by Ben Bova
* * *
“Elverda,” Dorn was saying into his suit microphone, “as soon as I give the command you must push the main engine to full thrust.”
“I understand.” Her voice sounded tense in his earphones.
The two women were a scant hundred meters from the airlock hatch and coming on fast. But the half-dozen scavengers were not far behind them.
“Crank the command chair to the full reclining position,” Dorn told her. “You’ll be able to take the acceleration better that way.”
“Don’t worry about me,” she replied immediately.
But Dorn did worry. She can’t take a full g’s acceleration, he thought. Even with the stem cell therapy she received, her heart can’t take the strain. But if we don’t get out of here before those men come aboard…
“I’m programming the propulsion system for a one-g acceleration,” Elverda was saying, her voice tight but calm. “Tell me when.”
“Crank the chair down,” he repeated.
“Yes. Certainly.”
Theo nudged him with an elbow. “Here they come!”
In their space suits, it was impossible for Dorn to tell who was the mother and who the daughter.
Close behind them six other figures were speeding toward them: the scavengers from Vogeltod.
“Hurry!” Theo urged.
Dorn saw two of the scavengers peel off, away from the others. They were carrying some kind of bulky equipment. A weapon? he wondered.
“I’m ready to light off the fusion drive,” Elverda’s voice reported.
Theo was attaching a tether to one of the cleats on the hull just outside the airlock hatch. Before Dorn could ask him why the youngster jumped out into the vacuum and reached for the nearer of the two women. He pushed her toward the airlock, then stretched his arms out toward the other one.
Dorn grabbed at the woman as she coasted into the airlock and helped stop her headlong rush. “You’re safe now,” he said.
He could see the frightened expression on her face through her glassteel helmet. “For how long?” Pauline asked.
Theo clutched at his sister’s outstretched hand and tugged her toward the airlock.
“Thee! Look out!” Angela screamed.
One of the scavengers was speeding toward them. Theo pushed Angela toward the airlock hatch and turned to face the approaching man. He could see Kirk’s face through the bubble of his nanofabric suit, lips pulled back in a savage grin. He was brandishing a long, deadly looking power drill.
“I’m gonna finish you once and for all, kid.”
Theo jetted up and away from the scavenger, but the tether reached its limit and stopped him with an abrupt jerk that pulled Theo upside down. Kirk swung around, fiddled with his propulsion unit’s controls, and came swooping after him.
Theo dived toward Kirk, holding his end of the buckyball tether in both hands, and flicked it like a whip. Kirk flew into it, and Theo spun around him, wrapping the tether around Kirk’s middle, trapping one of his arms against his torso. Screaming curses, Kirk flailed at the tether with the drill, but the buckyball material was too tough even to scratch.
Theo raced back to the airlock hatch, where Dorn, his mother and sister were standing. A burst of light splashed off the airlock hatch. They’re firing lasers at us! Theo realized.
Theo planted his boots on the airlock deck just as a blast of energy slammed into his back. He staggered into his mother and sister.
“Thee?”
“I’m all right. They hit my backpack.”
“They’ve also hit the hatch control,” said Dorn. “We can’t close the outer hatch.”
“They’re almost here!” Angela said, and Theo saw the scavengers racing toward them, with Valker in the lead, a laser pistol in his hand.
“Fire the engine,” Dorn shouted.
“Firing,” said Elverda.
Hunter shuddered as if it had been hit by a bomb. But it did not move away from the men approaching the airlock.
CARGO SHIP PLEIADES:
BRIDGE
Victor was close enough to hear the suit-to-suit chatter from the other ships. He recognized Theo’s voice, and his wife’s. Then there were others, men’s voices, cursing, yelling. It sounded as if some sort of struggle was going on. A fight.
He stared at his main screen as if he could get himself there by sheer willpower. Still fifteen minutes away, he saw from the numbers on the nav program.
What’s happening? he asked himself. What’s going on there?
