“Wow.” Newark was watching a smaller hologram, one that showed the area around Orbiter One in three dimensions. “Is that a Dignity Vessel?”
She actually used a phrase the Fleet refused to use. Dignity Vessel was the original name of DV-Class ships, but somewhere along the way, the Fleet had not only dropped that name but actively started discouraging its use.
So when she said Dignity Vessel, she meant a Dignity Vessel.
Crowe looked at the ship Newark was pointing to. It looked ancient. Its design was smaller than the DV-Class ships he was used to, and it looked like it had been soldered together with some kind of ancient tool. The ship didn’t appear to be made of nanobits, but of some kind of metal instead.
But it had the familiar frame of a DV-Class vessel, minus the curves over the small winged area, and it was definitely a Fleet design.
Newark looked over her shoulder and gave him a grin. He hadn’t seen her this animated since her first day as the ship’s chef. He had no idea she loved old ships.
He didn’t. He liked newer, more modern equipment, and he was going to say so, but by then, Orbiter One had gone past the Dignity Vessel, and was wending its way through a bunch of square objects, that looked like parts of the Dignity Vessel itself.
“We’ll be at that secondary force field in less than five minutes,” Ibori said. His voice held no trace of nerves whatsoever. Which was good, because Crowe had become a basket of them.
The secondary force field was the third major hurdle that Orbiter One had to get past. First the external defenses. Then entering the Scrapheap. And finally crossing into the Ready Vessel area without a hitch.
This time, Crowe went to the chair he had assigned himself toward the back of the cockpit.
“Let’s strap in this time,” he said to Newark and Colvin. “I have a hunch this is going to be harder than it looks.”
The Renegat Orbiter One
Ibori felt more alert and alive than he had in nearly a week. He had forgotten how much he liked to pilot small vessels. Orbiter One was a great, responsive little ship. He could move it with the touch of a finger.
He had practiced on it before they had left, and had been pleased to discover that it also had an excellent autopilot function. If he couldn’t operate the ship at full capacity, the autopilot should accurately follow any trajectory he programmed into it.
He had programmed their trip into the autopilot before they left, and had instructed it to avoid any pieces of debris in its path. He had only set up the autopilot as a backup.
He was piloting the ship by hand, simply because it gave him such pleasure—and pleasure had been in short supply recently.
He had thought he would need all of his skills to pilot Orbiter One, though, because he had expected a lot more random debris and pieces of ships along the trajectory he had chosen.
So far, there had been no debris or pieces of equipment or detached parts of ships, which led him to believe that he was following an actual path, something carved out of the Scrapheap by the thieves who had been here long before the Renegat ever arrived in this sector—maybe thousands of years before Ibori had even been born.
The Scrapheap itself was a marvel. The ships and debris were held in place by strong waves of energy that actually made the space around them seem solid. The energy waves buffeted Orbiter One, rocking it along the path.
He had had to concentrate when he first entered the Scrapheap because he hadn’t expected the energy waves to have an impact on Orbiter One. When he realized that they did, he had moved slightly to one side, and that was where he had discovered the path. It was almost like a pocket trail built into the Scrapheap itself.
He suspected that, if he had time to analyze everything, he would find some kind of small force field around the area he was traveling through, preventing those waves from hitting Orbiter One too hard.
He could see the end of the path, looming ahead. Several ships of a type he didn’t recognize closed in around the edges of the secondary force field, the one around the Ready Vessels.
Ibori was pretty sure those ships weren’t Fleet vessels. He had already scanned them. They didn’t have any life signs, nor did they have active energy signatures.
And unlike several of the ships that Orbiter One had already passed, those ships in front of the force field didn’t have an anacapa drive either.
Ibori had spent the day before this trip with Crowe and Bakhr, going over the simulations that both men had run. Ibori had run his own simulation, and he had also done his own research.
He had found several ships closer to the opening in the Scrapheap’s force field that had active anacapa drives, ships that weren’t Ready Vessels and weren’t protected by that secondary force field. He had presented that information to Crowe, and Crowe had nodded.
I don’t want to trust drives that old, Crowe had said, as if he knew somehow that the anacapa drives inside the Ready Vessels would be newer.
Ibori reminded Crowe that no one knew how old some of the anacapa drives the Fleet was still using were. And Crowe had called that information irrelevant.
Ibori had felt stung. But not because Crowe had treated him badly—he hadn’t. But because Crowe wouldn’t even listen to the argument.
Ibori had had anacapa training just like the other engineers, and he had been fascinated by the anacapa drives grown from ancient roots. Most drives were manufactured, but some were developed off old pieces, using a technology he had ultimately chosen not to explore.
Not that it mattered right now.
At the moment, it had become very clear to Ibori that Crowe had been right: the ships outside of the Ready Vessel area were ancient. It wasn’t that their drives were too old. The containers were either nonexistent or had broken down.
Crowe’s irrelevant phrase had also turned out to be right, because the equipment around the anacapa drive was untrustworthy, and the drives themselves could be contaminated with all kinds of junk from inside the Scrapheap.
