by Mark Gardner
“Jimmy,” Viktor began, “Hayes is not in a right mind. He’s close to doing something terrible. We need to disarm his paranoia.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know.” He ran a hand through his brown hair. Sweat matted it along his temple. “Give me an hour and I’ll do it.”
“In an hour we might all be dead.”
“I gotta clear the logs between Rebecca and I. And a few other parts. thirty minutes, maybe. Alright?”
Viktor opened his mouth to argue, then closed it. What logs? Jimmy looked everywhere in the cargo bay but at him.
“Jimmy…” He let go of the wrench and let it float in the air next to his head.
“You gotta believe I didn’t mean to. Alright? It was supposed to be simpler than all this.”
“What was?” But the hollow feeling in Viktor’s gut, which had nothing to do with his wound, told him he knew the answer.
“I overheard Connie talking to HQ. Vicky, they were gonna short-change half of us outta a portion of our shares! I confronted him about it, and he lied to me. Lied, right to my face. Said I musta misheard him. But I didn’t mishear nothin’. What he said was clear as crystal carbon.”
“Jimmy, what are you saying?”
“The drilling candles are more potent in atmosphere than in a vacuum. Or it had something to do with the xenon leak. I dunno. It shoulda only taken out the engines, left us drifting right in the shipping lanes for the Matsue to find. Nothing else.” He glanced at Rebecca for support. “How was I supposed to know it’d blow us half to kingdom come?”
Viktor realized he held his breath. He let it out, slowly to give the illusion of calm. He felt himself sweat, at the pits and forehead. None of this was real. It couldn’t be.
Jimmy’s face changed from guilt to anger as quickly as Viktor had ever seen anyone change emotions.
“Look, I did what I had to. Nobody has a right to take away what was agreed upon. Not after I signed the papers, flew out here to the edge of nothin’.” He smacked the wall, sending himself drifting in the other direction. “Right, Vicky? What’s the fairness in that?”
In the corner, Rebecca gave a nod while cleaning her fingernails. Everything fell into place. Almost everything.
“Then why did you help capture the Kerwood back? If you wanted her picked up by the Matsui anyways, why switch back?”
“I didn’t. Not really.” Jimmy gave a wry grin. “Rebecca’n I were over here doing our own recon on the goods when their little mission to take back the ship happened. Got swept along with it, just like you did. Couldn’t out ourselves, then. Too late for that.” He gestured around the room. “And here we are. Back to square one.”
Jimmy gave an emphatic nod as if that completed matters. “I’ll wipe the logs and we’ll turn them over. Wind the Captain down a few turns. Hopefully it’ll work. Guy’s like a grenade without the pin. And really, I’m sorry for everything. Especially Connie. You believe me, right? But I did what I had to do. It’s a big universe. If the little guy doesn’t stand up for himself against the big corporations every once in a while—”
“It was me, Jimmy.”
Everything seemed to stop. Jimmy’s eyes widened while he floated between the floor and the ceiling. Rebecca froze in place, nails ignored. Even the sound of the air recyclers seemed to pause.
“I went to Connor and suggested proportional shares. They are standard on many ships. I did not think it was fair that some worked hard and others slagged off, and that they were paid the same either way. It appears Connor agreed with me.”
Jimmy recovered from his shock quickly. “I work a bit slower cause I’m new. I don’t have all the experience you do. Can’t expect a rookie to be as efficient as a veteran, and to shift around the pay just cause—”
Viktor cut him off like he was a child. His tone was a mixture of derision, scolding, and disgust.
“You’re lazy. Not just new, though there is some of that. You do 45% less work than me or Jessica because you’re lazy. You jabber on at every stopping point. You spend more time on pranks, which risk the lives of everyone else, including me, than you do your actual work. You take breaks to rest as if you weren’t working in nearly effortless microgravity. You’re the last one out of the changing room on shift, and the first one back, and are hardly an asset to the corporation in between.”
“Hey, wait a sec. You take smoke breaks, too. Yeah, we all know about it.”
