She couldn’t tell where she was facing. Everything was either black or metal. No up or down, or left or right. Panic sunk in and she tried to suck in a breath, but nothing came in.
She felt a hand snatch her leg and pull her into the airlock. The gav-panels caught her right away and she clung to the floor of the airlock, hitting her chin as the metal flooring rushed to greet her. Her lungs were on fire. She brushed the tears from her eyes as they flicked away with the gravity.
Fuck zero-gravity, she thought and stood up straight. She closed the airlock door and tightened it until it locked it place.
The room pressurized and flooded with air.
Her ears popped as sound returned, and she sucked up a lungful of air. She heard the blood rushing through her ears, then her heartbeat, then the sounds of her breath and the hum of machines.
“You okay?” Kendal asked. His eyes were running too.
“Never doing that again,” she muttered. “Never again, no no no. That ain’t right out there.”
“We’ll have to get back somehow.” Kendal opened the door to the inside of the Bachman and peeked inside. “Follow my lead,” he said, “and stay close.”
Chapter 14
There was a moment of uncertainty as Kendal stepped out of the airlock and fumbled for the light switch. Airlocks were used for human-docking as well as cargo loading. Safety regulations required them to be disabled after used, but they rarely were. The crew didn’t think anyone would be crazy enough to climb into an airlock without proper docking systems.
He found the switch and turned all the lights on in the room. High crates were scattered around, all neatly labeled and categorized. The floors were dusty from infrequent human contact, and the only exits were the airlock and a door to the halls of the Bachman. He figured they were near the bottom of the ship in one of the overflow storages.
The Bachman had dozens of airlocks and only a few of them led to storage rooms.
Picked right out of half a dozen choices, Kendal thought with a smile on his face. He walked down the aisles, looking at the labels on the boxes until he found one marked ‘uniforms’.
Mira stood behind him and watched as he took his kinetic from his belt and cut the tape off with the sharp end of the barrel. Inside were two stacks of uniforms individually sealed in plastic. He sorted through until he found two sets that would work, and tossed one to Mira.
“Should be your size,” he said and started unbuttoning his coat.
Mira tore open the plastic and spilled the uniform onto the storage room floor. Kendal winced when he saw the clean uniform fall into the dusk and hold in on itself.
“Turn ‘round,” she said.
“Why?”
“Cause I gotta get changed.”
“I’ve seen you in your underwear a hundred times,” he said. “You literally walk around the ship half-naked.”
“Turn around!”
Kendal jumped and turned around quick. He heard shuffling of clothes and plastic as she fumbled with the uniform.
“Just cause you’ve seen me then doesn’t mean I want you to see me now,” she muttered. “Ain’t gonna put on a strip show for you.”
An unusual amount of time passed with his back turned. Kendal guessed that she was having trouble putting the uniform on. He wanted to offer help, but decided against it.
“Safe to look now,” Mira said.
He turned back around and couldn’t help but smile seeing her in uniform. A gray deck-officer’s uniform with undershirt collar sticking over the buttoned-up coat. She had a long black jacket overtop which hung open, and she had the same style of pants as him.
He raised his hand to fix her hair, but she flinched and stepped back.
“Mind if I?” he asked.
She shook her head and held still as he ran his fingers through her hair, making sure all the tangles were out and it was parted properly. He made her hair look the same as someone from the Union would do it, then went back to the boxes to fetch a pair of boots, a belt, and gloves for her to wear.
While she put them on, he put on new clothes as well.
Threw away my uniform just in time to get a new one, he thought and tightened up his collar. He had to straighten his uniform twice to get it right.
He down looked at himself and smiled. The only part that was wrong was his kinetic. It wasn’t a Union pistol, but the six-shot revolver Desmond had let him keep.
“You look just about the same as you did back in Benith Town,” she said, adjusting her gloves and tucking them into her sleeve.
“That supposed to be a compliment?”
“No,” she said. Before going, she put all her belongings into her new coat pockets, including a couple zip-ties in case they needed to restrain their bounty.
With a sigh, Mira walked to the door. “Let’s get this over with.”
He’d never been on the Bachman itself, but all Union ships had that same feeling. The crisp white walls and metal floors. The droning voice over the intercom, and the rows of men and woman walking in neatly pressed uniforms. It felt like home to him, and his walk was chipper than usual.
“Don’t be gettin’ nostalgic,” Mira said.
Kendal almost forgot he was with her. She looked so much like a normal Union officer that it was like he’d left her behind and walked out with someone else. “I’m fine,” he said.
She looked skeptical, but didn’t press any further. “You think any of ‘em recognize you?” she asked. Her eyes darted around the room, staring people down.
“I was never stationed here,” Kendal said, and whispered for her to stop staring at people. “Unless someone was transferred and they recognize me, then that shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Hope you’re right,” Mira said, trying to keep her eyes in front. “Where are we going?”
“I need computer access,” he said, stopping in front of a wall mounted map. He mumbled the deck and hallway numbers, trying to commit them to memory.
“So you can look Boe up?”
“Yes,” Kendal said.
“What happens if we’re caught?” Mira asked.
