Andy said.
Jickson asked.
Ngoba looked annoyed for the first time. He raised a gloved hand to quiet the other man.
Jickson didn’t seem to get the message.
Ngoba said, tension edging his voice.
Andy watched the two men as it became obvious that Ngoba Starl didn’t like Dr. Jickson.
Karcher said from the top of the cargo stack.
came Tim’s voice over the local Link channel.
Andy’s heart went through his throat. he barked. The only way they could be listening in was if Cara had hacked the ship’s communication system. He hadn’t specifically told her not to, but he had never shown her how to do it, either. She must have set up a relay. How had she figured out how to do that?
Dr. Jickson demanded.
Andy said. He turned his focus on Ngoba, the man in charge.
Ngoba nodded, brown eyes looking even more interested now. he said, sounding slightly too familiar.
He hoped Starl would do the reasonable thing and leave. Unless there was something else they wanted, there was no reason for them to wait for the transport drones. He couldn’t ignore the possibility that they’d want to erase all evidence of their cargo arriving from Kalyke, which might have been the reason they chanced it on Sunny Skies in the first place. He swallowed, glancing toward Karcher and Stansil, who were now standing on top of the stacked crates. Each had his rifle back in his hands.
Ngoba’s helmet was nodding as though he agreed with Andy, as if Andy had said something profound that had changed the man’s way of thinking.
Ngoba said.
He was interrupted by an alert from the main airlock control. An audible klaxon came to life and the ship sent out an alert on the safety net that the main airlock would be opening in thirty seconds. The Cruithne Port Authority transport drones had arrived.
Chapter Ten
STELLAR DATE: 08.24.2981 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Sunny Skies
REGION: Port Authority, Cruithne Station, Terran Hegemony
Andy breathed a sigh of relief even as his suit notified him he only had eighty percent atmospheric integrity. Several pinholes he’d missed had joined and split. His suit might be hissing like a tea kettle but the drones arriving early meant he could get these people off the ship that much faster. Ngoba Starl acted like a typical gangster while something about Dr. Jickson put a sick feeling in the bottom of Andy’s stomach, especially when he perked up at the possibility of the kids being on board.
he told Starl.
Deactivating his mag boots, Andy kicked-off toward the wall control panel next to the main cargo airlock. The wide doors and frames were scarred by years of drones scraping into them during loading procedures.
Andy’s suit wouldn’t connect to the exterior sensors, so he had pulled up the wall display. Sifting through menus, he found the raw data stream from the exterior lock and scanned through the values. He frowned, the outside signatures were much larger than what he would have expected from a cloud of loading drones ready to grab crates. The sensor data looked more like another ship.
he asked Starl.
From the top of the stack of crates, Karcher and Stansil immediately dropped to a knee and pulled up their rifles.
Starl let out a low chuckle.
Jickson didn’t answer immediately. He was too far away for Andy to see his expression through his faceplate. The doctor appeared to be floating, arms loose, and was probably engaged in a Link conversation that Andy couldn’t hear.
Andy said.
Jickson answered.
Andy said to Starl.
Andy watched the panel count down to the security handshake with the outside entity while trying to think of the best course of action. Regardless of the presence of the other ship, there were Port Authority drones outside communicating with Sunny Skies. The process completed and the panel verified the shipping manifest, the last step that allowed the drones to arrange themselves for best removal of the cargo. From Sunny Skies, they would ferry crates to points all across Cruithne Station.
If someone wanted to steal cargo, that was the easiest point to grab it; track the drone and pluck it out of space between the cargo ship and the station.
Andy had served on station patrol duty enough times to know all the various ways pirates and gangs stole cargo. The smoothest he had ever seen had been a hacker who had rerouted cargo at Eris. If he’d only taken one crate at a time, and been better at checking manifests for high-value shipments, no one would have realized what he’d been doing. But the kid had gotten greedy and run a whole line of drones into an unused port.
All Andy had had to do was follow the train to their destination. It would have been enough to recover the cargo, but the teenage pirate had been ready and waiting in an EVA suit when Andy had arrived. The kid had soiled his suit.
So, attacking a ship didn’t make much sense. It could mean whoever was outside didn’t have the shipping manifest and wanted to search through the cargo before it left, or they wanted the crew, too. Or they wanted Starl and Jickson.
Once the security verification finished, the cargo doors would open and he’d have two sets of gangsters on the ship. The kids were listening in and knew to hide, but what good was that going to do in the long run?
Andy pulled up the override instructions and manually entered his security codes. he said.
Starl said with more calm than Andy would have expected.
Andy said.
Jickson answered.
The two security heavies had moved to the deck, positioning themselves on either edge of the stack, mostly hidden behind crates. Any rudimentary scan of the bay would find them but at least they weren’t in the open anymore. They were all vulnerable once the main door opened.
The panel squawked an alarm and Andy directed his attention back to the security display. His token had been overridden. He pushed his face closer to the numbers, trying to understand what was happening.
Andy said in a low voice.
St
arl chuckled again.
Jickson said, an irritating whine snaking through his voice.
Andy yelled. His voice still sounded small over the Link.
The main cargo bay door screeched and there was a rush of hissing atmosphere as a gap appeared at its base. Andy watched the gap widen, black appearing on the other side. He glanced toward the door leading back into the ship. Both Jickson and Starl were between him and the inner corridor.
Whatever was going to happen, he didn’t need to be part of it. Andy released his mag boots and kicked toward the inner door.
Starl asked.
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