She looked the map over for a moment, then reached out toward Roland. Roland handed her the pencil. Grasping it awkwardly, she scored a line coming in from the right, ending at the Greater Magellenic Cloud. She looked at it, chewing the end of the pencil thoughtfully. Then she continued the line through the cloud and beyond, ending it at the exact point where the 'Transgalactic Extension' left the rim of the Milky Way.
'There's the Thruway,' I said. 'The Transgalactic Extension is part of it.'
'Why did she leave it out?' Roland wondered.
'Not important,' I said. 'And I think I'm beginning to understand why it wasn't important. As John said the other night, this is a tourist itinerary. We're at the edge of the metacluster. We want to leave it, not go into it, so we won't need to bother with the Thruway.' I reached out with one arm and gathered in all the papers. 'All of this, this whole thing, is definitely not a road atlas of the universe. It's much too incomplete. These maps provide the traveler with a specific route to get to a specific place.'
'And where is that?' John asked.
'Winnie?' I asked. 'Where are we going?'
'Home.'
'Yes, she keeps saying that.' Roland frowned and crossed his arms. 'What could she possibly mean?'
We left at dawn.
But not before I had the shock of seeing what Sean and Liam had been referring to as their 'Skyway-worthy vehicle.' Liam towed it out of a shed with the tractor.
It was a tiny roadster, beaten, dented, splotched with emulsicoat patching, and looking for all the world like an overgrown child's toy.
'Where's the key to wind it up?' I said.
'Very funny,' Sean sneered. 'But not very original.'
'And what color is that?'
'Magenta.'
I rolled my eyes heavenward.
It took a half-hour to start the thing. Then it ran at 25 percent of its rated power. Liam fiddled with the engine for another twenty minutes and coaxed it up to seventy-five.
'Good enough,' Sean said. 'We can stop somewhere and have it looked at.'
'Yeah,' I said.
Finally, we got going. It felt good to get back on the Skyway again. Give me the road any day, I thought. That black band rolling under me was freedom. I wanted no fetters, no encumbrances, no obligations. But of course I had them. My present situation was a trap, and the more I struggled, the more ensnared I became. I was acquiring people like an old wool sweater picks up lint. What did they want of me? What was my irresistible appeal? I didn't know about anyone else, but I was looking for a way home. I wanted to do nothing more than deliver my load and go back to the farm. Wouldn't see a soul for a year. I'd even sell my flat in town. Contrary to popular opinion, this starrigger had absolutely no intention to drive to the 'beginning' of the universe or to the 'end' of it either equally absurd notions. I wanted to tear up Winnie's maps, chuck the Black Cube out the port, and say to hell with it all. Then I'd go my own way, just me and Sam. Leave everyone to starhike it home.
Sure. Sure, Jake. You go ahead and do that.
I swore under my breath for two kilometers and felt better.
So preoccupied with my thoughts was I that I didn't notice the forest had given way to rolling plains in rather short order. The tops of the cylinders were edging over the horizon.
Suddenly, I thought of something, and slammed on the brakes. I pulled off the road and came to a sudden stop. The Chevy overshot me, pulling off to the shoulder a good distance ahead. As I climbed out of the cab, much to everyone's puzzlement, I saw Carl sticking his head out the window and looking back, equally baffled.
I walked back to the roaster, into which our beefy logger friends were packed like… like… well, like two beefy loggers inside a ridiculously small vehicle.
Sean slid back the dubiously air-tight port. 'Trouble, Jake?'
'I have to ask this before I repress the event entirely. Just what the hell was that thing I saw in the woods… that Boojum or whatever you call it?'
Sean tugged at his anfractuous mustache. 'Hard to say. Did it talk to you?'
'Yeah, it?' I straightened up. 'Yeah, it sure did!'
'What did it say?'
'Well… it said, 'Good Gracious, dearie me!' Then it took off into the woods.'
'I see.' He stroked his beard, ruminating. Shaking his head slowly, he said, 'Then that was no Boojum.'
I would have strangled him right then if I had thought my hands would've fit around his fat neck.
Chapter 8
When climbed back into the cab, a yellow warning light leered at me from the instrumentation.
'The spare,' I said. 'Right?'
'Right,' Sam said.
I expressed my displeasure in colorful terms. At some length.
'Curb your tongue, lad. There're ladies present.'
'My apologies, Suzie, Darla.' I looked back. 'Winnie,' I added.
'Oh, you should be proud,' Susan said. 'That approached the status of a work of art.'
'Thank you.'
I felt even better than I had after the previous tirade. I goosed the plasma flow and peeled out onto the Skyway.
The next few planets were wasteballs, barely habitable, but even here, human settlements clung, like lichen, to the rocks. Various odd-colored suns hung in lowering skies. On the third mudball, I decided we needed a palaver.
'Sam, see if you can raise Sean and Carl.'
'Right.'
I put on the headset while Sam put out a call on the special frequency we had decided upon beforehand. I prefer an old fashioned headset; why, I don't know, but I've always had this odd affinity for outmoded technology. Besides, I keep losing those 'stickum things you put on your earlobe and throat. I considered the bone-conduction transducer, implanted in my mastoid bone, a necessity despite my aversion to biointerface gadgets. I never used it for general communications; it was reserved for the hush frequency alone.
'Fitzgore here. Can you read me, Jake?'
'Sure enough. Carl?'
'Yeah.'
'Okay, we're going to take the left fork up ahead. Right?'
'Affirmative.'
'Roger-dodger.'
'Roger-dodger?' I echoed.
'Affirmative, ' Carl amended.
'Right. The next planet up is Schlagwasser. Carl, can you ask Lori?'
'I'm here, Jake. And I told you I don't want to see those people again.'
'Lori, what you do after I drop you off is your business. It would've been dangerous to send you back to Seahome, and in good conscience I couldn't have put you out on that planet of alcoholic perverts-present company excluded, Sean and Liam-'
'On behalf of all perverts, alcoholic or not, I thank you.'
'Sorry. Lori, you're much too young, and?'
'punk you!'
'?and I… Lori? Lorelei, honey, listen to me, please. I know you're not more than fifteen years old'
'I'm eighteen!'
