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Delia looked at Virgil to see the slightest of smiles on his lips. “I don’t see any reason not to.” He rose calmly and wiped the sweat from his forehead, stepped up to her and walked beside her to the spacecraft. “Excellent weather for flying,” he added in a gratingly conversational ma
“We’re going to have to work on this desire of yours to get on other people’s nerves.”
Circus Galacticus orbited the Earth in a low-eccentricity equatorial orbit at one thousand kilometers altitude. The Bre
Over the speaker system, the pilot’s voice spoke calmly, “Circus Galacticus will cross the horizon in one minute.”
Virgil sat next to the one small window facing the bow of the shuttle. He did not bother to look out.
“Thirty seconds.”
Delia twisted about, trying to see past him.
“Ten seconds.”
Virgil closed his eyes for a second, then muttered a short curse. And looked through the port. His breath caught.
Though still hundreds of kilometers away, Circus Galacticus rose over the limb of Earth, a quite visible white slash in the blackness. Virgil squinted and tried to figure out how he sat in relation to it. The starship grew steadily. When it filled a degree of arc, Virgil noticed details and realized he was looking at the ship’s topside. At one end, the engine array lay edge-on. From its axis sprang Ring Three, looking like a white hockey puck with a wide support column stuck in its surface toward its rear perimeter. It bulged slightly in the middle, the preferred design for the tritium cryotanks. The superstructure on the support column appeared identical to the other two on the other rings. Only the rings themselves possessed individual characteristics.
Ring Two encircled a tangle of canisters, globes, tubes and cables. Complex fastening mechanisms held the units together, but it looked to Virgil that, if there were the slightest breeze in space, the entire collection would blow apart like a dandelion. He smiled warmly at the thought.
Ring One housed life support, astrogation, communications, repair machinery, two shuttlecraft, the main computer, space for a thousand frozen colonists-now empty-and a small weapons array equal in firepower to about half that of the former imperial Space Command.
Virgil watched as Circus Galacticus more than filled his viewing port. When the shuttle slowed to an imperceptible creep, all he could see was the prolate ellipsoid fastened to the prow of the ship on the forward tip of Ring One. The ellipsoid’s major axis lay on the same plane as that of the rings’ widths, and was over one hundred meters long, its minor axis about half that.
“What’s in there?” he asked. Small figures floated around the ellipsoid; occasionally the sapphire flash of a welding torch glowed between it and Ring One.
“New addition. It contains the Transfer equipment, peripheral terminals and storage banks for the Transfer computers; you’ll find out everything when we get to studying.” Delia answered calmly, but her left hand reached up to loosen the twist of hair around her neck. Virgil noticed the movement.
Master Snoop tightening up on you?
Eight weeks. Still they hammer away. If I float very still at night, I can hear them scratching at the hull. I won’t let them in. I’m safe. Master Snoop protects me from Nightsheet, but he’s a cruel master. My brain burns with thoughts. Ring One Level Four Section Eleven O’clock: exercise area. Ring Three Levels One through Seven Sections Five to Seven O’clock: Pumps for engine array. Ben speaks to me… Master’s son… Masterson Ben Snoop… Benjamin… been jamming this code for weeks, been-
“Tovar Trine is in Prow-Three-Center and will meet you in ten minutes in Con-One at Auxiliary Panel Alpha,” the ship’s computer said, turning on the lights in Virgil’s sleeping quarters. Its masculine voice was synthesized to be pleasant to the ear.
Virgil floated in the middle of the room, two meters away from any bulkhead. Usually, he awakened floating close enough to one of the padded walls that he could reach out and pull toward the door. Sometimes, though, he woke up unable to grasp anything.
Pulling up into a ball, he took a slow, easy breath and exhaled forcefully, his lips pursed tightly. He began rotating with a
Delia stood waiting for him in Con-One, looking out of the wide viewing port at the Earth and space. She had raised all but the ultra-violet screen and stood before the vast sweep of stars, silently watching.
She stands like an angel of death, hands behind her, clasped firmly. She sees the Universe, knows my plans, will act to crush me the instant I let my guard down. Cracker of all codes, she’ll get to mine soon, and when she breaks my most sacred of secret ciphers she’ll know what I want.
“Virgil?” Delia turned around when she heard him choking. Slipping her feet out of the dock straps, she kicked across the room and used an arm to stop next to him.
“Nothing. Just swallowed wrong. I’m still not used to zero-g.” Took me out of my gauze chrysalis and made me fly, now you give me a mighty machine and make me be alone again. Death Angel you make me half-die inside. It hurts.
“Are you sure you’re all right?”
Virgil nodded and bit the inside of his cheek. He breathed and nodded again. Stupid, Stupid. She hasn’t broken your code yet. You’ve got to get away from Master Snoop. Far away to think. Play along. “I’m straight. What’s on the agenda today?”
“Weapons simulations.”
“Why?”
“Why what? You’ve got to learn how to use them.”
“Against whom?”
“How should I know? This ship cost a kilomeg and a half. You think Bre
Why is the roar coming back?
Virgil watched the computer-guided lasers a half hour later as they locked in on and destroyed a dozen small asteroids captured from their near-Earth orbits. When the simulation ended, mining ships closed in on the shattered and molten rock, now congealed into spheres, and began processing the bounty.
Just like Wizard-every action serves at least two purposes. What are my purposes? The cipher is interstellar exploration- what’s the code? The roar. Get back. Is Wizard a free agent? Can anyone be a free agent? Or do we all serve? Nightsheet, Master Snoop, both? Why are things so hard to decode?
The start of a new day: Virgil awoke with a headache.
It’s stopped. They’ve gone away. He flailed around until he reached a bulkhead and pulled outside. While dressing, he listened carefully.
Gone. No scratching. They must have gotten bored. I’m safe even from the agents of-who? Maybe they were just recalled. Maybe they’re inside. May-
“Good morning, Virgil,” the computer said. “Automatic transfer sequence has been initiated. You have three hours and twenty-one minutes until initial transfer to Alpha Centauri A. Please proceed to Con-One at Prow-Three-Center.”
What? Virgil twisted around to the computer substation and faced the speaker grill. “What do-” He realized what day it was.
Through the roar. Last night. Delia. Yes, she said something. Today. Transfer at eight hundred Zulu. Damn damn damn damn. Lost in the roar. Get out. Get out of my head.