The False Admiral

by Sean Danker

  “A trifle late for that, I expect.”

  “You never know. But I don’t think anyone’s going to come along and see. Maybe we really do have this place to ourselves.”

  We were seated at a tiny table for two, which folded down from the bulkhead. The galley was little more than an alcove, and it was open to the corridor. It wasn’t intended to be used as a place to eat. Colonists would come for food, which they would eat in their quarters, or the larger communal eating area one deck down.

  “What do you think about the Julian now?” I asked after a drink. The colony ship was clean and new, but no less cramped than Tremma’s freighter. The cargo bays and the bridge were the only parts of the ship that didn’t feel claustrophobic.

  “I think this experience has made me less particular,” Salmagard replied. “I think any assignment with oxygen will do. Regardless of where it takes me, sir.”

  “That’s the spirit. But like I was saying, don’t roll over. You can handle anything anybody throws at you—you just have to put some thought into how you fight back. I mean, look at Prince Dalton. He’s a Ganraen Royal. Plenty of expectations on him, but he still finds ways to be different. To do more or less whatever he wants.” I shrugged. “He even denounced the war.”

  “Imagine that,” Salmagard said, smiling at me.

  “If royalty can make that good a show of independence, you can too.”

  “Rebellion is not looked on kindly on Earth,” she said, keeping her eyes on her food.

  “Or anywhere in the Empire. But we’re talking about personal freedom, not treason. Bloodline or not, you have the same rights as all the Empress’ other subjects. More, since you’re a citizen. If you want to see the galaxy, no one can stop you. Get transferred to a frontier ship if you want to see things. And there are other ways—apart from the Service. How long are you in?”

  “The minimum.”

  “Then you’ve got time and options. It’s a blank ticket. It won’t be easy, but you can work with the Service. Believe me.” She gave me a look. “Yes, sometimes you’ll get assignments that you’re not exactly thrilled with. But that’s the cost of doing business.”

  “That cost is higher for some than for others, clearly.”

  “Yes. But that’s what you’ll deal with serving anywhere. Surely you’re willing to brave a little risk for the glory of the Empress.”

  “I’ll do anything for the glory of the Empress,” Salmagard replied softly. “Anything at all. It’s the glory of my family name that I’m not quite as keen on.”

  “I don’t know anything about your family,” I said honestly. “I don’t know anything about Earth, or what it’s like to be you. But even if you don’t see eye to eye with your folks, go easy on them. You’ll miss them when they’re gone. Do you know that they gave you that face with mercenary intentions? What if they did it to open more doors for you?”

  “This face only opens one door,” Salmagard replied grimly, looking down at her reflection in her cup of water.

  “But it suits you.”

  She seemed heartened by that, though we both knew she had an uphill battle ahead of her. Old families like hers wouldn’t allow their first daughter to break from the mold lightly. It would take some perseverance and ingenuity if Salmagard wanted to go her own way.

  Her smile, and the way she was looking at me, seemed promising. I leaned a little closer, but the com came alive.

  “Admiral, we’ve got trouble,” Nils said, but in almost the same instant, on another channel, Deilani was speaking: “Admiral, we’re in trouble.”

  15

  “TALK. Deilani first,” I replied over the open channel, putting down my drink. I gazed at Salmagard, swallowing my disappointment.

  “Mine’s more urgent,” Nils cut in. Deilani spluttered, but I overruled her.

  “Go ahead, Ensign.”

  “There’s someone in maintenance.”

  “Send again,” I said. The com was perfectly clear, but what he was saying needed to be repeated.

  “In maintenance, there is someone,” he said, more slowly.

  “How do you know? Where are you?”

  “I’m on the bridge. Since security’s down, I’m using maintenance systems to put up a safety net.”

  So that was what he’d wanted to do. Nils was paranoid; he knew something must have made the colonists abandon this ship, and he couldn’t relax until he found out what it was.

