Home Run (Smuggler's Tales From the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper Book 3)

by Nathan Lowell

  “But you don’t think so?”

  She shook her head. “The terminals have backup power supplies. They can stay online for up to two stans even if the station goes dark. They signal the buoy, then go offline automatically when they’re down to half a stan’s worth of power.”

  “You sound pretty certain.”

  Zoya shrugged. “Nondisclosure. We learned a lot about how the network does what it does.”

  The door opened and Madoka burst into the kitchen, her face pale and grim as stone. “It’s gone.”

  Chapter 8

  Big Rock:

  2368, January 31

  Madoka took her seat and sloshed coffee into her mug. Her hand trembled and her words spilled out. “We got a service update notice from HTHC. They lost contact with the station three days ago. It’s taken that long to confirm it and notify us. Three days.”

  Konstantin took a deep breath and stared into the distance. “That’s not bad considering. It’ll take us two weeks or more to get there on the Zajka.”

  “Zajka?” Zoya asked.

  “Beefed-up Unwin Eight,” Konstantin said as Madoka continued to scan through the screens on her tablet. “We got it when we started rolling out smelters in the Toe-Holds.”

  “Fast and so common they’re all but invisible,” Natalya said. “We’re familiar with them.”

  “I’m directing Rock Hopper to divert now,” Madoka said. She leaned toward Zoya. “She’s out there already on an inspection tour.”

  “Three days ago,” Konstantin said, grabbing his tablet and scrolling through the screens as fast as his fingers would tab.

  Madoka froze for a heartbeat, then her head snapped up. “No.” The word was barely a whisper.

  Konstantin stopped scrolling, what little color remained in his face drained completely and he bit his lip. He sighed.

  Madoka’s eyes widened. “Can’t be,” she said.

  Konstantin looked across the table. He nodded.

  Madoka sat back in her chair, a trembling hand covering her mouth.

  Konstantin recovered first and he turned to Natalya. “Help us?”

  “Of course,” Natalya said. “We can be underway in half a stan.”

  Genevieve stepped up to the table with a quiche cradled between mitted hands. “Eat while you plan. You can’t help anybody without a plan and you can’t plan on an empty stomach.” She placed the quiche on a waiting hot mat and thrust the handle of the cutter into Madoka’s hand.

  Madoka blinked at the serving tool in her hand and nodded, her focus returning. “Thank you, Genevieve. You’re right.” She addressed the quiche and quickly distributed plates around the table. She glanced at Konstantin. “You’re ops. What do we need?”

  “Information first,” Konstantin said. “We need to know what happened.”

  “We can be there in a few days,” Natalya said. She looked at Zoya. “We’d need the location but then you can run a plot.”

  Zoya nodded. “That’ll give us a better handle on how long it’ll take.”

  “The Peregrine has long legs,” Natalya said. “We can probably jump out of here into the Dark in less than half a day.”

  “Who do we send?” Madoka asked. “Wilco Roos and Jason Andress were on the Hopper.”

  Konstantin bit his lips together as started sorting through his tablet again. “How many can you take on the Peregrine?”

  “Two?” Zoya asked, looking at Natalya.

  “We can hot-bunk,” Natalya said. “Or sleep on the couches, but two is as many as I’d dare take without overloading the scrubbers.”

  Konstantin nodded. “That should be enough. We’ll reimburse you.”

  “That’s not necessary,” Natalya said.

  Konstantin stopped scrolling and turned to Natalya. “Not negotiable. Flat-rate lease starting today. A thousand credits a day plus expenses until we get this situation resolved and you return to us here at Big Rock.”

  Natalya looked at Zoya. “Doesn’t feel right taking advantage of your situation.”

  “All right,” Konstantin said. “We’ll buy your ship and hire you to run it. Would a million credits cover it?”

  Natalya looked at Konstantin. “That’s worse.”

  He gave her a wan smile. “We need you.”

  “I’m here.”

  “We’re here,” Zoya said. “Let’s do this and worry about the terms later.”

  “This isn’t settled,” Madoka said.

