Interzone 244 Jan - Feb 2013 (9 page)

“
She obviously hasn’t
worked out your role.”

“
Let’s keep it that way.
Arrange a safety infraction tomorrow and I’ll fire her on the spot.
Once she’s been shipped home in disgrace no-one will believe
her.”

Easy for Caldwell to say; she wasn’t at risk
of exposure. I was sure I could come up with a better solution.

* *

“
Here, clip in,
Murray,” I said, holding out a prepared line.

Diego sailed through the door. “I’ll take
that one. Nearly-nineteen’s not ready yet.”

He was right; Murray hadn’t fully sealed her
suit.

“
You’re not suited up,” I
said, pulling my hand back, “and she’ll only be a
moment.”

“
So get another line ready
quickly,” said Diego, taking the line and clipping his suit in
before I could think of a reason to stop him. He was finished and
waiting to go well before Murray.

“
Taking your time,
nearly-nineteen?” he taunted.

“
Get lost.”

“
Enough!” said the Gaffer.
“You two are working together today. I need Peggy with me on the
central connector point. Diego, no messing around, understand?
Peggy, I want a second line for girlie here.”

The Gaffer’s order was a relief. I’d drawn a
blank trying to come up with a reason for Diego and Murray to swap
lines. I broke out two extra lines and checked them.

“
No need for me,” said
Diego.

“
Safety handbook applies to
you too,” I said, throwing one his way.

“
First I’ve heard of it,”
he said.

“
Just clip in.”

“
Nah, remember what
Caldwell said? I’m in no danger so long as nearly-nineteen’s fully
restrained.”

Murray ignored him and clipped in, doubly
safe, to my frustration.

“
Leave it,” said the
Gaffer, punching the airlock code. Diego laughed, and lobbed his
secondary back to me. I considered calling him back. I could say
I’d spotted something wrong with his line. I nearly did it…but I
needed to act before Murray was sent Earthside.

I decided. A warning would do the job. It
was a shame; I’d always liked Diego. But, Murray needed to be
taught a lesson about telling tales.

I watched them as best I could from the
opposite end of the truss, but I was still looking the other way
when the trouble came. The first I knew was Murray shouting for
help over the open channel. The Gaffer looked round, swore once,
and headed towards them.

Diego was without a line, moving steadily
away from the station. As I watched, Murray flung herself after
him. She got her trajectory wrong, would have missed him by a mile
even if her line had been long enough.

“
Murray,” I said. “There’s
nothing you can do. Come away now.”

She didn’t reply. She’d pulled herself back
in and was fiddling with her line. She launched towards Diego
again, this time with her secondary line attached to the end of her
primary to give herself more length. She’d got the reach, but her
angle was still wrong. She tried to correct mid-jump. It didn’t
work.

She pulled in, sighted more carefully, and
pushed off. It was an elegant dive, with the heading exactly right.
Diego held out his arms. She got to within two meters, the line
snapped tight, and she stopped.

“
Nearly,” said Diego,
softly.

She held position, looking at him as he
drifted off. She said nothing. He relaxed his arms, but didn’t turn
away. I could see Murray reflected in his visor.

It seemed a long while before the Gaffer’s
voice interrupted.

“
Grace, you did good, but
pull in now. We’re going to try and grab him using R-3. I need you
out of the way. Diego?”

“
You really think an arm
pick-up might work, Gaffer?”

“
I’ve gone through it with
the operator on duty and she’s confident. Fifty pounds says it’ll
work.”

Murray was shaken and wary as I helped her
back inside. I watched the footage of the rescue later – as did
most of the Earth’s population. It looked like a slow-motion
ballet. Murray’s dive turned her into a hero.

* *

Angela Caldwell
avoided me that
evening and the next day. I engineered an encounter outside her
bunkroom, but all she said was “I’m not going to be sent Earthside
over this, Peggy,” and pushed past. A highly visible accident
wasn’t what she’d had in mind, especially as we couldn’t pin it on
Murray. Murray the hero.

We were kept in for a shift while Caldwell
inspected every piece of kit we used, as per post-incident
guidelines. The following morning everything was back to normal – a
new sort of normal.

“
Psych has given you a sick
note for the week,” said the Gaffer to Diego. “Why not use it?”
They were both suiting up.

“
And let you lot mess up
the build? No chance.”

“
Think you’re irreplaceable
do you, Diego?” said Murray.

“
Too right,” said Diego.
“You’re barely competent with that podger, Grace.”

Murray grinned. “At least I don’t wander off
half-way through a shift.”

They both laughed.

The Gaffer put his visor down. “Let’s go,
then. Diego, you’re with me to finish the central connector. Peggy
and Grace, you’re together. Secondary lines for everyone.”

There were no complaints.

“
Diego and I are doing
another interview tonight,” said Murray as we worked.

“
You’re quite the media
stars.”

“
Yeah, everyone loves a
heroic failure, especially when there’s a happy ending.” She was
quiet for a while. Then: “They love an honest whistleblower
too.”

She hand-tightened a nut, as comfortable
with delicate movements in her gloves as she would be bare-handed.
I thought hard. I’d missed my chance to get rid of her; negotiation
was my best option. If she talked I’d be in serious trouble.

“
The media might like
whistleblowers, but bosses don’t,” I said. “You’ve made a good
start here. Why spoil it?” She stopped working. I pushed on. “What
about Diego? If you go public tonight, he’ll be associated with
you. It’ll end his career too.” I paused to let it sink in. “How
about we increase your cut to thirty percent from the start and say
no more about it?”

“
You tried to kill
me!”

“
Thirty-five.”

“
I want you out of
here.”

“
That’s the plan.
Thirty-five, and I move groundside as soon as I can.”

“
No.”

