Lainie begin to slide away from me and then Decker was there. He grabbed at Lainie and yelled at me, “Pull!”
I did what I could, but it was Decker who saved them. When both girls were up on the floor of the shuttle, I closed my eyes in relief trying to quell the tremors that were running up and down my arm.
Decker returned to the controls and switched the shuttle back to automatic. It immediately began to ascend. “Get clear of the ramp,” he said, ordering it to shut.
Mira smiled at us. “That could have been bad,” she said.
I managed to choke out a weak, “Yes,” still a little stunned by it all.
“I’d better tell them we aren’t going to crash after all.” Lainie turned the audio back on.
“Respond, shuttle, respond immediately!” A different voice came through the speaker.
“Everything is fine now,” Lainie said. “Just fine. We almost crashed but the shuttle starting working again. I’m so relieved! We’re fine.”
I thought she was pushing it a bit far and made a cutting motion with my hand.
“Earther, what is the status of the escort?” came a MIbot’s voice.
“He’s very sick,” Lainie said. Sato had regained consciousness but was curled up in a ball on the floor, groaning. “He can’t talk now.”
“There’s another one in the storage compartment,” I whispered to Mira. “The ligitin doesn’t seem to be strong enough to knock them out and Sato here saw us put the other one in. As soon as he can talk, he’s going to tell.”
Mira reached around to her back and pulled out her knife. I saw she still wore her belt under Lainie’s shirt. She shifted the knife to her other hand and went over to the man.
“Hello, Sato. Who’s the burden now?” she asked as she brought the knife in front of his face.
Sato opened his eyes.
Chapter 15
“Mira!” Lainie cried. “What are you going to do?”
With a quick motion, Mira pricked the man’s arm with her knife. He let out a strangled moan, then closed his eyes and went limp. “I had to kill an anguist while I was waiting,” Mira said. “I left a drop of blood on the knife. It’s not as lethal as the poison from the skin. Sato should just be paralyzed for a few days.”
I glanced at Lainie, whose mouth had dropped open. “Okay … ” I said. “I take it you really don’t like the man.”
Mira sneered at the figure on the floor. “No, Sato went to Ansun last year and told him he’d be willing to make a great sacrifice and marry me, even though as he put it, I’m burdened with Cadia and come from weak parents. As if I’d ever want to marry him! Sato didn’t like it when I told him I’d rather let an anguist poison me than marry him.” She eyed her knife like she was tempted to give the man another dose.
“Remind me not to make you really mad,” Decker said over his shoulder.
“There’s probably not enough to work on the other man.” Mira examined the knife tip. “We’ll have to gag him, but I’ll need your help.” She ripped off a strip from the bottom of her shirt and handed it to me.
I couldn’t believe how calm the girl was. She acted as if she did this sort of thing every day. I was impressed and glad we hadn’t left her behind.
“Are you going open the compartment?” Mira asked Lainie.
“Um … okay,” Lainie said. She opened it slowly but the man didn’t have the strength to even protest when Mira leaned in, took his walthaser, setting it aside, and then lifted his head. “Tie the gag tightly,” she said to me. I knelt down and wrapped the fabric around the man’s mouth. When it was knotted, I moved back and watched as Lainie lowered the lid.
Mira picked up the weapon. “I’ve never been allowed to use one of these,” she said. “How do they work?”
“They’re simple.” I examined the one I had taken off Sato. “You slip this part over the top of your hand for stability, touch the safety release with your thumb and then push here.” I pointed to the different parts of the weapon. “But these are ancient. These pieces shouldn’t be fused together. It’s like someone did a bad repair job on it. I’m not sure it’s operational. Let’s see the other one.” I examined that too, then set it down. “I don’t know. I wouldn’t trust these. They might blow up in your hand. Have you ever seen people actually use these?”
“No,” Mira said. “They practice away from the village, or at least they go somewhere and say they’ve been practicing.”
