New Title 1 (41 page)

Julian detected the hidden meaning in her last sentence, and kissed her again. “There’s nothing so special about me. I’m like a lot of guys who have lost friends or loved ones to the frustrations of our planet. I’m just trying to continue my life.”

“Of course,” Kris agreed. “But you are doing more with your life than most, running this satellite… taking care of the people on it… inspiring people like Dr. Silver to take action on their behalf. Inspiring me.” She settled her head on his chest, her hand resting open-palmed on his breast as if she was somehow soaking up part of his life force through it. “You, Julian Lenz, are a great man. You deserve everything you need, and everything you desire. All I have to offer is myself… but I offer myself freely, body and soul.”

Julian smiled. “And believe me, that’s plenty.”

The flight bays were always noisy: Heavy duty vehicles came and went, carrying parts and supplies for individual spacecraft; hidden mechanics whirred, roared, clanked or whined, opening and closing doors, moving ships into and out of bays, starting and stopping rotational gimbals; ships were serviced and repaired; and people moved about all of this activity, yelling above the din, getting their jobs done or asking why they weren’t done yet. The bays were always noisy.

But now there was an unusual noise that sat above all the other noises in the bays: It was the roar of a crowd, angry, demanding, frustrated, and panicked. That roar was concentrated in one particular area of the bay. And it centered around one person: Eo Reya Luis.

It had been that way from the moment Reya stepped onto the bay: As soon as the first freighter Captain saw her and ran up, demanding to know what was going on outside, and when they’d be released from their emergency lockdown status; then private owners had accosted her, demanding to know by what authority they were being detained; commercial operators, concerned about ruined schedules and docking fees, warning of threatening bosses and angry clients they could no longer contact; and even liner crews, speaking on behalf of frustrated passengers who could no longer get hold of loved ones on the ground. They had built up around Reya like a hurricane building around its eye… but unlike a hurricane, the center occupied by Reya was anything but calm.

To her credit, Reya had done her best to address everyone’s questions at first, even if it was only with “We don’t know yet, I’ll have to get back to you…” but in no time, the questions were all coming at once, being shouted over each other amidst waving datapads and threatening fingers, until Reya could make out none of it anymore. Abruptly, she put two fingers in her mouth and blew, and the ear-splitting whistle she produced finally quieted the crowd.

“Now everybody, listen up!” she shouted. “Verdant is in an emergency situation, and we are doing everything we can to make sure we all stay safe, and can return to our lives and jobs as soon as possible!” The crowd started to respond to her statement, but she put up her hands to silence them. “Now, I am down here because we are going to need to commandeer a spacecraft! I already have one picked out, but if any of you want to continue to pester me—”

Reya didn’t need to say more; the crowd immediately began to thin out, grumbling lightly, but in general keeping it to themselves. Within seconds, the noise and press were gone, and Reya found herself alone on the deck.

She surveyed the rapidly-retreating throng, and muttered, “That’s what I thought.” Flexing her arms demonstratively, she brought her datapad to her face, examined it briefly, and set out across the bay, watching ship captains part around her like a wave.

“Eo Luis!”

Reya brought her head around, surprised that anyone was willfully addressing her at all. She saw a woman in a United States military uniform heading toward her at a march that was just short of a run. She recognized from her data the official pilot of Aerospace Force One. “Col. Stearns, right?”

Emily Stearns brought herself in front of Reya and stopped. “I demand to know when we are going to be released from lockdown status. If the President needs to leave, Aerospace Force One is—”

“Is going nowhere right now, no matter how badly your President wishes it,” Reya cut her off impatiently. “So you can save the spit and polish routine. Besides, where would you go? Unless there’s a secret American base on Mars, or you’ve got a classified warp drive on that ship…” Reya paused and gave Stearns a significant look, as if half-expecting her to suggest one of Reya’s facetious guesses were true. When she didn’t, Reya continued: “…you’re stuck here with the rest of us, pilot.” She glanced back at the crews that were normally maintaining AF1 at all times. “Might as well give them the day off, too.” With that, Reya stepped smartly around Stearns and continued on. Stearns regarded her through narrowed eyes, before turning and heading back to Aerospace Force One.

