Bio-Weapon (Doom Star 2), page 30
That eased some of his tension. Yet, he wondered how long it would be before Highborn command sent him a message. They must be tracking him. Probably, the ship was sending a friend-or-foe signal. He had to find it and decide whether to shut if off or to leave it on.
Before Marten did that, he had to decide what to do with his freedom. He couldn’t just drift out here. He needed a plan.
He had no desire to go back to Earth. Nothing good awaited him there. As all Free Earth Corps volunteers had learned, Social Unity received updates on the FEC battle-rosters. In other words, if Political Harmony Corps captured him, he would be treated as a traitor to Social Unity. Likely, the thought police would shoot him in the back of the head and dump his corpse in a mass grave.
Factoring in his present heading and velocity, it would take massive amounts of fuel to brake and redirect his spaceship to Venus. The majority of Venus was still in Social Unity’s hands, but the Highborn had laid siege to the planet with a Doom Star, space platforms and orbital fighters. Even if he had the fuel to redirect his flight to Venus, there was little incentive to do so. That was even truer for Mercury. Besides, Mercury and the Sun-Works Factory that circled it comprised the bastion of Highborn power.
Marten stretched his lower back. He had to sit on the edge of the pilot’s chair to use the control panel, because like everything else in the shuttle, it was sized for a Highborn. It made him feel childlike, and he found that annoying.
He continued to study the data. It was possible he might dock at one of the many open habitats orbiting Earth. Because of the open policy concerning the farm habitats, it might be possible for him to slip into obscurity there.
The situation there was tenuous, however. At the various Lagrange-points were massive farm habitats that helped feed Earth’s billions. The Highborn could storm each habitat and cut off some of the planet’s food supply. Or they could beam the laser-launch sites on Earth that propelled the food ships into orbit. Maybe they hadn’t tried yet because it would prove too costly in Highborn casualties to storm the habitats. Maybe the Highborn wanted the Earth intact, to use it later as a base for the further conquest of the Solar System. Mass starvation might cause catastrophic destruction of a future industrial basin.
Marten checked on the shuttle’s air-mixture as he considered the possibility.
Slipping onto one of the farm habitats could benefit Omi if he required better medical attention. Their present heading would take them to Earth orbit rather quickly. They knew Earth customs and could probably blend in more easily there than anywhere else in the Solar System.
Marten studied the fuel situation as he plotted possible course headings to Mars and then to Jupiter. It wasn’t simply a matter of distance. His choice also depended on where each planet would be in its orbit around the Sun when his shuttle reached the needed distance. It soon became clear that Jupiter was too far. He couldn’t actually land on Jupiter, but he could head for one of the many moon colonies or the gas giant’s atmospheric cloud cities.
Dejected, Marten slouched in his seat. It had always been his long-term plan to escape to the Jupiter Confederation. He wondered if Nadia Pravda had made it to the emergency pod. If so, her destination would be Jupiter as well.
Marten grinned at the prospect of holding Nadia again, of kissing her. He wanted to go to Jupiter. He wanted Nadia. Maybe he even needed her. But Jupiter was out presently as a reasonable possibility. That left Mars. He remembered rumors about a rebellion there.
There was a red light blinking on the control panel. Marten’s heart sped up as he tapped keys. Something was wrong in the medical unit.
Marten unbuckled and leapt for the hatch. He sailed too fast and bumped his head. Muttering and practicing greater control, he floated through the hatch and pushed toward the medical chamber. A light was blinking on the life-support monitor.
Marten felt queasy. He wasn’t a doctor. In the clear cylinder, Omi twitched, and his features had become blue.
“Don’t die,” Marten whispered. He checked the monitor. It was the air-mixture. There was far too much carbon dioxide in the cylinder. He realized that he’d adjusted for the ship, but the controls on Omi’s system were still cycling the wrong mix.
Marten used the emergency release handle. The hatch hissed. Marten swung the hatch open.
His friend stopped twitching, and the blueness began to fade from his skin. After a minute, Marten slid Omi back into the cylinder. He stood and watched for a half-hour.
Then he returned to the oversized pilot’s chair. He had to decide where to go. Before that, he needed to know more about Mars. He studied the computer files until he found and read HB intelligence reports on the Red Planet. The information surprised him.
Mars had rebelled against its Social Unity garrisons. A single Doom Star had orbited Mars as the Highborn exterminated SU military personnel on the habitats and on its two moons. According to what Marten read, many SU personnel had escaped onto the surface. In other words, part of Mars belonged to Social Unity, and the rest was in Rebel hands. The Doom Star had then departed the Mars Gravitational System. As their last act, they’d installed the Rebels in the surviving orbital military installations.
Marten tapped at the console. The Highborn had left the Rebels, the Mars Planetary Union as they called themselves, in control of near orbital space. The Martians were separate from the Highborn and separate from Social Unity. Might the Mars Planetary Union welcome an ex-military man? Might they greet with open arms an independent captain owning a shuttle?
Marten rechecked the computer. An hour later, he hooked a line to the latch outside the airlock. Marten wore a vacc-suit with a toolkit on his belt. He floated as stars shined all around him. The Sun blazed behind him. Marten magnetized his boots and clanked along the shuttle’s hull. Soon, he reached the friend-or-foe device. He knelt and extracted a wrench from his kit. For the next twenty minutes, he loosened bolts. It brought back fond memories of working with Nadia on the repair pod.
Finally, he detached the unit. He pulled so it floated upward. Then he crouched under it and heaved with all his strength. The friend-or-foe device sailed away into the void.
Let the Highborn monitor that on their computers.
Grinning within his vacc-suit, Marten began clanking back to the airlock. He coiled the safety line as he did so. Once at the airlock, he pressed the switch, but nothing happened. The outer hatch remained shut.
Marten frowned and tried again. Again, nothing happened. He blinked in growing concern. He’d never operated Highborn-built spaceships before. Was this a different design from the vessels he’d used while growing up around the Sun-Works Factory? Maybe it was a Highborn security device, an airlock that couldn’t be opened from the outside.
Marten banged on the hatch. After several blows, he realized that would do nothing at all. Omi was in the medical unit. He was stuck out here in space with a limited air supply. He’d better think of something else fast.
Vaughn Heppner, Bio-Weapon (Doom Star 2)