  Konstantin nodded and turned back to his tablet. “Megan Pawlak?”

  Madoka shook her head. “She’s brilliant at processing ore but we need somebody who can scope out the situation on site. If the terminal has been destroyed, that doesn’t bode well for the station proper.”

  Konstantin nodded.

  “You’re not eating,” Genevieve said from the kitchen. “You’re not leaving here until you finish that quiche.”

  Natalya looked over to find the cook standing with feet apart and hands on her hips. She looked ready for a fight.

  Madoka lifted a fork and began eating, her movements clumsy as she ate with one hand and worked her tablet with the other. “McKenzie?”

  “Which one?”

  “Mike.”

  Konstantin paused his scrolling long enough to take a bite of his breakfast. After a moment he nodded. “Pretty junior still, but he helped Bean set up Smelter Eighteen. His evals on that were good.”

  Natalya looked across the table at Zoya then nodded at their food.

  Zoya nodded back and began shoveling the quiche into her mouth, washing it down with coffee.

  “Flash me the location, Pop-pop? I’ll go run the numbers so we know what kind of transit time we’ve got.”

  He didn’t look up but nodded. A moment later, Zoya’s tablet bipped to signal the incoming message.

  Natalya and Zoya stood. “If you’ll excuse us?”

  “Of course,” Madoka said.

  Natalya nodded at Genevieve. “Thank you, Genevieve. Sorry to eat and run.”

  Genevieve made shooing motions. “You’re welcome. Now scoot. Let me deal with these old fogeys.”

  Zoya led the way out of the residence and back to the dock. They didn’t speak until they were aboard and firing up the ship’s systems.

  “How bad is it, do you think?” Natalya asked.

  Zoya scrubbed her face with both palms before replying. “Bad. For that terminal to go offline without telling the buoy?”

  Natalya nodded. “Yeah. That’s what I’m thinking, too.”

  Zoya started tapping keys, while Natalya began taking inventory of the ship. They’d need extra food, more scrubber cartridges. By the time Zoya spoke again she’d worked through her replenishment list.

  “Seven days,” she said.

  “Not as bad as I thought,” Natalya said.

  “Six days to Mel’s from here. Ten to the Ranch,” Zoya said. “It’s not marked on our database.”

  “It’s been a while since we visited Inky. We should probably get an update.”

  Zoya nodded and sat back on the couch. “Probably a good idea. You ran the replenishment?”

  “We’ll need to run over to the orbital.”

  Zoya nodded again. “Probably. I don’t imagine Pop-pop keeps scrubber cartridges in our size here.”

  “So, we’re looking at seven days from the orbital, which is another half day from here,” Natalya said.

  “Just about. We can probably regain some of that because the orbital is farther out.”

  “We’ve got the freezer space for four people but we filled most of it coming into Margary.”

  “We should pick up a couple extra tubs of coffee,” Zoya said. “What about a bread machine like Ernst had?”

  “Where would we put it?”

  Zoya stood up from her console and walked into the galley. “Not a lot of choices here.”

  “What else could we do?”

  “Probably not much until we see what happened.” Zoya said, returning to plop into h
er couch.

  “I’ve forwarded a replenishment order to the Orbital. They’ll hold for pickup and we can top off the tanks when we get there.”

  Zoya sighed and looked out at the docking bay. “How bad do you really think it is?”

  Natalya shook her head. “It doesn’t look any better now than it did a few ticks ago. Whatever happened took out at least part of whatever station they had there.”

  “Smelters are finicky. They take a massive amount of power. Even more than the ore crushers.” Zoya sighed again and levered herself up from the couch. “We should probably check in and find out if there have been any updates.”

  Natalya nodded and followed her out of the ship. “He’s not going to pay us to do this.”

  Zoya looked over her shoulder with a grin. “He’s a stubborn man with his own sense of right and wrong. I learned long ago that I should never bet against him.”

  She led them deeper into the rock but bypassed the residence, taking the path directly to the office wing. A security guard opened the door for them and waved them through. Inside, the entire wing buzzed with activity. It seemed like every office held two or three people engaged in some kind of serious discussion.

