Time Past (41 page)

“And wait for the Q’Chn to find me?” I looked at him, uncertain what his problem was. “Nobody’s safe while they’re here. You just said so yourself.”

“You’re no help if you’re...”

Sasaki cleared her throat gently. “Ahem. Chief, do you want me to tell Roads to go ahead?”

Murdoch seemed to take a mental step back. “Yeah, you do that, Helen. I’ll be down in ten.”

Sasaki raised an eyebrow at me and walked out.

Murdoch and I watched each other warily.

“So what’s your diversion?” I said, and tried a half smile with it.

He turned abruptly to the holo, drawing his finger through a blue column and into a white-outlined cube. “Here.”

“Storage bay on Level Eight?”

“Sigma 41, to be exact.”

It sounded familiar, but I couldn’t remember from where. “What’s it got to do with the Q’Chn?”

“That’s where Veatch let Trillith store the rest of its fuel cache.”

Big containers of highly flammable and explosive gases. The Sigma bays were reinforced in case we had an accident with dangerous substances, but if Murdoch intended using the fuel to make some sort of flamethrower, he’d have to modify it for use in the rings and therefore lose its power…

“I thought we could use the fire control system to spread flammable mist instead of retardant. Then you set a small bomb to go off among the fuel pods and boom.” He said it lightly but his eyes were hard.

I winced. “You’ll blow containment on that level, possibly the ones above and below. If the angle is wrong, we risk debris hitting the rings.”

“We can evacuate beforehand and have bots ready to deflect any debris. As long as the hull’s self-repair functions are active, should be okay. That’s why we couldn’t try something like this last time, remember?” He scratched his head angrily. “The only thing that’ll work against the Q’Chn is something so primitive, or so advanced, that they’re not ready for it.”

Trillith would be furious if Security somehow used its fuel to combat the Q’Chn, even if it had come by the cargo illegally in the first place.

Then I remembered the significance of Sigma 41 and nearly laughed aloud. It was the storage bay where we found Keveth’s body, after it was killed by the Q’Chn that terrorized the station at the end of the Seouras blockade. Keveth was another K’Cher, whom Trillith had betrayed and left to die. And now Murdoch would use Trillith’s property to destroy more Q’Chn in the same place.

“Good spot for it.”

He grinned. “Thought you’d remember.”

“How many of them are here?”

He shook his head. “We’re not sure. Kwon saw two of them when he escorted Stone up there for his little talk with their captain. And there was another one in Spoke Two at the same time, so that’s three definite. There must be more on
Vengeful
because most of their fighters stayed there.”

“So how are you going to get these three we’ve got on the station in the storage bay?”

“We’re still working on that. But we have an edge.”

“Which is?”

“We’re not telling everyone, but we’ve been monitoring most of the communication between the New Council ship and the other Q’Chn out there. When I say communication ‘between,’ I mean orders going from the New Council to the Q’Chn. Seems the New Council captain has to repeat a lot of orders. The Q’Chn don’t want to listen. And she lied to them about a couple of things.”

“Such as?” “Such as there being no members of the Four on Jo-casta.”

“You know how the Q’Chn hate the K’Cher. Venner probably doesn’t want them all to head this way and leave the point unprotected. It would leave the space clear for ConFleet to get ships through.”

“Mmm. Anyway, we think this monitoring works both ways—the New Council can probably pick up our comm signals as well.”

“And they haven’t realized we can read them?”

“Dunno. Engineering reckons not. They’re being pretty free with their information if that’s the case.”

“We’d better not be free with ours, then.”

“That’s why I’ve put restrictions on information to be sent via comm link,” he said patiently.

I thought of the Q’Chn fighters clustered around
Vengeful
and the scrum of fighters, shuttles, and escape pods around the jump point. “Bill, how many of
Vengeful
’s crew got away?”

“We monitored the jump point opening at least ten times,” he said somberly.

Not many. “An Barik’s ship?”

“The Bubble said they picked up an Invidi engine signature, but they don’t know if it got away or was destroyed in that area.”

