The Jovian Run: Sol Space Book One

by James Wilks

  There was a silent expulsion of air from the hole in Gringolet, and she allowed herself a moment of satisfaction when she saw three bodies fly out of the gaping wound and into the hard vacuum of space. That satisfaction evaporated when she recognized one of them. Then she saw the stasis tube fly out of the ship as well. She pushed off the now useless boarding tube and began to pilot her way towards the floating member of her crew. Her training told her that a human could survive perhaps fifteen seconds in space, but that there was nothing, absolutely nothing that she could do to get Yegor Durin back in atmosphere in that time, or even in the next two minutes. Regardless, she could at least recover his body. She was nearly halfway there when she spotted the telltale glow of two incoming missiles.

  Templeton and Staples were nearing the elevator that would take them down to the deck that housed, among other things, Cargo Bay 4 when the depressurization alarms went off. Their sound, a deep whine that rose in pitch then broke off before repeating, was unlike any other alarm on the ship. It was one that crews very rarely heard, and one that instantly invoked terror.

  The captain stopped short by bracing herself on a wall, immediately tapped her watch, and yelled to be heard over the alarm. “Charis, report!” Templeton scrambled to avoid floating into her.

  “We’re free, Captain!” Charis was shouting as well. “Hold on!” A second later, the alarm ceased. Charis’ voice returned, this time at a normal volume. “I don’t know how, but it looks like they lost their hold on us. Bethany is pulling us away.” As she said it, Templeton and Staples could see and feel the effects of the ship’s movement as they both drifted towards the wall. She was comforted to know that Bethany would be gentle; a ship with an unsecured crew undertaking extreme maneuvers could easily injure or kill its passengers.

  “What do we do?” Templeton asked, wide eyed.

  Staples thought for a second. “Back. We go back.” They turned around and pushed themselves towards the cockpit. Templeton arrived first, and Staples swung in behind him and pushed herself over to the window facing the other ship. It seemed to be moving up and away from her as Bethany banked the vessel away. Just as Staples was beginning to wonder how they had gotten so lucky, the other vessel exploded.

  Chapter 9

  The gout of flame that the explosion produced was brief, gone as soon as it burned through all of the dispersing air. The destruction was absolute, and anyone looking at it would have no doubt as to the possibility of survivors. It was an odd sensation to watch a ship burn and disintegrate in space; it happened in total silence.

  Staples was unable to tear her eyes away from the spectacle. It was the first time she had ever seen a ship of that size destroyed. The results were spectacular and horrifying. Thousands of pieces of debris spun off in every direction. She thought, though it was difficult to tell, that there were bodies in that mess of burnt and rapidly cooling metal. Without looking away, she raised her arm to her mouth, feeling as though she were caught in a fever dream. She pinged the shipwide coms button on her watch and said, “Brace for impact from debris.” Her voice, flat and featureless, echoed immediately through the speakers of the cockpit and the rest of the ship.

  There was a tapping sound, as if of a polite knock at the door. Then it came again, and suddenly there were dozens, then hundreds. It was as though she were under a tin roof in a hailstorm. The debris pummeled the side of her ship; some pieces were the size of a fingernail, others were as big as a car. The larger hits shook the ship, and Staples felt herself pushed into the window as Bethany increased the acceleration of Gringolet away from the explosion. She braced herself to hear the depressurization alarm again, but it did not sound. The pieces of the destroyed ship continued to fly apart, a beautiful and hideous ballet of twisted composites and polymers, and eventually the rain of detritus on the side of the ship slowed and then ceased altogether.

  She finally turned away from the remains of the disintegrated vessel to look at the others in the cockpit with her. Templeton and Charis were both gazing out the window as well, fascinated by the scene. Her first mate was hanging onto her chair to steady himself, and Charis half sat in her seat with one arm around the headrest. Bethany was stealing looks over her right shoulder, but her mind was clearly on piloting the ship.

