April (60 page)

The fact they were over the Western Hemisphere and both nations, but the Chinese especially, had lost so much of their satellite communications, kept the two powers from launching into a major war over the space duel. It was ironic with better communications and confidence, both in what was happening and their ability to command their forces, they would have struck out at each other. In the new uncertainty they both were suffering, sanity prevailed. It saved the lives of somewhere around a billion people.

The
Happy Lewis
matched speeds with their home, a couple kilometers to the side of their line of descent well away from any work areas. They were cautious after seeing what their exhaust did to the
Pretty as Jade
. The removal of acceleration was a relief. They had rejected using the cushioning gel in their suits, which were already filthy and uncomfortable electing to tough it out. Now that their exhaust was not masking their antennas they called control.

"Local M3 this is the
Happy Lewis
. Sorry to drop into your controlled space unannounced. We had necessity forced upon us. I hope we didn't create any problems. As you can see we stood well off to avoid problems with our exhaust. We'd like clearance to dock please. We're not sure where. Could you connect us to Dave at Advanced and we'll see if he can dock us?"

"
Happy Lewis
this is M3 local traffic control. We are specifically forbidden to direct you, or control you in any manner. We have been instructed by Earthside control you are a military matter and we will be subject to legal provisions of aiding the enemy if we offer you any services." The controller's voice cracked with emotion. "Sorry Easy I can't afford to go to prison, with a wife and kids to support. You tell me where you are going to dock and I'll communicate to the other traffic your intentions. I still have a responsibility to maintain a safe area here. I just can't direct you."

"Al, Al, Al." Easy calmed him down. "I'll call Dave and get back to you. I'll inform you before I maneuver and if it causes a problem don't direct me, just ask me if I can hold, or change my route or timing and I will work with you. We may be pirates, but we'll be very polite pirates, unless some silly ass fires on us. I guess you've probably seen the tape of what happens when we're pushed by now. Right?"

"Yeah, Easy. It was pretty scary. Uh, For safety reasons, I'd ask you to maintain a radar watch for yourself, as I am not allowed to advise you of other traffic, or give you a data feed. We just had a lot of traffic pass through here, at a substantial speed differential and the debris the traffic generated will be intersecting our orbit several times the next few days, until it disperses somewhat. I'd hate for you to see something coming in at high speed and overreact to it.

"Will do." Easy said, but he was thinking,
debris?
trying to guess what the man was trying to tell him in a roundabout way. Watch his back. They must know of something coming in. But what was this other thing he was alluding to? Who could they ask? The controllers had obviously said as much as they could. Taking chances to even say that much he was sure.

"Eddie can you call Jon and find out what just happened here, while I call Dave and see if we can dock and get some maintenance?"

At least they could tap the local net now, with low power and encryption they had a little privacy again. But when he called Dave he refused an encrypted connection and he had to call him back in the clear. What the heck was he thinking? Dave came on with video and looked stern at him.

"Easy, all of you onboard are listed as wanted criminals. We can't do anything for you, or service you without being accomplices. If I have you dock here I not only will be charged along with you, but they might fire on my shop to take your ship out. I suggest you dock at the Lewis family cubic. Going there shouldn't get anybody new in trouble. I'm going to have a couple of my men go there to collect payment for the services already rendered, before you left. I want something which can't be revoked, if your accounts are frozen. I hope you won't give them a hard time." He said sternly.

That was a huge lie. Easy know the bill was already paid and he didn't deal with the money end of it at all. So this was just a public cover, to tell him he'd have service waiting there for him. He didn't doubt the part about the shop being a trap, where the ship would be destroyed, at all though.

"OK. We'll settle up. I don't blame you for wanting paid, before they haul us off. Don't think about getting anything back though. We're pretty much out of consumables, although we have no damage. We're all filthy and tired so we're not going to wait around for your guys. Better have them waiting there for us, or they can wait for us to clean up and eat before we'll take time for them. Easy out." he ended. He didn't think all the subterfuge would really fool much of anyone. But if we lose it might look good in court, for Dave.

