Homeworld: Beacon 3

by Valerie Parv

  “Will that be enough?” she asked after explaining about the Kelek mourning ritual.

  “It has to be.”

  “Garrett?” The governor paused. “I’m worried about your part in this.”

  “I have plenty of technical help.”

  “I mean about the risk of giving the Kelek another beacon if something goes wrong.”

  The same fear had been preying on his mind. “We’ll make sure nothing does.”

  When her silence lengthened, he went on more softly, “We don’t have much choice.”

  “There are other astronauts I could send.”

  “Not fliers who are as close to Elaine as I am. She’s teetering on the brink. If I’m not there to help her through this, she could break altogether.”

  “The indispensible man?” the governor asked.

  “A very dispensable one,” he countered. “The Kelek won’t get another beacon out of this, I promise you. Once Elaine is safe, what happens to me doesn’t matter.”

  The governor sounded choked as she said, “It does, my friend. You’d be surprised how much.”

  He wouldn’t let his mind go there. Instead he looked at the mess of components stripped out from the Global’s interior to save weight. Everything not needed to fly the plane was heaped around the hangar. He cleared his throat. “Timo’s plane will never be the same, though.”

  “Our planet as well,” she said, a grim reminder of the stakes. “Can you pull this off?”

  “With the brainpower we’ve tapped into, I hope so. Luckily, Arrafin isn’t large as shuttles go. Getting it up to required altitude is half the battle. The real challenge is accelerating to Mach 25, orbital speed. We’re still working on that.”

  “Adam would have had the orbital mechanics calculated in his head,” she said.

  “Still no word from him. We’re on our own.”

  “Keep me informed of progress. And Garrett – thank you.”

  The catch in her voice brought a lump to his throat, but there was no time for sentiment.

  His military background plus his science fiction research gave him a unique take on his assigned task: working out how to dock the shuttle with the Kelek ship. It was one thing to connect willing space craft with modules like the International Space Station. Quite another when the other ship was overtly hostile.

  In the history of the space program, only one such mission had been carried out – the Soyuz T-13 mission to salvage the damaged Salyut 7 space station in 2006. All others had been cooperative, or done in simulation. He couldn’t see the Kelek putting out the welcome mat while they docked. Meeting the humans with killing force was more likely.

  He shoved the idea away and applied himself to the two phases of the problem: getting Arrafin into zero relative motion with Storm, and finding a way to interface with the alien technology. Arrafin was already fitted with a laser proximity device capable of aligning them with a ship between a meter and three kilometers away. Unfortunately, grappling and connecting methods were still on the drawing board.

  Garrett was reaching back into theories he hadn’t thought about since separating from the US Air Force, making him glad he was only responsible for the preliminaries. More technically accomplished minds than his would take his proposals and make them work.

  Timo dropped into a chair beside him. Stress creased the diplomat’s features. “How’s it going?”

  Garrett pushed a schematic toward the other man. “Every pressurized mating adaptor we have available presumes the other ship has a similar deal.”

  Timo studied the diagram for a few seconds. “If we punch through the Kelek hull, we can use what we like to seal the breach.”

  “You’re asking a lot from three people.” They’d already agreed this was the most the shuttle could carry and have a prayer of achieving orbit.

  A smile ghosted over Timo’s face. “Let me worry about the means.”

  Garrett remembered Elaine saying she thought there was more to Timo than met the eye. “If we approach the Kelek ship from a hatch on the nadir – the Earth-facing side – they shouldn’t see us until we’ve secured Arrafin.”

  Garrett frowned, thinking. “We could do it with help from inside.”

  “We have help. Elaine’s on board.”

  “Suffering from amnesia,” Garrett stated. “I’ve tried talking to her with limited success.”

  “She doesn’t need her memory to arrange a diversion.”

  “It’s a lot to ask.”

  “There’s a lot at stake.” Timo unconsciously echoed Shana’s comment.

  Garrett pulled the schematic back. In her right mind, Elaine would be full of ideas and plans. In her present condition, he didn’t know what to expect. “All I can do is talk to her.”

  *

  “Where are you?” came the voice in her head that Elaine associated with the man called Garrett.

  “I’m locked in a cabin,” she said. Of course, as a listener, he couldn’t see what was around her. That was her act. Odd how quickly she’d accepted their strange abilities, she thought, wondering at the same time how close she and Garrett were. Lovers perhaps? She sensed a warmth toward him smoothing their communication. Closer than lovers, she decided, unable to find anything in her mind to explain the belief.

  She concentrated on his image, letting her vision find him. He was in a cavernous building like an aircraft hangar. Around him, a small army of people worked furiously at a variety of tasks. Thick power cables snaked over the floor, and what looked like the insides of a plane were scattered everywhere.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  He cocked his head. Listening, she presumed. “Working on a way to get you back.”

  She found she could read his lips more easily, the more they were in contact. Mostly she seemed to hear him in her mind. “How will you reach me if I’m in a spaceship?” She was even becoming accustomed to that bizarre notion.

  “Carramer has a space shuttle called Arrafin. We plan to launch it from the back of Timo’s plane and dock with your ship. But we’ll need your help.”

