Seeker (44 page)

One side of Balfour, of course, was permanently dark. We trained the scopes on it anyhow and held our breath. I don’t know what we expected, or what Alex was hoping for. But nobody said anything. And, as we expected, no flicker of light appeared anywhere.

“If there were survivors,” said Shara, “if they’d actually succeeded in establishing a base and keeping it alive, it wouldn’t have been on the back side anyhow. It’ll be too cold there.”

She turned to the data coming in from the sensors, which were still examining the brown dwarf, noting its mass and gravitation, its rotational period, the distribution of elements in its clouds. Surface temperature was 1500 Vdm;K. “It’s young,” she said. “Much younger than the other one. They cool off as they age.” She grinned. “Like guys.” The party girl survives in the astrophysicist.

“How old
is
it?” I asked.

“About a hundred million years.”

“That’s
young
?”

“Relatively. Sure.”

I love the way these people talk.

Alex had been looking at the pictures of Balfour, paying no attention to the conversation. “We’ll want to go down to the surface and see what we have. What are conditions like on the ground, do you think?”

Shara started to answer. She said something about picking our spot and it would be comfortable enough, but then we got a blinker and she stopped dead. I switched over to the auxiliary display.

“What’s wrong?” asked Alex.

“We’re getting a code white.” I ran a confirmation, to be sure.

“Out
here
?” asked Shara. “Who’d be in distress
here
?”

“Kalu,” I said, “do we have a visual?”

“Negative, Chase. I am trying to get a lock now.”

“Is there a voice signal?” asked Shara.

“No,” I said. “All we’re getting is the beep.”

“Ridiculous,” said Alex. “There can’t be anybody in
this
area.”

“Somebody
’s here,” I said.

“Chase, I have the coordinates.”

We were all looking at one another. Everybody had a bad feeling. “Kalu,” I said, “do we have a visual yet?”

“On-screen.”

It was a Y-pod. An emergency unit. Something to keep you going until help came.
But the hatch was open
.

We enhanced the image.

“There’s someone in the pilot’s seat,” said Shara.

Wearing a pressure suit. I opened a channel. “Hello, Lifeboat. What is your condition?”

I switched over and we listened to a carrier wave.

Alex leaned close to the mike. “Hello.” He sounded hostile. “Are you able to respond?”

“Kalu,” I said “where is the thing?”

“Bearing zero-three-four mark two-seven. Range four hundred twenty-five klicks.”

“Any sign of a ship?”

“Yes. I’m getting data now.”

“Details, please?”

“Looks like a private yacht. KY designator on the hull. Rest not visible. It appears to be adrift. There’s a power signature, but it’s low.”

“Okay,” I said. “Take us to the pod, quickest possible route. Everybody belt down.”

“Wait a minute,” said Alex. “This is a setup. Has to be.”

“I think you’re right,” I said. “It’s too much of a coincidence. But it doesn’t matter. We can’t take a chance and leave him. And we’ve got to get moving. We don’t know how long he’s been out here.”

Alex nodded. “First we need to take some precautions.”

“Kalu,” I said, “what’s our ETA?”

“How much fuel are you willing to expend?”

“Whatever it takes. Quickest time.”

“Very good, Chase. I make it thirteen minutes.”

“What kind of precautions?” asked Shara.

The man in the pilot’s seat wasn’t moving. It was dark inside and hard to get a good look.

“We better hustle,” I said, as we slipped alongside. I climbed out of my seat, but Alex asked sharply where I thought I was going.

“To collect him.”

“No. Let’s do this the way we decided.”

“I wasn’t aware
you
would be the one to go after him.”

“Sorry I didn’t make myself clear. But this isn’t a job for a woman.”

Oh, Lord. Here we go again. “Alex, I have more experience in zero gee.”

“What’s it take to cross ten meters, pull him out, and bring him back?”

Well, truth was, Alex wouldn’t have to go outside at all. And sure, I could have insisted. I was, after all, the captain. But I couldn’t see that it made much difference. And when his testosterone was flowing, I’d always found it best to indulge him.

“Good,” he said. “Now let’s move on.” He glanced over at Shara.

