"There is a solution to both our wants," Evans said. "We're leaving the ship. Captain, you will seal the bridge behind us. And you and the crew will guide our prize away from harm."
"Aye-aye," the captain said, voice stoic.
"If that is your wish," Olden said. "Whatever took out the team, it's got access to their comms. Prepare to go dark."
In the alien bunk room, Rada took a last look at Moles' device, cast it aside, and took off running down the tunnels, heading fore and toward the top deck. Where they'd secured the shuttle. There was only one main route up top and as she neared the intersection, she slowed to a walk and stuck her head around the corner, confirming she'd beaten them there. The unnaturally wide halls stretched empty to both sides.
She turned onto the main corridor and ran on. The doors were open here, too, but the furniture inside some of the rooms was blackened, partially devoured by fire. Somehow, this made the remnants less strange: the humans and Swimmers had been enemies once, but long ago, at the beginning of each civilization, they had both faced the common enemy of fire. The damage looked old, as if it had been inflicted when the ship first crashed. The rubble had been cleared out, however, presumably by Evans' people: all that remained was what would stay attached to the floor during the stresses of flight.
The tunnel stopped in a T-intersection. Ahead, a door was open in the wall. Rada ran through it and stumbled on the low edge of a ramp. This spiraled up the wall, providing a stairway minus the stairs. It was more of the orange material, however, rubbery and textured, and she was able to climb to the top with little trouble.
The landing fronted a closed airlock door. On the other side, the shuttle waited. Rada drew the white pistol and shot the human control panel they'd added to the interface. It fritzed sparks and went dead.
He could hide, but he couldn't run.
She jogged back down the ramp, checked the intersection, then ran the way she'd come in, swinging into the second door she passed. A few low, ottoman-like pieces surrounded a scorched table. There were no lights besides what spilled from the hall. She got down behind the table and waited.
A suited man jogged past, rifle in hand. He passed so quickly she had no time to react, but she replayed the memory in her head and she didn't think the man had worn a red stripe on his helmet. The lieutenant, then. Olden. Rada rose halfway and slunk to the side of the door.
Five seconds went by, ten. No sign of Evans. She held position. Footsteps padded down the hall. She tensed, ready, but they were coming from the wrong direction, toward the ramp. She retreated from the doorway. Olden flashed by, heading back down the hallway.
Silently, she swore. He was clearing the route ahead. If he'd noticed the damage to the airlock, they might change their entire plan. With Moles' device blacked out and the bridge locked down, she didn't know how she'd get to them again.
But she couldn't charge after Olden. There was nothing to do but wait. Thirty seconds later, the steps returned, landing irregularly. Not one pair of feet, but two.
Neither of the men spoke. Evans came first, jogging past the entry. Olden was right behind him. Rada slipped out and leveled the gun, aiming it at the back of Olden's neck, between his helmet and collar.
He spun, glimpsing her from the corner of his eye. "Get down!"
She pulled the trigger. The shot furrowed into his collar, lodging there. Evans flung himself to the floor. He didn't appear to be armed. She fired again, the bullet clanging off the curve of Olden's faceplate. The soldier swung up his gun, shooting as he did so, bullets raking past Rada's legs. Hard puffs of air echoed down the vacant corridor.
She twitched her pistol down and opened fire at his weapon. Something clunked; the rifle sprung open near the stock, gushing black smoke. Olden yelled and flung it aside. Rada took aim and shot him in the neck.
He staggered to the side, clutching his throat, blood spraying against the inside of his faceplate. The counter on her pistol said "03." She kept the gun trained on Olden, but he didn't appear to be in position to do anything more. She felt a flicker of sadness for him. It was possible that he'd helped enforce Plan Red and deserved everything that he got, but it was also possible that he'd been nothing more than an innocent soldier attached to the wrong superior.
Evans got to his knees. "What's your name, soldier?"
"I'm not one of your soldiers," Rada said. "I'm your assassin."
"You shot my favorite lieutenant, you asshole. Who are you? One of Benez's fanatics? Here to win your master a second fortune?"
"You think I'm here to take this ship?"
Evans cocked his red-striped helmet to the side. "Why else?"
"I'm here for the people you took this ship from."
"I am afraid you're as crazy as I pegged you. Discounting its original, far more crab-like owners, I am its original possessor."
"You took it from us." To her left, Olden slumped, causing Rada's gun to twitch. His hand fell from his throat. Obscenely red blood spilled down the front of his suit. She trained her weapon on Evans. "You send your people to places like Skylon to wait for some drunken miner to run his mouth. Then you kill him, take his claim, and use it to fund your political ambitions. That's what it's about, isn't it? The IRP doesn't create anything of value, so you have to steal from others to line your nest."
Evans laughed. "What are you, some kind of conglomerationist?"
"I don't hate all governments. Just yours." She took a step forward. "Were you there on that
Bunker
when the
Box Turtle
was destroyed? Or did you give the orders from the comfort of your palace?"
"The
Box Turtle
? Is that what this is about?"
"You killed my friends."
"Well, it was their own greed that did them in. They should have gone to one of the powers that be the instant they knew what they'd found. Honestly, who thinks you can stay independent in this day and age?" He shook his head in disbelief. "Do you know what happens when a guppy gets too fat? It feeds the sharks."
"We're done," she said. "See you in hell, Admiral Evans."
"Wait wait wait!" He threw up his hands. "I just have one thing to say: yellow chihuahua extravaganza."
Rada blinked. "What?"
"It's an ancient language. It means, you're totally fucked and about to die and no one can have my toys but me."
