Interplanetary Thrive

by Ginger Booth

  Before she could comment, Copeland begged, “Please tell me this was encrypted.”

  “Trusting young man,” Sass murmured. “We received this, addressed to you.”

  Her next video featured an irate Josiah, mob boss of Schuyler on Mahina, a rebel leader against Mahina Actual – Copeland’s mentor of years’ standing. Among a plethora of expletives best deleted, Josiah conveyed…disappointment…with the engineer’s choice to shack up with this innocent boy.

  Sass let that video play to completion. Into the ensuing silence, she ventured, “I’m afraid that was also sent in the clear.”

  Across the desk from her, Abel’s poker face offered no clues. He kept his eyes studiously glued to the desk. Sass had no choice but to crane her neck up and around to check on Copeland herself.

  He pushed her sideways to access the desktop. With quick finger-jabs, he started recording video, with their Josiah-specific encryption code. “Hey asshole. That ‘kid’ is 21, and none of your rego business. Now let’s think – 6 years age difference. Who does that remind you of? And power. Yes, a power differential.”

  Sass frowned in puzzlement at his stress on the word ‘power.’ How old was Josiah? Surely in his 40’s, far more than 6 years older than the engineer.

  Copeland closed his transmission with another flurry of expletives which assured the mob boss that his lack of esteem was entirely mutual.

  Sass shielded the Send button with a warning hand to suggest a pause for reflection. Cope batted it away and stabbed the button.

  “Is there anything…?” Sass hazarded. But he was already banging his way out the door.

  “That went well,” Abel quipped.

  Sass trotted after Copeland to make sure he didn’t kill Ben.

  25

  “Cope?” Ben asked. He emerged from the galley the moment he heard the office door slam open. He’d waited to talk his room-mate down. But he hung poised against the bulkhead, arrested by the man’s obvious rage.

  Copeland saw him, paused, and leapt over the catwalk to land on gravity. “Wilder!” he screamed. “Security to the hold!”

  Ben certainly wasn’t expecting that. He followed to the railing to gaze down.

  Wilder emerged from the med bay, already pulling off his shirt. “You wanna dance? Now?”

  “Crewman out of control. Shut up and fight!” Cope demanded, then launched across the hold for a tackle.

  Wilder caught him with his doffed shirt and managed to pin his arms. But Cope broke free almost instantly, jackknifing his fist from the elbow to side-swipe Wilder’s nose. Not expecting that move, the guardsman flinched, blood flying from his relocated nose.

  Ben had to stop this. He climbed his first of two steps up the railing, only to be collared by Sass.

  “Stand back, Ben. Let Wilder handle this.”

  “But what happened? What did Wilder do to him?”

  Sass shook her head. “Wilder has nothing to do with it. They just like to blow off steam. But I need you to give Cope a wide berth.”

  “Screw that.” Ben started to climb the railing again, only to be yanked off again. Cope hit the floor down below, almost immediately followed by Ben landing on his ass on the catwalk.

  “Mr. Acosta, stand down!” Sass ordered. “Those two men like to lift weights. They like to fight. They’re frustrated and annoyed. They are blowing off steam. That’s all.” She winced at a loud slap of flesh from below. She yelled down, “Remember the auto-doc is busy!”

  Clay shuffled out of the galley, still scarily pale, and slid into the railing on Ben’s other side to watch. “Zero g!” he hollered down.

  “Shove it!” Cope matched action to words by toppling Wilder backward onto the slide below. That had to hurt. “You’re on her side, Clay! All you sons of bitches are on her side!”

  “Your side?” Ben inquired of the captain.

  “That matter I asked you not to discuss,” Sass breathed absently, then raised her voice to reach below. “I agree with Clay! Zero g! Both of you have to work tomorrow! No injuries!”

  Wilder got past Cope’s blocks for a meaty right uppercut to the jaw.

  “No further injuries,” Sass added lamely.

  Down the companionway, Eli stuck his head out from his cabin like a gopher peeking out his hole. A couple seconds of study made him pop right back in again. Jules sidestepped past Ben along the wall toward the bridge, seeking refuge or her husband. Kassidy plowed into her coming out of her cabin, eyes lit with glee to see the fight. Jules fled.

