The Jovian Run: Sol Space Book One (17 page)

It was the matter of another minute’s work to rotate the hull disc round until they could match it up perfectly to its original orientation, thus providing a tight seal. The cutters had carved the hole by hand, and though they clearly had been skilled, the disc was not a perfect circle. Once it was in place, Dinah slapped adhesive patches on the seams in various places to hold it. Outside, the mechanic did the same. John had come up behind him in the UteV, and he gently placed a capture claw around the handle on the back of Ian’s jetpack. Finally, it was time to begin the welding process. Dinah set her jetpack on .1 G constant thrust to keep her pressed to the wall, and used her arm and feet to brace and move herself. On the other side of the hull, Park was moving Inboden in a slow circle as he welded.

“I feel like a paintbrush out here,” he muttered. Park and Templeton laughed audibly, and Dinah smiled.

It took nearly fifteen minutes for them to melt the metal into a seal all around the disc, and when that was completed, the mechanic set about applying hull patches over the newly welded seam. Park used the craft’s other capture claw to pull them from the outboard storage crate and to hand them to him one by one. Finally, it was done.

“Sir, are you there?” Dinah asked, glancing at the watch plastered to the inside of her helmet near her left ear.

“Yep. You must be inside; I can hear you better.”

“The seal is completed. You can try repressurizing B17.”

“Roger that.”

“Keep an eye out for leaks out there,” Dinah said to the repair crew on the other side of the freshly repaired hull.

A few seconds later, the air level in the hallway started to rise. Dinah could neither hear nor see it, but the atmosphere gauge on her wrist told her it was increasing. As the air pressure grew, she held her breath, hoping the seal would hold. There was no reason it shouldn’t; they had been more than thorough, but then, it had not been a good day. The hallway, though not very large, took several minutes to repressurize. This was far more time than the cargo bay, but the cargo bay was designed to be depressurized and repressurized rapidly and regularly. The ship’s hallways were not.

Once her gauge indicated that the atmosphere in the corridor was as normal as the rest of the ship, she spoke. “It looks like its holding in here. Do you see any atmosphere venting outside?” The question was a formality. The men would have told her if they had seen anything amiss.

“Looks fine out here, chief,” Inboden said, his voice slightly laced with static.

“All right then. You can come back inside now.”

“Templeton?” It was Park’s voice.

“Yeah, John. After you drop Ian off, you can go look for Yegor, but I don’t want you more than 2000 kilometers from the ship. You understand me?”

“Loud and clear, Don.”

Dinah looked once more at the gauge on her wrist, then reached up to undo the safety clamps and remove her helmet. The air filled her lungs easily, but it was bitterly cold. Her breath showed briefly in front of her face as she breathed out. The heaters were going to take a little while to warm the hallway, and she was glad that she was still in her suit. A light tap on the controls of her jetpack sent her back down the corridor to the door that she had ordered Parsells and Quinn to seal. It was odd seeing it from this side. She imagined Jang leaning out to shoot a rifle, imagined being the attacker pointing a stun pistol at him and shooting him in the head. Once she reached the branching hallway with the sealed door, she gripped a support bar and stopped herself. She reached down and opened the door. On the other side were Staples and the doctor.

The captain shivered as the blast of cold air hit her in the face, and the doctor’s teeth chattered for a moment until he got them under control.

“It is very cold in here, sir.” Dinah’s breath continued to mist as she spoke. “We can wait a few minutes if you’d like.”

“No,” she shook her head, “we need to see to our passenger.” She produced a pair of gloves to protect her hands and slid them on, and the doctor did the same.

A frigid minute later, they were in front of the door to CB4. It had auto-sealed when the hallway had depressurized, and it took Dinah only a few seconds to get it open. When the door swung in, there was no rush of air. The room might have been without air briefly, but once the door had closed, the air circulators had refilled it. Dinah moved in first, her captain and Jabir close behind. CB4 was a fairly large room, and like most on the ship, it was rectangular and ran perpendicular to the spine of the ship. The ventral and rear walls were covered in submerged hooks designed to hold cargo in place with the help of straps. Right now the room contained only two medium sized containers, each a meter square, and the stasis tube, a large letter B showing on the front. The docking node that had housed the other tube stood empty. None of this, however, demanded the three crew members’ attention so much as the massive convex dent in the top left corner of the room. It had evidently not caused a breach, but the hull was clearly quite damaged, and various electrical cables and even a support strut hung down brokenly.

The stasis tube itself seemed undamaged, but there were several red lights blinking on its interface that had not been there when it had been wheeled past Staples on Mars. Dinah was already cruising over to it, having pushed herself off the doorway, and the captain and the doctor were right behind her. Dinah scanned the readout, then pulled off the gloves of her EVA suit and began typing on the screen.

