Outpost

by Allan Baillie

  Cap glanced at Dece, before looking away. ‘I don’t know. A hiccup from Cotal.’

  Then the screens seemed like five eyes opening onto views of the ship. The edge of the crater was no longer close, and the ship’s hold was almost under them. The ice rubble was moving more slowly.

  ‘It is stopping.’ Seps nodded.

  ‘But we haven’t got power.’ Dece looked at Cap, hoping he wouldn’t agree, but Cap didn’t say anything.

  ‘Shouldn’t we tell Boss?’ Seps said lightly.

  ‘Shut up!’ Cap hissed, and turned to her. ‘You think she can help? Now?’

  ‘No … but – ’

  ‘Then just dry up.’

  Seps and Dece stared at Cap.

  He met their gaze. ‘What?’ For a second he was quiet. ‘We tell Boss when we are out of this. All right?’

  They nodded, unable to do anything else.

  Cap worked on the buttons in front of him, but most of them were either red or dead. He shook his head as his eyes moved between the panels and the screens.

  Dece blinked at him.

  ‘There is nothing there,’ said Cap. ‘Any moment that ice could come back. We have to do something.’

  ‘What can we do?’ Dece said.

  Cap jabbed at the ship’s hold. ‘We have to get the Tug in there.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘You come with me to the airlock. Seps, stay here.’

  ‘What are you doing?’ Seps sounded alarmed.

  ‘I’m getting a line to that ship’s empty hold.’

  ‘You’re not going out there?’

  Cap slid away from the panels and the screens.

  ‘What if the ice comes again?’ Seps said.

  Cap looked at her, but said nothing. He closed his helmet and moved away from the bridge.

  Dece followed him, past the computers flashing at each other, past the sleeping pods, the work area and the airlock. Cap turned on the winch, clicked the light cable onto his suit and moved to the airlock.

  He tapped his helmet. ‘Can you hear me?’

  ‘Yes.’ Dece nodded.

  ‘Don’t be stupid; just keep an eye on the winch and listen to me. All right?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Cap moved into the airlock and the first lock closed around the cable. Dece shut his helmet – he shouldn’t need it in the work area, but they had to be careful, especially after the ice storm. He turned to the large screen near the airlock and watched Cap step out from the Tug.

  Everything seemed to be spinning. Cotal and its rings were drifting away, then they were coming back, and the ship and the Tug were tumbling towards them. Dece forced his eyes to focus on the ship and the ship’s hold. Cap was moving away from the Tug.

  Cap turned to the Tug’s engines and said something that Dece didn’t quite hear. He touched his suit, letting out a squirt of air which turned him back towards the hold of the ship.

  ‘Dece,’ Seps murmured from the bridge.

  ‘Yes.’ He noticed that she kept the line to Cap closed.

  ‘One of the jets is now working.’

  ‘One? We can’t use that.’

  ‘I know, that’s why I didn’t worry Cap, but it’s a good sign. Isn’t it?’

  ‘Yeah. Those little guys are a busy lot.’

  Dece moved to the winch as Cap drifted across the hull. Cap tugged the cable and stepped on the ship, ending up at the hold.

  ‘Cap, Cap!’ Seps had re-opened the line to Cap and was shouting. ‘It’s coming!’

  ‘What?’ said Cap.

  ‘The ice!’

  Dece saw hunks of it rolling from the top of the ship, jostling each other.

  ‘All right.’ Cap sounded calm. He stepped into the hole.

  ‘Cap, didn’t you hear that?’ Dece yelled from the winch. ‘The ice is coming again.’

  Cap didn’t reply, but Dece saw his light wandering to the upper part of the hold for a moment. Then nothing.

  It’s all right, thought Dece. He’s just moving into the hold. But he called, ‘Are you all right, Cap?’

  There was static and that was it. The ice swept over the ship, rattled the hull of the Tug and became thunder.

  Don’t panic, Dece thought. It’s the metal of the ship. It’s blocking the words.

  ‘Dece, we got another jet! Can we do something?’ Seps was yelling.

  ‘I don’t know, I don’t know. Wait.’

