The Ancillary (Tales of a Dying Star Book 2)

by David Kristoph

  When the door closed behind them she turned to Keld. "I have a plan. I didn't want to tell Elo and the others, so they can still surrender peacefully if we fail."

  He smirked. "I wondered."

  "The freighter's cannons are still armed," she said. "I could see the green glowing inside on the video feed. I was stationed on a frigate for part of my first tour; they require significant power to remain armed. If the cannons sustain any damage it will disrupt the core. Now, frigates have multiple cores, so it wouldn't cause any long-term damage, because it would just fail-over to the next core. But..."

  "...all non-essential systems would be disrupted during the fail-over," Keld said, understanding. "Including their jamming equipment."

  Beth smiled. "That would allow the emergency broadcasts to get through, although only for a few seconds." She nodded to the equipment closet on the wall opposite the airlocks. "There are explosives in there. If you get close enough to the frigate do you think you can damage one of the cannons? We could set the explosives and return to the command room before it detonates."

  Keld tilted his head, thinking. "Those are just blasting caps used in construction. I don't think they're strong enough." He thought some more. "But there's a power regulator in the cannon itself. If I can get inside the barrel I should be able to rewire it to overload by hand."

  "You want to go inside the barrel?"

  Keld shrugged. "Sure. It's only dangerous if it fires. At least that would be a quick death."

  Beth couldn't help but smile. There was one person on the Ancillary she could rely on. "Let's get going."

  He glanced at her, concerned. "You're going out to the black? Beth, it's fine if you stay here..."

  "No," she said, "you need someone to cover you. I won't have you out there by yourself."

  He looked unconvinced, but held his tongue. He paused as he opened the closet door. "There's only three suits here."

  Beth glanced inside. "So what?"

  "One's missing."

  The workers were sloppy; they'd probably forgotten to replace their suit after using it. She said as much.

  He shrugged. "Or maybe Mark went outside and damaged some of the exterior, too."

  "There's nothing we can do about it now. Let's go." She wanted to move quickly, before her nerve wavered.

  The suits were made to fit most workers. Beth's was baggy; she was petite, despite being well-muscled for a woman. It'll keep you from feeling claustrophobic, she thought, trying to be positive, trying to remain calm. It wasn't working.

  She felt off while dressing, like something were wrong, and when the suit was on she realized what it was. She felt around her body through the suit but knew it wasn't there. My knife. I don't have my knife. It was silly to want to take it out to the black, but she always wore it on combat missions, and that's what this felt like. She shook her head but the unease remained.

  Rows of blasting caps lined a drawer within the closet. Beth stuffed one in her suit's exterior pocket, aware of Keld's stare. "Just in case," she said. It wasn't her knife, but it was something.

  She allowed Keld to help with her helmet. The seal made a soft suction sound as it fastened into place. A small screen to the left of her visor brightened as power surged through it, displaying data about her suit. Keld put his hand on her shoulder and gave her a smile.

  Three airlocks lined the hallway. They were made for one person, so Keld stepped into the first and Beth the second. The inner room was a vertical cylinder with two doors, so small that Beth had to adjust the rifle in her left hand so it wouldn't scrape the wall. The door to the outer airlock opened.

  It was identical to the first, except the door in front of her had a square window at eye-level. Blackness stared back at her, a bottomless pit in an otherwise bright room. She could hear her heart beating in her temple, could feel the condensation of her breath in the helmet.

  She was aware of the door behind her closing, though the sound was muffled. The room suddenly felt very small, smaller than it ought to be. It couldn't have been the same size as the first; she could barely move around. "Keld?" she said, desperate to hear his voice.

  Silence answered her. A display next to the outer door showed a number steadily counting down from one hundred.

  "Keld? Are you there?"

  Her voice echoed in the helmet.

  There was a loud magnetic clunk as the artificial gravity disengaged. She felt her hair floating off the back of her neck. Her feet left the floor, the suit became light on her shoulders. This was a mistake. Keld could have gone by himself.

