The Belt - Complete Series, page 59
The prospect of escape, even if remote, made Luca’s brain kick back into gear, and she felt the presence of the drone again.
As she suspected, it could not get the airlock disabled in time, but was now outside the ship clinging to the side of the access tunnel, just a few meters from where they clung to the cables.
“My apologies for not being able to assist you so far. But my ability to move fast in this environment is poor.”
“Just hang back for a moment.”
Luca shifted her position so she could whisper to Steph without being noticed. “It’s here, in the tunnel, very close to us.”
The doctor took a moment to look around her, examining the access tunnel structure. “Okay, I have an idea,” she whispered in reply. “This guy is not holding onto anything, just floating there. So I’m going to kick him as hard as I can. The instant I do, you let go of that cable. He’ll go tumbling forward and we’ll go backward down the tunnel. Get that drone ready to jump on us and cut these bonds. Got it?”
Luca let the drone know the plan and then nodded to Steph.
She reacted almost instantly, bringing her knees up to her chest and kicking out hard with both feet, slamming them into the smuggler’s back. Luca released her grip, and they went tumbling back down the access tunnel.
Luca lost all orientation as the tunnel spun around her. She heard shouts, then the whomp, whomp of a plasma weapon. “Shit, they’re shooting at us. Fly, where the hell are you?”
She felt something grab onto her back, then scuttle around to her bound hands and cut the ties. She reached out, trying to find something to grab to stop the tumbling. A grab handle spun by her field of vision; she reached out and got a grip on it. Her body twisted back against the side wall of the access tunnel just as a plasma blast shot past her, dissipating harmlessly far off down at the other end of the tunnel.
Her feet were now free and so was Steph, who still clung on to Luca’s flight suit. Fly was back on the side wall, watching and waiting.
“Let’s get to the ship.” Steph pointed back up the tunnel to the docking port and started moving. Luca followed. Up ahead, she could see a firefight had broken out between the two groups. So they were not trying to shoot her or Steph, they were shooting at each other. A body floated down the tunnel behind them, its EVA suit burned and scorched on the chest.
Steph grabbed Luca’s arm and pulled her into the ship’s airlock; Fly scuttled in after them. They slammed the door shut and spun the locking mechanism.
“We have to get this ship the hell out of here. You think you can fly it?” Steph hit the button to open the inner door.
“Yeah, I think so.”
They hurried to the flight deck and strapped themselves in. Fly connected to the interface, and Luca’s mind was instantly assailed by ship data. Somewhere outside she thought she heard banging on the airlock door.
“Hurry,” said Steph. “They’re trying to get in.”
Luca’s mind raced, her synapses firing at quantum speed as she delved into the ship’s systems, but something was different this time. Where before she had been overcome by fear, anxiety brought on by the overwhelming scale of the data coming at her, now she rode it like a surfer catching a wave. She found the docking systems, found that the ship had been put into lockdown by the orbiting station, and simply disabled it as if it were nothing. She felt the thump as it detached. The vernier thrusters fired, pushing the ship out into free space. By now, another part of her mind had initiated the navigation system to chart a course. She paused, brought herself out of the mind-machine interface for a brief second, and turned to Steph.
“Better get ready, we’re going to the New World.”
Steph simply nodded and tightened her seat harness.
Luca reentered the ship’s systems and gave the command to initiate the primary drive. Instantly, they were slammed deep into their seats as the ship accelerated away from the Johnston Transit Orbital and out into interplanetary space.
18
CRAZY TIMES
Miranda would not reach New World One for many weeks, so Scott had desperately wanted to borrow a fast ship from Cyrus and head back to Earth and search for Luca. But in reality, what would that achieve? Both Miranda and Cyrus already had their own networks of people scouring the Johnston Transit Orbital for any sign of Luca or Steph. Not only that, but the QIs had assured him that if the pair were anywhere on that orbital, or even back on Earth, then they would find them. So what use would Scott be? In the end, it was Miranda who had finally persuaded him to stay put on New World One and wait for her. Part of him was a little flattered; maybe she just wanted to see him again. And if he was being true to himself, he had to admit that he really wanted to see her again, too—after all these years. In the end, he resisted the desire to journey to Earth and instead got on with what Cyrus regarded as the most important job on the habitat—getting the defense system up and running.
So here he was, encased in an EVA suit, attached by a tether to the exterior hull of New World One, overseeing the installation of a plasma cannon battery. It had been part of Cyrus’s contract, and with the increasing paranoia permeating the Belt, he was understandably anxious to get it operational. He had been working on it for weeks; at least it kept his mind off things.
It didn’t help that rumors were spreading of a well-armed ghost ship spotted on the far side of Luna and now heading for the Belt. But what troubled Scott more was that the QIs were being very circumspect about these rumors, meaning that they simply didn’t know. This led him and many others to believe that the army of Node Runners utilized by the Seven had become far more adept at cloaking their activities within the Grid. All that could be relied on now was visual observation. And in the vast expanse of space, it would be impossible to find even the largest ship by simply eyeballing it.