He could see Syracuse gleaming sharply in sunlight against the starry background of infinity. There was another ship linked to it. And Hunter had arrived and matched their velocity vector.
A burst of flame from Hunter’s main thruster! Victor saw the ship shudder. A half-dozen figures were flitting around the vessel, most of them clustered at the main airlock.
Fourteen minutes and thirty seconds. Victor knew he had to do something. But what?
* * *
Standing in the crowded airlock, pistol in his hand, Valker smiled at his prisoners.
“No sense fighting,” he said amiably. “Your ship is crippled and you’re not going anywhere.”
Theo could see the other scavengers crowding around the airlock hatch. Kirk glowered at him murderously.
“Let’s go inside,” Valker said, motioning with his pistol. “It’s not polite to leave your visitors hanging outside your door.”
Besides, Theo said to himself, the air in your suits must be running low. He saw red lights splashed across the inside of his own bubble helmet. That laser shot’s smashed up my life support pack, he realized.
Dorn said slowly, “You’ve destroyed the control for the outer hatch. If I open the inner hatch the air in this entire section of the ship will blow away into vacuum.”
“Tell whoever’s at your bridge to seal the airtight emergency hatches,” Valker said. “That way only one small section will go to vacuum and you can pump air into it again once the inner airlock hatch is closed again.”
“Yes, that is the answer,” Dorn said. He called Elverda. “Are you all right?”
“Yes,” her voice answered. “But the engine … it failed.”
“Our guests,” Dorn’s voice dripped irony, “disabled the thruster.”
“Tell her to close the emergency hatches,” Valker reminded.
“Now,” Kirk stressed.
“Close all the emergency hatches,” Dorn said. “We’re going to use the section next to the main airlock as an extension of the lock.”
“Why…?”
“Please do it,” Dorn urged. “We have visitors among us.”
Within minutes all ten of them were crowded into the locker area, with the inner airlock hatch safely sealed and the section of the ship refilled with air.
“Take off your helmet, lad,” Valker said to Theo. “Let’s see if the air pressure’s okay.”
Burning with anger, Theo lifted his helmet off his head.
“The air’s fine,” he said.
“You two, please,” Valker said to Pauline and Angela, gesturing with his pistol. Turning to Dorn, he added, “And you.”
The two women lifted off their helmets. Dorn deflated the hood of his nanosuit and pulled it back off his head.
Valker peered at him. “You’re the priest?”
“Yes.”
“You’re a cyborg,” Kirk said, as he pulled his own hood off his face. “A fuckin’ freak.”
“Very observant of you,” Dorn replied.
As they all wormed out of their space suits, Elverda’s voice came from the overhead speaker: “We have a message from the approaching vessel.”
“Play it,” Valker commanded.
They heard, “This is Pleiades. Estimate arrival at your position in nine minutes. Will match your velocity vector.”
Standing before the bench in front of the lockers, his bubble helmet in his gloved hands, Theo felt a jolt of electricity surge through him. That’s Dad’s voice! he s
aid to himself. He glanced at his mother; she recognized the voice, too. So did Angie.
Valker grinned his widest. “Here comes our profit, boys,” he said. “Walking right into our laps.”
“If he’s alone on that ship,” Kirk cautioned.
“Even if he isn’t,” said Valker. “I’m going up to the bridge and guide our pigeon to us. You boys stay here by the airlock. When he comes in, you grab him.”
He turned to Dorn. “Come on, cyborg. Lead us to the bridge.”
* * *
Elverda got up from the padded command chair and went to the communications console. She activated the laser comm system, hoping that it would lock onto the optical receiver of the oncoming ship.
As soon as the screen’s ready light flashed green, Elverda said urgently, “Pleiades, this is Hunter. We have been boarded by scavengers who intend to take our ship and yours. We have three people from Syracuse with us. We need help. They’re going to kill us all unless we can find a way to stop them.”
* * *
Victor heard the fear in Elverda’s trembling voice, saw the anxiety in her worn face.
