by E. R. Paskey
“Where are you now, lass?”
“I’m inside. Should be on the ground any moment, and I’ll get the bay doors closed.”
After a quick look down at the ground, Anna dropped the last three rungs, absorbing the impact of the fall with bent knees, and turned around in a circle to get her bearings. Colin had settled the Galaxy’s Way in the center of the hangar bay, directly beneath the opening, but he had yet to actually land. The freighter rested on gravcoils. Just in case we have to leave quickly, she surmised.
Smart. Viktor would have done the same thing.
Speaking of which…Anna looked around, half-expecting Colin to start babbling in her ear about the presence of another ship, but a cursory examination of this section of the massive hangar bay showed her it was empty. Disappointment threatened to overtake her, but she warded it off. He could have moved the ship.
She located the lever that would close the hangar bay opening and started toward it. “Hold on a just a minute, Colin. Once I shut the bay doors, I’ll guide you over to the airlock.”
“Airlock?” Deek asked. “Can’t you pressurize the hangar?”
Colin answered before she could form words. “Of course she can’t. Big rig like this, they probably had the power to do it once, but not now. Am I right, lass?”
“You’re right. Backup system is a series of airlocks on the wall to your starboard.”
“Ah.” Colin’s voice turned serious. “I see them. Does it matter which one I choose?”
Anna shook her head before she realized it. “No. Didn’t use to, anyway.”
“How will you get in?”
“There’s an air exchange lock about two hundred meters from me. I should be able to get back in that way.”
Colin took a few seconds to digest this. “If you encounter any problems, get back to the cargo bay. Understood?”
Anna suppressed a smile, feeling warmth blossom in her chest at the firm concern in his voice. If Viktor and their crew were able to listen on this conversation, at least her brother wouldn’t be able to accuse him of being uncaring. “Understood.” She pulled the lever—which had not been oiled, she noted—and the light streaming down from the opening far above them was slowly blotted out as the hangar bay doors slid shut.
Anna watched the Galaxy’s Way grow fainter and fainter, until the freighter disappeared entirely, swallowed up by the absolute blackness inside the hangar bay. Her stomach fluttered uneasily, but she pushed it aside. You know the life-support systems don’t extend to the hangar bay emergency lighting, she reminded herself. If they ever had, Viktor had asked their chief engineer to fix them so they didn’t.
A second later, she winced and shut her eyes as Colin switched on the freighter’s running lights.
“Keep out of the way, lass,” he advised as he began to wheel the Galaxy’s Way toward the wall of airlocks. “Wouldn’t want to flatten you.”
“It wouldn’t be a good look for me, it’s true,” Anna agreed.
She started across the hangar bay to the air exchange lock while Colin maneuvered the Galaxy’s Way up to the airlock docking ports. The metallic, magnetic snap of the portable corridor extending from the side of his freighter echoed through the hangar bay. In contrast, her booted feet made little noise against the layer of sand coating the metal flooring.
By the time Anna reached the airlock, however, guilt had begun to nibble away at her insides. Viktor was her brother and she grew more excited with every passing second to see him, but Colin was—however temporarily—her captain. I need to tell him I think we’re about to meet people. She owed him a heads-up, at the very least.
“Wait for me to come around to the airlock, okay?” she asked in what she hoped was a casual tone. “I know this place better than you do.”
Colin only hesitated briefly before responding, “As you wish.”
The guilt lessened, but did not dissipate entirely. She had reached the airlock—and it was shut on her side. Anna stared at the bulky metal door for a second before she reached out to crank the handle. Another point in favor of Viktor being here already. It should have been open on her side.
After a short pause, she heard a faint hiss and a hydraulic wheeze as the seal broke on the door blocking her way. She pried it open—grimacing as she did; she had forgotten how heavy it was—and stepped inside the air chamber. Shutting the door firmly behind her, she crossed to the wheel mounted on the other side of the chamber.
It wasn’t easy, but she wrestled the wheel around, forcing the toxic air that had followed her into the chamber out and replacing it with breathable, non-toxic air from inside the mining complex. The hiss of rushing air as the seal broke and the door opened to admit her inside was the sweetest sound she had heard in a long time. “I’m inside,” she informed Colin. “Hang tight; I’ll be with you in just a moment.”
“We aren’t going anywhere, lass.”
It shouldn’t have surprised her that she was coming to know him well enough to catch the faint strain layered beneath his wry tones.
“Which airlock did you dock with?” Anna started down a dim corridor—lit only by a faint string of emergency lights mounted along either side of the floor—and turned left to find herself faced with a long wall lined with identical airlocks.
“Airlock 17.”
A glance to her right told her she was standing beside airlock 40. “I’ll be there in a couple of minutes. I’ve got a bit of a walk.”
“Understood.”
The corporation that had built this mining complex hadn’t been stupid—if one didn’t count the fact that they had built here, on this particular planet, that is. Each airlock that connected the complex with the hangar bay—and its proximity to the toxic atmosphere—was protected by a layer of redundancy. From her last visit, Anna knew that beyond each airlock door she passed was a short corridor ending in another airlock—which just so happened to be the one ships connected to when they docked. Viktor had posited—and their engineer, Nico, confirmed—that the intervening space walled off between airlock corridors housed the actual pressurization machinery needed for each airlock.
