Garam admitted, “I could see that. If I’m wrong.”
Another two steps, close enough that Garam could smell her perfume. Or was that just her natural scent? “They might not give you the time to find it. They could cut you off before you’ve watched five minutes of video.”
Garam swallowed, trying to focus through the distraction of her proximity. He was sweating from far more than the effort of standing up. “Ahh, well, you…” He swallowed to bring water to the desert his throat had suddenly become. “…could, ahh…pair the device to this…terminal.” Words were really hard. “Then go out past the door and…use your datapad. They’ll see it as a glitch and waste time trying to lock down the error.”
Naia closed to a few inches away, her eyebrow inclined once more. “So, I’ve become your spy now? I believe I’ve seen the plot to this movie before. Where the wronged hero convinces the still-righteous spy to help clear his name. Do you know, such scenes only end in one of two ways? Either the righteous spy – in this case, played by me – dies while helping the wronged hero, who goes on to avenge her before the end of the vid…” She drifted off, laying a seductive silence for him to fill.
Garam tried in vain to swallow again. There wasn’t a drop of moisture left in his whole body. He croaked out, “Or?”
Naia dropped her hand down to the computer terminal, placing her datapad on the interface platform. She tapped a few quick keys to ensure the pairing process was complete. It only took a few microseconds, and the sharing was complete. She angled her eyes back to his, a twitch at one corner of her mouth suggestive of a smile she was tempted to unleash, but let him only dream about seeing. “…or they both survive and tumble into bed in the final scene, celebrating a victory only those two will ever fully understand.”
With a crisp spin, Naia glided halfway back across the room, then turned to look over her shoulder at the speechless Garam. Without surprise, she found she still had his complete attention. Her walk had been crafted to make sure of that. “But who knows? This is real life, and drama doesn’t always end up tied in a neat bow. Maybe we’ll find a third option. Hurry. You won’t have much time. Captain Andrews will have been told I was in here.”
She parted with a brief flash of an encouraging smile.
Garam melted onto the couch, all the strength sapped from his body. He kept staring at the door.
Tegue glanced at the door, then back at him. “Right. Maybe I’ll get us started on this. Try to snap out of it before I get to the hard part, alright?”
Part of him would be ashamed for how long it took before he felt like he had a spine again. A harsh rejection sounded from the terminal as Tegue hit a dead-end. Trying to shake off the Naia’s impact, Garam blinked hard a half-dozen times and clawed his way over to the terminal. “Here, let me.”
Tegue held him off, testing him, “What’s six plus six.”
Garam glowered back, “Go fuck yourself?”
Tegue laughed. “Got it on the first try. Alright, you’re tagged in. I confirmed that Naia does have super-user access to the camera system, but all the individual files look like they’re encrypted.”
Garam waved the problem away, already clutching in to the engineering problems that made far more sense to him than dealing with the opposite sex. “They aren’t encrypted. The files aren’t meant to be played on some back-room terminal. They have a 3D holo-tank to replay them in the main security office. We need to down-grade the encoding into an output this terminal can understand.”
Jeremy asked, “Can we help?”
Garam nodded, “There’s a second access point over there. I’m sending you the address for this terminal. Tell me if we start getting frequent pings from an outside search function. That’ll give us a clue that they’re figuring out what we’re doing. Harric, Tegue, see if you can’t play a little havoc with the door controls. Keep the guards from bugging us before we’re finished.”
Harric asked, “What about Naia? Is she safe?”
Garam flickered to a live feed from a camera right outside the door. He brushed it off his screen and onto the 2D display on the wall. Either the lovely actress had an instinct for knowing when a camera was on her, or someone in the control room had homed in on her. Either way, she was standing dead center of the camera’s picture, making a show of engaging on her data-pad. “So far she is. Let me know if you see the goons come for her.”
With that, he dove into the meat of his quest. The conversions were not overly cumbersome, but they took time. And then, there was the search. He knew what he wanted to find, but only a vague idea of when that had been.
Minutes flew by, making him wish for those boring classes when the clock had seemed to freeze solid. He crowed with delight as he cracked open one file and saw them all gathered around that table early in the night. He watched as Renny brought them that round of drinks which was the focus of all his interest. He glanced at the time-stamp. 19:36:45 of Southwind’s long 26-hour days. He had a reference!
Jeremy spoke, “Seeing a little activity, Garam. Couple queries, nothing firm yet. But they’re curious.”
Harric added, “Outside. Look. That’s one of their goons dressed like a guest. He’s talking to Naia, probably trying to politely get at what she’s doing.”
Jeremy jumped in again, “Ping rate just spiked, Garam! As soon as she stopped actively using the system to talk, the trace activity picked up.”
Tegue cursed, “They’re distracting her from surfing on the network, so they can separate out what she is doing from the hacker activity.”
Garam knew he was right. He had two choices. He could play possum and wait, hoping that Naia would free herself up again so he could hide behind her activity. Or, he could keep going and push for what he needed. His hands froze over the keys. “How’s she doing?”
Tegue replied, “Cool as a cucumber. Looks like she’s brushing him off. Damn, she’s good! See how she looks polite and irritated all at once? Her talent is lost in a Rubregor action vid.”
