New Sky: Eyes of the Watcher

by Jason Kent

  Kate looked back. Georges was having difficulty getting through the shuttle's tight opening. He was a big man but managed to pull himself out. She watched as he reached back in and pulled out a pair of handguns with holsters. Georges bunched his legs under him then pushed off from the remains of their faithful shuttle. He hurtled toward Kate. Since he was not dragging the weight of an extra person, Georges quickly overtook Garrett and Kate.

  Kate managed to arrest her forward momentum with a quick flip of her body. She used her legs to cushion the impact with the wall then pulled herself toward the interior hatch Ross held open for them.

  Out in the corridor beyond the wrecked bay, Kate found Sparrow struggling with a large steel wheel as she tried to close the hatch behind them.

  "Isn't it wired to remote controllers?" Kate asked. She wondered why the link sprite could not simply jack in and order the door to close. This was a space station after all, there should be remote overrides on just about everything.

  "Uh-uh," Sparrow grunted. "It's all hydraulic linkages and mechanical locks. I can't get in with my head. And I'm not really sure what all of this stuff does." She nodded at the dizzying array of high pressure pneumatic controls embedded in the wall next to the hatch.

  "Seal the door!" Georges shouted as he joined them in the hall. "We need as much station steel between us and the shuttle."

  "Trying," Sparrow called out in a sing-song voice. She strained and put all her weight against the wheel.

  Kate jumped in to help Sparrow while Georges pushed off to join Merrick at the junction where he and Ross took up defensive positions. Garrett was busy with his case. Kate did not have time to argue about chivalry being dead. After all, they were the ones with the guns and training in their use; something which might prove handy on an enemy-controlled station. She figured she could let the lapse of civility pass given the circumstances.

  Kate jammed her legs against a convenient length of pipe near the floor and twisted with all her might. Heavy gears attached to the manual handle groaned but finally turned and drove the door along thick, toothed bars set into the floor and ceiling. The heavy pressure hatch ratcheted closed with echoing clanks. When the final latch caught, Sparrow let out a deep breath and rubbed her head.

  "Better split," Sparrow commented. "The door will help contain the blast. But, if the interference I was just getting in my skull is any indication, the engine shielding is about to fail." The link sprite pushed off and hit the opposite side of the corridor. "Huh, seems I'm a bit off."

  Kate grabbed the smaller woman's arm and guided her along the corridor.

  "Sparrow says we don't we have a lot of time!" Kate shouted as they reached the others.

  "Go!" Georges ordered and nodded down the dimly lit corridor.

  Kate could tell it led deeper into the station. None of them really knew where they were going. One thing was certain; they must get as far from the shuttle as humanly possible in the short time left to them.

  Merrick took the lead.

  "Need to get another pressure door between us and..." Garrett started.

  A muted explosion sounded from the direction of the evacuated docking bay behind them. It was accompanied by a metallic groan which built and climaxed with the grating snap of the pressure door failing. The corridor was suddenly filled with the roar of superheated air as it rushed out of the burning bay.

  "Not good!" Garrett shouted. He grabbed Sparrow's arm and flung her around a corner. The pilot hooked his arm under Kate's shoulder and pushed hard after the link sprite. Around the corner, they found Merrick braced just inside a pressure hatch. The sniper hauled Sparrow through and reached out to take Kate's hand as she approached him.

  "Grab hold!" Merrick shouted. He snagged Kate's hand just as she felt herself slowing. The air in the corridor began to move against her.

  "The bay is depressurizing!" Kate shouted at Merrick. She looked back. Georges and Ross were pulling themselves along the walls toward her. They gripped pipes and conduits like lifelines and struggled for the hatch with all their might.

  Merrick did not reply. He flexed his arms and pulled Kate through the door. Kate got hold of the machinery embedded in the wall and watched as Garrett and Merrick strained to work the manual locks on the door. They got the heavy pressure door moving just as Georges and Ross managed to pull themselves through the hatch.

  Kate's attention was drawn from the slowly closing pressure door by a rattling sound in the corridor behind them. She turned to find a Tallinn mech lumbering toward them. Whether it was drawn by the explosion and on-going decompression or was simply on some mindless patrol, Kate could not tell.

