by T. M. Catron
Solaris sneezed again. And vainly tried to shake the cappatter off.
“Abel!” Rance called.
Abel appeared to pry Henry off Solaris’ leg. “Sorry, boss!”
“He’s cute,” James said, “but keep him out of the cockpit.”
“Hear, hear,” Solaris added. Then he sneezed again.
Although Abel whisked the creature away, the damage had already been done, and they had to delay take off until Solaris’ sneezing fit subsided.
“Wonder why they were going to throw Henry into the river?” James asked as he guided the Star Streaker out of the spaceport.
“Can’t imagine why,” Solaris said, blowing his nose loudly. Tears streamed down his cheeks from his red, irritated eyes.
Rance watched the bright river shrink to a sparkling thread amongst the patchwork of fields. “Abel didn’t say. They’re expensive little things to throw away.”
“Well, he’s ours now.”
Solaris moaned and muttered something like “perfect” under his breath.
Chapter Two
No one on the Star Streaker was sorry to leave Ares. After two months with nothing to do and little food, the crew came alive with a new burst of energy. So much energy that the five-day hyperspace trip to Prometheus felt like a vacation.
They used the time well. Without supplies to inventory, they made a plan of action for when they landed and assigned roles to everyone. Since no one knew the situation on Prometheus, all felt a little apprehensive. And yet Rance couldn’t help feeling excited about their destination. Even if Davos was waiting for her at the end of their journey, she was confident they could escape.
The only person who frequently expressed doubts was Tally. His main concern was being recognized on Prometheus. Rance had been there many times as a teenager. Her family owned a house there. Tally had made frequent trips himself, always as Davos’ servant. For years, Tally had gone everywhere Davos went. And he would be recognized anywhere Davos would be recognized.
In this case, Rance had the advantage over Tally. She didn’t look like the same person who had accompanied her father on trips to Prometheus, Barton, and Triton. Her features hadn’t changed much except to mature a bit, but without the luxurious clothing, exotic headdresses, and diamond-crusted makeup of Xanthes, she would have little trouble walking around the streets without being recognized. Tally, however, had no such disguises to his appearance.
So, Rance created a workaround. James, Harper, and Tally would remain on the Star Streaker with the “engines running” while Rance, Solaris, and Abel went to find Moira. Rance hoped once they landed, she would be able to contact her old friend and get her exact location. She knew Moira’s home was close to Davos’ in the towering residences of the politicians and noblemen. A quick call to Moira and they’d be on their way. Once they found her, they’d get to the Star Streaker and take off before anyone noticed they were there.
“Do you want to relay a message to her now?” James asked later that first day.
“No,” Rance said. “We don’t know who could be listening. And if it’s intercepted by the wrong people, we don’t know what dragon’s dung will be waiting for us when we arrive.”
That night when she lay in bed, Rance considered all the possible things that could go wrong on Prometheus. What if they were recognized? What if they couldn’t find Moira? What if she’d already left?
What if, what if, what if?
Just when Rance had finally dozed off, something fluffy nuzzled her hand. Startled, she sat up and shook the blanket before she realized it was Henry. He flew across the room, squealing in surprise. Or was it delight? All his squeals sounded the same. A soft, muffled thud against the wall, another on the floor. Then, silence.
Had she accidentally killed it? Rance turned on the light just in time to see a long arm disappear into one of her magnetic boots.
“Hey, you. Get out of there. How’d you get in here, anyway?”
A ginger tuft of hair appeared at the top of her boot, and Henry’s blue eyes peered back at her.
“I mean it—out.”
When Henry didn’t move, Rance got out of bed and grabbed him. He resisted, holding onto the inside of her boot until she shook him. He let go of the heavy boot, and it fell right onto Rance’s big toe. Shooting pain ran through her toe and into her foot.
“Son of an asteroid worm!” she yelled, dropping Henry to grab her foot.