“Bill, where’s An Serat? I saw him when I landed
Farseer.
”

“I don’t know and I don’t care.” He met my eyes. “He’s in the center, as far as I know. That bloody ship is still there, too. Halley, I’ve got my hands full keeping people safe here. Leave the jump drive to the Invidi. At least for the moment,” he amended. “We need you as an engineer.”

“Why?”

“Opsys problems all over. No pattern to the disturbances, but we had major breakdowns a couple of hours ago in Gamma transport and Delta comm systems. Main Engineering reckons it’s a core problem, but the New Council won’t let anyone up there. Stone’s supposed to be explaining to them how it could be the airlocks on their dock that fail next. Dunno if they’ll listen to him, though.”

“Maybe they’ll listen to me.”

“I reckon you should stay away from them. It was you who messed up their try at getting
Calypso
last time. You’re not going to be their favorite person.”

Good point. And he was also right that if the opsys problems got out of control, we were in big trouble.

“I’ll contact Gamet and see what it is,” I said.

His shoulders relaxed and he ran his hand over his head, as though relieved. “Thanks. I’m going to work on our diversion.”

“Don’t you think the New Council have too much at stake to start making enemies among the Nine and unaligned worlds like us? I mean, if they terrorize us, the rest of the galaxy’s going to hear about it.”

“I dunno why they’re here at all. Doesn’t make sense. Why risk exposing themselves at Central to make a jump here, to a system still patrolled by ConFleet?”

“An Serat must have jumped for them.”

“Because he needed Q’Chn muscle to get this ship?” He frowned. “If it’s that damn important...”

“Remember what I said about the off-network jumping?”

“You think Serat jumped the New Council here from somewhere off the network?”

“No, they came out of the Central jump point. And I don’t think Serat can do it on any old ship with jump drive. He needs
Farseer.
”

He frowned even worse. “That’s a pretty big conclusion to jump to.”

“An Barik gave me a clue.”

He blew out in exasperation. “So Serat gets together with the New Council again, in order to get
Farseer
back, because for whatever reason—Invidi politics—Barik’s got here first with ConFleet and beaten him to it. So why hasn’t Serat got into the New Council freighter with
Farseer
and pissed off again? Why’s he hanging around waiting for ConFleet to come back?”

He walked over to the wall controls and deactivated the holomap. The complex tracery of colors disappeared, leaving the room drab and pale.

“You’re right about it being a big risk for the New Council,” I said. “I imagine Serat’s offered them something they can’t refuse.”

“A jump drive?”

“What else? Or rather, a ship calibrated so that one of the Nine can use the drive.”

“Maybe he’s not giving it to them, and they’re refusing to leave until he does?” Murdoch said.

“He could go off by himself in
Farseer.
No reason for him to wait for the New Council. More likely they’re waiting for him—they won’t be able to jump out of here without Serat.”

“Unless they force one of the Bendarl to jump what’s left of
Vengeful
for them,” Murdoch said distastefully.

“If the Q’Chn left anyone alive.” As the words left my mouth a sickening image of what might have happened on
Vengeful
made me turn away, so he wouldn’t see the fear on my face.

I thought of An Barik’s warning of
Farseer
being unstable. Or Serat being unstable. Might the knowledge of danger be keeping Serat himself from using
Farseer
?

“Bill, it’s possible that using
Farseer
could destabilize jump points. An Barik seemed to be warning me not to use it.”

“We used it okay.” He paused in the act of putting a handcom and other small pieces of equipment on his belt.

“Yes, but only once. If using
Farseer
is dangerous, we should try and stop Serat leaving here with it.”

He finished his preparations. “It’s not our responsibility. The other Invidi...”

“Aren’t here,” I interrupted. “They can’t stop Serat. We can.”

“I was going to say, it’s their technology causing the problem. And what do you want me to do?” he said wearily. “Slap a restraining order on him? Could be difficult. Last I saw, he was with the group that’s holding this station to ransom.”

“Where’s
Farseer
?”

“In a dock on Level Three,” he said shortly.

I had a vague memory of aiming for the upper level docks when I brought
Farseer
from
Vengeful.
Also of a smaller ship buzzing me as I came in, which was probably Serat’s shuttle.

“We should lock the space doors,” I said. “And make sure there’s a physical barrier, too. I bet An Serat can override the system locks. How about positioning one of the sweeper drones outside it?”

