Chapter 22

The ride was bumpy and uncomfortable in a single-occupant pod with two of them in it. Although closer to Zee than he’d been before, it wasn’t as fun in reality as it was in his head. They squeezed enough that they were breathing each other’s air and taxing the life support systems to scrub the CO2 they were both contributing.

With the rough ride rattling them into each other, the light-headedness from the air quality, and the tight quarters, Lee felt on the edge of crazed panic. After an agonizing five or ten minutes, they stopped hard and sat there waiting.

Zee broke the silence and said in a soft voice, “It must be the sentries.”

“Probably.”

“I messed with their gyros. They should spin out like crazy.”

“I’m sure you did fine, don’t worry about it. There’s nothing we can do from in here, anyway.”

They lay quiet for a while, listening. Waiting.

“Lee?”

“Yeah?”

“You’ve changed.”

“I guess.”

“So you’re past it? You got the guy that… that killed Vic?”

“Not exactly.”

She was uncomfortably quiet.

He felt the need to fill the space. “It’s… complicated. Okay?”

“Okay.” She was quiet again for a moment.

A sudden jerk of motion rocked them, knocking their heads together.

“Ow!” She cried out.

His forehead throbbed, and there was no room for either of them to rub the pain away. “Remind me to have a talk with Jackson about his driving,” he said, his voice unsteady from the continued bumps.

“So, what’s complicated?”

“Well, the one that pulled the trigger is driving us right now. The one that gave the order is the guy we’re all trying to take down.”

“Wait, Jackson pulled the trigger? And…”

“And Duryss gave the order.”

She held her mouth open in shock.

“You really have changed.”

“Prison. It changes a man,” he smirked.

“Oh, stop.”

“So, what makes you think I’ve changed?”

“Well, for one, I didn’t think you cared about anything else but justice for Vic,” she said, looking away from him. Then she continued, “And two, Jackson’s not dead.”

“As it turns out, chairs don’t make good missiles in Coriolis gravity.”

She looked at him with a confused, curious expression.

“And, it doesn’t get me ahead or anything to take Jackson out for doing a job he wouldn’t have done if he’d known what they were out there for.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know how it is. Bounty missions don’t give you the story about what the target is wanted for. They only tell you they’re wanted.”

Zee thought for a moment, then said, “I suppose it would be nice for mercs to make informed decisions. But, there are plenty of shady corps and disparate factions posting morally ambiguous missions. They probably don’t want you to know why you’re hunting their target.”

“Sure. You can do anything you want if you have the credits for it. Always been that way.”

He stared into her eyes for a bit, as much as the bumpy ride allowed. They stayed that way for a while. He knew what she wanted to know, but she’d never ask for it outright. Something was making him feel different. Maybe it was how close he was to her. Whatever it was, he felt uninhibited enough to say what was on his mind.

“I did care––I do care. Care about you, I mean.” He felt like an awkward schoolboy talking to a girl for the first time. At the same time, he felt strangely okay about it.

She smiled softly and looked up at him from under her brow, “I know. But it’s nice to hear you say it. Like I said: you’ve changed.”

“Yeah, I really have—a whole lot. Like a lot, a lot. I like you a lot. And I can’t stop myself from talking right now.” There was only a vague awareness of how ridiculous he sounded. He wasn’t sure what was compelling him to talk like that.

“Uh-huh,” she nodded back exaggeratedly. “Wow, is it me or is it getting weird in here?”

“It is. I’m completely weird right now, and I can’t stop it.” He had an uncontrollable urge to laugh.

A look of realization dawned on her face. “The scrubbers!”

“You want me to scrub you?” He shrugged, feeling oddly all too happy to help. He tried to move his arms to rub at her as she asked, but she grabbed his wrists. He liked that too.

“No, Lee. Stop!” She half giggled. Her giggle made him feel warm all over. “Lee! We have to slow our breathing. We’re overwhelming…” She had trouble finishing her thought. “Overwhelming the scrub… Too much… Too much CO…2.”

