The False Admiral (23 page)

There were no more mysteries, but that was small comfort when there were so many crises. On the other hand, if all went well, we'd be off this rock in a matter of minutes. I could pilot a Ganraen shuttle, and it wasn't as if I could make Deilani's suspicions
worse
. Hoping for the best in Ganraen sleepers powered by a Ganraen shuttle carried some risk, but no more than we had here on the surface. It wouldn't be my first time.

We
would
be picked up. The question was by whom.

None of us had come up this way since our initial sweep, which had been cursory at best. The damage to the ship was no longer puzzling, but we didn't like the story it told.

There had been some sizable specimens running amok in here. We just had to hope the big ones had all gone back outside. Or was it the small ones we needed to worry about?

I was worried about all of them. I was used to human beings as my enemies. This was completely new to me.

We reached the bay, stopping short.

“Little roomier than it needs to be, isn't it?” I said, feeling detached. My voice echoed in the cavernous chamber.

There were bays for several shuttles. They were all empty.
Rubble was strewn about the deck; the bay doors had been open—probably when the colonists had made their escape. This was why there was so little evidence: most of the colonists hadn't actually died here.

“At least we know what that guy was doing in engineering,” Nils said, face white, eyes wide. “He missed his ride.”

NO shuttles. Not one. Of
course
they'd evacuated. Anybody would, and I'd seen the signs.

“We're not alone,” Deilani said.

“I'm not picking up anything,” Salmagard countered.

“It's not moving.” The lieutenant pointed. There was something dark on the ceiling of the bay. It was well over a hundred meters away. The fact that we could even see it at this distance meant it was at least twice the size of the one we'd encountered outside.

“Don't panic,” I said.

“Too late,” Nils replied.

“Back in the lift.” I hurried them out of the bay. Once we were safely in the lift with the shield closed, I rubbed at my eyes. I opened my mouth to ask Deilani how much time we had, then thought better of it. “Do or die, guys. How do we get off this planet?”

“We're on a ship,” Deilani said.

I shook my head. “It takes a crew to fly, and a hundred techs to keep it flying. Even if we had the training, we couldn't budge it—especially not knowing how badly damaged it is.”

“I looked at the overall diagnostic,” Nils said. “The damage is substantial, but as far as we're concerned, nothing that would keep us here.”

“Moot point. We can't fly it. Next idea.”

“There could be more shuttles on the other ships,” Deilani said, looking hopeful.

“It's possible, but not likely enough to gamble on. They've all evacuated. It would be worth a look if time wasn't so tight, but we're at the bottom of a valley. We'd have to secure some kind of vehicle, then navigate. I don't think there's time.”

“Then I'm out of ideas,” Nils said. “Those were the only space-worthy options on this ship. If our ECs won't get us into orbit, Ganraen ones sure as the Empress won't.”

“Wait a minute.” Deilani put her hands on her hips and stared at her boots. “Wait a minute. This is the
science
vessel.”

“Yeah,” I said, raising an eyebrow.

“So this is where the satellites are.”

I wanted to kiss her. “This is why I keep you around, Lieutenant. Nils, find a console and locate the ballistic launch bay.”

“They'll already have put their unit into orbit,” he said, shaking his head.

“There'll be more than one.”

“There
has
to be one in orbit—that's how they got their charts.”

“Not important, Ensign. Do it.”

Nils hit the release, and the lift started to move. “Survey satellites aren't meant to be manned,” he pointed out.

“It's worth checking out. We might have to get creative.” I was thinking fast.

“I've heard that before.”

*   *   *

The launch bay was more like a silo. A narrow, retractable corridor led to the satellite itself, which had already been loaded for launch. Nils immediately went to work on the control panel.

The maintenance cavity in the satellite was cramped, but not as cramped as I'd feared. We could all fit inside, and there would be room for supplies as well. It would be a brutally awkward and intimate fit, but I'd been worried that we wouldn't all be able to come along.

“It hasn't even got a recycler,” Deilani said. “It can't support life. It's like going into space in a metal box.”

She had a point.

“We'll think of something.” I ducked through the hatch to get inside.

“All we need to do is stick some sleepers in there,” Nils said, grinning. It was a joke, of course. Maybe we could fit Evagardian sleepers, which were relatively compact—but not Ganraen ones.

