“I have news,” he said gravely to Pahhal.
“About Captain Jennings?”
He grunted an affirmative. “My contacts tell me that they know where Captain Jennings is headed, and it is not the Barnard’s system,” he said.
“Where then?” Pahhal demanded.
“She wouldn’t say,” he replied.
“She? Petrova?” Pahhal almost snarled. He regained his facial composure quickly, but still said very darkly, “If your relationship with that woman has in any way jeopardized my mission, I intend to see you spaced. Is that understood?”
Ounimbango gulped and instinctively began to breathe more heavily. Pahhal smiled savagely. All sentient spacefaring races had the same reaction to vacuum written in their DNA. Something about the absence of air or the sucking of space just hit them so viscerally.
“Now, where are they?” he demanded.
“Petrova said she would call us back to hear our answer in five minutes,” he stammered.
“Our answer on what?” Pahhal spat.
“Petrova wants two hundred thousand for the location, and another three hundred if we are able to catch Jennings at that location. She has also offered to ensure that we catch him at that location for five hundred thousand additional,” he said. “I told her it was ridiculous to expect so much for one girl.”
“Pay it,” Pahhal interrupted.
“W-what?” Ounimbango stuttered.
“Pay them whatever they want,” he growled. “I want that girl now.”
5
General Ounimbango’s face vanished from the viewscreen and Vosler allowed himself a slight smile. “They actually paid it,” he muttered. “We should have asked for more.”
“Oh, there are other vays,” Anastasia Petrova said from her seat in the center of the Grey Vistula’s bridge. “The Gael only vants the girl.”
“I don’t think there’s a bounty on Captain Jennings,” Vosler pointed out. “Or any of his crew.”
“I’m sure there’s someone who might be interested in him- someone whom Jennings has recently angered,” she led.
“Santelli?” Vosler asked after a moment. “I know Jennings gets in the way from time to time, but do you really want to give him over to that psychopath?” he asked.
“Vhy not?” Petrova said, her eyes narrowing. “I’ve no loyalty to him. He’s a competitor and it was he who attacked Santelli’s ship. Anything brought down on him vill be of his own doing.” She paused. “Besides, the money ve extort from Santelli for Jennings vill be fair revenge for the trick he tried to pull on us.”
Vosler muttered something about professional courtesy that Petrova ignored. “Get me Santelli,” she purred, clearly savoring the conversation that was to come.
6
Vesper Santelli clicked off the communications screen, attempting to contain the fury that was carefully hidden behind his eyes. He had remained calm as Petrova practically mocked him and then pretended to offer him a bit of charity- Matthew Jennings in exchange for over a million dollars. The presumption of the little bounty hunter infuriated him.
He looked up from his overly ornate desk at his home office and asked of one of his many lieutenants who had been observing, “Did we get a trace?”
A man whose name he did not know, pushed up his glasses and said in a nasally singsong, “She thought she stayed on too short a time, and that she had scrambled her position too well for us to be able to do anything with it.”
“You better be about to tell me she was mistaken,” Santelli growled.
The tech nodded. “We got her. Couldn’t pinpoint her exactly, but she’s in Beta Durani,” he said.
Santelli turned to his most trusted man in the room, Salvador Rocca, and said, “I want a dozen ships in Beta Durani now.”
Rocca merely nodded, snapped his fingers at the other lackeys and escorted everyone out of the office. He paused for a moment, looked back to Santelli and asked, “Captain Jennings? Do you want him brought back?”
“Yes, I want him alive,” Santelli said. “Some things you have to do yourself.”
“Of course, sir,” Rocca said, bowing his head as he did so. “I’ll see that it is done.”
Chapter 20
“Marquis, if you keep cooking like this, I might just marry you one of these days,” Matthew Jennings said with a smile as he delved into a steak, an honest to goodness steak with parmesan crusting, a horseradish sauce, mashed potatoes, and fresh asparagus.
Lafayette just rolled his eyes, but Michelle saw that he had allowed a small smile to cross his face. She could not say that she disagreed with Jennings as she too ate with gusto.
They were sitting in the ship’s mess hall only about an hour outside of the asteroid they were headed for. She was trying not to focus on the fact that it meant there was only an hour and a half of air left in the auxiliaries and then two hours of emergency back-up. She had fallen asleep in Jennings’ arms after she had finished crying, and he had not moved for four hours until she woke up. She asked him why, and he blushed and said something about having to check something on the bridge. Given the situation, it was about the sweetest thing anyone could have done for her.
“Well, dis little feast represents the last of our fresh stock,” Lafayette said. “It’s going to be bottles and cans and prepackaged goods from here on out.” He sounded wistful. “But I couldn’t let these beautiful cuts go to waste.”
“Is nae half-bad,” Fix said.
“Not half-bad?” Lafayette echoed. “I suppose it would be worthless to point out to you dat you are eating a piece of culinary artistry.”
“Doesn’t taste like art, tastes like steak,” Squawk said excitedly. “Steak!” he shrieked again before tearing into the last of his portion.
