Farthest Space: The Wrath of Jan (12 page)

There was no one on the bridge except for a frightened-looking, young human woman, who surrendered the bridge without argument.

“There,” Steven said, sitting down in his captain’s chair while Vaish tied up the woman.
 
“That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

“It was entirely too easy,” Vaish said.
 
“I think it’s a trap.”

“There you go with the negative thinking again.”

“It has nothing to do with negativity and everything to do with logic.
 
We’ve gotten back on the ship much too easily.
 
If these women were truly that stupid, they couldn’t have taken over the
Arisia
.”

Steven leaned back in his chair and looked up at her contemplatively.
 
“We had to kill one of them to get this far, Vaish.”

“We don’t know that we killed her.
 
We used their weapons, which they conveniently left where we could find them.
 
For all we know these weapons are set for stun only.
 
In fact, it seems like a distinct possibility.
 
This is a trap, Steven.
 
It has to be.
 
No one could possibly be this stupid.”

“I disagree.
 
The available evidence suggests they are this stupid.”
 
Steven toggled the switch.
 
“Fred, are you there?”

“I’m still in the cave,” Fred said, his voice filling the bridge.
 
“I now have sixty prisoners.”

Vaish frowned.
 
“Jan has approximately a hundred followers, and a large number of them are still unaccounted for.”

Steven shrugged.
 
“Maybe they got lost on the
Arisia
and accidentally wandered out of an airlock.”

“I think you are taking this entire situation too lightly, Steven.”

“You worry too much.”
 
He turned back to the console.
 
“You did a good job trapping them, Fred.
 
Can you transfer yourself back into the
Arisia’s
computer core now?”

The memory of the
Arisia’
s dirt-streaked carpet suddenly flashed into Vaish’s mind.
 
“No!” she yelped.

Steven turned to look at her, frowning.
 
“We can’t very well run the ship without Fred, can we?”

“Close the channel,” she said urgently.
 
When he did, she went on in a rapid stream.
 
“Neither can they.
 
Don’t you see, Steven?
 
That’s
why they let us regain the bridge.
 
They’ve probably been having a great deal of difficulty running the ship without Fred, and they can’t get him back into the mainframe without us.
 
That’s why they let us back on board once we got out of the cave.
 
They knew the first thing we’d do was reload Fred back into the main computer, and they could then get rid of us and have full control over the ship.”
 

Steven frowned.
 
“You’re being paranoid.”

“Even the paranoid have enemies.”

Steven thought about it.
 
“How would they retake the ship?
 
There isn’t anyone left on board.”

“We didn’t check to make sure that woman we shot was dead, Steven.
 
She may not be.
 
And there are thirty-nine women unaccounted for.”

“Computer,” Steven said to the air.
 
“Lock the doors to the bridge.”

“Acknowledged,” the computer said in its flat, unFredlike voice.

“There.
 
They can’t get in now.”

“Even if that worked—and they’ve had two days to reprogram the computer, so it may very well not have-- it’s simple enough to incapacitate us, Steven.
 
All they’d have to do is flood the ship with prezidene gas, precisely as they did last time.”

He nodded.
 
There was still a skeptical light in his eyes, but he was too good a captain not to cover all contingencies.
 
Besides, he did always listen to her instincts.
 
That was one thing she appreciated about him.

“Grab a couple of gas masks,” he said.

She strode quickly across the bridge, found gas masks in the emergency cupboards, and put one on herself.
 
She tossed him one, and he pulled it on.

“Okay,” he said, his voice distorted by the mask.
 
“Let’s see if your theory is correct.”

He toggled open the connection.
 
“Fred,” he said, lifting the mask away from his face momentarily so his voice sounded normal.
 
“Are you there?”

“I’m waaaiiiiting,” Fred said, managing to convey toe-tapping impatience rather well, for someone who didn’t have toes.

“Okay, Fred.
 
Time to come home.
 
Transfer yourself back into the
Arisia’s
main computer core.”

“Hot damn,” Fred said with enthusiasm, then shifted to his emotionless computer voice.
 
“Opening link… transferring… please wait.”

Steven pulled the mask down back over his face and waited.
 
Several subunits later, Fred announced in his most exuberant tone, “I’m back!”

“Attaboy,” Steven said.
 
“Any problems?”

“There are a few areas I can’t access yet.
 
I’m trying to figure out what they’ve done to keep me out.”

“Keep working on it.”
 
