Aces (12 page)

“That last pass
slowed us down another 287 kph, Captain. The nav system says the next orbit,
and we
’
re going on in.” Seth reported gloomily.

 “Ninety
minutes, then.” Schroeder said impassively. How could he act as Captain for an
unpowered ship?

“Captain?” Gina
inquired, her voice uncertain.

“I wish there
were something we could do.” Schroeder said, shaking his head.

“What about the
thrusters? Can
’
t we use them?” Joy asked.

Schroeder opened
his mouth, then quickly shut it. Clearly, he was surprised by such an ignorant
question. Also clearly, he refrained from saying so. His lone passenger looked
mildly ridiculous, hanging from the wall with her feet tucked under a handhold,
her blonde hair in the zero gravity floating all around her face. Trying not to
let a condescending tone creep into his voice, he responded “No. These
thrusters we have are just canisters of compressed gas, with a very limited
supply. Seth used up most of that supply in stabilizing our spin. We simply don
’
t have any propulsion in the command section, nothing strong
enough to lift our orbit.”

Joy nodded,
looked down at the deck, then abruptly raised her head said “Wait, sure we do.
You just said it. Compressed gas.”

Schroeder was
torn between being irritated at the conversation, and realizing he didn
’
t have anything important to be doing at the moment. He was the
captain, he had gotten his passengers into this situation. He could at least
lend Joy a sympathetic ear for her questions. “How so?” He asked curtly, with
one eye looking out the porthole.

“You said we have
plenty of air, over a week
’
s supply, right? We can vent
some of that air overboard.” Before Schroeder could protest, Joy took out a
black marker and drew a diagram on the blank bulkhead wall. “We drill a hole
through the hull of the command section, someplace along our center of gravity,
and we cement a pipe into that hole, a pipe with a cap on the inner end. Then
we pump up the air pressure in that compartment, and release the cap. The air
will vent out the pipe, then we cap it again, pump up the air, and do it again,
and again, until we boost our orbit.” She stared at her diagram. “That should
work. But- will it be enough?” She asked, to herself.

“I
’
m
not sure-“ Schroeder started to say, before Seth interrupted.

“Captain, that
might work!” Seth said excitedly. “
We don’
t need a huge
delta Vee to stop us from falling out of orbit, the right push, at the right
time, may be just enough. At least it will buy us some time before we fall. I
’
ll need to figure in the diameter of the pipe, the volume of
the compartment, the max pressure we can get the compartment up to, let
’
s see, the thrust will decrease as the air vents out…” Seth
pulled himself down into his chair and buckled his seat belt in order to get to
work.

“
Captain
Schroeder?
” Joy said, waiting expectantly.

It was a good
idea. The only one they had, and Schroeder knew it as soon as he saw Joy
’
s diagram. He turned abruptly to his crew. “Seth, modify your
navigation program for this, we can input the variables later. I will determine
where to install the pipe, and calculate how much air we can afford to lose.
Gina, help Joy find the supplies we need, a pipe, something to drill a hole
with, and something we can use as a sealant, all that. Well? Let
’
s
get moving,
mach schnell
! We are supposed to be a
starship crew, we can
’
t have our passengers do all the
thinking for us, eh?”

Jen did wake up,
after five hours. The children helped her walk unsteadily over to the bathroom,
then got her a glass of orange juice when she managed to stumble back into the
bed. Manny found several boxes of candy bars in a cabinet, Jen tried to eat
one, but didn
’
t have the energy to eat. She fell back
asleep. Although she was once again unconscious, Manny now had confidence the
woman would be all right eventually. Having smacked the pirate ship aside, Jen
was now his hero twice over.

Manny kept his
vigil while sitting on the floor next to Jen
’
s bed. Kaylee
was laying atop blankets on the floor, trying to rest, and not sleeping a wink.
“Kaylee, are you awake?” He whispered.

“Yeah.” She
answered quietly.

“I put a box of
candy bars in your back pack.”

“Thanks, Manny.”
She rolled over on her front and turned to face her brother.

“Do you wish we
never left Earth?” Kaylee asked, after a long pause.

“Kinda.”

“Me too.”

“Mom and Dad
really wanted to go. I guess I, I
’
m glad we went with
them. That they didn
’
t stay on Earth just because of us.”

“
I
guess.
”

“Kaylee, I
’
m sorry I was mean to you. About your music, and stuff.”

“It
’
s
OK. It
’
s just music. I
’
m sorry I
treated you like, you know, a little kid sometimes.”

Manny shrugged.
“It
’
s OK. I know sometimes I
’
m a
bonehead.”

That brought a
laugh from Kaylee. “I wish we knew where the pirate ship is. Or, I wish we
could talk to Mom or Dad.” During the brief time Jen had been awake, she had
checked the radio, it was still being jammed. So the pirate ship was still out
there, somewhere.

