Waypoint Magellan

by L S Roebuck

  “Come on, let’s go. Kora is going to call the police or something to find me if I don’t get back to my place to check in,” Amberly called back to Dek.

  Dek looked at the apartment door, and then looked at Amberly. He reached for the door, but instead of opening it, he just tested it, to make sure it was locked, and then he jogged the few paces between the door and where Amberly was waiting.

  “Yeah, let’s go,” Dek said. “It’s going to be a long night still. Once we get underway, I am going to try to catch a nap. I’m tired.”

  Amberly took Dek’s hand as he looked behind him again at the door. Amberly took a risk.

  “Did you forget something?” she asked. “We can go back for it.”

  “No, nothing,” he said, and Amberly exerted a significant amount of self-control to keep from breathing a sigh of relief.

  Within a few minutes, the pair had reached the tube, and there was a significant queue.

  “Maybe it will be quicker if we walked,” Dek said, obviously frustrated at the line.

  “No, this will go quickly. Besides, it’s more than a kilometer to my place from here. Maybe two,” Amberly said.

  “It’s your home, you know best,” Dek said.

  As they waited, Amberly took Dek’s hand and leaned her head on Dek’s shoulder, and spoke softly, so only he could make out her words. “Dek, I need you to tell me something,” she spoke.

  Dek nuzzled her soft red hair with his chin. “Yes?”

  “I need to know if anything really bad is going to happen.”

  “If we do our job right, nothing really bad will happen.”

  “What’s our job?”

  “You know I can’t tell you that right now,” Dek said, lifting his head. “But once we get to the Spencer Belt, you’ll know everything that I do.”

  Amberly and Dek reached the front of the queue and stepped into the tubecar. A portly man in his 30s, who looked like someone who worked in a microfactory by his uniform, also tried to get into the car with them.

  Dek gently put his hand up.

  “Friend, do you mind if we take this car alone,” he asked the worker.

  “What? Come on, I want to get home. You transients need to learn to share,” the man objected and started to step in the car. Dek reached into his pocket and pulled out a credit chip and tossed it on the ground outside the car. The man reached down to pick it up, and Dek pushed him clear.

  “Hey!”

  The door sealed closed and the tube car started to move, and Dek and Amberly were alone again. Dek sat next to Amberly and turned her head to him. His gaze pieced her green eyes, and he had gently placed each of his hands on Amberly’s cheeks.

  “I need you to trust me, Amberly Macready. Your mother trusted us. And even if you don’t trust us, trust me. I only want what is best for you.”

  “I want to trust you; I really do,” Amberly said. “But how do I know you are not just playing me, using me for who knows what? How do I know my mom trusted you?”

  “It’s because your mom trusted us that we have the shell. She knew it would be a message to you, and now it’s critical that we get you to the Spencer Belt so your mom’s work can be complete.”

  “That makes no sense,” Amberly said, protesting with her mouth.

  But her eyes seemed ready to give in to Dek. She couldn’t deny she was attracted to Dek, and quickly started to think about where that path would lead. Would he leave on the American Spirit once his mission was done? Would she be okay with a quick-burning relationship? It was very unattached and progressive, and that appealed to her. North would never do that. North was a now-and-forever kind of guy, and the kiss she stole from him made her second guess herself.

  Amberly was lost in the middle of that thought when Dek leaned in to kiss her. Amberly retreated, and with a flirting wink said, “Slow down, Romeo. There will be time for that later.”

  Amberly wanted to kiss Dek. She loved his powerful eyes and his progressive idealism. But she had to keep her head clear. And she had to keep him hungry. Too much was at stake. She felt so close to learning everything about her dead mother.

  Dek was disappointed, but he could be patient. Amberly leaned her head on Dek’s shoulder. As she relaxed, her foot slipped slightly and the hard corner of the hidden key pressed into her heel. She winced and reflexively withdrew.

  “Are you all right?” Dek asked, confused.

  Amberly thought for a moment that maybe she should come clean with Dek about the encoded messages Skip had intercepted, and about swiping his hard key. She opened her mouth to confess.

  Then she closed it.

