To the Stars Trilogy Part 23

There had been some grumbling among the men at first about women out of their natural place, but this had stopped as fatigue had taken over. The extra help was needed. Some of the women had not been able to learn the work, or had not the stamina for it, but there were more than enough new volunteers to take their places.

Jan was happier than he had remembered he had been for years. The fat chaperone had complained about the climb up to the driving compartment and, when the heat had increased, it had been impossible to find a coldsuit big enough for her. A married cousin of Alzbeta's had taken the watchdog role for one day, but said she was bored by it and had her children to take care of and re-fused to come back the following day. Her absence had not been reported at once to The Hradil and by the time she had learned about it the damage~)r lack of damage-had been done. Alzbeta had survived a day alone with three men and was none the worse for the experience. By unspoke~ agreement the chaperone's role was dropped.

Alzbeta sat in the co-driver's seat while Jan drove.

Otakar would sleep on the cot in the engine room, or play cards with Emo. Hyzo found it easy to get permission to join the games-Jan cheerfully stood radio watch for him-and though the hatch behind them was open, Jan and Alzbeta were alone for the first time since they had met.

At the very first it was embarra.s.sing. Not for Jan. It was Alzbeta who would blush and hang her head when he talked and forget her job as co-driver. Her lifetime of training was fighting her intelligence. Jan ignored this for one s.h.i.+ft, not even making small talk, thinking she would be over it by the second day.

When she was not, he lost his temper.

"I've asked you for that reading twice now. That's too much. You are here to aid me, not make my job more difficult."

"I-I'm sorry. I'll try not to do it again."

She lowered her head and blushed even more, and Jan felt like a swine. Which he was. You don't break the conditioning of years in a moment. The Road was clear ahead and dead straight, nothing on the nose radar. The trains rolled at a steady 110 KPH and the wheel could be left unattended, for perhaps a moment. He rose and went to Alzbeta and stood behind her, his hands resting lightly on her shoulders.

Like a frightened animal's, her body quivered beneath his touch.

"I'm the one who should be sorry," he said. "I'll drag Hyzo away from the poker game, it's time for a driver check in any case."

"No, not yet. It is not that I don't like being alone with you, the other way around. I have known that I have loved you for a very long time, but only now am I finding out what that really means.

She put her hands up to her shoulders to cover his, turned her face to look up at him. When he bent his head to kiss her, her mouth came up to meet his. When his hands slid down to cup her full b.r.e.a.s.t.s her hands held them tight, pulling him to her. It was he who broke away first, knowing this was neither the time nor the place.

"See, The Hradil was right," he said, trying to make light of it.

"No! She was wrong in every way. She will not keep us apart, and I will marry you. She cannot stop~...

The flas.h.i.+ng red light on the radio console and the rapid beeping sent him leaping to the driver's chair, thumbing on the radio. Behind him Hyzo shot up from the engine room as though he had been propelled from a cannon.

"Trainmaster here."

'Jan, Lajos here with the tanks. We've hit something too big to handle. It looks like we've lost one tank, though no one injured."

"What is it?"

"Water, just wate?: The Road's gone. I can't describe it, you'll have to see for yoursei{"

There were complaints, but Jan kept the trains rolling until they caught up with the maintenance tanks. He was asleep when they picked up the first blip on the nose radar. He awoke at once and slid into the driver's seat as Otakar vacated it.

As it had for days, the Road still traversed the coastal swamps. Continually different, yet always the same, the haze-shrouded wastes of reed and water had been chang-ing imperceptibly. The ratio of open water to swamp was growing until, most suddenly, the swamps were gone and there was only water on both sides of the causeway. Jan slowed the train, and the others behind automatically followed. First the radar picked out the individual specks of the vehicles, then he could make them out by sight.

It was frightening. The Road dropped lower and lower below the surrounding water until, a little past the tanks, it vanished completely. Beyond them there was just water, no sign of the Road at all. Just a calm ocean stretching away on all sides.

Jan shouted to Otakar to finish the shutdown proce-dures since, the instant the brakes were set, he was at the exit hatch, pulling on a coldsuit. I'ajos was waiting below when he dropped onto the Road.

"We've no idea how far it goes," he said. "I tried to get across with a tank; you can see the turret of it about 4wo kilometers out. It's deeper there, flooded me suddenly. I just had time to hit the dampers and get out. The next tank threw me a rope, pulled me free."