Scott was keeping a close eye on his readouts as the first of two plasma gun turrets was being floated into position. The second one would be mounted on the opposite side of the cylinder. But even when that was completed, there would still be at least another few weeks of work in connecting all the power and control systems before testing could begin. He was feeling the pressure. They all were.
His comms burst into life. “Scott, Cyrus here. I think I got something. You’d better hand over to someone there and meet me in the ops room as soon as you can.”
“You mean you got something on Luca and Steph?”
“Yeah, one of my guys came good and turned up something on Johnston. You need to take a look.”
“You know where they are?”
“No, but I think I know where they might be. Just get your ass down here.”
“Are they okay?”
“Scott, it’s best if I show you rather than over comms.”
“Okay, on my way.”
It took him the best part of an hour to hand over to his crew buddy, get back inside the habitat, take off his bulky EVA suit, then travel the three kilometers to the location of the ops room that Cyrus and the other main contractors used for planning and monitoring the complex construction process of New World One.
Like all structures in the habitat, it was a sprawling open-plan space populated with numerous people gathered around holo-tables and monitors. Scott looked around for Cyrus and eventually found him in a glass-walled side meeting room. He signaled to Scott to come in and join him.
“Scott, great, you’re here. Check this out.”
Scott moved over beside Cyrus and looked down at the video feed streaming on the table screen. “What am I looking at here?”
“This is a feed from an external source on the Johnston Transit Orbital, around four weeks ago.”
Scott studied the feed. As far as he could tell from the grainy images, it was focused on a derelict sector of the vast orbital—no lights, no activity, totally devoid of life. “I don’t see anything going on here.”
“Perfect place for a smuggler to dock, don’t you think?”
Scott glanced up at Cyrus with raised eyebrows. “You mean…”
Cyrus cut him off with a wave at the screen. “Look at this.” He tapped a few icons, the image zoomed in, and Scott could now see a blurry image of a small ship docked to the derelict sector.
“That’s Weismann’s ship. The guy who was supposed to take Luca and Steph off Earth.”
“Holy shit, Cyrus. You found them. This is great. Are they okay?”
Cyrus stood up and turned to face Scott. “Let me back up a bit and give you the full story. I had some contacts of mine do some investigating on Captain Weismann. He’s a good guy, someone I trust, so the question is what happened to the mission. Anyway, we started by checking out old sectors in the orbital we knew he used in the past.” Cyrus pointed at the screen. “When he checked out this sector, he discovered three bodies. And no, none are Luca or Steph. Just three unknowns. Then we did some background checks, and it turns out all three of them had been on Weismann’s crew at various times in the past.”
Scott looked down at the screen again. “What happened? And where’s Luca?”
“There was a firefight of some kind. All three died from plasma blasts, and the bodies hastily hidden. It was just a bit of luck that my man found them. But whatever happened didn’t last very long, as the ship departed almost as soon as it arrived.”
“You think Luca and Steph are still on it?”
“Looks that way.”
“This is great work, Cyrus. So where are they now?”
Cyrus gave a wry smile. “Ah, good question.” It was clear the engineer was relishing this exposé. “I recruited the help of Aria to do some analysis now that we had some data on the ship. You have to remember that this ship is off-grid, so the QIs had nothing to work with. But Aria analyzed all visual data-feeds in and around the Johnston Transit Orbital during that period.” He turned back to the screen. “Have a look at this.”
A new feed showed mostly space with just a small section of the orbital visible in the bottom left corner. As it played, Scott could see the same ship come into view, power up its main engines, and disappear into the void. “Where are they going?”
“Aria has given a high probability that the ship is heading for deep space. And given that Mars is currently on the other side of the sun, there’s nothing else out there until they hit the Belt.”
“The Belt? But that’s an old orbit hopper. There’s no way that can do interplanetary travel.”
“It might look like a bucket of bolts, but it has a VASMIR main engine, so it’s well capable of entering deep space.”
Scott stood up, scratched his chin, and started to pace around. “So they’re heading to us.” He stopped suddenly. “Any comms? Have you tried contacting the ship?”
“Nada. Both Aria and Homer checked all the comms activity for that region. Nothing. But we wouldn’t expect anything until it comes into range of a relay beacon.”
“They could be in trouble, Cyrus. I need to head out there and find them, and find them now.”
“Whoa, hold up. You would never find a ship that small out there unless you crash into it.”
“I know, but I gotta try, Cyrus. I can’t sit here and do nothing now that we have an idea where they are. Have you sent this to Miranda?”
“Yeah, just after I called you. No word back yet. She’s still another three days away.”
Scott stayed silent for a moment, thinking.
“Listen, Scott, there’s no point in you heading out into the void, not unless you have a reasonable set of coordinates for their location.” Cyrus moved over to a holo-table and tapped a few icons to bring up a 3D schematic of the local sector of Belt space. “There are at least three relay beacons covering most of the approach vectors from Earth’s position when they departed. But just bear in mind that even if the ship passes one, that doesn’t mean we’ll pick it up.”
