“What do you mean, a scout?” the chief asked. “Like an Explorer-class scout ship?”
Natalya nodded. “That’s the one. Say, could I lower my hands? This is getting a bit uncomfortable.”
The chief took a long time to think about it before nodding and lowering his weapon. He gestured to his crew who backed up a couple of steps and lowered theirs as well.
“Start from the beginning,” the chief said.
“A little over a week ago we were visiting the Usokos in Margary. Word came in that communications had broken down to the smelter. They hired us to come investigate. We’re here.”
“We? We who?”
“I’m Natalya Regyri. I own the scout. I have Zoya Usoko in the pilot’s seat at the moment. She’s here representing Usoko Mining. I also have a structural engineer who’s supposed to assess the damage to the station.” Natalya shrugged. “Blown to bits seems to be the most cogent analysis at the moment.”
“You got here from Margary in a week?”
“Yeah. We left the day after we found out. The scout has long legs but we needed to do a replenishment and pick up the structural engineer before we left.”
“What are you going to do now?”
“Well, there’s another Barbell inbound but no place for her to dock. There are about two dozen mining barges, all of which are running out of food, water, and air. Oh, and a couple of ore haulers but we haven’t actually heard from them directly. They’re on the other side of the system primary. One of the barges is relaying comms.”
The chief nodded. “How can we help?”
“What’s your status?”
He pulled in a breath and blew it out slowly, staring at the deck. “Food’s in short supply because we can’t get forward of the spine where it meets officer country. We’ve been scavenging the life boats back here for their survival rations. Plenty of air and water because environmental is back here. We could probably navigate but we can’t see a damn thing.”
“Yeah, you’d need to be running on instruments, but you can maneuver?”
The chief shrugged. “I assume so, but we haven’t tried it. The spine is intact so we have access to the thrusters forward. I’m pretty sure we can’t jump. Half the emitters aren’t registering from the bow.”
“Half the bow is missing. It looks like somebody took a machete to the front of the ship starting just above the docking ring to just where the spine connects.”
“There may be people forward,” the chief said.
“I thought so too, but I didn’t want to say anything. There are airtight doors below officer country and all along those passageways above the wardroom and galley. Crew berthing is under that.” Natalya shrugged. “If you were at docking stations, everybody on the bridge crew was probably killed but that still leaves anybody whose station was below officer country. Have you tried to reach them?”
The chief nodded. “No responses but I can’t be sure the network is intact forward of about frame twenty.” He paused. “You seem to know a lot about Barbells for a Scout owner.”
“Engineering third. I spent some time on Barbells,” Natalya said. “If you can bring up the schematic, I can show you where the damage is.”
Natalya heard some odd squawking noise and started looking around before she realized it was coming from her helmet. She held it up. “You mind if I check in with my crew? They seem to be a bit distressed.”
He snorted. “Go ahead.”
Natalya slipped the helmet on and keyed the transmitter. “I’m here. It’s good. There are about ten or twelve people and the chief engineer thinks they can maneuver.”
“Dammit, Nats. You had me scared to death.”
“Sorry, Zee. They were a little disoriented and weren’t sure who’d come knocking on their door. We’re doing a little damage control. Their galley may be both accessible and manned.”
“They don’t know?”
“No comms from the bow,” Natalya said. “We might see if we can access the docking ring.”
“With that amount of damage?”
“It’s a long shot, but probably something worth trying unless we can figure a way to communicate from here.”
“If that’s still a viable space, we’re halfway home,” Zoya said.
“That’s what I thought, too. If we can get both of these Barbells as support ships, it could buy us the time we need to get things back to a stable place.”
“Well, that other ship? It jumped out about two ticks ago.”
“What the hell?” Natalya said.
“I can’t really blame them. Why run all the way in and risk the ship when they can’t dock with a debris cloud?”
Natalya sighed. “I suppose. Anyway. Stand by. I’m good here and I’ll be back in touch soon as I can get to the auxiliary bridge and see if they have any comms capability at all.”
“Roger that.”
Natalya pushed her helmet back and looked for the chief engineer. He stood in a huddle with his crew at the ladder leading from the hangar deck. The boat itself was missing. The deck plating showed some polished marks where the thrusters might have fired to lift the boat off the deck. Natalya put her helmet back on.
“Zee?”
“Yeah?”
“Keep a sharp eye open. The boat’s not here.”
Zoya answered after a few long moments. “The ship’s boat?”
“Yep.”
“Maybe they didn’t have one,” Zoya said.
“Maybe,” Natalya said. “Maybe it’s out scouting for survivors.”
“Have you asked?”
“No, but there are fresh scorch marks on the deck and it smells like thruster fuel in here.” She started counting the number of people in the hangar. “There’s another thing. There are too many people here.”
“Too many people?”
“More than you’d expect during docking stations with the ship on approach.”
“They came from somewhere,” Zoya said.
“Yup, and my guess is that they’re not being exactly straightforward.”
“About being able to get to the bow?”
“At least.”
“You want to come back?”
“Yes, but I want to see if I can figure out what’s going on.” She sighed. “Like it or not, this is the largest living space I’ve seen since your grandfather’s banquet room.”
