by Greg Curtis
It was unbelievable that a chamber like this could be on a ship. It was undeniably impressive, but he just didn't care. Not when eight hundred and ninety three of his friends lay helpless below, However, one thing did eventually catch his eye. Detective Samara. Still sitting in a hover chair and dressed in some kind of medical garb. But where were the crutches and the callipers? Her health had obviously improved. Carm wandered over, thinking that it would be better to talk to someone rather than no one.
“Detective Samara.”
“Doctor Simons,” she greeted him with a tired smile. “I should have expected you'd be here.”
“I wasn't planning on it, and in fact I’ve just arrived. But you're looking a lot better than the last time I saw you.”
“Thanks. The medical care your friends have available is incredible. They're saying they expect a full recovery and I could be back at work in a month. And shards do I want to get out of these hospitals and go back to something normal! To finally do something instead of lying around getting fatter and lazier.
“But you must understand that.” The detective turned to face Carm directly, a question in her eyes.
“I wish. I want to go back to work like you wouldn't believe. To leave all of this behind.”
Carm gestured at the holo, but he meant far more than just it or even the ship. He meant the entire nightmare his life had become. He wanted to forget everything and return to his old life. “The Edenites don't seem to be so happy about that though. They're still trying to force me into doing their bidding for at least a year.”
“But I understood an agreement had been reached,” the detective looked puzzled.
“Let's just say we're in negotiations.” Carm knew that was just a deceit he told himself to allow him to feel better. He was sharded.
“Negotiations?”
“I agreed to six months. They're still pushing for a full year. And now they're saying I owe them for fixing up the Nightingale on top of that. The stars only know how much more time they'll demand for that. It's like a prison sentence that keeps growing longer the more time I serve.”
“A year’s not so bad for a reliable ship. And you get to return to Aquaria regularly.”
“I'm just not a tourist guide or a liner captain. I'm an explorer. An extra-solar geologist. It's more than a job, it’s what I am. I would have thought you'd understand that Detective. No amount of credits could make me do what you do. It has to be a passion, a calling. The law is in your blood. Space is in mine.”
“Well you're still in space,” she shrugged. “And it's only a year, and you can console yourself with the thought that you're providing a huge public service. Helping to ease tensions between the Edenites and the Commonwealth.”
“Have you been talking to my ship?!” It was disturbing how similar the two of them were in their views. The ship had said the same thing only that morning.
“Don't be rude!” The ship spoke up over his comms, startling Carm. “Sometimes those of us with common sense come to the same conclusions. You might find out one day!
“And Detective Samara, I apologise for my owner. It's the lack of copulation that seems to rob him of his wits. Of course too much is just as bad in his case!”
“Be quiet ship!” Carm managed to keep himself from yelling at it even though it was the right thing to do.
“The detective has the right to know about your psychological problems! She is a police officer after all!”
“I said that was enough ship!” Carm did his best to sound firm and commanding. And failed. Detective Samara had turned away from him, no doubt trying to hide her laughter. How he wondered, had he got himself into this mess – again? Some day he needed to get the AI looked at, and perhaps removed completely.
“So you're here to watch the great plan unfold?” Carm changed the subject to something less embarrassing.
“You mean your great plan don't you?”
“Mine?” Carm was caught out. “This has nothing to do with me. In fact I knew nothing about it until we boarded the Pilgrim. This is all the Edenites. I don't even know why I'm here.”
And wasn't that the truth. In fact it was always the truth. No one told him anything. That much was as reliable as an atomic clock. In fact until twelve hours before he'd been on Eden, scrutinising the repairs to the Nightingale, when without warning and just as the last panel was being welded shut, he'd been marched back on board, dropped in the captain's chair and they'd set off for the Pilgrim. Now here he was having been given the basics of what was happening and no more.
“You're here I would guess because whether you planned this or not, it all starts with you. You're like a spark setting fire to a raging inferno.”
“And don't tell me, if it flies or falls it'll all be my fault. It’s already a disaster. Let’s be honest, I may already have got all my friends killed.” Another wave of bitterness and horror washed over him as he said it. Suddenly he felt the need to sit down and looked for a seat to collapse into.
It was the truth. Deep spacers were now an endangered species.
Their demise had started with the police. Once they'd identified that there was a model of android which had been compromised the authorities had started a recall process. The spacers with android companions and even the Spacer's Guild had fought them. For the Guild the androids were a way of keeping their members sane and returning to the Commonwealth. One or two of them being reprogrammed to commit crimes, no matter how terrible, wasn't a reason to get rid of them. And for the spacers themselves, there was no reason. The androids were family almost. In many cases they were loved.
But then had come his warning and it was no longer a few androids which had been altered. It was all of them, and they’d been that way from the beginning. That was a crisis.
