Deep Freeze

CHAPTER EIGHT

Vinn Stern was supervising the loading of delicate equipment aboard a chubby freighter when the Erin Kenner fluxed down with a flair of rather ostentatious ship handling. The sleek, new vessel came plummeting down, mushed to a stop a hundred feet above the raw earth of the field, and settled softly into the dust. Vinn allowed work to come to a halt while the stevedores admired the design of the new type of cruiser-explorer.

"Whoever's aboard her had one helluva ride," said a worker.

"The skipper was playing amusement park kiss-me-quick," Vinn said.

A lock opened and several people emerged from the Erin Kenner.

"Okay, fellows, let's get it done," Vinn said, turning away. The men went back to work.

In the artificial pleele forest the film company was shooting stock scenes of the background. The basic exposures would be combined with the work of special effects techs on Delos, home of United Holofilms, to show the ifflings, the first stage of the Artunee life-form, crawling among the pleele trees in search of succulent fruit.

Sheba was in her dressing room, makeup in place, ready to finish off one small scene when the call came. She was eager to leave the wildernessplanet. She glanced at the clock, sighed. She had always enjoyed her work, and that had been true of the Miaree project until recent weeks when a restlessness had begun to grow in her. It wasn't so much that she wanted to get back to her home on Delos, although she thought often of the great house with its extensive grounds winding among small, crystal clear lakes.

She simply wanted, needed, to be on the move. There was an urge in her to go. She dreamed of traveling lonely star lanes to places she'd never seen.

Quite often her parents were in her dreams, and Josh and David and Ruth.

One of the director's assistants put her head in the door and said,

"We'll be ready for you in five minutes, Miss Webster."

They were reshooting the scene where Miaree first stood face-to-face with the alien. He waited for her at the top of a flight of steps. After special effects finished, he would be standing among smooth-skinned, graceful changelings. In the initial shooting he was alone. Sheba walked up the steps, slim and regal. Her soft lips were fixed in a formal smile. The alien extended both hands in a gesture of friendship. He said, "You are indescribably beautiful."

"Cut," the director yelled. "And wrap."

A cheer went up. The location shooting was finished. Soon the ships would lift off for the civilized portions of the galaxy. The actor who was playing Rei, the Delanian alien, kissed Sheba on her furry cheek.

"It's been a fine vacation, Sheba," he said, "but I'm ready to have a decent meal and sleep in my own bed."

The director, differences forgotten for the moment, hugged Sheba and complimented her on her professionalism.

When Sheba walked off the sound stage, she saw Josh Webster standing with his hands behind his back, tall and striking in his Service blues, a very attractive female officer at his side.

"Hi, Queenie," Josh said.

"Josh! My God," Sheba cried, running to throw herself into his arms.

"Careful of the wings, darling," the director said. "We might have to usethem again."

"This rather odd creature," Josh said to Angela, "is my sister. Sheba, say hello to my wife, Angela."

Sheba took both of Angela's hands in hers. "Wonderful," she said. "I know you're a super person to be able to convince this old reprobate to give up his bachelorhood." She turned to Josh. "What a perfectly lovely surprise."

"I heard that they were trying to turn my baby sister into a butterfly,"

Josh said.

"This butterfly is going to flutter off and change," she said. "Angela, if you want to come with me, you can freshen up while I get out of this fur.

Old Josh, you may come, too, if you like."

"I'll wander around and take a look at the sets," Josh said.

"Give us half an hour," Sheba said.

In the dressing room, Angela helped Sheba skin out of the skintight Artunee fur. She was slightly uneasy as Sheba was revealed dressed only in briefs and a filmy bra, but Sheba seemed quite at ease. She pointed Angela toward the facilities and went to work removing the makeup from her eyes. Her face was clean and smooth when Angela came out.

"Josh was right," Angela said, "you're quite the most beautiful woman I've ever seen."

"Hey," Sheba said, "it takes one to know one. It's easy to see why my formerly fickle brother chose you."

"Hush," Angela said, "or you'll have me wondering if I should ask you to get me a part in a holofilm."

"The cameras would like you," Sheba said, and when Angela laughed,

"really."

Sheba leapt to her feet, slipped into a shimmering shift, pushed her feet into designer heels. "Let's go find the handsome one and sort out some food."

"You could talk me into that," Angela said.

Vinn Stern was in the cafeteria. He waved at Sheba and she called him over to the table, introduced him to Josh and Angela, and asked him to join them. Angela nudged Josh, calling his attention to the way that Sheba looked at Vinn. Vinn expressed admiration for the Erin Kenner. Thus cued, Josh launched into a glowing paean of praise for the ship.

"Hey, we get the idea," Sheba said. "You love your ship. If I were Angela, I'd feel jealous."

"I'm afraid I'm guilty of the same fault," Angela said. "The ship's performance was flawless. We're both looking forward to taking her on big jumps into the far and away."