Zoya chuckled. “Watch your six. You don’t really want another concussion.”
“How right you are. Later.” She pulled the helmet back again. The movement caught the eye of one of the ratings who nudged the chief.
He approached with a smile. If she hadn’t been on alert before, the smile would have fired every one of her warning lights. “Everything all right out there?”
“Yeah. They were just nervous. Why don’t you take me to the auxiliary bridge and we’ll see if we can establish communications with them directly.”
He nodded and set off across the deck. None of his men had stowed their weapons and Natalya felt an itch on her paranoia bump. She stopped at the top of the ladder and stepped to the side. Two of the crew almost stumbled down the ladder, they’d been so close. She took another assessing glance around the room while holding her helmet up to her head as if she were listening to the speaker inside. She held up a hand, palm out toward the crew. “Hang on, guys. I’m needed back on the ship ASAP.” She started across the deck, slapping her helmet dawn and clicking the latches. “Zee, trouble. I’m coming out.”
“Door’s open, we’re out as soon as you are.”
Two of the remaining crew stood between her and the lock. She heard shouts from behind and the two crew straightened up, holding their guns as if to block her passage. She walked right up to them and when the guy on the right pushed at her with the rifle, she grabbed it in both hands and pulled. He fell forward, and his face going down met Natalya’s knee coming up. Before his companion recovered, Natalya swung the stock of the gun in a sweeping arc and caught him alongside the head.
He dropped like a side of beefalo in double gravity, bouncing slightly against the decking as he fell.
She spun, pointing the business end of the gun at the two guys still standing at the top of the stairs. One started to raise his gun and Natalya put a single round into his chest. He fell backward down the ladder. The other guy backed down on his own. The lock would be the tricky part, but once she was in, they wouldn’t be able to get at her.
She hoped.
“Make it fast, Nats. I found their boat.”
“I was afraid of that,” Natalya said. “These guys have turned nasty.”
“The boat’s laying off just above me.”
“They want the Peregrine. It’s the only jump-capable ship in the system at the moment.”
“They think they can get aboard?” Zoya asked
“Apparently,” Natalya said, backing into the lock and slapping the cycle button. “I’m in the lock. It’s cycling.”
“We’re tethered here by your safety lines.”
“Yeah, but they’ll break before the ship does.” Natalya peeked through the port as the crew came bubbling up the ladder. They looked pretty confident.
Sounds in the lock died away as the pressure built. The yellow light strobed above the control pad.
The chief engineer elbowed his way through the crowd and grinned at her through the port. He mouthed something. It looked like “good bye.”
Natalya had time enough to say “uh oh” before the outer door opened and blew her into the void.
Chapter 17
Smelter Seventeen:
2368, February 8
Almost before she knew what happened, Natalya slammed into the side of thePeregrine. The impact flattened her against the ship, and one out-flung arm banged against the grab rail. She reached for it but the movement rolled her off the hull. “Zee, back up a little.”
The flash of the bow thrusters slid the ship back far enough that Natalya got an arm over the lifeline strung between the two vessels. “Almost in. We need to move.”
“Roger. Get in the lock,” Zoya said.
“I’m trying.” Natalya took three good tugs on the line and arrowed herself into the lock, slapping the control even as she banged into the inner lock door. “Go.”
The small ship leaped forward. Natalya grabbed a conduit and stayed low.
“Where do you want to go?”
“Anywhere. He’s going to fire the main engines. Get out of the way.”
Zoya didn’t answer but the ship twisted around Natalya just as orange and blue fire lit up the small port in the outer door.
“Dumbass,” Zoya said.
“What was that?” Natalya asked. She gripped the conduit with both hands and braced her feet against the opposite bulkhead to keep from being tossed around.
“I said ‘Dumbass.’”
“I got that part. Why?”
“He just cooked his own boat,” Zoya said.
Natalya shook her head. “What a waste, and now he’s on a new vector.”
“Yeah, but we still have this problem,” Zoya said. “We need a place for these people to go and we need to get word back to Big Rock.”
“Are we stable?” Natalya asked.
“Personally, not really. The ship? I think it’s good. Why?”
“Because I’d kinda like to get out of the airlock and I don’t want to stand up while we’re maneuvering.”
“Nobody here but us chickens and a slow-rolling Barbell.”
“All right. Gimme a couple of ticks.”
Natalya stood and felt surprised her legs held her up. The lock cycled and she stepped back aboard the Peregrine. She removed her helmet and stuck her head into the cockpit. “I’m home.”
Bean sat in his seat, his eyes wider than a thruster nozzle and his face pale.
Natalya clapped him on the shoulder but he didn’t move.
“You have an idea,” Zoya said.
“Don’t I always?” Natalya asked.
Zoya gave a long suffering sigh. “Generally more than one at a time. I’ll give you credit for that. Individually, they’re not half bad. It’s when you try to do them together that things get crazy.”
“The marshaling yard. They’ll have some kind of structure to link up to the cans to load and unload them.”
