Into the Sea of Stars by William R. Forstchen Read Free Book Online

cried.
     
    The disk of the Moon soon matched the Earth's in size, as Stasz called them to the forward cabin where they strapped themselves back into their cushioned couches.
    "I've reviewed it with you once, but for one last time, here we go. We've cleared the major shipping lanes of near-Earth environment, and our nav system has come up clean, but to be on the safe side I've positioned our initial path five degrees of arc off the asteroid belt and will compensate once we've cleared that region. Remember, the translight jump will cause a momentary blackout and all of you will experience some degree of nausea, so have those damn bags ready. After the initial jump the ship's gravity inertia system will kick on, so remember that there will be one G aligned toward the long axis of the ship.
    "Are you ready?"
    They all nodded bleakly. Ian shot one final look at the small blue-green disk just barely visible on the video dis play. This great adventure was already starting to pale. Just what the hell was he doing there?
    "Oh, by the way," Stasz shouted out with a laugh, "in one out of every ninety-seven point four jumps, the ship breaks up. We've never figured out why. Just thought you might like to know."
    Ian looked at Ellen. She was tight-lipped but managed a cold grimace of a smile. He wasn't sure if it was a smile of genuine fear or one of resentment at the crazy scheme that had dragged her into space. Shelley, however, had a look of joyous anticipation. Richard was strangely quiet, and Ian suddenly realized that the doctor had narced him self out with a tranq shot.
    "Here we go," Stasz shouted. "Crazy Stasz plays with light speed—and don't say I didn't warn you!" He pulled the lever that punched them into star drive.
    lan's vision blurred. He tried to focus on the disk of the Earth, but it was already lost to view. The sun shot into range of the camera focused astern, its once-yellow disk shifting through the lower end of the visual spectrum to infrared. The darkness of space around it distorted in a hazy shimmer. He could hear Stasz's high-pitched laugh ter and, as if triggered by it, experienced a swirling black ness of nightmarish dreams.

Chapter 4
    The shipboard routine was soon established. Ellen avoided Ian and Richard and to their surprise soon fas tened her attention onto Stasz , even though he was, in her own words, "merely a ship's driver, and not a very well-educated driver at that."
    They were grateful for the respite. The vessel was small enough, as it was, but hidden in an aft storage compartment Ian soon found a quiet retreat where he could be alone with his thoughts. And it was there, several weeks after Discovery's departure, that Richard came to him, bottle in hand.
    "Ah, my good friend and fellow wizard," Richard in toned softly, holding up the precious bottle of gin for lan's examination. "Come, my morose and melancholy col league, life could be worse. You could be back at that damnable college with that thrice-damned Chancellor breathing down your neck. So come drain this precious liquid with me and rejoice that fortune has thus smiled upon us."
    Ian smiled wanly and pushed aside a couple of crates to widen his little nook so Richard could crawl in.
    Richard squirmed into the cubbyhole, uncorked the bottle, and offered it to him straight.
    Ian screwed up his face and, with a quick tilt of the head, gulped down the scalding liquid. His eyes streamed rivers of tears; he coughed convulsively and struggled for breath, but soon the warming glow spread through his body.
    Richard looked around the retreat and shook his head. He knew Ian to be a fairly typical intellectual neurotic, but the man was head of the project and their lives could depend on this neurotic's decisions. "Must say that you've got a nice little fortress here." He took the bottle from Ian, drained off a mouthful, and smacked his lips. "You certainly picked a nice place to hide out."
    Ian gave Richard a twisted smile, already knowing what he