Not With A Whimper: Survivors

by D. A. Boulter

  “I’m going to want you over on Venture. We’re organizing a rescue, and we’ll need all the pilots we can get. Get some sleep. We leave tomorrow.”

  “I can use it. Never worked so hard in my life as I did this last month – including working as general labour, loading those damned seeds.” He got up, glared at Tremblay’s dirty dishes, picked them up with his own, and left.

  Johannes attacked his food with renewed vigour, then looked up as someone stopped in front of his table.

  “Captain Yrden.” The pilot who had accompanied him down to Nigeria.

  “Pilot Pearson.”

  “Carson. No longer any need for the subterfuge.”

  “Bettina tells me that I can thank you for the destruction of the patrol ship.”

  Carson smiled without humour. “My pleasure, Captain.”

  “Your pleasure or not, we owe you. Now, what can I do for you?”

  Carson sat. “You owe me? Good. ’Cause I can tell you how you can pay that debt.”

  Could he? Now what? Surely not another Tremblay? He had seemed a good enough man, and had probably saved them all back in Nigeria. Had he not come, Johannes doubted he could have brought the ‘Smith’ family away. Their pursuers would have caught him still loading them on the shuttle.

  “How can I pay the debt?”

  “When I came to you, I brought a life-boat. Bettina says it’s mine. It’s on this station for repairs; I want it – fixed, fuelled, and supplied.”

  Johannes pushed his plate away, and gave Carson his full attention. “You want it? And what do you plan on doing with it?

  “I’ll solve one of your problems for you.”

  And Johannes couldn’t think of anything that might have surprised him more. “And which problem would that be?”

  “I understand you have a group of malcontent contractors who want you to return them to Earth. I’ll take them.”

  CHAPTER 35

  Haida Gwaii

  Saturday 04 September

  Angela accosted Wen just as he reached the airlock where the ex-Amalgamated Lifeboat-3 lay docked. She scanned his face, seeing nothing there.

  “Wen, what are you doing? I heard that you plan on going back to Earth!” She felt dread seep through her as she read confirmation on his face. “Why?”

  “Nothing left for me in space, Angela.” He showed his teeth in a sad smile. “Amalgamated is finished. Lil and all my friends are dead.” He looked up at the ceiling, and took a breath. “And I’ve had my revenge – I killed the bastards that did this to me. So, I’m going home.”

  “You can’t. You have so much to live for.”

  He laughed, short and harsh. Then he softened. “Angela, go back to your shuttle. Go back to Rolf. I hope he knows what a wonderful woman he’s getting.”

  She shook her head, and pushed past him. “I can’t. Captain Yrden assigned me to this lifeboat. You’re ferrying the Yrdens – Captain Johannes and Owen – and me back to Venture, as well as the group of malcontents.”

  “I thought I was going straight back to Earth.”

  “You thought wrong, Pilot Carson,” Johannes said as he strode up to the airlock. “We’re not finished with you, yet. You get the lifeboat as yours when I give it to you. Right now, you’re needed in the rescue effort.”

  Wen transferred his attention from her to the Yrden Captain, and Angela took the opportunity to walk into the lifeboat while he made his argument. She wanted it that way, in fact. Looking around, memories came back. Here, she had almost died. Were it not for Wen, she would have died twice.

  Had she not wangled the Preventive Maintenance Inspection on the boat just to be here when Wen did his own PMI, she would have died in 684 with everyone else. Later, she had wanted Wen to give her an overdose of Sleep so she wouldn’t be awake as they suffocated when the air ran out. He refused, and refused to let her do it herself – which she would have. She owed him twice over.

  The lifeboat looked just as it had. She stepped into the small galley where she had taken off her clothes for Wen. She felt her face flush. She had been so young. She peeked into the small rest chamber where she’d lain down on the bed, the bed she had wanted to share with Wen, thinking she would never awaken. She closed the door with a shudder. The flight deck looked the same, and she wondered that it had only been four months since she had tried to seduce Wen there. How she had felt so pleased that he would actually share with her. Remembered them laughing over Jaswinder Damn-and-Blast-Her Saroya.

