Suicide Run

  Zoya shrugged. “Wanna dig around under the deck?”

  “Not if we have to cut it open,” Natalya said, staring at her schematic. “Not yet anyway.”

  “Well, if they’re as small as I think they are, we can probably spit out the lock and get better response,” Zoya said.

  “I agree and I’m ashamed to admit I didn’t catch it,” Natalya said. “But there’s an inspection hatch in the passageway by the lock.” She highlighted another area and showed the display to Zoya. We should be able to get in there. The fuel lines run under the decking, past the ventral maneuvering thrusters, and up to the bow harness. My schematic says they’re the same size.”

  Zoya consulted her screen and nodded. “Mine, too.”

  “We’ll need a hatch puller and I think the nearest one is on the Peregrine,” Natalya said.

  “There isn’t one in the engineering locker?” Zoya asked.

  “That locker is empty at the moment. Just like practically every other locker, drawer, and cabinet on the ship. We wouldn’t have coffee—or mugs to drink it with—if we hadn’t brought it with us.” Natalya paused. “How are you coming on the idiot lights?”

  Zoya shook her head. “I got distracted by the system bus problem. I need to finish that test suite and get back into it. I still think there are more than binary sensors at the end of the cables.”

  “Can we go to the source, rather than trying to find our way back to it through the system?”

  Zoya frowned and stared into the distance for a few moments. “Maybe. I don’t know where the sensors got mounted in the various systems. Even if we found one, we have no way of knowing if all the sensors are the same. Some could be legit and others only binary. And we’d still need to drill into the software application layer to change the displays.”

  Natalya nodded. “Good points.”

  Zoya heaved herself out of her chair. “I better get back to it. I’ll be glad when they get that couch replaced.”

  Natalya stood and started down the passageway. “I’ll go get the hatch puller and we can check the fuel lines.”

  Natalya keyed the lock open and walked off the ship, triggering it closed with her fob as she left. She paused as the ramp retracted. She ran a hand over the hull where the lock override must be hidden. Most ships had the override plainly marked but this one’s black hull coating masked the location. On one hand, it made some sense to hide it from casual view. On the other, the lack of visible cues scratched Natalya’s engineering itch. It just didn’t seem right. She couldn’t feel any difference as she ran her fingertips back and forth across the hull. The coating had just enough texture to keep her from feeling it. She tried to picture where Carroll had it open, closing her eyes and replaying in her mind how he’d accessed it. He’d just tapped on the hull. She opened her eyes again and reached for the hull just forward of the lock and right at the mid-line of the curve. A firm tap popped the cover open, revealing the keypad inside. She smiled and reached up to close the cover just as a tiny green light pulsed near the top of the compartment.

  “What the—?”

  She leaned in, standing on tiptoe to get a good look. A tiny module, not much bigger than her little finger, rested across the top edge of the opening. Made from the same material as the keypad assembly, it blended in almost perfectly. The little green light pulsed again.

  She settled back on her heels and examined the keypad. A detail tickled the back of her brain. She pulled out her key fob again and pressed the button to open the lock. A tiny red light pulsed and the lock started to cycle. She felt her eyebrows climbing her forehead.

  Zoya stuck her head out and looked at her. “Forget something?”

  “Come look at this, would you?”

  Zoya hopped down and looked at the keypad just as the green light pulsed. “What am I looking at?”

  Natalya pointed. “That seems to be the module that senses the key fob signal. Watch.”

  She pressed the button again, the red light pulsed twice, and the lock started to cycle closed.

  Zoya nodded. “Good hypothesis. What else?”

  “What’s missing in there?”

  “Missing?”

  “I’m looking at this and I can’t help think there’s something that’s supposed to be there that isn’t.”

  Zoya hmm’d and took a step back, squinting her eyes a little before looking around at the hull. “Override jack?”

  “That’s it,” Natalya said. “Even the Peregrine has an override jack.”

