Diving into the Wreck - [Diving Universe 01]

by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

  “No, she wasn’t acting like a little girl,” Mikk says. “She was flirting.”

  Jennifer gives him a fond smile. “I asked them if they were worried about being that close to so much radiation.”

  “And one of them says to her, ‘It’s not as bad as it seems.’” Mikk laughs. “The guy next to him whacks him on the arm, as if he’d done something wrong. Which, essentially, he had. He told us that the radiation wasn’t really a problem.”

  “But the way he said it, you could interpret it as he was just being a tough soldier,” Hurst says. “That’s what Jen did. She saved our butts.”

  “She got us a lot of information,” Mikk says.

  “Like what ?” I ask.

  “The ships have a minimum complement of soldiers,” Jennifer says. “They aren’t paying a lot of attention to what’s going on around them. I even got the sense that it took them a while to see us.”

  “All the time we thought we were being watched, and they probably hadn’t even noticed us,” Hurst says.

  “They consider it the worst duty in the sector because it’s so dull,” Jennifer says.

  “It makes sense,” Hurst says. “They were trained for battle, and there they are, circling some abandoned ship for weeks, with nothing really to do.”

  “What about the command ship?” Squishy asks.

  Mikk looks at her. His expression is measuring, as if he doesn’t really want to talk with her. Squishy is not making herself popular with my team.

  Hurst is the one who answers her.

  “The command ship is the one detail we weren’t able to figure out,” he says. “They didn’t tell us why it was there, and we couldn’t ask.”

  “I tried,” Jennifer says. “I said something dumb like how come it wasn’t the big ship that came for us, and they said that the big ship rarely does hands-on work. But that’s all they said about it.”

  “They probably didn’t dare say anything else.” I scan the table. Everyone is watching Jennifer, Mikk, and Hurst. Apparently they haven’t told this to the team—or if they have, they haven’t told the story in its entirety.

  “Then what?” I ask. “Did they detain you?”

  “They talked a little bit,” Jennifer says. “They wanted to know about diving.”

  “We had to be careful,” Hurst says. “We didn’t want to sound too knowledgeable.”

  “But we did want to seem enthusiastic,” Mikk says. “I think we achieved that.”

  “I don’t think they cared,” Jennifer says. “I think they wanted something to do. Imagine circling around that wreck, waiting for something to happen.”

  “They’ll be itchy,” Squishy says. “That’s dangerous.”

  Turtle nods. So does Hurst.

  Odette leans forward. Her movement is so abrupt that it’s an interruption all by itself.

  “You were on a fact-finding mission,” she says to Mikk, sounding like she’s the leader instead of me. I let her take this. Odette can be quite forceful if need be. “You discover three ships—two small military vessels and something you call a command ship. Four restless soldiers who really didn’t investigate you all very deeply from what I can tell, and a manufactured scan of the Dignity Vessel. Is that all you found?”

  “It doesn’t sound like much when you put it that way,” Hurst says.

  “You’ve given us details, but no understanding,” she says. “For us to make plans, we need understanding.”

  “I have to add one more detail,” Mikk says. “We did get a good scan of the Dignity Vessel. One of our own.”

  We all look at him.

  He spreads his hands as if he’s apologizing. “It’s not too different from what you found. But . . . Squishy? Is that really your name?”

  “It’s what Boss calls me,” Squishy says, “and that’s good enough.”

  He sighs as if he doesn’t approve. “They never fixed the hole where the probe is. The ship is still open to space. They haven’t put anything on it. The radiation readings were in the normal range.”

  “With the hull still open to space like that, then that means they didn’t get the ship’s internal environment up and running,” Turtle says.

  “The ship is the same vessel you found,” Mikk says to me. “Same low power reading, same openings. If anything, the hull is even more pockmarked, but I can’t say that for certain.”

  “They haven’t done anything with the Dignity Vessel?” Squishy asks.

  “Not that we could tell.”

  “No life signs on board or anything?” Squishy asks.

  “The Seekers equipment wasn’t that sophisticated,” he says. “We couldn’t get life sign readings from any of the ships.”

  “The military vessels were shielded,” Squishy says.

  “I figured,” Mikk says in that gentle dry tone that implies he’s humoring her. “But we couldn’t get anything from the Dignity Vessel either, and I doubt they shielded that.”

  “It would’ve been too risky,” Turtle says, taking him seriously.

  Squishy just frowns at him. “I can’t believe they’re not working on the vessel.”

  “I told you,” I say. “They’re waiting for my father and Riya Trekov to finish their experiment.”

  “I thought they did, with you,” Squishy says.

