Time Bomb

by R. M. Olson

  “But—it would only have triggered an overheating if there were heavy signals—” he trailed off.

  Jez felt suddenly sick.

  “Exactly,” said Masha grimly. She tossed the device to Tae, and he grabbed it without a word. He turned it over, ejected the chip, and slipped it into his com, pulling up the holoscreen as he did so.

  His face went grave.

  “Masha,” he said quietly.

  She nodded. “I know.”

  “What?” snapped Jez. Tae turned to look at her, and she was shocked at the grim expression on his face.

  “They’ve been tracking us this whole time, and they’ve honed in on our position. That’s what indirectly caused the meltdown—the core was damaged, and then with the beacon drawing power and focusing it, it was too much. And now—” he paused, glancing down at his com. “I’ve shut it off, but they already know our coordinates. Their ship is about twelve hours away. And from the looks of it, they’ve fired off a pair of heavy missiles that will reach us about an hour before they do. Looks like we won’t have time to run out of oxygen after all.”

  She stared at him, a numbness catching her chest. Tanya had gone slightly pale, and Ysbel put an arm around her.

  “It’s not just that, though,” said Tae quietly. “Lev, you might want to come over here.”

  Lev frowned and crossed over to Tae, scanning the information on the screen quickly. His eyebrows rose, and he gave a soft whistle.

  “Well,” he said. “Masha, I assume you’ve seen this?”

  Masha nodded.

  “Seen what?” asked Ysbel sharply. “I’m not sure if you realize this, but there are people in this room who aren’t currently looking over Tae’s shoulder.”

  “I’m sorry,” said Lev, looking up. He took the device from where Tae had laid it on the control panel. “This is a government tracker, and it’s got the full authorization code on it. If it had been stolen, the code would be out of date, but this one is current. So there’s no way this is coming from Lena only.”

  Jez swallowed hard, trying to keep her voice steady. “Hey, genius. I thought you said you were sure this was Lena. And I’m pretty damn sure that whoever it was that jumped you back in the zestava was smuggler crew.”

  “Maybe,” said Lev, his forehead creased in a frown. “I don’t know. We may have to assume that the government is working with Lena.”

  Jez scoffed. “Lena? Work with the government?”

  “If you recall, I worked in the government for quite some time,” Masha murmured. “I had access to some very classified information. Let me tell you, if they’d wanted Lena badly enough, they could have had her. But they prefer not to use those methods on a smuggler crew, no matter how effective that crew may be. They’d only utilize them in a matter of system security.”

  Jez tried to grin, but she didn’t really feel like grinning. “So what, Lena’s going to assassinate the Secretary General or something?”

  Lev shook his head. “No, Jez. I have a feeling they wanted her because of something else.” He hesitated. “Someone else.”

  The cold in her chest tightened. “But—”

  “I assume, someone they knew Lena could locate, where they may not be able to. We never found who betrayed us in the prison. But from what I know of Lena, it wouldn’t surprise me if she knew someone on the inside. Someone who could have recognized you. And, if you’ll forgive me, you weren’t exactly inconspicuous.”

  “But—” There was something like panic spreading through her. If Lena had been after her, that would have been bad enough. But the government?

  Bad things happened to people the government was after. She knew that damn well.

  Lev held up a hand. “I don’t think it’s just you, Jez,” he said. “They’d have records of who Masha recruited for this team. We disappeared, for all intents and purposes killed off. But if they somehow found out one of us survived? It wouldn’t have been a stretch to assume we all had, and furthermore, that we were all together somehow.”

  “Is this about the heist, then?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.

  “I—don’t know,” said Lev. His tone was level, but she could hear the worry in his voice.

  “That’s the thing,” said Tae, squinting at the screen. He expanded his screen, tapped it, and expanded it again. Then his eyes widened slightly.

  “Those tags they had on the rest of us,” he said quietly. “They’re here, too. And there’s a note under the tags.”