  “How are you tracking this person?”

  “Just movement. There are air density sensors, and there’s no mistaking this. There’s someone moving around down there in the crawl spaces. A ship with a small crew might have androids, but this is a colony. They had plenty of people, and they wouldn’t waste space on robots.”

  “Which level?” I asked, thinking hard. I’d heard this before, and we’d gone chasing shadows before. But we couldn’t ignore this, as much as I’d have liked to.

  I was turning into an irritable mess. And this was withdrawal still in its early stages.

  “Sub four—there’s a lot of damage down there. Maybe they’re making repairs.”

  “He’d have to be in a suit. There’s probably coolant down there,” I said. “So it’s got to be venting all the time since we’re on emergency power.”

  “Yeah, the temperature’s crazy—and that’s in line with nobody being here to regulate it. I don’t know these ships, but with ours if you have a power loss, that takes your main cooling systems with it, so you have to be really careful while it’s down. That’s where these guys are, and that’s what this guy has to be doing. They abandoned this ship, but they don’t want it melting down.”

  “Get a fix on his suit. Patch us through to him.”

  “That’s the thing,” Nils said, and I felt my heart sink.

  “What?”

  “I’m not reading a suit.”

  “Then it’s another ghost story. We’re the ones that sealed the ship. It was depressurized, so if there was someone still here, they’d have to be suited up. Or they wouldn’t be moving.”

  “I know,” the ensign said. “But it’s right in front of me.”

  Salmagard frowned. “Putting air aside, to be performing maintenance without proper cooling systems, they would have to wear personal protective gear.”

  “Exactly,” I said. “Forget it, Nils. There’s nobody down there. Something tripped your net. There’s a lot of stuff on this thing that still moves.”

  “I know,” Nils said, exasperated. “But there’s something you’re not thinking about. What if he’s from one of the other ships? Those suits wouldn’t be registered to this system. It would explain why I can’t track him or reach him. He’s moving, Admiral. He’s moving right now. This isn’t a loose panel.”

  “Could be one of those little rolling things that buffs the floors,” I said, though that was wishful thinking. I just didn’t want to get up. “But you’re probably right—we need to check it out. What is it, Lieutenant?” I couldn’t ignore Deilani’s impatient sounds any longer.

  “I know what killed the colonists!” She nearly shouted it.

  That got me. “What killed them? They’re dead?”

  “What was killing them. It’s all here in the medical logs—well, not all of it . . . but, Admiral, you’ve got to get down here. There’s life on this planet.” Deilani sounded breathless.

  “Wait. We got hostile locals?” I was stunned.

  “He’s moving,” Nils reported. “Guys, this isn’t a real security system. No sensors, no reading. If he leaves the coolant grid, we lose him.”

  “Son of a bitch.” I gave Salmagard an apologetic look. She looked very grave.

  “All right—look, the guy in maintenance might need help. Especially if we’ve got hostiles. He’s alone. Right, Ensign? We can’t ignore him. Everybody get down there. Deilani, we’ll worry
about your stuff after we check this out.”

  “All right,” she said, sounding dubious. “But why would someone be making repairs on a ship this torn up? And how did it get this way? Obviously the ground giving way accounts for the exterior damage, but what about what we’re seeing inside? This doesn’t add up, Admiral. Even with what I’ve just learned.”

  “Could your hostiles be responsible?”

  “Absolutely not.”

  Fantastic.

  * * *

  Deilani reached Nils only moments after we did.

  “Show me,” I said to the ensign, who pointed at the screen he was carrying. “I’ll be damned. Let’s get down there and see what it’s about.”

  “We’ll need O2.”

  “Then we’ll have to borrow suits again. Uh—all right, everybody hand over your cartridges to Nils. Ensign, find a way to get these filled—we may need them. Go now. Lieutenant, watch this feed and guide us while we’re down there. Private, find suits.”

