Stars Uncharted

by S. K. Dunstall

  “Haven’t you ever locked a machine so no one else could use it?” She hadn’t always done that herself. Not until Alejandro.

  The calibrator flanges were in a box with some spare cables. They were dented, but workable, although the dents made the volume smaller. They’d have to recalculate for that. She nodded at Josune.

  “We’ll take it,” Josune said.

  “It’ll cost more. I didn’t realize that box was part of it.”

  “Of course you knew,” Nika said. “Are you trying to rip us off, sell us a useless unit?”

  Josune’s fingers twitched.

  The trader looked daggers at Nika, and sideways at Josune. “I need confirmation of your registration before I sell it to you. Doctor.”

  “Modder.” She stepped forward. Stopped. Tamati’s associates had found her here. If she gave her details, her new ID would be useless. She turned to Snow. “You sign for it.”

  “Nika.”

  “Just do it.”

  “I am not going to sign my reputation away so they can get a calibrator.”

  “Snow, I can’t sign for it.”

  Snow opened his mouth to argue but turned as Roystan rushed in through the doorway. “We’re about to get company.”

  Nika looked at the screen. The two men from the bar were coming toward the shop.

  * * *

  • • •

  Company people, and Roystan and Josune were worried about them. Was it coincidence, or did they have a common enemy?

  Had Nika made a mistake by joining up with Roystan? Or was it a setup? After all, Josune’s mods screamed company. Or could a company be after Roystan and Josune? It made sense, because Tamati wouldn’t be out of the machine yet.

  She pushed down the familiar tattoo of fear that started beating at her every time she saw Eaglehawk. Breathe. This was not Tamati. Nor Alejandro. One step at a time. They had the machine. They had to get it back to the ship without dying along the way.

  “Snow.”

  Something in her voice finally made him touch his fingers to the salespoint, then let it read his iris pattern.

  The reading confirmed his identity and his status as a modder.

  “Satisfied,” Josune demanded, her own hand on the reader almost before Snow’s read was done. She kept one eye on the outside screen. Nika watched, too.

  The trader glanced at the screen. “I’m not getting involved in company business.”

  “Just take the damn payment.” Josune slammed his hand down on the button to accept the deal. “Roystan, Snow. Help Nika get the machine out of here.” She turned to face the door. “And keep out of my line of fire.”

  Nika unclipped the brakes on the Dekker and flicked the air switch. A technique once learned, never forgotten. The machine rose to knee height. That wonderful air cushion that never failed. She turned the machine swiftly. “Snow, help me push.”

  Roystan guided it with one hand, his other hand hovering close to his weapon. “Remember,” he said, as if he hadn’t just rushed in. “They might not be after us.” Nika might have believed he meant it, except his chest was rising and falling far too much for someone who thought the company wasn’t after them.

  The trader backed away. He might not recognize the sparker in Josune’s hand, but he understood the threat. He edged out a door at the back of the room.

  “Let’s see if we can walk past them,” Roystan said.

  Walking past Alejandro’s friends never worked. Nika looked around for weapons. Nothing. Except the genemod machine itself. There were cables in the box with the flanges. Not much she could do with that, but she took one anyway and left it to rest on the top of the box.

  The Dekker was heavy, but maneuverable on its air casters, and they only wanted the calibrator, so it didn’t matter what else was damaged. Nika turned the machine so the section housing the calibrator faced her.

  Josune placed her hand on the machine, hiding the weapon she held in her hand.

  “Snow,” Nika said, softly, as she and Snow pushed the machine out. “When I say push, I want you to shove the Dekker as hard as you can.”

  Snow nodded, his face set.

  The company men stopped in front of the machine, preventing them from moving forward.

  “Excuse us.” Roystan attempted to maneuver the machine past the men.

  “Captain Roystan. Our boss wants to talk to you.”

  “Be ready,” Nika said. Soft, so only Snow could hear.

