Macao Station

by Майк Берри

  ‘What?’ he asked stupidly, steadying her with a hand on each shoulder. He looked her squarely in the eyes and said, more slowly, ‘What’s wrong, Ella?’ knowing as he said it that this was bad news, more bad news. Had she said that someone was dead? Ella’s eyes were wide and jumpy, darting all over his face, and he could see that she was breathing hard, as if she had run here.

  ‘Rachelle just came to see me,’ said Ella, still rapidly, but at least understandably this time. ‘I sent her to relieve Jayce at the medical department. She found Tamzin and Jayce dead — murdered.’

  This last word fell into Halman’s mind like a stone into a well. A slow, dark splash emanated from its impact. ‘What?’ he asked again, hoping desperately that he’d heard wrongly.

  ‘Eli killed Jayce and Tamzin. Then, while Rachelle was still in my office, Rocko appeared with Marco in tow, who was scared half to death and barely able to speak, but otherwise all right. Eli tried to attack him — Marco, that is — and Rocko heard shouting and walked in on them. Lina was there, too, and Rocko says it looked like Eli was about to cut them both to bits. He hit Eli on the head with a metal pipe — he was still holding it when he came to see me. He said Eli ran off and Lina chased him. He was yelling about dragons and emissaries or some shit. He’s gone crazy, Dan! Waine saw Lina running towards the hangar.’ She shook her head, forcibly detaching herself from his grip, and stood back. ‘I don’t know what the hell’s going on, or where they’ve gone, but. . .’ She was still shaking her head, caught in a perpetual loop of denial. ‘We fucked up,’ she said, staring up into Halman’s face. ‘We fucked up.’

  Halman staggered back, almost tripping over one of the benches below the window, mouthing empty vowel-sounds. It couldn’t be. . . It couldn’t be. . .

  ‘The hangar,’ he said at last. Was the power back on down there by now? ‘Come on!’

  They ran through the rec area, dodging between the pillars that housed the huge supply chutes. They pelted through the eerily-quiet plaza where a few people moved slowly through the red haze like ghouls, looking hollow-eyed and vacant.

  They ran past rows of living quarters, past medical to the stairs. Rachelle was hovering outside medical, talking to Hobbes. Her face was wet with tears. Hobbes tried to snag Halman’s sleeve as he ran past, calling out.

  ‘Not now, Kenn!’ Halman bellowed, not slowing. He felt Ella’s presence behind him, practically adhered to his heels, keeping easy step with him.

  They virtually tumbled down the stairs onto the rimwards-most level, landing in the corridor outside aeroponics. Silence reigned here, silence and weak ruddy light that seeped from doorways as they passed, their footsteps thumping like heartbeats.

  When they reached the warehouse they saw that the lights were on in the flight control room — the normal lights. They increased their pace by unspoken consensus.

  Suddenly, Liu popped out of the control room in front of them. ‘Come on! I’ve got people looking for you two!’ he shouted, disappearing again from sight.

  They burst into the control room, Halman breathing hard and ruing his lapsed standard of physical fitness.

  The power was on in here and virtually every piece of equipment seemed to have reset itself. Numerous chimes and warning signals competed for attention like a dawn chorus of computers. The light was almost too bright. Several screens showed spooling POST-readouts that repeated desperately, vying for human input, bemoaning the fact that the system had shut down unexpectedly and now required a full diagnostic start-up.

  The main terminal, however, looked like it was working. Liu jumped back into his chair, making it spin around. He corrected it quickly and bent over the terminal’s screen.

  ‘He’s out there somewhere,’ said Liu, not looking up. ‘Eli. Lina chased him. My people are out looking for you.’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Halman between gasps, doubled over with his hands on his knees. ‘Fuck, Liu.’

  ‘Yes,’ agreed Liu, spinning his seat to face outwards over the huge HUD-enabled glasspex panel that formed the control room’s floor, its shiny surface marred by coffee spills. ‘He took the loader for some reason. Overrode the safety system from the deck terminal. I don’t know — wait! Here’s Lina!’ Liu leant forwards in his seat, pointing. ‘Look! She’s coming in!’

  Halman straightened and strode into the middle of the great floor screen, casting about for Lina’s tag. ‘Where?’ he demanded. Ella leant back against the door, head back and breathing deeply.