  No, she wouldn’t tell him. She would stick to the plan. Maybe her heart trusted Dek, but her head didn’t, and Amberly was hell-bent to let her head keep running the show for now.

  “I’m fine. Sorry,” she said.

  The tubecar started slowing at the next stop.

  “Dek, I trust you,” she half-lied with a confident tone, as the door slid open and the pair stepped out. “Let’s do this.”

  Within a few minutes, they were standing in front of the door to the Macready residence.

  “I need to go in alone and talk with Kora,” Amberly said. “Don’t worry I won’t be long.”

  “You know I can’t let you go in there alone,” Dek protested. “You might tell Kora about our plans to commandeer the Firebird.”

  “Look, there is nothing I want more than to find out everything about my mother and what she was doing, and that means staying with you. I am not going to mess that up now,” Amberly said. “And honestly, you are the person I want to be with right now, Chasm or not.”

  Amberly was so mixed up right now, that she didn’t know if she was lying or not, but she was sticking to the plan. She hoped she could get the hard key to Lydia and Skip.

  “Don’t say things you don’t mean,” Dek fished. “What if a kiss is just a kiss?”

  “I want to find out what we are, Dek. I trust you are going to make history, and I trust it is going to be a good history. I am putting myself in your hands by going with you tonight. Now it’s your turn to trust me. I need to talk to my sister, alone. Please, trust me like I trust you.”

  Dek briefly considered her test. “Okay, Amberly, please hurry. I’ll be right here.”

  Amberly punched in her unlock code and slipped into her apartment.

  Kora was watching a vid in her room. She called out.

  “Amberly, there you are. Lydia has been trying to reach you all day, she seems worried —”

  “Kora, listen. I don’t have much time. This is important and my life could be in danger. Dek is right outside…”

  “Dek? I thought you were on a date with North?”

  “Well, I was over at North’s place, and, it doesn’t matter.”

  “Dek is threatening you? How is he putting you in danger?”

  “Would you just listen!?” Amberly sat down on the bed next to Kora and pulled off her boot. “After I leave, I need you to take this hard key to Lydia or Skip right away. Don’t tell anyone. Just give it to them. Don’t lose it.”

  “I don’t understand,” Kora protested. Amberly had moved from Kora’s room to hers, and she had pulled out a small bag and was stuffing a jumpsuit and some extra undergarments and toiletries inside.

  “An overnight bag? Listen Amberly, I know I have encouraged you to develop relationships with men, but what you are doing here looks like a bad idea.”

  “No, it’s not like that. Not even close.”

  “Uh-huh. Really. Who is it? North? Surely not. Wait. Dek?”

  Amberly stopped packing for a moment to consider the question. Her flash reaction was that the question was juvenile, but then she just made the connection she had kissed both men within the space of a few hours.

  “Both,” she answered truthfully. “And yes I am going crazy, and no, I don’t know if it meant anything yet. But none of that is important tonight.”

  “What? Amberly, you are not making any
sense,” Kora said, concern tightening her brow.

  “No time to explain. After you give the key to Lydia or Skip, find North and tell him about the key and that he should find Skip. Don’t talk about this with anyone else. This is important. Don’t tell anyone, and find North.”

  “Okay, deliver key. Tell North.”

  Amberly grabbed her infopad and her mother’s conch shell and added them to her bag’s contents before zipping it and slipping it on her shoulder. She stopped and faced her sister, and pulled her into an embrace.

  “No matter what happens, I love you, Kora,” Amberly said, and turned to the door. The door slid open, with Dek waiting in the access corridor. Amberly walked out of the door, and Kora ran after her.

  She eyed Dek unhappily. “Amberly, be safe.”

  Dek and Amberly stopped and turned to face Kora.

  “Amberly… I,” Kora started to speak, but Amberly gave her a hard stare that Kora correctly interpreted as an indication that she shouldn’t say anything in front of Dek. Kora looked straight at Dek.

  “I have no idea what the hell is going on between the two of you, but you better make sure my little sister doesn’t get hurt, runt.” Kora put a finger into Dek’s chest. “If she does, I will personally airlock you.”