  Roystan straightened, tall and commanding, no longer the stressed, worried man he had been a few moments ago. He could have been a company executive himself. “Sorry, we’re on a tight schedule. Your boss can call me if he wishes to talk.”

  The company man on the left had perfect teeth. SaStudio. Alejandro’s boss might send his injured to Nika’s studio for repairs, but he and his minions didn’t come to her for their cosmetic work.

  Nika gritted her own teeth. So be it. Leonard Wickmore had better never come to her for a mod of his own.

  “He wants to talk to you personally,” Perfect Teeth said.

  “Sorry, can’t do,” Roystan said. “Got deliveries. Got a schedule.”

  Perfect Teeth’s smile was more of a snarl. He pulled out a weapon. “You will wait.”

  “Perhaps we don’t see things the same way.” Roystan still sounded calm and in control.

  Being calm was fine in its way, but these people didn’t make idle threats.

  Perfect Teeth’s companion shoved at the Dekker, pushing it back toward Nika and Snow.

  Nika was ready for it.

  “Now,” she hissed at Snow, and shoved the genemod machine hard toward the company man. The Dekker hit him forcefully enough to knock him down.

  It also spun the machine around, catching Snow on the return. Nika dragged him out of the way.

  Roystan kicked at the second company man, catching him in the arm that held the weapon.

  Lightning crackled overhead. Sparkers.

  Two sets of lightning.

  “Get down.” Snow dragged Nika to the floor.

  “Go,” Josune yelled. “Get that machine to the ship.”

  And leave their backs unprotected. Not likely. Between the casters, Nika could see a pair of suited legs. She shook Snow off and shoved the Dekker at the legs.

  Josune hauled her up. “Go. Get this thing out of here.” She ducked, pushed Nika down again. More lightning crackled overhead. “Roystan. Get them out of here.”

  “Doing my best. Let’s secure this first. Or none of us will make it.”

  He was so right. None of them would make it. Nika wasn’t going to turn her back on a company man, especially not this company. She wanted them down and out.

  The side of the machine crackled; the metal parts got hot. She shoved the Dekker forward again.

  Perfect Teeth was on the floor, his leg twisted at an ugly angle. Broken. Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person. Nika hoped the machine had caused the injury. The man’s weapon was three meters from his twitching fingers, but he was moving toward it.

  She could see Josune’s feet, moving around the machine.

  Roystan edged toward the weapon, then jumped back as a blast of lightning struck centimeters from his feet.

  Nika stood, careful to keep the Dekker between herself and the man on the ground. Where was the second one?

  A shadow merged with hers. She grabbed the cable from the top of the Dekker and spun around, raising her arms as she did so. The company man wasn’t expecting the cable. It connected under his chin. He stepped back, chin jerking up.

  Nika ducked away from his flailing hands, but not fast enough. The cable was torn from her grasp, tossed aside. His hands closed around her neck.

  She froze.

  She heard, rather than saw, Josune vault the machine. Her fee
t kicked the head of the man holding Nika. All three of them went down. The Dekker went in the other direction, propelled by Josune’s leap, leaving them exposed. As Nika hit the floor, the other man finally reached his weapon.

  Josune gave a sharp flick of her elbow and the company man was out cold.

  “Josune,” Nika yelled, and pointed toward Perfect Teeth. She was too late.

  He turned it toward them. His finger tightened.

  Josune threw herself in front of Nika. Was hit with the bolt of lightning. She crumpled.

  “Josune!” A cry from Roystan, and a long, long blast of his own sparker.

  Perfect Teeth twitched. Spasmed from the charge. Kept spasming.

  The man Josune had downed groaned. Nika turned, only to find Snow there in front of him, holding Josune’s sparker with shaking hands.

  “Don’t move. I have no idea why anyone is stupid enough to bring a sparker on a station or a ship, but I’ll use it.” His voice was high. Almost childish. Nika didn’t blame him, but she was proud of him.

  Roystan used the butt of a blaster to knock the company man out.

