Q & A - Keith R. A. DeCandido [49]
However, dumping the waste was getting more and more difficult, as they were running out of places to dump it. A controller named Emck had done good business dumping the waste in a place called the “Void,” but a strange vessel from a faraway sector—the so-called ship of death—had stopped him. That left contracts open to other contractors who could find places to get the waste disposed.
The hard part was finding a place to dump the waste that was close enough to reach before the ships’ shields failed. Sheel had found an O-type star, but it was four months from the Malon homeworld at the maximum safe cruising speed. They were only one day out at the moment, but if the shield failed…
Only one thing to do. He turned to Refeek at the flight control console against the bridge’s starboard bulkhead. “Increase to maximum.”
Refeek whirled around and squinted at him. “Controller, we’re at maximum.”
Glowering at the young man, Sheel said, “No, we’re at our maximum safe cruising speed. I want us to go to our emergency speed.”
“Sir,” Refeek said, casting a furtive glance at Liswan, “regulations say that we can go to emergency speed only in…well, an emergency.”
Looking down, as if hoping the deck would provide comfort—it didn’t—Sheel let out a long breath. He had hired Refeek only because he was willing to work more cheaply, a cost-cutting measure whose efficacy the controller was now questioning. “Refeek, one of our shields is about to collapse.”
“Well, we have three of them, don’t we?” Refeek asked. “I mean, don’t we have three so that if one fails the other two will keep it going?”
Swearing never again to skimp on pilot salaries, assuming he lived that long, Sheel said, “No, we have three because we don’t have enough power on this ship to run four.” Sheel had heard that a tanker called the Apsac had managed the trick of getting seven shields running simultaneously, but Sheel had never seen any proof of that, and besides, the Apsac disappeared four years ago without a trace. “Besides,” he went on, “do you know how many instances of shield failure there have been where the other shields didn’t immediately collapse in a cascade effect?”
His voice very small now, Refeek said, “Er, no. Three, maybe?”
“It’s a trick question, Refeek—the answer is none. As soon as that shield goes down, it’ll be a matter of seconds before the others go with it. In fact, it could happen at any second, and I’d hate to think that we all died of theta radiation poisoning because of the precious time we lost because you were asking stupid questions!”
Throughout, Sheel’s voice had been rising in volume, to the point where Refeek actually flinched at the last two words. He increased the ship’s speed.
“Uh, sir,” Liswan said quickly, “that may not be such a good idea. The shields may not be able to tolerate—”
“Liswan, is there any chance that we’ll make it to KMH-5 at our current speed before the shield collapses?”
“Well, no,” Liswan said. “Remlap said it’d be—”
“—twelve hours at the most. If we increase speed, there’s a chance we’ll make it to KMH-5 before the shield collapses. If we don’t increase speed, there’s no chance we’ll make it. I don’t know about you, but I know which option I prefer.”
Nodding, Liswan said, “I withdraw my objection, Controller.”
Dryly, Sheel said, “Very generous of you. Now if you’d be so kind as to go down to Remlap and see if—”
Controller Sheel did not finish his sentence. A strange anomaly suddenly appeared in the space that the Keta was occupying. Had Sheel not ordered the increase in speed, the Keta might have detected the anomaly before colliding with it—but it might not have, since Malon supertankers do not come equipped with viewscreens. The Malons never developed that technology, having never had the need to provide themselves with image translations of sensor data. Malons generally