The Gap into Vision: Forbidden Knowledge 30 - Chapter 21

[Cord Hurn]

A lot happens in this chapter, so I believe I'll break the synopsis into multiple posts.

Morn has decided to turn off all her zone implant functions, to try to recall whatever cunning plan she's sure she's got hidden deep inside her mind. But the corresponding loss of physical and mental strength renders Morn unable to understand why data first Sib Mackern has just stepped into her cabin.

Sib tells Morn she can get out of her cabin and she hasn't much time, but it takes her many breaths before she can collect her wits enough to ask him a crucial question on his motives.

Deliberately she brought his name back from the place where she'd mislaid it. "Sib Mackern. What're you doing here?" Pieces fit as she articulated them. "He'll kill you for this."

"I just can't stand it," he replied as if he suddenly understood her, knew what she needed, as if his fear enabled him to follow her struggle out of despair. She needed words she could recognize, words that might restore her connection to sanity.

"When he sold your son the first time," he explained, "back on Enablement--I was ready to mutiny then. If I hadn't been alone. If I weren't such a coward." Him image of himself had no room for courage. "Since I joined him, we've done things that make me sick. They gave me nightmares and made me wake up screaming. But nothing like that. Nothing like selling a human being to the Amnion.

"I've seen them, Morn," he insisted as if he were the only witness. "Those mutagens are evil. What they do is--" His whole body shivered with revulsion. No language sufficed for his abhorrence. "You were right. Any one of us could be next.

"I thought then that I couldn't stand it. I had to do something about it, even if I was alone, and he killed me for it.

"But you saved me. You saved my life, Morn." He was telling her the truth about himself: she could see that. The sweat on his face and the hunted fright in his eyes made his honesty unmistakable. "You rescued Davies yourself. "After that I was ready to do anything for you, anything at all, all you had to do was ask. But I didn't get a chance. He let you out. He acted--you both acted like you'd planned it together, like it was all just an elaborate trick, a ruse, to get away from Enablement. You confused me so badly, I didn't know whether to be grateful or appalled."

Grimly he kept his voice at a whisper. "I wanted to be grateful You gave me a reason to keep working for him. You made me think he had limits, there were some crimes he wouldn't commit. But I was afraid that this was the real trick, that acting like you planned it together was the real ruse. That he didn't have limits. And if he didn't, you must be paying a terrible price to protect yourself and Davies.

"When we came in range of that warship, I learned the truth.

"I can't stand it. That's all. I just can't stand it.

"I want to help you," he finished. "This is the only thing I can do."

It was working: as he spoke, he created links for her, spans across the vast space of her loss. More knowledge came up from the depths, new pieces of understanding. Nevertheless his presence in her cabin still refused to make sense.

"Why?" she asked again. "What good will it do me when he kills you?"

"Morn." Dismay twisted his face. "Have you forgotten? Did he hurt you so badly that you can't remember?

"He's going to give them your son. He's going to launch Davies to them in an ejection pod in"--his eyes jerked to the chronometer and back again--"twenty-one minutes."

That was it: the keystone; the piece she needed. When it slotted into place, she was restored.

For the first time her eyes came fully into focus on her rescuer.

It was a stunning pleasure for me to realize Sib intends to be an ally to Morn; as a first-time reader I never saw that coming! Sib tells her where Davies has been sent and informs her Nick hasn't yet changed his priority codes. Morn turns her zone implant control back on and increases her physical strength and reflexes. She thanks Sib and promises to protect him if possible. He wishes her good luck and says not to worry about him. Morn leaves her cabin and runs down the corridor.

[This chapter synopsis continues through the next three posts.]

[Cord Hurn]

Morn takes a service lift up to the level of the ship's core, where she can access engineering and the auxiliary bridge. But as the lift opens onto the engineering level, Morn finds herself facing Mikka Vasaczk. Mikka has disabled Morn before, when Morn was struck by gap-sickness, and might do so now, wrecking Morn's hope of keeping Davies from the Amnion.

Coiled with the quickness of her zone implant, she sprang at Mikka just as Mikka backed away and raised her hands, palms outward to show she was unarmed.

Morn stopped herself in mid-stride.

Stay calm. You've got enough time.

Still holding up her hands, Mikka retreated to the wall. A scowl clamped her features, ungiving and austere.

"This is strange," she articulated harshly. "I could have sworn he said you were helpless. Things have gotten pretty bad when the captain of a ship like this can't be trusted to turn on a radioelectrode."

"Don't interfere," Morn breathed through her teeth. "I'm not your enemy."

A sneer lifted Mikka's lip. The bleakness of her face was complete. In the same tone, she said, "Did you know that Pup is my brother? When our parents died, he didn't have anywhere else to go. In any case, they were too poor to leave him any good choices. I got him this job so I could keep an eye on him.

