Bonds of Steel (Law and Crucible Saga Book 3) (2 page)

He should have gone offline during the two
hours needed to charge his batteries, to allow his circuits to cool down before
one of them melted. The dismantling order hadn’t come at random. Good thing Vee
had no access to his system to know the extent of his damage. After the last
two weeks of being constantly on alert in case Thea needed him during the sleep
cycle, now he couldn’t disconnect because he was supposed to supervise Vee.
Asleep in their stasis capsules, the humans remained his responsibility. And
Vee ... he feared someone had to answer for her, too. Del didn’t feel prepared
to deal with an artificial intelligence whose mental state was unstable at best.

Motionless bedside Thea’s bed, pretending to
be offline, Del calculated his options. He didn’t question why he’d come to
charge in an empty cabin. Habit dictated his actions, and less thinking allowed
him to pay attention to other more important things. Unfortunately, he didn’t
have Vee’s distributive attention.

“Um, Del?”

Did she read his mind? Or were her sensors so
sensitive they’d sensed the power fluctuations of his brain?

“Yes?”

“My sensors have detected the power signature
of a reactor ahead of us in the asteroid field,” Vee said.

“A spaceship?”

“That’s the only explanation. The field isn’t
inhabited. But...”

Del’s processor speed increased alarmingly,
triggering a warning in his overheated brain.

“A routine scan of the area didn’t return the
coordinates where the ship should be,” Vee said. “Also, the communication
channels are silent.”

A ship that didn’t want to reveal its identity
and presence in this part of space. An unusual situation in theory, but not
necessarily so rare in practice. More interesting he found Vee’s ability to
detect a ship in stealth mode. Yet why did Vee tell him all this? It couldn’t
be out of boredom. He didn’t get bored.

“Does our course cross theirs?” he asked.

“It didn’t until a few
minute
s ago. They just changed course to intercept us. I think my pings put
them on alert.”

Del disconnected from the power supply. With
his batteries charged up to 60%, he could survive a couple of days if needed.
Unfortunately, that was exactly what he expected to happen. The Squirrel was a
fast ship, and it wasn’t equipped with high-caliber weapons or a powerful
shield. He’d made so many efforts to escape dismantling and violated countless
laws only to become part of an asteroid field. It wasn’t fair at all.

“What are you doing?” Vee asked when Del left
Thea’s cabin.

“I am going to the medbay to assist Captain
Law. We wake him up, right?”

Not that Law had some supernatural powers to
protect them from an attack.

“No way!” Vee said. “I’ll never be able to put
them all into stasis if they come to the conclusion I can’t be left
unsupervised.”

But she couldn’t, proof that she was
indirectly trying to consult with him.

“Uh, they sent a message,” Vee said. “I’ll
display it on the console.”

Del took a left turn in the corridor and
entered the mess hall, which was closer. The screen already blinked
threateningly.

To the class F spaceship at the periphery
of the asteroid field. This is Captain Rodoff from Uliake, a class D spaceship.
Identify yourself. We’re coming your way.

“He’s lying,” Vee said.

“They’re not coming?” Del wondered.

“Please, no bad jokes. That’s at least a class
C
ship, if not C.5. And their encryption method, even a child could
decode. They really want us to read the message.”

Del had come to the same conclusion.

“Can we avoid them?” he asked. “Hide or run
away?”

“There is no big enough asteroid around and
even if there were, their advanced stealth system suggests they also have the
necessary technology to locate us wherever we hide. As for running away ... I’m
calculating a course that would get us as far away from them. The Squirrel is
smaller and reacts more quickly to direction change, but I would save it as a
last resort. I don’t know how they’d react if they saw us run. They are too far
away to check their arsenal, but I doubt we can survive if they fire at us.”

Two seconds of silence.

“No, all probabilistic calculations show we
have more advantage if we play their game,” Vee said.

But it shouldn’t have been her decision to
make. They needed Law. Even if he made a wrong decision, a human had to take
responsibility.

“What will you do if they want to talk to us?
Or come on board?” he asked.

“I have an emergency protocol if we’re
attacked, and it allows me to take whatever measures are necessary to protect
my crew. Since they’re all in stasis, it won’t be a problem if they’re trying
to come on board.”

Automatically, Del began to devise scenarios
in which he stopped Vee before she hurt someone. There were a few possibilities
and discouragingly fewer that had the slightest chance of success.

“My programming is not as permissive as
yours,” he said with a huff later on.

“Oh ... if it bothers you, you can go offline,
although I would prefer you to be active. I might need help.”

“I will remain active as long as possible, but
that is all I can do.”