  “Is everyone all right?” Staples’ voice sounded distant to her, bizarrely loud in the silence that followed the buffeting of the hull by the pieces, and in all likelihood, the people who only a minute ago were crew members of the other vessel. Seeing the pirate ship destroyed had made her feel vulnerable, barely protected from the vast gulfs of space which surrounded her. She thought of her ship as her home, a world unto itself; that world suddenly seemed very small and very fragile, a tin can afloat in a deadly ocean.

  No one answered. She cleared her throat and swallowed. “Is everyone okay?” she said with some insistence.

  Bethany’s answer came first, light and soft. “Yes, Captain.” Templeton echoed her remark, but Charis just stared through the window.

  Staples tapped her watch again for shipwide coms. “I want everyone to report in to Templeton. I want to know where everyone is and what their condition is.” She looked at him pointedly, then pushed off from the window and drifted to her seat opposite him. “Don, are you with me?”

  With a start, the man seemed to come to his senses. “Yes. Yes, I’ll get right on it.” He dragged himself into his seat, strapped himself in, and began to work the console next to him. Voices began coming through, the computer sorting them so that they did not speak over each other. One of the first was John’s.

  “Gwen and I are okay. We’re in our quarters. Is my wife up there? Is she okay, Don?”

  Templeton took a moment to pause the incoming calls and answer. “She’s fine, John. We’re all fine here in the cockpit. A little shaken up, but fine. Be with you in a minute.” Belatedly, as the shock began to clear, he remembered that Yegor was not there, and that he had no idea where the man was or if indeed he was all right. The rest of the reports rolled in, and finally Templeton looked up. “I’ve got confirmation from everyone on the ship except Yegor and Dinah. Parsells and Quinn say that he went through the door into B17 right before the depressurization alarms went off.” He paused for a moment as they considered the implications of that. “No one can find Dinah.” Another pause. “Jesus, what happened?”

  “I don’t know,” was all Staples could say. “Goddammit, I wish coms were up. We need to report this.”

  “Yegor picked a hell of a time to tear things apart, didn’t he? Do you think he’s…?” He left the sentence drift off.

  “I don’t know that either.” She heaved a great sigh. “All right. All right.” She thought for a moment. “We need to gather, to inform people, to check on people. Tell everyone to gather in the mess hall in five minutes. Tell them…” she searched for the right words. “Tell them that the attack is over and that we are safe.”

  Templeton did as he was instructed, relating his captain’s orders to the crew. When he had finished, he unbuckled himself and Charis did the same. Staples pushed herself towards the back of the cockpit and stopped to return her rifle. She took Templeton’s from him and placed it back in its cradle. She had noticed the missing rifle the first time, but now the full meaning of it struck her.

  “Yegor must have taken it, headed down to fight.”

  “Why would he do that?” Charis asked. “He should have stayed here. You told everyone to get to the cockpit.”

  “Maybe he felt responsible,” Templeton ventured. “He must have realized that the only reason they were able to sneak up on us was because our coms and radar were down.”

  The captain closed the locker slowly, grateful to be rid of the firearm, but the situation bothered her. “Maybe. Maybe he went down there to help. But maybe not.”

  “Well, you know he went to fight.” Templeton’s voice was insistent. “That’s at least one thing we can be sure of. That’s what Parsells said: that he was down there and charged
into B17.” Charis was holding onto a bar by the doorway and watching them. Bethany had unstrapped herself and was maneuvering herself around her chair.

  Staples looked at the other two crew members, reluctant to share what she was thinking. She lowered her voice conspiratorially. “Why would they attempt a stealth approach, Don? They would have to know we’d see them coming. How could they know that our coms and radar were down?”

  Templeton’s face was a mask of puzzlement for a second, then he scowled at her doubtfully. “That’s a hell of an accusation to make of a man who’s been on the ship for almost two years, Clea.”

