Spaced

by Greg Curtis

  It would change space travel forever – except that, as he slowly remembered, he could never tell anyone he possessed the algorithms. Because he would also have to tell them how the algorithms had been acquired.

  After a while as the ship kept pestering him to ask if he was listening, he tried to pay some attention as it started flashing up all sorts of graphs and numbers. It seemed only polite and he didn't need the ship getting upset with him anymore.

  It would be a long time though before he could think and act like a rational man again. Stress had been eating at him for so long. He would sleep in his bed tonight he promised himself and wouldn't wake up for a good eight hours, maybe even ten.

  “Are you quite recovered?”

  Apparently his outburst hadn't gone unnoticed. Del was addressing him. Perhaps he’d been a little hysterical. But what the shard – he had a right to be a little emotional.

  “I'm fine,” he replied, tears of joy running down his cheeks. He was going home. He was going to see his family again. And he was going to dance. “The ship's locking coordinates now, the drive’s cooling, and we'll jump for the outlier station in a couple of hours. The plan continues.”

  He wished it wouldn't though. He wished he could simply go home right then and dump these two with the authorities. But he couldn't simply drop Del off– she would kill him – and they might too. Plus the ship was still loaded up with her fellow mutes. He had to get rid of them. He wasn't White – the rogue as she called him. He couldn't just kill them. He had to drop them off somewhere safe.

  “Good.” For the first time in ages there wasn't a big dollop of anger and derision in her voice. “What sort of a name is Hellacious?”

  “A good one.” And it was, which was why he'd called it that.

  “The sun is a red giant, larger than any I've ever heard of. And it puts out planet-loads of infrared, cooking the entire system. The inner planets are balls of lava floating in space. The outer ones are all geologically unstable gas giants with atmospheres that would eat metal. There is literally not a scrap of real estate in this system on which a ship could land. There are five asteroid belts, all of them far too crowded to navigate which is why we're lucky that the jump point is so far above the ecliptic. And the light from the sun is too weak to do much recharging of the ship. It'd cook us long before it did that. If there's a Hell anywhere, it's here.”

  “And this is where you chose to come?” her voice rose in disbelief.

  “I knew this was one system guaranteed to have no traffic. It's not charted because I never bothered to fill out the forms. And if anyone else has found it they wouldn't come here either.” That meant no Navy most of all, and he was conscious that they might become an enemy of his very quickly if they realised he'd had any contact with the mutes. Partly because of her sorry tale which he still wasn't sure he believed. But mostly because whether what she said was true or not the mutes were enemies and the military took a dim view of anyone consorting with such people.

  “Now,” he checked the chronometer, “it's one hour and fifty eight minutes until we jump again. So watch a holo or something. I have work to do.” Carm dismissed her, no doubt annoying her some more. But that couldn't really matter now. He had work to do. Work that mostly consisted of watching temperature gauges on the drive which were too hot, and the bots while they removed the other coffins from the wall in the hold. Now that he had some confidence that Kendra hadn't given them algorithms that would get them killed, he wanted to be ready to dump them on the station as quickly as possible.

  Fortunately the bots were quick. There were a lot of them and they weren't worrying if the steel panel walls got a little scratched. They weren't even putting them back. It was simply a matter of removing and dumping the coffins in the hold itself. By the time the ship was ready to jump again, thirty-one stainless steel coffins were sitting in the hold.

  He was close to the end now, so close he could taste it. It was only a matter of whether the other set of coordinates Del had given them could be relied on. But he thought they probably could be. She didn't want to die.

  Giving the order to jump, he held his breath once more. Maybe she'd given them the algorithms simply to make sure they jumped into the naval yards of her people, hoping that even if he did dump the coffins they’d be found quickly. Kendra had had the same coordinates but hadn't said anything. Surely she would have if she suspected Del had changed the plan.

