Living in Freefall (Living on the Run Book 1)

by Ben Patterson

  However, if ever the helper was to ask what something was, or why Riley was doing whatever he was doing, Riley was well equipped to handle it. Rachel had armed him with a plethora of techno-gibber-jabber to purposely keep any onlookers confused and in the dark.

  But the guy never said a thing, and that, too, was a blessing. Riley would find it difficult to keep a straight face while gibber-jabbering something like: ando-distortion relay, or static subspace signal mollifier, or inhibiting anode energy splitter. None of which meant anything or, as far as he knew, existed.

  His sister’s abduction was an issue, though. He heard her transmission, which, in itself caught him completely off guard. But even as he listened to the disturbing conversation, he kept his wits and didn’t react to it or give himself away to those around him, but even now a plan was formulating in his head.

  Ericca sat on the cot with her back against the wall, one foot propped on the bed, and arm resting on her raised knee. Mindlessly rubbing her forehead, she considered the mess she was in.

  Eventually, Torrington came by to see her. She didn’t look up when he spoke. “Miss Archer—”

  “Take a hike!”

  “Look, I can understand how you feel.”

  “Don’t be silly. You’re way too bright to say something that stupid.”

  “You feel betrayed, but I assure you this is for the best.”

  She raised her head and looked at him with pity. “Don’t fool yourself. You haven’t betrayed me. You’ve betrayed the oath you took to protect your own Constitution. You can justify this outrage any way you want, fasech, but you’re nothing short of a traitor to Providence.”

  By the look in his eyes Ericca could see her words stung him. On some deep level he understood that she was right. He had probably come down here to get her to understand the logic of their doing what they did, but she’d have none of his garbage.

  “Miss Archer, I—”

  “Captain Archer.”

  He took and released a long breath. “Captain Archer, what would you have me do? Mutiny? I can’t do that.”

  Ericca dropped her foot to the floor, pushed to her feet, and went the bars. “Look here, dillweed, don’t you get it? By following Hammond down this path you already have. Providence’s edicts and laws should have been priority one. But you sat there and said nothing as Hammond betrayed Providence’s ideals by stealing my ship. He doesn’t have a right to it. Providence doesn’t have a right to it. And you should’ve understood that at the onset. But no. You purposefully chose not to see. Do you now or are you simply incapable?”

  “This is war, Captain. I’m a soldier. Hammond commands. I follow.”

  “So . . . you’re an automaton.”

  “I’m no mind-numb robot,” he said looking like an adolescent scrambling to preserve the little pride he had remaining.

  Ericca felt an unsympathetic coldness pass right through her. “Worse, you’re a tool.”

  With a hand, he gripped the bars, and leaned closer. “You know better.”

  “Do I? I know a good officer doesn’t follow unlawful orders. How does such a simple concept escape you? Are you really that much a pus rat? Are you really too thick to get it?”

  “I see there’ll be no changing your mind.”

  “And there seems no changing of yours.”

  Stepping back from the bars, she returned to the cot, and flicked a wrist at him. “Go away, dillhole.”

  With the last of his dignity evaporating, Torrington stayed by her cell bars a moment longer. The girl inside looked, well, she didn’t look demure or frail or for that matter defeated. Taking a breath, he turned and walked away. The brig’s corridor was long and cold and though teeming with activity . . . a very lonely place. The woman he had just left was everything he was not. She was self-righteous and insolent and brash and undisciplined and outspoken and . . . and . . .

  ‒ he stopped to look out at the stars ‒

  . . . and she was self-assured and principled and fearless. Above all, she knew her own mind. In that she steadfastly clung to her ideals was to him—he sighed—noble.

  Even caged he could see she was freer than he, and that made him simultaneously jealous and hopeful. He had worked hard to get where he was, as young as he was. Getting a command of his own was no small achievement. He had sacrificed much. And he had compromised himself more that he cared to admit. In encountering Ericca Archer, though, Torrington got the sense that he’d be a better man if he exhibited half the courage she embodied.