  Kassidy drifted to the railing between Ben and Sass. “Go Wilder! Hoot!”

  Ben kicked her in the ankle, hard. Still butt on the grating, he presented his feet to fend her off as her fists promised retribution.

  “Fighting only in the cargo hold!” Sass yelled. She shoved Kassidy toward Clay, who easily tripped her butt onto the grating as well.

  “Go Cope!” Ben cheered, now on his knees to see better. From the runnels of sweat and blood, it was hard to see who was winning. Or if there was such a thing as winning.

  “Second to last fall!” Clay called out. “Then you stop!”

  The fighters took wrestling stances, then plowed into each other, grappling for the superior wedgie hold on the back of each other’s pants. Cope lost when Wilder seized his tool belt and flipped him to somersault down the guard’s back to land hard.

  “Copeland, tap out!” Clay urged.

  “Does he do this a lot?” Ben asked Sass. “Clay?”

  “Both of us have done this a thousand times,” Sass assured him.

  Abel, with Jules safely tucked in his arms, took a few steps out of the front corridor to see better.

  Cope wouldn’t concede. “Last fall!” Clay announced. “Then I stop it if you don’t!”

  Cope struggled back onto his hands and knees, and hung there, chest heaving for breath. Wilder hung back a pace – he couldn’t attack again until Cope was back on his feet.

  Cope felt no such compunction. He lurched upward, driving his head into his opponent’s crotch, then into the front of Wilder’s thigh. Wilder screamed in agony and went down clutching his privates.

  Clay applauded. “Good fight, both of you!” Kassidy joined in with the clapping. “Copeland, to your cabin. Do it now!” Clay shuffled toward the top of the staircase.

  Sass took the slide down to see to the sergeant.

  Ben hustled to catch up with Cope. Clay didn’t even glance back, just caught Ben’s bicep as he tried to pass. “Galley, Ben. Let him cool off.”

  “He’s hurt!” Ben argued.

  Clay raised an amused eyebrow. “Yes, and he worked so hard at it. Fetch him some ice in a towel if you want. But give him some space.”

  Ben yanked his arm free and did as ordered. Five minutes, max. Then he was going to talk to Cope! Five minutes became twenty as Kassidy, then Jules, tried to pry the story behind the fight out of him. The fact he couldn’t divulge what happened in the office just drove the girls wild with curiosity.

  Then Sass caught him for a private word about a certain lack of discretion on an open video call, for anyone to watch in the whole Mahina star system.

  Oh. Yeah, Ben had a feeling that would come back to haunt him.

  Cope had finished crying, but still stood resting his forehead on folded arms on the edge of his bunk. He ought to go take a shower. He wasn’t sure yet that he wouldn’t punch out the tile, though.

  It was good to beat Wilder at least. The rego urb usually won.

  But he wasn’t mad at the sergeant.

  He stiffened as the cabin door opened behind him. “Cope?” Ben entered. “I brought you some ice.”

  Cope shook his head against his arms. No, not the kid being sweet and kind to him. Anything but that…

  “Not really ice,” Ben corrected himself. He laid out a towel and baggie of water and the ice wand. “I figured we could customize it to fit the shape of whatever hurt. May I?”

  Cope raised his head to stare at him. Ben applied his baggy to t
he contusions on the engineer’s cheekbone and brow, held it in place, and froze it with the wand. Then he took it away, wrapped it in the towel, and replaced it.

  “I never thought of that,” Cope allowed. “Clever. Feels good. Thanks.”

  “The captain warned me not to come in here,” Ben admitted, looking away. “She showed you that conversation with my dad. I screwed up. I shouldn’t have sent in the clear. Um, you can take a swing at me if you want to. But we didn’t mean any harm. Just…”

  “I’m not mad at you,” Cope breathed. “Your dad was right.”

  Ben’s eyes widened. “That I should tell you how I feel?”

  Cope blanched and shook his head. Which hurt. “No! Well, probably that, too, but not today. I meant about me not being over my wife yet. You being a guy? Hell, I was sentenced to a year at the Northwest Juvie Farm. I’ve had sex with guys. Not very good sex. I just don’t want sex with anybody or anything. I’m still too pissed off at my wife. Ex-wife.”

