Against Gravity (43 page)

Instinct told Kendrick to get himself out of the shuttle, to run, to throw himself into the Pacific and start swimming. But just then a deep pulsation rattled through the craft, building to a
powerful and steady roar. The craft lurched violently, and he let out a yell. People around him screamed, clearly believing as he did that the attacking jets had returned, or that the whole
platform had been holed and was sinking. For a moment he imagined that the shuttle had been blown free from its gantry and was falling towards the ocean. Powerful vibrations made his teeth
rattle.

Very gently, the shuttle swayed. Panicked, Kendrick glanced over at Buddy, and to his consternation saw him grinning happily. Turning in Kendrick’s direction, Buddy gave him a
thumbs-up.

Next followed a terrible lurch, and the whole craft began to tremble with furious energy. An enormous invisible hand seemed to press down on Kendrick’s face and chest and he writhed
desperately.

“When are we taking off?” someone shouted over the tumult.

“We already have,” Kendrick heard Buddy yell. Barely audible, there were a few half-hearted cheers and whoops.

They were off.

Fifteen minutes later Sabak unstrapped himself and floated over to Buddy, conferring with him briefly. Kendrick gripped his armrests, convinced he was falling, knowing it was
only the lack of gravity that made him feel that way. Most of the other passengers would remain strapped in for the duration of their short flight to the space station. He still couldn’t
quite believe they had not been blown out of the skies.

He found it wasn’t quite so difficult to adapt to free fall as he might have expected. In fact, once he was out of his seat it was kind of fun.

Buddy unstrapped himself next and floated over to Kendrick. “We need to talk further with Sabak about Draeger, and we don’t have much time to figure out what we’re going to do
once we get to the
Archimedes
.”

“All that really matters is that nobody makes the mistake of trusting him.”

“Those guys with him . . .”

Kendrick glanced carefully to the rear of the cabin where Draeger had unstrapped, as had Smeby and the rest of them. They still remained carefully apart from everyone else.

“You might want to assume that his men are Augments, too,” Kendrick replied.

Buddy looked at him quizzically. “You mean Labrats? They don’t look—”

“Not Labrats. Black-market work – at least one of them. I’ve met others, too, including a woman employed by Draeger. She was also an Augment but I’d be surprised if she
was ever within a thousand miles of the Maze.”

Buddy frowned. “There’s a shitload of international laws against . . .” He stopped, and pressed one hand against the side of his head. “Jesus, just listen to me. So
you’ve dealt with these guys before?”

“Only Smeby.” Kendrick nodded at the man in question. “He’s not to be trusted under any circumstances.”

There was a commotion, and they glanced over to see that Sabak had opened a hatch. Behind it lay a tiny porthole, and Draeger had floated over to stare out through it.

Looking around at the other passengers, Kendrick could see from the consternation and anger on their faces that they were now well aware who their unwelcome guest was.

Sabak floated over and put a hand on Kendrick’s and Buddy’s shoulders. “Gentlemen, I want you to come and see exactly where we’re going.”

As he guided them forward, Kendrick flailed about uncertainly for a moment but Buddy kept a firm grip on his shoulder as they eased through a pressurized door into the cockpit area.

There was a crew of four, and Kendrick suspected that one or two of them might turn out to be Labrats. But it was impossible to tell since they were all wearing spacesuits.

Beyond them he could see stars, the bright curve of the Earth visible over to one side, and something else in the far distance: a dark grey cylinder floating against a sea of black velvet.

Sabak moved forward to chat to the pilots. They all looked relaxed and happy, and Kendrick wished that he could feel the same.

Sabak returned to their side shortly. “We’re coming in for an approach pretty soon.”

“How close did it get down there?” asked Kendrick.

Sabak raised his eyebrows. “Pretty close. I find this difficult to admit, but Draeger’s the only reason we got this far.” He shook his head. “I think he must be obsessed
with the
Archimedes
, wanting to come here in person. That does take a certain kind of guts.”

Buddy nodded. “Yeah, but he’s only going to stay friendly for as long as we serve his purpose. We’ve got to start being real careful.”

