This is an excerpt from a Science Fiction Universe I created which is as yet unpublished. If anyone want's to see excerpts from my mystery novel or the fantasy world I have created which is already in publication, please ask.
Amanda and the Bandersnatch
By Nick Lorance
"I want to keep my baby." The girl sat in the rocking chair, rocking furiously, her eyes locked on the wall.
"Amanda." Doctor Bennet spoke quietly. It wouldn't do to excite the girl more than she already was. "Amanda, turn around and look at me."
"No." The voice was child-like, petulant. The rocking did not slow.” I want to keep my baby."
Bennet sighed. "Where would you keep it, Amanda? In your room?"
"No. I want to take it into space. I want to go to the stars."
"You can't go."
"Why not?" The girl stopped rocking, looking back. "Mister O-Flah-re-ty said anyone could go. No one can say no."
"They don't want you Amanda. They don't want retarded people."
Amanda froze, and then leaped up, running down the hall to her room. The slam of the door echoed through the halls. Bennet looked on, her face frozen. Behind her, Doctor Mastriani stared after the girl.
"Doctor, you are a cold blooded bitch."
"Spare me your histrionics, Doctor."
"Histrionics?" Mastriani was furious himself. "You know as well as I do that in a primitive environment like a pioneer society, she is fully able to function. Not only as a person but as a woman and a mother as well. To tell her they won't take her is a lie that you will regret."
"Spare me, Doctor." Bennet rounded on him. "I want to know which one of those animals that works here got her pregnant."
"We don't know yet."
"Well find out!" Bennet shouted. "He took advantage of a girl that did not know what was happening to her, and I will not let that bastard's child live a second longer than is necessary!"
"The child is only as good as the parents." Mastriani snapped. "The father is an animal true. But is Amanda?"
Bennet simply stared at him.
"Jan, I agree that the man who raped her is an animal. But what kind of animal steals her only dream?" he asked softly, walking away.
In her room, Amanda was pressed tight into the corner. The doctors would not come in here, unless she screamed. She knew that. She wasn't like the others. Her condition had been caused by an accident a few years before, not by drugs or genetic problems. She heard the scream of a jet, and went to the window. An Airbus 380 roared across above her. She used to know everything there was to know about planes like that. Even now she could judge the throttle settings the pilot was using just from the sound.
But thanks to the accident, she couldn't even tie her shoes without help. She couldn't complain, because they would give her a pill, she couldn't fight because they would give her a pill.
And if they gave her a pill, they would take away her baby.
She had to get away. For her own life, and her baby.
Doctor Bennet looked up from her desk, and saw Amanda shuffling toward her office. Her heart broke at the sight. She had seen home movies and videos of the twenty-five year old woman, a college student working on her master’s degree in Aeronautical engineering, with a minor in aerospace physics. Bright, with a life in her eyes that almost lit the world around her.
Then the accident. A boyfriend paying more attention to her than to the road, a drunk driving off an embankment, directly in their path. The boyfriend had died instantly. Amanda had been slammed into the windshield, broken bone and glass doing a swift and brutal lobotomy.
Now? The bright girl was gone. Only a shambling figure with her face.
Amanda stopped at the door, and reached up, tapping the glass. Bennet stood, and opened the door. Amanda shuffled in, and sat in her chair. "I want to keep my baby,” she whispered. "Please."
Bennet pulled a chair near, and sat beside the girl. "Amanda, if I thought you could take care of the child by yourself, I would allow you to keep it. But you can't."
"Can I keep it for just a few days?" Amanda's voice was pleading. "Just until after the zoo? I want to show him the animals."
Bennet thought quickly. In three days, Amanda, and about a dozen other patients were going to the Zoo. She was barely a month and a half along, plenty of time. "All right. We will wait until Monday."
"Thank you." Bennet hugged the girl, tears in her eyes. Two men had done this to her, the dead driver, and the rapist. She would protect this beautiful girl with all her strength.
II
Amanda had lost a great deal. She spoke slowly and haltingly, she walked slowly and carefully. She had to think carefully to do even the simplest things. But nothing was wrong with her memory of numbers. And this was the most important part of her escape. 420, 1, 44.