A few minutes later, in a pressure suit, he was hurrying through the launch bay, which, you will recall, was maintained in vacuum. I turned the lights on for him and, as he approached the cargo doors, I opened them.

Kalu managed the attitude thrusters and angled us toward the pod until it floated in through the cargo doors. Then we raised the
Spirit
slightly, and the vehicle settled into a cradle.

“Good,”
said Alex.
“Touchdown.”

I activated magnetic locks to secure it and gave him a little gravity. Alex walked cautiously around to the open hatch, looked in, and found himself confronted by a laser. I saw it the moment he did. “
Back off
.” A familiar voice crackled out of the speakers. A male. “
Don’t make any sudden moves
.”

Alex froze.

“Kolpath, I assume you can hear me. If you try anything at all, do anything except follow my instructions completely, I will kill him. Do you understand?”

It took me a minute to remember.
Charlie Everson
. The young man with the shuttle reservations.

“Okay,” I said. “Don’t hurt him. I won’t give you any trouble.”

“Good. That’s smart.”

Alex found his voice. “
What’s this about
?” he demanded. “
What do you want, Everson
?”

Charlie got out of the pod. “
I’m sure you know, Mr. Benedict
.” His voice was laced with contempt. “
Now turn around and walk straight ahead and don’t reach for anything
.”

Alex started to walk. Charlie kept his laser leveled at Alex’s back. “
What’s this all about anyhow
?” Alex asked.

“Just keep going.”

Alex started to turn, and Charlie fired his weapon at the deck. Alex froze. Charlie waited a few seconds and turned the beam off. “
I scare easily
,” he said. “
Don’t do anything unless I tell you to first
.”

“Chase,”
said Kalu.
“Lower deck is punctured.”

“It’s okay, though,”
Charlie continued.
“You do what I say, and nobody’s going to get hurt.”
He was in a bright yellow pressure suit with no markings, Alex in Survey’s standard forest green. They reached the zero-gee tube, got in together, and came up to the main deck. I heard them enter the airlock and close the hatch. The compression cycle started.

The inner hatch opened directly out onto the bridge. I turned to face it.

“Who do you work for?”
Alex asked.

“No need for you to know,”
he said.

“You planted the bomb, didn’t you? You took down the shuttle and killed twenty-three people.”

“Yeah. I guess I did. Don’t remember the exact number.”
His voice was deadly calm. Full of menace.
“Kolpath.”

“What do you want, Charlie?”

“I want to remind you. No surprises when the door opens. I want you and the other woman standing directly in front of the airlock. With your hands in the air. If you’re not there, I’ll kill him. Do you understand?”

“What other woman?”

“Don’t play games with me. You know who I’m talking about. Michaels.”

“She’s not on board. There’s nobody here but Alex and me.”

“You’re lying.”

“Suit yourself.”

“What happened to her?”

The lamp on the hatch was amber. Still pressurizing.

“She—”

Alex broke in: “
She switched over to the
Gonzalez
when we stopped at Margolia
.”

“Why’d she do that?”
He wasn’t going to buy it.

“Boyfriend on board,”
Alex said.
“Dumb bitch. It’s the only reason she came with us.”

Well, it was better than my story. I was going to claim she got sick at the last minute.

“You’re lying,”
said Charlie.

“I wouldn’t do that. Not when you’re carrying a laser.”

He hesitated, unsure what to do next. “
Anything happens, anything at all I don’t like, somebody’s dead. You understand, Benedict
?”

“I understand.”

“And you out there, Kolpath?”

“Nobody’ll give you any trouble, Charlie.”

“If I see anybody else, anywhere, he’s gone.”

“Stop it,”
said Alex.
“You’re frightening her.”

“That’s a
good
thing, Benedict. A little fear at the moment makes for a healthy attitude.”

“Do what he says, Chase. He’s a nutcase.”

“Watch your tongue,”
said Charlie.

“Why? What are you going to do? Kill me?”

“I can if you like.”

“Please let him be. We’ll give you whatever you want.” The status lamp turned green. I took my place a few paces in front of the airlock and raised my hands. “Kalu,” I said, “open the hatch.”