  “What does it say?” asked Ysbel.

  “It says—” he paused. “They want us dead. All of us. There’s our names, and a date, and a death reward. C-level credits.”

  There was a moment of silence as everyone in the cockpit turned to stare at him.

  Something sick and numb was spreading through Jez’s whole body. She couldn’t push from her mind the image of her old apartment, everything inside torn to shreds, the red stain spreading from the neighbour woman’s throat.

  “Why, though?” asked Lev quietly. “Why kill us? What would the government want with the five of us? Yes, Masha, what you did on the heist would have certainly inconvenienced them, but—C-level credits to kill us? Even with the jailbreak, that seems excessive.”

  “And the dates,” said Masha grimly. “If this had been about the heist, the dates should have matched up with something in the heist—when we planned it, when we pulled it off, when we disappeared. No. I believe this is something else entirely.”

  There were a few moments of silence.

  Finally, Ysbel raised her head. “Alright then. So, if I understand correctly, we have eleven hours before Lena’s missiles blow us into space dust. And we currently have no weapons, no shields, and no power. Is that more or less correct?”

  Lev nodded.

  Jez closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath.

  They were probably all going to die. They were almost certainly all going to die.

  She probably shouldn’t be feeling, for the first time since her beautiful, perfect ship had gone silent, completely alive. But there was something about the adrenalin pounding through her that made it impossible not to grin.

  “Alright then,” she said. “She’s come a long way to find us. Least we can do is to get a welcoming party together for her.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Impact minus 11 hours, Lev

  There were a few moments of stunned silence.

  In all honesty, Lev was feeling slightly stunned himself.

  The headache didn’t help.

  “Well, come on, genius, let’s go,” said Jez, pulling herself out of the pilot’s chair with some effort. “Guess we got some shields to fix.”

  He stared at her.

  She was grinning. She was actually grinning.

  She bumped his shoulder on the way by, then sauntered off down the hallway.

  Ysbel sighed and shook her head. “I will never understand that girl. But she’s right. Tanya and I will go see what we can do with the weapons, I suppose.”

  “Probably better go with her, Lev,” said Tae, his voice still strained. “Masha, can you help me in the reactor bay? I need to check the damage.”

  Lev turned and started after Jez. He caught up with her a few moments later.

  “You’re actually enjoying this,” he said. He could hear the disbelief tinging his own voice. “You’re actually happy that Lena’s hunting us down.”

  She stopped in front of the ship’s compartment, and turned to face him. She wasn’t even trying to hide the grin on her face.

  “Well, genius, we might not be able to get away, but I bet we can make Lena wish she’d never found us. I’m good at that.”

  He shook his head as she stepped inside.

  It was good to see the old Jez back. But he wished, somehow, that it didn’t always seem to involve someone about to get blown up.

  “Alright, Jez. I assume you know the basics of the shields—”

  “Nope,” she said casually. “I
mostly was worried about making the ship go really, really fast. And the hyperdrive. Which is basically the same thing, I guess.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Alright. I’m going to pull up the specs, and—” he stopped, glancing around quickly. “Did you feel that?”

  Jez frowned as well and hit the com. “Hey. Tech-head. Gravity’s flickering in here.”

  A moment later, Tae’s voice came over the earpiece. “Yeah. The meltdown messed up a bunch of the systems. I’m still trying to figure out the damage, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the gravity is unreliable. I’ll do what I can, but I can’t promise anything.”

  “Thanks, Tae.” Lev tapped off his com and turned back to Jez. “We might be working in zero-grav in a minute here.”

  “I heard.” She paused, sobering. “Um. Lev. Are you—how are you feeling?”

  He gave a slight smile. The headache was still there, but manageable now. “I’m doing OK. I—thank you. For bringing me in.”

  She tried to smile back, but there was something haunted in her expression. “I—was worried about you. I thought maybe we’d been too late. I—”

  “It’s OK,” he said, stepping forward slightly. “I’m OK. Just a headache.”

