Lucas remembered thinking the exact same thing when McKinley had told him to keep quiet—that nobody was getting hurt and the people he loved would stay safe. “It doesn’t work that way, does it?”
“No, it doesn’t,” she said. “After you came here—after I planted that device on the hull—I told them I was finished. I thought by that point I had enough information on them that they couldn’t expose me without getting arrested themselves.”
“What changed your mind? Why did you help them install the virus?”
“You really don’t know?” she asked, staring at him. “It was because of you, Lucas. They told me that if I didn’t help them, they’d force you to do it instead.”
“Me?” he asked, blinking in surprise.
“Yes, you,” she snapped. “Haven’t you been listening? It wasn’t a coincidence that your name came up when Sanchez started asking around about a Belter cadet who could fill that last spot. Somehow Stockton must have arranged for some glowing recommendations about how the perfect candidate was a kid named Lucas Adebayo, conveniently located right there on Ceres.”
Lucas was stunned. Just like Tali, he was here on the Orpheus because of Stockton? “He wanted me here because he thought I would help him?”
“Or because it would give him more leverage over me,” she said. “Either way, he knew he’d get what he wanted.”
Slowly Lucas pieced all of this together in his mind. Had this been Stockton’s plan all along, or had he just figured that having people on the inside would pay off somehow? It didn’t matter. They were here now.
“This is all our fault,” he said. “We have to fix it.”
“They’ve taken over the ship, Lucas,” she said. “What can we do?”
The door opened, revealing McKinley and a grubby-looking man holding a pulse rifle. The man’s hair was shaved down to a stubble, and his scalp was pockmarked with scars.
“That’s an easy one,” McKinley said. “What you’re going to do is come with me.”
“Go with you where?” Lucas asked.
“Down to the Free State of Vesta,” McKinley said. “There’s going to be quite a celebration. I’m sure you’ll both want to be there.”
“We don’t want to be at any celebrations,” Tali said. “Let us go.”
“That’s exactly what I’m doing,” McKinley said. “Once you’re down on the surface, you’ll be citizens of Vesta, free to do as you please.”
“What about the Orpheus?” Lucas asked.
“This ship isn’t the Orpheus anymore,” the other Belter said. “It’s now the VSS Liberty, the flagship of the Vestan Navy.”
“Vestan Navy?” Tali said. She laughed derisively. “What’s the rest of the fleet? Six cargo haulers and a garbage transport?”
The Belter grabbed Tali and pulled his arm back as if he was going to punch her, but McKinley held him back. “Easy, Jonah. They’re on our side, remember?”
“They ought to be in with the other little muskrats,” Jonah muttered, shoving Tali back toward Lucas. “I don’t trust them.”
“We’ve got enough hostages,” McKinley said. “We owe these two a debt, and we’re going to repay it.”
“Hostages?” Tali asked. “So that’s what you’re doing with the other cadets?”
“We’re sitting ducks without them,” McKinley said, shrugging. “The Navy has us outgunned twenty to one. As soon as we get a signed peace treaty and a guarantee that we’ll be left alone, everyone will be free to go.”
“A peace treaty?” Tali said. “There’s no war going on.”
“There is now,” Jonah said sharply.
“You told me this was all about avoiding some tariffs,” Lucas said to McKinley. “Now you’ve started a war?”
“I don’t want a war,” McKinley said. “I said that we were trying to keep honest Belters from being under the thumb of those idiots back on Earth. If the Navy plays it smart, then nobody will get hurt.”
“And if they don’t,” Jonah added, “we’ll make sure they realize who they’re dealing with. This isn’t a game.”
“Fortunately,” McKinley said, “the two of you will be away from any of that nasty business. You’ll be downside, enjoying the peace and quiet of the bazaar.”
“We aren’t going to—” Tali began, but Lucas grabbed her arm. Whatever happened, being down on Vesta was better than being here, and he wasn’t going to let Tali’s pride keep them locked up.
“Yes, we are,” Lucas said. “We’ll go with you.”