  “Things move slowly in the Empire,” Hurst says. “As former military, you should know that.”

  She glares at him, then leans back.

  “Maybe that’s why the command vessel was there,” Turtle says. “Maybe something is happening. Or am I misunderstanding what a command vessel is?”

  “You’re not,” Hurst says. “That’s the mystery of the place. With two tiny military vessels, they didn’t need a vessel that big. We couldn’t get any information about it, and they certainly weren’t going to tell us why it was there.”

  “Do you think they’re bringing in more ships?” Bria asks. “Maybe that’s why it was there.”

  “You’d think the ships would arrive before the command vessel,” Hurst says.

  “It’s all speculation,” Odette says. “We need facts.”

  I agree with her. We need facts.

  “Here’s what I understand,” I say. “The Dignity Vessel is exactly where we left it. They have a small team of guards surrounding it. Two small military vessels with a crew complement of—what?”

  I look at Squishy, then at Hurst. I’m hoping they know.

  Hurst shrugs one shoulder. “I can’t imagine more than eight soldiers on each of those ships.”

  “They’re built for ten,” Squishy says. “But if this is easy duty, the military isn’t going to waste twenty soldiers on some wreck in space. There might only be four on each vessel.”

  “You mean we saw the entire crew?” Jennifer says. “That makes no sense. Someone had to remain with the ship.”

  Odette nods. “It makes sense to me. Five. That’s half what the ships will bear. If you have five on each, then you have a redundant system. Something can happen to one ship, and you haven’t lost your entire crew. But you’re not fully staffed, so you’re not wasting money either.”

  “What about the command vessel?” I ask.

  “I’d like to see the specs,” Squishy says. “Maybe it’s a scout vessel.”

  Finally, Hurst gets annoyed. “Believe me,” he says, “it was a command ship.”

  “That’s a minimum of thirty,” Squishy says to me, as if she hasn’t noticed his irritation.

  “On the command ship?” I ask.

  She nods.

  “So we have forty soldiers, minimum, maybe fifty,” I say, “and God knows how many nearby.”

  “We didn’t register any,” Mikk says, “but they could’ve been in stealth mode.”

  “I don’t see the point of that,” Odette says. “Especially if nothing has happened to that vessel in years. I think we have to assume there were only the three ships.”

  “All right,” I say. “Three ships. Maybe fifty soldiers. No one on th
e Dignity Vessel. And probably no one is doing long-range scans or they would have come to get The Seeker much sooner. They wouldn’t have let The Seeker get that close.”

  “I agree,” Squishy says.

  “They may be itchy,” I say, “but they’re also complacent. It’ll take them a while to get up to speed on any situation. The question is time.”

  “Time?” Mikk asks.

  “We need time to plant that bomb. We haven’t dived the Dignity Vessel in years. We could get to the heart of it within about fifteen minutes, if my memory serves, but we can’t do that now.”

  “Why not place the bomb in that hole in the hull?” Jennifer asks.

  Squishy shakes her head. “We want the bomb outside of the stealth tech. Close, but not close enough to be in the stealth tech field.”

  “Still, planting it outside seems the logical thing to do,” Jennifer says.

  “That also makes the bomb obvious to the military,” I say. “I’d rather put it in the cockpit.”

  I want to obliterate that place from my memory. I’m not sure a bomb will do it, but I hope it will.

  “We need some kind of diversion,” Odette says. “We need those military vessels out of the area for at least an hour.”

  “An hour?” Hurst says. “You think that’ll be enough?”

  I shake my head. “We’re better off planning for two or three hours, and even that might cut it close.”

  I put my hands on the table and stand up, effectively ending the meeting. More hard facts aren’t forthcoming, and speculation will only confuse the issue. Squishy hasn’t finished the bomb yet.

  Up to this point, the bomb is all I’ve focused on. Now I have to get us past military vessels and find time to dive. That’ll take a lot more planning than I’m used to.

  I wish Karl were here. This is a mission he would be able to lead much better than I would. His own military background and his innate caution would guarantee success.

  “Let’s think on this,” I say. “We have time. Let’s make sure we do this right.”

  ~ * ~

  THIRTY-THREE

  O

  dette pulls me aside later. I am heading for my berth. She insists on walking with me.

  The corridors in this part of Longbow are narrow and cramped. They’re designed to discourage people who’ve been drinking and eating in the nearby restaurants from venturing in this direction. There is barely enough room for both of us to walk side by side, even though neither of us is large.

  Before she speaks, Odette looks over her shoulder. When she is satisfied that we’re alone, she says, “I think you should let Squishy go.”

  “I sought her out,” I say.

