by Ryk Brown
Jessica moved into the next room, a large empty dining room, big enough for several tables at least. The next room was even larger and emptier, with a large natural rock fireplace at one end. There were several doors as well as a staircase leading up to the second floor. One door had large glass panes through which Jessica could see another storm porch on the front side of the building.
She opened the other doors, finding a small bathroom that was in need of cleaning, a closet, another empty room with an empty bookcase covering one wall, and another set of stairs, this time leading down into a basement. She stood there for several seconds, contemplating which direction to explore first. She pulled out a small flashlight that was no bigger than her thumb. She pointed it down the stairs and squeezed it between her thumb and forefinger. A bright beam of light pierced the darkness below, revealing a basement flooded in about a half meter of water.
Jessica spent the next fifteen minutes searching the upper floor of the house as well as the attic space. The upper floor had thirteen rooms and seven bathrooms. Oddly enough, one of the upstairs bathrooms was relatively clean, enough that Jessica felt more than comfortable using it. There was no running water, but the bathtub in the clean bathroom was full of dirty water, and two large buckets sat on the floor next to it. A little water in the tank of the toilet, and it worked like a charm.
Other than a single mattress that had seen better days and a few ratty old blankets, there was nothing of value left in the old house. The mattress and the blankets had been assembled in the corner room adjacent to the functioning bathroom. The two large windows offered an excellent view of both the road leading in from the forest and the meadow Jessica had crossed to reach the building.
The sun was beginning to set. In another hour, it would be dark. She had no doubt that someone had been living here recently. The questions were how recently and would they be returning anytime soon. She would rig some simple trip wires to make noise if someone came up the stairs. She was a light sleeper, and it would be enough to wake her. With any luck, she would get a good night’s sleep and head out at first light. She could see the lights of Winnipeg coming on in the distance, and if she got an early start, she figured she could be walking the streets of the city by noon the following day.
* * *
“How are you doing?” Loki asked as he stepped up next to Josh’s bed in the Aurora’s medical treatment area.
“Not bad,” Josh answered. He watched the nurse insert the syringe filled with a silver liquid into his IV line.
Loki looked over at the nurse on the opposite side of the bed.
“Remember,” the nurse said as she finished the injection, “if they make you too uncomfortable, let me know, and I can signal some of them to become dormant, have them work in rotating shifts instead of all at once.”
“I’ll remember,” Josh said. He waited for the nurse to turn and walk away before he started rubbing his arm above the IV site. “I can feel the little buggers moving up my arm,” he whispered through gritted teeth.
“I thought you already had nanites inside of you,” Loki said.
“I do. They’re just not getting the job done fast enough.”
“Is that dangerous?” Loki asked. “Injecting additional nanites?”
“No, just damned uncomfortable.”
“Yeah, I remember.”
“Now I’ve got four times as many of the buggers inside me as you did.”
“Why are you in such a hurry, Josh?” Loki asked.
Josh looked around the room briefly, checking to make sure no one could overhear their conversation. “Are you kidding? They’re gonna take the Falcon away from us if I don’t get out of here soon.”
“No, they’re not,” Loki insisted.
“The hell they’re not,” Josh disagreed. “They’re training three crews right now.”
“I know. I’ve been helping them.”
“Are you nuts? That ship is the most amazing thing either of us is ever going to fly. You want them to take that away from us?”
“They’re not going to take the Falcon away from us, Josh.”
“Don’t be so sure. You’re forgetting something: as long as we’re the only ones that can fly her, that makes us special. It’s called job security.”
“They’re just training additional crews so we’ll have backups,” Loki explained. “We’re going to war, Josh. We can’t be expected to fly every mission. Besides, those guys don’t even like the Falcon. You should have heard them laughing at the outdated cockpit displays. To them, it’s an antique.”
“An antique with a jump drive,” Josh added.
“They prefer the newer, high-tech fighters that the Takarans gave us,” Loki said.
“That’s because they haven’t flown the Falcon yet. They’ve only been using her sim-bubble. Wait until they feel the rush of jumping in just above the ground and setting off a triple sonic boom when you appear.”
“Yeah, that was really exciting,” Loki said, remembering how terrified he was the first time they had done just that.
“I’m telling you, Loki… It’s only a matter of time. We’ll be back on the bridge pushing buttons instead of turnin’ and burnin’.”
“Turnin’ and burnin’?”
“It’s an old Earth expression.”
“I think you’re overlooking something.”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
“The captain said they were going to be using the Falcon for recon flights at least several times a day, maybe more. You hate recon flights.”
“Yeah, so?”
“So, let them do most of the recon flights. When the shooting starts, those guys are going to want to be in their fighters. In fact, that’s where they’ll have to be, because you and I aren’t trained to fly those ships. We’re trained to fly the Aurora and the Falcon.”
“I can fly anything with an engine,” Josh insisted, “and so can you, for that matter.”
