by M. R. Forbes
“Don’t,” he repeated.
The big man deflated, raising his hands.
“Get off me,” Hayden said. “Keep your hands up.”
The suspect did as he ordered, backing off him and standing.
Hayden gathered his legs beneath him and rose to his feet, keeping his eyes locked on his attacker.
“One move and I pull the trigger,” Hayden said. “I guarantee it’ll hurt.”
The man was still.
Hayden turned his attention back to the maintenance box. A woman was pressed against the rear of it, dangerously close to the operational circuits there. Her shirt was unbuttoned, her bra hastily pulled back into place. Her pants were around her ankles, but she had enough time during the altercation to get her panties back up.
“Hi, Sheriff Duke,” she said.
He knew her. Sarah Kaine. She had been in his lockup for prostitution more than once.
“Damn it, Sarah,” he said. “Put your pants back on.”
She nodded and finished dressing.
He turned back to the big man. “I don’t know you.” He reached to his belt and withdrew a small scanning device. “Give me your wrist.”
The man held out his left wrist. Hayden ran the device over it. The display on it showed the man’s name and address.
“Francis Lira. Block Twenty-four?” Hayden said. “You came all the way across Metro for a quickie with a hooker?”
The man didn’t say anything.
“Look, Francis,” Hayden said. “Prostitution is illegal. Assaulting a Sheriff, that’s a whole lot more illegal. I recommend you cooperate.”
“Sheriff Duke,” Sarah said. “Can I go?”
He looked over at her again. “Not yet.”
Her lips tightened into a thin line.
Hayden returned the scanner to his belt and drew the homemade knife. “This yours, Francis?”
Francis still wouldn’t talk.
“Is he mute?” Hayden asked.
“I don’t know,” Sarah replied. “We just met. Maybe he’s afraid of you?”
“He should be afraid of me; he attacked me.” He looked back at Francis. “I’ve got a Code Blue right now. Do you know what that means?”
He shook his head.
“It means something important on the Pilgrim is busted, and I’m supposed to be helping find it so Engineering can fix it. But instead, I’m wasting my time here with you. Now, here’s what I know. One, I heard a shout, a man’s shout, but it was more of a baritone, and by your size, I’m going to assume you’re a bass. If you can produce sound at all. Two, I found this knife outside the maintenance box, and I’m guessing it’s yours because why would the guy run away if he had a knife? That tells me that you two weren’t here alone, and the third guy took off. But he didn’t take off because I was coming. What I think is that he paid Sarah here for her services, but then you showed up, threatened him, and took his place. Sarah, correct me if I’m wrong about any of this.”
She remained silent.
“I have a few problems. One, you entered this maintenance box, which has a code on it you aren’t supposed to know. Two, you attacked me when I opened it and were ready to pummel me to death despite the fact that I’m an Officer of the Law. Three, you left the knife out here, when it would have been really handy during problem two. Do you see where I’m going with this?”
Francis was motionless, his eyes staring straight ahead.
Hayden sighed again. “Still won’t talk? Fine. Francis, you’re under arrest. Turn around.”
Francis turned around. Hayden dug out his cuffs and put him in them.
“Sarah, let’s go.”
“Are you arresting me, Sheriff?”
Hayden shrugged. “I haven’t decided yet. You’re coming down to the Station with me for questioning. Whether you leave tonight or in a few days? That’s up to you.”
“Come on, Sheriff Duke,” Sarah said. “My mom’s sick. The med chits they give us aren’t enough. What else am I supposed to do?”
“Your mother is seventy-three years old,” Hayden said. “I don’t want to sound harsh, but you’re supposed to convince her to head over to medical. You know the protocols. They’ll put her to rest nice and easy. No pain. You know we don’t have enough meds left to care for everybody.”
“It’s my body. I can do what I want with it.”
“Sorry, Sarah. Not in Metro, you can’t. Not on the Pilgrim, you can’t. What if you got pregnant? It is fair to the others if you get to have a kid outside the lottery and they lose their chance because of it?”
She had tears in her eyes. “She’s going to die.”
“Yes, she is,” Hayden agreed. “That’s the way things are here.” He shrugged out of his coat and handed it out to her. “You can cover yourself up with this. I’ll send Wilson over to your place to tell your mother where you are as soon as the Code Blue is cleared.”
She took the coat and put it on, still in tears. “I hate this damn ship. I hate this damn life.”
“You can hate it all you want. It’s what we have, and nothing’s going to change it.”
3
Engineering was outside of the main Metro perimeter, a two-kilometer hike from the Law Office out to the wall that marked the north side of the city. It sat just beyond Metro Park North, one of the four small parks that surrounded the blocks that offered residents open spaces away from the tall buildings.
Hayden could still remember a time when the park had grass and even a few real, live trees. Those days had passed, the damage to the water circulation systems costing them a few thousand gallons before it was repaired and reducing their levels enough that the greenery had all died.