“And yet I’m still that much better of a worker than you.” It was like a stopper had been pulled, and the tank that held all of Viktor’s anger and frustration poured out against his will. “Breaks are fine when you’ve put in an honest shift of labor. You? You’ve always been lazy, from the moment you showed up at HQ on Luna. It’s like a game to you, always trying to work a little less, eat a little more than everyone else. You act like it’s a skill to be so dishonest. But this…this! I wouldn’t have expected even you of sabotage. You’ve killed people, innocents who have families and homes they will never return to. I nearly died. Jessica was almost decapitated. And you did it all for money?”
Viktor sent a hateful glare at Rebecca. She still floated in the corner, but now her hands were balled into fists at her side.
“I hope the money was worth it. Money you will never be able to spend. When I tell the captain, you will be lucky if he does not throw you in the airlock right away. And when the others hear of what you did, the only one who will try convincing him not to kill you, the only person in the room insisting you be brought home alive, will be me.”
Viktor let the word hang in the air for a moment. He wasn’t sure if he believed his own assertion. He was so angry just then, if the button were in front of him, he could have spaced Jimmy himself. The thought frightened him. So far from home, but not so far from the eyes of God. He resisted the urge to grab the pendant of Saint Sergius hanging around his neck and poured all of his emotion into Jimmy’s accepting eyes.
He saw the motion at his peripheral just in time. He couldn’t move much without leverage, but he twisted enough that the heavy wrench smashed into his shoulder instead of his skull. Agony ran down his arm like electricity. Rebecca swung the wrench again, but the first blow propelled her backward enough that it hissed through the air a few centimeters from Viktor’s face.
There was a long stalemate where Rebecca drifted toward one wall, and Viktor the other. Jimmy floated between them, one hand grabbing a handhold in the ceiling, indecisiveness painted on his face.
“If he turns us in, we’re dead,” Rebecca quickly said. And just like that, Jimmy chose sides.
“Jimmy, be reasonable,” Viktor said, but he already prepared to defend himself. He bent his legs as his feet touched the wall, absorbing the momentum like a spring. He grabbed a handhold and crouched there, waiting as Rebecca lunged at him, wrench held two-handed like a bat. Viktor feigned like he was going to push off, which had the desired effect. Rebecca swung the 20 kilogram hunk of metal, then tried to stop herself mid-swing. It caused her to tumble, and that’s when Viktor sprung forward with all his stored energy, shoulder bulling into Rebecca’s chest. The pain from his already wounded shoulder was so great that he cried out, but it had a greater effect on Rebecca, knocking her violently backward. The wrench came free, spinning away. Viktor plucked it out of the air.
Jimmy screamed and crashed into him, arms wrapping around him and carrying him into the inner airlock door. All the wind in Viktor’s lungs was forced out in a grunt. He gasped against the feeling, urging a trickle of oxygen down his throat. Begging his incapacitated diaphragm to contract.
Light exploded as Jimmy punched him in the temple. It must have hurt him more than Viktor, because he cradled his hand and moaned. In a burst of anger, he grabbed the ceiling with his good hand and kicked downward, striking Viktor twice in the shoulder and head. Swinging halfheartedly, just to get Jimmy away from him, Viktor brought the wrench above him in an arc. It was like a freight train hitting a deer. The wrench smashed Jimmy’s knee and barely slowed.
>
“Ahhh!” Jimmy screamed.
Viktor turned in time to see Rebecca floating his way with another piece of metal, this one sharp. He brought his wrench up to deflect the blade but with his other arm injured the move left him vulnerable. Rebecca punched him in the gut just as he was beginning to breathe normally. She followed it by holding up her palm and smashing his nose with the base of her wrist. Again everything went white.
Vertigo took Viktor as he tumbled through the air. He tried to breathe through his nose but inhaled liquid instead. The iron smell of blood was suffocating. His vision was still all stars so he swung blindly across his body, hitting only open air. He swung again, if not to hit Rebecca then to keep her at bay.
