Nick tried not to hurt people, but he forced his way through the throng with ruthless intent, stopping short about a yard shy of the door. Exactly as the woman had told him, two men were on the deck, kicking and clawing at each other, fighting over access to the locked LB. No one else could get by.
Reaching down, Nick grabbed one man by the scruff of the neck, hauling him to his feet. He was mildly pleased to find the D’nvannae Brother was right beside him, dragging the second belligerent combatant to the other side of the LB access portal.
Nick sensed the crowd preparing to surge forward in blind panic, now the human obstacles were removed. He wheeled, shoving the man he had grabbed roughly away, knocking down two or three other passengers in the process. People stepped on or over them in an instinctive rush to get closer to the presumed safety of the lifeboat.
“Nobody moves until I say so!” Holding up one hand, he used the tone of voice he would employ on a batch of unruly, raw recruits, awesomely commanding.
“Quiet down now,” he said, watching the people in the front row of the mob, getting eye contact, to personalize his commands, make them feel like responsible individuals, not a mindless, panicking herd.
The blaring sirens and recorded emergency warnings cut out, resumed briefly and then died away in a slowly fading gibberish. The lights in the corridor flickered, causing gasps here and there in the crowd.
“Are there any SMT officers or crew here?” Nick said.
Desperation, fear, and puzzlement on the faces in front of him. Many sidelong glances, mute head shakes.
Silence.
“All right, then. I’m Captain Jameson, Sectors Special Forces. I’m taking charge of this LB portal. I need four volunteers besides this man,” nodding at the D’nvannae, “to help me keep order here. You can’t all get into this LB. No one’s going to make it off unless you keep your heads and we go about this calmly and quickly.” He pointed at some likely candidates. “You, you, you and you.”
He’d picked out a quartet of fairly good-sized men, who seemed calmer than some of the others ringing him. Pointing at the Brother, he said, “What’s your name?”
“Khevan.”
“Fine, Khevan, you and these four gentlemen form a ring. No one gets by until I say so. Watch my back while I open this damn portal.”
Nodding, the D’nvannae and the four men linked arms and established a perimeter. Nick gave his attention to the locked access. Damn, there should have been at least one SMT crew person at each LB by now, with the unlock code, getting the civilians safely off the ship as fast as possible. Nick spared a second and a small part of his mind to swear at the inefficiencies and lax discipline of this ship’s captain. Lucky for all these nice people I know how to open the thing.
Nick scanned the portal info display as he keyed in a code on the access panel. “Capacity one hundred sentients,” the label declared in Basic and the other five languages. Okay, Jameson, quick, calculate what the limit really means, what the margin of design safety probably was. How many extra oxygen-breathers can I shove onto the thing without killing them all?
As the door cycled open, Nick assessed the waiting throng. The crowd, even larger now, probably in excess of two hundred men, women and children, pressed forward. They were pushing his ring of volunteers closer to him before the men dug in and shoved resolutely back.
“This LB can only support one hundred and twenty-five,” Nick announced to the assembled passengers, pitching his voice to carry to the edge of the crowd. “I’m not allowing one more person to board beyond the limit. I’m taking children and their caretakers first, followed by as many other adults as possible. Anyone with children, come forward now. We’ve got no time to lose. No luggage! No pets!” Nick pointed to the stout woman, who had followed in his wake through the crowd. “You, what’s your name?”
She stepped forward. “Maud Panula.”
“All right, Maud, come stand right here next to me and keep count. Shout it out for me every ten heads, then every five as we get closer to capacity.”
“Who appointed you Lord of Space?” shouted a red-faced man in the middle of the crowd, as the first nervous children and their relatives came forward, passing through Nick’s cordon. The complainer found a few kindred sentients who appeared to agree with him. An undercurrent of ominous murmuring increased in volume.
“There’s only a few of them –”
“No weapons – let’s rush them!”
