The Juggernaut (Tales from the Juggernaut: Act 1)

by Peter A Dixon

  They had few options available to them, and not enough money.

  The criminal option was of course the cheapest option. Hijacking a ship in transit through the Celato system was out of the question. None of them had the experience or resources necessary for an operation like that, and of course, none of them had the will or inclination to perform such a blatantly criminal act.

  Malachi was already nervous about the journey, and no matter how much he claimed to be excited by the opportunity he knew the risks were real.

  They could attempt to Jump-jack a departing ship, but that was also illegal and they would be reported for their crimes as soon as they reached their destination. They wouldn't get close to the atmosphere of Parador if they did that.

  They could try slipstreaming another ship as it entered the portal. The penalties for this were less severe, but there would still be consequences. The change in mass at the last minute would upset the Jump calculations. To keep the equation balanced a random factor would be introduced and that meant on arrival either their destination, velocity or vector would be unknown.

  If they were very unlucky all three would be randomised. The results wouldn't kill them, but there was no guarantee they wouldn't end up heading away from Parador so fast it would take them a week to turn around.

  Malachi was no pirate, he had no stolen ID codes, and he had no intention of risking an approximate calculation.

  Their only real option was the legal one. They would have to buy passage alongside a Jump-capable ship travelling to Jenova. This option had the welcome upside that no one would shoot them. The downside was that to buy their way out they would need money.

  A lot of money.

  And unfortunately for Malachi he knew only one place on the Juggernaut where he could get some.

  Fourteen

  When Malachi arrived at the Solarium he saw Nina was already waiting for him.

  She sat on the floor by the panoramic window hugging her knees and staring at the huge red star as it began to dip below the horizon of the window.

  "Almost makes you feel like you're planetside again," said Malachi, and sat down beside Nina.

  She smiled without looking at him. "Almost. It's the sunsets I miss most. The only colours out there are black and red."

  "It's still one more than we have in here."

  "What, you don't like our fine selection of grey metal?" She looked at him for the first time, still smiling, and the sunset faded into nothing.

  She handed him a data chip. "I looked at it, and I had one of my guys take a look too, but we couldn't get anything more out of it. It's encrypted with something we haven't seen before."

  "Too old?"

  "Too new. And probably custom code written for the colony mission. Do you want to guess how many colony ships from that expedition we have had pass through here in the last twelve years? That will tell you how much experience we have with it."

  "Zero."

  "Zero," she repeated. "Or maybe one. Tila might be right."

  "I know. That's what I'm afraid of."

  Nina gasped in mock horror. "Big strong Malachi is afraid of something?"

  "Be serious. I'm afraid she will hope for something that can't be real, and that will only hurt her more."

  "You care about her?"

  "Of course."

  "I knew it!"

  "As a friend."

  "Just a friend?"

  "Yes."

  "Good." Nina turned back to the sunset. The thin crescent of the star rested on the lower frame of the window and cast long shadows on the ceiling of the Solarium. "So, what's the plan to make sure Tila stays happy?"

  "What's that supposed to mean?"

  "She's always sulking about something. You and Ellie are always trying to make her happy."

  "She's our friend."

  "She's trouble. She's always looking for risks. I don't want her to lead you into trouble too."

  "What trouble could there be on Parador?"

  "I don't know, but believe me, if it's there she'll find it."

  "She's not that bad."

  "I don't want to talk about her anymore."

  "Fine. We just want to help her, that's all."

  "Don't you want to make anyone else happy?"

  "Like who?"

  Nina chewed her lip. "Never mind. What's your plan?"

  "We're going to Parador."

  "You're nuts!"

  "Tila thinks she can find the people who invested in the original mission. She thinks they will want to hear what we've found."

  "What you found?"

  "Sorry. What you found."

  "Thank you. So, how to intend to make this plan happen."

  "I need a ship. And money."

  "You can fix up the Rhino. And how much is Theo getting for the Orion job?"

  "I fixed it, but I can't use the Rhino. My dad needs it for his work here."

  "Then you can't go."

  "You're not helping," Malachi sighed.

  "I'm showing you your options."

  "I don't have any options."

  "You have one option."

  "There's no other ships."

  "Then you know what you have to do."

  "He'll kill me when he finds out."

  "Malachi, you can work this out. This is what you do. It's just another engineering problem to solve. You have parts that don't fit and you need to make everything work, but you can't do it if you play by the rules."

  "But the rules are important. The rules are how things are supposed to work."

  "Not this time. If you really want to help her then this time you need to break the rules."

  "And what about money?"

  "Surely Theo would have had the Orion pay something in advance?"

  "Yeah, he did."

  "There you go. Transfer that to a credit chip."

  "I can't steal it!"

  "I never said you didn't have to pay him back."

  "My dad will kill me."

  "I'll kiss it better."

  "Really?"

  "Sure. That's not enough incentive?"

  "I don't know..."

  "I do." Nina climbed to her feet and stretched her legs.

