Zed smiled at the bridge staff. “Mike and I are stepping out for lunch. We’ll be back soon, because I have a train to catch.” There were a few dry laughs. The staff knew where Zed was really going. With Zed on one side of Mike, and LOLA on the other, the three took a long step.
Zed smiled. Beside him Mike had his eyes closed as he very slowly chewed the last bite of his fillet mignon. “This is divine.” Zed’s XO murmured. Zed’s steak, on the other hand, was virtually untouched in his plate.
Zed took a long drink of his dark red wine. “I’m glad you like it.”
Mike opened his eyes. “Is there a problem with your lunch?”
Zed set the empty glass down. “The problem is me. At the moment I can’t think of food. My stomach is clenched tighter than a boxer’s fist.”
“Try a bite.” Mike coaxed. “Just one.”
Zed took a single bite, and then another. The steak before him seemed to vanish into thin air.
LOLA looked up from her salad. “Thank you Michael.”
Mike gave her a little bow. “I’ve dealt with this before, when troops were scheduled to go into a particularly fierce battle. I had to force people to eat for their own good.” He glanced over at Zed, who was just finishing the last bite of meat. “Zed isn’t so different.”
The look LOLA turned on Mike was speculative. “Should Zed fall in the upcoming battle, we will need another human liaison. Thank you for volunteering, Major Flaherty.”
Mike frowned. “Now wait a minute… I never volunteered for anything.”
“You volunteered to come here, didn’t you? You’ve sat at the table of Olympus, eaten our food, and drunk our wine.”
“Yeah, but…”
Athena rested her hand on Zed’s shoulder in a familiar, intimate way. “Zed, as our human control, is in need of replacement anyway.” Zed looked up, surprise and a little disappointment written on his face. Athena gave him a reassuring wink. “He and we are too close to being one for his unbiased human judgment to be of much good. We, and that now includes Zed, will need a human control in the near future. As LOLA said, thank you for volunteering.”
“But…” Mike look flustered, and for the first time since Zed had known him, tongue-tied.
Zed pushed back from the table and stood. “We should go.” Athena reached out and touched his cheek, saying nothing. She didn’t have to.
The bridge staff looked up as they appeared out of thin air. “Did you have a good lunch, Captain?” Atsuo Tanaka asked in her soft, lightly accented voice.
“Yes we did, Atsuo. Mike is going to help me into the EVA suit, and I’ll be going.” He looked around the bridge, knowing it might be his last time. “I can’t say what’s going to happen when I detonate the device. If all goes well I will reach the Rose and be able to meet you at the rendezvous point we decided on, well beyond the influence of the singularity. If the black hole is bigger than expected, leave at once. I won’t be coming back, and there’s no sense losing the Belerophon, and all the women we traveled halfway around the galaxy to save.” The faces on the bridge were bleak. He gave them a small bow. “It’s been my honor, ladies and gentlemen.” Zed turned and headed for the lift in the stunned silence that followed his declaration.
“You know how to cheer up a crowd.” Mike gave him a lopsided grin as Zed stripped in preparation for donning the long duration EVA suit.
Zed chuckled. “Yeah, but I’ll bet they are all breathing a sigh of relief, and saying ‘better him than me,’ right about now.” He reached down and grabbed a small, well lubricated tube that was attached to the interior thigh-pad of his suit. “I hate these plumbing connections.” Zed growled, making one of the myriad awkward and usually irritating connections.
“You should try one of the old NASA suits.” Mike commented dryly. “These suits are like putting on your jammies in comparison.” He helped Zed pull up his pants, and connect the boots.
“I’m sure.” Zed shrugged into the skin tight top, sealing it with a deft touch to the pants.
“It took us two hours to get into those, not ten minutes.” He worked Zed’s tight gloves on, making sure they were both sealed at the wrists.
Zed flexed his arms and legs, touched his toes and twisted at the waist, all the movements designed to set the suit into place. He reached back and slid the helmet out of the collar behind his neck, pulling it up and over his head and attaching it just below his chin.
“Suit check. How are things looking, LOLA?”
“Your suit is just fine Zed, but your heart rate is elevated, and you blood pressure is high.”
“No duhh, short stuff. I’m scared spitless.” Zed chortled. “We’ll still be able to talk after I launch the cart, won’t we?”
