by T. F. Grant
“And spitting some out,” Tai said. “Which is why it never grows any larger.”
“It’s large enough,” Kina said. She cracked her knuckles. “Now how do I fly this thing?”
***
Dylan reached into his jacket as the Damnfine flew through space, the main engines shut down as she coasted toward their destination. It was the first night cycle of the journey. Kina was sitting in the pilot’s seat, making slight adjustments to the course from time to time to correct for the effects of Hollow Space. Tai snoozed beside her in the copilot’s seat, ready to react if needed. The kronacs, curled up in strange-looking hammocks, swayed and snored. At least that’s what Bookworm thought those strange whistles were.
Sara sat beside him and sipped at a mug of coffee. “What happened to you, Books?”
He drew the book out of his pocket. “This was the first book I ever read,” he said. He remembered his father giving it to him. The smile on his old man’s face. “Tarzan.”
“Where did you get that, Books?” Sara asked.
“From the library.” The story of the boy raised by great apes, Dylan had had to look up history books to discover what they were. The strange way the boy learned to speak one language while reading another. The—
“You stole a book from the library?” Sara’s voice was sharp.
Tai’s head whipped around. Rustles came from the hammocks as the kronacs clambered to their feet.
“My book. I took my book back. That’s all.” Bookworm lifted a lighter and set fire to the pages, watching them burn as Tai and Kina and the kronacs yelled at him to stop. Only Sara, with a drawn pistol, made them keep away.
The flames finally made him drop the book upon the deck. “My name is Dylan,” he said.
***
The debris field stretched away from the Damnfine as she floated in space. Tai had brought her to a halt relative to the field, to give him time to study it and try to work out a route through the mass of broken metal, broken rocks, and large hulks that had not yet been smashed to pieces by the disordered motions of the field. There were gaps, lanes through the chaos, but they constantly opened and closed under the vagaries of the muddled orbits of the components of the field.
“Suits on. Armor on. Check your tanks. Check your weapons,” Tai said. He clambered down to the lower deck. Kina and Sara had done most of the piloting to bring the ship to this spot, Tai allowing them to get used to the unfamiliar controls. The kronacs could pilot the ship, but not as effectively as the humans. Their size worked against them, but Tai was happy with the progress.
Bookworm was not allowed near the controls. Not after burning a damn book right in front of them all. The guy must be frecking suicidal to do that. Tai had turned to his crew and shook his head. “Nobody saw this. This did not frecking happen. Books did not just burn a book while we stood by and watched.”
But it was Sara, her eyes calm above the sights of her pistol, who had surprised him by saying, simply, “His name is Dylan.”
Tai shook his head as he shrugged his way into his spacesuit. These newcomers were cracking up. Too much too soon. Could he trust them? He shared a glance with Kina. She was already pulling the nanotube armor over her spacesuit and raised an eyebrow at him.
“You brought us here, Tai. No more choices now.”
“We’ll be fine,” Sara said. “Don’t worry about us.”
Book—no… Dylan hefted his assault rifle. “Remember, with one hundred rounds of caseless in each mag, full auto will empty it in less than fifteen seconds, so short bursts. We’ve got three mags each, plus what’s on the rifles. That’s four hundred rounds each. Grenade launcher under the barrel, crack it open, slot in the grenade, close and fire.” He had given them all a rundown on the weapons, showing them how to strip them down, how to clear a jam, how to adjust the optical sights.
He wrapped a bandolier of grenades around his armored chest, over the combat harness carrying the extra magazines. A wicked-looking blade and magazines for the grenade launcher were slung over his right shoulder. Lofreal and Scaroze had the auto-shotguns and a truly ridiculous number of other weapons Dylan had supplied. Tooize had taken charge of the minigun and carried two auto-shotguns around his waist.
“Why in all the hells did you have all these weapons, Dylan?” Kina asked.
“I traded them,” Dylan said.
“You held a lot of stock.”
“People like guns. These assault rifles were redundant; lots of them floating around in the Crown.”