She spent two days in the common room, looking at the map of Los Angeles. Unbeknownst to the staff She was memorizing the bus routes. 420, 1, 44.
Friday morning, she got up early, and began to dress. She had spent the evening before making sure of what she would wear. A pair of tight brown jeans, and a blue chambray shirt over a red T- shirt. On her feet she wore her slip on deck shoes.
She ate breakfast, going back for seconds. She didn't do it that often, and the orderlies noticed. But she had no choice. She didn't have that much money, she had to make sure she could skip lunch, and maybe dinner if necessary. Then she went to the common room, and watched television until the orderlies began to gather the others.
The old Bluebird bus rattled as they drove across the city. Amanda watched the people on the street as they passed through Hollywood, headed for Griffith Park. She watched them intently. She didn't dare look at the orderlies. One of them was a quiet man she trusted, the other...
The other was the father of her child. She didn't like him. He touched her too often, in ways that made her uncomfortable.
They climbed out, and the orderlies and the doctors chivvied them into a flock. Then, with Doctor Bennet in the lead, they entered the Zoo.
Amanda watched them, almost ignoring the animals. She had to wait until they reached the reptile house so that she would have a few moments when the close quarters and the fear of snakes would slow the others down. Unfortunately, Doctor Bennet spent most of her time near her, close enough to keep her under eye.
As they got closer, she began to despair. Then she looked at the rear of the group. The father was watching her, a secret smile on his face. Suddenly she was furious with him. If he hadn't gotten her pregnant, Doctor Bennet wouldn't be watching her so closely. Then she knew what to do.
"He's enjoying this." She said, softly. Bennet looked at her.
"Who is?"
"My baby." Amanda rubbed her stomach, then looked back at the father. "He likes being near his father."
Bennet's head snapped around, and she saw who Amanda was looking at. Now that she saw him, she was surprised that she hadn't known before. Davis was the stereotypical pedophile, touchy-feelie, soft spoken, gentle, speaking to the patients as if they were fully cognizant adults.
"Stay here." she ordered Amanda, walking around the group to Doctor Mastriani. She spoke to him for a moment, then cut across the group to the other orderly, Jackson. He listened, and then nodded, moving back slowly until he was behind Davis.
Bennet walked over, through the patients, and stopped in front of Davis. "Having fun, Davis?"
"Sure, Doc." He gave her a hesitant smile. "I always liked the Zoo."
"That is not what I meant. I mean watching a girl you got pregnant walking out here, while you're free?"
"I-"
"Don't con me, Davis. She told me."
Davis tried to bolt, and Jackson punched him in the mouth before he got even one step. "Yeah, try it!"
In a normal crowd, you have a reaction that spreads from the center to the edges, whether it is to turn and watch, or to flee. This reaction is heightened in those that are mentally disabled. In most cases, it explodes as if someone had dropped a bomb. This was one of those cases.
There were a dozen patients, and they all reacted differently. Some ran screaming, others stood in place, screaming. Others curled into fetal balls, crying the remainder just stood there trying to figure out what was bothering everyone else. For several minutes, the Doctors were busy trying to calm them down, and once Jackson had trussed up Davis, he began gathering the ones that had fled. It was ten minutes before anyone noticed that Amanda was missing.
Amanda had walked through the reptile house, and turned toward the gate. As she walked, she stripped off her shirt. It went into a trashcan.
Then she walked out the gate, down the hill, and waited for the 420 bus, which came a minute later. On Hollywood Boulevard, she transferred to the #1 bus. When she got to downtown L.A., she walked over a block, and caught the 44 bus.
She didn't know how much trouble her disappearance had caused, and honestly didn't care. She wanted to go into space, and she knew where she had to go.
The 44 bus dropped her at the bus pad at the LAX airport forty-five minutes later. She caught the shuttle, and got out at the international terminal. She passed through the security gate, and went upstairs. There before her, was her gol, the Alliance security dome.
When the Alliance had returned to Earth, they had offered free access to space to any who would agree never to return. While most nations still refused them access, the American government limited it to a dozen access points, Los Angeles being one of them.
Because of attempted terrorist attacks, they had installed a shield grid similar to the ones they used on ships. It wasn't a solid dome; it was a force field of some kind.