Anna had only traveled a few meters before she checked the readout on her HUD and unsnapped her helmet. No point wasting oxygen if the air is perfectly breathable. She pushed the helmet back—it was designed to fold like an accordion once released, and she’d still be able to use the comm—and continued on to Airlock 17.
“Opening the airlock now,” she announced five minutes later, coming to a halt in front of said airlock. “Also, I’m coming back in to take this suit off before we go anywhere else.”
“Probably for the best,” Colin said.
Anna twisted the wheel—which took a bit of doing, because apparently this particular airlock hadn’t been used since the mining complex shut down—and got the door open. She found herself looking down a metal corridor at Mondego, who was waiting for her in the freighter’s hatchway.
Instead of relaxing when he saw she was not wearing the helmet, the shorter man frowned. “Are you sure you should have taken that off yet?”
Apparently, when this crew adopts you, you’re in for life. Anna had to squelch an amused laugh—she had the distinct feeling the cook wouldn’t be appreciate it. “The air in here is perfectly safe. I made sure of that first.”
“You did what?” Colin inquired, a dangerous edge to his tinny voice, but Anna ignored him. Mondego stepped aside for her as she hurried up the corridor and boarded the freighter again. “Let me put this suit away and I’ll take you inside,” she said into the comm.
It was the work of moments to strip off the spacesuit and carefully hang it back up in its assigned storage compartment—work made faster by the mingled guilt and excitement churning her insides. She then set off for the cockpit without waiting for Mondego.
Colin met her halfway down the corridor, Deek several step
s behind him. He took one look at the set expression on her face and his blue eyes narrowed, but she spoke before he could say anything.
“I think Viktor might already be here. Somebody’s used the lever outside recently—I didn’t have to oil it.”
Something—shock, mixed with an emotion she almost wanted to call desperation, but that couldn’t be right, could it?—flashed across his face before his features settled into stern reproach. Deek stopped at his shoulder, opening his mouth to lambast her, but Colin held up a hand. “And you said nothing of this, why, exactly?”
Anna met his gaze without flinching, though her insides began to quake at the disappointment blooming behind his eyes. “I didn’t know if the comm was secure and didn’t want to freak you out when there was nothing you could do about it.” A muscle twitched in his jaw and she barreled on, waving her hand for emphasis, “I’m telling you now, aren’t I? Didn’t plan on letting you walk in there without knowing.”
He was still staring at her, freezing her in place with those ocean blue eyes. But then he swallowed and looked away. “You’re sure it’s your brother?”
She had the oddest feeling that he had been about to say something else entirely, but nodded. “Nobody else knows about this place.”
Colin picked up the thread of her words, though he avoided her gaze. “And if somebody else did know, what are the odds of them coming here now?”
“Exactly.” Anna turned around, nearly bumping into Mondego, but glanced back over her shoulder at Colin. Their eyes met again and she was surprised by the almost tired resignation now filling his face. That’s odd. She wanted to ask what was wrong, but knew he wouldn’t appreciate it in front of Deek and Mondego. But then the excitement of seeing her brother again overrode everything else.
Colin made the executive decision that Mondego and Tatiana would stay with the freighter. They protested, but he stood firm. Anna knew he wasn’t quite comfortable leaving his beloved freighter alone and unprotected.
They then had a hushed—but intense—argument over who would lead the way into the mining complex, which Anna won only because she flat-out stated her brother and his crew would be more likely to shoot first and ask questions later when it came to being confronted by a stranger in what was supposed to be a top-secret hideout. Colin countered that they might not recognize her at first, but she did not relent.
Only part of that reason had to do with the fact that she didn’t want her brother to deck him.
Deek just stood off to the side, his arms crossed over his chest and his expression inscrutable while he waited for them to have it out. He had apparently decided it would be wiser to stay out of this particular fight. When the dust settled, he said quietly, “Am I the only one who’s noticed the air’s a bit thin in here?”
Anna hadn’t noticed; caught up in her argument with Colin, she’d chalked the need for frequent inhales to frustration. But now that the cloud of irritation receded, memory surfaced. “It’s on purpose. Too much space here to keep fully oxygenated. It gets piped out in drips and drabbles. We’ll be fine once we get inside.”
“We are inside.” Colin shot her a grim look.
“Not the main part of the complex, we aren’t.” Anna shook her head as she started back toward a corridor that intersected this one to form a “T”. She directed her penlight from side to side to illuminate their surroundings. “This is the crew off-loading section.”
Colin kept close to her side, very nearly treading on the heel of her boot when she slowed her pace. In the cool air down here, she could feel the heat radiating off his body. Her skin prickled, her face flushed. He was too close for comfort, too close for someone she’d known as short a time as she had, and Viktor would see it immediately. His big brother senses were too finely tuned to miss it.
