He pulled out the lead and music blared into the room. McReidy opened her eyes and sat upright as the earphones went dead. She pulled them off, looking a little perturbed at having been interrupted.
“What did you do that for?” she grumbled.
“That wasn’t supposed to be in there.” He turned the machine off and took the disk out. He couldn’t find the right disks. Then he remembered he hadn’t used any of them. He flicked the intercom. “Mister Humphries, where are today’s communication disks?”
There was a brief delay while Humphries found out. “In your office, sir. Would you like me to send someone down with them?”
“Thank you, Mister Humphries.”
The disks would be a little while. John sat down and sipped at his coffee, careful not to embarrass McReidy by staring. It was hard to imagine she’d let herself get carried away by the music so easily. He could feel her eyes watching him, trying to see what he was thinking. Not tonight, she wouldn’t.
The disks arrived. McReidy retrieved the earphones and leaned back comfortably, cradling her half empty mug in her hands.
Within an hour, they found what they thought may have been a couple of their own ships, but they weren’t anywhere where they could reasonably have been expected to be. Small alien ships that didn’t have to answer to anyone but their own governments were always around.
There was no sign of any enemy ships. John had expected the cruiser that had gotten away from them to return with an ally to finish them off. Given the opportunity, that’s what he would have done. Perhaps it didn’t have that opportunity.
*
The disks were quiet. McReidy’s eyes were closed again. They had been for a while, ever since she had put her mug down. Her feet were on the edge of the desk. She looked comfortable. Too comfortable, John realised, as he watched her slow, even breathing. She had fallen asleep.
He rubbed his eyes. He wasn’t surprised. She’d kept up with him for the past couple of days – and nights. Probably through sheer stubbornness, because that’s all it had been on his part. He should wake her and send her home. He even might have, if he hadn’t been so tired himself. A mouthful of cold liquid in the bottom of his mug was evidence enough of what happened when he put his own head down.
He switched off the machine. Bleary eyes told him McReidy wasn’t disturbed. He stood up and moved around the desk. He slipped the earphones off and put them down. At least she had made it easy for him. He scooped one arm under her knees, the other wriggling under her shoulders. He picked her up, tilting her head towards his chest so it didn’t flop backward.
He took her to his bed, supporting her weight with his knee while he dragged the covers off. He put her down carefully, sliding his arm from her shoulders before her head touched the pillow. He pulled her boots off and slipped her feet in before drawing the covers over her. She snuggled in comfortably, rolling onto her side, completely oblivious to everything.
He was too tired to be anything but a gentleman. He grabbed a spare blanket, kicked off his boots and crashed on the lounge.
* * *
Morning came too quickly. John hadn’t set his alarm. Waking early was automatic; dragging himself out of bed was usually the difficult bit. He remembered where he was and reached an arm to the coffee table, fumbling around until his hand felt his watch. It was… almost time to get up, he decided as he managed to focus properly.
Coffee was first on the agenda as he dragged himself to an upright position. A shower… was out of the question as he suddenly remembered his guest – and the fact that they had no running water.
He walked softly to the doorway. He couldn’t hear anything and risked a quick peek. The sight of McReidy sleeping contentedly brought a small smile to his face.
The kettle boiled; it didn’t seem to take long this morning. He returned a minute later, placing two mugs on the bedside table. It almost seemed a shame to disturb her. Almost. She wasn’t getting out of work by spending the day in his bed.
“Good morning.” He spoke softly, but loud enough to penetrate.
“Morning,” she mumbled sleepily, more in response to the fingers that were brushing the hair from her face. She opened her eyes.
“Coffee?” His warm brown eyes smiled at her.
Her eyes opened in horror, darting about the room as the colour began to rise in her face. A quick check under the blankets sent a surge of relief through her.
“Don’t worry,” he laughed softly. “Your virtue is still intact. The only thing I took from you were your boots.”
A second glance at him reassured her. The ruffled hair, the crumpled jacket that was undone, a hint of a smile that showed his delight in teasing her.
“Move over,” he told her as he sat down on the edge of the bed.
She obeyed. The fact that they were both fully dressed did little to ease the knowledge that this was still his bed and she climbed outside the covers. He waited until she stopped moving before passing her a mug.
“How did I get here?” she wanted to know.
“You fell asleep, so I put you to bed.”
“You could have woken me up. I’d have gone home.”
“I was too tired to put up with your arguing.” Why did she have him defending himself? He’d done nothing wrong. “Gee, you’re grumpy in the mornings. You’re almost as grumpy as –”
He turned away quickly, leaving the sentence unfinished. He guessed she’d seen the sorrow in his eyes. He just hoped she wouldn’t say anything. All he heard from her was a long slurp of coffee.
He stood up to leave. “There’s no hurry. Take your time.”
His voice lost all the warmth it had a few moments ago.
She tossed the covers off and followed him into the lounge. A telltale blanket lay draped across the back of the lounge. She settled quietly in a chair and finished her coffee.
“Next time, I’ll wake you,” he offered as an apology. His voice was still soft, but displayed no emotion. His feelings were well and truly buried.