  Zoya reached into the compartment and plucked the small component out with two fingers, revealing the data jack behind it. She rolled the component over in her hand to show the plug on the back. “Voila.”

  Natalya pressed the button on her key fob. The lock didn’t move. “That answers one question. Odd solution but makes getting rid of the fobs easier.”

  “Maybe the fobs are only for the yard,” Zoya said. “Giving everybody a fob would be easier than trying to add a code for everybody who needed access.”

  “I suppose,” Natalya said. “They’d still have to tell the ship which new codes to allow, unless they gave everybody the same code.”

  “Unless the codes aren’t just strings of digits but solution sets. Pass a value to the lock. If it evaluates to a valid solution, the lock opens,” Zoya said. “Heck, even a quick close-field comms blip from the station system would be enough.”

  Natalya nodded. “That would work, too.”

  A red light pulsed twice on the unit.

  “There must be an off switch somewhere,” Natalya said.

  Zoya rolled the unit around until she found a tiny slider on the top. She got a fingernail on it and slid it with a soft click. They watched the unit for a tick. “That’s probably it,” Zoya said, flipping the switch back. The unit pulsed blue a few times before repeating the double-red. She pressed it back into the socket and it pulsed blue once before flashing a double green pulse.

  “Looks like key fobs are optional, after all,” Natalya said. “All we need is the keypad code.”

  Zoya pulled out her fob and keyed the lock open. “You were going for the hatch puller?”

  Natalya nodded as Zoya slipped back into the ship. The lock closed behind her. Natalya slapped the cover closed over the keypad and headed for the gallery. Something still niggled at the back of her brain. “I’m missing something,” she said. “I know it.”

  A few ticks later she had the inspection hatch pulled up from the deck. She got down on her belly and shined a light into the cramped space below the decking. Zoya stood over her, hands on knees.

  “That’s a first,” Natalya said, reaching in and putting a couple of fingers on one of the tubes running fore and aft. “This looks like the size it should be. Not the size on the blueprint.” She rolled to one side. “What do you think?”

  Zoya got down on her stomach and reached in. “Blueprint indicated they’d put in twenty-five millimeter tubing, but you’re right. That’s more like fifty.” Zoya looked up at Natalya. “You’re the engineer. You tell me.”

  “I’m pretty sure fifty’s what I’m running on the Peregrine. At least to the maneuvering thrusters. Kickers are running paired hundreds.”

  “What are the odds?” Zoya asked.

  “That they did it right back there?”

  “Yeah,” Zoya said, leaning farther into the inspection port. “What all’s down here?”

  Natalya leaned in beside her. “Well, you know the thruster fuel line. That conduit with the green tape should be the data run going back to engineering. Red is electrical power. Blue is potable water. Sewer and gray water should be off to port.” She craned her neck to look under the decking. “Yup.”

  Zoya followed suit and nodded. “Makes sense. Head and galley are on that side of the ship.”

  “Exactly,” Natalya said, pulling herself back up onto the deck. “We can check the kickers tomorrow. How soon before we can take this baby out for a spin, d’ya think?

  “Well, if
we go with the idiot lights, probably as soon as we can get the sensor bus rack rebuilt and fuel aboard,” Zoya said. “I didn’t see anything else out of whack.”

  “We’ll need that couch replaced,” Natalya said.

  Zoya nodded. “That’s a given. You have a test protocol?”

  “I was just going off the original,” Natalya said. “We know it would have been enough to catch most of the problems we’ve found.”

  Zoya snorted. “I’m not sure we’ve found them all.”

  “Me either, but I’m also pretty sure we’ve done about as much as we can do in terms of checking the ship out before we try to take it out for a test run.”

  Chapter 33

  Pulaski Yards

  2366, May 28

  PANKO STOOD OUTSIDE the lock and glared at Natalya. “Look, you two got me in the door, now you’re not going to let me do my job?”

