by A. R. Knight
"The shuttle didn't reply?" Trina commed from the engines.
Phyla had tried to hail the streaking escape shuttle they'd seen launch from the Karat's wreckage while picking up Merc, but there hadn't been a response. The trajectory wasn't a good one either, and by now the tiny ship had disappeared. Not just from the Jumper's sensors, but from existence.
"Nothing," Phyla said. "It didn't look like there was even an attempt to course-correct either. That can't have been Viola."
"Accidental launches happen," Trina replied. "With the irregular power, maybe a small explosion—“
"I got it," Phyla said. "Going to swing over that way to check it out."
She tried to focus on finding Viola, on keeping her mind focused on scanning the debris, but she kept waiting for the comm to crackle. For Davin to announce they were fine on the freighter, that they could be picked up. There'd been nothing. Stop. Focus. The freighter wasn't a pile of floating debris. Davin would be fine.
"I hear I have you to thank," Quinn said, coming into the cockpit. "So, thank you."
"Repaying a debt," Phyla said, keeping her eyes focused on the mess of twisting metal and ice diamonds ahead of her.
"Doesn't mean I can't thank you."
"You really want to thank me? Then get down to the airlock, get a suit on, and get ready,” Phyla said.
"Ready for what?"
"You see that?" Phyla pointed. After so many years staring at starlight, it was easy to see glint of a man-made glow. Couldn't tell where it was coming from, but the reflection, with its duller, non-twinkling matte light wasn't from nature. Quinn followed her point, nodded, stood up, and left.
That wasn't much of a conversation. Phyla could have said more. Could have been nicer. Except, right now, there wasn't time. Phyla sent the Jumper beneath the large chunk of wreckage, turning the ship on its side so that the airlock faced the floating room where she'd seen the reflection. She sent two comm bursts towards the section, but didn't get a reply. Countless reasons for that, from broken comms to suits not equipped with longer-range comm systems.
"Merc, can you go with Quinn?" Phyla commed through the ship. "I don't know who's in there."
"Yeah, I got you,” Merc commed a minute later. Phyla noted the reply came from Opal's room, winced. It wasn't nice to pull the pilot away from Opal, but who else would do it?
"Stay there," A voice Phyla didn't recognize. "I'll go with Quinn. You've done enough, stick jockey."
"Who's that?" Phyla said.
"Your new stowaway wants to earn her passage," The voice commed again. Must be Cass.
"Then go get'em," Phyla replied. "I'll have you in position in sixty seconds."
A minute later, Quinn triggered the airlock open and Phyla, using the Jumper's cameras, watched the pair float, tethered, out of the airlock towards the wreck.
"Establishing vid-link," Quinn commed, and Phyla's console lit up with a grainy feed from Quinn’s suit. As the pair of them entered the wreck, the available light dipped and the video become a smear of grays and spots of light.
"Any sign?" Phyla said.
"Definitely picking up the light," Quinn replied. "Looks like a headlamp. Moving slowly. There's a lot of crap floating in here."
Silence for a bit. Quinn seemed to be moving further into the room, then turned to the right, following the light from the headlamp. There, in the corner, were two bodies. Almost meshed together.
"I see them. The larger one in the back is Captain Yuan," Quinn said, moving forward quickly. "His helmet's cracked. Likely bleeding oxygen. It looks like the girl patched her suit into his. Sharing the same air."
"We've gotta get them out of here," Cass broke in. "Now. While they're still alive."
The raider took the lead, wrapping arms beneath the captain and lifting the two bodies up. Quinn took the other side, both of them carrying the bodies back through the room.
"Erick, going to need some oxygen ready to go," Phyla commed.
"Just what do you think I'm doing down here? Sitting in the dark waiting to be ordered around?" The doctor replied.
"Yes?" Phyla said.
"No. No I'm not. I've been listening to the whole thing. The med bay is ready to receive," Erick said.
"Good," Phyla switched back to the outgoing transmission. "We're ready for you."
"Cycle the airlock in three," Quinn said.
Two.
One.
And then it was time to get Davin.
60
The Metal Man
Every single segment felt like a deep stab, Mox’s nerves once again filtering through the exoskeleton’s net. A gag filled his mouth, to prevent Mox from biting through his tongue in shock as he laid on the bed in the Jumper’s med bay.
