Time Bomb

by R. M. Olson

  She glanced down at the children again. Olya had started to shiver as well, and Jez pulled her a little closer.

  I knew you wouldn’t leave us.

  Well, not leaving them may not have been enough.

  “Hey! Jez, you there?”

  She broke off the story and hit her com. “Yeah. I’m here. What’s happening?” Her voice was shaking with cold.

  “Listen to me. I think we can get you out. I’m just going to have to talk you through a procedure, OK?”

  She stared at her com for a moment.

  That did not sound anything close to OK.

  Still—

  Olya was watching her, wide-eyed, her teeth clenched determinedly to avoid letting them chatter.

  “Yeah. Sounds good.”

  “Alright. I’ll need you to get to the blast doors at the far end of the hallway. Can you get there?”

  “Yep. Give me a sec.”

  She reached down and hoisted Misko off her lap. “Come on, kiddo. Time to walk.”

  “I’m cold, Aunty Jez.”

  “I know. I’m getting you somewhere warm as fast as I can. Come on, up you go. You too, Olya. Bring the blankets with. I don’t know how long this is going to take.”

  The two children slid off the bed and stood shivering on the floor, the blankets and Jez’s coat wrapped around them.

  Her com cast a narrow beam of light as they walked to the blast doors, and Misko slipped his hand into hers. Olya walked ahead, clearly trying to pretend she wasn’t scared, and Jez felt a slight pang. How many times had she pretended not to be scared, as a kid?

  “We’re here,” she said over the com. “What do you need me to do?”

  Tae sighed deeply. “Alright. I want you to open the panel to your right.”

  “Got it,” she said.

  “Now, I need you to listen carefully, OK? There are ten sets of wires in there. They’re various colours, but I want you to grab the blue one.”

  She shined her light into the mass of wires and components, trying to push down the creeping tension rising in her chest.

  This was the kind of thing she’d never been good at. Because you had to pay attention and focus, and neither of those were what she’d call strengths of hers.

  “Alright, tech-head, there’s about five different blue wires. Which one?”

  “No. There’s a turquoise, and a navy, and then there’s a—a true blue.”

  She glared at the com. “What?”

  He sighed again. “Look. Like, this colour.” The holoscreen flickered, and Tae’s face appeared, worried and slightly exasperated, then he pointed it at a small bundle of wires under the control panel.

  She squinted at the screen. “Sorry, looks green in this light.”

  Tae’s face appeared again on screen. He was pressing his finger and thumb of one hand into his temples, as if staving off a headache.

  He looked tired. But then again, she was starting to wonder if she’d recognize him if he didn’t look tired, since that basically seemed to be his entire mode of existence.

  “Can you turn the screen around and show me?”

  She obliged, and for a moment he was silent.

  “That one,” he said at last. “Up in the top corner.”

  “This one?” she touched a wire.

  “No! Not that one. The other one. On the other side.”

  She rolled her eyes and grabbed the other wire, jerking it out of its casing.

  “What are you doing? You’re not supposed to pull it out! Anyways, you got the wrong one again. It’s the one just below that. You’ll have to put that one back in.”

  “Make up your damn mind,” she muttered, shoving the wire back into its hole. It was harder than it looked, since she could only use one hand, as her other wrist was holding the com light steady. At last she managed it, and flipped the screen around.

  “Got it.”

  “Good. At least we’re not actually worse off than when you started,” said Tae, through his teeth. She grinned at him through chattering teeth.

  “Lighten up, tech-head. Told you this wasn’t my thing.”

  “Well, it’s going to have to be your thing for at least the next ten minutes,” he ground out. She shrugged.

  “I’m smart. I’ll figure it out.”

  He muttered something that was probably uncomplimentary.

  “OK, so I got your stupid wire. Which, by the way, is not blue.”

  “It is blue!”

  She peered at it closer. “Nope. I’d say more of a purplish.”

  “Is this important?” Ysbel’s voice sounded impatient, and there was a not-very-veiled threat in it.

