Star Nomad (Fallen Empire, Book 1)

  Chapter 9

  After a couple of hours without further sign of pursuit, everyone on the ship relaxed, and people started wandering into NavCom to look at the asteroid field and ask questions. Alisa thought about locking the hatch and keeping everyone out, but she owed her other two passengers an explanation. Soon after they had left Dustor, she’d explained that there would be a diversion before they headed to Perun, but she hadn’t said anything that would lead them to believe they would be in danger. Of course, she couldn’t have anticipated pirates haunting the T-belt, not when there wasn’t anything out here except ore, and that was only for those with the patience and dedication to mine it out. Not to mention equipment. Still, this far away from the civilized planets, she couldn’t say that running into trouble surprised her.

  Yumi and Alejandro came to NavCom together.

  “Everyone doing all right?” Alisa asked. Perhaps she should have gotten on the intercom and asked earlier, but she had been too busy navigating through the maze of rocks to leave her seat or worry overmuch about customer service.

  “My chickens were alarmed by the battle,” Yumi said. “Out of fear, they squabbled among themselves, and some blood was drawn. Fortunately, the good doctor here had some QuickSkin. While not rated for livestock, it did the job.”

  Alejandro inclined his head.

  “The girls have quieted down now,” Yumi said.

  “That’s good.”

  “There may not be eggs in the morning.”

  “There’s plenty of oatmeal in the mess.” Alisa admitted that the eggs had been a nice treat. Fresh food was a rarity out here unless one had recently left a planet or a moon.

  Yumi leaned on the back of the co-pilot’s chair and eyed the asteroid field. “May I sit at your sensor station? I’ve never been out here before. It would be interesting to take close-up readings of my own instead of relying on textbooks.”

  “Close-up? Should have been here two hours ago. I could have given you very close up.”

  Yumi tilted her head.

  “Never mind.” Alisa pointed her thumb behind her shoulder at the fold-out seat. “Read away.”

  “Excellent. I’ll take some recordings to use in the classroom for my students.”

  “That’s right—you said you’re a teacher, didn’t you?”

  “A science teacher, yes. Though I am looking for work. I was a part of a program to start more schools on Dustor, but that was scrapped halfway through the war. Oddly, people aren’t interested in sending their children out in the world to study when bombs are being dropped in the streets.”

  Alisa frowned, trying to decide if that was simply a wry observation or if there was a hint of condemnation in there, condemnation for an officer who had been a part of the force that had been behind the bombings. Not that they couldn’t have been avoided had the empire simply accepted its fate and succumbed earlier. It had taken the death of the emperor himself before things had finally fallen apart, and white flags had been raised in surrender.

  Yumi continued speaking, not noticing Alisa’s frown. “After that, I found work and refuge in the Red River Sanctuary among the monks seeking a deeper understanding of themselves and of the universe through meditation.”

  Alisa resisted the urge to ask if it was hard to meditate with bombs going off in the nearby city.

  “I’m surprised I didn’t see you there,” Yumi added, nodding to Alejandro’s robe.

  “It wasn’t until after the war that I headed to Dustor for research and to seek a better understanding of the universe,” he said.

  “A planet habitually scoured by sandstorms and earthquakes and now run by the mafia being the natural place for those things,” Alisa said, wondering what kind of research one could possibly do there.

  “It is a place in need of guidance from the sun gods,” Alejandro said. “I had intended to stay longer, but pressing business back on Perun has demanded my return.” His lips thinned as he regarded the asteroid field. He’d been too polite or cultured to complain about the delay when she announced it, and this was the first glimpse she’d had that it irritated him. “Are we allowed to know why we’ve come to the T-belt and how long we’ll be delayed here?” Despite the brief display of irritation, his tone was as calm and measured as ever. Almost melodious. She wondered if he was a good singer.

  “You’ll have to ask Leonidas. This is his mission. Trust me, I didn’t want to come.” Alisa waved to the co-pilot’s seat in case Alejandro wanted to sit down. She would rather have everyone seated than anyone looming over her shoulder.

  He lifted his fingers, declining the offer. “Leonidas?”

  “The cyborg.”

  “Interesting choice,” he murmured so softly Alisa almost missed the words.

  “I assume it’s not his real name,” she said, fishing. She recalled that Alejandro had seemed to recognize something about Leonidas when they first saw each other in the cargo hold.

  “Likely not.”

  Disappointed, she guided them around another asteroid. Was that all she would get from him?

  “I figure there are some people who might want him dead if they knew who he was,” Alisa tried, though she hadn’t figured any such thing.

