Choice of the Gallant - Paradox Equation I by Sharon L Reddy

  ****

  Athena looked around. They had to be in his ship. She felt a faint vibration, so she knew they were in flight. How had they gotten there and where was he?

  She found him. He was unconscious on the floor not far from her. She rolled him over gently and began to examine him. Broken clavicle, scapula, ribs, badly bruised leg, she thought his sternum might be cracked and his mass of blond curly hair was matted with blood. And somehow, he'd gotten her to his ship and off the disintegrating planet. She'd found the one she'd been looking for. She smiled at the thought her little-girl white-knight dreams fit with grown-up girl plan, after all, even if he was a bit plump for the armor. Now to keep him alive to accomplish it.

  She gave up hunting for medical supplies after she'd gotten lost twice and nearly didn't find her way back to the control center. She settled for a small basin of water and a soft cloth.

  "Hello."

  "Hello, Gallant. How'd we get here?"

  "We staggered, until a beautiful lady performed an impossible rescue."

  "What?"

  "My ship just does the impossible now and then. Neither of us can figure out how. Unh. There seem to be pieces of me where there shouldn't."

  "Broken ribs. Several. How in hell did you pull that travois with a broken clavicle and scapula?"

  "I didn't pull it far. Couldn't get it up the hill."

  "You carried me?!"

  "You don't weigh much. Probably not more than a hundred twenty pounds, soaking wet."

  "Pounds?! Gallant, you use some amazing terms; weeks, months, pounds."

  "Showing my age. Still hovering. The Curie may be in trouble. Alice needs my help to find her. I need yours to get to the controls. Push that chair over here, then help me into it."

  "At least you have sense enough not to try to stand. Lord! You're heavy!"

  "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to lean on you that much. I weigh near three times what you do. Did I hurt you?"

  "No. I knew it and was prepared to help. I just didn't expect you to need it that fast. Concussion too. Had to be with that smack you got. You didn't expect dizzy to make slow assist fast support, either."

  "I do know how strong you are. You pulled me a long way."

  "We wouldn't have made it without both of us. Gallant gestures are wonderful. Teamwork is practical. What are you doing?"

  "Helping Alice find the Curie. The course was plotted by Telas, a person, not a computer. There wasn't time to input the data."

  "Computers can't play hunches and Telas has the most data as a base for his. You know the data he's got."

  "Precisely. Got her. Put us in her engineering section, Alice. I think Telas and I can hold her together long enough to destroy that disrupter. Athena, how well do you know her systems?"

  "I helped design them. She's a prototype. I hitched a ride on her for this mission. Pulled 'Mama's baby' and they let me get away with it."

  "We're landing. Get someone to help me to the Curie's engineering console, then let Telas know I want him on the ops station."

  She ran for help. She barked, "Work now, questions later!" at the two open-mouthed crewmen who stopped and stared at the room too big to be in the little travel trailer.

  They got Gallant to the main engineering console of the shaking ship and held him up while he worked. Athena worked on the secondary station and implemented the commands that flashed across her screen. Telas did the same thing on the bridge. They tuned the shields, dampened the oscillation, the ship steadied and damage control began to catch up.

  The captain gave the order and the device was destroyed. The Curie raced for Federation space. Gallant smiled and collapsed.

  "Get him to Medical. Now! STOP! You can't carry him like that! Telas! Am I glad to see you! He's got a broken clavicle and scapula and ribs and a concussion. Probably a half dozen other--"

  "I'll carry him. Get a lift and notify Dr. Marsh we're coming. He's his own best healer, but with a concussion, he'll need help."

  As soon as they got on the lift, Telas had Athena get Gallant's healing unit out of his pocket. He looked at the readings, then told her to put it back in the pocket. She raised an eyebrow.

  "He doesn't need more help than we can give him. That unit isn't a great deal better than ours, just enough faster to make the med techs too curious."

  "His ship is going to drive me crazy. It's smaller than it was in the shuttle bay."

  "Only the physical interface. The ship is still infinite."

  "Mathematical construct."

  "Yes, a programmed set of dimensions. There's a very rare non-replicable isotope at the heart of it, but the rest is all a program he wrote. He called it the mathematics of finite infinity. I managed not to say that was a contradiction."

  "It exists, so it's not impossible. Of course, I'll probably spend the rest of my life reminding myself of it. Get him to teach you why it's not, someday. He has enough time, too."

  "Thank you, for understanding knowing someone who does means a great deal to me."

  "I also know there's far too much caring there for a few minutes. It exists, so it's not impossible. Lynn!"

  "Him there. You there. Now, Lieutenant!"

  "Yes, Commander."

  Gallant was unconscious for two days. Dr. Marsh told them it was actually some kind of trance state. Once she'd healed his concussion, his own system had taken over and begun healing his other injuries. She complained about tripping over people every time she turned around, but smiled when she groused. Athena, Telas and Captain Merris smiled back.

  He awoke and asked for water, drank deeply and drifted off to sleep. Lynn Marsh sighed and tripped over people for two more days. Midday of the second day, Athena asked for her help.

  "I think you're crazy."

  "We've talked about this before, Lynn."

  "Theoretically, not as a course of action."

  "I'm going to the Pauling. She's got the finest medical facilities in space. I want this and I do know what I'm doing."

  "I'm not sure it will work. Athena, he's very, very different."

  "Yes. And very, very special."

  "You're in love with him!"

  "Oh, yes, since I was eight. I always helped the white knight rescue me in my fantasies, but I know he's going to leave. Lynn, he's not even from this universe. Came through a 'doorway,' he called it."

  "Two hearts, continual cell replacement, another set of chromosomes, for heaven's sake!"

  "And two arms, two legs, blond curly hair, beautiful voice, the gentlest smile."

  "I give up. If gray-eyed Athena, connoisseur of the fleet, thinks a slightly plump alien is the most perfect male in existence, who am I to argue?"

  "Did you notice? He has gray eyes too. Sort of a sea mist blue-green gray and the fairest skin--"

  "Stop, already. I'm convinced. Climb on the table and let's get this started before I regain my sanity. But I get to be there for the finale. If it works."

  "Yar Hulen's work says it will."

  "Yar Hulen's work says it probably could, maybe."

  "You don't really doubt it will, either."

  "I'm a doctor. I believe in good science and miracles."