[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
I held it, feeling like a juggler performing a difficult trick for the one
and only time.
"Did you hear it, Sam?" I said.
"I heard it," he assured me.
"Eve," I said. "Are you listening? You hear me? This is Grainger, Eve. You
made it."
When she spoke my name it sounded like the hiss of an angry cat. It was only
shock-maybe a touch of horror. She was still slowing the ship, letting her go
into a drift. Her moment was over. She was falling back, now, giving way. It
didn't matter.
'Take it easy," I said. "It's all over. Damn the rest They can come and get
us. Take us home on stretchers. I don't care. We did our bit. It's all over."
All we had to do was wait.
21
We were all too tired to have much of a party while we were waiting to be
found, but we tried. A good deal of time went by before they got a ship to us,
but we didn't discover the reason until they actually reached us. We didn't do
any more talking than was necessary through the call-circuit.
Abram Adams came out himself, with a number of his staff, on a small ship
called the Gypsy Rose which hadn't been on Darlow when we lifted.
It was not until Adams came aboard the Swan that we found out how long we had
been away. More than a hundred days had passed-in the real world-since the
Swan had entered the lens. They'd given us up for good and all.
It wasn't only time that had passed on, either. Titus Charlot was dead. He
had died believing that he had made a grave and terrible mistake. He gave up
the crew of the Sister Swan for dead, and he assumed that I had suffered a
like fate. I think Adams might have blamed me for causing the old man's death,
or at least hastening it, had it not been for the fact that Charlot had been
ready and willing to overlook the fact that I'd left him behind. Much later,
when I got to thinking about it, I concluded that a trip into the Nightingale
was probably the last thing Titus Charlot had wanted to do. He was so
determined to come because he considered himself to be under an obligation.
I'd let him off the hook by stealing the mission. There were no charges
waiting to face me when I got back. In fact, quite the reverse. Charlot had
taken steps to have it recorded that I- that each and every one of us-had died
Page 106
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
a hero.
I think my obituary was the nicest thing I ever read.
They'd put Titus Charlot's body in a deep-freeze and sent it home to be
buried under the sweet cosmetic surface of his home world. The realisation
that I was free of him forever came upon me rather slowly. When I first heard
the news, I wasn't exactly heartbroken, and my first thought was that it would
be nice to be able to scrawl graffiti on his tombstone. But the attitude
didn't last. After a while, I was almost sorry to think that I'd left him
behind to die with the bitterness of his failure, because-in a way-he hadn't
failed. I think he ought to have been allowed to know that. One life lost, and
a pair of eyes, but maybe those weren't wholly down to him.
The ship was still New Alexandrian, but I gathered from Zimmer that there was
no one quite ready to step into Charlot's shoes yet. I had time in hand, and
the chance of a voice in my own future.
Sam stayed with the ship. I didn't want to let him go to wherever old
spacemen go when they don't die. Mina stayed too, and with Johnny that would
have made a full crew in numerical terms, but numerical terms weren't the only
ones to be considered. I didn't really know whether Nick and Eve would want to
sign on with me, and I didn't know any way of asking them that wouldn't sound
absurd. But they solved the problem for me. They asked me. They had no
intention of letting go.
We were becalmed on Darlow for quite some time. The ship was only just about
spaceworthy and the crew most certainly was not. It was some days after we
limped home that news filtered back through channels to New Alex, and it was
several days more before the reaction was felt. Johnny shipped himself back to
us at the earliest possible opportunity. I wasn't looking forward to facing [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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I held it, feeling like a juggler performing a difficult trick for the one
and only time.
"Did you hear it, Sam?" I said.
"I heard it," he assured me.
"Eve," I said. "Are you listening? You hear me? This is Grainger, Eve. You
made it."
When she spoke my name it sounded like the hiss of an angry cat. It was only
shock-maybe a touch of horror. She was still slowing the ship, letting her go
into a drift. Her moment was over. She was falling back, now, giving way. It
didn't matter.
'Take it easy," I said. "It's all over. Damn the rest They can come and get
us. Take us home on stretchers. I don't care. We did our bit. It's all over."
All we had to do was wait.
21
We were all too tired to have much of a party while we were waiting to be
found, but we tried. A good deal of time went by before they got a ship to us,
but we didn't discover the reason until they actually reached us. We didn't do
any more talking than was necessary through the call-circuit.
Abram Adams came out himself, with a number of his staff, on a small ship
called the Gypsy Rose which hadn't been on Darlow when we lifted.
It was not until Adams came aboard the Swan that we found out how long we had
been away. More than a hundred days had passed-in the real world-since the
Swan had entered the lens. They'd given us up for good and all.
It wasn't only time that had passed on, either. Titus Charlot was dead. He
had died believing that he had made a grave and terrible mistake. He gave up
the crew of the Sister Swan for dead, and he assumed that I had suffered a
like fate. I think Adams might have blamed me for causing the old man's death,
or at least hastening it, had it not been for the fact that Charlot had been
ready and willing to overlook the fact that I'd left him behind. Much later,
when I got to thinking about it, I concluded that a trip into the Nightingale
was probably the last thing Titus Charlot had wanted to do. He was so
determined to come because he considered himself to be under an obligation.
I'd let him off the hook by stealing the mission. There were no charges
waiting to face me when I got back. In fact, quite the reverse. Charlot had
taken steps to have it recorded that I- that each and every one of us-had died
Page 106
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
a hero.
I think my obituary was the nicest thing I ever read.
They'd put Titus Charlot's body in a deep-freeze and sent it home to be
buried under the sweet cosmetic surface of his home world. The realisation
that I was free of him forever came upon me rather slowly. When I first heard
the news, I wasn't exactly heartbroken, and my first thought was that it would
be nice to be able to scrawl graffiti on his tombstone. But the attitude
didn't last. After a while, I was almost sorry to think that I'd left him
behind to die with the bitterness of his failure, because-in a way-he hadn't
failed. I think he ought to have been allowed to know that. One life lost, and
a pair of eyes, but maybe those weren't wholly down to him.
The ship was still New Alexandrian, but I gathered from Zimmer that there was
no one quite ready to step into Charlot's shoes yet. I had time in hand, and
the chance of a voice in my own future.
Sam stayed with the ship. I didn't want to let him go to wherever old
spacemen go when they don't die. Mina stayed too, and with Johnny that would
have made a full crew in numerical terms, but numerical terms weren't the only
ones to be considered. I didn't really know whether Nick and Eve would want to
sign on with me, and I didn't know any way of asking them that wouldn't sound
absurd. But they solved the problem for me. They asked me. They had no
intention of letting go.
We were becalmed on Darlow for quite some time. The ship was only just about
spaceworthy and the crew most certainly was not. It was some days after we
limped home that news filtered back through channels to New Alex, and it was
several days more before the reaction was felt. Johnny shipped himself back to
us at the earliest possible opportunity. I wasn't looking forward to facing [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]