Outward Borne

by R. J. Weinkam

  MuiMi spotted her father's All-1 lying on a circuit box, and lunged for it. It had instructions for their escape. There was an ‘unofficial’ restbox in the Filim anti-module, fourteenth deck. He told her that they must be extremely careful not to be seen. He was afraid they would be terminated if the OLDies learned that they had gotten out of the Farside arm. MuiMi did not understand why. Ok, they were supposed to stay there for work tomorrow, but skipping out is hardly a capital offence. Nevertheless, she had been warned. MuiMi stuck her head out of the narrow access door and looked into the bridge corridor to see if the OLDies, or their ever-annoying bots, were coming to pick them up. Nothing, at least not yet. She pulled the door closed and locked it.

  Tomat and MuiMi waited until Eric recovered. They worked out a plan to get across the bridge and into the Filim hub. From there, they would need to travel over three kilometers through the arm to the Filim anti-mod without being seen, falling, or freezing to death. The beginning was easy. MuiMi and her crewmates were able to glide silently, hand-over-hand through the service tube, until they got the Filim side of the bridge. This bulkhead had not been secured, passageways were open as they normally were, and they were able to enter the hub without encountering an alarmed door. Aubry had left instructions and a diagram for finding the secret restbox that the People had built inside the Filim anti-module, but it was a long way away.

  Eric, feeling well enough to be embarrassed by his passing out, insisted on leading the way along the walls, floating between the massive structure supports, high into the cavernous Filim hub. This newly built structure had several levels of storage and assembly space near the bridge connection, but these were stacked up like trays in the center of the hub and did not block the crew’s passage. The area was always busy with material transfers, transport dollies, and shuttle traffic coming and going. Tomat could see bots moving large bins about; massive sections from the old arm were being removed piece-by-piece and sent to the main hull for recycling. He did not think there would be any ObLaDas in the hub. If there were, their gold suits would be easily seen. Keeping to the darkest corners, the crew made their way, half floating, and half climbing, toward the hub portal. The hub was strongly built to support the stress from the long connecting arm and the streams of suspension cables leading to the massive modules beyond. Thick girders provided ample shelter for the escaping crewmembers.

  They were accustomed to working in a weightless environment, and reached the beginning of anti-mod arm without tiring. This bulkhead separated the pressurized hub from the near vacuum of the anti-mod arm. Without their containment suits, their only way through was within the pressurized shuttle tube. They could make their way along the inside of that elevator shaft all the way through the arm, if they could get in. Eric and Tomat moved slowly around the conduit connection. They were exposed and visible from below, but it was a long way away and they would now be hard to see. MuiMi kept watch, looking for any movement on the platforms, anything that might show they had been seen. There was a door on the side of the shuttle tube that was free of any monitoring devices. There was no need for a door there, but like almost everything on the Outward, it was a module, and if the module had a door, then there would be doors all over the place. The crew began to work their way inside the shuttle tube, but it was dark and very cold. Tomat felt the chill immediately, and made for the light girders that supported the tube walls. He wasted no time. They had only their exertions to keep them warm.

  They moved quickly through the beginning of the arm using long coils of climbing rope that were still there from the construction, but their pace slowed as they came nearer the anti-module and the simulated gravity increased. MuiMi was changing from one line to another when she lost her grip and fell at a noticeable rate into the void. She was able to grab onto a drive cable, barely. If she had picked up any more speed, she would not have made it. “Take care,” she signaled, relieved, but MuiMi was more shaken than she let on, and remained frozen in place, clutching the thick greasy cable, feeling herself plunging uncontrollably, smashing into a crossbeam.

  Moving through the arm was work, but their real test would come at the looming anti-mod bulkhead. Access there would be carefully monitored. The Das always recorded how much mass was being moved in and out of modules so the spinning arms could be kept in precise balance. They reached the bulkhead exhausted, hands and feet bleeding from contact with the abrasive metal. MuiMi was too tired to think of what came next, but Tomat had an idea. He had installed the emergency call system in the shuttle tubes and knew how it worked. He moved MuiMi and Eric into the conduit just to the right of a sliding access door. He climbed up along the outside of the trans-arm shuttle tube. He went to the box that controlled the shuttle doors and set the warning switch to the call mode. Tot hurried down the scaffold, signaling Eric, who had moved to help him, to go back. Tomat arrived just as the door slid open and a repair bot crawled through the opening, slowly climbing along the thick structural cable. He held onto MuiMi and Eric as they dropped through the overhead door, while the retreating bot lifted its bulk in the opposite direction. Tomat was about to jump onto the cross beam below when he lost his balance, slipping, his feet hung down as the door started to close. Eric righted himself and reached up to Tomat to help him through, at the last moment he caught Tomat's eye. He was afraid. Eric grabbed with both hands and yanked him through just in time to keep from getting caught.

  The restbox was on the next level down. They made their way quietly through the dark conduit, there was activity on some other levels, but it seemed normal. No one was after them yet. There was only one way out, the small doorway next to the lift truck entry. Eric stopped to listen. He heard nothing, but bots made no sound in standby mode. They had no choice but to open the door to whatever fate awaited. Their air tanks were running low, it was only a matter of luck that they had not been seen, but luck held, the deck was dark and empty.

