Raft hurtling on a courageous trajectory around the Core; these sober Scientists and their assistants were together engaged on man's most ambitious project since the building of the Raft itself.
But now Gord had walked in with his scraps of paper and his pencil jottings… and his devastating news. Hollerbach forced his attention back to Gord and Jaen, who still confronted each other — and he found his eyes meeting Decker's. The Raft's leader stood impassively before the table, his scarred face clouded by a scowl of concentration.
Hollerbach sighed inwardly. Trust Decker, with his instinct for the vital, to arrive at the point of crisis. 'Let's go through it again, please, engineer,' he said to Gord. 'And this time, Jaen, try to be rational. Yes? Insults help nobody.'
Jaen glowered, her broad face crimson.
'Scientist, I am — was — the Belt's chief engineer,' Gord began. 'I know more than I care to remember about the behavior of metals under extreme conditions. I've seen it flow like plastic, turn brittle as old wood…'
'No one is questioning your credentials, Gord,' Hollerbach said, unable to contain his irritation. 'Get to the point.'
Gord tapped his papers with his fingertips. 'I've studied the tidal stresses the Raft will undergo at closest approach. And I've considered the speeds it must attain after the slingshot, if it's to escape the Nebula. And I can tell you, Hollerbach, you haven't a hope in hell. It's all here; you can check it out—'
Hollerbach waved his hand. 'We will, we will. Just tell us,'
'First of all, the tides. Scientist, the stresses will rip this Raft to pieces, long before you get to closest approach. And the fancy structures your bright kids are planning to erect over the deck will simply blow apart like a pile of twigs.'
'Gord, I don't accept that,' Jaen burst out. 'If we reconfigure the Raft, perhaps buttress some sections, make sure our attitude is correct at closest approach—'
Gord returned her gaze and said nothing.
'Check his figures later, Jaen,' Hollerbach said. 'Go on, engineer.'
'Also, what about air resistance? At the speeds required, down there in the thickest air of the whole Nebula, whatever shoal of fragments emerges from closest approach is simply going to burn up like so many meteors. You'll achieve a spectacular fireworks display and little more. Look, I'm sorry this is so disappointing, but your scheme simply cannot work. The laws of physics are telling you that, not me…'
Decker leaned forward. 'Miner,' he said softly, 'if what you say is true then we may after all be doomed to a slow death in this stinking place. Now, maybe I'm a poor judge of people, but you don't seem too distressed by the prospect. Do you have an alternative suggestion?'
A slow smile spread over Gord's face. 'Well, as it happens…'
Hollerbach sat back, letting his jaw drop. 'Why the hell didn't you tell us in the first place?'
Gord's grin widened. 'If you'd troubled to ask—'
Decker laid a massive hand on the table. 'No more word games,' he said quietly. 'Miner, get on with it.'
Gord's grin evaporated; shadows of fear chased across his face, reminding Hollerbach uncomfortably of how much this blameless little man had endured. 'Nobody's threatening you,' he said. 'Just show us.»
Looking more comfortable, Gord stood and led them out of the Bridge. Soon the four of them — Gord, Hollerbach, Decker and Jaen — stood beside the dull glow of the Bridge's hull; the starlight beat down, causing beads of perspiration to erupt over Hollerbach's bald scalp. Gord stroked the hull with his palm. 'When was the last time you touched this stuff? Perhaps you walk past it every day, taking it for granted; but when you come at it fresh, it's quite a revelation.'
Hollerbach pressed his hand to the silver surface, feeling his skin glide smoothly over it… 'It's fric-tionless. Yes. Of course.'
'You tell me this was once a vessel in its own right, before it was incorporated into the deck of the Raft,' Gord went on. 'I agree with you. And furthermore, I think this little ship was designed to travel through the air.'
'Frictionless,' Hollerbach breathed again, still rubbing his palm over the strange metal. 'Of course. How could we all have been so stupid? You see,' he told Decker, 'this surface is so smooth the air will simply slide over it, no matter what speed it travels. And it won't heat up as would ordinary metal…
'And no doubt this structure would be strong enough to survive the tidal stresses close to the Core; far better, at least, than our ramshackle covered Raft. Decker, obviously we'll have to go through Gord's calculations, but I think well find he's correct. Do you see what this means?' Something like wonder coursed through Hollerbach's old brain. 'We'll have no need to build an iron bell to keep our air in place. We can simply close the Bridge port. We will ride a ship as our ancestors rode… Why, we can even use our instruments to study the Core as we pass. Decker, a door has closed; but another has opened. Do you understand?'
Decker's face was a dark mask. 'Oh, I understand, Hollerbach. But there's another point you might have missed.'
'What?'
'The Raft is half a mile wide. This Bridge is merely a hundred yards long.'
Hollerbach frowned; then the implications began to hit him.
'Find Rees,' Decker snapped. 'I'll meet you both in your office in a quarter of an hour.' With a curt nod, he turned and walked away.
Rees found the atmosphere in Hollerbach's office electric.
'Close the door.' Decker growled.
Rees sat before Hollerbach's desk. Hollerbach sat opposite, long fingers pulling at the papery skin of his hands. Decker sucked breath through his wide nostrils; eyes downcast, he paced around the small office.
Rees frowned. 'Why the funereal atmosphere? What's happened?'
Hollerbach leaned forward. 'We have a… complication.' He sketched out Gord's reservations. 'We have to check his figures, of course. But—'
'But he's right,' Rees said. 'You know he is, don't you?'
Hollerbach sighed, the air scraping over his throat. 'Of course he's right. And if the rest of us hadn't got carried away with glamorous speculations about gravitational slingshots and a mile-wide dome, we'd have asked the same questions. And come to the same conclusions.'
Rees nodded. 'But if we use the Bridge we're facing problems we didn't anticipate. We thought we could save everybody.' His eyes flicked to Decker. 'Now we have to choose.'
Decker's face was dark with anger. 'And so you turn to me.'
Rees rubbed the space between his eyes. 'Decker, provided we manage the departure cleanly those left behind will survive for hundreds, thousands of shifts—'
'I hope those abandoned by your shining ship will take it so philosophically.' Decker spat. 'Scientists. Answer me this. Will this adventure work? Could the passengers of the Bridge actually survive a passage around the Core, and then through space to the new nebula? We're looking at a very different set-up from Rees's original idea.'
Rees nodded slowly. 'We'll need supply machines, whatever compressed air we can carry in the confines of the Bridge, perhaps plants to convert stale air to—'
'Spare me the trivia,' Decker snapped. 'This absurd project will entail backbreaking labor, injury, death. And no doubt the departing Bridge will siphon off many of mankind's best brains, worsening the lot of those left behind still further.
'If this mission does not have a reasonable chance of success then I won't back it. It's as simple as that. I won't shorten the lives of the bulk of those I'm responsible for, solely to give a few heroes a pleasure ride.'
'You know,' Hollerbach said thoughtfully, 'I doubt that when you — ah, acquired — power on this Raft you imagined having to face decisions like this.'
Decker scowled. 'Are you mocking me, Scientist?'
Hollerbach closed his eyes. 'No.'
'Let's think it through,' Rees said. 'Hollerbach, we need to transport a genetic pool large enough to sustain the race. How many people?'
Hollerbach shrugged. 'Four or five hundred?'
