War of the Spheres

by B. V. Larson

  “It’s amazing…” she said, touching each shrunken injury and marveling at it. “Would you care to try to explain it?”

  I peeled away more of the useless coverings, revealing fresh-grown skin. I set the stained bandages adrift.

  “I’m not the only fast healing person in the world, am I?”

  “People do heal at different rates. But this—”

  A loud chime sounded, interrupting our mood.

  “Passengers and crew, welcome aboard the United Earth ship Quark. This is your captain speaking. Everything is on schedule, but we’re going to have to reverse the ship and brake hard for our final approach to the Luna Station. In fifteen minutes, I’ll need you all harnessed into your launch-seats in the main cabin. Thanks for traveling with us.”

  Jillian and I made full use of those minutes. Afterward, grinning like bad children, we jumped into our clothes and then embraced one last time before pulling apart from one another.

  “Back to work, Chief Gray,” Jillian whispered. She spun her hair tether, which tied up her dark hair again. Then she turned and shot down the passage away from me.

  “Back to work indeed, Dr. Brandt,” I called after her. For the sake of chivalry, I let her have a sixty-second lead back to the launch-seats. Making one last check, I tidied and aligned my appearance.

  I was the very last one to return and strap into my seat. Keeping to myself, I focused on a rolled-open computer screen while the ship maneuvered roughly. On the navigation screens, the ship seemed to crawl slowly into range of Luna Station. I’d found a floor plan of the base and used my time to commit as much as possible to memory.

  The jets rumbled steadily as we decelerated. Now and then, hydraulics whined and revved. I wondered how long it had been since I’d listened to a spacecraft coming in to dock—it seemed like a long time indeed. We were pressed back into our seat firmly for the next twenty minutes or so.

  After playing it cool for a minute or so, I shot an admiring glance at Jillian’s profile to my right and smiled to myself.

  Glancing to my left a moment later, I found the brown eyes of Colonel Hughes boring into me. They studied Dr. Brandt for a few moments, and then moved back to me again.

  Uh-oh, the boss was on to us.

  Okay… so we’d been busted to some degree, but I wasn’t about to offer any excuses. I couldn’t be sure whether Hughes was just being protective of her project and team members, or if she was jealous for a little attention herself. Either way, all she got out of me was a non-committal nod and a friendly but neutral smile.

  After that, I turned to watch for glimpses of the Moon through the nearest viewport. Hughes busied herself by taking some notes on a screen.

  The next thing I knew, Toby was plopping down into the seat next to me and attaching his harness securely.

  “Toby, you’re not supposed to be floating around the transport right now. Didn’t you hear the pilot?”

  “As if anyone could not hear the pilot speaking over a general broadcast…”

  “Well then, why don’t you sit tight and behave?” I asked.

  “Again, I am mistaken for ordinary,” he said with a touch of drama. “I chose to approach you for a specific purpose, Chief Gray.”

  “…and what purpose is that?”

  Then he grinned with those odd teeth and leaned close. “So… I hear you and Dr. Brandt have gotten quite friendly.”

  I sighed and looked at the cabin walls overhead. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

  “Not at all—but that’s not what I’m here to talk about. I just wanted confirmation on the gossip.”

  Sighing, I decided you couldn’t really expect to hook-up on a spaceship without someone noticing. I hadn’t seen any cameras—but they were very small these days.

  “All right. What are you here for, Toby?”

  “I happen to have been putting my time to good use—unlike anyone else I can think of aboard this ship.”

  “Is that so?” I turned to face him again.

  “Yes, that’s so. I’ve executed repairs to Fairweather’s engine.”

  “What!?” I yelled it a bit too loudly—people looked over, but I ignored them. “What do you mean, you’ve executed repairs?” I demanded in a lowered voice. “Weren’t there guards?”

  “Those two crewmen in the aft hold? You can’t be serious.”

  “Yeah—you’re right. What have you been using to commit this violation?”