To his relief, Tali closed her mouth and didn’t argue. McKinley gave them a broad, genial smile, and Lucas had to restrain himself from punching it right off his face.
“I always knew you were the smart one, Lucas,” he said. “Follow me.”
McKinley and Jonah led them down the Broadway ladder toward the back of the ship. Lucas caught a brief glance of three women playing cards in the fourth-year alpha-section bunkroom. Behind him, Tali tensed but didn’t say anything. When they reached the hub, they saw more Belters hanging out in the rec room, laughing and talking. Each one of them had a pulse weapon on their belt.
“Where are the officers?” Tali whispered to Lucas.
“I don’t know,” he whispered back.
They followed McKinley down to the hangar. A team of Belters was escorting a line of twenty or thirty Navy personnel off of a big dingy-gray transport.
“The crew from Rieschling Base,” Tali whispered, nodding at the men and women emerging from the belly of the transport. “They’ve brought them all up here.”
“Move,” McKinley said. “No time to chitchat.”
Tali and Lucas followed McKinley up into the cabin of a little mining ship, where Jonah was already strapping himself into the pilot’s seat. He flew them quickly out through the hangar doors and past a small flotilla of cargo haulers with stubby pulse cannons and long, spindly looking mass drivers protruding from their hulls. As they passed over the bazaar, Lucas noticed that the commercial landing pads, which were normally overflowing with vessels of all sizes, were completely empty.
“You commandeered every ship?” Tali asked. “You’ve turned the bazaar into a prison.”
Jonah clenched his jaw and glared at her. “Once this is all settled, they’ll be free to go. Till then they need to remember who the enemy is.”
The hangar they landed in was barren and empty. Ships, engines, parts, and supplies had all been looted and removed. Lucas, Tali, and Jonah followed McKinley through the base toward the entrance to the bazaar. With all the Navy personnel up on the Orpheus, the hallways were eerily silent, and it gave Lucas chills to see scorch marks from mining lasers on some of the walls. Whatever had happened here, it had been well coordinated and vicious.
They rounded a corner and found Willis and another Belter escorting a line of cadets into a large rec room. Lucas’s heart leaped as he saw Elena and Rahul near the end of the line. They stopped short and stared at him in surprise. Lucas opened his mouth to call out to them, but Rahul’s eyes narrowed and he marched into the rec room. Elena gave him a look that seemed to be a cross between disappointment, anger, and confusion, and then she followed Rahul into the room.
Lucas felt as if someone had stabbed a knife straight into his heart. He could see exactly what they were thinking. He was a Belter, a liar, and a traitor. And how could he even argue with that? Maybe he hadn’t intended for the Orpheus to be hijacked, but he’d helped it happen all the same. He looked at Tali. She was staring at the floor with her hands in her pockets. Her face was empty, as if all the life had been sucked out of her.
“What are you going to do with these two?” Willis asked. “In with the others?”
“I’m taking them to the bazaar,” McKinley replied.
“If you ask me—”
“I’m not asking you,” McKinley growled. He jerked his head toward Jonah. “Or him. Or anyone else. Do your job, and I’ll do mine.”
“Fine,” she said, shrugging. She locked the door to
the rec room and pointed at the other Belter. “You stay here. Make sure they keep quiet.”
“Come on,” McKinley said, grabbing Tali and Lucas by the arms. He led them through empty hallways until they reached the entrance to the bazaar. The wide doors were closed, which was something Lucas had never seen before. Two Belter guards sat on the floor with pulse weapons on their laps. As they saw McKinley approaching, they stood up quickly.
“Open the doors,” he said crossly.
The guards exchanged a brief look, and then one of them pulled a lever on the wall. The big metal doors started to rumble open. Immediately, the two guards placed themselves in the widening gap, their weapons held tightly in both hands.
A moment later, Lucas could see the reason for their concern. Twenty or thirty Belter citizens were gathered on the other side in a loose bunch. As soon as the doors were open, they turned and started to shout.
“When do we get our ships back?”
“You can’t just keep us here!”
