by Terry Mixon
* * * * *
Harry found someone to lead them to the reactor room. Once he knew they could find it on their own, he sent the guide away. Speakers had begun a kind of hooting alarm. A recorded voice advised people to seek shelter in their quarters and prepare for possible decompression. He hoped that wasn’t a reality.
Sandra got as close to the central corridor as she could and used a compact mirror to peer around the corner. “Four armed men in the hall, two looking in each direction. They’re wearing pressure suits with the helmets hinged back. None of them is your brother. He must be inside the reactor room.”
“I like those odds,” Rex said. “We can pin the bastard down. Then we take him out.”
“Without damaging the reactor?” Harry wasn’t sure how that would work out. Still, he didn’t have a better plan. “You sure you can shoot straight without gravity?”
The sniper grinned at him. “Oh, yeah. That just means no drop. The trick will be dealing with the recoil. It also means the bastards will miss those critical first few shots.”
Harry sighed. Time to act. “How do you want to do this?”
She readied her combat rifle. “You three hold onto me and the ladder. I’ll pop up like a jack in the box and let them have a piece of my mind.”
It took a moment to figure out how to do that. “Go,” he said.
The sniper raised herself and fired. Her whole body jerked back. The three of them kept her from flying loose. She fired again just as the enemy shot back with a fully automatic burst.
Sandra didn’t flinch even though Harry heard bullets bouncing off the bulkheads. She fired twice more. “They’re coming this way! Back up!”
They released her and retreated up the spoke until they found cover. Harry grabbed a pipe, aimed his pistol, and shot at the men pouring fire at them. It took a minute, but their limited experience in low gravity carried the day.
They cautiously went back toward to spine and looked out. He counted six bodies floating there. A noise from one of the other spokes drew his attention.
Two men were rushing down it. One of them looked like Nathan.
He sent the others to check the bodies. He didn’t want someone to ambush them by playing possum. The enemy was dead or dying.
“The reactor room is clear,” Rex said. “Of people, anyway. I think they planted a booby trap.”
“Jeremy, see what you can do.”
“Let me tie off Rex’s leg first,” the security specialist said.
A glance back showed that the scout had taken a round.
“I’ve cut myself worse shaving,” Rex said. “Get in there. I’ll handle this.”
Harry had no choice but to trust them to do their jobs. “Sandra, take that spoke and cut them off. We’ll box them in between us.”
Sandra dove down her spoke and he headed for the one his brother had taken. A scream sounded from inside it. One that cut short abruptly.
He peered around the corner and saw one of the men was almost to the other end of the spoke, climbing down the ladder as fast as he could. A form was sprawled in the corridor below him.
The torus looked as though it was over his head, but he knew from experience that the perspective was false. If someone pushed themselves too hastily, they’d find themselves falling. One of the men had obviously missed that until it was too late.
He wished he could believe it was his brother, but that would be too lucky.
Harry took aim and fired at the fleeing man with slow deliberation. The Coriolis Effect screwed him up and none of his shots found their mark. He hoped none of the bullets went all the way through the outer decks. If they had, someone would need to find them and patch the leaks.
His brother fired a salute back at him, grabbed the body, and dragged it out of sight.
Dammit.
Chapter Thirty
Nathan stripped his man of ammo and explosives. If he couldn’t get back to the lifter, they wouldn’t make much of a difference, but he’d gotten out of worse predicaments in his life. He’d started toward the lifter, but spotted several men with weapons waiting for him and reversed course. There was no way they’d make it to the lifter under fire with their lack of zero-G experience.
There weren’t any convenient hostages where he was now, so he ran. The corridors all looked alike. They had to have escape pods of some kind in case of a serious emergency. Like, for example, a reactor explosion.
He was out of sight from the ladder when he heard someone jump down. Probably his asshole brother. He needed to lose him fast.
The corridor opened up into a wide area with trees and grass. If he hadn’t been running for his life, he’d have gaped. Instead, he bolted across it and spotted a sign over a nearby side corridor that read “viewing room.” He didn’t know if that also held a way out, but he’d try it.
Nathan bolted down the featureless corridor and up the stairs. He stared at the space station rotating over his head for a moment. It was a lot bigger than he’d expected.
There wasn’t any time for this. He started looking for escape pods. There were many access panels, but none of them was large enough for a person.
“Throw down the weapons.”
He looked back the way he’d come and there his brother stood, hiding behind the hatch with his pistol aimed and ready.
Nathan sighed and dropped the rifle. “Well, it seems as though you have me.”
“Kick it over. Hands on your head and keep them there.”
A light kick sent the rifle about halfway to the hatch. His brother gave him the stink eye, but came in slowly. He was ready to shoot, but Nathan bet the weird rotation would make him miss. All he needed was one chance.
When Harry was almost to the rifle, Nathan threw himself aside. His brother fired and missed, giving Nathan enough time to get a grip on a grenade he’d had behind him and pull the ring.
“I’d stop right there unless you want to go up in a bright flash. Put the pistol down. Who’s holding all the cards now, big brother?” Nathan gloated.
