To The Stars

Jan turned away so they could not see his face and know how he felt. How he tried not to, but how he hated these people. He rubbed the back of his hand across his lips to rub away some of the distaste. No one noticed, they were watching The Hradil as she spoke, face framed by the hatch. “I’m going to Semenov, to Chun Taekeng. You’re getting thrown out, you’ve gone too far.”

Jan took one weary step forward and raised his fist, and the face vanished instantly. Yes, he had gone too far, had shown the bully to be a coward. Hem would never forgive him. Particularly since there had been a witness. Lajos Nagy sat in the co-driver’s seat in silence, silent but well aware of what had happened.

“Start the motors, Jan said. “You think I was too hard on him, Lajos?”

“He’s all right when you work with him a while.”

“I’ll bet he’s worse the longer he’s around.”

A deep vibration shook the floor as the gear trains were engaged and Jan cocked his head, listening. The tank was in good shape. “Pass the word to the others, start engines,” he said. He dogged the hatch shut as the air conditioner came on, then slid into the driver’s seat, his feet on the brakes, his hands resting lightly on the wheel that synchronized track speed and clutches. Twenty tonnes of machinery vibrated gently with anticipation, waiting his command.

“Tell them to stay in line behind me, hundred-meter intervals. We’re moving out.”

Lajos hesitated for just an instant before he switched on his microphone and relayed the order. He was a good man, one of Jan’s mechanics when they weren’t on the Road.

Jan eased the wheel forward and tilted it at the same time. The whine of the gearboxes grew in pitch and the tank lurched ahead as the clutches engaged, the heavy tracks slapping down on the solid rock of the Road. When he switched on the rear camera he saw the rest of the tanks rumble to life on the screen and move out behind him. They were on the way. The broad central street of the city slipped past, the looming walls of the warehouses, then the first of the farms beyond. He kept the controls on manual until the last of the buildings was behind him and the Road had narrowed. The tank picked up speed as he switched to automatic and sat back. A wire, imbedded beneath the congealed lava surface of the Road, acted as a guide. The column of tanks roared on past the farms toward the desert beyond.

They were into the sandy wastes, the unreeling ribbon of Road the only sign of mankind’s existence, before the expected message came through.

“I’m having radio trouble, I’ll call you back,” Jan said, switching off the microphone. The other tanks were on FM command frequency, so should not have intercepted the message. Now that he had started this thing he was going to finish it in his own way.

They were over three hundred kilometers from the settlement before they hit the first problem. Sand had drifted across the Road, forming a barrier two meters thick at its highest. Jan halted the column while his tank crawled up the slope. It wasn’t too bad.

“Which are the two with the biggest dozer blades?”

“Seventeen and nine,” Lajos said.

“Get them up here to clean this stuff away. Get a second driver from the house car, have him stay with you until Hem Ritterspach gets here. He won’t be bearable for a couple of days, so try to ignore him. I’ll radio for him to come in a copter, if it’s not on the way already, and I’ll go back with it.

“I hope there won’t be trouble.”

Jan smiled, tired but happy at having done something. “Of course there will be trouble. That’s all there ever is. But this column is moving fine, Ritterspach won’t dare turn back now. All he can do is push on.”

Jan sent the message, then kicked open the hatch and climbed down onto the sand. Was it warmer here or just his imagination? And wasn’t it lighter on the southern horizon? It might very well be; dawn wasn’t that far away. He stood aside while the tanks ground up the slope and churned past him, the last in the column, towing the house car, stopping just long enough for the relief driver to climb down. The dozers were just attacking the sand when the flutter of the helicopter could be heard above the sound of their tracks. It had been on the way well before his message had been received. It circled once, then settled slowly onto the Road. Jan went to meet it.

Three men climbed down, and Jan knew that the trouble was not over, was perhaps just beginning. He spoke first, hoping to keep them off balance.

“Ivan, what the devil are you doing here? Who is taking care of things with both of us out on the Road?”

Ivan Semenov twisted his fingers in his beard and looked miserable, groping for words. Hem Ritterspach, an assistant Proctor close by his side, spoke first.

“I’m taking you back, Kulozik, under official arrest. You are going to be charged with—”