  "Mech!" Kate hissed.

  "Tral!" Ross shouted. He twisted and aimed his rifle at the automaton. The machine kept moving their way. It grasped handholds with hydraulically-controlled arms and moved with purpose toward the half-closed door. "I got it..."

  "Wait!" Kate breathed. She pressed herself against the wall, eyeing the weapons on the mech. By now, every weapon in the corridor was aimed at the approaching machine. But, the mech did not seem to notice them. She saw a chance to take care of their new friend. Kate was getting light-headed from the thinning atmosphere. Breathe, she told herself. Just a few more meters. The mech drew alongside her and slowed as it neared the pressure hatch. "Wait..."

  As the mech moved past Merrick, he swung out behind it and planted a solid kick against the mech's steel backside. The sniper's heavy boots dented the scratched tanks welded to the machine's back and sent it tumbling through the pressure hatch.

  "Seal it!" Georges shouted

  Ross and Garrett spun the large wheel and the pressure hatch thankfully slammed shut with a satisfying thud. The roar of escaping air ceased. Kate took a deep breath and Ross rushed to the small dirty window set in the door.

  "Ha!" Ross crowed. "The mech didn't even realize it got swatted. Just kept on going."

  "Probably registered it as debris slamming into it," Garrett surmised.

  "Means you've got an iron foot," Kate said and smiled at Merrick.

  "Usually they say it's my head," Merrick noted.

  "We need a quiet spot," Georges remarked.

  Merrick led the way away from the sealed hatch.

  "Do you think the Tallinns will be mad we destroyed part of their station?" Kate asked.

  Sparrow looked around in the dim, unpainted corridor. Masses of cracked conduits, twisted bundles of wires, scratched supports, and rusted pipes crowded in from every side. Sparrow commented, "I'm not sure they'll even notice."

  Chapter 7

  The Quest

  "At least the explosion will have destroyed what's left of the shuttle," Garrett noted. He glanced back down the corridor at the sealed hatch. When the pilot turned to start after the others, he promptly banged his forehead on an overhead support. "Ow!"

  "Watch your step," Kate warned as she suppressed a smile. "I'm pretty sure the Occupational Safety and Health Agency rules don't apply here."

  "I'd love to see them inspect this place," Garrett said. He moved to grab a pipe and pulled his hand back, sending him into a spiral. "Tral! It's super-hot!"

  "Yeah," Kate added and shrugged, "applying appropriate labels and warning signs also appears to be low on the Tallinn's list of priorities."

  Red emergency beacons came to life in the corridor. The spinning lights sent disorienting shadows pulsing up and down the hallway.

  "Nice response time," Sparrow remarked dryly. She and the others redoubled their pace, anxious to put as much distance between them and the explosion and any Tallinn response. After several long minutes and a bewildering number of turns and level changes through dimly lit service corridors, the small group ended up in a circular room lined with locked doors.

  "Door number one?" Ross asked. Having taken the lead from Merrick, he was the first to reach for the handle. Without waiting for a response, the marine braced himself against the wall and kicked. The door dented inwards and the cheap lock popped free of
the frame.

  Kate peeked through the doorway and realized why it was so easy to open. This was not a pressure hatch which led to yet another corridor, it was the back door of a small shop. Kate followed the others into the store and made her way past the counter. The large windows were partially covered with half-closed blinds. She looked out and found the space in front of the storefront was filled with vendors and shoppers. The massive open space, an unbelievably valuable resource on any station, was packed with stalls stacked high in the low gravity. Moving walkways clanked along to carry mag-booted shoppers through the irregular alleys between the shops and up to the various levels. Some of the stalls took advantage of their ability to roam in search of customers and drifted around the edge of the space, constantly changing their location amid the crowd of station regulars and visitors. No one seemed to be paying any particular interest in the store where Kate and the others huddled. Kate turned back to take a closer look at the sort of store they were invading.

  "Clothing boutique," Kate noted. Rows of clothes were on display with plenty of cubby holes to showcase merchandise along every wall. "Why're they closed?"

