Paradox Hunt

by Dee Garretson

  “I doubt anybody does,” Lainie said. She stood by Decker, her arm wrapped around his. She was subdued, for Lainie, so I knew she was shaken too.

  I sat down on the floor, waiting for the eye pain to subside. As soon as we were out of the atmosphere, Divana asked, “How did the tachesum get Creak? I sent him to the palace.”

  No one spoke until Lainie said, “We didn’t have time to ask him. We saw the tachesum attacking Creak near the fog garden when we were on our way back to the ship.” She shuddered. “It was awful.”

  I would have believed her if I didn’t know better. She had a real talent for acting.

  Decker licked his lips and added, “The tachesum got him so fast we couldn’t help him.” He didn’t sound quite as believable, but Divana didn’t appear to notice.

  She was silent for a few minutes and then she said, “Hmm … that’s too bad. Not so much of a loss, though. He was rotten at his job, and he got on my nerves.”

  I hadn’t expected weeping and wailing from Divana, but I thought she’d at least pretend a little regret.

  “We all have to come to an end sometime,” Pixie said. “It was either being killed by a giant lizard or having someone slit his throat when he tried to rob them. Untrustworthy little squat.”

  I didn’t know what a squat was, but just the sound of the word made it seem like a good description for Creak. None of them said another word about him. I shuddered, trying to imagine what was going to happen to him when he came to. Maybe it would have been better to let Javen kill him.

  “I take it you didn’t find your missing girlfriend,” Divana said to me.

  I tried to push thoughts of Creak out of my head. “We didn’t. There was no one there and no sign of where they went.” I waited for her to gloat, and she didn’t disappoint.

  “I shouldn’t say I told you so, but I told you so,” she said. “If you are just going to sit on the floor, why don’t you go back to your quarters to do so?”

  I ignored her. The pain was lessening, but if I got up too soon, it would come back.

  “You made a deal with Fade to drop us off on the nearest planet with a commercial spaceport when we were finished,” Decker said. “It looks like we’re finished. So where’s the nearest port?”

  “Grabin,” Wren said. “It’s about sixty-two hours away.”

  I wasn’t ready to go back to Earth with nothing to show for our efforts. If we couldn’t help Mira, we might still be able to do some good. I got up slowly, hoping I’d waited long enough. “We need to make a stop first. It will benefit both of us, if we are lucky. You have vac suits aboard, right?”

  “Yes, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you use them.” Her eyes narrowed. “What do you need them for?”

  “I want to go back to the space station to see if we can find the specs for how to fix the flaws in your MI.”

  I’d surprised her. She didn’t respond right away, and I could tell she needed more convincing. “And not just your MI,” I added. “If we could find the fix for all of them, that would be really valuable.”

  She pursed her lips. “Nice idea, but explain why you came up with something that would help me? How does it help you? Do you think I’m going to share the profits with you if we find something?”

  I was going to have to sound very convincing. “Ansun may have someone working for him who can eventually figure out how to fix his MI. I don’t want Ansun to be the only one with that knowledge. The MIs are too powerful to be in his hands alone. We need a little balance in the universe.”

  Javen scoffed. “That coming from an Earther is a bit much. Balance in the universe? There hasn’t been balance in the universe since Earth decided it should control everything.”

  “And a lot of things have gone wrong since then,” I said. “I just don’t want them to go more wrong.” I tried to inject some sincerity into my words, though I could hear the false notes in my tone.

  Divana looked at me for so long I feared she knew I wasn’t telling her the whole truth. I forced myself to stay quiet because if I tried too hard to convince her, she’d figure out I had other reasons.

  “How would you find the specs?” she asked.

  “I know that station. I grew up in and out of labs. I know scientists. I know how they store their data and that they always keep backups.” I hoped there were some data pins, which were small enough to overlook if they weren’t in obvious places.

  She scoffed. “You actually think the Combined Forces would have left anything valuable there? I’m sure they’ve been back.”

  “They’ve been busy with other things, and not many in the military even know it’s there. It’s still highly classified, and even if the military has been inside, they might not have gotten all the backups. Besides the military, no one knows about it, except, well, you and the other space raiders. They probably haven’t gone back, have they? And if they have, they wouldn’t be looking for data.”

  “That’s true. And you did manage to wipe out a fair number of the salvage ship’s crew.” I tried not to think about that part. I didn’t want to know how many raiders had died in that explosion.

  “How many of those left know the MIs don’t work right?” I asked.

  “None of them. I wasn’t going to advertise it. What makes you think even if we find something, we can figure out what to do about it?”

  “Not us,” I said. “Your MI can analyze the data. It has the technical capacity. It’s worth a try.”

  Divana looked over at Tineg. Tineg was motionless, staring straight ahead. I found it odd Tineg was so different from Samson. Why was he so much more interactive?

  Divana turned back to me. “I’m warming to this plan.”

  “Bad idea to get on that station, though,” Nic said. “You don’t know how stable any of it is and what kind of damage it suffered in the explosion. Just a small motion could cause a section to break off. Even if you weren’t in that section at the time, it could send the whole thing into a spin that would be too fast for a person inside to stay oriented.”