  ‘She’s dropping in and out of visibility,’ said Liu. ‘All that debris out there acts like chaff, as you know, and most of our sensors are down now. But I saw her. Watch!’

  Halman watched for what seemed like a long time but was probably only seconds. An orange icon lit up on the screen between his feet, then quickly vanished again. Just before it flickered out, he had time to read LINA MCLOUGH // K6-12 // 997 M.

  ‘I see her!’

  ‘Exactly,’ agreed Liu, smiling his little smile. ‘She’s coming in. The distance is dropping.’

  ‘And Eli?’ asked Halman, still peering down into the screen.

  ‘Not yet,’ said Liu. ‘Just her.’ And then he added, a little prissily, Halman thought, ‘She’s going a bit fast, though. Reckless.’

  ‘But why the fuck is she out there at all, Liu? What was she thinking?’

  Liu looked up into Halman’s face. Halman felt the sudden and almost overwhelming urge to jump on Liu and choke him until he stopped fucking smiling. He balled his hands into fists and held them tight against his thighs.

  ‘I have no idea, but in a minute or two you can ask her.’ Liu’s smile widened further, exposing perfect white teeth. He shrugged cheerfully, and Halman glowered at him.

  ‘I fucking will, pal,’ agreed Halman darkly.

  He forced himself to relax and stalked to the slightly wonky office chair next to Liu’s, where he collapsed with a groan. It looked about a hundred years old and had lost most of its upholstery, but it seemed to bear his weight. He looked up at Ella, who still leant against the door with her eyes shut tight and her head back. Never before had the station’s continued existence seemed so tenuous to him. Murder. Sabotage. And now this jolly little fuckaround. Thank fuck that Lina was coming back.

  As for Eli, Halman could barely believe it. His brain felt close to a dangerous overload. Had Eli really tried to kill Marco? It wasn’t possible. . . And yet, somehow he knew that it was true. One of his oldest friends and most trusted section leaders had gone insane, killed a bunch of people and fled into the asteroid belt. And what the hell had Ella said about dragons? Something about dragons. . .

  Halman was deeply disappointed with Ella and her team. She should never have left Jayce in charge of Eli. This was supposed to be their area of expertise. And that disappointment made him feel guilty. He didn’t like to think bad of his crew. Now the guilt was turning to anger — an aimless, undirected anger. He tried to calm himself, unclenching his hands and laying them flat on his knees. ‘Oh shit. . .’ he sighed. In Ella’s defence, it had all happened so damn fast, and their manpower was so stretched. . . and now two more people were dead. Hindsight, he supposed was a wonderful thing, but useless in any practical respect.

  ‘Should I get a couple of my guys in case Eli comes in?’ asked Ella, seemingly emerging from a reverie. She looked desperately eager to please.

  ‘Yeah,’ said Halman. ‘Get everyone you can.’ She dashed out of the door without another word.

  Halman looked out at the hangar, which lay bright and empty and silent behind the transparent wall of the control room, still open to space — a stage waiting for the next act to begin. Ella was right. They should have a team waiting. Then if Eli came in, they would have him. No escape.

  ‘Still no sign of him?’ Halman asked.

  ‘No, just her.’ Liu indicated the approaching Lina-icon on the screen beneath their feet. It glowed steadily now, the distance reading dropping rapidly.

  ‘I want to talk to her,’ said Halma
n, staring at the orange square.

  ‘Should be possible now,’ said Liu. ‘Might take a second, as we don’t have main array any more, but. . .’ He trailed off, his attention becoming quickly absorbed by his work. He clipped an earpiece on, dialled a couple of settings into the comm, slid the gains up on the main channel and cleared his throat as if he was about to make a speech at a wedding. ‘Ahem! Lina, this is Base. Copy.’ He glanced over his shoulder at Halman, who had come to stand behind him.

  Lina’s voice from the terminal’s speaker, hissing with static and worryingly frantic: ‘Copy! Get me Halman, Liu, get me Halman! I want him there when I come in!’ Even with the background hiss, there was no mistaking the urgency in that voice.

  ‘Halman’s here, Lina. Take it easy, now, slow down a little. You’re going too fast. I want you to back off and come round again. Over.’