“The minigun is Haven-made,” Tai said.
“That was a gift from the Drifts.”
At the mention of the Drifts everybody looked away from the man who had burned a book.
“Let’s do this thing.” Tai laid the assault rifle on the floor beside the pilot’s chair and strapped in.
Time to enter the debris field.
***
Sara sat in the copilot’s seat, checking the gauges, keeping a close watch on the view out of the ports while Tai eased them into the debris field. Nothing flashy about his piloting now. Slow and careful movements on the sticks and pedals, which is how Sara knew he was, if not scared, at least anxious.
“Keep a watch to the left,” he said, his voice quiet. “Kina, you watch right. Tooize, look up; Lofreal, down; Scaroze, check behind us.”
“Not depressurizing?” Sara asked.
“No. Intercoms fail. I need to hear every last sighting.” A rattle from the hull as Tai slipped through a cloud of tiny pieces of metal. Sara wondered what they had once been before the constant collisions in the debris field reduced them to little more than dust.
Tai used the maneuvering thrusters to push the Damnfine downward without changing her orientation, drifting her into a clear lane of space before moving forward with the main engines at less than ten percent power.
Everything froze around them.
“Time bubble,” Kina called out.
“Shit.” Tai swung his gaze across the frozen tableau, quartering the view. “Keep looking,” he said. “Keep… freck.” They popped out of the time bubble into the path of a huge piece of debris.
“Asteroid above,” Tooize whistled.
“Large chunks behind,” Scaroze added.
“Clear below,” Lofreal whistled.
“And right,” Kina yelled.
Tai stamped down with his left foot, pushed the throttle fully open, and jerked the control stick to the right. The Damnfine spun in the blink of an eye, the reaction wheels giving her amazing agility.
Sara noted where the time bubble lay in relation to the planet spinning slowly below them even as she saw the jagged lump of metal flashing toward them.
“Incoming left,” she shouted.
Tai pointed the ship down and boosted hard with the thrusters, launching them back into a clear lane. “Keep watching,” he said. “This is just the edge of the field.”
He reoriented the ship, blipped the main engines to get her moving, and coasted along. Sara could see the tension in his shoulders, in his hands.
“Relax, Tai,” she said. “You can’t fly wound up like this.”
He took a deep breath and let it out. “Thanks.”
Everything froze.
“Freck. Keep looking. Keep frecking looking,” Tai yelled.
They passed through the time bubble. Sara felt the impact, hard against the starboard side of the ship. Tai cursed and fought to straighten the ship out as it spun through space.
And into another time bubble.
“Shit,” Sara whispered.
“We took damage,” Scaroze whistled. “Tip of the wing.”
“Keep your eyes peeled on what’s coming at us, not where we’ve already been hit,” Tai snapped.
Everything began moving again. Tai listened to the reports from his crew and guided the Damnfine into a clear lane between the rubble.
“Okay, I officially hate this place,” Kina said.
“Yeah,” Tai agreed. “But ain’t no point going back now.�
��
They hit more time bubbles. Each time the tension ratcheted up another notch, because there was nothing to be done about the debris that hit them the moment they returned to normal time. But each time they got better at spotting incoming and calling out directions, and each time Tai got better at reacting with almost inhumanly fast reflexes to any warnings.
But eventually, they cleared through the debris field and gazed upon the Old Station for the first time.
Dylan wandered over to the bridge and rested his hands on the back of Sara’s seat. “Damn, that’s big. You have codes, you said?”
“Yeah, Dylan, I have codes for the lower airlocks.” Tai slammed his fist on Dylan’s chest. “Are you good to go?”
“Not sure. But if I go crazy and shoot you in the back, I’ll feel real bad about it.”
“Well, that’s progress, I guess.”
“Let’s get down there. Get what we came for. And get the freck out,” Kina said.
“Yeah,” Tai agreed. “Scaroze, can you fix the damage to the hull?”
“Yes. It is minor only.”
