Starbridge by A. C. Crispin Read Free Book Online Page A

you getting it all?"
    "You bet your ass, Doc," Jerry said fervently. "And this one has already lasted for more than a minute! If I can get enough so I can put the computer to work analyzing both transmissions for similar sounds and patterns . . .
    don't stop on me, signal . . . keep coming ..."
    Suddenly Rob remembered Mahree. She ought to be here. If it weren't for her, Raoul would have given up the search . . .
    He keyed the intercom, drumming his fingers nervously as he glanced around the bridge at the viewscreens, fore, aft, port, and starboard. Which one? he wondered, eyeing the stars. Some were larger and brighter, others just faint pinpoints against the nightsatin of the void. Looking back along the Sagittarius Arm toward the center of the galaxy, they resembled a thick swath of multicolored fireflies. Which one are you coming from? Who are we listening to?
    "Yes?" said a sleep-grainy voice.
    "Get up here, Mahree. Jerry's got another transmission!"
    An excited whoop was his only reply. Rob grinned as he closed the circuit, then reactivated it. "Yoki?"
    "Huh? Rob? What's going on?"
    "I'm up in the control cabin. Jerry's picked up the signal again. Get your rear up here."
    "Great! Be right there."
    Smiling, he walked back to the communications console, and saw that the signal was still marching across the holotank. "What are you doing now?" he asked Greendeer.
    The communications specialist shook his head, absorbed. "He's trying to triangulate from our three recorded positions," Raoul told the doctor. "Like drawing invisible lines across space. Where they intersect is our goal."
    "Theoretically, anyhow," muttered Jerry. "But gravity can 33
    bend waves in space. So if we've got a star between us and their system ..."
    The sound of hurried feet made Rob turn, to find Mahree behind him. "We did it!" he said, scooping her into a quick, hard embrace. "Jerry is trying to trace them!"
    Her eyes shone and her cheeks were flushed when he set her back on her feet. "Oh, Rob . . . that's great!"
    This transmission lasted nearly twenty minutes, and by the time it was over, everyone in the crew had had a chance to see it. Even Joan had to admit that it must be artificial in nature-- though she insisted that it must be some kind of robot beacon. "Guess you were't seeing things, Mahree," the older woman said awkwardly. "Sorry I gave you such a hard time."
    "Hey, I was beginning to wonder myself!" Mahree smiled, touching her aunt's arm reassuringly. "But the question is, what do we do now?"
    "We let the computer analyze and compare those little peaks and valleys,"
    Jerry said. "And see whether it can cross-vector from our three positions--"
    He broke off as a string of coordinates began marching across the screen.
    "It's got it! The system!"
    "Where?" everyone demanded.
    Jerry was speaking commands and didn't respond. As they watched, a three-dimensional view of their area of space appeared, with Desiree's location indicated by a flashing red dot. One nearby system was highlighted on the screen.
    "That's it! About five parsecs away"--Jerry's words were clipped and precise, but there was no disguising his excitement --"and, Captain, it's practically on our course! We'll hardly have to deviate at all."
    Everyone turned to Raoul, who stood staring at the starmap with a bemused expression. "I'll be damned. I never thought we'd actually find it."
    "Well, I don't know which planet it is," Jerry said, trying to look modest. "But we ought to be able to discover that when we get there."
    "Raoul," Paul Monteleon said urgently, "everyone's assuming we're going.
    Are we?"
    "How will a stop there leave our fuel reserves?" the Captain countered.
    The lanky engineer's soft voice was flat. "I'll have to check it 34
    on the computer, of course, but my guess is, we'd be okay. It isn't far off-course, Jerry's right about that."
    "We've come this far," Raoul said, "it seems stupid to turn back now."
    Rob looked over at Mahree and Yoki and gave them a