by Jim C. Hines
“I’ll cure the infected human,” Squarm pleaded.
Mops paused. “And...?”
A shadow paused at the end of the corridor.
“And I’m sorry!” Squarm spun back to the guard console to unlock the cell door. Squarm scurried in, all but throwing the gun into Mops’ hands. “There’s enough to inoculate your entire team. If you give me access to your medical labs, I’ll synthesize more for the crew.”
Mops didn’t move. “Where’s Azure?”
“Eaten by humans, probably. I haven’t been able to reach that squirming wretch since I left the bridge.”
Mops cocked a thumb toward Kumar. “Him first.”
“Open your suit,” said Squarm. “It will circulate faster if injected directly into the heart.”
Kumar fumbled with his suit seals, his eyes unfocused. Mops made eye contact with Wolf and Monroe, who moved closer, ready to grab him if anything went wrong. Squarm raised their body higher, uncapped the tube, and jabbed the long needle directly into Kumar’s chest. “Now will you stop those animals?”
“Those animals are my crew,” she reminded him. A peek out the door showed Private Henson staggering toward them. Feral humans had a terrifying reputation, but alone, they presented little threat. “Wolf, Monroe, would you please grab Jim and bring him in here?”
Wolf charged down the hall and drove her shoulder into Henson’s gut. In one movement, she hoisted him over her back and tossed him to the floor. When Henson got up to go after Wolf, Monroe caught the back of his harness and dragged him kicking and squirming into cell four.
Mops turned her attention back to Squarm. “Him next.”
Squarm backed away. “I’m not going near that creature.”
“Give me the damn thing,” Mops said, snatching the tube from Squarm’s claws. With Wolf and Monroe holding Henson in place, she opened the front of his suit and stabbed the needle into his chest.
“Press the injector button until it clicks once,” said Squarm, cowering in the far corner.
Mops did so, then backed away. It didn’t take long for the counteragent to have an effect. Henson’s struggles slowed. His face crinkled in confusion, and he looked around as if seeing them for the first time. A minute later, he was snoring.
“Good enough.” Mops capped the tube and tucked it into a pocket. Who knew what kind of side effects the counteragent might have, but they could worry about that later. “We need to get moving. It won’t take long for more of the crew to find us, and if they attack as a mob, we won’t be able to stop them.”
She stepped out of the cell and tapped the guards’ console. “Wolf, I need a shipwide broadcast.”
Wolf squeezed in beside her. “This is set up differently than my station on the bridge.”
“Isn’t this the communications channel?”
“That’s for talking to prisoners,” snapped Wolf. “Just give me a minute to study this thing. I can do this.”
Mops gritted her teeth but moved aside. She studied the gun she’d taken from Squarm. It was designed for a thinner, clawlike grip, but it had a trigger and a barrel. If she had to fire it, she could. She was less certain of her ability to fire on her own crew.
The squeal of feedback pierced her bones.
“Sorry,” Wolf shouted, barely audible over the noise. “I’m getting there.”
Another voice thundered through the ship. “IT LOOKS LIKE YOU’RE TRYING TO INITIATE A SHIPWIDE EMERGENCY ALERT. WOULD YOU LIKE HELP?”
The feedback died, though the echo continued to ring in Mops’ ears. Wolf gave the console a tentative tap. When she spoke, the ship amplified her words. “I’VE GOT IT. SHIT! HOLD ON . . . is that better?”
“No, turn it back up!” Mops hurried to the console. “DOC, CAN YOU HEAR ME? WE’RE OUT. TERMINATE EMERGENCY VENTILATION PROCEDURES BEFORE THE CREW KILLS US.”
Nothing happened.
“What’s wrong?” yelled Squarm.
Mops shoved Wolf back into the cell. If she had to, she could seal it from here to keep the rest of the team safe. “I’m not a hundred percent sure how well Doc can hear from inside that waste tank. It could also be a battery issue. He normally draws power through me. The batteries in the monocle’s rim can hold a small charge, but it doesn’t last more than an hour or two.”