The cappatter fell to the floor, unharmed, while Rance nursed her sore toe. Within seconds, it swelled to three times its normal size, and she couldn’t move it without gritting her teeth in pain. Her eyes watered.
Henry whimpered and stretched out its arms to be held.
“Get. Out.”
A knock, and then, “Captain?”
James.
“Come in,” she called.
The door opened, and James peered in. His normally tidy hair looked bristly and stuck up on one side.
“You have the worst bedhead I’ve ever seen,” Rance said. She wasn’t feeling too humorous at the moment, but teasing James was better than thinking about the pain in her foot.
James swept his eyes over Henry, Rance holding her foot, and the magnetic boot on the floor.
“You swore so loudly I think they heard you on Triton.”
“Get this menace out of here.”
“Aw, Rance—”
Rance glared at him, cutting him off. “I think I broke my toe. It’s Henry’s fault.”
“How’d he get in here?”
“How should I know? All I know is I was accosted in my sleep.”
Henry’s eyes changed from soft blue to bright and watery.
“You’ve made him cry, Captain!”
“I’ve made him cry? Get him out and help me get down to the med bay.”
“Yes, Captain.”
James picked up the doleful creature and cradled it like he would cradle a child. The action was slightly disconcerting for Rance, who always thought of James as an adult-sized child.
He walked out, his bare feet ringing softly on the metal floor all the way down the corridor.
Then, Solaris appeared, looking only slightly less disheveled than James.
“What’s up?”
“Glad to know you’re quick on your feet when there’s trouble,” she said with as much sarcasm as she could muster. “I was attacked.”
Solaris sneezed before saying, “What?”
“Henry.”
“Henry attacked you?”
“No, my boot. Help me up.”
He walked over and put an arm under her shoulder. Rance stood, gingerly placing her right foot down on the floor, testing her weight.
“I’m confused,” Solaris said. “Why does your room smell like cinnamon cappatter?”
Then, he sneezed again. Since he was holding onto Rance, she shook with him. He gripped her tighter, which wasn’t too helpful since it forced her to put her weight forward onto her sore toe.
More tears sprang to her eyes.
“You know,” she said when he had recovered, “I’ve had worse injuries than this, but there’s something more annoying about a broken toe than any other broken bone.”
“I can think of more annoying things. Would you like me to list them, Captain?” With the prospect of having a paying job, some of Solaris’ easy humor had returned.
“No. I’m in too much pain.”
“Are you going to whine all night?”
“It’s my toe. I’ll whine if I want to.”
Solaris looked at her, his eyes meeting hers a moment longer than necessary.
“I think we’re breaking a rule,” he said.
“It’s not a rule if someone needs help.”
“Does that apply to the other rules too?” Solaris asked mischievously. “For instance, if I see you need help, and a swear word accidentally slips out because, you know, you’re in danger, would that be okay?”
“Let’s not test it.”
“You
never actually told me what the consequences were for breaking the rules, Captain.”
Rance was tall, and her room had never been very big. With Solaris’ height, he seemed to take up the rest of the space. Suddenly, with his proximity, and the tiny room, her quarters felt small indeed.
Feeling a bit disconcerted, she pulled away. “I guess if you’re going to stand here joking instead of helping me get to the med bay, I’ll hop down there by myself.”
Solaris let go and then sneezed again. “It’s a fair question.”
“We’re not breaking a rule, Solaris. You’re not my companion.”
“Oh?”
“The rule says no companions in quarters.”
“That could be interpreted in a number of ways. But ah well.”
Rance pushed past him and hobbled out into the hall.
James was climbing the stairs, looking disappointed. “I gave Henry back to Abel.”
“Abel needs to make a box or cage to keep him in. That fur ball is going to mess something up if he’s left to roam the ship on his own.”
Sensing Rance’s stormy mood, James had the good sense to stay quiet. His eyes flicked to Solaris, who was now standing in the corridor behind Rance. After exchanging glances, the two men moved to help her at the same time in a flurry of false chivalry.
