in those long nights when my gut was hurting and things didn’t seem to be going right, to sneak a little prayer to Our Father Who Wert in the Core. It couldn’t hurt anything, could it?
Well, yes, it could. It could hurt my self-respect. And for all of us human beings, in this tantalizing, abundant Galaxy the Heechee had given us-but only a dab at a time-self-respect was getting harder and harder to keep.
Of course, I had not then actually met a real, live Heechee.
I had not yet met any, but one who was going to be a big part of my later life (I won’t quibble over the terminology anymore!), namely Captain, was halfway to the breakout point where normal space began and meanwhile, on the £ Ya., Audee Walthers was getting his ass royally reamed and beginning to think that he should not plan for much of a future working on that ship; and meanwhile- Well, as always, there were a lot of meanwhiles, but the one that would have interested Audee the most was that meanwhile, his errant wife was beginning to wish she hadn’t erred.
6 Out Where the Black Holes Spin
Eloping with a lunatic was not, on balance, very much better than being bored out of her mind in Port Hegramet. It was different, oh, heavens, yes, it was different! But parts of it were equally boring, and parts of it simply scared her to death. Since the ship was a Five there was room for the two of them-or should have been. Since Wan was young, and rich, and almost, in a way, handsome-if you looked at him the right way- the trip should have been lively enough. Neither of those was true.
And besides, there were the scary parts.
If there was one thing every human being knew about space, it was that black holes were meant to be stayed away from. Not by Wan. He sought them out. And then he did worse than that.
What the gidgets and gadgets were that Wan played with Dolly did not know. When she asked, he wouldn’t answer. When, wheedling, she put one of her puppets on her hand and asked through its mouth, he scowled and frowned and said, “If you are going to do your act do something funny and dirty, not ask questions that are none of your business.” When she tried to find out why they were none of her business, she was more successful. She didn’t get a straight answer. But from the bluster and confusion with which Wan responded it was easy to figure out they were stolen.
And they had something to do with black holes. And, although Dolly was almost positive that she had heard, once, that there was no way in or out of a black hole, she was also almost positive that what Wan was trying to do was to find some certain black hole and then to go into it. That was the scary part.
And when she wasn’t scared half out of her young mind, she was bone-crackingly lonesome, for Captain Juan Henriquette Santos-Schmitz, the dashing and eccentric young multimillionaire whose exploits still titillated the readers of gossip services, was rotten company. After three weeks in his presence, Dolly could hardly stand the sight of him.
Although she admitted to herself, trembling, that the sight of him was a lot less worrisome than the sight she was actually looking at.
What Dolly was looking at was a black hole. Or not really at the hole itself, for you could look at that all day and not see anything; black holes were black because they could not be seen at all. She was actually seeing a spiraling aurora of bluish, violetish light, unpleasant for the eyes even through the viewing plate over the control panel. It would have been far more unpleasant to be exposed to. That light was only the iceberg tip of a flood of lethal radiation. Their ship was armored against such things, and so far the armor had easily held. But Wan was not within the armor. He was down in the lander, where he had tools and technologies that she did not understand, and that he refused to explain. And she knew that at some time, in some such situation, she would be sitting in the main ship and would feel
Well, yes, it could. It could hurt my self-respect. And for all of us human beings, in this tantalizing, abundant Galaxy the Heechee had given us-but only a dab at a time-self-respect was getting harder and harder to keep.
Of course, I had not then actually met a real, live Heechee.
I had not yet met any, but one who was going to be a big part of my later life (I won’t quibble over the terminology anymore!), namely Captain, was halfway to the breakout point where normal space began and meanwhile, on the £ Ya., Audee Walthers was getting his ass royally reamed and beginning to think that he should not plan for much of a future working on that ship; and meanwhile- Well, as always, there were a lot of meanwhiles, but the one that would have interested Audee the most was that meanwhile, his errant wife was beginning to wish she hadn’t erred.
6 Out Where the Black Holes Spin
Eloping with a lunatic was not, on balance, very much better than being bored out of her mind in Port Hegramet. It was different, oh, heavens, yes, it was different! But parts of it were equally boring, and parts of it simply scared her to death. Since the ship was a Five there was room for the two of them-or should have been. Since Wan was young, and rich, and almost, in a way, handsome-if you looked at him the right way- the trip should have been lively enough. Neither of those was true.
And besides, there were the scary parts.
If there was one thing every human being knew about space, it was that black holes were meant to be stayed away from. Not by Wan. He sought them out. And then he did worse than that.
What the gidgets and gadgets were that Wan played with Dolly did not know. When she asked, he wouldn’t answer. When, wheedling, she put one of her puppets on her hand and asked through its mouth, he scowled and frowned and said, “If you are going to do your act do something funny and dirty, not ask questions that are none of your business.” When she tried to find out why they were none of her business, she was more successful. She didn’t get a straight answer. But from the bluster and confusion with which Wan responded it was easy to figure out they were stolen.
And they had something to do with black holes. And, although Dolly was almost positive that she had heard, once, that there was no way in or out of a black hole, she was also almost positive that what Wan was trying to do was to find some certain black hole and then to go into it. That was the scary part.
And when she wasn’t scared half out of her young mind, she was bone-crackingly lonesome, for Captain Juan Henriquette Santos-Schmitz, the dashing and eccentric young multimillionaire whose exploits still titillated the readers of gossip services, was rotten company. After three weeks in his presence, Dolly could hardly stand the sight of him.
Although she admitted to herself, trembling, that the sight of him was a lot less worrisome than the sight she was actually looking at.
What Dolly was looking at was a black hole. Or not really at the hole itself, for you could look at that all day and not see anything; black holes were black because they could not be seen at all. She was actually seeing a spiraling aurora of bluish, violetish light, unpleasant for the eyes even through the viewing plate over the control panel. It would have been far more unpleasant to be exposed to. That light was only the iceberg tip of a flood of lethal radiation. Their ship was armored against such things, and so far the armor had easily held. But Wan was not within the armor. He was down in the lander, where he had tools and technologies that she did not understand, and that he refused to explain. And she knew that at some time, in some such situation, she would be sitting in the main ship and would feel
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