"Need a slightly used scientific adviser?" Vinn asked.

"We could use you, Vinn," Josh said, "but the ship's organizational chart doesn't call for one. One navigator doubles as science officer."

"How about civilian sisters?" Sheba asked.

"That would be frowned upon," Josh said.

"Discrimination," Sheba muttered. "You're going out to look for the Old Folks, and for David and Ruth, aren't you?"

"We're going to explore the sector of space that both ships entered when they left established blink routes," Josh said.

"I've been thinking about Mom and Dad a lot," Sheba said. "They're not dead, Josh."

Josh didn't speak immediately. "I hope not, Queenie." He forced a smile. "There are still plenty of provisions aboard their ship. They haven't even been forced to go into space rations yet."

"They're alive," Sheba insisted. "And David and Ruth, too."

The Erin Kenner stayed two days on the wilderness planet. Sheba and Vinn were given a grand tour of the ship. Angela and Sheba found time for some girl talk and established a warm friendship. Vinn was busy stowing the computers, cameras, and other sensitive equipment for the trip backto the studio. He had managed to get a berth on the most luxurious of the transport ships with Sheba. The company's equipment was stowed aboard the freighters. The temporary living cubicles, too, were packed away in the holds of the ships and the company had moved to their berths aboard the transports. The environmental police were at work, carefully erasing all signs of the company's presence on the park planet.

Vinn and Sheba told Josh and Angela good-bye. Vinn left the three of them together and went back to his final check of the stowed equipment.

A couple of hours later he stood outside the freighter and watched the Erin Kenner lift fluidly and disappear into the vault of blue. Within seconds a chunky freighter's flux drive hummed and she followed the more graceful ship into near space. By the time the freighter had attained orbit and the navigator was setting the generator for the first blink, the much quicker X&A ship was light-years away, making multiple jumps along well-charted blink routes before having to rest for recharging.

Vinn buttoned up the locks of the equipment ship, watched it float upward to begin the journey home, boarded his assigned transport.

"Where in blazes is Sheba?" the director demanded as he entered the lounge. "The captain is losing his mind."

"She came aboard at least three hours ago," Vinn said. "She said she was a bit tired. I imagine she's in her cabin."

"Do you think we're so stupid that we didn't check her cabin?" the director asked, lifting his hands in supplication to unknown deities.

Vinn went to Sheba's cabin. It was in perfect order, a condition which told him that Sheba had not spent much time there. He opened the closet.

Her wardrobe was arrayed on racks. Her luggage was in place on the upper shelf. He turned to leave just as Sheba's secretary appeared in the open door.

"Have you found her?" Vinn asked.

"No," the secretary said.

"Well, you know Sheba. She probably decided that she wanted to have one last walk in the forest."

"I don't think so, Mr. Stern," the secretary said. "Her survival kit is missing."

Vinn raised his eyebrows in question.

"A small bag. It contains her makeup, toothbrush, sleeping pills, a change of lingerie. Things like that. Things that if you have you can get along without the bags containing clothes and the rest of it."

"You're sure?"

"And her jewelry, too. A small box that fits into the travel kit."

"This is probably the dumbest thing you ever did, Queenie," Sheba told herself in a whisper as she sneaked out of the transport's cargo lock and ducked around behind the landing struts. From a short distance the sound of a flux engine came, purring softly as a cargo vessel prepared for liftoff.

She peered around the struts. The Erin Kenner sat with open locks.

Airvans from local ship's chandlers were parked near the open ports and as Sheba watched a man carried a crate of fresh greens into the ship. She waited until the greengrocer's van lifted away and another supply van was being moved next to the cargo lock.

With her little survival kit in her hand she walked to the open lock and entered. A worker came in directly behind her with a crate of fruit on his shoulder. On a wilderness planet there were no automatic conveyors to make resupply of a ship effortless. In the small space inside the lock a man in Service blues was checking off the crates of vegetables and fruit as they were loaded into the ship's chefmaster where they would be processed and stored. She ducked through a hatch. She had memorized the layout of the ship during the tour that Josh and Angela had conducted.

She ran through a tiny corridor that passed the entrance to the generator room, opened another hatch, ducked into the ship's gym.

"This is the dumbest thing you've ever done," she told herself as she settled down into a hidden nook behind a treadmill. The ship's climate conditioner was being affected by the open locks. It was working just a bit too efficiently, making for a slight chill in the air of the gym. She removed a tightly folded thermal sheet from her travel bag and wrapped it aroundher. Soon she was comfortable. Still convinced that she was doing the dumbest thing she'd ever done, she dozed.