He made no promises.

“I hope it doesn’t come to that. For now, I’ll
reply to their message.”

The words appeared on the screen, starting
with a long indicative that didn’t seem to end.

... we are in quarantine. We have confirmed
a plague taken from the Seelis system. We need...

A lengthy list of active substances followed.
Del recognized most of them. Vee wasn’t playing; she’d chosen a plague no one
had heard of in two decades.

“I also sent them the quarantine codes from
three months ago, when Law returned from The Pacific, the date updated, of
course. That should slow them down a bit.”

Even longer if they weren’t desperate.

“You didn’t encrypt the message,” Del noted.

“It wasn’t needed. We have nothing to hide.”

Nothing those on the Uliake would have wanted,
Del hoped.

The next message came too soon.

We’ll enter your communication range in
half an hour. We request a live conversation with your captain. We’re sending
you new encryption codes.

“He better not believe I’ll let them infect my
system with who knows what nonsense!” Vee said and answered right away.

Our technology is obsolete. The new
encryption codes can’t be used.

“Ha, let’s see what he has to answer to that!”

It seemed he had nothing to say because he
didn’t reply.

“Did they alter the course?” Del asked.

“No.” Vee sighed. “They’re still coming
towards us.”

“Estimated time of contact?”

“Two hours plus twenty minutes for the docking
procedure. That is if they don’t send a faster shuttle.”

Until contact, the issue of the live call
remained to be solved.

“We need to wake Law,” Del said. “We cannot
present a robot or an empty room in front of the camera.”

And much less an unregistered AI.

“No ... not Law...”

“Vee, are you afraid of Law?”

An inappropriate question in this situation,
but he was curious.

“Of course, I’m afraid of him. Law is the only
one who can order to deactivate me and have me removed from the ship forever.
There should be something wrong with me not to care if he gets mad at me.”

If he weren’t so stressed, Del would have
found it ironic he was currently in the same situation towards her. How could
he help?

“If not Law, then Eradiez?” he suggested.
“Defense is his specialty.”

And it was just a coincidence Eradiez liked
Del after successfully collaborating at the ore retrieval.

“Eradiez is going to wake Law,” Vee said.
“Merrick, though ... he’s more independent. He could decide to act alone and
let the others rest. But I would prefer Thea ... she’s new here, but she proved
she doesn’t lose her head under pressure and she’s my favorite. She let me
fly!”

He couldn’t argue with such logic, not when
Law checked every course Vee mapped. Thea being his patient though, he had to
think about what was best for her.

“Thea’s field is astrophysics. She has little
experience with hostile confrontations,” he tried to convince Vee to change her
mind.

“It seems to me she did quite well with Law.
And a pleasant face like hers looks well on camera.”

There was another possibility they hadn’t
discussed. Thea’s health hadn’t deteriorated following an accident. Someone,
somewhere—Del didn’t know all the details because no one had bothered to inform
him—had tried to kill her.

“What if they’re coming for her?”

“They’re coming from the wrong direction and
it would be easier to contact us via official channels rather than hide,” Vee
said. “The probability they’re involved is small enough to take the risk.”

The confirmation allowed him to release part
of the resources used to ensure the safety of his patient. Vee knew better
because she had access to more information than he did. He didn’t mention a
third alternative, with Thea being an accomplice of those on Uliake and they
were coming to ... to do what? There was nothing worth stealing on The
Squirrel, even the voyage to it wasn’t worthwhile.

“We have another twenty minutes until we enter
their contact range. It should be enough for her to recover from stasis. Come
to the medbay. Don’t forget to bring the chair.”

Thea removed her arms from around Del’s neck
and shifted in the pilot’s seat in the cockpit. They had left her chair on the
lower level before climbing up the stairs. No matter how much work they put
into it, The Squirrel would never become friendly with disabled passengers.

“Can you explain why we’re doing this?” Thea
whispered, running her fingers through her short black hair, mechanically
combing it back.

Vee had informed her about the situation as
soon as Thea overcame the initial panic after leaving stasis, a less common
reaction for those accustomed to interplanetary travel. She wasn’t asking that.

“Because we depend on her?” Del said as
quietly, although Vee heard everything they said.

Thea grimaced, and with an obvious effort in
her slow movements, she opened the communication channel.

“Try to move as little as possible,” Del said.
“Do not show them any weakness.”

“No, it’s okay,” Vee said. “They’re going to
believe she’s also affected by the plague. Perhaps it’s even better.”

“Okay, okay, now both of you shut up.” Thea
waved a hand. “Vee, if you have something to say, write it on the screen. Del,
I don’t want them to see you for now. So ... do we stick with the epidemic
story?”

