“Thank you,” Zoya said. “I’ve lost track of all the details.”
Madigan shrugged. “Thank you, both. Without you, I’d still be locked in the spares locker myself.”
Zoya looked at Natalya. “You’re the hero here, not me.”
Natalya grinned. “Hey, jumping fifty meters without a lifeline or plan. Not exactly my finest moment.”
Zoya blew out a breath and shook her head. “Please don’t do that again. I don’t know if I could explain it to your father.”
“Tell you what. You don’t get captured by mutineers and I won’t do any more space jumping.”
Zoya chuckled and held out her hand. “Deal.”
“What do we do now?” Madigan asked.
“Now you two scoot so I can put together a speech for the crew.”
“Now hear this. My name is Zoya Usoko. Thanks to this recent exercise, you all have met me. You all know my name. By order of the board of directors, I am in charge of rebuilding this station. We have had several blows, not the least of which was the loss of Smelter Seventeen in its entirety. On top of that, some of the people responsible for that disaster tried to cause more trouble. Thanks to your hard work and diligence, that plan failed.
“In a few days, a ship will dock here and we’ll hand over those people we believe are—at least—complicit with the plan that took out the station and all aboard. If you’re not locked up right now, either you didn’t do anything or you got away with it. Keep that in mind.
“Also in a few weeks, we’ll begin reconstruction of Usoko Mining Station Seventeen. The company has purchased replacement station assemblies and they are currently coming in from the Burleson limit.”
Zoya paused and Natalya wasn’t sure if there was more but after a moment, Zoya continued.
“I want to thank each of you for keeping cool heads in the midst of chaos, of trusting me to do my job in getting this station back up and running again. I can’t promise you everything will be all right because I just don’t know. Nobody does.
“I know that—with your help—we can bring Smelter Seventeen back to life even if the loved ones we’ve lost will never be recovered. Remember them as we work together to rebuilt what was destroyed and to grow even bigger, even better—dedicated to the notion that a few assholes can’t stop us.
“Thank you again. That is all.”
Chapter 45
Smelter Seventeen:
2368, March 10
Natalya watched from the brow as the Prodigal Son lined up to dock with the Mindanao. She had to admit the pilot knew his stuff. The two ships lined up dead on with Zoya holding the Mindanao steady from the emergency bridge aft and the Son doing most of the adjustments. The guy piloted the packet as if it were a shuttle craft.
She stepped away from the observation port and stood by the lock controls as the smaller ship closed the gap, easing closer and closer until the coupling mechanisms synced up and locked with a quiet ka-chunk. The Mindanao didn’t so much as shudder.
She keyed the lock cycle and felt a vibration through her soles as the two locks equalized pressure. She took a moment to peer into the lock. One man, average height and stockier than she was used to seeing spacers. His shock of white hair seemed to gleam in the dimness of the locks. He smiled at her through the port and gave her a jaunty salute. She keyed the inner door open and stepped forward to meet their guest.
“Well, hello, there,” he said, holding out a hand. “I’m Reggie Marzipan. And you are?”
She shook the hand. “Natalya Regyri.”
“Ah, Ms. Regyri. I’ve heard so much about you and your ship. Where is it, by the way, I didn’t spot it on our approach.”
“We keep her under cover as much as possible,” Natalya said.
He beamed. “Under cover. Cute. Quite so.” He ran an index finger alongside his nose and winked. “Valuable antique. Can’t be too careful.”
“That was some pretty flying,” Natalya said, desperate to change the subject and hoping that Zoya would come along soon.
“Oh, I’m sorry I can’t take credit for that. I’m not the pilot. I’m just along for the ride.”
“First time for everything, I suppose.” A woman stepped out of the smaller ship behind him. “Is he lying to you already?” She held out a hand. “Rachel Carstairs. Pilot and chief bottle washer this trip.”
The woman stunned Natalya. Willowy. Scarlet hair, certainly not natural. Peaches and cream with a side of freckles. Graceful in that way Natalya recognized from the dojos and martial arts schools.