“You and I know that,” Loki said, “and the captain probably knows that as well. But Prechitt isn’t going to turn over one of his fighters to you or me, not as long as he’s got his own pilots to fill the cockpits.”
“You think?”
“I’m sure of it. Well, at least I’m sure he’s not going to let you in one of them. He doesn’t like you.”
“He doesn’t?”
“The point is, Josh, if anything, having other flight teams available to take some of the recon load off our shoulders is only going to make our lives better, not worse.”
Josh looked at him for a moment. “You really think so?”
“I’m sure of it.”
Josh looked thoughtful. “Huh. Maybe you’re right.”
“I know I’m right.”
“I do hate recon flights.”
“Can you imagine doing them every day? Maybe even twice a day?”
Josh shuddered.
“You know, the major was asking if you would be willing to help train the other pilots as well,” Loki told him.
“I thought you said he doesn’t like me.”
“Maybe, but he does know that you’ve got more experience flying the Falcon than anyone else on board.”
“Hell, there’s no one within a thousand light years that knows how to fly that ship as well as me,” Josh bragged as he continued rubbing his arm in frustration.
“Maybe you should tell the nurse you changed your mind. Maybe have her turn some of those nanites off.”
“Nah. I’m going crazy sitting around doing nothing. Doc says I still got a few weeks of physical therapy ahead of me. The sooner these little bastards finish sewing me back up inside, the sooner I can get the hell out of here and back in the cockpit.”
“Suit yourself.”
Josh finally star
ted to ease up on rubbing his arms. “I think most of them have made it up my arm now.” He looked at Loki, noticing his outfit. “Is it time?”
“I’m due in the main hangar bay in fifteen minutes.”
“Damn, Loki,” Josh said. “I sure wish I was going with you.”
“I wish you were going instead of me.”
“Yeah. Just be careful. You ain’t exactly Sammy the Soldier.”
“And you are?”
“Hell no. People like you and me belong in the cockpit, not boots on the ground. Just remember that.”
“I will,” Loki said.
After an uncomfortable silence, Josh forced a smile. “Say hello to Garrett for me.”
“Sure thing.”
Josh extended his hand to his friend, something he had never done in the past. “Good luck, Loki.”
“Thanks.”
Josh continued to rub his arm as he watched his best friend walk away and disappear through the hatch.
* * *
Luis stared at the center display screen on the forward edge of the tactical console, studying the Celestia’s flight manual as usual. He leaned on his left elbow, his chin supported on his left hand, and nursed his fourth cup of coffee as he read.
A faint beeping caught his attention, causing him to sit up straight. He looked around his console, his eyes squinting and a puzzled expression on his face. Everything looked normal. Then he realized the beeping wasn’t coming from the tactical console. He looked to his left, then his right, then turned around in his chair to face aft. The beeping was coming from the elevated comm-center at the back of the bridge.
Luis moved to his right, stepping up onto the comm platform and moving in behind the primary comm console. He found the source of the beeping noise. “Oh crap.” Luis ran back down the two steps and aft, sticking his head through the ready room hatch. “Gus! Wake up! Quick!”
“What is it?” Gus asked from the darkened room as Luis ran back to the comm console. He quickly pressed one of the pre-configured buttons to connect to his commanding officer. “Lieutenant Commander Kovacic to the bridge!”
“What the hell is going on?” Gus asked as he came stumbling out of the ready room rubbing his eyes.
“Get to your station and look awake,” Luis told him. “I’ve already summoned Kovacic.”
“What the hell for?”
“We’ve got an incoming message,” Luis explained. “It’s from Fleet Command.”
Gustav blinked, his face a mask of disbelief. “What? Are you sure?”
“It’s already passed both primary and secondary authentication,” Luis said, interrupting him. “It just passed tertiary as well. The message is definitely from Fleet.”
“Finally,” Gus declared.
“What’s going on?” Lieutenant Commander Kovacic asked as he entered the bridge.
“Incoming message from Fleet, sir,” Luis reported. “It just came in a minute ago.”
“Are you sure it’s from Fleet?”
“It already passed all three authentication protocols, sir.”
“Did you check the direction of the incoming signal?” Lieutenant Commander Kovacic asked.
“I was just about to do that,” Luis said, remembering his cross-training on the basic functions of the communications console.
The lieutenant commander watched impatiently as Luis repeatedly punched buttons in an attempt to determine the direction from which the signal had come. “Is there a problem?”
“Uh, the message has no source signal, sir.”
“How is that possible?”
“If I’m reading this right, the message came in via direct link when we were still docked at the OAP. It’s been in our message buffer all this time. It must have been time coded.”
“What’s that?” Ensign Schenker asked.
“A time-coded message lies dormant in a hidden message buffer until the date and time on the file matches the current date and time,” Lieutenant Commander Kovacic explained. “Fleet uses time code locks to issue classified action orders at a later time without risking intercept during transmission. It’s also used when they expect the receiving ship might not be in position to receive the message.” Luis looked at the lieutenant commander, surprised he knew so much about Fleet communication procedures.