  Malachi sighed again. The last of the sun vanished below the artificial horizon of the Solarium, and behind him lights began to glow.

  "Are you sure you don't want to come?"

  "Oh, I'm very sure! Parador is not the place for me. One day you can take me to Peleg. I want to look at the stars there and try and find earth. You can bring me back a souvenir though.

  "What do you want?"

  "What does any girl want, Malachi? I want to go back to my old life, away from this place."

  "I don't think I can do that."

  "Surprise me then. Make me feel special."

  "How?"

  Nina stretched one last time and stood up to leave. "Easy. Bring me something no other girl on the Juggernaut has."

  Malachi thought about this. "Like what?" he asked as she walked away.

  "You like solving problems, Malachi. You figure it out."

  Fifteen

  Malachi stopped short of the door to his father's tiny office and took a moment to work up the courage to enter.

  Act natural. We've run short of parts before. The voice in his head reassured him. It's nothing unusual.

  Then, as ready as he could be, he stepped into the room as if it was any other day.

  Theo sat behind his desk. It was a simple metal sheet propped up by the landing struts they had removed from the Rhino.

  Malachi felt like his father already knew the lie he was about to hear.

  I've interrupted him. This is a bad time.

  The room was dimmer than the last time Malachi had been here. Colder too. His father must have passed on the light panel they had salvaged last week. Most likely his father had added it to the lottery pool rather than keeping it for himself.

  Despite his skills and position, Theo considered himself last in the queue
for essential items such as lights. Far better, he would explain, that the rest of New Haven is well lit. The light makes people feel safer, and danger more easily hides in the shadows than in the sun.

  Theo placed his data pad on his desk and gave his son, as he did everyone he spoke with, his full attention. "What is it, Malachi?"

  "I know you're busy..." Malachi began.

  Theo smiled. In here, working alone, he could devote himself to one problem after another until he was satisfied he could resolve each one in turn. Away from his desk he had to juggle a hundred demands at once. Here, without the stress that came from dealing with people, he could almost relax.

  "I'm always busy, so now is as good a time as any. What's the problem, son?" There had to be a problem. Malachi did not interrupt his work without good reason.

  Keep it simple.

  "I was checking our inventory. I think I found a problem."

  "I thought we weren't due to audit our inventory for another two weeks."

  Uh oh.

  "Uh, I wanted to make sure we had enough essentials in stock, you know, because of the work you've been doing on the Orion."

  Theo considered his son thoughtfully as he leaned forward over his desk.

  He's not buying it!

  "You know," said Theo, "The last audit was only three weeks ago. Based on that I have everything I need to repair the Orion's engine core, but with everything else happening around here I didn't think to check again. I should have. Good thinking. So, what's the problem?"

  We have plenty of gear to fix an engine, even one that badly designed. Why didn't I think of that?

  "I was, uh, checking the lower priority stock. You know how quickly something you don't think is important can get really important fast."

  You're rambling.

  "Are we low on something?"

  "Well, I can't find any regulators for the CO2 scrubbers in the stores."

  "We have scrubbers but no regulators? How did that happen?"

  Malachi shrugged so he wouldn't have to lie.

  "Scrubbers without regulators are no good," said Theo. "I know that they're supposed to be independent systems but it hardly ever happens that one fails without the other."

  Malachi nodded encouragingly. "I don't think any of our contacts due to deliver in the next few weeks. So, I was wondering, can we last that long? What if something breaks?"

  No way will he buy that question. Of course we can't go on like this. Scrubbers might be simple tech but without a regulator in place to monitor the CO2 build up we could all suffocate in our sleep.

  "Let me check the schedules," said Theo. He poked the terminal on the side of the desk until it gave him an answer he didn't like. "You're right, this is going to be a problem." He looked up, rightly anticipating the answer to his next question. "I assume you have a solution in mind?"

  "I was thinking, as you are busy with Orion, maybe, umm, I could go and get them?"

  Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease.

  "You want me to let you take the Rhino and go to Selah alone?"

  Malachi nodded, not trusting himself enough to speak without giving himself away.

  It's not going to work. He knows. He won't let me go. He'll have another plan, he always does. He-

  "Very well."

  -what?

  "What?" he said out loud.

  "I said you can go. I won't need it for the Orion job. We're working in a pressurised bay and my initial investigation makes me think the problem is internal, anyway. You can be back from Selah in a couple of days."

  "Jenova."

  Shut up! Idiot! Say Selah. He doesn't need to know where you are really going!

  "Why not Selah?"

  "I need to go to Jenova. I already checked prices and reserved the items."

  "You know how I feel about that system, Malachi. I avoid it whenever possible."

  "I know but, but, it saves us a lot of money. And I can get what I need on Mirador."

  Liar.

  Theo leaned back in his chair and considered his son's proposal. He would rather Malachi travelled to Selah. It would be a longer journey. Thanks to the orbit of the city, at this time of year the Selah Beacon was located on the far side of Celato.