  Timo. Once more, the name snagged her emotions, hard and visceral. She suspected she knew him very well, although when she tried to access memories of him, her mind remained stubbornly blank.

  “What can I do?” she asked. “I don’t remember anything useful.”

  She saw his head come up. “Do you remember anything at all?”

  “Random thoughts. That’s all.”

  “I want you to look at the ship from outside and tell me what’s there, in as much detail as you possibly can.”

  “How will that help?”

  “We can use what you see to work out how to dock with the ship. Look at the underside of the ship and tell me if you see any kind of hatch, a big one.”

  She slowed her breathing and turned her vision inward. Without her memory, she was taking a lot on trust.

  As she began describing the underside of the Kelek ship, she saw him pull a graphic tablet toward him, using a stylus to record what she told him.

  When she finished he said, “Can you create a diversion, something big to distract their attention while we dock?”

  “A man here might help,” she said. “His name is Kam and he says he’s an adept.”

  She saw concern cloud Garrett’s face. “Be careful. The Kelek use adepts to track beacons. That’s how they found us on Earth.”

  “Kam says he’s my captor and my protector. How can he be both?”

  “I don’t know. Go along with the protector part if it’s useful,” he advised Elaine, “but only as it suits your purpose.”

  “It would help me to know what my purpose is.”

  “Don’t worry about that for now,” he said. “If this Kam wants to help, let him, but don’t trust him too far.” He paused. “Here’s what we need you to do.”

  Chapter 24

  Getting Arrafin into the upper atmosphere was as tough as they’d all expected. The path to orbit needed only eight a
nd a half minutes, but even modified, Timo’s plane wasn’t designed to operate in a vacuum. They were about to find out if the simulations they’d run with the designers from Global would work in practice.

  The lack of field testing gnawed at Garrett. They had one shot at this, and if any system let them down, they were finished. Arrafin’s original pilot, Lyle Chenard, was at the shuttle controls with Garrett in the left-hand seat. Timo sat in one of the crew seats behind them. All wore pressurized suits.

  The Global below them was crewed by Makoa “Mac” Forsyth and Pali Keone, two of Timo’s most trusted people. They had helped Elaine rescue him from the ESIN thugs. Like her, Garrett suspected they had military aviation experience at the least – they were simply too good at what they did. They would be far from comfortable, as every creature comfort had been stripped out to save weight. Carrying the shuttle also used twice the power and double the fuel as normal. According to Mac Forsyth, the mated planes flew remarkably the same apart from a constant rumble overhead; other than long takeoff rolls and the need for extra care in steep turns, flying was pretty much the same.

  The Global would take them up to the plane’s ceiling of sixteen thousand meters then release the shuttle. Arrafin’s hastily modified systems would kick in to take them to the altitude they needed. In theory, anyway.

  “Elaine?” Garrett tested their mental link.

  “I’m here,” she said softly. “I don’t know if I can do what you need.”

  Garrett didn’t say anything to fuel her nerves. She was stronger than she remembered. “Is Kam willing to help?”

  “Only until his captain returns to the ship.”

  Understandable, given the relationship between captain and adept. “We should have you safely on board and be gone before she gets back,” Garrett said. Under the agreement with Shana, the truce ended when the Kelek captain left Earth with her son’s body. The rescue was timed for that window.

  “Coming up on shuttle release,” Chenard said.

  “Showtime,” Timo muttered. He didn’t seem fazed by the journey into space. Rescuing the woman he loved was a powerful motivator. Garrett felt the same, and wouldn’t rest until his friend was safely back on Earth. What they could do for her then, he didn’t know.

  “Godspeed,” Mac Forsyth radioed from beneath them as he announced that they’d reached separation trajectory. From here, they were on their own.

  Somewhere behind them, the Kelek captain’s cruiser was headed their way. All they had to do was reach the Kelek ship before she did, retrieve Elaine, and return to Black Tree Beach.

  Easy if you said it fast.

  Garrett watched the indicated air speed slowly fall to zero as the shuttle climbed into space and the air pressure dropped to nothing.

  As they’d rehearsed, Chenard piloted the shuttle to intercept the Kelek ship, judging proximity using the shuttle’s new laser-based navigation sensors. “We have zero relative motion with the target craft,” he said after completing the required altitude and orbital changes.

  Meaning they were moving at a rate of about half a meter per second. Garrett felt the butterflies in his stomach morph into vultures.

  Timo had been doubtful about Garrett’s plan to dock with the Kelek ship but had agreed to keep the explosive option as plan B. The scientists were more positive, jury-rigging a docking adaptor they believed would work. The connection wouldn’t have to hold for long, only until Elaine was safely aboard. Coming up on the Earth-facing side of the ship made them less visible but without knowing Storm’s sensory capability, they could be kidding themselves.

  Too late to worry now. They lurked beneath the shadowy bulk of the ship. It looked different from the one Garrett had blown out of space but the Kelek had no reason to stick to one design any more than NASA did. As Elaine had described, the underside looked pitted and well-used, bristling with unknown devices. Toward the last third of the fuselage, Garrett spotted the large cargo hatch she’d told him about.

