Tau Zero

Lars Telander turned about to greet her. In free fall, his gaunt and gawky figure became lovely to watch, like a fish in water or a hawk on the wing. Otherwise he could have been any gray-haired man of fifty-odd. Neither of them had bothered to put insignia of rank on the coveralls that were standard shipboard working attire.

“Good day,” he said. “I trust you had a pleasant leave.”

“I certainly did.” The color mounted in her cheeks. “And you?”

“Oh … it was all right. Mostly I played tourist, from end to end of Earth. I was surprised at how much I had not seen before.”

Lindgren regarded him with some compassion. He floated alone by his command seat, one of three clustered around a control and communications console at the middle of the circular room. The meters, readout screens, indicators, and other gear that crowded the bulkheads, already blinking and quivering and tracing out scrawls, only emphasized his isolation. Until she came, he had not been listening to anything except the murmur of ventilators or the infrequent click of a relay.

“You have nobody whatsoever left?” she asked.

“Nobody close.” Telander’s long features crinkled in a smile. “Don’t forget, as far as the Solar System is concerned, I have almost counted a century. When last I visited my home village in Dalarna, my brother’s grandson was the proud father of two adolescents. It was not to be expected that they would consider me a near relative.”

(He was born three years before the first ma

“Let’s get busy,” he said. “I assume Boris Fedoroff and his engineers rode up with you?”

She nodded. “You’ll hear him on the intercom after he’s organized, he told me.”

“Hm. He might have observed the courtesy of notifying me of his arrival.”

“He’s in a foul mood. Sulked the whole way from ground. I don’t know why. Does it matter?”

“We are going to be together in this hull for quite a while, Ingrid,” Telander remarked. “Our behavior will indeed matter.”

“Oh, Boris will get over his fit. I suppose he has a hangover, or some girl said no to him last night, or something. He struck me during training as s rather soft-hearted person.”

“The psychoprofile indicates it. Still, there are things — potentialities — in each of us that no testing shows. You have to be yonder—” Telander gestured at the hood of the optical periscope, as if it were the remoteness that it watched — “before those develop, for good or bad. And they do. They always do.” He cleared his throat. “Well. The scientific perso

“Yes. They’ll arrive in two ferries, first at 1340 hours, second at 1500.” Telander noted agreement with the program clamped to the desk part of the console. Lindgren added: “I don’t believe we need that much interval between them.”

“Safety margin,” Telander replied absently. “Besides, training or no, we’ll need time to get that many groundlubbers to their berths, when they can’t handle themselves properly in weightlessness.”

“Carl can handle them,” Lindgren said. “If need be, he can carry them individually, faster than you’d credit till you saw him.”

“Reymont? Our constable?” Telander studied her fluttering lashes. “I know he’s skilled in free fall, and he’ll come on the first ferry, but is he that good?”

“We visited L’Etoile de Plaisir.”

“Where?”

“A resort satellite.”

“Hm, yes, that one. And you played null-gee games?” Lindgren nodded, not looking at the captain. He smiled again. “Among other things, no doubt.”

“He’ll be staying with me.”

“Um-m-m…” Telander robbed his chin. “To be honest, I’d rather have him in the cabin already agreed on, in case of trouble among the, um, passengers. That’s what he’s for, en route.”

“I could join him,” Lindgren offered.

Telander shook his head. “No. Officers must live in officer country. The theoretical reason, having them next to bridge level, isn’t the real one. You’ll find out how important symbols are, Ingrid, in the next five years.” He shrugged. “Well, the other cabins are only one deck abaft ours. I daresay he can get to them soon enough if need be. Assuming your arranged roommate doesn’t mind a swap, have your wish, then.”

“Thank you,” she said low.

“I can’t help being a little surprised,” Telander confessed. “He doesn’t appear to me as the sort you’d choose. Do you think the relationship will last?”

“I hope it will. He say she wants it to.” She broke from her confusion with a teasing attack: “What about you? Have you made any commitments yet?”

“No. In time, doubtless, in time. I’ll be too busy at first. At my age these matters aren’t that urgent.” Telander laughed, then grew earnest. “A propos time, we’ve none to waste. Please carry out your inspections and—”

The ferry made rendezvous and docked. Bond anchors extended to hold its stubby hull against the larger curve of Leonora Christine. Her robots — sensor-computer-effector units — directing the terminal maneuvers caused airlocks to join in an exact kiss. More than that would be demanded of them later. Both chambers being exhausted, their outer valves swung back, enabling a plastic tube to make an airtight seal. The locks were repressurized and checked for a possible leak. When none was found, the i

Reymont unharnessed himself. Floating free of his seat, he glanced down the length of the passenger section. The American chemist, Norbert Williams, was unbuckling too. “Hold it,” Reymont commanded in English. While everyone knew Swedish, some did not know it well. For scientists, English and Russian remained the chief international tongues. “Keep your places. I told you at the port, I’ll escort you singly to your cabins.”

“You needn’t bother with me,” Williams answered. “I can get around weightless okay.” He was short, round-faced, sandy-haired, given to colorful garments and to speaking rather loudly.

“You all had some drill in it,” Reymont said. “But that’s not the same thing as getting the right reflexes built in through experience.”

“So we flounder a bit. So what?”

“So an accident is possible. Not probable, I agree, but possible. My duty is to help forestall such possibilities. My judgment is that I should conduct you to your berths, where you will remain until further notice.”

Williams reddened, “See here, Reymont—”

The constable’s eyes, which were gray, turned full upon him. “That’s a direct order,” Reymont said, word by word. “I have the authority. Let us not begin this voyage with a breach.”

Williams resecured himself. His motions were needlessly energetic, his lips clamped tight together. A few drops of sweat broke off his forehead and bobbed in the aisles; the overhead fluoro made them sparkle.