Wreck of the Nebula Dream (9 page)

The portal opened sluggishly. He shoved past once there was enough space for his broad shoulders. Back pressed against the half-open door, he stood for a moment, assessing the current situation in the corridor. It now added up to pandemonium in any language. The alarms were continuing to blare, inciting some passengers to panic and immobilizing others. A prerecorded voice urged calm, in flat, female tones, speaking in a rapid rotation of Basic and the five other primary Sector languages.

No one was paying the slightest attention. People ran in both directions, shoving past each other. Some were half dressed, others were burdened with luggage. There were no crew members at all.

Frowning, he waded into the crowd, going to the left and staying as close to the wall as he could. Since a Special Forces team’s survival depended on familiarity with all aspects of their environment, Nick had noted the location of the nearest lifeboat portal relative to his cabin upon arrival the first day. Now he worked his way aft to get there.

With supreme – if sadly misplaced – confidence, the captain of the
Nebula Dream
had not seen fit to order a lifeboat drill in the first few days of the cruise, not even after the middle of the night engine anomaly. Lack of a drill, which was mandatory per the Interstellar Commerce Commission regulations, was adding to the panic, Nick had no doubt. Most had probably not even paid attention to the short holo on safety the Ship played on first entry in each cabin. Now the civilians were clueless, desperate, and those charged with responsibility for their safety were nowhere to be seen.

As he came up to the lifeboat portal, Nick was astounded to see the light flashing red, indicating the LB had been launched.
What the fuck
?
There couldn’t possibly have been time since the sirens came on to fully load and deploy a boat, even assuming a full complement of SMT crew had been standing by, waiting to usher passengers on board.

Continuing down the corridor, Nick wondered who took the LB, and how many people had managed to escape with it. He suspected he wouldn’t like the answers much, but he intended to find out, after this was all over. For an event of this magnitude, an ICC investigatory hearing was a foregone conclusion.
 

The crowd increased in size, and the screams and yells became more specific, the closer he got to the next LB davit. Since Nick was a tall man, he could see over the heads of most of the crowd. Despite the fact the alarms had been raging for a good five minutes standard now, he could see the indicator light was green; this LB had not even been unlocked.

“No one’s boarded yet?” he said, half to himself.

“Two idiots up there, fighting over who gets on first, and neither one has a clue how to open the damn thing.” A stout woman in a garish pink and orange robe spun to face him, her voice disgusted but shaking, tears glistening in her eyes. “They wouldn’t listen, not to me or anyone. I watched the safety holo my first day on board, so I know how to open the portal, but would they let me try? No, they would not. I got out of the way when they started throwing punches.”

Nick wished for a squad of Space Marines or even one other Special Forces operator.
I could sort this out and get people loading
. There was no time to waste. Disasters in space tended to be abrupt, over with in a violent moment. Whatever had happened to the
Nebula Dream
, it was nothing short of amazing they weren’t all dead already.
Can’t push luck too far.
He caught the eye of the D’nvannae Brother, standing a few feet away, an appalled frown on his face, probably over the loss of critical time.

Nick jerked his head in the direction of the LB portal. “Watch my back,” he yelled, wading into the crowd without waiting to see if the man would come to his aid or not. This had to be done, with or without support.

Nick tried not to hurt people, but he forced his way through the throng with ruthless intent, stopping short about a yard shy of the door. Exactly as the woman had told him, two men were on the deck, kicking and clawing at each other, fighting over access to the locked LB. No one else could get by.

Reaching down, Nick grabbed one man by the scruff of the neck, hauling him to his feet. He was mildly pleased to find the D’nvannae Brother was right beside him, dragging the second belligerent combatant to the other side of the LB access portal.

Nick sensed the crowd preparing to surge forward in blind panic, now the human obstacles were removed. He wheeled, shoving the man he had grabbed roughly away, knocking down two or three other passengers in the process. People stepped on or over them in an instinctive rush to get closer to the presumed safety of the lifeboat.

 
“Nobody moves until I say so!” Holding up one hand, he used the tone of voice he would employ on a batch of unruly, raw recruits, awesomely commanding.

“Quiet down now,” he said, watching the people in the front row of the mob, getting eye contact, to personalize his commands, make them feel like responsible individuals, not a mindless, panicking herd.

The blaring sirens and recorded emergency warnings cut out, resumed briefly and then died away in a slowly fading gibberish. The lights in the corridor flickered, causing gasps here and there in the crowd.
 

“Are there any SMT officers or crew here?” Nick said.

Desperation, fear, and puzzlement on the faces in front of him. Many sidelong glances, mute head shakes.
 

Silence.

“All right, then. I’m Captain Jameson, Sectors Special Forces. I’m taking charge of this LB portal. I need four volunteers besides this man,” nodding at the D’nvannae, “to help me keep order here. You can’t all get into this LB.
No one’s
going to make it off unless you keep your heads and we go about this calmly and quickly.” He pointed at some likely candidates. “You, you, you and you.”

He’d picked out a quartet of fairly good-sized men, who seemed calmer than some of the others ringing him. Pointing at the Brother, he said, “What’s your name?”

“Khevan.”

“Fine, Khevan, you and these four gentlemen form a ring. No one gets by until I say so. Watch my back while I open this damn portal.”

Nodding, the D’nvannae and the four men linked arms and established a perimeter. Nick gave his attention to the locked access.
Damn, there should have been at least one SMT crew person at each LB by now, with the unlock code, getting the civilians safely off the ship as fast as possible.
Nick spared a second and a small part of his mind to swear at the inefficiencies and lax discipline of this ship’s captain.
Lucky for all these nice people I know how to open the thing.