  “I’m certain there are many people who want cyborgs dead.” Alejandro clasped his hands behind his back and watched the asteroid field.

  They flew past a big one with a refining station taking up a third of the real estate. It wasn’t the first sign they had seen of mining operations as they had passed through. After their run-in with the pirates, Alisa was glad they had all appeared automated thus far. At the least, nobody had hailed them and asked them what they were doing.

  “Leonidas?” Yumi lifted her head. She’d had her nose to the sensor display, tinkering with the controls. “That was one of the Spartan kings, yes? The one who died at Thermopylae.”

  Alejandro regarded her through his eyelashes. “I thought you taught science, not history.”

  “A science teacher can’t read a history book now and then?”

  Alisa wished she knew what they were talking about, especially if there was a hint to the cyborg’s identity in it. But her education hadn’t been thorough when it came to history, at least Old Earth history. She knew about the Foundation, of course, and about the colonies, the Starseer attempt to conquer the system, the Order Wars, and the eventual establishment of the Sarellian Empire, but her mother had been more interested in teaching her how to survive flights through the system than about ancient history, and at the university, most of her courses had revolved around mathematics and astronautics. She supposed the cyborg’s past didn’t matter much to her. She was just going to drop him off as soon as she got the chance. Besides, seeing his blood work to lower the shields of an imperial ship told her enough. He’d likely been someone fairly high up in the military command structure. He might even have been someone she had faced in battle before. That thought made her shudder.

  She focused on her controls, checking their current location against the coordinates Leonidas had given her. They ought to be getting close.

  “Leonidas belonged to the Agiad dynasty, if I recall correctly,” Yumi said, “and they claimed descent from the divine hero Heracles.” She chuckled. “I suppose I could see why a cyborg might wish to be associated with such a representative of masculinity.”

  “I will be in my cabin if there is further need of a doctor,” Alejandro said and walked out.

  Yumi peered after him. “Did I offend him?”

  “He was an imperial. They get offended easily these days.” Losing a war would do that to a person.

  “Was he? He didn’t say.”

  “I’m just assuming. Most rich and well-educated people are beholden to the system they’re born into and aren’t real appreciative when things get changed and they lose their status.”

  “How do you know he’s rich? Your fare wasn’t that extravagant.”

  Alisa lifted a shoulder. In truth, it was just a hunch
. His robe certainly didn’t denote great wealth, but he had a manner about him, one that spoke of education and being raised in a genteel environment. Maybe because she’d been raised out in the scruff of the system on the battered old freighter, she could sniff out the privileged, even when they hid under monastic robes.

  As they skimmed past a red asteroid with a bluish layer carved off the end, a new thought popped into Alisa’s mind. “Say, Yumi, do you want to do me a favor? Can you take some readings and get an idea of what minerals are in the asteroids out here? Especially if there’s anything unusual or rare?”

  “I can try. We would need core samples to truly analyze them. Why do you ask?”

  Alisa glanced at the hatchway, making sure Leonidas hadn’t strolled up to observe again. He moved quietly for such a big man. Even in combat armor, he hadn’t clomped as much as one would expect.

  “Just wondering what kind of research station someone might set up out here,” she said quietly.

  “Is that where we’re going? A research station?”

  “That’s what I was led to believe.” She looked toward the holodisplay where the oblong asteroid still floated.

  “Give me a few minutes, and I’ll see if the rocks themselves have any clues. The area might simply have been chosen for its remoteness. Without directions, you’d never find a particular asteroid in this maze. Even with directions, you would have to take into account the orbit of the asteroids and the Yarkovsky effect, among other things.”

  Alisa eyed the holodisplay again. Had Leonidas gotten the map from someone else, perhaps through trade—or force? Or had he figured it out for himself?

  “The T-belt is known for containing asteroids rich in gold, platinum, cobalt, iron, nickel, osmium, and ahridium,” Yumi said, her nose to the sensor display. “I see nothing to contradict that so far. As for rare ore, I don’t know. Do you want to stop and take a core sample? I would be happy to examine it.”

  “No stopping,” came Leonidas’s voice from the corridor. He walked into NavCom, still wearing his combat armor, and gave cool looks to Alisa and Yumi. “We’re almost there.”

  Alisa thought about telling him that it was her ship, and she would stop to be a tourist—or a geologist—whenever she wished, but the truth was that even though she was curious about their destination, she did not want to delay out here. Those pirates could still be looking for them, and who knew what other nefarious entities were lurking out here? Besides, she could have Mica figure out a way to grab samples of the asteroid they landed on—or in—while Leonidas was exploring.