  ‘Put him on!’ yelled Lina, ignoring Liu’s instructions. Her Kay, visible to the naked eye now, was angling up towards the floor of the control room, approaching the station’s ramp, retro thrusters firing white billows of gas.

  ‘Lina, please back off and–’ began Liu, but Halman pushed him out of the way and leant over the mic.

  ‘Lina, this is Dan. What the fuck is going on?’

  ‘Dan. . .’ said Lina in what sounded like a relieved sigh. There was a pause during which the two men waiting in the control room had time to exchange foreboding glances, then: ‘You’re not gonna believe this, but. . . Eli. . .’ She laughed bitterly, a sound with no real humour in it at all. ‘Eli has the shuttle out there. He’s been screwing with us for some time, I’m afraid.’

  Halman felt the breath rush out of him as if he had been gut-punched. He had half expected the shuttle to be out there somewhere — after all, it had been his idea to route a fair portion of their precious power into the hangar. But this? Eli had it? Surely not. . . how long had it been out there? How long had his friend deceived him? Halman himself was a fairly simple creature, and other people’s deviousness often took him by surprise.

  ‘Hang on. . .’ said Lina. ‘I’m coming in. . .’

  ‘Lina–’ began Liu, but Halman shoved him on the shoulder, forestalling any further objections about her flightpath or velocity.

  ‘Just shut up and let her land, okay?’ he suggested, but not unkindly. Liu stepped back, his smile faltering for the first time that day.

  Lina’s Kay rose to within twenty metres of the glasspex floor, rolling gracefully to present its wheels to the hangar’s ramp. The two watchers held their breath without realising it. The ship loomed large and then passed directly beneath them. Halman stood tensely as it disappeared from the floor-screen and came into view through the window that overlooked the flight deck. The ship coasted into the hangar, still firing retros at full blast, filling the space with vapour, and touched down.

  Liu was at the terminal, working the controls, both hands flying over the panel with the unconscious ease of long use. The ramp shuddered, sending a tremor through the superstructure of the station, vibrating the glasspex floor of the control room, and began to close. Lina’s ship had decelerated almost to walking speed, bouncing gently on its suspension. It coasted past the central desk and the dead-lifter, arriving at its usual space and turning smoothly in a half-circle. Halman felt an incredible, cooling wave of relief wash over him. At least one of his endangered and diminishing crew had returned intact.

  There was a rushing sound from behind the wall of the control room as the air pumps spun up and began to flood the hangar again. Lina’s Kay came to a final rest and the landing lights went off almost at once. A throbbing blue strobe filled the hangar as soon as she opened the hatch, indicating to the ground crew that there were live, unsuited personnel on the deck. She swung herself out, using the Kay’s tool arms as handholds, and climbed down. She looked up at Halman, who stood at the window watching her, and waved. He raised one hand in return, attempting to smile, and just about managing a grimace. Lina’s blonde hair was a matted tangle, even more so than usual. Her head, face and upper body were virtually covered in what looked like blood. She came towards the hangar door at a brisk walk, one hand held to the small of her back.

  ‘Open it up!’ called Halman to Liu.

  The hangar door began to rise, albeit it with its customary slowness, as soon as Lina got to it. She waited impatiently, fingers drumming on one thigh, until it was high enough to duck under. Twenty seconds later there was a knock at the control room’s door. Liu hit the pad to open it and Lina walked in, slightly bent over and obviously in pain.

  ‘Lina!’ Halman cried, seizing her and hugging her briefly but tightly, forgetting that she was clearly injured. ‘You dumb shit!’ Her face was startled and uncomprehending as she stepped back. ‘What the hell were you doing out there?’

  ‘Glad you made it back, Li,’ said Liu from his seat at the control desk. He was, of course, smiling. ‘But you’re hurt.’

  Lina ran a hand through her hair, then looked at the blood on it as if she hadn’t seen it before. ‘Yeah,’ she said flatly. ‘I guess I am.’

  ‘Liu — get Hobbes,’ ordered Halman, but Lina waved his suggestion away.

  ‘No, it’s — I’m fine,’ she said. ‘I’m fine. I’ll go see him later, okay?’

  ‘Okay,’ agreed Halman reluctantly. ‘Just tell me what’s going on.’

