The Aftermath (30 page)

Immediately Angela said, “I'll back you up.”

“Okay,” said Theo. “We'll both get into suits but you come back here and take the command chair while I'm outside. If I get into trouble, you'll be ready to come out and help.”

“Right,” Angela said. No argument.

As they clambered up the tube tunnel toward the living quarters and the main airlock, Theo felt the ship vibrating, a slight tremor that would only get worse, he knew, unless he could get the cold-gas jets to slow their spin back to normal.

“How's Mom?” he shouted to Angela, a few rungs of the ladder above him.

“She sounded okay. She said she was working on the air filters when the collision hit.”

“She wasn't hurt, was she?”

“You know Mom. She'd have to lose an arm or a leg before she'd admit she got hurt.”

Pauline was waiting for them at the hatch to the airlock. “I've pulled out your suits and checked their air tanks. Both suits are ready for use.”

“Thanks, Mom,” Theo said.

Pauline helped them into their suits, checked the seals, then sent Angela back toward the control pod. Once she reported on the intercom that she was safely at her post, Pauline started to pull her own suit out of its locker.

“What're you doing, Mom?” Theo asked.

“I'll be your backup. Help me into my suit, please.”

“But Angie—”

“Angie's in the pod. If you get into trouble, I can be outside with you in three minutes, the time it takes to cycle the airlock. Angie's fifteen minutes away.”

Theo recognized the tone of his mother's voice. All that arguing would do was delay the repairs he needed to make. It would never change his mother's mind, or blunt her determination.

“Okay,” he said, with a defeated sigh. Yet inwardly he knew his mother was right, and he appreciated her wisdom.

Once outside, Theo used his suit's maneuvering jets to skim halfway around the ship's rim.

“How does it look?” Pauline's voice sounded calm enough, but he thought he detected just a trace of anxiety in it.

Shaking his head inside the suit's glassteel helmet, Theo replied, “Like some giant robot ripped the whole section apart.”

“That bad?”

“Could've been a lot worse. The rock must've come in at a flat angle. It grazed the hull, just plowed along this one section and then went on its way.”

Angela's voice cut in. “Can you fix the circuitry?”

“Yeah, sure. But it's going to take time.”

And air. Theo knew his mother had filled his suit's tanks, but every breath he took sucked up precious oxygen. Then there's the maneuvering jet propellant. Cold nitrogen, same as the ship's rim jets use. How much more do we have in store? We can take nitrogen out of the air we breathe, but that ups the oxy percentage, which can start its own cascade of problems.

He shook his head again, this time to clear away all the disturbing thoughts. No time for that, he told himself. Fix the problem at hand.

He didn't realize how long he'd been at his task until Angela called. “You've got one hour of air left, Thee.”

Looking up from the welding job he'd been doing, he floated out to the limit of his safety tether with the welding laser in his gloved hand.

“Almost finished,” he said. He wished he could reach inside the helmet and scratch his nose. The headband he wore kept the sweat out of his eyes, but he could feel it trickling uncomfortably down his cheeks and soaking the collar of his shirt. No time for complaining, he told himself sternly. Get the job done.

At last he called to Angela, “Check the circuit schematic, Angie. It should be all green now.”

“It's amb … no, it's gone to green!” Her voice sounded jubilant.

“Okay. Fire the jets. One-second burst. Just see if they actually work.”

“Firing.”

Theo saw a puff glitter from the nearest jet: cold nitrogen gas immediately dissipating into the vacuum of space.

“Works fine!” Angela sang out.

“Okay,” said Theo. “Check the spin program and slave the jet controls to it. I'm heading in.”

Two years ago, even one year ago, he wouldn't have trusted Angela to get it right. But she's grown a lot, Theo thought. Then he grinned to himself. So have I, I guess.

He got as far as the open outer hatch of the airlock. Then his earphones crackled:

“Unidentified vessel, this is
Vogeltod.
Do you need assistance?”