“Sir?”

Sabak glanced over at the crew member who had spoken.

“We’ve got visual contact with the two Los Muertos shuttles.”

Kendrick peered forward intently to where the
Archimedes
was growing visibly larger. He saw a rough-hewn tube covered in fragile-looking gantries and docking facilities. Kendrick noticed
that one of the shuttles was still locked into an external gantry, its nose pointing inwards towards the main body of the station. The other shuttle, though, appeared to have ripped itself free and
only dozens of powerful-looking cables kept it connected to the station. They were twisting and writhing slowly like snakes, and the hull of the shuttle looked battered and broken, presumably from
repeated impacts with the hull of the
Archimedes
. As they came even closer, they could see an intermittent sparkle of light inside a deep wound in the shuttle’s structure.

Sabak spoke up. “Looks like they’ve got something burning inside. Wouldn’t be possible unless something was feeding it – probably broken fuel and air lines. Can we get a
zoom on that?”

“Sure,” said one of the pilots, and a screen displayed a close-up of the damaged shuttle.

“It looks like one of its engines exploded,” said Buddy. “Something blew up on the inside and ripped through the hull.”

“What the hell could do something like that?” Kendrick asked.

“There’s no other ships in the vicinity,” replied the pilot, turning a little in his seat to give Kendrick and the rest a significant look. “If I didn’t know
better, I’d say it looks like they tried to get away from it.”

The second pilot glanced over her shoulder with an expression clearly saying
Tell me what in God’s name is going on here
. Kendrick caught her eye and shrugged feebly. She frowned at
him and turned back.

Kendrick continued to study the
Archimedes
with interest, as Sabak consulted with the two pilots about docking strategies. After a few minutes’ discussion they settled for another
gantry that was positioned a little further around the circumference of the station. They were closer now to the exterior of the
Archimedes
and Kendrick gazed at the ripped-apart shuttle in
horrified fascination.
Nobody could have survived that sort of damage
, he thought.

Their view changed further as they approached their selected gantry, the
Archimedes
’ speed of rotation slowing to an apparent nil. Sabak guided them both to the rear of the cockpit
where a row of tiny plastic seats were attached to the bulkhead.

They buckled in and waited. Soon a heavy, clanging reverberation rattled through the hull, as gravity returned.

The sudden change was jarring. Kendrick pictured the shuttle being whirled around now by the station as it rotated, providing artificial gravity as it tried to fling the incoming ship loose.
They’d docked with the shuttle’s underbelly facing outward, allowing them to walk around inside the shuttle without feeling as though they were the wrong way up.

Sabak unstrapped himself and motioned to Kendrick and Buddy to do likewise. Then he led them back into the short corridor connecting the cockpit to the main passenger bay.

“Wait just one second,” Sabak told them, pulling open a section of the wall to reveal a deep cabinet. There were weapons stored inside – rifles, pistols and what appeared to be
grenades. There were also bricks of plastic explosive.

Sabak extracted a pair of side arms and handed one each to his companions. Buddy handled his with practised efficiency, nodding with apparent satisfaction.

Kendrick stared down suspiciously at the gun in his own hand.

“Just hold on to it,” Buddy advised him. “I don’t think it’s likely that you’ll have to use it. Give it here.” He took the weapon from Kendrick and
slotted in an ammunition clip. “This catch here on top is the safety, so just leave it where it is unless you feel you need to use the gun. Got that?”

“I think so.”

“Meanwhile keep it out of sight. We don’t want Draeger’s men knowing that we’re armed. Any small advantage we have can only be good for us.”

Kendrick caught Sabak’s eye. “Draeger and his men – did anyone check them for weapons?”

“There was neither the time nor the opportunity,” Sabak replied sourly. “Which is another good reason for making sure we’re ready for anything.”

The flight crew caught up with them and Sabak doled weapons out to them as well, keeping a cautious eye on the door to the passenger area. Several Labrats – the only one Kendrick
recognized was Veliz – slipped through from the passenger bay, and Sabak armed them too.

“What about all the rest of them?” said Buddy, nodding towards the door. “None of that lot came up here expecting to be combatants.”