“You’re not the only one who’s been reading manuals during watch,” the lieutenant commander said. “What’s the message say?”
Luis and Lieutenant Commander Kovacic both read the message on the screen. Luis’s eyes opened wide and his mouth dropped open. He turned and looked at the lieutenant commander. “They’re kidding, right?”
“What?” Ensign Schenker asked. “What does it say?”
“They want us to land on something called Metis,” Luis exclaimed. “What the hell is a Metis?”
“It’s one of Jupiter’s innermost moons,” the ensign told Luis. “Pretty small, too.”
“How would you know, Gus?”
“I’ve been staring at those moons for more than a week now, remember?”
Luis looked at the lieutenant commander. “Sir, this has got to be a mistake. This ship doesn’t even have landing gear.”
“They didn’t say ‘land’,” Lieutenant Commander Kovacic corrected. “The word they used was ‘settle’.”
“Same thing,” Luis argued.
“Not exactly,” Ensign Schenker said.
“They wouldn’t order us to put the ship down on Metis unless they knew it would work, Ensign,” the lieutenant commander said.
“You’re talking about setting a fifteen-hundred-meter long spacecraft down on a ball of rock that’s… what, about a hundred kilometers in diameter?” Luis declared.
“Actually, it’s more like sixty kilometers, and that’s in length. It’s shaped more like a potato than a sphere.”
“I stand corrected,” Luis said. “A sixty-kilometer long potato. That’s where they want us to ‘settle’ a ship with no landing gear.”
“If it’s only sixty kilometers long, how much gravity could it possibly have?” Lieutenant Commander Kovacic asked.
Ensign Schenker spun around and studied his displays for a moment. “Only 0.005 of Earth gravity, sir.”
“Jesus,” the lieutenant commander exclaimed. “You could reach escape velocity from that thing on a bicycle.”
“Hell, the OAP had more gravitational attraction than that,” Gus said. “It’ll be like docking. All you need to do is get us in close, Luis—say, five or six meters—then let gravity take us the rest of the way down. A little burst of counterthrust just before contact to soften the impact, and we’re down.”
“Easy as that,” Luis said.
“It’s just physics, my friend.”
“And suppose there’s not a flat spot large enough for us to park on. Suppose we’re teetering on a ridge or something.”
“There’s barely enough gravity on Metis to hold us in place,” the lieutenant commander reminded him, “let alone put any significant stress on the hull.” The lieutenant commander looked at Luis. “You just have to trust that the planners at Fleet thought this through.”
“You’re both forgetting one thing,” Luis reminded them. “I’m not a pilot. Hell, I haven’t even gotten halfway through the flight manual yet.”
“You’re the only one on deck that has been through basic spaceflight, Delaveaga,” Lieutenant Commander Kovacic said. “You really want one of us to try to land this thing?”
“Could you? Please?” Luis asked, only half joking.
“You’re our pilot, Luis,” the lieutenant commander said, “like it or not. Now get to the helm and start calculating a deceleration burn. We’re going to need to fall into orbit around Jupiter if we’re going to rendezvous with Meti
s.”
“Won’t the Jung see our burn?” Luis asked as he headed forward to the helm station at the front of the bridge.
“Our deceleration thrust ports face forward,” the lieutenant commander reminded him. “As long as there aren’t any ships in front of us, we’ll be fine.”
“But why have us set down on Metis?” Luis wondered. “Why not just have us orbit Jupiter, or continue on our way deeper out into the system for that matter?”
“I’ve been looking at the orbit of Metis,” Ensign Schenker said. “It’s very close to Jupiter, and its orbit is really fast, only seven hours. It’s also tidally locked, which means the same side always faces Jupiter. If we set down on the planet-facing side, it will be practically impossible to spot us. If you were looking from Earth, you’d have to be looking at just the right spot, at just the right angle, and at just the right time. Even then, you’d only have a few minutes to spot us. About the only way anyone could find us is if they were on the same orbit at exactly the right distance away. And even that is a very small line-of-sight corridor.” Ensign Schenker turned around to face the Lieutenant Commander and Luis. “It’s probably the best damn hiding place in the entire system, and it’s still close enough to Earth to allow communication and to allow easy rescue. It’s actually a brilliant idea when you think about.”
“You wouldn’t be saying that if you were sitting in my seat,” Luis mumbled as he began running the burn calculations.
* * *
Jessica’s eyes popped open at the sound of several thumps coming from the staircase down the hall. Still propped up in the corner of the upstairs bedroom, she glanced back and forth, searching the dark in the room where she had positioned herself for the night. She realized the thumping was the trap she had rigged with some string on the stairs. The thumps were from the rock falling down the steps. Either the string in the trap had failed to contain the precariously placed rock, or the trap had worked and someone had tripped the string on their way up.
Jessica remained perfectly still. Her pupils fully dilated in the darkness as she listened intently for additional sounds of movement. It took nearly a minute, but she finally heard a faint creak as whoever it was reached the top of the staircase.