“It’s too much… It’s too much… It’s too muhhhch…” Lee singsonged, in a dizzy, happy trance. Before he realized it, a heavy tiredness gripped him. His vision narrowed. “I think… think… I’ll take a… a nap.” He could see her saying something to him, but he couldn’t make out what exactly it was. Her face had a glowy filter around it. Angelic, Lee thought, before everything went black.

A shout invaded Lee’s rising consciousness.

“Cough!”

Then another shout that seemed closer.

“Cough!”

There was the vague feeling of a smack on his back. A reactionary cough leaped out of him, and he felt his body heave forward. A satisfying rush of air filled his lungs, and his vision returned.

“There you are,” Zee said, keeping her voice soft. She was crouched down beside him, a hand holding him up at his back, and her other resting on his chest.

“Here I am,” he said back to her sleepily. “Where am I?”

“We’re on the ship,” she whispered.

“The ship?” He tried to look around. It was an enormous cargo rack. They seemed to be in a small pathway between two large shipping cases.

“Easy now,” her hand went to the back of his neck. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt a woman touch his neck. As he thought about it, it probably wasn’t since his mother was still a functioning human being. “Breathe now. Just breathe,” she told him.

He took a shallow test sniff, expecting the stench of biowaste. But there was only a mild smell of mechanical grease, nothing more. He started some slow, measured breaths.

“We’re on the Decimator, Lee,” Jackson stood over him. His hands at his waist, in a waiting sort of stance.

“What happened?”

“You both passed out,” Jackson replied.

“Mornin’ cupcake,” Dex said from somewhere behind him with a quiet laugh.

“Hey!” Lee raised his voice.

They shushed him in unison.

“Alright, alright,” he said more quietly.

Tarrek stood near the cargo rack door, keeping an ear out.

Jackson started to fill him in, “Sorry it took us so long, Lee.”

“Ran into some trouble, I take it?”

“When don’t we? We were stopped by a patrol. Since the sentries were out of commission, they dispatched a couple of SRVs to patrol the area. We got stopped and redirected to load equipment from the factory onto the ship at pad 8.”

“Okay… so?”

“So,” Jackson tapped a control on the side of a shipping case about Dex’s height. The door slid up into the ceiling of the case, and the built-in illumination came on. He made a gesture into the metal box.

Lee recognized the objects inside as ship modules. Four arc segments that made up a donut with a central core: ThermARCs. Judging by the number of large cases in the rack, there were hundreds of the modules.

“Duryss! Vack! He’s got Xohn working for him now. These are ThermARCs. This is the ship that was chasing us.”

Jackson nodded, “Yeah. Apparently, they’re picking up a shipment to deliver somewhere.”

Lee furrowed his brow. “No, I mean, this has got to be under direct orders by Duryss.”

“Okay, so what do we do with that, Lee?” Trisha spoke up.

“I don’t know. I don’t know yet.”

Jackson quipped, “I say we take over.”

Lee shook his head at Jackson’s brazen suggestion.

“Against trained military officers working for Sietae Corp and the Hyades government?” Trisha asked, with worry in her voice.

Jackson pressed his point. “Right, well, we have Tarrek and Dex, who can handle the tough ones and…”

“Trisha’s right,” Lee said. “We probably can’t overpower the entire crew. This is an Anaconda. There’s at least four command-deck officers and a dozen or more non-com crew.”

“Then what?” Jackson threw his hands up. “What’s the plan?”

“I’m thinking.”

“Think faster,” Tarrek shouted in a whispered voice from the entrance of the cargo rack. Then the normal side of his face turned to something like a look of surprise. “Someone’s coming! Hide!”

There were various sounds of shushing, followed by frantic shuffling throughout the rack. Lee found a spot behind a case along a pathway toward the door, so he could see them coming. He felt the need to get some idea of who they were up against.

The door slid open. A woman with short, dark hair, wearing some sort of green and yellow uniform walked in with her arms held behind her. She touched the pad controls by the door, and the rack lighting blinked on. Nervous that he could be spotted, Lee ducked down and listened.

The sound of magboots on the deck was almost deafening. Some timid beeps were followed by the scrape of a case being opened.

“So this is the device that will help us defeat the ‘goids.” The woman said. She had an authoritative voice. Lee guessed it was someone high ranking on the crew. “How long until we’re fully loaded?”

