LINKS
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The Christa Affair
Chapter Eleven
Clad in white fibersoft pajamas, Karli floated a few inches above the bed in deep sleep. She had activated the slumberfield, and didn't stir as Jashi entered the room. It was a device they rarely used, preferring to sleep cuddled together on the cushiony Varigel mattress. The null-forces of the field provided perfect weightless support, holding the sleeper away from the bed and the edges of the field -- and away from any other sleeper in the same field. Jashi had often reflected that its designer must have been trapped in a miserable contract.
Jashi entered the fresher and turned on the shower. He continued his psychometric exercises as he stood under the scalding spray, feeling the tension slowly ebb from his tired body. After long moments, he switched the setting to icy needle-spray, then turned off the water and touched the dryer control. As he crossed to the bed, he activated the background noise generator and dialed in the "rainshower" setting. His mind empty and his body relaxed, Jashi was instantly asleep as the invisible fingers of the slumberfield closed around him.
Four hours later, the soft "burrrrrrrr..." of the intercom intruded upon his respite. Sleepily, he turned over and reached for Karli; his arm closed on empty air. Jashi sat bolt upright in surprise and cursed softly as his head bumped the upper force-plate concealed in the canopy of the bed; the slumberfield generator whined in protest.
The intercom beckoned again, louder, and Jashi came slowly awake, remembering the slumberfield. "Wait-a-minute!" he said to the intercom -- the burrrrrr'ing ceased; in the control room, a light changed to winking amber. Jashi touched the off button on the bed console; he and Karli slowly sank to the mattress as the field collapsed.
"Whaz'zit?" Karli mumbled, rolling onto her left side. Jashi kissed the back of her head lightly, then stood and crossed to the intercom.
Ten minutes later, refreshed and alert after another needle-shower and a Revtab, Jashi entered the control room. Only he and Lito were awake -- in spite of his promise to Mowii, Jashi intended to leave it that way as long as possible.
Mowii had been sleeping soundly when he stopped by the infirmary to check on Rang and use the regenerator on his fractured shoulder; Rang had showed continued improvement. The brain-scan was down twenty points, and the other vital signs had begun moving slowly toward sleep-normal. "Now if we can just make contact with HQ," Jashi was thinking as the door to the bridge slid closed behind him.
Lito looked up tiredly from the communications console as Jashi entered. She had been on duty... "How many hours?" wondered Jashi, not bothering to compute. "I have the conn. Report, then get some sleep."
*********
For a long time after Lito had gone, Jashi sat silently, staring at the remote readout of Rang's monitor, lost in deep thought. The improvement in Rang's condition continued to slowly accelerate.
Finally he got up and made a pot of coffee. The cheerful sound of the percolator bubbling beneath its pressure-dome raised his spirits, and he tried the hyperphone again. The entire hyperband was still flooded with constant static, but the normal-space comm channels had quieted almost to their usual level of background noise. "Strange!" he thought. Obviously The local ionization caused by the energy weapons had dispersed -- otherwise the comm would still be out. "What's wrong with the hyperphone?" he puzzled. "It should never have been affected in the first place."
A systems check by the ship's computer showed the hyperphone apparatus to be working properly. He turned off the deflector screens and tried the ship's scanners; to his surprise, all systems functioned normally. He set the life-form and mass detectors to deep scan, and left off the shields; the scanners would warn him of approaching danger.
With the deflectors off, Jashi could monitor the hyperband. He adjusted the receiver to scan and lock onto any hyperspace transmission strong enough to override the static, and poured himself a mug of coffee from the now-silent percolator. He set the short-range multiscan to make a recording of the entire surface of Ultazari-Seven during the \Klondike's\ next orbit. "Wish Karli were here," he thought, as he settled into the command chair. Gentle telepathic inquiry brought him only the "padded-wall" feeling of Karli's deep slumber -- contact withdrawn. He hastily backed out, not wishing to wake her, and returned to his somber thoughts.
*********
So numerous were the anomalies of the situation, it almost seemed the cosmos itself had gone insane; Jashi ran thru them in his mind. First, Christa had disappeared three and a half months ago -- then the team of scientists they had been sent to rescue had vanished without a trace. Next was the arrival and disappearance of the silvery phantom sphere they had tagged the "ghost-ship", followed by Estarani where none could possibly be. Add in the uselessness of the hyperphone due to -- what? -- and the list was staggering. "Oh yeah!" he muttered to himself as he finished the dismal tabulation. "Don't forget about the kidnapped Uzosi Princess and Rang's inexplicable condition."
Ridiculous as it seemed, Jashi knew there must be a connection. "Computer!" he said aloud, without rising from his chair.
"On line, Captain," answered a pleasant voice, neither male nor female. "Please continue."
"Assimilate the following," responded Jashi, "and please translate by context." Intelligent as it was, the ship's computer had an annoying tendency to translate verbal entries too literally, sometimes resulting in rather humorous confusion. Jashi preferred direct keyboard entry, but he felt the need to talk to someone... Even if it \was\ only a machine.
"No need to be insulting!" retorted the computer, sounding very much like a person who's feelings had been injured. "Continue, please."
"Item one: Approximately three and a half months ago the natural satellite of Uranus known as Christa disappeared. The Federation catalog number of said satellite is as follows..."
"Stop!" commanded the computer. "Define `disappeared'."
"Damn nitpickin machine!" thought Jashi. Aloud he said, "Ceased to be discernable by Human vision and all forms of detection known to Federation science."
"Thank you," said the machine pleasantly. "Please continue."
"The catalog number of the natural satellite known as Christa is..." Thirty minutes later, Jashi was finished dictating.
"One moment, Captain," intoned the computer and lapsed into silence. Jashi got up to get another mug of coffee. "Ready on your request," it said before he had time to return to his seat. "You're not going to like it, Captain," it added plaintively.
"Spit it out!" snapped Jashi. "I didn't ask for your opinion." This was one conversation he could have lived without.
"Please define `spit...'"
"Shut up!"
"`...it out'," continued the computer, ignoring his outburst.
"Cancel!" Jashi mentally counted to ten, then backwards to zero. "Give me the information as instructed."
"Captain, according to all available data, there is only one common aspect. All items listed are either impossible, or highly improbable. Classified as impossible are item one, item three, item..."
"Stop! Hard copy only... then go back to sleep."
"Please define `go back...'" The quasi-voice stopped in mid- sentence as Jashi hit the \off\ switch; the printer continued to spit out paper.
"Now what?" Jashi thought gloomily.
CHAPTER TWELVE
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