by Ginger Booth
“Sent,” Fidget acknowledged in a tiny voice only the captain could hear. Sass stroked her. Fur came loose on her numb fingers. She scratched the little beast’s skin gently.
“You’re OK, sweetie. You’re with us, and we’ll take care of you.”
“Captain, are you alright?” Melkor asked in concern.
“She’s just being maudlin,” Clay assured him. “Sass, why don’t you say goodbye to everyone on the crew while you’re at it?”
Because this would be a hell of a lot easier if I admitted I was broadcasting. But she shrugged, and got maudlin. “Ben, you’ll probably receive this after you’re back home in Schuyler. Because I won’t send it except as a backup.”
Fidget moaned and nodded. Her muzzle was still warm, and Sass chose to cherish the small heat while it lasted.
“I want you to know this was my choice, in the end. I’m swimming in the middle of the Pacific Ocean right now.” She dwelled a few minutes on their current straits and how exactly she got into them, and why she planned to continue on this course.
“I don’t know whether you got my people out or not. But I sure as hell know you tried. Balanced with keeping Mahina safe, as you should. I need you to know, if this is my last good-bye. You are the son I wish I had. I’d given up on any chance of that. And then you appeared and it was love at first sight. I tried not to go all maternal on you. But never has a mother been so delighted, so proud. Especially when you surpassed me in every way. I feel the same way about your husband. I love you. And I let you go. Don’t look back in sorrow, please. Remember the good times. We had plenty!”
She dropped her head to her wrists again. “I bet you’ll evacuate Mars. So if I find a way out of this, that’s where I’ll leave word. If you haven’t heard from me in a year, please don’t look for me, except in the stars. And if Mars is more urgent than that, do what you need to do.”
A wave crested her head. She waited out the deluge, then wiped streaming water out of her eyes.
“Don’t come looking on Earth. We had a long run. And now we’re home. Not exactly lives tragically cut short.
“You have my blessing, Ben. Always.
“To my crew. Darren, you’re a delight and the best engineer I’ve ever known. But remember Remi is the best space engineer I’ve ever known, OK? And you like him fine.” She chuckled. Usually the pair got along, but Remi was as fractious as Darren was amiable.
“Eli. Sharing my love of botany with you has been a joy. Thanks for the friendship and the reality checks. I needed them. But give love a try sometime, won’t you? Zelda and Porter, stay young forever, because you’re a delight. Kaol, you’re a better man than you give yourself credit for. Corky, good memories. Liam, wish we’d had more time. Because I admire so much what you’ve accomplished. And Floki, I know you’re not my crew anymore. But Fidget, your pretty little Enka, performed brilliantly. She’s a delight in every way. If I can bring her back to you, I will.
“For my older crews, well, we’ve said goodbye before.
“I believe in all of you. Keep reaching for the stars and falling flat on your face. Because if you don’t fail sometimes, you’re not trying hard enough. Be well. Love you. Goodbye. Backups.”
Sass trusted the mink did something about the howling background noise. If not, Floki could fix it. As she pictured it, that’s when Ben would receive this message. When Fidget was resurrected from backup on Mahina, into a fresh new mink body. Or maybe she’d be reborn into a children’s size ride-on emu this time, like Floki was originally. Or a swimming cat.
Clay waited a minute to be sure she’d finished. “He’d cry a river. Ben, if you ever said that to him.”
Sass was crying right now and didn’t respond. Melkor didn’t need to ask who Ben was. He’d seen the message from Mars.
A few minutes later, a sonic boom cracked the sky to sound right through the crashing waves and screaming wind. And light exploded from the sea. A hill of water hid the impact until the flames burned down to a ragged puddle where the shuttle used to be.
Good. The Pontiac mole could call his friends soon. Sass could hardly wait. This ocean was rego cold.
“Melkor, don’t send anything now. No transmissions.” She stroked Fidget. “You, too, little one.”
38
Corporations and Earth politics dominated Mars and Luna. Scientists escaped outward to a pure research colony on Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter.
While Sass snoozed the evening away in her cell in Hakone, the hapless chief engineer Darren Markley had an interesting afternoon in Baikonur. As in the old Earth curse, may you live in interesting times.