To his left came a humorless laugh. “Stupid Russian. Stupid to go to your captain, and stupid to warn us first.”
The soft sound of air moving was Viktor’s only warning. He blindly swung into nothing, and this time he hit something. The sound was like an egg being dropped on the ground, with a low grunt-like exhale after. Viktor waited for something to strike him. Nothing did.
It was an eternity waiting for his vision to return, clutching the wrench like a safety harness.
Rebecca floated to his left, arms out in front of her in the riposte position. A bruise was already forming on the side of her head where her hair met her ears. To the right, Jimmy breathed rapidly, clutching his knee. He was no longer screaming, and kept his eyes shut tight against the pain.
Viktor considered saying something to him. No words seemed adequate. He left the cargo bay instead.
He closed the inner airlock behind him and tapped in his override code to lock it. To his surprise, it worked, the light on the panel turning red. At least Hayes hadn’t shut down his access to the ship yet.
His shoulder ached, but worked well enough to pull himself down the hallway along the wall handles. He would have moved faster with both hands, but he couldn’t bear to leave the wrench behind. He tried very hard not to look at the blood on the end.
“So now what?” Jessica asked after Viktor found them in the galley and filled them in. He had planned on asking if they knew about it, or had any hand in the sabotage, but their shocked reactions to learning about Jimmy told him everything he needed to know. Siebert stared wide-eyed, looking between the two of them.
“Now we go to Captain Hayes.”
Days Until Home: 18
Viktor led the way with the calm resolve of someone with justice on their side. The finality of the march to the bridge would have had more emphasis if it were a march and not them floating through the halls in zero-g. They passed a few of the other crew members, who paused and watched them go with curious and fearful eyes.
There is no reason to be afraid, Viktor thought. The saboteurs are captured. There is no more threat.
We are all safe.
The thought disappeared the moment the hatch opened and they floated into the bridge.
The normal bridge crew were at their stations: Telly, Femke, and Vega. But the chief engineer and Adelaide were also there, floating next to Hayes. It was clear they had been discussing something before Viktor’s entrance interrupted them.
Everyone stared at him. He realized what it looked like: he with his monstrous wrench, Siebert with his chemical welder, Jessica with what looked like a handheld bolt gun. They looked like mutineers come to take over the ship. Viktor also realized he didn’t care. It was time to end all of this paranoia.
He tucked the wrench into the waistband of his pants and said, “We need to talk.”
The look on Hayes' face was pure smugness. “Telly. Please retrieve the special crate we brought from the Matsue.”
“Yes, sir.” He floated deeper into the bridge.
Viktor didn’t know what that meant, so he brushed it aside and took a deep breath to address the entire room. “It was Jimmy. He sabotaged the Kerwood. He was upset about the share proportions so he planted mining explosives in the engine compartment to disable the ship and set it drifting where the Matsue could pick it up.
Hayes smiled and nodded. “Uh huh.”
“Rebecca was his contact on the other ship. They are presently subdued and locked in the cargo hold.” No point in telling them about the scuffle. His bruises probably spoke of that enough.
Hayes nodded more and more vigorously. He almost looked like he was listening to a song nobody else could hear. His words were slow and certain.
“I knew we couldn’t trust you all. Contract-bound miners, beholden only to your paycheck. Not a real part of the ship’s crew, you ask me. No tasks or concerns for the journey. Idle time makes for evil hands. Now that the three of you are here, you can surrender. Do it peacefully.” He raised his voice. “Telly, once these three are restrained, take Femke to round up the others.”
Viktor blinked. “No. Jimmy is the only one. None of us knew or were involved in any way.”
“Sure you weren’t,” Hayes said. “Although you were the one so obsessed with share portions. You were the one worried enough to go to Conrad with it on multiple occasions, which you’ve admitted yourself. Awfully coincidental of you three to show up now with a lamb to sacrifice.”
“Coincidental how?” Jessica asked.
Hayes gestured to Jeremy. “The chief engineer was just telling us how they suspected Erika Ängström of being the saboteur.”