  “There’s our point of entry,” he said.

  Timo twisted to get a better view. He got up and moved to the rear station of the flight deck from where he could operate the robotic arm system. Mounted on the port side of the cargo bay, the RAS was a three-jointed mechanism about fifteen meters long. TV cameras at the elbow joint enabled the operator to move anything from satellites to astronauts.

  In this case, Timo had to maneuver the berthing system to connect with the cargo hatch of the Kelek ship. Reaching back into his astronaut training, Garrett knew the ports would be pressurized and heated from the inside. They would need only the most basic connection, and if Elaine had described the hatch accurately – and Garrett had interpreted her observations clearly – the job was doable.

  “Elaine, we’re here. Are you ready?”

  “I’m ready.” She sounded shaky but determined.

  “And Kam?”

  “He’s agreed to help. I had to promise him none of his people would be hurt.”

  “No guarantees,” Garrett told her. “But we’ll do our best. How’s the diversion coming?”

  “Kam convinced the crew that Zael had scheduled an emergency evacuation of the control center due to loss of life support. My idea,” she said, already sounding stronger. The prospect of rescue must have been lifting her spirits. “The ship will be on autopilot for five minutes at most.”

  “Should be enough,” Garrett said. “Timo’s almost in position now. The seal won’t be perfect but it only has to hold until you’re inside the shuttle. Can you see us?”

  “The shuttle and your people,” she confirmed. “I’m afraid I don’t recognize anyone.”

  Garrett was glad Timo couldn’t hear her. He had been told of Elaine’s amnesia, but had yet to deal with the reality. Garrett was finding the situation hard enough – how much worse to have the woman you loved not remember you. “We’ll worry about your memory later,” he said. “How will you get to the hatch?”

  “I’m in the process of getting lost.” He could hear her moving as she spoke. “When I reach the hangar deck, I’ll collapse dramatically. Under the pretext of getting me to medical help, Kam will get me as close to the hatch as he can.”

  “Spoken like the Elaine I know,” Garrett said. “Just don’t let them pump any medication into you. You have to get through the docking module under your own steam.”

  “Will I need a space suit?” The tremor in her voice told Garrett that she was thinking of the rough ride when she was picked up.

  “No. The link is heated and pressurized. After what you went through getting up there, this is a piece of cake.” He glanced back to see Timo at work with the RAS.

  “The evacuation drill just started.”

  His alien hearing picked up the blare of Klaxons. “How close are you to the hatch?”

  “Almost there. Garrett …” Her voice slipped then steadied. “Stay in contact with me.”

  “Every step of the way.”

  As good as his word, Garrett kept the mental link open between them, hearing her start her damsel-in-distress act. The adept called Kam responded, his concern loudly expressed for the benefit of the crew around him. Elaine’s breathing slowed along with her pretense of being semi-conscious. At least Garrett hoped she was pretending.

  “I’ll see to the hostage. Continue the drill,” Kam ordered.

  The scramble of booted feet on metal decking told Garrett the adept’s orders were being obeyed. He risked a glance at Timo. “How’s it coming?”

  “Elaine gave you good intel,” the diplomat said without looking up from his work.

  Lyle Chenard nodded confirmation. “We’re at relative stop with the other ship. It’s now or never.”

  “I’ve retracted the docking ring on the shuttle and the automatic latches are engaging … now,” Timo said as he worked. “Is Elaine in position? The guys at Black Tree couldn’t say how long this set-up will hold.”

  Garrett listened intently. “She’s in the airlock, on the other side of the hatch
.” He was out of his seat before his brain had finished giving his body the instructions. “I’ll get her.”

  Unlike during his last shuttle flight, he didn’t need Elaine’s sight to guide him down the levels past the galley, toilet, sleep stations and lockers. On the mid-deck was the side hatch for moving to and from the orbiter, and the airlock hatch into the cargo bay and space beyond.

  With Arrafin docked however precariously with the Kelek ship, Garrett had no need of a space suit, any more than Elaine would. Getting through the docking mechanism was still no picnic, the lack of gravity hindering as much as it helped. During astronaut training, he’d had some experience of working in zero G but Elaine had none. He started to meet her halfway. He heard her fumble to open the hatch, cursing as the mechanism resisted.

  In spite of the danger and the clock ticking, Garrett smiled. “I’m not sure that’s anatomically possible,” he said down their link.

  “I can’t get this thing open.”

  Keeping his thoughts as calm as he could, he shared a view of the mechanism with her and mentally guided her through the steps.

  Her deep breath was audible to him, and she sounded calmer when she said, “I’m in.”

  “I’m at the far end, waiting for you.”

  She moved toward him, instinctively using the swimming motion the astronauts adopted to get around in zero G. Her short hair made a golden halo around her head and her sweater bloomed like a flower.

  She was beautiful, Garrett thought, careful not to share the image down their link. Knowing there was no way they could be a couple didn’t defuse the memory of her in his arms.

  In the split second before Elaine reached him, he found himself thinking Amelia Takei should see this. If he got the chance, he’d take the TV presenter into space, he decided, wondering why the idea was suddenly important to him. Hopefully they wouldn’t be under crisis conditions like these.