*   *   *

At first Valker was disappointed that the ship on his main screen wasn't his quarry,
Hunter.
But it was a ship, running silent, no signals coming out of it, either before the solar storm or now, after it.

“Is she a derelict?” Valker wondered aloud.

Nicco, sitting at the communications console, said, “I can hail her.”

Valker thought it over for about a second, then replied, “Do that. Politely. According to the rules.”

Nicco grinned as he pressed his transmission key. “Unidentified vessel,” he called, his voice light and sweet. “This is
Vogeltod.
Do you need assistance?”

No answer. Only the crackle of interference from the natural background emissions of the Sun and stars. Then:

“This is ore ship
Syracuse!
” a young voice shouted eagerly. “Yes! We've been damaged and we urgently need help!”

“Put them on screen,” Valker commanded.

Nicco made an elaborate shrug. “No visual. Only voice. And it's kinda weak, like it's a suit radio, not the ship's comm system.”

Valker leaned on the comm key built into his command chair's armrest. “
Syracuse,
we hear you. You're damaged, you say?”

“Yessir. We've been on a powerless trajectory for almost four years now, ever since we were attacked.”

“Attacked? By who?”

“We don't know. The attacker slagged our antennas so we couldn't call for help. I'm talking to you through a suit radio.”

Nicco half stood at his console and took a little bow. The other crewmen razzed him.

“We'll rendezvous with you,” said Valker, waving to the crew to be quiet. “How many aboard your vessel?”

“Rendezvous will be tricky, sir. Our radar's out. We're blind as well as deaf and dumb.”

“That's all right. We'll match vectors and board you. How many in your crew?”

“There's just my mother, my sister and me.”

Valker's smile showed almost all his teeth.

“Hold tight. I'll come aboard myself.”

“That's great! That's wonderful!”

Valker cut the connection and his crew whooped with glee.

“Two women!”

“And only one man to protect them!”

“He sounds like a kid.”

“Keep your pants on, you apes,” Valker said, raising one hand to silence them. “Nicco, check the IAA registration for
Syracuse.
Kirk, match our vector with theirs, get us close enough for me to jump across in a suit.”

“You? By yourself?”

“That's right. I don't want you baboons scaring the ladies.” Before they could complain he added, “Or making the lad suspicious. Easy does it. They're not going anywhere without us.”

*   *   *

Theo was so excited it took him three tries to punch out the code on the wall pad that controlled the airlock. He stood fidgeting inside his space suit as the 'lock cycled from vacuum to normal air pressure, all fatigue forgotten, all the worries and fears that he had carried inside him like a gnawing tumor for more than three years, gone, disappeared.

We're saved, he kept telling himself. We're saved. We're saved.

In his helmet earphones he heard his mother and sister bubbling.

“It's a miracle!” Angie said, her voice brimming with joy.

“I never thought it could happen,” Pauline said, just as elated. “In all this emptiness, to run into another ship…”

Theo heard his mother's voice catch, sensed her struggling to hold back tears.

When he finally clomped out of the airlock, Angela and Pauline were both half out of their space suits, down to nothing but their leggings. As soon as he pulled the helmet off his head they both wrapped their arms around his neck and broke into wet, blubbering sobs. Theo wanted to dance a jig, but they were pressing too close to him and he was afraid of tramping on their feet.

“We're saved, Theo, we're saved,” his mother said. “You've brought us through it.”

“We did it together, Mom. You, Angie and me.”

Angie said, “Let's get these leggings off and put on some clean clothes. I want to look presentable. You too, Mom.”

Pauline laughed through her tears. “Yes, yes, of course. We want to look our best.”

ORE SHIP
SYRACUSE
: LIVING QUARTERS

Valker beamed a brilliant smile as he sat in the cushioned armchair that Theo had avoided using since his father had left them. It had been his father's chair, but now Valker sat in it, perfectly at ease, a big-shouldered, handsome smiling stranger in a hodgepodge of a uniform that seemed to be made up of odd bits and pieces from half a dozen other outfits.

