Adventures on RV Traveler (Free Trader Series Book 3) (13 page)

29 – Storage

‘Holly, the Androids were working with blank screens. They were going through the motions.’
Micah wanted insight from Holly on whether they would run across more Androids like these.

‘Insufficient data. If you could have kept one of them active, I could have recovered the information.’

‘Enough of the Engineering Spaces, Holly. We killed the vines and we killed the Androids. There was something wrong with them and then they attacked Micah. We had no choice, so stop being an ass.’
Braden had no patience for Holly’s second guessing. The Androids were dangerous.
‘Sleep,’
he told the annoying window before his eye.

‘Holly, can you access these computers?’
Micah inserted herself back into the conversation. They needed more information to move forward safely. How many more of these Androids would they encounter?

‘Working on it, Master President. Please keep your window open while I work and if you could, tell Braden I’m sorry.’
Holly sounded contrite.

“Holly says he’s sorry, by the way. He’s trying to access the working computers right now. Hang on, he’s telling me to do something. What was that, Holly?” Micah reached for a panel on the rear bulkhead. She counted down a number of rows, then over a certain number of buttons before pushing it in and holding it there. Nearly all the panels in the room were touch screens and not physical buttons. This panel had a covering over it to forestall an accident should someone fly about the room out of control.

Like the Androids were doing.

“Pik, can you secure those things please,” Braden asked. With the floating Androids and the floating companions, the space had gotten crowded.

Pik and Aadi worked together to wedge the bodies under a table.

The Hawkoids were using their wingtips like fish used their side fins. They were darting back and forth across the space, until Braden snagged Skirill and wrapped an arm around him.

He was going to say something smart, but Skirill looked happy. He was still on his honeymoon, as Braden understood Hawkoid mating rituals. The human settled for a better approach. “Easy, my friend. Micah is working with Holly to figure out how many more of these things we might run across. Maybe you and Zyena can fly the corridor? It’s kind of cramped in here.”

They zipped through the open hatch and raced each other down the corridor. Braden watched with humor as the Hawkoids couldn’t stop themselves, and crashed faces first into the elevator door. They floated for a second before coming to their senses and flew back up the corridor at a more sedate pace. He hadn’t thought about it before, and wondered how old Skirill was in Hawkoid years. He’d have to ask when they were in a safe place, like back on Vii.

Micah continued to let Holly work. Braden moved to one of the two other hatches in the Maintenance and Service space. Neither had a window.

He opened the first with a wave of his bracelet. It opened to a bathroom, he thought. None of the fixtures looked like what he was used to, but they would be different when everything floated. He was glad that he didn’t have to go. It would be embarrassing asking Holly for help.

He secured the bathroom door and moved on. The next hatch opened onto a large storage space, much larger than the Maintenance and Service space. The first thing Braden thought was there had to be another way in as he spotted another hatch at the far end. They wouldn’t move boxes of materials through the smaller Maintenance and Service space.

Holly was busy with Micah, and Braden figured it wasn’t safe to explore on his own, so he recruited volunteers. “Aadi, G, Pik. There’s something in here you need to see.”

‘I know you want company. Why didn’t you just say so instead of the ploy?’
G-War scolded. The ‘cat rode Aadi, now that the Hawkoids were mobile. He lay flat on the Tortoid’s shell, claws embedded in the armor and rope. Pik used the handholds and was getting adept at moving around. Unlike the Amazonians on Vii, he had hands instead of three-fingered claws.

He was a natural in what Holly called the zero-g environment.

The storage area was arranged radially. There was a center tube with handholds, then racks holding specially designed boxes. Boxes containing smaller items had a soft access port where a person could reach a hand through, take the desired number of parts, and pull them out without anything else floating away. There were aisles, but these went from the center tube directly to the bulkhead in each direction. There was no up or down. Braden wanted to orient himself, so he focused on a point on the far bulkhead and declared a random direction to be up.

He was getting sick to his stomach. The constant floating was getting to him.

‘Master Braden. I think you should come and look at this.’
Aadi was in the middle of the center tube.

“Okay, funny. I did it to you, now payback.” Braden laughed, but Aadi wasn’t joking.

Braden pulled himself back down the tube, past Pik, and looked to where G-War was nodding.

Bodies, wrapped in plastic. Stuffed between shelves. Braden looked more closely. Humans. Long dead.

“What do you think, G?”

‘I think they’ve been dead a long time.’
Sometimes the Golden Warrior was a master of the obvious. Or maybe he thought the human couldn’t grasp the plainest of facts.

‘I suspect they died at the hands of the Androids,’
Aadi said as he craned his neck to look at the bodies from different angles.
‘Yes. I believe their necks are broken. In this environment, that wouldn’t be easy to do, unless you could stick to the deck and had the strength of a machine.’