“Prison,” Kendal said. “If they think we know something about Nova, we might get interrogated.”
“Like, get tortured?”
“Just keep quiet until we get there.”
He brought her to the third command deck, a few floors up in the gravshaft. The Bachman only had five floors, and was long and narrow which meant single hallways traveled the length of the ship. Good for travel, terrible if they had to make a run for it. Twists and bends meant cover, a straight hall meant a targeting range.
The third-floor command deck was for logging and categorizing. Away team ships like these take in cargo and swap crew around nearly every day. People had to organize this, and that would all be logged on the system.
He peeked inside and saw twenty computer stations wrapped around the ‘U’ of the platform. No front door guard and very little supervision.
There were two hours until night cycle. Most of the crew had already been relieved and only half the computers were occupied. The room was smaller than he was used to. The lieutenant was on the platform, speaking through a headset and minding his own business.
“Follow my lead and try not to sound so informal,” Kendal said. He should have felt nervous, but he felt strangely confident. Head up and shoulders back as he walked past the rows of computers. The screens all showed a login page.
Damn it, Kendal thought. Even if his login wasn’t disabled, the second he signed in they’d know where he was. The only way he was getting on was by tricking someone into giving him their spot.
He approached one of the working officers and tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention.
Let’s hope she falls for this. “Lost track of the time?” Kendal asked.
The officer blinked, looked at her screen, then back at Kendal. “What?” she asked. This officer looked far too young to be stationed this high up, at least if she wa
s on the Morana.
“Didn’t get the message from observations?” Kendal said, trying to sound as confident as he could. “We’re swapping until the next cycle.”
“I haven’t heard anything about that,” she said.
“That’s not my problem,” Kendal said. “I need to get to work here, and I’ll get a notice if you’re not down there promptly.”
She hesitated, pulling back her seat and looking around. Kendal knew she would follow orders, even if they came out of nowhere. She stood up and left the room. Operations was a ten-minute trip. That would give him enough time to find what he needed.
As expected, she didn’t sign out of her account. Kendal sat down in her seat and started shuffling through files on the system. She hadn’t been working, only reading through news articles in the daily feed.
Mira sat beside him and leaned up to his screen. “There’s a bunch of free computers here, why’d you pick on that one?”
“Quiet,” Kendal said. “Pretend you’re working.”
He opened the local registry and sifted through crew list alphabetically. He was tempted to search the name, but he knew all searches were logged and checked regularly.
“Found him,” Kendal said, and tilted the screen for Mira. Boe’s profile was up, showing a grayscale picture of him with details written beneath.
“Sasha Boe?” Mira said. “What kind of boy’s named Sasha?”
“Lots of men are named Sasha,” Kendal said. Boe was stationed on deck three, in communications, and lived in the crew quarters in room C-73.
“That there checks everything, right?” Mira asked.
“It has access to the Union servers.”
Mira smiled and tapped the screen. “Look yourself up.”
He’d never thought of checking his file. Of course his name would still be in the system, along with the charges against him and all the false accusations. He knew he’d be labeled as a traitor. There was a resistance as he scrolled down the listing of names, all the way down to the K’s. He was curious, yet terrified of what he might see.
His name was there, grayed out due to his decommissioning. He hovered the cursor over the file, hand shaking as he tried to make himself open it.
“No,” he said, taking his hand away. “It’s too risky.”
She shrugged and leaned back in her chair, playing with the armrests.
I shouldn’t have told her that, he thought, scrolling until his name wasn’t showing on screen anymore. Looking myself up wouldn’t be a risk, I’m just too scared to see what they’d charged me with.
“Excuse me,” a voice said from above them.
Kendal’s heart jumped and he looked up to see the deck lieutenant staring down.
“Yes?” Kendal asked.
“You don’t look like a Johanna to me,” he said
“What?”
“You forgot to log the last officer out,” he said, giving Kendal a friendly smile. “Make sure you’re using the right account next time.”
“Sorry, sir,” Kendal said. “Once I finish what I have open, I’ll log out and swap accounts. Sorry about all this.”
The officer muttered something Kendal couldn’t make out and walked back to his station at the end of the platform. Mira chuckled under her breath and was looking right at Kendal.
“What’s so funny?” Kendal asked.
“You apologizing so much,” she said. “Do we have all we need?”
“We do,” he said. “You go out first. I’ll wait until it seems like I’ve been put off shift.”
Mira left the room, and Kendal nestled into his work station. He played with the system for a while, trying to kill time. He figured ten minutes ought to be enough so the lieutenant wouldn’t think strange of him walking out so soon.
He read up on the latest Union news. Most of it was drivel, but there was an interesting article about Nova and Nau Cedik. There was mention of 3,000 civilian deaths, with the number of Union deaths kept back. The damaged opened up the ground, and they’ve been finding precious metals under the bedrock. More people have been moving there since. No mention of Nova in the article, keeping it as vague as ‘a deep-space extremist’.
He caved in and looked up her file. Nova Ross. Decommissioned and exiled to the Ven Star system three years ago. The article was sparse, but the photo caught his eye. Her bright blue eyes and golden wavy hair. Puffy cheeks and lips that looked crooked when she smiled.