  "Out to lunch," Merrick announced. He pointed at a small, hand-printed sign tucked into the corner of the front window. It was a small detail only the sniper managed to find so quickly.

  "Then we'd better hurry," Georges grunted. He rummaged through a few of the racks until he found what he was looking for. Georges held up a pair of slacks with an array of extra cargo pockets and traded them for the camouflage pants he wore over his second skin armor, which he kept. Next, he snatched a white collarless button-up shirt from a neatly folded stack tucked into a display niche. The Colonel buckled on the twin holsters dragged from the shuttle then completed his ensemble with a long, heavy coat. He dumped his rescued case and sorted through the contents. The extra ammunition magazines and the contents of a compact emergency surgical pack were divided up among various pockets. Georges patted his jacket then caught sight of the clerk's counter. He took a handful of the Tallinn equivalent for chocolate bars from a box next to the register and dropped them into an outside coat pocket. Georges caught Kate looking at him. "Lunch," he explained.

  Ross and Merrick found similar outfits of nondescript work pants and functional shirts. Merrick's sniper rifle went over the shoulder of his new black jacket. He adjusted the pistol holster at his hip. Satisfied with the placement of his weapons, he turned one of the bright orange emergency bags inside out to hide the Stellar Union Marine Corps symbol then shoved the team's larger med kit into the bag along with the bandoliers of ammunition he carried.

  Ross' second rifle went across his back. He kept the other weapon slung across his chest where it would be partly hidden by his new waist-length leather jacket.

  Garrett kept his flight suit and pilot A2 jacket but pulled off all the unit patches and nametags. He zipped these into a cargo pocket and checked to be sure his service pistol was secure in its shoulder holster.

  "Won't all the guns draw attention?" Kate asked. She eyed Ross' dual arsenal of assault rifles, Georges large semi-automatic hand guns, and Merrick's long sniper rifle.

  Garrett pulled the oversize case he saved from the shuttle and shot Kate a lop-sided grin. "Unless the Tallinn's have changed their ways, they'll run this station like all their other worlds."

  "Just like the Old West in the U.S. back on Earth," Sparrow noted.

  "Old West?" Kate wondered.

  "Here, NOT having a weapon stands out," Garrett explained. He opened his case and lifted out a composite crossbow. He flicked the safety and tested the auto-tensioning function. He sighted down the shaft of the pre-loaded bolt then tweaked the trigger pressure. Garret glanced over at Kate. The pilot shrugged and motioned at his bow. "Okay, not exactly like the Old West." He slung a pouch holding the extra bolts for his crossbow over his shoulder. "But, close enough."

  Kate looked down at her second-skin armor and the dark data pad strapped to her wrist. She wondered how stylish she could make this outfit. One glance at the others told her the bar sat fairly low. Kate joined Sparrow in the section of the store set aside for women's clothing. The link sprite augmented her work-out pants and spaghetti-strap top, the outfit she wore over the second-skin armor, with a waist-length station jacket. The functional jacket offered pockets on the front and sleeves which came down below the elbow, leaving her forearms bare. Since her second-skin armor was of the sleeveless bodysuit style, there was nothing suspicious revealed by the jacket. She pulled a scarf from her pack and wrapped it around her head to conceal the extent of her circuitry work.

  Kate realized she was the only one still in severe state of undress. While her second-skin covered everything, she knew its tight form fully failed to really hide anything at all. She looked over the merchandise quickly and found a pair of jeans that would fit.

  "Here." Sparrow handed Kate a white form-fitted blouse with short sleeves. "And since you've got the full sleeve armor, you need one of these." She rummaged through a rack of jackets and selected one near the front.

  "Wow!" Kate exclaimed as she handled the jacket. It was made of supple brown leather and tailored for a woman. She slipped into it and looked at herself in the mirror, liking the way the new clothes showed off her curves. Her view of the shop's owner moved up a notch. "Good choice. I guess it's lucky I lost my assault rifle back on the ironclad, there's no place to conceal it."

  Sparrow winked back at Kate.

  "If everyone's done browsing," Georges interrupted, "I suggest we find our contact."

  "He's no fun," Kate remarked to Sparrow as she helped her adjust the straps of her pack so it fit over the sprite's new jacket.