“I don’t think we can risk using these,” I said, regretting their loss. We had so little in the way of weapons.
“We’re almost there,” Decker called. The heat fog surrounding the shuttle cleared as we ascended out of the upper reaches of the Fosaanian atmosphere.
“I see the space station,” Lainie said. We continued our ascent as the three stacked rings of the station grew larger in the viewport.
I watched it, struck as always by how serene it seemed as it slowly rotated in its orbit, hiding whatever was going on inside it. We’d know soon enough.
Lainie gasped and then leaned in closer to the viewport. “Something is wrong with it,” she said. “Look. There are parts of the station missing.”
She was right. The rings were no longer continuous. At three different points, sections were gone, as if they had been sliced off.
“I don’t understand,” Mira said.
I took in the various markings on the outside of the station to orient myself. When I realized what I was seeing, I couldn’t speak for a moment. Finally, I said, “Some of the main labs are missing. Dr. Pelletier’s lab was located there between B40 and B42.”
“Are you sure?” Decker asked.
“I’m sure. That other section that’s missing was Dr. Mehta’s lab and that one there is where Marshall and Khoury work.”
“How could some of it just be gone?” Mira asked. “How do they keep air in the station if parts of it are missing?”
“It was put together in sections,” I explained, trying to envision what had happened. “Each of the numbers on the outside is a separate section they connected together. I guess someone just reversed the process and disconnected them, sealing up the sections on either side so it stays airtight.” I pointed to a small vehicle attached to the side of the station. “That’s odd. There’s one of Gregor’s repair pods. I don’t know what it is doing outside. They are usually in his maintenance bay.”
“It doesn’t look like it’s doing anything,” Lainie said.
“We can’t worry about it now. We’re coming in,” Decker said. The airlock field shimmered as the shuttle slid through it. As we had hoped, the landing bay was almost deserted.
“I see two Fosaanians and a MIbot,” Decker said.
“I was hoping we’d only have to deal with Fosaanians. Mags, you’re on your own for a bit.” I said, feeling terrible I was putting the bird through all of this. Mags had withdrawn in all the excitement and had retreated to an empty seat, her head tucked under her wing. I hoped she’d be all right when this was all done. “Everybody ready?” I asked.
Decker pulled the scene setters from beneath his shirt and handed gave us to me. “This had better work.”
“Just give us long enough to get Lainie and Mira to the control room.” I set the scene for ‘fire-multiple-large’ and made sure to add in the scent of burning wood. Handing it to Lainie, I said, “I’m going to say something about the shuttle still acting strange, and distract them a bit. Turn it on when I give the signal.”
The shuttle settled to the ground and I saw both Fosaanians and the bot move toward it. The ramp came down and I sprinted out, talking fast and excitedly. “This piece of junk is worthless. Something is leaking! I don’t know what’s wrong!” Immediately the shuttle began lifting up and down, bumping the ramp up and down on the floor. “I think there’s something burning.”
Lainie jumped out and turned on the scene setter at the same time. Holographic fires sprang up everywhere and the smell of smok
e filled the air. Screaming “Fire!” Lainie ran for the door. I was about to follow when Mags swooped off. The bird spotted the fires and began making siren noises, landing and then taking off again, flying so low the Fosaanians kept ducking as they backed away from the shuttle like they feared it would go up in flames too.
The bot stayed in place so I dashed back to it, trying to put some urgency in my voice, “The fire suppression gas should be on by now. There must be a problem. Can you operate it manually?”
The bot didn’t respond but maneuvered over to a control panel on a wall and flashed some lights at the slip. The room immediately began to fill with a cloudy blue gas. Mira saw her chance and slipped off the ramp, bending down and creeping through the gas. The Fosaanians weren’t even paying attention. They were over yelling into a comm unit.