  Kora swung on her heels and retired to her apartment. When the door had closed and Amberly and Dek were alone once again, Dek turned to Amberly.

  “Is she going to be a problem?” he asked, not threateningly, but out of genuine concern.

  “No, she thinks I am going with you for a sleepover,” Amberly said.

  “That’s a nice idea,” Dek quipped.

  Amberly’s hand struck out like lightning, as she slapped Dek’s face with a sudden fury that surprised them both.

  “Don’t assume too much, Dek Tigona,” Amberly seethed. And as quickly as her temper flared, it subsided. “You should put that thought away before you get into real trouble.”

  They walked silently toward the hangars. Dek’s face had a welt where Amberly’s petite fingers had struck him. She thought he might even bruise. She was upset about his arrogant, presumptuous suggestion, but she was also starting to feel sorry for her flash of violence.

  “Maybe we should stop by the commons and get some ice for that,” Amberly suggested.

  “No time,” Dek said flatly, and the two quickly walked toward the main hangar, which was right next to her workplace.

  About ten minutes later, they were closing in on the lower lobby that gave access to the hangar and the Science Corps main labs. It was 27:30 — nearly midnight — and the access corridors were mostly deserted, so both Amberly and Dek jumped a bit when the Science Corps main door slid open and a tall blonde walked out.

  “Lydia!” Amberly shouted. “What are you doing out so late?”

  “Amberly, you know I am working on the —”

  Amberly cut her off. “I’m sorry, how rude of me. Lydia this is Dek, you know, the fellow from the American Spirit I’ve been telling you about.”

  Dek reached out his hand.

  “So nice to meet you, Lydia,” he said. “I don’t know if Amberly told you, but I do stellar cataloguing, too. She’s promised me a tour of your labs. But not tonight.”

  Amberly wanted to telegraph the precarious nature of her stroll with Dek, but couldn't figure out a way how without tipping her hand to Dek.

  “So what are you two out here for? An evening stroll?”

  “Dek wanted to give me a tour of the American Spirit. So here we are, headed to the hangar docking port. By the way Lydia, Kora has been looking for you all day. I just came from over there and I know she’d appreciate it if you dropped by.”

  Amberly glanced over at Dek, and if he thought her comments to Lydia were anything but innocent, he didn’t show it.

  “Good night, Lydia.”

  “Good night, Amberly. Mr. Tigona.”

  “Lydia, it was a great pleasure to make your acquaintance,” Dek said.

  Lydia had rounded the corner and was gone. A few paces later, Amberly was at the main door for the hangar. During working hours, a Marine handled admittance, but at night, you had to enter the authorized passcode. Since Dek was a passenger on the American Spirit, he had been given a passcode to open the door so he could have access to his ship. Likewise, because of her position in the Science Corps, Amberly also had an access code.

  “After you,” Dek said to Amberly, motioning to her to enter her code.

  “Oh no, you put your code in. They log those you know, and it doesn’t make sense for me to be here at night, so when this whole thing comes apart, they will come looking for you, not me,” Amberly replied.

  Dek sighed and reached a control pad on the door and entered a 10-digit code. “In the end, I promise you no one will care who entered the hangar when.”

  “That’s easy for you to say, Dek. You know the plan. I’m flying blind here.”

  “Right.”

  “So even if you do have a working pass code to take the ship, how do you know the flight deck isn’t going to be suspicious and try to confirm the launch codes?”

  “Our guy is running the flight deck,” Dek said as he looked around the hangar for the runabouts and started walking in that direction.

  “How many of you are there on Magellan?”

  “I don’t know the exact number. Let’s just say hundreds,” Dek said. “Joti knows an exact count, I believe. Sparks will tell you she does, but she doesn’t. Your mother — would have had access to that information.”

  All three of the runabouts were in dock, and Amberly didn’t know the Firebird by sight from the others, but when she saw Joti and Sparks standing in front of the furthest ship from the safety vacuum curtain, she figured that was their ride.

  Sparks looked curiously at the finger welts on Dek’s face. “What happened to you? Wait, don’t tell me you got frisky with Amberly? Shame, shame.”