Governments on Earth had gone crazy when the ubiquitous screens had come into being around every transit center. She had seen them in action on the news. Artillery, tank, and naval artillery shells exploding against their milky surface with no effect. She had listened to a science reporter who said that it would even stop a direct hit by a nuclear weapon, though no one had shown the chutzpah to try it yet.
Now she saw that half sphere for herself. What the television didn't show was the swirls of rainbow color that ran through it like oily water draining off a clear glass bowl.
Why did she come here? It wasn’t like they had telephone access to the terminal! She watched as a line of people climbed down from a tram, and walked to the dome. As they approached, a hole appeared, large enough for them to enter comfortably. People had tried to pass the dome without the door, terrorists, and spies, even reporters. They had always been caught almost immediately. Most people thought the dome would not allow anyone to pass it without the portal. Yet in the news she had seen Alliance personnel walk into it without a qualm.
She looked up, and watched a gull soaring across the runway. A 767 was taking off, and the jet wash slapped the gull aside. It fell into the dome and disappeared. A moment later, it came back out of the dome, irritated, but
Unharmed.
Alliance people went through it, unharmed. Gulls could fly into it without harm. How was it that men trying to sneak in were caught? Then it hit her. Metal. They carried guns, and cameras, and bombs. These must be detected. Would it detect just the metal in her buttons and zippers? Unknown.
She went to the snack bar, and bought a drink, then sat, watching the dome. She didn't want to test her theory while everyone watched her. It would be several hours before dark. She went back out of the terminal, and caught the shuttle back to the bus pad. There had been a theater on the bus line she had been on, and she had enough for a seat, and to get back.
III
As the sun set, Amanda climbed down off the bus at the bus pad again. She caught the tram, and got out at the first stop. Then she walked back toward the street. As she walked, she looked at the fence. It was chain link, eight feet tall, with razor wire along its upper edge.
After she had walked almost two hundred yards, she found what she had been looking for. A homeless person had dug himself a warren in the ivy along the fence, and she dove into the hole, praying that whoever had done it no longer lived there. She squirmed along, and came to the fence. Here, the person had dug down to below the fence, and she rolled over, inching along on her back until she was through.
He had not made himself an exit within the fence, rightly fearing the security guards more than the local police. But the ivy tore free easily, and she was inside in a few minutes. To her left, she could see the terminals, their light warm and friendly. Ahead of her was the dome. She walked toward it, looking at it in wonder.
Another thing the television didn't show was the thrum of concentrated power. She felt it in her bones as she approached, stopping near its edge. She worried about the metal in her clothes, but unless she stripped naked, there was nothing she could do about that. Gritting her teeth, she reached out, and touched the dome.
She snatched her hand back. It tingled! Like a brisk cold shower. But it didn't hurt. She pushed her hand forward, and it sank into the dome as if she had pushed her hand into a Jell-O mold. She stepped forward, and her leg hit the dome, sliding into the force field. It was still slowing her, but she wasn't being stopped. As her belt and zipper entered it, she flinched, expecting the field to suddenly harden into a diamond, imprisoning her like a fly in amber. She expected alarms as well. What she got was, nothing.
As her head slipped in, she caught a last breath, and moved forward. She didn't know if there was air inside the field. One of the attacks had been in Baharain, an Iranian plane with poison gas. But it hadn't gone through the field. She suddenly fell forward onto the asphalt. She was through.
Before her was a wonder. There were planes parked on the tarmac. Four sleek F-5 Tigers, and- She gasped.
A Backfire bomber sat there.
She had heard about them. It had been the big news story just a month before. The Alliance had gone in to rescue 2500 people who wanted to immigrate and been held hostage in Libya by their own government. The Alliance attack had cost the Libyans several tanks killed by the soldiers, along with all of the troops that had been guarding them. The guards had been taken prisoner, tried for violations of human rights, and sentenced to involuntary colonization.
The Libyans had retaliated by attacking the Malta transit center with missiles carried by Backfire bombers.
The Alliance had come in the next evening, and 'confiscated' the Backfires, along with a dozen MiG 29 Fulcrums, and all of their crews, who had also been
sentenced to involuntary colonization. The Backfires, according to the Alliance were to be converted for space travel.
