by Ryk Brown
Tony watched over her shoulder as Jessica typed in a string of what appeared to be random numbers and letters. “What the hell is that?”
“It’s my service ID number.”
“That?”
“I scrambled it using an old spec-ops code we learned at the academy. Nobody uses it in real life. If they are the resistance, they are also members of the special operations division, which means they would know this code.”
“Hardly what I’d call secure,” Tony said.
“It’s just a small test,” Jessica assured him. “If they are EDF, they’ll have access to the service database.” Jessica typed in ‘What’s my name?’ after her service ID number. A few seconds later, they answered.
“Nash, J. D., Ensign, SO-4,” Tony read over her shoulder. “Is that you?”
“In the flesh,” she said as she typed.
“R Q C E D F C A?” Tony asked as he watched her type. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Request contact EDF Command Authority,” Jessica mumbled.
“You’re asking to speak to something that doesn’t exist,” Synda said. “They blew up their command center when they surrendered.”
“They blew up the complex,” Jessica corrected.
“They want to know why,” Tony commented, seeing the return message.
Jessica glanced at the countdown timer in the upper, right corner of the screen. There were only forty-five seconds left. She quickly typed her response.
“Are you kidding me?” Tony exclaimed.
“What?” Synda wondered, unable to see the screen.
“She replied, ‘Message from Aurora Actual’,” Tony told her.
“What does that mean?”
“They’re not going to believe you,” Tony warned.
“They’re asking for my security code,” Jessica said as she typed it into the net-terminal.
“Holy crap!” Tony exclaimed. “They’re asking for the message!”
“No way,” Jessica said as she typed a response.
“F 2 F?” Tony wondered.
“Face to face,” Jessica explained, glancing at the timer as it passed the twenty-second mark.
“There’s no way in hell they’re going to agree to meet with you face to face,” Tony insisted.
“They will if they want the message,” Jessica said.
“This woman is nuts,” Tony told Synda.
“Quick, give me something to write with,” Jessica said.
Tony handed her back the pen and paper. He peered over her shoulder at the screen as she jotted down the last message and the countdown timer neared zero. “What the hell is that?”
“It’s coded,” Jessica explained as the time expired. The white box on the screen vanished, and the black screen faded back to its usual background image, which in Tony’s case was several women in lingerie.
“Can you decode it?”
“Give me a minute,” Jessica said as she worked at the coded message.
“Somebody want to tell me what ‘Aurora Actual’ means?” Synda asked.
“It means she claims to be carrying a message from the captain of the Aurora,” Tony said.
“The ship that was lost?”
“Yeah, but it came back a few weeks ago. Took out a couple Jung ships before it disappeared again—at least, that’s the rumor.”
“I heard that, but I figured it was some kind of reverse propaganda from our side,” Synda said.
“It’s true,” Jessica said.
“The Aurora is back?” Synda asked in disbelief.
“I don’t know where she is now,” Jessica said, “but I jumped out of her cargo airlock from low Earth orbit yesterday.”
“From orbit?” Tony asked, finding her claim to be somewhat unbelievable. “As in space?”
“Yup, we do it all the time,” Jessica said. “Well, it was only my second time, to be honest.”
“Jesus,” Tony exclaimed. “What’s that like?”
“Actually, it sucks,” Jessica said as she finished decoding the message. She held up the scrap of paper for Tony to see. “Do you know where this is?”
“Yeah. It’s in the middle of nowhere.”
“Can you be a little more specific?” Jessica urged.
“Farmland, northwest of the city.”
“How long will it take us to get there?”
“As long as we don’t get hassled by the Jung along the way, a few hours. How long do we have?”
“Four hours,” Jessica told him.
“Then we’d better get moving.”
“Maybe I’d better go alone,” Jessica told him.
“Right. You’d get detained before you even reached the edge of the city. Your accent alone is enough to make them suspicious, not to mention the general lack of fear in your eyes, like hers.” Tony pointed at Synda.
“Hey!” Synda objected.
“No offense, Synda,” Tony said, “but your eyes say mouse. Hers say tiger.”
Jessica laughed. “I like this guy,” she remarked as she stood up and moved toward her knapsack. “Guess you’re driving then,” she added as she walked past him.
“I’m not splitting my earnings with you though,” Synda told him as she followed Jessica.
Tony looked at Synda as she passed him. “Wait, you’re getting paid for this?”
* * *
“I suppose you heard about the message,” Nathan said to Vladimir across the dining table in the captain’s mess.
“What message?” Vladimir wondered as he shoveled his first bite of breakfast into his mouth.
“Cameron didn’t tell you?”
“Cameron never tells me anything,” Vladimir said. “Jessica is the one who tells me everything, and she is not here.”
“Right.” Nathan took his first bite. “We got word from Waddell and Loki. Seems their friend, Garrett, wants to meet with me.”
Vladimir looked puzzled. “Why?”
