"I would add that, if they can't get real attention from an arms dealer, they probably aren't very good rebels," Theodore added. "It takes a kind of ruthlessness to attack an Order Ship or installation."
They passed into the lift and Alice felt her empathic abilities start to open up again. The general sense in the elevator car was that people were pleased, but her focus hadn't returned. Before it did, there was something she wanted to do, a risk she wanted to take. With an eye gesture at her heads' up display, she ordered her helmet to retract.
"Hey, there she is," Noah said, opening his helmet a moment later, revealing a smile that summoned hers in an instant.
"Wow, you really are bald," Alice laughed, reaching up and running her hand over the prickly stubble on his scalp.
"Yeah, part of the whole Apex thing I was ordered to run away from. I could stimulate it, but…" he looked down into her yes unflinching.
The elevator car was much cleaner than the bar they just left, but it still smelled of sweat and something that had burned a long time ago, something biological. Alice ignored it as her fingertips made their way down to his cheek, where the stubble ended, becoming perfectly smooth skin. "I would have come even if I didn't have orders, you know," she said softly, not looking away from those eyes, that smile.
"I'm glad I'm not alone, I'm happy you're here." It sounded like a confession, something he was saying only for her.
"Are you sure you wouldn't rather they sent Remmy? He has a more experienced crew." It was a joke, of course, something to cover her nervousness, the rare uncertainty of not really knowing how he was feeling yet. It was exciting, normal, like old times before the extra sense kicked in. Alice was sure he understood the jest, her raised eyebrow and lopsided smile would telegraph at least that. Her fingers moving under his chin, gently drawing him down while she started pushing herself up on her toes would suggest something else.
"Maybe, but he'd definitely get a different welco…"
"Someone is trying to pirate me! Help!" Elise said from where she was installed on the Corsair, the message crackling into clarity. "I just got past their jamming signals, but I'm afraid the whole station is hearing this."
The opportunity to have a normal moment with Noah without her empathic abilities letting her cheat or giving her a reason to retreat was gone. She could feel that he was overjoyed to see her, he liked the way she looked in that powder blue vacsuit, he was feeling a little insecure about his negotiation, and it took a lot of effort for him to restrain his joy at being near her again. His positive reaction was reassuring, more encouraging than she would admit to anyone but him, but it felt like she'd skipped to the end of a story she wanted to experience from the very beginning. The reaction he was having to her was disappearing under his alarm at more pressing concerns. Alice reactivated her helmet. "Hey, Lewis," she said, watching her comm signal get lost in the jamming noise.
"I can't get a signal out," Noah said, the slats of his helmet coming together.
"There's someone with a generator on his back using a beam weapon on the airlock," Elise explained. "They're not making too much progress, and they'll have to get through my armour plating once they're finished depleting that shield, but it's alarming. They could get through if they keep at it for another nine hours and three minutes, give or take a few seconds."
Noah sighed with relief. "Okay, it’s not as bad as I thought."
"You may want to have a short conversation with her about exhibiting the appropriate degree of alarm for different situations," Theodore added. "Also, the elevator is no longer in motion. It stopped while you two were focused on each other, so I thought it could wait. Could the two events be connected? The pirate attempt and the elevator stopping?"
"I'm thinking, yeah," Alice said. "Can you hack it?"
Theodore looked at the control panel. "I'd have to damage the control surface, but once I get past that, probably."
"Please." Noah gestured at the small interface panel, the digital buttons were surrounded by a swirling ad that was telling them to order a can of Gan-Gan but to 'Imbibe responsibly.' "I'll reduce the station's bill a few plat to cover the damage."
"If you insist," Theodore said, poking a tiny hole that was less than half a centimetre wide in the corner of the display then pushing a miniature arm that extended from his finger inside. "Oh, that ruins the whole aesthetic."
"I think they'll get over it," Yawen snickered.
