In Heaven and Earth Read Online Free

doting fathers,
who sent him long messages once a week, every one packed with
photographs and sly jokes. At least nobody would miss Reuben if the
nanojuice turned him to diamond.
    It might even get him a
hero’s obituary. What an irony that would be.
    “ Let’s do it,”
he said, striding out of the mess. “No point in waiting, is
there?”
    It took all four of them
to open the safe where the nano treatment was kept. Reuben was the
one to take it out, though, closing his hand around the cool
bottle. Suddenly, for the first time in years, he felt certainty
rush through him. Here was a necessary thing, and he was the one
made to do it.
    As a boy on Rigel
platform, he had been taught to believe in providence. He had
rebelled against the idea even then, knowing, as only the young can
know, that he had the intelligence and willpower to change the
world for the better. As far as his faith had survived into
adulthood, it had been in the belief that God had given him the
ability to save lives for a reason, and so he would wage war on
sickness and injury with all his strength.
    Even that faith had long
since failed him, but standing here now, with the stuff that had
almost destroyed humanity shimmering in a vial in his palm, he felt
suddenly close to God again.
    “ You still
don’t have to,” Eskil whispered. “Not yet. We’ve got time to let
you think it through.”
    “‘ If it be now,
’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be
not now, yet it will come— the readiness is all,’” Reuben quoted.
Eskil looked blank, so Reuben smiled at him ruefully and asked,
“What do you do in hyperspace when the rest of us are
reading?”
    “ Fly the damn
ship,” Eskil snapped back with a ghost of a smile.
    “ Play games and
watch vids like a normal person,” Meili said, rolling her
eyes.
    Chanthavy smiled at him,
though. He wasn’t much older than Meili and Eskil, but her smile
was that of an elder to an elder. “You’re hardly the Hamlet sort,
Cooper.”
    “ Even Hamlet
took action in the end, for all the good it did him,” Reuben
said.
    Chanthavy glanced at the
uncomprehending faces of the rest of the crew and offered him a wry
smile. “Another time, perhaps. Only you will be able to effect
changes in our patient, but we will all be taking shifts to monitor
your life signs. You have ten days before any nanites still in your
system self-destruct. They will reproduce and change function at
your direction. If the attempt proves fruitless, inform us, and we
will revive you.”
    “ You won’t have
any tools in there except what you visualise,” Eskil said, his hair
twisting into knots. “On the other hand, the bots will respond to
your every whim. You’ll need to set up a mental protocol to
control—”
    “ I did the
simulation training too,” Reuben said.
    “ Really?”
    Reuben rolled his eyes as
he walked over to sit on the second bed that Meili had set up. He
stripped off and shrugged on a robe before he settled back against
the crinkling pillow. “Yes, Eskil, I am just as qualified to be
here as the rest of you.”
    “ Bet it didn’t
take you as many attempts to pass the sim as it did Eskil,” Meili
said, adjusting the bed settings. “Or me, for that
matter.”
    “ Mei and I met
in the resit class,” Eskil said. “Hey, Juniper , what did Cooper score in
NTSIM01? Was he as crap as the rest of us?”
    “ Ninety-seven
percent, Dr Levin.” The ship’s computer had a prim voice, despite
Eskil’s many attempts to reprogram it.
    They all turned to stare
at Reuben, who glared back. “What? They docked marks when I swore
at the examiner. When did you hack into my records,
Eskil?”
    “ It’s a sign of
affection,” Eskil tried, but he was still staring. Suddenly, he
smiled. “Okay, then, I’m a little less worried. Good luck,
Coop.”
    “ Ready?”
Chanthavy said, holding out her hand.
    He passed her the vial.
“As I’ll ever be.”
    Eskil and Meili left, and
Reuben tried to find