  Nika checked Josune for life signs, then forced her shaking hands to still. “She’s alive.” It was lucky this hadn’t been a sustained blast. Sparkers did a lot of damage. Most of it was simply disabling, but a sustained blast was deadly, for it often stopped the heart. The man who’d shot Josune hadn’t stood a chance. He was most likely dead, but she hadn’t checked. Didn’t want to.

  Snow pushed Nika aside. “I can do this.”

  And she couldn’t? It didn’t matter. She let Snow take over. He pushed his palms down hard onto Josune’s chest. Fast, quick, pushes. Again and again.

  “What can I do?” Roystan’s finger twitched on his sparker as he watched Snow work. Nika hoped he would stay focused.

  “Watch them. Make sure they don’t move.” She was certain neither of them would, but Roystan needed to be occupied.

  They loaded Josune onto the top of the Dekker as soon as she was breathing on her own. The corridors to The Road were empty. Nika wasn’t surprised. No one wanted to get involved in company business.

  10

  JOSUNE ARRIOLA

  Josune came around in the Dekker. For an apparently seamless big box, there were hard parts that stuck into her. Worse were what felt like thousands of wasps stinging her from the inside out. She wanted to scream. Instead, she took a deep, steadying breath and forced the pain to the back of her mind. Meditation had to be good for something. Think of something else.

  Like that the wasps weren’t really wasps, just prickles on her skin. Sparker burn.

  Above her Nika listed supplies.

  Josune opened her eyes to narrow slits. Nika was giving instructions to Roystan.

  “Mutrient.” Roystan made a face. “Where can we get that?”

  “A hospital.”

  If no one at the Hub would sell them a calibrator, they weren’t going to get any medical supplies, either.

  “It won’t be enough to fix her completely,” Nika said. “We don’t have the right fluids, and the machine is damaged.”

  “Don’t you dare.” Josune sat up and almost toppled out of the machine. “I didn’t spend all this time getting that blasted machine for the calibrator, and going through this, for you not to use it. And we had better have left the Hub, because it will be swarming with company soon, if it’s not already. Those men were there to delay us, to stop us from leaving. Don’t you dare go back.”

  “Josune.” Roystan grabbed her hands, then dropped them again. “Sorry. How are you?”

  “I’m fine.” Although she wasn’t. She swallowed the stinging pain and the nausea that hovered when she thought about how she was. She could take the pain.

  She hoped.

  “Fine for the moment,” Nika said repressively. “You need to get under a machine. The only thing this one can do—without supplies—is give us a diagnosis. We have nowhere near enough medical supplies for your injuries. And yes, we have left the station. You’ve been out for an hour.”

  Snow moved Roystan aside and helped Josune off the genemod box. “How do you feel? I want to know where you hurt.”

  Everything hurt.

  He guided her to a stretcher ready nearby. “Roystan. Shouldn’t you be on the bridge, keeping us safe?”

  Roystan looked as if he would argue.

  Josune would have liked him with her, but Snow was right. She smiled, as brightly as she could manage. “I’m fine, Roystan. We shouldn’t delay any longer. Once Snow has finished I want to make sure we get that calibrator slotted in. If it’s not in already.”

  “It’s not.” She hadn’t seen Carlos hovering. “They wouldn’t move you off that thing until you’d stabilized. Can I take the calibrator out now?”

  They were in engineering. At least someone had been sensible enough to bring the genemod box here.

  “The sooner the better.”

  “Good.” Carlos started pulling parts off the machine and tossing them to the floor. “I’m glad you’re all right, Josune.” He sounded gruff. “But—”

  “Stop. Not like that.” Nika grabbed Carlos’s arm. “You’ll destroy the machine. Show it some respect, even if it is only a Dekker. Here, let me.”

  “It’s damaged. No use to anyone.”

  “It might not be to you, but you don’t understand these things. Let me do it.”

  Snow turned to shoo Roystan out the door. “You’re in the way here. Josune will be fine. She’s going back to sleep.”