Of course, the Ready Vessels could be contaminated too. But the Renegat’s sensors hadn’t been able to penetrate all of the noise inside that Ready Vessel area. Those ships might be new and pristine, like they were advertised to be, or they might be as decrepit as the remaining ships outside the area.
There was no way to know without getting inside.
“Um,” he said, still not sure how to address Crowe—or really, how to address anyone. “Are you all looking at this? It seems to me that the ships in front of that secondary force field have moved.”
He hadn’t charted it. He was too busy piloting Orbiter One.
“I think,” he said when no one responded immediately, “that they might be trying to block us.”
“They have no life signs,” Newark said, which surprised him. Her level of engagement surprised him completely. He had written her off once she quit working on the bridge.
“So they’re programmed to block ships?” Tosidis said.
“Maybe,” Crowe said. He had strapped in, to Ibori’s relief, because for most of the trip, Crowe had been tugging on the back of his chair, which was extremely annoying.
“Or Fleet ships,” Bakhr said.
Ibori felt a chill.
“Maybe it’s just to prevent something that had broken free from getting in,” Colvin said.
“I don’t care about theory,” Ibori said. “I need to either go around them or get through them. Ideas?”
“I’m sending you a new path,” Crowe said. “Try that.”
The coordinates appeared in front of Ibori, and he moved Orbiter One accordingly. As he did, the other ships shifted too.
“Let’s just shoot them,” Zhang said.
“No.” Crowe’s voice was harsh. “We don’t fire weapons in here. I thought I explained that.”
He had, but he hadn’t explained his reluctance to do so, at least in full. It seemed like he was spooked. Although, Ibori knew, Crowe didn’t spook easily.
“The Scrapheap has already
recognized us,” Bakhr said. “Why don’t we just ask it to open the secondary force field.”
“Ask it how?” Ibori said. “We didn’t plan to communicate with the Scrapheap itself.”
“Except with our identification,” Bakhr said.
“It’s a good idea,” Crowe said. “Let’s just send a normal entry signal. See if that does anything.”
The same signal the Fleet used with all of its small ships, asking for entry into a larger ship or to dock on a starbase or to land on a sector base. Ibori sent the signal, but he didn’t have a lot of hope. Surely, the signal would have changed over the centuries.
“Something’s opening,” Tosidis said.
“The force field is clearing below us,” Bakhr said at the same time.
Ibori saw it at that moment too. The problem was the ships on this path were starting to shift as well.
He sped up Orbiter One, going five times faster than he had a moment ago, hoping that opening in the force field wasn’t an illusion.
Orbiter One ducked under the ships, then sped into the opening in the force field. Ibori winced as Orbiter One went through—half of him was convinced it would bounce off the force field and back into the main part of the Scrapheap.
But it didn’t.
It arrived at the edge of the Ready Vessel area, surrounded by ships that made the Renegat look small.
The force field closed behind Orbiter One. Ibori hoped that the same signal would open the force field a second time.
“God,” Tosidis said, “these ships are huge.”
“And in great shape,” Bakhr said.
“And old,” Zhang said.
Ibori nodded. They were old, just like the bits of the ships outside the secondary force field. Apparently, the Fleet had been preparing Ready Vessels for a very, very long time.
“Any particular ship you want to target?” he asked.
“If only we could choose a newer one,” Zhang muttered. Her words were probably deliberately loud enough for everyone to hear.
“We don’t have time to search,” Crowe said. “Follow the original plan.”
The original plan had been silly, in Ibori’s opinion. They hadn’t been able to see the Ready Vessels clearly through the force field, so Crowe had simply chosen the nearest ones to their entry point.
“Do those vessels have anacapa drives?” Crowe was asking Bakhr. Apparently, Crowe was referring to the vessels he had targeted initially.
“Yeah,” Bakhr said. “And it looks like they’re functioning, given the energy readings I’m getting.”
“All right,” Crowe said. “Get us as close as you can, Tindo.”
“Are we going to hook up to the ships?” he asked.
“Maybe we should see if they let us into one of their docking bays,” Newark said.
“No.” Crowe used that same firm voice he had used before. “I don’t want these ships to activate. We’re going to hook up like we’re doing a rescue.”
“Grappler or space bridge?” Tosidis asked.
“Both,” Crowe said.
Ibori had already known that was the plan. Both the grappler and the space bridge were ready. He just had to find a good entry into the nearest ship.
His heart was beating hard. This would be the tricky part for him. He hadn’t done this kind of hookup with another ship in more than a decade.
He scanned the edges of the ship that Crowe had chosen. That ship was twice the size of the Renegat. The ship was black, unlike many of the others, and looked like it was composed of nanobits. So, in that, at least, it was newer.
Ibori hoped the grappler would work. He had no idea if it would have worked on the older, metal ships, so he was glad that this ship appeared to have the right kind of material.
“All right,” he said. “I’ve picked an entry point. It’s as close as I can get to that anacapa reading that Benjamin found.”
That entry looked very far away from anything, though. Which made sense. The Fleet’s bridges were always well hidden.