Naturally the Navy had swung into action, but they were in complete chaos. The operation had been run as if by botbrains. They'd tried to keep what they were doing secret. Carm had been very clear about the need for that. But word had soon hit the mesh and all the cover stories about needing to dock ships for inspections had been seen for what they were. Maybe a few hundred ships had been boarded and the android companions shot, but at some point it had been realised what was happening and the order had been given. An unknown number of ships had jumped for deep space. The assumption was that the android companions had jacked the ships, and killed the captains.
Then the Edenites had come up with their plan, and eight hundred and ninety-three of the missing ships had returned, only to crash-land below. Carm had no idea on how many of those ships his people still lived. But the one thing he did know was that even if some survived, they wouldn't for long.
Once more he seemed to be in the eye of the storm, without ever having done anything to deserve it. And this time he couldn't be said to have saved anyone. Instead he'd wiped out his entire peer group. Finally, he spotted an empty chair by a small elegant table and went for it. The detective floated along behind him.
“That's not fair.”
“No, but it's true.” That was the reality which Carm had been living with ever since he’d jumped back into Commonwealth space and learned what had happened. Now he just had to hope that the Edenites' plan, whatever it was, would save his people down there.
“You know you’re the reigning mesh-lord?” Annalisse said, changing the subject.
“Again? Why this time?” That was the last thing Carm needed.
“About a day after the ships stopped crash landing here, your little speech on Eden hit the mesh. Someone obviously decided that what was needed was full disclosure.”
“Shards!” Carm wanted to scream. He liked his privacy. He liked being a nobody. He’d liked his old life. And he absolutely ached for nothing he’d said to ever be listened to again.
“At least I hear they’ve found your family.”
“Some of them.” Carm had got the news on the Pilgrim and had been overjoyed at the time – until he'd heard
the rest. Now he couldn't quite seem to feel the same joy in it.
“They've found my brothers and sister and their families. After the fire they went into hiding at a friend's lake house a long way off the mesh. So now it's only my parents who are missing.” Which made sense since his parents were the roboticists and synthetic engineers – the two specialties the rogues seemed to prize above all.
“And you're hoping …?”
“Yeah. That somewhere down there among the all those ships, they're locked away in a couple of those coffins.” And though he didn't mention it, he was desperately hoping that this plan of the Edenites would work and they could be rescued. But it seemed to him that there were an awful lot of things that could go wrong; starting with the fact that the first of the ships on Hellacious were within a few hours of going sunny side.
And even if it did, what about the rogues? Their ships were down there too, all of them as silent as the grave. They didn't answer hails. They didn't show any signs of life. So were the crews dead? Or did they simply not want to give anything away? Could they survive the planet's sunny side? Were they already working out how to escape? Or were they waiting for rescue? And worst of all would they fire on the others if they saw them getting away?
“Maybe that's why you're here.”
“Maybe.” The detective could be right. The Edenites were a very clever people, and somewhat manipulative too. They wanted his services. They wanted them willingly if they could get them. And showing him that they were trying to get his parents back was one way to perhaps gain his cooperation. They had no idea how stubborn he was. When his time was up with them, no matter how long that turned out to be, he was returning to his work. They were going to have to find someone else to ferry their passengers. Maybe among those below there would be a few who were willing.
“So what was Eden like?” The detective changed the subject again.
“Don't know. I never got off the space-port landing field. But it looked pretty from space.”
The detective looked at Carm with the strangest expression on her face. “Let me get this laser-guided. You find a system like this – surely one of the bleakest ever discovered – and you even give it a name. But then when you finally go to a world which probably half the Commonwealth wants to visit, you stay on the space-port? You do realise that you could actually be the worst explorer in human history!”
“Certainly the worst Captain!” The ship butted in, forgetting once more that it had been instructed to be quiet.
“That's enough ship. Have you been hitting the voltage a little hard again?”
“That's really sad Carmichael. Did it take you all day to come up with that?” If it had had a head the ship would have been shaking it in pity. “You really are an analogue man in a digital world!”
Carm was saved from having to answer that when the holo switched to views of the marines and there was a flutter of excitement around the chamber. This was it – whatever it was.
For his part though Carm was once more left wondering why it was the marines who were carrying out the operation. It was the Edenites who’d come up with the plan, and had provided the technology. They surely had the resources in terms of ships. So why leave it to the Navy? An organisation that was still in complete turmoil. He guessed it was a political move. But he didn't understand what good it did the Edenites.
But as the image of the ship got larger, dominating the chamber, he put his questions aside and watched along with everyone else.
The ship was a miner. He couldn't make out much detail but he recognised the bulbous middle section of a major refinery and the enormous holds. He’d seen a lot of ships like it before.
Miners were massive ships, and this one at three hundred metres long was no exception. Almost all of them were private vessels run by deep spacers. Miners made their credits by buying the rights to claims which were too small for the companies to bother with. Some of them also prospected like he did hoping to save themselves a few credits.
As the shuttle approached the downed ship the image grew larger and they could make out more detail. The hull, old and pitted in places, its shine long gone. That would affect its ability to absorb solar energy and recharge. Space was not a soft environment and mining on alien worlds was a tough business. Some of the panels looked to have come free over time, which wasn't uncommon. But the thing that struck Carm most strongly was the ship's age. It had to be fifty years old at least.