“Alright, enough movie trivia! Is the goon gone?”
Trying not to be miffed at the critique on his critique, Tegue answered, “Just now! She’s back at it.”
“Jeremy?”
“Still seeing some back-ground activity, but I don’t think they got a fix on what’s happening.”
That was enough for Garam. He tore back into the system, working back from his reference point. He jumped from camera to camera, tracking Renny back across the room. If this had been his system and he had an hour, he could have built a facial recognition tracker that would do it all automatically, but he would have to grunt his way through this the hard way.
Behind him, Harric’s warning came again. “Uh, oh. They’re bringing in the big guns, this time. Captain Andrews is coming up on Naia, and two other undercover goons are taking up flanking positions.”
“Angry?”
“Concerned. Yeah, she’s putting on a great surprise face. ‘What? My data-pad? Someone hacked it? Who could think of such a thing?’ She’s playing it to the hilt. She’s stopped dead, Garam.”
Jeremy added, “And here comes the activity again. Damn Garam, they’ve got your terminal for sure. Steady stream now. You’re going to start losing functionality soon!”
Garam muttered a sharp curse, then punched the mass-download button. He agreed for the terminal to wipe out any data it wanted in the local storage to make room, preparing to lose the connection to the wider network. “How long till they can seize local control from me?”
“They can’t already?”
Garam clenched a fist. He only had half the files. He gave it two more breaths, then killed the connection to anything outside the room. If he didn’t, they’d be able to slag the whole computer if they wanted to keep him from doing anything more. “Door lock?”
Tegue shouted back, “Engaged! Not sure how long it will keep them out!”
Garam knew the answer. ‘As long as it took them to be shocked that the stupid cadets would lock the
mselves in a room with no other exit. That’s how long it would take them to force it open.’ He asked, “Can you see the guards outside?”
Harric peered at the back of the camera that showed Naia. “Barely. Looks like they’re talking to the air. Probably getting directions from central control.”
Tegue said what they all knew. “That means we’re cooked.”
Garam crowed in delight as he caught the image he needed in his video feed. “No, it means he’s cooked!” He swept his hand over the display and sent the image up onto the central display over top of the live camera feed.
With the crystal detail that could only come from the highest quality cameras, they could see Renny upending a small vial into their drinks.
Garam grinned fiercely, “Got you, little rat!”
The others all cheered as well, clapping hands and even a hug or two. Their whole world had been crashing down, but the chance at a second life had been born.
Garam collapsed back into the couch, not quite believing it was all over. From the far end of the room, a bang struck the door. A muted voice came through, demanding they open the lock. “Harric, let them in. Let them see it.”
Tegue gestured at Jeremy, “Get down on the ground. Time to be helpless so they don’t shoot us or anything before they can see we’re innocent.”
Garam huffed. “They would, wouldn’t they? Well, I’m going to chance it and stay here. Not sure I could move anyway.”
“Better find your second wind.” Tegue mocked him, a knowing laugh lurking right below his surface.
Garam scowled at him. “Why?”
“Naia survived the scene. Option one is out. That just leaves option two, hero. And the end of the movie is coming fast.”
Garam went totally, completely pale. “Oh, shit.”
Chapter 18
Sam woke with the sticky warmth of Brenna nuzzled in pale contrast against his darker skin. She was restless against him, her leg heating his own as it tucked up higher around his thigh.
Problem was, what should have been the pleasant heat of her body was becoming an intolerable burden. The air around them was thick and stale, and Brenna was a furnace against him that was only making the matter worse.
Inhaling reminded him of breathing in the steam of a shower, moist and heavy in his lungs. He coughed, and that was enough to shake Brenna awake.
Her eyes blinked open, confusion alive on her face. The lights in the lab were on full brilliancy, painfully dazzling his vision. “What’s the – why is it so hot in here?” She peeled herself away from Sam, bolting upright as she wrapped her own arms around her flushed breasts.
Sam groaned in self-disgust as he realized he was lying in a puddle of seat brought on by far more than their coupling. “What the hell is going on?” He cast his head about, certain he was missing something. Then he realized what it was. “The ventilation systems are down. There’s no air moving.”
Using her hand to shield her eyes from the glaring lights, Brenna slipped over and placed a hand against one of the temperature plates. “The heat isn’t on.” She pushed a wet strand of hair off her face, plastered to her skin by droplets of perspiration. “But I swear it’s getting worse.”
Sam realized that the deck plates were starting to get uncomfortably warm to be in contact with, not quite burning but getting closer by the second. “It is. I’m sure of it. And fast!” Forgetting his nakedness, he padded to the door and touched the release. Nothing happened. The room’s environmental controls were all dark.
Brenna turned in slow circles in the room, her mind clicking away. “Sam, we’re going to get cooked in here. The lab’s insulation is perfect, so outside heat sources and sinks don’t affect it. If they shut off the cooling and the fans, our body heat alone would eventually kill us. With these lights and all the equipment running, we have even less time.”
