by Becky Black
Maiga headed off through the docks. The same stares she'd run from greeted her return. But she didn't turn away from them this time. She even smiled at a couple of people she recognised.
There was Jaff, who she'd just been thinking of, and he couldn't do anything but stare too, hanging from a harness high up near the ceiling, working on the light fittings. She waved at him and he waved back automatically, still gaping.
Maiga walked on, guessing he'd be on his Snapper, and calling Chervaz already. Chervaz. That part of coming back she had not been looking forward to. Though she had missed him, and she at least wanted to open negotiations with the idea of affecting a reconciliation… still, that kind of highly emotional scene made her uncomfortable. But that wasn't the highest priority on her agenda. It was something that would have to wait until she dealt with more important matters.
She left the docks and walked through the long corridor into the human sector. Although quiet otherwise, no crowds, there seemed to be a lot of Watch patrols around. Things had indeed started to change since she left. One thing hadn't, she guessed, and every time she passed an obvious camera, she smiled at it. There'd be less obvious ones around too, but Gry would have to do without her smile on those feeds.
A beep from her Snapper told her it had completed synchronising with the station network and she noticed it was three in the morning, human time. No wonder the corridors were so quiet. Then she looked ahead and saw someone running up the corridor towards her. Someone wearing a combination of nightclothes and hastily donned street clothes, with a long dressing gown streaming out behind like a cloak.
Wixa skidded to a stop in front of Maiga, staring, and too winded to speak
Maiga smiled.
"Yes. I'm back."
Chapter 38
Maiga collected up the coffee cups her guests had left. Theirs was a very civilised conspiracy, served with coffee. And both Wixa and Sheni had brought along cake. One guest still remained, sitting at the kitchen bench, with a coffee cup he had lingered over for an inordinate length of time.
Chervaz.
They'd seen each other several times since she returned, but only around other people, never alone. Neither had broached the subject of the two of them, not yet. Would she welcome it if he did now? As angry as she had been, time and a cool head had given Maiga the distance to put it in perspective. She saw the faults on both sides. Both had failed to trust the other.
"You know," Chervaz said, stirring his coffee, while Maiga started washing up the other cups. "I still think we should just warn station management."
"No," Maiga said, with a shake of her head. "It's a human problem. We have to deal with it. She was a mutineer and a murderer before she was a pirate. That's what she has to pay for first."
He didn't answer, just looked at her. Wondering about her plans, she guessed. He already knew many of the plans, the response they had planned for when Bara made her move. But he didn't know what Maiga had planned for afterwards. Nobody knew that. Well, nobody here on the station. Had Chervaz worked out what the plans she had revealed were really about though?
One person had. The day after she arrived back on the station, Maiga took the train to the station that existed only on the line, where she fended off a hug from Gry. She didn't have that good a sense of smell, but there were limits.
When she explained her plans, and how he could help, how he could be the secret weapon, Gry clapped his hands and cackled. All the years down here, learning every inch of the station, would pay off big now. He asked the same question as Chervaz, why not just warn the Klaff? And she gave the same answer, but Gry didn't just accept it without question. He looked thoughtful, and he worked out what the answer actually meant.
"You want her to come. You're not only ready for her; you're waiting. Oh, delightful! An ambush! You're laying a trap!"
He was exactly right. But even Gry hadn't guessed the rest of it.
"You could warn the Klaff yourself." Maiga said, making Chervaz look up from stirring his coffee.
"I could." He took the spoon out of the coffee at last, and fidgeted, passing the spoon from one hand to another. "I could go and talk to the station managers right now." He smiled and held up a hand, fingers crossed. "Mahtani and me are like that now. But I won't." He went serious again. "I'm choosing to trust that you know what you're doing and that what you're doing is for the good of our people."
"It is. The good of all our people."
"I believe you'll do it. I think that when you make a promise, you can bend the universe into a shape that keeps that promise."
It made her smile to hear that he put so much faith in her. She knew she could rely on him in return, because of what he'd done before. She trusted him now because he'd hurt her with his newspaper story. Because she knew he would stick by his principles. He stood up even when the enemy tried to beat him down. When Maiga herself tried to beat him down, with her anger and by leaving him, he stood up.
This man was her rock. A BFR she could use to guide her. Nobody would be more important to her in the days to come.
"I have missed you," she told him.
"You probably have time to reload."
Maiga stared for a moment, then grinned. "You've been hanging around with Wixa while I was gone, haven't you?"
"Yes, but station security kept moving us on, since people nearby kept bursting into tears due to the effect of the field of misery we were generating."
"Stop trolling for sympathy." She took the cup from him, tired of watching him stir the cold coffee. "You were sulking in a coffee shop while I was a prisoner on the cursed ship of a mad pirate queen."
"Okay, you win on points." He reached for her, but stopped short, and let his hand rest on the bench. "I've missed you too, Maiga."
She didn't answer at once, finished washing and drying his cup and put it away, then hung the towel on a rail, making sure it fell straight and neat. Her quarters were barracks room style again, very much like when she had first arrived. The throws and rugs, that Wixa seemed to have an endless supply of, lay piled in a neat stack in a corner.