  Nils gave up the reader to Deilani, and jogged off with the empty O2 cartridges. Salmagard was already gone.

  We were beneath the main body of the ship. These were sublevels, where system hardware and heavy machinery were housed in maintenance canals. The layout was intended to distribute the weight of the vessel’s heaviest components practically. This part of the colony was more reminiscent of Tremma’s freighter. Ganraen engineers had no desire to impress their techs with attractive design.

  This part of the ship was meant to be worked on, not seen. There was metal everywhere. Red foam padding covered certain sharp edges, but it was yet another place you’d hate to find yourself with no gravity.

  “Something’s wrong here,” Deilani said to me under her breath as we struggled to muscle the hatch open.

  “You think we’ve got a local down there?” I grinned at her.

  “Of course not. But why would there be one man on this ship, and here of all places?”

  “You heard the ensign’s theory. I don’t buy it, but it’s plausible. It’s not crazy.”

  “It doesn’t work.”

  “We’re here to get answers. There was only one dead body. There should be a lot of colonists left. Maybe this guy knows where they’re all hiding.”

  “I don’t think it’s that simple,” Deilani said, straining to lift the hatch.

  “Careful. Lock it open. And let it vent—it shouldn’t bother you up here. Use the force screen if you have to.”

  “Got it,” Deilani said, repositioning the pin that locked the hatch open.

  Salmagard returned wearing a pressure suit, and dragging another. I wasn’t looking forward to experiencing a suit within a suit again, but there was nothing for it; my EV had no air left for me. I donned it and looked at Deilani, who pointed, her eyes on the reader.

  “Go right,” she said.

  I clambered down, and Salmagard came after me. “How soon until it vents?” I asked over the com, turning right and panning my light down the corridor.

  “Four minutes.”

  “Give us a warning, will you?”

  “Of course.”

  “This way.”

  I hunched over and started in the direction Deilani had indicated. Here was where the greatest differences were between Ganraen ship design and Evagardian. An Evagardian vessel has few crawl spaces—and those are perfectly smooth and white, with clearly labeled panels that can be removed for easy maintenance. They’re also very well lit.

  Down here it was a mess. These were the ship’s innards, just out in the open. An Evagardian vessel would never be so immodest. I pushed aside a bundle of cords and tubing, holding them out of Salmagard’s way so she could get through.

  “Deilani, can you brighten it in here?”

  “What have you got?”

  “Yellows every three meters. It’s bad.”

  “I think I can turn on the emergency ones. Nils should be doing this.”

  “Just do it.”

  Red lights began to flash.

  “Turn them off,” I groaned. “Surely flashing red lights would be more distracting than helpful in an actual emergency,” I grumbled as we continued. “This is what happens when you let the government design things.”

  “But they make it clear there is an emergency,” Salmagard pointed out. “Commonwealth logic.”

  And Evagardian prejudice.

  “Right. Which way?” I asked Deilani.

  “Don’t turn yet. Move up to the next junction.”

  It was slow going, walking in a crouch. “Deilani, tell me what you found.”

  “The mist out there—it’s not mist.”

  I’d been expecting that. The stuff had never behaved like mist, and the planet had no atmosphere. “Microorganisms?”

  “Yes. The Ganraens were exposed. Their decontamination wasn’t enough. They’re lethal.”

  I stopped, blinking rapidly. “Well,” I said stupidly, “I can see how that would pose a problem for a colony.”

  “Yeah, kind of a deal breaker,” Nils said over the com, laughing nervously. “Why would they settle here? Could they seriously not tell? Were their scans that far off? If you can’t properly survey a planet, you can’t colonize it. Even my three-year-old niece knows that.”

  I shook my head, and started to move again. “They came here blind.”

  “Why, though?” Nils was baffled.

  “I don’t know. Maybe the Royals forced them to. There were a lot of questionable things going on in the capital before it was destroyed. Internal stuff. It was out of control.”