  As it turned out she hadn’t. The other end proved to be much as Kendra and Del had described: a sprawling base on a moon orbiting a giant blue planet, and pure outlier. It had their clan markings when astrogation finally came online, their broadcast saying Clan Ness. Then, after the readings came in and he saw the details of the construction and the ships there, he knew it certainly wasn't Commonwealth. They would be newer and the bases in better condition. This was a spiderweb of rusting steel structures mixed in with landing berths. One thing he could be reasonably sure of though – there were no warships. Though they were still four hours’ flight away by EM, no weapons signatures had been detected, and no naval broadcast frequencies either.

  One other thing he did notice: the temperature of the drive. It was hotter again than it should be. It might be simply because of having made two jumps in quick succession, but he needed to keep an eye on it. It was the first whisper that something serious might be failing and that was getting louder. Nothing was flashing a warning at them yet, but when things went bad they could go very bad, quickly. He had to get home fast and in as few jumps as possible.

  “Ship, hail them.” Carm gave the order, his heart in his mouth.

  “Yeah?” A man appeared in the holo almost immediately. He had stubble on his face and wore wrinkled clothes. Not the smartly-dressed, clean-shaven type Carm would have expected to see on a Commonwealth space-port. Outliers weren't great fans of the social etiquette of modern Commonwealth society. They rejected it with a passion, looking down on those who did dress according to fashion. Carm was safe though – he’d given up on dressing respectably over a month ago.

  “Are you the port master?”

  “Garamond Ness, First of the Ness, Clover Fields Base. You looking for a berth? Got the credits? Or the gold?”

  First of the Ness. Clover Fields Base. Carm could barely contain himself when he heard that. Outliers were clannish people, and the head of a clan would be called the “First”. He’d found the promised outliers. But he held his joy in.

  “I'm looking to unload some cargo for others to pick up. You got a storage facility?”

  “Uh huh.” The man nodded but his mind didn't really seem to be on the job. He was mostly looking at something just off to the side.

  “Good. I have thirty one containers to deposit, one defective android and one accompanying human. Payment will be made when the others come to pick the stuff up, the freight will stand as surety. And the woman will give you the details and make the arrangements. Acceptable?”

  “That'll be fine.” The port master didn't appear too concerned. Carm had no reason to think there would be a problem. What he was asking for was a fairly standard arrangement – the only unusual thing about it being what the containers contained. That, if and when the port authorities found out, would raise a few eyebrows.

  “Good. I'll be there to unload in four standard hours. Nightingale out.”

  With that Carm was done, and his immediate desire was to start celebrating. But he couldn't, because he still had one more call to make – to tell his passengers that the deal had just been altered. It might have been wrong, but he couldn't help but feel a little satisfaction at the thought of telling her.

  “Ship, flash up Del and give me voice.” Despite his best intentions Carm couldn't keep a smile from tugging the corners of his mouth. It grew broader when he saw her sitting in a chair looking impatient.

  “Are we there? Is the message sent?” She stared at him nervously. She wanted this to end as much as he did.


  “Yes and no.” Carm's smile grew even bigger while laughter was threatening to burst out. “We're there, but now we have a new deal.”

  “What?!” Her face underwent contortions as she must have experienced a myriad of conflicting emotions. “You're changing the arrangement?!”

  “Yes. This is your drop off.”

  “What!” She screeched. “You … you ...”

  Del struggled to find the words and Carm waited patiently. She was locked in her cabin after all so what harm could she do? And it was amusing in a somewhat mean way. But after the abuse she'd thrown at him for the past week he didn't care.

  “Here’s how the ship's going to fly. We'll be landing in about four hours. At that point the bots will unload your thirty-one steel coffin encased friends and of course one psychotic android on to the dock where the outliers can pick them up and throw them in storage. They were never in a container waiting to be jettisoned by the way. You'd have to be a DD to believe I'd do something like that. And after that's done and the bots are back onboard you can disembark. I'll give you five to get off, then I'm leaving.

