Perilous Hunt

by Lindsay Buroker

  What did Stanislav promise you? she asked.

  He didn’t ask my permission to come along, oddly.

  “I don’t sense anyone aboard the station,” Stanislav said.

  “So I’ve been told,” Alisa said. “We’re searching it anyway. If they’re not here, I want to know where they went.”

  She refused to believe that Jelena had been killed in that ship just before reaching her destination. No, she could be here and hidden away somewhere. Or she could have been taken away by whoever attacked the station. Alisa pushed the image of that floating wreckage out of her mind. Jelena was not dead.

  “Of course.”

  “We have a map of this place?” Leonidas asked, eyeing the corridors.

  “I’ve never been here,” Abelardus said.

  “I have,” Stanislav said. “Long ago. Here.” He gazed at Leonidas for a long moment before shifting his attention to Alisa.

  A map appeared in her mind’s eye, and she twitched at the suddenness and intensity of the image. It seemed to burn itself into her mind. She doubted she would ever forget the layout of the place now. Was that a good thing?

  Leonidas looked back at Stanislav, more of a glare than an expression of gratitude, then pointed to an elevator just inside one of the corridors. “That way to the wheel access, Beck and Mica.”

  “Give them the map, too, please,” Alisa told Stanislav, even though she had found the intrusion unsettling.

  “Done,” Stanislav said.

  Mica and Beck exchanged uncertain looks, but headed toward the elevator.

  “Looks like their Command and Control is this way,” Leonidas said, taking the lead.

  Alisa followed after him, removing a stun gun she had acquired on Arkadius from the magnetic utility belt built into her armor. Leonidas had given her a shooting lesson in the cargo hold the day before, and she now knew how to raise the built-in blazers in her arm pieces—and she knew how not to accidentally cut things by whipping out the razor blade—but she hoped deadly force wouldn’t be required here. If the place truly was empty, they wouldn’t need to use weapons at all.

  Alisa peered into alcoves and down corridors as she followed Leonidas, with Alejandro clamped to her shoulder and the Starseers following in a chain attached to him. Even though she didn’t feel their weight, it was an unwieldy way to walk. She hoped Mica could return the gravity soon.

  “This is fantastic,” Ostberg announced. “I wonder what it would be like to ride a thrust bike without gravity.”

  The lights flickered as they turned into a new corridor, but thus far, Alisa had not seen any damage to the interior of the station, nor were there any alarms sounding to warn them about the hull breech several levels down. Maybe someone had already sealed off the damaged areas.

  “If this map is right, that should be sickbay down there,” Leonidas said, pointing his rifle down a dead-end corridor that ended at a pair of clear double doors.

  “Let’s take a look,” Alejandro said.

  Leonidas turned down the corridor. Alisa frowned, slightly peeved that he was obeying Alejandro’s suggestions without asking her first, but she pushed away the sentiment, feeling silly for having it. Just because she’d wanted him on her team, and he had agreed to work for her, didn’t mean she wanted to micromanage him. Besides, even if she was the captain of her little freighter, she felt presumptuous giving orders to a former colonel. And with a lover, or potential lover, it was even more awkward.

  “Shopping for goodies?” Abelardus asked Alejandro.

  “Of course not. I wouldn’t steal from someone else’s base.”

  Alisa kept walking, ignoring the dig, though she was tempted to shrug her shoulder abruptly, so Alejandro would lose his grip on her and float helplessly in the corridor.

  “There may be clues in the sickbay,” Alejandro added. “If people were treated…”

  Leonidas stopped at the double doors. They did not automatically open for him.

  “Anything inside?” Alisa asked, peering around him and through the clear doors.

  The lights were on, revealing a surprisingly modern sickbay with computers integrated into the walls behind a row of beds equipped with holodisplays and controls. A few tools that hadn’t been secured when the gravity went out floated around the space, but the chamber was otherwise tidy and clean. Off to the side, what looked like an operating room was separated behind a wall of Glastica. All manner of equipment hung from the ceiling and was tucked against the walls on articulating arms.