A male voice responded. “They’re all delivered to the pad. Loading will finish in a couple of minutes.” Lee assumed it was a subordinate officer.

“It’s not much to look at, is it?”

There was a grunt from the crewman.

“I’m not yet disclosed on what this device does,” she continued.

“You’re not exactly on the Consular’s good side,” he responded. “I don’t care what it does. I’ll be happy when we can join the CZ and dust terrorists in Chelum. This is an errand standing in the way of what I signed up for.”

“You’ll get your combat, Sloane. One way or another. I promise you that.”

“Until ordered on another errand.”

There was a pause. Lee was startled by another small beep and the scrape of the case closing. He peaked around the box in front of him to see what was happening. The man she had called ‘Sloane’ appeared to be standing outside the rack. She turned from the case to face him, arms crossed.

“You understand our position.” She told him.

“Your position.”

“Our position,” she stressed. Her tone had a dangerous edge. “You’re under my command, Lieutenant. Until such time that you are granted transfer or resign, you’re part of this crew, and will follow orders; my orders and those of our mission.”

Sloane straightened at her command tone.

“I’m built for the front lines too. If you knew my past, you’d know why I’m here. Right now, we need to set up a tactical advantage. Part of that means regaining favor with the Consular.”

“Or stand up to him,” Sloane responded back.

”Careful, Lieutenant. Be very, very careful. You almost sound like a terrorist,” she said, leaving the thought to hang.

“No, ma’am. I’m… I’m not suggesting… I only meant about our orders… not…”

A chirp emanated from the datapad under his arm. “The loading is finished, sir.”

“Very well.”

Lee watched them leave the cargo rack.

She continued talking to Sloane while they walked down the corridor. “Let me tell you something Sloan, if I ever find the Consular abusing us or his position, I won’t hesitate to use all my contacts and resources to…”

Her voice trailed off in the distance as the rack door slid shut behind them.

There was silence in the rack for a minute, as they waited to make sure the pair wouldn’t return. Satisfied they’d be left alone, Lee stood and saw Tarrek pop out from around another case at the front corner of the rack. “Okay, coast clear,” he said.

They all gathered at the sort of center of the rack at the crossroad path between cases. “That had to be the Commander and someone from the bridge crew,” Lee said.

“Sounds like a lil’ dissension in the ranks,” Dex said, his voice still almost booming despite his attempts to speak softly.

Jackson was unusually animated, “We should go talk to the Commander; tell her what Duryss is doing out here.”

“Are you crazy?” Trisha nearly cursed back at him.

“No, I’m serious. Then we don’t have to stage a takeover.”

It didn’t sit well with Lee at all. “We just have to expose the fact that we’re Resistance ‘terrorists’ that escaped the penal colony by stowing away on her ship. I’m sure she’ll be entirely ready to believe anything we tell her.” He kept a deadpan expression.

“No, Lee. If we’re not going to try to take the ship, we have to try and tell them. You heard them—they’re not 100% behind Duryss. Trisha has all the evidence we need. I’m telling you, there’s a chance…”

Lee interrupted, trying to get his attention to plead with any rational side he might have. “A chance to what? Get ourselves thrown in their brig? They’ll just hand us back over to Arber, then it’s the tank for each of us.”

Zee had a repulsed look on her face. “I am not going in one of those chambers ever again. I agree with Lee; we can’t risk it. At least not until we’re far away from here.”

“Then we wait, but this is the best play we…”

Jackson was interrupted by the sudden roar of the ship’s thrusters. The deck seemed to leap underneath Lee, and he felt extra G-forces on his legs that he hadn’t felt in a very long time. It forced him and the rest of the group to squat, sit, or lean on something for support.

“Okay, so there, we’re taking off. We just have to wait…” Jackson grunted at even more G-forces as the ship made a hard bank to aim toward whatever course they were taking. A sudden engine boost caused them all to start to roll toward the doorway. Arms flailed to catch an edge to hold themselves in place. “We wait until we’ve made a jump to a different system, then go talk to her.”

“Jackson, they’re not going to listen. I don’t even want to listen, and I believe it! Does anyone else agree that we need to take over or get the crew to listen to us? Tarrek? Dex?” He already knew Zee’s position, and Trisha thought it was a crazy idea to begin with.