“The officer and I can kill with our bare hands,” Khevan said softly from his place in the center of the cordon guarding the LB access, his voice carrying as easily as Nick’s had. “You won’t gain entry to this LB by challenging his order, I guarantee you.”
Nick listened to the count rapidly climbing, as more and more children and adults streamed past him. Where the hell had they all come from? “We’re at eighty already,” he announced to the crowd. “If you don’t like your chances here, better go find the next LB.”
“Where?” screamed several despairing voices.
Nick cursed the SMT Line again for its lack of preparation. “There are LB portals every few hundred yards, going both directions, all three passenger decks and on the Casino Deck.”
Khevan broke link with his fellows to keep a burly man from getting past them without permission. There was a rapid flurry of blows, and the other passenger sank to the carpeted deck, unconscious or dead. Khevan meant what he’d said and was obviously prepared to act on the threat. A large portion of the crowd melted away, running frantically in both directions, in search of another LB where the odds might be better, where no one was in charge. Nick felt sorry for them.
“You get inside when the tally reaches one hundred and ten,” he said to his human counter. And once I’ve sent them on their way to safety, I can go see about Mara, whether she’s okay, did she get off the ship. He had her cabin number, obtained from the AI the first day, but he was hoping she’d already taken a lifeboat. Even then, I can’t leave until I know every civilian’s been taken care of.
“What about you?” Maud’s voice quavered. She stared past Nick to eye the men making up the cordon. “All of you?”
“I’ve got something else to do.” Nick helped a girl who stumbled on the threshold, setting her on her feet. “These men will be the last to board, don’t worry.”
“I don’t want to be out there in space with no one to drive the LB.” The woman was blunt and honest.
“It’s got auto programming for the nearest safe port.” Nick hoped SMT had followed at least one mandate. “The Dream’s AI will have laid in a course. As soon as we dog the hatch, the lifeboat’s AI will have you out of here.”
A shout from further along the corridor broke into his rapid-fire instructions.
“Help! I need help – there are people trapped in a cabin on the next level.”
Mara!
Hoping he was right, Nick craned to see who it was. Sure enough, to his great relief, Mara Lyrae came running up to the ring of volunteers at the LB portal. He’d been prepared to search the entire ship for her if necessary, but now here she was.
Sensibly dressed but disheveled, her hair loose around her shoulders, Mara worked her way through the rapidly thinning crowd, gaze locking onto him. “Please, I need someone to come to Level Two.” His men let her through the cordon and she grabbed at Nick’s arm. “I’m so glad you’re still aboard. It’s the family who was on the shuttle with us? I can hear the children crying in their cabin, but I can’t get the door to open far enough to get in. The boy says his mother is trapped under something.” Mara bit her lip, shoving her hair away from her face. “And they can’t get out of the back bedroom, or won’t try.”
After hearing about trapped children, Nick knew he’d stay on board as long as it took to free them. But first, she needs to be safe. “Tell me exactly where on the Second Level and I’ll go. You get in this LB.” Nick reached out to take her by the arm, intending to guide her through the portal.
“No,�
� She took a hasty step away from Nick, shaking her head vehemently. “I promised that little boy I’d come for them myself, as soon as I found their father, or someone. If you’re going to help me with this, then we have to hurry.”
“I swear to you I’ll go up there and do my best to get them out of whatever trouble they’re in, but I want to see you safely off this ship first. Now please take your place in this lifeboat so I can seal it and send it.” Nick was impatient. “You may not have another chance at a seat on an LB later.”
“There’s an LB portal on that level no one has accessed yet. We’ll be all right if we can just get them out of their cabin.” Mara pushed her hair off her face, glancing impatiently down the corridor the way she had come. “I gave them my word – I can’t leave them. And you need me to show you exactly where. Please, please, come with me. There has to be enough time to at least make an attempt at getting them out.”
A mental picture of the two children flashed into his mind’s eye. Eyeing Mara, Nick made an instant decision.