"Ok what does Jon say?" He asked Eddie.

"Well first he's not my boss anymore. He quit rather than take what he regarded as unlawful orders. He said a USNA and  Chinese shuttles, had a missile duel right by the station not an hour ago. Blew each other to hell right over North America, so they must know it happened for sure. Here's a scary one. Before the Chinese took a missile, they shot right up our butt and the drive just burned it up. But there is still the heavy shuttle the
Cincinnati
confirmed inbound for dock, to drop troops and take over M3, just like they said they'd do. No warrants, no martial law. They just told Jon they have the power, so they can do it."

"They let him know Chalmers is a shoe in to govern, as soon as they take over. He told me there isn't a lower form of life they could have picked for the job. I can't see us waiting hours and engaging the heavy shuttle, as whipped and low on consumables as we are. I say let's dock and get the Drs. and their toy safely off and see if we can set up to defend the ship at dock. What do you think?

"Sounds good. We'll see who we can sit at dock to spell us. Call Bob and His grandpa and Jeff. He'll want to meet us for his dad anyway. Take hold. Maneuvering in about 30 seconds. I'll do this on manual."

"Local 3, this is
Happy Lewis
back to you. Going to maneuver on just thrusters and visual rules for the Lewis cubic. Do we interfere with any traffic?"

"Uh, no
Lewis
, no problem, you mean the cubic at...?"

"Rather not say on the radio. Thank you Control," Easy cut in on him.

"Sure
Happy Lewis
. Thanks for the warning."

"Moving," was all the further warning Easy gave in ship. He gave a long nudge on the thrusters, then rolled around, looking away from the station with his radar. Still nothing to be seen, but the angle was wrong to look around the station, back along its orbital path very far. He was aimed for point a few hundred meters away from the North end of the station.

The Lewis cubic was on the same end as the construction shack and freight dockage, so he drifted along slowly, at about four meters per second, with his hazard lights on and kept a close look for other scooters or suited workers. Even watching for any loose materials. It didn't happen very often, but occasionally a worker would fail to fasten something down, or not clip a line on it. Once when he was new, he had fastened a strut with the wrong size powder actuated rivet and looked back to see it floating away, as he went to the next point to attach another. It had taught him to grab hold and give a newly fastened piece a few tugs before moving on.

The hub was sliding under him, or in front of him depending on your orientation. He had the nose pointed along the axis of the station, so it was sliding in from the side to center itself in his forward view screens.

"April, you want to dock it? You know your cubic and it'll be better practice for you than maneuvering around satellites."

"OK, I have the conn." She sounded a lot more confident than when they had left.

"I think I'm looking at our post, but there's another scooter clamped nose first to it. Do you think it's Dave's guys?" She gave a burst with both side thrusters to stop them. The station hung there about two hundred meters away. A huge white circle with the nearest ring turning clockwise to their view behind it. The other hidden behind it. The hub stuck out at them not turning. It was a squat cylinder that had grown haphazardly. There were all sorts if irregularities and temporary structures on it that could not be put on the rotating sections, that had to be balanced. One side was in black shadow.

"Probably, that looks like a fat service and repair scooter, that goes out to service others on site. It carries a big fuel load also, so it can top their tanks off at the same time.

The question was answered on the local band.

"Hey Easy. Whatever condition you are suffering from there, we fix scooters but we're not dermatologists. That's not anything particularly catching is it? I don't know if I want my scooter on the same post with that hairy monster."

"Yeah, yeah. I know. We cut down on the hormone treatments, but it takes a while to wear off. I'll make sure the
Happy
doesn't get fresh with your plump little number."

"OK, if you're sure it's not contagious. How about getting it clamped on there and we have a fuel load to pump to you."

"Thank you gentleman. Apprentice Lewis is docking us today," Easy informed them.