I turned away and tightened a couple of
nuts, giving time for her confidence to falter. “I won’t go any
higher than thirty-five,” I said, my back to her.

“
No,” she repeated. “You
meant that line for me and the others saw it. What will Caldwell do
when I tell her it wasn’t an accident?”

It was a good question. Caldwell had plenty
to hide, but this was outside her comfort zone. I didn’t know what
she’d do. Still…

“
You’re missing something,”
I said.

That shut her up. I wish I could have seen
her face as the penny dropped.

“
Caldwell’s in on it,” she
said, a statement rather than a question.

She moved away from me, turning to look at
the point where her lines clipped onto the rail. I was close enough
to reach out and unhook them. I hoped she was scared. If I was
lucky she’d quit before the end of the day and my problems would be
solved.

I wasn’t lucky.

* *

I retreated to
my bunk to watch
Murray and Diego’s interview. I couldn’t bear to be in the common
area while they were broadcasting.

It was sick-making stuff: Diego joking about
how he’d misjudged Murray at first and Murray all forgiveness.

I wished I dared switch off.

It seemed every Earthworm with a connection
had a question to ask, and Murray wanted to talk to them all. She
even got in a tribute to her dead granddad, who taught her right
from wrong.

The longer it went on, the more tense I got.
I held my breath each time Murray spoke. She chatted and
laughed.

Finally, the flow of questions stopped. The
pair said their goodbyes and signed off to the world. I breathed a
premature sigh of relief.

The broadcast continued on the staff
network. Diego moved away from the camera. Angela Caldwell came
into shot.

“
We have a special
announcement,” Caldwell said. I didn’t like the complicit look that
passed between her and Murray. “Grace, would you?”

Murray smiled.

“
We all know how much Peggy
Varus deserves to be rewarded for her work.” I swear the hairs on
the back of my neck stood on end when I heard my name. “I’m
delighted to announce she’s been promoted to a management role at
Head Office. Congratulations, Peggy!”

My orders came through seconds later. I’d
been allocated a groundside desk job without any opportunities for
creativity. Congratulations were hardly appropriate, although
everyone chimed in with good wishes over the open channel.

A second message pinged in almost
immediately. Caldwell would be taking on my construction duties
until a replacement arrived, with all paperwork being handled
groundside in the meantime.

My head was spinning. Caldwell hadn’t used a
podger in a decade. And, how did she and Murray plan to keep their
scam –
my
scam – secret with Head Office nosing into
everything?

* *

I turned up
for the start of the next
shift as usual and offered my services to the Gaffer. I needed to
find out what the situation was.

I still hoped Murray and Caldwell would buy
my silence with a cut. I’d salted away some money, but not enough
for comfort. I needed that ongoing income, or I’d never retire.

“
I’ve rejigged the
programme from today onwards,” announced Caldwell. It was news to
me. I looked at the Gaffer. He knew about it.

“
What’s going on?” I asked,
as casually as I could. Diego and Murray had yet to
arrive.

“
We’ve got a delivery the
day after tomorrow,” said the Gaffer.

“
Nothing’s scheduled,” I
said.

“
SureEng nuts and bolts,”
said Caldwell. My jaw dropped. “I ran some spot checks and I’m not
comfortable with the shear strength of the Boltefast ones. We’re
going to replace the lot.”

I closed my mouth and took a deep
breath.

“
I don’t see how… We’ll
never finish on time.”

Caldwell pulled up the full build guide.

“
We’ve changed a few other
material specifications,” she said. I looked at the changes in
despair. Caldwell had been talked into dismantling our entire
scheme. Murray’s negotiation skills were better than I’d
realised.

Caldwell continued: “It turns out the new
suppliers can deliver sooner, which gives us a bit of leeway.”

“
We need more than a bit!”
I said, looking at the Gaffer for support. “Especially when we’re
already behind because of the accident.”

The Gaffer looked pained at mention of the
accident. He glanced at Caldwell.
He knows
, I realised.

Murray and Diego swung in.

“
Ah,” said the Gaffer,
pleased with the distraction, “right on time. How did you get
on?”

“
What have you been doing?”
I asked.

“
Fraternising,” said Diego.
I frowned. Nothing was making sense.

“
The hotel operator has
agreed we can have R-3 for two hours every morning,” said Murray. I
looked at the revised build guide again. The extra arm would get
them back on schedule within weeks. Everything I’d achieved had
been reversed; no-one but the shareholders would make money out of
this job.

“
Thanks for coming down,
Peggy,” said the Gaffer, “but we’ve got things under control. Take
a couple of days off.”

“
I asked a favour while I
was talking to the hotel manager,” said Murray. “She’s given you
permission to spend as long as you like in the skylounge. Enjoy the
view.”

* *

I was shipped
groundside on the
shuttle that made the SureEng delivery, fittingly enough. It didn’t
have passenger facilities, so I suited up for the journey. The gang
waved me off.

Angela Caldwell looked more relaxed than she
had in years. She confided she was enjoying working with a podger
and having a holiday from management. I might have known she’d be
the type to go straight.

The Gaffer wouldn’t look me in the eye.
Eleven years we’d worked together and he barely said goodbye.

Diego shook my hand.

Murray hung back until the others had left.
I could still see myself in her; she’d got exactly what she wanted:
acceptance, a place on the gang, and an honest living. Her dear old
granddad would have been proud. Would she regret giving up the
money, I wondered, when she reached my age?

“
Better start saving for
your retirement now,” I said. “Or you’ll be working until you
drop.”

She recoiled. “That’s better than being like
you,” she said.

“
Oh, but you could have
been, if you’d had the courage. You nearly made it.”

I put down my visor. I hoped Murray would
see herself, reflected in gold, as I turned away. But, deep down, I
knew she saw a tired old woman whose schemes had failed; I was a
build guide Murray would never follow.