“Ben!” he cried over the ansible to Mars orbit. “Any replies yet?” A couple of hours had passed since Ben addressed Earth and Luna asking for their release.
The commandant raised a peeved eyebrow. “Lots. Three different cities on Luna. Seven regional offices of the Northern League. A dozen outfits that call themselves boat people, floating nations, and a seaweed republic. Some lovely folk from Antarctica, New Zealand, and Germany, who just wanted to say hi on this momentous occasion.”
Darren scratched his scalp in frustration. “Never mind them. Have you heard from Baikonur? Or where Sass is?”
“I’ve heard from the President of Russia, guy named Voronin. You’re in his turf, but he’s in Samara, fifteen hundred klicks from you. Seems he’s the biggest of all possible big-wigs on Earth. He didn’t put it that way. But the others defer to him. Except they didn’t. He says he ordered Pontiac to escort all of you to the Cosmodrome – your space port in Baikonur. But Pontiac sent the other three to Hakone instead.” Ben naturally counted his grand-mink Enka-Fidget as well as Sass and Clay.
“And Hakone?”
“Hakone says Voronin has no jurisdiction. And their guests are resting comfortably. Pontiac claims that an event of this magnitude must be shared between the great League powers. Then both of them clammed up.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’m not sure,” Ben admitted. “In practice smiling underlings claim their superiors will get back to me real soon now. All on twenty-plus-minute delays at light speed, so we’re tossing video recordings with an hour turnaround. What’s Baikonur telling you?”
Darren grimaced. “That this is all a terrible misunderstanding. And they’ll produce our captain soon, by tomorrow or the next day. But if she’s asleep in Hakone, she couldn’t leave until… These time zones confuse me.”
Ben held up his comm tablet to show off his cheat spreadsheet. “Highly recommended, with a column for each time zone for the players.” He tossed the tablet back onto his desk. “They’re not lying. If Sass can’t leave Hakone before 09:00 local, and she’s over 6k klicks from you, it’ll be awhile. Maybe…” He craned his neck to consult the table. “Tomorrow afternoon your time. Don’t hold your breath.”
“Baikonur says they’re eager to receive our scientists with honor.” His brow crumpled in exasperation. “They didn’t mention the pair from Killingfield. When I asked, they said they’d be welcome, too.”
“What do the Killingfield folk say?”
“They look despondent, resigned to their fate. They’d be a lot happier released in America.”
Ben considered this briefly, then shrugged. “You have no excuse to keep them. Kind of hostile to abscond with Earthlings, don’t you think?”
“Earthlings consider foreigners subhuman.”
“Not your problem to solve,” Ben noted sympathetically. “But hostage-taking is bad juju. I’m negotiating for Sass and Clay and Enka. I don’t care about your Killingfield-ies. Toss ’em. Earn brownie points.”
“Point taken, sar. Eli, Zelda, and Porter want to go, an historic meeting with their scientific peers from another world. Baikonur makes it sound like rego cocktail hour at Mahina U. Send along Kaol for backup. Without weapons, he can’t do much. Plus the two spares. Or I could tell Baikonur Control I need to wait for my captain. Or…you.”
“I’ll decide if you want.”
Ben sat back from the screen and crossed his legs, belying his offer. “But Sass left you in charge. Are you ready to blow this planet?”
“Attack?!”
The commandant squeezed his eyes shut and chuckled. “I meant fly away. Without your geeks meeting their peers. Remove yourself off planet, then talk. Chief, you have people. Your ship has a mission, and it’s Sass’s show, not mine. As acting captain, it’s your job to continue the mission. Preferably without foolhardy risks and weird detours. If you abort now, and abandon your captain and first mate and a cute little mink, is that OK with your crew? Mutiny during takeoff is very annoying.”
Darren tamped out a smile. The commandant spoke from experience. “I could do nothing. Sit here like a truculent child until my captain is back. But we’d like a good look at their…Cosmodrome? And Baikonur Control claims they’re eager to de-escalate. Stop flying jets overhead. Stand down the spaceships staged around us. Talk like civilized human beings. And I can’t take off until they stand down. You sure you want to leave this decision to me?”