“I insist on speaking with whoever is in charge!” a tall, white-haired man roared. He moved forward as if to push his way into the base, but stopped when the two guards leveled their weapons at him. The man glared at them with a look of disgust and turned back around. He paused briefly, then bent over and pulled down his pants and waggled his bare bottom at the guards. The crowd of Belters roared their approval.
“Could you have messed this up any worse, Willis?” McKinley muttered. He stepped forward and raised his hands.
“Listen up!” he shouted. “Your ships will be returned to you as soon—”
“They’re our ships!” someone yelled back. “What gives you the right to take them in the first place?”
“You’ll get them back as soon as we know what the muskrats are going to do,” McKinley said.
“We can’t make a living if nobody can come or go,” the white-haired man said.
“You can’t make a living if this colony gets blown to atoms, either,” McKinley snapped.
“Why should we trust you?” the man said. “As far as we’re concerned—”
“I don’t care who you trust!” McKinley roared. “This is how it’s going to be. So figure out how to live with it.”
He grabbed Lucas and Tali and half dragged, half threw them out toward the crowed. Lucas stumbled, and Tali grabbed him quickly to keep him from falling. The doors slid shut, leaving Lucas and Tali alone with the crowd of merchants.
For a moment, there was stunned silence all around. The white-haired man strode toward Lucas and Tali and jabbed his finger at them.
“Who in the great black void are you?” he demanded.
18
LUCAS FROZE. HE looked at Tali, who had an equally shocked expression on her face.
“They’re muskrats, Dad,” a boy said, pushing his way through the crowd. Lucas recognized him as Jo, the kid who had tried to talk Elena into visiting his clothing shop. He was followed close behind by his friend Mai.
“We met that one during their last shore leave,” Mai said, pointing at Lucas. “He said he was a Belter.”
“I am,” Lucas said. “My dad is an ore miner—”
A woman in the crowd jabbed her finger at Lucas. “He’s one of those miners, Smythe. Throw him back or lock him up!”
“No!” Lucas said quickly. “My dad would never do something like that.”
“So why did they let you go?” Smythe asked. “You might be a Belter, but you’re wearing a muskrat uniform.”
“I . . . don’t know,” Lucas stammered.
Smythe snorted. “You’re a terrible liar. What about your friend here?”
“It’s none of your business,” Tali snapped.
“I think it is exactly my business, girl.” Smythe turned to Mai and Jo. “Put them in the storage cellars. Maybe they can find themselves some real Belter clothes.”
As Jo approached Tali, she launched a vicious kick at his knee that he barely dodged. Lucas took her arm and pulled her close to him. “Now isn’t the time to fight,” he whispered.
“Listen to your friend,” Smythe said. “We can throw you in the warrens, or out an airlock. Whichever you prefer.”
Tali glared at him but relaxed her posture and let Jo and Mai lead them into into Smythe’s Haberdashery, which was filled with racks of brightly colored robes, shirts, pants, and belts. At the back of the store was a narrow hallway lined with shelves overflowing with clothes and shoes. Finally they reached a small office with a metal desk that was mostly covered by the leaves of a vinelike potted plant. A faded tourist poster on the wall touted Vesta as THE PERFECT DESTINATION.
Jo dragged the desk toward the back of the office, revealing an old-looking metal hatch built into the floor. He bent down and jerked the hatch open. There was a puff of dusty, acrid-smelling air. Mai wrinkled her nose.
“I’m guessing there’s some old emergency rations down there somewhere,” Jo said. “But since they’d be about ten years past their expiration date, I don’t advise eating them.”
“You’re just going to lock us in there?” Tali demanded.
“It’s better than what I had in mind,” Jo said, shrugging. “Maybe later the council will let you argue your case. On the other hand, they might just decide to forget about you altogether.”
Tali glared at him and pulled her arms away from Mai. She knelt down beside the hatch. “There’s not even a ladder!”
“Nope,” Jo said. “But it’s not far down.”
