Mission: Tomorrow - eARC (17 page)

The airlock door was an open hatch on the floor, which the chief ushered him through. Keyes found himself in a long thin tube clinging to inset rungs. He glanced down into the dizzying depths below. The hatch clanged shut above him.

With nowhere else to go, he climbed down the tube. A clang sounded from below, then a voice. “Get a move on. We need to shove off if we’re going to make our launch window.”

He hurried his pace and soon found himself climbing through another hatch. A man in a flight suit slammed the hatch behind him. The flight engineer, but Keyes couldn’t remember his name.

He looked Keyes up and down. “Thought you guys cancelled.”

“What? No. Why would we do that?”

He shrugged. “Dunno. Mission control said they got a message from Foggerty an hour ago.”

“Mr. Foggerty would never—”

“Whatever. Get strapped in.”

He had himself almost strapped in before his foggy brain thought to ask the next question. “Isn’t Mr. Foggerty on board?”

The pilot continued her preflight work, ignoring him. The flight engineer looked at him with his eyebrows raised. “You see him anywhere?”

“I have to find out where he is!”

He reached to undo his straps, but the engineer grabbed his hand. “You’re not going anywhere.”

A slight tug pulled Keyes forward as the attitude engines fired. On the pilot’s video display, DSS lazily receded.

Flight Chief Aouda’s image in Felix’s tablet looked harried. “Better come over to the ascender dock, Detective. We have a situation here.”

“What is it?”

“It’s that Foggerty guy. He’s on a rampage.”

“On my way.” Felix charged down the tube, slamming pressure hatches behind him. The ascender docking module wasn’t very far; a good cop plans ahead.

When he arrived, Foggerty was mostly calm. “Look,” he said, “I don’t know where this text message came from, but I surely didn’t send it. But that’s water over the dam. What’s important is how you’re going to get me onto that ascender.”

Aouda sputtered. “Get onto it? You can’t.”

“My good woman, where there’s a will, there’s a way.” He turned his attention to Felix. “I’m sure you’ll agree, Mister . . .”

“Detective Felix.”

“You don’t say.” He eyed Felix appraisingly. “Are you in charge of security on this station?”

“I am.”

“Then we must have some words when this is all said and done. But first I must get aboard that airship!”

“If the chief says it’s impossible, sir, then it’s impossible.”

“Tut. You have those atmospheric airships I rode up in. Take me up in one of those.”

“No, no, no,” Aouda said, agitated. “If they could get to orbit themselves, we wouldn’t need the orbital ascenders. DSS is at the limit of their buoyancy, and even then they need special low-pressure propellers after seventy K feet.” Foggerty began to object, and the chief added pointedly, “Not that we’d risk an airship or its crew trying, even if it was possible.”

Foggerty’s face dropped. “Well that’s it, then. I knew Stuart would try to cheat. Didn’t think he’d be clever enough to pull it off though.”

Felix averted his eyes from the crestfallen man and tried to focus on the money he stood to make. It would have been so much easier if he didn’t have to face his victim.

Victim. The word made Felix feel like a criminal. Maybe Foggerty was bending the rules, but Stuart was outright breaking them. And I helped him, Felix thought.

Damn it.

Inexplicably, Foggerty’s lips erupted into a smile beneath his handlebar. “Ah, but you have another ascender under construction!”

“Really, sir,” Aouda said. “It’ll be another few months before it’s ready for flight.”

“Well it looks complete. What’s it missing?”

“The engines,” Felix said.

“Oh.” Foggerty’s smile collapsed and his shoulders hunched in defeat.

I have him, Felix thought. All I have to do is keep my mouth shut. “But it still has plenty of buoyancy.”

“Oh ho! That it does!”

Aouda frowned. “You can’t be serious. I can’t authorize—”

“I can,” Felix said with a smile.

“Bull,” Aouda said.

“Well, I have override codes. I can release the tethers holding it in place before anyone knows what’s happening.”

Foggerty clapped him on the back. “Good man!”

Aouda arched her eyebrow at Felix. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

Ending my career. Giving up my dream. Doing the right thing.
“Will we be able to catch the other ascender in time?”

“We?”

“Mr. Foggerty doesn’t know how to fly. I’ll have to go with him.”

“The good news,” Aouda said, “is that without engines the ascender is a lot lighter than the fully loaded one. It’ll rise faster. If you leave soon, you just might catch up to them before they reach two hundred K.”

