Zarek realized Boone was the one with the real experience around here. Why hadn’t Nadu made him the leader of the expedition? Zarek was a fast talker, but he didn’t have one tenth of Boone’s savvy.
“Okay,” Boone announced as he once again appeared. “I’ve got everything nailed down. You guys can come on in.” He took a step back to let them in. “Let’s do a quick check of our systems and get the frak on our way. The sooner we’re out of the captain’s sight, the better.”
The Creep was first, sliding in front of Zarek before Tom could react. Zarek supposed the Creep would be a good man to have on his side. And, since he never talked, Tom could ignore him when he didn’t need him.
He climbed into the lander last, and strapped himself into the copilot’s seat. He liked to watch Boone at work. The pilot moved the lander up and down like it was just an extra pair of legs. He could put the pear-shaped vessel just about anywhere and not break a sweat.
He saw that the Creep was already in place. Sitting in the back, where he could watch everybody and everything. The Creep nodded when Zarek looked his way Tom nodded back. It was the most communication he had ever had with the guy. Some people just really earned their nicknames.
Boone flipped the switch on the small wireless control in front of Zarek. “Lander to Vipes. Are you receiving?”
“Vipes Three, okay,” came back.
“Vipes Four?” Boone asked. “Are you receiving?”
He got a burst of static. A voice cut in with a string of curse words. “Oh!” Ajay’s voice remarked. “I’ve got it now. Vipes Four, okay.”
Boone let out a heavy sigh. “You know, Tom, I have a dream. And in this dream I’m on a ship where everything works.”
He laughed softly as he gently patted the controls in front of him.
“Guess it’s good that’s just a dream, huh? Well, we know this baby will get us there and back.”
He flipped a dozen switches in order, three rows of four. “Wherever we’re going, Vara will get us there.”
Vara was Boone’s own private name for the landing ship. Zarek grinned. Boone only used it around people he trusted.
Boone hit the comm control. “Command Center. This is Boone. All three ships are ready for deployment.”
“This is Command,” Griff’s voice replied. “You are cleared for takeoff.”
“Copy that, Control. Vipes Three. Vipes Four. We’re going out. At two-minute intervals. Vipes first, Three then Four. The lander here will follow. Understood?”
“Understood and ready to roll.”
Another burst of static. “Understood! I can hear you fine.” Ajay cursed again. “I’ll just have to hit my wireless a few times if I need to talk back.”
“Perfect conditions, as usual.” Boone shook his head. “Command Center, do you read? We are ready to begin the mission.”
“Acknowledge, Lander One,” Griff’s voice came back to them.
“Ready for launch,” Boone replied. “Viper Three, Viper Four, Lander.”
“We copy your launch pattern. Launch pattern okay.”
“Get the frakkers!” Nadu shouted in the background.
“Yes sir, Captain!” Boone replied. “Vipes Three, away!”
Zarek could feel the deck shake as the first Viper left its launchpad. The lander had a pair of larger windows, but they were both behind his seat, and a smaller window up front, between the dradis screen and the controls. But he was focused on Boone as the pilot got them off the ground.
A light in front of them changed from orange to white.
“Vipes Four, away!” Boone ordered.
The deck rumbled again.
Boone looked over at Zarek. “Brace yourself, Tom. We’re going on a little adventure.”
He watched Boone work the switches and dials, easing just a bit of force from the thrusters as he pulled back on the joystick. Early on, Zarek had flown a mission with Boone and had marveled at the way the pilot had smoothly and effortlessly maneuvered the lander. When Zarek told him what he thought, Boone had laughed, talking about how you had to know just what Vara needed. He had offered to give the younger man a few lessons when they could find the time. But both men had gotten busy in the weeks that followed, checking out their captain’s “hunches”—wild ideas, that, Tom now realized, often led nowhere.
He actually half wished he had asked again about the offered lessons. Maybe, after all this was over, he’d find a way to make the time. In the meantime, he supposed he would just sit back and watch a master at work.
Captain Nadu and his hunches. Zarek thought about watching the two men in charge back in the Command Center. He could really see the way the two of them played off each other, Nadu reaching for the stratosphere, Griff hauling him back down. Whatever worked, he supposed. Nadu might be a little crazy, but the Lightning was well known as one of the richest scavenging crews around.
The lights changed again on the display before them.
“Lander One, away!” Boone called as he punched the thrusters, pushing the ship quickly down the launch chute and out into space.
“Well, that’s it for a bit. When I get to the atmosphere, I’ll give our hosts a call. I thought I’d get us off the ship. But you heard the captain. Once we land, Tom, it’s all your show.” He waved at the weapons, everything from handguns to what looked like a small cannon, which he had strapped against the walls. “They assure us everything will be fine. Nothing to worry about, hey boys?”
Tom tried to reply with a small laugh, but nothing much came out. The Creep was silent.
Boone checked his instruments. “One Research Station Omega, dead ahead. I don’t even have to turn this thing. We’ll settle down, gentle as a falling leaf.”
Zarek was feeling confined by his chair. He turned to the pilot. “Mind if I take a walk?”
