Seeker

by Jack McDevitt

  “I understand.”

  “And you out there, Kolpath?”

  “Nobody’ll give you any trouble, Charlie.”

  “If I see anybody else, anywhere, he’s gone.”

  “Stop it,” said Alex. “You’re frightening her.”

  “That’s a good thing, Benedict. A little fear at the moment makes for a healthy attitude.”

  “Do what he says, Chase. He’s a nutcase.”

  “Watch your tongue,” said Charlie.

  “Why? What are you going to do? Kill me?”

  “I can if you like.”

  “Please let him be. We’ll give you whatever you want.” The status lamp turned green. I took my place a few paces in front of the airlock and raised my hands. “Kalu,” I said, “open the hatch.”

  It swung wide. Charlie ordered Alex forward and stuck his head out and looked around. When he saw nobody, he pointed to a bulkhead. “Both of you over there. Keep your hands over your heads.” We did as we were told while he removed his helmet. He took a deep breath. “Damned stale air,” he said. I didn’t know whether he meant the air from his suit, or the air on the bridge.

  Alex pulled off his own helmet. “How’d you know?” he asked. “How did you know we were here?”

  He shrugged. No problem. “Anything you do, I know about.”

  “You lunatic,” I said. “What the hell’s this about?”

  He didn’t care much for criticism. The laser swung in my direction. I threw myself to one side and he fired a short burst. Only a second or so. It seared into my leg, just below the knee. I screamed and tried to roll away from it. Alex started forward. But Charlie turned the weapon back on him. “Don’t,” he said.

  Alex stopped dead.

  “I don’t want to hear any more mouthing off from either of you.” He glared at me, offended. “Do it again, and I’ll shut you up permanently.” Alex came over to help me while Charlie looked around the bridge. He spotted a couple of air tanks. “I hope you don’t mind if I borrow these on the way out.”

  “When are you leaving?” I asked. I wasn’t bleeding, but my leg hurt like hell. Alex tried to get ointment from the first-aid locker, but Charlie told him no. “Don’t go near anything unless I tell you to,” he said.

  The airlock door was still open. “Kalu,” I said. “Close the hatch.”

  It swung shut.

  “No need to do that, Chase,” Charlie said. There was something obscene in the way he pronounced my name. “I wasn’t planning on staying long.”

  I stared up at him. “Force of habit.”

  He glanced through the door, down the passageway. “Let’s just go make sure we’re really alone.” He backed off, keeping as much distance from us as he could. “You go first, Benedict. Any trouble, I shoot her.”

  “Be careful with that thing,” Alex snapped.

  “Just do what I tell you.”

  I got to my feet. It wasn’t as painful as it would have been at full gravity, but I still tried to keep my weight off the injured leg.

  I limped along behind Alex into the passageway, and Charlie brought up the rear. All the doors were closed. “We’re going to open them one at a time,” Charlie said. “And Chase, you stay back here near me.”

  One hand closed on my shoulder.

  “Anybody we see,” he said, “is dead. No questions asked.”

  “There’s nobody back here, Charlie,” Alex said. His cabin was immediately off the bridge. The first room. “Kalu,” I said, “open room one.”

  The door rolled up into the overhead. “Inside,” Charlie told Alex. I followed. He stayed at the doorway, where he could watch the passage. There was a single closet in the cabin. “Open it,” he said.

  Alex pushed the manual and the door slid into the bulkhead. A few shirts, a pair of slacks, and a jacket hung inside. Otherwise, it was empty.

  We crossed the passageway. “Your cabin?” Charlie asked, looking at me. Clothes were everywhere.

  “Yes.”

  “Pretty sloppy.” We opened the closet for him. More clothes. “You always travel like this, Chase?” he asked, allowing himself a grin.

  “I like to be prepared,” I said. I was seriously hurting at that point, leaning against a bulkhead, trying to stay upright.

  Shara’s quarters were next. Alex opened the door and showed him an unused room. Nothing in the closet. Nothing in the cabinets. Charlie had already seen all her stuff in my place. When he was satisfied we closed it and moved on.