  All right, there is a way to see how Cap is doing, thought Dece as he watched the hole and the cable hissing from the winches. When Cap connects the cable to the ship he will use his small winch to separate the light cable from the heavy one on the Tug.

  A blizzard of ice pieces swept between the Tug and the ship, battering the hull. The Tug shivered, rocked and began to roll. The cable tensed between the ships.

  I’ve got to do something, Dece thought. The jets! There are two now, but I am here, not on the bridge.

  ‘Seps!’ Dece was frantically slipping on the deck towards a tilting wall. ‘Get the computers to stop the Tug rolling!’

  ‘How?’

  ‘The panel, the panel that … Don’t worry about it.’ Dece’s final words were flat.

  He was looking at the screen that showed the cable swinging between the ships.

  There was nothing on the other end of the cable.

  13.

  The Hold

  DECE stared at the monitor in the work area.

  ‘What happened, Dece?’ Seps’ voice was soft from the bridge.

  Dece didn’t want to talk. He went back to the winches and pressed a button on the light winch to wind the cable in.

  ‘Are you there, Dece? I’m coming down.’

  ‘No, stay there. I’m on my way back.’

  There were several jolts, then Dece heard the jets spurting over the din of ice hitting the Tug’s hull, and he felt like he was sliding.

  ‘What are you doing, Seps? Stop it!’

  ‘I am not doing anything! It’s the Tug.’

  ‘Oh.’

  Dece grabbed the edge of the sliding wall and pulled himself into the sleeping pod area. By the time he reached the bridge, the computers had stabilised the Tug and the hammering ice was quietening down.

  Seps stared at him with wide eyes. ‘It just took over.’

  ‘That’s all right.’

  ‘The storm has passed, hasn’t it?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Her eyes steadied. ‘Cap is in the ship, isn’t he? What do we do now?’

  ‘I … I don’t know. He is there and we are here and I can’t raise him. I guess we have to talk to Boss.’ He reached for the button.

  Seps blinked at the button. She put her arm over his. ‘No.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Cap was right. Boss can’t do anything from Ord. We have to work things out ourselves.’

  His arm shivered. ‘Then somebody has to go to the ship.’

  Seps looked at him.

  ‘All right, I have to go.’

  You can’t do it! thought Dece.

  Seps shook her head. ‘No, I can’t. That ice will come again. There are two jets working now, maybe more. Can we get the Tug into the hole?’

  Dece’s eyes widened. ‘Cap could do it – in his sleep. We can’t.’

  ‘Why not? It’s there. I can almost touch it. The computers will tell us when we are about to hit. And we have to.’

  Dece hesitated.

  ‘Now.’

  ‘All right, all right.’ Dece moved to the panel, sat at Cap’s seat and held his arms over the panel.

  ‘Well?’

  ‘Shut up.’ He touched a button to get a plan of the Tug on screen, to see where the computers were trying to repair the damage. It was an alarming sight. Red flares flickered over the engines and hull. It looked like the Tug was on fire. He wished he hadn’t brought up the image and he quickly sent it away.

  Seps pointed to the buttons representing the jets – now there were four green ones.

  Dece nodded and
moved them to the centre of his panel.

  ‘Now. All right,’ he said. But he stared at them.

  ‘Just move the Tug,’ Seps whispered. ‘A little bit.’

  He nodded, touched the second panel, heard the hiss and stared at the ship on the screen.

  ‘We’re moving away.’ Seps was looking at the numbers at the foot of the screen.

  Dece pushed three buttons quickly and the numbers slowed till they began reversing. The ship crept closer.

  ‘Yes. Now, the hold. It’s that way.’ Seps pointed.

  I wish she’d be quiet, thought Dece.

  But he was beginning to get a feel for the buttons. He manoeuvred one of the jets into slowing down the Tug and moving them towards the hole. All right, he thought, the Tug is the same as my banged-up Telp. Just bigger. Remember that.

  The Tug crawled forwards, but to get it inside the ship’s hold Dece would have to change the Tug’s relative position from horizontal to vertical. He breathed heavily, patted a panel, and the hole on the screen moved away. Soon, the Tug looked like it was about to plough into the stained metal side of the ship.