"What happened?"

"Just a guess. It looks like there was a general subsidence of the land here. Since it was all under water once, maybe it's just dropping back where it came from."

"Any idea how wide this thing is?"

"None. Radar won't reach, and the telescopes just show more haze. It may end in a few kilometers. Or go on until it drops down to the ocean bottom."

"You're optimistic."

"I was in that water-and it's hot. And I can't swim."

"Sorry. I'll go take a look myselL"

"The Road cable is still in place. You can't see any-thing but the instruments can track it."

Jan clumped around to the rear of the engine, his movements hampered by the thick coldsuit. The suit was lined with a network of tubes filled with cold water. A compact refrigeration unit on his belt hummed industriously and expelled the heated exhaust air to the rear. Cooled air was also blown across his face under the transparent helmet. The suit was tiring to wear after a few hoursffibut it made life possible. The outside air temperature now stood near 180 degrees. Jan thumbed on the built-in intercom at the rear of the engine.

"Otakar, can you hear me?"

"Green."

"Set the interlocks to the cars, then disconnect the engine coupling. I'll disconnect the cables back here."

'Are we going for 0 ride?"

"You might say that."

There was a whirr and a clatter as the metal jaws of the coupling slowly opened. Jan pushed the heavy tongue aside, then unplugged all the cable connectors. There were loud thuds under the car behind him as the beta safety brakes were actuated. The cables retracted like snakes into a hole, and he climbed back up to the driving compartment.

"I need three volunteers," he told the waiting crew members as he pulled of~ the coldsuit. "You, you, and you. Alzbeta, take this suit and get back into the train. What we have to do may take a while."

She did not protest, but her eyes were on him as she pulled on the suit slowly and left. Otakar dogged the hatch shut after her. Jan studied the glimmering expanse of water ahead. "Emo," he said, 'just how waterproof are we?"

The engineer did not answer at once. He scratched at his ear in thought as he looked around slowly, looking through the steel walls and floor with a mechanic's eye, seeing all the joints, seals and hatches.

"Not bad at all," he said, finally. "We're made for a certain amount of water, drive trains and bearings, access ports and hatches, all with gaskets. Higher up, all right too, at least for a while. I really think we could submerge right up to the roof without getting into trouble. Higher than that and we could short out the cooling fins on top. Up that far I would say we're waterproof."

"Then I think we better go before we change ou? minds." He dropped into the driver's chair. "Get on the engine-I may need a lot of power. Hyzo, keep the radio open and keep a report going back. If there is any trouble I want the others to know what happened. Otakar, stand by if I need you."

"Going for a swim?" the co-driver asked calmly, flip-ping on switches.

"I hope not. But we have to find out if the Road is still there. We can't turn back and we can't stay here.

And this is the only Road. This engine stands more than twice as high as the tank. It all depends on the depth of the water. Power"

"Full."

The tanks scuttled aside as the hulking engine ground forward. Straight toward the water until the front wheels sent out the first ripples. Then straight in.

"It's like being in a s.h.i.+p.." Otakar said, almost under his breath. With the slight difference, Jan thought, that this engine doesn't float. He did not say it aloud.

All about them was water of unknown depth. They knew the Road was still beneath them, for the water had not yet reached the hubs of the great wheels. And the cable blip was high and centered, being followed automati-cally. But a bow wave was pushed up by the moving engine, and they could have been in a s.h.i.+p for all the apparent connection they had with land~r even with the Road now falling back behind them.

The turret of the tank ahead was a solid reference point that they approached cautiously. As they came close, the water rose steadily. Jan stopped a good twenty meters from the drowned vehicle.

"Water doesn't quite cover our wheels yet, plenty to go," Otakar said, looking out of the side window.

He tried to speak calmly but his voice was strained.

"How wide would you say the Road is here?" Jan asked.

"One hundred meters, as always, like most of the rest of the Road."

"Is it? You don't think this water may have undercut it?"

"I hadn't thought.,.."

"I had. We'll go around the tank, as close as we can. And hope that it is solid enough under the wheels."

He flipped off the autopilot as he spoke and turned the wheel slowly as they moved forward under complete manual. The high white blip of the central cable drifted across the screen until it vanished. It had been their6 nly guide. Higher and still higher the water rose.

