Joan D Vinge - Lost in Space Read online

  "Okay," his father said, "let's get settled. Maureen?"

  Mom stood up and put her data on the big screen.

  It was a geological map of the planet's surface that she'd had the computer put together for them. But he'd never seen one like this before. It was totally bizarro… like a jigsaw puzzle put together by a gorilla.

  "It's impossible," Mom said, pointing at the screen as she spoke his thoughts out loud, "but this planet's continental plates don't match up."

  "I was afraid of this," Dad muttered. Everyone turned to stare at him. He glanced up at them, then looked down at the floor, gesturing. "I think these tremors are the result of opening and closing doorways."

  "Doorways to where?" Penny asked. Her alien, Blawp, sat in her lap, peering over the table's edge. It was cute, but Will was glad he had the Robot.

  "The future," Dad said.

  Major West made a noise like a cat's sneeze. "Perhaps the Professor was hit on the head when we landed," he said sarcastically.

  What a dork. Will frowned at him. So did Judy.

  Dad looked at Don the way he always looked at Will when he was trying to be patient. "Think about it," he said, looking at Don again before he went on speaking to them all. "The portal that led us to the probe ship. The advanced technology they used to track us through hyperspace. Don's friend, looking so old…" His glance flickered back to West. "What if we crossed into a time years after Earth sent a rescue mission?"

  "You're not serious?" Don said. But he didn't sound so sure this time. "Time travel is impossible — "

  "No it's not!" Will interrupted impatiently. "It's just improbable. Like hyperdrive was a hundred years ago. Nothing's really impossible." He shrugged.

  His father nodded, not even glancing at him. "This world could be riddled with doorways to the future."

  "So if we walk into that forest outside," Will pointed toward the viewport, "we're really just walking into this crater, years from now."

  "Geological plates from different times wouldn't fit together," Mom said, smiling her approval at him. "That would explain the continental mismatch. But, doorways in time… ?" She looked back at Dad.

  Dad shrugged. "It's hard for me to believe, too," he said to her. "But if these portals are opening and closing, part of some cascading natural phenomenon, they could be tearing this planet apart."

  Will felt the wild lightning of inspiration strike his brain. "What if the doorways aren't natural — ?"

  "Will," Dad glanced at him as if he was being a dork, "this kind of phenomenon could only be produced naturally."

  "No—" Will insisted, feeling his frustration rise with his excitement. "These portals are exactly what I predicted my time machine would do! What if someone on this world has built a device — "

  Dad silenced him with a look. "Son, I appreciate your input, but now isn't the time for flights of fancy."

  Will started up out of his seat. "You never listen to me!" he shouted at his father. "Not ever." He ran out of the room.

  John didn't move from the head of the table as Will stormed out of the dayroom. Maureen watched her husband struggling to make the right choice, torn between love and duty. Duty won, again. But in his eyes she saw the pain of defeat, and it made her heart ache.

  "There's no telling how long before this planet breaks up entirely." John stood up, addressing the others as if there had been no interruption. "The Major and I are going to locate the radioactive material for the core. We may have very little time." He nodded at West, a signal that they should get going, and headed for the door.

  Will looked up from tinkering with his deck as his father entered the robot bay.

  "I'm leaving now, Will," Dad said.

  "That's a surprise," Will said sullenly. Dad was already all suited up for the mission, like he couldn't wait to be gone.

  His father came on across the room, and stood looking down at him. "Will, you're the most important thing in the world to me," Dad said softly. "I hope one day you'll be able to see that."

  Will looked away, biting his lip, as tears suddenly welled up inside him. "What if one time you don't come home… ?" he said at last, his voice squeaking.

  Dad gazed down at him as if he didn't know how to answer, and Will saw his own fear reflected in his father's eyes. Finally his father reached up, and took off the dog tags he always wore. "Whenever your grandfather went away on a mission," he said, "he'd leave these with me. For safekeeping. And when he got home, I'd always be waiting to give them back."