  ‘He — Eli — he tried to attack Marco,’ she began shakily. ‘Rocko saved his life — both our lives, I guess. Then he fled — Eli, that is — and I guess I just kinda followed. I don’t know what I was thinking to be honest.’ She looked as if she may be about to cry, thought Halman. He didn’t blame her really, but he still hoped that it wouldn’t happen.

  ‘Hey,’ he said. ‘It’s okay.’ He struggled for something more comforting than this that he could add. After a second or two, he came up with: ‘Marco’s all right. I think he’s still with Rocko.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Lina sighed. ‘Good. That’s good.’ She took a deep breath in and seemed to pull herself together. ‘Eli killed Jayce and Tamzin. And he killed Sal, too. That’s how I knew about him. He started spouting some weird shit when I went to medical to visit him. About how he wasn’t done yet. I knew something was up. I came down here and inspected his ship.’ She looked from Halman to Liu, making sure that they were following her. ‘There was an impact mark on his Kay.’ Liu started to interject, but she held up a finger to stall him. ‘Not from a belt object,’ she explained. ‘But from hitting another ship. I’ve been here long enough to know what a belt-impact usually looks like. You can check it for yourselves, of course. But I know I’m right. That last cry of hers — she called his name — it wasn’t a cry for help. It was a cry of shock as he nudged her into the path of an asteroid. He must have sabotaged K6-8’s safety systems, too.’ She shook her head, crestfallen. ‘When I got back to medical he was gone.’

  ‘Surely he didn’t actually expect to be able to fly away, though?’ said Halman. ‘As far as he was aware, the power was off here, right?’

  ‘It was almost as if he knew. At my place, it was like a lightbulb went on above his head. Maybe he overheard someone talking about it,’ Lina said uncertainly. ‘And he just ran off. I followed him here. He knocked me out–’ she indicated the area on her head where the blood seemed to be the most concentrated, ‘–then left me to die in the vacuum. I came to just in time and followed him. I almost hit the ISL with a mass-driver bolt,’ she added disbelievingly. ‘I almost hit it.’

  ‘And where is our shuttle? Is he fucking living in it out there?’ asked Halman.

  ‘It’s weirder than that,’ said Lina. She looked a little unsteady on her feet and Halman considered forcing her to see Hobbes immediately after all. But in truth, he wanted to hear this first. He took her by the elbow and led her instead to the office chair that he himself had vacated, where she plonked herself down exhaustedly. ‘It looks like he’s attached it to some asteroid — one of the largest I’ve ever seen out there. As for why, I couldn’t beg
in to guess.’

  ‘Right,’ said Halman, his brows descending and one hand going to his stubbled chin. He could feel the cogs beginning to turn inside his head. They felt a little rusty to be honest. ‘Anything else you can tell us?’

  ‘No,’ she said after a pause. ‘I don’t think so.’ But her face looked distant and wondering.

  ‘You’re sure?’ Halman pushed.

  ‘Yeah,’ said Lina, looking down at her feet. Blood had dripped onto her boots, staining them.

  ‘So what’s all this bullshit about dragons?’ asked Halman. Ella had said something about dragons, hadn’t she? Dragons and emissaries and crazy mining-team bosses and metal pipes and scalpel-murders. Halman’s knees felt suddenly weak. His head was buzzing, as if it was filled with flies — lots of activity but no sort of order.

  ‘Dan. . .’ said Lina, still not looking at him. ‘I don’t know what’s going on. But Eli has gone properly insane.’

  ‘Mmm,’ grunted Halman. He looked up at Liu, who was listening politely from his seat, unsure as to whether he was still involved in this or not. ‘Liu — I’m going to send two people up here — one to replace you, and one as a runner. If anything else comes out of that belt, or even so much as fucking stirs, I want that runner to make for my office as fast as their little legs will carry them. You’re with me, okay?’ Liu nodded. ‘Lina — I want yourself and one other representative of the mining crew — Ilse Reno, I suppose — to report to my office. But first, I want you all-cleared by Hobbes. If he wants to keep you in, you stay. And yes, that is an order. I’m going to talk to maintenance, too. And Ella. . . Where the hell is Ella, actually? She’d better bloody get me my sec-team soon!’

  ‘And then what?’ asked Lina in a small and far away voice. ‘What are we going to do?’

  ‘We’re going to come up with a plan — a safe plan — to get our shuttle back. If Eli thinks he can just take it, he’s in for one big surprise.’