"He can't be more than a couple of years older than Davies.

"You told me the truth once when I needed it. You took the chance that I might betray you. It's too bad I didn't see you down here. If I did, I could have tried to hit you again."

Fourteen minutes.

Morn had no time to feel gratitude. Her heart labored too hard in her chest. The settings on her black box must have been too high: she could hardly get enough air to support them.

She turned and ran for the auxiliary bridge.

It looks like Morn has an ally in Mikka as well as Sib, and perhaps an ally in Pup, as well. You told me the truth once when I needed it. I think here, Mikka is referring to the time that Morn admitted to having a zone implant.

She heads for the room in the engineering section where she will find the primary circuits for the ejection pods. When she gets there, she sees Vector Shaheed watching a control board with his back to her. Morn doesn't wish to hurt Vector, but knows she must get to the pod controls that he guards. She slips away to go to auxiliary control and reactivates bridge control over her cabin door to cover Sib's tracks. then she goes back to the room with the pod control board, finding Vector still focused on making sure her son's pod is safe for travel.

Morn closes the door behind her, making enough noise to cause Vector to turn toward her.

[Cord Hurn]

Morn insists that Vector move away from the primary pod control board. Smiling, Vector states he has to stay there by Nick's orders to make sure nothing goes wrong with the pod's movements. Morn warns Vector she's come too far to stop now. Vector counters that Nick will kill him if he gets out of her way. He admits he doesn't belong with other illegals, even if he does feel empowered to associate with them because of his outraged idealism.

"Vector, stop this! I haven't got time for it!" Her hands felt like they must surely give off sparks when she flexed them. She should have been gasping for air, but the ferocity of her need held her steady. "'Outraged idealism' is a shitty excuse for giving human beings to the Amnion. You know that. But you don't want to face the logic of your own decision, so you're trying to avoid it by despising yourself. You're trying to prove you deserve what the UMCP did to you. Who's going to question withholding an immunity drug from an illegal like you? Who's going to respect Orn Vorbuld's friends? But it's not that simple. Don't you see where that kind of reasoning leads?

"It leads to genocide, Vector. The destruction of the entire human species.

"Look at me. You think I'm here to save my son--and you're right. But I would do the same thing if you were in that pod. I would do the same thing for Nick." That was the truth, regardless of her loathing for him. "I've got more reason to hate the UMCP than you do. I've got more reason to be afraid of Nick. But I will see every one of us dead before I allow this kind of absolute treason."

Seven minutes.

She took two steps forward, surging like a burst of flame.

"Get out of my WAY!"

Slowly he unfolded his arms. His gaze had gone inward: his face revealed nothing except its unhealthy flush. "You're still a cop," he murmured. "No matter what you've done. At bottom, you're still a cop. One of the few. You say you would take the same risk if I were in the pod. I suppose I believe you. That's worth something.

"You're right, of course. I made the decisions that got me into this mess, and now I don't want to face the consequences. Those of us who truly and profoundly hate the cops really ought to do better than that."

Shifting himself aside, he gestured Morn toward the ejection pod board.

I don't like what Vector does next: strike Morn. I dislike this because of all the abuse she's already gone through, because Morn for her part wasn't willing to hurt him, and because it's unmanly for a man to hit a woman. Vector explains he "had to make sure " Morn "didn't force" him "to do this." Strange explanation for hitting her! He tells her she has five minutes 48 seconds left, and leaves. Morn's zone implant emissions enable her to combat the pain and weakness and clear her head as she flips onto her hands and knees. Standing up, she's now reading the board's information, figuring out how she can stop the Amnion from taking Davies.

The board told her which pod had ben activated. It gave her a launch countdown, life-support status, departure trajectory, braking parameters. A plot from scan showed her Captain's Fancy and Tranquil Hegemony; showed her the pod's programmed course between them. The pod would decelerate straight into one of the warship's holds.

The scan plot was automatic. She wasn't on the auxiliary bridge: she didn't have access to scan itself, or to helm. She would have to rely on guesswork. But since the plot was automatic, it also showed Thanatos Minor looming in the background. And it gave her Captain's Fancy's velocity and heading--which in turn enabled her to estimate the distance and course to that lonely rock. She ought to be able to guess well enough.

The problem was time. Reprogramming the pod was complex. She had only four and a half minutes left, and she hadn't started yet. No time to paralyze Nick's command board. In any case, that could only be done from the auxiliary bridge. So anything she did might be countermanded--if Nick caught her at it.

