Ascending - James Alan Gardner [39]
Turning sharply away from him, I headed for the corridor back to the bridge. I glared at him over my shoulder when I reached the doorway…and to my surprise, I found myself saying, “I am not a virgin, you know.” Then I stormed away, feeling that my face had become very hot.
No One Ever Congratulates One On Her Daring
I did not wish to return to the bridge—it was not nice seeing Lajoolie snuggled up to Uclod, as if no one else in the world mattered. I feared, however, that if I sat on my own in the corridor, Nimbus would come after me again, claiming I had provoked more metabolic imbalance. “I am not an imbalance,” I muttered. “I am, in fact, the only one on this ship who knows How To Behave.”
Dawdling most slowly, I walked down the corridor, hoping some diverting event would occur before I reached my destination…but it did not, and I was forced to enter the bridge after all.
Lajoolie had not budged from her previous position, but Uclod was now awake. The two were talking quietly, nose to nose. I stomped my feet hard as I walked in, to make sure they knew I was there. It would have been gratifying if they had jumped up guiltily at being caught…but they merely turned to face me, moving in exasperating unison.
Their cheeks were almost touching. That was exasperating too.
“So I see you are conscious,” I said loudly to Uclod. “It is high time—I grew most bored flying this ship on my own.”
Uclod’s face looked grim. “What did the Shaddill want, missy?”
“I believe they wanted to capture us. But we escaped.”
The little man’s eyes narrowed. “How?”
“I flew into the sun.”
“Into the sun?”
“Yes. And the stick-ship did not follow, for those Shaddill were not as daring as I. Unless,” I added, “they ran away, not because of the sun but because of the human navy.”
“The human navy,” Uclod repeated.
“The entire human navy,” I said, “and perhaps they were the ones who scared off the stick-ship. But the humans were not so formidable after all. Starbiter outran them most easily…which might be because her FTL field had absorbed invigorating energies from the interior of the sun. By the way, are there creatures who live inside stars? Giant glass butterflies who sing? Because this would be a highly pleasant universe if such creatures existed.”
Uclod blinked several times. Then he turned away and pushed forward in his seat, tapping the bumps in front of his chair. Unlike machines on Melaquin, Starbiter did not possess an obvious display screen; but the Zarett must have been furnished with some means to convey information to Uclod because the little man slumped back from his console in utterish amazement. “Holy shit,” he whispered, “we did fly into the sun.”
“Yes,” I said. “It was very bright.”
“I can imagine.”
“But it was safe and peaceful. No harm came to us. You were wrong when you thought we would burn.”
“Look,” he said quietly, “I wasn’t concerned about the heat so much as everything else. The gravity. The magnetics. Every damned particle in the subatomic bestiary, plowing into us at fusion intensities. I can show you solid mathematical equations proving an FTL field can’t survive more than a nanosecond…”
“Do not be foolish,” I said. “Mathematical equations are not solid—they are just scribbles someone writes down. And whoever wrote your equations must have made a mistake, because we are all just fine.”
Lajoolie leaned closer to her husband…if that were possible. She told him, “The FTL field integrity equations were given to us by the Shaddill.”
Uclod looked at her. His eyes widened. “Holy shit. Holy shit!”
“The Shaddills?” I said. “The monstrous villains who tried to eat us with sticks? I would never believe their equations, ever.”
“But…but…” Uclod broke into a series of spluttery