It was a shame, but that was life. At least the grass remained, though much of it was brown at the moment thanks to the downtime of the elemental generators. The rain had started up again by the time he had finished locking up Francis and Sarah. The rest of his officers had already been to Engineering and had likely already been assigned out.
He was glad the elementals were still working. Natalia had put so much time and energy into their repairs; it just wouldn’t have been right for them to break again so soon.
He reached the hatch at the base of the southern wall. It was the only access point out of the Metro perimeter from this direction, and it led first to Control and then out to various points around the Metro Hold, where the critical systems were located. The ones they could affect, anyway. Atmosphere, elements, waste recycling, water storage, scrubbers and so on were all accessible through the outer corridors, which like the maintenance boxes were only available to Engineering, Government, and Law.
Except that wasn’t completely true. Francis had gotten past the locks. Hayden still didn’t know how, but his first order of business once things settled down was to find out. The man couldn’t stay silent forever, and even if he did, Sarah wouldn’t. At the very least she would tell him what she could about the john that hired her, and how Francis fit in with the failed effort to pay for sex.
A part of him felt for Sarah. She wasn’t a bad kid. But her mother had won the lottery late. It happened sometimes. It meant Sarah was going to spend most of her life without her parents, and in fact, her father had gone to Medical the day he turned sixty-five when she was only ten. Some people held on with everything they could even as their access to the ship’s limited resources diminished, and some people were brave enough just to let go.
He had already decided he was going to let go of his own volition. Natalia said she was going to hold out for two years, to wait for him to reach that age so they could settle out together.
He entered the access code for the hatch, holding his arms behind his back while it slid open. He moved into the corridor, wrinkling his nose as he breathed in.
“Sheriff Duke.”
Hayden smiled when he saw Mae, one of the Senior Engineers. She was small and stocky, long dark hair, small eyes, and a cherubic face.
“Mae,” he said. “Sorry I�
��m late.”
“You don’t need to apologize to me, Sheriff,” Mae replied. “It’s your wife you should worry about.”
“Believe me, I am. What’s the smell?”
“That’s our problem,” she said. “One of the waste recycling lines was ruptured in the turbulence. Maybe in more than one place.” She held up a small device. “You can get one of these from Natalia. It measures the air’s chemical composition. We can use it to find the source of the leaks.”
“Right,” Hayden said. “Sounds like fun.”
“Waste is the third most valuable thing on the ship, Sheriff,” Mae said. “Arguably, it may be the most valuable. Without recycling, we would have all been dead a long time ago.”
“Roger that,” Hayden said. “If you’ll excuse me.”
He continued, entering Control less than a minute later.
He stopped just outside the room, pausing there to take it in. It was filled with screens, at least three dozen of them, though a third were dark and dead forever. The ones that were still functioning displayed the status of different portions of Metro’s life support systems. A dozen people sat at various stations around them, monitoring the data and communicating with both the Engineers and Law Officers who were navigating the waste recycling shafts in an effort to locate the leaks.
Meanwhile, his wife was moving from station to station, collecting status reports and issuing commands, overseeing the entire effort in a whirlwind of controlled chaos. He watched her for a few seconds, admiring the way she danced from point to point, the way her hair bounced on her shoulders, the way her uniform creased and flared and rippled with each step. The shape of her face, the sparkle in her eyes. He could feel her passion for the job emanating from her.
Twenty years after the first time he had laid eyes on her, she was still the most amazing thing he had ever seen.
He wiped the distracted smile from his face before he stepped into the room. She was facing away from him, but she seemed to sense his presence, turning around and glaring at him with an expression he knew all too well.
“Hayden,” she said, not missing a beat. “It’s about time.”
“Sorry, Nat,” he said. “I had a situation-”
“Later.” She grabbed a sniffer from a nearby counter. She approached him, already holding it out. “The Governor stopped by to check on things,” she said, interrupted for a moment by his lips. She returned his kiss and then brushed him lightly back. “He knows you weren’t here.”
Hayden sighed. “What did you tell him?”
“I didn’t tell him anything,” she replied. “You’re a big boy. You’ll figure it out.”
He laughed. “Right. How bad is it?”
“Bad enough to trigger the Code Blue,” she said. “But not the worst we’ve seen. The sensors are suggesting three broken seals in the waste recycling system. We’ve already located one. Theroux is down there welding it now. But we’re still losing about three ounces per hour.”
“That’s not a lot.”
“Not this time, but every ounce counts, especially since we don’t know if or when we’ll ever reach our destination.”
“Where do you want me to look?”
She took Hayden’s hand, leading him over to one of the stations.
“Sheriff Duke,” the operator said, glancing back at him.
“Caroline,” he replied, greeting the fresh-faced Engineer.
She was one of their newest graduates, only sixteen years old. He could barely believe he and Natalia had ever been that young.
Natalia leaned over Caroline, pointing to at the screen. “You can reach this segment through Section C. There’s a small secured access door there that feeds into the system.” She looked at him. “It’s a tight fit, but you haven’t gained too much weight, yet.”
“Are you saying I’m fat?”