  It took some time to find the right storage room and get onto the roof. They did not dare turn on a light. Even then the restbox was well hidden, but they eventually found the panel that hid the restbox entry and pried it open. It was a small space but well stocked. They could stay for some considerable time if need be. MuiMi took off her boots and sat on the preferred lower bunk. She had already turned to the problem of communication. No news was news enough at this time, she decided. Her father would know they made it safely to the hideaway as long as the OLDies kept looking for them.

  After they had rigged the access door and done what they could to help MuiMi’s crew escape, Aubry and his team returned to the Filim hub where they waited for the trans-arm shuttle in near silence. Henrik was nervous and started some small talk, but it soon wound down. No one joined in. They were not waiting for the shuttle so much as an alarm. Aubry was so intent on detecting any noise or movement that might indicate MuiMi had been caught, that he was startled when the shuttle door flew open. Each of the crew went to their own corner of the large car, where a tense quiet prevailed.

  When they finally reached their habitat level, Aubry knew that both he and the crew were too tired and tense to do anything more. On the way to his rooms, Aubry called some of the People’s leaders to meet at the Top-Quad Cafe in two hours. He got a bite to eat and lay down to plan what to do next, but he fell asleep, exhausted by the tension of the day.

  He woke abruptly when Dunsten called from the Cafe. Aubry, still ragged from too little sleep, ran up the stairs to the Top-Quad. Dunsten, Looris, and Radnar were already there. Aubry brought them up to date on the problems in the Farside arm and the escape of MuiMi and her team. He asked what they thought MaxNi9 would do when he found out, how he would react?

  “He is going to look for them, and it will be an all out effort,” Looris, the new Council Head, said, as he stood up and started pacing along the wall. Speaking as if to himself, this brilliant mind began sorting through the possibilities. “The ObLaDas will not be able to find them immediately, their surveillance systems will not locate
that hidden room, but they will be found. So we cannot have them continue to search. No. They must be led to believe that MuiMi and the lads have come here, into this habitat. We must attract their attention. Radnar, you’re a clever one, make it seem as if our young people secretly entered the habitat tonight, it will be unfortunate that your best efforts at secrecy will go awry, and you will make some mistakes. Of course, MaxNi9 will demand that we surrender our heroes, but how can we do that, I ask you.” Looris sat down, refreshed from his stroll.

  Radnar got some of the children to tape over the surveillance cameras. They had long made a game of finding these small lenses, and now they could make use of that childish awareness to blind the OLDies. Sound surveillance was more difficult, as the microphones were embedded in walls and could not be detected. Not really a problem, for what kids have not learned how to keep their conversations private? Music blared from rooms throughout the compound.

  Long after the evening lights were dimmed, still called dusk for some long-forgotten reason, Radnar and his sprightly daughter HuMini moved along the outer walls of the habitat. If the escapees had reached the habitat, they would try to enter through one of the emergency exits that were scattered around the periphery of the complex. Radnar disarmed the sensor and opened the small door. HuMini took her climbing pole, slid through the low door, and ran along the service corridor to mask the surveillance lenses there. As soon as she returned, breathing hard and excited, Radnar let three of his younger dogs, all of them red racers, escape through that selfsame opening and then he set off the alarm. The dogs were so eager to sniff out new spaces that he could hardly hold them and HuMini, who shared the dog’s excitement, tried to run out into the corridor after them. Radnar had to grab her arm to keep her from following. They could hear the dogs barking in the distance as they pulled the door shut and locked it. He had to sit HuMini down and make her promise again that she would keep their adventure and the unfortunate disappearing dogs a secret. He would tell her when she could tell all. He sent her off, duly subdued, and climbed to the Top-Quad with a big smile. “They are going to have a time trying to catch those pups,” he grinned, “or they will have to beg me to fetch them home. There will be no ignoring those wild beasts for long.”

  The men were satisfied that they had done what could be done and retired to get some sleep. Tomorrow promised to be an interesting day. All except Wisten, Radnar's long time trainee followed that welcome advice. She stayed at the Communications Station to monitor the Ship’s signal traffic. It was three hours before dawn when Wisten received the first query about the habitat emergency exit alarm. It was an automated Ship message that she ignored with a smile. The OLDies did not yet know about the breakout, or should that be break-in? She continued to ignore routine questions about the containment violation, and tried to guess how long it would take before she received a complaint about the dogs. The Ship was amazingly alert about normal updates and warnings, but pretty dense when something occurred outside of its routine.

  Radnar came in after dawn to relive Wisten. She told him that the OLDies had not learned of the break-in, or at least have given no sign that they had. Radnar was surprised to hear this, but his monitors remained quiet for another hour before the message from MaxNi9 arrived.

  CamBi had pretty much detached herself from her responsibilities, and the absence of activity within the Farside restbox went unnoticed. Air tanks were refilled and returned, work orders issued, and supporting bots were dispatched to the worksite to prepare for the day’s projects. In the morning, when MuiMi and her crew failed to show up and check in, a routine notice was sent out. Even then, the ObLaDas did not know that MuiMi's crew had left the Farside hub.

