there were several cots in storage, too.

That most of the interior was available for use is what was so impressive to Jem. He had envisioned half the Raptor taken up with power supply and engine. Clearly, the old earth tech was even better than he had believed possible.

"If everyone would like to find a seat, we'll get going," Mister Kim called back to them. "Jem, you and Nico can pull down the front seats on either side. They'll lock into place." They heard a small laugh from the man then. "I'm afraid your view won't be quite as good from there, but I think you'll manage."

Jem and Nico pulled down the seats the pilot had mentioned. They rotated out from the wall, creating a support cradle beneath as they did so, and Jem heard them lock with a soft click as the support cradle formed a molecular bond with the deck. Jem gave his seat a good shake - it felt like rock, unmovable. He turned to Nico, who was looking at his own seat, and the two grinned at each other as they sat down.

The two seats behind the pilot were occupied by Mister Mikulsa and Mister Sharples, the the three seats behind them occupied by Nita, Ana, and Til Majors. That the senior members of the mission should get those seats seemed perfectly logical to the boys. Besides, Jem wanted to be with Bzup, and there wasn't enough room forward for the alien to stand among the seating. And now, on that very matter --

Bzup stood in the fairly wide, open space between the two pull-down seats, apparently quite comfortable where he was. But there was nothing to support him, should the Raptor make a sudden turn or move.

"What about Bzup?" Jem called to the pilot. "There's no way to secure him."

"He won't need to be secured," Kim called back. "He'll be okay, standing right next to you."

Jem frowned at that, but nodded.

Suddenly, the forward half of the ship seemed to disappear. The smooth interior wall, back to the bins which started right where the boys sat, simply faded away. They were looking at the deck of Vespris laid out before them...and then that, too, receded as the Raptor lifted, turned towards the ice pack, and moved away.

Jem felt nothing. No acceleration, no sense of movement at all. He shot a confused look at Nico, who simply shrugged to show he had no idea what was happening, either.

"I've read about this, but never experienced it," Mister Sharples said excitedly. "It stirs the senses!"

"What's happening?" Nita asked. "We're moving, but I don't feel anything!"

"Grav drive," the engineer said. "Uniform wave motion. The ship is within a gravitational bubble that exactly cancels all influences from outside it. Everything within the field moves with the Raptor precisely, like it's all one piece. No inertial effects, no gravitational effects, and no sense of motion at all."

Mikulsa laughed. "It affected me the same way, the first time I flew in a grav-powered craft. You have no reason to be embarrassed, Ms. Frees."

"Oh, I'm not embarrassed at all! I'm thoroughly enjoying myself! I just didn't know how we were doing what we were doing!"

"It takes some getting used to," Ana agreed. "It fools the eyes and the ears, sometimes. But I like the way that even a sharp turn won't cause you to spill your coffee!"

Jem looked over at Bzup, and found the alien had turned his eye on him. Jem smiled. "Bzup like?"

"Jem. Bzup like."

"It's only going to take us about twenty minutes to get to Hakin Island," Mister Kim informed them. "But I suggest slowing well before we get there, and proceeding more carefully to the island. We don't want to alarm anyone."

"I think that's a good idea," Mikulsa agreed. "Why don't you slow us about fifty kilometers short of the destination, and bring us in from there at a more leisurely rate?"

"I'm sure we started registering on their sensors the moment we lifted, if theirs are even halfway as good as our old ones," the pilot added. "They won't be surprised by our coming. But I agree we shouldn't rush them. I'll do as you suggested, and slow us at the fifty-kilo mark."

Jem looked across at Nico. "Amazing, huh?"

Nico leaned closer in his seat and smiled at him. "It's even better with you!"

Jem grinned. "Same here!"

The time passed quickly. The Raptor was fast, smooth, and silent, almost like not traveling at all. The ice passed below them in a uniform white blur, adding to the feeling that they were simply suspended there, above an eternal plain of unchanging bleakness. And as they moved north the sky darkened, the axial tilt of Benteen now reducing the amount of sunlight that struck the cloud layers above. The light turned to a glow that fell behind them, while the way ahead was cloaked in twilight.