  “Well, the captain’s right about landing at Denali,” Ben hazarded.

  Cope swallowed. “We could turn back. Maybe run out of fuel, but Lavelle could bring us –”

  “No,” Ben cut him off. “Cope, you’re worried about Denali’s gravity well. But Pono is 400 times the mass. And the sun? That gravity well holds even Pono in orbit.”

  “We ran the numbers –”

  Ben nodded. “And found no margin for error. Our only refuge is Denali. And hey, look, we came here to visit Denali. That was the deal. People do live there, you know. It’s survivable even if we get stranded. Running out of fuel out of reach of Mahina – that’s a death sentence.”

  “I’m the only one who’d rather go back,” Cope murmured bitterly. “One against nine. I don’t know that we’ll ever be able to make fuel there, Ben. Not if their facilities are gone.”

  His room-mate sighed and leaned back against the bunk. “No. But on the way in, we can fix the satellites. And then we can send back what we learn to Mahina. We can complete the mission even if we’re marooned on Denali. We can make Nico’s life better. Talk to him as he grows up. Work to get home to Mahina someday.”

  Cope scrunched his eyes shut, tried to focus on the custom ice mold soothing his bruises. “You’re right.”

  “Then what are you so mad about, Cope?” Ben whispered.

  “I’m mad at me. I came on this trip instead of facing up to raising Nico on my own. I had no right to abandon him.”

  “I don’t believe that’s what you did,” Ben said practically. “And I can tell you for a fact that’s not what my dad and I will tell Nico. I suggest you don’t either. He’s barely ever lived with you, Cope. A couple terrible months in the phosphate mines. No reflection on you. Then he went back to the creche where he’s safe and happy.”

  “That’s true. But not what I wanted.”

  Ben sighed. “But it’s what you got. And it sucks. That’s why you beat up on Wilder?”

  “Blew off steam.” He finally turned to lean against the bed frame to match Ben’s posture. “And Wilder’s a wanker. We love hammering on each other. You’re right. I surrender.” He felt all hollow and wiped out inside. This was a marked improvement from homicidal intent. “Thanks.”

  “You and me OK?” Ben asked hopefully.

  “Best friend I ever had.” And it was true. Josiah was a potent mentor and protector, but not a peer. And they were never really on the same wavelength. Ben understood Cope’s fascination with machines, his hunger to know how everything worked. And the exuberant kid seemed impervious to Cope’s black moods and rough manners.

  And amazingly, Ben seemed to feel the same way about him. Before he left Poldark, the kid never had real friends who appreciated him.

  “Lean on me,” Ben suggested. “And Abel, and the captain, all of us. You’ve got too much to do. But I can help with the research. Sass and Abel are more than willing to pitch in on the physical work. They can lead work crews, too. We need you to figure it out, make the technical plans, decide how to do things. But Cope, you don’t need to do it all yourself. Let me help.”

  “You’re pretty clever,” Cope agreed. “I’ll take you up on that.”

  “Shall we dine in while we scope out the problem?” Ben offered. “I know this place where I can get takeout.”

  Cope chuckled. “I’ll grab a shower. Then you’re on.”

  26

  Day 121 outbound from Mahina

  42 days to Denali

  Sass pulled Copeland aside before the meeting began for a private word. “I intended a one-on-one first, but you asked for a strategy session. I owed you an explanation of my decision.”

  “No need, cap,” Copeland murmured. “I get it. I just feel guilty as hell for abandoning Nico. Mad at myself, not you.”

  Sass nodded understanding. “We did all sign up for this. And Cope, try to remember that Abel and Jules have babies on the way, too. The rest of us aren’t so pressed for time. For Clay and I, a year here and there is nothing. Wilder and Cortez have no place else to go. Kassidy and Eli are entirely motivated by Denali, not the trip back. And Ben is on the adventure of a lifetime. He’s where he wants to be.”

  He nodded. “And all our lives are in your hands. And we came here for a reason. I just… Angry that I couldn’t fix it.”

  Sass knew how that one felt. “Just so you understand that no one else blames you. Including Nico. He’s too young to know the difference. And speaking for me and Clay – we’re awed that you got us this far. At everything you’ve done on this trip. Impressed as hell. And we care about you. I’m sorry it hurts.”

