Read Investments for Free Online

explosion would vaporize a chunk of Laredo’s ring and bring the rest down on the planet below.
    It would be a good thing for Surveyor to stay well clear of Titan .
    Severin looked at the point of light on the display that represented Titan and wondered about the conversation he’d had with Martinez and his brother, the one where Allodorm’s name had first been raised. Titan was a Meridian Company ship leased long-term by the Exploration Service. The growing settlements on Chee required antimatter to generate power, and as yet had no accelerator ring. Cree Station, with its skyhook that ran cargo to the surface, required power as well.
    The wormhole stations at both Chee and Parkhurst, with their colossal mass drivers that kept the wormholes stable, required an enormous output of power.
    Since Chee could not as yet generate its own antimatter, it had been decided to ramp up antihydrogen production on Laredo’s ring, fill Titan with the results, and move the whole ship to a distant parking orbit around the newly-settled planet, on the far side of Chee’s largest moon so that even if the unthinkable happened and Titan blew, none of the energetic neutrons and furious gamma rays would reach Chee’s population. When one of Chee’s installations needed antihydrogen, they’d send a shuttle to Titan and collect some. By the time Titan had been depleted, an accelerator ring— a small one, not the vast technological wonder that circled all of Laredo— would have been built in Chee orbit.
    Severin wondered if it truly made economic sense to use Titan that way, or whether it was a complex scheme to fill Allodorm’s coffers.
    Surveyor finally reached the limit of Laredo’s safety zone, and Severin rotated the ship onto a new heading, his couch sliding lightly within the rings of his acceleration cage.
    “We are on our new heading, my lord,” Severin said. “Two-two-zero by zero-zero-one absolute. Mission plan is in the guidance computer.”
    “I am in command,” Lord Go called.
    “The lord captain is in command,” Severin agreed. He took his hands off the joysticks.
    “Engines, fire engines,” the captain said. “Accelerate at two point three gravities.”
    Severin felt a kick to his spine and his acceleration couch swung within its cage as the gravities began piling on his chest..
    “Accelerating at two point three gravities,” Bhagwati said. “Course two-two-zero by zero-zero-one absolute.”
    They would accelerate hard until they’d achieved escape velocity from Laredo, then slacken for most of the journey to a single gravity, going to harder accelerations for an hour out of each watch.
    Severin looked at the displays and saw Kayenta again, outbound and approaching the wormhole that would take it to Chee. It was a pity that Surveyor wouldn’t travel to Chee, but merely pass through the system on its way to Parkhurst and the possible new wormholes. A pity not only because Severin wouldn’t see Martinez and Terza again, but because he’d probably never find out how the Allodorm thing worked out.
    He’d just have to find something else to amuse him for the next few months, and he thought he knew what it was.
    He’d been unable to entirely forget the dream he’d had at Rio Hondo, and he’d loaded his personal data foil with articles on puppets, puppeteers, marionettes, automata, shadow puppets, and recordings of performances.
    People on long voyages found many ways to occupy their hours. Some gambled, some drank, some drew into themselves. Some concentrated obsessively on their work. Some watched recorded entertainments, some had affairs with other crew members, some played musical instruments. Some worked as hard as they could at making everyone else on the ship miserable.
    Perhaps, Severin thought, he would be the first to plan a puppet theater.
    Certainly it was a field that seemed to have a lot of room to expand.
    *
    “Are you all on virtual?” asked the astronomer Shon-dan. “I’m transmitting the