For Want of a Nail (5 page)

"Given that the astronomy department has been
getting death threats from AIM since the mission was announced, it
seems likely that you aren't," Rue subvocalized the words and let
the glasses pick them up. "How long ago did you ask the ship?"

"As soon as you confirmed that the cable was
unplugged. I should have had a response before you sat down to fix
it."

"Begat me." Rue realized that she was standing
in the hall, so she started walking toward the ship's cafeteria, to
have a place to go. Hanson, one of the deck hands, nodded to her as
he passed in the hall. She tried not to stare at him to see if he
were the one who had unplugged the transmitter. The act of seeming
relaxed made her too conscious of her own body, as if the length of
her stride or the curve of her spine would tell Hanson exactly what
she was thinking. "So, you're thinking deliberate sabotage and
crap-- there are only six of us on this ship. You really think
someone's a plant for AIM?"

"Possible. My specialty is astronomy, a Metta
would have a clearer idea, but there are anomalies here that I find
disturbing." Cordelia appeared to be floating backward in front of
Rue.

Rue stopped at the door of the cafeteria. Inside
the tiny room, she could see Monroe and Osborne playing cards at
one of the fiberglass tables which folded down from the walls. Even
with cheery yellow paint, the cramped room seemed depressing and
more like a gerbil cage than anything else. It always managed to
smell like cheeze-whiz, even though, to the best of her knowledge,
that didn't appear on any menu selection. Rue could not
wait
to get back to Earth and have food that didn't come at the press of
a button.

The broad-shouldered First Mate seemed to have
Osborne in a sweat over whatever game they were playing. The
diminutive engineer's face was nearly as red as his hair. He seemed
dwarfed in the loose blue coveralls the crew wore as uniforms,
while Monroe bulked his out like a Greek god.

Rue glanced at Cordelia in her glasses. "Let me
talk to Dr. Chia and see what he says."

"That sounds reasonable." The astronomy
professor was, theoretically, in charge of this project even though
the main focus was on Cordelia's mission.

Pulling her PDA out, Rue dialed the
professor.

The tinny sounds of
Also Sprach
Zaranthrusta
burst forth in the cafeteria. Osborne leaped
straight up out of his seat, squawking with surprise. He fumbled
and cards flew everywhere.

"Sorry!" She stepped into the cafeteria. The two
men were alone, but Dr. Chia's PDA rested on the counter next to
the beverage dispenser. The man seemed congenitally unable to keep
his PDA on his person.

Monroe slapped his hand of cards down on the
table and bellowed with laughter. "Dude, you jumped into
orbit."

Osborne scowled, picking up his cards. "We
are
in orbit."

"So, hey, have you guys seen Dr. Chia?" Rue
picked his PDA up.

"Try the bridge. He was there muttering about
spectral analysis before I went on break." Monroe stood up from the
table. "Speaking of, I should get back."

"Thanks. I'll head up with--"

A klaxon went off, with ear-splitting
bracks
of sound. Osborne dropped his cards again and
sprinted toward the door. Monroe grabbed him by the back of his
collar, without any noticeable effort, and slammed Osborne face
first against the wall. A spray of blood coated the yellow paint.
Monroe dropped the man.

And leveled a tiny gun at her.

Rue took an involuntary step backwards, knees
nearly buckling under her.

Muscles rippling under the fabric of his
coveralls, Monroe stepped over the engineer's body. "Shall we
dance?"

The comic book villain line popped her out of
fear and into blind, red rage. Whatever he thought he was going to
do to her was so not going to happen. Rue pressed the redial button
on her PDA.

In her left hand, Dr. Chia's PDA burst into
Also Sprach Zarathrusta again
. Monroe's gaze jerked down to
the machine, and Rue threw her own PDA at him.

He flinched and she ducked out the door, not
waiting to see if it had actually hit him. If it made impact,
bonus. Springing across the hall, Rue threw herself into the crew
quarters and slid the door home. "Lock it! Lock it!"

Faster than Rue could breathe, the lock flashed
to red. Cordelia nodded. "I hacked, but--

Monroe bellowed and slammed against the door,
vibrating the whole thing in its frame.