Sam smashed a fist against the door. “There’s an airlock only ten meters from here. All we need is a vac-suit!” They were all well-trained in space-walks, and knew that the vacuum of space wasn’t cold. It was an endless heat sink through which radiation could pass. In shadow, you would radiate off heat forever. In the glow of a star, you would boil inside the suit if it wasn’t cooled. A system like that could save them in here.
The door didn’t so much as shudder, even under the heavy-grav power of his fist. The impact only served to bruise his hand. He spun away from it, too angry to stay in range without hurting himself further.
His eyes locked on the far side of the lab.
And the carefully concealed locker in the far corner.
He gasped in sudden realization of what he was seeing. “Brenna, the clean-suits!”
Brenna leaned against a nearby table, looking feint as the heat washed over her. “What?”
“The clean-suits! They block everything from screwing up experiments. That means they must control body heat, and they’ll have their own air-feed. They won’t last forever, but they’ll buy us time. Come on.”
He staggered into her, not sure she could break her inertia. The impact carried her the first few steps. Her survival instinct kept her moving. Together, they struggled against the sweltering heat and overpowering lights toward the lockers. Details were hard to make out, and salty sweat ran down to sting their eyes. Time was no friend.
***
Erica’s wrist band chirped at her. She tapped off the alarm and reached for her datapad. She started to flick through the status screens on display.
Ashley finished off her pint with an exaggerated moan of pleasure, savoring the glow of warmth it made in the depths of her core. “That is what the medical officer ordered. What in the open stars is wrong with us, Erica? I’m smart. Right? And Johanna’s really tried to help me get less clumsy.”
She waved in emphasis and clipped Erica’s empty glass.
Korey reflexively snapped a hand to catch it halfway to the ground. He presented it to the blushing Ashley. “Maybe Summer isn’t such a good teacher after all.”
Ashley smacked him on the shoulder. “She’s sweet, and she’s kept me over the testing threshold for four years!”
Korey growled back, “There’s a reason why those thresholds exist. Maybe she’s the problem. We have almost ten more students in our form than the average. Maybe you should have washed out by now.”
Sandy banged the table hard enough to make it shake. “Stuff your hole, Korey! If you don’t like the company, find another place to drink.”
Korey glanced at the computer Erica was reading with greater and greater worry. “I think I like it right here.” He watched her closely, waiting for her reaction. He knew what was coming in 3…2…1…..
Erica grasped at Ashley’s sleeve. “Hey, look at this! Our experiment. It says here the temperature is slipping toward critically high levels.”
Ashley scooted around to inspect the screen. “What?”
“Our work, it’s boiling!”
“How is that possible? The whole lab is temperature regulated. Even if the containment on the main incubator failed, the heat wouldn’t rise that quickly!”
Korey egged them on, “Well then, we should go investigate the lab.”
They were curious and drunk enough to run with the idea. None of them thought to call up the lab systems on the station computers until they had jogged down to the science corridors and stood outside the central testing facility.
Sandy keyed the door. It spat back a refusal to open. “Says here the lock is engaged for safety.”
Ashley edged in next to him at the controls. “Safety?” She summoned the details. “I don’t believe it! The life-support for the lab has failed.”
Erica gasped, “Failed? That’s impossible. On a normal station, there are three redundancies. On a science facility? There must be double that.”
Korey prodded them. “Which means it must have been shut down.”
Sandy huffed, “Who would do that?”
Korey pressed a little more. “No one. Not on purpose. Loo
k, nothing else is shut down. The lights are on, the computers on high activity, and they look like they have every burner and cleansing station on high. That’s a lot of equipment to be running all at once. You’d have to be desperate, maybe tired, not thinking straight. Pushing yourself.”
Erica clutched at Ashley’s arm. “Sam was in there working late! And remember how upset he was?”
Sandy asked, “Alone?”
Erica shook her head, “I’m…not sure. Maybe. He was in there a couple hours ago.”
Korey pushed in to take over the controls. “Nothing is working. Not sure why they would lock out the controls.”
Ashley asked, “Can you break in?”
He shook his head, “I don’t have the privileges. We need someone from the station’s science team or the crew. Even then, it might take time. The station won’t open those doors if it’s hazardous. Look at those readings. The air is toxic, and the temperature is running close to boiling oil.”
Sandy began to back away. “We have to get Hackles. He’ll know what to do. He’ll know who to talk to!” He bolted down the corridor.
Ashley looked to Erica. “I’ll try and find Pollok.”
Erica answered, “And I’ll track down one of the crew!”
They both raced away.
Korey stood passively outside the door to the lab, and grinned. “You know, you could just use the comm system.” He sighed. “That’s why they don’t let drunk people on duty.”
He turned to the door, and rested a palm on the chill durasteel. He gave a piteous shake of his head. “Damned traitors.” His orders had said not to kill anyone outright, but no-one else had watched the security feed as those two tore open each other’s uniforms, spilling flesh into hands and mouths until they had surrendered themselves to the floor. He had forced himself to listen to her impassioned screams. That stoked his anger and his resolve to do what needed to be done. “Bet you two wish you hadn’t caused all that heat now.”
Of Bravery and Bluster Page 16