by M. D. Cooper
“You excel at that,” Ferris replied.
Katrina picked up an EM signal from the Voyager and Linked with it, glad to finally be connected to an advanced network once more.
the AI replied.
Katrina passed a long-suffering sigh over the Link.
Katrina gave a mental head shake. Troy was always overprepared.
Katrina sent a mental laugh.
Troy said.
Katrina guided the pinnace toward the ship’s cargo bay. The bay’s doors slowly opened as they approached; the interior protected by an ES field that held the ship’s atmosphere in.
“Where did you buy this thing?” Ferris asked as he leaned forward, peering through cockpit’s window at the Voyager. “She’s a beaut.”
“Collector in the Praesepe Cluster,” Katrina replied. “He’d kept her in perfect condition.”
“Can say that again,” Ferris murmured.
The pinnace slipped through the ES shield, and Katrina brought it toward a cradle on the far side of the bay, making room for the repair crew’s shuttle to follow. She spun the ship deftly, and set it down on the cradle—which was on the wall, as compared to their orientation aboard the Havermere.
“I saw from your rough specs that this thing has stacked decks, but it’s something again to see it in person,” Ferris said.
“Yeah, it’s odd at first,” Katrina replied. “But this girl can put down 25gs of thrust. Having to handle that lateral motion with dampeners takes a lot more energy if the decks aren’t stacked.”
“Probably doesn’t feel as weird, either,” Ferris replied.
Katrina nodded as she undid her harness, and then opened the cockpit’s canopy.
The Havermere’s supply shuttle was coming into the bay as Katrina carefully swung around and hooked her feet into straps on the bay’s floor.
“Shit, I’m out of practice in zero-g,” Ferris said as he drifted above her. “A hand?”
Katrina laughed and reached up, grabbing Ferris’s foot and pulling him down so that he could hook a boot in a floor strap.
“Those them?” he asked, gesturing to twelve crates stacked along one of the bay’s walls.
“You bet,” Katrina replied. “Stasis pods, lost in some vault on the far side of nowhere.”
“Now somewhere,” Ferris said wistfully
They waited for the Havermere’s shuttle to land and Carl’s crew to exit. Though the workers were all wearing EVA suits, they had their helmets off.
The suits possessed maglock boots, and they all clanked across the bay toward the pair; all save Jan, who was only wearing her standard KiStar uniform, and floated awkwardly behind the work crew.
“With your permission, we’ll begin our assessment,” Carl said. “Mandy and Rama will stay here and guide the components in.”
Katrina looked over Carl’s shoulder to see a number of cargo pods drift off the top of the Havermere and begin to boost toward the Voyager.
“Very well,” Katrina replied. “Mind Troy, and do as he says.”
“Troy?” Ferris asked as Jan reached them.
Katrina nodded. “Ship’s AI. Don’t think I’d leave my girl out here alone, did you?”
“No, of course not,” Ferris replied.
Katrina led the captain and corporate bean counter to the crates containing the stasis pods. One was conveniently located in front of the stack, and Katrina flipped open the lid, revealing the pod within.
Ferris drew in a sharp breath, while Jan leaned over, her expression intent on the features of the pod.
“Looks Solar,” she said.
“Looks like a cryopod,” Ferris replied. “But really simple…”
“Cryopods have to freeze things—very quickly, too,” Katrina said. “Plus there’s all that nasty blood removal they need to manage. Stasis is the cessation of subatomic motion. Just takes the field emitter and a containment vessel.”
“I’ll need to test it,” Jan said.
“Of course,” Katrina replied. She reached down and pushed the large button on the pod’s side. The cover lifted off and the interior illuminated. “You want to hop in?” Katrina said.
Jan blanched, and Ferris laughed. “She’s kidding, Jan, just put your test kit in.”
“Yeah, kay,” Jan said and pulled a series of devices out of a satchel at her side and set them in the pod.
“How’s it powered?” Ferris asked. “I don’t see any hookups to the ship.”
“Has SC Batts,” Katrina replied. “They can keep the stasis field going for years, if needs be. It can also take external power, of course. There’s a network beacon on the pod that contains a database of all the features and instructions for maintenance on the pod.”
“You’ve used them, haven’t you?” Ferris asked. “The pods, I mean.”
“I have,” Katrina replied. “In my business, you have to test wares like this. Granted, I didn’t test it on myself first.”
She smiled as she spoke and let the cracks in her skinsheath widen, filling the corner of the bay with a flickering red light.