  “They don’t all live here, do they?” Natalya asked as they passed a small conference room with a dozen people huddled over something on the table that Natalya couldn’t see.

  Zoya shook her head. “I don’t know. It looks a bit busier than normal but they’ve had a couple of stans to bring in re-reinforcements from the other habitats.”

  “What are they doing?” Natalya asked.

  “Brainstorming,” Konstantin said, surprising Natalya by stepping out of an office across the corridor. “Come in. We’ve had news.”

  They found themselves in another small conference room. Madoka sat at the head of the table with an array of grim-faced individuals seated down each side. “Oh, good,” Madoka said. “How long to get there?”

  “About seven days with a stop at Margary Orbital on the way out,” Zoya said. “We want to top off the tanks and lay in some extra provisions.”

  Madoka nodded. “Good choice. We’re trying to decide who to send with you.”

  “I still say Mike McKenzie,” Konstantin said.

  One of the burly men sitting at the table shook his head.

  “Why not, Martin?” Madoka asked. “He’s got the knowledge and the experience.”

  “Oh, yeah. I wouldn’t argue that. It’s just he’s not exactly got a good track record for leadership.” The burly man’s voice sounded low and growly—like a pair of asteroids grinding together.

  “You want to explain that, Martin?” Madoka asked, her head cocked to the side.

  Martin looked at his hands, his blocky fingers locked together on the table in front of him. “He knows his stuff,” Martin said, the words squeezing out of him. “Problem is he thinks he’s the only one who knows anything.”

  Madoka nodded. “Go on.”

  Martin shook his head. “He’s real good with a blueprint, but I’ve never seen him put something together without one.”

  Madoka pursed her lips and looked to Konstantin.

  “Who’d you suggest, Marty?” Konstantin asked.

  Martin didn’t look up. “Bean.”

  Madoka looked up at the name, her brow furrowed. “Bean?”

  “He’s one of the structural engineers on Grinder Eight,” Konstantin said. “Young guy.”

  Madoka’s eyes widened. “Good looking? Dark hair? Smallish?”

  Konstantin grinned and nodded. “Came out of Dunsany Tech. Deep space construction.”

  “I remember now,” Madoka said. She looked at Martin. “Isn’t he kind of young for this kind of job?”

  Martin shrugged. “Maybe, but you need somebody on site who can assess the situation correctly the first time. He was pretty green when he joined that crew last stanyer. He’s come a long way since. He’s still a damn know-it-all but Marcy Thompson thinks he’s the real deal.” Martin looked up at Madoka. “So do I.”

  “Anybody else?” Madoka asked, looking around the table. “If we send Bean, who do we send with him?”

  A young woman at the end of the table lifted her head. The lights above the table gleamed off her scalp, her cropped hair covered so little of her head.

  “Kate?” Madoka asked.

  “You need somebody who has management authority. Somebody who can deal.”

  Konstantin stiffened and stood up straighter. “Explain?”

  “Bean is the technician. Somebody needs contract authority to deal with putting things to rights. We don’t know what kind of support they might need—and waiting for days to make those kinds of decisions and deals? With lives on the line?” She grimaced and shook her head. “Seems like we’d be best served by sending somebody who can make the decisions on the spot. Just in case things are ... really bad?”

  Konstantin frowned and looked at Madoka.

  Madoka nodded. “She makes good sense, but neither you or I can go, Kon.”

  “Tim Cederquist is still over at Dunsany and we sent Tom Manders on the Hopper,” Konstantin said.

  Madoka looked at Kate. “You have somebody in mind?”

  Kate turned and stared at Zoya.

  Chapter 9

  Big Rock:

  2368, January 31

  Zoya, for her part, barely twitched although her lips tightened.

  Konstantin’s eyes narrowed a bit as he looked from Zoya to Madoka, then back to Kate. “Interesting suggestion. Why Zoya?”