"Good thing we left early," Mister Kim told them. "Well get to Hakin well before noon. At that latitude the sun won't rise any higher than about ten degrees above the horizon, and it will all be behind us. There will be some twilight, but you'll need the amplification features of your face masks running to see well once you're outside my ship. The view here inside is already preset, and will be amplified as needed the farther north we get."

"Winters are dark up here," Nico said, nodding. "I remember reading about it."

Mister Sharples grunted. "Old Earth has an axial tilt better then twenty-three degrees. Winters at her north pole were dark for months. Benteen's tilt is slightly more modest, but this world is also more distant from her primary. The temperatures here vary slightly more over the surface area than they did at home, and the winters are slightly longer. Overall, though, the pole stays lighter, longer, than it did in winter back home."

Nita raised a hand. "I beg your pardon! This is home!"

Everyone laughed, and Mister Sharples grinned at her. "Figure of speech, my dear. Don't mind me."

The Raptor flew on, and the world about them continued to darken. At one point that effect seemed to subside, leaving them with a clear if somewhat subdued view of the world racing by beneath them, though a strange sort of luminescence was visible now among the clouds, minor artifacts of the amplification process used to provide a clear and sharp view. Outside the Raptor, the world had descended into twilight, as the cheerful glow of the sun beyond the clouds settled towards the horizon behind them.

The landscape below remained something of a blur, until, as they neared the fifty kilometer mark from Hakin Island, the view below them seemed to flicker, and change into something else. What had seemed a completely flat, white plain was now revealed to be less than uniform, with projections and fissures, and even small mountains of ice coming into view. They had left the seasonal ice well behind and were over the permanent ice cap, a place where even tiny differential motions in the ice field eventually yielded large results. The ice plains were home to jagged ridges and gaping canyons in the ice, as the local ice field tried to slide off the extinct volcano that was Hakin Island and make its way to the open sea, hundreds of kilometers away.

The island itself was large, its conical nature quite evident, even though the cap had been truncated in a long-ago eruption of cataclysmic proportions. The empty caldera had later collapsed into itself as the magma chamber below was depleted, and filled over time with ice, resulting in a mesa-like appearance of stone encapsulated within a layer of ice. Here and there along the upper ridge, naked faces of stone still appeared, too steep for the annual snowfall to cling to. The scene was a forbidding one, far from the more welcoming mountains that Jem knew at home.

"Looks cold," Nico said, staring at the scene below.

"It is cold," Mister Kim verified. "I'm reading about -50C. Remember that face masks will be required, people."

Jem patted the inner pocket of his coat, felt the small bulge that was his mask. Their cold weather clothing was rated at a much lower temperature than they were likely to see at the northern pole. Their face masks would protect at similar temperatures. Still, it was quite a bit colder here than it had been back on Vespris.

So, Jem had to wonder--

He turned to Bzup. "Bzup? Bzup go out in cold? Need protection?"

"Jem. Bzup good for zome time, not many."

"What's that mean?" Mikulsa asked, turning in his seat to look back at them.

"I think he's saying he'll be okay for a while, but that it's too cold for him to stay out a long period of time."

"Get to one-zhip," Bzup elaborated. "Bzup good for that."

"He can cross from the Raptor to his ship without a problem," Jem translated.

"Providing they let us in," Mikulsa mused. He turned back to the view below. "I don't see anything that looks like a starship."

"Where one-ship?" Jem asked the alien.

Bzup turned to port and raised a hand to point. "There."

Mikulsa turned to follow Bzup's pointing finger. "Looks like about twenty degrees left, Mister Kim."

"Okay."

The Raptor turned slowly, and Bzup turned with it, until his finger pointed dead ahead. "There," the little alien repeated.

They started moving toward the far end of the island then, now approaching at a speed that was, to the Raptor, scarcely a swift walk.

"Anything on your sensors?" Mister Sharples asked of the pilot.

The man was quiet a moment, but then Jem could see him nod. "I think so. I don't have the full suite this ship was originally equipped with working yet, but I do have more input available than the standard sea gear used on a vessel like Vespris." Kim raised his head and looked out into the wasteland before them. "Let's be patient a minute."