  Chapter Thirty

  Rachel wasn’t one to leave well enough alone, and to her these Talons were nowhere near “well enough” to be left alone. In her mind, they could stand a few improvements anyway. If her folks had to have them, then she would make sure they were worth having. She set out to gut both ships.

  “Well, Josh, I think the engines can be salvaged. I can tweak a little more life into ’em, but the shield generators and guns . . . Ugh.”

  Joshua tried to clear enough space for her to work but the platform at the rear of Freefall had limits. He lifted a sheet of metal and tossed it to one side. “Scrap are they?”

  She shrugged, and then turned back to her work. “You’re pretty bright for a tote and grunt.”

  “Gee, recognition from management. Dreams do come true.” With a grunt he shoved another metal plate out of the way. “I’ll leave the engineering details to the kid mechanic. Just don’t abuse the help, will ya?”

  “Sorry, Josh. I was just teasing.”

  Propping himself with a stiff, straight arm, he leaned against the Talon she now worked on to peer over her shoulder and quietly talk to her. “Your brother says we’ll head into Rhone soon. Do you expect to have these ships done by then?”

  She glanced sideways at Josh to wink, snapped a component from its place and tossed it up and over her shoulder. Freefall zapped it. The module instantly vaporized. “With the help of Freefall and you, I think anything’s possible. Do you mind giving me a hand with the heavy lifting?”

  “Are you kidding? I’m anxious to see what you can do with these things. I wouldn’t miss watching you work for the world.”

  Rachel stepped back, put her hands on her hips, and looked the Talon over. “Angels.”

  “Angels?”

  “Messengers of God, Josh.” She glanced sideways at him. “Nah! Sounds dumb.”

  Josh furrowed his brow. “You mean as a name?”

  Race chuckled then spoke as if speaking to a toddler. “Since we’ll be flying these, I thought I’d rename them.” She tapped the Talon’s side with a knuckle. “What do you want to call it?” She patted a wing gun. “I got nothin’.”

  Just then her earpiece hissed with Riley’s scratchy voice. “Race. Come in Race.”

  She triggered her communicator. The signal, transmitted through and boosted by Freefall cleared a little. “Riley?”

  “Yes. Listen. Alter your signal so your voice sounds like your father’s whenever we speak.”

  “Freefall, do that.”

  “Yes ma’am. Ready to transmit.”

  “Go ahead, Riley.”

  “I need your help to repair Viper, but I don’t want to give you away to these people. As long as they think Jordon Kori is the only one who understands this tech, they’ll leave you alone.”

  “Understood, Riley. Tell me about Viper. What’s wrong with her?”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Sometime later, Jordon eased Freefall forward to move further into the Saigus asteroid field. A few of the smaller stones bumped against the hull and thumped as they went or just kind of rolled along the ship’s surface to bounce or skip as Freefall pressed forward.

  As if chilled his mom hugged herself, but Jordon didn’t know whether it was the view from a portal or a real chill that made her shudder. She glanced at her son and spoke with reluctance.

  “I can’t decide whether the sound is soothing or unnerving. The hollow thuds would relax me if not for a picture in my mind’s eye o
f us getting crushed by one of these larger asteroids.”

  Jordon wrapped an arm around his mom and rubbed her shoulder as if to warm her. Every now and again a small stone would pass over the porthole and like her it unnerved him as well. “The rocks don’t really hit the ship, mom. The shields just transfer the vibrations through the hull—nothing more.” But he knew that fact wouldn’t register with his mother.

  Fairly soon they found their way to what the rebels called Rhone, a huge asteroid the size of a small moon. Rhone in fact was simply a giant hollow geode. Hidden within its open core was wonder. Jordon turned his ship toward the opening and hailed the pilothouse for permission to enter.

  A moment more and a space-tug came out to guide Freefall in. As the tug caught hold of Freefall with an energy towline, Freefall lurched and began to move forward toward the gate. Now, with his ship under the control of the Rhone port authority Jordon was free for once to enjoy his mom’s company without distraction. He took her to the forward lounge so they could relax on the couch and watch the spectacle together. Josh and Race were still at the ship’s stern. Nate was in his room studying. Quiet times like this were all too rare to not exploit.