  Josune didn’t go back to sleep. Instead, she watched Nika and Carlos bicker over the calibrator while Snow checked her over thoroughly, paying special attention to her burns. She hurt more than she admitted. Did anyone go insane from sparker burns? She would use the sparker with more care in future.

  Nika pulled the hoses apart with the sure fingers of someone who’d done this many times before. The modder certainly knew her machines. She assured them that although some of the diagnostic tools had been damaged by the sparker, the calibrator was all right. Josune wasn’t convinced.

  Carlos paced, fingers twitching. “We’re in a hurry. Let me do it.”

  Snow sprayed nerveseal onto Josune’s burns. The sudden cessation of pain was bliss.

  He wiped his hands. “I can’t do more until we get you into a machine. The nerveseal will last around three hours. You’ll be fine until then. After that it will hurt again. That prickling sensation you’re feeling shouldn’t come back, though.”

  Prickling! That was an understatement.

  “Thank you.” She didn’t want to think about how much the rest of her would hurt later, but he was right. She felt good now. The nerveseal had eased any stiffness she’d had before, as well as the pain.

  Josune drifted off. She woke to a buzz on the internal link and Carlos’s irritated voice. “We’re in a hurry, you know.”

  “How’s Josune?” Roystan asked from the bridge.

  “Same as she was ninety seconds ago,” Nika said. “Which is the last time you asked.”

  “I’m fine, Roystan.” Although Josune wasn’t sure she was. “Just have those jets ready to fire when we need them.”

  Through the speaker she heard a sigh of relief Roystan probably didn’t know he’d made.

  Josune turned to where Nika was asking Carlos, “What liquids are you putting through the calibrator?”

  “Hydrogen, oxygen, and CarraFuel,” Josune said, because Roystan was still online and the easiest way to make him think everything was all right was to behave normally.

  What was normal for her? On the Hassim she’d be the one in Carlos’s position.

  Nika touched a finger to her jaw. “CarraFuel.” From the way she held her head to one side she was listening. Linking in.

  Josune should link them in to the ship screens. Having access to o
nly an aural link must limit what Nika could do.

  “Won’t go with mutrient,” Nika said, eventually. “We’ll need to flush the calibrator, and get new hoses.”

  “Mutrient doesn’t go with anything.” Snow sounded mournful. Josune glanced at him. He looked mournful, too.

  “Mutrient is fine. They build bodies out of that. It’s what you put with it.”

  “I use naolic acid all the time. It’s a staple for any modder.”

  Josune struggled to pull herself together. Nobody had mentioned naolic acid, had they? Had she blanked out and missed part of the conversation?

  Carlos came over to the stretcher. Snow glanced at him, then at Josune, and went over to join Nika. Carlos watched him go.

  “Josune.” He made it quiet. “I’m not trusting our ship to someone who doesn’t have engineering experience.”

  Josune looked over to where Nika was saying, “If Landers didn’t teach you how to store mutrient, they’ve slipped a lot since I was there.”

  “They said it was a stable compound.”

  “In the jar. Not when you start mixing it with acids. Are you sure you didn’t miss that lecture?”

  “I’ve been lugging jars of mutrient since I was eight years old.”

  “I bet you never used naolic acid with it, though.”

  “No-o.”

  “She looks competent,” Josune said.

  “She’s a modder. Airy-fairy artist type who’ll try to give you gills and a tail.”

  “I heard that.” Nika sniffed at the hose she was holding, then wrinkled her nose. She looked over at them. “You’ve insulted us both. Gills were fashionable ten years ago. Tails fifteen. We”—she put a hand to her heart—“make trends. We don’t follow them. And sometimes we just make people look better. And I’d really like to work on your nose, Carlos. I could do it before we put the calibrator into your ship.”

  Carlos put his fingers up to cover his nose. “Just hurry on pulling that thing apart, so we can put it back together again. Besides, you don’t have the materials.”

  “I can make do. I could do your nose in fifteen minutes. Josune will take hours.”