“You mean he released the monsters, opened every door in the ship, and then turned off?” Squarm squealed.
“Quit whining,” snapped Grom. “Before I flush you down the toilet.”
Wolf perked up at that.
“No flushing. We need them to synthesize more of this counteragent.” Mops kept her attention on the end of the hallway. “But you have my permission to inflict a swirly if they keep complaining.”
“What’s a swirly?” Squarm asked.
Mops leaned over the console. “DOC, I DON’T WANT TO RUSH YOU, BUT WE’RE ABOUT TO HAVE COMPANY.”
A figure stopped in the doorway. It took Mops a moment to recognize Battle Captain Cervantes. His left arm hung limp and broken, and his lips were cracked and bloody.
Mops raised her gun. “Don’t make me do this, Miguel.”
“Stop talking to it and shoot!” yelled Squarm. This was followed by a yelp of protest and the swirl of flushing water.
Cervantes studied Mops for a moment, then stumbled toward her, the fingers of his right hand outstretched like claws.
“Dammit, Miguel.” She squeezed the trigger, sending a slug through Cervantes’ hip. It took three additional shots to disable the leg, dropping him to the floor. He continued to drag himself one-handed.
Behind him, the door slid shut, locking the rest of the crew out of the brig area. Her team whooped in triumph and relief. Squarm was still sputtering and spitting.
Mops holstered the gun, grabbed Cervantes by the arm and the back of his uniform, and tossed him into cell six, sealing the door before he could recover.
“What now, boss?” asked Wolf.
“Seal your uniforms.” She pulled on her own hood and gloves. “DOC, I NEED YOU TO ADJUST THE AIR MIXTURE AGAIN. USE THE SAME SEDATIVES AS BEFORE. THEY SHOULD STILL BE SET UP AND READY TO GO IN MEDICAL. IT’S TIME TO PUT THE CREW BACK TO SLEEP.”
All she had to do now was cure the rest of the crew, regain control of the Pufferfish, and find Azure, all before they jumped to Dobranok.
The console flashed a warning: A-ring jump in ten minutes. All crew to acceleration chambers.
She watched the numbers count down. “Well . . . shit.”
Help Topic: Acceleration Ring Navigation
The Krakau developed A-rings to be a fast, safe, energy-efficient way to travel between star systems. At maximum power, an A-ring can theoretically accelerate an object to a speed of twenty light-years/hour. At that speed, the gravitational pull of most stellar objects has a near-zero effect on your trajectory, which means you can safely travel anywhere in the galaxy as long as you don’t fly through another object. Don’t worry, that almost never happens.
Frequently asked questions:
So gravity isn’t a problem? You have to worry most about gravity when accelerating and decelerating. Krakau scientists devised a mathematical equation to calculate the minimum safe distance for an A-ring jump, depending on the mass of nearby stellar objects. But as a famous human named Barbie once said, “Math is hard,” so we’ll skip the details. Your ship’s computer can handle the calculations.
How do I prepare my ship for a jump? In general, you want to be a minimum of 300 million kilometers from any given star before making your jump. You should also be well clear of any planetary masses. If your computer says it’s safe to make an A-ring jump while orbiting a planet, please contact technical support immediately for assistance to avoid being torn apart by gravitational shearing.
What about deceleration? Minimum safe distance applies to your deceleration, too. F
or additional safety, the EMC recommends arriving at least 100 million kilometers “above” or “below” the disk of your target system. This helps you avoid any planetary bodies or rogue asteroids.
Why don’t we put an A-ring on a missile and shoot it at the Prodryan home world? We can’t aim precisely enough to hit another planet. Even if we could, the star’s gravity would divert the missile’s course, making it all but impossible to hit a planet-sized target. Also, blowing up planets is Wrong.
What if my ship hits another ship? The odds of crossing another ship’s path while traveling at supralight speed are astronomical. There has never been a reported collision involving A-ring travel.
Seriously, though, what if I hit another ship? Both ships would be instantly destroyed in a fusion reaction so powerful it would create a momentary “second sun.” But we promise you won’t feel a thing!