The tension being created was unbearable.
“Did we achieve anything last night?” McReidy asked.
“No,” he shook his head. “Except to discover we’re completely alone. No friends… but no enemies either.”
McReidy put the empty mug down and stood up. “I really should be going.”
He said nothing as she moved to the door. He wouldn’t tell her to go; neither would he ask her to stay. Then a smirk hit his face.
“Haven’t you forgotten something?”
She stopped short of the door, and hesitated. She turned to see him holding up a pair of boots. She didn’t need to glance at her feet to know they were hers, but she did anyway.
“Thanks.” She took them from him and hurriedly pulled them on. Straightening up, she met his eyes. “Sorry for kicking you out of your bed.”
“No man ever gets kicked out of his own bed unless he chooses to be.”
She tensed, the colour starting to rise again, and turned away.
“See you on the bridge in ten minutes,” he told her as she stepped into the corridor. “No, you’re a woman. Better make it an hour.”
The hint of a smile was back. The door closed before she could answer.
An hour! She’d show him, she’d be on the bridge before he was. She checked her watch as she headed back to her own quarters. There were about fifteen minutes to spare before she was due on duty.
The corridor was warm and stuffy. She checked the nearest ventilation duct. It was blowing warm air. It looked like Kowalski was right about the ship warming up. She was about to close the duct when she changed her mind, deciding that circulating air was preferable to nothing.
* * *
Giacomo picked up the jump gate’s yellow hypergiant on long range scanners. The bridge crew tensed and relaxed at the same time. When they got through the gate, they’d be safe. But there was nothing to ruin your day like getting jumped when you’re almost home.
Even though ther
e was nothing around and the enemy hadn’t come anywhere near this sector, they’d been jumped before and hadn’t yet figured out how to cut through cloaks. While the latter had taken a backseat to the more immediate problems of survival, it was something that now hit the surface of John’s mind. That and the fact that Ark Royal had destroyed a gate to stop the Andromedans getting through.
“Giacomo, scenic route.”
“Yes, sir.”
Giacomo changed course. Bismarck eased away from the gate, lost it on scanners, and headed to another system. An hour later, she cut back through her own path, picking up her own engine residue and nothing else.
A million kilometres away, a comet melted its tail in a stream towards its sun. There was nothing else, and nothing to hide in or behind unless it was the hypergiant itself.
“Let’s go home.”
Giacomo eased course back to the gate.
John wasn’t slowing the ship for anything. As soon as they were within range, he logged into the gate and set the co-ordinates. It acknowledged and activated. Bismarck reached the gate as it opened, and it closed behind her. Navigation recalibrated and set the star maps.
Giacomo set course for Tricon.
Back to top
Chapter twenty six
Every engineer was dead against returning to Tricon, no matter how necessary it was. Dead being the operative word. Giacomo got the ship into transporter range without being detected.
Locating crystals wasn’t a hard task – the mines were full of them. Finding some in a state that could be easily refined was going to be a lot harder. If the ship had been in good enough condition to refine the crystals from crude ore, then she wouldn’t have needed them in the first place.
Tan found what they wanted. He’d been eavesdropping communications to and from the planet from the moment they’d been in range. The lines were quiet – a mining planet had very little need to contact anyone – but he’d found out that a shipment of crystals was due to be picked up in a few days time.
“I don’t think they’ll miss a handful out of two tonne, sir.”
“That depends on who’s picking them up.”
“Centauri’s.”
John grimaced. “They’ll probably count every individual crystal. Where are they?”
“Still underground. The miners won’t bring them up until the Centauri’s arrive.”
John let out his breath sharply. He looked around the bridge. “All right… Mister Gillespie. You, me and Kowalski.”
Gillespie’s nod was reassuring.
John hit the intercom. “Mister Kowalski, meet me in the transporter room. Gear up, we’re going down.”
Kowalski and Lorraine were waiting in the transporter room when John and Gillespie arrived. The two engineers had a cupboard open and assorted equipment grouped across the floor – collection bags, scanners, ropes, helmets with lights and a handful of oxygen canisters.
“Not taking chances, sir,” Kowalski said as John picked up a canister.
John buckled on a belt, clipped the canister to it along with a collection bag, slung a coil of rope diagonally from shoulder to hip and buckled the helmet on.
“We right?” he asked.
Gillespie and Kowalski nodded. Lorraine was at the controls. They stepped onto the transporter pads and she powered up.
*
It was when they materialised in the clammy darkness that John remembered why he hated mines.
“All right, Sam. Where are those crystals?” he snapped as he switched his light on. “Let’s get them and get out.”
“Down two levels, sir.”
John spun around sharply, the strong beam from his light rotating like a lighthouse beacon and hitting Kowalski in the eyes. The engineer put up a hand to shade his face.
“Why didn’t you put us on the right level?”
“Take it easy,” Gillespie stepped in to defend Kowalski. “You wanted to get in undetected. Some things have to be done the old fashioned way.”