She waved them off. “I’ve got it. Just make sure I don’t fall down the stairs and break my neck, too. Something tells me that would be worse than a broken toe.”
“You said nothing was worse than a broken toe,” Solaris said. She couldn’t see him, but she almost heard the wink directed at her.
“I said—oh never mind.”
Solaris smirked. Despite Rance shooting annoyed looks at them all the way, James and Solaris insisted on accompanying her to the med bay. Once there, Rance stared at the small, enclosed emergency hospital pod with dread. She hated tight spaces. The cramped ship was fine, but something about laying down inside the chamber and having it close over her sent a nasty shiver down her spine.
“I wonder if I can just stick my foot in without having to lock my whole body into it,” she said after a moment.
“It might mistake your foot for a foreign body,” James said, “instead of the human appendage that it is. With that bruising and swelling, I wouldn’t blame it.”
“It’s smarter than that,” Rance said. “Deliverance, how do I fix a broken toe without getting into the emergency surgery pod?”
Text shot across Rance’s ZOD, her optic lens.
Get Harper.
“Oh. Great. The smartest AI in the empire has learned sarcasm.”
“I wonder where she got it from?” Solaris said with another smirk, reading Deliverance’s answer on the screen.
“It’s not sarcasm, Cap,” James said. “She’s telling us to get Harper.”
“What?”
Forgetting the pain it would cause in her toe, Rance spun around to look at the screen. Another line of code was sitting on it, one that hadn’t shown up on her ZOD. “What does it say?”
“It’s jumbled up. Harper will know.” James strode out of the med bay, presumably to get Harper.
Rance hobbled over to look at the screen, wincing as each step caused pain to shoot up her foot. The top of her toe had turned a nice, nasty shade of black. Along with the swelling, James had been correct—it didn’t look much like a toe at all.
Solaris studied the code a minute. “Harper won’t know, either. It’s a bunch of gobbledygook—doesn’t make sense.”
“Is that the official diagnosis? Gobbledygook?”
“Best way to describe it.”
“So now you know code from a Tritonian sync?”
“I know a lot of things.”
“Hmph.”
Solaris turned to her. “Just because I don’t tell you.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you know about Deliverance?”
“I don’t know about Deliverance. But I know code. And this is nonsense.”
“Let’s just wait for Harper, shall we?” Rance said irritably.
When Harper entered the med bay, her hair spiky as always, she tried to examine Rance’s foot.
“Look at the code first,” Rance said.
Harper studied it a minute, her frown deepening. She moved her head from side to side, reading it from different angles, and then shook her head. “Looks like gobbledygook to me.”
Solaris shot Rance a smug look.
“Well, let’s figure it out,” Rance said. “I don’t want any hiccups on this tr—”
The ship made an odd humming noise, changing pitch from a gentle resonance to a harsh vibrato. The floor shook, and Rance gripped the table next to her for support, anticipating something worse.
When nothing else happened, they breathed a sigh of relief.
“What in Triton’s fuzzy beard was that?” James asked.
And then the lights went out, clicking off all at once like someone had flipped a master switch. Screens blipped and went dark. Button lights faded black. The darkness in the med bay was complete.
No one moved.
“That wasn’t a hiccup,” James said. “That was a belch.”
“We’re not weightless,” Harper remarked, a disembodied voice in the dark. “Gravity control is still working.”
“What about atmosphere?” Rance asked. “Are life support systems still working?”
“We’ll have to go to engineering to check,” Solaris said. “James, go get Tally.”
“Yeah, sure, no problem. Just need to find—” James groped his way through the med bay and stumbled over Rance’s broken toe.
“OW!” More tears streamed down her face. At least no one could see them.
“Sorry, Captain, looking for the door.”
