Brynin 3 (4 page)

It spun around and sprinted toward me.

I ducked.

The CR kicked my hip. I howled, and tripped.

Not far behind the robot, I heard Ieeb say, “On.qu.nanmfive.” In a split second, the robot pivoted, walked toward her, one fist raised. Much to my surprise, it punched empty space, missing her helmeted face by inches because its nanomotors had malfunctioned.

Without warning, it grabbed her neck. The CR’s hard drive had eliminated the false command.

Ieeb shouted, “On.qu.nanmseven!”

The robot let go. As I watched in horror, it shoved Ieeb to the floor, then marched toward her.

She rose to her feet. “On.qu.hippoc.”

The android slowed down because she had ordered several dendrites in its polymer hippocampus to shut off. After hesitating, the CR accelerated.

Ieeb yanked a telescope off a stand and hit the robot’s leg. The android stumbled.

Ieeb shouted, “Op.bridone. Take that, you bastard!”

On the floor, a hatch opened, and air started rushing outside, pulling us toward the opening.

Ieeb reached out, then grabbed the edge of an altimeter housing.

The CR stood.

Vren kicked its leg.

The android stepped backward, trying to regain its balance.

Ieeb yelled, “On.qu.nanmfour.”

The robot staggered to the right because Ieeb’s command had shut off several nanomotors in its leg. Suddenly, the android was sucked outside!

Ieeb announced, “Close.” The hatch closed.

That reminded me of the asteroid hole. I looked toward it and saw Vren slapping a patch on it from a broken-open case nearby.

Wanting to know where the ship was going, I looked out the cockpit window. At the same time, I shoved my hand through code.
Em.air( ).

Near the top of my screen, warning text flashed.
Improper command. Need correct password.

I shook my head, disgusted.

Ieeb sat in the co-pilot’s chair, a nervous expression on her face. “The Ulthe use eighty to one hundred firewalls to protect their ship’s hard drive. You need a quantum computer to break through them.”

I blinked. “My only quantum computer is on ST Seven.”

Ieeb scowled. “There’s one alternative, but I’ll have to work fast.” She shoved her fingers through object code.

Firew1.search( )

Firew2.search( )

Firew3.search( )

Firew4.search( ).

Outside the window, chunks of asteroids whizzed by.

On my screen, warning text flashed.
Starboard wing and engine three are malfunctioning.

At the top of a monitor, I noticed that the starboard wing tip was gone, torn off. Sweat began pouring down my forehead. Even if we broke through the firewall, we couldn’t steer this space vessel.

I paused as my stomach muscles tightened, scrambling for a solution. “It’s impossible to reach my ship with this one because there’s only one wing left. I need to find a space pod and fly back to ST Seven. After I reach my ship, I’ll head for this one, then dock on it. Can you at least slow this bastard down?”

“I’ll try.” Ieeb rammed her trembling hand through floating 3D computer syntax. “There’s a one-seat pod in the room behind this one.”

Vren, his eyes wide open, handed me a four-inch-long bolt with a coiled line attached to it. “Shoot the bolt into your ship’s hull and climb up the tether. The drawback is that the tether is only forty feet long.”

I took it and nodded.

Ieeb flinched, a terrified look on her face. “In about sixteen minutes, this craft will enter the asteroid field. We can’t help hitting something, and the ship will disintegrate.”

I turned, then hurried toward the next room. In seconds, the torpedo shaped pod’s hatch opened, revealing a narrow compartment with a cushion for my chest, but no seat. I jumped inside and rested on my stomach. An inch above my head, beyond my peripheral vision, the hatch shut with a clunk. The craft shot into space, following a curved trajectory, bound for ST7, a barely visible silhouette in a sea of stars—but it grew rapidly closer.

As my adrenaline pumped harder I said, “Op.ej.” The hatch came off. I raised my hand, then fired.

The bolt hit the starboard side of my ship, close to the tail.

I gripped the tether and climbed. Without warning, it swung behind ST7. As sweat tricked off my chin, I reached the ship and crawled past a vent. An asteroid pebble whizzed past my neck. I shoved my hand over a DNA sensor. A small emergency hatch opened, and I crawled inside ST7.

After entering the bridge, I sat down and spoke into my earplug’s mouthpiece, “Vren, Ieeb, I made it.”

Ieeb shouted, “Wow, I didn’t think you would!”

I murmured quietly, “Neither did I, frankly.”

