Edge of Solace (A Star Too Far) (26 page)

“LT, time for your next dose,” Mullins said.

Yamaguchi stood slowly and placed his hands on his hips. He surveyed and scowled as best as he could. Long ago he’d seen a picture of General Patton, ever since he tried to emulate that same bravado and hardass attitude.

“Keep a rocking boys, we’re gonna need them suits soon enough,” Yamaguchi said. He meant it. Soon he’d be briefing them on the coming mission.

*

Abraham pressed his nose against the shield of the nanite welder and watched in awe as the bead laid down.

A shimmering coalescing pool of white sputtered and crackled. Behind the pool, metal cooled into red like a prairie sunset. Nanites edged the weld and isolated oxygen from alloy. Oxidation was nonexistent. A perfect weld.

“See? Now normally we program this sort, but it’s good to watch and see,” Reed said excitedly. He clutched a face shield in one hand and a bulky little gun in the other. Cords dragged behind and tucked into a slender canister.

Abraham looked up from the shield and smiled. He loved seeing how everything was grown from raw materials. It was so different from everything he’d ever known. But most of all it took his mind off of his Father.

Thoughts of his betrayal of faith still came to him at odd moments. His heart would suddenly grow heavy
, followed by a dense sweat. He wanted to talk to someone about it, to tell someone, but no one seemed close.

“In a few minutes it’ll be damn near cool. Now watch!” Reed piped. The Engineer dropped the shield away. The reflection of the cooling bead glittered off his eyes.

Abraham leaned in closer and felt the heat on his cheeks. His fingers raised up and rubbed the bottom of his chin. The absence of his facial hair still struck him as odd.

Before his eyes the seam, lumpy and ragged, smoothed out and disappeared.

“The nanites push it all down, smooth it out,” Reed said.

“Abe. You done?” Huron called over the comms.

Abraham nearly jumped. He hadn’t gotten used to the implanted nanite communications system. He shifted his jaw slightly and talked. “Yes, sir!”

“No need to yell,” Huron
said.

“You’ll get used to it
, eh?” Reed said.

Abraham smiled sheepishly.

“Head on back, we need you to try on your suit,” Huron called.

“A graphene layer will keep it from oxidizing and we’re done,” Reed said as he packed up the equipment. “You know they first developed the self
-healing graphene on condoms? Amazing, eh?”

“What’s a condom?” Abraham asked.

Reed stopped and stared down at the welding unit in silence. His cheeks grew a rosy red. “Well, let’s get you back to Mr. Huron and try on that suit.”

*

Abraham followed behind Reed through the passages. The Engineering section was small, well lit, and smelled vaguely of smoke and oil. At the edge of the room sat a wide bulkhead with a crystal glass window. Behind it lay the Haydn drive.

Abraham, as always, crept close and took a pe
ek. He liked the way the slender chamber seemed to cradle to drive. It was an enigma to those around him. They all knew how it worked, but not quite why.

Reed told him that only a dozen or so
humans actually knew why it worked. With the bravado of youth, Abraham set himself to the task and decided he too would learn. The Engineers nodded and smiled at the pronouncement and informed him that he’d have to start with algebra.

“Is it stable?” Reed asked.

Abraham snapped his eyes away from the Haydn drive and saw the suit sprawled onto the floor.

“Should be,” Huron replied. He hovered a hand over the chest. “Yup.”

The suit was large enough to fully encapsulate an ape. The edges were utilitarian, spartan, almost bordering on rugged. It reminded Abraham of a toddler’s one piece winter suit. His heart beat faster as he smiled down. He could go into space!

“Let’s give it a try
, eh?” Reed said.

The two Engineers hefted the suit up and Abraham slowly pulled himself into it. The suit was like a sun
-warmed blanket. It felt oddly heavy in the joints while still supple.

“It feels tight in the elbows and knees
.” Abraham flexed and tested his range of motion.

“No worries
, Jumbo, it’ll break in once you use it,” Reed said.

“That
’s gots to be the biggest damned suit I’ve ever seen,” Huron said.

Abraham beamed with pride and walked back and forth across the room. “Can I try it out?”

“Soon. You’ll be heading out to help Samir, or at least I
think
he needs help.”

Abraham nodded. Samir was a decidedly unhappy crewman. “How does it work?”

“Stand up straight,” Reed ordered.

Abraham straightened his shoulders and set his chin. The
Engineers descended on the suit and went back and forth explaining features and details. The pair broke into an argument about the joint compounds but eventually got back onto track.

One of them tapped his wrist and a slight hiss of air
pulsed from behind his neck. A moment later the face shield slid up and encircled his head. Sounds dulled. The hiss of air turned into a roar before it stopped.

Huron and Reed checked everything and nodded between themselves. Abraham watched as they ran down each function on his wrist panel. The suit was one step above an emergency suit and nothing compared to a full blown maintenance suit.

“Like it?” Reed asked.

Abraham nodded and bumped his head on the face shield. Reed tapped the control on his wrist and the shield slid down. Sounds came back and the air felt cool on his face.

“Whatcha think of that barrier, Huron?” Reed asked.

Huron shrugged and began to strip the suit away from Abraham. “Seems a bit farfetched. I’ve thought quite a bit, but eh, who knows?”

Abraham looked between the two. “What are you talking about?”

Reed looked to Huron
.

“It seems the Sa’Ami have some sort of
xeno tech that is going to allow them to make a barrier to the Haydn drive,” Reed said with a sigh.

“But well, like we said, we just keep the drive running. I don’t know enough about
‘em to know if it’s a threat,” Huron added.