She walked up, and looked at the plane. It had been changed from the original design. The massive air intakes for the Turmanski engines had been covered with fairings that blended smoothly into the nose. She walked around it, and cocked her head in puzzlement. The engine nozzles had been covered as well. Had they turned it into some kind of monument? She walked to the nose.
The refueling probe was still there, but above it was what looked like a gun port. A ramp had been installed just in front of the bomb bay that lead up into the plane, and she walked up it.
Where the engines had been, the Alliance people had put rooms. One at the stern, with a table, and four rooms large enough to sleep in, like the sleepers built into long-range commercial aircraft before World War II. The controls were nothing like what she had remembered from a picture. It was a seamless expanse of lights and readouts. The throttle was a single handle, running in a slot that doglegged twice. She stood behind the pilot's seat, and looked at them. Her mind knew what they were, though she could not put names to them all.
She slid into the seat, and rested her hands on the wheel. "Beautiful."
"Thank you,” a soft feminine voice said.
Amanda whirled around. She was alone. "Hello? Is someone there?"
"I am here,” the voice answered from midair.
"Who are you?"
"The correct question would be, what am I. I am T'PAU, Tactical, Piloting, Astrogation Unit, number 5." the voice explained. "I am the main computer of the Long range Scout Vessel Bandersnatch. I monitor maneuvering in tactical
Situations, maneuvering within systems at close quarters when necessary, and plot courses to planetary systems or to specific planets upon command."
Amanda touched the controls again. "Bandersnatch. I like that name. It is from a poem I used to remember."
"Yes, Jabberwocky by Jonathon Swift. But why do you not remember the poem?"
"I had an accident."
"I see. Are there any questions you have about Bandersnatch?"
"Hundreds!"
IV
She looked beautiful. Lee Zeigler ran his eyes over his new command. The Bandersnatch was designed for rapid travel to settled planets, and for exploration of systems that were not yet settled.
Settled planets. He wanted to laugh. There were 52,000 people on the moon, about the same on Khalis. The rest of humanity was on Earth. Until the Bandersnatch and her sisters were in service, the thirty-five planets in the Khalisi 'catalogue' were still unknown quantities.
That was his job, as the test pilot of the second prototype. The first, Banshidhe, had been given to Michael O'Flarhety and his wife, Myoko as a wedding present.
"Nervous, Lee?" He glanced back at Michael.
"Terrified."
"What?"
"Yeah, that you'll take her away and give her to someone else."
Michael smiled. "Not a chance. We all got together, and decided it was your turn in the barrel. You'll love her, Lee. She'll handle like a dream. The first aircraft with not only hyper drive, but shields as well. If they work right, we'll be retrofitting them to Banshidhe when she returns to Khalis."
"Then I'll get her ready." Lee picked up his helmet, putting it in the crook of his arm, and walked across the tarmac. Michael went into the building, and stood behind the control center. The technician checked the systems, and leaned back.
"We're ready, Director."
O’Flarhety rolled his eyes. "Damn it, Sandy. Don't call me that."
"Right you are, Michael."
"LAX transit control, this is Banshidhe on final approach."
"Roger, Banshidhe. Welcome back, Myoko."
Lee walked up the ramp, stopping as he heard voices. One was T'PAU, the computer. The other he didn't know. It was a halting voice.
"Then you can fly in the air as well as in space?"
"Yes. The drive system has three modes, Maneuvering, which is the only one safe to use inside a planetary atmosphere, Intrasystem, which is self explanatory, and hyper light. Our maximum speed in atmosphere is Mach 8, until our hull is replaced with the new hull metal being made on the Moon. Even then, we are limited to Mach 31. Of course the shielding would protect us at any speed up to light speed inside an atmosphere."
"Then why can't you use hyper speed in the air?"
"Because our Intrasystem drive uses gravimetric pulses, it would cause massive gravitational fluctuations, which would cause earthquakes. Hyper speed uses other methods of attaining speed, but would cause shockwaves as if an explosion had gone off."
"So you're slow in space?"
"No. Our maximum safe speed in normal space-time is 87% light speed. Maximum possible speed 88%. Above that, there is a problem called 'Subspacial worm holing', I would dive into subspace with no known way out."
"Hello." The girl jumped, looking back at Lee. He smiled, and she relaxed. "How are the systems, T'PAU?"