To prepare her, Vee had shown her a summary of
Law’s notes regarding his time spent on The Pacific, focusing on the disease
pathology. Del wasn’t sure how much Thea remembered, still groggy after the
stasis, but the dates were too close for the crew to be completely cured. It
was possible some of them still carried the virus in latent state. Maybe it
wasn’t a lie after all.

“It’s the only excuse we could come up with to
keep them away,” Vee said.

Obviously, it hadn’t worked.

Thea nodded and ruffled her hair. “Okay, then
it won’t look strange if my answers are confusing.”

“Vee, can we have lights with a green hue?”
Del asked.

“Right away.”

The light’s intensity changed inside the cabin
so Thea looked really sick or at least having not been sleeping for days. With
a soft hum, a fan started to send waves of warm air in their direction. Within
minutes, Thea would be covered in a thin layer of sweat.

Del moved into a corner where he could see the
console and Thea could still see him.

“Establishing the connection,” Vee said.

An unshaven man stared at Thea with bloodshot
eyes. A second man, thickset and with a rough figure, stood by his shoulder,
frowning at the camera. In the background, flashes coming from the control
panels illuminated the walls.

“Captain Rodoff?” Thea asked.

The bearded man nodded and hesitated.
“Captain...?” He opened a hand, inviting her to introduce herself.

“Althea Sun,” Thea said. “Our captain isn’t
currently available. What do you want?”

Without lying, she’d let Rodoff guess whether
the supposed captain was ill, had succumbed to the disease or was just busy
elsewhere.

Del modeled his face into an encouraging
smile.

Rodoff seemed undecided how to address the
issue.

“Can you hurry?” Thea let out an annoyed sigh.
“If you can’t help, they need me elsewhere.”

“No, wait ... when you detected us, we thought
you were a courier ship sent to meet us.”

Del tilted his head, confused. It could be
true. But a courier ship able to detect ships in stealth mode meant a highly
classified operation. What had they gotten themselves into?

Vee wrote in the corner of the screen:

We don’t officially have the necessary
technology.

“It must be a mistake,” Thea said. “We
wouldn’t have known you were there if you hadn’t contacted us. We scan the
space in search of a ship, any ship, to help our sick people. Unfortunately,
the asteroid field doesn’t seem to be inhabited and we’re wasting a lot of time
finding our way through it.”

“We have some of the requested medicine,”
Rodoff said. “We could dispense with a reasonable amount, on one condition ...
you take a message from us to the living space.”

A trick to make the exchange more credible?
Del rocked in place. The captain looked utterly tired and his companion stressed.
What happening on the Uliake? Unlikely they’d ever know.

Thea dug her teeth into her lower lip,
feigning indecision. “If it’s an urgent matter, don’t count on us. We can’t
jump because the patients in serious condition can’t resist jumping. At this
rate—” she cast a look back at something that wasn’t there, “—we’ll be lucky if
we make it out of the field.”

Perfect. Not only had she explained why they
couldn’t jump when in reality they didn’t have a pilot, but she’d made it
appear they were too busy with the epidemic to bother with a passing ship. Del
was impressed by her ability to lie and improvise, but also a little worried.

Movement detected near the ship.

“We’ll calculate the shortest course for you,”
Rodoff said, “since we’ve been there.”

“Thanks, we appreciate it.”

“We’ll send a shuttle with the medicine and
the message we want to you to deliver. It’s encrypted and, anyway, it would be
of no use to you. Just broadcast it in the system when you get near one.”

“Okay, we can do that.”

Rodoff checked the screens in front of him.
“Estimated time of contact: thirty minutes. We’ll continue our course, and the
shuttle will catch up with us.”

Lies, they sent it already!

“Farewell.” Thea cut the connection and leaned
back in her chair. “Who wants to bet there won’t be only drugs in the shuttle?”
she muttered, frowning.

Her forehead glistened with sweat.

“Vee, turn off the heat,” Del said.

Thea wiped her forehead with the sleeve. “What
are our options?”

“Assuming they don’t want anyone to know they’ve
been here, only two possible scenarios come to mind,” Vee said. “One: they send
the shuttle to blow us up. Two: the shuttle brings armed personnel to ... hmm,
not sure what to do. Kill us? It’s easier to blow us up.”

“Then what do we do, run?” Thea asked.

“If we don’t wait for the shuttle, they’ll
know we didn’t fall for it.
”

“Can we send our shuttle to stop it? You can
control it remotely.”

Unfortunately, they only had one shuttle left,
and risking it would have put the crew in too great a danger if something
happened to The Squirrel.