  He produced a small hand-tool.

  “This!” he said, and he grinned again. “I found it in a gear bag.”

  He clipped small tinted goggles on the bridge of his nose and flicked a stud at the side of the tool.

  “This is the cutting feature,” he said as a small jet of plasma spurted from an insulated nozzle and then steadied. “Don’t look at it directly. It’s a portable, hand-held welder.”

  “Shut that off—right now.”

  “Observe: Here’s the feed-trigger for making a weld.”

  “You give me that damned thing—right now.” I reached for it but he pulled it out of range.

  “Careful Chief, you don’t want to get burned.”

  “What have you done? You crazy little runt?”

  “Calm yourself. I’ve repaired the device, not damaged it. I previously advised you that laser-fire caused contact damage in two places on structural components of the engine.”

  “So what?”

  “You know—back on the cargo lift. Remember?”

  He frowned at me, and in his moment of distraction, I reached out quickly and snatched the welder away from him. He glared at me and hissed in surprise.

  “Yes Toby,” I said, stowing the tool, “I remember.”

  “Well, slag from the scorch was causing an unintended deviation of electrical currents—a shortened circuit. I made some precise cuts to remove the damaged trusses and improvised an ingenious substitute.”

  “You don’t say…?”

  “Oh, I do say. I am ninety-four percent certain that Dr. Brandt’s testing protocols will now produce clean diagnostics.

  “Ninety-four percent? That’s a six percent chance you’ve killed everyone aboard if it fails. You’d better be one hundred percent sure you didn’t piss in the soup.”

  He shrugged, calmly looking past me and out of the viewport.

  “You’re welcome,” he said.

  Moments of silence went by. I thought about alerting Colonel Hughes, but I passed on the idea. It would look like a failure on my part, since I was fooling around when it happened. I figured it would be best to suggest they run a full diagnostic later—which I was sure they’d do anyway.

  “Hey,” I said at last. “How did you know about Dr. Brandt and myself?”

  “I hacked into her comm-link,” he told me. He was still calmly staring out the viewport.

  “You didn’t…”

  He shrugged. “I didn’t see any of the important stuff. She dropped it into her pocket and then it timed out into sleep mode. I missed almost everything—almost.”

  “You’re a deviant—I don’t care how smart you are.”

  The high-G braking got even rougher then, and it went on for several more minutes. It was hard to get enough of a breath to talk. It was a long burn, but eventually it cut out.

  “We’ll be coasting now for the next hour,” the pilot said over the PA system. “Feel free to get up and move around the cabin. There will be another fifteen minute warning before we go into our final sequence.”

  “That’s odd,” Toby said. “They’re operating outside of normal procedure.”

  “You’ve been to the Moon on transports often, then?”

  “No, never… but I still know how it’s supposed to work.”

  Slapping him on the shoulder, I climbed out of my harness and stretched. “I’m glad for the break. I’m going to have a look around.”

  Toby nodded, absorbed in his computer tablet again.

  Chapter 13

  Toby had a point. Something seeme
d off, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Colonel Hughes was the person of interest I looked for first, but she’d already left her seat. I located her and followed her discreetly.

  We passed through a security door. As it was unguarded, I noticed the door was slow to close. Following her before it swung shut, I found myself in a frosty-cold storage chamber. Frozen foodstuffs were netted and strapped against every wall.

  Honestly, I wasn’t trying to be a pain in the ass, but we both knew she wasn’t giving in to this business of teamwork easily.

  When the colonel finally turned and saw me, she wasn’t completely shocked, but she did put her hands on her hips.

  “So you’re telling me you just waltzed past security into this chamber?” she demanded.

  I shrugged.

  “How can you possibly have access at this level?”

  “Come on, Emily. It’s enough to know my clearances let me go wherever I need to go.”

  Her eyes narrowed tightly, like a pissed-off cat.

  “I told you not to call me that. I expect you to show me the respect my rank deserves.”