  “Your wish is my command, Sir Cyborg,” Alisa said with a smile.

  “So glad you asked for my name,” he muttered.

  As Alisa piloted them along the curvature of a slowly spinning asteroid, an oblong one came into view, its surface dotted with so many craters that it looked like a block of Boracan eye cheese.

  “That’s it,” Leonidas said, his voice calm, though he had to be excited inside. Assuming cyborgs could get excited inside. “Take us to the far side.” He poked at the holodisplay and produced a close-up of a set of three craters. “We’re looking for that configuration.”

  “Anything on the sensors, Yumi?” Alisa wanted to make sure there weren’t any ships around to see them slip into the crater. She could easily imagine getting trapped in a dead end.

  “Iridium, cobalt, aluminum, nickel…”

  “I meant ships. Are there any ships on the sensors?” Alisa leaned back and slapped the button to widen the scan to the field rather than a specific asteroid.

  “Ah. Nothing within range.”

  Alisa reduced their speed and flew slowly over the surface. The asteroid was about ten kilometers on its longest axis and less than half that wide. A sizable research facility could be maintained inside. She looked for signs on the surface that it had been mined, but did not see any obvious clues.

  “There.” Leonidas pointed, the configuration of three craters coming into view, exactly as they appeared on his map.

  “Which one do I enter?” Alisa eyed them without pleasure. They weren’t wide, and the spin and the gravitational force of the asteroid could add challenges.

  “Any of them. They’re supposed to connect at one central tunnel.”

  “Supposed to. Words like that fill a pilot with confidence.”

  He grunted. “I haven’t noticed that your confidence is lacking.”

  “I’m going to take that as a compliment, though I doubt you meant it as one.”

  One of his eyebrows twitched, but he did not disagree.

  Alisa chose the upper crater, reversing the thrusters to slow them as they approached it. Already, she could feel the gravitational pull of the massive rock. The dark hole yawned, no hint of manmade influence inside. She flicked on the ship’s searchlight, and a strong white beam illuminated the way. Around the edges, the crater appeared natural, a deep pockmark that extended hundreds of meters into the surface where something had struck the asteroid long ago. Farther in, it narrowed and the walls grew less natural. What should have been the pit of the crater turned into a tunnel, a manmade tunnel. The sides appeared to have been chiseled out by robots, much like one would expect to see in a mining complex.

  Leonidas leaned forward, gripping the back of the empty co-pilot’s seat, the first indication that he was excited.

  The darkness grew absolute as they flew deeper, the light from the stars and the suns fading behind them. Even though Alisa knew nothing lived out here in the vacuum of space, she half expected a bevy of bats to flap out of the black depths, battering them with their wings.

  “Fly carefully,” Leonidas said. “There may be traps.”

  “What?” Alisa shot him her best incredulous look. “You didn’t think to mention that earlier?”

  “I deem the likelihood low. I heard nothing about traps when I was researching this place. I simply thought it advisable to mention the possibility.”

  Alisa would have preferred if he hadn’t.

  “This is quite fascinating,” Yumi said, glancing from the view screen to the sensor display. “Had I known the trip would include a tour of the Trajean Asteroid Belt, I wouldn’t have balked at the price.”

  “You didn’t balk at it, anyway.”

  “In my mind, I did.”

  Alisa nudged the flight stick. “Is this asteroid spinning on us, or was this tunnel carved out by a miner high on glowrum?”

  “Small asteroids may spin a complete rotation once every few minutes,” Yumi said, “but the large ones spin much more slowly, generally taking many hours to complete a rotation.”

  “Glowrum it is,” Alisa said, nudging the stick again. None of the rear cameras showed a view of the exit hole anymore.

  Two other tunnels melded into theirs, like streams joining a larger river. Alisa wondered if there was anything in those other tunnels. It seemed strange to dig three entrances to a secret research base. Unless psychedelic alcohol truly had been involved.

  “I’m reading an energy source up ahead,” Yumi said.

  “A fission reactor will be providing electricity for life support and basic operations,” Leonidas said.

  The search beam bounced off metal up ahead. Massive cylindrical tanks—water tanks?—were embedded in the rock to either side of the tunnel, leaving only a tight space to pass through. There wouldn’t have been room for a ship much larger than this one.

  Thinking of Leonidas’s mention of traps, Alisa slowed them further, easing toward the gap, her fingers on the maneuvering thrusters.