“How so?”
“Remember, it’s off-grid. So unless they want to relay messages and make a connection to the beacon, we won’t know if they’re there.”
“Hmmm…and if they are trying to keep hidden, then they’re probably not going to expose themselves.”
“Exactly. Who knows what else is out there?”
“You’re not still going on about that ghost ship, are you?”
“I don’t know, Scott. Aria is pretty spooked. Homer, too. I’ve never seen the QIs that uncertain about anything in my life. As you can imagine, it’s a little disconcerting.”
“You think this so-called ghost ship might be chasing them down?”
“Anything is possible, Scott. It could be heading our way, there could be more than one, who knows. But what I do know is it’s not good. Something major is about to happen. That what’s got the QIs so cagey. They sense something is going on, but not what it is or where it’s going to go down.”
Scott shook his head. “Crazy times, Cyrus. I feel as if nothing makes sense anymore. The old certainties are gone now that we can’t rely on the QI network to keep a lid on things.” Scott glanced back at the schematic and pointed to one of the beacon markers. “How long would it take to get to any of these beacons here?”
Cyrus leaned in. “Three days, maybe less if you were prepared to black out under heavy acceleration.”
“And how soon do you think Weismann’s ship will come into range?”
“Hard to say, but it should be soon. They may already be in range.”
Scott nodded. “Now what? Do I head out there, or wait for them to get here and try to send a message?”
“Maybe do both. Get ready to go, I’ll get you a fast ship. Then wait a day or two to see if there’s any contact. If not, then head out. But remember, you’re unlikely to find them by just wandering around out there.”
Scott gave out a long sigh. “Yeah, I know that. But put yourself in my shoes. If there is even the smallest chance of finding them, then I have to take it.”
19
THIRST
Apart from the initial ten-hour acceleration burn, the first few days of the journey from the Johnston Transit Orbital had been relatively easy, and both Luca and Dr. Rayman began to relax a little.
But soon their attentions turned to the issue of food and water, and how to make the meager provisions last the next forty-four days they estimated it would take to reach New World One. Steph spent some time analyzing the nutrients available and rationed out the food as best she could. She presented Luca with a minuscule portion, explaining to her that this was it for the next twenty-four hours, then went to great lengths to reassure her that it was possible to live for thirty or so days without food. This did not comfort Luca in any way; it simply underscored her own acceptance that it was going to be a very long and hungry trip.
Although the average healthy human could theoretically live for weeks without food, water was a different matter entirely. They kept the environment and the ship cool so that they would not be wasting water through perspiration, even though the ship had a reasonably efficient recycling system. But based on the reserves they had on board, it became obvious that they would be slowly dehydrating as the days passed. Even the best recycling system could not produce more water than it collected.
By day seven, they were both finding it difficult to focus on anything other than food—it was all Luca thought about, and almost the only thing she and Steph talked about. They spent many days sharing stories of memorable meals and culinary delights. But by day fourteen, all this had passed as they both settled into survival mode, barely moving or even speaking, expending minimal energy.
On day thirty-eight, the water finally ran out. Luca was strapped into the pilot seat on the flight deck when Steph floated in and handed her a small metal flask.
“Here you go, this is the last I could wring out of the recycler. It’s only a few milliliters.”
Luca twisted off the cap and took a sip. The water was brackish with a stale taste. Nonetheless, it felt like nectar from the gods as it made its way down her parched throat. “A few sips are not going to last us six more days.”
Steph shrugged. She was a doctor, after all—she knew the score. They sat there quietly for a time, each deep in their own thoughts.
Luca’s attention eventually returned to the 3D navigational schematic of their current position that blossomed out of the central holo-screen. In one quadrant, a small section of the asteroid belt was depicted with a marker at one end, indicating the location of the dwarf planet, Ceres. Another marker at the far end indicated the location of New World One—their ultimate destination. They were almost there. It was only six long, hard days away.
The projection flickered a little as Steph suddenly poked her finger at a marker, seemingly positioned in the middle of nowhere. “What's that?”
Luca glanced at the projection. “I don’t know. There’s a few of them. See, here’s another one.” She tapped the projection to highlight it.
“Those look like relay beacons to me,” said Steph. “And that one is almost directly in our travel path.” She tapped the marker, and immediately a cascade of data spewed out on a side monitor.
“What’s a relay beacon?” Luca leaned over and tried reading the data on screen.
“Think of it as a Grid Node, except in space. They’re used for routing data and communications as well as navigation.”
“Are you saying it can broadcast our location?”
“I don’t think so, not unless we connect with it. But to be honest, Luca, I’m not sure about that. What I do know is that these beacons are technically very complex and need regular maintenance. They’re autonomous, but all have accommodation for maintenance crew visits. However, the most interesting thing is they are generally very well provisioned.” She looked over at Luca. “That means food and water.”
At the mention of this, Luca perked up. “Food and water?”
“Yep.” Steph reached down to the holo-screen and adjusted the navigation map, zooming in on the relay beacon. “I’m just guessing here, but it looks to be around a day away.”
