Chewing Rocks (18 page)

Harold
’s voice shouted an interruption, “The Nod is blasting away. Get back Tyler, those nets are going to-”

Tyler answer
ed, “Yeah, snap loose; just like they did. Who is on the Nod? Where is it going?

Doc shouted, “The
Winkin is on lock down and our codes won’t open the doors. The repulsar field is off and we can get to the hatches, but they are locked from the inside and the codes are off.”

Sno said, “Get back on the rock. If the
Winkin takes off like the Nod you could be dragged off to who knows where or just sent spinning off to where we can’t get you back.”

Daryl
’s voice held a touch of panic, “Joey? Answer me now, Joey?”

Soon there was a b
abble of voices, who was who was almost indistinguishable. As quickly as the babble had begun, a voice came on line overriding everyone. “We are experiencing some minor communications difficulties, please bear with us for a moment. Please remain where you are and everything will be just fine.”

Sno looked back up at the
Blinkin. Hidden in the black of space she could see a second ship. She did not recognize the ship, but she did not have a clear view anyway, just an orbiting mass blocking out the stars as it floated above them.

Doc said, “Sno, what do we do
?”

She said, “
I don’t know. Everyone try to keep your wits about yourself. Get your feet grounded on the asteroid until we find out what is going on. We seem to have company on board the Blinkin. Does anyone else see any other ships?”

There was a babble of voices until she cut through them, “Only respond if you do see ships. Lee and Jackson, come on, you two. If you are seeing a ship
, then most likely it is the same one that I see so stay off comms for right now.”

She tried to picture where everyone was on the rock. “
Harold, can you confirm the Nod has broken orbit.”

Harold
’s voice almost cracked when he spoke up. “Yeah, it’s gone. Yanked the nets clean out of the rock and blasted away with the nets dragging behind it and it’s back end garage doors hanging open.”

Sno asked, “Can you see its trajectory?”

Tyler answered, “Harold said it’s gone and man, it is gone. We can’t see anything of the Nod. It’s like she just disappeared.”

Sno said, “The
Nod shouldn’t have gotten that far away that quick. Whoever took her must have shut off all of the running lights. Okay, Harold and Tyler, you two had better hike over here.”

Doc said, “You said you had a ship there. We don’t have
any extra ones here. Maybe Harold and Tyler should come to us. It might be safer.”

Sno nodded to herself, “Maybe. I don’t know.
Look, I don’t know a lot right now. The Blinkin hasn’t moved, neither has the Winkin, but we don’t know what the intention of…well, we don’t even know who we’re dealing with, much less what they want. Harold and Tyler, pick a direction. It is your call, but stick together. I just thought here, because here is where these…pirates…are.”

Lee asked, “Pirates?”

Sno nodded again, even though she knew no one could see her, “Might as well call them that until they tell us what is going on. That ship parked above the Blinkin doesn’t look alien, so it is not space invaders. If they have the ship above us, then whoever is in the Blinkin may be getting ready to cast the Winkin loose into the where-ever.”

As soon as she mentioned the
Winkin she realized that it was a mistake, but it was too late to call the words back.

Daryl
shouted, almost in full panic mode, “Joey. Talk to me, son. Joey? Joseph Graham! Joseph Anderson Graham, answer me right now!”

His voice almost
completely jammed the comm.

Sno tried to override
Daryl’s booming voice, “Doc, I don’t think there is much you can do, but try to keep Daryl from panicking and doing something stupid. Keep him on the rock until we find out what is going on.”

She felt
Allan’s hand try to jerk her around, “What are you talking about, not panicking? That is Daryl’s kid up there.”

Sno shook his hand loose. She toggled her comm-unit to suit-to-suit operations so she could talk to
Allan alone. “I know who is there. And I am sorry, but if Daryl tries to force his way onto the Winkin at the time they leave orbit, we could lose Joey and him at the same time.”

She toggled her suit back to open comm, “Listen, everybody
, we don’t have enough information to go on. We need to stay put on this rock until these pirates decide to talk. Don’t panic, don’t waste air, and don’t do anything stupid.”

The unknown voice blasted out of Sno’s speakers, overriding the responses from the Earth miners. “That is right
, no one do anything stupid. If we get just a little cooperation, we won’t leave you stranded on this rock. First rule is, shut up; just like good little children, no one speaks until you are spoken to, got it?”

Sno replied, “We got it, but if you want our
cooperation, you first tell us that the boy on the other ship is okay.”

The voice said, “Jeez
, you don’t listen do you? I just said to not talk until you are spoken to, didn’t I?”

Sno answer
ed, “Yes, you said that, but you also just spoke to me and asked a question, right? So, I was supposed to answer, right?”

A second voice said, “
That smart mouth of hers got you, McNally. You did ask her a question.”

Sno’s heart sank. She recognized the name
McNally. So, they were facing McNally, Franklin, Cooper and…her mind went blank. She asked herself, “What was that fourth a-hole’s name?” She thought, in anguish as much as anger, “Oh, cram it, this is my mess that I brought on these men.” She was surprised to realize how responsible she felt for these earthers. She was not feeling responsible just for these problems and their safety, but everything about them.

“
Hang me,” she thought. “I went and made friends with earthers. Crap and gone to deep space and back! Just because I can’t control myself like a princess, I bring this mess on these men.”

“Okay,” Sno said, “
you on the ship, you are in charge. You tell us what you want and when you want it. We just want to know how the boy is, that isn’t too much to ask is it? One answer and you get full cooperation from all of us.”

McNally
said, “I got your full cooperation anyway. You do what I say or I leave you on this rock, you got that?”