  “Hurry,” Joti said. “The sooner we get underway, the better.” From the bottom of the runabout protruded a ladder, and Joti started climbing it. Sparks followed.

  “Ladies first,” Dek indicated the ladder to Amberly. Amberly climbed into the belly of the ship, and finally Dek ascended the ladder. Once he was in the ship, the ladder retracted and the hatch sealed.

  At the top of the ladder, Joti was waiting for Amberly. She could see he had a firearm holstered near his hip.

  “Did you happen to bring an infopad? If so, hand it over.”

  Amberly opened her bag and produced Verne.

  “Can’t have you making any calls while we are in range of Magellan,” he said.

  “Don’t trust me huh?” Amberly entered a lock command on Verne and handed him to Joti. “I don’t trust you either.”

  “I’m glad that’s clear,” he said. “You have too much of your father in you.”

  Dek climbed out of the stairwell. Joti addressed him.

  “Sparks and I are going to get this ship underway. Would you make sure our guest is comfortable? And by that, I mean lock her up in one of the sleeping quarters.” Joti headed toward the cockpit.

  When Sparks and Joti had disappeared onto the bridge, Dek turned to Amberly.

  “I’m sorry, Amberly, but I’m going to need to lock you in—”

  “Don’t worry. I understand,” Amberly said. Dek pointed her aft. They walked to the back of Firebird along the main corridor.

  “Your friend Joti is a real ball of starshine,” Amberly mused.

  “His bedside manner is horrible, but he’s loyal to the cause and willing to do what needs to be done.”

  “He’s a horrible spy,” Amberly said. “You can lock this from the outside, right?”

  “Sure, but I can stay here with you if—”

  Amberly gently pushed Dek back into the hallway, and winked at him.

  “Thanks, but I need some alone time anyway. Maybe you should go to the bridge and keep an eye on crazy. Both of them. See you soon,” Amberly pressed a button, the door slid closed
and Dek heard Amberly locking the door from the inside. He thought about entering a lock code on the exterior door, but in defiance of Joti he did not and just headed for the bridge.

  This cloak and dagger conspiracy wrapped in this ultimate tease about the fate of her late mother had pushed Amberly to the emotional limit. She reclined on the lower bunk and tried to push back the emotions so she could think clearly. Amberly suspected she’d need to stay sharp as possible just in case this whole unauthorized trip backfired on her and she needed to act quickly.

  She knew she needed to rest, but she was too wound up to sleep, so she just listened to the hum of the engines and started speculating about the outcome of her second trip to the Spencer Belt in as many weeks.

  CHAPTER TEN

  After hours of silent waiting, Amberly was still queasy from the Firebird’s artificial gravity, which felt different from the gravity on Magellan. She was disoriented and tired, but kept running through the details of what was becoming the longest day of her life.

  Amberly was desperate for any information. Did Lydia get the hard key? She tried to clear her mind, to think clearly.

  She instinctively reached for Verne to check her messages, but then remembered Joti had confiscated the infopad. Across from her bunk, almost within arm’s reach, was a terminal that could make personal messages. Amberly flicked it on, but it asked her for the ship’s master passcode for access.

  “Let’s see if we can guess this,” Amberly said aloud to no one. She typed in C-H-A-S-M and got nothing. She thought for a while, and then typed K-I-M-B-E-R-L-Y, knowing how much these people allegedly respected her dead mother. No access. Not wanting to get locked out for bad guesses, she let the terminal be.

  At the end of the short, tube-like room was a round portal that Amberly suspected opened into a restroom. She was right. She grabbed her night bag, slipped into the tight shower unit, bathed, and put on a cream-colored fitted tunic with black leggings.

  She laid back down, but still couldn’t sleep, so Amberly decided to explore the ship and see what Dek, Joti and Sparks were up to, and maybe get a better picture of exactly what they were going to do in the Spencer Belt. Sparks had said they were going to recover “personnel,” implying they were picking up people. But how did such people get to the Spencer Belt, and what would they have been doing? Amberly thought it was highly unlikely Chasm would have some sort of permanent base. Only one way to find out, Amberly thought as she reached to open the sleeper room door.