  ‘Dece, do you know what you are doing?’

  Shut up. ‘Yes.’ I think.

  Seps found the lights for the Tug’s bow and aimed at the spot on the ship where it seemed the Tug might hit.

  ‘Thanks,’ Dece said.

  ‘It looks better.’

  But the lights seemed to be moving across the hull of the ship and the Tug was not getting any closer. Dece copied Seps’ idea of looking at the numbers, and when the bow of the Tug was facing the ship he touched the panel for it to stop the vertical movement, but the horizontal movement still continued. The lip of the hole crawled onto the screen.

  ‘Good, good,’ Seps hissed. ‘You’re getting there!’

  Dece thought her voice showed a bit of astonishment, but he was also surprised, so he wasn’t offended.

  The bow of the Tug slid slowly across the hole and the beams played into it. Dece saw a few cavities in the walls and heavy marks on the floor.

  A yellow button flickered on the panel.

  Seps reached for the button, but hesitated.

  Dece looked at her.

  ‘It’s Boss.’

  Dece stroked a jet button and stared at the hole. ‘We’ve got to answer it. She will think that we are dead.’

  Seps stared at the flickering button and then pushed it. ‘Hi Boss, we’re all right, but – ’ She looked at Dece. ‘She’s gone. Nothing at all.’

  Dece nodded and returned to the screen. He couldn’t think beyond the jets.

  ‘Maybe the ship has affected our communication …

  Dece!’ Seps shouted and pointed at the other screen. ‘It’s coming back!’

  Dece saw the wave of jostling ice rocks, but he stayed with the hold and did nothing.

  ‘What are you doing? They are here!’

  The Tug shivered.

  ‘I can’t see Cap,’ said Dece.

  ‘Oh.’

  Seps understood. Dece could get the Tug into the hole, and settle down on the deck – possibly landing on an unconscious Cap.

  The rumble of ice against the hull had begun.

  ‘There!’ Seps pointed at a small shadow floating on the ceiling. ‘Yes!’

  Dece tapped two panels and heard the jets.

  The Tug began to move towards the hold. But it was moving slowly and ice had begun rushing over it, crashing over its hull, rocking it from side to side. The bow of the Tug began to drift.

  ‘We’re going to hit the ship!’ Seps shrieked.

  Dece thumped a button and the Tug increased its speed a little. Dece hunched as rocks of ice thundered over the bridge, as if one of them was about to crash through the hull. The Tug’s bow slid towards the side of the ship’s hold.

  ‘We will make it. Maybe.’

  The bow was within reach of the hold, but the Tug was twisting. Its lights swelled as they played against the walls of the hold. For a moment, Dece was anxiously looking for the drifting figure of Cap. Then he realised what the growing lights on the walls were. He hit the other jet buttons.

  ‘Close, close, close.’ Seps was looking at the edge of the Tug’s bow.

  The Tug thumped against the ship, turning a little, and skidded into the hold.

  ‘Are we all right?’ Seps said with a shaking voice.

  ‘Can you see Cap?’ Dece watched the light on the walls, and a slowly approaching cavity. There were bolts and cables in the cavity.

  ‘I can’t find him. Oh.’ Seps was looking inside the cavity, too.

  I can’t worry about him now, Dece thought. I have to stop the jet now, otherwise we will come out of the ship.

  He stopped the jets and watched the red and green cables in the large cavity. The bow of the Tug thumped into the walls of the hold and gradually drifted away again. Dece turned on the magnets and the Tug floated back towards the metal deck, crushing some odd patterns with its stern.

  Seps and Dece looked at each other.

  ‘We’re here,’ Seps said.

  ‘Yes.’

  14.

  The Bug

  FOR a long moment they did nothing.

  And then Seps said, ‘Cap.’

  Dece pushed himself up from his seat and moved to the airlock, but when Seps followed him he stopped. ‘Um, you better stay on the bridge.’

  Seps shook her head. ‘You need help out there.’

  Dece looked at her and nodded. They closed their helmets, stepped into the internal airlock and shut it behind themselves. Dece was reaching for the external airlock button when the clattering on the hull began.

  ‘The ice has come into the ship.’

