Rather than opening the comm to everyone in engineering, he stepped back into the center where his hologram was, and raised his voice.
“Hey, everyone! I need your attention.”
The engineers who were assigned the Engineering bay came out of their alcoves.
He met their gazes one by one. Everyone looked nervous. The only person in the entire area who wasn’t watching him was Willoughby. She continued to monitor the command controls.
“You all heard my interaction with the captain,” Crowe said. “He’s going to be angry at my behavior.”
Hell, he already was angry. But Crowe didn’t correct himself.
“I’m going to seal off engineering. But before I do, I wanted to offer those of you who feel I’m in the wrong the chance to leave. I don’t want the captain to blame you for what I’m going to do.”
“What are you going to do?” Hadley Ellum asked. Her voice was soft, as if she wasn’t sure if she really wanted to know his answer.
“What we’re trained to do,” Crowe said. “We’re going to study that Scrapheap before we get close to it again. We’re going to figure out what that energy bubble was and whether or not it was a direct threat.”
“That seems sensible,” Bakhr said.
“Yes, it does,” Tosidis said, almost angrily, as if he couldn’t believe that following procedure might cause problems with the captain.
“I’m going to seal off engineering while I do it,” Crowe said, “and keep control of the ship here. That’s what the captain will object to.”
“Maybe you should give him a chance to actually object….?” James Rodriguez said.
Crowe looked at him. He looked gray, his eyes sunken into his face. Rodriguez was clearly scared and overwhelmed. Crowe didn’t blame him. This trip—this command—these events were hard on everyone.
“The captain and I have been going round and round about the best way to handle this entire trip,” Crowe said. “I have followed his procedures until today. You all know why I moved the ship. You can double-check my data if you like.”
No one moved. They knew how meticulous he was. Several of the engineering crew had told him they liked that about him.
“All right,” Crowe said after a long minute. “Whoever wants to leave should do so now.”
A couple of the engineers shifted slightly. Hadley Ellum peered around the edge of her alcove, as if to see if anyone else was contemplating leaving. No one else moved. Then she looked in the other direction.
Rodriguez tilted his head just a little. She nodded.
Together they stepped forward, and started to the door.
She stopped in front of Crowe, a slight frown on her face.
He braced himself for recriminations. Instead, she said, “You know this isn’t personal, right? I really respect you, sir. I just—it’s the rules. I mean, you’re doing something kinda like mutiny. And I can’t be part of it.”
There was that word, the one he had been avoiding in his head. Mutiny. If he ended up taking over the ship, over Preemas’s objections, that wasn’t kinda like mutiny. That definitely was mutiny.
A couple of the other engineers shifted in place as well. Apparently, they hadn’t thought of his behavior in those terms.
“I understand,” Crowe said. “That’s why I offered all of you the opportunity to leave now. I don’t want any of you to get blamed for my actions.”
Two more engineers stepped out of their alcoves. One shot Crowe a worried glance, but said nothing. The other kept his head down as he walked to the door, maybe ashamed of what he was doing.
Or maybe he just didn’t want to face Crowe at all.
Crowe remained motionless, waiting for them to leave. As they stepped out, he said, “Anyone else?”
No one responded.
“You’re about to miss your chance,” he said.
Everyone stood very still. Their faces were serious; their expressions taut. A few were threading their fingers together the way that Willoughby had earlier.
“All right.” Crowe reached to the small screen floating in front of him, and pressed the controls. “The doors are closing.”
The doors rattled as they sealed, which he thought was somehow appropriate. It was almost as if the entire engineering department was nervous, including the equipment.
He made himself take a deep breath. Mutiny.
That was a problem he would have to deal with when—if—when he returned to the Fleet. This ship had to survive the next few days first.
The doors shut, and then beeped as they sealed.
He closed the small screen, and looked up at the hologram of the Scrapheap.
“Okay,” he said. “Let’s figure out what we’re facing.”
He nearly added, Outside of the ship, but he didn’t. They all had a hunch about what they were facing inside.
But outside—that was the key. And that was the great unknown.
He nodded at all of them, and then got to work.
The Renegat
Captain Preemas slammed his hand on the arm of his captain’s chair.
“I want control back on this bridge and I want it now!” he shouted.
Half the bridge crew ducked. Natalia Stephanos hadn’t moved away from the anacapa drive, her head down. Milton Atwater shot Justine Breaux a panicked look.
Atwater was standing only a few yards away from her, watching as he always did during a foldspace journey. He had looked tense on this one. He had thought the prolonged trip one of the worst ideas he had heard of. He had actually advised the captain against it.
Breaux hadn’t given any advice at all, but she had gently told Captain Preemas that she had no real maps of the area. The historical record wasn’t just spotty. It was non-existent.
She had found some information about the Scrapheap by modifying the notices that the Scrapheap had sent, the notices that had pushed the Renegat onto this path in the first place.
But the information hadn’t been visual. It had been a signature, one from the Scrapheap itself.