"I hope you're staying close to the tank," Hyzo called out. He may have meant it as a joke. It had not sounded like one.

Jan tried to remember just how big the tank was under the water. He wanted to remain as near to it as possible without running into it. Pa.s.sing as close as he could. Water, nothing but water on all sides, the only sound the rumble of the engines and drive and the hoa.r.s.e breathing of the men.

"I can't see it any more," Jan called out suddenly. "Cameras are dead. Otakar!"

The co-driver had already jumped to the rear window.

"Easy on, almost past, falling slightly behind, you can turn sharp... now!"

Jan obeyed blindly. He could do nothing else. He was in the midst of an ocean, turning a wheel, with no refer-ence marks at all. Not too much, straight, he should be past it now. Or was he going in the wrong direction? He would be off the edge of the Road soon. He was unaware of the sweat standing out on his face and dampening his palms.

The tiniest of blips on the cable screen.

"I have it again!"

He centered the wheel, then turned it gradually as the blip slowly moved across the screen to align itself.

When it did so he flipped on the autopilot and leaned back.

"So much for that; now let's see how far this goes on."

He kept the speed controls to himself but allowed the autopilot to track the cable. The Road was still beneath them, impossible as it seemed. They watched as a rain-storm blew toward them and washed over the engine, blanketing vision in all directions. Jan turned on the wipers and the headlights. There was a clatter of relays from the engine room.

"You've lost about half your lights," Emo reported. "Shorted out, circuit breakers kicked out."

"Will it mean trouble? What about the rest of the lights?"

"Should be all right. All the circuits are isolated."

They went on. Rain on all sides and just the spattered surface of the water ahead. Water that rose higher and higher, slowly and surely. There was a sudden ascending whine from the engine room and the engine shuddered, lurching sideways.

"What is it?" Hyzo called out, an edge of panic in his voice.

"Revs up," Jan said, clinging to the wheel, turning it, trying to follow the blip of the cable that was sliding off the screen, killing the autopilot as he did. "But Road speed down. We're moving sideways."

"Sand~r mud on the Road!" Otakar shouted. "We're slipping"

'And we're losing the cable." Jan turned the wheel even more. "This thing is almost afloat; the wheels are not getting the traction they should. But they will"

He stamped hard on the accelerator and the transmis-sion roared deeply from below. The drive wheels spun in the mud, churning it up, digging into it, roiling the surface of the water around them. The sliding still continued-the cable blip was gone from the screen.

"We'll go off the edge!" Hyzo shouted.

"Not yet." Jan's teeth almost met in the flesh of his lip, but he was not aware of it.

There was a lurch, then another one as the wheels touched the surface of the Road. He cut the power as they gripped again, then crept forward. Moment after moment of silence. Until the cable blip appeared again. He cen-tered it, and looked at the compa.s.s to make sure they were not going in the opposite direction. The engine crawled ahead. The rain pa.s.sed and he killed the lights.

"I'm not sure... but I think the water is lower," Otakar said in a hoa.r.s.e voice. "Yes, it is, it must be, that rung was under water a minute ago."

"I'll tell you something even better," Jan said, cutting in the autopilot and dropping back heavily in the chair. "If you look directly ahead I think you'll see where the Road comes out of the water again."

The level of the water sank until the wheels were clear, throwing spray in all directions, then they were up on the solid surface once more and Jan killed the power and set the brakes.

"We're across. The Road is still there."

"But~can the trains make it?" Otakar asked.

"They are going to have to, aren't they?" There was no answer to that.

Eight.

Before there could be any thought of taking the trains across the drowned section of Road there was the barri-cade of the abandoned tank to be considered. Jan drove the engine back down the Road, with scarcely any trouble pa.s.sing the mud-coated section on the return trip, and stopped a few meters from the tank.

'Any ideas?" he asked.

'Any chance of starting it up?" Otakar asked.

"Negative. The pile has been damped and all the circuits are wet by now. But there is something we have to find out before we even look for a way to tackle this." He put in a call to Lajos, who had been driving the tank when it went under. The answer was not cheering at all. "The drive is still engaged.

About the only thing we can do with that tank is push it aside. And we can't do that unless it will roll free.