“Waddell thinks Garrett is suspicious of us. He thinks talking with us will help.”
“The major thinks this?”
“Actually, I believe it was Loki’s idea,” Nathan said.
“So they want to bring him here?”
“Either that, or I go there.”
“Well, you can’t go there.”
“Sure I can. I’m the captain, remember?”
“That is why you cannot go.”
“Oh, yes, that whole ‘captain of a ship at time of war’ thing.”
“Yes, that,” Vladimir said as he took another bite of his breakfast, “and because Jessica would kill you if you did.”
“And she won’t kill me for bringing the leader of an armed resistance group, one that we barely know, aboard ship?”
“No, she will probably kill you for that as well.”
“Great.”
“Did Major Waddell tell you why Garrett is suspicious of us?” Vladimir wondered.
“Something about having only seen three men and one small ship.”
“Then perhaps bringing him aboard will sufficiently impress him. Did the major say if Garrett knew of a source of propellant?”
“Actually, he did. At least, he alluded that there was one nearby.”
“So, then,” Vladimir said as he finished his meal, “this Garrett wants to negotiate some sort of payment for this information.”
“Apparently,” Nathan said, still picking at his food.
“You are not convinced this is a wise move?”
“No, I’m not,” Nathan admitted, pushing his plate away. “Part of me wants to just take our time, wait for the Falcon to be repaired, and do a little recon on our own.”
“And
the other part?”
“The other part of me is really nervous since we’re running on empty tanks,” Nathan said. “If it weren’t for that damned singularity, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
“You know, we are actually very lucky,” Vladimir told him.
“How do you figure?”
“We go jumping about… jump, jump, jump. We don’t even think about it. But every jump could be our last. There is so much out there that could destroy us: singularities, rogue planets and asteroids, strange anomalies that we’ve never heard of. The list is endless.”
“Yeah, but the odds are astronomically slim, right?”
“One thing I have learned,” Vladimir said, “is that the impossible often happens to you, Nathan.”
“You’re not exactly making me feel better, Vlad.”
“I am only speaking the truth.” Vladimir poured himself another glass of juice as he continued speaking. “My point, Nathan, is that everything we do has risk. Some has big risks, some has small. Your job as captain is to find the smallest risk with the biggest rewards. Sending Major Waddell and Loki to Tanna is a small risk. Two men. Well, three if you count the pilot.”
“Actually, a shuttle has a flight crew of three,” Nathan pointed out.
“Okay, five men.”
“And one jump shuttle.”
“And one jump shuttle,” Vladimir agreed. “Still, much smaller risk than taking the whole ship into the 72 Herculis system.”
“I understand your point, Vlad,” Nathan said.
“Then it is settled,” Vladimir announced, clapping his hands together. “They will bring this Garrett to our lovely ship, and he will be so impressed with us that he will provide all the information we need, and he will ask for little in return.” Vladimir picked up his glass of juice and poured it down his throat all at once. “Ah!” he yelled. “This stuff is so disgusting!”
“Then why do you drink it?” Nathan wondered.
“I am told it has lots of vitamins.” He looked around the compartment, checking for his cook. “I suspect your cook may be lying to me.”
* * *
Devyn stood, straddling the ladder tunnel that led to D deck below her and pulling on the rope attached to the neatly packaged EVA suit she was to deliver to the bridge. “There has got to be a better way to do this,” she complained as she pulled the bundle to the top of the ladder.
“There’s almost no gravity here,” Luis said over the comms. “How hard can it be?”
“The suit weighs more than I do,” Devyn told him, “low gravity aside.”
“According to Gustaf, it only weighs two kilograms on Metis.”
“It’s still cumbersome.”
“But it’s only one deck.”
“Actually, it’s two, remember? Plus, there’s a gap of at least two meters between each deck, so it’s more like three. And this thing may not weigh much on Metis, but it’s still bulky and difficult to manage, especially when you’re maneuvering it up a narrow ladder tunnel.”
“I see your point.”
“We’re working on a better solution for the next trip,” Tilly announced over the comms from the aft end of the ship.
“Great,” Devyn said as she pulled the cumbersome bundle through the top of the tunnel and set it to one side. “I’m sure the next guy will be very grateful.” Devyn leaned against the wall next to the ladder for a moment to rest. She looked down at the long, dark corridor ahead of her, then down at the EVA suit bundle again. “You might want to repack this thing,” she told Tilly. “Make it long and narrow. It would be easier to maneuver up the ladder tunnels. Maybe put a shoulder strap on it so you can sling it over one shoulder. As it is now, it’s really cumbersome to carry.”
“But it doesn’t weight anything on…”
“Yeah, I know,” Devyn interrupted. “You don’t seem to get it. It’s not the weight of the thing; it’s the shape. You’re forgetting that ladder tunnels weren’t designed with EVA suits in mind, especially not when you’re carrying an extra one with you.”