“That’s when the engines kick in,” Foggerty said.

“That’s the bad news.”

“Well then,” Felix said, “let’s get a move on.”

Stealing a spaceship wasn’t as difficult as it sounded, especially when the next closest cop was a hundred forty thousand feet below. Felix looked over the work crew rotation. Luckily, the engines were preassembled on the ground and none of them had arrived on station yet, so just a few maintenance guys were aboard the ascender at the moment.

“I need you all to evacuate the ship.” Felix suppressed a smile. “Police matter.”

“Let’s see a badge.”

“Don’t be a smart ass, Charlie.”

The maintenance guys laughed and filed out of the crew module and up the airlock tube.

When the last of them was gone, Foggerty grinned. “Good show. Let’s shove off.”

“Yes, let’s,” Aouda’s voice said from the airlock tube.

Felix looked up just in time to see her climb down the last few rungs. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Someone’s got to fly this thing.”

“I put in my required time on the simulator.”

“Wait,” Foggerty said. “You were going to try to fly solo with only simulator training? And they say I’m crazy.”

“Ha,” Aouda said. “Strap in and let’s get this bird moving.”

Felix sat and fastened his straps. “You know you’re throwing away your career,” he said.

“I couldn’t let you two kill yourselves trying to fly. Besides, Mr. Foggerty is rather charming when he’s not badgering innocent flight chiefs.” She grinned impishly.

“Oh, I must apologize,” Foggerty said. “No excuse for treating a lady that way.”

“Pssht,” Aouda said. “He thinks I’m a lady.”

The radio hissed and Aouda dialed the volume down. “I don’t suppose mission control is happy with us,” Felix said.

Aouda grinned. “I can’t hear them. Antenna hasn’t been installed yet.”

“I doubt they have anything interesting to say anyway,” Foggerty said. “So what’s your excuse for breaking the law, detective?”

Felix met Foggerty’s gaze for a moment, then dropped his eyes. “I owed it to you, Mr. Foggerty. I . . . uh, I’m the one who made you miss your flight.”

“Yes, of course you were.”

Felix’s eyes snapped to Foggerty’s. “You knew?”

“Who else could it have been? You’re the fellow who best knows security.”

“Why didn’t you report me?”

“No need for that; the deed was done.” Foggerty harrumphed. “I just wonder how much the old windbag paid you.”

“Not enough to crush a man’s dreams.”

“Didn’t take you for a philosopher.”

Felix chuckled. “Neither did I.”

“Uh, we have a problem.” Aouda’s voice was ice cold.

Felix’s heart skipped. “What’s wrong?”

“Our O-2 tanks are empty. The ascender must have been getting its air from the station. I opened the auxiliary O-2 supply, but . . .”

“But what?” Ice gripped Felix’s throat.

“We’ll be cutting it close, making it to the buoyancy ceiling. And there’s no way anyone’s making it back down.”

“Well then I guess we’re all going over to the other ascender together.” Foggerty’s voice betrayed no fear; he might have ordered a cup of tea with that tone. “Have you made radio contact with them?”

She tapped the radio console.

“Blast.”

“I’m sure DSS mission control has been squawking since we left. Believe me, they know we’re coming.”

“It has to be Mr. Foggerty,” Keyes said. “Who else would come after us in a stolen airship?”

The flight engineer looked at him sharply. “They still haven’t responded to DSS. We have to assume hostile intent.”

“Nonsense! Have you tried to contact them? I’m sure he’ll talk to us.”

The pilot pinned Keyes with a stern look. “I’m not taking any risks. As soon as we reach the two hundred K ceiling, we’re thrusting to orbit.”

“But Mr. Foggerty will—”

“Foggerty can just float his ass back down to DSS.”

Keyes tried a new tactic. “But the whole point of the launch is to get him to the NEO and back.”

“Mission parameters are to refuel, execute a Hohmann transfer, snap a few pics, and come home. Doesn’t matter who’s aboard.”

Keyes huffed. “Without Foggerty’s money, there wouldn’t be a mission.”

“We have a narrow burn window,” the pilot said sternly. “We miss it and all Foggerty’s money is wasted. Now shut your trap and let me do my job.”

Keyes folded his arms and looked away. That Felix guy had drugged him last night. Probably made Foggerty miss the launch in the first place. What if it was him in the stolen ascender? To what lengths would he go to stop the mission?