“How many men do the scavengers have?”
“I don’t know. Four or five, I think, maybe more.”
“Where are they?”
“Down at the main airlock, but I think their leader is coming to the bridge.”
Victor thought swiftly. “Do you have an airlock near the bridge?” he asked.
“Yes, immediately adjacent.”
“Please open it. I’ll board your vessel through it.”
“Very well. Please hurry.”
“I will.” He scanned the control board, saw that the nav and propulsion programs were set to match the velocity vectors of the other ships. Then he got up from the command chair and headed for the equipment bay where tools were stored. I’m going to need some kind of a weapon, he told himself. Something to make the fight more even.
* * *
As they walked along the slightly sloping passageway that ran along Hunter’s inner rim, Valker kept his pistol in his right hand, although he allowed his arm to relax naturally by his side. The kid and the two women were a few steps ahead of them, trudging reluctantly, grudgingly toward the ship’s bridge; the cyborg paced along beside him, matching him stride for stride.
“What’s it like,” Valker asked, “being half machine?”
Dorn’s half-metal face turned slowly toward him. “What’s it like, being entirely animal?”
Valker laughed. “I mean, does your machine half feel pain? Is it stronger than normal human flesh?”
“Lifting his prosthetic arm slightly, Dorn said, “This hand could crush that pistol you’re carrying.”
Instinctively, Valker twitched the gun away from the cyborg.
“Not to worry,” said Dorn, quite solemnly, “I’m a priest, not a warrior.”
“You’re not a fighter, then?”
“Not normally.” Dorn raised his left arm higher, then let it fall to his side. “Besides, this arm is prone to a mechanical version of arthritis, now and then.”
Valker asked, “You’ve always been a priest?”
“No, not always. Once I was a soldier. A mercenary. I’ve seen battle. I’ve… killed people.”
“But not anymore.”
“Not unless I’m provoked,” said Dorn, with a slight nod to the two women and the young man walking ahead of them.
* * *
SMELTER SHIP HUNTER:
BRIDGE
Her fingers moving swiftly on the electronic keyboard, Elverda opened the emergency airlock next to the bridge as she watched in the main screen the lone figure of a man jetting across the gap between Pleiades and Hunter. Glancing at the control board’s telltale lights, she saw that he entered the airlock and cycled it.
Through the open hatch of the bridge she heard voices approaching; Dorn’s deep, slow tones and the lighter, faster patter of another man: Valker. As she got up from the command chair two women stepped through the hatch, followed by the same young man Dorn had brought aboard earlier, then Dorn himself and the tall, broad-shouldered, smiling Valker, who was still chattering blithely away. And holding a pistol in his right hand.
He had to duck slightly to get through the hatch. Then his eye caught Elverda’s and he beamed a bright smile at her.
“Hello again, Ms. Apacheta,” he said.
Elverda smiled back tentatively.
“It’s good to see you again,” he said, putting more wattage into the smile.
Drawing herself up to her full height, Elverda said, “We meet under unusual circumstances, Captain Valker.”
Valker raised the pistol and glanced at it as if he hadn’t realized it had been in his hand. “This? Well, this is business, dear lady. I’m afraid we’re going to have to take your ship, and the one that’s just made rendezvous with us.”
“Like hell you will!”
A scruffy, stubby, dark-bearded man in a rumpled short-sleeved tunic and shorts stepped through the hatch, a laser spot welder in one hand. His bare arms and legs were knotted with muscle, his onyx eyes blazed fury.
Valker whirled around at the sound of his voice, leveling the pistol in his hand. Dorn wrapped both his arms around Valker’s body, and young Theo punched the scavenger solidly in the jaw. Valker’s legs buckled, his head lolled back on his shoulders.
“Victor!” The older woman rushed into the arms of the fiercely bearded man. The younger followed her by a half-step. They both broke into sobs.