“Then you stay with the ship and get her sorted.”
“Very well.” The big kronac placed his arms around Lofreal, and they keened at each other in a wordless song.
Sara glanced at Kina. “What is that all about?”
Kina smiled, a little sadly. “They’re mated, husband and wife.”
“I know,” Tai said. “But Scaroze is the best mechanic. He has to fix the ship.”
“They know,” Kina said. “But this is the Old Station. They do not expect to see each other again.”
“We’ll get through this, Ki.”
“If you say so.”
Tai aimed the Damnfine toward the Old Station’s lowest dock. A square shadow of an open lock seemed to beckon them closer with the shadowy temptation of possibility. Tai’s skin tingled at the thought of what they might find there—or what might find them.
THIRTY-THREE
Sara helped guide the Damnfine onto the blackened, abandoned dock, spotting for Tai as the scuttler cruised through the open airlock. The starboard tip of the front curved boomerang-style wing had taken damage from that small chunk of debris, which made things twitchier than usual, but with the others spotting the way in and Sara’s extraordinary sense of space and position, Tai could have guided it with his eyes closed.
He lowered the craft with a jolt onto the landing gear. The pads struck the surface of the dock. The craft bounced gently on air springs before lowering into a parked stance.
“What now?” Dylan asked, looking out the front port. “The other end of the ’lock’s closed. I doubt there’s some friendly dockhand to open it for us.”
“No, we’re on foot from here,” Tai said as he unclasped the safety belts and stood up from the pilot’s seat. “Helmets on, everyone. We’re going in two squads. Dylan, Tooize, you’re with me. Kina, Sara, and Lofreal, you’ll make up the second squad. Kina and I’ll take respective point; the kronac’s the rear. Stay in a line; keep your comm lines attached for as long as possible and try to avoid tangles. A second comm line will attach the two squads via the kronacs. If we get disconnected, remember to touch helmets like we did back on the Venture; we won’t hear your screams otherwise.” Tai flashed them a grin, but the bravado was to hide his own nerves.
His legs felt like jelly as he locked and loaded his assault rifle. His heart beat against his chest, the rhythm reminding him of the stakes at hand. The book of codes he had recovered from his contact didn’t just have the possible location of the Drift’s prize; it also had pages of incoherent ramblings… and the sketches. A shiver passed through Tai’s spine as he recalled the terrible shapes, partly human, partly—something else, their faces stretched tight with the dread, silent scream of the newly dead.
He checked to make sure his Napier and Dorian were holstered and the bandolier of grenades wasn’t in danger of slipping off his form-fitting nanotube armor. The armor was extremely well made, of Napier design, and superlight. It felt like a cotton shroud, but upon impact, the voltage would change within the nanotube matrix, stiffening to deflect the impact.
Dylan did well to get this gear, Tai had to give him that.
Clasping his helmet shut, he saw Sara and Kina help each other get ready.
The kronacs were already rigged and ready to go, except Scaroze. He would stay with the scuttler and use the welding gear to fix the damage to the wing. They’d need the Damnfine at its best if they were to get back through the debris field.
Moving forward to the exit ramp, Tai trailed the comm line and attached it to Dylan’s helmet, and did likewise for Dylan to Tooize. Sara and Kina were already connecting up with Lofreal. Both kronacs had opted for the heavy weaponry: Tooize taking the Haven-made forty-cal minigun, and Lofreal hefting the fire-lance. She carried the two large tanks of flammable propellant on her wide back.
Once connected, Tai activated the lights on his armor and the two on either side of his helmet. The Quitillogen bulbs ran off the energy generated from body heat as it seeped into the smart fabric of the suit.
“All right, everyone, follow my lead, keep your eyes open, and don’t panic whatever happens. We all need to keep clear heads. Everyone ready?”
A chorus of yes went up, and a slither of adrenaline crawled through Tai’s nerves. Despite the great unknown and the threat ahead of him, having his team so heavily armed and wearing those determined expressions on their faces gave him the thrill of an impending fight.