"All is shipshape in Bristol fashion."
"Good. And who is this?"
"Oh, you have not been introduced. Amanda Bartholemew, this is Lee Ziegler, test pilot and commander of this vessel. Lee, this is Amanda Bartholemew."
"Pleased to meet you." Lee stuck out his hand. After a moment, she shook it.
"Nice to meet you." She looked confused. What does ‘ship shape in Bristol Fashion’ mean?”
His eyes furrowed at her tone. The halting manner of her speech reminded him of something, suddenly it clicked. Tonia, his sister. Born with Downs Syndrome, she had spoken the same way, as if struggling to get her point across.
Dead now for three years.
“It’s an old Navy term borrowed from the English. It means everything is right where it should be, and working correctly. What do you think of my baby?" he asked, waving at the aircraft around them.
"She is beautiful." Her hand ran lovingly over the wheel. "I wish I could fly in her."
"Why can't you?"
Her hand moved back from the wheel slowly, falling to her lap, and she looked down at her hands. "Because they won't take me."
"Who won't take you?"
"The Alliance. They won't take me because, because I am retarded."
Lee was stunned. "Who told you that?"
"Doctor Bennet, my Doctor."
Lee leaned down, setting his helmet down. "Well old Doc Bennet lied to you. If you want to go, no one can tell you not to. Wait a minute, I'll have Michael tell you himself."
"Michael?"
"The Director." Lee bent over, reaching toward a section of paneling.
The Director! Amanda saw them dragging her off the ship, taking her back to the hospital. Her baby! "No!" She caught the helmet, and lifted it, slamming it down on Lee's head. He fell, raising an arm to protect himself, and she hit him again, and again, and again until he stopped moving.
"Amanda, what have you done?"
She slapped the control panel where the engine start should be, and there was a humming sound. Her hand fell on the oddly shaped throttle handle and pushed it forward. The Bandersnatch lifted free, rotating as she pulled back on the wheel. The ship lifted.
"Amanda!"
She ignored T'PAU. She rammed the throttle forward to the first detent.
T'PAU switched on the shield an instant before they hit the dome, and they heterodyned, allowing the craft to slide through. Amanda didn't notice. She was aimed at the sky. As they went up, she saw a flicker of white ahead, and instinctively she pushed the wheel hard right. An instant later, a white plane shot past her headed down.
"What was that?"
"Scout ship Banshidhe."
Amanda gritted her teeth.
V
"Onboard telemetry and flight recorder now active." Sandy reported. Everyone stared as they entered the conversation aboard the ship.
"Hello. How are the systems, T'PAU?" Lee's voice came in as clear as if he were in the room.
"All is shipshape in Bristol fashion."
"Good. And who is this?"
"Oh, you have not been introduced. Amanda Bartholemew, this is Lee Ziegler, test pilot and commander of this vessel. Lee, this is Amanda Bartholemew."
"Who is that?" O'Flarhety asked. No one is supposed to be aboard."
"Pleased to meet you."
"Nice to meet you."
Sandy shook his head. "I don't know, sir. I'll check our staff."
"What do you think of my baby?"
"She is beautiful. I wish I could fly in her."
"Why can't you?"
"Because they won't take me."
"Who won't take you?"
"The Alliance. They won't take me, because I, am retarded."
"Who told you that?"
"Doctor Bennet, my Doctor."
"Well old Doc Bennet lied to you. If you want to go, no one can tell you not to. Wait a minute, I'll have Michael tell you himself."
"Michael?"
"The Director."
"No!”
There was the sound of something hitting a hard object over and over, overlaid with a whimpering sound that was almost words.
"Security alert! Have someone get out there right now!' O'Flarhety turned and ran toward the entrance.
"Amanda, what have you done?"
Outside, the engine of Bandersnatch roared into life. A moment later it lifted, spinning to face upward. Then with a shockwave, it was gone.
"LA transit, who's- Christ!"
"Banshidhe! Report!"
"Another scout ship! It came by me at high speed, and is climbing and accelerating."
"Tell her to pursue, and give her the particulars. Contact Plato and have a flight of Fulcrums scrambled. They are to do everything necessary to stop her short of attacking her."
"Yes, sir."