  One by one we went through the remaining compartments, same routine each time. We inspected the operations center, the common room, the washrooms, and the storage area at the far end of the passage.

  Charlie looked puzzled. He’d been sure we would find Shara Michaels. “How have you been managing the search without having a technician on board who knew what she was doing?” he asked.

  “I know what I’m doing,” I said, trying to sound insulted.

  “I’m sure.” He used the laser to start us walking back toward the bridge. His eyes were hard and cold. Pure ice. He kept looking around. When we got to the bridge, he noticed the deck hatch—the one that led down into the parts locker. “What’s that?”

  “A hatch,” I said.

  That earned me a slap that drove me to my knees. Alex glared at me. Stop provoking him.

  “What’s down there?” Charlie demanded. “And forget the smart mouth.”

  “Supplies,” I said. “Equipment.”

  “Open it up.”

  I told Kalu, and the door slid back into the deck. Charlie moved us away, looked down, and growled something. “Okay. You can close it.” He opened one of our comm links and pulled on a pair of earphones. “All set,” he said to someone at the other end of the circuit.

  We couldn’t hear the reply.

  Charlie nodded. “Everything’s under control.”

  Something more from the yacht.

  “Okay.” Charlie kept a careful eye on us. “We’ll be changing course in a minute,” he told his confederate. “Once we’re lined up, I need you to bring the yacht alongside. Off to starboard. Just tell her and she’ll take care of it. I’ll be coming back in a few minutes.” He listened and nodded. “I’ll let you know when it’s done.”

  I wondered about the course change but said nothing. Alex’s eyes caught mine, and I couldn’t miss the message. Bad things coming.

  Charlie was still listening. “Okay,” he said finally. He was nodding at whatever was being said. Then he switched on the speaker and signaled to Alex: “The boss wants to talk to you.”

  Alex nodded. “Hello, Windy.”

  “Oh,” she said. It was her voice, whispery and sad and filled with regret. If I’d been sitting in a chair, I’d have fallen out of it. “So you knew.”

  “Sure. Who else knew we were out here?”

  “Very good.” She paused. “I wanted you to know I’m sorry things are turning out the way they are.”

  “It was you all the time,” I said.

  “I tried to talk sense to you, Chase. But you wouldn’t listen. Neither you nor your sanctimonious partner was willing to back off. You were going to keep defiling sites, keep stealing artifacts, and keep selling them off for your own damned profit. I’m sorry for you, Chase.” Her voice shook. “You have so much potential. And you’ve made me do things I’ll always regret. But somebody had to stop you.”

  “Why’d you kill Ollie?” Alex asked.

  “He ransacked the Gideon V site. I thought he deserved it. I assumed you’d agree. He bought one of the director’s people. What I told you was true. I wouldn’t lie to you.”

  “Not in so many words,” I said.

  “That’s hardly fair. I don’t know how many times I warned you about what you and your partner were doing.”

  “So you arranged to bomb a shuttle.”

  “No. I didn’t intend that.”

  “That was my idea,” said Charlie. There was something surreal about that moment. Charlie was standing, grinni
ng, proud of himself. “It seemed foolproof. Most people don’t screw around the way you two do.”

  “You and Chase had to be stopped. I told him to take care of it, but to find a way to make it look like an accident. I never imagined—”

  “It’s too late to worry about it now,” said Charlie. “Can’t put the wasps back in the nest.”

  Alex tried to lower his hands, but Charlie signaled him to keep them high. “You didn’t really kill Ollie,” he said, “because of Gideon V, did you? You killed him because he’d begun to suspect the truth about you.”

  “I killed him because of Gideon V. But it’s true he’d begun to put things together. He was, in fact, foolish enough to ask me the same question you just did, whether I’d been responsible for the shuttle. I was offended.”

  “I’m sure,” said Alex.

  “I mean it. I didn’t want those people to die. If I’d had any idea—”

  “How’d you know?” I asked Alex.

  “What else could Ollie have wanted to tell you?” he said. “Look out for Windy.”