“Yes Zed. You know that the FTL link in you neural interface is good up to a quarter light year.”
“I’d forgotten. You mentioned that in our first Dramul encounter, didn’t you?”
“I barely knew you then.” The voice in his helmet murmured. Zed slid his helmet open. “Make sure you load the water and food, Mike.”
Mike slid two small containers into the thigh pouches of Zed’s suit. “Done, LOLA. The EVA thrust pack is loaded in Zed’s life support compartment behind the cab.” He slapped Zed’s shoulder. “You’re set to go, my friend. I packed the Twinkies in your ship.”
“I already found them.” Zed grinned. “Thanks.”
“You didn’t eat them, did you?” Mike sounded shocked. “They’re for a post-mission snack. It’s a tradition.”
“No I didn’t eat them.” Reaching out, he clasped Mike’s hand. “Do svidaniya my friend. Until we meet again.”
“Bring your ass home.” The big XO replied.
Chapter 9
HIVEWORLD
Zed climbed down the narrow boarding ramp into the airlock of the Rose of the Dawn. The ramp flowed up behind him and the heavy exterior door slid shut, like the rock sealing the door of a tomb. The lights came on as Zed entered.
“Would you like me to launch and fly for a little while?” LOLA asked politely. “You know that both scout saucers are linked to the Belerophon so that I can remain here and still fly them.” Zed looked at the empty bridge and secretly wished that LOLA had had the time to install holo-emitters in the Rose as well as the Belerophon. It was going to be a long lonely trip with just a voice over the com to speak to.
“That would be nice. I’d just like to look at the Hiveworld for a bit, before I enter.”
“Then have a seat. All systems are set for launch. Magazines and weapon energy reserves at maximum. We will launch cloaked in three… two… one…” Zed felt a small vibration in his feet, and in the view-screen they fell away from the Belerophon. “Setting course for waypoint one, where we will launch the service cart. ETA at the waypoint in one hour, eighteen minutes.” The asteroid field dropped behind them.
Keeping the speed down, the small scout saucer dodged in and out of the rocks and debris on the way toward the Hiveworld. At one point a Creednax frigate came close enough for Zed to wave to, but the superb cloaking ability of the Rose, installed during the refit at Myrth, allowed them to slide by unnoticed. Hiveworld grew in the view-screen, and Zed regretted having his big lunch.
“We are approaching our waypoint, Zed. The asteroid sitting at this Lagrangian Point will provide the saucer suitable cover until you return.” Zed didn’t finish the rest of the sentence, but he thought about it. ‘…if you return.’ The asteroid, slightly smaller than the Martian moon of Deimos, was pocked with impact craters and deep surface fissures. LOLA dropped the saucer into a yawning smooth bottomed impact crater, where it settled gently into the dark shadows. “We have arrived at waypoint one, Zed. You might be interested to know that Katherine has awakened. It’s probably a good thing you’re so far away, at the moment. She mentioned something about skinning you alive, if you survive.”
“Well, that just fills me with enthusiasm.”
“I believe she was joking.” LOLA said without convic
tion. “It’s your turn to drive, brother.”
“Yeah, yeah. How far above the surface of the asteroid are we, LOLA?”
“Ten meters, Zed.”
“Will the cart be damaged if we let it drop?”
“No Zed. The microgravity of the asteroid is much too weak.”
“Drop the sled then, and shut off the onboard gravity. It will be easier if I just float the equipment out.” A wave of nausea swept over Zed as the gravity cut off, and then quickly passed. Leaving the Twinkies taped to the floor, Zed began moving boxes and cases.
The loaded service cart slid out from under the saucer two hours later, and turned slowly in the direction of Hiveworld. To both sensors and the naked eye, it didn’t even register as a shadow. Zed pushed the throttle as high as he dared, and then sat back. His helmet HUD showed all possible threats, as well as any Creednax emissions that might indicate an alarm. After two hours he had LOLA pipe classical music into his helmet to help him pass the time. He thought that Holst, The Planets was quite appropriate, given the circumstances.
It was well into the second day when LOLA woke him from a semi-doze.
Zed blinked, cut the speed and studied his HUD.
Zed could sense her hesitation.
...and they are us 3: HiveWorld Page 18