  She ignored his anger, but shook her head dismissively. “I’m not accusing anyone of anything. I’m just thinking. We’ll talk about it later. Right now, we need to get moving.” She pushed herself to the door and was about to exit the room when Bethany uttered a noise somewhere between a scream and a gasp. Staples turned around and looked at her, but she was gazing over, wide eyed, at the window. There was a person in an EVA suit, one of their EVA suits, floating outside and tapping on the window. Through the glass and the polycarbonate helmet, the face of Dinah Hazra was plainly visible, and she was not smiling.

  It took nearly five minutes for Charis to get down to the starboard airlock and depressurize it. Once she had, she hit the red button on the control panel that unlocked the outside door. Several seconds later, she watched the door open slowly and Dinah wormed herself into the small room, the maneuver made more difficult by the jetpack on the back of her EVA suit. Dinah closed and locked the door, and Charis repressurized the room. The green lights came on, and the chief engineer removed her helmet with a sigh of relief that Charis saw but did not hear. Finally, the inner door was opened, and Charis surprised herself by propelling herself forward and hugging Dinah as she discarded the gloves of her EVA suit. The dark skinned woman awkwardly embraced the fair skinned one with one arm, the other attached to a handle, and then pulled away to arm’s length.

  Charis looked abashed, and said by way of explanation, “Sorry, sorry. It’s just; it’s been terrifying.” She looked the other woman in the eye. “What were you doing outside the ship?” She stressed the last three words, as if the engineer had voluntarily stepped into a burning building and had just returned.

  “It’s complicated. I need to report to the captain, now.” She was climbing out of the suit as she spoke.

  Charis wiped at a moist eye. “Of course, of course. She’s in the mess hall. Everyone is, except Yegor. We can’t find him.” The tear detached itself from her finger and floated across the small airlock room.

  “He’s dead,” Dinah replied flatly, and gently pushed past her, leaving her EVA suit floating in the chamber.

  “What?” The last two years spent in the cockpit across from Yegor came back to her in a flood, and she found herself refusing to believe the other woman. “How? How do you know? Are you sure?” She followed along behind her, spewing questions.

  “I saw him outside the ship.” She began moving rapidly down the corridor, and Charis had trouble keeping up. “I need to talk to the captain, now.” With a few more pushes, she left the navigator behind.

  Charis shouted one more question at her as she sped off like a torpedo. “What happened to the other ship?” Dinah did not answer.

  It only took the engineer a few minutes to reach the mess hall. The entire crew, fifteen people in all, was gathered, some belted to the dining benches, others holding stabilization bars on the walls. They seemed almost to a person to be in silent shock. Even Gwen floated wide-eyed and mute beside her father, his arm protectively curled around her shoulders. Yoli, one of the ship’s cargo roadies, was having her arm examined by the doctor. Staples and Templeton were at the far end of the room, each gripping a bar, and Templeton was speaking.

  “We’re not exactly sure what they were after. They got the drop on us ‘cause of some coms and radar work we were doing. They used stunners, so they weren’t trying to kill anyone.” He looked at Staples for a second. “We think they were just trying to rob us, a smash and grab.”

  Dinah took this moment to interject from the back of the crowd, and everyone turned to look at her. “I am sorry to interrupt, sir, but there is a situation that needs immediate attention.”

  “Dinah!” Templeton nearly yelled her name. “Thank God you’re okay. What situation?”

  “There’s a stasis tube floating free out there. It was in B17 when I cut the magnetic junction, and it flew out into space, sir. It should be able to keep the person inside alive, but we need to retrieve it with a UteV as soon as possible.”

  There was a moment full of murmurs and surprised discussion as the crew processed the rather stunning revelation that Dinah had been outside the ship cutting power cords. As Staples and Templeton digested the situation, they realized that it did indeed require immediate attention.

  “John, can you take out a UteV and try to find the stasis tube?” Staples asked, though it was clear that she was not really asking. Park slowly nodded, plainly reluctant to leave his daughter.

  “I’ll help get you out there,” Charis added from the back of the crowd where she had appeared a few moments earlier. She looked over at Jabir, who was already motioning Gwen over to him with a smile on his face. There were quick hugs given, and then the couple moved off rapidly towards the cargo and shuttle bay. Not for the first time, Staples was grateful that she had good people she could count on.