Boone grinned. “Go as far as you like. Nothing else we can do for a little while.”
Zarek unbuckled his belt and rose from his seat. He looked around the craft as they pushed their way through space toward the planet below.
Unlike the Vipers, the lander had very limited armaments. Most landers of this type had none, but Nadu had customized Boone’s Vara a bit by adding a couple of small guns with rapidly repeating fire, each gun positioned immediately below one of the lander’s two windows. Zarek didn’t think the captain was comfortable without everything having a couple of extra guns. The lander was designed for short hops planetside and had plenty of room for cargo, both below decks and here, where Boone had managed to secure anything they might need very close at hand. If something went bad, they did not lack for firepower.
Their wireless squawked to life. “This is Research Station Omega. We detect three ships on our instruments. Are you the new party from the Lightning?”
“And who else might we be?” Boone asked before he hit the reply switch.
“We are the new party,” Boone replied, once he had turned on his mic. “One lander with a two-Viper escort.”
“I see,” the voice responded. Then nothing for a minute. “We wish you could have waited a bit, so we could be a bit more prepared. I’m afraid we aren’t much at protocol.” Another pause. “Your pilots are fine. We do appreciate your concern. Once you have landed, we will explain everything.”
Boone raised his eyebrows and looked over at Zarek. This, Tom guessed, is my cue.
He took over the microphone.
“This is Tom Zarek. I’m the one you’ll be talking with. We want to clear this up just as much as you do, I assure you. Give us our pilots and we’ll just chalk this up to a misunderstanding. Maybe we can find something to trade. We can start over again, and find business that’s mutually beneficial.”
“Thank you, Mr. Zarek. I am Doctor Fuest. I am sure, once you have seen our facility, that we can find much to talk about. Despite our earlier problems, I assure you we want nothing but positive results from our contact.”
He paused, then added, “I look forward to meeting you.” Another pause befo
re he added, “Please wait by your ships. And don’t be surprised by what you see. Appearances can be deceiving.”
The signal went dead. Zarek stared at the apparatus before him.
“Maybe they’re not used to talking on the wireless.”
“It doesn’t sound like they’re very happy to see us,” Boone added after a moment’s thought. “It sounds like they’re going to cross us all over again. Or maybe we’ve both spent far too much time with Captain Nadu.”
They all laughed at that, even the Creep, more to release tension than to share any real humor.
“But they’re letting us land,” Tom said after another moment had passed. “I think I’ve calmed them down.”
“You did that,” Boone agreed. “I can see why they picked you to lead the mission. Even I believed what you were saying.”
Zarek thought that Boone was the real leader here—the guy with the experience. He was only the front man—the vocal chords of the operation.
“Well, maybe we can find something of value without having to shoot anyone,” Zarek said, not even believing the words himself. “Well have to wait and see.”
The pilot glanced up at his readouts.
“We are now entering planetary atmosphere,” Boone announced. “We’ll be down shortly.” He glanced back at Zarek. “You’d better strap yourself in, Tom. We’ll be hitting turbulence in a second.”
Zarek nodded and strapped himself in next to the Creep, so he could look through the windows.
That was the last of their conversation.
Now that their destination was set, none of them wanted to talk. They were surrounded by the silence. Zarek watched the small disk of the planet grow through the portal, a patchwork of green and blue, not that different from his home world, Caprica.
The planet looked so peaceful. It looked like a place that would take easily to colonization. But only one small corner of the whole world had been touched, a gleaming silver city stuck between endless green jungle and deep blue sea.
He felt he couldn’t breathe the air on Caprica. He had had to escape. Space was vast, and all around them. But instead of being trapped in an apartment in a city on a civilized world, he found himself in a tiny metal box smaller than any room he had ever lived in, crammed with people and supplies, on the wild fringes of space where there were no rules at all. Flying between the stars mostly made him want to walk again on solid ground.
Well, Zarek had always known this Lightning job was a short-term solution. There had to be something better after his run with scavengers. After this, he would do something that would make a difference, and make a name for Tom Zarek.
If he lived to see the end of this voyage.
He thought about the captain’s mention of weapons fire. It was a sound, nothing more. Had it come from the Vipes pilots, the research station, or both?
The research station didn’t trust them—quite wisely. He would expect them to arm themselves. And he had to find a way to keep them from using those weapons.
“Time to go to the party,” Boone said into the silence. He hit a switch on the wireless.
“Research Station Omega. This is the landing party from Lightning, requesting permission to land.”
He closed the channel and grinned back at the others. “As if they could do anything else.”
“Permission granted,” a voice said from the station. “Approaching craft! I repeat, please remain with your ships after landing. A party will come out to the landing platform to meet you. We had an unfortunate situation with your fellow crewmen. Please do not judge us before we have a chance to explain.”
Zarek did not find any of this reassuring. He looked to Boone and the Creep. “I’ve been thinking. Maybe we shouldn’t show the guns right away. We don’t know what—or who—we’re dealing with.”
Nobody raised any objection.
“Keep the guns close,” he continued. “But the captain said I should be diplomatic. So, before we do anything else, I’ll try to talk them into giving us our guys.” He thought again how he’d be just as happy if he never saw either of the Vipes pilots ever again.