  “Are those ImmerTech Scanners?” Alejandro asked, his head popping into Alisa’s peripheral vision as he pulled himself so close to the doors that he could have left a nose print. “Leonidas, can you open this?”

  Leonidas must not have seen anything alarming because he planted his palms on the glass and arranged himself so he could pull one of the sliding doors aside. It whined pitifully as it acquiesced. Alisa stepped inside, and Alejandro pushed off her with his feet, as if she were a wall in a swimming pool, and he floated toward the operating room.

  “Can we leave him here?” Alisa asked.

  “You’re the captain. Such decisions are up to you.” Leonidas walked to a wall panel that hadn’t been visible from the door. A chair was locked to the deck in front of it, and several indicator lights in various colors flashed above some built-in analytical equipment with microscope-like eyepieces protruding from it.

  “I could do surgery in here,” Alejandro said. “Who would have expected to find state-of-the-art equipment in an abandoned station in the middle of an asteroid belt?”

  “It hasn’t been abandoned for long,” Leonidas said, eyeing the indicators.

  “We had some doctors and scientists that worked out here,” Abelardus said. “Doing research and the occasional medical procedure. Nobody outside of our people knew about the station, so they weren’t bothered often.”

  Alisa wondered what kinds of research and procedures the Starseers had been doing that they hadn’t wanted anyone to know about.

  “We are a secretive people by nature,” Stanislav said from the doorway.

  “No kidding.” Alisa joined Leonidas and lowered her voice for him alone. “I wonder if Admiral Tiang could also do surgery here.”

  He gave her a sidelong look. “I hardly think this is the appropriate time or place for elective surgery.”

  “If we wait for the right time and place, it may be too late. We don’t know how long Tiang will stay with us. By his own words, he’s on leave. By my reckoning, Hawk left him aboard to spy. Either way, he could take off soon.”

  “He hasn’t offered to do the surgery, so it’s a moot point.”

  Alisa almost said something more, but she caught Stanislav looking in their direction, and her cheeks warmed. They were here, she reminded herself, for Jelena and the other children. Even if she was right that Leonidas had a limited window with Tiang, he was right in that this wasn’t the proper time to worry about such things.

  Leonidas touched one of the flashing indicators. “I believe this is tied in to the security system and indicates an intruder alert.”

  “Not surprising. Are we the intruders, or was someone else?”

  “Both, perhaps. You saw the damage on the airlock hatch two slots over from the one you chose?”

  Alisa blinked. “I didn’t notice it, no.”

  “It looked like another crew docked there and forced their way into the station. It may not have been so much that everything was unlocked when we arrived as that someone else broke the locks.”

  “Someone who came and already made off with the children?” Alisa asked, pressing a hand to the bulkhead.

  “Or someone who came and also found the station empty. There haven’t been any signs of an internal battle.”

  “Not yet.”

  He nodded in agreement. They hadn’t explored far yet.

  When Alisa turned back toward the doorway, Stanislav wasn’t there. Ostberg floated inside and tinkered with a gun-shaped tool that
had been floating around the room. He fired it and grinned when the fluid that flowed out turned to circular blobs hanging in the air.

  “Are you making a mess, Ostberg?” Abelardus asked.

  “No.” Ostberg tossed the tool aside. “I’m investigating.”

  “Your potential to make messes?”

  “Let’s clear out of here,” Alisa said, raising her voice so that Alejandro, who was poking around in the operating room, would hear. “Leonidas wants to find Command and Control, and I want to find…” Jelena, she thought, but she did not know how realistic that hope was when everyone kept telling her this place was empty. “Answers,” she finished with a sigh.

  “Where did Stanislav go?” Leonidas asked, his voice hard as he returned to the doors.

  “I can sense him looking down a side corridor,” Abelardus said. “I don’t think it’s on the way to Command and Control.”

  I’m checking on something, Stanislav spoke into Alisa’s head.

  It’s suspicious when you wander—float—away without permission. Alisa waited until Alejandro and the others secured themselves to her again, and followed Leonidas back toward the main corridor.

  Permission? Stanislav sounded bemused.