“Now,” I said, and the three of us sprinted for the door. I took a look back over my shoulder to see Mags landing on a partly disassembled bot. She was squawking something but I couldn’t tell what it was. I’d have to get her back on board before we left. Decker was out of the shuttle and running to a tool storage compartment we’d identified on the schematic as a good place to hide.
There was no one in the corridor connecting the landing bay to the main space station, but as soon as the three of us went through the door into the circular passageway of level two, we nearly ran into two more Fosaanians who were coming out of one of the snack stations.
“There’s fire in the docking bay and it’s getting out of control. Communications are down!” I yelled. “Get yourselves some protective gear from room A72, upper level. If it reaches B17, the atmospheric controls could go down. Hurry!” I broke into a run and headed for the ramp to the upper level. When I was sure everyone was following, I pretended to stumble and fell against the wall. “Ow, my ankle!” I yelled. Mira and Lainie stopped and the two Fosaanians did as well. “Go on without me,” I said. “I’ll catch up.”
The Fosaanians started off again, Mira and Lainie jogging behind them. The two men went up the ramp and around a corner. Lainie and Mira veered off, I followed them.
“They’ll come after us as soon as they can’t find any protective gear,” Lainie said.
“It may take them awhile,” I said. “There’s no room A72. Where is everyone?” I had expected to see a few researchers out in the passageways, but the whole place was strangely quiet and empty. Deciding there wasn’t time to worry about it, I said, “We need to slow down because we’re getting close to the control room.”
“It’s really hot in here,” Lainie said. “That’s strange.”
I hadn’t noticed before Lainie spoke, but she was right. “Maybe the Fosaanians have the heat system set higher so it’s more like the planet. They wouldn’t be used to the normal cold. Jog in front of me so the security eyes can’t see what I’m doing.” I used my head to make a slight motion at one of the black dots set in the ceiling. “We don’t know if they’re watching this corridor.” I took the other scene setter out of my pocket and switched it to ‘fog-thick’. When we were almost at the control room entry, I turned it on. The corridor clouded so I could barely see the girls next to me.
“This way,” I whispered. “The mechanical compartment is here. Mira, feel your way along the wall until you are past us and past the door of the control. There’s a small opening in the wall where you can wait.” I said, remembering it from the schematics. I pushed on the door so it slid open and put the scene setter on a shelf. “Let’s do this before someone else comes along.” The vision in my left eye was almost gone now, so I used my right eye to read the controls, setting it to “stream-fast,” but not turning it on.
“Go!” I said to Lainie as I turned off the fog setting. The corridor lit up again and I turned on the setter. Immediately, holographic water began gushing out the compartment, running down the corridor.
Lainie ran over and pounded on the control room door, “Help! There’s a flood out here! Something broke in the wall and water is everywhere. Help!” The door slid open and a Fosaanian peered out. “It’s coming from over here!” Lainie pointed.
I joined in, trying to make my voice sound as panicky as Lainie’s, “There’s a valve but it’s stuck!” The man took a step out into the passageway. “It’s getting worse!” I turned the control up to make it look like more of the area was flooding. I hoped the man would have the same reaction Mira had when she first saw the scene setter. I also hoped the man wouldn’t notice that even though I was standing right underneath what looked like water, I was perfectly dry.
Lainie darted into the control room. “No, that’s not the right mark. It’s here,” I heard her say. If the Fosaanians were too surprised to react, so much the better. I knew she was probably making her hands fly over the slip. “Uh oh,” she said, “It’s malfunctioning. I can’t shut down the water flow on this level. There’s a malfunction in the docking bay too and a fire. What’s happening out there?” she called.
The Fosaanian in the passageway took a step back toward the control room. “It’s getting worse!” I yelled. “Help!”
Lainie said, “You’d better go help too! I’ll see what I can do in here.” The other man came out and both men moved toward me. Mira slipped in behind them. The control room door slid shut and the men didn’t even notice.
The first man was already at the compartment. “I don’t see anything to shut off,” he said.
“Keep at it,” I said, backing away. “I’ll go find more help.”