  "Elo? Anybody?"

  The helmet displayed her vitals: her heart rate was too high, her breathing too fast. She was having a panic attack. The realization only made things worse.

  The number in front of her reached zero quicker than she expected. The outer door blurred, and the small square of black became a giant maw. Beth fumbled at her side for the joystick that controlled the suit, jerking it backwards once her gloved fingers found it. The jets on the front of her suit fired, pushing her back against the door, keeping her inside the airlock. The black was deep, endless. Every few seconds she moved the joystick to keep from drifting off.

  It felt like she was on top of a tall building and a gust of wind might suddenly suck her over the edge. She wasn't sure which was faster: her heartbeat or her breathing.

  A shape appeared in front of her, white covering the black. Keld. She called out to him in her helmet but there was still no response. He waited at the door, but when she wouldn't emerge he maneuvered himself inside.

  It was cramped with two, but Keld's presence calmed her. His lips moved but there was no sound. Beth shook her head. Keld tapped her helmet, near where the display was. Beth looked and understood: they had no communications because they were still being jammed by the frigate. She was relieved nobody had heard her panic.

  Keld's hands moved in front of her. The gloves made it difficult to understand at first, but she recognized the steadfast military hand signals. Follow me, he said with his fingers. He pushed off the door to spin himself around, and then his suit's jets carried him out of the airlock.

  Beth's vitals were still elevated, but better than before. She took a deep breath, touched the joystick again, and gently pushed her feet off the wall. Slowly, comically so, she drifted through the door and into open space.

  Keld waited just outside, gripping a hand-hold built into the metal. With his other hand he pulled Beth to him. From her waist he pulled a tether with a hooked connector on the end and clasped it onto the hand-hold as a safety.

  Despite being petrified, Beth couldn't help but look around. She could see the transfer laser from there, a long cylinder protruding from the asteroid in the distance, illuminated by lights in its base, pointing in the opposite direction as Saria. She knew it was as large as the pirate frigate but from there it seemed much smaller.

  Keld let go of her to signal some more. Look there, pointing at the Ancillary. Don't look there, pointing out to space.

  Beth nodded. It was a good idea to keep her eyes on the asteroid.

  Follow me. Slow.

  Keld reached above his head and pulled himself away.

  Hand-holds were built into the Ancillary's surface so suit propulsion could be conserved. This side of the station faced away from Saria, but small blue lights flickered in the hand-holds so she knew where to grab. Beth unclipped her tether and followed Keld, one rung at a time.

  Ten feet above the airlocks the metal gave way to rock. Keld stopped there and turned left. Beth saw a horizontal row of hand-holds dotting the asteroid, a long blue ladder that led toward the transfer laser in the distance. She quickly returned her eyes to the hand-hold in front of her. "Just look at the rock," she told herself.

  She twisted her body, reorienting so the horizontal path became vertical. Keld waited until she was ready before moving again. He went slowly for her benefit, but she stayed as close to his feet as she could. Her heart rate was better, but th
e fear was still there. The rifle bounced against her back, a reminder of their intent.

  Just like climbing a ladder. One rung, then another. Over and over.

  They proceeded across the asteroid that way, one step at a time. Soon her elbows were sore, and the muscles of her abdomen. It was surprisingly difficult to maneuver one's body in a weightless environment. It was enough of an exercise that Beth was able to lose herself in the motions, in the slowly accumulating fatigue in her muscles.

  She pulled herself along for what felt like hours before Keld's feet finally stopped.

  She stole a glance away from the safety of the asteroid. They were at the base of the transfer laser. Perspective was warped here, making the laser look like a building towering over them. Thick cables spread across the asteroid like spiderwebs. Now that they'd stopped she could feel a vibration in her hand, betraying the stores of energy beneath them. She wouldn't want to be anywhere near here when they reached Melisao alignment and the energy discharged.