Movement woke her. The ship was soaring. She could hear the distant hum of the flux drive. Her stomach lurched as outward acceleration ceased and ship's gravity cut in. In a matter of minutes she felt the peculiar sliding sensation inside as the blink generator was activated and the Erin Kenner was vaulted into nonspace for eternal microseconds. After the third jump she put the thermal sheet back into the survival kit and helped herself to water from a dispenser near the gym's entry door. She was getting hungry. Twice more she felt the eerie internal slide of a blink and then the ship was at rest.

She could hear the whisper of the ventilation system, and from deep within the metal bulkheads of the gym a series of tiny clicks.

She sat on a weight lifting bench and checked her watch. It seemed that she'd been in the gym for ages, but only four hours had passed since the last jump. She didn't know how long it would take for the Erin Kenner's generator to recharge, but she was getting not just hungry, but very damned hungry. She was preparing herself to open the door and exit the gym when the door opened and a husky young man in shorts stepped in, nodded at her, did a double take.

"And who might you be?" he asked.

"I'm an alien stowaway," she said.

"Nah," he said, grinning and shaking his head. "I saw you in Let The Night Come."

"Actually," she said, giving him her brightest smile, "that was one of my favorite films."

"I think it was terrible to kill off that beautiful girl," he said.

"But that's what made the film so poignant."

"Yes, I suppose so." He chewed on his lower lip in thought. "Captain doesn't know you're aboard?"

"No."

"It's strictly against regulations, you know."

"I suspect so."

He grinned widely. "Wanta hide out in my cabin for a while?"

"That's generous of you, but I don't want to get you into trouble."

He nodded. "Yes, it was a bad idea. Exciting to think about, but a bad idea."

"I suppose you'd better notify old Josh that his baby sister is aboard."

"The movie people gave us some rushes of your new film. I loved the scene where you fall in love with the Delanian."

"Thank you."

"You're sure you want me to call the captain?"

"What do you think?"

He sighed, stepped to a panel, pushed buttons, said, "This is Barkley; would you please ask the captain to come to the gym?"

Josh was wearing ship's shorts and tunic. His head was bare.

"I found her, Captain," the crewman named Barkley said, "can I keep her?"

"After I run her through the recycler you can have her," Josh said.

"Queenie, what the hell?" He looked at Barkley and said, "Thank you, Barkley."

"Yes, sir," Barkley said. "Anything I can do, sir?"

"Leave," Josh said.

"I was afraid of that," the crewman said, going out the door.

"You run a tight ship, Captain," Sheba said with a giggle.

"Damn it, Sheba."

"Something made me do it," she said, and the lightness was gone from her voice.

"Yes, sheer irresponsibility. Sheba, this is my first command. They gave me the newest and finest light ship in the fleet, and you're doing your best to see to it that not only do they take it away from me but take my captain's suns in the bargain."

"That bad, Josh?"

He shook his head, and a fond smile relaxed his face. "Why?"

She tried for lightness again. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

His face darkened. "I had to, Josh," she said quickly. "I knew that you were going to look for Mom and Dad and there was no way that this ship was going to go into space without me. I had to."

"And I have to make a detour and put you off on a U.P. world."

"No, Josh, please."

The door opened and Angela, slim and lovely in a ship's one-piece, halted, her mouth open. "Barkley told me, but I didn't believe it."

"She had to do it," Josh said. "Something made her do it."

"I know," Angela said seriously.

"What?" Josh demanded.

"Why did we come to the wilderness world, Josh?" Angela asked.

"We had to take the ship on a shakedown cruise along well traveled routes. I used that opportunity to come to visit my little sister. I was foolish enough to want to introduce my new bride to her."

"And that's all?" Angela asked. "There was no other reason for choosing the world where Sheba was working?"

"No," Josh said, but his voice lacked conviction.

"Sheba, why did you stow away on the Erin Kenner?" Angela asked.

"I had no other choice," Sheba said. "I knew that you and Josh were going to look for my family. Our family."

"Did you think that your presence aboard would be an asset, that it would be necessary for us to have you along in order to find your family?"

Sheba was thoughtful. "Something like that," she said.

"Your brother, David, looks somewhat like Josh, but he's more finely drawn, older, more dignified," Angela said.

"Thanks very much," Josh said.

"And he has a small scar over his left eye, high on the forehead."

"You've met David?" Sheba asked.

"Only briefly," Angela said, "and his hair hid the scar completely, yet I'm certain it's there."

"Angela," Josh said, "we've got a small problem on our hands."

"You dream about him," Sheba said.

"And you?"

"Yes, and about Josh, and about Mom and Dad and Ruth. There are times when they seem to be calling out to me, calling for help, and I don't know how to help them."

"How long has this been going on?" Josh asked, suddenly very much interested in what Sheba was saying.

"Off and on for about six months, I'd say."

"Josh?" Angela asked, her lovely eyes wide.

"All right, yes," Josh said, "I dream of them, too."

"You were going to them," Sheba said. "I had to be with you. I had to be aboard this ship regardless of the consequences."