Kowalski blinked, his eyes watering slightly and pulled out his scanner. He rubbed his eyes with the heel of one hand while the scanner read the area. “Air’s clean.”
That bit of confirmation eased the tension a fraction.
“Elevator’s over this way, sir. About ten metres.”
The soft dirt muffled their footsteps, the only light that of their helmets. John looked around; the walls and ceiling dark rock that was only just out of reach.
They reached the shaft only to find that the elevator wasn’t on their level. Kowalski reached his scanner into the shaft, aiming it first up, then down.
“It’s on the surface. I can probably get it down here –”
“And alert everyone?” John shook his head, lifting his rope over his head and off his shoulder. “Looks like the old fashioned way.”
It didn’t take long to rig up some ropes in the elevator shaft. The thought of abseiling into the darkness below wasn’t pleasant. Even the light from their helmets was quickly absorbed in the blackness as they looked hesitantly down.
“Last one down…” Kowalski grinned as he leapt into the shaft.
John and Gillespie watched him for a moment.
“Was I ever –?” John began.
“Worse. Now get going before you change your mind.”
John took a deep breath and followed Kowalski. Gillespie was close behind.
Kowalski stood out like a beacon when they neared him. He had already scanned the area, found the crystals, and double checked to make sure no one else was around. The crystals were stacked, ready for taking to the surface.
Kowalski picked one up and looked at it in fascination.
“Just think,” he mused as he turned it over in his hand. “Our whole lives depend on a handful of these rocks.”
It caught the light from his helmet. Even in its grubby state, it was able to refract light like a well cut diamond. It sparkled in the colours of the rainbow, and for a few minutes Kowalski could do nothing but stare at it.
“No spares. We don’t need them to be missed,” John told them. He unclipped the collection bag, picked up a rock that was larger than his hand and put it in the bag. Half a dozen – that was all they needed. His bag held two and he pulled the drawstring and clipped it back to the belt.
“I got two.” Gillespie clipped his own bag to his belt.
Kowalski was still staring awestruck at the crystal in his hand.
“Sam.” John clapped him on the back.
“Huh?” His gaze lifted slowly from the crystal.
“Time to get out of here.”
“Yeah… right.” Kowalski slipped the crystal into his bag, deposited a second and followed them to the elevator shaft. He grabbed the first rope and began to climb up.
“Ten bucks says you can’t beat him up there,” Gillespie prompted.
“He’s got a head start.”
“All right, make it fifty.”
“Done.” John grinned and disappeared after Kowalski.
They all froze as they heard a creaking from above. It turned into a groan as the machinery came to life.
“Elevator.” Kowalski voiced what they all thought.
“How long?” John was almost beside him.
“Ninety seconds, max.”
They began climbing as quickly as they could, the sound of the elevator becoming louder every second as it plummeted towards them from the blackness above. There were no lights on the elevator – no way of knowing how close it was.
John and Kowalski made it to the top and swung themselves into the tunnel. Almost as soon as his feet hit the ground John turned and grabbed at Gillespie’s rope. He nearly lost balance and took a second to steady himself.
“Give me a hand to pull him up!”
Kowalski obeyed and they ripped on the rope, dragging Gillespie up. As soon as he was in reach, John grabbed back of his jacket. Kowalski dropped his weight on the rope in a final rip, then let it go as John heaved Gillespie over the edge and th
e man lifted his feet clear seconds before the elevator plunged past.
The rope rocketed past Kowalski, snapping like a whip, and he buried his face in his hands as he rolled clear. John overbalanced with Gillespie’s weight, and tripped on Kowalski. The rope snapped the walls and disappeared down the shaft with the elevator, echoing as it cracked its way into the dark.
For a minute, the three of them lay tangled up, light beams angling in all directions, and coughing for breath, as a cloud of dust rose about them. John pushed Gillespie away and tried to untangle his legs so he could stand.
“I’m getting too old for this,” Gillespie groaned.
“You’re getting slow,” John told him before the dust in his throat had him coughing again. He let it clear before continuing. “You used to cover that distance in under sixty seconds.”
“Who won?” Gillespie took John’s offered hand and pulled himself to his feet.
“Who cares?” The more John tried to dust himself off, the more dust he was actually stirring up.
“What do you mean, who won?” Kowalski wanted to know. “That’s not fair. You didn’t tell me it was a race.”
“You were racing when you heard that elevator,” John reminded him. “Madison to Bismarck. Ready to transport.”
“Bringing you up now, sir.” Lorraine’s voice was a welcome sound.
Kowalski was still complaining to Gillespie about the unfair race. John knew there was something wrong when they were still underground a few seconds later.
“Lorraine?” he queried.
“The transporter won’t lock on properly. The crystals are causing interference. Can you hold on a minute?”
“Not like we’re going anywhere,” he muttered.
“Sir?” Lorraine queried.
He hadn’t meant her to hear that. “When you’re ready, Lorraine.”
“Yes, sir.”
He looked at Gillespie and Kowalski, who were still arguing. He was better off staying out of that. He shivered as the chill set in, telling himself it was just because he was cooling down.
When the Dust Settled Page 45