  Just as the mammoth gate jaws started to open a glint of light from within pierced the darkness. And when the ship was near enough, more towlines projected from apertures around the gate to steady Freefall. Not only did they keep the ship on track but they also pushed away every rogue asteroid that happened by too close. As the mouth opened further bright light poured out, illuminating the asteroids all around them.

  Jordon and Mara quietly watched Freefall ease toward Rhone, pass through the gate’s great maw, and enter its belly. Great metal block teeth, each forty-feet-thick, forty-feet-high, forty-feet wide, and forty-feet apart, defined the jaws which locked together when closed. Once clenched, the metal mouth was impossible to force open or penetrate.

  At this axis end of the asteroid there once existed a large, natural opening. To close and secured it, engineers had built this massive, metal gate. With the aid of tractor beams a ship as big as a Galleass—the largest-sized civilian space freighter—can enter.

  Like a geode the outside was spherical. The hollow inside, however, was football shaped. The entrance sat at one end. Suspended in the center, a large Cryodel light illuminated half the interior at any given time, and rotated slowly to mimic day and night. It also generated enough heat to make living here comfortable.

  As the asteroid rolled gently, the centrifugal force created a reasonable substitute for gravity on its inner wall. An added but unexpected benefit created by the spin was that in doing so the natural crystals that formed the city’s foundation produced energy, energy that could be tapped into, channeled, and exploited. Because of all this, the self-sufficient inhabitants lived relatively normal lives.

  The inner wall of this hollow ball was lined primarily by farmland. Sitting like a cluster of spikes, a huge city called Rhone comprised of buildings of every size and shape sat to one side near the equator and housed nearly fifty thousand souls. The tallest structures reached the asteroids center were the docking towers laden with starship moorings for the many spacecraft berthed here. Only permanent residents had their own docks. Everyone else had to take what was given them. Some crystal clusters were huge and protruded from the green fields here and there: purples, blues, reds, ambers, and green, to name a few.

  From the Kori family’s perspective everything encircling them seemed to turn with the asteroid, and that would continue as they lined up on the synthetic sun. The massive structure was held in place by energy bands at the near end and a gargantuan axil shaft at the far end that extended to the football’s distal point. As Freefall started to match the sun’s rotation berthing docks on its backside became apparent.

  As they moved further in, the cavern floor slowly fell away from the ship to leave Freefall suspended well away from the gentle rolling hills above and below.

  Rhone wasn’t all buildings and concrete and crystals. Tall trees and lush, green plants of every sort lined most of the streets. Playgrounds and parks were plentiful. And a deep river meandered between buildings and under bridges at the asteroid’s equator. Josh and Nate, who loved to fish, later learned that the river was well stocked, tempting them to try their luck with a rod and real.

  The space-tug released them to the towlines of the port official, which brought them the rest of the way to the sun and their dock.

  “Hi there!”

  Rachel and Josh looked up to see two air gliders floating overhead near the ships stern. Though the rigid winged ultra-lights were actually level with the ground below them, compared to Freefall they looked as if they floating on their sides. A ten-year-old boy sat in the open cockpit of one, and a girl a little older sat in the other. Both craned their necks to see the platform duo. To Rachel the fliers looked like a great way to explore the asteroid’s interior. One day soon she’d have to build one or two.

  “Hi yourself,” Rachel called up. “Those fliers look like loads of fun.”

  The girl pointed off to one side to a patch of land just now enjoying the early morning synthetic sunrise. “That’s our farm. Come visit when you have a chance. I’ll teach you.”

  Rachel waved and smiled. “We’ll be sure to do that. My name is Race by the way. This is Josh!”

  The boy swung his blue, lightly powered glider in close to Freefall’s platform. “I’m Bobby,” he said.

  The girl, about twelve, pulled up beside him in her red craft. “I’m Sarah. Are you here to deliver?”

  Josh shrugged. “A few supplies.”

