Children of Hope (68 page)

“Fath, flush him out!”

No reply.

I frowned. Was he mad at me? Should I have called him Captain? No doubt: we were on duty. But he wouldn’t make an issue of it when we …

You idiot.

The corridor mikes fed the holo in our cabin, and Fath had gone to the bridge. I snatched up the caller. “Ship’s Boy Carr calling brid—”

Harry rocketed: out of the lock.

“You frazzing maniac!” I edged toward the hatch to three. Fath would open, if I called him from the hatch panel.

The outrider skittered past me, circled his nutrient tub, plunged into it.

Now what, Randy?
To get to the hatch I’d have to pass within a meter of him. His behavior was so erratic I wasn’t sure I wanted to try.

“Attention all hands and passengers.”
Fath’s voice was tight.
“We’re under attack by a flotilla of fish. They Fuse in and out, and more keep coming. Our fire is destroying those near our tubes, but …”

My God, what was Harry doing? He’d sucked up the entire nutrient tub, and was growing before my eyes.

I retreated past a cabin, and another. Then past the airlock. Not long before, I’d been trapped in that same—

“
…
But there are a lot of fish.”
It sounded an admission of defeat.

My skin crawled. It wasn’t just the lock; the entire section could decompress at any moment. I’d abandoned my suit on the deck, about … I risked a glance. Twenty meters behind me. Watching Harry, I backed toward it, nearly stumbling when I reached it.

I laid the suit in a sitting position against the bulkhead, maneuvered my feet in. It isn’t easy to get into a vacuum suit one-handed. I knew: I’d tried.

One-handed, though, is nothing. Try climbing in with a metal and pseudoflesh arm that won’t do what you want, and won’t hold still. I finally grabbed the half-melted wrist with my other hand, tried to force it into a sleeve. It wouldn’t cooperate; I couldn’t get it far. Finally, I pinned it against my side, thrust it into the suit body with me. The damn hand fluttered against my torso, twitching like a dying fish.
Ugh. Find a better image, joey.

Harry skittered down the corridor, zoomed into the airlock and out again.

“Master-at-arms Janks, report to bridge from the nearest caller. Mr Carr’s in trouble. Proceed to Level 2 section four and free him, if you have to kill the alien to do so. I’ll open corridor hatches for you when I know where the bloody hell you are.”
Then, after a moment,
“Sorry.”

“Jesus.” Sweating, I redoubled my efforts. My legs were in. Now my real arm. I started working clamps.

Harry raced past me, reversed direction. He was bigger than before, all right. By about a third. And he was awfully fast. But then, they’d always been.

“Get away from me, you slug!” Luckily he’d shot past me toward section five; my way was clear to the section three hatch. Grabbing my helmet, I shuffled down the corridor. One doesn’t run in a suit.

As I neared the airlock, I tried to fasten my helmet. One-handed, I couldn’t manage. It slipped from my fingers, rolled across the deck. I scrambled after it.

As I snatched up the helmet, Harry skittered past, blocking my way to section three. Well, it wouldn’t be long before Janks came and shot him. I was glad of it. I might get splattered like Kevin, but …

Minutes ago, I’d begged Fath to talk me through terror, but at the moment I didn’t much care. “I’m not afraid of you, pusbag!”

A pity Harry didn’t understand.

“Out of my way!” I stamped my foot, hoping he’d retreat. Instead he surged forward, and instantly my newfound courage fled. I stumbled back.

The speaker crackled.
“Randy, do nothing. Janks is on his way. Another minute or so. Secure your helmet!”

Part of me marveled that with
Olympiad
under attack, the Captain could spare me a glance. “Aye aye, sir.” I fumbled for the clamps. “What’s going on Outside?”

“Van Peer, thrust our stern to starboard, flank!” The
speaker went dead.

Harry grew an appendage. The wrong kind. Fath was probably right, telling me to wait. If I tried to twist past the outrider to section three, Harry might melt my suit, and me with it. Come
on,
Janks.

Taller than I, quivering, the outrider drew near. His appendage probed. Hastily, still fumbling with the helmet, I retreated. The appendage extended again. I backpedaled.

Right into the airlock.

Harry followed. With his waving acid pseudoarm, he herded me to the outer hatch. I fetched up against the control panel. He grew taller, wider, blocking any hope of escape.

“God damn you!” It came out a croak.

The porthole was just past him. My eyes widened. A dozen fish? Well, now there were thirty.