“It’s been damaged,” she said as she worked.

“It doesn’t look damaged.” Staples countered, though as she said it, she knew it was absurd to contradict the woman.

“It’s electrical damage. The supply sources were compromised. There was a power surge, and the tube was subjected to maybe a minute of vacuum.” Jabir approached and looked over Dinah’s shoulder, nodding as he read the display.

“So what does that mean? Is the person,” she assumed it was Evelyn Schilling, but she was no longer certain, “in there alive? Are they all right?”

“Yes, sir.” Dinah’s reply was immediate. “But I don’t know if they will continue to be. The tube needs repairs. I might be able to do it, but I really don’t want to operate on a stasis tube while someone is inside.

“I concur,” the doctor added.

“So what do we do?”

“The way I see it, we have two options, sir. We either leave it closed and hope for the best, or we open it and make up the guest room.”

Staples looked at her overpriced and overqualified doctor. “Can you do that?”

“Yes,” he nodded and continued in his richly accented voice. “There are procedures to follow, and while it is not something that I have done before, the procedure is fairly simple. Waking people from stasis is not nearly as complex as putting them into it. Tell me, does this constitute a breach of contract?”

“I don’t much care at this point. Besides, I want answers. Herc was supposed to be in this tube. I don’t know what that means. I don’t know if Evelyn is in here or not. This job has turned into a real mess, and whoever is in there, I’m hoping they can clear some things up.”

“Very well,” he replied. “I could open the stasis tube here, but I prefer to do so in Medical.”

“All right,” Staples said. “I’ll have Declan and Yoli move the tube down to Medical.” She shifted her focus to her chief engineer. “Can we detach the tube without causing any further damage?” Dinah nodded.

“I’m afraid that Ms. Trujilo bruised her arm on a bulkhead in her attempt to rush to her quarters. Speed and zero-gravity travel rarely mix well.” The doctor’s tone made it clear that asking Yoli to help was out of the question.

“I can do it, sir,” the other woman offered.

“No, now that this is done, I want you in the ReC looking at the engines.” She thought for a minute. “Ian will just be getting back on the ship. You know what? Get Parsells and Quinn back here to help.”

“As you wish, Captain. I’ll prepare Medical.” He pushed himself off from the tube and back towards the door.

Chapter 11

“All right, Captain, you can come in, but please keep the conversation light. I have informed Ms. Schilling of the broad details of the situation and of the death of Mr. Bauer. She is feeling somewhat fragile, as one would expect.” Doctor Iqbal stood in the doorway to Medical, quite decidedly in his captain’s path, until he was done speaking. She nodded her assent, and only after another moment did he reluctantly step aside and let her in. Setting foot in Medical after several days of weightlessness was both a relief and a burden. Her brain told her that things were normal again under the effects of the gravity plating she had paid a great deal to have installed, but her body almost immediately felt like a prison as her 135 pounds returned. The plating could be set to lower or higher percentages of gravity, but the doctor kept it at Earth normal: 9.81 meters per second per second. He maintained that it was necessary to not only help keep him healthy, but also to properly gauge his patients’ health. The human body had evolved to function at homeostasis under normal Earth gravity, and that was how he felt it should be evaluated. Staples secretly suspected him of cranking up the gravity when no one was around in order to use the space as a private workout room, but she had never caught him at it, nor would she blame him for doing so if she did.

              As she entered, she saw Evelyn Schilling lying on the same bed the doctor had put her on back on Mars. She was wearing a green hospital gown, and a pale blue sheet was pulled up to her waist. She had pinned her long flame colored hair back from her face. Though her eyes were puffy and somewhat reddened, she was not crying.

Staples was again struck by the beauty of the woman, and wondered if she had had surgery. Plastic surgery to alter one’s appearance, more specifically to make oneself more attractive, was hardly uncommon, and if one had the money, the possible alterations were remarkable. Amongst the upper class, astounding transformations could be achieved. Of course, there was no accounting for taste, but over a hundred years of study of the science underlying attraction had shown that certain facial shapes, certain contours, and above all, symmetry were most universally appealing. If in fact the fair skinned woman in front of her had undergone surgery, the captain thought that her surgeon was to be commended.

              Staples, slightly unsteady on her heavy feet and trying her best to wear a sympathetic smile, walked across the room. She stopped a few feet short of the bed. “Evelyn. How are you?”

              Evelyn took a deep breath and then released it as a shuddering sigh, and for a second her lip trembled and Staples thought she was going to cry, but she didn’t. “I’m okay. I won’t say I’m fine,” her eyes flicked to the doctor, “but I’ll manage. I just can’t believe this. I can’t believe your ship was attacked.” Her brows furrowed and her eyes glistened. “And I can’t believe you lost a crew member. Is it true that he died trying to save Herc?” Her husky voice was higher pitched than normal.