Dorn let Valker’s unconscious body slip to the deck. Theo bent down and took the pistol from his hand. Dorn slipped the belt of minigrenades off his shoulder, stared at them for a long wordless moment, then with a growl flung them across the bridge.
It took a few minutes, but Elverda got it sorted out despite the blubbering. Even young Theo Zacharias—who turned out to be the bearded man’s son—had tears in his eyes.
“This is a helluva family reunion,” said Victor Zacharias, his arms around his wife and daughter, a happy grin on his face.
Dorn brought them all back to reality. “There are nine other scavengers: six aboard this vessel and three on Syracuse.”
“Hunting for Mom and Angie,” Theo said grimly.
Victor’s dark eyes flashed. “They didn’t—”
“Angie’s fine,” Pauline said immediately. “They didn’t touch her.”
Elverda stared at the woman, then turned to the main screen, above the control panel, and pointed. “Look. Four men are crossing over to your ship, Pleiades.”
“It’ll take them a little while to realize I’m not aboard her,” said Victor.
“Then what?” Theo asked.
“How many are still on this ship?” Victor asked.
Elverda worked the electronic keyboard. The main screen broke into a dozen smaller views, each showing a section of Hunter’s interior. Only two scavengers were visible, both by the main airlock.
“We’ve got to get them before the others come back,” Theo said.
Victor stepped closer to the multi-eyed screen. “They’re both armed.”
Valker groaned and pushed himself up to a sitting position. He looked up at Theo, rubbing his jaw. “Nice punch, kid. Try it again sometime when my arms are free.”
Theo started toward him, but Dorn blocked him with his prosthetic arm. “Perhaps we won’t have to fight the others.” Pointing to Valker, “We have a hostage here.”
Valker laughed bitterly. “Some hostage. You think those cockroaches would give up taking two whole ships, just for me?”
“We’d better get those two before the others come back,” Victor said.
“Defeat them in detail,” Dorn muttered.
Victor looked at him. “You talk like a soldier.”
“I was a soldier, once.”
Hefting the pistol he’d taken from Valker, Theo said to his father, “Let’s go for them, then.”
Victor looked into his son’s eyes, then nodded. Turning to Do
rn, “Can you lock him up someplace?”
“One of the storage bays,” Dorn replied. “It’s on the way to the main airlock.”
“All right,” Victor said. “Pauline, you and Angie stay here on the bridge with Ms. Apacheta. Keep all the airlock hatches sealed.”
“We can’t close the main airlock’s outer hatch,” Elverda said.
“That’s all right. Just don’t open any others.” Victor waved the squat gray cylinder of his spot welder in Valker’s direction. “Get moving.”
Valker climbed to his feet and went without protest, his usual smile gone, replaced by a glum resignation. But just as he was about to step over the hatch’s sill, he looked back at Pauline for just the flash of an instant. Elverda saw her cheeks redden.
Dorn locked Valker in the nearly empty storage bay, then hurried to catch up with Victor and his son.
“They tried to kill me,” Theo was telling his father. “Punctured my suit’s main air tank and pushed me off into space.”
Dorn could see Victor’s fists tightening. “But your mother, Angela, they haven’t hurt them, have they?”
Theo shook his head. “Not that they didn’t want to. We hid Angie in the storm shelter.”
“And your mother?”
Theo hesitated a heartbeat before answering, “Nobody attacked her.”
They strode down Hunter’s curving main passageway in silence for several moments. Then Victor turned to Dorn, “We’ll have to find a weapon for you.”
“No,” said Dorn. “I’m a priest, not a warrior.”
Theo began to object, “But we’re going to need—”
“I will fight to protect my companion,” Dorn said to Victor, “or you and your family. But I will not willingly kill anyone.”
Victor stared at him for several paces along the passageway. At last he said, “Don’t get in our way, then.”
As they approached the main airlock, Victor said to Theo, “This spot welder puts out a stream of high-energy pulses. Doesn’t carry very far, though. That pistol you’re holding is more powerful.”