It was more than a minute. The Raptor reached the island and started across the flat table of its peak, which Jem could see now was even larger than he had first supposed. In the past, Hakin must have been a mammoth volcano, indeed!

The Raptor continued onward for a while longer, and then began to slow. "I think this is it, ahead."

Jem and Nico both stood in order to see better. Ahead, light snow rained down upon the small dome of a hill or some other protrusion, around which was a large, smooth plain of what looked like fresh snow. His eyes moved across the unblemished snow, but he could see nothing that looked like a space ship of any kind.

"I don't see anything," Nico said, before Jem could.

Mister Sharples slowly stood from his seat then, gazing downward. Mikulsa turned to stare at the man. "You see something?"

Jem motioned to Nico, and both boys moved forward to stand behind the seat occupied by Til Majors. That man was also staring downward through the seemingly invisible deck of the Raptor, as if transfixed.

Jem bent to follow Til's gaze. The man's eyes were centered on the hill Jem had seen, and the smooth plain around it. Jem let his eyes move carefully over the area. All he could see was the hill - which was almost unnaturally round, he suddenly decided - and the smooth plain of snow around it...

His eyes suddenly found the rim of that smooth plain, and followed it, and he just as suddenly realized that the plain was perfectly round, too, and the hill at its center.

"Must be almost a kilometer in diameter, "Mister Sharples said softly. "They let the snow cover it. If the hull wasn't so smooth, and the snow so regular, I wouldn't have spotted it at all."

Nico gasped beside Jem, and suddenly was gripping Jem's arm. "It's huge!"

"I'd say a tad smaller than one of our own exploratory scouts," Mister Kim said. He seemed less amazed than the rest of them, by the sound of his voice, anyway. "Different approach, though. These people seem to favor the disc design."

Jem felt movement at his other side, and turned to find Bzup there. The alien was also looking downward. "One-zhip, Jem."

Jem thought he could detect a certain longing in the alien's voice. "Home?" he asked.

Bzup turned to look at him. "Home, Jem."

Mister Kim rotated his seat around to face them, his eyes seeking out Varin Mukulsa. "Shall I take her down?"

The man from Colonial Administration licked his lips a moment, and Jem could sense the whirl of thoughts behind Mikulsa's eyes. "I wasn't expecting this."

Mister Sharples seemed to find that funny. "I expected it to be large. But imagining is one thing, and seeing is another!"

Mikulsa blinked at that, and then turned to smile at the other man. "Well, they haven't incinerated us yet. That's always a good sign."

That seemed to snap everyone out of their silence, and then everyone was talking at once.

Mikulsa immediately waved a hand at them. "Ho, ho. Wait a moment." He turned to Bzup. "Go down?"

"Yez. Go down."

Mister Kim smiled at the alien. "Anywhere in particular?"

Bzup pointed. "Near...edge. Any edge."

The pilot's eyes shifted to Mikulsa. "Well?"

Mikulsa blew out a breath, and his eyes sought out Jem. "What do you think, Jem?"

Jem was stunned to even be asked. For a moment he had no answer, and his mind went blank...and then he felt a hand on his arm. A small hand. He turned to look at Bzup. "Jem go down." the alien repeated. "Learn."

Jem could see a lot of things in Bzup's gaze. But most of all, it was what he could not see that was most compelling. He could see no deception, no lies. He had never seen these in Bzup, and he didn't expect them now. He smiled, and turned back to Mikulsa.

"I trust Bzup. I say, we go down."

Mikulsa rubbed at his beard a moment, and then winced. And then he turned to Til Majors. "And your opinion?"

Til sat back in his seat, looking surprised; but then he quickly smiled. "I came to meet Bzup's people. I don't know about you!"

Mikulsa digested that, and then shook his head. "I can't believe I'm doing this." But then he laughed. "Wouldn't Kel's mother be surprised?" He turned back to Mister Kim. "Land us, Mister Kim."

Jem and Nico exchanged grins at that, and Jem moved closer to the other boy and put an arm around him. "You sure know how to show a fella a good time!" he whispered.

Nico beamed at that, and then both boys watched as the Raptor settled slowly to the snows at the rim of the alien ship.

Beside Jem, Bzup made a soft buzzing sound, one that seemed filled with satisfaction.