The second Fosaanian stuck his hand in the stream of water, and then brought it out again to examine it. “This isn’t wet,” he said, puzzled.
“Are you sure?” I didn’t wait for the man to respond. I turned and ran. A few seconds later I heard the men pounding after me. I thought I’d be able to outrun them, but I hadn’t taken into account how tired I was from the past two days. They were gaining on me. I spotted a room I knew had an access ladder concealed in one of the wall panels. Dodging in it, I opened it and headed up, wishing I’d been close enough to a room with a ladder going down instead of up. I knew the other two Fosaanians were probably still on the upper deck looking for A72. When I got to the top of the ladder, I stuck my head out, hoping not to see them.
When I was sure the corridor was clear, I dashed into one of the rooms, a small lab supply room, and punched the markon on the information slip to do a voice connect with the control room. “Lainie, tell me you’ve managed to lock some people up!”
She turned on the view slip and her face appeared. “We’ve locked up some.” She looked frightened.
Something must have gone wrong. “What is it?” I asked, fearing the answer.
“I don’t know where all the Earthers are … ” she said. “My father’s not here. Saunder’s not here. I need to keep looking. I can’t talk now.”
I wasn’t sure I had understood her. “What do you mean, they aren’t here?”
“There aren’t any Earthers on board. They’re all gone.”
Chapter 16
“I can’t talk now,” Lainie said, turning away.
Her voice was calm, but I knew she must be as shocked as I was. I tried to focus on what I needed to do. I made the door slide open a fraction. No one. I went back to the slip. “Lainie, I can’t just stay here. I need to know where the Fosaanians are.”
I waited. There was no response. “Lainie?”
Finally, she said, “We’ve caught two of them and I’ve put up a message on all the room information slips that the station is having mechanical problems. But the two who were in the control room are right outside the door now. They’re really angry we tricked them and I don’t think they are going anywhere soon. Quinn, the security scans show the space station is almost empty. Except for us, there are only seven other life forms on board.”
“Is there someplace not covered by the scans or the sensors that read life forms?” I couldn’t imagine where everyone had gone. “Could they be locked up somewhere?”
>
“I don’t know. I don’t think so. They just aren’t here. They aren’t anywhere.”
“If Ansun didn’t need them … ” It was Mira’s voice, and she didn’t have to finish her thought for me to understand.
“I don’t believe it,” I said. “Even Ansun wouldn’t just jettison them out into space. He needs them. They’re here somewhere. Tell me a clear path to the control room and we’ll figure out a way to find them.”
“There are the two Fosaanians on the upper deck but it looks like they will be there for a while,” Lainie said. “I think they are still trying to find A72. I’ve sealed off the ramp to the middeck so they can’t get down unless they know about the access ladders. Where are you? I don’t see you on any of the middeck sensors.”
“I’m on the upper deck. I didn’t think about you sealing off the deck levels. I’ll have to take the ladder again, but I need to know if any Fosaanians are on the middeck. If they go into a room, make sure you lock them up, okay?”
A faint sound caught my attention, a sound like a panel opening. I froze, fearing a Fosaanian had found me. A hand clamped down on my arm. I looked down at it. It was covered in dried blood. I twisted around and shoved at the person holding onto me, freeing myself but falling over a bench in doing so. The pain in my shoulder made me cry out when I hit the floor. My vision in both eyes completely blacked out for a moment but when it came back, it took me a moment to recognize the battered figure before me.
“Gregor, I nearly knocked you out,” I said, relief rushing through me.
Gregor stared at me like he didn’t know who I was. The maintenance man looked terrible. He had a bandage on one side of his head, blood seeping through it. His skin was grayish and his face was bruised.
“Quinn?” Gregor mumbled.
“Yes, it’s me,” I replied. “What happened to you?”
“You have to get off the station,” Gregor said. He put a hand to the bandage and winced.
Station Fosaan Page 18