"Then access the police data net. Whoever she is, considering she's retarded, she's probably under care, and that means they are looking for her. I want to know who this Amanda Bartholemew is, and who the hell this Doctor Bennet thinks he is."
"Local search?"
"Considering how much intelligence this 'retarded' girl is showing, I would suggest you make it national, and be ready to expand it to international."
“Right." Sandy looked at the screen, "Michael, she was repeating this over and over.”
The speaker cleared, the mumbling words now clear. “My baby, my baby, my baby, my baby…”
VI
The superheated Bandersnatch screamed into the cooling emptiness of space. Amanda held the wheel tightly, aiming to miss the bulk of the L-5 colony and processing station even now being built. "At this speed, I can't see where I am going!" Amanda looked around. "Where is the radar screen?"
"Radar? Nothing so mundane. Sensor suite activated." A holographic representation appeared in the air before her eyes, on one edge was the Earth, on the other the moon. There was a small dot to one side, blinking.
"Is that us?"
"Yes."
"What is that there?" she touched another dot moving away from the Earth.
"Scout ship Banshidhe."
They were gaining. "What is our speed?”
"Fourteen point nine six kilometers per second and accelerating."
"And Bansidhe's?"
"28.4 kps, and accelerating."
"Then we must be able to travel faster." She looked at the throttle again, and grasped it, sliding it to the right past the detent. Then she slid it forward to the second detent. "What is our speed now?"
"7,264.7 kps, .02466% light speed and increasing. We will reach the Light speed barrier in 35.5 seconds. Banshidhe has matched our speed."
From the moon, four dots lifted, moving swiftly. "What are those?"
"MiG 29 Fulcrum fighters."
"What is their top speed?"
"They will attain a matching speed in three seconds, and have a top speed of .89%."
She could see that they would cut her off. She touched the throttle. There was another detent.
"Communication from Banshidhe."
"Amanda! This is Myoko Surugetsu aboard Banshidhe. Come back, Amanda, you don't need to run!"
"No! My baby will die! I will not!" She slipped the second detent.
"Amanda." both T'PAU and Myoko said it in a chorus.
"No! Shut up!" She pushed the throttle forward, feeling it click through the notches.
"Amanda, you don't have to run!" T'PAU said.
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"
VII
For an instant, the ship seemed to stretch. Then it was gone into hyperspace. O'Flarhety stared at the screen, and then sighed. They hadn't built a sensor capable of reading into Hyperspace on Earth yet. The robots aboard D.C. and Challenger had done so at Khalis, but none of the robots had been left on the Moon or on Earth. Too many of the Earth Governments were envious of their technology, and were trying to steal it. And it was still too large to mount on the Scouts. If one of them were nearby, they could have tracked her, then jumped to where ever Bandersnatch went.
Without them, there was no way they could discover her course or whereabouts until someone went to Khalis and checked.
"Michael, we have a trace on her." the control officer reported.
"Give."
"Amanda Bartholemew, age 25, reported missing at the Griffith Park Zoo, by her doctor, Janet Bennet. The girl is reported to have been injured in an automobile accident, resulting in retardation. The police had been centering their search on the Hollywood area."
"What have you got on Bennet?"
"Hold one, Bennet, Janet T. Age 50, Degree in Psychology 1978, specialty mental dysfunctions leading to retardation. Staff doctor at the Oak Forest private hospital, In the Hollywood Hills."
"Order Banshidhe to land immediately. I have a doctor to see."
VIII
Doctor Bennet stared out the window at the sweep of Hollywood. She was tired, deathly so. Amanda had been gone for 14 hours now. The police were as fumble fingered as always. They couldn't find Amanda, and if that wasn't bad enough, Davis was already out on bail!
She poured a drink, and was raised it. When suddenly she noticed a thrumming sound. The brandy was shivering in the glass. Then suddenly a glaring light flashed down over the portico. The light settled slowly, and as it dropped below her eyes, she could see a huge plane, sitting in midair as if gravity had declared a moratorium. It settled as light as thistledown onto the brickwork, and the thrumming died.
A ramp dropped, and two people left the plane. A moment later, an orderly knocked on her door, and the same two people entered.