Eventually, Reya reached one of the larger access bays, where access tubes and umbilicals connected to one of the Fargo-class freighters moored outside of Verdant’s hull. In fact, the outside of the freighter could not be seen from the inside of the bay… only the interior spaces that were revealed at the ends of the access tubes were visible. According to Reya’s datapad, the craft moored outside was the Lusterne-owned freighter
Makalu
.

“Oh, whoa, whoa,
whoa, whoa, whoa
…”

Reya turned around at the sound of the approaching voice, and saw a large man heading in her direction, waving a hand as if to ward her off. The man had on a Lusterne Corporation jacket over work coveralls, and his build suggested he could hold his own in any barroom brawl with fewer than twenty bodies that might be tossed his way. His African features were ruggedly handsome, though decidedly not pretty, and his eyes were sharp and intelligent. As he neared her, he swerved between her and the access tubes, trying to block her from coming any closer. “Whoa,
whoa
, just what do you want here, Executive?”

Reya suppressed a grin at his use of part of her title, and consulted her datapad. “Captain… Grand?”

“Yeah, I’m Roy Grand,” the man replied. “What can I do for you?”

“Captain Grand,” Reya said, tucking her datapad under her arm, “I have the dubious honor of informing you that Verdant will have to commandeer your ship during the present emergency, so we can return non-Verdant citizens back home.”

“Oh, whoa, whoa, like Hell!” Grand began waving both arms, clearly hoping Reya would forget the whole thing and run for cover. “Why my ship? What the Hell for? There are lots of ships! Why my ship?”

“I understand your reluctance,” Reya said soothingly, nodding soberly at his protestations. “Believe me, if I was in your position, I might be apprehensive as well. But as it turns out, not only will this be good for Verdant, but it will be good for you and the
Makalu
.”

Captain Grand fixed her with a dubious stare. “Good for me? How?”

“Allow me to explain,” Reya said, stepping forward and slipping a hand onto his arm. “As you’ve probably heard, we’re all a long ways from home right now.”

“Yeah…
wait
.” Grand paused and looked over his shoulder conspiratorially, prompting Reya to look with him, before he turned back to her. “
Really
? I mean… we’re really not above Earth anymore? All that shit we heard is true?”

Reya nodded. “It’s true, Captain. We’re over Mars.”

Grand looked about him as if seeing the bay for the first time. “Holy
shit
…”

“Oh, yeah,” Reya said. “Now: Although we’re all the way out here, we have a way of getting back. And your freighter will have the honor of being the first ship to return to Earth.”

Grand looked at her dubiously again. “How am I supposed to do that?”

“We’re going to install a miniature version of the system that put us out here,” Reya explained. “That way, you can get back to Earth orbit, then land your ship just like it was any other day. The big difference,” she continued, “is that you will be taking people back with you, instead of freight. But this will be a very lucrative job for you… we’re going to make it worth your while.”

Grand had listened without comment to Reya, and he tentatively nodded now. “Sounds reasonable… I suppose. But when you say lucrative—”

“Four times your standard freight rate,” Reya said at once. “Both trips.”

Captain Grand immediately brightened up. “Well… now you’re talkin’ my language!” He paused then, and seemed to reconsider. “But you know, I don’t own this boat, I just fly ‘er. You’re going to have to clear this with my boss, Walter Gordon, and I doubt he’ll be too thrilled about this.”

“Don’t worry,” Reya said, “we’ll deal with Gordon.”

“Besides, why aren’t we just going back the way we got here… all of us?”

“You think I wouldn’t like to do that?” Reya countered. “Trust me, we all want to go home! But we were just attacked by American forces. We need to make this run first, to get those people home… and get some supplies… before we all go back.”

“You mean,” Grand said, “to make sure it’s safe.”

Reya smiled at Grand. “We are talkin’ the same language.” She turned and led him toward one of the access tubes. “Let’s go inside and check a few things out, to make sure you’re up to spec in here…”

“Oh, you won’t find any problems with the specs,” Grand said, his head already wrapping around the prospect of quadruple his usual fees. “
Makalu
’s a good ship, as sturdy as the rock she’s named after! Makalu’s a mountain in Tibet, in case you didn’t know.”