  Kate raised her hand, index finger extended. “She’s familiar with Toe-Hold space, having lived and worked there for the last five stanyers.” She extended a second finger. “She graduated from Port Newmar very near the top of her class. They teach leadership there.” She raised a third finger. “She’s a legend in the company. Even people who weren’t here then know about her and how she ran a hauler in and out of the belts for stanyers when she wasn’t even tall enough to sit in the chair without a footstool. If she shows up representing the company, there isn’t a single employee who won’t line up to follow wherever she wants them to go. If this thing is as bad as it seems, that’ll be more important than any other consideration.” She raised her pinkie. “She’s family and will—in all likelihood—inherit the operation when the time comes for you two to retire.” Kate offered Zoya a warm smile. “Sorry, hon, but you’re in the wrong place at the right time for us.”

  Madoka sat back in her chair and raised an eyebrow at Konstantin.

  He grimaced and looked at Zoya. “What do you say?”

  Zoya took a long time to answer. She looked at her grandfather, who seemed to be only moderately curious about how she would respond. She looked at her grandmother, who simply tilted her head to the left. She looked at Kate, who met her gaze without looking away. She scanned the faces around the table, all looking at her. She looked at her boots for a few more very long moments before she pulled in a deep breath and released it. She looked at her grandmother. “When do we leave?”

  Madoka looked to the woman at her right hand. “Lisa, how soon can we get a boat out to Grinder Eight and back again?”

  Lisa consulted her tablet but Konstantin spoke. “Five days out, five more back. They’re just coming around from behind the primary.”

  The woman looked up. “He’s right.”

  Konstantin looked at Natalya. “Something north of a billion kilometers?”

  Natalya did the rough math in her head. “Straight line, maybe a little shorter. We can cut it in half if we jump out from there.”

  His eyebrows rose. “Other ideas?”

  “Jump out, jump back,” Natalya said. She glanced at Zoya. “What do you think?”

  Zoya’s head bobbed a couple of times. “Run for half a day, maybe?”

  “Flip and start decelerating, punch the drive. If we time it right we’ll be able to reverse the vector and jump back just ahead of them so they’re closing on us as fast as we’re closing on them,” N
atalya said.

  “Snag and grab,” Zoya said. “We only need a clear spot in the dark to jump to.”

  Natalya nodded. “That’s my thinking.” She looked at Konstantin. “A couple of days, probably. Depends on the jump error when we come back into the system.”

  “We still need to stop at the orbital before we leave,” Zoya said.

  “We go there first,” Natalya said. “It’ll add a half day to the trip but the only thing different about going from there instead of here is the vector we jump out on.”

  “So? Three days?” Konstantin asked.

  “If we left now, we can certainly be there in three. Maybe two, two and a half,” Natalya said.

  “Plan on three,” Konstantin said. He looked at Madoka.

  “Lisa, flash Grinder Eight. Get Bean packed up. He’s got three days.” She looked at Natalya. “How much can he take with him?”

  Natalya did some quick calculations. “Softsuit plus a couple of cubic meters as long as it’s not one big package.”

  Konstantin snorted. “Tell him to bring his suit and pack a bag. There’s not enough room on those scouts to change your mind.” He looked at Natalya. “You were going to give him your stateroom?”

  Natalya shrugged.

  “We need to get him there, figure out what needs to happen, and start the recovery. You can’t be lugging his stuff all over the place. He won’t have time for most of it anyway,” Madoka said. “We can arrange to send his stuff on another ship once we know what we’re up against.” She turned her attention to the group. “Thanks, everybody. I need recommendations for worst, best, and most likely scenarios. We’ve got a freighter coming in day after tomorrow that we’ll divert to Smelter Seventeen as soon as we know what we need to send. I’d like to keep that loading period as short as possible.” She waved her hands in a shooing gesture and the room emptied except for Lisa, who remained in her seat beside Madoka.

  “We have room for somebody else,” Konstantin said when the room had cleared.

  Madoka sighed. “We’ve been here for over a stan already and Martin was the only one with any real knowledge about who has the engineering clout. What’s with McKenzie? I thought he was the next major asset.”