  Keld waited for Beth to nod before continuing on.

  They moved along for another few minutes until Keld stopped again. The asteroid's surface disappeared in front of him. He gestured, beckoning her forward. Her suit pressed against his as she joined him at the edge of the rock.

  It curved away from them, revealing the ship dock in the distance. Saria's penumbra, the aura around the outer edge of the star, glowed like a halo on the other side of the Ancillary. The view was strangely beautiful.

  Except for the frigate sticking off the asteroid like an appendage. It seemed more menacing out here, the colors of the paint more vivid in the spotlights surrounding the dock. She could barely make out the cannons on its side, facing them. Her fear melted away, replaced by anger.

  Keld tapped her shoulder to get her attention. No more hands. Now we go like this. He touched his suit's joystick and pointed at the frigate.

  Beth could see more handholds continuing along the asteroid's surface toward the dock, but they would be easily seen from there. It was safer to travel the rest of the way through open space. She nodded.

  He pantomimed what they would do: grab the handhold and fling themselves toward the frigate, adjusting their path with the suit's controls. I go, wait three seconds, then you go. Behind the glass helmet he frowned. You okay?

  She snorted inside her helmet. Javin was captured by pirates. Half of Beth's workers were already captured, and the pirates would control the station in less than an hour. She was at the edge of oblivion, about to hurtle through open space like a comet. The question was ridiculous. She wanted to laugh in his face, to tell him how absurd it all was. She wanted to scream and thrash and cry.

  She nodded.

  Okay.

  In a flash Keld was gone, shooting toward the frigate. She watched him diminish, a white shape growing smaller every second. Then his figure was black, no longer illuminated by the light of the Ancillary. Beth looked to the frigate, waiting for someone to notice him and begin shooting, but no one did.

  Puffs of grey appeared around Keld as he adjusted his course. Then his figure was still, or at least appeared so. She watched until she was certain; he was on the frigate.

  It's been more than three seconds, Beth thought. She'd been watching too long. She gripped the hand-hold at the edge of the rock with both hands. She tried to move but her muscles were content to remain stationary.

  To the right she could see the windows of the docks. It was too far away to make out anyone inside, but she imagined Javin there, the pirates cutting through the blast doors, advancing slowly. She forced herself to see it, to get her mind alert and moving. She clenched her jaw.

  One deep breath, then another, and she was gone.

  The sensation was strange, like swimming in a lake with the shores just beyond sight. There was nothing to orient her, just the feel of the suit on her skin and the deep pool of black around her. She gripped the suit's joystick to ward off panic, to give the illusion of control. It's not an illusion. I do have control. Beth repeated it to herself over and over.

  She looked forward. The frigate hardly grew larger; she wasn't moving as fast as Keld. She felt vulnerable floating in open space toward an enemy ship. The alternative was to use her suit to accelerate, but that thought frightened her more. Better to float slowly.

  Keld's figure blended with the frigate's paint; it took her several seconds to spot him, just to the left of the center cannon. She watched the frigate grow. I'm going to hit it, she judged. The thought itself was comforting; part of her still feared floating away into space. But she would land thirty or forty feet above Keld, and crawling all over the ship would only draw more attention to them. She needed to adjust before then.

  Her hand moved on the joystick. The suit vibrated, barely noticeable. The frigate didn't change, but she thought she was moving closer to Keld.

  Another twitch of the joystick. She was definitely on track now.

  She drifted forward without further adjustment until Keld was right in front of her. Then she moved the joystick backwards to cancel out her momentum, coming to a stop two feet away.

  Keld reached out and clasped her free hand, pulling her close. He smiled and let go so he could signal. You watch. I work. Okay?

  The barrel of the cannon stuck out behind him. It was massive up close, the size of a small ship. Beth nodded.

  He pushed away from the hull, maneuvering his suit in an arc until he disappeared inside the barrel. Beth was alone again.