It swung wide. Charlie ordered Alex forward and stuck his head out and looked around. When he saw nobody, he pointed to a bulkhead. “
Both of you over there. Keep your hands over your heads
.” We did as we were told while he removed his helmet. He took a deep breath. “Damned stale air,” he said. I didn’t know whether he meant the air from his suit, or the air on the bridge.

Alex pulled off his own helmet. “How’d you know?” he asked. “How did you know we were here?”

He shrugged. No problem. “Anything you do, I know about.”

“You lunatic,” I said. “What the hell’s this about?”

He didn’t care much for criticism. The laser swung in my direction. I threw myself to one side and he fired a short burst. Only a second or so. It seared into my leg, just below the knee. I screamed and tried to roll away from it. Alex started forward. But Charlie turned the weapon back on him. “Don’t,” he said.

Alex stopped dead.

“I don’t want to hear any more mouthing off from either of you.” He glared at me, offended. “Do it again, and I’ll shut you up permanently.” Alex came over to help me while Charlie looked around the bridge. He spotted a couple of air tanks. “I hope you don’t mind if I borrow these on the way out.”

“When are you leaving?” I asked. I wasn’t bleeding, but my leg hurt like hell. Alex tried to get ointment from the first-aid locker, but Charlie told him no. “Don’t go near anything unless I tell you to,” he said.

The airlock door was still open. “Kalu,” I said. “Close the hatch.”

It swung shut.

“No need to do that, Chase,” Charlie said. There was something obscene in the way he pronounced my name. “I wasn’t planning on staying long.”

I stared up at him. “Force of habit.”

He glanced through the door, down the passageway. “Let’s just go make sure we’re really alone.” He backed off, keeping as much distance from us as he could. “You go first, Benedict. Any trouble, I shoot
her
.”

“Be careful with that thing,” Alex snapped.

“Just do what I tell you.”

I got to my feet. It wasn’t as painful as it would have been at full gravity, but I still tried to keep my weight off the injured leg.

I limped along behind Alex into the passageway, and Charlie brought up the rear. All the doors were closed. “We’re going to open them one at a time,” Charlie said. “And Chase, you stay back here near me.”

One hand closed on my shoulder.

“Anybody we see,” he said, “is dead. No questions asked.”

“There’s nobody back here, Charlie,” Alex said. His cabin was immediately off the bridge. The first room. “Kalu,” I said, “open room one.”

The door rolled up into the overhead. “Inside,” Charlie told Alex. I followed. He stayed at the doorway, where he could watch the passage. There was a single closet in the cabin. “Open it,” he said.

Alex pushed the manual and the door slid into the bulkhead. A few shirts, a pair of slacks, and a jacket hung inside. Otherwise, it was empty.

We crossed the passageway. “Your cabin?” Charlie asked, looking at me. Clothes were everywhere.

“Yes.”

“Pretty sloppy.” We opened the closet for him. More clothes. “You always travel like this, Chase?” he asked, allowing himself a grin.

“I like to be prepared,” I said. I was seriously hurting at that point, leaning against a bulkhead, trying to stay upright.

Shara’s quarters were next. Alex opened the door and showed him an unused room. Nothing in the closet. Nothing in the cabinets. Charlie had already seen all her stuff in my place. When he was satisfied we closed it and moved on.

One by one we went through the remaining compartments, same routine each time. We inspected the operations center, the common room, the washrooms, and the storage area at the far end of the passage.

Charlie looked puzzled. He’d been sure we would find Shara Michaels. “How have you been managing the search without having a technician on board who knew what she was doing?” he asked.

“I know what I’m doing,” I said, trying to sound insulted.

“I’m sure.” He used the laser to start us walking back toward the bridge. His eyes were hard and cold. Pure ice. He kept looking around. When we got to the bridge, he noticed the deck hatch — the one that led down into the parts locker. “What’s that?”

“A hatch,” I said.

That earned me a slap that drove me to my knees. Alex glared at me. Stop provoking him.

“What’s down there?” Charlie demanded. “And forget the smart mouth.”

“Supplies,” I said. “Equipment.”