  Once they had left, Staples cleared her throat and the murmurs and discussions tapered off. “Dinah, what happened? How did you get outside? Why didn’t you tell us what you were doing?”

  Dinah pushed her way through the people near the door. She noticed Jang strapped into a seat near the doctor. He was conscious, though he held his head with one hand, and there was a bright white bandage near his temple. She resisted the urge to snap to attention, an absurd concept in zero G anyway. Instead, she took hold of the table end and began her report.

  “Once the aggressors made their magnetic junction, I headed down to B17 to see what I could do. I ran into the security detail on the way, and they provided me with a firearm.” She looked over at Jang again, who nodded at her, and then over at Parsells and Quinn, who sat at the table on the opposite side of the room. “It became clear from the situation that the aggressors were here for a specific reason. When I realized that Mr. Jang was stunned, I surmised that they were attempting an extraction of an item or items. I knew that we could not pull the ship away without significant damage, so I instructed Mr. Parsells and Mr. Quinn to lock the airtight bulkhead and not to open it for any reason.” This time she glared at the two men, and Parsells shifted uncomfortably.

  “I assessed that the only way to detach the aggressor’s ship was at the source. I exited the ship in an EVA suit and proceeded to cross the gap between the two ships with a rocket pack.” At this, the silence in the room was broken by gasps and whispers. She proceeded as though only she, Templeton, and Staples were in the room. “Once there, I cut power to the electromagnets. If,” again she looked at Parsells, “my directions had been followed, no crew member would have been hurt.”

  Templeton broke in. “Why didn’t you tell us what you were doing, Dinah? We could have helped!”

  “With all due respect, sir, I don’t believe you could have. I did not tell you because I was in a rush to put on the EVA suit and exit the ship. I planned to tell you when I was outside, but I forgot that the coms were down. By the time I remembered, I was unable to communicate with you.”

  Templeton scoffed at this and looked at Staples, but she merely nodded and said, “Continue.”

  “Once I cut the power, the two ships began to drift apart. I saw three bodies and a stasis tube exit from the breach in B17.” She paused for a moment. “I believe one of them was Mr. Yegor Durin.” At this, there were gasps all around and general consternation. Gwen looked tearful and confused, and Jabir took her by the shoulders and lifted her to hug her. There was a loud bang as Piotr, Yegor�
��s fellow countryman, slammed his fist on the metal counter behind him. It came again and again, and the cutlery bounced and shook in its magnetic tray until Declan Burbank, another of the ship’s cargo roadies and a friend of the cook’s, put his hand on Piotr’s arm and he stopped.

  “Then what happened?” the captain prompted. The noise died down again, though it was punctuated here and there by sounds of grief and shock.

  Dinah’s face was impassive as ever. “I judged that I could not retrieve the stasis tube. I also judged that it would survive in vacuum for the time being, so I began moving to collect... our crew member. As I was moving, I saw two incoming missiles headed for the enemy ship.”

  Templeton and Staples looked sharply at each other. “Missiles? You’re sure?” Templeton asked, rather pointlessly.

  “Yes, sir. I only saw two, but from the damage to the other ship, I believe there were at least four.”

  “We didn’t fire them.” He looked around at his assembled crew. “Does anyone in here know anything about these missiles?” There was only quiet whispering as each crew member looked at their colleagues and waited for someone to speak up. Quinn and Parsells were passive observers, and Bethany was tucked in a corner behind the doctor and his temporary ward.

  “I don’t believe they came from our ship, sir.” The whispers subsided as the engineer spoke.

  “What?” Templeton asked. “Are you saying they fired at themselves?”

  Dinah considered only a moment. “I don’t believe they did, sir. I believe there’s another ship out there.” There was no stemming the tide now, and the room erupted in raised conversations. Conjecture, concern, and fear flew about, and Staples let it ride for a moment before nodding at Templeton to get control.