Edge of Solace (A Star Too Far) (3 page)

It hit him in a few short minutes.

The first blur came on the edge of his eyes and spread to his scalp. He rolled his shoulders and settled into it. The soccer ball flowed slower, the cheering seemed tamer, the world chilled out.

He turned his gaze away from the soccer game and stared at a
simulcast screen. It was like a window into space with the star field augmented. Time passed as the nanites washed over him. He escaped for a short time into somewhere else.

The sweet seduction of the nanite buzz tingled between his ears. At that particular moment the troubles behind, and before, melted away. He closed his eyes and felt good.

Something boomed. It sounded like a rumble of bass cascading out of another bar. The movement of air against his skin snapped him out of the nanite haze. Around the room heads turned as everyone strained to listen.

“Out
! Out! Breach!” shouted a man behind the bar.

William felt like a spectator as he stood and walked towards the door. People were flowing past him and escaping out. The man from behind the bar stepped in front of him and tore off the patch. William smiled at him.

“Worse than a drunk,” he mumbled. “Now get safe!”

“Safe?” William asked. His mind stuck like caramel.

“To your ship, your duty station, anywhere with an airlock! Go!” The man shoved him out into the hallway.

The concourse wasn’t much better. People
poured towards the exit. It smelled of burnt plastic and smoke. William felt like he was back on Redmond.

The nanites melted away from his system rapidly as he tried to jog with the crowd. He couldn’t quite keep up and found himself following a massively drunk woman. She stumbled and bounced, but seemed to know where she was going.
She was the only person he could keep up with.

Orange EVA fire control teams streamed past as they sprinted towards the damaged area. Yellow and orange drones with bottles of fire suppressant raced before them. Trailing behind were armored suits
brandishing welding guns and backpacks of sealant.

The nanites began to clear from his system and his mind sped up. The woman in front of him turned her head and spouted a yellow stream of vomit. Her eyes were filled tears. He grabbed her by the elbow and the two ran forward. The severity of the situation struck him when even more suits ran past.

Meteor strike, maintenance error, weapons discharge—his mind ran through any possible outcomes. They came to a closed bulkhead with a pair of suited Marines. On the other side a group waited for the pressure to equalize.

The second explosion shifted everything like a slow motion earthquake.

The bulkhead alarm sounded. Both doors locked. The Marines pointed William back down from where he came.

“Suits three doors up, emergency locker on the right. Look for a blue pulsing light. Stay put, everything is sealed,” a Marine
Sergeant said.

“C’mon, I’ll help,” William said to the woman as he helped her along.

She nodded with unfocused eyes. Vomit streaked down either side of her mouth.

The pair ran down the now empty and eerily silent hallway.

William felt a nagging sense rising that he needed to get into a suit and get the hell out. Now.

They found the blue light and popped open the maintenance door. The thin emergency EVA suits were like
papier-mâché woven at random angles. At the back of the room a service airlock led to nothing but vacuum.

The suit crinkled as he eased into it. William moved his arms forward and back. All he had to do now was flip the hood over and it would bond to itself. It smelled salty with a hint of dust.

“I’m Katerina,” the woman said in a husky voice.

“William.”

Katerina nodded and looked vaguely pale and unhappy. “Helluva night.”

William stopped and listened. He heard a slight click in his ear
, followed by a tone. He locked eyes with Katerina, who also heard it. The nanite implanted communication system had been activated.

“All hands, abandon station, all hands, abandon station.”

“What the fuck?” William said, poking his head back into the concourse. The Marines were gone. Thick black smoke rolled along the ceiling in billowing waves. “Like right now?”

“That’s what the man said
. Can’t go out the bulkhead and I’m not heading towards the fire,” Katerina said. She flipped the hood over. The edge gripped itself and sealed.

William took a deep breath and snapped the hood over. He hated suits.

Katerina led the way and popped the airlock door open. The room was bright with a flickering alkaline white light. William followed and closed the door behind him.

The atmosphere pumped out. A green light shifted orange on the edge of the face shield. Vacuum surrounded him. The suit felt a bit bulkier as the joints reinforced themselves. Katerina tapped him on the arm and pointed to the door. He pumped his fist up and waited.

She popped open the airlock.

William felt his stomach churn and his limbs quiver as he passed the threshold of the gravity field. He turned himself on edge and grasped tight
ly onto the handholds. He followed Katerina’s lead and snapped a slender safety cord on.