  He had no reason to doubt Malachi was right about the price of the regulators though, and that was where they could save money. The Jump fees would be the same either way. There was no need to squander the fees from the Orion job. And he had to admit that the space lanes around Jenova were better patrolled than any of Selah's planets.

  He knew Malachi was aware of the special risks involved in travelling near Parador but a gentle reminder would still be helpful. "Are you sure you can get what you need on Mirador?"

  Malachi nodded again. Any moment now his heart was going to burst through his chest and bounce off the wall above his father's head.

  "I won't need to land on Parador. The Rhino's registration might still be on a watch list there. But do you really think it is? We left years ago."

  Theo thought carefully before answering. His son deserved some measure of truth by now. He was a more capable and honest young man than Theo was at the same age. The whole truth could come later.

  "Honestly? I don't know. But we can't risk having the ship impounded, and more importantly I can't have you caught up in any of the fallout from my past mistakes."

  Malachi was taken aback by this uncharacteristic admission of a failing. His father worked so hard to avoid mistakes that it was a shock to hear him acknowledging one so large that it had forced them to leave their home. But even this was overshadowed by his father's look of concern. "Don't worry, I'll be careful."

  "One more thing. I imagine that your friends would like to accompany you on this trip, especially Ellie. Can I assume you have spoken to them about this already?"

  Uh-oh.

  "I mentioned it."

  "I don't want them to go with you. Tila will get into trouble, and Ellie is too young. She would be safer here. I don't want to be worrying about them as well as you. Understand?"

  Malachi nodded. Was that a yes?

  "And be careful. Don't talk to anyone you don't need to. Don't draw attention to yourself. Don't break any rules."

  I wish he hadn't said that! Now I'm not only lying to him but I'm also putting myself at risk by going to the one place he wants to protect me from. I don't think I could feel worse than I do right now. I hope he never finds out about what we are about to do. I've got what I wanted, so why do I feel so bad?

  But he only said, "Yeah, I understand."

  Sixteen

  Malachi gripped the controls tightly and braced for impact.

  "He said what?" Tila yelled. "I don't cause trouble!"

  Malachi stole a glance at Ellie, hoping to find there some support. There was none.

  "Well, sometimes you sort of, maybe, find it?"

  "It's called 'not being pushed around'. You should try it sometime," she shot back.

  Malachi shrugged and said nothing, fully aware of the irony of Tila's demand while she was trying to push him around. He ignored her outburst and returned to the pre-flight sequence so he could ready the Rhino for departure. They had already moved the ship from the workshop to one of the inner bays of the space dock. Now they only had to leave the Juggernaut.

  The external lights on the little spacecraft dimmed automatically as the bay doors slowly opened to reveal the main dock.

  The launch bay space doors could be closed and the entire space dock pressurised if necessary, but they were usually kept open to accommodate the volume of traffic. Instead, it was the dozens of smaller docking bays which would seal and pressurize as needed.

  Malachi carefully raised the Rhino from the platform with short, controlled bursts of the manoeuvring thrusters and guided the ship out into the main launch bay. As expected, the main doors were already open, letting in the distant light of a thousand silent stars. The serene background shifted and tilted as Malachi guided the little ship through the man-
made cavern.

  Beyond the space doors they saw other ships departing the bay and rising smoothly above the pock-marked surface of the city on vectors leading them toward one of the three Jump Beacons.

  Further out, other ships held position, or flew slowly in close formation, as they waited for their turn to dock.

  "Nothing can stop us now," said Tila, soaking up the view of an infinite expanse of stars which beckoned them forward into possibility.

  A large cargo ship held position outside the launch bay doors.

  "That's right," said Malachi cheerfully. The communications alert blinked for attention. Malachi opened the channel without thinking, "We'll be at Parador in no time at all," he said, and his father appeared on the screen.

  Theo frowned. "Did you say Parador?" Malachi froze. "You told me you were going to Mirador," Theo said.

  Ellie, out of view of the camera, piped up helpfully. "We are." Malachi frantically waved Tila away from the camera. "Ellie, is that you? What are you doing on board? Malachi, what's going on?"

  "We are going to Mirador," Malachi tried to explain.

  Tila, panicked, exclaimed from off screen. "What? We need to go to Parador. We talked about this!"

  Theo cast the full force of his glare upon Malachi, who was still the only person he could see on his display. He instinctively moved his head around to try and see Tila, as if he was looking at the scene through a window instead of a camera.

  "Tila, is that you? Malachi, what is going on? I gave you permission to travel to Mirador only and then to come right back. And I thought I made it very clear you were to go alone."

  Malachi closed his eyes and wished he were anywhere else.

  "Malachi, you will turn that ship around right now and wait on board until I get there."

  Tila hit the button on the console to cancel the transmission and hissed at Malachi.

  "How did we end up running into him? You said he wasn't going to be out on that ship until tomorrow."

  Malachi opened his eyes. "He is! He was!"

  "So why is he out there now getting in my way?"

  "He was supposed to be working on the Orion today."