“I think that you’re the wisest creature I know and if you say it, then I believe you.” Braden checked the bodies over and pulled a command bracelet from one of their wrists. “Here you go, Pik. Put this on your wrist.” He tossed it slowly, then showed the bracelet on his own wrist.

The Lizard Men must not have played catch growing up. His eyes grew wide as the bracelet approached. He waved his hands in front of his face as he prepared to catch it. He missed with his left hand which started him spinning. He flailed with his right hand, hitting the bracelet and sending it down a different radial access. Braden couldn’t see between the shelves, so he didn’t know where it went.

Braden took the bracelets from each of the former crew members. He pocketed four and pulled himself to the central tube. Pik was rummaging in the radial access where the bracelet had flown.

“Pik. Leave it. I have another one.”

‘I’m sorry. It’s here somewhere.’
Pik kept digging. Braden joined him, not searching for the bracelet, but looking at the boxes and boxes of Old Tech. Parts, bits, pieces, small motors, and other items to fix the complex machinery of the ship. He found tubes labeled as adhesive. He took one of these. There were small machines at the end of the access tube. Looking around Pik, he couldn’t tell what they did. He wanted to touch them, see if they served a useful purpose.

Useful to him, that was. As a Trader, his mind raced in a thousand different directions. What could he trade this for? Who wouldn’t want two of those? What about this? Nothing like it in all of Warren Deep! Here was the wagon load of Old Tech that would make him rich.

He looked at the tube of adhesive in his hand. He took the one practical thing that he’d seen. His new survival instincts kept his Trader persona from taking over.

“Let’s go, Pik. We’re done here.”

‘It’s here somewhere.’

“Pik! Give me your hand.” Pik stopped rummaging and looked defeated. Braden snapped a bracelet around the Lizard Man’s wrist. “You know, I almost called you Pack. One of our horses, back on Vii, he’s called Pack. Pack and Pik. Pik and Pack. Hmmm. I may have to call him Speckles.”

Pik listened to all of this, followed none of it, then settled for nodding politely. He looked at the command bracelet on his wrist. He was a member of Braden’s patrol, just like everyone else!

Braden watched as Pik stared at the bracelet. He slapped the Lizard Man on the shoulder, which sent him bouncing off the shelves.

“Welcome to the caravan, Pik!”

30 – Between Decks

Braden pulled himself to the end of the tube where there was another hatch. He waved his bracelet and the hatched rolled aside.

He thought there would be another room like the last one beyond. There wasn’t. It was the space between decks. There was a great deal of piping and cabling. Holly showed them the factory level of the New Command Center, and here, Braden saw many similarities.

There was a track system with carts spaced intermittently. There was a panel where someone could call a cart for movement of people or materials. It looked both efficient and operational. Braden watched the space. He saw the outline of a number of hatches, identical to the one he floated near. There were straps and handholds outside each door. In zero-g, there was no need for a platform or walkway, only something to hang on to.

Floating in the space was disconcerting. Braden’s incessant nausea since they entered this level overwhelmed him. He wretched, then flailed as the vomit floated back toward him. He pulled himself out of the way using the strap, then crawled back through the hatch, shutting it just in time. Without a window, he couldn’t tell what happened, but expected the other side of the hatch to be covered in spew.

He wanted to ask Holly if this piping and cart space could take them all the way to the rear core area. He wanted to avoid as much extraneous travel as possible. Whenever they traveled through a new area, they either made an enemy or made a friend. Too much more of each could wear them down.

He nodded at Pik to go back to the Maintenance and Service space. Pik’s eyes were wide as he looked at the hatch. He was still trying to embrace the idea that he had been on a ship his whole life. Deck 9 had been all he knew of the world and now he realized that it had been one small space in a bigger world, with an even bigger world beyond. He respected how easily Braden and Micah moved between the individual worlds of the Decks. Pik looked at Braden and nodded. He put his green hand on Braden’s shoulder and squeezed. Where the humans led, he would follow.

Braden couldn’t read the expression on Pik’s face. He wanted him to move back down the central tube. With Aadi, G-War, and Pik in the way, he was cramped against the hatch. He knew there was puke splattered on the other side and it gave him the willies. He wanted to leave this level, maybe even make a quick trip back to Deck 2, where he could stand up.

Aadi turned and swam away. Pik finally pulled himself down the tube. Braden followed.

Micah was still engaged with Holly so he couldn’t hear her thoughts. She looked at him when he returned, but didn’t say anything. She raised one finger. They were getting close to finishing. They waited, floating patiently.