* * * * *
Jess tried to staunch the flow of blood, but the pilot stopped breathing. She closed her eyes for a moment and then headed for the cockpit. “He’s gone. Can the other lifter dock with this one?”
The woman sighed. “Dammit. You don’t have time for them to decide to trust us. There’s an emergency suit in the airlock, and enough air to put it on.”
Jess climbed into the lock and shut the hatch. It didn’t have an exterior viewport, but she could see into the ship. She knew when the shadows became as sharp as knives that the interior was in vacuum.
She opened the valve marked emergency air and a reassuring hiss began. It didn’t last long, but she wasn’t as dizzy. The locker right next to the nozzle had suits that were exactly like the one she’d worn on the trip up.
It took her a few minutes to get one on and make sure the air was feeding correctly. She reversed the airflow and brought the airlock down to vacuum. Only then did she open the interior door.
The pilot looked over at her as she sat down. “The other pilots don’t know if they can trust us, so we’re all waiting for word from the station. The reserve watch officers are in the main control center. Apparently, there’s still at least one hostile aboard and they rigged the reactor with explosives.”
“This week just keeps getting better,” Jess said bitterly. “Can you turn us toward the station?”
She prayed as the lifter reoriented itself and they began waiting.
* * * * *
Harry considered his options. If he let Nathan out of this room, more people would die. Was he willing to let that happen?
No.
“If you let that go, you’ll kill yourself,” he said. “Your ego won’t let you commit suicide.”
“Then I’ll have to trust fate.” His brother tossed the grenade at Harry and dove away.
Harry threw himself forward and swatted the grenade back at Nathan. He rolled as he hit the deck and was looking away when it went off
.
The blast smashed him into the wall and knocked many of the storage areas open. He grabbed for one as the clear ceiling gave way. The air chuffed out into space, dragging him with it, and he missed his grip.
Several hoods flew past him and he managed to snag one. He quashed the panic threatening to overtake him and read the instructions. Seconds later, he had it on and he was breathing canned, nasty, wonderful air.
Nathan was tumbling near him, struggling to get his helmet on. It looked as though they’d both be flying off into the darkness of space.
Well, screw that. Harry drew his backup pistol, lined up on his brother’s head, and pulled the trigger.
Which sent him spinning wildly. He had no idea if he’d hit the asshole.
He watched helplessly as he tumbled past the spine and flew out into space.
* * * * *
Jess saw the flash from the torus and gasped. “Something exploded! It wasn’t the reactor.”
The pilot leaned forward. “That looks like one of the observation bubbles. People watch the ship from the inner ones and space from the outer ones. I wonder why it blew.”
Something flashed near the spine. Jess frowned. “That looked like a gun. Can we move closer?”
“So someone can shoot at us?”
“I doubt they’ll be in any condition to use a weapon by the time we get there, but if that was a friend, we need to see if we can rescue them.”
The pilot brought the lifter to life and moved in. “Based on the angle, they probably missed the spine. We’ll circle around to the other side and see if we can spot them.”
Jess scanned the darkness and spotted a series of shots. “There! Someone is shooting. Maybe they’re trying to get back to the ship.”
“We’ll go slowly so they don’t try to shoot us,” the pilot said as she refined their course.
The lifter had radar, but that wasn’t any use in finding a person in space. The pilot did three passes and spotted something on the last one. “There. That’s a person.”
Jess saw the tumbling body. She couldn’t tell if it was male or female at this distance.
The pilot nudged the lifter around in front of the body. “Go open the outer airlock door. Use one of the lines to secure yourself. You don’t want to get separated from the lifter.”
“Got it.” Jess grabbed one of the lines, made her way into the airlock, and secured herself. Then she opened the outer airlock door.
A man was spinning wildly about ten meters away. He was coming toward the airlock slowly.
“He’s almost here,” she said to the pilot.
“I’ll catch him in the airlock. Don’t let him hit your helmet. Hold him while you close the outer hatch. Pressurize and see if you can revive him.
“He’s wearing some kind of hood. He might still be alive.”
Jess grabbed the man’s arm and stopped his rotation. It was a good thing she’d secured herself. She pulled him in, closed the exterior hatch, and started the air flowing.
Only then did she get him turned around. “Harry!”
He looked a little rough, but he was awake and smiling. The air pressure rose high enough that she could hear him. “I’m a big fan of your timing.”
“Are you okay?” She scanned what she could see of him. His left leg had a large splotch of blood, but otherwise he seemed uninjured.
“I think I caught a piece of shrapnel, but I’ll live. That beats what’s happening to Nathan as we speak.”
The pilot called over the radio. “How is he?”
“Hurt, but alive. We need to get him back on the ship.”
“The docking bay is clear. I’m taking us in now. Stay there.”
Jess returned her attention to Harry. “Your brother was with you?”
Harry nodded. “He blew out the observation bubble. We both went flying. I took a shot at him, but that worked out spectacularly badly. He was wearing a suit.”
“Hopefully, he’s flying off into space and dies a horrible death,” she snarled. “We’re heading back to the ship. I heard something about explosives.”