We couldn't cram much air in there, either. Not more than twenty-four hours' worth for the four of us. We needed more time than that. And we'd need a way to keep the temperature up. And at least
some
kind of ventilation.

Deilani was right—this wasn't a good solution.

“Getting off the planet's all well and good, but not if we're just going to die in orbit,” Deilani said. “This won't work. It's not made
for passengers. This space is only here so a tech can get in there and fix it when it breaks.”

Nothing I didn't already know. “Asleep won't work, and neither will awake. What does that leave? How about medical stasis?”

Deilani blinked. “Does the Commonwealth even have it?”

“Of course.”

“Do you trust it?”

“Do we have a choice?”

“EMS can't support you for more than a couple hundred hours at most. It's called emergency stasis for a reason. You don't even want to know what it'll do to you if you stay in there too long.”

I shrugged. “A couple hundred hours is longer than we'll last down here. And we won't need air or heat.”

She gave me a calculating look. “You want to stick four stasis modules in there.”

“You and I could share one.”

Her eyes narrowed. “We are about to be
dead
.”

“Not if I can help it. We can rig up some kind of power supply—hell, can't we divert some of the satellite's systems for it?”

“Maybe.” Nils folded his arms. “But I don't know these systems. If something goes wrong, we'll all wake up in plastic coffins, watching one another suffocate.”

“It'll be dark,” I told him. “We won't have to watch.”

I clapped him on the shoulder and climbed out of the satellite, starting back down the corridor. “What do we need to do? We need to prep the satellite for launch, secure four stasis modules, and find a way to keep them powered up. What else?”

“That's pretty much it,” Nils said, glancing at Deilani. “We
might be cutting it close, but it could be possible. It might not,” he added. “I can't make promises about coupling Ganraen tech—I'll have to make it up as I go.”

“You didn't get assigned to the
Julian
because you were bad at your job.” I waved him off. “Lieutenant, where do we get the EMS units?”

“If this was an Evagardian ship, there would be at least one mobile unit on every deck. But there probably isn't, and I wouldn't know where to look.”

“Medbay, obviously.”

“No.” Deilani chewed her lip. “Those are stationary units. You can't move them. All right—this is a colony. They must have surface craft for workmen and surveyors. Those flyers and personnel carriers will have mobile units in case there are injuries on the surface. Colonists have accidents all the time. It's kind of their thing. We'll use those. Those vehicles should be in the bay underneath the one we just came from.”

“Will they be hard to move?”

“I don't know. Who can tell with these people? They should have their own grav pallets.”

“Let's get down there and have a look. Can we actually fit four of them in there?”

Deilani scowled. “Depends on how bulky they are. We could fit four of ours.”

*   *   *

The planetary survey vessels were all there in the bay, looking almost pristine. It was a lot of vehicles, and the vast space almost
seemed full. The floor and walls were like a massive gray grid, stretching into the distance.

We appeared to have the bay to ourselves. “There,” Deilani said, pointing. “The big ones—those are for long-range work crews. They'll have EMS.” She jogged off across the deck. I didn't have that kind of energy. My withdrawal was getting worse.

I looked over at Salmagard. “Private?”

“There's movement under the floor, Admiral.”

Movement
under
the floor didn't worry me. I hurried after Deilani.

The long-distance crawler was the size of a small spacecraft. A big colonial seal was printed on each of the six massive wheels. There were some dents in the gray chassis, but no serious damage.

Deilani was lowering the ramp. She'd been right: there were two EMS units—one on either side of the cargo hold. “They aren't as big as I thought they'd be . . . but I'm not sure we want to trust our lives to these,” she fretted.

“You'll have to. How do we detach them?”

She shot me a look. “We need to be gentle. Two to a pallet. We'll have to make another trip.” There was a hiss, and the float pallet lit up. Deilani seized the controls and lifted it off the deck, moving it gingerly away from the bulkhead. Nils took over for her, and she went to work on the other one. “Six hours on its internal charge. Then it'll need power.”

“Six hours? That's terrible,” Nils said, appalled. “What's the point?”

“There are power docks here, but they're for use with this vehicle. It's Ganraen; what do you expect?” Deilani snapped.

Nils was looking at me worriedly. I knew what he was thinking. These units might not buy us as much time as we'd hoped. But until someone thought of a better plan, it was still full speed ahead on this one.

Deilani detached the next unit, and I grabbed the controls. “Go,” I said, and she joined Nils in moving the first unit down the ramp. Salmagard helped me steer my pallet.

