Starborne

Free Starborne by Robert Silverberg Page B

Book: Starborne by Robert Silverberg Read Free Book Online
Authors: Robert Silverberg
contact with her sister?
    ***
    For a moment, right at the beginning, sitting in her cabin aboard the Wotan as it lay parked in orbit above the Earth with launch only an hour or two away, Noelle had given some thought to such matters too, and in that moment she had nearly let herself be overwhelmed by panic. It seemed inconceivable to her, suddenly, that she woul d really be able to maintain contact with her sister across the vast span of interstellar space. And she could not imagine what life would be like for her in the absence of Yvonne. A sword suddenly descending, cutting the thread that had bound them since t h e moment of their birth, and even before. And then that dreadful silence — that awful unthinkable isolation — she was asto n ished, suddenly, that she had ever exposed herself to the possibility that such a thing might happen.
    What am I doing here? Where am I? G et out of this place, idiot! Run, home, home to Yvonne!
    Wild fear swept her like fire in a parched forest. She trembled, and the trembling turned into an anguished shaking, and she clasped her arms around her shoulders and doubled over, sick, miserably fri ghtened, gasping in terror. But then, somehow, some measure of calmness r e turned. She closed her eyes — that always helped — took deep breaths, compelled herself to unfold her clasped arms and stand straight, forced the knotted muscles of her shoulders and bac k to uncoil. It would all work out, she told herself fiercely. It would. It would. Yvonne would be there after the shunt just as before.
    It was time to go back to the lounge. The captain was going to make a speech to the assembled crew just before the laun ch itself. Coolly N o elle moved through the corridors of the ship, touching this, stroking that, drawing its strange sterile air deep into her lungs so that she would begin to feel native to it, familiarizing herself with textures and smells and highly loca l patterns of coolness or warmth. She had already been aboard twice before, during the indoctrination sessions. They had built the starship up here in space, for it was a flimsy thing and could not be subjected to the traumas of the acceleration needed to lift it out of a planetary gravitational field. For months, years, hordes of mass-drivers had come chugging up from bases on the Moon, hauling tons of prefa b ricated materiel as the great job of weaving and spinning went on and on. And gradually the members of the crew had been chosen, brought together here, shown their way around the strange-looking vessel that would contain their lives, perhaps, until the end of their days.
    Yvonne will still be there once we have set out, she told herself. Why should the l ink fail?
    There was no reason to think that it would; but none to think that it would necessarily hold, either. She and Yvonne were something new under the sun. No body of experimental study existed to cover the case of telepathic twin sisters separated by a span of dozens of light-years. Noelle had nothing but faith to support her belief that the power that joined their minds was wholly unaffected by distance, but her faith had been secure up till that moment of sudden panic just now. She and Yvonne had o f ten spoken to each other from opposite sides of the planet without difficulty, had they not?
    Yes. Yes. But would it be so simple when they were half a galaxy apart?
    The last hours before departure time were ticking down. The ship was full of people, not all of them actual members of the crew. Noelle felt their presences all around her: men, a lot of them, deep voices, a special sharpness to their sweat. Some women, t o o. The rustle of diffe r ent kinds of garments, thin robes, crisp blouses, the clink of jewelry. Everybody tense: she could smell it, a sharpness in the air. She could hear it in the subliminal hesitations of their voices.
    Well, why not be tense? Switches wo uld be thrown and incompr e hensible forces would come into play and the starship would vanish

Similar Books

Red Harvest

Dashiell Hammett

The Gothic Terror MEGAPACK™: 17 Classic Tales

Henry James, Ann Radcliffe, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Gertrude Atherton

Grk Undercover

Joshua Doder

Microserfs

Douglas Coupland