Dex half-cleared his throat so he could speak clearly while keeping his voice down. “There’s dissension, but not mutinous feelin’s, so far as I can see. I see where yer comin’ from Jackson, but it seems layin’ low’s the best thing. Wait till we get ta where we’re headed and make our way from there. Clear our names and get back in’ta the fight.”

“Alright, so, Tarrek? You’re the intelligence specialist. What’s your take?”

Tarrek looked up at the ceiling considering it. “There is opportunity. The divisions in crew can be used. Sloane seems ready to mutiny, but we need more support from rest of crew. No way to know crew feelings without more intel. I say it’s too risky to go to Commander. Not enough evidence she’s ready to turn on Duryss.”

“Fine. So we go ‘gather intel’ then,” Jackson said, getting exasperated by everyone. “We’re all way past playing it safe, we gotta do something.”

Tarrek nodded, “I agree there. Even if we hide until landing, this is good opportunity to find out about their plans.”

Dex looked at Lee and gave him a half shrug, “I can’t argue with that, Lee. Might be somethin’ to help the Resistance.”

Lee sighed, “Alright. Then we need to split up and be extremely careful.” He looked over at Jackson, “I mean it.”

Jackson rolled his eyes, “Yeah, I’ll be careful.”

“Trisha and I will try to access a terminal and see what information we can dig up. Dex, can you go with Zee down to the engine room? Find out the specs of the ship?”

Dex and Zee both nodded.

“Tarrek, go with Jackson, try to learn what you can from listening to the crew. Don’t talk to anyone, just listen.” He pointed a finger to underscore his seriousness.

Jackson knew it was pointed at him. “I won’t!”

Lee leaned over to Tarrek, and whispered, “Keep a close eye on him. Don’t let him do anything stupid.”

Tarrek gave him a quick nod. “And you—stay out of places that trip intrusion countermeasures.” He gave him a stern look from under his brow, “No matter how tempting.”

Lee nodded back. He clearly picked up the implication of his failed hack attempt. As he gestured Trisha over to him, the maneuvers stopped, and they began to float. There was no gravity, and no magboots.

Trisha squeaked and floated right past Lee. He just missed grabbing her arm. “Well, this is going to be interesting,” Lee quipped. “Gently push yourself to a wall or an edge, or somewhere you can grab on to. Don’t push back too hard to stop yourself, or you’ll bounce off. You want to use your arms and legs to absorb your inertia, like pulling your legs in to absorb the impact of a big jump.”

Lee had a handhold under the lip of one of the cases he had been leaning against moments earlier from the maneuvering Gs. With an acrobatic like flair, he pushed off and used another crate to pull himself in the direction of the cargo rack door. Zero-G maneuvering came back to him, and the extra strength he built planet-side on the penal colony gave him even more control and agility. He stopped himself on the wall and planted his ear on the door to listen for movement on the other side. He couldn’t detect any magboot locking or unlocking sounds. Then he tapped the door panel to open it and pulled his head around the door frame to look around. It was still clear.

He pushed himself down to orient with the deck and “stood” by holding the edge of the door opening. Looking back into the cargo rack, he saw Trisha awkwardly holding herself still at the corner of a shipment case. He quickly made a “pull-down” gesture with his hand to encourage her to push off in his direction.

She made an attempt and shot forward but also kicked off the case with her foot putting her into a multi-axis spin. Lee braced his knees around the door opening then twisted himself to put both arms out to catch her. She landed with her arms out and almost bounced back, but he was able to grab around her at a hip and her opposite shoulder. He righted her into a more-or-less standing position beside him.

“First, we need some magboots. I’ll be right back.” Lee left the cargo rack and took the small passage right toward a corridor intersection. At the junction, he made a left toward where he hoped was the aft of the ship to make it to the loading bay. He pulled himself along the walls of the passage, floating to his target.