The temptation to rush was strong, but these Ganraen lifts weren't as responsive as Evagardian ones. In the long run, a spill would cost us more time than a deliberate pace.

“Admiral, are you all right?” Salmagard asked me quietly. We were several meters behind Deilani and the ensign. She could plainly see how bloodshot my eyes were. They were burning. And I could feel the occasional muscle spasm.

“The drugs the lieutenant gave me are wearing off,” I told her. “It's making it hard to focus.”

“Is there anything we can do?”

I shook my head. “Ganraen pharmaceuticals aren't on our level. If they had a cure, I wouldn't be blazed in the first place. Don't worry. I can stay in it a little longer.” This side of things had slipped the lieutenant's mind completely, but I couldn't distract her with it now. Our survival was more important than my comfort.

It was a long walk, but I was getting used to crossing bays on foot. That didn't make my feet hurt any less.

“It's following us,” Salmagard whispered to me.

“What?” She looked down. I looked down at the deck too. “Vibration? Heat?”

She shrugged. “The more we move, the more I read. We're attracting them.”

“Get ready to fight.”

“I am. Are you?” She looked concerned.

“I don't like fighting.”

“Sir?”

“Don't worry about me,” I told her. It would be enough for me to stay lucid. I'd leave the fighting to Salmagard.

“Take the first lift,” I called to Deilani. “We'll use personnel instead of cargo—one at a time, it's still faster. Can't fit both of these in there.” I waved her on. “Just go.” We were lucky the lift was big enough for one unit. It was tight, though.

“Copy that.” Deilani and Nils disappeared through the hatch.

Salmagard opened the pouch at her hip and situated a Ganraen sidearm inside so it would be easier to get at.

“That's against orders,” I said lightly. I hadn't seen her pick it up.

“They didn't seem to
me
like faulty readings,” she replied without meeting my eyes.

“Maybe we do need more people with your genes on the enlisted side.” The lift doors opened, and we pushed the EMS unit into the cramped carriage, tilting it up to fit. The ride up took only a moment.

The doors had barely opened again when there was a shout over the com. Salmagard flew out of the lift so fast that I was suddenly left with the full weight of the EMS unit, vastly reduced by the grav pallet, but still considerable. I eased it down and stumbled after her.

Deilani was dragging Nils away from
three
xenos. One was so large that it seemed to fill the whole corridor, and the other two were just big enough to give me nightmares.

All three were advancing. Nils was hurt; there were smears of blood on the deck and on his suit.

Salmagard got between them and the xenos, the Ganraen sidearm extended in one hand. She fired at the nearest one, which was scuttling toward her at an alarming pace. The projectile, intended to be safe for use on spacecraft, fragmented on the thing's carapace. It barely seemed to notice. And it was one of the little ones. Salmagard's eye twitched, and she took a step back.

I helped Deilani pull Nils back toward the lift, but we couldn't outrun these things in such close quarters.

Salmagard seemed determined to keep them from getting at us.

She took another step back, then pointed the weapon at the bulkhead and fired several times in quick succession. It looked random to me, but it was precision shooting. A panel broke free and fell to swing, held up by only one fastening, revealing piping and wiring. Salmagard didn't see what she wanted, because she blasted another panel off the other side of the corridor, then fired a final shot.

There was a small explosion, and the corridor was suddenly filled with scalding steam. I triggered my helmet, and Deilani reached down to hit the ensign's. We got him into the lift, which was crowded with the EMS unit still in it. Deilani shoved it out, and it thudded against the bulkhead, drifting crookedly through the corridor. Salmagard dodged it narrowly, sliding into the lift and hitting the release.

“Down,” I said, disengaging my helmet, and we started to move. “Did it work?”

Salmagard nodded.

I turned my attention to Nils. There were serious burns on his back, each focused around what looked like a deep puncture. His white suit was streaked with blood. He looked terrible; his EV
wasn't bothering to mend itself; it knew he needed treatment first. “We need Medical.”

The steam had been good thinking on Salmagard's part. Brilliant, really. There was no atmosphere on this cold planet, so it was unlikely that locals would have evolutionary defenses against heat.

Deilani and I carried Nils into the Ganraen med lab, where we found no fewer than a dozen of the things, all less than a meter across, and all clinging to the walls and ceiling. The lieutenant and I held up, blocking Salmagard.