  “Sorry Colonel,” I said. “Is there something else bothering you?”

  “There are countless things bothering me.”

  “I mean about me? You’re being uncooperative all of a sudden.”

  “Well, not every woman you meet will be easily swayed, Gray. You should know that by now.”

  Ah-ha, I said to myself. She was being pissy about Brandt and I—even if she was only suspecting we had a thing going. I sucked in a breath and let it out as she stared at me.

  This was the sort of complication I didn’t need at all. It was frivolous and unprofessional of her to begin treating me poorly over a suspected dalliance with one of her staff. But then again, it was also quite human. My intuition told me that on some level, she was interested in me herself. In a word, she was acting jealous.

  After we faced one another in the cold storage room for several seconds, then she turned and moved through the next door. I followed her quickly. It was possible she would seal the door on me and leave me inside the passage. It wasn’t likely, but it was possible.

  “Sorry about that,” I said as I crowded up and almost bumped into her. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to poke around a bit on the upper decks—on my own.”

  Before I could slip away, however, Major Knox showed up. Had Colonel Hughes summoned him while she was staring me down? I suspected that she had.

  “Ah, there you are, Gray. I’d almost forgotten you were playing guard dog on this ship.”

  That comment stung, but I didn’t let it show. “Sorry, sir. I’m going to inspect the decks outside the passenger module now, if you don’t mind.”

  Colonel Hughes had taken this opportunity to vanish through another door, but I wasn’t so lucky as I moved to follow her and escape Knox.

  “Wait,” Knox said. “Are you aware of any new threats to this project?”

  Thinking about that for a moment, I shook my head. Except for Toby’s tampering, the situation was unchanged.

  “Then you’re just playing night watchman, making your rounds?”

  “Something like that,” I admitted. “I can’t stop worrying about the engine.” It was pretty much the truth.

  “I can understand that. If this propulsion system works—well, I don’t need to tell you what it might mean for Earth. We’ve been stuck in our own star system for far too long.”

  “Agreed. But let me ask you something, Major: is it normal for a transport like this to change course on the way to the Moon?”

  He glanced at me and shrugged. “I’m not a frequent flyer. I’m not certain.”

  “Hmm… maybe I’ll check with the captain and ask him why we’ve deviated.”

  “I’d rather you didn’t disturb the crew without cause—but all right, carry on.”

  We had a brief stare-down. His attitude toward me had improved, but he still hadn’t accepted me as a trusted member of his team.

  Leaving him behind, I went deeper into the ship, looking for Hughes.

  I found her looking through a triangular porthole. The tiny window provided an angular view of the flight deck.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, peering over her shoulder.

  She looked up at me in annoyance. Our faces were almost crammed together in the narrow viewing space.

  “Do you mind?” she demanded.

  I backed away reluctantly. Using my comm-link, I tried to reach the crew’s secure comm-channel, but I found it blocked.

  “I can’t hear anyone yakking on chat,” I complained. “What’s going on?”

  “Communications channels on this deck are partitioned,” she said. “The guards who usually work here have a wired com system. It’s old-fashioned, but utterly secure. The problem is—I’m not getting anything from them. I’ve tried calling them several times—but there’s been no response.”

  We exchanged glances, and I saw right off that she was both serious—and scared.

  “I see…” I told her. “Have you contacted Major Knox? I just talked to him.”

  “I just did, but he’s more worried about the engine in the main hold. He’s moving his assets there.”

  That annoyed me. She’d talked to Knox—but not to me. I’d just talked to Knox a few minutes ago myself. Neither one of them saw fit to contact me and bring me into the situation.

  That was typical. I was still on the untrustworthy lists for these people. They didn’t want me snooping and reporting back to the Ministry of Control, I imagined. Maybe they thought I was a spy as much as a security asset. It was something I’d have to work through.

  “Hmm…” I said, “Knox is focused on the engine—but you’re more worried we could lose the helm?”