“We’ll figure something out,” Tilly said. “Meanwhile, just drag it behind you.”
“It won’t damage it?”
“It’s in a protective bag,” Tilly reminded her. “It’ll be fine.”
“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure,” Tilly promised. “Besides, the bag is packed in the order you would put it on, except for the helmet, of course, which is on top. The life support pack is on the bottom of the bag, and it’s a hard-shell case. Everything else is stacked on top of that.”
Devyn sighed. “Okay. Give me a minute to stow my rope, and I’ll be on my way forward again.”
“We’re not going anywhere,” Luis told her.
Minutes later, Devyn found herself standing at another open hatch, once again staring at the large gap between her position and the last B deck compartment that had been installed prior to the Celestia’s hasty departure from Earth. “It isn’t a catwalk; that’s for sure.”
“What is it?” Luis asked.
Devyn stared at the complex trusswork that extended from the outside edge of the compartment she was in, stretched forward, and connected to the B deck compartment on the far side of the gap. “It looks like one of the main trusses that form the spine of the ship.”
“You mean the ones that contain the inner pressurized sections of the ship?” Tilly asked.
“Yeah, I guess. There is a spongy-looking wall on the other side of the truss.”
“This is Darcy,” one of the civilian technicians stuck on the bridge called over the comms. “That’s the inside of the inner hull. The spongy-looking stuff is insulation. You can walk along the main truss all the way to the next installed compartment. We used to do it all day long while we were installing the forward compartments. It’s easy.”
“You did it in an EVA suit?”
“Well, no. It was pressurized then.”
“What do you think, Devyn?” Luis asked.
“What would happen if I fell?” Devyn wondered. “I mean, in this gravity, and at this height, would I be injured?”
“Doubtful,” Ensign Schenker said, jumping into the conversation. “In this gravity, you wouldn’t accelerate much. It’d be like jumping off a table. However, depending on where and how you land, the suit might get damaged.”
“Well, that wouldn’t be good,” Devyn said.
“You’d also have to climb back up,” Luis added.
“That would suck as well.”
“Wait,” Darcy called out. “There’s a safety runner along the truss. We almost never used it, because we were working in zero gravity most of the time. You can hook onto it as a precaution. It runs the length of the truss.”
“What about the EVA pack?” Devyn wondered. “How the hell am I going to get that across?”
“Hang it on the same safety runner and pull it along behind you,” Darcy suggested.
Devyn’s eyebrows went up inside her helmet as she contemplated the idea. “Yeah, that would work.” Devyn turned around to prepare the EVA pack sitting on the floor behind her for the trip across the truss. “Hey, Luis?”
“Yeah?”
“Remind me never to volunteer to go first.”
* * *
Major Waddell stepped through the back door of the machine shop and walked across the dimly lit room toward the others.
“Did you get an answer?” Loki asked as the major approached.
“Yes, I did.”
“Finally. These metal stools are not very comfortable.”
“Nothing is comfortable for six and a half hours straight,” the major said.
“So?”
“The captain wishes to invite Garrett to accompany us back to the Aurora, where h
e and Garrett can speak directly.”
“You think that will work?”
“Do I think what will work?”
“Do you think the captain will convince Garrett to share the location of the propellant with us?”
“Of course he will,” Major Waddell said. “The only reason he wants to meet with the captain directly is so he can negotiate for greater return for the information.” Major Waddell looked at the guard by the front exit. “Hey!” He looked at Loki. “What was his name?”
“Palmot.”
“Hey, Palmot!” Major Waddell called out. “Tell Garrett we have received an answer from our ship. We need to depart as soon as possible if we are to reach our extraction point in time.” The guard ducked out the front door a moment later.
“How much time do we have?” Loki asked.
“Oh, we have plenty of time,” Major Waddell said. “I just want to get moving. That’s all. Being stuck here makes me nervous.”
* * *
Devyn made her way slowly along the massive truss inside the open, inner hull of the Celestia, sliding her feet centimeters at a time, one after the other. The extra physical effort was causing her to breathe harder, and her EVA suit’s environmental systems were having a hard time keeping her visor from fogging up.
“How’s it going?” Luis asked.
“It’s not too bad,” Devyn panted, “just slow going. The chest pack on this thing makes you have to lean away from the truss, so you can’t exactly balance upright. And my damned visor keeps fogging up.”
“What about the EVA bundle?”
“It’s hanging from the safety runner at the beginning of the truss,” Devyn explained over her helmet comms. “I’ve got a pull line attached to the bundle and to me. When I reach the end of the section, I’ll stop and pull the EVA bundle to me.”
“Make sure you’ve reconnected your safety line to the next runner section before you move the EVA bundle over.”
“You bet. It may be light, but it’s still cumbersome. I’ve got two lines on it. I’ll connect the new one to the safety on the next truss section before I disconnect the old one.”