Natalya shook the offered hand, momentarily speechless. “Natalya Regyri,” she said after staring for way too long. “I’m just the sidekick. Zoya will be along shortly.” Up close the white-haired guy looked a lot younger than she’d first thought. Something about his eyes unsettled her.
“Something the matter?” he asked, a grin trying to break out on his face. He glanced back and forth between her and Carstairs.
“Shut up, Pip,” the woman said.
A flash of annoyance pushed his lips into a line for just a heartbeat. If she hadn’t been looking at him, she might have missed it. “My nickname,” he said, much too quickly.
Rachel flashed him a sour look and crossed her arms. “Who did he say he was this time?” she asked, looking at Natalya.
“Reginald Marzipan?” Natalya asked, chagrined to realize she couldn’t really remember. “I apologize but I’m not exactly sure.”
The man grinned and winked at her. “Close enough,” he said. “What stands out about that name?”
Natalya shrugged. “It’s just slightly fanciful?” She really didn’t want to hurt the man by calling his name absurd.
“His name is Phillip Carstairs and he’s my brother.”
Natalya looked at the woman and saw the family resemblance in her eyes. She looked at the man again. They had the same shaped eyes. The same face, really, other than his was a bit shorter and—if she was honest—a little flabbier. “Why?” she asked.
“Well, because we have the same mother and father,” Phillip said. “It’s pretty common, actually.”
Rachel drew back and slugged him in the arm hard enough to make Natalya wince. “He thinks he’s being cute when, really, he’s just being annoying.” She sounded both honestly peeved and legitimately apologetic. “We can just ignore him for the time being if you like. I believe you have some passengers for us?”
“Now, now. There’s no need for violence, dear sister. You’ve ruined my fun alrea—” His sentence cut off.
Natalya looked up to see him staring at the passageway behind her. Zoya stepped forward from the shadows. “Zoya Usoko, this is Rachel and Phillip Carstairs, I think. They’ve come for some passengers.”
Zoya held out a hand to Rachel. “We’ve met before, I believe.”
Rachel took the offered hand. “We have, yes. It’s good to see you again. I hope your stay at Port Lumineux wasn’t too disconcerting.”
Zoya shook her head. “Maybe a little at first, but after I’d been there a few days and spent some time with Dr. Stevens, I think I came away with a much better picture of things.”
Rachel gave her a little smile. “No doubt.”
Zoya held her hand out to Phillip. “And Phillip, is it?”
The man stood there for a heartbeat too long just staring before he came to his senses with a start and clasped Zoya’s offered hand in both of his. “Yes. Yes, Phillip. It’s an honor to meet you, Ms. Usoko. You’re amazing.”
He stood there holding Zoya’s hand so long Rachel gave him a little elbow in the arm. He released it as if it were hot metal and took half a step back. “That is, yes. Nice to meet you, Ms. Usoko.”
Zoya narrowed her eyes at him and wiped her hand down the side of her shipsuit.
“Maybe we should adjourn to the wardroom?” Natalya said.
“Good idea,” Zoya said. “Right this way.”
Natalya stopped to close the inner lock door before following behind the Carstairs
woman.
“I’m sorry about my brother,” she said, slowing and turning to speak to Natalya. “He’s often a bit—over the top. I never know what’s really in his head because what comes out of his mouth is often absurd.”
Natalya gave a little laugh. “I’ve been around the Toe-Holds most of my life. He’s only a little bit over the top.”
Rachel grinned back at her. “I grew up out here. Yeah. I’ve seen his match, but you have to admit, it’s rare.”
“I’ll give you that.”
“Rumor is you and Zoya both went to the academy?” Carstairs asked.
“Graduated the same day,” Natalya said.
“Class of ’63, I heard.” Rachel held up her right hand. A familiar black band with a line of silver through it. “Class of ’61.”
Ahead of them Zoya gave a little “ahem” sound and held the wardroom door open.
Natalya scurried ahead and mouthed “sorry” as she passed.