  “Ernst, I don’t know how to say this any plainer,” Natalya said. “You’re right. This ship is a catastrophe in the making. I don’t trust it enough to jump anywhere in it for fear it wouldn’t go where I asked or that it wouldn’t get me back. But—” She held up a hand to forestall whatever it was he was about to say. “But local? Sure. If we get it out there and lose power, somebody can come get us. Tow us back and you’ll have one more data point to design for in the next iteration.”

  Panko ran a hand over his forehead and across his cropped hair. “We’ll have a new prototype off the ways in a month.”

  “Great,” Natalya said. “It’s looking good. I visited this morning. Love the new hull. Your new design is going to be off the ways before they finish the first prototypes for this design.”

  “Well, yeah,” Panko said. “I made them stop construction. We’re recycling as much of the material as we can.”

  “Why don’t you want us to take this out?” Zoya asked, sticking her head out of the lock.

  “Because you’re getting underway in a stupid design, engineered by a plumber, constructed by some great workers being overseen by monkeys. Even the people who built it don’t trust it,” Panko said.

  “We’re just going to run it around the system,” Natalya said. “Can you give me one concrete reason why we shouldn’t test it?”

  “It’s not safe.”

  “That’s an opinion. Are there any systems that are so badly flawed that they might cause a catastrophic failure?”

  “I don’t know,” Panko said. “That’s why I’m against this.”

  “Noted,” Natalya said. “In the absence of any logical reason to scrap the only working model of the ship, I see no reason not to take it out.”

  Panko took a step forward, his lips pressed together and his fists clenched at his sides. “Look,” he said, his voice so low Natalya could barely hear it over the machinery noise in the bay. “Look, the problem is that the only way we can verify that nothing is bugged or booby trapped on that ship is to tear it down and build it over.”

  “Do you think that’s really likely?” Natalya asked.

  “Yes,” Panko said. “I do. I’ve watched this project from the sidelines since before it was the gleam in some pirate’s eye. I’ve seen what Downs and his cronies are willing to do to keep their gravy train on the tracks.” He paused and looked to Zoya and back again. “They’ve killed already. More than once. You two have helped me. More than I can ever repay. I can’t just stand by and let you take this coffin out for a test run.”

  “Downs is over at the main office now. He’s out of the equation,” Natalya said.

  “Theoretically, but you know as well as I do that his crew is still here, keeping a low profile, and just biding their time,” Panko said.

  “He’s right about that,” Zoya said, stepping out of the ship to stand beside Natalya.

  “And this ship was built before he got deported,” Panko said. “It’s been clear for a long time that Alison Pittman was put here to fail. I have to admit that she’s doing a lot better lately, but think of it this way. If the ship blows up, that’s going to be a slap in the face for the project.”

  “If it doesn’t, it will be a small success in the face of a sea of disaster,” Natalya said.

  Panko sighed and looked around the bay as if seeking the answer he needed to convince them. Or perhaps the question he needed to ask. “What’s the harm in waiting another month? We’ll have the new bird off the ways by then.”

  “What do we do in the meantime?” Natalya asked. “We’ve spent the better part of two weeks tearing this ship apart, examining everything to make sure it works as designed. Now what? We cool our jets in the docking bay until the next ship comes off the ways and we have to do it all again?”

  “I’m fine with that. Take up a hobby. Learn to play the piano,” Panko said. “Sandra still needs a dishwasher. Pay sucks but the job is exhausting. You won’t have much time to worry about the new ship there.” He grinned. “I’ll put in a good word for you.”

  Natalya looked at Zoya. “Jump in here any time.”

  “He has a point, Nats.”

  “I know that. I still think we can learn a lot by actually firing up the kickers and tottering around the system for a few stans, just to see if it works. If it does, then we know the base design is sound and we can work to improve it in the new hulls. If it doesn’t, we’ll know what to look for in the new flights. Other than the ship blowing up and tossing us into the cold, there’s not that much risk.”

  “You have to admit, that’s a pretty big risk,” Zoya said.

  “It’s not going to blow up,” Natalya said.