  She attached her tether to a protruding piece of metal, painted white as part of some larger design. A button on her suit made the tether retract, pulling her tightly against the hull. She unslung the rifle from her shoulder and held it across her chest. She was no longer afraid.

  The explosive floated in her pocket, pulling against the outside of her suit. She'd been skeptical, but it was now obvious Keld was right: the cannon was far too large for the blasting caps to do any damage.

  Beth smiled. Even if an emergency broadcast got through, the pirates would still probably capture the Ancillary before help arrived. But she didn't care. It felt good to be doing something, anything, other than sitting around waiting to be captured. The view out here was pleasant too; the grey asteroid with bits of metal dotting its surface, the bright rectangle of the dock to the left, the tip of the transfer laser just visible to the right.

  It was her power station. Her home. It hadn't felt that way since the workers infested it, but right then it was hers. She was fighting. She was defending her home.

  Something moved above.

  She looked up and saw a white suit moving toward her. She raised her rifle, then lowered it again. It was Darren, the maintenance worker.

  "What the stars are you doing out here?" she said, though nobody could hear. He looked scared, waving his arms frantically. And then she could see why: three figures followed him, their suits brown and dirty. Pirates.

  Instinct took over. Beth raised the rifle to her shoulder and fired.

  The beam whizzed past Darren and disappeared into the pirate's chest. It knocked him back, sending him floating at a new angle. He grabbed at the hole and thrashed around before becoming still.

  Beth was already taking aim at the others. Her next two shots missed. Darren blocked her view; she didn't want to risk hitting him. She waved him to the side, but on he came, closer and closer. The remaining pirates were thirty feet behind him. She would wait until Darrem reached her before firing again.

  When Darren was right in front of her she reached out and pushed him against the hull. The rifle went back to her shoulder as she aimed.

  Darren pulled the gun from her hands. He shoved her chest hard, sending her spiraling backwards. Beth braced herself for the recoil from her tether. Nothing happened.

  Her tether was unclipped. She was floating into space.

  She spun end over end, an alternating view of black space and the colorful frigate hull. Each time the ship blurred across her vision it was farther away. Sixty
feet, she estimated. Then a hundred.

  Panic washed over her. Her hands fumbled, feeling around for something to grab. The Ancillary was to her right, also farther away. She couldn't breathe. It felt like she was drowning.

  Her hand found the joystick at her waist. She jerked it one way, but she only tumbled faster. She pulled it the opposite way, which slowed her vertical tumbling but made her spin faster in another direction. She twisted and moved the joystick, desperately trying to cancel out her momentum, making things worse. Colors blurred across her vision faster and faster. She felt like she was going to pass out.

  Everything in her helmet displayed red: her vitals, her proximity to the Ancillary, her propulsion fuel. She realized her hand was violently shaking the joystick. She let go, but it was too late; she was nearly out of fuel.

  Beth screamed. It was the only way to force air out of her lungs. She sucked in air and screamed again. She screamed until condensation covered her helmet and her throat was raw. She was going to die, and screaming was the only thing her brain could do.

  She smashed into something and the spinning stopped. The sudden change left her dizzy, as if her eyeballs still tumbled. For a moment she thought she would vomit.

  The Ancillary was directly in front of her, with the frigate pointing away. It was distant. She was distant, hundreds of feet away, unable to see the pirates or Keld. But something had stopped her. She wasn't tumbling out of control anymore!

  A white helmet blocked her view. She knew the face inside. Darren regarded her with curiosity before opening his mouth in a cruel smile.

  Chapter 12

  Darren pushed her back to the Ancillary like a prisoner. She squirmed and tried to fight him at first, but he held the back of her suit at arm's length. She shoved the joystick forward, spraying jet propulsion all over Darren's helmet, but it only lasted a moment as she'd wasted most of it during her tumble. There wasn't much else she could do, so she let him push her forward.