A moment later Theodore shook his head. "The problem is not software, it's mechanical. Something is blocking the old cable mechanism from working."
Alice looked at Knud and pointed up. Without hesitation, he reached up and pushed the hatch in the roof open. "Okay, armour up, shields up. We're flying the last nine levels then sixteen frames over," she said.
* * *
"Wait, uh, I only took one advanced qualifier for flying in this armour," Noah said, nervous as he activated his entire suit. Slats of metal spread up from his boots and around him from his captain's coat. "You know, the fun one where you fly through rings, shoot the little boxes that come drifting through that try to knock you off course."
"What's your best time?" Noro, the thick-bodied shorter Nafalli asked.
"Nine minutes, thirty-five and change, no collisions," he replied, hoping it wasn't too bad.
"Damn, that's really good," the Nafalli replied, covering his nose. "How many attempts?"
"Well, it took me a while to get used to the way the emitters in the suit…"
"So, you can fly," Alice said. The slats on the bottom half of her suit flared a couple times, lifting her feet off the floor for a moment. Knud was already up on top of the elevator car, and Theodore hopped up easily. "Just take it easy and you'll get there without punching a hole in the side of the transit shaft, flyboy." He could hear her grinning, this was fun for her.
"Have you logged much time flying in these suits?" he asked, happy that they were on laser link communications, only the crewmembers in a direct line of sight could hear him. "In gravity? Outside of a simulation?" Alice asked. "Just about none. I qualified then had a few hours of fun in the sim. I've done a lot of time in zero-G, though. Still, you won't be the only one taking it slow." With a burst of light beneath the slats of her armour, and a "Woo!" she launched up through the hatch.
When he stepped under it he was just in time to see her slow her thrust down so she was hovering ten metres above the top of the car, listening to her laugh at her overshoot was enough to make him grin. He reached up and let the strength enhancement kick in so he had an easy time pulling himself through the hatch. Knud and Noro picked him up like he was feather-light toddler and a map of their route through the transit tube appeared on his HUD.
The elevator shaft walls were host to cables, pipes and tubes that ranged from manufacturer original to new and improvised with signs of hasty repair everywhere. "Well, there's our problem," Knud said, looking up to an open door above and a clamp that had been wrapped around the cables, keeping them from moving. "Someone's been watching us."
"This might be the pirates I messed with when I came into the system. They could have paid the admin of the station off, gotten some extra access so they could try to take me out? Take my stuff? Probably both," Noah said.
" Are you sure the station management would burn you like that?" Alice asked.
"Might not be them, that's true, the security here is kind of a joke. We'll see if someone from Angel's Landing already paid me. I don't really care past that. I think someone trying to screw you over in this area of space is like their version of hazing, I'm just glad I'm ready for it."
"Well, we just have to get to the Corsair or an airlock for now. Let's go," Alice said enthusiastically. Her emitters flared, blue light pulsing under her armours slats as she course corrected with her hand against the wall of the transit shaft before ascending.
He followed behind Knud, who was flying with his fists raised over his head like some ancient super-hero. The path outlined in Noah's hea
ds up display was easy to follow; straight up for many levels, then to a horizontal transit shaft that would take them to an emergency airlock. Even flying at less than ten percent thrust, they moved fast, over ninety kilometres per hour straight up at first, and Noah stayed within the section of shaft that was reserved for their elevator.
Noro didn't. "Yikes!" he yiped as he narrowly dodged an elevator car coming down to Noah's right.
"We're in military grade power armour," Alice said as she waited at the entry to the horizontal shaft. "No one else on this station is, so if you smash through a wall, or into an elevator car, you'll also smash through whoever's unlucky enough to be in your way."
"Sorry," Noro said. "I'm just eager to get out of here. A bad smell got into my helmet from that bar. I'll watch out."
They were at the end of the horizontal passage and at the airlock door in no time. There were bands of metal welded to the inner door. "I would say someone tried to disable this," Theodore said, gingerly touching a thick metal bar. "It was years ago, though, so probably not the angry pirates."