I held my hand over computer syntax, and the ship veered starboard, bound for the Ulthe craft. In the corner of the screen, ST7 docked on the craft.

Outside, the flood of stones grew thicker.

Close to the edge of a monitor, the passenger compartment hatch opened. Everyone but Tayt climbed inside my ship.

I shouted, “Vren, I’m going to undock now! Otherwise, ST Seven will smash into the asteroid field.” My ship lurched forward, away from the Ulthe craft.

Vren bellowed, “Tayt just slipped! She’s still inside the other ship. I’ll have to go back and get her.” Near the bottom of a beige screen, he attached a tether to his belt, shoved the other end into a wall-mounted-bracket, then leaped outside.

Near the corner of a tan screen, inside the Ulthe vessel’s open hatch, Tayt stuck out her hand, and yelled into her microphone. “Don’t leave me behind!”

Vren removed a short line from his belt and handed one end to Tayt.

She tied it around her waist and grabbed the line.

Vren started up his tether, Tayt a few feet behind, dangling.

The Ulthe craft smashed head-on into a boulder-sized asteroid and broke apart.

Tayt screamed, “We’re going to die!”

Vren crawled inside the passenger compartment, then pulled Tayt inside. As she began crying, the hatch closed.

I stuck my hand inside object syntax. ST7 veered port. At the top of a yellow screen, its belly barely missed asteroid pebbles.

“Astounding!” Dr. Tria blurted, his voice coming out of my earplugs.

Vren entered the bridge and sat down. “Jason, I found Hast’s tablet and exported all the passenger’s money back into their databases.”

“Good job. How much money was left on Hast’s tablet?”

“Two cents. He was either penniless or any other funds were stored on the other Ulthe tablets.”

“He could have put them on a server. Who knows?”

Vren, an odd look on his face, paused for a moment. “By the way, I’ve heard stories about men who tried to steer single-occupancy emergency pods toward ships. None of them made it, because they didn’t create the proper vectors. You’re either the best pilot I’ve ever seen or you’re a new generation NOP.”

“I’m an independent C clone, not an
NOP
.” While I was on Icir, a Mlaan woman had told me about the NOP, nanorobot prototypes, androids with muscles filled with nanites, eight-legged devices, microscopic machines that shared information via wireless networks, enabling the NOP to walk, sit, talk and stand. There was a problem. Many NOP broke down six months after they were created.

“Wow! Years ago, an Aito mapmaker told me about the C’s. But all of them work for OTA. OTA interstellar craft never come to Pl Five, its moons, Icir, its moons, Danig or D Twenty-Four. What the hell are you doing here?”

“I’ll tell you about it some other time.”

“I don’t think we’ll have any serious problems reaching Danig, because you can anticipate them.”

“Nobody’s that smart. It’s always best to be careful. But what happened to the ships that those emergency pods escaped from? Did they all crash?” I glanced at him, curious.

“All of them crashed. I’ll tell you about a couple. The Ode, an Aito Series One vessel, was bound for Yeela, one of Icir’s moons. When it was halfway there, one of its engines overheated. A few seconds later, before the vessel blew up, a member of the crew, a man named Deym, jumped into a pod, and it ejected.

“Although others ejected, the explosion destroyed their pods because they were too close to the Ode. Anyway, he put in the wrong coordinates, and missed The Naarn, a rescue craft.”

“Couldn’t the Naarn get to him in time?”

“No. He ran out of air and died two minutes before they reached him.”

“What about the other ship?”

“The Trem, an Amboa craft, was bound for Dyoon, a space station half a million klicks from Icir. A day before the Trem reached it, the main server accidentally pumped all the air outside and everyone began choking. Chief Engineer Vinan leaped inside an emergency pod, and it ejected. Unfortunately, the pod missed The Hocen, a reconnaissance ship, by eighty feet because Vinan switched on the port side retrorocket one second too late.”

I blinked, thinking that over. “I assume that they didn’t reach him in time.”

“You assume correctly. He ran out of oxygen and died six minutes before they arrived.”

“Did anyone aboard the Trem survive?”

“No. They didn’t have enough oxygen. They used it up a few hours before The Hocen showed up.”

Youn entered and hugged Vren. She grinned. “Thank you. I just emailed my dad. He’ll probably respond in a few hours. Someday, I want him to take both of you out to dinner. It’s the least I can do.”

I nodded. “Sounds good.”