  Buth CaMa was at the control station when that notice appeared. It added to his distress. None of the bulkhead crews had checked in, either. They were past due? Was this some kind of protest? That was all discarded once he realized that those cunning humans had engineered an escape. MuiMi’s work team was not in the Farside restbox. Where were they? He started scanning the surveillance records. Only Tomat's search for the missing air tanks had been picked up, nothing after that. No communications had been recorded for the past twelve hours. He immediately sent out five flybots and two spider bots to find the crew. At first, he thought that they must have escaped with Aubry's crew when the bulkhead alarm had gone off. Her father, no less. Why did not someone think of that?

  Buth made an intense effort to find the escaped humans. The surveillance of Aubry and the other crews was examined closely, but the escapees had not been with them. They had not entered any of the transit shuttles. He had no sign of the escapees passing through the bridge, at any Filim bulkhead portal, or anywhere on the human deck. He was about to look at the habitat’s internal records when the call came from the Farside bulkhead.

  The rigged service tube pass-through door had finally been discovered. The three workers could have gotten out of the Farside hub at any time. Buth’s face compressed with some satisfaction when he learned they did not have their containment suits. They could not survive for long without them. It would just be a matter of time until they showed up or their bodies were found, but his sense of relief vanished when he learned of the emergency door violation in the human habitat. The crew must have made it all the way there, but how they did it was not apparent. There was no sign of them anywhere, but it seemed obvious. The alarm must have been tripped when they were let in and, in the confusion, some of the dogs must have gotten loose. He called MaxNi9 with the bad news. “The infected crew had entered the People’s habitat three hours after their lights were dimmed,” he reported, “and now they are trying to hide them by blinding the surveillance cameras.”

  “Are you certain that they are in the habitat?” MaxNi9 asked. He, too, wondered how they could have traveled so far without being seen.

  “I have no pictures of them in the habitat, but three air tanks are missing from the storage cache. Each tank had a six-hour supply, so they could have gotten from the bridge to the habitat within that time. Somehow, they made it to the Filim module without being seen. That’s what we think, and there are three dogs running all over the deck’s peripheral corridors.”

  MaxNi9 thought Buth was probably right, but since he did not have certain proof that the fugitives were being sheltered within the habitat, he decided to issue a request that the crew be given up rather than taking more forceful action.

  “There has been a serious illness in the Farside arm that may endanger the survival of any species that it strikes. The sickness is highly contagious. Anyone who comes into contact with a diseased individual will be at serious risk. For the welfare of the fugitives and the preservation of the entire human community, you must turn the escapees over to Medical Intervention immediately.” Surely, the humans would give up the crew once they understood the serious danger they were in.

  They might have done so, if the crew had actually been in the habitat, certainly if they had been ill, but neither was the case. Little time passed before Looris denied that the work crew was in the habitat. MaxNi9 did not believe him. He knew how stubborn the People could be when they thought they were in the right, but he wanted those escapees back. He told Looris that bots should be sent to retrieve the fugitives.

  None of the People believed that there was any crisis. The work crew was in full containment suits the entire time they were in Farside arm. MaxNi9 could send in bots to search the habitat if he wished, but the People would not cooperate.

  The red racers were still outside having a great time when the search bots arrived. Red, Rosie, and Rusty were making one of their periodic trips past the entry when two utility bots came around the far corner of the habitat and lined up, side-by-side, blocking the corridor. The bots moved steadily forward, expecting to herd the dogs into the open habitat entryway, but instead of backing away, Rusty got on his toes and started to run full speed toward the large trundling bots. Red and Rosie followed at full tilt. One after another, they cleared the b
ots, with room to spare. Rosie tried to jog left to avoid running into Red and her paws lost their grip, sending her sliding into the wall. She let out a yelp of pain, but mostly surprise, as she jumped to her feet and took off. Big Muff had responded to her yelp by expressing his concern, and three more dogs ran out through the doors. The opportunity to race around the long open corridors of the module was not to be missed, and the racers were not about to stop until exhausted.

  LoNat had sent the robots to search the People’s habitat. She was nervous about this unusual operation from the start, and not much went as planned. The bots could not even handle the dogs. The humans always controlled them very well, but they had been let loose for some reason, and now the People offered no help at all in locating the work crew. Lights were turned off, stuff was left lying about, the search took forever and found nothing.

  MaxNi9 monitored the progress of the recovery operation and was becoming increasingly upset. The People, for all of their quirks, had never openly defied the ObLaDas. Now what was he to do? The entire habitat ought to be shut down to prevent contamination of the ship, but could he do it? He turned to LoNat and asked her to call the other members of the leadership council. YuLon Lim was lost, isolated in the Farside, but he thought that Di JonSi had returned before the shutdown started. Jon Geomon was just down the hall. MaxNi9 had acted as he saw fit in the urgent situation but, uncharacteristically, he had done so without consulting his leadership. MaxNi had sought no one’s consent to seal off the Farside arm, or to entrap those who were in that place. It was an emergency; his actions would be clear to everyone, he thought. He was about to find out how much of a mistake that had been.