“You go ahead,” he said to the stout lady. Giving him a quick, grateful hug, she ran through the LB portal, needing no further urging. The passageway was empty now, save for his informally assembled team and the piles of abandoned luggage, everyone else having decided there was a better chance of getting away on another LB. “Gentlemen, thanks for your help with the mob. Now go ahead and take this LB and get the hell out of here.”
“What do we do to detach from the Dream?” demanded the closest passenger.
“There’ll be instructions on the inside of the LB airlock, in Basic and about ten other Sector languages. You dog the hatch shut like this.” Nick mimicked the necessary move twice for the men. “The LB’s AI will do the rest.”
“But what about you?” asked one, pausing on the threshold. “Shouldn’t we –”
“Don’t wait for us.” Gesturing for the man to proceed, Nick was emphatic. “You heard her say there’s another LB up on the Second Level. We’ll be okay.”
Without further comment or question, the four civilians disappeared down the short corridor. The D’nvannae Brother, Khevan, shook his head and moved away from the portal to stand by Mara, who was fidgeting anxiously, ready to make the trip to Level Two with no further delays.
“I’ll go with you,” the Brother said. “If these children are trapped, you may need more help than this lady alone can provide.”
“Suit yourself.” Nick slammed the corridor access door shut and slapped a closing code into the controls. “Lords of Space be with them.”
He stepped away, taking Mara gently by the elbow, ready to concentrate on the next challenge of the disastrous night. “Lead the way.”
She shoved her hair back again with one hand as they sprinted through the corridor. Nick noticed her elegantly trimmed and painted nails were now broken off, her hand scratched and bruised. “I appreciate this,” she said, not slowing down. “It was awful to hear Paolo crying, and I couldn’t get anyone to stop and help, not even the crew.”
“At least you saw a crew member,” Nick told her grimly. “For all the publicity about the number of crew per passenger, they sure have been in hiding tonight.”
“Maybe we’re better off without them, if they fly lifeboats as poorly as they flew this ship,.” Khevan said, laughing with a touch of bitter humor as he easily kept pace with Nick. “How far to the moving stairs for the next level?”
“Not that way,” Mara said. “Takes too long. We’re going in here.” Sliding to a stop at a door labeled “Crew Access Only,” she punched a short code into the control panel. “This is how I got here after I found the stairs blocked. People fighting, trampling each other, panicking – an ugly scene. So I took another way.”
Nick was impressed. “Crew anti-grav shaft.” The three of them stepped into the silvery stream of the upgrav, riding it swiftly to the next level. “Where did you learn to ride grav streams? Most civilians don’t have the head for this stuff – no training.”
She was putting her hair up in a twist, efficiently wrapping the gleaming strands into a quick knot. “I’m a contracts specialist for Loxton Galactic Trading. I worked my way up from assistant field agent, so I’ve traveled on dozens of ships over the years, most of which were a lot less elegant than this one. Grav shafts were all they had. No stairs.” She leaned her head back, gauging how much further to Level Two. “The access codes tend to be standard, only about three variations, so I took a chance SMT used the same set. And I was right, thank the Lords. Here we are, coming up on the left.”
Reaching out a graceful hand, Mara stopped their progress, opening the portal into the new corridor with one quick motion. They stepped out, Nick and Khevan moving fluidly to offer protection, if needed, against whatever the conditions might be on Level Two.
“What a mess,” Nick said, checking the area. Papers, clothes, unidentifiable items lay strewn about.
Mara tugged at his sleeve. “It’s the cabin three doors away from mine, this way. We came up on the shuttle with them, remember?”
Nick nodded. “Cute kids. I saw them at the beach on Level Five. Fished the girl out of the water, in fact.”
“Paolo and Gianna, eight and three Terra Standard years old,” Mara said, breathing hard as the trio of would-be rescuers ran past a series of wide-open cabin portals. “You rescued her? The parents were asking about you, but no one knew where you’d gone, or who you were. They thought you were SMT crew –”
Suddenly Nick felt a chill across the back of his neck. He stopped, putting out a hand to halt his companions. “Feel the breeze?”