  Angela returned to the passenger area in time to welcome the malcontents. They took their seats, and put on the restraints correctly, having done this many times before. Wen stepped past her, and went to the flight deck. Owen followed Wen, but Johannes remained with her in the passenger compartment, which surprised her.

  He waited until all the malcontents had strapped in.

  “People,” he said, getting their attention. “I’ve found you a pilot to take you – in this very lifeboat – back to Earth.”

  Angela couldn’t believe the smiles, the self-congratulatory faces. Why go back to die?

  “Now, as I told you before, we have a rescue operation to perform. Until we no longer need your pilot, you will take quarters in Venture.”

  That brought on frowns.

  “As I also previously stated, we expect you to keep out of the way of our efforts. We have set aside the starboard lounge just for you. You can watch holos, read, make plans, whatever. We encourage you to take advantage of the time to peruse all the news that we were able to record from Earth. Some stations still transmit, and we receive their signals. Life still exists down there.

  “Finally, you will need to discuss amongst yourselves where you want Pilot Carson to land you. If you somehow make it down safely, he will have only enough fuel to make it back up to Venture, so he won’t be able to act as a ferryman, taking you to various destinations. He’s a brave man, and I don’t think you want to take away his chance at getting back to Venture.”

  Johannes looked them over. No one spoke.

  “That is all. We leave in ten minutes for Venture.”

  He walked into the crew area. Angela followed him.

  “I don’t understand, Captain. Wen has no intention of coming back up. And why bring them to Venture.” She paused, then blurted out, “Why would you let them go down? It’s the same as killing them outright.”

  Captain Yrden smiled at her. “I hope we can talk Wen out of going down. You know him best; I hope you’ll help in that. Next, I want them in Venture. The closer they are to Earth, the better they’ll be able to see the devastation in orbit, and how slim their chances are of getting through it. If we find survivors, I want them to mingle, to tell their stories, to frighten these people. I want them to change their minds and stay.”

  “Um, okay. But why even let them think they can go down?”

  “Because, if I don’t, if they don’t change their minds of their own accord, they’ll constitute a cancer. Those who have decided to stay will think the Families are autocratic – which to an extent we are – and they’ll want to leave, too. Maybe not to Earth, but to some other planet. We need them to finish Haida Gwaii. And they are skilled workers. We want them for building new ships, for teaching their skills to others.”

  “And if they’re unhappy, they won’t do that. I understand.”

  Johannes smiled at her. “Good for you. Now, I understand you nearly died in this lifeboat after it was holed and you lost oxygen reserves. Why don’t you go and give your safety spiel, then digress, and tell them the story of how it got hard to breathe after the ship was disabled and drifting. Let them think what might happen if the lifeboat gets likewise damaged and can’t re-enter the atmosphere.”

  Angela had to laugh. “You are a bad man, Captain Yrden.”

  He laughed with her, and then became serious. “I want to save their lives – and not just for my own sake.”

  “I’ll tell them the story, sir.”

  “Thank you. Now, as I’m
acting as co-pilot, I’d better get to the flight deck. Oh, by the way, we have four more passengers. They should arrive shortly.”

  Angela went to check that everyone had strapped in properly. Then the other four showed up. She blinked. They all wore uniforms and carried weapons.

  “Corporal Tieff with three men,” the one in front reported to her, saluting.

  Three men? She gave them a second look, and one was definitely a woman. Military – who could figure them? And why would they need four soldiers on Venture? Then she suddenly understood. They were added security in case the malcontents caused trouble.

  She smiled. “Welcome aboard. Please take your seats. We will depart in just a few minutes.”

  * * *

  Earth Orbit

  Sunday 05 Sep

  “I’m latching on,” Paul reported. He attached the tow cable to the life-pod, and began to pull it into a higher orbit, further away from any circling debris.

  “I can see damage, but there might be survivors – I can’t see any obvious holing of the hull.”

