Void Contract (Gigaparsec Book 1)

by Scott Rhine

  I wasn’t aware that I had goals. The phrasing, however, told him exactly who she worked for. “You don’t look like the Laurelin stereotype, but you do have the Llewellyn eyes. What does he say after every time he locks in a course?”

  Ivy closed her eyes for a moment. “Bob’s your uncle.”

  Only the family ever got close enough to hear him say that. She was definitely Anodyne Intelligence and likely a high-powered psi operative. “We’ll find something to tell the others. I don’t want Roz knowing what you … we are.”

  The spy kissed him on the cheek just as the bathroom door opened. “Despite your self-opinion, you are a good man.”

  “Have Reuben dog the cargo hatch,” Max ordered.

  “Right. I’ll find the key to the cuffs.” Ivy ran off without further explanation.

  “What was that all about?” asked Roz as she helped him hobble down the hall to the elevator.

  “She convinced Reuben to try bondage?”

  Roz blushed. “The kiss.”

  “She can’t afford to pay for passage, but evidently my assistant is offering to share his cabin.”

  Stepping onto the cylindrical elevator, Roz said, “That might explain why she kissed him, but not you.”

  Max rubbed his temples after pressing the top button. He didn’t want to lie to her, but the truth had enough room to wiggle. “Station security caught her accessing your room on camera. Since the uniform and your ID are technically Union property, she’s guilty of a felony if the station master wants to push it.”

  “With a felony on her record, she’ll lose her spaceport job. I can’t be responsible for that. She’s invested everything in that shop.”

  “She’d rather lose her hairdresser job than testify against you. I … uh … offered her a crew position so she can pay off the loan on her equipment. We’ll think of something.”

  “Well, that does merit a kiss,” Roz agreed. She leaned forward with a pucker, but Max had already launched himself across the zero-g bridge.

  He found a headset and adjusted it from Saurian size to fit her petite frame. “We don’t have long. The normal pre-flight checkup is about two minutes longer than our launch window. Get tower clearance as soon as you can.”

  She followed him, landing with confidence to the pilot’s chair. She accepted the headset and confirmed the frequency. “Eden station, this is Chief Engineer Mendez.”

  “Roger. Weren’t you on leave?” asked the tower.

  “That bastard Ramakrishna never took me off the on-call list,” she adlibbed. “The Inner Eye’s captain has complained of a sluggish port thruster.”

  “Roger. We show maintenance on their record, but nothing that could trigger that.”

  “The customer is always right. He sold off most of his repair bots, and this tub needs months of work to get up to code. The captain wants me to take her out for a shakedown cruise to diagnose the delay. If I prove the cause, we get to charge by the hour.”

  The radio replied, “Aye-aye chief. Permission granted. Take as long as you need. Tower out.”

  Max asked, “Is that true about the neglect?”

  Roz nodded. “She’s clean, advanced, and elegant but hasn’t received enough attention in years.”

  Are we talking about you or the ship? “Yeah. She has a history of abuse, but she’ll see us through.”

  Her hands darted over the controls, learning as she went. “Bring up launch protocols.” Then she added, “Translate.” Dragging her finger along the list, she muttered conversion factors from meters to the Magi units that the controls accepted.

  We’ll never make it in time at this rate. While Roz wrestled with the foreign controls, Max linked to the ship’s comm. “Minder, release the astrogator from medical stasis. We need her help.”

  “What’s wrong with her?” asked Roz.

  “Sorry. Doctor-patient confidentiality,” he replied. “It’s nothing that will interfere with her ability to do her job. She just has to do it in short bursts until we find the proper course of treatment. That’s part of what I was searching for on this trip.”

  Concern flashed on Roz’s face. “Did you find what you were looking for?”

  “Perhaps, but these things take time. If you try to rush them, someone ends up hurt.” Max glanced at her briefly before he punched a flashing button. “External hatches are secure, and fuel hoses are detached. Reuben must be back on the job.”

