Edge of Solace (A Star Too Far) (27 page)

The words hung between them as it was all laid out.

“We could transfer now. Use the decoy and let you get some distance. They’d have to come after me,” William said.

Martinez shook his head slowly. “And if you fail
, then they come after me. Better the two of us.”

“Very well
, sir.”

*

William ran as fast as he could manage through the passages. Calls of ‘Make way!’ echoed before him as the meager crew stepped into doorways. Sergeant Gruber caught up with him at Engineering and the pair entered together.

Inside two standard EVA suits stood next to the largest EVA suit William had ever seen. He gawked for a moment and marveled at the size. Huron and Reed stood nearby with arms crossed. Both men looked smug.

“Well that was quick,” William said. He hadn’t expected them to have a team together so quickly.

Huron winked at Reed. “Well, we are Engineers.”

“Actually, we were about to do an EVA anyhow,” Reed added.

“There’s a wreck, I need a tow drone on it. Right now.” William slammed his fist into his hand. “And I mean
now.
”

“I’ve got a squad coming up
, Mr. Grace.” Sergeant Gruber scanned a tablet in his hand and nodded.

William returned to the bridge and watched the camera feeds as the suits wrangled the drone into place.

The hulk was bearing closer. The panels were shadows of black tinted with ruddy smudges. It was like every ship plying space, all cargo container and small living quarters. It came back as the
‘Ceres Storm’.
Registered to some random Inner Belt conglomerate.

“Captain, where’s the
Sa’Ami defense force ?” Lebeau asked.

William had wondered the same thing. He scanned the charts and saw precious little in the system. The large structure near the pulsing stars was it.

“Good question, Ms. Lebeau.” He leaned over his console and paged Major Theodore. “Major, could you come to the bridge, please.”

A grunt sounded with a yawning “Yes.”

Lebeau arrayed the cameras and put the audio on for the EVA team. The voices that rang out were in Aramaic, a language none of them spoke. She looked annoyed and cut the sound.

They watched as the cameras spun and shifted with the three suits holding tight onto the drone. The hulk came closer. Names appeared on the containers
: Mitsubishi, Chang-Shen, Norske, Walmart. It had every appearance of running consumer goods to the colonies.

“Captain?” Major Theodore asked. He stepped onto the bridge and stood with his chin thrust out.

William turned. He liked the Major, but the man knew how to paint himself as a hardass. He wore a cast on one arm and looked like he was a few kilos light. “Major, I’d like you to speak with our guest. There’s no one here, no defense fleet, nothing. Where is everyone? See what she knows. She must know about it, she hinted you’d see that Commandant again, right?”

Major Theodore nodded. “You got it
, Captain.”

The Major turned crisply and strutted off the bridge.

“The Major has quite a presence,” Midshipman Lebeau said in passing.

“Yes
.” William smiled. “Yes, he does.”

*

The closeness of the suit caught him off guard. He’d never felt anything that was so omnipresent. Every square millimeter was pressed against his body. The odd looking suit felt even odder.

He reached out and touched the edge of the grav field. When they first emerged
, up was up and down was down. But once they slid further back on the hull they entered a zone where there was no gravity. It was like stepping off of a cliff with nothing beneath. Except he didn’t fall.

Once his stomach recovered he heard the laughter from Samir and Youssef. The
Marines emerged further up and came closer in a wedge formation. They stood immobile like statues and watched.

“You
okay?” Reed asked over the comms.

Abraham caught himself. “Yes sir.”

It still felt like he was falling even though he wasn’t moving. The taste of bile and noodles was right on the edge of his mouth.

The Maronites surged onto the edge of the cargo panel and slid it off. Underneath a yellow and orange capsule was locked down. Bulbous canisters were tucked onto either edge. The capsule hovered upwards and remained stationary.

“It is ready!” Samir said in Aramaic.

“It’s ready,” Abraham called.

The derelict came closer. The panels were torn and ripped. A cloud of debris was scattered and visible as it rotated into the light of the distant binary star.

Abraham looked away from the derelict and focused his eyes on the planet. It appeared like a smoky grape hovering in the distance. The brighter edge of the planet almost took his breath away.

They told him it was nothing but unstable gases changing phase, but it was the first planet he’d ever seen that wasn’t his own. The first one! He was excited and forgot the sickness, but just for a moment.

“
One hundred meters,” Midshipman Lebeau said in a hard tone.

Abraham repeated the phrase in rough Aramaic. The
Marines spread out and took position around the hull. A bulky squat launcher was anchored to the hull. He watched it as the Marines edged away.

“Stick with Samir,” Huron called. “We’ll steer it over, latch on to the safety line and just hold on.”

“How do I get back?” Abraham asked with quick glance from side to side.

“Unclip the line from the tug and we’ll pull you in,” Huron said in a level tone. “Easy as mud pie.”

Abraham uttered a prayer and latched the large clip onto the line. Samir and Youssef latched on in silence and waited. The Marines fired their own lines and streamed over.

“Don’t leave the drone,” Sergeant Gruber called.

“Yes sir,” Abraham replied quickly. The only thing he feared more than getting lost was incurring the wrath of Sergeant Gruber.

The feeling of nausea changed phases as the tug rose. The
Marines latched onto the derelict with weapons at ready. The ship grew larger and the damage more pronounced. Whatever hit it had gotten inside and destroyed everything it could.

Abraham looked up at names he’d never heard. Large blocky letters spelled out ‘Coke!’ just above him. They’d be anchoring next to the bottom of the K.