Harry’s appendage shot out. I flinched. It stretched past me to the hatch. Desperately I tore at my suit clamps. The helmet was jammed; I’d have to yank it off, reset it on my head.

The hatch plate began to sizzle.

“JANKS!” My scream echoed in the tiny chamber.

When Harry burned through, we’d decompress. Unless I got my helmet clamped, I’d die.

Harry’s colors swirled. A whole segment of him turned gray. Good, you slimeball, maybe you’ll die too.

The helmet slithered from my grasp. I caught it between a knee and the hull. Get it on, quick, before … you idiot, it’s backward! Easy, joey, you’ve passed a dozen suit drills. All you have to do is … where the
hell
is Janks?

Too late. Any second, Harry will burn through. Janks won’t be in time. I’ll feel what Dad felt, those last agonized seconds.

Inside my suit, my useless prosth fluttered against my side.

Steady, son.

What, Fath? Oh, it’s not you. Dad, I’ve missed you so. Would you stay with me, ’til the end? That’s all I ask. And if you could put your arm around me …

The hatch smoked and sizzled. When the acid ate through, would explosive decompression squeeze me through the hole? We’d lose the air not only from the hatch, but all of section four. If the attacking fish damaged nearby section hatches, scores of passengers would die.

Cursing a God who didn’t exist, I let go the helmet, stabbed at the hatch panel. The inner hatch slid closed. Sorry, Janks. You’ll miss your shot.

The way to the corridor was blocked. Now, Harry would only decompress our airlock.

I would never get the frazzing helmet clamped in time. I grabbed the emergency lever from its socket, scratched on the deck, “One-arm die.”

His pseudopod still sizzling on the hull, Harry flowed atop my words. When he moved aside, the smoking deck had a reply. NO WAR.

What the hell did that mean? Dozens of fish were after us. Had we ever understood a word the other said? I slammed the helmet on my neckpiece. It caught.

“Janks, run! They’re in the lock!”

“Laser room, we’re coming about. Shoot on
—
”

Tinny voices in the suit radio; someone had left it on. Feverishly, as Harry’s acid ate through the outer hatch, I clawed at the remaining clamps. It was harder than you’d think. I was pressed tight against the hatch, and Harry, half gray and dead, loomed above, off balance, ready to bathe me in agony. My fingers were sweaty. I hadn’t yet turned on the air; the suit was stifling.

“
Olympiad,
we have the shot.”

“Take it, Station!”

“Olympiad,
Vince Palabee, on behalf of the colonial government. I call on you to protect—”

“Stow it, Palabee. We’re doing what we can.”
Fath’s tone was sharp.

Two more clamps, the hardest to reach.

“Return us control of the Station!”

“That’s between you and the officers
—
”

A hiss. A rush of air escaping the hatch. In a second I’d gasp, then my eyes would bulge, then—

Harry fell atop me.

“Aiyyyee!” My shriek soared into the upper registers. The helmet fogged. The clamps weren’t done; the suit couldn’t hold air. It wouldn’t matter. I could almost hear the bubbling of my suit, almost feel the heat as Harry melted through. In seconds, I’d dissolve.

I tried to flinch from the skin of my suit, wondering where the acid would burn first.

“JANKS TO BRIDGE, IT’S GOT RANDY!” Labored breaths. “The only way I … should I shoot through the hatch? We’ll lose the section. Nobody’s in it.”

“Yes!”

I panted. The air was stale and useless. I could move my arms, but didn’t dare. If I so much as touched Harry, it would be the end.

A lurch. I was falling, blind, dying, alone.

“Sir, it’s just launched from the hull! Jesus God, the boy’s alive! Suited. He’s … his head and shoulders are embedded in the outrider. He’s kicking like mad. I’m blowing the inner hatch!”

No, you idiot. I wasted precious seconds closing it. Don’t make my death a waste.

“Captain, Kaminski here, on Orbit Station. Palabee wants access to our puter, to coordinate defense. Should we allow it?”

“Janks
…
”
Fath’s tone was dull.
“Kill him.”

“Pressure equalized, the hatches are opening.” Janks. “Sir, if I … Remember the Dakko joey? If the outrider blows apart … I can’t kill him without risking Randy!”

“Mr … Janks
… The voice was lifeless, the words slurred through unwilling lips.
“Kill … my … son. He’s in agony.”

