The Shattered Stars: Breach of Contract

by Vance Huxley

  A click, as Siflis touched helmets, disturbed Bobby’s sightseeing. “There’s ladders of sorts going up and down through holes.” Siflis had opened the only ground floor door in the circular area. Two of the poles with bars went both up and down through holes in the floor and ceiling. At the rear of the room were three alcoves with just the holes and no ladders.

  “Siflis, tie something to your wire and toss it down there.”

  Moments later both stared in disbelief. “Shite. We are so pooched. If this ship don’t swat us, we’ll make a mistake.” Siflis barely whispered, but the sight of his knife bobbing gently in mid-air instead of falling down the hole had that effect.

  Bobby agreed, but would make sure the mistake didn’t leave them hovering in there. “Leave it there for the rest to see. Nobody goes near those bledrin holes.” He activated the command channel. “Mickey? Here.”

  “What?”

  “Central area, come and see, Mickey.” Bobby turned as Magpie came in. He pointed and gestured ‘keep away.’

  Her helmet clicked on his. “Oh yes. I’m not going near that even if you order me to.”

  Bobby laughed. “Good, go and relieve Hood or Bells to look.”

  Mickey arrived as she left. He looked at the knife for long moments before connecting helmets to talk. “I should go and report this, but those bledrin lasers creep me out.”

  “Did you get through?”

  “Yes, and Aggie acknowledged. Those other two capsules are deserted according to radar.” Mickey sighed. “I couldn’t get right outside to see. The door hesitated when I tried to open it, and water ran in when it did so I reckon the ship melted a way out. The trouble is the hole didn’t go out to the surface, just made a bubble in the ice.”

  “Leave it then. Give it twenty-four hours before you report unless something happens.” Bobby looked at the floating weapon. “Yeah, I mean vital something. Did the liquid test out?”

  “Pure water and the air is thick enough so it’ll stay there, not evaporate. Better still, the temperature is up to ten above freezing, so the suit power packs will last longer.” Mickey looked down a ladder and then up. “I’ll wait here until everyone has seen what the holes do. We’ll need a guard in here.”

  “Not yet. We should explore to the end of this cross corridor first, to the other side of the ship. Then we can set up a defensible point, the same as we have at this end.”

  “You push on with Siflis. I’ll check rooms with the rest.” Bobby lifted a hand to agree and as soon as Siflis could retrieve his wire, they set off.

  The circular area was four hundred metres from the lasers, and the corridor stretched onwards about the same so right across the spaceship. All six side corridors led back into the ship and all ended in doors after thirty metres, while the corridor wall that faced the end of the ship had no openings or doors at all except a few up on the balconies. The only way further forward, or back if this was the rear of the ship, had to be through the doors guarded by lasers.

  Nobody checked around the next corner, because a strip of floor up one side of the junction glowed yellow when they came near. If a laser opened up like it had at the other end, anyone looking would out be a sitting duck. Siflis waited in the second room along, another with the padded beds. He would watch for the yellow glow, a very good early warning. Coming back Bobby checked more rooms, and found more water spouts and sinks.

  “We have bunks unless the aliens sat above each other and were very short. First door down the second side corridor.” Magpie had been door opening and come to report. This running back and forth to touch helmets ate up time, but they had no real alternative without risking the other squads listening in.

  All the doors opened but two, the double doors at the end of each of the central short side corridors. None of the rooms investigated held anything other than dead machinery, the water and disposal units, more padded surfaces or locked bins, and some silent consoles. The screens and what were probably lights on the latter stayed dark even after some cautious pushing and twisting of possible controls. Bobby went to find Mickey, knowing he would argue. “We check up on the balconies after sleeping, then unless we’ve found something more exciting we break into those locked rooms.”

  “The ship might not like the damage.” Mickey really did sound reluctant to break things. The Supers and Managers must be nearly brainwashed about that. “Maybe if we try some other way to open them?”

