competence than they have.” –Cadmus Errol
By the light of stars peeking down between the vacuum tanks of the Jennai , Madlin made her way across the plaza. She pulled the collar of her jacket tightly against her neck to keep the wind from finding its way inside. Here and there a window glowed in one of the crew quarters, but the ship’s bulk bathed her in shadow that was good enough protection against being spotted by anyone in a lighted room. It was a trick Rynn had learned for her in the tunnels: when trying for stealth, light around someone else is your friend.
The door to the cargo hold with the world-ripper was guarded, of course, but guards were not her concern. The two on duty gave a fist to chest salute as Madlin approached.
Pulling out her pocket clock, Madlin flipped it open and angled it to catch enough light to read the face. “It’s 2:32. The two of you stand relieved until 4:32, two hours from now precisely. I don’t want to see boot or hat of either of you until then, and I don’t want to be kept waiting after. Understood?”
“Yes ma’am,” they replied in unison, rather louder than she would have liked.
“No booze, and if you must sleep, you better be rusty sure you wake up in time to be back here.”
Madlin waited until they were gone and slipped inside the hold. The dynamo for the world-ripper hummed at idle, but the room was too dark for her to see anything. Fumbling along the wall, she found the switch for the spark lights and closed it with a solid thunk . The room burst into shabby yellow light, not enough to chase away the shadows from the far corners but sufficient to see a path to the controls and the stacks of notes and maps that lay beside it.
As she sat and began sifting through the various documents for the maps she needed, Madlin was aware of the approach of her co-conspirators. She did not so much as flinch when the door opened and admitted Rynn and Jamile. Jamile closed the door behind them as Rynn shuffled across the room and took the seat at the controls as Madlin got out of her way.
“He’s sound asleep,” Jamile reported in a whisper.
“I know, you told me two minutes ago,” said Madlin. She pulled one of the panels off the control console and looked inside. Her father had anticipated the need for non-lunar destinations and had installed a toggle switch to re-enable standard use. Aside from being buried in the guts of the world-ripper, he could hardly have made the swap any easier.
Rynn took over shuffling through maps as Madlin threw the switches one by one to turn on the viewer. When the last was activated, the view sprang to life but was a wall of blackness. A few pinpricks of light were stars, shown from where the moon had been before Madlin stopped the synchronizing device. Rynn spun dials and twisted the view around until Korr looked much like the maps spread out on paper all over the console. Clouds obscured it in parts, but it was otherwise a faithful rendition. A splint on Rynn’s left arm slowed the process, but she spun dials one by one to bring the view around and narrow them down onto the region of northeastern Grangia. The maps they were concerned with did not involve Korr, however, so Rynn turned one more dial and threw the viewer into chaos as the image vanished, to be replaced by swirling blues and whites. With knowledge of the worlds at their disposal, and the coordinates for Tellurak well ingrained in everyone who worked the machine, the image resolved itself into a world once more.
The change was striking. The land and water were all in the same places as they had just been, though the clouds had moved. What was notable was the shift in color. The reddish brown of the Grangian landscape was replaced by greens and lighter browns of northeastern Khesh.
“Well, time to find Mabliss,” Madlin muttered. It was something she’d have said to someone else running the machine, but it was redundant with Rynn at the controls. Still, useful or not,
By the light of stars peeking down between the vacuum tanks of the Jennai , Madlin made her way across the plaza. She pulled the collar of her jacket tightly against her neck to keep the wind from finding its way inside. Here and there a window glowed in one of the crew quarters, but the ship’s bulk bathed her in shadow that was good enough protection against being spotted by anyone in a lighted room. It was a trick Rynn had learned for her in the tunnels: when trying for stealth, light around someone else is your friend.
The door to the cargo hold with the world-ripper was guarded, of course, but guards were not her concern. The two on duty gave a fist to chest salute as Madlin approached.
Pulling out her pocket clock, Madlin flipped it open and angled it to catch enough light to read the face. “It’s 2:32. The two of you stand relieved until 4:32, two hours from now precisely. I don’t want to see boot or hat of either of you until then, and I don’t want to be kept waiting after. Understood?”
“Yes ma’am,” they replied in unison, rather louder than she would have liked.
“No booze, and if you must sleep, you better be rusty sure you wake up in time to be back here.”
Madlin waited until they were gone and slipped inside the hold. The dynamo for the world-ripper hummed at idle, but the room was too dark for her to see anything. Fumbling along the wall, she found the switch for the spark lights and closed it with a solid thunk . The room burst into shabby yellow light, not enough to chase away the shadows from the far corners but sufficient to see a path to the controls and the stacks of notes and maps that lay beside it.
As she sat and began sifting through the various documents for the maps she needed, Madlin was aware of the approach of her co-conspirators. She did not so much as flinch when the door opened and admitted Rynn and Jamile. Jamile closed the door behind them as Rynn shuffled across the room and took the seat at the controls as Madlin got out of her way.
“He’s sound asleep,” Jamile reported in a whisper.
“I know, you told me two minutes ago,” said Madlin. She pulled one of the panels off the control console and looked inside. Her father had anticipated the need for non-lunar destinations and had installed a toggle switch to re-enable standard use. Aside from being buried in the guts of the world-ripper, he could hardly have made the swap any easier.
Rynn took over shuffling through maps as Madlin threw the switches one by one to turn on the viewer. When the last was activated, the view sprang to life but was a wall of blackness. A few pinpricks of light were stars, shown from where the moon had been before Madlin stopped the synchronizing device. Rynn spun dials and twisted the view around until Korr looked much like the maps spread out on paper all over the console. Clouds obscured it in parts, but it was otherwise a faithful rendition. A splint on Rynn’s left arm slowed the process, but she spun dials one by one to bring the view around and narrow them down onto the region of northeastern Grangia. The maps they were concerned with did not involve Korr, however, so Rynn turned one more dial and threw the viewer into chaos as the image vanished, to be replaced by swirling blues and whites. With knowledge of the worlds at their disposal, and the coordinates for Tellurak well ingrained in everyone who worked the machine, the image resolved itself into a world once more.
The change was striking. The land and water were all in the same places as they had just been, though the clouds had moved. What was notable was the shift in color. The reddish brown of the Grangian landscape was replaced by greens and lighter browns of northeastern Khesh.
“Well, time to find Mabliss,” Madlin muttered. It was something she’d have said to someone else running the machine, but it was redundant with Rynn at the controls. Still, useful or not,
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