  From the captain, yes.

  You are the captain of the freighter. We’re on a Starseer station now. I am worried about my people.

  I’m worried about some people too. Come back and help us find them.

  They are not here, he replied sadly.

  Let’s find out where they went.

  I assure you, that is my goal.

  Alisa commed Mica as Leonidas approached another set of clear double doors, these marking the end of the main corridor. “Any progress, Mica?”

  “We’ve made it to the engineering section,” Mica replied. “There’s a lot of damage down here, with things sealed off.”

  “Is it possible to restore gravity?”

  “We’re looking into it.”

  “We? Beck is helping?”

  “He’s sharing ideas for a new dragon-wing sauce. Apparently, Tiang requested more wings, and Beck doesn’t want to give him the same sauce twice.”

  “So, he’s helping a lot then.”

  “Captain,” Beck said plaintively. “I’m watching Mica’s back and making sure nobody sneaks up on us. I’m doing my job. But it’s not that mentally demanding. I can spare a few brain cells for contemplation.”

  “Of dragon-wing sauce?”

  “Precisely.”

  “You mentioned damage, Mica. Have you two seen any sign of intruders down there?” Alisa asked, stopping beside Leonidas at the double doors. He touched the Glastica, which had partially melted and re-hardened, but from the inside rather than the outside. They were still able to see through them into a computer- and console-filled room that the map in her mind labeled as Command and Control. Leonidas hadn’t moved to force open the doors yet.

  “Not inside the station,” Beck said. “Lots of damage from someone shooting up the outside.”

  “Understood. Keep me—” A man’s puffy face floated into view right on the other side of the door, and Alisa broke off with a startled shriek.

  She stumbled back, gaping at the face—at the entire person. No, at the body, she realized, her mind registering that the man’s eyes were frozen open. Clad in a black imperial uniform, the bloated figure continued to float past, disappearing from view.

  “Huh,” Abelardus said.

  “Captain?” Beck asked. “Are you all right?”

  “Just startled,” Alisa said.

  “You sure? You don’t usually scream. Not even when that giant space rat scurried through the mess hall the other night.”

  “This was worse than a rat. I’ll comm you back.”

  “Two more over there,” Leonidas said, nodding through the clear doors. “I can’t see their faces. Alejandro? Did you see the first one?”

  “Barely.”

  “It looked like death from lack of oxygen.”

  “I concur,” Alejandro said.

  “Like someone sealed them in there and expunged the atmosphere?” Alisa asked.

  “Just like that.” Leonidas touched his helmet. “I can’t tell from this side of the doors if there’s air in there.”

  “If this was some kind of booby trap that the Starseers left behind, then there probably isn’t. But if we open the doors and go in, the atmosphere here will flow in, right?” She waved at the corridor.

  “Yes, I’m more concerned about the booby trap activating again once we’re inside.”

  “A valid concern,” Alejandro said. “Perhaps I should have stayed in the sickbay. To further investigate the operating room.”

  “To drool over the tools, you mean?” Alisa tapped the Glastica. “You’re strong enough to force the doors open again if we go in and need to get out, right, Leonidas? Alejandro, Abelardus, and Ostberg can stay out here. Our suits will give us air to breathe if needed.” She had made sure the full eight-hour supply of oxygen her suit could provide was available before she had left the cargo hold, and she assumed Leonidas had done the same.

  “If that’s the extent of the trap, yes.”

  “You suspect more?”

  He pointed through the doors at one of the men—bodies—floating in the back. “Judging by the angle of that soldier’s leg, it was broken before he died.”

  “We’ll have to be careful,” Alisa said. “We’re not turning around. This is the most likely place where we’ll find our answers, right?”

  “Engineering may have some answers,” Leonidas said, “but I have seen cameras around the station. The footage is likely accessible inside Command and Control.”

  “Such as footage of who came? And who left? And who might still be here?”

  “Yes.”