  “Fine. It doesn’t matter. You’re going to need to take that wire—”

  “The purple one?” she broke in.

  “Fine. The bloody purple one. Follow it to the other end, and it should be connected into a computer chip. Do you see it?”

  She ran her finger along the wire, and touched a small chip.

  “Got it.” She peered closer. “Is it supposed to have ice crystals on it?”

  Tae swore. “No. No it’s not. Can you warm it up somehow?”

  She bent down and blew on it. The ice crystals in the centre softened, but didn’t melt.

  “Just—”

  “Don’t worry. I got it.” She pulled the heat-torch out of her back pocket, where she’d stashed it, and fired it up. Tae’s expression went frantic.

  “No! Jez, you can’t just—”

  She ignored him, bringing the white-hot tip close enough to the mass of wires that she could smell the chemical scent of softening plastic.

  “Jez!”

  “I know what I’m doing,” she murmured. “Not an idiot, you know.”

  “No, I absolutely do not know that! What in the system—”

  “Got it,” she said smugly, shutting off the torch. “No more ice.”

  “If you’d gotten that torch even a tiny bit closer and melted a wire sheath—” His voice was strained. She grinned at him.

  “Well, I didn’t. So no need to worry.”

  He shook his head disbelievingly. “Remind me never to ask you to work on tech with me.”

  “Not going to get any argument from me on that one.”

  He sighed again. “OK. Now that you found the chip, you’re going to need to disconnect the blue—” she opened her mouth, and he sighed. “The purple wire. But you need to pay attention to where it’s connected, because once you get that off, I’m going to need you to connect it through a wire in your com. I think if you do that, I should be able to program in a temporary override which should, technically, open the door for long enough for you to get out.”

  “Yep.” She jerked the wire free.

  She was pretty sure she remembered where it had gone, anyways.

  “Jez—” said Tae in a strangled tone.

  “What?”

  “Never mind.” His teeth seemed to be permanently clenched by now.

  She smirked at him for a moment.

  “Aunty Jez, I’m cold,” said Misko. She glanced down. He was shivering, and there were tears starting in his eyes. She crouched down.

  “Hey buddy. It’s OK. Uncle Tae and I will get you out, OK?”

  He nodded mutely, and she stood up.

  “Alright, Tae, what do I do now?” She found she didn’t feel like grinning anymore.

  “Open the back of your com. I’m going to explain it to you first, because I won’t be able to talk to you while you’re doing it. You’ll want to pull out the red wire from your com chip, and then slip the chip out. Pull out the chip from the door control, stick it into the slot in your com, and connect the red wire where the bl—purple wire was before. OK?”

  “Yeah,” she said.

  She actually had no idea what he was talking about, but she was pretty sure that he could explain it fourteen more times and she’d still have no idea what he was talking about.

  Anyways, it didn’t matter. She was just going to have to
figure it out.

  “Got it. I’m going to shut my com off, then.”

  “Alright,” he said. His face was creased with worry. “When you get it connected it will show up on my com. Once I get the override programmed in, you’ll only have a few seconds to get through the door.”

  “Got it,” she said again. She took a deep breath and tapped off the com.

  Damn.

  She pulled the com off her wrist and flipped open the back. It was almost impossible to see the colour of the wires, since the only light came from the front of the com, but by shining it at the wall she was able to get enough of a reflected glow to sort of make them out.

  “What are you doing, Aunty?” asked Olya. Her teeth were chattering now, even though her attempts to hide it.

  “Just putting something together for Uncle Tae to work on,” she said, trying to make her voice sound careless.

  They weren’t going to last a whole lot longer in here. The temperature was dropping noticeably now, and their breath puffed out in white clouds. She reached into the back of the com and tried to grab what she was pretty sure was the red wire, but her fingers were stiff and clumsy with cold, and it took her three tries. She finally managed, though, and wiggled the com chip out, slipping it into her pocket. Then she reached with cold-numbed fingers into the control panel for the chip. She got it out, but somehow she pulled another of the wires loose in the process.