To distract Nick, Morn overrides bridge drive control and starts the shutdown sequence. Nick shouts over the intercom, demanding an explanation from Vector. Morn silences the intercom and taps in Nick's priority codes. In hopes that she's prolonging her son's life as a human for awhile, she erases the pod's programming and writes in new instruction to alter the pod's trajectory away from Tranquil Hegemony and toward Thanatos Minor. She has the pod instructed to full burn away from the Amnion warship just as it's expected to slow down for docking. She further programs a deceleration to occur afterwards, so that Davies can slowly and safely dock at Billingate on Thanatos Minor.

Fifteen seconds before launch, she finished her programming and copied it to the pod.

That was the best she could do. She didn't expect to live long enough to find out whether it was good enough.

But just in case--

By the time the ejection pod nosed out of its bay and passed beyond recall, she'd already unlocked the door and left the engineering control room.

Nick, on the bridge, watches the pod launch with worries that something will go wrong. Vector enters the bridge, and in a threatening voice Nick tells him he was ordered to watch the engineering console room. Vector explains that he waited in that room until he was sure nothing would go wrong, then went to the sickbay to get pain medication. Vector claims to Nick that he locked up the console room and left five minutes before pod launch.

Nick watches the pod on the screen and swears when he sees it veer off from Tranquil Hegemony and speed up towards Thanatos Minor.

[Cord Hurn]

Nick quickly hears that Tranquil Hegemony wants to talk to him. He sends a message telling those Amnion that his ship has been sabotaged so that thrust and maneuvering have been lost. He tells the Amnion ship that Morn Hyland did the sabotage, and that he will comply with any new requirements Tranquil Hegemony may demand. He insists he won't restart thrust without permission.

Nick threatens Vector, reassures his bridge crew the Amnion won't fire on them, and orders Mikka and Liete to find Morn and take her alive. Nick then demands to know of Vector what Morn offered him. Vector insists there's nothing Morn could offer him to betray Nick. Nick turns away from Vector, swearing in disbelief.

Tranquil Hegemony lists its demands to Nick: he will dock Captain's Fancy at Billingate, he will deliver Morn to them, and he will retrieve and deliver Davies to them. Nick responds that those demands are acceptable. Nick also has a transmission tight-beamed to the United Mining Companies Police Headquarters (UMCPHQ): "I rescued her for you, goddamn it. Now get me out of this. If you don't, I can't keep her away from the Amnion."

Morn goes to Nick's cabin, and searches for and takes Nick's supply of mutagen immunity pills. She manages to avoid recapture until later, when she tries to hide in one of the ejection pods.

Bitter and inarticulate, Mikka clamped Morn into an armcuff as Liete called the bridge to report.

"Take her to sickbay," Nick snapped like a spatter of acid. "Put her to sleep. I won't have time to deal with her until after we dock. And get that goddamn zone implant control away from her!"

Morn shrugged as if she'd learned how to die. Expressionless and doomed, she put up no resistance as Mikka and Liete manhandled her to sickbay, stretched her out on the table, and filled her veins with cat.

So we leave Morn in this book with her once again achieving a victory (perhaps temporary) over Nick, but once again back in his power.

[Conclusion of chapter synopsis.]

[Cord Hurn]

There's a few things I wish to note from the passage where Nick realizes that Morn has blocked him from delivering Davies to the Amnion.

Nick didn't answer. His premonition had moved from his crotch to his face. It felt like acid under his eyes.

He swung back to look at the screens.

The pod was close enough to Tranquil Hegemony to begin deceleration.

It should begin right now.

Scan reported thrust.

Too much thrust.

The pod veered off its programmed heading and started to pick up speed. At full burn, it moved past the warship. In moments it was effectively beyond reach.

Crying out from the core of his doubt and need, Nick howled, "MORN! You fucking BITCH!"

"Nick," [communications officer] Lind said in a strangled voice, "Tranquil Hegemony wants to talk to you. I think they're shouting,"

Instantly Nick swallowed his dismay. He would have time for it later. He would make Morn pay for it later. Right now he had about ten seconds in which to save himself and his ship.

His premonition had moved from his crotch to his face.
Nick has made too many of his decisions based upon whether it feels good or bad, based them upon his hedonistic tendencies. Sooner or later, this was going to mess things up for him. It just took clashing with Morn to derail his plans and his control.

Crying out from the core of his doubt and need This melodic-sounding clause affects me by increasing my interest in what's happening, as it seems to invite me to vicariously experience what the character is going through, if only for a moment.

Right now he had about ten seconds in which to save himself and his ship. The suspense is further increased for me as a reader by this reminder that Nick must quickly account to the Amnion for what happened, or be destroyed.


All in all, I find this to be a very enjoyable chapter, probably my favorite in this book.