Ben cocked his head and gazed at him sadly. “Could go sour. Be careful. We’re working on that way to knock their comms offline. But.”
But they didn’t have that jammer now. Even after Remi made a working prototype, Darren would need to re-implement it here on Earth. And it might not work, and he’d get the ship blown out of the sky, all hands dead. Darren wished Ben would make this call for him. He was an engineer, and avoided politics like the plague. He had no idea whether he could trust the local authorities. But it was his life on the line, and his crewmates, and his decision to make.
So far, between Killingfield, Pontiac, and Baikonur, his ship had been taken captive, but never harmed.
What would Sass do? Offer goodwill until proven otherwise. Because leading with distrust begat a self-fulfilling prophecy. Clay called her a Pollyanna idiot for this. But Darren understood how her policy found the potential friends. They didn’t come to Earth to make enemies. Sending the science team risked their lives, yes, but they volunteered. If there was a way to avoid escape under fire, he sure wanted to find it.
And that’s why Sass tried to make friends first.
“Cooperating with Baikonur is our best chance to get Sass back. And we’re stuck here for at least another day.” Darren nodded slowly. “I’ll try it. To de-escalate.”
“Control assures me they’ll have you back in a few hours.” Darren feared he was babbling nervously. He cut himself off and shook hands warmly with his science team instead. There, that felt better. Eli, Zelda, and Porter stood eager to go, arrayed along the rim of the trapdoor in the hold.
Three-Eight and Ivett looked like they faced an execution squad, without notable bravery. Their medic Liam hovered in concern and reminded them they had their anti-addiction drugs with them. They could continue their excellent progress at detox.
Darren held out a hand to shake. “I wish you well. I hope you’ll tell your people we treated you as best we could.”
Ivett nodded wistfully, but didn’t take his hand.
Rage wafted off the wolf man like a heat mirage off the mid-week regolith. Liam claimed his attitude was normal for an addict bereft of his best friend, the drug. “They’re not our people. We’re dead meat.”
Darren nodded respect and redirected his hand to Kaol’s meaty shoulder. “You got this. Thank you.” The hunter steepled his fingers in the Denali prayer gesture and met his eye in resolve. He had a couple blasters on him now, sonic and laser. But he’d leave them behind on the grav lifter once they stepped off, with only his brains and brawn to rely on.
The chief’s tablet pinged. Baikonur Control reported they stood ready. He stepped to his engineering podium, his action station on the ship, and checked the external cameras. A shuttle bus rolled up to park alongside, just outside the ESD field perimeter, presenting a closed side door to the closed cargo hatch hovering above. He wished that vehicle had windows. He worried his lip with his teeth. But this space port was obviously a military base first and foremost. Perhaps a squat armored shuttle was all they had to collect a party of a half dozen.
“Problem?” Kaol inquired. The burly security man took a half step toward Darren, away from his charges.
The acting captain shook his head and smiled gamely. “Ready when you are. Climb on the grav lifter.” He brought the ship down to hover only a meter above the tarmac, and reconfigured the ESD field to hit the pavement instead of enveloping the supply containers below. “Three-Eight, Ivett. Be sure to mind Kaol until you’re past our shields. They really hurt if you barrel into them.”
The pair nodded grimly. All of them wore breath masks. Liam did the honors of casting one of the Sagamore emergency airlock bubbles above them. The trapdoor offered an airlock, but it wasn’t tall enough for them to stand on a hovering grav plate.
Darren irised open the trapdoor. Kaol manipulated the grav lifter down through the center access gap between the two-by-two array of containers, an ad hoc elevator. Normally they’d just hop down on their personal grav generators, but those they’d leave behind. Liam would bring the grav lifter back up with Kaol’s blasters and the ESD field breakers.
“Good luck,” the chief whispered.
The grav lifter landed without incident, and Kaol tensed more instead of less. At the bottom of this elevator shaft lay not tarmac but their safety webbing. When the crew went on EVA in space to retrieve supplies, the gaps between the containers formed external corridors, with a wide access avenue at the ship’s midriff, suitable for maneuvering massive barrel-laden pallets of ice, star drive fuel pellets, or printer stock. The net didn’t strap the containers to the ship. Steel clamps and gravity grapples did that. But it did make sure crew didn’t accidentally fly away into the stars during a work detail.