“Hull breach.” Khevan watched impassively as some of the lighter debris on the deck stirred and began drifting down the hall in the direction they were going, moving in fits and starts as the outgoing drafts eddied.
“But we have to get the Nadenofts out –” Mara swiveled her head, staring at one man, then the other. “Come on, we’re so close to the trapped children. I’ll go on by myself, if you’ve changed your minds –”
“How much further?” Nick said, urgently. Time’s running out now.
She checked the golden numerals above the cabin door gaping open beside him. “We’re almost there. Five more cabins to go, around the curve ahead.”
Nick nodded and gestured for her to proceed. “Let’s move, but if the airflow gets much stronger, we risk getting blown out into space without an LB.”
Mara bit her lip against an instinctive protest, apparently content he and Khevan still intended to pursue the rescue mission.
“I wonder the blast doors have not closed already,” the D’nvannae commented as they hurried along. He coughed sporadically from the dust now visibly drifting through the corridor. “Should they not have been triggered by any loss of air pressure, no matter how slight?”
“Yeah, well, this ship has more than a few things not up to code,” Nick said. “Whoa!” He threw out his arm, stopping Mara as they came around the curve of the corridor.
Ahead of him was a tangled mess of ceiling panels, dangling circuitry, and other debris. The bulkhead was indented at a sharp angle, as if something had tried to batter its way into the ship from the outside. The once-beautiful panels of wooden veneer were splintered and shredded along the corridor, some missing entirely. Beyond, within the damage perimeter itself, there were no lights, other than a few sparking panels.
The wind picked up.
“It wasn’t like this when I left a few minutes ago, not this bad. I mean, the corridor wall was banged up, but everything else was fine,” Mara said, hand at her throat. “Lords of Space!”
“I thought something had gone wrong with the damn engines on this bucket again, like last night, only more serious.” Nick gestured at the debris field. “From this mess, I’d guess we hit something. And if you’re telling me the collateral damage happened since you came this way, I have to assume the Dream’s structural integrity is in jeopardy, on this level at least.”
“Truly,” Khevan agree
d, staring at the obstacles in their path, assessing the probabilities. “If we weren’t safely in Sector Sixteen, I’d say the Dream had been attacked.”
“Yeah,” Nick nodded grimly. “But not in this Sector.” He touched Mara’s elbow to get her attention. “How much further? I’m not sure we can work our way through much of the debris barehanded.” He pointed at the dangerous maze ahead.
Mara held up her scratched hands. “I know. This happened to me as I was trying to force my way into their cabin, and it wasn’t half as much of a tangle then. Tools would help, but I don’t know where there are any.” She pointed down the corridor at a cabin a little way into the debris field. “See the door there, just past the first set of fallen ceiling panels? It’s their cabin, the Nadenofts’.”
“I don’t suppose you’d be willing to wait here?” Nick asked.
She shook her head emphatically.
“Let’s go then.” Determined lady. I’m not wasting breath and time arguing with her.
The trio moved forward cautiously, Nick and Khevan shoving aside what debris they could and holding the dangling circuitry gingerly out of the way for Mara to pass. As they worked their way past the first cabin door inside the damaged area of the corridor, a loud thumping startled them all. Eyeing the door to his left, Nick paused.
“I thought you said the children were a few more doors down?” he said. Maybe this isn’t going to be so hard after all.
Mara was shaking her head, frowning in puzzlement. “This isn’t the Nadenoft cabin. I don’t know whose it is.”
Nick nodded to Khevan. “Well, whoever is in there appears to be just as trapped. Auxiliary power to the door circuits must be out on this level. See anything we can use as a lever? We’ll have to pry the damn panel open to get them out.”
The Brother searched through the mess in the corridor. Mara hung back, biting her lip and glancing down the hall, where the children were waiting for help to come. Nick put his mouth close to the jammed door and shouted, “Hang on, we’ll have you out of there in a minute.”
Wreck of the Nebula Dream Page 7