“How did you know Mother couldn’t see in here?” Tim asked.
Jeff sighed. “Mother shared with me that the two of you had disappeared. It wasn’t hard to track both of you based on your emotions. So, I knew that while I could feel you, Mother couldn’t ‘see’ you, meaning that this room is shielded from the AI in some way.”
“All of the maintenance closets are for some weird Vatusan reason. By the way, once we share that everyone’s here, I’d like those of you on Team Tough Guys who aren’t busy doing whatever to check each and every one of the other closets.”
Siler and Buchanan both jerked. But it was Wruck who spoke. “Because if one set of people can hide on board, why not many others?”
Jeff groaned. “It never ends. Let’s get moving.”
We rejoined the others. Amazingly enough, no one complained too much about our stowaways—probably because no one had felt that Mother was on our side until, possibly, right now.
While Jeff took over explaining what was going on to everyone, Mossy went to help Drax, and Tim and I went with him, because Hacker International had gone with Drax to Engineering with hopes of helping him and Mother out.
Mossy’s arrival was greeted with much joy. Drax literally could not have cared less that the Turleen had stowed away, because without him, we were, as Tim had mostly said, dead in the space water.
Sadly, Tim and I weren’t able to drag any of the hackers away, though, because Drax and Mother had them all doing tasks vital to getting her back to fully functional. It was nice to see Hacker International working feverishly on something that required most of them to stand up and move, though. Hoped Jeff would get a chance to see this—he’d enjoy seeing them sweat even more than I was.
Neither Tim as Commander nor I as Communications were needed right now. We left Engineering and went to a viewing area that wasn’t on the command deck—it was a bar. Well, more like a really fancy lounge. A lounge with a really great view—the “back” of this section of the ship was all window.
“Wow, did Drax watch like all of Star Trek while designing?”
“No,” Tim said with a laugh. “But apparently this kind of thing is common on larger space vessels. In order to ensure that crew on long flights have some form of entertainment that allows them to mingle and all that.”
“Seriously, for as fast as most of these ships seem to travel, acting like anyone’s going to have time to hang out seems silly.”
He shrugged. “We’re hanging out.”
“We’re stuck. It’s a different thing.”
Though we were stuck, we were also still moving, floating toward the nebula. Could tell this was not only because of how things worked in space and that old body in motion versus body at rest law, but because the nebula looked slightly bigger. But, based on how large our scientists knew the nebula to be, and how small it looked right now, knew that Tim was right, and if we managed to float to it, Charlie would be an old man by the time we got there.
“True. But while all the ships can move fast, it’s not always a good idea for them to do so. Per what Drax has told all of us and the other spacefaring races have confirmed, the strain of the faster warp jumps and such can be hard on the ships, especially over time. It’s done for war, for obvious reasons, but if you’re just on a peaceful cruise? You cruise. Including if you’re a Turleen.”
“Interesting. So, we’ve seen the panicked flights and the war flights, but never the casual ones?”
“Right. So, the ships are made for all contingencies, just in case. And, obviously, Vatusan ships have a lot of different forms, since they need fewer crew to man. The two-man ships? No bar.”
“Yeah, there was no lounge in the helicarrier.”
“Right, because it was built for war. This ship, though? She’s been built to do it all.” He sighed as he looked out at the blackness and the Eagle Nebula in the far distance. “Part of me is really glad Alicia’s on board. The other part is terrified that we’re all going to die out here, her included.”
Gave him a hug. “I know what you mean. But we’ll manage. We always do.”
Was about to say something more when the view changed. Instead of black and the nebula, the window clouded over, as if we’d sailed into thick fog.
Only, fog it definitely was not.
CHAPTER 26
THE FOG CAME THROUGH the window, thankfully not via breaking said window, but as if the window was insubstantial. Though I knew that it was the fog that was the insubstantial thing, in no small part because fog was pretty insubstantial to begin with and in much larger part because it wasn’t fog. Nice to know that my message had been received.
The fog formed, first into a swirling mass that sort of resembled a man, and then into a man in reality, so to speak.
The last time I’d seen Sandy the Superconsciousness, he’d been basically dressed in bullet hole-ridden flyers and posters with Jeff and the late Vincent Armstrong’s faces on them. Now he was dressed in what looked very much like an Armani suit. Nice to see that he’d chosen to adapt to our standards of dress.
Didn’t think about it, just gave him a hug once he was fully formed. “It’s great to see you. I hope.”
Sandy hugged me back. “I am here to assist. What are you doing here?”
“Um . . . God, it’s only been a few hours, max, and it’s already a long story.” Brought him up to speed, though a part of me figured he already knew what was going on. “So, we’re basically here against our will, but supposedly going to stop something terrible from happening.”
Sandy nodded. “Yes. However, there are always terrible things happening.”
“There are,” Tim agreed. “But the thing we’re talking about threatens to end the galaxy.”
Sandy shook his head. “More than this one thing threatens the fate of the galaxy. The galaxy is always at risk, due to the varied life-forms that inhabit it. Where you go is not the biggest threat.”
“Really?” Algar had sure seemed to feel that it was. “How sure are you of this?”
“Sure,” Sandy said firmly.
Chose not to argue. “What’s a bigger deal than whatever Ixtha has going on?”
“I can’t tell you,” Sandy said calmly. “You know we believe in noninterference.”
“Except when it’s you guys doing it. Look, do I need to go and give all of those who hang out where you live names? I’m willing to do it.”
“I’m sure you are. But no, that would . . . not be wise. The others who visited Earth are still dealing with what you giving them names did to their mindsets.”
“Are they okay?” Hadn’t necessarily wanted to make these beings go nuts or something.
“Yes, though they now struggle with our stated way of life.”
“Oh, you mean some of them want to interfere,” Tim said.