  They stashed their empty cases in the back of the store and covered them with packing crates. Ross managed to get the broken service door latched. From the inside, the tampering might as well have not happened. With any luck, hours would pass before anyone pieced together the details of their little visit. Satisfied everything was as back in place, Georges called them to the front door.

  Kate glanced behind them. She was impressed. Everything looked pretty good considering how they basically ransacked the place for their new and improved local wardrobes. She looked down at her outfit as a thought struck her.

  "Are we spies now?" Kate asked Garrett. She knew pilots were trained in escape and evasion techniques and were even put through mock prisoner of war camps. Probably to force them to pay more attention to the evasion part of their training. If anyone in the group knew of the latest instruction in this sort of situation, it would be him.

  "Well," Garrett began, "technically, we are evading a hostile force and seeking to get back to our side of the battle lines." He looked down at his own outfit consisting of a patch-less flight suit and obviously military jacket. He slipped the jacket off and turned it inside out so the darker liner was visible. He now looked like any other station mechanic with a jacket, collar turned up against the chill one often finds in work spaces aboard an aging station. The pilot looked back at Kate and shrugged. "But, there's a fine line—"

  "We've crossed it," Georges interjected. "SUMC Instruction 3-12 clearly states military personnel must remain in recognizable uniforms to be considered lawful combatants. Once we leave this room, our legal status changes."

  "But they blew up our ship!" Kate complained.

  "And we blew up theirs," Ross noted. "So, could we just say we're even?"

  "Stow that talk, Sergeant," Georges growled, more gruffly than Kate heard him before. He held Ross' gaze until the enlisted man looked down and scuffed his toe on the simulated wood floor.

  The Colonel looked from one of them to the other. When his eyes met Kate's again he stated, "You and Sparrow can claim you were just along for the ride. The rest of you need to decide whether you want to be considered spies if we are caught. The penalty, by the way, is death. I said it before, we could surrender and get sent to God knows what mining colony, or you can follow me. My plan is simple; find a contact
I have here, acquire a ship, and get back to friendly territory. Your choice. I, for one, have no intention of turning myself in." He looked each marine the eye. "In or out?"

  "In," Garrett declared without hesitation.

  "In, sir" Merrick replied with his eyes on Kate.

  "What kind of mining colony?" Ross asked. When Georges glared at him, Ross cracked a smile. "I'm no good at physical labor, sir. So, I guess I'm in."

  Georges nodded. Kate thought she saw his shoulders drop slightly, as if he was glad to have this small team with him rather than trying to make the plan work on his own. They were no longer just a group of survivors, they were becoming a team forged in their fiery trials. Kate took them all in.

  Georges with his long coat and pistols looked more like a gunslinger than a Stellar Union marine. His serious demeanor and experience as much as his rank made him the natural leader of the quest. Georges possessed a mysterious side as well. He and Sparrow had obviously been to Transom before. For what, Kate wondered, some sort of a secret mission? And what were they doing on the ironclad anyway when they stumbled across Kate's team? Kate promised herself she would endeavor to find out more about the pair's past, if they all survived long enough.

  Kate looked over at Georges' partner. The link sprite, with her lithe body and abilities to cast spells on computer systems, seemed to be an ethereal fairy among the rest of the team. Kate noticed the two low-slung holsters strapped at her waist. Not like any fairy she ever read about, Kate mused.

  Garrett's odd choice of weapons made Kate smile. His lean form and cross-bow combined with his clumsiness definitely presented a strange impression. He seemed to be handling the loss of his shuttle fairly well though. Unlike most of the pilots she knew, Garrett appeared to be able to function just as well outside the cockpit as in the pilot's seat. She was glad to have his bow at her side.

  Merrick stood alone, taking everything in with his keen eyes. His weapon checks complete, he stood near one of the windows, keeping a sharp eye on anyone approaching the store. Kate already witnessed the deadly accuracy of his sniper rifle. She also caught Merrick staring at her from time to time. He managed to always look away as if he simply were making an assessment of his surroundings, her included. But Kate was perceptive enough to know there was something else going on. Unfortunately, she was not perceptive enough to know exactly what it was.