Vren grinned. “He sounds like a great dad.”

Youn smiled. “He is.” She left.

Ieeb entered. “Jason, I’m impressed. You went on a suicide mission and reached ST Seven.”

“Thanks.”

Ieeb smiled. “Jason, do you have a girlfriend?”

“No.”

Ieeb leaned forward and whispered, “I want to spend some time with you. Are you interested?”

In a hushed tone, I replied, “Sure. The only problem is that when we reach Danig, I’ll have to interview potential passengers, pick up cargo, and head for Nooa, another mining planet. I have a lot of bills. This is the only way I can pay them.”

She kissed me on the cheek and murmured, “Whenever you have time, come visit me.”

I raised my eyebrows, surprised by her invitation. “See you soon.”

She batted her eyes and strolled away, hips swaying.

Vren’s eyes opened wider. “Ieeb is quite a woman.”

“She’s so gorgeous the sight of her makes me nervous. I’m amazed that she isn’t married by now.”

Vren chuckled.

Dr. Tria entered. “Jason, when you were aboard that pod, you measured the solar wind, gravitational pull interaction accurately and reached your ship. Although you didn’t have much time, you succeeded. How did you do it?”

“ST Seven was surrounded by strange attractors, twisting shapes. I steered toward one of them.”

Dr. Tria rubbed his chin. “Jason, did you use your tablet to find the right strange attractor?”

“No,” I sighed. Now I’d have to explain. “I used my mechanical left eye. It kept switching from ultraviolet to visible light, to infrared, and microwave.”

Dr. Tria’s brow tightened. “You’re a cyborg. I don’t mean to be offensive; I just don’t know much about the C.”

“I am a cyborg, though I prefer to think of myself as a human.” He’d taken it pretty well. “No offense taken. Ask me anything you like.”

“Why did you replace your eye with a mechanical one? I’m curious.”

“That’s a long story, longer than Red Ten’s national anthem. Let’s talk about it in a few days. During that time, I’ll tell you more about the C.

“Right now, I have to update coordinates. When that’s finished, I’ll visit Ieeb. Some romance will do me good. I’ve been lonely for too long.”

Dr. Tria chuckled. “Yes. We’ll talk when you have enough time.”

Several hours later, Ieeb and I entered my small living quarters. I chuckled from excitement.

She hesitated, a puzzled expression on her face. “What’s so funny?”

“I can’t believe I’d ever get involved with a woman as beautiful as you.”

Ieeb grinned. “A few hours ago, when you climbed aboard ST Seven, I fell in love with you.”

I smiled.

After she grabbed my hand, we lay on the bed, and kissed. Ieeb whispered, “I want to have a child with you.”

“Wouldn’t that be difficult? After all, you’ll be on Danig, and I’ll be on my ship, going to another planet.”

“We’ll see. Let’s make love.”

I entered the bridge and sat down. Near the middle of the screen, Danig magnified. We would dock in the planet’s only interstellar craft hangar in just over two hours.

Vren complained, “Turbulence is getting worse. This is going to be a rough landing.”

Behind me, boot heels clicked louder, and Ieeb whispered in my ear, “I’m pregnant.”

“Great.” I flinched. An image of a smiling baby popped into my head. Ieeb hugged the child and glanced at me.
Isn’t she beautiful? I love being a mom. It’s a great feeling. You’ve made me so happy. Thank you.
I smiled and imagined a pretty girl in a dress, my daughter, running across a meadow.

Ieeb kissed my cheek. “I’m going back to the passenger compartment.” She strolled away.

“What was that all about?” Vren turned toward me.

I scowled and told him about the conversation. “I want to be optimistic, but the idea of my son or daughter growing up on Danig…” I paused. “And I’m not even going to be around.”

A woman’s voice, a stranger, came out of my earplugs. “ST Seven, this is Bya, an interstellar traffic controller. After Hangar Three’s roof opens, dock at Space Four. Don’t land outside the building.”

“There’s a lot of wind-shear near the hangar. Why can’t we go anywhere else?” I thought about wind-shear, strong downdrafts that would shove any starship into the ground. Obno had never mentioned wind-shear before. That bothered me.

Bya replied in a nervous tone, “I’ll explain that later.”

On screen, Hangar Three’s roof opened and we descended. At the center of a monitor, swarms of six-inch long fly-like insects with violet wings flew over the port wing. Below the insects, text indicated that they were called Oiins—huge, venomous, ugly things.