  “We will. We’ll try everything you can think of, then break in.” Bobby chuckled. “Report the rest to Aggie before we start, then you don’t have to mention breaking things. If we find something of real value it won’t matter what we did.”

  “And if we don’t?”

  “Ooh, those naughty Rangers and Putes, or maybe the Shiva’s. After all, they are children.”

  Mickey still seemed reluctant, then sniggered. “Your lot are corrupting me but yes, that’s what we’ll do. But still as a last resort.”

  “No problem.” Bobby set off to let the rest know, helmet to helmet. Mickey reported the coms traffic among the other squads had dropped away so they were doing something similar.

  * * *

  The squad slept in shifts, then sucked food and water. Mickey kept pacing as Siflis and Bells stretched and drank before going back on lookout. As soon as they’d gone he wanted to talk. “Beebi, how much do you trust this ship?”

  “I don’t even know it’s a ship so not much. Why?”

  “The air is fit to breath and the temperature is up to nineteen C, sixty-four F. We could take off the suits.” Mickey hesitated. “I could get that connection out of my ass!”

  “I’m more worried about the state of the rest of my tackle, but I understand completely.” Bobby really liked the idea, though he liked the idea of being able to breath without using up tank air even more. He actually worried if finding out the damage from the suit connections might be worse than imagination. “We daren’t take the spacesuits off yet for two reasons. Firstly, the ship might stop being friendly if we break into those rooms.”

  “Good point, though we can take off the helmets at least. Just put them back on before breaking anything?” A night’s sleep had settled Mickey’s qualms about property damage. “When we do that, we should also break open those storage bins. All one operation. We can jam the room doors open while we do. What’s the second reason?”

  “We don’t know if the rest of the whole ship is aired up. If someone opens that corridor door, or the one at the other end, whoosh. We’re freezing and breathing vacuum.” Bobby chuckled. “Though I’ll risk that to get this helmet off. The first sign of a breeze and everyone gets their hats on.”

  “Done.”

  Bobby went to let the rest know. One by one they all took a deep breath of clean, warm air and broke into huge smiles. Bobby hadn’t really noticed before but the suit air had a definite smell, not definable beyond old or maybe used. Almost as good, Bobby had his peripheral vision back. The restrictions of the helmet made him nervous and he’d spent most of his time moving his head side to side. Magpie and Hood came back from guard duty, and Bobby found them celebrating.

  “Put her down. You know exactly where she’s been, and should be ashamed of yourself.” They broke the kiss and turned, both grinning and unrepentant.

  “Yes your highness. Where’s this door that needs breaking?”

  “Just wait a bit, Magpie. I think Hood had better escort Mickey to the airlock, because I can’t trust you alone with him if you’re feeling like that. We’ll go and try the doors on the balconies in the round room.” Magpie pulled a face and kissed Hood again. The pair were going to have a lot of trouble getting back to normal once more Troopers arrived. Maybe the danger had done it, or knowing they were well away from prying eyes, but neither had any reservations about holding hands and now kissing even with others about.

  By the time Mickey came back, Bobby and Magpie had explored the top balcony and knew they were in a spaceship. Bobby came down to let Mickey know ra
ther than broadcast even on a tapper. At least with the helmets off nobody could overhear if they talked normally. Better yet they could all hear at once instead of passing information helmet to helmet though Mickey still spoke quietly. “Aggie has reported there are no supplies available in the capsule because the trip took longer than expected. I only reported we’d found air, because I don’t want Control to give our water and food to someone else. All Control says is to explore and report. They’ll assess what we tell them before releasing supplies from the mothership. We should mark a way in for reinforcements. I’m not to agree alliances, but there’s no hint of just what information will get us the food and water.” Mickey scowled. “Maybe we are supposed to tether the first one of us to cark it outside to mark the entrance? Basteds!”

  Bobby held his smile. “We might get allies once they know we’ve found the bridge, control room, or whatever steers this basted great thing. That rocket that brought us has no idea what a mother the real mothership is. With luck our mothership will give us food for that information, and that’s all we need now to survive.”