“Nathan rigged the reactor. Jeremy and Rex are trying to disarm the charges. I need to get back there as soon as I can.”
She couldn’t see outside, but she felt the lifter dock.
“You can exit the airlock,” the pilot said.
Jess opened the outer hatch and sagged in relief when the members of the security team were waiting for them. They’d captured the mercenary and tied him to a crate, where he glared at everyone.
Harry ripped off his hood. “Get me to the reactor room. And have someone tie that guy up and bring him along. We can guard him better there.”
She grabbed Harry and shoved off down the arm. Perhaps a little faster than was wise, but she managed to keep them from bouncing off anything.
They made the corner and sailed past the bridge. The mercenaries had blown the hatch open and she had a glimpse of blood inside. The thought of Captain Lee and the others being dead infuriated her. First Abel Valdez and now Lee. Two close friends. Would she ever stop losing people to these bastards?
There were several people gathered outside the reactor room. She used them to stop their forward momentum. “Sorry!”
Harry grabbed the handhold and rushed into the room. She followed, hoping desperately that he could save them all.
* * * * *
The first thing Harry saw when he came in was Jeremy working on a bomb. “Tell me you have this,” he said as he came to rest beside the man.
“It’s a tough one, boss,” his security man said. “It’s got all kinds of redundancy and anti-tampering features. The timer gives us less than five minutes and this is only one of six.”
That didn’t sound good. “We need to evacuate the ship.”
Jess shook her head. “Even with the escape pods, I don’t know that we’ll get everyone off.”
“If the damned things didn’t have motion sensors, we could get rid of them,” Rex said.
“How does a motion sensor work in zero-G?” Jess asked. “It should’ve caused the bomb to detonate right away.”
Jeremy stared at her for a moment and dug back into the bomb. “It has to be a dummy. We can move them.”
Harry grabbed Jess’ shoulder. “Where’s the nearest escape pod?”
“Grab the bombs and follow me.”
Sandra came in then. “All of the intruders are accounted for, except Nathan. One is alive and the rest dead. Where did your brother go?”
“Into space,” Harry said. “Take charge of the prisoner.”
He and the others took the six bombs and followed Jess to an elevator. It took them to the exterior level of the torus. A long row of escape pod hatches was marked in red on the floor.
She flipped open a recessed control and opened the hatch. It slid sideways into the deck revealing another hatch. This one also opened at her touch.
The escape pod looked like it could hold a couple of dozen people. Harry climbed in and secured the bombs to the walls. They had less than a minute to go.
He scrambled out. “Launch it.”
Jess reached out, grabbed the prisoner, and yanked him over the opening. He fell in with a wail before Harry could react.
The blonde engineer hit the controls and both hatches slid shut. A thump vibrated the deck as the pod ejected.
“Why did you do that?” he asked softly.
Jess defiantly stuck her chin out. “That bastard helped kill my friends and tried to commit mass murder. He had it coming.”
Harry couldn’t disagree with her logic. “The people in Geneva probably wouldn’t approve.”
“Then let’s not tell them.”
The deck shuddered, almost knocking them off their feet. Harry hadn’t expected to feel the explosion in the vacuum of space. The pod must’ve detonated fairly close to the station or the blast was larger than he’d imagined.
He helped steady Jess. “We need to get a status on the ship. And to call my father
and see what we do now. We’ve lost the command crew.”
She nodded. “Let’s get to the bridge.”
It was located at the front of the ship. The room had six spacious consoles and a large screen. Two men and two women manned the controls. The gravity here was less than in the torus, only about Mars normal.
One of the women stood. “Mister Rogers. Miss Cook. I’m Lindsay Waller. Liberty Station’s reserve pilot.”
Harry gestured toward the screen. “Did the bombs go off? What’s the condition of the ship?”
“The bombs exploded short of the atmosphere,” the pilot said. “The ship is in good shape. The emergency bridge is wrecked, but other than the blown out observation port, a lot of leaks to plug, the damaged lifter, and the two ejected escape pods, everything is fine.”
Harry looked at Jess. “Two pods. We only used one.” He returned his gaze to the pilot. “Who ejected on the second?”
She shrugged. “We’ve accounted for everyone. Maybe it was a malfunction?”
He cursed under his breath. “It never worked out that way in the movies and it probably isn’t true now. Dammit. My brother somehow survived me blowing him into space. He escaped.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Nathan stared out over the waves from the hatch of the escape pod and enjoyed the strong salty smell of the ocean. His idiot brother had almost killed him, but he’d overcome everything. Luck was his birch. The bombs he’d planted should’ve already destroyed the station. Victory was his.
He hoped he wasn’t too far from civilization. In any case, his sat phone should be able to get him a lift.
His mother answered after a few rings. “Nathan?”
“Alive and well, Mother. We couldn’t retrieve the reactor, but I planted explosives on the space station. You should’ve seen it blow up by now.”
“Something exploded in orbit, but the station is still there. Maybe you only damaged it. That could be good enough, I suppose. Where are you?”
“In the middle of some ocean. I can give you GPS coordinates. I need a pick up.” He recited his location.