She had to modify the equipment she had been using so that it could track the signature of any Scrapheap they had come into contact with.
When they had arrived, so close to the Scrapheap that it took her breath away, she had double-checked the signature. It was the same. But, as she tried to tell the captain, that didn’t mean it was the same. She wasn’t sure her equipment could handle the reading or if the ancient Scrapheap before them was the actual Scrapheap they were looking for.
Of course it is, Captain Preemas had snapped. It’s at the right coordinates, and it has the right signature. Just because we don’t have maps doesn’t mean we’re wrong.
He had seemed charged even then, and that was before First Officer Crowe had somehow shut down the bridge. He had moved the ship without the captain’s permission, which infuriated Preemas, making him scream at everyone.
“He’s completely sealed us off,” said Yulia Colvin. She was talking about Crowe. “We can’t do anything from here.”
“That’s impossible,” Preemas said. “We should be able to reroute the equipment so that we have control of the ship.”
“It’s not impossible.” Stephanos spoke up. She was standing straight, her expression flat.
Breaux got the sense that Stephanos didn’t want Preemas to know how she really felt.
“Oh?” Preemas asked. “You should be able to fix this.”
“Technically, you’re right, sir,” Stephanos said, in a very flat voice. It almost felt as if she was talking to a wayward child. “But it seems that First Officer Crowe initiated invasion protocols.”
Breaux frowned. She had never heard of this, but it sounded straightforward.
“Impossible,” Preemas said. “Only a captain can do that.”
Stephanos tilted her head slightly, either acknowledging him or disagreeing with him. “First Officer Crowe is one of the best engineers in the Fleet,” she said.
The implication was clear. If a
nyone could initiate that programming, it was Crowe.
Breaux held her breath. Her heart was pounding. She had a vague feeling of being out of control right from the start of this journey, but she had welcomed that feeling. She had done her best to set that feeling aside. She was good at ignoring things.
Only now, she couldn’t ignore the feeling. The captain didn’t have control of the ship. First Officer Crowe did, for reasons she didn’t entirely understand.
And they were far away from backup, from help, from any assistance at all.
She stood rigidly and watched as the conversation played out.
Captain Preemas glared at the floating screens in front of him as if he could change them. Then he ran his fingers on the arm of his captain’s chair.
Other controls were there, specific ones. Breaux had seen them, but she had no real idea what, exactly, they did. Preemas seemed frustrated by them. His fist curled above them, as if he wanted to pound the arm of that chair as hard as he could.
Then he straightened, and looked at Stephanos.
“You will go down to engineering and fix this,” he said to her.
She still had that odd, impassive look on her face. It was as if her face had frozen into one expression, and one expression only.
“Chief Engineer Crowe has sealed off engineering,” she said.
Captain Preemas cursed, long and loud. Inventive language that Breaux had never heard before.
She almost glanced at Atwater, to see how he was reacting to all of this, but she didn’t. Because she had a strong feeling that if she did look at him, and if his gaze at all mirrored hers, she would burst into tears.
Oh, get ahold of yourself, Justine, she thought.
She had been the one to put her life in their hands. She had been the one who volunteered to come here, even after dozens of others had left the ship. She had thought it would be an adventure.
Well, it was an adventure, and she was now paying for that.
It was what she had wished for.
She clenched her own fists, and continued to watch, trying to mirror Stephanos’s expression. Show no emotion. Just get through this. One moment at a time, if need be.
These people were experts. They knew what they were doing.
Her heart thudded against her chest. She didn’t believe that last. She was beginning to understand that none of them understood what they were doing. This was as new to them as it was to her.
And that terrified her even more.
“Are you refusing to go to engineering?” Preemas asked Stephanos.
“It won’t do any good,” she said. “Do you know a way to unlock an invasion override? Because I sure don’t.”
Preemas turned his back on her and walked to the ready room. He reached for the door, as if the answers lived inside that room. Then he stopped.
“Yeah,” he said. “I do know how. And so do you. We’re going to my quarters.”
Stephanos’s hard expression finally cracked. She seemed uncertain. “If he has invasion protocols on, you won’t be able to use the controls in your quarters.”
“There’s an override that I always activate whenever I command a ship,” Captain Preemas said. “I can get control of the ship back, but I would like your help.”
Breaux’s gaze was on Stephanos only. And Stephanos finally looked scared. Was that because she supported Crowe? Or because she felt like this plan wouldn’t work?
Breaux had no idea.
The pause after Captain Preemas’s comment went on too long. Everyone on the bridge stopped whatever they were doing and looked at Stephanos.
“I will go with you,” she said.
Captain Preemas was studying her. Something in his expression told Breaux that he didn’t trust her. Not entirely.
And then Breaux realized that Captain Preemas had asked Stephanos to come, not ordered her to. Had he suspected her loyalty all along?
“The rest of you,” Captain Preemas said as Stephanos stepped around her console. “You need to see if you can override whatever it is that Crowe’s doing. And also be prepared for the control to come back to the bridge. Because, at that moment, we are going to shut him down.”