Zoya just shook her head and closed the door behind them. “Have a seat. Anywhere. This isn’t a ship as much as it’s a base camp until we get rebuilt.”
They settled around the table, Natalya and Zoya across from Phillip and Rachel.
“I can offer you some coffee, but I’ll have to go get it myself. We’re a bit short on stewards,” Zoya said, folding her hands together on the table in front of her. “Before we get too far down the road, I need to ask you some questions.”
Rachel said, “Ahoy.”
Pip dragged his gaze away from Zoya long enough to look at his sister. “Ahoy?”
Zoya laughed. “That answered all my questions. What do you need from us?”
“Dr. Stevens said you have some people we might like to talk to about what happened here,” Rachel said.
“We think so. I wanted to give her first shot at them.” Zoya shrugged. “I’d rather not throw them out an airlock if they can be of some use.”
“Tell me the story,” Rachel said.
Carstairs settled back in his chair and folded his hands across his chest. He seemed to be staring at his boot tips under the table.
Zoya gave them the rundown on what had happened. “I wasn’t here when the incident occurred, but it seems that all these ships started toward the base after the Mindanao jumped in, but before it blew up.”
“And you think that the captains or engineering officers conspired to be arriving when the Mindanao docked?” Carstairs asked without looking up.
“No. They didn’t have the timing right. I think they were meant to do something on the station after the bomb had been delivered,” Zoya said. “It’s the simplest thing that covers all the facts as we know them. I can’t rule out the likelihood that we don’t know them all.”
“Occam lives,” Carstairs said, still looking at his toes under the table but giving a very small, credible smile for the first time since Natalya had met him. Seeing it made her realize that every other smile he’d given her was fake.
“You have some documentation?” Rachel asked.
“Nats can give you all our notes. I didn’t want to send them through the network.”
“What? You don’t trust HTHC?” Rachel asked with a twinkle in her eye.
“We used to work for them,” Natalya said, pulling out her tablet. “We know how they work.”
“I don’t blame you. Nothing like seeing how the sausage gets made to turn you vegetarian.” Rachel pulled out her own tablet and laid it on the table.
Natalya triggered the sync and offloaded a copy of all the notes they had on the renegades.
Rachel started thumbing through the screens of data and Carstairs asked, “Are there any more?”
“People?” Zoya asked. “We can’t rule it out. Some of the interviewees noted that a half dozen ships had started burning for the station when the Mindanao jumped in. Only five got here while Natalya was at Mel’s. I have no way of tracking which ones stopped and ducked into a belt. We’ve been busy trying to make something out of what’s left and didn’t consider that some of the bad guys are on our payroll.”
“Your grandparents put you in charge?” Rachel asked, looking up from her tablet.
Zoya snorted. “Stuck me with it, more like.”
“Can you tell me how that transpired?” Rachel asked.
Carstairs pursed his lips but continued staring at his feet.
Zoya shrugged. “We’d jumped out to Margary to visit my grandparents. I hadn’t seen them since my last year at the academy. While we were there, they got the word from HTHC that they’d lost link with the station. We got volunteered to take the Peregrine and investigate. We stopped to pick up a hotshot engineer on the way. We got here and found the debris cloud and not a hell of a lot else.”
“You came to Port Lumineux to report back to your grandparents,” Rachel said. It wasn’t a question.
“That and to light a fire under HTHC to get the comms buoy back online.”
Rachel nodded. “Where are you now?”
“Apparently we’ve got some Higbee modular units coming in from the Burleson limit,” Zoya said. “Our structural guy was going to build some from scratch but told us we could pay Higbee for pre-fab and have the station up and running faster. It seemed like the right choice.”
“You must have lit a rocket under them,” Rachel said.
“My grandmother, most likely. We sent off the proposal to Big Rock only a few weeks ago. I never heard back.”
Rachel chuckled. “Just when you think they’re not listening, they surprise you, huh?”
“Something like that.”