Maybe the pilot was right after all.

Felix shivered and sucked in another breath of stale, freezing air. The chill spread through his lungs. “How much longer?”

“Soon,” Aouda said. Her video screen displayed the feed from the topside camera. The ascender showed as a tiny V against a black sky. She zoomed the blurry image. “Crap.”

“What is it?”

“They’re maneuvering into position to begin thrust.”

“Well then we’d better get moving,” Foggerty said. “How are we getting over there? Some sort of escape pod?”

Felix’s face flushed. What else had he failed to consider before running off half cocked?

“Not a chance,” Aouda said. “We’re going to have to shoot a tether to them and climb over. Hope you have strong arms, because it’s a long way down.”

“Won’t it be cold?” Foggerty asked.

“Ha! I’d be more worried about the lack of air if I were you.”

Felix locked eyes with Aouda. “Please tell me we have suits aboard.”

“I checked the inventory before I came aboard. Let’s get suited up.”

Felix blew out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “Thanks for saving our butts. Again.”

“Don’t thank me yet. There’s no time to depressurize.”

“Crap.”

Foggerty fumbled with his suit. Felix helped him get into it and checked all the seals, then got into his own suit. At least I can do something right, he thought. Aouda double-checked everyone’s suit before locking down her own helmet.

Felix savored the warm, fresh air flowing into his helmet. It smelled metallic but had none of the moisture, sweat, and carbon dioxide that permeated the crew module.

“You know how to deploy a tether?” Aouda asked over the suit radio.

Felix nodded.

“Uh, I can’t hear you nod.”

“Right.” He felt heat in his face. “Yeah, I do.”

“Good. You guys get up to the airlock. I’m going to maneuver us as close as I can, then set this thing to descend back to DSS altitude so they can recover it.”

Felix climbed up the long access tube with Foggerty close behind. “I don’t understand why,” Foggerty groused, his voice winded, “you people built the airlock,” a pause for breath, “so far away.”

“The ascender’s crew module is anchored to its keel, just like DSS. It docks at the bottom of the station, so the airlock has to go on top of the hydrogen cells.”

“Bloody inconvenient.”

The rest of the climb was silent other than Foggerty’s heavy breathing. Felix stopped when he reached the hatch. “Let’s take a breather.”

“Shouldn’t we just go through? Save some time?”

“Airlocks cycle slowly,” Felix said. “If we go through now, Aouda will never get out in time.”

“On my way now,” Aouda said. “Get your asses in there and put your finger on the cycle button. This is going to be close.”

“Engine four green,” the flight engineer said. “Engine six green. All engines show good to go.”

“Roger engines green,” DSS control said over the radio.

“We really should wait,” Keyes said.

The pilot gave him a sidelong glance. “Establishing launch attitude.”

“Roger attitude adjust.”

“Wait!” Keyes pointed at the video display. “There’s activity on the other ascender.”

The flight engineer zoomed the display. The airlock was open. As Keyes watched, a spacesuited figure crawled out and clung to the top surface of the ascender. A second figure followed, then a third. The first opened a panel and began unraveling a tether.

“I don’t believe it,” the pilot said. “They’re going to try to board.”

“It’s Mr. Foggerty,” Keyes said. “It has to be.”

“Damn fool,” the pilot said. “If we don’t make this burn in a half hour, we’re going to miss our window.”

“They should be close enough for us to pick up their suit radios,” the engineer said.

Keyes’s heart leapt. “Try it!”

“Yes, tell them to get back inside.”

“Ascender one to rogue ascender, please identify.”

A crackle of static, then, “We’re out of air. Coming aboard.”

“Is Mr. Foggerty with you?” Keyes asked. The pilot withered him with her eyes.

“Is that you, Keyes?” Foggerty’s voice said through static. “Good man. How the devil did you get aboard?”

“Can we save the reunion?” a new voice said. “Time is of the essence here.”

“Chief Aouda?” the pilot said.

“In person. Now open your airlock and let us in.”

“That’s it, then,” the pilot said. “Mission abort. Get up there and cycle the airlock. I’ll move into position below them so they can rappel down.”

“Don’t you dare abort the mission,” Foggerty said. “We’ll be there in a jiffy.”

“We’d have to burn in twenty-five minutes. The airlock takes longer than that to depressurize.”

“Keyes, don’t you let them cancel that burn.”