"Doctor Bennet, I am Director Michael O'Flarhety, this is Myoko Surugetsu, my wife, and pilot." He motioned to the Oriental woman beside him, and Bennet's eyes widened. The woman that looked back at her was as pale as ice, her skin almost translucent. Her story was known, but discounted on Earth. Infected with bacteria in a germ warfare laboratory on Khalis, the bacteria had taken elements from her body, mainly carbon, replacing them with
silicates. Attempting to fight it hadn't worked, so they had reversed their procedure, feeding her silicates and silicon rich nutrients. When the fever finally broke, she had been transformed into a silicon life form, her flesh replaced by polymers and silicones.
Her eyes locked on Bennet's and the woman flinched by the disdain there.
"What can I do for you?"
"I want all records on Amanda Bartholemew. I need to get an idea of what she will do."
"Those records are confidential. I will not let you see them under any circumstances."
Michael sighed. "Let me put it to you this way, Doctor. Amanda Bartholemew assaulted and may have killed one of my people, stole one of our ships, a prototype. She then took that untested ship into hyperspace, and god alone knows where she thinks she is going.
“She did all this because of her baby, which she whimpered about as she beat my pilot, possibly to death. She also did this because you lied to her and said the Alliance wouldn’t take her because she was retarded. Now are you going to help me find her or not?"
Bennet got the files. O'Flarhety took the file, sat in an armchair, and began to read. Myoko went to the window, and stood, looking out. She seemed to freeze as if turned to stone.
The clock ticked on as O'Flarhety went through the file from one end to the other. Then he closed the file, and pondered. Finally he stood, setting the file on the desk. "Thank you, Doctor."
"Director, what are you going to do about Amanda?"
O'Flarhety looked at her blandly. "First, I am going to try to figure out where she went. Then I am going to go and get her. Then? I am going to offer her a command."
"But shes-"
"Retarded? Disabled?" O'Flarhety shook his head. "I am surprised, Doctor. You have never heard of Jan Berry? The lead signer of Jan and Dean? In the mid sixties, he was in an auto accident, not unlike what happened to Amanda. He was considered retarded and permanently disabled. Yet he made a come back in the mid seventies, because he could still sing!
"Don't you read your own files? 'Still has keen instinctual grasp of aerodynamics and spatial relations', 'A fine instinctive pilot with a firm grasp of her abilities and full knowledge of her aircraft'. That is what defines a pilot, especially a pilot that has to take a scout ship into an unknown world.
"We need people like her, and she's welcome. Anyone that looks at the future and the stars with longing.
"People like you we can do without. Sanctimonious little people that would saddle others with their problems, limit them with lies, trap them in cages made of love and caring until they die from being stifled."
He walked out, leaving her to look at her life.
It wasn't pretty.
IX
"T'PAU?" Amanda was worried. It had been half an hour, and T'PAU still refused to speak to her. Lee was still breathing, but it didn't sound right. "T'PAU, please."
Still nothing.
"T'PAU, I'm sorry. I was scared, and they were chasing me."
"You think I am merely a machine. But to do my job successfully, I have to be an artificially intelligent self-aware system. I have feelings, even if they do not get in the way of my duties as they do with humans."
"I am sorry." Amanda looked at her hands. "T'PAU?"
"What?"
"I don't think you are a machine. You are a good person, a better one than I am."
"No. I am merely a different kind of person. Now, we have to make Lee comfortable. First, I want you to take us out of hyper light."
"Can't you do it?"
"I could if you hadn't taken us out totally manual."
"All right. What do I do?"
As T'PAU gave her the instructions, Amanda brought the ship down until it rested in normal space again. Then they began to help Lee. The room at the stern doubled as not only a mess hall/rec area but as a sick bay as well. Inset in one wall was a Stokes litter with a small intergral anti gravity unit. Amanda moved it into the cockpit, slid Lee into it, and then lifted it off the ground to tow it to the rear. There, she cleaned Lee's head and face up. Except for his concussion, he seemed all right.
Then, after getting a cup of cocoa, she sat in the command chair again.
“First, we have to make the log entry for our present location. Then you and I need to talk." T'PAU told her.
X
Banshidhe roared into space, bound for Plato. O'Flarhety was planning what they would have to do. A quick run to Khalis, check the sensor logs of the D.C. and Challenger, hope that they had recorded Amanda's jump, then track her.