Moments like these were when he felt truly alive.
With the luck of the dead Gods, he and his crew would stay that way. He said a silent prayer that the owner of the notebook was indeed cracked in the head rather than sent mad from what he found inside.
Once everyone was hooked in and waiting for his order, Tai punched the exit button on the smooth white wall of the Markesian-made ship. The ramp hissed as it lowered to the dark metal floor of the dock.
Turning his head, casting the beams of light, Tai pushed back the shadows as he looked for any movement. An unnecessary caution perhaps, but he’d learned never to trust anything in Hollow Space.
“We’re all clear,” he declared after seeing no movement, which didn’t mean they weren’t being watched. “The manual controls are just on the other side over there.” He pointed his rifle to a dirty yellow control panel inset into a blasted wall. It appeared someone had shot out the electronics. Not a good sign.
Leading the two squads of three and leaving Scaroze behind to work on the wing, Tai approached the control panel. He reached out with a gloved hand and pulled down on a lever. At first it wouldn’t budge, the mechanism jammed.
“Dylan, come forward and shine some light on this side, would you?” Tai said. “Everyone else just relax and keep watch.”
“Looks like someone done that on purpose,” Kina said as she stepped forward and pointed to the charred damage to the wall surrounding the mechanical controls. “Perhaps to keep something in rather than something out.”
“Not helping, Ki,” Tai said. “Dylan, just hold still there, and grab this.” He handed the ex-Crowner his rifle and reached his hand to where the base of the lever disappeared into a mechanism. A piece of debris was jammed in there. Given the effort to remove it, he didn’t think it likely it just flew in there on its own.
Trying the lever again, it still wouldn’t budge. “Tooize, wanna do the honors, big guy?”
“Step aside, puny human,” Tooize whistled as he moved forward and, with his two free lower arms, reached up and grabbed the handle. He grunted, and the lever shifted. The kronac pumped the lever up and down, ratcheting the outer door to the airlock closed.
“Done,” Tooize said. Moving to a second lever on the other side of the panel, he repeated the procedure. This time a single pull on the lever opened the heavy two-meter-thick inner door.
Tai moved across and shone his light inside, having taken his rifle back from Dylan.
The a
irlock door led to a wide gantry that stretched a hundred meters into the darkness. His lights just about cut through the gloom enough to show an open gateway at the end. Either side of the gantry was a sheer drop into shadows where his lights couldn’t penetrate.
“Good job,” Tai said. “Hang back a second. Let me check the structural stability of this thing before we all tumble into nothingness.” The comm line had ten meters of slack between each person. He stepped out slowly, testing his weight against the metal surface. Under the light it looked dark red and brown with dark patches of decay spread out like islands. With one hand grabbing the chest-height rail, he walked slowly forward, unable to stop himself from shaking a little at the thought of suddenly having nothing solid beneath his feet.
But five long strides in, the gantry showed no signs of movement.
“What can you see out there?” Sara said, with an edge of fear to her voice. That was good. He had worried about her being so numb to everything that she would forget about self-preservation. The fear would keep her focused on the job at hand.
“Nothing much,” Tai said. “More shadows, some signs of a firefight, but nothing out of the ordinary. If the notes are right, the door at the end should take us into an atrium where we can find the stairs and an elevator to take us into the lower levels.”
Tai stepped forward until the slack on the comm line became taut.
“About that,” Sara said. “You never did say where we were headed once inside.”
“The library. It’s four floors down from here. Let’s get moving. One at a time, come forward until you take up the slack.”
“Got it,” Kina said.
“And try not to shoot us in the back if anything happens, there’s a darling.”
“Don’t worry, Tai. I’ll aim for your legs; won’t be fatal.”
“That’s why I love you so, Ki.”
“Shut up and get moving.”
“On it.”
“Why are we still wearing our helmets?” Sara asked. “There’s air here. We would be able to see and hear better with our helmets off, or at least open.”