Tali peered into the darkness for a moment. She shot one last angry look at Jo and dropped down through the hatchway. There was a muffled “Oof!” and the sound of boxes being knocked over.
“Watch out for the merchandise,” Jo called. “It’s out of style, but what goes around, comes around.”
Tali kicked over more boxes and replied with a long and rather detailed curse. Mai prodded Lucas in the small of his back. “Your turn.”
Either intentionally or unintentionally, Tali had managed to clear away most of the boxes from the space immediately below the hatch. Lucas dropped through the hatchway and fell about three or four meters before landing on a bare metal floor. He climbed to his feet and looked around. Thick dust swirled in the light shining down from the room above. Boxes were stacked haphazardly all around. Most were sealed, but some had spilled open, revealing moldy fabric. An old three-dimensional printing machine sat against one wall, next to a teetering stack of jugs filled with tiny plastic balls. Behind the machine was what looked like a door to a closet or another room.
“The lights don’t work,” Tali called, flipping a switch on the wall repeatedly.
“Not guessing they would,” Mai replied. “Nobody’s been down there for at least a decade. But don’t worry, we’ll leave this hatch open. At least, as long as you behave.”
Jo chuckled. A few moments later, Lucas heard the door to the office slide shut, and then everything was silent.
Tali kicked a box, scattering small cylindrical objects across the floor. “I’m trying to figure out a way we could have screwed this up more badly. But I’m not coming up with much.”
Lucas bent down and opened the box that she had kicked. “At least you found the flashlights,” he said, taking one and flicking it on.
Tali squinted in the sudden light. “Wonderful.”
She sat down on one of the boxes and leaned her head back. Lucas watched her for a moment and then began to pace back and forth. He wasn’t giving up. There had to be some way to fix everything before it got any worse.
If they were going to have any chance at all at winning this fight, he decided, then they needed more allies and fewer enemies. The merchants clearly weren’t happy about being pulled into a war. If Lucas could get the people of the bazaar on his side, then the odds of success went up significantly.
But the merchants weren’t the only potential ally. The rest of the cadets were locked inside the naval base, less than a kilometer away. If Lucas could find some way to rescue them, and persuade
them that he and Tali weren’t traitors, and convince the merchants to fight back against the miners, then maybe they could stop this rebellion and take back the Orpheus.
What if the cadets refused to trust them? What if the merchants decided the Navy was a bigger threat than the miners? What if, what if?
It didn’t matter. He’d deal with those problems when they came. Right now, he had a plan. And the first step was getting out of this room.
He held the flashlight in his teeth and grabbed one leg of the enormous 3D printing machine. Slowly he dragged it away from the wall until there was enough space to reach the door behind it.
“What are you doing?” Tali said irritably. “That’s just a closet.”
“I don’t think so,” Lucas said. He inspected the door more closely. It was an old-fashioned hinged door with a metal handle. He could turn the handle easily enough, but when he pulled, the door only moved a few centimeters before grinding to a stop.
“This must be part of the old colony, right?” Lucas said. “Back when it was all underground. So whatever this room was, it had to connect to everything else.”
“Okay, probably,” she admitted. “But what good is it going to do to go wandering around an abandoned underground colony?”
Lucas knew that if he explained his whole plan to her, she would immediately list, in great detail, all the reasons why it had zero chance of succeeding.
“Well, it’s no worse than hanging out in this part of an abandoned underground colony, right?”
In demonstration, he pulled harder at the door. With a loud creak, it swung partly open, revealing a narrow corridor that led off into darkness.
Tali folded her arms and looked away. She muttered something to herself, but the only words Lucas could catch were “idiotic” and “pointless.” Finally she sighed and grabbed a flashlight from the floor. “All right. We’ll check it out.”
They squeezed through the door and walked slowly down the corridor. Dust covered the walls and hung in the air like a fog. Lucas breathed through his nose and tried not to cough. Doors on either side of the passage opened up into more rooms like the one they’d started in. They were all empty except for bits of paper, empty food pouches, and other discarded trash.
The Orpheus Plot Page 19