“We’re going to have to go in and out very fast,” Crowe said to Colvin and Newark. Apparently those three were the ones heading onto the designated ship.
Ibori had no idea how they were chosen. He was just grateful he wasn’t one of the people traveling to that dark and empty ship. He had done his required exterior work on shuttles and DV vessels, using gravity boots to hold him onto the sides of the ships, and those had been the most terrifying weeks of his training. He hated being outside a ship, and the worst thing, in his opinion, would be to go from inside a warm and comfortable fully functional vessel into one of the dark and cold ones, a vessel that might or might not operate properly.
“All right,” Colvin said, as she put up her hood. Newark did the same. Then they both checked their gloves.
Crowe slid his on, wincing a little, probably because of the surgeries on his hand. Ibori’s finger still ached as well, but he hadn’t been infected with that stuff. He had no idea what other kind of pain Crowe might be feeling.
Then Crowe started to put his hood over his face. He stopped and made eye contact with Ibori, Bakhr, Tosidis, and Zhang.
“We’re going to stay in close and active communication,” he said to them. “If we run into trouble, we’ll tell you if we can.”
Ibori nodded. None of the others did. They just waited.
“However—and I want you all to pay attention to this—if one of us tells you to leave the vicinity, you leave immediately.” Crowe looked pointedly at them all again. “Got that?”
“What are you worried about?” Tosidis asked.
Crowe looked down, then back up again. He took a deep breath as if it took extra strength to talk.
“I once saw something go wrong with an anacapa drive inside a Scrapheap. That caused a catastrophic reaction inside the Scrapheap. I don’t think that will happen this time, but if anything goes awry, I want you all to get out of here as fast as you can. Do you understand?”
“Not entirely,” Zhang said. “Are you saying that something that happens inside that ship could hurt us?”
“I’m hoping that won’t happen,” Crowe said, “but the possibility exists. There’s too much weird energy inside a Scrapheap for us to expect everything to work as we think it will.”
“Whatever that means,” Zhang said.
“If I knew,” Crowe said, “I would plan for it better. Just leave if I tell you to.”
“Or if either of us do,” Newark said. She shot a questioning look at Crowe, as if she worried that he would be upset at her clarification.
“Exactly,” he said.
Ibori’s entire body had stiffened. He had known this was a dangerous mission. He had also known that without it, the Renegat would never function properly again.
But he hadn’t been prepared to flee the Ready Vessel area quickly.
While the team was gone, he was going to have to reprogram the autopilot. And that would take time. He would have to be very careful not to trigger anything else.
And somehow, he was going to have to account for that automated signal—the request to the Scrapheap itself to open the secondary force field.
He had a lot to do while they were gone.
He glanced at Tosidis, Bakhr, and Zhang. He would ask them for help as well. But he was going to wait until Crowe, Newark, and Colvin were gone.
“The energy waves buffeting these vessels might interfere with communications,” Bakhr said.
“Let’s hope they don’t,” Crowe said. “I’m going to need all of you on this.”
Then he looked at Zhang. “Make sure no oxygen leaks into that storage container on the outside of this vessel. Luc, make sure that the environmental systems in all of the exterior storage areas are off.”
“I will,” Tosidis said.
“Remember,” Crowe said, hands on the edges of his hood, “any oxygen near these anacapa drives and we’re screwed.”
Ibori nodded. The others did as well, even though none of them had
actually seen the difference between the healthy pink whatever it was and the dead stuff that had turned up after the oxygen source ended.
None of them had watched anyone die from that stuff in real time.
“We’ll be careful,” he said.
He would make certain of it.
Unknown Vessel
Crowe entered the airlock on the unknown vessel. Immediately a light appeared in front of him, welcoming him to the ship and asking him to wait as the environmental system powered up.
Panic flared through him. The last thing he wanted was for one of these old vessels to power up in any way. He cast around for some shutoff mechanism, and then saw it in the middle of the well-lit announcement.
He pressed the shutoff mechanism, and for a moment, he thought it wouldn’t take. Then the system blinked green, acknowledging his countermand.
He activated the gravity on his boots and gloves so that he could lean, just for a moment, and let the panic flow through him. Panic would not serve him at all on this mission.
Panic might kill him.
The airlock timer started—a blue light above the inner door.
He had seen something like that years ago, as a young student on the Brazza Two, when they had been allowed to explore the systems of a very old ship. He hadn’t seen it since.
The door to the interior of the ship opened slowly, almost sticking as it moved.
Since he hadn’t allowed the environmental system to activate, the ship wouldn’t need to use the airlock.
He hoped that this ship would work the way all the other Fleet ships did, and not close the interior airlock door quickly.
But he had to plan for the worst. So he leaned into the space bridge, and beckoned Colvin and Newark to join him. They moved quickly toward him, Newark slowed a little because she was carrying an anacapa travel container.
They probably should have brought two containers, but he didn’t want two of the three explorers to carry something extra. He was making a lot of decisions like that for this trip, based on a judgment he wasn’t exactly sure was sound.
The Renegat Page 80