“How many of those are there?” The raider woman, Cass, asked. She was helping Erick place each of the connections. She asked a lot of questions.
“Nearly a hundred different connections,” Erick replied, linking the next one down Mox’s left leg. “They have to respond to every muscle, to every twitch and amplify the power.”
The stab. Mox sucked in breath and closed his eyes. Remember the reasons.
“How much does something like this cost?” Cass said. Too much, Mox wanted to say. Worth every coin. The type of penance that literally strengthens you.
“I don’t know,” Erick said. “It was an arrangement between Mox and the captain.”
“Do you know why?”
“You’ll have to ask Mox,” Erick said.
Thank you. The doctor knew. Understood some things need to stay behind closed doors.
A sharper sting. Mox set his jaw. That would be the knee.
“How you doing, big guy?” Cass said, leaning down. “Need anything?”
Mox shook his head slightly. Drugs might numb the pain. A drink might dull the sting. But that was not the point. Cass saw the shake, glanced over at the doctor.
“How much longer is this going to take?”
“Another hour,” Erick said.
“You think it’s worth it?” Cass said to Mox.
The big man nodded. When the next segment went in, Mox clamped down on the gag. Was it worth it? All the pain?
Yes.
61
One of Them
“So what will you do now?” Viola asked Yuan as the captain walked down the Jumper’s ramp into the freighter. Some of the freighter’s crew had already left the bay, heading back to their quarters, their stations, to see what remained of their old lives.
“You mean after I return the freighter to Eden, a glorious failure?” Yuan said, but killed the seriousness with a smile. “A large ship like this one takes a long time to get anywhere. Eden may have forgiven me by the time we get back to Jupiter. Perhaps another assignment. If not, maybe I’ll find your captain and see if there’s an opening.”
“Join us?” Viola laughed. “Unless you enjoyed all those near-death experiences, probably want to rethink that.”
“How about you? Are you set to continue on this path?” Yuan said.
“I don’t know,” Viola said, and was a little surprised to realize that was true. She didn’t know whether she wanted to stay with Davin and the crew. Viola was exhausted - her only real sleep in the last two days had come from oxygen deprivation in the wreckage of the Karat, but she feared that behind closed eyes, all she would see was the face of the raider as he realized he was shot, as he realized his would die.
“There is room here, if you choose. A pilot would be welcome,” Yuan offered.
Her father would yell at her to take the offer. Get in on a lucrative role with one of humanity’s top companies?
“Quinn!” Viola heard Phyla yell, from the top of the ramp, to the Eden security guard, who was watching the disseminating crew like a parent might watch a group of unruly children.
“Come back here and say goodbye like a real person,” Phyla continued, then brushed by Viola on her way down. “’Scuse me, Vi.”
Phyla took another cou
ple steps, then paused, looked back at Viola.
“By the way, soon as you head back in, can you plot out a track to get us back to Miner Prime? Thanks,” Then Phyla kept going.
Phyla hadn’t ever asked Viola to do that. To actually pilot the Jumper, plot their course.
“Sorry,” Viola said to Yuan. “I’m not done here yet.”
Yuan nodded, his grin growing wider, sadder..
“Perhaps we will see each other again, on the other side of the Sun,” Yuan said, then turned and walked away.
The other side of the Sun. No idea where that came from, but it sounded nice. Viola would look the phrase up later. Or, after she put Puk back together, she’d ask it. The little guy would know.
As Viola walked back up the ramp, she took one more look down, saw Quinn extend a hand for Phyla to shake, saw Phyla grab it, saw Phyla pull Quinn in for a quick, tight hug. Too personal. Viola turned away, went back into the Jumper’s boxy, metal confines and turned her mind to matters mathematical.
62
Eden’s Orders
The Jumper was leaving Neptune behind, picking up speed for a long shot towards Miner Prime. Davin double-checked the course plotting Viola had done earlier, though he knew Phyla had already reviewed it, and the girl had put it together perfectly the first time around. It would take weeks to get to the space station, and most of the crew was doing what he should be - falling asleep.
“She’s good,” Phyla said, knowing what Davin was doing.
“That move with the Karat, that was gutsy stuff,” Davin replied. “Would we have done that, you think?”