Siebert snorted. “She was hurt more than most in the explosion. She’s been damn-near incapacitated this whole time!”
“And then you come running,” Hayes said, “to point us in another direction. To take the heat off Ängström. I’ve been doing this a long time, Sharapov, and I don’t believe in coincidences. Tell me, how did you two plan it? Was it long-term, or concocted on the spot while we were lounging around Egeria-13?”
Hayes seemed certain, and Adelaide had a content glare, but there was confusion among the other crew. The Chief Engineer’s face was a mask, which for him meant uncertainty. Femke watched from her station, eyes darting all around.
Viktor tried to keep his voice calm, but he sputtered the attempt. “Jimmy. Jimmy is the saboteur. He and Rebecca are locked in the cargo hold. All you need is to apprehend them.”
“What proof do you have?” Hayes asked.
“He admitted it to me. And there are logs.”
“Logs can be tampered with. So it’s your word against his?”
“Their word, if both he and Rebecca deny it,” Adelaide said. The corner of her mouth twitched toward a smile. “That’d be two against one.”
Viktor looked over his shoulder at his fellow miners, but the chief engineer headed him off.
“Were either of you two present to hear this admission?” he asked carefully.
“It…was after we left,” Jessica admitted. “Siebert and I were in the galley.”
“So,” Hayes said, drawing the word out into half a dozen syllables. “You were there with them. In the cargo hold. Then you left, and then Sharapov heard this confession. Coincidences piled upon coincidences.”
Telly returned to their part of the bridge, a one meter crate in tow. He steadied himself with a handhold, rotated the crate until it was upside down, then snapped it to the ceiling with magnetic clamps. He popped the fasteners along the sides, and the hinge swung open.
And in a burst of sudden insight, Viktor knew what was inside.
“Wait!”
“Surrender and go to your airlock quietly,” Hayes said. “You’ll honor your families back home by accepting your fate in peace.”
There will be no peace for Helena. “Captain, please, do not do this thing,” Viktor said. “We are innocent!”
Hayes twisted to face Telly and the crate. He reached inside and pulled out a low-velocity pistol, made to fire slugs in the narrow range to pierce skin and bone but not the hull of the ship.
Viktor could have bulled into them. The crate wasn’t far, and he had good leverage from his ceiling handhold. He thought he could get there before they had a chance to load the g
uns. Telly held his like it was a foreign object, or like a rubik’s cube to try to solve. Viktor was bigger than any of them. It would have been easy.
But he was weary, deep down in his bones. Weary of the trip, of the stress and death. Of the suspicions and violence and murder that had already happened to them all. Mentally, intellectually, and physically, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
So instead, Viktor turned and ran, yanking himself through the hatch and into the hall.
Shouts followed him as he grabbed handholds and accelerated down the hall, recklessly fast, like a bullet through a rifled barrel. If anyone wandered into the hall at that moment he’d crash into them with enough force to shatter bone. A high-pitched sound shimmered through the air, and somewhere behind, Siebert cried out. He couldn’t turn around enough to look, not without slowing down or stopping, so Viktor kept his eyes focused on the cross-hall ahead where he needed to stop. Just before reaching it he grabbed a handle jutting from the wall and yanked, spinning him ninety degrees into the next corridor, a five meter space before the door to the galley. He slammed into the wall, but nothing broke.
He sensed movement right behind him, so he raised the wrench. The gauze-covered head announced that it was Jessica. She fearfully pulled herself next to Viktor.
“Siebert?”
She shook her head. “I think they got him. He—” She cut off as the man appeared around the corner, his face painted with pain. Globules of red followed him and their original trajectory down the hall, quietly splashing into the walls and ceiling as if fired from a shotgun.
“My leg,” he said, obvious since he was clutching his right quad. He sounded surprised. “Didn’t hit the femoral. I don’t think.”
Jessica ripped off a strip of cloth from her shirt to tie off the wound. To emphasize things, two shots echoed down the hall, hissing through the air.