  Mickey’s head came up with an incredulous stare. “We have?” A glimmer of hope showed, then humour. “Can we move it, the ship? Take the basted thing home? That would pooch the bledrin lot of them!”

  “We can’t get in. It’s through those doors with the lasers but you can see it, and if we really get desperate maybe we can break in through the window?” Bobby stood up. “Come on, this you have got to see.” A grinning Hood and Magpie met them outside so she’d told him, and all four went up.

  “This has to be the captain’s cabin or day office. Depends if that’s a bed or a seat.” Mickey shook his head. “With this view, this is definitely the captain’s. One glance and he can see every screen, every crew member.” The ten-metre-long curved window in one wall of this room, floor to ceiling, jutted out from the rear of the bridge so the view overlooked the entire space. The bridge curved gently away either side, and every bit of the front wall at ground level seemed to be full of screens and controls. Above the controls, across the entire hundred metre width, stretched a blank screen.

  “That screen has to be a view out, or a star map.” Hood whispered, and the scene really did humble them all. “It’s all dead, all the screens, all the instruments. This thing needs a crew of hundreds, thousands.”

  “There’s no more than a score of seats.” Magpie shaded her eyes. “There are lights. Some are reflections from here, but some of those are winking on and off.” She sighed. “Not many though.”

  “That’s why those doors are guarded, to protect the bridge.” Bobby looked around. “There has to be another way in, from here. The captain won’t have run down the corridor in an emergency.”

  “Here, and you won’t like it.” Mickey had opened one of the doors off the main room disclosing another shaft without any controls, though this one only led down.

  The four of them tore themselves away from that view, and looked through the other rooms leading off the top balcony. These had to be senior officer’s quarters. They all had the mystery holes leading downwards. So did the rooms off the lower balcony. “We should move in here.” Bobby looked down. “This would be easier to defend, and there’s water in these rooms.”

  “Possibly food as well, if we can work out how to get it.” Mickey looked down at a console that refused to do anything even if the controls moved, and frowned. “We might be trapped in here if another squad come up the corridor.”

  Bobby shook his head. “Magpie can give us a back door with a thermal strip if we need to get out and we’ll be impossible to take by storm, up those poles. Do you want to open storage bins or the mystery rooms?”

  “Bins, definitely bins.” Mickey looked towards the passages with locked doors. “Let’s see how the ship takes to minor property damage first.”

  * * *

  The ship didn’t allow property damage, or not easily. “Shite, what is that thing made of?” Bells waved a short, broad knife in disgust. The blade now had a definite bend. “I’ll straighten it again the same way, but don’t see that opening a bin either.” He jammed the blade into a crack and then stamped on the hilt until the curve had gone. As expected, the bin remained stubbornly unmoved.

  “Maybe we can use ship metal, something from the spares in the outside corridor?” Hood shrugged at the looks. “I don’t fancy trotting back and forth past those lasers, but neither do I fancy bending the barrel on my carbin.”

  “Magpie can burn through the lock?” Mickey looked at the number of bins. “But which ones? She’s only got five metres of thermal strip, enough to make a hole that we can get through.”

  “More to the point, would we rather keep her thermal strip in case we need to make that hole in a wall or door to escape?” Bobby hesitated. “Or break into the bridge?”

  “That’s a last resort, because that could really piss off some automatic weaponry in there.” Mickey stood pondering for a while. “We’ll rest up now and then explore the other corridor, the big one at the far end we’ve never been down. We’ll risk the lasers, or enough to see if any of them open fire. First thing tomorrow I’ll go back to the airlock and report, and pick up spares for bashing with from a room nearby. We could move faster but I’m still worried about the ship. So far it’s being helpful.” He paused. “I still won’t mention having a water supply, so Control think we are firmly tied to Aggie. Air can’t be rationed so I’ll confirm we found plenty, a big aired-up section.