Silence. Then. “Lord God save my soul. I can’t.”

“NOW, JANKS! Laser room, you too! Aim for the outrider!”

“Laser room, belay that.”
Mr Tolliver.
“Sir, why
—
”

“Edgar!”

Swimming in a fog of incomprehension, I yawned mightily.

“
Olympiad,
do you read Orbit Station?”

“Why is Randy kicking?”
Tolliver.

“Reflex action, or …”

“Nick, if it’s reflex, he’s dead even if his body doesn’t know it, so you don’t need to shoot. If not, HE ISN’T DEAD! The acid hasn’t got him.”

Why couldn’t I see? More important, why wasn’t I dead?

I yawned again. The voices faded. Feebly, without thought, I twisted my air valve.

Cool air hissed. And it stayed within the suit.

I blinked. All was still black. But the world—its sounds, at least—came back into focus.

“But
—
you can’t know … damn it, we’re on open circuit.”
A click.

Utter silence.

“Don’t leave me!” No one heard my plea.

“Janks to Bridge!” He too was suited, so I could hear him.

Nothing.

“Janks to Bridge, urgent!”

Fath’s voice was lifeless.
“What is it?”

“Begging your pardon, the outrider’s heading for that big fish with the greenish blowhole. Decide right now whether you want the laser room to take it out.”

“Of course I do!”

“Does the outrider mean to kill Randy?”

“It means to kill all of us. And if the fish Fuses with Randy inside
…”

My stomach coiled. I was dying alone. But if the fish Fused, “alone” would take on a new dimension.

But why hadn’t the outrider’s acid eaten through my suit? Harry was dying, he’d turned gray. Did it mean he hadn’t enough acid to …

Gray. Like the appendage he’d used to touch my cheek.

He’d flowed atop me, over the unsealed helmet. And now my suit held air.

Jesus God! He’d coated himself with that protective layer, made himself my seal. He’d meant to save me. Why, though? As a trophy? Prisoner? Hostage?

Ever so gently, I reached upward toward my helmet with a gloved hand. Something hard, outside my suit. I snatched back my fingers, felt no burning, no outrush of air.

“Sir, we only have a few seconds.” Janks. “If you laser the fish, where will the outrider go?”

“Nowhere. It has no propulsion.”

We’d float through space forever, or until Hope Nation’s gravity sucked us to blazing oblivion. On the other hand, by then I’d be long dead. I only had two hours air.

“Olympiad,
this is Palabee at government headquarters in the Venturas. Report! How many fish, what are they up to?”

Idly, in a near dreamlike state, I wondered how Fath and Janks would decide my fate. I was utterly helpless, trapped inside Harry. They’d destroy the fish, or not. There wasn’t a damn thing I could do either way.

The hell there wasn’t.

I reached down to my chest, felt for switches, flicked the one I sought. I opened my mouth, shut it again. This might be their last memory of me. I ought to do it right.

“Ship’s Boy Randolph Carr reporting to Bridge.” My voice was crisp. “Please call the Captain.”

A voice, hesitant, as if in awe.
“Randy?”

“Yes, sir. I suggest—respectfully suggest you don’t shoot the fish. Harry’s taken me for a reason. I’m not sure why, but he hasn’t hurt me. In fact …” My words falling on one another, I explained about my helmet.

“Laser room, do NOT fire on the stationary fish about eighty meters of our port side! Acknowledge.”

“Orders received and understood, sir.”

“Or on the outrider approaching it!”

“Fath, what’s happening? I can’t see a thing.”

“The fish that brought Harry is inert but alive. The outrider carrying you is going to hit it amidships. Other fish are after our tubes. The laser room is holding them off, killing them en masse. We’ve six banks of lasers dedicated to the tubes, but fish keep Fusing in. And…
” Fath sounded uneasy.
“
…
if a fish Defuses too near, it may get to our tubes before we
—
”

“
Olympiad,
please respond to Station.”
Colonel Kaminski’s voice was plaintive.

I asked, “Can you Fuse to safety?” I’d soon suffocate;
Olympiad
ought to save herself.

“We’re too close.”

To Hope Nation, Fath meant. No ship could Fuse near a large mass; the gravity cancelled the field. The formulas had bored me to tears, in math. Now was an insane moment to ask, but … “Fath, how can the fish do it?” Here I was, en route to my death, and quizzing Fath on principles of Fusion. Well, my life never had made much sense.