              Staples searched for an answer that was honest and that did not belie her doubts on the matter. “He was a very brave man.”

              “Poor Herc. I didn’t know him - I mean - not well, but he was a good man.” She nodded at her own statement as she spoke.

              “I only met him the once, but I thought he was too. Evelyn, I need to ask you some questions. Is that all right?” She closed the rest of the distance to the bed, unconsciously crossing her arms across her chest. The woman on the bed nodded. Jabir had walked around and was standing on the other side of his patient, ready to warn his captain off with a look if necessary. “My manifest said that you were in tube A, but we found you in tube B. Do you know why?”

              She nodded immediately. “Herc hurt his wrist after dinner. It was stupid, really. Some guy bumped into him and walked off, and then Herc realized that his wallet was missing. He chased after the guy and gave him a good tackle. He’s… he was a big guy. He got his wallet back, but he sprained his wrist. When we got to Stasis Solutions, they gave us a full examination,” she looked at the doctor a bit slyly, “and they decided to put a cast on it before they put him in stasis.” She finished her statement as though it had cleared everything up, but the look on Staples’ face said she clearly hadn’t.

              “Sorry. They had tube B all ready to go for him, but then it was going to take them a bit to put the cast on, so they said they would just put me in B and him in A. They said they’d change it in the manifest. I guess they forgot.”

The blonde woman searched the engineer’s eyes, and though she was far from an expert, she saw nothing but open-faced honesty. She decided to accept it for now. “All right. Do you have any idea why someone would hire a crew of pirates to kidnap you?”

“Me?” The lovely brown eyes widened incredulously. “You think they were after me?”

Staples allowed some steel to creep into her voice. “I am absolutely sure of it.” She wasn’t one hundred percent sure this was true, but she wanted to push the woman to give any explanation she might have. Iqbal gave her a withering glance, but he did not interfere.

“I…” she looked around the room as if for answers. “I have no idea. I mean, I’m a talented computer scientist. Maybe they needed one, but there have to be easier ways.”

“Absolutely. I don’t know what your salary is, but I suspect that they could hire you ten times over for what that crew was likely paid to abduct you.”

“I don’t hire myself out to pirates, not even for ten times regular pay, but I take your point. Okay. So it wasn’t about money.” Evelyn had taken on the look of a person attempting to solve a puzzle. “I was just hired by Libom Pangalactic; I’m certainly not party to any corporate secrets as yet. I’ve been head programmer at a few small firms, but nothing that I can imagine warranting abduction by pirates.” She smiled slightly, showing perfectly straight teeth. “It would sound exciting and romantic if the results hadn’t been so horrible.”

“Maybe someone didn’t want you working for Libom. Maybe they were trying to keep Cronos Station from getting up to speed. I heard that the loss of their previous computer engineer was hurting production. Perhaps a rival energy company?”

“I suppose that could be it,” Evelyn ruminated, then frowned. “But then why just me? Or why try to take just me? Herc and I weren’t in exactly the same fields, but given what they told me about their issues, I think he would have done a fair job on his own.” She paused a moment, then added. “It should have been me. If Herc hadn’t hurt his wrist, I would be dead and he would be alive.”

“You can’t drive yourself crazy with
what ifs
, Evelyn. This was nothing you did.
They
did it.” She gestured with her head towards the starboard side of the ship and the cloud of debris beyond.

“Maybe they were going to take both tubes?” the doctor interjected in an effort to steer his patient away from survivor’s guilt.

Staples shook her head. “If they had wanted both tubes, they would have taken them at the same time. They were smart and well planned. It would have made no sense to take one and then go back for the other. Too inefficient, too much time. No. They wanted you and you specifically. The question is why.” There was a moment of silence as they all pondered the question. “Is it possible that there’s something on you, maybe in you?”

“What, like Stasis Solutions implanted some sub-dermal data chip carrying secret messages in my skin?” When she said it aloud, it did sound rather ridiculous, but the doctor was shaking his head.

“Believe it or not, I checked. I scanned her body for anything non-organic when I brought her out of stasis.” Both women looked at him, surprised. He shrugged. “I read a lot of spy novels,” he offered by way of explanation.

“Maybe it’s not you. Maybe it’s the tube,” Staples conjectured. “I’ll have Dinah have a look at both of the stasis tubes once she’s finished with the engines.”

“You know, Captain, Ms. Hazra is not a skeleton key for all of the ship’s problems.”