  “You—were almost dead. When I brought you in. I thought—I thought—” She swallowed hard, and without thinking, he reached out and put a hand on her arm.

  “Jez. It’s alright. I’m fine. Thanks to you and Tae.”

  She nodded, a slightly stricken look on her face. “OK. But—tell me if you start feeling—I mean, I don’t want—I—don’t do that again, OK? I don’t know if I can—if I—”

  “Jez.” He took her other arm and turned her to face him. “Jez. Listen to me. I’m fine, and it’s going to be fine, and I’m harder to kill than you might think.”

  She was looking directly into his eyes, and he couldn’t seem to look away, and that faint memory of him lying on a cot with her head on his chest and his arms around her felt suddenly more real. He’d taken a step closer to her somehow, and in the cramped space of the engine room, they were almost touching.

  He swallowed, but he couldn’t take his eyes off her, and she didn’t seem to want to take her eyes off him either.

  “How do the shields look?” came Tae’s voice through the earpiece, and they both jumped. He released her hastily, and tapped his com.

  “Give us a sec.”

  When he looked up, Jez had already turned away and was crouched in front of the paneling, removing the bolts. He took a deep, slightly shaky breath and joined her, pulling up a list of specs on his com.

  She removed the paneling and set it aside, and they both peered inside.

  “Well,” she said after a moment. “Like I said, I never paid much attention to how the shields worked. But pretty sure they’re not supposed to look like that.”

  He reached past her and lifted out a blackened, warped cylinder. “Yes. You’d be correct,” he murmured.

  This wasn’t good, because he was pretty certain he remembered every single blackened piece that Tae and Jez had managed to salvage from the supplies room, and he was pretty sure this wasn’t one of them.

  “Well, good thing we have wire-brushes and a mallet,” she said, reaching in and pulling out another blackened component.

  Something shifted in the compartment again. Lev had a momentary feeling of weightlessness, and when it ended, he landed on the floor off-balance and had to throw out one hand to catch himself.

  “Damn grav controls,” Jez mumbled.

  “You have another wire-brush?” he asked. “I’ll get started on this one.”

  She handed him one, and he started gingerly scrubbing at the carbon buildup on the warped piece of metal.

  The feeling of weightlessness returned, and he grabbed for his tools before they could drift away, and this time when the gravity returned he fell a good ten centimetres. Jez landed on the floor next to him on her wrists, and swore under her breath. She hit the com.

  “Tae! Stop fiddling with the grav field.”

  “It wasn’t me,” came Tae’s slightly-irritated voice. “I told you, the melt-down affected all the systems, OK? You want me to work on that, or do you want me to finish going through to see what else might kill us in the next ten minutes?”

  Jez rolled her eyes. The gravity flickered again, and she grabbed for the part she’d been working on as it drifted a millimetre or so into the air and then fell again. And then the gravity cut completely.

  “Yes, Jez.” Tae’s resigned voice came over the earpiece a moment later. “It’s out everywhere. I’m looking into it. Hold tight.”

  Jez grinned at Lev. “You ever tried to work in zero-grav before?”

  He sighed. “No, Jez. I have not. And so far, it doesn’t seem overly productive.”

  “Well, guess it depends on what you consider productive,”she drawled. She pulled back her arm carefully and tossed the wire-brush at him. The movement sent her drifting backwards, and the brush hit him on the shoulder, leaving him turning slow circles towards the far wall.

  “Jez—” he began. She snickered.

  “Come on, genius, let’s get to work.”

  “It would have been easier if you hadn’t just—”

  “It’s good for you. Teaches you how to work in difficult conditions.”

  “I’m fairly certain this entire last sixteen-some hours has been an exercise in working in difficult conditions,” he said through his teeth

  Jez had maneuvered herself over to the panel, and was holding on to the engine room wall with one hand while she rummaged around inside the compartment with the other.