“And maybe we can get them to give us a few other things, too.”
The Creep spoke at last. “We’ll let you make your statement. But where’s the fun in cooperation? When I’ve got a gun, I like to use it.” He shrugged as he looked at a rifle secured by his feet. “Maybe I can shoot a few of them on the way out.”
“No, no, we got it,” Boone assured Tom. “Talk first, shoot later. Pretty simple, huh?”
Zarek only wished it were.
Boone switched on the wireless.
“Research Station Omega. We’re coming in.”
CHAPTER
10
RESEARCH STATION OMEGA
Zarek watched as the two Vipers set down one after another on the empty expanse of the landing pad. He saw no signs of the earlier Vipers, or their pilots. Could they have been dragged into the large building at the far end of the field? Why, if the authorities here were going to return the pilots, had they gotten rid of their spacecraft?
The landing field, in fact, showed no signs of life at all. From the air, the station looked deserted, with whole parts of it in ruins. The landing field, though, was in perfect shape, with dark painted grids to help guide in ships from space. Ships they said they hadn’t seen in years.
He supposed this was all the welcome they would get. What did he expect—“Welcome Lightning” banners?
Tom felt a tightness in his chest. He had to go out and meet these people, to smile one minute and be ready to shoot the next. Oh well. He guessed it would be good training in case he ever went into politics.
His jokes weren’t helping his nerves. This was the first time, he realized, that he had been given actual authority. He wondered, absently, what his father would say about Tom if his son ever made something of himself, after all the times the old man had called him a failure? Would his father even recognize him?
And would it even matter?
Both the Vipers were down, each taxiing across the landing field, turning slightly, angling across the field, to leave a wide space between them. A space for Boone to land, so that the Vipers would have a clear shot if the locals tried anything.
Only now did Tom realize he hadn’t spoken to his father in years. Bits of the life he thought he had left behind came back to him: fights with his father, mostly; the day he decided never to return to the university, he remembered that one well. But later things, too: his abortive attempt to get the kitchen workers to stand up to management; getting thrown out of his lodgings because he could no longer pay; the woman he’d met who knew a man who knew somebody that crewed for the Lightning. How young he seemed in all those memories.
He was a different person now. A better person. And he was going to survive this and more. He couldn’t afford any doubts. His stint on the Lightning was going to send him on his way. He was going to end up richer than his wildest dreams.
Unless, of course, he ended up dead. Nadu had been quick to point out that everyone in the crew was expendable.
“Here we go into the fire,” Boone said softly as he lowered his lander. He maneuvered the craft so that it swung in low, midway between the Vipes, then let it touch down and roll to a stop with barely a bump. The man was an artist.
Boone and the Creep both checked their weapons. Tom supposed he had better do the same. Both of the others carried big guns with rapid-repeat firepower; they could unload their hundred-shot magazines in little more than a minute. He carried only a sidearm—a pistol with a dozen shots. He was the peacemaker, after all. He planned to keep the sidearm under his coat, and pull it out only if things went very bad indeed. He lifted the gun and took mock aim at the hatch. The sidearm felt much heavier than he remembered it. Perhaps it was the planet’s gravity. This world was close to the size of Caprica, while the ship’s grav was usually set to Picon-normal—about eighty-five percent of what they’d find here. Or maybe the gun would al
ways feel heavy with the potential targets waiting just outside.
He knew how to use this—he’d spent hours on simulated target practice down in Lightning’s cargo hold. He wondered what would happen when and if he had to shoot another human being.
He looked out the nearest portal. No one had emerged from any of the buildings to greet them. The field looked just as deserted as it had from the air.
What were the research people up to? Who knew what kind of weapons they hid in these buildings. Nadu’s decisions didn’t always follow the strict dictates of logic, but right now, this felt downright suicidal.
“If they’re not going to talk to us, maybe we’d better talk among ourselves.” Boone opened a wireless channel. “This is a secure channel. We’re ready here. Vipes report your status.”
“Vipes Three ready,” came back immediately.
They waited a moment, but heard nothing from Vipes Four.
“Ajay’s still having trouble sending, I guess.” Boone spoke into the mic. “Vipes. We’re facing the unknown here. Tom thinks it would be a good idea to keep our weapons out of sight.”
Zarek leaned forward to explain.
“Everybody!” he began clearly. “No matter what you see, unless we see a gun pointed at us, we don’t raise our own. We keep them ready, but we do not use them until I give the signal. Our first priority is to retrieve the prisoners. We want to get everybody out of here in one piece—and alive.”
“Do you copy, Vipes?” Boone added.
“Vipes Three, copy.”
This time, they heard a second burst of static. Vipes Four’s answer?
They could only hope that Ajay was still receiving their signal.
“We’ve got a door opening!” the Creep called from his station by a window. “Three figures are coming out and walking toward us. Frak!”
“What’s the matter?” Zarek asked. “Do they have weapons?”
The Creep glanced back at them. He looked even more pale than usual. “No weapons that I can see. But two of them aren’t human.”
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