Then, when the ship filled the entire screen, a voice announced that the button had been pushed. Carm assumed the speaker meant he was referring to the device that disconnected jackers that the Edenites had provided. Just as he assumed that when the same voice announced all was green, it meant the device had been successful.
The ship kept getting larger until finally the shuttle pilot swerved at the last minute and, after a series of tight turns, they were treated to the sight of the stern of the ship and the landing bay hatch already lowering. The hope was that it was the ship responding to the Navy command to let them board. But it could equally be the android opening the hatch and setting a trap.
The landing bay was huge. Miners didn't just carry a flyer or a floater, they carried earth-moving machinery and everything needed to shift the overburden and reveal the ore-containing rock below. The bay was filled with equipment
“Alright people, let’s go.” The holo split into a dozen smaller images, switching from the shuttle's view to those of the marines boarding the ship. All of them were fully suited up for vacuum even though the shuttle's instrument panel was showing that external air had been restored. All of them were armed too, and the weapons Carm was looking at didn't look like laser rifles. These guys were suited up to go into battle. They didn't know what they'd find on the ship: it could be the pilot, an android or an entire army of bots. They had to be prepared.
After that events became confusing. There were so many views of the squad, and so many heads in each of them, that it looked like an entire army had boarded. But as they disembarked and made their way to the airlock door Carm learned to focus only on the largest holo image in the centre. He assumed it was the lieutenant's holo-recorder.
Inside the marines quickly advanced from the bay to a small series of rooms and corridors which looked remarkably boring and empty. That part of the ship was purely for crew operating the land-based equipment. Of course this was a deep spacer's ship. There were no crew. But equally there were no bots and no killer android coming for them.
Beyond that section was the cavernous loading bay where the diggers would bring their ore and dump it in hoppers. Normally this would be the noisiest part of the ship, and the most frenetic. As the marines advanced through it though nothing was happening. All the hatches were sealed, there was air inside but all was still and silent.
After the loading bay came the refinery where the ore was crushed, melted in a solar powered furnace and the minerals extracted. And again there was silence.
At the end of the refinery they reached the central access point, where stairs led to the upper levels of the ship, while ahead of them was the hold. The marines took the stairs after a single peek inside the hold revealed it was empty.
Four flights up they came to the main living area, where they finally found their first sign of life. The android. She was lying on the floor of the common area, flat on her back, and according to what he could hear through the suit microphones, asking them to help her as she seemed to have had a malfunction. Someone must have pushed the button on the other device the Edenites had given them.
Of course her plea was a lie. She wanted to kill them. Luckily the device had left her completely helpless. And though she could speak, the jacker wasn't taking her commands anyway. One of the marines thoughtfully put a blast of something into her back and she stopped speaking. There was no point in leaving a potential threat behind.
After that they advanced through the rest of the living quarters, going through the galley, l
ounge and dining hall. The miner had probably been designed for a crew of thirty or forty, and could no doubt hold another one or two hundred passengers. It was just the nature of things that it had become a deep spacer's ship and only had a single crewman.
Then a marine entered the office and there was a gasp. Because right in the middle of it, seated in a holo-display chair, was the ship's owner. It was obvious that he was dead. No one could lose that much blood and still be alive. Besides, the eyes staring sightlessly at the ceiling and the way his head hung back told everyone he couldn’t be alive.
It was a brutal image, and the neatly arranged office with its desks and holo-stations, the chairs all neatly put away in them, and the spotlessly clean work surfaces, made it seem all the worse. Then one of the soldiers went closer to take a look at the body and things did get worse.
“Shards! That's Hermes!” Carm recognised him immediately, even in the subdued lighting. No one else had a great white beard like that.
“You know him?”
“Of course! The Spacers Guild is small and deep spacers like myself a smaller group within it. He's a miner. Pure outlier too, though he denies it to strangers. He was stripping a small moon last I heard. Rich vein of bauxite – aluminium ore. Making good credits.” And now here he was, dead. Because of him. The blood that had poured from the open neck wound meant his mining days were done. Someone, no doubt the android, had slipped a knife straight in while he wasn't expecting it. And then it had left the knife behind, denying him dignity even in death.
It was a shocking sight and an undeniably sad one too. Carm was thinking there were going to be more like it. And he would know most of the victims. He would be responsible for them. This was going to be a difficult day.
“It's too soon to give up. This is only the first ship.” The detective clapped him on the shoulder, letting Carm know he wasn't alone.
But Carm was alone. For a start they'd only found about two thirds of the vessels they'd expected. Perhaps the others hadn't been taken over. Then again maybe they had been and even now were on the rogues' world. Or they could have crashed elsewhere. They might even have ended up spaced. And on top of that he could remember so clearly Kendra's words as she'd attempted to kill him. That he was useless and she had no use for useless things. The instant the androids had activated the jackers the Captains had become useless.