  “Can you think of a better way to hamstring Alison, though?” Zoya asked.

  “Than blowing up the ship?” Natalya sighed and stared at the deck. “Not really. No.”

  Panko stepped forward. “So, meet me halfway. Sleep on it. If you still feel like you want to go out for a limited test run, I’ll support it.”

  “How limited?” Natalya said.

  “No jumps. Stay within a quarter million kilometers of the yard. We take a chase ship out so we can get you off there in a moment’s notice.”

  “You think we need baby-sitting?” Natalya asked. “You think we’re going to run off with the ship you don’t even like?”

  He sighed and shook his head. “Did I say that?”

  “No,” Natalya said with a sigh of her own. “No, you just said you’re going to send out a herd-dog to keep track of us.”

  Panko clenched his teeth and took several deep breaths. “Take it or I’ll recycle that ship this afternoon.”

  Natalya rolled her jaw around a bit, glanced at Zoya who returned the glance with raised eyebrows, and finally said, “I’ll take it. We get underway day after tomorrow.”

  “Submit a test plan,” Panko said.

  Natalya sighed. “All right. If I’d known what a pain in the ass you were going to be about this, I’d never have brought it up.”

  Panko grinned. “There’s more where that came from. If you’ll excuse me, I need to see a man about some loose ends before you take this thing out and crash it into a planet or something.”

  “As if,” Natalya said.

  Panko left the bay and Zoya sidled up to Natalya. “What was that all about?”

  “What?”

  “The chase ship. There was always going to be a chase ship.”

  “I know,” Natalya said. “Standard operating procedure.”

  “Then why fight him on it?”

  “Because he’s cute when he’s frustrated?”

  Both of Zoya’s eyebrows rose well up her forehead before she frowned. “You’re kidding.”

  “Yeah,” Natalya said. “I wanted him to focus on that and forget all the other obstacles he could have thrown in our faces.”

  “That’s pretty sneaky. What did you think he’d try?”

  “I thought he might try to play the ‘I’m the new boss’ card—or maybe just drag it to the scrap heap and slag it while we weren’t looking.”

  Zoya pursed her lips and n
odded slowly. “I could see him doing either of those.”

  “He’s agreed to the test now, so I don’t think he’ll pull anything underhanded,” Natalya said. “I also wanted to see how far he’d go to get his way. What kind of logical arguments he’d try.”

  “And?”

  “He and Pittman are going to get this program back on track and shock the living hell out of whoever thinks it should fail.”

  Zoya laughed. “I hope you’re right.”

  Chapter 34

  Pulaski Yards

  2366, May 29

  NATALYA STOOD UP FROM the table and arched her back, stretching out all the muscles that felt like they’d been permanently crippled. “All right,” she said. “Are we set on this?”

  Zoya nodded. “You’re the engineer, but I agree that these are the systems that make the most sense to test.”

  Panko sat back in his seat and tossed a stylus onto the table. “I hate to admit it, but this looks good. The handling profile isn’t going to be that much different so testing out the kickers and maneuvering thrusters makes sense. The data backbone will be virtually identical on the next gen but with the upgraded fusactors and capacitors, the power grid will have a lot more pushing it. Knowing how much these crippled systems can do will be handy.” He nodded. “Chase ship will be ready at 0800.”

  “What are you using to chase?” Zoya asked.

  Panko gave her a small grin. “I happen to know of a ship I can use.”

  “You can’t tow us with that,” Zoya said.

  “Wanna bet?” Panko asked.

  “No bet,” Natalya said. “I didn’t see the specs on your ship, but if you say it’ll tow this bird, I believe you.”

  “It’s got about twice as much muscle as the Peregrine,” Panko said. “And nearly double the mass of this bird. It may not be a tug now, but it used to be. It’ll be enough to get you back to the dock.”

  Zoya looked at Natalya.

  Natalya nodded. “I’m good.”

  “If she’s good, I’m good,” Zoya said.