Rue turned to face the narrow bunks crammed into
the quarters. The smell of dirty socks and the stink of her own
fear filled the room, almost crawling on her tongue. At the far end
of the room, four bulky white EVA suits hung on the wall, ready for
their owners. Small metal lockers, painted the same grey as the
rest of the ship created the ends of each bunk.

There was only one door. Crap.

"Can you get help?" She pulled open the closest
locker.

"I've lost my connection to the main system."
The AI's brow was furrowed with concentration. "It's a hardware
failure, not a viral block."

Her pulse rattled every nerve in her body. Hands
shaking, Rue tore through the the locker, looking for anything she
could use as a weapon. Underwear, round datapods, cables, a
pasteboard box of rhinestone earrings. "Okay. So it's likely that
the ship AI isn't involved or he'd be hacking back at you,
right?"

"I think they have him isolated."

"They. Who the hell is they? Monroe, clearly but
who else?" Next locker. Black leather workboots, a worn miniature
Bible, coveralls. She felt the pockets, but they were all
empty.

The thumps on the door had stopped, which was
not a good sign. Rue left the lockers to press her ear against the
door. Nothing. No klaxon, no footsteps. The only sound was that of
her own breathing.

Mutiny had not been covered in her courses on AI
wrangling. She knew how to maintain systems and... "Total idiot.
Cordelia, I'm a total idiot." She still had Dr. Chia's PDA. "It's
sort of old school, but if I jack the interface glasses into the
PDA, can you get into the basic ship system?"

Cordelia's eyes seemed to gleam. "I'd like
nothing better."

Going back to the locker with the datapods, Rue
snagged one of the cables and slipped the plug into the jack on the
PDA.

The other end did not fit the glasses.

"Monkey!" She pulled her arm back to hurl the
useless PDA at the wall and barely kept herself from flinging it.
Not helpful. Rue stood, with her hand half over her head, muscles
trembling with held tension. The complete helplessness would kill
her and she didn't even mean that as a freakin' metaphor. "Begat
this!" She lowered the PDA. "Do you have any ideas?"

Cordelia shook her head. "I can't even unlock
the door now."

"Perfect." Rue pulled open the next locker, not
really hoping to find anything, but because she had to do
something
. "Can't one of these guys collect katanas or
something useful? Heck, I'd settle for a cricket bat at this point.
Or a wrench." Instead the locker held more blue coveralls and
pinups of a variety of centerfolds. Rue let her head fall forward
to rest against the edge of the door. It made a cool stripe down
her forehead. Exhaustion weighed on her.

The smell of dirty socks had grown stronger
here. Rue wanted nothing more than to curl up on one of the bunks
and sleep until the whole thing was over. She staggered back from
the locker, head spinning.

Except for the sound of her own breath, the room
was silent. The circulation system was not humming.

"They've turned the air off," Rue whispered, so
Cordelia would know.

She stumbled to the end of the room and grabbed
the closest EVA suit [which gets clearly and specifically described
here]. Arms made weak by oxygen deprivation, it took her three
tries to lift the bulky white garment off the hook. She slid into
the thing and started the oxygen flow before she even had the suit
fully sealed. Rue opened her mouth, gulping the air and relishing
the slight metallic tang of bottled oxygen.

It hit her in a rush, energy coursing through
veins. Rue sealed the suit and sat, slumped against the wall
focusing on breathing with deep inhales, stretching her
ribcage.

Cordelia said, "They can still outwait you."

Rue looked at the VR projection of the oxygen
gage. Two hours. "But maybe they'll think I'm unconscious and open
the door." She pushed herself to her feet, struggling with the
thick folds of cloth. The suit she'd grabbed was too large for her
-- probably Monroe's -- and it was engulfed her like a child
playing at dressup.

"Or they're watching on the ship's camera."
Cordelia pointed to the corner of the room.

"That, at least, is easy to deal with... Hang
on." She stood under the camera, out of its line of sight and
looked up at its cable. "God bless your inventor for standardizing
AI equipment."

"You'll have to take the helmet off, since the
glasses are inside with you."

"Then you'll have to work fast." Rue yanked the
cord from the camera.