“No, I didn’t know that,” Reya said.

“A lot of people don’t know that,” Grand said. “Well, y’know, if you’re from Asia, I guess you probably do. But most people in the West don’t know of it. What are you gonna have to do to my ship, to get it back to Earth?”

“We have a system that just needs to be on your ship and powered, to work,” Reya said. “Don’t ask me to explain it. Real
Brane-Boy
stuff. But it works.”

“You’re sure?”

Reya fixed him with a look. “We’re over Mars, aren’t we?”

~

Reya’s tour of the
Makalu
turned out to be a lot less unpleasant than she’d expected it to be. Roy Grand turned out to be an intelligent man, even if he did like to talk as if he’d just stepped off of a fisherman’s wharf. And as far as Reya could tell, the
Makalu
’s specs met all of the initial criteria she’d been given. The ship was a workhorse, hardly aerodynamic, but with powerful engines designed to haul copious tons of cargo… in other words, a typical medium-sized cargo transport. Roy showed her areas on the freighter that would be well-suited for its secondary task, transporting non-residents back to Earth, as well as identifying areas that might be appropriate for the quantum system they intended to install. As she left the freighter, she was actually feeling like she was managing to get something accomplished.

Her pleasure was short-lived, however, when she saw the crowd of people milling around outside of the
Makalu
. Apparently, once most of the bay personnel had realized their ship was not in danger of being commandeered, they swarmed right back in to make their demands of her. Immediately she remembered how long the day had already been, and a wave of fatigue flooded into her as she trudged across the access tube and out of the freighter. As she stepped back into the bay, the crowd waded in, and the shouted questions started anew. Even Captain Grand avoided coming back out into the crowds, deciding he was better off seeking refuge on his own ship.

After a few insufferable minutes of fielding shouted questions, Reya was beginning to seriously contemplate jail terms and bodily harm for many of those surrounding her. But before she actually broke down to kicking asses and taking names, she saw a familiar face wading into the crowd. Lem Carter worked his way calmly through the crush of people, and when he was close to Reya, he flexed his shoulders, which made a hole for himself and placed him firmly in front of her.

“I need your help,” Carter told her in no uncertain terms. “There are some perishables on board the
Lincoln
that need to be disposed of, before they present a hazard.”

“Hazard?” Reya did not take long to think about it. “Let’s take a look. Rest of you, we’ll talk after I’m through!” She took Carter’s arm, and steered him through the crowd and in the direction of his passenger liner. A few people followed after them, but they moved at a fast-enough clip to leave most of them behind. When they reached the
Lincoln
, Carter let Reya on first, then turned and closed the main hatch to prevent anyone following them.

When Carter turned around from dogging the hatch, Reya was waiting, hands on hips. She glanced at the door, clearly happy to get a break from the cacophony outside. “So, where’s the hazard, Lem?”

“Up here,” Carter replied, and led her to the stairwell that led to the upper deck of the liner. Reya followed him up the stairs and onto the landing, where passengers were usually greeted by staff and directed to their suites and subsections. The entrances to the upper galleys and service areas were adjacent to the landing, and Reya started to move in that direction. But Carter waved a hand and said, “No, it’s not over there. It’s this way.”

“What?” Reya asked, perplexed. “Is this some passenger’s stuff?”

“Right around… here,” Carter was saying, examining the doors to the suites as he passed them, rubbing his chin as he went.

Reya gave him a look. “Did you forget where it was?”

At that moment, Carter threw out his hands as if he had just found what he’d been looking for. “Ah! Right in here. Come on.” Carter opened the door to the suite and stepped inside without hesitation. After a beat, Reya followed him.

The suite was one of the first class private affairs favored by the more well-to-do of travelers. It was big enough to accommodate a large, articulated sofa in its center, complete with adjustable tables and drink holders. The forward and side walls were dominated by display screens, and the rear of the suite had two small alcoves, one for luggage, and one for a fridge and refreshment kiosk. A small door in the corner led to a tiny washroom. Reya took a second to admire the luxurious appointments, but then she frowned in confusion. “So, where’s the hazard?”