“We
’
re
down to one oxygen bottle left, captain.” Seth reported. “Specifically, 58% of
one canister.”

“The orbit?”
Schroeder inquired.

Seth looked at
his navigation board. “A lot better than it was. We have over four hours, now.
That
’
s an estimate.”

“Of course. In
that case, that
’
s enough. Excellent work, everyone. And
Ms. Sanchez, we are in your debt.” He tried, and failed, to stifle a yawn.
Everyone was exhausted from the hours of intense work..

Joy
’
s
basic idea to boost their orbit had worked, with modifications by the crew.
They drilled a hole through a compartment, and stuck a pipe through the hull.
Instead of pressurizing the entire compartment, the crew had connected the pipe
to the oxygen supply directly. Seth had argued that change in plans would allow
them to control the flow of ‘
propellant
’
,
making it work like a real rocket.

Using their new
‘rocket engine
’
had been slow and cumbersome, and Seth had
been forced to use up almost all of their thruster fuel supply to keep the
command section from spinning out of control.

There was no
celebration in the command section after they
’
d boosted
their orbit. Everyone inside knew that, unless the Navy came to rescue them,
soon, they would still fall into the atmosphere soon.

Sam shook Rick
’
s shoulder. “Hey, Rick, sun
’
s coming up.
Time to go, man.”

“Great,” Rick
responded as he rode to his feet, “what
’
s for breakfast?”
It was still mostly dark, with a pink line on the horizon, just enough to see
by.

“Lukewarm water
and glucose solution, if you
’
ve got any left in your
helmet tube, professor.” Nelson said. The sky was completely clear, no clouds
at all. As the three men stood and stretched cramped muscles, the dull red disk
of Ares
’
star rose quickly above the horizon. “Oh, for
cryin
’ out loud!
”
Nelson exploded.
“Will
you look at that?”

The canyon, which
they had struggled for so long to walk around during the night, ended less than
a half kilometer to the south. And, on the other rim, there was a man-made
structure, a small, white and silver hut.

“The promised
land!” Sam shouted.

“The promised
land?” Rick asked. “You
’
ve got small dreams there, Sam.”

“Hey, having low
standards is what gets me through life. Right now, any place that has sweet Oh
Two to breathe is paradise for me.” Sam had the binos. “Looks like a standalone
structure, maybe a shelter where survey teams can take a break?”

Nelson looked
skeptical. “
I don’
t know, Sam, that looks too small to be
a shelter, and the miners usually take R&R inside their crawlers. We
’
ll check it out. Ready, Rick?”

“Ready as I
’
ll ever be. We pick up any radio signals last night?”

“Negative,
nothing. Must be still jamming us.” Nelson looked to the sky for an answer.
“Where the hell is the damned Navy, anyhow?”

 “What was
that?” Kaylee asked as she scrambled to her feet. She hadn
’
t
realized that she
’
d fallen asleep.

“
I
don’
t know.” Manny answered, rubbing sleep from his eyes. They had both
heard a faint, far-away, clanging sound. A sound transmitted through the hull.
There it was again. Then, silence.

“Jen?” Kaylee
said, as the woman stirred in her sickbay bed.

“I heard it too.”
Jen said in a slurred voice. “I
’
m sorry, kids, I think the
pirates may be back.” She picked up her remote console and activated it. There
was nothing on the radar. Radio signals were still being jammed. She couldn
’
t see any-

There it was.
Someone had accessed an airlock, gotten into the ship. And they were now
plugged into
Ace
’
s computer, searching the cargo
manifest database, searching for something.

“They
’
re aboard the ship.” Jen said quietly. “I can see they
’
re accessing the computer, the cargo manifest records. Huh...”
Her head nodded, and her eyes became unfocused.

“
Jen,
Jen, wake up.
” Kaylee said gently, shaking the woman
’
s
shoulder.

“Oh, I
’
m so tired. Where was I? Oh, the manifest.” Briefly, Jen was
able to concentrate, the medical monitor was still pumping drugs into her
blood, having decided on its own that resting was best for her. What computer
records were the pirates accessing? “Hey, kids, I know that the pirates are
looking for. It
’
s one of those boxes of alien stuff we
took aboard at Oceania. Cargo pod 1, deck 3, section D, bin number 14F.” She
read the data off automatically, mentally picturing where that was in the
cavernous cargo pod. “The pirates have a long way to walk, they docked on
almost the opposite side of the ship, cargo pod 3.”

“Can we stop
them?” Manny asked. “Cut the gravity, or let the air out?”

Jen shook her
head just the tiniest bit. “Not with the ship
’
s AI down,
everything like that has reverted to local controls, and the pirates are
bypassing those.” She could see the pirates had already opened one of the
bulkhead doors which led into cargo pod 3. “I
’
m sorry.”
Her eyes rolled back and her head flopped on the pillow.