  The vid he took, he sent back to Venture, where it got played in the lounges for the benefit of any who wished to watch this.

  They had found other life-pods, but inspection had shown ruptured hulls, and no chance of life. This one? Maybe. Radio calls had met with few answers. But even those few meant that somewhere in this mess people still lived. Finding them? More difficult. Reaching them? Problematical.

  Using his workboat as a tug, he chivied the life-pod into position, then nudged it into the open bay of Venture, a necessary step, as they needed communications in order to dock it to an airlock, and no such communications existed.

  “She’s in,” Paul reported. “And I’m in, too. Shift over.”

  Venture slowly applied gravity to the hold, and both life-pod and workboat gently sank to the deck. Air streamed in, and mist covered the screen, then dissipated.

  Paul exited the workboat even as security, medical personnel, and engineers poured in to open the pod and rescue anyone still living within.

  The engineers popped the hatch with little difficulty.

  A woman, haggard, eyes wild, stumbled out. “O, Gott sei Dank, Gott sei Dank!”

  “Better get Major Müller,” Dr Jane Yrden said, and one of her technicians ran to make the call. “English?”

  The woman stared. “Nein, kein Englisch. Hilfe, hilfe, bitte.”

  Shiro Tanaka slipped inside.

  “We have injured in here,” he called out. “We’ll need gurneys.”

  Jane entered the pod, while Shiro came back out. He walked over to Paul. “Looks bad in there. My guess: they were injured in the station or ship they came from, were placed in the life-pod, and then the pod ejected. Nothing inside looks particularly damaged.”

  “I am summoned?” Major Müller arrived with Major Baumeister.

  Paul had noted that they seemed to always be together.

  “We have a German-speaker here. We need translation,” Shiro told him.

  The two Germans went over to the woman, and began talking. She spoke in broken sentences punctured with sobs. While Erika remained with her, comforting her, Müller returned to them.

  “They come from Euro Station Alpha,” he told them. “Her name is Frau Ilse Wagner. She’s a little incoherent, but it seems that the section these survivors were in took severe damage. Collapsed ceilings, bulkheads burst. They had three uninjured and eight injured. They got five of the injured into the life-pod, and Frau Wagner stayed with them, getting them ready for launch while the other two able-bodied men went for more injured. Then something – perhaps a missile, or an explosion on board the station – holed the compartment, leaving it open to vacuum. The life-pod’s hatch automatically closed.”

  Müller shrugged. “She could do nothing. The others were either dead or dying, and the hatch would not open with low air pressure – or vacuum – on the other side. So she launched.”

  “What did she do on the station?” Shiro asked.

  “Nothing. She was emigrating to Neu Deutschland. A mail-order bride, I understand.”

  “Schrecklich, schrecklich!” Ilse said, then repeated, “Gott sei Dank, Gott sei Dank.”

  “She says it was frightful, and she’s thanking God for the rescue,” Müller translated. He looked at the pod, where the technicians struggled to get an injured man out. “What happens to the pod?”

  “We’ll dump it back into space, and Jordan – he’s my relief – will accelerate it out of orbit towards Haida Gwaii,” Paul said. He shrugged. “They’ll pick it up and either refurbish it or strip it of everything useful, and then jettison it. Probably keep it. They aren’t making any more of them, now.”

  “Go get some sleep,” Shiro suggested. “You’ll be back out there soon enough.”

  * * *

  “Thank you, Major Müller,” Captain Yrden said after Karl had given his report. “I can see where Dr Burkett’s Language classes will come in handy.”

  Erika, as it appeared Karl would not ask, asked for him. “May we use the comm to contact our people on Haida Gwaii?”

  Yrden smiled and nodded. “Talk to Shiro. He maintains comm with Security on Haida Gwaii. Hank, on the other side, will call anyone you wish to speak with. And, from now on, you have no need to come to me. Just ask Shiro, and he’ll put you through. We owe you at least that much. And we appreciate you allowing us to station one of your fighters on board Venture. I hope we won’t need her, but it gives us a feeling of security.”

