Godspeed by Charles Sheffield

Godspeed Base had to exist, too, somewhere in the Maveen system."
    "Why?" I asked.
    "Because every machine needs repairs sometime. The Godspeed ships must have had a place in each star system, somewhere they could go for refitting or maintenance work. And the Base wouldn't have disappeared when the ships stopped coming here."
    " Why did they stop coming?"
    "Nobody knows. I've heard scientists say that the whole Godspeed Drive system contained the seeds of its own destruction, something to do with the nature of space and time, and it should never have been built. I've heard religious leaders say that the isolation of Maveen and the Forty Worlds is a punishment for our sins on Erin. And of course, I've heard a thousand times that there never was a Godspeed Drive, that it's only an old legend." She looked directly at Mother. "You can point out to those people that humans clearly didn't evolve on Erin, and ask how we got here. But you won't get anywhere. Because most of them don't believe in evolution, either. Any more than they'll believe that what Jay has sitting in front of him is important."
    I had a suspicion that Doctor Eileen was taking a dig at Duncan West, without mentioning his name. In any case, it was obvious how she regarded all such people. I stared at the little plastic wafer, switched off now on the table. We still didn't know why anyone would kill for it. But if it had come from Godspeed Base, that seemed to make it important enough to Doctor Eileen, if not yet to me.
    "Do you think that Paddy Enderton had been to the base?" I asked.
    "I doubt it. There would have been other evidence."
    "There is." I told them about the telecon, and the little direction finder that he had given me.
    "I'd like to take a look at those tomorrow," Doctor Eileen said, casually condemning me to another blood-chilling climb up the water tower. "But I mean more direct evidence. If he'd actually been there, he'd have come home with proof. And he'd not have kept that a secret when he reached Erin. But from what you've told me, he was convinced that he knew where Godspeed Base was. And he was definitely planning a trip there. That's why he wanted you take him to Muldoon Port, before he collapsed. And those other men knew that he knew. That's why they came after him yesterday."
    I still had a basic question. "If the Godspeed ships don't come here any more, why is Godspeed Base so important?"
    "Jay, you can ask more questions than any sane woman can answer," Mother said sharply. "Go to bed."
    But Doctor Eileen was answering: "Because there's a chance that a complete Godspeed ship, with a full Godspeed Drive, is sitting out there at the base. It would have been there as a backup. Otherwise a Godspeed crew would have risked being stranded if the ship they came in was destroyed, or if there were major problems with the Godspeed Drive."
    If she had wanted to choose words to guarantee that I would be unable to sleep, she could hardly have done better. Two months ago, exploration of the Forty Worlds with the spacers had been my great dream. Now Doctor Eileen was telling me that somewhere out there, within reach of our ships, might be something to take us to the stars.
    But mother was saying again, "Go to bed, Jay. Eileen and I have other things to talk about."
    I picked up Paddy Enderton's device and left the room. A minute later I was outside, staring across at the distant lights of Muldoon Port. My thoughts about it had changed since yesterday. Enderton had wanted to go there. The men who had hurt Mother and killed Chum had left by water. They were spacers. Chances were, they had gone to Muldoon. The spaceport was the road out, the way to the Forty Worlds, and now to Godspeed Base.
    But the men had left without the information that they came for. That was in my hand, locked away, waiting for someone to find the key.
    Voice-activated, Doctor Eileen had said. Well, I had a voice, as good as anyone else's.
    I went back indoors and up to my bedroom.