  “I know,” she says, “and I’m not exactly sure why. She’s not trustworthy.”

  I clasp my hands behind my back. “She knows a lot about stealth tech.”

  “You’ve asked her for her expertise in that area, and she’s given you what she knows. At least, as much as you can tell.”

  We go around a corner, and I stop. I want to see Odette’s face as we talk. “You don’t like her, do you?” I ask.

  “Do you?” Odette asks.

  It’s a fair enough question. “We were friends once.”

  “Once,” Odette says. “Then she betrayed you. To the Empire, no less. She’s the reason they have that Dignity Vessel in the first place.”

  “I know,” I say. I’m not likely to forget that betrayal.

  “Have you ever asked her why she turned you in?”

  “I know why,” I say. “She thought stealth tech was too dangerous for us. For any layperson, really. She wanted the Dignity Vessel removed from that site.”

  “Which didn’t happen,” Odette says. “You’d think Squishy would know that it couldn’t happen.”

  I think about that for a long moment. Odette has a point. And I never asked Squishy to clarify her reasons. She hasn’t apologized to me for reporting the Dignity Vessel, nor has she said she made a mistake.

  I’m not even sure she considers her actions a mistake, given what she knew at the time. She figured no one could work in stealth tech. She probably figured giving something that dangerous to the Empire might save lives.

  “She fought me pretty hard on that Dignity Vessel dive,” I say. “If she wanted to stop me—and anyone else—from diving the vessel, she made the right choice. She didn’t report us until Jypé and Junior died. I assumed— hell, I know—she couldn’t take it anymore. She didn’t want to be part of any more deaths.”

  “Yet she gives the ship to the Empire, which guarantees there will be more deaths,” Odette says.

  “What choice did she have?” I ask. “She didn’t want others to stumble onto the wreck, and I wasn’t listening to her.”

  Odette frowns. She looks at the empty corridor as if making certain we’re still alone. When she looks back at me, her frown seems to have deepened.

  “She’s delaying you now,” Odette says. “She wants to test everything. She wants to tell others what to do. She invited her old lover and is now ignoring her. All of this will cause troubles on the mission.”

  I got into this position the first time by not listening to one of my team members. After Jypé and Junior died, I vowed I would listen. I have to struggle right now to follow my own vow.

  Which is odd, since I’ve known Odette a long time.

  “Have you worked with Squishy before?” I ask, recalling the stray thought I’d had during the meeting.

  “My opinion remains the same,” Odette says. “She’s trouble.”

  So she has worked with Squishy.

  “I’m not doubting your opinion,” I say. “I just want a little more information.”

  Odette sighs. She leans against the wall, something I would never do here, since these corridors are filthy.

  “I worked with her,” she says. “I helped train her to dive.”

  “A long time ago,” I say.

  “Boss, you’re being dismissive,” she says.

  Normally, she would be right. What I’m saying may sound dismissive, but it isn’t.

  “I’m trying to get a sense of how long ago this was,” I say.

  “When Squishy came out of the military,” Odette says. “Before you gave her that ridiculous nickname. We called her Rosealma, but she wasn’t fond ol that either. She was very military.”

  “Meaning?”

  “By the book. She didn’t like change or variables. Even after the training, I thought she was a dangerous dive partner.”

  “Why?” I ask.

  “Because she wanted everything just so,” Odette says.

  That wasn’t the Squishy I dived with. But most divers were by the book in the beginning. If they remained by the book, they could never go beyond tourist dives.

  I would never take an inflexible by-the-book diver on my wreck dives. But if I tell Odette that, she’ll think I’m being defensive again.

  “Did you have other trouble with her?” I ask.

  “I never knew exactly where she stood,” Odette says. “Like now. Is she working for the Empire? Is she working for you? Or is she working on something else?”

  I smile. “She’s not working for me, and she’s certainly not working for the Empire.”

  “How can you be sure?” Odette asks.

  “Because I’ve been to her home. I’ve talked with the locals. That’s an antigovernment place.”

  “So they tell you,” she says.

  “The research I did after I left backs it up,” I say.

  She nods once. “If she’s not working for you or the Empire, who is she working for?”

  “Herself,” I say. “Just like the rest of us.”

  “That doesn’t reassure me,” Odette says.

  “I didn’t think you were asking for reassurance,” I say. “I thought you were talking about Squishy.”

  Odette studies me. She knew me back in my beginning days too. She obviously feels like I’ve changed enough to lead a team. This will be the
second time she trusts me to lead her somewhere dangerous—and the first time did not go well.

  “Do you trust her?” she asks me.

  “No,” I say.

  “Then why bring her along?” Odette asks.