The same principle went for her person and for a second she ran a hand through her short-cropped hair. She'd had it cut only a couple of days ago, as short as it had been for a long time. Ready for the fight.
Her long silence must have discouraged Chervaz, and he moved his hand away again. But she spoke. "Go on. Did you want to say something?"
"I… well, was thinking, I would like… um, I'll understand if you say no, but what we had before… I still care about you. I know I messed up and…" He looked down, stumbling to a halt.
"You didn't mess up. Or we both did. But, Vaz." He looked up at that. Maiga rarely called him Vaz. Jaff did, and Wixa, his friends. But she'd been more than a friend. "We have to wait. Until this is over. I need to focus--we both do--on what's important."
A flush rose to his cheeks then and she knew she'd put her foot in it again. She took a step back from the bench, folding her arms.
"I mean, more important in the sense that it will affect a lot of people, not only us. Lives are at stake. So, I think we should wait."
"We might die." He said it quietly.
"Yes," she said. "We might. And, as much of an aphrodisiac as the fear of violent death might be, I still think we should wait."
He stared at her. "Sometimes you frighten me a little."
"Frighten you?" She frowned. "Why?"
"I don't know how else to say it, but you're very like her, like Bara. So intense and focused. I suppose that means you're the one to beat her. But still, you frighten me."
"There's one difference. I'm not crazy."
He laughed; sounding relieved that she wasn't angry. "I hope not. It's hard to tell though, since you're also very mysterious." He paused and looked at her for a while, an assessing expression in his eyes. "I know you have things planned that you haven't told anyone else. Can't you tell me?"
"I can't tell anyone."
"Why not?"<
br />
She shrugged. "I just can't."
"What if I told you a secret? Would you tell me then?"
That intrigued her, but still her answer remained the same. "No."
"Maiga, someone else should know the plans. What if you fall in the fighting?"
"Actually, there is one person who knows the plans." She smiled. "You haven't met him. But I think he and Jaff are going to get along like a house on fire."
"You're trying to distract me."
Damn, of course his experience interviewing people had taught him to spot such attempts. She sighed. "Yes, I am."
"That's okay. I always found you very distracting, in the best possible way." He looked at his watch. "I have to go. I have a paper to print." Chervaz headed to the door and opened it. He turned to say goodbye and Maiga spoke.
"What secret?" she asked. "What secret were you going to tell me?"
Chervaz chuckled. "Sorry, Maiga, quid pro quo."
"What?"
"Never mind." The door closed behind him.
Chapter 39
Dav's bar was closed. This didn't happen very often, but, as he said, he had to fumigate the place once in a while. Outside the bar, the area between the docks and the marketplace had fewer people around than usual. The marketplace itself was less than bustling.
Through the partly open door of the bar, Dav watched the few people who were around. This was the only time it could be considered quiet on this station. People called it "the eclipse" and Dav thought it smart of Captain Bara to use it. He glanced back over his shoulder, licked his dry lips.
Outside the bar there might be no crowds, but inside, the space was filled with men and women, all wearing Watch badges--as if that somehow made it okay. All quiet and intense and keyed up. They'd been waiting and now, at the height of the eclipse, they were ready to go into action.
The Watch commanders handed out the weapons, which Dav had kept in long crates in his storeroom, labelled as supplies. The gangsters who'd taken over security here recently hadn't known anything about them. Their doormen were now lying in that same storeroom, bound and gagged.
When Dav had complained to his friends in the Watch about the gangsters, they'd told him to suck it up. They wouldn't do anything about it. But one had smiled at him and told him that he shouldn't worry too much. It was an inconvenience, but it wouldn't be for long. Be patient. He understood, at least some of it. All part of Bara's plans. She was coming back, and she'd seen to it that the people would welcome her with cheers.
The man in charge of distributing the rifles and handguns spoke up, making the others go quiet.
"You all have your orders. Get into your teams, take your positions. Go on my signal." Dav guessed what that signal would send them to do--seize the station's key facilities. And his bar counted as a key facility, at least until they took over the command and control centre. He felt rather proud of that and hoped it would be good for business later.
"Minimise casualties," the officer in charge went on. "That's Captain Bara's direct order. Especially human. Use lethal force as a last resort only."
They nodded that they understood. Were even happy about it, Dav thought. They didn't want to gun down their fellow humans. Fighting each other didn't come naturally to humans any more.
"There are known troublemakers, ringleaders, in the human sector, but gamma team is going to round them up. Once we deprive them of their leaders, the others will fall in line quickly. Now, good luck to us all. Move out."
They didn't cheer, needing to keep quiet, but a murmur of approval rolled around the crowd. Dav watched as they pulled up the deck plates, revealing a crawlspace. One of the Watchmen, who Dav recognised as being from the maintenance department, dropped into the space and heaved on a handle down there. Another hole opened, leading to a much larger space underneath.
Dav had been amazed when they showed it to him. Old conduits, once used by robotic transport carts apparently. Long since abandoned. He'd had no clue it was there. Now the Watchmen dropped into it one by one, moving off with flashlights.