  “I had no sympathy for him. I mean, we’re talking about a guy who robbed tombs. Who bribed one of our staff to get access to information. That was what outraged me. People like him and you have no morals at all. I’m sorry to say it, but it’s true. Even you, Chase. You’ve corrupted Shara. By the way, I haven’t heard her voice. Hello, Shara. I’m sorry you had to get involved in this.”

  “She’s not here,” said Charlie. “There’s just the two of them.”

  “Of course she’s there, Blink. Look around. And be careful. She’s hiding somewhere. Call me when the job’s done.” She broke the connection, and I shut down our end. We did not want to take a chance on Windy’s overhearing the next few minutes.

  “Blink?” said Alex. “Is that you?”

  “Yeah.” He looked nervously around to reassure himself there was no one coming up behind him. “Okay, where is she?”

  “Windy’s mistaken,” Alex said. “Shara’s with the Gonzalez.”

  I moved a couple of paces to my right. Away from Alex. Alex gave me a moment and inched in my direction. Charlie responded by moving to his right. He wanted to keep some distance between us. But we wanted to inch him around where he’d be standing with his back to the cargo airlock.

  “What’s your full name, Blink?” asked Alex.

  “What do you care? Where’s the bitch?”

  “She’s not here.”

  He aimed the weapon at a point between Alex’s eyes. Alex flinched a bit, but he didn’t back away. “I’ll say it again,” he said. “She’s not here. You know she’s not here.”

  “Okay. It doesn’t matter.” He pointed the weapon at the pilot’s chair. “Sit down, Chase. You, too, Benedict.”

  We complied.

  “Chase, put this thing on a collision course.” He nodded toward the brown dwarf.

  I started to turn around, but he held the laser where I could see it. The torch end of the thing, which was big, black, and lethal.

  “Kalu. New course. Make for the brown dwarf.”

  “Orbital?”

  “No.” I hesitated.

  Charlie pushed the laser against the back of my neck. The metal felt cold. “Tell him,” he said.

  “Make it collision.”

  “Are you sure, Captain?”

  “Yes.”

  “Very good. It will require only a moderate adjustment to our present course.”

  “Do it.”

  “And we will be accelerating for a few seconds.”

  Alex was watching me. “You know, Charlie, Blink, whatever your name is,” he said, “you’re going to get caught.”

  “It’s possible. But I doubt it.”

  “Two minutes to start of maneuver,” said Kalu.

  “Very good,” said Charlie. “Buckle yourselves in, people.”

  He braced himself against a bulkhead. “I hope neither of you will try anything foolish during this.”

  The Spirit slipped into its turn and began to accelerate. Something went bump in the airlock.

  “What was that?” he demanded.

  “Storage,” said Alex. “We probably dislodged something while you were turning the place upside down.”

  Charlie stole a look down the passageway. It was still empty. He hung on to a monitor while gee forces pushed us into our seats as we simultaneously accelerated and turned to port. Then it all went away. “ Maneuver complete,” said Kalu. “We are on collision course with the dwarf. Impact in four hours, eleven minutes.”

  “Thanks, Kalu.” I started to release the harness, but Charlie told me to sit still. He came up behind me and I caught a glimpse of the laser. I thought he was going to use it on me. But instead he fired at the controls. Didn’t aim; just cranked it up and swept the beam along the panel. It cut through modules and monitors. Wires popped and burned. I said something unkind and released the harness, but he shook his head no and swung the laser, still firing, in my direction. He aimed low. I got my feet out of the way, and the beam sliced into the base of the chair and cut it off its mount. It collapsed and spilled me onto the deck.

  “Don’t get up,” he said. “Just stay where you are.” The air filled with the acrid smell of burning cables. He smiled at me. “Believe me, I’m sorry about this but I don’t really have any choice here, love.” My heart stopped. He laid an index finger alongside his jaw. “It can be a hard world,” he said. His back, finally, was to the airlock.

  “You know,” Alex said, “it’s painful to have this happen when we’re so close.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I mean, this would be a good time. To be out here on a mission like this.”