  “It looked fairly stable to me,” I said. I didn’t really know that, but I wasn’t going to pass up on the chance to get on the station. “It was built to withstand a lot of different forces, and the explosion was on a ship next to it. The one that killed Gregor damaged the lower ring, but none of the labs were there. We only need to get on the ring where the scientists worked.”

  Divana slapped her hand down on the arm of her chair. “All right, as long as you are willing to volunteer. One of my crew will go with you.”

  “I can do it by myself.” I didn’t want anyone with me for what I was planning to do.

  “You could do it yourself, but I am not a trusting person. How do I know you’d show me everything you found?”

  I tried to think of something to make her back off. “I’ll turn on the camera attached to the helmet. I assume your suits have those.”

  “They do, but I’ll send someone along anyway.”

  “Send Tineg. She won’t need a vac suit.” I could feel a trickle of sweat down my back. I needed to go by myself.

  “No, the MI is too valuable. I’ll tell Ryger to go.”

  “I’ll do it,” Nic said.

  “You’re not exactly a crew member,” Divana said.

  “You can’t trust your own sister?” Nic asked.

  Wren raised her hand. “I’ll go.”

  Divana shook her head. “No, I suppose Nic will do fine. All that fancy training she had in the Combined Forces should make her be able to handle any problems that come up, right?”

  “Sneer all you like,” Nic said. “Someday you may need the skills I’ve acquired.”

  “Stop your bickering and listen,” Pixie said. “Someone else has decided to pay the station a visit. Looks like they are just leaving.” She zoomed in on the image of the station. A very small ship was moving away from one of the outside docking bays.

  Divana leaned forward
. “What kind of ship? Can you get an ident number on it?”

  “It’s registered as a mid-sized passenger transport,” Pixie said. “It’s obviously not that. It’s probably a raider ship that stumbled across the station, and they thought they’d have a look at the pickings.”

  Divana tapped her fingers on the armrest. “No. Fosaan isn’t exactly on the way to anywhere. I have a feeling it’s an unmarked Combined Forces ship.”

  “Why so small?” Nic asked. “It doesn’t make sense that the CF would send such a small vessel, and an unmarked one at that.”

  “Should I blast it?” Wren asked.

  “No!” I said. “Why would you do that?”

  She shrugged. “They’re probably up to no good.”

  “Well, so are we.”

  “We’re not going into the landing bay,” Divana said. “Nic is right. The whole structure is probably very unstable.” She waved a hand at Pixie. “Get us to one of the outside docking bays.”

  “Are you sure they’ll be able to get through the airlock on an outside bay?” Decker asked. “I thought someone had to allow access on the inside.”

  “Unless they’ve changed the access codes, we’re good. Ansun’s MI got us in the last time. But I’m warning you, if there is a problem, Pixie is detaching the ship, got it?” she said to me. “We’ll try to pick you up if the station begins to break apart, but I can’t guarantee it.”

  I didn’t think it was likely that the station would suddenly begin to break apart. “Got it.”

  “From the looks of the damage, I’d be amazed if there’s any gravity aboard,” Nic said. “How much time have you spent in a gravity-free environment?” she asked me.

  “Not much,” I admitted.

  “Okay, then follow me, and do what I do,” Nic said. “This should be interesting.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  We suited up and got through the airlock into the station without a problem. The emergency lights were functioning, still powered by the solar array at the top of the station. I knew the place was going to be empty of course, but when we moved out into one of the main corridors, the emptiness made the whole place seem bigger and a little eerie. Without any gravity, I’d expected to see small objects floating around, but beyond a few cleaning bots who had long since run out of power, there was nothing. It was silent too. The only sound I heard was my own breathing.

  Even though I knew every centimeter of the station, I had to remind myself of the layout. I tried to ignore the unease growing in me. The sooner we could get out of here, the better.

  I turned on the helmet-to-helmet mike but left off the helmet-to-ship one. “Nic, turn off your outside mike so we can talk for a minute,” I said.

  “Check in,” Wren’s voice said.

  “Nic here,” Nic replied. She switched off her mike.

  “Quinn, can you hear me?” Wren asked.

  I knew I had to talk fast before Divana got suspicious. “Nic, I want to look at Gregor’s work area to see if he kept any records, but I don’t want your sister to know what I’m doing. I’ll explain why later. It’s important. Will you go along with me when I pretend my mike isn’t working?”

  Nic fiddled with her own mike. “She won’t believe you, and she’ll check it out as soon as you’re back on board.”

  I hadn’t thought about that.

  “Quinn, check in.” Wren sounded worried.

  I turned on my mike. “I’m here. Sorry, I didn’t realize the sound was off.” At least Nic seemed agreeable to the idea if I could figure out a way to carry it off.

  “There’s breathable oxygen present.” Nic pointed to the sensor she wore on her arm.

  “Are you sure your sensor is working right?” I asked. “The oxygen shut down last time I was here.” I’d never forget the warning voice that had broadcast throughout the station.