  “How would you know that?” Deilani asked.

  I ignored her, trying to think. But I didn’t have an answer. “Maybe they knew—maybe they knew, and they thought they could handle it. I take it your nanomachines are protecting us.”

  “For now. They won’t last forever, though. That decon was nearly eighteen hours ago, Admiral. We haven’t got much time before we go the same way the colonists did.”

  “How does it kill?” I asked, not really wanting the answer.

  “That’s not clear from the notes—I’m reading between a lot of lines here. They didn’t last long enough to map this thing out completely. The organisms transform cells into something similar to the mineral that makes up this planet.”

  “Turns you to stone?”

  “More like dust. That’s what we’ve been seeing. It’s not ash. It’s people.”

  I blanched. “That’s not very hygienic.”

  It explained all the clothing we’d seen lying around.

  “All right, stop. Your man’s on the move. Funny, I’m picking up even more movement now.” She sounded puzzled.

  “Which way?”

  “I’m not sure. This isn’t very precise. He’s moving fast. Stand by.”

  I motioned to Salmagard, who put her back to mine. We kept our lights pointed outward, down the paths that intersected on the junction. Nothing appeared to be moving, but our lights and the shadows gave our imaginations plenty to work with.

  “Go left,” Deilani said. “Hurry. Maybe you can cut him off in the drainage tank.”

  “Is it safe?”

  “As long as you get there before we vent.”

  “That gives us about two minutes.”

  “I’d get a move on,” Deilani said mildly.

  I motioned to Salmagard and got moving. If we did manage to pull some confused colonist out of this place, he’d better be grateful.

  “We’re here,” I reported as we emerged inside the tank.

  “Well?”

  “There’s nothing here.” I climbed down into the shallow basin, sweeping my light around. “It’s empty. How long have we got?” There were no lights to speak of down here. Technicians performing maintenance would be wearing tech suits with their own lights.


  “Another minute yet. He stopped in there. There’s no doubt.”

  I swept my light over the ceiling, the floor, the walls. Pipes, machinery—it was all a dark tangle of Ganraen ugliness. I didn’t have a clue what I was looking at.

  But there wasn’t anyone there.

  “You got a bad reading,” I said, shaking my head. I was anxious to get clear. “Back up, Private. Let’s get out of here.”

  “I think you’re right,” Deilani said. “Now I’ve got movement all over the ship. But that can’t be right. I think Nils must’ve miscalibrated this thing.”

  We made our way back up the side of the tank, into the crawl space.

  “Now he’s moving again,” Deilani said.

  “There’s nobody there,” I told her. “And if there is—well, he’s on his own. That room’s about to be full of coolant. It was nice knowing him.”

  “Admiral, if these sensors are malfunctioning, nanomachines could be the least of our problems.”

  “Can our problems wait until we’re topside?”

  “I guess they’ll have to.”

  “Ensign, you got that O2 worked out?”

  “Yes, Admiral. I’m filling them now. I can get them almost to full capacity. Shame we didn’t bring our empties. Sorry about the false alarm,” Nils replied over the com.

  “My fault—but we shouldn’t need them. And no harm done, I suppose.”

  Salmagard and I climbed out of the maintenance hatch, and Deilani sealed it behind us. As we stripped out of our Ganraen suits, I returned Deilani’s gaze.

  “There wasn’t anyone there.”

  She still looked dubious.

  “Tell me what you were going to tell me.”

  She sighed. “It looks like the microorganisms penetrate the skin and contaminate the blood, leading to circulatory arrest. Then they permeate the body, reducing it to this. It’s everywhere.”

  She held out her hand, and I considered the fine gray ash in her palm. I didn’t know what to think.

  “All of our colonists?” I asked, looking at it sadly.

  “Hard to say. It’s actually a lot like ash. There’s some calcium in there. I don’t have the full makeup, though. The colonists didn’t understand how they were doing it either.”