  A hologram of Gina appeared next to Max’s place at the console. She wore a thick, golden necklace with a greenish stone at the center that resembled something Cleopatra might have owned. “Hello, sailor. Need another massage?”

  Roz raised an eyebrow.

  “Echo, this is an emergency.” Max switched off the visual interface. “Is there a way you could help our new pilot candidate prepare for launch?”

  “Certainly. Now that I’m free, I’ll restore the Human-compatible interactive interface in Anodyne English. Anything else you need?”

  “Um … no, but stay looped in. If she likes the ride, Roz will probably want to meet you.”

  Roz muted her comm. “Doesn’t look like an invalid to me.”

  “This is a custom hologram,” Max explained. “Magi don’t appear as themselves, and you and I can’t see mental projections at range.”

  “Mmm-hmm. What pervert programmed it as a movie star who takes off her clothes?”

  Max coughed. “Never been on the bridge before. Reuben is a programmer who likes that sort of thing.”

  The pilot chair tipped backward, and a menu appeared. “Control Preferences?”

  Roz whistled. “There are over a hundred starship models here, and these controls can mimic any of them. Here. The hull shape is similar on this one, and I trained on it at the University.”

  Once she punched the button, a simplified subset of controls appeared on the dash. “What about preflight?”

  Echo replied in Gina’s synthetic voice, “The ship is maintained in readiness at all times. The interface would show red otherwise.”

  Max chuckled. “You mean you made the Saurians waste all that time preparing when they could have left at the touch of a button?”

  “Resist tyranny by any civilized means,” Echo quoted.

  “Amen,” Roz said.

  Max asked, “You’re a fan of the philosopher Zeiss?”

  “No, I was praying. Strap in.” Touching her headset, Roz announced, “All hands, prepare for emergency disengage.”

  Her hands fluttered over the controls, and on the overhead view port, the ship glided away from the station. She twisted something and the ship spun as it continued back. Pushing her right hand forward, she accelerated away from the station.

  Max floated slowly toward the jump seat in the rear of the room. “Smoother than silk sheets, Mendez. You’re too modest.”

  Face glowing from the readouts, she said, “It’s all the ship. It’s so responsive, but the extra engines dampen adverse effects. It wants to fly like a dream. I need to read the specs. Who knows what else it can do? Minder, can I customize this interface?”

  “Affirmative.”

  “I’d like to put in a neutrino meter over here and an emergency deceleration button over there,” Roz said.

  She’s hooked. “Why don’t you really open her up?” Max suggested.

  “Minder, is everyone strapped in?” she asked.

  “Affirmative.”

  She accelerated into a loop de loop that hit almost three gravities after filtration. Max’s hands slapped the walls “Careful. The fish in the pond are getting seasick.”

  Her face was a little flushed as she eased back the throttle. “That was awesome.”

  “Ask it for something difficult,” Max teased.

  “Okay. Minder, show me a plot to the next projected jump point and the countdown.” To Max, she said, “I’ll see if I can plot a better departure vector than Jubalasch with these tools.”

  A countdown appeared in progress, with less than an hour remaining. �
��Whoa,” Roz said. “Something’s wrong here. I can’t reach the nexus to Prairie in that amount of time. Even if I could, I haven’t tendered my resignation to the space station.”

  Max said, “Minder, give us details on this timer.”

  “Value is updated from a device hooked to the subbasement power couplers.”

  Roz’s first instinct was for the safety of others. “If it is a bomb, the rest of you need to leave immediately.”

  “We don’t have a shuttle, but you could pilot one of the escape pods,” Max said. “Just show me how to get this thing as far from the station as possible.”

  Roz shook her head. “You won’t get out of our date that easily. That’s one of the code violations. Your captain sold or scrapped all the escape pods years ago. I didn’t want to grant him docking privileges without fixing that little detail, but the station master overruled me.”

  “Okay, we have to disarm the bomb. First we need to know where it came from. Minder, emergency contact with the captain, now!”

  A muzzy Kesh answered, “Do you know what time it is?”

  “We think someone smuggled a bomb aboard.”