  “I'd make the most of it. The clan are expecting someone to be there to call for a pick up – and let's face it they're outliers – if you aren't there with them then they'll simply seize your friends as collateral. I told them they could keep the freight as surety. You won't be able to reach me at any stage since the ship will be keeping every door shut except the next one leading you off. And you can rest assured that I will not be telling anyone anything about your people. Unless of course you mutes come after me. Then I will of course need and have a backup plan ready. Any questions?”

  There were. About his parentage, his general level of intelligence and morality, and how many pieces he'd like his body to be left in. Carm ignored them all, instead thanking her politely for her input and advised her to pack for a thinner atmosphere and a colder climate. It looked cool down there.

  Naturally that didn't go down well and there was another round of screaming and abuse.

  But it just amused him and soon Carm gave up trying to control it and let the laughter loose. Even if she was ten times as strong as he was and her face was a white giant ready to go nova, he just didn't care. She was going. Kendra was going. All of the mutes were going. And he was going home.

  One hundred and five days spaced. But the nightmare was finally over. It was time to dance!

  “Ship, play some music! Something with a beat. And break out the beer.”

  “No! Not again! Never again! No alcohol and no dancing! And never on the bridge!” The ship quickly guessed what he wanted to do and it wasn't happy about it.

  “But we're home! Nearly!”

  “And when we are you can go back to that wretched establishment you love so much, get drunk, fall down and dance to your heart's content. Until then no.” The ship was firm.

  “Haven't you got that a bit out of order?” After all, people didn't dance after they'd fallen down drunk.

  “Not in your case!” The ship barked at him. “And don't think I will ever forget the mess you left on the carpets!

  “Now sit in your chair and pretend you have a working brain cell left. There will be no drinking, no leaving the bridge and in fact no nothing of any sort!”

  “But ship –.” Carm started to object.

  “There will be absolutely no dancing on this ship – ever!”

  Chapter Twenty Four

  Aquaria! It had been so long since he’d seen it, and it looked beautiful. More than that – it was an angel floating serenely in space.

  Seeing it after such a long absence caused tears of joy to trickle down Carm's cheeks. He'd thought he would never see his home again. Perhaps the ship had been right to ban his alcohol consumption. Because if he'd been as drunk as he’d wanted to be, he wouldn't have been able to experience the sheer, overwhelming ecstasy of this moment. Though of course the ship was simply protecting its carpets.

  Carm hadn't expected to see three battleships in orbit, and all of them fully armed. Somewhat belatedly he realised he had to do something.

  “Ship! Kill every power system we don't need!” He didn’t think they’d been spotted but it was only a matter of time.

  His order was immediately followed by the dimming of the lights, and the end of its permanent hum as the reactor went to idle. Carm breathed a little easier after that. The ship would be killing off every spare erg of power it normally generated. Unless the Navy ships were looking for them, actively scanning this part of space, they wouldn't be seen.

  But still as he waited for a hail from the Navy and heard nothing, he knew they’d been lucky. The ships hadn't had their sensors trained on the jump point. In any case, they weren't in it. He'd used the coordinates computed by the algorithm to make the jump and for whatever reason they weren't quite as accurate.

  Normally a jump point was a region of space only a few hundred klicks in diameter. But the ones the algorithm had provided were ten thousand klicks across. He wasn't completely sure why.

  The other reason they hadn't been spotted was that their beacon was off. Every ship had one in order to announce their presence and position, and it couldn't be turned off. Theirs though hadn't survived the initial wild jump, and then Carm had cannibalized some of it for astrogation repairs. He could see the Navy ships proudly pinging their identities and courses all over the system, but they couldn't see him – unless they looked. It was a violation of space law and the Navy would have a fit.

  His true problem wasn't a few fines though – he was a wanted terrorist, and three battleships faced him in orbit. Could he have jumped back into a police pursuit? But how could they possibly have known he was returning? And why use three battleships against an unarmed freighter? Something else had to be going on.