Steven lifted a golden eyebrow at Vaish above the gas mask.
 
She understood the silent signal:
You might be right after all.

“In the meantime, Fred,” he said, “can you figure out what happened to my crew?”

“They were left marooned on a planet, according to the log.
 
Not a very nice one.
 
A desert planet.”

“After I took the trouble to maroon Jan and her friends on such a nice planet?
 
How rude.”

“Yeah, well, you know the old saying.
 
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

“Hmmm.
 
I don’t recall scorning her, but who knows how women think?”
 
He shrugged.
 
“Let’s get the hell out of here, Fred.”

The engines roared to life, and at the same moment a gas began hissing from the air vents.

“Told you,” Vaish said.

“Fine.
 
You were right.
 
You’re always right.”

“I’m glad to hear you admit it.”

“Hey,” Fred said.
 
“That’s prezidene gas.”

“You’re very observant, Fred.
 
Think you can turn it off?”

There was a brief silence.
 
“That seems to be one of the areas they blocked off.
 
Let me see…”
 
Another brief silence, then the hissing stopped.
 
“Got it!”

“Great job.
 
Any clue what happened to the missing forty women?”

“There are five women on board this ship and heading rapidly toward the bridge.
 
They’re all armed with particle weapons from the armory.”
 
Fred dropped the professional tone and added, “They look seriously pissed.”

“Think you can share that prezidene gas with them?”

“Good idea.”
 
There was a brief pause.
 
Steven hummed tunelessly, and Vaish struggled not to hit him with the nearest blunt object.
 
“They’re all unconscious, Steven.”

“Great job, Fred.
 
Keep them that way.
 
And let’s get out of here.”

“You can’t mean to leave those women trapped in the cave forever?” Vaish said with horror.
 

“No, but I don’t intend to try to keep sixty-six women in the brig with only two of us on board, either.
 
Bad enough that there are several women out there in the corridor who don’t like us.
 
We don’t have anyone to mount guard right now, and Fred might run low on gas eventually.
 
We’ll come back and round them up once we rescue the crew.
 
And then they’re going to a maximum security prison.
 
No more Mr. Nice Guy.”

“There are still thirty-four women missing,” Vaish pointed out.

“I have a bad feeling they’ll show up eventually,” Steven said.

They strapped themselves into the padded seats, and the ship took off with a roar.
 
The hard acceleration pushed them back into their seats despite the g-force compensators, and they leaned back, staring at the sight of the sky rushing at them.
 
Seconds later, stars filled the viewscreen.

“Beautiful,” Steven said softly.
 

She turned her head slightly and saw the almost rapturous expression on his face.
 
Space travel, she knew, meant everything to him.
 
She could hardly imagine this restless man confined to a single planet for the rest of his life.
 
He was too full of wanderlust.
 
She suspected life on a planet would have driven him mad.

And the wanderlust extended to his relationships with women as well.
 
She knew it.
 
And yet she’d let herself fall for him.

The
Arisia
left the atmosphere, and Fred cut the engines.
 
“Awaiting your orders, sir.”

“We need to head for the planet where the crew are stranded,” Steven said.

“Coordinates laid in, sir.”

“Engage.”

“By your command,” Fred said, and the ship jumped into normal drive, since hyperdrive couldn’t be engaged near a star.
 
Vaish began watching the controls and the viewscreen, out of habit more than anything.
 
No matter how intelligent Fred was, human backup was always prudent.

“Everything appears to be functioning normally,” she reported.

Steven cocked a brow.
 
“Appearances can be deceiving.
 
They had my ship for over twenty-four hours.
 
Stars only know what they’ve done to it.
 
In the meantime…”
 
He stood up.
 
“I guess I’ll haul those unconscious women into the brig.”

“Good,” Fred said.
 
“It’s awfully cluttered out there.
 
I really hate a mess on my carpets.”

Before Steven had made it two steps away from his seat, Vaish saw a flicker on her screen.
 
“Captain,” she began, only to be cut off by Fred.

“A ship is approaching from starboard,” he reported in his most emotionless tone, then added, “Holy shit, look at the size of that motherfucker!”

Steven dropped back into his chair.
 
“Fred.
 
There are ladies present.”

“If you refer to me as a lady again,” Vaish said evenly, punching up information on the approaching ship, “I’m going to reach into your throat and pull out your tonsils.
 
Captain.”

“Noted and logged, Commander.
 
What the hell is that ship?”