He sighed and closed the article. He should have waited the whole ten minutes before logging out, but he figured he’d risk it. The lieutenant never even looked up from his post, and Kendal left without any hassle.
He couldn’t see Mira right away. He looked around, eyes darting between the sea of gray and black uniforms, trying to spot which of the dark-haired women were Mira, but couldn’t see her.
Where the hell is she?
He walked through the crowd and down the hall. There was a small alcove in the hallway with a vending machine and a few chairs where the officers took small breaks. This is where he found her, standing by the corner and chatting with an officer.
He was a tall and lanky officer, with a communication’s uniform. He didn’t have an ounce of threat to him, yet Kendal didn’t want her talking to the crew.
She shouldn’t be getting involved like this, he thought and tried to get her attention. He waived at her, but she only gave him a nod and a smile. He wondered why she was so casual about this, until he noticed that she was talking to Sasha Boe.
Chapter 15
“There’s that friend I was telling you about,” Mira said, pointing at Kendal as he stood a few feet away, still wrapping his head around what he was seeing. Before Kendal could think, Boe had already walked up and held out his hand.
“Nice to meet you,” Boe said. He had a friendly smile on his face, no look of malice or worry.
Kendal glanced at Mira, seeing her smile, then he shook Boe’s hand.
“Same here,” Kendal said.
“Miss Rao here says you’re a lieutenant?”
Rao? “Yes,” Kendal said. “I was transferred over from the Morana. Only temporary though. Assignment. Don’t get used to me is all I’m saying.”
Boe chuckled. “You look a bit young to be a lieutenant. If you don’t mind me saying.”
“I get that all the time,” Kendal said. “And you are?”
“Boe,” he said. “I’m a comm-officer, here on deck three. I was only supposed to be stationed as a switchboard operator, but I got promoted from guard duty on a technicality. Gotta admire my luck, right?”
“Wish I had it,” Kendal said, feeling his stomach sink. Boe seemed nice, and it was making it hard for Kendal to swallow his guilt over what he was going to do to him. If Boe had been an irredeemable monster, like Vernan or Blake, Kendal wouldn’t have a problem turning him over to Sava.
There’s always the chance he’s just faking this to suck up to a lieutenant officer, he thought.
Mira was the one who insisted they go for something to eat. There were less than two hours until night cycle, but they had enough time for a small bite. At least, that’s was Mira’s reasoning. She knew that the cafeteria was at the tail of the ship and beside the crew quarters, which was straight above the airlock they had used. Knock out Boe, then take him down the gravshaft to the airlock.
Kendal couldn’t believe how narrow the Bachman was. During his run with the Union, he only ever spent time on the Morana. He never saw the smaller ships. Only four floors and far longer than it was wide. There was only one main hallway which ran the length and each section branched off from that. This made it easy to travel, but harder to sneak around. The only route from one place to the next was on the busiest hall in the ship.
“How long have you been with the Union?” Kendal said. He’d had enough silence and needed a distraction from his thoughts.
“About a year,” Boe said. “Spent time before that living in a small town, doing things I’d rather not think back on.”
> Kendal perked up. What things? “Can’t be so bad if the Union would still let you in.” Kendal said. He hoped that Boe might spill something that could ease his conscience.
“Union don’t know all of it,” Boe said. “But I suppose it doesn’t matter. Really, that’s really what the Union’s meant for. You know, giving people second chances. They’re good at that. Though, maybe I’d… You said you were a lieutenant, right?”
Mira laughed and cut in. “Was me who told you,” she said. “He’s a lieutenant alright.”
“And how old did you say you were?” Boe asked, not even giving Mira a glance.
“I don’t remember giving my age,” Kendal said.
He took the communicator off his belt and flicked the channel. “K-E-N-D-A-L-L, right?”
“Not exactly,” Kendal muttered and looked down both ends of the hall. He could see the cafeteria far down at the end of the hall, but they were still a few minutes of a walk away. All nearby doors looked locked, and the only place they could possibly restrain him would be the gravshaft a few feet away down an alcove. A ten second walk at most.
Mira looked about ready to panic. They had to act quickly.
There wasn’t anyone else around, and Boe was face deep into his communicator searching for Kendal in the system.
So much for the easy way, Kendal thought. He knocked Boe’s communicator upwards, striking Boe in his own jaw, making him bit his own lip and drop the device.
As he held his bruised face, Kendal kicked the communicator under the gap between the floor and the wall and drew his kinetic and turned off the safety in one motion, aiming the barrel straight at Boe’s chest.
“Get him into the gravshaft,” Kendal told Mira. “Down in the alcove there, should be at the end.”
Mira gave Boe a push to make him walk.
Kendal kept his kinetic out, looking over his shoulders to make sure no one had seen them. Boe looked more irritated than scared, waiting for the lift the same way a man would wait in line to get his paperwork filed.
The door opened and Mira pushed Boe inside. Kendal shut the door behind them and turned on the emergency lock, meaning anyone trying to use it would see an ‘out of order’ sign.
Cast of Nova Page 11