“Jen, Jen.” Kayle
prodded again, this time it took much longer to get Jen
’
s
attention.

“Sorry, kids, I
’
m fading again.”

Kaylee thought
fast. The pirates were aboard the ship. Any plan they came up with had to start
with the fact that they could no longer stop the pirates from getting into the
cargo bays. The pirates were going to take what they wanted- “Jen, you need to
give us your codes, the ones that make this card work.” She held up the access
card, which she had removed from the chain around Jen
’
s
neck.

“What are you
doing with that? Give it to me.” Jen said weakly, and tried to lift her hand,
but she didn
’
t have the strength.

“You want us to
hide, right? We need your card to unlock doors, find places to hide. We don
’
t know where the pirates will be.” Kaylee said, with a serious
look on her face.

“Hide? Yes, I
need to hide you somewhere.”

“Jen, you can
’
t hide us. You
’
re
sick, you need to rest. Give me the code, please.”

Her brother
caught on. “Please, Jen, I
’
m scared.” He said, his lower
lip quivering. “I want to hide somewhere the pirates will never find me.”

Only one of Jen
’
s eyes was working, through a blur she turned toward Manny, who
looked like he was about to cry. “All right, don
’
t hide in
any of the passenger cabins, that
’
s the first place they
will look. Go to cargo pod 2, and find someplace quiet, then turn off the
lights. Stay there until somebody comes for you.”

“The code?”
Kaylee prompted once more.

“Oh, the code. It
’
s Cozumel43, only the ‘O
’
in Cozumel is a
zero, and the “L” is a one. C-zero-z-u-m-e-one-four-three, got it? My favorite
place to vacation, when I was your age.”

“That
’
s it?” Manny said, sounding disappointed. “I thought the code
would be more complicated.”

“This isn
’
t a warship, Manny, it
’
s just a … a
transport.”

“
Jen,
we
’
re going to go now, is there anything we can do
for you?” Kaylee asked., while looking around the sickbay.

“
Just
let me rest. I
’
m so tired. And hide, hide someplace
safe. Hurry.” Her voice was just a whisper.

“We will. There
’
s a big bottle of orange juice on the table next to the bed, if
you get thirsty. Come on Manny, let
’
s go.” Kaylee tucked
the access card in her pocket.

Manny blinked
away a tear. “Thank you, Jen, we
’
ll be back. I promise.”

“I know you
will.” Jen said, and let her head fall into the pillow. In a moment, she was
asleep again.

Kaylee led her
brother into the main sickbay compartment, then closed and locked the door to
the compartment Jen was in. She rummaged through a cabinet, looking for
anything useful. Another drawer held hyposyringes, plus bottles labeled as
sedatives. Kaylee knew what a sedative was, these had all kinds of warning
labels stating how strong the particular substance was. She added several
hyposyringes and sedative bottles to her backpack. Before they left, she turned
off all the lights. Anyone poking their head in would, she hoped, think the
sickbay was unoccupied.

“We got the
card!” Manny said excitedly, when they were in the corridor.

Kaylee stared at
her brother, who didn
’
t look at all like he had just been
on the verge of crying. “You big faker!” She said accusingly.

Manny winked. “It
works with Mom.” He said. “Where are we going?”

Kaylee held up
the card and studied it. It was obviously well-used, the logo was scuffed and
only partially readable, the electrical contacts on one end were worn and
shiny. It didn
’
t matter, as long as it worked. “We're
going to cargo pod 1, deck 3, section D, bin number 14F,” she recited from
memory, she wasn't ever going to forget that address. “That
’
s
where the alien thing is, the thing the pirates want. We
’
re
going to get it first, and then we
’
re going to make the
pirates rescue Mom and Dad, or we
’
ll smash it.”

“Yeah!"
Manny shouted. "But, I thought we were going to hide?”

Kaylee shook her
head angrily. “Forget that. I
’
m not hiding in a closet
while Mom and Dad need us. Are you with me?”

Manny tugged the
straps of his backpack tight, and held up both thumbs, shaking only slightly.
“Let
’
s go.”

“Okay, we
’
re here. How do we get in?” Nelson asked, staring at the door
of the hut. Like everything else on the surface of the planet, it had a fine
coating of red dust.

Sam pounded on
the door, leaving pink smudges on the surface. They had walked all this way,
and couldn
’
t get inside. “Who puts a lock on a door way
out here? And what kind of moron actually locks it?”

Rick studied the
door and the lock. “I
’
ll bet the lock is automatic, and
the door is intended to keep the local wildlife out. We happen to be on a
planet with no indigenous life, but this structure is probably a standard model
that comes with a lock.” He bent down and looked more closely at the door. “The
hinges are recessed here, if we can get the cover off, we can maybe pop the
hinges, get the door open.”