Starplex

"I'm still tabulating everything from the battle, but there were no new problems caused by the high-speed shortcut passage."

"What about casualties?"

Lianne tilted her head, listening to reports over her audio implant.

"No deaths. Lots of bone fractures, though. Couple of concussions.

Nothing too serious. And Jessica Fong got out of docking bay sixteen all right, although she has a broken hip and arm, and a lot of bruising."

Keith nodded and breathed a sigh of relief. He looked around the hole bubble, trying to make out detail in the faint smudges of white against black infinity. "God," he said under his breath.

"All the gods," replied Jag, softly, "are a very, very long way from here."

Thor turned around and looked at Jag. "It is intergalactic space, isn't it."

Jag lifted his upper shoulders in agreement.

"But— but I've never heard of any shortcut exit this far of Thseaid Lianne."

"Shortcuts have only existed for a finite time," said Jag. "Even hyperspace signals from one in intergalactic space might not have reached any of the Commonwealth worlds yet."

"But how can there be a shortcut in intergalactic space?" asked Thor. "What's it anchored to?"

"That's a very good question," said Jag, bending his head down to look at his instruments. "Ah — there it is. Check your hyperspace scanner, Magnor. There's a large black hole about six light-hours from here."

Thor let out a low whistle. "Adjusting course. Let's give it a wide berth."

"Are we in any danger from it?" asked Keith.

"Not much, boss — unless I fall asleep at the wheel."

Jag touched some controls, and a framed-off area appeared in the holo bubble. But the space inside the frame was just as empty and black as the space outside it.

"Normally you can see the accretion disk around a black hole," said Jag, "but there's nothing out here to be pulled into it." He paused.

"My guess is that it's an ancient black hole — it would have needed billions of years to get out here. I suspect it's the remains of a binary star system. When the larger component went supernova, it could have caused an asymmetric 'kick which propelled the resulting black hole out of its home galaxy."

"But what would have activated this shortcut?" asked Lianne.

Jag lifted all four shoulders. "The hole would pull in any matter that wanders by. Something that was being sucked in by it probably fell through the shortcut instead." Jag tried to sound jaunty, but it was clear even he was staggered by it all. "We're actually pretty lucky — shortcuts in intergalactic space are probably as rare as mud without footprints."

Keith turned to Thor. He made an effort to keep his voice calm, controlled. He was the director; no matter how much Starplex usually behaved like a research lab rather than a sailing vessel, he knew all eyes would be on him, looking for strength. "How soon can we go back through the shortcuT' he asked. "How soon can we go get the Rum Runner?"

"We've still got major electrical problems," said Lianne.

"I wouldn't want to move the ship until those are stabilized — and I'll need at least three hours for that."

"Three hours!" said Keith. "But — ' try to cut it down," said Lianne.

"What about sending a probeship through to help Rissa and Longbottle?" asked Keith.

The room was silent for a moment. Rhombus rolled over to the command workstation, and touched Keith's forearm lightly with one of his manipulator ropes. "My friend," he said, PHANTOM translating the low intensity of his lights as whispering, "you can't do that. You can't put another ship in danger."

I'm the director, thought Keith. I can do what I damn well please. He shook his head, trying to get control. If anything had happened to Rissa…

"You're right," he said at last. "Thanks." He turned to Jag, and felt his heart rate increasing. "I should put you back under house arrest, you…"

"'Pig,'" said Jag, his underlying bark an excellent mimicking of the English word. "Go ahead and say it."

"My wife is out there somewhere — possibly dying. Longbottle, too.

What the hell were you trying to accomplish?"

"I admit nothing."

"The damage to this ship will cost billions to repair. The Commonwealth will bring charges against you, you can be sure of that-"

"You will never be able to prove that my request to move Starplex had anything to do with the subsequent events. You can revile me all you wish, human, but even your unenlightened courts require proof to substantiate a charge. The dark-matter being I wanted to examine did indeed have an unusual hyperspace footprint; any astronomer will verify that. And it was indeed invisible from Starplex's vantage point before the move-"

"You said that darmat was about to reproduce. It hasn't done a thing."

"You are spoiled by being a sociologist, Lansing. In the hard sciences, we occasionally have to face the reality that some of our theories will actually be disproven."

"It was a rose-"

"It was an experiment. Suggesting anything else is conjecture; persist publicly in it, and I shall bring defamation charges against you."