  Nic bobbed her head. “I’m sure. These places are designed with an emergency oxygen system that kicks in for the areas where breaches can be sealed. It’s a fairly standard feature, though it may not extend over the entire station. The temperature is low, but not at dangerous levels.” She pulled off her helmet. I could see her breath in the cold, but she didn’t appear to have any trouble breathing. I took off my own helmet and hooked it to the belt on the suit. The air felt normal, though there was a metallic tang to it that hadn’t been there before.

  “You know the layout,” she said. “Where do we go?”

  “That way.” I pointed down the corridor. We’d come in on the top level, so we started there and worked our way through the levels as best we could. It was slow going without gravity. We found it easiest to propel ourselves along by pushing off from the conduit that ran along the ceilings.

  Almost immediately Divana began to complain. “Nic, secure your helmet better. You’re making us all nauseous with the camera bobbing all over the place.”

  “You really don’t need to see everything,” Nic said. “We’ll tell you if we find anything.”

  “Just do what I say,” Divana ordered.

  “Fine,” Nic muttered, though I noticed she didn’t follow the order.

  As we moved through the station, we found nothing. The whole place had been stripped of equipment, though some of the furniture remained. I didn’t see anything that would be used to store data.

  “Do you think the CF is going to send a salvage crew for the lab sections themselves?” I asked. “I can’t believe they’d just let it burn up in the atmosphere. They spent a tremendous amount of money on this.”

  “I don’t know. We are a long way from anywhere. I don’t know if it’s worth it to them to tow the structures a long distance. It was the equipment itself that was valuable.”

  “Do you think you can speed this up?” Divana’s voice came over the comm “Tineg reports the structure is wobbling a bit more than when we docked.”

  I hadn’t noticed, but I supposed it was because of the lack of gravity and the fact that we weren’t fastened to anything. “We’re almost finished,” I said. “There’s one more place I want to look.”

  No one had touched Gregor’s work space on the bottom level. It was a jumble of parts, tools, musical instruments, and random collectibles Gregor had picked up on various planets.

  “There is so much stuff here,” Nic said. “He wasn’t exactly the neatest person, was he?”

  “No, but he knew where everything was.” The last time I’d been here, I’d taken the image of Nic he had hung over his desk. There were no other images of people. I realized I didn’t know where Gregor was from or if he’d had any family. We’d been friends, but not the type who had ever talked about the past.

  “What are you doing in there?” Divana asked. “That doesn’t look like a lab.”

  I didn’t know how to respond. “We … we … ”

  “It’s the workroom of someone who was my friend,” Nic said in a rush. “I … I wanted something to remember him by.”

  “What? Are you sure the oxygen levels are normal? That doesn’t sound like you. And I find it hard to believe you have friends.”

  “Very funny,” Nic snarled. “You should talk. We won’t be here long.”

  I angled my head so that the helmet cam would take in some of the tools floating around. I didn’t want Divana to see the area above of Gregor’s desk, where I had spotted a mix of small items, including some data pins, floating near the ceiling.

  I pushed myself up to that area while keeping the cam on the tools. I used one hand to put some of the items in a carry bag while I recited off a list of the tools I recognized.

  “What are you babbling about?” Divana asked.

  “I’m telling you what tools are here. I thought you might need some of them.”

  “Oh, good idea. We can always use extra tools. Bring as many as you can carry.”

  I managed to collect three data pins. I’d have to think of a way to get them out of the carry bag without anyone else seeing them w
hen we got back to the ship.

  I noticed Nic staring at all the musical instruments Gregor had hung up along one wall. They were still fastened in place.

  “I remember him playing this one,” she said, moving over to something that looked vaguely like a small sitar.

  “Did he have any family?” I asked her. “I wish the rest of this stuff could go to them.”

  “No, he lost his parents in an accident. He didn’t have any brothers or sisters. If he had any other relatives, he never mentioned them to me.”

  She reached up and took down a stringed instrument. “This is the one he played the most when we were cadets.”

  “Then you should bring it along. We should go,” I said. “I don’t think there is any point in hanging around.” She nodded and made for the door. She had been so preoccupied with examining Gregor’s things that I didn’t think she’d even noticed I’d found data pins.

  I took one last look at the room as we went out. I knew once we were gone, Gregor’s life would be reduced to a few people’s memories and a couple of musical instruments. I wished I could have saved more.

  When I forced myself to move, I saw Nic was farther ahead than I thought she’d be. She was moving fast in front of me, and I had to work to catch up.

  We went back up to the top level. As we maneuvered down the main corridor, I heard a distant whooshing noise down a side corridor. I pulled myself to a stop.

  Nic kept moving until she realized I wasn’t following. She stopped and turned back. “Quinn, what are you doing?”

  “Listen.” At first there was no sound, and then I heard it again.

  She came back to my position. It sounded again. “What is that?”

  It took me a moment to identify it. A whooshing sound, and then a thunk. “It sort of sounds like a door opening and closing, but I don’t know why a door would make that thunking noise.”

  The emergency lights flickered. I sucked in a breath and realized the air had gotten colder to the point where it hurt a little to breathe it. My mouth felt dry, and when I tried to swallow, it didn’t help.