  Yumi stirred. “There’s a surge of power. We—”

  Blue light flashed, and Alisa cursed. The harsh light wasn’t just outside, but filled her ship, reminding her of the X-ray search beams she’d had to walk through when entering campus back on Perun. Those had been scanners. She hoped that was all these were.

  Even as she had the thought, the ship lurched, as if a hand had reached out and grabbed it. They halted abruptly, hanging in the sp
ace between the two tanks.

  “Uh, Leonidas?” Alisa prompted.

  “Unauthorized personnel,” a mechanical voice announced over the comm. “This is an imperial research station. If you cannot identify yourself as an authorized visitor, you will be destroyed.”

  “Uh,” Alisa said again, reaching for the thruster controls, worried she wouldn’t be able to reverse the ship.

  Leonidas caught her wrist. “Touch nothing.”

  “I sure hope you’re authorized.”

  Leonidas hit the comm button with his free hand. “Research Station Blackstar, check again for authorized personnel.”

  The wave of blue light washed through the ship again, highlighting their faces as it drove every shadow from the cabin. Alisa spotted dust bunnies under the co-pilot’s seat and told herself to clean that later—if they survived until later.

  A red light appeared ahead, seemingly springing out of the side walls. What was that? Some kind of ray of energy that was going to irradiate them all?

  Leonidas frowned. Had he expected to be recognized and let in?

  The red light increased in brightness in front of them, and an alarm beeped on the console.

  “The temperature is rising out there,” Yumi said, her earlier curiosity and enthusiasm for this “tour” replaced by concern as her words came out rapidly. “Quickly. If it continues at its current rate, it’ll reach the melt point for most metals.”

  “The shields are up,” Alisa said.

  “They won’t hold indefinitely.”

  Alisa pulled her wrist away from Leonidas. He let her—she wouldn’t have been a match for his strength otherwise. He wore a puzzled expression, the first one she had seen from him.

  “Unauthorized personnel,” the mechanical voice announced. “Prepare to be incinerated.”

  Alisa hit the thrusters with the side of her fist. Time to get out of here.

  A good idea, but the ship did not move. Whatever was keeping them from continuing farther also kept them from retreating. The red light grew so intense that Alisa couldn’t look at the view screen. Sweat broke out along her brow. She wasn’t sure if it was because the heat was already making itself felt through the shields and the hull, or if she was just panicking. Squawks from terrified chickens floated up from the cargo hold. She wasn’t the only one panicking.

  Deep nasal-sounding breaths came from behind her seat.

  “What are you doing, Yumi?”

  “Placing myself in a state of optimal heart rate variability to reduce my body’s stress response and induce calmness,” Yumi said slowly, her eyes closed to slits. “The Starkowatz Philosophy teaches us to feel less anxious about death through altering our consciousness, but sometimes, it can be difficult to get the mind to cooperate.” She closed her eyes all the way and went back to her breathing.

  “I have trouble getting my mind to cooperate all the time. Leo, buddy, last chance to do something, or we’re about to find out what the melt point is for cyborg sprockets.”

  Leonidas gave her one of the flat looks he was exceedingly good at, then leaned closer to the comm. “Research Station Blackstar, check for delivery of authorized cargo,” he said, forgoing the mention of personnel this time.

  The blue light flashed, scanning them again.

  Alisa tried again to move the Nomad. The thrusters activated without a problem—they just couldn’t generate enough of a push to send them anywhere.

  Abruptly, the blue light disappeared, and so did the red light outside. The view screen dimmed, though it had been so bright that the red rectangle remained in Alisa’s vision, as if burned there for all eternity. A small price to pay for the cessation of that heat. She might have slumped down in her seat, but the field holding them released them. She nudged the thrusters, and the Nomad ambled forward, as if it had never been held.

  Leonidas wore a dyspeptic expression, not looking nearly as relieved as Alisa felt over escaping death.

  “Is that you?” she asked, the pieces of the puzzle clicking together. Unless one counted Yumi’s chickens, she didn’t have any other “cargo,” certainly nothing that would have pleased an imperial security checkpoint. “The authorized cargo?”

  Leonidas smoothed his expression, ignoring her question. “There’s a docking station. Find a spot for us, then join me in the cargo hold.” He shifted his helmet out from under his arm, gripping it with both hands. “Have your new science officer check and see if there’s oxygen and gravity inside of the station.” He turned, plopping the helmet onto his head as he walked out.

  “Anyone tell you that you’re not the captain here?” Alisa called after him.

  She wasn’t surprised when he didn’t respond. He’d been irked when she had referred to him as your kind. Being classified as the cargo probably irritated him even more.