She inhaled until her diaphragm ached and pulled
her helmet off, holding her breath. She set the helmet at her feet,
trying not to rush and make mistakes. Slipping the VR glasses off,
she inserted the cable into the socket . The glasses dangled from
the cable, like a bizarre piece of bling. Rue bent to pick up the
helmet, lungs burning with the desire for oxygen.

Behind her, the door opened.

Holding the helmet to her chest, Rue turned.

Monroe pushed his way into the room, gun leveled
at her. "Don't even think about throwing that."

"It'd only work once."

"You didn't even come close to hitting me," he
sneered.

"Made you flinch." Running was not an option
this time anyway, since Monroe filled the door. She had to stall
him to give Cordelia time to work --
if
there were any
chance of her being able to hack through the camera that is. "So,
isn't this the point in films where the villain is supposed to make
a giant statement of his evil plan?"

"Dude. I already know what your evil plan
is."

Rue gaped at him. "
My
evil plan? You're
the one who's mutinying."

Without warning, the lights went out. Monroe
cursed and fired his gun. The muzzle flash lit the room like
lighting, burning an after image in Rue's eyes. The harsh sulfur of
gunpowder burned her nose. She threw herself in the direction of
the nearest bunk, hoping that the metal locker would offer her some
protection. Was the man insane? Projectile weapons in space equaled
bad
plan.

A computerized voice came over the loud speaker.
"Self-destruct sequence engaged."

"What the?" Monroe shouted. "We don't
have
a self-destru--."

In the distance, an explosion boomed.

No matter what Monroe thought, Rue was taking no
chances. She pulled the helmet back on. As soon as it sealed,
Cordelia appeared on the VR screen of the visor. She grinned.
"Ready to go?"

Rue subvocalized, "Crazy man trying to kill me.
Plus, totally dark. Going is not such an option."

Even through the helmet, she could hear Monroe
crashing around in the dark. He collided with one of the lockers
with a meaty thud. The locker rattled from the impact.

The computer voice said, "Self-destruct in
twenty seconds," at the same time as Cordelia mouthed the words.
She winked at Rue.

Then the visor lit up in an infrared display.
Monroe's vivid red and yellow form patted the walls, searching
blindly for the EVA suits. A second, muted blue person lay curled
on one of the bunks. The image spun slightly and Rue realized that
she was seeing the view from the VR glasses suspended from the
ceiling.

"Self-destruct in nineteen seconds." Another
explosion sounded in the distance.

Monroe cursed and began patting the walls
faster. His foot hit something that rattled when he stepped on it
and slid out from under him. He landed on the floor in a tangle of
limbs. The gun, still glowing in infrared with the heat from his
shot, bounced away from him.

"Self-destruct in eighteen seconds."

Rue eased off the bed, wincing as the EVA suit
creaked with her movement. In the visor, she watched her image move
as if she were manipulating an avatar in a third person game. None
of the debris from the locker showed up clearly in infrared, so Rue
crawled across the floor. Her over-sized gloves made it difficult
to identify any of the shapes she passed over.

"Self-destruct in seventeen seconds."

Monroe had a suit off the wall and was trying to
force his leg into it.

Cordelia whispered in Rue's ear. "Of course, you
realize that you are wearing his suit. None of those will fit him."
She switched to computer voice. "Self-destruct in sixteen
seconds."

"Wicked." Rue put her hand down and closed
around the barrel of the gun. "Which way is the door?"

"Follow the dotted line on your visor." As she
said that, a yellow path lit the way to the door.

"Fifteen"

Rue crawled out, clutching the gun in her
hand.

"Fourteen" In the distance, another explosion
rumbled.

As Rue passed into the hall, her figure on the
visor disappeared from view, leaving her in total darkness.

"Thirteen"

The door hissed shut and the hall lights
flickered on, burning Rue's eyes. She squinted against the
momentary pain. When her eyes adjusted, she looked at Cordelia's
image. "That. That was beautiful."

"I like having a whole ship to play with."

"Speaking of..." Rue got to her feet. "Do we
know where everyone else is?"

Cordelia nodded, face turning serious. "The
ship's AI is disconnected from the system. The rest of the crew are
tied up in the cargo bay. I can open the doors, but I can't untie
them."