  Damn. Damn, damn, damn.

  She had no idea where it went. She hadn’t even been paying attention.

  She closed her eyes for a moment, squeezing them tightly.

  It was fine. She’d figure it out. She always figured it out.

  “Aunty?”

  She looked down. Olya was standing next to her on tiptoes, peering into the panel.

  “It goes there, Aunty,” she said, pointing to a tiny hole. Jez raised an eyebrow.

  “How do you know?”

  She gave Jez a look that somehow managed to be slightly superior, even through the obvious fear on her face.

  “I was listening to Uncle Tae talk to you. And I’m good at remembering things.”

  “Well, that makes one of us,” Jez muttered.

  “What?”

  “Nothing.” She slipped the wire into the hole, and then, hand shaking slightly with cold, shoved the whole thing into her com. She grabbed the red wire and stared at the chip blankly for a moment.

  “It goes there,” said Olya, pointing.

  She pushed the wire gently into its slot.

  For a moment, nothing happened. And then there was a faint whirring, and then a ‘bang’ as the doors behind them slammed open.

  “Go!” Jez shouted, yanking the chip free of her com and scooping up Misko. She sprinted for the door and half-shoved him through to the other side, then turned.

  Olya was still standing where she’d left her. Her face was pale.

  “Come on, Olya!” she shouted. The girl shook her head mutely, eyes wide and terrified.

  The doors were shuddering. They only had seconds.

  She sprinted back for Olya, snatched the girl bodily off the ground, and ran for the doors.

  They were already closing. They were closing too fast, she and Olya were never going to make it—as she reached the doors, she pulled Olya in front of her and shoved her as hard as she could, through the crack that was barely wide enough to admit her.

  Too late for Jez, but then that wasn’t really what mattered at this point.

  And then, just before the doors slammed shut, something was shoved into the narrow crack.

  A steel bar.

  What—

  And then, slowly, the doors crept open. She stared.

  The blast doors were impossible to pull open. The pressure would never let you—

  “Get through here, you idiot!” came Ysbel’s strained voice. And Jez jumped, and slid through the entrance, and the door slammed shut behind her, twisting the bar out of Ysbel’s hands and crushing it.

  She stood panting and shivering in the corridor.

  “Are the kids alright?” she managed, through chattering teeth. And then Tanya had grabbed her in a hug, her grip so tight Jez almost couldn’t breathe.

  “Thank you,” Tanya whispered, her voice choked. “Thank you.”

  She let go of Jez and grabbed up Olya. Ysbel was already holding Misko, and he was crying into her shoulder.

  She smiled to herself for a moment, and then she felt something on her own shoulder. She turned. Lev slid his jacket over her, and his arm lingered around her for just a few moments longer than strictly necessary.

  “Jez. You alright?” he whispered.

  “Fine,” she said through chattering teeth. “Just a little cold.”

  He studied her. “You look—sad.”

  She tried to grin. “Nope. I’m fine. Just got used to being off Prasvishoni, I guess.”

  He watched her for a moment longer. At last he nodded. “Alright.” He turned to Ysbel and Tanya. “Let’s get Olya and Misko into the mess hall. I imagine they’re hungry, and it’s warmer in there.”

  At the mention of food, Misko stopped crying and perked up, and the eight of them made their way down the corridor towards the promise of food and warmth.

  Jez waited until everyone had started off before she followed.

  I knew you wouldn’t leave us.

  She’d never been dependable. Never. That was basically the opposite of who she was.

  But—the thing was, you couldn’t run forever.

  The moment she snapped at Masha, told her she was leaving, she’d known that, but she hadn’t known she’d known it until she was sitting in the dark with Misko and Olya.

  You couldn’t run forever.

  She’d run when her family had kicked her out, run from Lena, stolen her ship and took off, run from job to job to job, run from the police and from other crews, from the explosion in her old safehouse, from every damn mistake she’d made in her life.

