After everyone shut down their consoles, Kibi served a simple lunch and Ilika clarified his last statement.
“It’s us, the delicate little creatures inside the ship, who can be hurt. This was good for Mati. She hasn’t made a serious piloting mistake in a while.
Situational awareness is more important for her than anyone else. Luckily the building she knocked down was uninhabited, and of no value to anyone.”
The pilot grinned shyly.
“But the fact that Manessa is unharmed, and we’re merely shaken, doesn’t change the fact that we’re buried under a huge pile of twisted metal and rubble. We have to find a way out. Kibi is still in command, but I’m limiting your options. Space thrusters will do the trick, but there’s another way.”
Kibi ate her reheated stew in silence for a moment. “Manessa, have you ever before been buried?”
“Yes,” the ship’s pleasant voice responded. “Two hundred and thirty-one years ago I had an avian crew who liked being nice and warm, so they chose an active lava flow for a landing site. I complained, but they shut off automatic warnings, as Ilika sometimes does for training purposes. By morning, we were covered by solidified lava. It took the crew four days to figure out how to get free. They never again shut off automatic warnings.”
“How did they get you out?”
“Ilika asked me not to tell you.”
Kibi flashed her captain an expression so sour, he burst out laughing. Rini
NEBADOR Book Five: Back to the Stars 44
and Boro both joined him. Mati smiled, but was still nursing too many guilty feelings to join in the laughter. Sata’s eyes showed some fear, but after a moment she too smiled.
Kibi sighed. “Ideas, anyone?”
“I don’t think I dare use atmospheric thrusters,” Boro said. “Too much dirt and junk piled all around the ship.”
Ilika nodded. “That’s correct. They’d refuse to even warm up.”
“Anti-mass?” Rini proposed.
“That’s what I’m thinking,” Mati agreed. “I don’t know how much it’ll take, but hopefully by level seven . . .” She looked at Boro.
He nodded, and took another spoonful of stew.
The anti-mass drive at level one did nothing.
Level two caused a little bit of creaking and some dust to sift downward across their view screens.
Kibi ordered inertia straps before they tried level three. The ship quivered and shook, the metal above and around them groaned and creaked, but nothing moved.
As they tried level four, Rini started frowning and then doing something at his console. The ship moved up a small fraction of a meter, but could go no farther.
Once the screeching and thumping caused by level five ceased, Rini turned around. “We have a bigger problem.”
Kibi looked at him.
“The metal frame of that building was all connected together. It’s acting just like a net. The harder we push, the tighter it gets — I can tell from the pressure on Manessa’s hull.”
Kibi sighed. “So you mean . . . if we do get off the ground, we’re going to take the whole pissing thing with us — metal, stone, everything?”
Rini nodded with a sad expression.
Kibi turned and looked at Ilika. He was careful to keep his eyes on the steward’s console.
“Level six!” she said, turning back around. “We have to try.”
The ship bucked and lurched, the metal all around them screamed like a
NEBADOR Book Five: Back to the Stars 45
frightened animal, and countless chunks of rock pounded on the hull before Kibi finally let Mati stop. Then she looked at Rini.
“Pressure’s even greater. It’s wrapped around us like a spider web.”
“And we’re the damned fly,” she growled. “I don’t really expect it to work, but no harm in trying seven, I guess.”
Boro worked at his controls. “I’m bringing in more inertia canceling so we won’t be jelly on the floor if we suddenly break free.”
“Yeah, no jelly. Everyone ready?”
Sata’s eyes were larger than before, even though she had pretty pictures on three-quarters of her display. Mati looked determined, and still nursing guilt.
Kibi nodded for her to begin their last and final hope.
The tortured metal screeched and screamed so loudly that Kibi yelled for Rini to turn off the audio. One visual display cleared for a moment, allowing them to see twenty or more beams stretch tightly across that part of the ship.
It was soon covered again by dust and grit.
After nearly a minute, which felt more like an hour, Kibi screamed,
“STOP!” and doubled over in the command chair, crying her eyes out.
Drawn faces sat around the large table nibbling on crackers without tasting them. Rini stood behind Mati, massaging her shoulders. Ilika tried to do the same for Kibi, but she just snapped at him.
Boro appeared unaffected. “I think we should all try to relax, maybe even get some sleep. We already know we can leave any time we want with space thrusters.”