More lights flashed on the panel before Micah, most of them green. The monitors had come to life, too. He sat at one and worked as he’d done at the New Command Center, but these didn’t act like the ones he was used to. It brought up various things, but they showed status and operations that Braden couldn’t understand. He left the monitor as it was.

Micah looked at him, eyes focused. “What did Holly have to say?”

“He wasn’t able to access all the systems, only some of the standard maintenance systems. He found a lot that bothered him, but he’s working to regulate those systems. The Androids hadn’t been doing what they said they were doing, so Holly is taking care of it now. Nearly every system on this ship is automated, but held in delicate balance.” She nodded toward the entrance hatch. She’d keep talking while they moved. 

“There seems to be a major disconnect between here and the aft core section. The tube where we took the pod from Deck 8? Somewhere in the middle of that area is something that needs repairing. For Holly to control the ship, we need to repair the damage.” Braden looked skeptical. “All that means for us is we need to find and activate a Maintenance Bot. We can link it to Holly and he can tell it what to do.”

“Yeah. I didn’t see me fixing Old Tech. I may like it more than I should, but I’m not the one to be tearing into it. I’m glad Holly recognizes my limitations.” Braden shook his head, sending his braid flying around in front of him. Micah’s braids floated around her head as well. Hair and zero-g did not mix well.

“Let’s go back to the Aviary for a break. I’d like to stand on solid ground. And I need to take a leak. After seeing what happened when I puked, there’s no way I’m doing anything else like that up here.”

Micah threw her head back to laugh, but got a mouthful of braids instead. She sputtered and spit out her own hair. “I’ll let you in on a secret. There’s a drawer in one of those desks that you really don’t want to open.”

31 – A Break, A Plan

They squeezed themselves into the elevator and sent it down to Deck 2. When it arrived, they staggered out like drunks. Both the Hawkoids attempted to fly and fell on the ground.

‘I feel funny,’
was all Pik would commit to. Their bodies felt unnaturally heavy. G-War made it two steps out of the elevator door before collapsing into a crouch. The noise of the Aviary seemed less than before, but still loud compared to the silence of the Command Deck.

‘Holly, what the hell is going on?’
Micah asked. Braden still wasn’t talking to the hologram. She updated the hologram on their return to the Aviary.

‘It’ll pass quickly. When returning to gravity from zero-g, your bodies have to re-learn how to function. The more you walk, the better off you’ll be.’
Micah reduced the window.

“Holly says walk around. It’ll pass quickly. Your bodies know what to do.” Braden struggled to walk, then jog, then run. He was back to old form in a few heartbeats. The others watched, then mimicked his movements. Skirill and Zyena bounced around and tried using their wings. Skirill tried too hard as he flew quickly into the air and promptly bounced off a tree. He recovered as he dropped, gliding past the other companions. Zyena’s first attempt was smoother and together they soared.

The companions drank deeply from their flasks. G-War wanted something to eat and soon went after a ground squirrel. Pik was hungry, too. He’d need help with his meal. Braden pulled his bow and two arrows, then put the rest of his gear down. Micah settled for finding seclusion to relieve herself while Pik stayed on guard. Aadi floated serenely, unaffected by gravity or the lack of it.

Everyone heard the ‘cat make its kill. Birds scattered at his scream, and Braden felt the ‘cat’s gratification.
‘You won’t need to hunt,’
he informed Braden.
‘Pik, join me and let’s feast!’

When the ‘cat and the Lizard Man returned, Pik carried a creature as big as a wild board. No wonder G-War was impressed with his kill.

“What is that thing? Looks like a cross between a boar and a ground hog.” Braden reluctantly opened his neural implant.

‘Capybara,’
Holly answered after looking at it.
‘They serve a number of functions. They are a rodent, but also a reasonable food source. They don’t destroy the fragile ecosystem as wild hogs would. They taste like pork, if that’s what you’re looking for.’

“Bullseye.” Braden and Micah readied a fire to cook their meal. They cut off strips of meat from the sections that G-War and Pik had left behind. The ‘cat knew they would be moving shortly, so he didn’t overeat.

While their meal was cooking, Micah sliced off strips of meat for Aadi and tossed some into the air for both Skirill and Zyena. They demonstrated their flying prowess by making acrobatic catches. Braden stopped throwing the meat into the air as he didn’t want to be responsible for hurting one of them. He wanted everyone to rest before they attempted to enter the Bridge.

As they dined on freshly cooked capybara, which tasted like pork mixed with fish, they opened their neural implants.

‘Holly, what can we expect on the Bridge?’
Braden asked.