Sno gritted her teeth as she spoke, “Yes
sir, sorry. I got that, but we are trying to control a father who is upset about his kid. No one wants the man to do anything stupid.”

“Yeah, right
, okay. Shut up a minute.”

Sno turned back to see
Harold and Tyler just bounding up to her. She gestured with her tether to have them snap their lines down.

She stepped over to an auto-jack and in a flash had a small fist sized rock broken loose from the asteroid. She hefted the
rock; with a quick judge of the relative orbits and gravities, or lack of gravities, she tossed the rock underhanded away from the Blinkin. She lighted the rock with the wrist mounted flashlight and watched it arc.

Allan
looked at her curiously. He kept his comm off, but pointed at the Blinkin with a question in his eyes. He mouthed the words, “What are you doing?”

Without taking her eyes off the slow loop of her rock she grabbed
Allan’s suit and brought his helmet into contact with hers. “Just watch the rock.”

Slowly the rock curved and almost appeared to spiral into the
Blinkin. The rock struck the hull and bounced off into space.

Alarms from the
Blinkin’s bridge honked and hooted over the open communications.

“What was that?” The voice c
oming over the comm was not McNally.

The alarms shut off as quickly as they had started. “It was just space
junk, Franklin, you weenie. It is just space garbage bouncing off the ship.”

Sno shook her head. They
did not have the repulsar field up, so there might be a way to sneak back on board. The pirates probably had the hatches on lock out, like they did on the Blinkin. She would just have to wait for an opening.

McNally
said, “Okay, here is the deal. Cooper says the boy is fine, for now.” He cut off any response, “And no, you can’t talk to him right now. We let Dad on board the Winkin, no tricks, no screwing around. Dad goes on board. He unsuits and comes out naked with his hands up. Then we will re-unite him with his kid. If we do that without any problems, then we can bring his partner up on the Winkin. Everybody sit tight and we will get you off that rock one at a time.”

Chapter 17.0

Sno clamped her teeth closed, keeping a tight reign on her anger.
With Joey hostage on the Winkin, Daryl and Doc had submitted to the two pirates, Cooper and Hunter. Not seeing any other option, she watched Harold, Tyler, Allan, and Marlon get on the Blinkin. They were only allowed on the ship one at a time.

For the thousandth time in the last hour she bit her lip in reproach. She knew this was all her fault. If she had
voiced a serious warning to the miners about these four or if she had been more vigilant this might not have happened. She knew she had become so wrapped up in mining, teaching them asteroid mining and even learning from these men she had completely forgotten about these four men. She knew her father had used the word ‘might’, but it was not an excuse.

She was the only one left on the surface, and was unsure of what had happened to each of the miners. She only knew these pirates from a barroom brawl. She had thought it was
just one of those friendly after work dust ups working people often get into just to release stress. But these four had turned to piracy and she was not sure about their planned endgame.

It was sure
McNally and Franklin wanted her. Their comments as they let each of the others on the Blinkin made it abundantly clear. But, maybe they would not harm her new friends. She was not good at making friends and did not want to lose these this quickly.

A voice came over
comms. She had come to recognize it as the one called Franklin. “Okay Whyte, just a little longer and we can get you up here. For now I need you to stay put. These men are behaving themselves, because if they don’t, we have promised to leave you stranded on this rock. We have them locked in the rock chamber for now, so all I have to do is push one little bitty transmit button and poof, they are gone. But, if you behave yourself they don’t get hurt. And on the other hand, if they behave themselves then you don’t get hurt.”

Sno kept her mouth shut and waited.

“Good,” Franklin said, “You are learning. Here is the deal: I am going back across to get our ship and fly it snug up against this here ship. Then you, me and Mac will pick up Cooper and Hunter on the other ship. Once we are a safe distance away, then we will send the code that releases these men. Hold one minute.”

Sno gritted her teeth, but said nothing.

“Okay. I am jetting across now.” Franklin continued with a chuckle. “I am sure you are better at this than I am. I would bet a month’s wages that you could leave the asteroid and beat me to our ship. Just remember, McNally is on your ship. He has a lot less compunction than I do about pushing the button on your friends. You hear me? You stay put ‘til I say different.”

“I hear you.” Sno answered. “I won’t move from this spot until you say so.”
Or, she said to herself, at least not until I can figure a way to cut you off at the knees all at the same time.

“Come on,
girl.” Franklin said. “You don’t have anyone to blame but yourself. We wouldn’t have been able to get on your ships if you had been paying attention. You made it a cakewalk. You were so busy chewing rocks that we just eased on in.”

Sno could hear
the self congratulation in his voice.

She chanced a reply. “Yeah, you really caught us with our pants down. After all, you can’t chew rocks with a
repulsar field turned on and you don’t have any reason to lock the doors in space. At least, I didn’t think we needed to lock the doors. I guess you showed me how wrong I was.”

“No.” She could hear the anticipation in
Franklin’s voice. “We haven’t even begun to show you how wrong you can be.”

“Then why should I
cooperate, if you are going to hurt me anyway.”

McNally joined in. “Because, Red
, one button here and one button on the Winkin and you have given your seven friends a free ride in space. Count ‘em up; seven. And their blood will be on your head, not ours. It will be your fault. And we will still get to you anyway. Right, Franklin?”

“You got it, Mac. And
girl, you aren’t in for any long term hurt no way. We aren’t those type of guys.

“I am moving the ship now.” Franklin continued. “You just relax. We plan on keeping you with us for a few short weeks, then we will let you go back home.”