Star Road (16 page)

“You know what you’re looking at back there?”

Not the same type of gun Ivan was used to, but he could figure it out soon enough. He studied the targeting grip, an old-school item that had to be fun to operate.

Like something right out of the movies...

He noticed a screen at the bottom showing the cockpit. Jordan was watching him. Like a hawk.

“I’m all good here,” Ivan said.

“Targeting tends to drift to the right. Some of the old bearings in the turret mechanism need replacing. Just—when they come—make every shot count. Each miss will cost us.”

“Got it.”

Ivan paused. Took a breath.

It would be up to the two of them to keep the bugs away while the captain did what she had to do.

As to how she’d do it, he didn’t have a clue.

And if Annie Scott didn’t do it fast, sitting here with this killer of a gun would be useless.

~ * ~

McGowan moved fast, efficiently, unstrapping the metal casing for the suit quickly and undoing the neoprene clasps that held it tightly in place.

For such a big man, he eased into the suit as if sliding his feet into a pair of well-worn slippers.

“Battery’s on reserve, but it’s powered to max.”

He pulled on the two special “gloves,” more like metal pincer claws with other attached tools that he could activate if needed.

The gloves twisted around before they locked into place with loud clicking sounds. When McGowan opened and closed them a few times, they looked like lobster claws, snapping together. Only much stronger.

“Not really built for fine work,” he said.

He bent over and picked up the helmet with the pincers. He grunted as he raised it over his head and then lowered it to the metal ring of the collar.

A few quick snaps, and it, too, locked into place.

In seconds, he was encased, waiting for the suit to fully pressurize.

He nodded at Annie

“Jordan, you hear me?” she asked.

Her gunner had to be watching this.

A delay ... then: “Yes.”

“We’re all set for the EVA. Everything quiet up there?”

“No problems yet. The bugs are still tracking us.”

“They any closer?”

“Still holding back ... like they don’t know what to make of us.”

“Good.”

Maybe
, she thought,
the bugs were being held in check by the storm. Or maybe... they were only seconds away from scrambling out onto the Road.

McGowan waddled to the airlock in the back, servos humming with each movement.

“Good luck,” Annie said to his back.

The miner raised a hand, a wave as he entered the airlock, and the door closed behind him.

A red light above the door came on.

Then: green.

Through the floor of the ship, Annie could feel a subtle shaking as the air inside the lock vented. The outer lock opened, the hull resounding, and then the man who was hopefully going to save them all exited the SRV.

Annie turned and made her way back to the cockpit so she could watch—and guide—him on the monitors.

~ * ~

16

EVA

The first thing McGowan noticed:
the total emptiness that surrounded him.

The vast void of space stretching away from the ribbony Road in a dizzying spiral.

As if he was in the center of his own empty universe.

A pinpoint in infinity.

The sense of being absolutely motionless while traveling at unimaginable speeds was totally disorienting.

Don’t think about it.

And then he heard and saw the storm particles—

Not as bad as I thought.

—flicking across his suit, making tiny orange and white sparks when they hit.

Like subatomic insects.

Nothing the suit can’t handle,
he thought.

It’s stood up to worse, he knew.

Explosions of stone and ore when a blast went bad, or when the rock face of a miles-deep tunnel suddenly collapsed.

Ignore the light show.

He turned to face the SRV.

“McGowan, there’s one deflector on each side of the vehicle ... about two thirds of the way to the stern. A short ladder leads up to it.”

Annie’s voice was surprisingly crisp over the commlink.

McGowan had a basic understanding of how the deflectors worked: they conveyed the excess engine heat generated by contact with the Road so the SRV’s engines didn’t overheat... or explode.

Road jockeys called it “dumping the core.” Over time, though, the particles built up a residue that ground crews cleaned between each run.

Not hard to do ... just bothersome.

But now SRV-66’s deflectors had become useless, clogged. He’d have to see how bad.

He clambered up to the vent on the right, taking care to plant each step securely. Beside and behind him, indistinct forms—Road Bugs—suddenly appeared from under the edge of the Road.

“Great…” he whispered.

“Say again?” Annie’s voice.

“We got company.”

“We know. Jordan has them targeted. Don’t worry. They won’t do anything unless we completely stop.”

McGowan nodded to the emptiness.

Right. But still... the bugs were shifting closer....

~ * ~

Leaning across Nahara, who wouldn’t yield his seat, Sinjira peered out the side window and watched the miner in his suit as he moved along the right side of the SRV.

Everything transmitted directly to her chip, so she saw and felt exactly what McGowan did.

She
felt
it when he knelt down in front of the vent and opened it by removing a large cowling.

She saw the total darkness as he leaned his head into the gap.

She couldn’t stop thinking:
This is amazing!

But also thinking:
I could die... we could all die here.

Not so amazing then ...

Terrifying.

There were rumors of some black-market chips, but to her knowledge, no one had ever been recording a chip as they were dying.

But now’s not the time.... Let’s get through this....

~ * ~

Annie was seated in her command chair. Eyes fixed on two monitors that displayed the defectors port and starboard on the vehicle. She could rotate the cameras to keep McGowan in frame.