He needed to open the webbing. “Stay here.” For this part of the program, he kept his blasters belted on. He cautiously stepped across the springy ropes a couple meters to the edge of the containers, to gaze out at the shuttle bus. It truly bothered him that he couldn’t see inside that bus. Its doors remained closed. Granted, it was currently snowing a little, with a cold wind. Kaol shivered. He’d been cold ever since he left his oven of a homeworld.
Kaol sighed and proceeded to unsnap the flap to permit exit on this side. Still no movement at the bus. He sat to hop down to the pavement, setting a good example for his charges. He willed the bus doors to open, but they didn’t.
“Three-Eight, Ivett, you’re first. Then Eli. Give that box to Porter – you two bring up the rear with the science gear. Liam, come up behind them to take my stuff. Watch your step.”
In practice, Three-Eight joined him nimbly. Maybe his military training included nets somewhere along the line. Ivett tip-toed fearfully. Eli stepped forward to take her elbow. The Killingfield soldier helped Kaol hand her down to the ground from the botanist. Eli skipped the assist and vaulted down himself.
Kaol looked back to the waiting shuttle uneasily. They still hadn’t opened their door. But Eli and Three-Eight proceeded to take the gear off Porter and Zelda’s hands. As computers, the devices were pretty basic, no advanced tech, just field collection, but they wanted to share their findings to date with their peers, to ask questions, and share some of their readings from other worlds as a friendly gesture. The hunter would have preferred to travel light.
And his whole team was down. He waved Liam to the side to lean on a container. The moment of truth. He handed over his blasters.
Then he walked to the edge of the ESD field, feeling rather than seeing it. And he lay down the last two bits of equipment Liam was waiting on, the shield cancellation rods. These he toed forward with his boot. Instantly he felt the static vanish directly in front of him.
He tentatively stuck a finger forward, as far above his head as he could reach, and poked where the shield used to be. Good, aperture accomplished. “OK, we’re going through one at a time. Ivett, you’re up.” He straddled the invisible doorway sideways, and backed up unt
il the static raised the hairs on his arms. He held out a hand to Ivett, only in invitation.
“I don’t want to!” she suddenly sobbed, backing into Eli. “The Russians will kill me!”
“No, why would they do that?” their lead scientist murmured. He rolled his eyes to Kaol and coaxed her forward by the elbow. “Three-Eight? A little help here.”
“She’s not wrong. I don’t like this.” But the wolf lieutenant grasped her other elbow to scurry her along. Porter and Zelda had their arms full of the gear.
“That’s right, Ivett, you’re doing great,” Kaol encouraged. “You’ll like their food better than ours.” From the rear, Liam scowled and shook his head vigorously. Tough, Liam. With a light touch on her arm, he guided her through the gap. He dropped the hand rather than touch Three-Eight again, their previous hand-to-hand encounters unfriendly.
“You’ll kick those rods in for Liam to retrieve, don’t forget,” Eli worried as he paused in the doorway.
“Not an idiot, Eli.” The last thing Kaol wanted their hosts to get was an ESD field damping rod. He sure did wish that shuttle would open, though. “Go.”
He glanced to Zelda next, comically cute bearing her meteorology case clamped to her chest, glistening eager eyes dancing above her breath mask. Porter at least showed some proper trepidation.
And the bus hissed open at last. An assault team sprung out in well-practiced formation, four in the first wave hitting the deck to point rifles at them, as more boiled out to deploy onto the flanks. The first guys didn’t wait. They started shooting.
“IN!” Kaol hollered.
39
Only the very brightest university students were recruited for Ganymede.
Chaos crashed around Kaol. He grabbed the back of Zelda’s shirt, still in reach, and flung her to the ground behind him, under the protection of the still-standing ESD field. “Out of the aperture! Liam! Blasters!” He stepped behind the control rod and pointed to suggest Liam get the hell out of the line of fire as well.