“Oh for the Founders’ sake!” Harper said, borrowing one of Rance’s phrases. They heard her rummage around. And then a light flashed on. She handed it to Solaris, who pointed it at the drawer Harper had been in.
“I keep these glow-lights stored all over the ship,” Harper said. “Although I never thought you all would lose your heads if we went dark. The battery will last forever. Longer than any of us if the carbon dioxide levels shoot up.”
They passed lights around. Rance felt foolish about her lapse of common sense. She blamed it on the toe.
“We’ve got to check everything,” she said. “Ventilation, hydration, coolant, engines, refrigeration, hyperdrive.”
James left to get Tally and Abel, muttering about how they could sleep through anything. Harper climbed into the control room in the nose of the ship.
“The hyperdrive’s still working, Captain,” Solaris said. “We haven’t stopped.”
As if on cue, the humming changed again. This time the ship vibrated until Rance’s teeth rattled. When it stopped, they were in complete silence.
“Well,” she said. She had decided to counter her recent foray into panic with practicality. “Glad to know not much else can go wrong. Power, hyperdrive—”
“Don’t say anything else,” Solaris warned. “You’ll jinx us. There’s a whole host of other problems we can’t deal with right now. If the life support systems go, we’re done.”
Despite the situation, Rance laughed. “I don’t believe in jinxes. There’s something wrong with the ship, nothing that can’t be explained. And the life support systems are separate from the main power. Solaris, you act like you’ve never been on a spaceship before.”
“No need to be condescending. I didn’t know.”
Rance pulled a mock face. “You mean no one told you? We knew something you didn’t? How terrible for you. Deliverance!” she said hotly. “What’s the status of the life support systems?”
No answer.
“She’s not responding, Captain,” Harper called from the control room. “Not to voice commands or commands from my handset.”
Rance peeked her head up into the tiny control room. Harper sat in the middle of a room jammed with screens, buttons, and levers.
“The network is down too, then,” Rance said. “I can’t access anything through my implant.”
James returned with Tally and Abel. Abel wasn’t wearing a shirt, revealing his bulging muscles and blue, body-covering tattoos that depicted everything from an old girlfriend to a Triton security stamp to a rampaging, fire-breathing dragon.
He carried Henry in his arms.
“What’s the dragon for?” Rance asked, trying not to laugh at him holding the furry creature.
Abel shrugged. “When I was a kid, I always wanted to see one. Then I found out they were myths. It was worse than finding out there isn’t a Santa Kringle.”
“What’s Santa Kringle?” James asked.
Abel gaped at him. “You don’t know?” He looked at Rance as if expecting her to confirm something.
She shrugged and said, “James grew up poor in the Outer Colonies. They don’t know about Santa Kringle there. Santa Kringle takes gifts to children.”
James looked offended. “He didn’t bring me gifts.”
Solaris cleared his throat. The three turned to him.
“Right,” Rance said, returning to the present. “Solaris, stay here and help Harper. James, go with Tally and see if he needs help. Abel, I want a thorough check of every physical space on this ship you can get into. Make a list of everywhere you can’t squeeze, and James or Harper will follow up with those in a bit.”
“Yes, Captain,” they all said.
Rance headed up to the cockpit, limping along like a giant sea turtle swimming through molasses. The swelling had spread to her foot, but she didn’t have time to fix it now. They were drifting out in empty space and still didn’t know where.
In the cockpit, faraway stars shone through the windows like tiny pinpricks of light. Rance sank into the pilot’s chair and turned off her light. The room became immediately dark, with no starlight close enough to illuminate their situation.
That wasn’t a bad thing. If they’d sputtered out of hyperspace close to a star system, it could mean they were in hostile territory. Pirates were notorious for staking claims to barren rocks orbiting lone stars.
Rance had no way of checking their location. They were blind. She flipped a few switches, desperately wishing one of them would jump-start everything. But she knew better than to waste much time. Nothing would be fixed from up here until they got power back to the consoles.