Anna almost elbowed Colin in the stomach and told him to back off and stop crowding her out of sheer self-preservation, but something held her back. He’d been a gentleman the entire time she’d known him, for one, and for another … He was clearly concerned for her.
That particular notion sent butterflies into dizzy barrel rolls inside her stomach.
Chapter 18
ANNA DID HER BEST TO squelch those butterflies. No time for that now, girl. She had more important things to worry about.
Besides, it’s pitch black in here and he probably doesn’t want us to get separated. He and Deek both carried penlights, but as even a cursory examination proved, the mining complex was massive.
Deek broke the eerie, unnatural stillness pervading the air. “How do you know where you’re goin’? This place is huge.”
Anna lifted one shoulder in a semblance of a shrug, but did not slow her pace. If she did, she suspected Colin was liable to flatten by accident. “It’s deserted, so it’s not like we had to sequester ourselves in a corner. Plus, Viktor didn’t want to be that far from our ship, in case we did run into trouble of some kind.”
“Can’t say as I blame him there,” Colin said quietly, his voice still too close to her ear for comfort.
Another shiver ran down Anna’s spine, but she shrugged it off. They reached another “T” intersection and she led them to the right. “End of this corridor, we’ll be able to get into the section that was blocked off.”
She shone her penlight on the hatch waiting for them at the end of the corridor; she had never seen a door quite so inviting before. “Once we’re in there, we’ll have better oxygen, lights, you name it.”
“And, presumably, your brother and his crew,” Colin said from beside her.
“Presumably,” Anna agreed. Can’t be anybody else; no one else even knows it’s here.
Her heart began to beat faster the closer they came to the hatch. By the time they reached the end of the corridor, she was surprised Colin couldn’t hear her heartbeat. Licking suddenly dry lips to moisten them, she swung the beam of light from her penlight up to rest on a flat panel inset in the wall beside the hatch. “Here we are.”
“No wheel?” Deek asked in suspicious surprise.
“Nope.” Anna slanted a sideways glance at Colin before she sucked in a bracing breath and stepped forward to flatten a hand against the door panel. She knew from previous experience that the life-support system routed enough power to the door systems to open them. Nothing should have interfered with that.
The door gave a metallic groan, a hiss of escaping air, and slowly shuddered upward, revealing darkness beyond. They all winced. In the silence, the sound of the door opening seemed magnified a hundred-fold, into a cacophony sure to draw everyone in a five kilometer radius to their location.
They all strained their ears for the tread of footsteps against the concrete floor, but only silence greeted them. Anna felt more than saw Colin and Deek’s curious glances as she moved forward. Her penlight showed the corridor beyond was deserted. “Come on in,” she directed them without looking over her shoulder. “Have to shut the door quickly.”
Deek and Colin both crossed the threshold behind her, and Deek hit the door panel. The heavy door descended much faster than it had ascended, but with the same terrible groans and squeaks. They were left in the same darkness as outside.
“A little oil on that would not be amiss, I think.” Anna caught a flash of Colin’s white teeth through the shadow as he smiled.
“Good point.” She swallowed. “Makes for a great early warning system, though.”
“Oh, that it does.”
They spoke in low voices, but their words still seemed to bounce off the walls.
Deek asked quietly, “If your brother’s already here, shouldn’t they have the lights on?”
Anna had just been thinking the same thing. A flicker of unease stirred in the pit of her stomach. “Maybe they’re saving on power.”
Even to her own ears, it sounded like a flimsy excuse.
Colin shifted closer again, though his gaze was directed down the dark corridor. “Anna … ”
She shook her h
ead wordlessly and reached over to trigger the lights. Her fingers found the panel and depressed it. For a second, nothing happened. Then overhead glowpanels lit up, making her eyes water as she winced.
“Ow, lass, was that really necessary?” Colin held up a hand to shield his eyes, his face screwed into a grimace.
Anna raised her voice as she started down the corridor. “Viktor? Are you here? It’s Anna.”
Hope and unease warred inside her. Her mind flashed back to the oiled lever. But if he’s not here…who is?
“Viktor?”
She rounded the corner into what was now a makeshift living area. Hugo had converted some of the space himself, but when they rescued him, Viktor had his crew help with the rest to prepare the Whirlwind for future respites. The walls remained utilitarian gray, but they had brought in mismatched furniture and it provided splashes of color. Her eyes darted around, taking everything in, but she came up empty.
No.
“Anna — ” Colin’s fingers brushed her arm, but she was already spinning away, toward the rooms jutting off from this central hub like spokes on wheel.
“He has to be here,” she said frantically. “Somebody’s here—I know it!”
“Cap’n,” Deek said sharply.
Anna froze halfway to the closest hall. She whirled around in time to see Deek draw his pistol and level it at something in the far corner of the room, behind a couple of couches and a table.
Drawing his own pistol, Colin joined his first mate. “If I were you,” he said coolly, “I’d stay where you are.” Without taking his eyes off whoever was hiding in the corner, he called out, “Anna?”
For a split-second—only a split-second—Anna’s feet resembled lead weights. Then she forced herself to move, and her feet carried her over to the two men.
Colin tipped his head toward the corner. “D’you know him?”