“I’m well aware of that,” Sabak replied darkly. “We should split into two groups once we’re further in. Some of us will move ahead and deal with any Los Muertos who
may have been left behind. The other group can stay near the docking area and guard the rest of our lot.”

“And Draeger?” asked Kendrick.

“The question is whether he’s likely to try anything once we’re inside.”

“I’m sure of it. But then there’s the matter of whether we’re really going to let him have what he wants.” Kendrick looked at Sabak questioningly.

“I didn’t expect we’d have to deal with Draeger when we got here. Which may have been a glaring mistake on our part.” Sabak turned to Buddy. “You’ve got as
much military experience as I have, so when we’re in there I want you to help us keep an eye on Draeger and his goons. The question remains: are they likely to be armed?”

Buddy shrugged. “Heavily, I’d be inclined to guess.”

Sabak nodded in agreement. “Okay, let’s go ahead on the assumption that we’ll be dealing with opposition at some point. If we find no survivors from the Los Muertos shuttles,
maybe we can step things down a little, except where Draeger is concerned.”

“Draeger’s going to be searching for the same records that I want,” Kendrick reminded them.

Sabak squinted. “The
Archimedes
is a big place. You’d need a couple of weeks to find something that specific. And a couple of weeks is what you don’t have.”

Kendrick shook his head. “I need to locate a research facility in the second chamber. That’s exactly where I’ll find what I’m looking for.”

Sabak shook his head slowly. “A research facility?”

One of the flight crew spoke up. “That’s where all the station’s functions are centrally controlled, sir. The computer systems are evenly distributed throughout the entire
shell so that the station can continue functioning in case of serious trauma. But the research facility is the central point where you input data directly and get collated feedback.”

“We can’t rule out sabotage either,” said Buddy. “We don’t know what Los Muertos have managed to do while they’ve been up here ahead of us.”

Kendrick was unable to avoid a deep sense of dread about what they might actually find once inside the
Archimedes
. Everything they knew so far had been filtered through the lens of
Robert’s fractured, dead mind. When it came down to it, none of them had any idea what they were up against.

They headed through to the passenger area, which had transformed from a vertical cylinder to a long, low-ceilinged room. Buddy, Sabak, and the flight crew checked everyone in
turn, making sure they were fully suited up.

By some mutual unspoken decision they left Draeger and his men to take care of themselves. Within minutes, the external airlock opened to connect with a long, flexible tube linking to the
Archimedes
itself. The tube looked surprisingly flimsy and delicate.

Once Kendrick had his helmet on, the voices all around him were reduced to distant electronic squawks. He joined the queue and was guided by one of the pilots onto a platform with plenty of
handgrips, obviously designed to carry them through the tube and into the station.

It took about twenty minutes to get everyone on board via the access tube. Kendrick and the rest found themselves in what had clearly been designed to be a reception area, full of desks and
long, low couches. Kendrick studied some of the safety warnings and information posters still mounted on the pastel-coloured walls.

Sabak and his flight crew had gathered by another airlock door at the opposite end of the reception lobby. According to a nearby sign, this gave access to the interior of the main station
proper.

Kendrick studied the screen built into the arm of his spacesuit. He played around with the menus, finding something that informed him that the atmospheric pressure outside his suit was currently
zero. He wondered how this section of the station had come to lose its air, and if this meant that they were going to find the whole station depressurized.

He rejoined Sabak by the airlock door. One of the pilots had a panel open in the wall next to it and had attached a small device to some wires protruding from the interior. Kendrick wondered
briefly why they didn’t ask him or some other Labrat to magic the door open. Then he remembered that no one had ever tried that while wearing a bulky spacesuit.

After a little more effort, the airlock slid open to reveal a series of corridors branching off into the distance. Immediately ahead of them lay a wide-open space furnished with low
pastel-coloured couches.

“No air, but the lights still work,” Buddy observed through his spacesuit’s intercom.

“Power runs through solar arrays on the station’s exterior,” Sabak explained. “Means we don’t have to find our way through the dark.”