  “See, whoever built this little beauty was thinking,” she said chattily as she worked. “See the hand-holds? Guess they probably had to do a little zero-grav work themselves at some point.”

  Lev shook his head and began scrubbing at the cylinder with the wire-brush again. “I know we’ve had this conversation. ‘Whoever it was’ was Sasa Illiovich.”

  She shrugged. “I’m supposed to remember that?”

  “Jez. Even you had to have heard of Sasa. They were the most brilliant inventor the system has ever seen.” He paused a moment. “Although now that I’ve met Tae, I may have to revise that opinion.”

  “Were they a smuggler?” Jez asked. She now had a small collection of burned, carbon-scored parts floating in a halo around her.

  “No, Jez, I just told you—”

  “Were they a pilot?”

  He sighed. “No.”

  “Well then.” She shrugged. “Like I said. Probably not going to remember their name.” She paused a moment, and her voice softened slightly. “Although, if they were the one who built my sweet baby—” She swallowed hard, and turned back to her work.

  He watched her in bemused silence.

  He wasn’t entirely certain he’d ever figure Jez out. For someone who, on the surface, seemed so entirely uncomplicated, he was never exactly sure what she’d do next. Although, a part of him whispered, he could probably make a fairly good guess by thinking of the most outrageous reaction he could imagine to any given situation, and then multiplying it by a factor of ten.

  They worked in companionable silence for a while. It was strange, floating between the walls and the floor and the ceiling as he worked. It was hard not to think of the floor as down, and when his feet were pointing towards the ceiling, he kept making unconscious efforts to right himself. Every so often, when he got too engrossed in his work, Jez would throw something at him, sending him spinning slowly off in a new direction.

  He shook his head, not certain whether to be irritated or amused.

  She’d somehow managed to take the shielding system apart, and was now struggling to work the mallet, as every blow pushed her backwards.

  He watched her for a moment in faint amusement. She’d hooked a foot around one of the hand-hold bars to brace herself, but with one broken arm that was the best she could do, and every strike sent her drifting off the wall. At last, shaking hi
s head, he grabbed the nearest wall and pushed off towards her. She looked up as he grabbed a bar next to her, and he let the wire brush and the cylinder drift off.

  “What,” she snapped. He smiled slightly.

  “Jez. Let me do that.”

  She glared at him. “Pretty sure I have more experience fixing ships than you do, genius.”

  “I’m quite certain I could figure out how to work a mallet.”

  “This is my ship. She’s been through enough already.”

  He sighed. “Fine.” He paused. “I supposed I could brace you so you can use both hands, if you’d like.”

  She watched him for a moment, and finally gave a short nod.

  He hooked an arm through one of the hand-holds, and his foot through another. She was still watching him. He took a deep breath.

  “I’m going to have to—” he gestured at her. She raised an eyebrow, and he blew out his breath. “I—sorry. Do you—mind?”

  She shook her head, still watching him, and he put his free arm around her waist, pulling her against him so her body was braced against his chest.

  She glanced over her shoulder at him, then turned hurriedly back to her work.

  For some reason, he was having a hard time breathing normally. The feel of her angular, wiry body against his felt—almost too natural. Almost like she fit there. Like she was meant to be there.

  “Does this help?” he asked. His voice was strangely unsteady.

  “Yeah.” She didn’t look up, but he could feel the tension through the muscles in her back.

  “Are you sure? I don’t have to—”

  “It’s better,” she said. She’d pushed the part up against the wall to hold it steady, and seemed to be focusing abnormally hard on directing the mallet.

  Her voice sounded slightly breathless as well, but it could just be his imagination.

  He shifted his grip on her slightly, and she settled back, leaning into him to steady herself.

  Damn.

  He couldn’t seem to catch his breath, and he felt shaky, and weightless in a way that had nothing to do with the grav system.