Ferris noticed and laughed. “I’m sure you didn’t.”
“I’m ready,” Jan said and stepped back.
Katrina keyed in the commands on the stasis pod, and the cover lowered. Once it did, there was a snap and a hum, and then the interior went dark.
Not just a little bit dark, but completely dark.
“What happened?” Ferris asked.
“It’s stasis,” Katrina replied. “No atomic motion. No photons, nothing.”
“Huh…I guess I never thought of that. How’s it work?”
Katrina laughed. “Ferris, you crack me up sometimes, ‘how’s it work’. If we knew that, we’d all have stasis pods and these things wouldn’t be worth the price of a starship.”
Ferris smiled, accepting the jibe. “Good point.”
They stood for a minute as Jan stared intently at the pod. “OK, that’s long enough.”
Katrina reached in and disabled the stasis system and the pod slid open. Within, the testing devices appeared exactly as they had. Jan tentatively reached in and retrieved the first one, examining it, and then reached in for the next.
When she had checked them all over, she looked up at Ferris.
“Honestly, I expected this to be a scam…but it’s real. These are stasis pods.”
Ferris let out a small cry of joy and then wrapped an arm around Katrina’s shoulders—almost sending them spinning across the bay, if not for Katrina’s foot securely anchored in a foot strap.
“Sweet stars above, this is it! The jackpot,” Ferris crowed.
“I assume you need to test the five that we agreed to for the repairs?” Katrina asked Jan.
“Why don’t you test a few more,” Ferris suggested to Jan. Just in case the work requires anythi
ng extra, or Katrina decides that she wants to get some other upgrades performed.”
Jan’s eyes narrowed, and then she nodded. “Very well, I’ll do eight or so.”
“Excellent,” Ferris said. “Now Verisa, I’d love to see more of this lovely ship of yours.”
“Of course, I—” Katrina began, but was interrupted by Jan.
“Umm…how am I supposed to get the rest of the crates unstacked?” she asked.
“Oh, of course,” Katrina said. “I did notice that you weren’t that adept in zero-g.”
“No, not so much.”
Katrina signaled an automaton, which stepped out of a recess on the side of the bay. “That’s Jonnie-5. He’ll follow your verbal commands and help you out.”
Katrina sent Troy a dark look as she took Ferris’s hand and led him across the bay to the central ladder shaft.
“No lift?” he asked.
“Of course,” Katrina lied. “But you don’t really want to take a lift in zero-g. It’s a great way to slam your head into something.”
“Good point. I’ve already proven that I’m no good at no-grav,” Ferris chuckled at his own joke. “But I sure can think of something I’d like to try with you.”
Katrina pulled Ferris close and put her finger on his lips. “I thought you’d never ask.”
INSTALLATION
STELLAR DATE: 11.17.8511 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Voyager
REGION: Scattered Disk, Bollam’s World System (58 Eridani)
Carl shook his head as he saw Katrina lead Ferris up the ladder, presumably toward her quarters.
“Talk about taking one for the team,” he muttered, and Camille laughed.
“I don’t care who she screws. She could try and get into the White Queen’s ass and I’d applaud her, if it gets us out of Bollam’s.”
Carl said to Troy. The AI had already introduced himself, and Carl was learning what Katrina had meant when she referred to the artificial intelligence as ‘a bit touchy’.
Carl examined the room they were in. It was a cabin with a half-meter porthole, and access to the main trunk line for the ship’s power.
He grabbed his pad and reviewed the ship and its mass balancing.
“Handy,” Carl muttered as he hooked his datapad back on his belt. “OK, yeah, this should do. Camille, go help Kirb get the first emitter and the install kit, and get it up here. If Jan asks why we’re not doing the teardown first, just tell her we’re getting things in place before we pull the old emitters out.”
“You got it, boss,” Camille said.
Carl considered that Ferris could be ‘entertaining’ Katrina for some time, and agreed with Troy. Waiting for Ferris could take forever, and the sooner Jan was off the ship, the better.
Troy didn’t reply, and Carl assumed the AI must be satisfied.
Carl pulled himself out of the room and then down the hall. He pushed off a bulkhead out into the ladder shaft and caught a rung.
He gave a deft kick and sailed up the shaft. As he passed deck four, he heard a piercing scream, and then a long moan.
“Taking one for the team,” he murmured with a smile.