These conduits didn't go everywhere on the station, but in places they intersected with other hidden spaces and shafts. A person could move around the station though these secret places, unseen by station security. Soon the bar had emptied and only Dav and a couple of the people monitoring portable computer panels remained. Keen to stay in their good books, Dav brought them hot coffee.
"Now what?" He asked as he served them.
"Now we wait."
~o~
Alex walked onto the bridge to find Max sitting in the captain's chair. Alex had never done that. Even when Bara had left Alex in command when she was off the ship, he didn't sit in the captain's chair. But Max seemed very comfortable there.
"Back again?" Max said, glancing at Alex.
"Just checking something." Alex went to the engineering station and tried to look busy. He'd spent more time on the damn bridge since he lost the position of first officer than he had before. He had to keep an eye on Max. The bastard encouraged Bara in her mad schemes, instead of restraining her, as Alex had tried to. They suited each other, both twisted with hatred and the thirst for vengeance.
Every day Alex wished he'd left the ship with Sev. The terror that they'd never see each other again kept him in a state of constant nervous tension. Sev had convinced Alex that he had the strength to get through this. But Alex had started to doubt it.
Now what the hell? Max had risen and come over to stand close behind Alex, apparently studying readouts, as if the slick bastard knew what the hell they meant. He bent down by Alex's chair, standing too close and making Alex's skin crawl.
"Soon now, Chief."
He meant the signal from the station, Alex supposed. Alex nodded. "Yes."
"Then perhaps your dream will come true," Max said. "And you can get off this ship."
"And what do you know about my dreams?"
Max laughed softly. "That's the only one of them I want to think about, I will say. Can't imagine the rest are anything I'd want to see."
"Move away, Commander." Alex's voice stayed low too. But he wouldn't put up with this shit, not from the captain's bed warmer.
"Oh, do be nice, Chief. Not too nice though, I don't swing that way."
"You do flatter yourself, Commander."
"Well, aren't you in a sulk?" Max's tone was mocking. "Got your nose right out of joint didn't it? Losing first officer status?"
Alex tried to ignore the gloating in the voice, trying not to be provoked. What the hell was wrong with Max? He'd been trying to stir it with Alex since he arrived. Fearful of a rival for his job, if he failed to please the captain, perhaps?
"I prefer my engineering duties," Alex said.
"Oh really? So you're saying your male pride isn't a little bit dented? If you have any male pride. Or did you lose it the first time you got on your knees in front of--"
Max backed off fast as Alex spun out of his chair. Will not put up with this shit. Bara might have disapproved of Alex and Sev's relationship, but even she never screwed around with childish crap like this.
"You have a problem, Chief?" Max demanded as Alex stepped towards him. The rest of the bridge crew watched them, wide eyed and tense.
"Yeah, I have a problem. Six feet of problems right in front of me."
"Sir!" The crewman on the communication station called, sounding urgent and relieved at the same time, apparently happy to distract them from starting to pound each other. "Sir, signal from Hollow Jimmy, from our people. The ready signal."
Max turned away from Alex, and made for the captain's chair again, but stopped when Bara came out of her ready room. She must have been monitoring comms herself, waiting for the signal that told them the attack was a go.
"Respond to the signal," she ordered Communications as she took her seat. "How far from Hollow Jimmy are we?"
"Three hours at best speed," Max reported. "If we leave now we'll arrive at the optimum time."
Bara
nodded, smiling. Optimum time, Alex knew was, right in the middle of what the barkeep Dav had called "the eclipse." The rare time when the sleep cycles of all the major species living on the station intersected, their calendars lining up, so it was night for everybody at the same time. The perfect time for a surprise attack.
"Then set course," Bara ordered. "Jimmy's waiting."
~o~
Maiga had expected a warning. Gry could see everything, he claimed, so he should have seen it starting. But instead she was woken from sleep by the door chime, and opened her door to find several Watch members holding rifles.
"Get dressed," the one in charge said, looking at Maiga's bathrobe. "You're under arrest."
Maiga didn't argue. No sense in that. She turned and walked back into the room. They came in behind her, and a woman followed her into the bedroom.
"Do you mind?" Maiga said, scowling at her.
"Just move it."
Seeing she wasn't getting any privacy Maiga started dressing. She eyed her Snapper, lying on a table beside the bed. A small light flashed on it now. A message.
If that's you Gry, you're too damn late.
~o~
Wixa answered her own door to a similar squad of gun-toting, badge-wearing folks. Her Snapper was already in her hand, the message she'd just read--too late--warning her "they're coming out of the walls."
Could one detect panic in a line of text? She thought so, could detect it in Gry's words. He watched the station, she knew. He knew all the hidden and secret areas. But had he, had all of them, forgotten that others could know those secret areas too?
One of the Watchmen grabbed the Snapper from her hand, and shoved her back, perhaps fearing it was a weapon. The leader snapped at him, and turned to Wixa.
"My apologies. Please, cooperate and you won't be harmed. Please, get dressed. You're under arrest."