Nick scanned the portal info display as he keyed in a code on the access panel. “Capacity one hundred sentients,” the label declared in Basic and the other five languages.
Okay, Jameson, quick, calculate what the limit really means, what the margin of design safety probably was. How many extra oxygen-breathers can I shove onto the thing without killing them all?

As the door cycled open, Nick assessed the waiting throng. The crowd, even larger now, probably in excess of two hundred men, women and children, pressed forward. They were pushing his ring of volunteers closer to him before the men dug in and shoved resolutely back.

“This LB can only support one hundred and twenty-five,” Nick announced to the assembled passengers, pitching his voice to carry to the edge of the crowd. “I’m not allowing one more person to board beyond the limit. I’m taking children and their caretakers first, followed by as many other adults as possible. Anyone with children, come forward now. We’ve got no time to lose. No luggage! No pets!” Nick pointed to the stout woman, who had followed in his wake through the crowd. “You, what’s your name?”

She stepped forward. “Maud Panula.”

“All right, Maud, come stand right here next to me and keep count. Shout it out for me every ten heads, then every five as we get closer to capacity.”

“Who appointed you Lord of Space?” shouted a red-faced man in the middle of the crowd, as the first nervous children and their relatives came forward, passing through Nick’s cordon. The complainer found a few kindred sentients who appeared to agree with him. An undercurrent of ominous murmuring increased in volume.

 
“There’s only a few of them –”

 
“No weapons – let’s rush them!”

“The officer and I can kill with our bare hands,” Khevan said softly from his place in the center of the cordon guarding the LB access, his voice carrying as easily as Nick’s had. “You won’t gain entry to this LB by challenging his order, I guarantee you.”

Nick listened to the count rapidly climbing, as more and more children and adults streamed past him.
Where the hell had they all come from?
“We’re at eighty already,” he announced to the crowd. “If you don’t like your chances here, better go find the next LB.”

“Where?” screamed several despairing voices.
 

Nick cursed the SMT Line again for its lack of preparation. “There are LB portals every few hundred yards, going both directions, all three passenger decks and on the Casino Deck.”

Khevan broke link with his fellows to keep a burly man from getting past them without permission. There was a rapid flurry of blows, and the other passenger sank to the carpeted deck, unconscious or dead. Khevan meant what he’d said and was obviously prepared to act on the threat. A large portion of the crowd melted away, running frantically in both directions, in search of another LB where the odds might be better, where no one was in charge. Nick felt sorry for them.

“You get inside when the tally reaches one hundred and ten,” he said to his human counter.
And once I’ve sent them on their way to safety, I can go see about Mara, whether she’s okay, did she get off the ship.
He had her cabin number, obtained from the AI the first day, but he was hoping she’d already taken a lifeboat.
Even then, I can’t leave until I know every civilian’s been taken care of.

“What about you?” Maud’s voice quavered. She stared past Nick to eye the men making up the cordon. “All of you?”

“I’ve got something else to do.” Nick helped a girl who stumbled on the threshold, setting her on her feet. “These men will be the last to board, don’t worry.”

“I don’t want to be out there in space with no one to drive the LB.” The woman was blunt and honest.

“It’s got auto programming for the nearest safe port.” Nick hoped SMT had followed at least one mandate. “The
Dream
’s AI will have laid in a course. As soon as we dog the hatch, the lifeboat’s AI will have you out of here.”

A shout from further along the corridor broke into his rapid-fire instructions.

“Help! I need help – there are people trapped in a cabin on the next level.”

Mara!

Hoping he was right, Nick craned to see who it was. Sure enough, to his great relief, Mara Lyrae came running up to the ring of volunteers at the LB portal. He’d been prepared to search the entire ship for her if necessary, but now here she was.
 

Sensibly dressed but disheveled, her hair loose around her shoulders, Mara worked her way through the rapidly thinning crowd, gaze locking onto him. “Please, I need someone to come to Level Two.” His men let her through the cordon and she grabbed at Nick’s arm. “I’m so glad you’re still aboard. It’s the family who was on the shuttle with us? I can hear the children crying in their cabin, but I can’t get the door to open far enough to get in. The boy says his mother is trapped under something.” Mara bit her lip, shoving her hair away from her face. “And they can’t get out of the back bedroom, or won’t try.”

After hearing about trapped children, Nick knew he’d stay on board as long as it took to free them.
But first, she needs to be safe
. “Tell me exactly where on the Second Level and I’ll go. You get in this LB.” Nick reached out to take her by the arm, intending to guide her through the portal.

“No,” She took a hasty step away from Nick, shaking her head vehemently. “I promised that little boy I’d come for them myself, as soon as I found their father, or someone. If you’re going to help me with this, then we have to hurry.”

“I swear to you I’ll go up there and do my best to get them out of whatever trouble they’re in, but I want to see you safely off this ship first. Now please take your place in this lifeboat so I can seal it and send it.” Nick was impatient. “You may not have another chance at a seat on an LB later.”

“There’s an LB portal on that level no one has accessed yet. We’ll be all right if we can just get them out of their cabin.” Mara pushed her hair off her face, glancing impatiently down the corridor the way she had come. “I gave them my word – I can’t leave them. And you need me to show you exactly where. Please, please, come with me. There has to be enough time to at least make an attempt at getting them out.”

A mental picture of the two children flashed into his mind’s eye. Eyeing Mara, Nick made an instant decision.

“You go ahead,” he said to the stout lady. Giving him a quick, grateful hug, she ran through the LB portal, needing no further urging. The passageway was empty now, save for his informally assembled team and the piles of abandoned luggage, everyone else having decided there was a better chance of getting away on another LB. “Gentlemen, thanks for your help with the mob. Now go ahead and take this LB and get the hell out of here.”