  “Ship, let’s activate the EM drive at ten percent and edge behind the Aquarius Four asteroid belt. Scan for all civilian channels in the system and especially any references to us.” The first thing he needed was information.

  “Yes Carmichael. But shouldn't you be considering surrendering – you have Kendra's evidence of your innocence.”

  “Just so they can blow us out of space?” The police hadn't been willing to listen before – why would the Navy be?

  “Granted you do seem to have a surprising way with the ladies Carmichael, but this is the Navy. Even if their commanding officer is a woman you surely haven't had a chance to upset her yet!”

  “A surprising way with the ladies?!” Carm spluttered with outrage until he finally came up with the only defence he could find. “It's only two!”

  To be fair though, those two had been more than enough for any man. Del had mostly been glacial with occasional bursts of anger. She wouldn't have minded if he’d accidentally fallen into a thruster tube and been incinerated. Until the end that was. As for Kendra, she'd been in her glass coffin, looking serene and beautiful as always. But he could only imagine the deadly plans she'd had in store for him – or the vicious words coming out of her voice box as he'd lifted off.

  “Three. Or have you forgotten the police detective? And as they say, two's a coincidence and three's a pattern!”

  “Just do what I tell you!” Carm gave up trying to reason with the ship. This had nothing to do with the two of them. Besides they'd only dropped Del, the coffins, and Kendra off twelve hours before. The Navy couldn't possibly have met up with Del's people yet. Whether Del was telling the truth or not in her alternate history lessons, they weren't going to talk to the Navy. The mutes were never going to bother him again.

  “Yes Carmichael. But you really do need to get some help with your temper! Perhaps a counsellor?”

  Carm resisted the urge to point out that his last counsellor was lying in a transparent packing crate somewhere on an outlier world after betraying and attempting to murder him.

  What mattered was that they were home. Everything they wanted was within reach. Even if it wasn't on Aquaria. Maybe
they would have to jump again. Maybe not. He didn't know. But they were home.

  “Alright tell me about the yellows.” After making sure the warships weren't coming for them, Carm turned his thoughts to more practical matters. It was time to get back to basics he thought. And the basics were that the ship was finally showing some signs of needing attention. The constant jumping over the previous months had taken their toll, and some of the lights were showing yellow. Most critically they were running hot. It wasn't serious yet, but it would become so. They’d made it home only just in time.

  “Same as before – antimatter coolant is low, and so is the EM coolant. I suspect there's a leak somewhere, but the service bots are not equipped to analyse the system without taking it completely apart. There are power grid malfunctions through the rerouted systems in several places. I'm now redirecting the rerouted systems. Nothing's serious yet, but I need to see some technicians and have a complete overhaul. And no one's had a look inside the drives yet. I'm well past my six months and twenty-five jump inspection deadline.”

  “I know.” And he did. The ship was telling him it was sick and it needed a doctor, and he’d planned on getting one here; until he'd discovered the warships waiting for them.

  “But which would you rather be? Suffering a few minor malfunctions or a scattering of radioactive particles in space?” Carm told the ship the truth a bit more bluntly than he normally would have, and then felt bad about it. For all its annoyances the Nightingale had served him loyally for many years and most especially these past few months. It deserved respect. “I'll get you some coolant one way or another. Remember, we’re back in the Commonwealth. At worst we can find some more outliers and we have some credits.”

  “That would be a start but I need a full service Carmichael. And it can't be put off much longer.”

  At least the ship wasn't insulting him. Its concerns were serious and they had to be addressed.

  For the next couple of hours, as they made their way across the system at minimal power heading for the asteroid belt, Carm kept his eyes fixed firmly on the communications post. He was waiting for any sign they'd been spotted. But nothing came, and after a while he realised nothing would. By a mixture of good luck and the sheer distance between them and the planet, they’d avoided being spotted.