"Station management probably trying to stop people from boarding the station without going through customs," Noah said. "I could cut through it."
"Step aside," Knud said as he and Noro pointed their side arms at the bands, carefully but efficiently cutting through the metal braces. Theodore plugged into the smashed terminal beside it and fed power to the door. It opened, and they gathered inside the airlock chamber, there was no room left to move, Alice was pressed against him, her chest against his. "This could be fun if we weren't in power armour."
"I can't quite reach the outer door panel," Theodore said as the inner door closed. "I couldn't stay connected to the other door so we're trapped in here until we shift around or someone gets impatient and tears through the wall."
What came next was an awkward shuffle as everyone carefully shifted, moving Theodore to the outer door, trying not to damage the airlock walls. "They don't use this thing, what's the point in being careful?" Asked Noro.
"If we poke a hole in their airlock, they may not find it until there's an emergency and someone has to escape," Yawen replied.
"Don't they have escape pods for that?"
"Lewis said they only had fifteen aboard, and those were for the high-end suites," Alice replied as Theodore got into position.
The outer door beeped loudly, then popped open, sending Theodore and Noro out into space where they drifted away slowly. "I can see the Clever Dream from here," Noro chuckled.
The Clever Dream decelerated into view, turning so their aft section faced them as its main embarkation ramp was lowered, and Theodore led the way from the airlock. "Welcome aboard," Lewis said to Noah as soon as he set foot on the ship.
"Thanks." The main doors closed and the cabin began to repressurize. "How are the Corsair and Elise doing?"
"She's doing well now that I reassured her that I'd expedite your release from that junk drift the Angel's Landing staff have the nerve to call 'a station.'"
"Who's attacking her?" Noah asked, deactivating his helmet as the green light and indication on his HUD told him it was safe. The rest of the crew did the same.
A hologram of the Corsair, the twin of the Clever Dream, and the long, flexible docking hall affixed to its side appeared in front of them, following as Alice led the way to the bridge. Noah could see the fellow in heavy environment armour firing a drilling laser at the entrance to his ship. There was a line of other crewmen in rough armour behind him, as if they expected him to get through any minute. "There is no immediate danger to the Corsair, since Elise is reporting that the shield… oh, never mind, I'll let her tell you," Lewis said, his tone was that of someone who was giving in. "She really wants to talk to you anyway, I have her on laser-link now."
"Like he was saying," Elise continued, her voice coming through the ship wide address system. "It'll be over nine hours before they break through, then they have to deal with my hull, so I admit I might have over reacted when I sent you that emergency transmission. Crying was definitely too much, I won't do that again."
"Sorry, I didn't hear that," Noah said. "I think I missed a lot of your communications, whoever's jamming this area has a hell of a transmitter."
"Oh, okay. I’m happy you heard enough to know that you should come get me. I've tried to open a dialogue using high-volume emitters in the docking tunnel, but they just laughed and kept drilling. It really looks like they think they'll get through."
"Okay, next time someone starts trying to cut through your shielding, separate from the docking collar and fly around. Cloak if you have to."
"I was going to do that in a few hours, when things got a little desperate, but I didn't know if you had another solution yet," Elise replied.
Alice dropped into the pilot's seat and brought up the tactical interface. "Lewis, will there be any damage to the station if the Corsair rips free of the docking tunnel?"
"Well, that cheap plastic docking tunnel will come apart, decompressing suddenly and sending the seven pirates into space, but I expect the station will have the tunnel replaced within the hour. My scanners picked up several backups in their storage area when we arrived. As for the pirates, well, there's a chance a few of their suits would lose integrity."
"Your ship, your call," Alice said, looking to Noah, gesturing to the co-pilots seat.
"Pull away from the docking collar. Use the mooring cutters and hard shield first," Noah ordered.