Staples narrowed her eyes at the doctor briefly, but did not answer. After another few seconds of thought, she sighed deeply. “We’ve got over a week before we reach Saturn. Depending on the condition of the engines, that might increase. I’m tempted to keep you confined to Medical, Evelyn, for your own safety.” The woman’s expression ably conveyed that she was not amenable to that. “But you’re not a prisoner; you’re a passenger. In fact, you’re a guest. I’ll have some quarters prepared for you. You can come and go as you please. Actually, if you don’t mind, I have some work for you.”

Evelyn’s face lit up.

“The loss of our communications officer, Yegor Durin, has hurt us in more ways than one. He was in the middle of refitting the communications suite with one we salvaged from a derelict satellite. Coms and radar are down, and I suspect that you might be the best person to finish the job. Charis and Dinah could probably do it between the two of them, but they’re already busy, Dinah especially, and it’s hardly their area of expertise.” She shot a look at Iqbal, as if to say:
see, Dinah doesn’t do everything
.

“Sure, I’d be happy to. Might help keep my mind off things.” She swung the sheet off of her legs, revealing a tantalizing view of one thigh, and made to jump down from the bed.

Jabir put a hand on her shoulder to restrain her. “Just a minute, Doctor. I would like to dot a few more i’s and cross a few more t’s before you go gallivanting off around the ship.”

Evelyn looked over her shoulder at him, and her eyes were large and plaintive. “Give it to me straight, Doctor. You’re just trying to keep me in bed, aren’t you?”

It was exceedingly odd, Staples thought, to see Evelyn sitting in Yegor’s seat on the bridge. She was sure that she wasn’t the only one. Jabir had given the woman a clean bill of health to work, but he had restricted her to, by his definition, light duty. That meant no more than a few hours at a time, and certainly no more than six hours a day. She took to the work with a great deal of enthusiasm which seemed, as far as the captain could tell, to be how she took to most things. Staples found it difficult to pin her down exactly. She had a fun, flirtatious, sometimes irreverent manner, yet she was unquestionably intelligent and capable, and she addressed her work with a great deal of seriousness. Evelyn had been out of the stasis tube and moving about the ship for only a day and a half, but it seemed that more than a few members of the crew had taken an interest in her. Staples couldn’t blame them. The woman was lovely, and it was well known that grief and arousal were old friends.

At the moment, she was wearing a pair of khaki slacks and a black tank top, much like the sort that Dinah preferred, and her red hair was twisted into two braids at the back of her skull to keep it out of her face. Her pale arms carried a smattering of freckles that increased in density as they fell to her hands, which were themselves strong and marked by dry skin. The majority of the time she had spent working was in the communications room, a small, chamber dense with computer equipment at the bow of the ship. It was tucked beneath the cockpit but above the cargo bay. There had been a learning curve, she explained to the captain, but her understanding of the communications hardware and software was growing rapidly. If everything went to plan, the hope was to have the coms and radar restored within another two days of work, though she had intimated that she might have to bend her physician’s orders to accomplish this feat. Some of her work required adjustments from the primary coms panel in the cockpit, and so here she was, bent over the surfaces in Yegor’s chair.

Charis was working quietly at her station, and Bethany huddled in her chair, her eyes moving between the stars and the new woman on her right. Don, meanwhile, sat next to his captain, staring absently at Evelyn as well, though Staples was fairly sure it was Yegor’s chair and not the woman that was the source of his pensiveness. The loss of their crewmember had been difficult for the majority of the crew. John had searched as long as the captain had allowed him, and even a bit longer, but he was unable to find Yegor’s body in the wreckage of the pirate ship. They had decided to hold a funeral service for him, and Don had spoken; he had said some very touching words to the crew about the man. The entire thing had been awful and odd, and it all seemed to lack closure without his body. This was amplified by the tension that seemed to infect the crew. Fear of another attack hung heavy in the atmosphere. There were wild theories about where the missiles had come from. There were also, despite the first mate’s efforts to quash them when he encountered them, rumors that Yegor had been paid to disable the coms.

A muted debate on whether to hold a funeral for Herc Bauer had arisen as well. No one on the ship had really known him. Evelyn had met him a few days before
Gringolet
had arrived on Mars, though she had heard of him by reputation before that, and Staples had only spoken to him for about an hour. In the end, Don and Clea decided to postpone the funeral. Once coms were back up, assuming Evelyn’s work proceeded apace, they could find out where the Computer Engineer had family. They had every expectation that they would be stopping at Mars on the way back to the core planets, and perhaps he could be given a proper funeral by people who had known him there.

“Captain, are you there?” Dinah’s voice came through the speaker on her watch. Staples shook her head to clear it of her reverie and tapped it to reply.

“Go ahead.”