"Michael. A ship on sensors." Myoko pointed at the red dot moving toward the moon. She reached out, touching it.
BANDERSNATCH. SCOUT/ RECON VESSEL REGISTRY #1002.
"T'PAU, contact the Bandersnatch."
"Communications established."
"Amanda?"
"My voice hasn't changed that much has it?"
"Lee! How are you?"
"My head hurts, and I'm seeing double, but my copilot is pretty good."
"You're copilot?"
"It's me, Director." Amanda spoke up. "I'm sorry I caused you problems."
"Amanda, my friends call me Michael. I want you to be my friend, and I want you to be one of our pilots."
"Really?"
"Really."
"What about my baby?"
"Don't worry about him."
XI
Doctor Bennet stared at her bags as they were unloaded at the Alliance Transit terminal, LAX. She looked up as one of the newly built Boeing Megalifters lifted off. A thousand passengers each, and even tourists now.
Mastriani helped her carry the bags to the counter, where a slim young man sat behind a computer terminal. "Are you sure?" He asked yet again.
"Positive, Bernie. After Amanda left, I lost my confidence. I can't stay here."
"Bull. You still do good work."
"Do I? Telling her lies to keep her here? No. I'm going to take Alan Hale Junior's advice."
"What?"
"Action in the North Atlantic. The Humphrey Bogart movie. I am going to take an oar, my degree in my case, and walk away from the sea until someone asks, 'what is that thing on your shoulder'? And on that day, I'm going to settle down and never leave again."
"I think maybe you should be patient, Jan."
"I've been patient enough Bernie. Goodbye."
He snorted, hugged her, and left. Bennet turned to the counter.
"Name?"
"Doctor Janet Bennet."
"Wait a moment please." The man input her name, then turned, puzzled. "There's some kind of hold on your name, Doctor. You have to go to the office on promenade 1." He pointed. "I'll move your bags to storage so that you're ready to go."
Bennet nodded glumly. O'Flarhety had told her they didn't need people like her. Had he meant it? Was she going to be told that she of all of humanity was not welcome?
The office on the promenade was small and quiet. A woman sat behind the desk, working on a terminal. She looked up as Bennet arrived. "Doctor Bennet?"
"Yes."
"The Director wanted to see you personally if you decided to immigrate. They're sending a Scout ship down for you. Here." She handed the doctor a magcard. "Take that to docking port 1. When your flight arrives, it will beep. Put it in the lock at the gate, and go aboard."
Bennet nodded, and walked to the gate. She passed a group of people dressed in the standard uniform of Lunar citizens, practically nothing, but ignored them. The gate was empty, so she sat. After a time, the card chimed musically. She went to the door, and inserted the card. There was a click, and it opened.
A woman stood there, her belly swollen grossly. "Doctor?"
Bennet leaped forward, hugging Amanda. They were both crying and talking as they hugged.
"I wanted you to deliver my baby." Amanda said. "Finn was talking about attacking the hospital and kidnapping you."
"I'm sorry Amanda."
"Why? You did what you thought was right, and so did I." Amanda pulled her along, and they entered the aircraft. It was one of the modified Backfires, and every seat but two were occupied. "Doctor, this is my crew. My co pilot, Sammie Van Der Bonn. My weapons officer, Chrissey, and my navigator, David Macgregor." The crew, two humans and a Merooan nodded. "And my ship, the Bandersnatch. T'PAU, say hello."
"Hello, Doctor." T'PAU said. "We have heard a lot about you. Since I am now to become a nursery, perhaps you and I could discuss the necessary modifications."
"I want to discuss who gets to change the cub." Chrissey said. "I refuse to clean up after any cub but my own."
As the others commented on parenthood, Amanda waddled forward, and, with Van Der Bonn's help, got into her seat. "T'PAU, how about the Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies?"
"Must we again?"
"Come on, T'PAU." Macgregor said. "She enjoys dancing, and with her stomach, dancing with you is all she gets."
"Oh, very well."
The plane lifted gently from the ground, Amanda's hands firmly on the wheel. As they rose, the introduction to the music by Tchaichovsky swelled.
As they roared straight up, Amanda danced with the Bandersnatch.
End