  Seps moved against the side. Dece hesitated before stepping closer to her and pushing the button. Cap was out there, so they had to go.

  But when the external airlock slid away there was only a flurry of fragments of ice entering the open space. The escalator dropped, and the edge of Cotal appeared, washing its pale silver light over the hold.

  The hold seemed to be waiting for Dece. He closed his eyes for a moment. Then he turned on his helmet’s lights and moved carefully around the edge of the airlock. A few pieces of ice were banging the Tug at the back near the engines, intensely at first, but after a while the ice retreated and the noise faded.

  ‘Can you see him?’ Seps moved through the flurry.

  ‘No.’ Dece felt his boots adjusting their magnets to the ship’s metal and he moved towards the Tug’s engines.

  ‘Oh no.’

  ‘You’ve seen him.’ Her voice was dead.

  ‘No, no. I was looking at the Tug’s engines.’

  Number One Engine’s nozzle was folded across its mouth and was bending across Two Engine’s nozzle. And Three Engine had been hit so hard that it seemed to be drifting away from the Tug.

  ‘Never mind that now,’ Seps said as she approached.

  Dece nodded and looked around.

  Cap could have drifted from the hold like the ice pieces, he could have gone under the Tug, he –

  ‘There!’ Seps pointed.

  Cap was wobbling at the edge of the Tug’s bridge, anchoring himself with one boot clamped onto the wall. For a second he looked like he was waving at them. They hurried to him.

  ‘Cap … Father.’ Seps touched his arm and his body twisted.

  Dece peered into Cap’s helmet. Cap’s head was slumped against the side of the helmet and he was grey.

  ‘Is he … ?’ The words petered out before Dece could finish his thought.

  Dece looked at the broken body. He had once hated Cap. And now?

  ‘Help me move him,’ said Seps.

  They held Cap’s arms and walked slowly through the haze of ice to the airlock. Inside the work area the helmet opened up. Cap was breathing shallowly.

  ‘He’s not dead,’ Dece said.

  ‘Shh, he may hear you.’

  Dece started to take off Cap’s suit.

  ‘He could h
ave broken something,’ said Seps.

  Dece hesitated.

  ‘The pod?’

  Dece nodded and they gingerly moved Cap across the work area, past the sliding door, to the pods. Besides functioning as a sleeping system, the pods provided a medical service equivalent to several doctors. Dece and Seps peeled Cap’s suit off and put him into a pod. Seps pressed the control for medical treatment and closed the cover. Fine wire lines came from the frame and touched Cap’s head and body. A panel above the pod began displaying figures.

  ‘He has been knocked out,’ Dece said.

  ‘Yes. And a broken pelvis.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Is it bad?’

  Dece looked at Seps. ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘There’s nothing we can do here.’ He moved away.

  Seps touched the cover and whispered, ‘Get better quickly, Cap.’

  They moved back to the bridge. Dece looked at the screens, which were showing the ship’s strange patterned walls.

  ‘What do we do now?’ he said.

  Seps glanced at him. ‘We have to tell Boss, now.’

  Dece nodded. It was bad; they were stuck in a dead ship, with no safe way to leave it and get back home. But they’d found Cap and he was not dead. That was something.

  Seps touched the connection. ‘Boss, are you there?’

  Static filled the bridge.

  Seps tried again, then Dece tried. Nothing.

  ‘The ship is blocking us,’ Seps said. ‘Maybe if we could move the Tug a little bit out …’

  Dece shook his head. Nothing in the galaxy would get him to move the carcass of the Tug into that storm.

  ‘No?’

  They turned to the Tug’s receiver. Earlier, it had been able to pluck Boss’s image and words from the roar of the stars, but now what they heard was a soft sound below the static. A furtive sound, like a bug scuttling away.

  ‘What is that?’ Seps hissed.

  ‘I don’t know.’ Dece fiddled with the receiver until the static became a faint mutter and the bug raced into the dark. He shook his head. ‘I still don’t know what it is.’

  ‘I don’t like it.’

  Dece tapped a panel and pulled away from the flickering numbers.

  ‘What?’

  He breathed very slowly. ‘That sound is coming from this ship.’