“If we attack the shuttle,” Vee said, “whether
we destroy it or not, it will alert the ship and they’ll be forced to attack.
Even if it would cause us severe damage, their shuttle doesn’t have weapons
powerful enough to take us out of the game. The ship though ... I’m afraid we
won’t survive a direct hit.”

“So our only option is to sit and wait to see
if we explode?” Thea let her head fall into her hands. “Wonderful!”

“I still think—”Del said.

“I know, I know,” Vee said, “we should wake
Law.”

“It sounds like a good idea.” Thea’s face
brightened.

Del bowed his head slightly in gratitude for
her support. He tended to agree with Vee. Thea was becoming his favorite
patient.

“There’s no time to awaken him from stasis and
devise a plan before the shuttle gets to us,” Vee said. “We must fend for
ourselves.”

Thea motioned for Del to approach her and
opened her arms.

“The good news is I don’t think they intend to
blow us up,” Vee said while Del lifted Thea from the chair and carried her down
the stairs. “According to the latest galactic treaties on piracy, the
disappearance of a spaceship causes more suspicions than if found damaged with
the crew dead. It’s assumed we registered a flight plan upon our departure and
we’re expected somewhere. If we’re late to appear at the destination, someone
will start asking questions. And because of the epidemic, we probably flooded
the space with requests for help. It’s impossible to lose our track, or so they
think. It’s too big a risk. They’d be looking for us at one point, and they’ll
start by determining what other ships we crossed paths with. Because crossing
asteroid fields are recorded, to study their dynamics, they are going to find
them eventually. And then some uncomfortable questions will follow, such as why
they didn’t report the incident and why they didn’t help.

The satisfaction in Vee’s voice was palpable,
but Thea cut her enthusiasm as soon as she settled in her chair. “That would
happen in an alternate universe in which we registered a flight plan and we
have an epidemic on board. In reality, they can do whatever they want and no
one will ever find us.”

“Eh, the absent members of the crew will look
for us, only it will take some time until they’re able to do it ... for now, we
have other problems to deal with. My calculations suggest there are at least
two people on the shuttle sent to exterminate us.”

“Uh, I do not like the odds,” Del said.

“Perfect! So we sit here and wait for them to
kill us? Let’s wake up Eradiez,” Thea told Del and led her chair towards the
cabin in which the stasis capsules were stored. “With him, we at least have a
chance.”

“Too late,” Vee said with regret. “The shuttle
is approaching.”

“Can we find something in the medbay to wake
him faster?” Thea asked Del.

“Possibly ... but the side effects are often
severe. I would not recommend—”

“Hey!” Vee shouted. “Did you hear me? There.
Is. No. More. Time! Your solutions aren’t viable, and I have to protect my
crew.”

“And what do you suggest?” Thea snapped.

“You’re handling it yourselves—”

“She’s lost it,” Thea said in a moderate tone.

“—with my help, of course.”

“Vee, Thea cannot fight armed men, and I
cannot hurt people,” Del said, going ahead to open the doors for Thea.

“Right, she can’t,” Vee said. “Therefore, we
switch to zero g. Eradiez taught her how to fight in zero g.”

“I practiced defense more than attack,” Thea muttered.

“It’s enough to defend yourself. The attack
will allow Del to interfere.”

“I cannot—” Del protested.

“All you have to do is immobilize them, not
hurt them.”

“Do we get some weapons for this?” Thea sighed
but didn’t stop.

“Del can’t use weapons, and you haven’t
completed Eradiez’s weapon training yet. I’d rather not give you the
opportunity to hurt yourself. You’ll find in the medbay plenty of doses of
tranquilizers that you can both use.”

Del changed course towards the medbay. Vee’s
plan had a chance to work. If Thea was attacked, his programming would allow
him to use tranquilizers to settle the conflict. Maybe.

“I expect them to bring protective suits
because of the epidemic and unlikely to wear traction boots,” Vee said.
“They’ll be taken by surprise by zero g, and the suits are relatively easy to
puncture with our doses if you use long needles. Ready?”

Del had just reached to open a drawer in search
of the doses. He barely had time to start the magnetic fields in his feet
before rising from the ground. With slower reflexes, Thea easily floated out of
her chair. She let out a startled gasp but didn’t protest. She moved faster
without traction boots.

“They’re here,” Vee said. “They’re trying to
connect to the airlock. If I stop them, they’ll know we suspect something, and
I fear they came prepared to pass through the door.”

Thea took a handful of doses from Del,
pocketed them, and made her way out, floating. He followed her out on the
floor.