Sweeper drones were robotic cleanup vessels that pottered around the station keeping away larger pieces of space debris and rubbish from ships. Some of them were as large as twelve-person shuttles, most of that bulk being storage area for rubbish.

“Most of them are picking up junk from the attack on
Vengeful.
I think there’s one or two left.” He opened his mouth, shut it again. Then stepped forward and put his arms around me.

After a quick glance at the doorway, I relaxed into the embrace. It felt warm and comfortable, except for the handcom on his belt, which stuck into my ribs. Don’t relax too much, I told myself. The last thing you want is Henoit whispering in your ear and subverting your reactions. Right now, you need to stay clearheaded.

“I’m glad you’re back safe,” Murdoch said into my hair. “We thought you’d been trapped on the cruiser.”

Nothing from Henoit. It was so good to feel Bill without the sense of Henoit looming over me that I leaned my aching forehead on his shoulder and enjoyed the support. “I ditched a guard detail when the first alarm went off,” I said. “I’m really in trouble now.” The ludicrousness of this observation hit me and I chuckled—“in trouble” with Con-Fleet hardly compared with being trapped on the station with hostile Q’Chn.

He let his arms drop. “You can talk to Engineering from here. When I asked them earlier, Gamet said they were worried because they couldn’t trace the cause of the problems.”

“That’s all we need.”

He turned in the doorway. “Take care.”

“You too.”

Maybe I should have said something else. But what else is there to say?

Thirty-one

“
H
alley to Engineering. Put me on to Lieutenant Gamet.”

Gamet here. Glad you could make it back, Commander.

“What’s the status of your system problem?”

We have unauthorized access to the core. The intruder doesn’t respond to comm signals and the terrorists won’t let us send anyone up there.

“What’s the intruder doing?”

No pattern to it. They’re accessing recycling in the Smoke one minute and the Bubble command subsystem the next. Some of the systems they’re not damaging, but others aren’t being resumed properly so we’ve got malfunctions down here.

“They might be pulling material physically from a random selection.”

Could be.
Gamet’s voice stayed controlled. But her tone rose on the next words.
We can’t guess if and when they’ll pull a really vital subsystem and its backups.

Too big a coincidence if the selection was indeed random, and not deliberate sabotage. Why would the New Council sabotage the station, though? They were trying to persuade the residents that the Confederacy was the villain.

We could lose position.

Lose spin, lose gravity, lose orbit. Die.

Or atmospheric monitors.

Suffocate first. “Lieutenant, what can I do to help?” She paused for a moment.
We’re watching vital signs down here. If you could persuade those pirates...

Several voices rose in the background behind her. In spite of the proximity dampers on the pickup, I heard the words, “Confederacy,” “abandon,” and “these guys are the best alternative...”

... that they mustn’t muck around in the core. If it’s not them, we must send a team up there to take a look,
she finished in a rush.

“I’ll try. Keep me up-to-date.”

Yes, ma’am.
She cut the link quickly. Sounded like the New Council propaganda appealed to some of Gamet’s people.

I tried Murdoch’s link.

What is it?
He was short of breath.

“The center is still having problems. Gamet thinks the New Council are interfering in the core. I’m going up to talk to them. I might be more persuasive than Stone if I can tell them exactly what could go wrong.”

Right. I’ll expect you to call in within thirty minutes. Otherwise I assume you’re in trouble.

“Understood.”

I made a short detour to take a H’digh pheromone inhibitor then approached the uplift nearest the main hospital entrance in Alpha. The New Council ship was docked at Level Three. Surely the captain would see it was in her best interests to allow us to keep the station functioning normally?

No wonder some people sympathized with the New Council. Some of them had probably been here since the early days. They had seen how the Confederacy put as little effort as possible into maintaining the station, finally abandoning it during the Seouras blockade. That neglect might be the Confederacy’s undoing, for it had encouraged a huge majority of the station’s residents to vote to submit the neutrality petition. If Confederacy neglect also encouraged them to support the New Council, when—if—the neutrality vote was passed, the New Council could gain a base in this sector. The main obstacle to supporting the New Council remained their terrorist activities and their association with the Q’Chn.