  Kesh said, “Impossible. I scanned everything personally.”

  Indeed, with no technology or metal on the planet, hiding explosives would have been almost impossible. “Your brother had access to mining explosives. Maybe he planted a failsafe. Could the copilot have triggered it?”

  “No,” Kesh said. “We had the ansible removed at the astrogator’s request. Then I sold Jubalasch the device so he could use it to open a bank branch. I walked him to the door personally and then revoked his access.”

  “Maybe the transfer of the ship’s ansible tripped the countdown. Your brother had a death grip on his investment. Know anything about bombs?”

  “Balloon payments and derivatives are as dangerous as I get,” replied Kesh.

  “I’m your expert on alien tech if we need to disarm it,” Roz said.

  “And I’ve spent the most time around their military hardware.” Max opened a channel to the entire ship. “All hands, a Saurian bomb has been planted on the subbasement power coupling, giving us about fifty minutes until this vessel is destroyed. My plan is to drop you all off at the space station while Roz and I attempt to disarm it.”

  Echo spoke over the cockpit radio. “The countdown isn’t a bomb. Something has initiated the ship’s prototype star drive, codenamed subbasement.”

  “What’s so different about the subbasement?” Max asked.

  “Normal sublight engines are like oars in the water, slow. In subspace, you can go much faster, like riding a jet stream. Unfortunately, this only works on gravity threads between stars that are sufficiently close. We’ve always known that the universe has a stronger force beneath subspace because of the constant pull that limits jump lengths. It’s not really constant—more like a galactic wind. This ship is designed to catch that wind anywhere outside of a gravity well. Currently, immersion into the subbasement takes twice the fuel of a normal jump.”

  “This could change everything,” Roz said.

  Max stammered, “Um … didn’t you mention your first test was a misjump that took you over a century to recover from?”

  Echo remained silent for a moment.

  “Come on. We’re in this together,” Max coaxed. “We won’t tell. I waded through hell to free you, and Roz saved my life.”

  Echo spoke at last. “We were fortunate to avoid gravity wells so near the gap. Though not a bomb, such an undirected dive could well result in this ship’s destruction. This would be analogous to removing the steering wheel from a Jeep and attempting to navigate a path through a forest at highway speeds.”

  “I thought Zrulkesh didn’t understand your tech,” Max said.

  “But he tried to manually activate the previous command sequence in the drive’s buffers. I restricted all access during my captivity, but I’m guessing power was restored after the ansible was removed and I was returned to ownership of the vessel. If his barbaric patch job after the minefield damage didn’t balance the power phases properly, the resulting harmonic disruption could rip us apart.”

  “Why the countdown?” asked Roz.

  “Because the ship is converting about half our fuel into a massive charge for the quantum capacitors in the core.”

  Roz paled. “Stop it!”

  “I’ve tried. Zrulkesh removed all command linkages from my cell.”

  Max tried to be patient. “Echo, could you come up here and override the countdown?”

  “I can’t. Too many people. Too much pressure. Risk of infection. I’m no good with tools.”

  Max changed tactics. “Minder, abort the subbasement fuel conversion.”

  “Password?” asked the computer.

  Max tried the banking pass phrase, which Minder rejected. Max cursed. Minder replied, “Also incorrect. One attempt remaining.”

  Glaring, Roz said, “Minder, do not accept a third attempt unless prefaced by the phrase ‘Mother may I.’”

  “Acknowledged.”

  “Sorry,” Max muttered. “Reuben can crack it but probably not in the next forty-five minutes. Echo, can you project yourself Out-of-body to show us the device?”

  “You can’t see me.”

  “Ivy can. She’s the CU positive with Reuben, probably as strong as you are.”

  “Yes. Stronger.”

  “How can we access the power coupling?” Max asked.

  “There’s an access tunnel from the south pole of the ship.”

  Max connected with the captain. “Do you have access to the blasting supplies?”

  “Yes. Lots of them.”

  “Meet me at the elevator with one of everything.” Max turned to the pilot, “Shiraz, you stay here and keep us on a safe trajectory.”