The nausea hit again as the tug matched up with the slow spin of the derelict. The
Malta
was disappearing just behind them. Darkness came quickly. His breath came in ragged bursts.

A light blinked on, and another. Samir and Youssef turned on the shoulder mounted light strips. Abraham locked his eyes onto the pool of white before him and felt his heart rate slow. The hull was close and the letters huge.

The tug nudged into the container.

He could feel the impact in his glove but heard nothing. Of course, he thought, no sound out here.

Samir climbed onto one side while Youssef went to the other. The pair each peeled away the side of the canister and pulled out a length of gray and white cable. They attached a blinking orange ball and tossed it against the hull.

Abraham blinked and looked closer. The ball flattened slowly and disappeared into the hull until the rope looked to be one with the alloy.

Samir came close and nodded. Samir told him it was done. He also said that he wanted a nap and he was sick of this bullshit but Abraham wasn’t about to transmit that.

“They’re done
, sir,” Abraham said.

“Good job, latch on,” Huron replied.

Abraham scrambled over to the heavy safety clip and took the slack out of his safety line. The internals seemed caught and wouldn’t retract the full length.

Samir made a joke about it being too big but Abraham ignored it.

“Clear, clear! Contacts!” Sergeant Gruber shouted over the comms.

Abraham snapped his head from side to side. He couldn’t see anything around him. He told Samir and Youssef there was something out there.

Around him lights blinked in bursts. He realized he was seeing weapons fire from the Marines. The curvature of the container was enough that whatever they were shooting at was out of his view.

The wreck rolled further and the
Malta
came into view. The squat launcher locked onto the hull deployed a stream of missiles that spread out above and below Abraham.

“Blow the line, get out Abe,” Reed said quickly.

Abraham reached forward and slapped at the latch. It broke free and they drifted away from the wreck. His eyes locked on a ragged gouge. He could picture it, whatever it was, crawling out.

The gouge spun past slowly. Samir’s lights shone into the opening and showed a mass of jumbled goods and wrecked equipment.

And then it was out.

The thing that came out was like the soldier Abraham had seen on Canaan. But it was thinner than a man could be
with a wasp thin waist. The way it moved was graceful.

The thing pushed off from the gouge and landed squarely onto Samir. In a moment it plunged one hand into the
Engineer and spun backwards towards the tug drone.

Blood sprayed out for a split second and then stopped. His body tugged and bounced on the safety line. Abraham couldn’t move away as the corpse plunged against him
, knocking him askew. His line slipped and he felt himself spinning.

The thing from the darkness landed on the drone and bash
ed one arm against the orange hull while the second arm tracked and fired at Youssef. A red sheet expanded from the engineer and drifted away.

Abraham could see the blood
sailing through space like a wall. The oscillations passed him through it but it fell off like snow on a cold morning. He screamed in fear. The safety line pulled him away from the thing and closer to safety.

Vomit filled his helmet as the nausea
overwhelmed him. Only the spinning kept him from breathing it back in. The face shield was covered in fluorescent yellow bile.

“Out
, out!” Abraham howled. He couldn’t see. He couldn’t feel. Only the tug of the safety line and the random impacts of the bodies let him know that he was still connected.

Abraham pictured his father and took one quick shallow breath. His rock. His anchor. God was with him in that moment and he knew it, could feel it.

He opened his eyes and pushed his face against the vomit. He had to see, if he couldn’t see he couldn’t stop the corpses from battering him. The sickness came again but only saliva drifted out.

A smudged window to space opened up. He braced himself as he impacted with Samir, or was it Youssef? He gripped and missed. He tried with the next oscillation and clutched tightly to the dead man.

Above him the thing beat on the drone until it stopped mid-swing and drifted off. A pair of Marines advanced on it, firing a stream of silent projectiles. In a moment it drifted away and was gone.

“Abraham! Abe!” He became aware of the voices. Words wouldn’t come. His mouth was locked to keep more vomit from spilling out.

The derelict ceased rotation and struggled forward. Names slipped past until the tail of the ship blinked to black.

“Almost
, Abe, Reed is coming out,” Huron said slowly.

Abraham looked around and saw the
Marines coming closer. He ignored the corpses and focused on keeping still. The only thing he had to hold onto was a dead man.

*

Archie stood in a narrow passage and watched a squad of heavily armored Marines pass. He wanted, more than anything, to be strapped into a suit with a weapon in his hands. It pained him deeply to watch Marines go where he couldn’t.

The last of the squad passed. The smell of sweat mixed with the banana
-like scent of nanite lubricants. He wrinkled his nose and continued down the passage.

Castro stood in the doorway with one foot flat against the bulkhead with his knee out across the opening. “Major
.”

Archie glanced inside and saw a bored looking
Marine standing next to the bunk. Only a rumpled blanket peaked out. “I need to speak with Captain Asa.”

Castro slid his glance slowly and turned his head. “She’s not doing all that well
, Major.”

“What do you mean?”

Castro shrugged. “Something is going wrong inside, I’m not sure what it is. She’s filled with a nanite cocktail that’d put a geriatric to shame.”

Archie felt something
—not sadness, but a regret.
Fuck this. She was going to have someone shoot me in the head.

“I need to talk to her
, Castro. Is she awake? What are the symptoms?”

Castro sighed through his nose and looked up at Archie. “Fever, a touch of delirium, bruising on her chest. All my scans give me gibberish. One says her adrenaline is spiked while another says her ribs are falling apart.” He shrugged and stepped into the room.