Zoya’s eyes widened. “Of course. Why didn’t we think of that sooner?”
“Mostly because we weren’t thinking,” Natalya said. “It’s time we stopped reacting and started acting like we’re thinking.”
Zoya looked across the bridge at Natalya. “You all right?”
“Sure, why?”
“Because that made no sense.”
“Yeah, but you know what I meant.”
Zoya chuckled. “I’m not sure I know exactly but I think I got the gist.”
“I gotta get out of this suit and make sure I didn’t pee myself in it.”
“Why would you?” Zoya asked.
“The bastard dumped me out of the airlock like I was trash. Decompression blew me into the side of the Peregrine and only your reflexes got me where I could grab the line and get undercover.”
“Wait. You didn’t cross on your own?” Zoya asked.
“Nope. Tossed like a bag of year-old garbage. I’m surprised you didn’t hear me slam into the ship.”
“Oh, I heard the thump. I thought it was just you tripping over the door jamb again.”
Natalya made a rude noise and walked aft, pulling at the parts of the softsuit she could reach.
Chapter 18
Smelter Seventeen:
2368, February 8
Under normal circumstances, the marshaling yard was one of those fixtures of stations and orbitals that Natalya never really saw. Every trading port had one. Some large, some small. Like the antenna arrays on the top of orbitals and the photoelectric collectors on stations, it was just part of the scenery. Invisible because it was so common. The blocky marshaling yard at Smelter Seventeen looked like the answer to a prayer.
“Think we can dock?” Natalya asked.
“We may need to get their attention first.” Zoya leaned forward and pointed to a stubby tower with darkened armorglass surrounding the top. “Traffic control. I’ll bet you credits to crullers that it’s still manned.”
“EMP?” Bean asked.
“I don’t think there was much from that failure,” Zoya said.
“Rationale?” he asked.
“Ships are hardened and their sails add a layer of protection, but they’re not impervious,” Zoya said. “That Barbell didn’t seem to be impaired by EMP. The boat wouldn’t have been because it was powered down and inside the envelope, but the ship must have been damn near on top of that fusactor when it blew.”
He nodded. “Sound.”
Zoya looked over her shoulder at him. “Nice of you to say so.”
He stared out at the marshaling yard and shrugged. “Just facts.”
Zoya looked at Natalya, who shrugged in reply.
“What’s their frequency, I wonder,” Natalya said.
“Try Charlie-22.”
Natalya looked at her. “Just off the top of your head?”
“That’s what the Usoko Mining yards all ran. I think it’s CPJCT standard for cargo. No real reason to change just because it’s out here.”
Natalya dialed up the frequency and opened a voice channel. “Seventeen Marshal, Peregrine, over.”
Zoya brought the Peregrine right up to the control tower and held position just a few meters from the dark glass.
“Seventeen Marshal, Peregrine, over.”
After a very long tick, Zoya said, “Doesn’t appear to be anybody home.”
“Seventeen Marshal, Peregrine. Konstantin sent us. Over.”
Just when Natalya was ready to call again, the lights in the tower came up and a woman wearing a smock top and slacks stepped up to the glass, looking out. She stared for a long moment before holding up a large piece of card stock or paper with the words “DOCK 2ND” scrawl
ed on it.
Zoya flashed the forward spots twice and lifted the ship around to the docking stations at the back of the facility. None of the five doors were marked.
“Which one is two?” Bean asked.
“My guess is either second from port or second from starboard,” Natalya said.
“No,” Zoya said. “It’s not the bay number. It’s the sequence.”
“It’s a test?” Natalya asked.
Zoya nodded. “We go in the second door to open. Not the first.”
“Another Usoko Mining thing?” Natalya asked.
“When you fly hauler, there’s only one unloading station wherever you’re unloading. It only takes a few ticks to unload if you’re on the mark so there’s no economic reason to have more than one. Traffic control doesn’t give you a bay number. They give you a sequence and it’s flashed by lights. You acknowledge the same way.”
After a few moments, the door second from the left rolled down.
Zoya maintained station and waited.
Almost two full ticks later, the middle door rolled down and Zoya slipped the Peregrine into a darkened shuttle bay. The door closed behind them.
“Now what?” Bean asked.
“This is a shuttle bay. It had to be evacuated before they opened the door. They’re probably repressuring now.”
After a few more ticks the lights came on and the woman from the window stepped into the bay holding a nasty-looking sidearm in her left hand.
“Now we go say howdy,” Zoya said, leading the way aft. “Rob, maybe you should stay here until we come to some agreement?”
He nodded. He also hadn’t undone his seat belt.
Natalya joined Zoya in the lock. “Shall we cycle it or trust their air?”
Zoya reached over to key the lock cycle. “She’s breathing it so I’m pretty sure it’s all right.”
“Any idea what’s with Bean?”
Zoya said. “He’s had a pretty rough transition from the universe he knew to the one he’s in now.” Zoya gave Natalya a sideways grin. “I recognize the signs.”
Natalya laughed as the outer door swung open. As they walked down the ramp, Natalya spotted the d-ring clipped to the grab bar with a charred piece of lifeline still attached.