Stainless Steel Rat 11: The Stainless Steel Rat Returns by Harry Harrison Page B

raised his finger and smiled. “But we do have a graviton concentrator on the engine room!”
    “I’ve seen it,” the captain said, gloomily shaking his head. “It’s an antique like everything else on this ship. Working flat out, on a one-G planet, it would take about two years to collect enough for our needs. Three months on a three-G planet would be fine. Except we would all be dead.”
    I dropped the obvious question into the growing silence.
    “Then . . . what shall we do?”
    Captain Singh took himself in hand—sat up straight and shook himself like a dog.
    “We’ll get out of this.” He looked at his watch. “Our first Bloat will end in about five hours when we are scheduled to make a navigation check. We’ll have to forget about getting to Mechanistria until we have had the opportunity to refuel.”
    “Where we will end up after the first Bloat?”
    “Hopefully we will be close to a solar system that contains a single inhabited planet named Floradora.”
    “Sounds nice!” I said chipperly.
    “The cheerful names usually stand for very repellent planets,” Stramm said, bringing the gloom level back up again. The captain read from the screen.
    “Inhabited planet. Early technical world type Alpha-X. No orbiting satellites or space stations at time of survey.”
    “When did this survey take place?” Stramm asked.
    “Four hundred and two years ago come next Groundhog Day.”
    “Gosh, a lot could happen in that time!” I said brightly. This sally was greeted with cold silence. The captain hammered at a program he was running. When he finished he actually sat back and smiled.
    “I estimate that when this first Bloat ends we will have enough gravitons for two more Bloats of the same distance.” The smile vanished. “I hope we will be able to load gravitons at one of the two destinations.” His voice grew cold. “If not, be prepared for quite a long visit.”
    I could think of no snappy answer to that. But I did have an important question.
    “Instead of carrying on this course, why don’t we simply return to Moolaplenty?”
    He shook his head. “It’s not that simple. When the Bloater Drive is in operation it leaves a virtual tunnel through interstellar space. These tunnels gradually die away, but sometimes take years to disperse. But they are easily detected and avoided.”
    “Then there is no way of going back?”
    “Not the way we came. And we don’t have enough gravitons for a more circuitous course.”
    I went back to our cabin under a cloud of gloom. I was mixing a lethal weapons-grade cocktail when I heard soft footsteps and the clatter of little trotters. I doubled the quantity of drink and filled a bowl with curry puffs. I cooled the drink mixture and poured it into two glasses over ice.
    Pinky sniffed the air and burbled happily. I threw her a puff.
    Angelina raised an eyebrow at the sight of the drinks.
    “Are we celebrating?”
    “Yes and no,” I said handing her a glass. “Yes we are celebrating a successful takeoff and first Bloat—”
    “How many of these have you had?”
    “Like you, this is my first. Here’s to a successful journey.” I raised my glass and drank deep.
    “But . . . ?”
    “There are difficult times ahead. Sit, drink, nibble a puff. And I’ll explain.”
    She listened in attentive silence to my tale of woe. In the end she nodded and held out her glass for a refill. She sipped and, in a steely voice, said, “I should have killed Rifuti when I had a chance. At least I sent a message to the Moolaplenty police about his first sabotage. Someday I will kill him. But that’s for the future—after we have refilled the graviton tank.”
    “Have another curry puff,” I said extending the bowl. Still glaring she took one, crunching down hard on it as though it were Rifuti’s neck. An inquiring snuffle drew her attention and she fed one to Pinky.
    “What’s this Floradora planet like?”
    “Don’t know. All contact was apparently lost during the