“He really likes steak,” Jennings pointed out to Michelle, who looked quite shocked at the little Pasquatil’s outburst.
“I noticed,” she said.
“They don’t have anything like it on their homeworld,” he said. “The first meeting between human and Pasquatil was done over a steak dinner. Supposedly, the steak was good enough to seal a treaty.”
“Steak,” Squawk said slowly, savoring his last bite. He swallowed, looked perplexed for a moment, and then unleashed a bulkhead shaking belch. “Excuse me,” he added sheepishly as everyone burst out laughing.
“That one came from down in the soul,” Fix said as he laughed heartily. It was a strange sound- probably because no one heard it very often.
“Quite a crew you’ve got here, Captain,” Michelle said.
“Yeah, well, they’re cheap, sort of clean, good in a fight, mostly trustworthy, and cheap,” he said.
“You said cheap twice,” she pointed out.
“They’re really cheap,” he replied. Lafayette chortled through a sip of red wine, choking as he did so. This drew more laughter from everyone.
“God, you’re almost a family,” she said.
Everyone slowly stopped laughing and eating, except for Fix, and turned to look at her. “I suppose we are at that,” Jennings said. He looked around the table slowly. “I’ve known Marquis here for twelve years,” he said. “I’ve got more memories of him than I do my own mom.”
“But I changed more diapers than she,” Lafayette added.
“Picked up Squawk toward the tail end of the war,” he said. “Most Pasquatils didn’t want to serve in the Force and those few that did were mostly disdained by the humans and Uula we fought with, but I saw something else in the little guy.” The Pasquatil’s face appeared to beam with pride.
“He was an assistant repair tech in one of the fighter bays our unit used,” Jennings continued. “I noticed that whenever his team was assigned to my ship it would outperform the specs by fifteen or even twenty percent. I thought the lead tech was some sort of genius and asked him about it. He said he didn’t know what I was talking about. That night, I came back to the bay after hours and saw this Pasquatil working on all the ships, customizing them, improving the
m. I made it a point to get to know him.”
“I take it you did,” she said.
“He told me his life story in about three seconds, then got back to work,” Jennings said. “I didn’t think I had made much of an impression on him, but I sought him out after the war to see if he wanted to sign on with us. Didn’t think I would have much of a chance, figured there would be other offers for him, but he jumped at the chance.”
“Jumped,” Squawk agreed. “Ships like this ship always need tweaking, always can be made better.”
“And what’s your story?” Michelle asked Fix.
“I answered a want ad,” he replied.
“Really?” she asked.
“Really,” all three men said.
“You must like the job then,” she said.
“Had worse.”
This drew a laugh from the others that was interrupted by a beeping noise coming from the bridge. “All right, let’s wrap it up,” Jennings announced. “We’re laughing our way right to the grave.” Michelle shot him a questioning look and he said, “We’re coming up on our destination.”
Asteroid fields were not how people who had never seen them pictured them. Typically, they imagined hundreds of rocks filling space the way stars filled the sky, and that only the greatest of pilots could successfully navigate the chaos. In truth, a blind chimpanzee could probably do it. The average distance between most asteroids in a field was about a hundred miles. Occasionally, a few would clump together drawn in by the weak gravity of a slowly spinning rock, but they would form orbits like any other natural satellite. As such, as the crew of the Melody Tryst watched their approach to the asteroid, their path was easy and unimpeded.
“I want a kill order in place on the batteries,” Jennings ordered. “As soon as we set down and are suited up, I want to save whatever life support we have.”
Squawk shook his head rapidly. “Only a few minutes saved. Barely any air,” he said.
“I want to live for the few minutes,” Jennings argued.
They were getting really close, and the mining base became visible as a gray shadow forcing its way across the brownish-red rock. Details became more evident as they approached: the mine itself attached to a rectangular processing station, which was connected to a large hanger that had been cut out of a mountainous rock formation that towered over the complex. Connected to those buildings by a steel tube was a tall reinforced-plastic dome, which would have housed the living facilities for the mine’s workers and their families.
“Two minutes,” Lafayette announced. “Hangar doors are closed and I doubt they have power. I’ll have to set down in that landing area there and we’ll need to take a stroll.”
“All right,” Jennings said. “Marquis, you have the bridge. Everyone else down to the cargo bay and suit up. Join us once we’re set down, Remy.”
Lafayette turned and eyed Jennings curiously at the use of his actual first name, but only said, “Aye, captain.”
The other four headed down to the cargo bay and started putting their EVA suits on. Michelle was shaking badly as she tried to suit up. Jennings finished putting on his head gear, then walked over to her and helped her get her gloves and helmet on.
“You all right?” he asked.
“Aren’t you scared?” she replied.
“We’re not dead until we’re dead.” he replied, allowing himself a small smile. “I’ll worry then.”
Jennings felt the slight change in the sensation of movement as the Melody Tryst slowed and then there was a jolt of impact as Lafayette set her down. A moment later, he joined the group and suited up quickly. “Sorry about that,” he added as he put his helmet on.