"Or you could do it that way, minimizing damage and making repair even easier," Lewis commented. "It won't be as much fun, though."
"Cutting the collar's mooring clamps and activating shield now," Elise said. The Corsair thrust away from the docking collar, which was dislodged so cleanly that they couldn't see the damage. The ship moved away horizontally so it was several metres away from the end. The plastic boarding tunnel flapped and writhed for a moment as the air inside was released in a rush, sending the pirates out of the end. All but two collided with the side of the Corsair at high speed then pinwheeled away.
"All right, let's get out of here before Noah pisses off more pirates," Alice said. "We'll fly out of the system then cloak, listen for anyone who wants to talk to us."
"After hours in that bar, I could use a break," Noah said. He looked around, coming eye-to-eye with Iruuk, who looked like he was happy to see him. "Hey, man, glad you could make it."
Iruuk gave him a big hug from behind the chair, his long arms crossing his chest and pressing him into the cushioning. "Glad you're here," he said, his low Nafalli voice rumbling. "She really missed you," Iruuk said as he let go, pointing at Alice.
Two
Preoccupied
* * *
The weight of the occupation changed everything in Haven Shore. Nigel was new to the place, he didn't know what it looked like when people were free, but he could feel discontent and worry start to turn to anger and hate faster after they pulled the statue of Ayan Anderson down. Footage of her denying that she wanted to be called Queen at all played often, it was part of the smear campaign the Order of Eden ran, but to most of the people he knew, that's what she was.
There were people on Tamber before she and the rest of the Freeground Originals arrived. Most of them were from some other government called the Carthans, and they sounded worse than the Order. Their soldiers were serving punitive sentences, unable to disobey orders. The other residents that predated the Originals were dregs, castaways and opportunists who wanted to live in a place no one knew. It wasn't even a planet, but a moon used to test the ecosystem that was going to be reproduced to a partially hollowed giant; Kambis. If he saw it on a star chart, he wouldn't have even stopped in out of curiosity. There were some functional ruins, a few interesting wrecks, tropical areas, but there were also contaminated fields that were supposed to be terraformed but turned toxic instead. He would have definitely passed it by. Ayan was credited with bringing democracy, new progress, and some culture to the place. There were safe areas to
live in, jobs, even a government that would take care of you regardless of whether you were an artist, an engineer, or soldier if they had room. Looking around at the hundreds of workers headed back to the Everin Building with him, it seemed like they'd taken a lot of people in. The picker shift he was headed back with represented less than a hundredth of people that the Order crammed into the finished buildings in Haven Shore.
Questions were the most important thing during the occupation. You had to know when not to ask them, who you could trust for the answers, and what the most important ones were. His uncle Frost was building a resistance. It wasn't like the open one that sung songs, shouted obvious phrases of dissent like; "Order go home!" or "Hate fate!" which was his favourite useless sentiment. One of the first popular speeches given by an Order leader ended with; "It is our fate to make this life eternal. Our fate to bring this chaotic existence under control whether it's the governing of ourselves or the entire galaxy. Embrace your fate! Join the Order of Eden!"
He'd seen that speech a dozen times, given by a little boy they called the Child Prophet who came and went before the whole financial ladder theory was big in the Order of Eden. He knew he could ask any soldier about that crap, a lot of them liked to educate the people under their control endlessly as though they were bringing literacy to the unwashed masses or something. Nigel hated every one of them but prompting them to gab about their glorious fate was better than working, it was better than getting a beating because he shot one of them a defiant look. Shouting; "Hate fate!" was a quick way to earn yourself one of those. Nigel didn't have to, though. His height earned him six or seven - he wasn't sure how many exactly - baton thrashings because he was taller than most of the soldiers.
He tried to keep his brow high, to look friendly and harmless. It was hard to make sure he didn't seem like he was looking over one of their heads or scowling all the time. He learned to hunch. It felt like he was giving in.
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 13 Page 38