She felt herself hold her breath as he knelt beside the starboard vent. His arm moved clumsily as the metal pincers of his suit literally dug and scraped at the mesh.

Don’t make it any worse,
she thought.

Pieces of ionized mesh and metal flaked off from the ship—or his suit— and flew away in wild spirals of light.

“Looks like he’s getting it,” she said.

She watched, fascinated. The only sound—McGowan’s breath. Slow ... steady. She tried to ignore the glimpses of bugs she caught wavering in and out of view.

Jordan nodded but focused on the Road ahead ... watching ... waiting.

Annie knew he was ready to shoot the bugs if they came any closer.

Do we have enough time?
she wondered as a cold tingle reached deep into her gut.

But time wasn’t the only thing she had to worry about.

She glanced at the engine levels on the console. The heat and pressure building up fast in the core.

And if the core dumps...

“I’ve gotta slow down some more ... blow some of the heat off!”

Jordan didn’t look at her, just grunted his agreement.

And up ahead, the dark cloud of the ion storm, dancing with energy, was rolling steadily toward them.

A lull in the storm ... it’s going to get bad again.

She hit the commlink button.

“McGowan. There’s more bad weather coming. Big time.”

Her eyes flicked back to the screen showing McGowan at work. His mining suit now looked like it had caught fire. Thousands of sparks streamed off it and spun away in the darkness behind them.

And the Road Bugs loomed closer.

~ * ~

McGowan heard the words.

But he kept his focus on what he was doing. No distractions. He could feel the presence of the Road Bugs closing in all around him.

Waiting to pounce as soon as the SRV stopped.

The ionized particles slashed like metallic rain against the hull. The heavy barrage from earlier had coated the deflector with an inch-thick crust that filled the shaft connecting directly to the engine.

Like liquid metal that had dried into a flaky, hard casing.

He hadn’t studied the mechanics of an SRV in any detail, but he knew enough to know this was bad.

He activated a drilling implement in his right glove and started to dig directly into that hard surface. It chipped away a little at a time.

The hardened flakes flew off to either side of him. Like a shower of flame.

Not too bad though,
he thought.

He looked at the arms of his suit.

Holding up just fine.

Get this one done, then the other, and get the hell back on
—

He looked up.

The raging cloud closed in on the front of the vehicle. A nimbus of light surrounded the nose cone.

Then it slid over the SRV ... like some kind of monster engulfing it in a fiery storm.

McGowan focused on cutting into the buildup with his drill.

So hard to see through the glaring light. But at least this deflector was nearly cleared.

And then the storm surrounded him.

All he could do was watch what it was doing to his mining suit and pray the suit was tough enough.

~ * ~

Sinjira let out a shriek when the Road Bug suddenly appeared out of the darkness and scuttled close to the side of the ship.

It was covered with pinpoints of bright, blinking lights. A huge gap opened up in its center and seemed about to engulf the miner, but then it veered away and disappeared behind the SRV.

Had someone—Jordan—shot it?

Even if that one “thing” was gone, the miner was still in trouble. The storm was wreaking havoc with his chip transmission.

But she’d seen enough.

She didn’t have to be a scientist to know that if he didn’t get back inside the SRV soon, he would die, his suit ripped to pieces.

It might already be too late.

His suit shredded away—especially the right arm and shoulder, which took the brunt of the storm’s force.

Sinjira—connected to McGowan—started breathing in short, sharp gulps that burned in her lungs.

Then a tug on her shoulder and a voice sounded in her ear.

“Are you all right?”

Looking up, she saw the Seeker leaning over her, staring at her with wide eyes.

“Can you see what’s going on?”

The other passengers—Nahara and Rodriguez—stared out their window, too.

“He’s doing what he has to,” was all Sinjira could think to say.

The Seeker stared at her for several seconds.

Then lowered her gaze. Shoulders slumped, she walked back to her seat at the rear of the vehicle and sat down. She belted herself in and folded her hands in her lap.

Yes. She’s preparing herself. She knows we’re all going to die.

~ * ~

The red lines on the console kept creeping up.

Annie glanced at Jordan.

Stone-faced. Waiting.

Not panicking ... but feeling desperate, confused.

Why isn’t the heat going down?

McGowan had the starboard vent clear.

Maybe not entirely, but enough so the engines automatically recalibrated.

Unless the ionization dumped particles even deeper... already in the core.

In which case ...

“How’s it going out there, McGowan?” She tried to keep her voice calm.

Don’t let a shred of panic show.

“Best I can ... not as ... as I’m used to ...”

The commlink was breaking up. The static was painful in Annie’s ears, making her wince.

“That one’s good enough. Best get to the port side fast and see what you can do.”

“More bugs are showing up by the minute,” Jordan said, his voice calm. “Should I waste a couple? Keep them busy with something to clean up?”

Annie shook her head tightly. She focused on the gauges ... wishing they would start moving down—or at least stop rising. At least the starboard one was holding steady.

She watched, barely breathing, as McGowan tread slowly up the side of the vehicle, grabbing the service handholds and walking along narrow platforms along the way.