The end of the corridor opened up into the loading bay, just as he suspected. Still floating, he pulled against the edge of the opening to cross the bay into a position in front of a set of storage compartments. He opened a large locker and found space suits. Where there were suits, boots wouldn’t be far away. Underneath was a half-height compartment. After closing the first compartment, he found three sets of magboots underneath. Holding himself in place with a hand on the open storage container, he yanked off his plain boots and shoved them to the back to hide them. Then, he pulled a magboot and stuck it to the floor, grabbed both sides of the opening, and shoved a foot in. Now anchored, he pulled the other mag boot onto his foot and secured it to the floor. He grabbed the two remaining pairs, closed the compartment, and looked around. There was another large compartment above a half-height one. Crouching to look inside the low container, he confirmed it had three more sets of magboots. Out of arms, he knew it was going to take another trip.

Lee headed back to the cargo rack with a magboot set under each arm. When he arrived, he handed one set to Trisha, and the other to Tarrek. “Get these on. Tarrek, make a left at the main passage to get to the landing bay. The lower compartments have more magboots. Gather the rest for the others. I’m going to take Trisha and go see what we can see.”

Tarrek took his boots and started fitting them right away. Lee had to stop to help Trisha with hers. He looked over at Zee, who pursed her lips with a flash of jealously on her face. Lee shrugged back at her, but her face seemed to scrunch inward even further. He hadn’t known Zee to be the jealous type. It was the first time he realized she’d crossed that line of seeing him as hers alone. Women were abundantly strange creatures.

Trisha looked up at Lee and whispered, “All set.”

“Alright, let’s go,” he whispered back.

“Where are we going?”

“Forward toward the crew areas. Follow me and try to stay out of sight.” She nodded, and they took off to the intersecting corridor.

Instead of heading left, Lee steered them right but took slower, more deliberate steps as they got past the center of the cargo area. He opened the doorway out of the cargo area and looked around. It was another corridor junction, but this one had airlocks at the far ends. It appeared to span the entire width of the ship. The style of the corridors changed from utilitarian to a much more inviting aesthetic, clearly the habitation areas of the ship. Satisfied that no one was around, he entered with Trisha on his heels. There were three open doorways along the foreword corridor wall. The central opening led down another corridor toward a closed door at the far end. Lee motioned Trisha to follow, and he led them down it to the far door continuing along their heading to the bow of the ship.

As they approached, Lee put an ear to the door to listen for motion. Hearing nothing, he decided it was safe and tapped the controls. The door opened to reveal a sizable empty gathering room. There was another door at the far end, and two other doors at the mid-point along the sides of the room. He snuck past the large L-shaped lounge with the sound of Trisha’s magboots following behind him.

Forward would likely mean crew quarters on a ship this size. His instincts told him they needed to try the side rooms. He lead them to the left and again listened with an ear on the door.

They entered the room, and on either side of them were two computer terminals.

“There,” he pointed to the other terminal. “I got this one.”

“What am I looking for?” she whispered.

“I don’t know. Evidence that further corroborates your story?” She looked at him dubiously, then turned to work on her terminal.

He took a seat and cracked his knuckles before poking around the terminal. It didn’t take long at all for him to map out where the more interesting information was.

The communication logs were heavily encrypted, but the mission logs were easy to access. Lee began to review them in the reverse sequence: loading at Arber, the landing, a departure from Sietae, prisoner transfer, and on and on it went. As he dug, he even found their chase through Glist and their engagement at Foden Dock. It was all here. All mapped out.

He waved Trisha over, “This is what we need, right?” He pointed to each of the entries that told the ship’s story.

“Maybe?”

A noise of magboots running through the next room caught their attention. Lee pointed to get beside the door. Trisha scrambled to her position, and he moved as silently as his magboots allowed up against the wall. His pulse quickened at the coming confrontation, but he forced himself to remain calm. The boot sounds seemed to go off in another direction for a moment before growing louder and louder towards them. He knew whoever it was stopped right outside their door. The door opened. Lee took a blind swing.

Tarrek instinctively used his arm to deflect his swing away while dodging. “Lee! It’s me!”

“Tarrek? What the screb are you doing down here?”

“We have problem!”

Lee rolled his eyes, “Now what?”

“Jackson.”

Lee couldn’t keep his face straight, and actual fear crept across it. “What did he do?”

“He went to the Commander.”

Trisha cupped her hands to her mouth.

Lee cursed. A lot.