  She frowned at me and then looked back through the triangular window. “I—I’m not sure what’s happening up there. I can’t raise the crew directly. I can’t talk to the guards that are supposed to be posted here. Could aliens be taking hostages? If so, I’d rather not open this door. I’m considering blocking off the upper decks completely until I understand the situation.”

  I thought about her plan and quickly discarded it. These aliens could walk through walls. Sealing off portions of the ship would only hamper the humans aboard.

  “I’m probably just being paranoid…” she said.

  Shaking my head, I put my hands on the wheel that opened the door. “Paranoia is my job. Let me do it.”

  “Wait…” she began, but I was past waiting around.

  Without any more delays, I pressed the emergency release. An alarm sounded and the door shot open with a loud blast of released gas.

  “You—I didn’t give you permission to do that, Gray!” she said angrily.

  “No, not implicitly. But I’m in charge of security. I’m doing my job. I can’t protect people if I can’t get to them.”

  Things could go wrong very quickly when you’re trapped in a hurtling shell of thin metal surrounded by an endless void. Leaving Hughes behind, I headed up a ladder. Reaching the ship’s central passage, each “step” turned into a lunging effort. I moved from handhold to handhold as I dragged myself rapidly toward the cockpit.

  In short order, I reached the cockpit and hammered on the sealed steel door. After waiting a moment, I pounded on it again, but still there was no answer. Needing to rule out a worst case scenario, I applied my code key to the lock, and the door slid open.

  On a transport, the bridge was on the less formal side. It wasn’t any bigger than your average kitchen, and it was just as full of equipment. Three crash seats were in evidence, all with their backs turned toward me. There was a jump seat to the side of the open door. Switches and glowing touch-screens were everywhere.

  Craning their necks and gaping at me, the pilot and the copilot looked at me with wide eyes. The sensor op stood up and put his hand on his sidearm.

  I showed my ID, and they all seemed relieved when they recognized my name on it.

/>   “You’re Chief Gray?” the pilot asked. I cocked my neck a few degrees and read the name badge. It was engraved ‘Captain Whitman’.

  He was a very young-looking blondish guy. His expression was earnest and determined. Next to him, the copilot who was a Scandinavian-looking gal had the same earnest face. These two looked like they could have grown up in the same village in the far north.

  “Yeah—I’m Gray,” I acknowledged. “What’s going on?”

  Whitman swallowed dryly, then he glanced at his copilot who looked back at him and then nodded. Something in their manner said they’d flown together for a long time.

  The copilot went back to poring over the plotting screen. She wasn’t wearing a helmet, and her blonde hair was pulled back in a tight bun that looked like it might be annoying inside a spacer’s helmet. Her nametag read: Jensen.

  The sensor op in the back of the cockpit continued to tap his fingers on the grip of his weapon in a less than friendly manner.

  “Logan, back off,” Whitman ordered.

  The sensor op muttered, but then complied.

  “I think we should tell him,” the copilot said with a hint of an accent.

  “I’ll handle this, Lieutenant,” Whitman said.

  “Tell me what?” I asked. “If this involves security, you shouldn’t hesitate—”

  “The thing is, we’re not certain,” Whitman said. “Look, you’re internal security. We’re talking about local space traffic. This isn’t some kind of gunman—”

  “Give me the full report, Captain.”

  Whitman relented after a moment’s hesitation. “All right. What’s happening now all falls outside of regs, and I could use input.”

  Despite the fresh-picked look these two shared, I had the strong feeling they were more than novices. They were down for business. Though his usual duties had to be fairly routine, Captain Whitman seemed to have some raw gravitas. He could be flying something much sleeker than this transport.

  “I just didn’t want to start a panic,” Whitman began. “It may all be nothing, you have to understand.”

  It was all I could do not to make a “hurry-up” gesture with my fingers.

  The copilot took a deep breath and let it out—but she didn’t say anything.