THIS WAS THE SECOND time in less than two days that an injection of adrenaline had hurled Mops from the cliffs of unconsciousness, smashing her awake against the rocks of the real world. She spent thirty seconds staring uncomprehendingly at the wall, trying to remember why she was in a brig emergency acceleration pod, before it all came flooding back to her. At which point she swore profusely and stood, tensing her leg muscles to try to get the circulation flowing.
To her left, Monroe gasped and jerked from his acceleration pod. “Only thing worse than a quick-shot wake-up is two quick-shots.”
“I set the system to get us up and about as soon as possible,” said Mops. “Azure should be unconscious for a while after that jump. This is our best chance to find and neutralize her.”
Outside the cell, the consoles and control panels were all dark. The only light came from the emergency lighting strips along the walls, near the floor.
Worse than the lack of light was the silence. You never noticed the background noise of the ship until it wasn’t there: the hum of air circulation fans, the rush of water through the plumbing in the walls, the buzz of a dying light strip, the vibration of an improperly tuned grav plate. . . . The Pufferfish was all but dead.
“Monroe, are you getting anything from the ship on your monocle?” She entered the guard’s room and began checking the lockers for her team’s equipment. “Tell me that jump didn’t break the ship.”
“I’ve got basic status readings from the suit, but that’s it,” said Monroe. “The air’s good. If Doc sedated the crew, he cleared the gases from circulation while we were traveling.”
Mops nodded her thanks and unsealed her hood. She eventually found her things, not properly stowed in the lockers but tossed into a corner. The acceleration had flung them around hard enough to bend her utility pole and puncture a detergent canister, leaving a meter-wide puddle of soap on the floor. She retrieved her pistols and wiped away the worst of the soap before sliding them into her holsters.
“Looks like the ship’s on standby,” Monroe continued. “Probably shut down right after deceleration. Another precaution to make sure we can’t do shit.”
“Are we there yet?” asked Kumar, stumbling out of the cell.
Mops spun. “How are you feeling, Technician?”
“Like my mouth is lined with fiberglass, and my heart wants to climb out of my rib cage and run laps around the ship. There’s no urge to kill and eat anyone, though.”
“Glad to hear it.” It looked like Squarm had been telling the truth about the cure. Mops glanced at Monroe and lowered her voice. “Watch him. Just in case.”
She checked on Private Henson, who appeared to be sleeping peacefully in his acceleration pod.
“What should we do with our two Glacidae?” asked Monroe. “They’ll be out for a while.”
“Put Squarm in a different cell and lock the door,” said Mops. “Leave Grom’s door open so they can catch up with us when they wake up.” After a brief internal debate, she put the pistol she’d taken from Squarm in Grom’s cell, just in case.
Mops headed down the corridor. The door that connected the brig to the rest of the ship refused to budge, and the control panel was dead. She popped open the emergency hatch and unfolded the handle to crank open the door manually.
“Why is it so dark?” Wolf’s voice sounded far too loud as she staggered into the hall.
“Lack of light,” Kumar said flatly.
The first thing she saw upon leaving the brig area was four feral humans slumped unconscious against the wall. Without an acceleration chamber, they’d been slammed around hard when the Pufferfish jumped, then tossed again by the deceleration. All four were bloody and battered. Two had visibly broken limbs.
“I’m surprised they’re not worse,” said Monroe.
Kumar cleared his throat. “Emergency jump procedures say if you can’t get to an acceleration chamber, you should lie flat and relax your body as much as possible. The more you tense, the greater the damage. The rest of the crew didn’t know what was coming, so they would have been relaxed. Studies have found that humans can survive an unprotected jump about eighty percent of the time. Up to ninety in ideal circumstances.”
Mops’ fists clenched. That meant ten to twenty percent of the crew likely hadn’t survived. Which of her friends had died because she’d ordered Doc to turn them loose?
“How do we find Azure?” asked Wolf.
“She knew the jump was coming,” said Kumar. “Logically, she would have gotten to an acceleration chamber. With the ship’s systems down, we’ll need to manually search—”
“She’ll be in her ship.” Mops paused to orient herself, then turned left and started walking.