  Karl nodded. “You have given us a place. We could do no less. Come, Erika, let us call Haida Gwaii.”

  Hauptmann Schmidt saluted when the vid went through. “Herr Major Müller.”

  Karl went informal. “Erich, mein Freund, what news?”

  Schmidt smiled. “It goes well, Karl. We have the fanatics cornered. We take compartment after compartment back. Soon they will all be dead.”

  Karl frowned, Erika saw. She wished that he would just ask his question straight out. It appeared that he heard her thoughts, for he went on.

  “Erich, how does it go with you?”

  “It goes well. Karl, I must apologize to you.”

  “Oh?”

  “In the shuttle, you had the right of it, not I. It is good that we did not fire on the civilian stations. It is good we did not kill the life-pod. And it is best of all that we did not attack Haida Gwaii.” Schmidt sounded embarrassed. Which, Erika thought, he should.

  “I’m glad to hear that, Erich. And the Nord-Ami soldiers?”

  “I fight with them. They are honourable people. I have killed fanatics – just as I wished. I felt very good after I killed my first. The second felt less good. Now, it saddens me that they fight on and refuse to surrender. We will kill them all – we must. But for what purpose?”

  So, she had also been wrong. She had thought Karl should have executed Hauptmann Schmidt. Karl had known him better.

  “And how do they treat you – and the rest of us – on Haida Gwaii?”

  Schmidt smiled. “They treat us very well, my Major. They see us as heroes. And they especially appreciate our ground crews. You did right there, too.”

  “So, Feldwebel Hirsch has no complaints?”

  Now Schmidt laughed. “No, no complaints. The man has his happiest moments when his hands are covered in grease, deep inside a shuttle’s guts.”

  Karl laughed, too.

  “And, my Major, how do you find Venture?”

  “They treat us well, Erich. We engage in rescue efforts. It hurts to see those that we – soldiers, that is – have wronged. We just brought back a life-pod from Euro Alpha. It had Germans on board. They suffered greatly.”

  “War,” the Hauptmann said.

  “War,” Karl agreed. “May we never see it again.”

  The Hauptmann looked embarrassed. “Anything else, Karl? For I must tell you that a young woman waits for me. She thinks me a hero – and who am I to deny her?”

  Erika stepped into the camer
a’s field of view. “Erich, good hunting,” she said.

  He saluted. “Leb’ Wohl.”

  After they disconnected, Erika took Karl’s arm. “Yes, let us live well. We no longer have duty. Let us find our cabin.”

  “Let us.”

  CHAPTER 36

  FTL-1

  Monday 06 September

  Major Sharon Temple felt the caress of Owen’s hand on her shoulder. She didn’t want to wake up. The dream still clung to her, a dream of the Yrden boy, who gently held her and caressed her cares away. He touched her gently, lovingly, and then asked his question.

  “Where is he?”

  “Who?” She couldn’t hear his reply.

  “Where is he?” Louder this time.

  “Who?” Her eyes flickered open to the dim light of the Catastrophe Core. And Owen disappeared, his caress replaced by the Paxton woman shaking her.

  “Gordie. I don’t see him anywhere.”

  Sharon fought through the drowsy state to full wakefulness. Her eyes scanned the room. No Gordie.

  “In the washroom?”

  “No. I checked. He’s not there.”

  Cursing, Sharon levered herself to her feet. She took one side of the Catastrophe Core, Jill the other. Those survivors who remained awake stared at them with apathetic eyes. They went through the lockers, the closets. No Gordie.

  She covered her face with her hands. Her fault. She shouldn’t have allowed herself to fall asleep. She had known this might happen, and so she and Jill had taken shifts, one stayed awake while the other slept.

  And she, Sharon, had fallen asleep while on duty. She looked at those still awake with bitter eyes. While she slept, they had let Gordie open the airlock, and go hunting for whatever he had wanted from his room.

  “Who saw him leave?” she shouted, waking everyone up who still slept. “Who just let him walk out without trying to stop him, without waking either Jill or myself!”