‘The Bridge is rather large, similar in configuration to the New Command Center, but bigger with wide aisles holding aids to movement, handholds and such. When you exit the elevator and access corridor, it will seem like you are inside a half-sphere. The entire front of the Command Center will look clear. You’ll see space, Cygnus VII, and the moon. The moon will appear larger than you are used to.’

It would only take the companions a few heartbeats to become accustomed to the Bridge. What Braden wanted to know was who ran the Bridge. What would they do if there were humans there or Androids? How could they convince them that aligning the ship for a matter transfer with Cygnus VI was in their best interest?

‘Humans or Androids? I can’t answer that. The Golden Warrior can determine before you enter whether any humans are present. I suspect you’ll at least find Androids. Will they be like the ones from the Maintenance and Service space? I don’t know. As you’ve made me understand, you may have to kill them if they won’t follow Micah’s orders as the President. I only ask that if you do start shooting, aim high, try to avoid hitting any of the equipment. Everything on the Bridge serves a purpose.’

‘And we’ll try, but I won’t guarantee anything. I can’t shake on this deal, Holly,’
Braden said and closed the window. They needed to secure the Bridge crew’s cooperation, or at least get them out of the way so Braden and Micah could do what Holly needed to align the ship.

After eating, they rested, napping and relaxing while G-War watched over them. Braden and Micah opened their neural implant so they could talk with Bronwyn and the children. The Hawkoids finally settled down and slept harder than everyone else.

When the companions finally roused and were ready to go, the Hawkoids wouldn’t respond. Braden worried, despite G-War’s assurances. G-War ended up climbing the tree and shaking them awake. They almost fell off the branch in alarm.

Micah shook her head. Weren’t birds supposed to sleep lightly, able to fly away instantly if there was a threat? The Hawkoids were different. Once they shook and ruffled their feathers, they glided gracefully to join the companions. The others waited while G-War backed down the tree’s massive trunk. When he finally made it to the ground, he gave a narrow-eyed look to Skirill and Zyena. There was no honeymoon period for the ‘cat.

Not knowing if they would return to the Aviary, they kept all their gear with them. It would have been nice to travel lightly to the Bridge, but they couldn’t be sure they’d come back this way.

They piled into the elevator and told it Bridge. It raced upward.

When the door opened, they were treated to more zero-g. Being ready for it this time, they deftly grabbed the handholds and pulled themselves up the corridor. This one was at least triple the length of the access to the Maintenance and Service space.

The Hawkoids tried to fly ahead but Braden stopped them. “We don’t know how they’ll respond, depending on who ‘they’ are. They first person they need to see is Micah. After that, she can introduce the rest of us. Patience, my friends. By the way, hold out your leg.” The last he said to Zyena. He took one of the extra command bracelets and cinched it up tightly between her claw and the feathers of her lower leg. “Just in case we get separated, you’ll be able to open doors and move through the ship, although it may not be enough to fool a Security Unit. If you’re with Skirill, you shouldn’t have any problems either way.”

Zyena accepted the gift graciously. Skirill watched proudly and nuzzled her, which caused both of them to go spinning into opposite bulkheads. He was happy the humans readily accepted her as one of the companions.

They all laughed at the Hawkoid antics.
There’s serious business up ahead, but for the moment, let the companions enjoy each other’s company,
Braden thought. Braden and Micah pulled themselves forward slowly, checking their blasters and settings in case they had to fight. Micah loosened her sword and Braden checked his shortsword and bow, although he conceded there was no way he could shoot his bow while floating.

At the end of the access corridor, Braden and Micah looked through the small window. The space was as Holly described--large and open, with the stars, moon, and Vii showing out the window that made up the front of the sphere.

There was activity, but not much. People occupied one station out of every ten. There was the central platform, just like in the New Command Center, but this was a cage, centered perfectly within the half-sphere. The seats were mere frames, where someone sitting could look anywhere to see one of the crew at other workstations, which could be above or below them. The user could spin the chair as needed to face any direction.

“What do you think, G?” Braden asked.

The ‘cat clung to Braden’s pack. He slowly moved to the side of Braden’s head, keeping three claws embedded in something soft at all times.

‘There are humans. Three of them.’
G-War said, while craning his neck to see which three and point them out. Micah looked through the top of the window, gripping a handhold with one hand, while keeping her hair under control with the other. She was counting the total number on the Bridge.

“I see eleven total. That means eight Androids, plus the three humans.”

‘In the command chair in the middle. To the right near the front window, and in the back, by the hatch here.’
G-War let go of the pack and Braden guided him to Aadi, where he embedded his claws in the soft armor surrounding the Tortoid’s shell.

“Well, Master President, are you ready?”

She answered by waving her bracelet in front of the access panel. The hatch slid open and the music started playing.