  Dad hung the chain carefully around Will's neck; the dog tags clinked against his chest. "I'm coming back, Will," Dad said, his voice straining. "I promise."

  Will looked up at him, wide-eyed, silent. His father ruffled his hair gently, then turned and left the room. Will looked down again, fingering the tags. He knew the story of how his grandfather had left them with Dad, always promising him the same thing… He knew about the last time, when Grandpa didn't come back.

  Don started, as if he'd been lost in thought, when Judy joined him outside the ship's main hatch. He was dressed in thermal expedition gear, and a pulse rifle rested against the icicle-hung landing strut beside him. She supposed he must have been expecting her father.

  His face came alive as he saw her; but then his smile faltered. "Listen," he mumbled, looking down at the ground, "about last night…"

  Come on, flyboy— She smiled, but he didn't see it. "Go ahead," she said encouragingly, "you can do it."

  Don lifted his head, looking embarrassed and hopeful and pained all at once. "I'm sorry… ?"

  Yes! she thought. Yes, yes, yes! "See. That wasn't so difficult."

  Don grimaced. "Like pulling steel needles through my cheeks," he said, with a reluctant smile.

  She nodded wryly. "Then you'll understand what saying this feels like." Moving closer, she looked up into his eyes. "Try to come back in one piece…" She folded her hands shut over the urge to reach out and touch him.

  He beamed, and edged a little closer. "I'm thinking this is your basic kiss-for-luck occasion… wouldn't you agree, Doc?"

  She looked at him. "Thinking." She tapped her forehead. "Not really your strong suit…" She smiled then, in all seriousness, and said, "Kisses have to be earned." Like respect.

  He looked at her. Went on looking at her, this time, in a completely new way… letting her into his eyes, welcoming her into his thoughts. He nodded once, his own mouth turning up in a quirky smile.

  Her father emerged from the ship, and then the rest of the family… all except Will, she noticed. Don slung his rifle at his back, barely taking his eyes off her as he did, smiling all the while.

  Her mother handed her father a small tracking device. "I've got a fix on the radioactive material. It's through the portal."

  Dad nodded. "We'll just have to hope the doorways remain stable." He glanced toward the portal shimmering like blown silk a short walk away across the stony, snow-dappled ground. The golden summer day beyond it seemed to be beckoning them to step through the looking glass…

  Judy looked back at her father, at Don, trying to keep the anxiety she felt off of her face. It made sense that they should go; they were the ones with military training. But—

  "These crater walls are disabling the comm links." Mom nodded at the icy, rust-red cliff face, as calmly as if she was telling Dad to call if he'd be late for dinner. "You won't be able to communicate with the ship."

  The ground trembled beneath their feet; rumbling filled the air and faded away, as if they were being warned that time was short.

  Mom reached up suddenly to touch Dad's face. "Come home to me, Professor…"

  "I love you, wife," he murmured, smiling into her eyes.

  Blawp reached up from Penny's shoulder at her urging, parting Dad's face in imitation of Mom's gesture. "Nice girl," she chirped. "Pretty girl. Nice."

  Judy stared in surprise as Penny stroked Blawp's head, beaming proudly. She looked back at Don again as her father picked up his rifle and star
ted toward the portal. Don fell in beside him, looking over his shoulder at her… at her family… as if he were taking a mental picture of them. As if, no matter what happened, he wanted to carry this moment with him always.

  John reached the portal first, and stood staring at it. He put out a hand, passing it through the gate's rippling, illusory surface. He felt nothing more than a faint tingling as his hand distorted eerily. "Wow," he murmured softly, drawing it back again.

  "Oh," West said, coming up beside him. "That's scientific."

  John glanced over at him, too full of wonder at what they were about to experience even to feel annoyed. As West looked at the portal, John saw something come into the younger man's eyes that he had never expected to see there: West was staring at the portal as if he were facing the guillotine.

  Defending the hypergate against enemy raiders, or diving through the sun, he was fearless; because piloting a ship was what he did, and he knew what the odds were, he understood all the rules. But he wasn't a scientist.