Starships of all shapes and sizes powered away. The station seemed fine. Lights still shone into the dark and heatsinks still glowed. Further down the curvature of the station the lights stopped abruptly.

Katerina tapped him and pointed. More lights were going out.

The dull tone sounded again
, followed by a woman’s voice. “Abandon station and get clear. Get clear immediately, nanite destructors are loose on the station.”

Destructors were the most feared byproduct of nanite technology. They could disassemble a single bond or element into a pile of dust. While used regularly in industrial processes they were carefully controlled. Weaponized destructors were known, even encouraged in certain circles, though the Covenant strictly prohibited it. It was written, nanite destructors shall not destroy flesh.

William snapped his head back and watched as more lights winked out. When he turned back Katerina had unsnapped both of them and gestured. Out. Away from everything.

The thought terrified him.

He had to jump. Push off, kick away, drift. He’d be firmly in Newton’s hands. Had it been fire, explosions, or even a chance of surviving he would probably have remained on the outer deck. Only imminent death was enough to get him to push off.

Katerina squashed herself up into a ball and erupted from the surface. William took a deep breath and kicked himself off. He sp
un ever so slightly. Behind him the lights winked off. Further down panels pulled away as the atmosphere escaped.

Lights blinked and strobed as those who could escape did. Everything moved away from the station.

William watched Katerina as he spun. A strobe pulsed on the back of her suit. He looked to the edge of his face shield. Plenty of air for now. The back of the suit was filled with recycler nanites and a simple oxygen generator.

The station cracked open and peeled apart. Segments, panels, and equipment drifted away. What had been a formidable deep space fortress turned into a debris field.

A piece of panel blasted past William and disappeared from his view. He locked his eyes forward and felt very helpless. The atmosphere propelled pieces of the station outward. A yellow alloy door spun past fifty meters away. A section of tubing with the wires attached followed not long after.

It dawned on him that they were dangerous from impact, but also from nanite contamination. They said you’d never see it coming, but he did. A triangular panel spun gently and headed directly for him. It didn’t seem to be moving fast, but he knew it didn’t have to be.

It winked from dark to light as it caught the sun’s rays. Slowly it flipped by like an origami triangle further out to space. It spun within a meter of his waist.

It caught Katerina with a single tip and spun her. The force ripped a gash in the suit. Atmosphere vented for a brief moment. She flailed forward and clasped it shut
, but it was too late. She went still and straightened out as the centripetal force pulled her limbs outward.

William took a shallow breath. He hoped he had enough air to last him long enough for a rescue. The station shattered into fragments behind him.

William watch
ed the strobes move away and wondered if his suit would be eaten by nanites. The fear never went away. It sat in the back of his head like a heavy lump.

The only sounds were his breath and heartbeat. The comm tone signaled and pulsed, but no one spoke. The larger ships were still visible. The smaller ones burned away into the distance. He felt even more alone.

The tone echoed in his skull again, followed by a click and a female voice. “This is the Shaggin’ wagon—you still kickin, LT?”

William cleared his throat and tried to talk. His throat was parched, dry, raspy. “Yes
, ma’am.”

“Don’t go ma’aming me
, LT, I’m just a contractor. Soon as shit in your shoes as pick you up.”

He turned his head and strained to look around. He couldn’t see anything, but whatever it was
, it had to be close. “You got it, lady, just pick me up.” The air scale passed below the half mark.

“Got you on laser
, hon, matching velocities now, just keep spinning.” The voice had the nasal twang that only a citizen of Mars had, or Northern Texas.

William nodded to himself. A reflection pulsed nearby. He spun slowly and saw it again. Someone was coming. “I see you.”

“The flyin’ shitbox,” the voice said.

“I don’t care what it’s filled with, as long as you pick me up
.”

The voice laughed. “Hon, you got no idea. Gots to disinfect you first
. You’re gonna spin a bit more.”

William understood that everyone and everything would have to be decontaminated. Even if a single nanite was on his suit
, it could grow into billions and destroy a starship. Eventually the solar radiation would cook them, but not for a few more days.

The boxy cargo hauler came into focus. It looked like a combination between a mailbox and a pipe factory. A pair of handling arms dangled from the front. One arm empty while the other a yellow hose clamped tightly. The hose snaked back to a canister strapped to the top.

“Hon, we need to get you cleaned up all sweet and shiny. There’s some special sauce we’re gonna spray. After that I’ll scoop ya up and haul you out. Got enough O2 for abouts thirty minutes?”