Whatever that meant. Breaux almost asked Captain Preemas what he wanted her to do, but she didn’t. She didn’t want to get into the middle of this at all.
She would find out more about the area, double-check her own work, make sure they were at the right Scrapheap.
She glanced at the image of the Scrapheap on the tablet still clutched in her left hand. The Scrapheap, which everyone seemed to have forgotten. The Scrapheap, the point of all of this, the reason they had come here.
The Scrapheap, looming over all of them, as if it was waiting for them to decide what to do next.
Part Twenty-Five
Rescue
Now
The Renegat
It took Zarges more time than he wanted to disengage his helper from the cargo bay doors. The man—and it was a man—wanted to continue helping until the last person had left the Renegat.
Zarges had no idea who this guy was, but he seemed scarily determined. He wanted to control those doors, as if they were the most important thing in the cargo bay.
Zarges let the guy do the job for a while, as Zarges bodily pushed half of the survivors onto the life raft. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to leave—they clearly did—it was that they were also afraid to get onto the life raft itself.
He wasn’t sure what had happened to these people but they were the most timid group he had ever rescued—at least the most timid group of Fleet members. If they were Fleet members.
He was starting to have his doubts.
He had just heard from Iqbar. As she prepared to close her life raft in Cargo Bay Two, three more stragglers had found their way to her. She contacted Zarges, asked him if the remaining six people had arrived in his Cargo Bay.
“Not yet,” he said. But Palmer had. And so had Khusru and her team.
He was loading the last of his evacuees onto the life raft. He didn’t see any lights coming down the corridor or reflecting off the cargo in the bay.
But he couldn’t leave six people behind.
“This ship is pretty unstable,” Palmer said. “We can’t wait.”
“I know,” Zarges said to him. “Here’s what I want to do. I want you and the rest of the team to get into the life rafts and go back to Rescue One.”
Palmer brought his head up as the others, listening in on the comm, made noises of protest.
“What will you do?” Palmer asked.
“I’m going to find the missing six,” Zarges said. “Get the life raft back to Rescue One, then send one last life raft here.”
What he didn’t add was that if the ship blew, they might lose a life raft. But he didn’t really care. He was willing to risk losing one life raft to save six lives.
Besides, if it didn’t work, he would not be around to face the consequences. If the Fleet got pissy about the loss of equipment, everyone could blame him.
Rightfully.
“I’ll stay too,” Palmer said.
“No,” Zarges said. “They’re probably not that far from here. I just have to wait and get them on board. I know how to work the doors now, and I can do this without help.”
“Are they nearby?” Palmer asked Rescue One.
Rescue One was tracking life signs. Zarges was finally convinced the life signs Rescue One had seen were all of the life signs on board the Renegat.
“The six people are not nearby,” Ranaldi said from Rescue One. “But they will arrive within ten minutes.”
Palmer flicked his light on inside his helmet so that Zarges could see his face. Palmer shook his head, his mouth a thin line.
His message was clear. He didn’t believe they had ten minutes.
But he wasn’t going to say that because, like Zarges, he didn’t want someone to overrule them and keep the life raft away from the Renegat.
Those six people nee
ded a chance.
“I’ll wait for them,” Zarges said. “You need to go. I want Rescue One as far from this ship as possible. Once the life raft disengages from this ship, then Rescue One can come get us. Not a moment sooner.”
Palmer closed his eyes for just a moment, the blink long and slow and deliberate. They both knew the timing would be dicey at best. Life rafts were slow things, without a lot of power. Even though Zarges could control it from the inside, he wouldn’t be able to get it out of the blast radius quickly if the ship followed the projected schedule.
Rescue One might decide it was too dangerous to pull the final life raft to safety.
And that was a decision he would be fine with. They all would in different circumstances.
Even waiting for these six people was probably a bad idea. But he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he didn’t. He couldn’t. He would always imagine them arriving just as the bay doors closed a final time, waiting in the dark and cold for a rescue that was never, ever going to come.
He couldn’t be responsible for that.
Not after the last time. He had lost dozens of people on that rescue.
He wasn’t about to lose six more.
The Aizsargs
“He’s going to do what?” Dauber asked. She looked at the kaleidoscope of images rising about her tablet, all in three dimensions. Rescue One hung back, two life rafts heading toward it, with a third making a repeat visit to the disabled vessel.
Everyone on the bridge looked at her. She had never used that tone before, not with this team. Maybe she hadn’t used the tone ever. It had a tinge of panic. Because she knew what was coming.
Damn Zarges. He was gambling. She hated it when her crew members gambled.
To the credit of the bridge crew, none of them gamed his chances of success. They were as alarmed as she was, maybe more so.
The trail of atmosphere from the Renegat had finally ceased, and she didn’t like that. She also didn’t like the look of the telemetry she had scrolling on one side.
The Renegat Page 51