“Next time, I drive,” Jennings said. “Alright, everyone, O two on.” There was a series of beeps as everyone engaged their suits internal oxygen feed. “Squawk, shut it down.”
Even though he should not have been able to feel it, Jennings would have sworn that he could tell that the oxygen had stopped being churned through the Melody Tryst. Maybe he just knew that his ship was dead. Of course, the lights going off a second later made it all the more obvious. He turned on a hand lamp and led them over to the umbilical exit. They were not going to be able to go out through the cargo bay doors as they did not want what little oxygen they had saved to go rushing out into the vacuum. Jennings went first, followed by Squawk, whom he had to catch and lower to the ground and then Michelle, whom he helped because it was the gentlemanly thing to do. Fix and Lafayette were out last.
Jennings took a look around, and what he was seeing did not inspire confidence. There were fine layers of dust all over the complex. Pieces of the dome in the residential structure had been cracked and others had been caved in. There were scrapped bits of random short range ships strewn across the landing pad that looked like they had been sitting there for the better part of a century.
“Well, the habitat area is out,” he said through his intercom unit. “There’s no way we’ll get that repaired in time.” He pointed to the gaping holes in the dome. “Let’s check out the ore processing center. Hopefully, they designed it without windows in mind.”
Gravity was light on the asteroid, and they hopped as quickly as they dared through the field of debris and made their way to what appeared to be an emergency hatch in the side of the building. There was no front door, but Jennings supposed that was because anyone who was leaving would have been headed to the adjoining mine or the hangar, or would walk through the tube to the habitat dome. The tube was cracked in multiple places as well.
“There’s no power to the hatch,” Fix growled. “My sensor’s nae reading any atmosphere on the other side either.”
“We expected as much,” Jennings said. “We’ll just have to hope we can get it online. Squawk, can you get power to the door?”
The engineer crawled up Fix’s back and out onto his arm so that he could reach the control panel for the door. If this bothered Fix, he did not show it. Squawk was carrying a small suitcase-type device, which he connected to the control panel via a set of wires he stretched out of the case on a retractable spool. As soon as they were connected, he pushed a red button on the side of the case and then punched the control panel. The door slid open. As Squawk disconnected the portable battery system from the door, Fix confirmed aloud that there was indeed no atmosphere or power in the building.
“We’ve got to find a central control room,” Jennings said as he stepped into the inky maw which his hand lamp only barely cut through. “If we can get their computer online, we might be able to see what would be needed to get main power and life support back on.”
“How the hell are we supposed to find it in this?” Fix demanded.
“Split up,” Jennings ordered. “Michelle, come with me. Squawk, stay with Lafayette- take the floor above. Fix, you’re on your own and you get two above. We’ll join you after we’ve searched down here.”
“Too bad Minerva went down before we thought to ask for a layout of this place,” Lafayette muttered as he, Fix and Squawk headed up a stairwell.
Jennings and Michelle made their way through the entrance and into what seemed to be a very large, open room. Their lamps did not illuminate any walls for as far as the beam would go, showing only heavy equipment, conveyor belts and a lot of dust. Between random hanging chains, bulky machinery, and the darkness, it felt pretty damn creepy in there.
“What is this place?” Michelle wondered aloud, a little bit of terror in her voice.
“Just an ore processing center,” Jennings replied. “There’s probably a diagonal shaft somewhere that feeds into this room with a large conveyor, bringing up ore ingots from the mines below. They get fed to the smaller conveyors where these machines do various things to rocks that you would probably need to have worked in a mine to understand.”
“You assume I won’t understand?” she demanded.
“Actually, I meant I don’t know what any of this stuff is for,” he clarified.
“Oh,” she muttered.
“Hey! What’s that?” she interjected suddenly, pointing into the distance.
Jennings followed the trail of her light and saw it reflecting off several windows set high up in the air. “I don’t know,” he answered.
“Could it be a control station?” she asked. “Wouldn’t they want it set high over the work floor like that? Be able to see everything?”
Dumfounded for a moment, Jennings quickly just said, “Um, yeah. Sure. Let’s check it out. Good thinking.”
The room was built against the far wall of the production floor and was raised a good thirty feet off the floor, taking it all the way up to the ceiling of the massive first floor room. They took an open air metal stair case up to the room and swung the door open. Jennings allowed himself a small smile- it was the control room.
He flipped on his comm set and said, “Marquis, do you copy?”
“Capitaine,” the reply came. Lafayette’s voice was tense.
“Marquis, what’s wrong?” Jennings asked.
“The second floor is some kind of crew quarters,” he said. “Locker rooms, bunk beds…”
“Get to the point,” Jennings demanded.
“We’re not alone,” he replied ominously.
Instinctively, Jennings took out his plasma pistol and charged it. “Do you know what it is?” he asked.
“Her name is Suzie,” he said ominously.
“Huh?”
“It’s a blow-up doll,” Lafayette said, the tension completely gone from his voice.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Jennings demanded. Even Michelle was laughing at him.
“Technically, yes,” Lafayette announced, his laughter barely being suppressed.
111 Souls (Infinite Universe) Page 18