“Very comfortable quarters you have here,” said Valker smoothly.

Pauline had put on a clean set of pale blue coveralls that complemented her sandy hair nicely. Angela was wearing an actual dress, something she hadn't done since they'd left Ceres. Theo was shocked to see how really good-looking his sister was, and how Valker stared admiringly at her. Angie had pinned up her hair and put on lip gloss. She had also left the top three buttons of her dress open; Valker seemed especially impressed with her breathing.

Pauline sat on the sofa, her daughter beside her. “I'm afraid we don't have much food left,” she said. “We've been rationing it out all these months, to make it last long enough for us to get back to Ceres.”

“I understand,” Valker said, his eyes never leaving Angie.

Sitting nervously on the edge of the smaller armchair, on the other end of the coffee table from Valker, Theo said, “It's a good thing we were in our suits when you hailed us. Otherwise we wouldn't have known you were nearby.”

“Oh, we would've boarded you anyway,” said Valker. “We're in the salvage business. At first we thought your vessel had been abandoned, like so many others in the Belt.”

“Salvage business?” Pauline asked.

“It's not much, but it's a living for me and my poor excuse of a crew.”

“How many in your crew?” Theo asked.

“There's nine of us, plus me. I'm the skipper.”

“How many women?” asked Pauline.

Valker shook his head. “None. Women cause trouble on long missions. They don't mean to, but men just naturally start to compete over them.”

Theo understood. “I guess that's normal, unless you're family.”

“You bet it is.”

Angela spoke up. “Are your men homosexuals?”

Pauline glared at her daughter.

Valker threw his head back and hooted laughter. “My crew? No. Not at all. Quite the opposite.” Still chuckling, he added, “Although, after they've been out on a mission long enough, they'll take whatever they can get.”

Angela flushed, but said, “You wouldn't do that, would you?”

“I haven't had to … so far.”

Theo wanted to make Angie disappear. She's giving this stranger all the wrong impression, he thought.

Pauline changed the subject. “If you could give us some propellant for our fusion drive we could get back to Ceres within a few weeks or less.”

“Certainly,” said Valker. “No problem. We'll repair your antennas, too, so you can communicate again.”

“No need for that,” Theo said.

“You're wrong, lad. You can't go barreling into the Ceres sector deaf, dumb and blind. There's too much traffic in the region. It'd be dangerous for you and all the others.”

Theo glanced at his mother and saw that she didn't want Valker's men coming aboard
Syracuse
either.

“We appreciate your willingness to help,” Pauline began.

Theo interrupted. “I can go back to your ship with you. If you'll give me a spare antenna from your stores I can bring it back here and set it up, no sweat.”

But Valker shook his head once more. “It's not that easy, son. We don't have spare antennas. Our antennas are built into the ship's hull, just like yours. But we have the materials to lay down a new set of antennas for you. Materials and men to do the job.”

“I can do the job myself if you just give me the materials,” Theo said.

Valker looked at him, smiling toothily. “I understand. You're scared to let my men aboard your vessel. Two beautiful women and nine hungry men. Right?”

“Ten men,” Theo corrected. “Including you.”

“Including me, that's right,” Valker acknowledged, laughing. “But you don't have anything to worry about, son. I guarantee that my men won't bother your mother or sister. That's a promise.”

And he held out his right hand. Theo glanced at his mother, thinking, I've got no choice. Reluctantly, he took Valker's hand in his own.

*   *   *

The three of them went with Valker to the airlock. Theo couldn't help but be envious as he watched the man pull on his nanofabric space suit.

“I'll be back with two men to help you install a new set of antennas,” Valker promised as he pulled the suit's cowling over his head and inflated it into a clear bubble. “Once that's done we'll transfer enough hydrogen to get you back to Ceres.”

“That will be wonderful,” Pauline said.

Valker grinned at her. “Always happy to help a lovely lady in distress.”

He waved and stepped into the airlock. Theo punched out the code that sealed the hatch and started the airlock cycling.