Rachel nodded a couple of times, her focus somewhere in the middle distance for a bit before she spoke. “We really do have a few tons of food for you. We’ll have to drag it through the lock but it’s all on grav pallets. As I remember, the mess deck and galley are all on the main deck on a Barbell, right?”
“We walked by it on the way in,” Carstairs said.
Rachel nodded. “I was a little pre-occupied.” She winked at Natalya. “You have some hands who can help us with that?”
“Fresh food? I think I can find at least a half dozen,” Zoya said.
“Let’s get to it, then. The sooner we get the food off, the faster we can get the passengers on.”
“Do you have a place to keep them?” Natalya asked.
Carstairs looked up then and grinned at her. “Oh, yes. We certainly do.”
Thinking about it afterward, Natalya was surprised at how fast the change-over went. It had seemed a lot longer—and sweatier—at the time. Zoya lined up the surviving mining crews by the simple expedient of asking people who wanted to eat to fall in on the mess deck. Kremer, their de facto chief cook, supervised the final placement in the various lockers, coolers, and freezers while the male Carstairs directed the offloading of supplies from the packet.
The Prodigal Son had uniformed crew who moved with the same fluid grace as the female Carstairs. “Guards?” Natalya asked as she passed Rachel in the lock. “That your normal complement?”
Rachel smiled and shook her head. “Dr. Stevens wanted to make sure these jokers get back to Port Lumineux. She called them insurance.”
“Nice to see somebody go the extra kilometer.”
Rachel laughed. “You have no idea.” She dragged her empty grav pallet back into the Prodigal Son, leaving Natalya looking after her from the brow of the Mindanao.
While Kremer and a couple of his helpers stowed the last of the supplies, Natalya and Madigan took Rachel and four of the uniformed “crew” aft to engineering to pick up the prisoners.
Madigan brought them out of the supply locker with the help of one of the guards.
“They look pretty good for having been locked up so long,” Rachel said.
“Fresh shipsuits every day. Food and water. Head breaks. Shower every morning.” Natalya shrugged. “Better than having them stink up the place.”
Rachal laughed. “I can’t fault that logic. Nice trick with the zip ties.”
; Natalya nodded at Madigan. “His idea.”
Rachel looked at him. “Law enforcement background?”
Madigan glanced at Natalya and then looked at the deck. “Not exactly.”
Rachel nodded. “Good job.”
“Thanks,” Madigan said, glancing up at Rachel and then at Natalya before looking back at the deck.
The short parade climbed the ladder to the main deck then trooped forward down the spine. The Prodigal Son’s crewmen kept the group moving smoothly down the length of the Mindanao, through the paired airlocks and into the smaller ship.
Zoya and Natalya stayed on the Mindanao, watching them disappear.
Rachel came back after a moment and held out a hand to Zoya. “Pleasure to meet you again.”
“Thanks for coming to our rescue. Again.”
Rachel shook her head and grinned. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. All I had to do was come over and pick up some potentially valuable witnesses. You did all the heavy lifting by having them tied up in a neat bow for us.”
“Uh, huh.” Zoya smiled back. “Ahoy to you too.”
Rachel offered her hand to Natalya. “It’s not everybody who’d launch themselves into the void without a safety line to save a friend.”
Natalya shook her hand. “I just did what needed doing at the time. I think about it now and break into a cold sweat.”
“Hell, I break into a cold sweat when I think of you doing it,” Rachel said. She stepped back aboard her ship. “Don’t be surprised if Dr. Stevens drops by for a visit someday. Just being neighborly.”
“Thanks for the heads up,” Zoya said. “Do I need to prep for inspection or anything?”
Rachel shook her head. “Nothing like that.” She keyed her lock closed.
As it levered down, Natalya keyed their own lock to free up the connection.
“That was odd,” Natalya said after the locks had all been secured and the smaller ship started the delicate process of disengaging itself.
“Those troopers?” Zoya said. “Those are the ones I saw on the station. Same uniform. I think some of the same people. I think I recognized a couple of them.”
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