  “We’re definitely going in,” Alisa said. “Alejandro, Ostberg, and Abelardus. Go wait back there. Or even better, find Stanislav and make sure he’s not doing anything suspicious. Like calling his brother to come visit.” She doubted he was, especially since Tymoteusz’s ship hadn’t shown up again since the Nomad left Caravan Circle, but she didn’t like having him wandering around here on his own.

  “Ostberg,” Leonidas said, before the group moved off. “You mentioned having an aptitude when it comes to machines. Does that extend to computers? Can you tell if there are traps inside?”

  “I… not computers, no.” Ostberg hung his head. “I can influence the workings of mechanical things, but I can’t see what’s going on inside of a computer chip. I don’t think any Starseer could.”

  “All right.” Leonidas waved the group back.

  “Don’t worry,” Abelardus said. “We’ll come in and rescue you if you blow yourselves up.”

  “Comforting,” Leonidas said, then nodded to Alisa. “Ready?”

  “Ready.”

  He looked down at the stun gun in her hand.

  “Should I be wielding something more ferocious?” Alisa asked. “Will that scare the booby traps?”

  “No, but blazers might destroy them.”

  “Very well, then.” Alisa hooked the stun gun back onto her utility belt and popped up one of the small weapons from her armor sleeve. “Better?”

  “Better.” He bumped his fist against her shoulder.

  Did that pass for a love pat in armor?

  “I do feel a little silly with such a small weapon,” Alisa admitted, rotating her sleeve to eye the petite barrel. “Even the stun gun has more heft.”

  “That’s why I have this.” Leonidas hefted his big rifle. “A man likes a manly gun.”

  “Is it all right for women to like manly guns too? Or men’s guns?” She winked at him, but the gesture was probably lost through the faceplate.

  Big staffs are more satisfying, Abelardus informed her silently.

  Aren’t you looking for my father?

  Yes, but I’m not sure he wants to be found. He’s shifty.

  Tell me about it.

  Not answering her
question—and maybe puzzled by it—Leonidas lowered his rifle on its strap to grab one of the doors with both hands. With a quick snap, he shoved it aside. It did not go cleanly into the wall, as the other one had, instead catching halfway, the top tilting farther in than the bottom. In her suit, Alisa could not feel the draft as air rushed into the vacuum of the control center, but her environmental readings fluctuated, and she assumed that was what was happening.

  A beeping noise grew audible from one of the computer panels, but nothing more ominous happened. Leonidas turned sideways to step through the partially open door, his rifle back in his hands. Alisa eased through after him. She tried to focus on the instruments rather than the corpses floating through the room. It was hard. A droplet of blood that had been floating independent of the bodies splashed against her armor, and a queasy twinge went through her stomach.

  A clank emanated through their part of the station. Alisa could not tell where it originated.

  “Was that you, Mica?” she asked into her comm as Leonidas strode about the control room checking behind seating areas.

  “Was what me?”

  “Never mind.” Alisa looked at Leonidas, but he was approaching a door to the side of the main ones. From the outside, she couldn’t tell if it led to another room or corridor. Or maybe a closet.

  “I should have gravity back on in a couple of minutes,” Mica said. “I’ll warn you when to brace yourselves.”

  “Warn Alejandro and the Starseers too. They’re the ones floating up by the ceilings doing who knows what.”

  “We’re waiting for you to make sure there isn’t an environmental booby trap,” came Abelardus’s dry call from down the corridor.

  “It doesn’t look like there are any, but—”

  The door opened before Leonidas reached it. Something jumped out at him.

  Alisa stumbled back, her boots nearly losing their magnetic hold on the deck. Leonidas fired, but something slammed into his chest. His boots did lose their connection to the deck, and he was hurled back into the room. Two men burst out of a closet, wearing drab gray coveralls.

  Alisa lunged to the side as Leonidas tumbled past her, shooting toward his opponents even as he tried to find something to grab on to so he could thrust himself back to the deck. She hesitated, debating whether it was more important to help him get a lock or to open fire on their enemies. But when one of his blazer bolts hit one of the men in the chest and the figure leaped after him, seemingly unharmed, she realized they weren’t facing humans. Of course not. The sensors would have shown lifeforms.