“No, I’m saying you’re old.” She put her hand on his stomach. “And you’re getting a little soft in the middle.”
“Not in front of the Yeoman,” he said, smiling. “I know where that is. I’ll go check it out.”
“Thank you,” she said.
“Just doing my job, miss,” he replied. He had left his hat back at the office, but he motioned like he was tipping it to her. Then he took her hand, squeezing it once. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” she replied. “Be careful out there.”
“Of course.”
4
It didn’t take Hayden long to follow the maintenance corridors along to Section C. He had been in the area plenty of times before, both with and without Natalia. Code Blues weren’t common, but they weren’t uncommon either. They happened often enough that he had been down these passages before. He was pretty sure he had even been through the small access door that connected the larger passage with the waste recycling line.
He had to enter his code again when he reached the door, typing in the eight digits and waiting for it to slide to the left. The space was smaller than he remembered, and he had to take off his utility belt to even think of slipping through. He dropped onto his stomach, pulling himself forward on his elbows through the hatch. If there was one part of his job that he hated, it was this. He could handle the small spaces of the strands. He hated feeling like he didn’t have room to maneuver.
And he didn’t. Not in here. Natalia was right about his expanding gut. He barely managed to fit into the small tunnel, which sank between two larger conduits that carried air and water to Metro. Sometimes it seemed to him as if the builders had designed the ship in a hurry, throwing it together instead of thinking about how all of the pieces fit. The narrow space was a perfect example, because once he bypassed the two meter wide conduits, it opened into a regular, human-sized space again, albeit a small one.
He held the sniffer up near his face, checking to make sure it was turned on. Then he started walking along the maintenance aisle, holding it out ahead of him. He watched the readings on it change as he moved, even though he had no idea what any of them meant.
“Hayden.” Natalia’s voice came out through his transceiver, interspersed with static. He was surrounded by the metal of the ship’s innards, and it was interfering with the signal.
“Hey, Nat,” he replied. “I’m in Section C.”
“I figured you would be by now.”
“How do I know if we have a leak down here?”
“Do you smell anything?”
Hayden laughed. “Good point.” He paused and breathed in through his nose. “No.” He looked down the corridor. The access lighting was in better shape here than it was in the strand. It looked like the pipes continued for a fair distance.
“That segment goes half a kilometer east,” Natalia said. “Then it’ll hit a junction and vanish up to Section B and down to Section D, which leads directly into the recycling unit.”
“I knew that,” Hayden said.
“I’m sure you did,” Natalia said. “Can you walk it and radio back if you smell something?”
“For you, anything.”
She laughed. The soft crispness of it always made him smile. “Thank you, Sheriff.”
“Anytime, Boss,” he replied.
He continued walking alongside the pipe, pausing every few meters to sniff again. The Pilgrim’s typical recycled atmosphere had an unnaturally fresh smell to it, created by the layers of filters that scrubbed out the CO2 and any wayward particles. It was a smell he didn’t notice most of the time, not until it was replaced with something else, like the scent of a nice cultured steak.
He licked his lips at the thought, wondering if they had any steak in their cube. The luxury meal was one of the perks of being a Sheriff married to a Lead Engineer, and a hell of a lot better than the processed nutrition shakes that were the main staple of their diet.
It was also part of the reason he was getting soft.
“No steak,” he told himself, continuing down the passage.
He reached the end without registering anything out of the or
dinary. He tapped his badge. “Engineering.”
A shrill beep told him they were connected.
“Nat, wherever your damage is, it isn’t down here,” he said.
“Roger, Sheriff,” she replied. “I think Deputy Bradshaw located the last of the leaks, but since you were already down there, I figured I’d let you finish. Just in case.”
“No problem. Does that mean you’ll be heading home soon?”
“As soon as I finish up the report for the Governor and clear the Code Blue. I’ll meet you there?”
“Affirmative. I’ve got Sarah Kaine and a kid from Block Twenty-four in lockup, but I can deal with them in the morning.”
“Is Sarah selling herself for meds again?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“I wish her mother would just head to medical and get it over with. She’s really bringing her daughter down.”
“I know, but what can you do?”
“Go easy on her, will you, Hayden? It’s hard for a lot of people in Metro. We’re two of the lucky ones.”
“I know it.”
He paused. He hated to think of his home without the filter of his job. It could be a tough place to live, and it was only getting tougher. Not that they had a choice.
“I’m going to head back out. Hopefully, since I got into the passage, I can get out of the passage.”
“As long as you weren’t daydreaming about steak.”
“You know me, Nat.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
He laughed. “I’ll see you back at our cube.”
“Roger.”
Hayden tapped the badge to disconnect, moving more quickly back to the access tunnel.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Taaaap.
He froze, the sound of something pinging on metal giving him pause. What was that? He hadn’t noticed it a second ago.
He waited, listening for it. Ten seconds passed in silence. Twenty.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Taaaap.
He leaned over, putting his ear against the sewage pipe. It could have been liquid dripping into it. If it were clogging up that could become a huge problem.