  John felt his own heart racing; but it was anticipation he felt—excitement, awe—because he was about to experience something beyond a physicist's wildest dreams. This was his final frontier… He couldn't wait to step through into the Unknown.

  "Scared, Major?" he said, with a sudden grin.

  And then he took the first step.

  Don sucked in his breath as Robinson stepped through the portal; as his image distorted, whipping away into the future like blown smoke. Don froze, gazing through the window of time; until suddenly he saw Robinson on the other side, looking back at him from inside the summer day. He shook his head in amazement. And then he shut his eyes. And followed.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Will hneeled on the floor of the robot bay, picking through the personal cargo containers he'd packed only two days ago. He glanced up at the Robot's partially assembled body sitting on the work table, considered the possibilities of the toy he was holding, and then set it aside.

  Penny came into the room, carrying an assortment of hair clips and other metal and electronic objects. She dumped them on the table. She had actually volunteered to help him, when she found out what he was doing. Maybe that little alien monkey had telepathic powers or something; she was a lot nicer in general now that she had it.

  "That's everything even close to nonessential," Penny announced. "Even my belly-button ring."

  "Thanks, Pen," he said, smiling.

  She came over to look down at him and his bin of belongings. "You want to come outside?"

  He shook his head, his smile disappearing. He hadn't left the robot bay since his father had stopped in to say good-bye. He didn't want to; this was the only place where anybody really needed him. The Robot needed him.

  "Look, what does Dad know?" Penny said softly. "Maybe someone did build a time machine." She ruffled his hair with her hand, the way Dad would have, and went out of the room.

  Will got up with a querulous sigh, and crossed to the console. "Can you hear me, Robot?" he asked.

  "Robot is on line," it answered. "Your voice modulation is peculiar. Is something wrong, Will Robinson?"

  Will choked on the emotions caught in his throat, and didn't say anything.

  "Cheer up," the Robot said heartily, when he didn't answer. "I will tell you a joke. Why did the Robot cross the road?" It waited a beat for him to respond, and then it said, "Because he was carbon-bonded to the chicken!" The Robot laughed, loudly.

  Will rolled his eyes. "We've got some work to do___" he said.

  As he began to turn away again, a knocking sound echoed faintly through the wall of the bay. He listened, puzzled.

  "It sounds like old Morse code," the Robot commented.

  "What's it say?" he asked.

  '"Danger, Will Robinson. Danger,'" the Robot said.

  Will went out of the bay and walked along the corridor, tracing the knocking back to its source.

  Its source was the room where Doctor Smith was being held. Will peered in through the window in the door. Smith sat at a table, hammering out the code with his boot. He looked up as if he sensed Will's presence, and stopped banging to beckon him inside.

  Will hesitated. Then he took a laser pistol from its mount on the wall, voice-coded it to respond only to him, and opened the door.

  "You said someone is in danger." He stood warily, holding the gun where Smith could see it.

  Smith's eyes went to the weapon like BBs to a magnet. "We all are. You are wise to arm yourself." He got up from the table, approaching Will.

  "This gun is set to fire for me only, so don't try anything funny," Will said sharply.

  Smith shrugged and passed on by, only going to the viewport to open its blast shield. "William, you misjudge me," he said. "I only want to help you."

  "Help us?" Will said increduously. "You tried to kill us."

  Smith sighed in annoyance as he turned back to face Will. "But now our fates are intertwined," he pointed out, and Will realized that was true. "If your father and that idiot West fail, I will have no chance of getting home. It is in my best interests that they succeed. And I always follow my best interests." He looked back out the window, at the strange landscape and stranger flora lying beyond the portal. Somewhere out there, something gave an inhuman wail that made Will's skin prickle.

  Smith looked back at him again, as if the sound only proved his point. "What monsters roam these alien wilds—?" He waved his hand at the viewport. "Those fools. To set off blindly across this savage land… Much as I hate to admit it, it will be harder to manage without them."