  But it had caught up with her now. Here, on this broken corpse of her ship, with these stupid idiots who drove her crazy, and who she’d die to save, it had caught up with her.

  That was the thing. One day, you had to turn around and face the thing you were running from.

  And, well—maybe, for once in her life, she’d actually do the right thing.

  Because no matter what Tae said, they weren’t going to get away before Lena got here. Even if they got the ship running they weren’t going to be able to out-run Lena. But if she could get on board Lena’s ship by herself, get caught—she was pretty damn sure she could keep Lena distracted. Yeah, Jez would never make it back to the ship, but hell, she’d cheated death so many times in the past few hours, it was probably about time for it to catch up with her.

  And maybe she could actually protect her crew, for once, those two kids, instead of running off and getting them farther into trouble.

  Sure, Lena was after all of them. After the reward. But she knew Lena.

  And Lena hated her.

  And one day, you had to face things. You’d always have to, one day.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Impact minus 7 hours, Tae

  Tae looked around as they huddled in the mess hall.

  The lights were flickering, but at least the heat and grav system seemed to be functioning.

  As a list of things they had going for them, it was pretty short. But it was something, he supposed.

  Ysbel placed Misko on his chair, and Olya climbed into hers. Her face was still pale.

  “I’m sorry, Aunty,” she whispered as Jez walked into the room. “I’m sorry I didn’t come when you told me to. I—I got scared. I’m sorry.”

  Jez had a strange look on her face, half affection, half something else he couldn’t read. She came over and knelt beside Olya’s chair.

  “Hey Olya. Listen. You were the only reason we got out of there. Ask Uncle Tae. There’s no way I would have remembered where all those wires went on my own.”

&nbs
p; Tae blew out a breath, half of exasperation, half of amusement.

  The fact that Jez had managed to survive this long was something of a miracle, on more counts than one.

  “We all get scared sometimes,” Jez continued softly. “It’s OK. Not a big deal. Aunty’s been pretty scared before.”

  “I thought—I—I thought I was back in jail,” Olya whispered. Jez patted her on the knee.

  “Nah. No need to worry about that. If someone threw you back in jail, your aunty would break you right back out.”

  Olya had recovered enough to shoot Jez a skeptical look. “You got beat up pretty bad last time you did that.”

  “Yeah? Well maybe it was all part of the plan,” said Jez with a jaunty grin. “You think he could have beat me up if I didn’t let him?”

  “Yes,” said Olya firmly. Jez grinned.

  “Guess you don’t know your aunty well enough, then.” She stood and started to stretch, then swore colourfully. Tanya shot her a look, but it contained less animosity than it usually did.

  “Tae,” said Masha at last. “I’m sure you’ve looked through the systems. What are we working with at this point?”

  Tae sighed and gestured helplessly around the small table. “This. We’re alive, and there’s still a spot on the ship that’s warm and has power. That’s all I have.”

  Jez raised an eyebrow and shot the room a slightly smug look. “Well, I have something.”

  He turned to her, frowning. She grinned at him.

  “Guess you haven’t checked the hyperdrive lately.”

  He stared at her. “What?”

  “I said—”

  “I know what you said! What are you talking about?”

  She shrugged, still looking very smug. “Well, I fixed it.”

  “You—what? I didn’t spend much time with it, but I couldn’t even get it to—”

  “Good thing you have someone on the ship who’s good with tech,” she said, smirking.

  “I—”

  “I believe we got the shields online as well,” said Lev quietly. Tae noticed that he shot a glance at Jez as he said it, and his face flushed slightly, and Jez steadfastly refused to catch his eye. Tae raised an eyebrow.

  Whatever had happened in the engine room, it was pretty obvious that neither of them wanted to talk about it. Which was just fine with him. What with Tanya and Ysbel, he’d walked in on enough kissing in the last few days to last him a lifetime.