Starliner(30)

"Three minutes, sir," murmured the Third Officer from his console. The seventeen officers and ratings on the Empress's bridge were all seated, with the exception of Kanawa himself. It was the captain's choice to remain standing while his ship entered or left a gravity well, despite company regulations to the contrary.

"Very good, Mr. Rigney," Kanawa said. "Stay alert, ladies and gentlemen. Remember Captain Stoltzer."

The Empress of Earth's own magnetic motors had been a low-frequency rumble for several minutes. Now they were joined in pairs by those of the tugs—the quick shock of lighting, a rising pulse as Bridge ran them up to test their response to its control, and then back to idle as another pair came on line. Bright blue light glimmered through the holographic panels, mimicking what was reflected from the frozen soil.

All eight tugs were ready. The Empress quivered like a horse at the starting post. Kanawa glanced down at his terminal. Actual outputs were all within one percent of those calculated. He noted with approval that Seligly was checking also.

"Are you familiar with Captain Stoltzer, Ms. Seligly?" Kanawa asked.

His First Officer looked up at him from her console. "No sir, I'm not," she admitted.

"Then you should have asked," Kanawa chided. "Never be afraid to ask for clarification. It might mean all our lives some day."

"Two minutes, sir," the Third Officer said, speaking into his console so as not to seem to be interrupting his captain.

"Thank you, Mr. Rigney," Kanawa said. The rhythm of the motors was building. There was an occasional jolt and flash as an output antenna cleared its throat of debris.

"It happened seventy years ago, Ms. Seligly," Kanawa resumed. "The captain under whom I trained, Captain Kawanishi, was on the bridge of the Ensign with Stoltzer when it happened. She told the story at every docking or undocking, and I've tried to keep it current in my time."

"I've heard of the Ensign, sir," Seligly said apologetically.

"Yes, of course," Kanawa agreed. "A record holder in her day, though The City of New York had just bettered her time on the Earth-Harkona run. That was the prime route of the day."

Seligly nodded. The deck had a queasy feel, and the tugs could be seen to bob as their thrust edged toward perfect dynamic balance with the Empress's mass.

"One minute, sir."

Kanawa cleared his throat. "Yes, thank you, Mr. Rigney," he said. He glanced at the levels on his display, then the lambent fury of the tug motors in holographic image.

"The Ensign was in Earth orbit, maneuvering to attach her tugs," the captain continued, "when Captain Stoltzer disengaged the autopilot and engaged the backup system. The Ensign began to drop out of orbit on her own. The First Officer just gaped. Captain Kawanishi—Third Officer she was then, of course—tried to take manual control, but Stoltzer grabbed her."

Kanawa chuckled. "That was back in the days when some people didn't think women were tough enough to be Ship Side officers. Kawanishi had her captain's ear in her mouth before they hit the deck together, but that wouldn't have helped a lot if the Second Officer hadn't switched the main autopilot back in and brought the Ensign to orbit again."

"Had he gone out of mind?" Seligly said in amazement.

"Exactly!" Kanawa said, beaming. "He was mad as a hatter. He'd programmed the backup system to drop the Ensign squarely onto New York City with no more braking thrust than it took to drop them out of orbit."

"That would have killed a hundred thousand people!" Seligly said.

"That would have killed tens of millions of people," Kanawa corrected. "The Ensign massed some forty kilotonnes—only a fraction of our size, but still enough to turn the whole metropolitan area into a crater if it hit at orbital velocity. It turned out—"

Kanawa paused to smile brightly at the horror on the First Officer's face.

"—that Captain Stoltzer was so disturbed at The City of New York bettering his Ensign's time by six hours that he'd determined to wipe them off the face of the Earth. Not the ship but the city itself."

Seligly shook her head.

"Lift-off," said Rigney. Bridge raised the tugs' motors to full thrust over a ten-second span, while the Empress's own motors built up power at a cautiously greater rate. The huge vessel vibrated but did not seem to move.

"So watch me, ladies and gentlemen!" Captain Kanawa shouted over the bone-deep throb of the magnetic motors. "Because anyone on the bridge, myself included, may be every bit as crazy as Captain Stoltzer!"

With a roar like rising thunder, the Empress of Earth mounted toward the stars.