  Will shifted nervously. "What are you talking about?" he demanded. "They'll be back. They'll be okay." Suddenly he was not sure whether he was trying to convince Smith, or himself.

  Smith stared darkly at him. "Will they?" he asked.

  Will bit his lip, feeling worry and fear churn in the pit of his stomach. He glanced at the window, seeing the portal's eerie shimmer against the divided sky. "Someone should go after them…"

  "Will, I forbid it," Smith said sternly. He shook his head. "You're a boy. A clever one, certainly, but a child nonetheless. This planet is likely full of predators. Even if you found them, what if they're hurt, ravaged, dying… what good could you do—?"

  Will's face furrowed. Too little; he was always too little to help! And the Robot's body wasn't finished. "But you're a doctor," he said, with sudden inspiration. Smith needed them, to survive; he'd said so himself. Smith had to help him.

  Smith turned away to the window, his hands clasped behind him. 'Tes," he murmured thoughtfully. "Yes, I am…"

  Penny braced her feet against the ship's outer hull, hanging from a rapelling line alongside her sister and her mother as they spot-welded and sealed the damage their crash-landing had done.

  "I need a microsealer," Mom said, pushing her goggles up on her forehead. She gestured at a puncture wound where entrails of cable and flexible conduit spilled out through the ship's charred designation logo, dangling in the air.

  Penny flipped the release on her harness and sailed down the rope to the ground. This was one job she loved; fetching tools was like mountaineering.

  Rooting through a tool kit, she noticed her cam/watch lying where she had left it for safekeeping. She looked at it thoughtfully, then activated it and said, "After much deliberation, the Space Captive has decided to accept her new role as a member of the crew. The Robinsons, after all, can obviously use her help…"

  She broke oft" her narration as she realized that Blawp was no longer investigating tool boxes and playing with pebbles anywhere around her.

  She stood up, her gaze sweeping a wider and wider area until she was looking at the portal. And Blawp, who was crouched at its edge, sniffing curiously.

  "Blawp!" she called. "Blawp, come away from there-"

  Blawp looked up, as if she was about to come racing back at Penny's call. But then she looked through at the strange forest beckoning from the other side.

  And stepped into it. />
  "Blawp!" Penny scrambled up, dropping her cam/watch as she ran toward the portal. "Wait—!"

  Will led Doctor Smith through the russet moss-forest into a field of flowers like no flowers he had ever seen, their lushly blue-violet petals moving in the breeze like an indigo sea. "Wow, that's Mom's favorite color—"

  "How droll," Smith commented wearily, behind him.

  Will looked back, half frowning. He wished he could show Mom the flowers; wished even more that she was here with him. But they'd sneaked out of the ship without telling anyone, at Smith's urging. Smith said his mother would try to stop them, and that nagging little voice in the back of his mind had agreed: She would say this was wrong; it wasn't safe for him to go; he was too little… Even Mom wouldn't understand.

  He looked down at the tracking device he carried in his hand. It still showed them on a course toward the radioactive material Dad had gone after. Since he hadn't been there to tell Dad good-bye, he hadn't seen which direction his father and Major West set off in, once they went through the portal. Finding them was a lot harder than he'd expected.

  Another earth tremor bore down on them, stronger than any before, approaching with terrifying speed. Smith gasped suddenly. Will turned and saw the very air in the distance begin to warp into swirling distortion, like water being sucked down a drain. Inside it, flowers bloomed and died within seconds, trees rose and fell, as the twisted, billowing landscape aged years with ever)' heartbeat.

  "Run, child, run!" Smith shouted, grabbing Will's arm and jerking him forward. They ran. But there was no way anything alive could outrun that tornado of time bearing down on them —

  Doctor Smith stumbled suddenly and pitched headlong into the flowers, dragging Will down with him.

  * # *

  Smith's misstep landed him facedown in a miasma of damp earth and crushed petals. He barely noticed, as the roaring and shaking filled all his senses. He shut his eyes, clutching the broken plant stems in a death grip as he waited for the inevitable to strike him down…