“What’s
xeno? What about Canaan?” Abraham asked. His heart felt heavy once more as thoughts of his father came back to him.

“Depends on which side of the line it’s on. On one side it’d be on Sa’Ami and the other it’d be on UC,” Reed said.

Abraham didn’t like the sound of that.

Huron shook his head. “But the energy involved, immense!”

“Xeno is latin for stranger, it caught on to describe aliens,” Reed said.

The two men finished peeling the suit and hung it gently along with the other suits. It looked like a gallery of orange and gray clown suits. The engineers seemed to be in thought.

“Is that why they’re using the binary?” Reed said.

Huron wrinkled his nose
and tapped his chin. “Maybe?”

“Lots of energy in a binary
.”

Abraham looked between the two. The thought and calculations going on in their heads was obvious. His eyes caught a maintenance drone climbing out of a duct and tucking itself into a charging cocoon.

Reed shook his head as if clearing his thoughts. “Abe! Any more thoughts about getting rated?”

Abraham shifted in the cool air and shook his head. “No sir.”

Huron laid an arm onto Abraham's shoulder and beckoned to the Haydn drive. “It’s the path to being a real spacer. We were both rated running ice out of the Oort cloud. Eventually, if you do well, they’ll send you to one of the technical universities.”

“MIT, Sorbonne, Luna, MTU,” Reed droned.

“Tokyo, Texas, Nairobi,” Huron added with a sharp nod.

Abraham smiled as he watched the two list off more places he’d never heard of.

“But anyhow, your shift starts shortly. Go grab a bite. We’ll be coming up to a blink here in the next few hours.” Reed turned to Huron and began to speak of prepping the Haydn.

Abraham turned and stooped his head to exit the maintenance hall. A pair of
Marines walked by with chests out and eyes locked forward.

He waited
‘til they were past and set off for the galley. His stomach rumbled even as his taste buds rebelled.

*

“Mr. Grace, it’s time,” Lebeau said. She watched the display with her hands hovering on her console.

William nodded to Lebeau. “You’ve got it
—blink in ten.”

Before him the displays showed ready signals. Grav shields were online. Nanites at full charge. Maintenance drones scattered and ready. He glanced to the hallway and saw the
Marines in full armor.

“Weapons hot. Engineering is green. Haydn primed.” Lebeau watched the clock with a steady hand. “Go.”

The starscape shifted on the visual. Readouts winked to white and edged back into normal as data came in.

The screens showed nothing.

“Where are they?” William mumbled. “Weapons back to manual.” Had a hostile been in place, human reaction time would be too slow to properly respond.

A tone sang out and a new contact appeared. The
Scylla
blinked through a few hundred kilometers from the
Malta.
Data streams linked up.

“Contact,” Lebeau said. The screen before her shifted and turned.

A hulk of a ship sat a thousand kilometers away. The icon showed zero acceleration with a slight random spin.

“It’s cold,” Lebeau said. Her eyes looked tired as she turned to William.

He nodded back. Gone was the quaint Midshipman he’d first served with. She’d been replaced by a combat veteran that was taking on a hard flinty edge.

William itched his augmetic hand and watched the data streams filter in. They were close now. Close enough to see what the course would be. “Lock it, prime the rails, and get me a visual.”

The screen shifted away from the system view and slid a star field back and forth. Only the star side of the derelict was visible with the rest hidden in shadow. The display blinked to a thermal view and few details emerged. It looked like a cargo freighter that had been disemboweled.

“Ping it, go live,” William ordered.

The
Malta
sent out a stream of laser energy and received back the results. The blocky wreck changed to that of a definable shape. Wounds and battle scars jutted out from the containers clamped beneath.

“Someone smacked it hard,” William said.

“No sir,” Lebeau said quickly. She zoomed the display on a container. The hull was peeled outward.

“Well done
, Ms. Lebeau, something came from the inside.”

Lebeau let out a slight smile.

William looked down at his augmetic hand and flexed the fingers. The nerves still worked, the control was still there. He smiled and made a fist. “Get Captain Martinez, please. I’ve got an idea. How long ‘til we see our friend?”

“About an hour, give or take,” Lebeau said.

“Set course for that hulk, full burn.” William slid a hand onto the console. “Mr. Reed, get an EVA team ready. I’ll be down to Engineering in five.”

The display blinked and the haggard face of Captain Martinez looked down. His puffy cheeks looked red with spider webs of wrinkles spreading from his eyes.

“Captain,” Martinez said.

“Captain. I’d like your permission to latch onto that wreck and get a tow drone on it, send it towards the nearest planet.” William sent a data packet with a rough chart attached.

Martinez’s eyes glanced over. He nodded slowly. A slight clicking noise came as he clenched his jaw back and forth. “We engage there?”

“Yes
, sir, we’ll use the hulk as a decoy, at least something to confuse them.”

“Very well
, Mr. Grace. We’ll halt the blink and make course for that planet.” Martinez slid back in his chair.

William smiled back and punched in the course. “I’ll send over a plan of action for you.”

“Did you see the structure?”

Structure? William shook his head. He’d been too focused on the derelict.

Martinez sniffed and looked to his side. “Not much detail, but it’s big. I’m sending the scan your way.”

William watched as the blurry scan unfolded. They used reflected x-rays from the binary star to paint a rough picture of the structure. It was big like a girdered building with no skin. The structure was massive, bulbous, raw.

“Mr. Grace. Once we have the situation in hand with the ship we’ll transfer the device and the prisoner over.” Martinez’s eyes looked hurt just saying the phrase. “After that you will head to the structure and destroy it. I’m sending over your orders.”