  Bobby thought hard as well. He’d rather push on and break at least one bin open, but a day shouldn’t matter now they’d got air and water and he’d rather not clash outright with Mickey yet. “In that case don’t mention the bridge either, until we’ve looked in the other two rooms. They might give us a way in. Not only that but if control give us a reward, I want another for finding water and another for the bridge, not just one for the lot. For the rest of today we move our gear into the officer quarters, though the first balcony not the captain’s room. We’ll set up some sort of barricade on the balconies, maybe see if we can move some bins up there.” Bobby pushed at a bin. “Unless they are all too heavy. We’ll bring shelving from the other storerooms to armour them.”

  “I’ll go and relieve Siflis on watch so he can take a break. Let me know when you need muscle for lifting.” Hood left. After some experimentation, a few of the metal bins were light enough to move so the three of them pushed one through to the central area. Another discussion led to Siflis being sent back down the corridor to the big door to detach the rope alarm, because he wasn’t freaked by the lasers. They’d rely on the yellow lights for warning, because the ropes would be needed to haul anything up to the balconies. Those ladders with short rods coiling around and up the pole just weren’t designed for humans to carry loads upstairs.

  “Everyone remember to take it easy on the food. We need to spin it out a bit, but with plenty of water that shouldn’t matter as much.” Nobody muttered their complaints too loud, maybe because they understood. Unless the rocket released more and they got back to collect it, this food wouldn’t last much longer even rationed.

  Siflis volunteered to test the lasers at the other bridge entrance. He waved a piece of metal, then an arm, and then moved out into the corridor. The light strip glowed yellow and the four lasers tracked him, but none fired. “Told you. It stands to reason. The lasers guard the door and won’t kill some unsuspecting crewman wandering past.” Siflis really seemed relaxed about shite like that, maybe because of the space games he’d played. The first two doors down the other side of the ship led into rooms with more spares and more bins, the same as they’d already found so Bobby didn’t go further for now.

  When the clocks eventually showed another day had passed, five bins had been hauled up onto the balcony to give some protection from both flechettes and hand lasers. Mickey had agreed to try both against the corner of a bin to judge their strength, and the bin seemed unharmed. As the squad worked, Mickey reported three shor
t broadcasts from other squads elsewhere on the ship. One a warning, one a cry for help, and one a scream. He thought the warning had been in French but only told Bobby that, not the rest and especially not Bells. Bells kept remarking on how cosy the new cabins would be with a few of Les Putes sharing.

  Overnight Bobby took the opportunity to wash. He removed his spacesuit, finally, biting down on a knife hilt so he didn’t cry out as the connections came free. Sore didn’t cover that feeling. After washing in the cold water from a spout, using one of the alien dog bowls now they didn’t need it to store water, Bobby couldn’t face putting the spacesuit back on. He used one of the sinks or whatever they were and it sucked away his pee just as easily as the water. His underwear felt really strange after so long without. Bobby slept fitfully, disturbed by dreams of Aliens, Teddy Bears with tentacles and alien weapons appeared out of a storage bin as he opened it, cutting down the squad one by one.

  Negotiation

  In the morning Bobby looked long and hard at his spacesuit. Eventually he took his knife and cut away the waste disposals inside the suit, before putting it back on. After breakfast Bobby looked over the heap of Alien spares, including three short lengths of shelving. “We should be able to do something with these.” He picked up a short section of metal with holes punched at intervals and a wedge shaped end, and a thick piece of bar. Neither seemed heavy enough for their size, but beating two together had already proved the metal had to be at least as tough as steel.

  Mickey had gone to send his report, but wouldn’t use the coms to tell Bobby because others would be listening. There had been four more cryptic bursts of transmission overnight, one that sounded pleading and another of considerable length. The third produced a garbled mix of panicky French and the last just said ‘fire’ in Anglic. Other squads were still fighting further along the ship. Mickey hurried up the corridor with his load of spares as soon as he moved past the lasers. “More transmissions. They sounded Asian, I think, so the two SEPA, South East Pacific, survivors have arrived. They were alarmed about something.”