CHAPTER 5
Riverside Tavern
“Has anything happened yet because I made the decision to go ahead with the fold?” asked Ram.
“Yes,” said the expendable. “You remained in command of the ship.”
Ram was a little irritated to learn that the decision had been a test of him rather than a real decision. “So you were going ahead no matter what I decided?”
“Yes,” said the expendable. “It’s in our mission program. You never had a choice about that.”
“Then what am I here for?” asked Ram.
“To make all the decisions after the fold. Nothing is known about what happens after we jump. If you had proven yourself timid before the jump, you would be regarded as unfit to make decisions afterward.”
“So if I was too timid, I would have been replaced. By you?”
“By the next crew member we awakened and tested. Or the one after that.”
“So when does the real jump happen?”
“In a week or so. If we don’t blow up before then. Spacetime is being very naughty right now.”
“And nothing I might do can stop it?”
“That’s right, Ram.”
“And what if none of the crew turned out to be capable of making a decision that would satisfy your criteria?”
“Then we would command ourselves until we got to the target planet.”
“‘We’ . . . meaning the expendables?”
“We the ship. All the computers together.”
“But the ship’s computers don’t agree on anything.”
“That’s one of the many reasons we were all hoping you’d do the right thing.”
Ram hadn’t missed the one bit of information the expendable had given him. There was zero chance that it had been an inadvertent slip. “What do you mean, spacetime is being naughty?”
“We keep generating fields and forces, and things change. They just don’t change the way anyone predicted.”
“And when was I going to be told that?”
“When you asked.”
“What else should I ask in order to find out what’s going on?”
“Whatever you’re curious about.”
“I want to know what spacetime is doing.”
“It’s stuttering, Ram.”
“W
hat does that mean?” asked Ram.