Kibi looked daggers at him. “That’s easy for you to say. Some of us can feel in our bones that we’re under a big pile of junk, even though we can’t see it.”
“Sorry,” Boro mumbled.
Everyone remained silent for a minute. Mati had her eyes closed as Rini continued massaging her shoulders.
Ilika poked at a knowledge pad. “I think you need to teach Manessa how to dance.”
Mati turned and glared at him. “How can a crippled slave teach a deep-space . . .” Their eyes met and suddenly her mouth opened.
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“What?” Sata asked.
“What!” Kibi demanded.
“He’s right,” Mati said. “It’s like a tangled ball of string. We’ve been using brute force. We have to untangle it, instead.”
Rini smiled down at his dear friend.
“Boro!” Mati said in her flight-command voice, grabbing her crutch and standing up, “I want anti-mass one and maneuvering thrusters!”
Seconds later they were all at their stations. The pilot raised her flight control. “This could get a little bumpy. I want straps and seven-eighths inertia canceling.”
Kibi nodded. “Whatever she wants, Boro.”
“Warming
up!”
Everyone pulled down their inertia straps.
“Anti-mass, maneuvering, seven-eighths canceling, all green.”
Kibi looked around. “Sata?”
“Chart is still good, flight recorder on.”
“Rini?”
“Sensors ready, as soon as there’s something to see.”
“Ilika?”
“The Manessa Kwi is ready for flight.”
“Mati,” the acting commander said, “you have flight command.”
Mati started the process slowly, nudging the ship back and forth, getting a feel for how the metal web around her reacted.
“I’m getting seasick!” Sata moaned.
“Sorry,” Mati said without looking at her friend. “I need to feel what the ship is doing.”
Ilika delivered a bowl to Sata just as Mati began swinging the ship.
“Pressure is easing up on the hull!” Rini announced happily.
Kibi began to breathe deeply.
“Boro,” Mati began, “I don’t want anti-mass, I want more mass. The way out is under this slimy thing.”
“Can do. It’s for underwater.”
“Give me a little so I can see what it feels like.”
Just then Sata gave up and lost her crackers.
NEBADOR Book Five: Back to the Stars 47
“Sorry, Sata,” the pilot said.
“It’s okay, as long as I get to see the stars again.”
The pilot concentrated for a few more seconds. “More mass, Boro.”
“You’ve got it.”
Ilika brought Sata a towel, holding onto things as he moved about the ship.
“Our cage is getting bigger!” Rini called out.
“I have an idea,” Mati said. A moment later the ship began spinning slowly while still wobbling. Suddenly all the dirt and rock covering the visual sensors fell away.
“Whoopee!” Rini cheered.
Ilika grinned from the steward’s station.
“Okay,” Mati began, “I think we’re getting somewhere. I want all maneuvering thrusters. Don’t hold anything back, Boro.”
“Okay, you’ve got the works.”
“Let’s see what happens if I take a swing at it right about . . . here.”
The Manessa Kwi dove for a point in the tangle of metal where most of the beams were just hanging loosely. The impact make the ship quiver as beams gave up and bent away, or fell to the ground. Several more still blocked the way.
Mati didn’t apply any more force, but began rocking and spinning the ship again, nudging at the remaining metal.
Without warning, Boro tucked his head between his knees and lost his last meal onto the floor. Rini was just a few moments behind.
“Sorry,” both muttered.
Mati didn’t let up her concentration. For another half minute, she tickled the few metal beams between the ship and freedom, then started the ship spinning. “Anti-mass one, Boro.”
“Ready,” he said, touching controls with one hand, holding a towel with the other.
As the Manessa Kwi began to float, Mati used all her maneuvering thrusters to slowly coax the spinning ship into the weakest point of the trap.
The metal fingers slid around them on both sides until nothing stood between the little ship and the freedom of the debris-littered streets.
Kibi, Sata, Rini, and Boro all began cheering. Ilika grinned happily.
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Mati paid absolutely no attention until she had the ship a hundred meters above the tallest metal ruins of the dead city.
Deep Learning Notes
A net, a Chinese finger trap, a tangled ball of string . . . none of these respond well to brute force because many of their parts are interconnected. A force that enlarges one part tends to shrink another part.
Why didn’t Ilika or Kibi let people go off duty when they got sick?