“Yes, I should have a few more hours
.”

“Well shit, I’ll go help someone else.”

“No wait!”

A voice laughed warmly. “No worries
, hon, I’m comin’ in to get ya.”

William waited and watched as the boxy craft
neared. The yellow hose spewed out a hazy cloud. He tumbled slowly. The face shield became gray. He smeared the disinfectant and regretted doing it, now he could tell how fast he spun.

The boxy craft worked closer and slowly extended an arm caked with a brown goo
. She called it a shitbox—he had a feeling she wasn’t lying. To asteroid miners, a box of turds was priceless. Fertilizer was always in demand.

The aged arm gently bumped up against his leg and decelerated his spin to nothing. It pulled him slowly to the rear of the boxy craft. Tubing and piping were like dirty brown scales. He passed
smudged yellow lettering that named the ship
‘Rose of Venus’
.

“Ok
ay, sweetie, I’ll pop the door open. Just get inside, okay?”

“You got it.”

The door slid open and a blue light flickered on. He pushed off the arm and tucked into the tiny airlock. The sensation of constantly falling disappeared from his mind when the sight of open space was gone.

“I’m in.”

The airlock door closed. After a brief wait he emerged into the hold. Bulbous tanks filled almost the entire space. The air indicator on his face shield showed atmosphere sufficient to breath in. He popped the hatch open and immediately regretted it. The ship was definitely filled with excrement.

“Oh god
.” William gagged.

“You’re welcome!”

“I didn’t mean it like that! Aww hell, thank you!”

“Hon, sit tight, we’ve got more people to save. Gimme a hand when they come in.”

William stripped out of the suit and spent the following hours watching others retch as he popped open the face shields. The smell of vomit permeated more than the earthy smell of shit. The severity of what happened rolled over in his mind. It obviously wasn’t accidental. Was this the opening shot of the war? No, Redmond had been.

The bulk carrier filled quickly. The Martian drawl was soothing as he listened to each person being coaxed in.

William pushed through the tight space and knocked on the door of the bridge. They were moving away from the station and towards whichever ship could take them on.

“C’mon in hon,” the drawl replied through the comm
.

The pilot was squat and short with a nose like a pear. Whatever beauty she had was gone the moment she started to fly a bulk carrier of human waste. But her eyes sparkled with life.

“Thank you.” William extended a hand. “I’m Lieutenant Grace.”

She loose
ned a strap on the chair and leaned forward. “Marcie Day! Finest shitbucket to grace the asteroid belt.” Her grip made his fingers throb. He wished she’d have shook his augmented left.

“How’s it look
, Marcie?” William peered at the screens scattered on the bridge. The main command console showed ships all moving away with a few small ones moving back in.

“Like a day with no shit. Everything burned away, a destroyer split open, but other than that I don’t think we lost anything.” She
paused. “Well, other than the station.”

“Where are we headed?”

“Heavy Assault Cruiser Erebus. Be there in about an hour or so, not much thrust in this little box.”

William could feel the slight push. Nothing like what it felt on a ship with a grav drive. “
Rose of Venus,
is she yours?”

“Bought and paid for! I haul
—or
hauled
—‘Liquid Waste, Level Four’ for the UC Navy, then ship it to the asteroid miners.” She rubbed her hand on a polished steel plate in the center of the console.

“You’ll never see a bulk carrier the same again. Beauties like this
are going away. She’s totally human built, Mars and Luna, nothing like those xeno hot rods.” She looked around and nodded to herself. A wistful look crossed her eyes. “Saved a lot of lives today.”

William nodded. “I owe you a drink.”

“Billy, you’re too pretty for a girl like me. So pour me a drink so you look a touch on the ugly side.”

The
Rose of Venus
came within a hundred meters of the
Erebus
and waited for the boarding shuttle to close. The shuttle sprayed the
Rose
with the same disinfectant as everyone else had been sprayed with.

William waited, as patiently as he could, and studied the Erebus. It was a beauty and built to brawl. It had lines like a dancer with a front end like a boxer. In his dreams the ship he would command one day would be just like that.
In a few short minutes he found himself on the
Erebus
.

*

He slept well on the floor of the mess hall. All around him the human debris from the station was crumbled and ruffled. There was some order to it, but the chaos lingered. Shock was ebbing away only to be replaced by anger or despair.