"Coming in," April called out casually to them. April nudged it around, until it pointed at the other side of the docking pintle and hit the rear thrusters. She left them on long enough, Easy's grip on the acceleration couch was getting rather firm. When she cut them she didn't put the front thrusters on for awhile. Easy was not letting go of the armrests, but he was determined he wouldn't say anything, unless she actually hit the station.

He was watching the radar, mentally counting down to when he would know he had to hit the jets and he was at one, about to call off zero in his head, when she poured the front jets on and came to a stop nose about two meters from the station hull. A couple small puffs at each end rotated her parallel to the surface and a small tap on the side thrusters slide them in closer, which she canceled out almost touching the surface.

The pintle was about four meters in front of them, but off center a bit. She eased them forward little by little. The last four meters took as long as the longer dive to the surface, but she moved closer and closer, not over-correcting and swinging back and forth like some newbies did. At last the clamp on the nose grabbed with a solid clunk. It gave a little lurch through the ship, but not half bad at all. April spoke with bravado for the crew they were meeting, more than her own people.

"Thank you for flying Lewis Lines. Please collect all baggage and other belonging as you exit, you will be issued a compensating voucher for our delayed arrival. Tell your friends and neighbors to try our friendly service and gourmet flight kitchens," April reached up and touched the mute button for the radio and told Easy. "Not as smooth as you'd do. I still can't blend the burns together in one motion, but hey, they say any landing you can walk away from, right?"

"You'll learn just fine sweetheart. I think you've got a great start, for someone who doesn't have their license. Not to mention about forty hours of command time, which will raise their eyebrows, when you give them your apprentice's log with your application."

"Look what they are doing out there!" April exclaimed, when she looked forward.

There was a pair of workers swinging the other vessel around by hand on the post, to get them side by side and pump fuel, but another two suited figures were unfurling a light framework and a white coated fabric or plastic sheet of some sort. As they watched surprised, the two pulled lines attached to the leading edge and pulled the material over both ships like a window shade.

"Camouflage." Easy concluded quickly. "It's the same color as the station hull. So anyone not real familiar with the hub here, won't know but we are just another of the big storage hangers or a machinery housing on the surface. I have to ask Dave's guys something." He turned the power way down on the suit channel and keyed it.

"Hey guys. We have a camera boom, which extends from the overhead behind the cabin. Could you cut a slit or a small hole, we can use to peek out and see what's going on through this stuff?"

"Listen to his story," said a voice, April recognized as the mechanic they called Red. "They want a hole in the tent like a bloody duck blind. Just to take a peek out, mind you. Why, they wouldn't think of taking a wee shot at some devil flitting by, would they?"

"Sounds like a good idea to me." Easy confirmed. "How about a flap somewhere that we can fold back, for a wee missile to flit out, Red?" He said. Poking fun at the fellow's dialect.

"That's the spirit," Red confirmed. "I have a chunk of my savings in the Rock they are coming to take and I want a right proper welcome for the thieving scum."

April's grandpa, Happy, was waiting outside the lock suited up. He had a pile of consumables waiting to be loaded and the first thing he asked was to open the whole hatch to vacuum. Easy readily agreed. It would take forever to load using the coffin lock and they'd lose a significant amount of air anyway if they cycled so many times. They agreed on a pump down to half pressure and then crack it open. That would only dump a couple hundred dollars of air. It would take twenty minutes and the fueling would take that long. They didn't know if they'd need it quickly.

The Lewis family cubic was already pumped down and the outer wall swung aside. They could load all the supplies directly and the personnel could go through the lock on the corridor instead of a station lock, to reach pressure.

Chapter 29

The head of the CIA approached the President, smiling, after disrupting his schedule and making him cut short a photo op and press show, with a group of Eagle Scouts who had earned their home security badges. He saw them personally instead of a double, because he had been a Scout and had a special affection for them. One young fellow was getting a special commendation for his loyalty. He had turned in his mother for sharing her prescription heart medication, with his grandmother and was getting a 'War on Drugs' merit badge.