“You’re sure?” asked Wolf.
“That’s where her bioweapon is,” said Mops. “She needs that shuttle to attack Dobranok. One way or another, if we get control of that shuttle, we win.”
“Then shouldn’t we be going the other way?” asked Kumar.
“Yes.” Mops kept walking. “Just as soon as I get Doc out of the waste tank.”
Normally, Mops would have scanned the tank and used a retrieval net to fish Doc out. With no power, she had to do it the old-fashioned way.
After five minutes with her arm shoulder-deep in muck, her gloved fingers closed around the hard crystal of her monocle. She pulled it free and used her thumb to remove a clump of something best left unidentified from the lens.
Kumar had already affixed a sanishower unit to the ceiling. The rest of her team retreated from the tank access room as the bottom of the sanishower flowered open and began to spray blue foam and liquid over her body. The floor drain was supposed to open automatically, but with the ship on standby, she had to manually unlock the floor tile and twist back the cover.
When the sanishower ran dry, Monroe used his compressor to blow the remaining foam from Mops’ uniform. She pulled a rag from her harness and started polishing the monocle. For the edges, she used a cleaning brush, paying extra attention to the attachment points.
“Let’s go.” She unsealed her hood as she walked. Her nose wrinkled at the smell of sewage and sanitizing fluid. She brought the monocle to her eye, where it jumped from her fingers as if eager to click into place.
For thirty seconds, nothing happened. Doc needed to build up a small reserve from the bioelectric energy in her attachment implants before powering back up. At least, she hoped that was the problem. Monocles were tough, but they weren’t indestructible. If Doc hadn’t survived his trip through the plumbing—
She pushed that thought away. “Come on, dammit.”
Her vision brightened slightly as the monocle turned on and compensated for the dim light. “If we’re ever in a similar situation, it’s your turn to get flushed down the toilet.”
She was too relieved to argue. “Fair enough.”
“What’s going on? Where are we? I can’t interface with the ship.”
“We’re still on the Pufferfish, but it’s pretty much dead.�
�
“Have you tried turning it back on again?”
“Does the Pufferfish have a big on/off switch you haven’t told me about?” She stopped near the lift doors. Doctor Curie lay to one side. His nose was broken and had bled over his face, and his elbow was dislocated. Doc automatically checked the readings from his suit.
“He’s alive.”
“Thanks.” The lifts weren’t working, but she cranked open the door anyway. Inside, just to the right of the door, was the maintenance ladder.
Mops grasped one of the metal rungs with both hands and stepped into the lift shaft. Her weight triggered light strips in the rungs, making the whole ladder glow white. Fighting off a wave of claustrophobia, she started down. The ladder was built into a large groove in the wall. In theory, you could climb even with the lift cars in operation, though she didn’t know anyone who would be willing to test that theory.
Well, maybe Wolf.
She’d descended about three meters, and Wolf had just entered the lift, when the Pufferfish shuddered sideways. Mops tightened her grip.
“I didn’t do it!” Wolf shouted, her words echoing down the tube.
“Grav beams,” said Monroe. “We’re being towed.”
Which was just what Azure had predicted. The Krakau were dragging the Pufferfish—and the planet-killing payload on Azure’s shuttle—toward Dobranok. With the Pufferfish’s systems offline, they had no way of contacting the Krakau to warn them, or even of knowing how long they had before reaching the planet.
“Climb faster,” said Mops. “Whoever’s last, close the lift door behind us. I don’t want anyone from the crew regaining consciousness and stumbling in.”
“Yes, sir,” Kumar called down.
Her shoulder had stiffened and begun popping regularly by the time they reached their destination. Mops cranked open the door, stepped out, and tripped over something heavy. She caught her balance and turned to see Private Anna May Wong sprawled on the floor.
“I’m sorry. His suit isn’t registering any life signs.”
“Maybe his suit isn’t working.” Mops tugged Wong’s collar to check his throat for a pulse. Nothing. No breath either.