  Roz punched a button entitled Autopilot. “Done. You’re not attempting this without me. I’m the repair expert.”

  “I’ll bring my patented Turtle cutting tools and the explosives. If we can’t disconnect the coupling, I’ll blow it. I don’t want you anywhere near that blast.”

  “Then you’d better put on your thinking cap because I’m not going to let a concussed, suicidal grunt go anywhere alone.”

  Max blinked. “Thinking cap. You’re a genius.” He dove into the elevator with Roz close behind. Over the comm, he said, “Reuben, Ivy, meet me in the outer ring with all the tools you can carry.”

  Chapter 34 – Thinking Caps and Blasting Caps

  Roz carried the explosives from Kesh, who they sent to wait on the bridge. Max collected his gear from his stateroom, and Roz picked up her computer pad. “It has a built-in current detector.”

  Ignoring his ribs and other aches, Max loped along as fast as he could. His legs were the least injured part of his body, but the constant jarring and jouncing made him want to curse.

  “You run like an old man,” Roz teased.

  He bit back a response and used the air for running. When they reached the low-g outer hall, Max told Reuben, “This is what we practiced for. Bottom of the ship ASAP.”

  Oddly, the person with the most practice swimming through the halls fell behind the farthest. Max eventually had to climb on Reuben’s back. His legs and arms carried both of them to the southern junction.

  “Twenty-three minutes,” Max panted.

  Machinery thrummed behind the door. Reuben used his master key card to open the hatch to the maintenance tunnel.

  Max grabbed Ivy. “Do you know anything about planting explosives?”

  “We might,” she replied cryptically. The other two glanced at them in confusion.

  “You and the unseen Echo lead,” Max said.

  Ivy crawled up the shaft first. “Why does she look like that famous actress?”

  “Ticktock! Roz, head up next. Reuben, bring up the rear so you can help me if I fall.”

  “Yeah, boss.”

  The next hatch required physical intervention to open. Roz had to override with a wrench. �
��If the engine fires up when we’re in here, we’re all dead.”

  “That ship sailed a while ago,” Max replied. “Metaphorically speaking.”

  Soon, the walls of the maintenance tube were vibrating. Only the women were small enough to squeeze down the side tube. Roz pried apart what was supposed to be an access panel. She gazed into the hole. “No! The idiots.”

  “What?” Max shouted from the junction two meters back.

  “They sealed this conduit with hull ceramic.” Roz pulled up schematics of the region’s power flow on the computer pad. “I can’t reach the quantum capacitors.”

  “So blast it.”

  “Wouldn’t work,” Ivy said. “You need to tunnel beneath this layer or the blast will disperse. This crap is made to withstand reentry, so a little plastique won’t make a dent.”

  “Roz, hand her the schematic.” Max jabbed Reuben. “Take off your shirt and hold Ivy skin-to-skin.”

  “If we’re going to die, I wouldn’t mind going out that way, but I want more than nineteen minutes,” the Goat replied.

  “Ivy is going to tell us how to disarm this thing,” Max explained. “You’re going to boost her.”

  Roz held Ivy’s hand tensely as she said, “You can do it. I believe in you.”

  Their earlier lovemaking must have primed the pump because a minute later, Ivy stared at them each in turn. “There are so many of you, branching in so many directions. Reuben, half of your probability cloud is a burned-out street person and the other half is almost a king. Oh … Echo says it’s bleed over from the quantum capacitors. Time and choices are just another dimension. We’re all trees. Roz, most of your branches are so sad or pruned altogether. As a migrant worker, you would have died. In this branch, you have a chance to be happy. Max. Your trunk is so tall, and there are so few of you left.”

  Max shook her. “Focus on the next few minutes. Work with Echo. What branch do we all live in? How do we stop the discharge of energy?”

  Ivy closed her eyes, moving her lips in silent conversation. Then she held out her hand. “Marker.”

  While Max was digging for his, Roz pulled one out of her purse. Show off engineer.