  “Those look like real Talons,” the girl said. “Whatcha doing with ‘em?”

  “They’re kits,” Rachel answered. “They only look like the real thing though. These are nothing special.”

  “Too bad,” said Bobby. “Those boom ‘n zoomers look like they’d be real fun.”

  Rachel shrugged, Josh smiled, and the two fliers turned away and sailed off toward the city to join others already there. In the distance, taking advantage of Rhone’s zero-gravity, several more gliders dotted the sky. She had been away so long she almost forgot how great a place Rhone really was. Being here made here a little jealous of Josh and Nate though. While she had only visited from time to time, this is where the boys actually grew up. It may have been just a home to some, but to her it was a must-visit vacation spot, a five-star resort which just had to be experienced to be believed. Yet it was such a guarded secret she could tell no one. She chuckled at that and turned back to her work.

  Soon Freefall came to a stop and opened both cargo bay doors to offload the few badly needed supplies this place depended on.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Riley cursed. “Come on, you little twit. Cooperate!”

  “Let me give you a hand with that,” said the mechanic, a middle aged man called Harry. He took the ratchet from Riley, reset its torque setting, and narrowed its aperture. “Try that.”

  This time the self-sealing bolt loosened. “Thanks,” Riley said. “You been here long?”

  “Aboard Long Bow? No, not really. In fact I haven’t been in the service long at all. Two years, or there abouts.”

  “Like it?” Riley said, removing the cover plate to look inside.

  “It’s a job. Pay ain’t great, but the work’s steady.”

  “What’d you do before? Blast! Look at that.”

  Harry peered inside the metal box. “Looks good. I don’t see anything wrong.”

  “That’s just it. Everything is connected. Power should be flowing freely, but the shields will not engage.” Riley sat back on his haunches and tossed the ratchet back into the tool box. “I’ll need to talk to Captain Kori. This stupid ship has me baffled. And where the blazes is Ericca? She knows this ship better than I do.”

  “Ericca? You mean Captain Archer?”

  Riley sighed. “That’s her.” He looked into the opening once more and jiggled a few items in it.

  �
�Let me find out,” Harry said climbing wearily to his feet. He stepped away and hit his com badge to talk to someone on the bridge.

  Grinning to himself, Riley closed the junction box and reattached the cover plate. He inserted the self-sealing bolt, which, once in place, tightened on its own. He climbed to his feet and pressed his jaw-com. “All set, sis,” he whispered into it.

  “Understood,” Ericca replied.

  Harry returned. “Bridge says she’s still with Hammond. Something about strategizing, making plans, and such. You want to contact Captain Kori? Com-unit on the wall over there should do you.”

  “Thanks.” He went to the wall com and touched its screen. “Bridge, this is Riley Archer. Can you connect me with Jordon Kori, please?”

  “Yes sir.”

  After a moment, he heard Jordon’s voice. “Yeah, Riley. What’s up?”

  “Got power. Connections seem good. But the shields won’t actualize.”

  “Understood, Riley. I’m tied up with these Talons at the moment, but I’ll check the schematic soonest. Maybe some line got crossed.”

  “Roger, Captain. I’m sure that’s it. A line must be crossed, but I’m too bushed to deal with it now. If I don’t hit a bed soon I’ll fall asleep on my feet. Ericca knows this ship better than I do, but Hammond still has her tied up elsewhere. I imagine she’ll sleep there tonight.”

  “Talk to you in the morning?”

  “Sounds like a go. Maybe a good night’s sleep will give me new perspective.”

  “Roger, Riley. Good night. Captain Kori out.”

  Riley closed the com and turned back to Viper. “We’ll pick up where we left off in the morning, Harry. Maybe by then Captain Kori will have it figured out for us.”

  The wall-com chimed.

  Riley touched its screen to open the line. A feminine voice was at the other end. “Incoming call from Ericca Archer for Riley Archer.”

  “Go ahead.”

  Ericca’s voice came through. “Gunny, this is Dodger. I’ll be spending the night here. I’ve been enlisted as a consultant.”