“You? Never. Too paralyzed with fear.”
“You would’ve been sitting there, trying to think of better ways to do it until everyone was already dead,” Davin countered.
“Maybe it’s good to have a reckless pilot on board,” Phyla said.
“I thought that’s why Merc’s here.”
“I’m never trusting him with this chair,” Phyla shook her head. “He’d have the Jumper flipping over so much we’d all get sick.”
“You did a helluva job back there. With the fighters,” Davin said. “Don’t know if I say this enough, but I’m pretty damn happy to have you.”
“Have me?” Phyla cocked an eyebrow. “I’m here because I want to be. You don’t have anything.”
“That mean I don’t have to pay you?”
“Want, Davin. Want. This woman needs a cut, or she’ll want to be somewhere else real fast.”
The blinking light on the comm threatened to interrupt their conversation. Davin ignored it. The Jumper would file the message and they could get back to it later. Davin sat back in his seat, stared out at space, at the Sun glowing in the far distance, barely brighter than the surrounding stars. Reached out with his right hand and felt Phyla take it, grip it. Silence for a minute, just breathing and taking in the fact that they were both there. They’d survived, again. The tips of Phyla’s fingers pressed into the back of Davin’s hand, warm. So simple, but Davin hadn’t felt that touch since Lina’s place, way back on Miner Prime. And before that, Davin could barely remember. Space travel wasn’t as romantic as the movies made it out to be.
“So what was Bosser going to pay us?” Phyla said.
“Was? No idea. Betting the number now is going to be a whopping zero.”
“Nothing?”
“We wrecked Eden’s prize ship, ignored Bosser’s own orders to run, and, oh yeah, shot the super-valuable ice diamonds into space,” Davin said, stretching out his arms. He wasn’t sure why it didn’t bother him to say they failed their mission. Then he tugged on Phyla’s hand and remembered.
“Not all of them,” Phyla said, and Davin looked over to see a smirk on her face.
“What?”
“When we were floating through the wreck, picking up Viola and Merc, we grabbed a few that were close. Trina’s storing them in the back, near the engines. So the freighter’s crew wouldn’t get any ideas.”
“So you’re saying we’re not broke?”
“I’m saying that I’m going to be getting my cut, Davin, and so will you.”
Relief. Which surprised Davin. Nothing more than relief filtering through him. That they would be able to pay for the Jumper’s next flight. That Opal, Erick, Trina and the others would get some coin in their accounts. That somehow, they’d survived a trip to the heart of Neptune and back out. Davin laughed, couldn’t help it.
“It’s good to see you happy,” Phyla said. “Hasn’t been enough of that lately.”
“Tell me about it,” Davin sighed, but the cynical weight that’d been there earlier was gone. Then his eyes caught the still-blinking message light. Davin reached towards it.
“Don’t press it,” Phyla said. “Right now, we’re good. You play that message . . . ”
“Probably just Bosser asking for a status update.” Davin said, tapping the console.
“Davin,” Bosser’s voice came out of the speakers. “You idiot. Assuming you’re still alive, of course. Which you shouldn’t be, but, like Earth’s cockroaches, you and your crew appear to have a tendency to escape death. Not that it matters anymore. Eden informed me that the Karat is gone, along with the ice diamonds. Apparently you saved one of their officers, who dutifully reported how you screwed this up. And how you saved their crew.
“You’re going to fly your ship straight to Miner Prime. Eden's going to employ you. Give you a chance to clear your debt, so to speak. You’re getting another lease on life. Don’t run, don’t think you can live a hermit life on an outer planet. Because we will find you, and you know it. Contact me when you arrive,” Bosser ended the message.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Phyla said in the silence.
Davin tapped the console, pushed the display of their route onto the glass, tracing a yellow arrow straight into the stars. The console prompted Davin for any adjustments, a new target.
“You think they could find us anywhere?” Davin said.
“I don’t think you could do it anyway,” Phyla replied. “You’d go crazy, living on some tiny station around Pluto.”
Davin’s hand hovered over the console. With a swipe, he could send them to Saturn, or put them on course for Mars. Even Earth. Take their chances.
“After this, it’s done,” Davin said, moving his hand away. Phyla grabbed it, held it as the Jumper left the black-blue Neptune and the white bar of the Amerigo behind.