A soft bed or hammock didn’t feel comfortable
anymore, not after sleeping in the ice and dirt on Redmond. He awoke at the shift change and found a bad cup of coffee. A Commander came into the bridge and surveyed the survivors. Civilians were headed back to the Inner Planets while the military crew was being disbursed.

William was handed a tablet and tasked with organizing Naval personnel into groups for transit to billets. He saw his own name heading to
The Malta.
After organizing the other groups he sat himself at a small table with an ivory-skinned maintenance petty officer and a ruddy-cheeked Marine.

The shock of the events finally settled in. Word of the attack was already hitting Earth,
and even traveling to the other colonies, too. If not safe there, then where? William watched the news feeds and saw the reactions. Fear.

A man with the BBC spoke and framed the fear. “The grey-goo was a figment of the horror vids, but real nano weapons are more subtle. A basic nano weapon would disassemble a single bond. The matrix in a spacesuit, the welds of armor, or mucous membranes. They can not, however, disassemble a human into basic elements.”

William knew n
ano antidotes were widely available. It was a simple matter to shut down a nano scale organism. Deploying it in sufficient quantities became the difficult part. Nanite weapons had little value on planets, there was simply too much variance to allow for a large scale growth. He’d studied tests during the first terraforming operations. Once the biomass reached a certain point the nanites just stopped. But a starship or space station was the perfect environment, lots of the same critical thing all around.

Within hours of the attack the first ships began to flee Earth. That blue egg suddenly seemed more fragile, more vulnerable, more precious. Those that
fled aimed for uncharted space, known to none but themselves. William, deep in his soul, envied them.

*

William passed through the slender airlock and took a deep breath of the
Malta.
She smelled like most other warships: clean, almost antiseptic with a tint of machine shop. A Marine with arms large enough to grapple an ox stood at attention before him.

“Mr. Grace, with me please
, sir.” The Marine turned and stomped down the hall.

The ship
moved by slowly as the Marine took the scenic route William was familiar with the ritual: give the XO a look, a chance to observe, see, learn, and then meet the Captain. He spent the hours waiting over a borrowed tablet learning about the
Malta.
Unfortunately the data networks hadn’t been restored so available information was lacking.

The frigate was of the previous generation
: Serengeti Class. A multi purpose starship built on Luna and outfitted near Mars. The xeno influence was slight, only the Haydn and Grav drive. Everything else was man-made.

The bridge opened up before him, a half moon shape with consoles spaced around the room. Near one end was a simple chair.
The
chair. The room was warm, even with the ventilation pumping through it. It lacked the grace of the corvette he had fought so hard for.

“Ma
’am, Lieutenant Grace.” The Marine saluted, turned crisply, and walked out.

William felt naked. The entire bridge turned and looked, except for the Captain. He stood at a relaxed attention, conscious to not look too subservient, and took her in. Her hair was shorn close to her skull, only dark stubble with a hint of gray showed through. Her body
was trim, but beginning to edge away from beautiful and merging into ordinary.

She beckoned to William. “Come, follow me.”

He followed after and glanced across the bridge as he walked behind. The faces were cool, relaxed, professional. Everything he would want in a bridge crew.

They
exited the bridge and continued down a short hallway. They entered an office with only a table and benches. It appeared more like a booth from a restaurant. Past the chair there was another door labeled: CAPTAIN’S QUARTERS.

“You have orders?”
she asked as she sat.

“No
, ma’am, I lost everything on the station,” William replied. Not that he had much. When the
Lawrence
crashed, most of his possessions went poof.

“Very well, I’ll see what we can manage
.” Her voice sounded tired.

“Ma’am, I apologize, but I don’t know your name.” He dreaded the moment where he’d have to ask. The last Captain listed on the logs was Harlond James
—this was definitely not Harlond James.

She raised her eyes. “Excuse me?”

“I hadn’t received my orders yet, ma’am.”

She sniffed and smiled weakly. “I am Captain Lakshmi Khan. You are Lieutenant William Grace
, yes?”

William nodded. Her name placed with the tone of skin
. Although the accent was not Indian it was definitely European. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Your hand
, please.” She leaned closer.

“Ma’am?”

“Your hand, the augmented one, let me see it.”

William held out his left hand and stared down at the perfect seam.

She grasped it like a slab of meat and turned it. She pulled on the fingers, bent them back and forth and inspected them closely.

“What sort of control do you have?” She poked the palm firmly.

“Functionally identical, it tingles on occasion.” William wondered what the hell she was getting at.