  “Yeah, cap, enough with the sappy, OK?”

  She chuckled. “Alright, let’s get started.”

  She’d commandeered the dining room for this meeting. Shoe-horning 5 people into the tiny office, half of them looking at the desk display upside-down, felt too desperate. She settled at the head of the table, flanked by Abel and Clay, with Ben and Cope at the far end. Everyone had plenty of elbow room for coffee and tablets.

  Cope placed a bulleted list on the display. “I apologize for my temper tantrum the other day. Since then, Ben and I holed up figuring out the task list. Good news is, we’ve got over a month. Bad news, there’s a lot here. First, before we reach orbit, the cargo needs inventory and cleanup.”

  Sass held up a finger and looked to Abel.

  “Yeah, I’ll take that off your plate, Cope. I was thinking, maybe I’d build a box, or at least a platform I could move between containers. Give us a place to swap things in and out without moving them too far.”

  “Yes!” Copeland breathed. “Great idea! And you can do that?”

  “Sure. Might need some help designing the fasteners.”

  “Excellent!” Sass confirmed. “And you’ll extract the satellites for Cope?” She’d been reading ahead on the list.

  Abel nodded. “Is there a rush on that? Today? Two weeks?”

  “That would be fine. Thank you.” Cope seemed struck off balance by how easily the entire huge mess below had vanished off his plate. Sass smiled encouragement.

  “Oh,” the engineer continued. “The key thing there, Abel, is to make sure there’s not a single pellet of loose fuel anywhere. All fuel drums sealed. And get all the ice localized in a different box from the fuel.”

  “Should we just jettison the ice?” Abel wondered. “Before we land.”

  “No, ideally we don’t tank up on Denali unless we have to,” Sass replied. “Too many biologicals in the water. And I don’t know about the land water, but the ocean is outside tolerance. We’d have to distill it before we could use it. Cumbersome.”

  “Exactly,” Cope agreed. “Um, and Abel? You’ll want a good inventory before we start haggling. That haggling starts before landing because…”

  Sass invited, “Run us through the landing problem, Cope?”

  “Well, first we position the satellites.” He took that bullet in order. “Then we enter the atmosphere and use the engines – both star dri
ves, at full burn – to sink as slowly as possible to the surface. But we need someplace to land.”

  Ben flipped a map of Denali’s inhabited north polar region onto the big screen. “Here’s Denali Prime, where we meant to land. There they had fuel facilities, clean water lines, a flat hard top to park on, interdiction against wildlife, quarantine into the dome, the works.”

  “Let’s back up,” Sass interrupted. “Fuel and water I understand. Quarantine?”

  “Right. The planet has aggressive wildlife. We knew that,” Copeland replied. “Giant monsters, vicious plants and – insects? But the big problem is the stuff like bacteria. They call it bakkra. Everywhere. And all of it out-competes Earth life. Because it’s evolved for local conditions. I’m relying on Eli for all this. The big stuff is easy to keep out of the human domes. Well, with enough firepower, anyway. But this bakkra is in the air, water, everything. And the atmosphere is unbreathable. So every entrance and exit from a human habitat has major safeguards against contamination. Much bigger deal than an airlock. Though there’s that too.”

  Ben supplied, “They call it a ‘bio lock.’ They’ve needed to abandon whole domes because bio incursions grew out of control.”

  “Lovely,” Sass acknowledged.

  “So you see the problem,” Cope resumed.

  Sass frowned. “Maybe not.”

  “OK. We need a grant of flat land. Near a town willing to host us. Maybe even close enough to have a bio lock leading into town. Room to put down our containers, park the ship and shuttle and work. Water supply with hoses to keep washing this bakkra off our stuff. Local air mask arrangements. Our own bio lock. And gross life form interdiction. That’s probably an ESD field perimeter, plus guns manned 24/7. Or whatever they use locally.”

  Clay stepped in. “The wildlife is that aggressive, right near a city dome?”

  Ben replied, “Sounds like the wildlife is aggressive anywhere. And it flies?”

  “It would,” Sass agreed. “Higher gravity, higher air pressure. Earth supported huge flying reptiles at one time.”