  That was intended to signal Shara. Charlie, not paying strict attention, missed the line. This would be a good time . . . Now or never.

  Behind him, the airlock began to open.

  “I’d like to leave you both alive for these last few hours,” he said. “But I can’t. I’m sorry about that but I’m not sure what my chances would be to get out with you two loose up here. For example, I’m pretty sure you could seal me in the airlock. Couldn’t you?”

  “We can’t do that,” I said. “There’s no way.”

  “Good. But I can’t be certain. Sometimes you just don’t get a break, you know?”

  I was straining to keep my eyes off the hatch.

  “Ladies first, I suppose. I’m really not sure of the protocol in this sort of arrangement.” He leveled the weapon at me. “Good-bye, Chase. It’ll be—”

  Shara charged out of the airlock with a wrench.

  Charlie heard her, started to turn, and I grabbed the laser. Shara swung for his head. He got one arm up, and the wrench nailed him on the shoulder. Good enough. He screamed and went down. Alex jumped on and we all wrestled for the weapon.

  Charlie pushed me aside and hit Shara in the jaw, sending her tumbling. Alex and Charlie were both holding the laser when it went off again. Metal crackled and smoked. Charlie screamed and tried to wrestle it away. It popped into the air and bounced under the auxiliary seat. They flailed away at one another, trying to get to it. But Shara got there first, grabbed it, spun around, and came up firing. The bolt hit Charlie in the head. He grunted, staggered back, and crumpled, slowly, as people will in low gravity.

  Shara, who is not given to messing around, held the beam on him as he went down.

  “That’s enough,” Alex said. He took the weapon from her. Charlie lay flat on the deck with his face gone and a wisp of smoke rising from his skull.

  The controls were a disaster area, charred and cut.

  Shara looked at Alex, assured herself he was okay, and turned to me. My leg wasn’t so good, and my neck hurt. “I was beginning to think you’d forgotten me,” she said.

  “I wish we could have gotten you out of there a bit sooner,” I said. “I’d hoped you’d get him when he first came aboard.”

  She gazed at Alex. “There was never enough separation between you. He kept the laser a
imed at your neck.”

  “Well,” said Alex, “he’s out of business. That’s all that matters.”

  I wasn’t so sure. “Kalu,” I said, “status report, please.”

  “Hello, Chase. I no longer have control over the flight path. Control systems for main engines and attitude thrusters on both beams are inoperative. Quantum engines are down. I have no specifics on them at the moment. Life support is okay.” He started reading off a laundry list of problems, but I interrupted. “Details later, Kalu. Are we losing air?”

  “Hull integrity is intact, except hole punched through lower deck.”

  “Can we maneuver at all?”

  “I can turn us around the central axis. That’s about it.”

  “How about we use the lander to get clear?” said Shara.

  “It doesn’t have enough thrust. We’d just follow the Spirit down.”

  “Go to manual,” suggested Alex.

  “The problem’s not the AI,” I said. “It’s the controls. They don’t exist anymore. Kalu, send a code white to the Gonzalez. Tell them they have four hours to get to us.”

  “No,” said Alex. “Wait.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Is the comm link off?” Alex asked.

  “I shut it down a few minutes ago.”

  “Then Windy doesn’t know what happened?”

  “No.”

  “You send that code white and Windy’ll know quickly enough.”

  “It doesn’t matter, Chase,” said Kalu. “The long-range transmission system is inoperative. We do have radio available.”

  “That would get them here in maybe six months,” said Shara.

  Alex was opening the deck hatch. “We’ll have to make repairs,” he said. “We have spare parts.”

  I took a long look at the bridge. “I hope we have a lot of them.”

  THIRTY-THREE

  The future is no more uncertain than the present.

  —Walt Whitman,

  “Song of the Broad-Axe,” 1856 C.E.

  “Can you make repairs?” asked Alex.

  I looked at the wreckage. “I’m not optimistic,” I said.

  Outside the viewport, the vast red clouds blocked off half the sky. “I’m not asking you to be optimistic. Just jury-rig something.”