PHASE 2
STELLAR DATE: 11.17.8511 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: KSS Havermere
REGION: Scattered Disk, Bollam’s World System (58 Eridani)
Juasa watched through a porthole as Katrina’s pinnace pulled away from the Havermere, and tried to fight back the sinking feeling that she wasn’t going to see her again.
A thousand things could go wrong with their plan, and though they had contingencies, a thousand things could go wrong with those too.
Most of those things were in the form of the other officers and crew aboard the Havermere.
There were two separate problems to worry about there. The indentured workers—many of whom served under Juasa—and, well…everyone else.
No one would be happy if they found out that Juasa, Carl, and his team of four were going to get out of Bollam’s, free and clear—with an ancient and her ship, no less.
Yet Katrina had seemed so confident about the plan, and Juasa had felt that confidence as well. Right up until Katrina left, followed by Carl and his team.
Now she was alone on the Havermere.
Stop it, Juasa, she said sternly to herself. Get a grip and get on with it. You know what needs to be done.
She turned away from the porthole and the view it provided of the Voyager. There was a second shipment of equipment that needed to be stowed on the shuttle once it came back with Jan and the stasis pods. That equipment was going to have a little surprise in it. Namely her.
When Jan returned, she would have the shuttle bring the stasis pods to the Havermere’s forward bay, though most of the equipment that needed to go to the Voyager was in a rear bay. It gave Juasa the perfect reason to drive a loader full of crates through the ship, and end up where the shuttle would dock.
When she arrived at Aft Bay #3, the loader was parked near the entrance, and two of her crew were stacking several cases into its bed.
“Hey, Ju,” one of the men called, out.
“Howdy, Bill,” Juasa replied. “That the last of it?”
“Uhhh…” Bill glanced at his requisitions sheet, and then at the crates in the loader’s bed, ticking them off one by one. “Yep, looks like. You want me to drive it up?”
“No, Bill, I got this one. Why don’t you and Sal go take the rest of the day off? With us running a small crew on the client ship, there’s not much for the rest of us to do.”
“Why are you running a light crew?” Bill asked.
Juasa gave a rueful laugh. “Bill, Bill, Bill. The captain is over there with his new mistress. If you look out a porthole, you’ll see a big sock draped over her ship. He doesn’t want much noise, and he wants things to go on as long as possible.”
Sal laughed and Bill put a finger alongside his nose. “Ahhh. Gotcha, Chief. Well, if you’re giving us the word, then I bet there’s a game of Sarel that needs playing.”
“Get outta here,” Juasa said with a laugh as she swung up into the loader’s seat. It didn’t really need anyone to drive it to the other bay, but it was KiStar policy that equipment like this couldn’t be transported without supervision.
That suited Juasa just fine. Bollam’s World had stabilized in recent centuries, clawing its way out of the dark ages. But with that stabilization came more and more advanced NSAI.
If it wasn’t for the cheap human labor in the system, she imagined that robots would do most of the jobs out there. Granted, the elites wouldn�
��t get much satisfaction lording over machines. Perhaps humans would have a place for a while, at least.
She signaled the loader over the Link and it lurched into motion, trundling out into the main lateral corridor that ran through the ship.
It was nearly a kilometer to the forward bay, and the trip took just under seven minutes. Normally, Juasa complained—either to herself, or to anyone nearby—about how a small maglev would be a thousand times better.
But this time she enjoyed the ride. Once she reached the forward bay, it would just be a waiting game for Jan to come back with the shuttle.
When the loader arrived at the bay, she directed it to the port-side cradle. As it approached, she saw two of the engineering crew lounging nearby on a pile of seat cushions that had been pulled out of a transit ship that the Havermere had serviced the previous month.
“Hey, girls, what’s up?” Juasa asked as the loader slowed to a halt.
“Not much,” Kelly, one of the two, replied. “Chief Hemry sent us up here to unload and reload the shuttle when it comes back. Said you deserved a break.”
Well that puts a crimp in things.
“Did he, now?” Juasa asked. “Isn’t that sweet. Don’t worry ‘bout it, though. I have this covered.”
Kelly and her friend, who Juasa finally remembered as Tali, didn’t budge. “Got our orders,” Kelly said.
“This is a Repair Crew job, here,” Juasa said. “Hemry is a good guy, and I appreciate his help, but he works on this ship, I work on the ones out there. This is my show.”
Kelly frowned. “Well, I can’t just go back—he’ll wonder why.”
Juasa sighed and pinged Hemry over the Link.