He leapt to his feet and ran toward the ramp to the airlock. She fired at his neck. This time, the first shot took him down. As he was on the floor, writhing, she took aim and put another bullet beside the first, then stripped off his helmet and shot him in the head.
She had no idea which way the ship was oriented, but she looked up at the ceiling, seeing the icy blue surface of Nereid. "Rest easy."
But her work wasn't done. She needed to get into the bridge. Commandeer the ship and deliver it to Toman's incoming fleet. She bent over the body and stripped Evans' device.
She froze. A deep-down groan welled up from her chest. "You have got to be
kidding
me!"
On the screen, an imbecilic smiley face leered up at her. Beneath it, a timer ticked down from 09:38 to 09:37, denoting the exact instant at which the alien vessel would self-destruct.
14
Rada's heart railed against her ribs. She swore. There was only one way off the ship—the shuttle. And she'd disabled the entrance to try to keep Evans from escaping.
Except she could still get to it by going out another airlock and traversing the ship. And there was a chance she could shut down the countdown and save the vessel from destruction. Either way, she was going to need help.
She took off for the bridge. As she ran, she poked around Evans' device. Most of it had been locked down, but it appeared to maintain its basic functionality. Good. Would save her a trip to pick up Moles' device. She flipped it to the default channel and raised it to her suit's mouth.
"Come in, bridge."
"This is the bridge," a voice replied. "Who is
this
?"
"Not important," Rada said. "Listen—"
"Not important? You are currently using Admiral Evans' device. What happened to him?"
"What happened is that he's set the ship to destruct. If we don't help each other out, in nine minutes, we're all dead."
The man paused. "Just a second."
Along with communications, the stolen device still allowed her access to a basic map of the ship. Rada hooked right at an intersection and made for the main hallway toward the bridge.
"You're right." The man sounded strangled. "The ship has been rigged to detonate. Please identify yourself, caller?"
"My name is Rada Pence," she said, deciding what the hell. "Admiral Evans is dead. So is the security team."
"You killed them."
"Correct."
"Oh, in that case, we should definitely help you out of this jam."
"I am a member of the crew that first discovered this ship." Rada spotted the bridge doors and slowed. "Evans murdered them all. I survived by luck. My vendetta was against him, not you."
The man—she now believed he was the captain—chuckled hoarsely. "Hobart Evans murdered your crew?"
"Is it that hard to believe? He just condemned all of you to die. After executing Plan Red on Io." She drew to a stop before the sealed doors. "How far out is the incoming fleet, Captain?"
"How do you know about that?"
"Because they're my friends. Here to reclaim what's mine. They're going to be a lot more sympathetic to you if we get out of here together."
The captain sighed into his comm. "We're going to need a minute, Pence."
"Decide fast. In eight minutes, none of this matters."
While she waited, she skipped around the device, trying to see if she could send a message through the ship's transmitter, but she didn't seem to be able to do anything but talk and access a few surface-level files.
"Here's the situation," the captain said twenty seconds later. "We can't shut down the countdown. We're locked out of the system and the explosive is inside the engines. There's no way to get to it. We'll have to take the shuttle."
"That could be a problem, Captain," Rada said. "Entry from inside the ship is disabled. We'll have to do a spacewalk."
"We don't have time for that! We barely have time to prep and launch!"
"There is another option."
He laughed, tired and amused. "Flush ourselves out the airlock and wait to get scooped up? No dice. Our escorts can't turn around for us. Your friends would tear them apart."
"Let me inside. I'll talk to my people."
"That's a no go. Admiral Evans was thoughtful enough to lock down the whole ship. Comms are out. We can't even steer."
"Do the airlocks work?"
"That's about the only thing that does. The honorable admiral must have intended to leave them for his escape."
"Then we don't have a choice," Rada said. "Suit up and let's go."
"You're armed, aren't you, Pence?"
"I'm out of ammo. Anyway, I need you to spring the airlock and you need me to provide the pickup. Whatever our differences, the only way we get out of this is together."
"Gods damn it," the captain growled. "Put your weapon on the floor and step back."
She tossed it down and moved ten feet back. "Done."
The doors parted three inches and stopped. On the other side, a man with a shaved head and a gray beard eyed her, then the pistol. The doors resumed opening.
"Come on," he said over his shoulder. "Unless you'd rather go down with the ship."
A young man and a young woman moved in behind him, faces scared inside the masks of their suits.
The captain picked up the gun, examined its readout, and tossed it aside. He jogged down the hall, offering Rada a wry smile. "I'm Gene. And this is about the strangest alliance I've been a part of."
"I think that means it's an effective one." She fell in beside him. "How much air have you got?"
"Twelve hours apiece. How do you intend to reach your people?"
"Leave that to me."
"We're sure there's no aliens in here?" the young man said.
"There are no monsters on this ship," Rada said. "Except me."
They ran down the tunnels to the port-side airlock. Outside it, Gene fiddled with his device. He scowled. Tried again. The doors cranked open. The four of them piled inside. The captain closed the doors behind them.
"Have any of you ever done this before?" Rada said.
"Taken a flying leap from a booby-trapped ship?" The young man laughed. "Got to confess that's a new one for me."
"Clip yourselves together. We're going to have a ton of velocity behind us. If we get separated, we could wind up a million miles apart."
They used the suits' tethers to tie up, then triple-checked each other's seals. By the time they were set, the timer on Evans' showed less than four minutes.
"Everyone ready?" Gene glanced between them. "Opening doors."
The last of the atmosphere hissed from the room. The doors opened in perfect silence, exposing them to the endless night. Together, they moved to the platform outside the airlock. Rada glanced down the length of the ship to confirm there was nothing that would shred them apart as the vessel accelerated past.
"Jump on three," she said, extending her hands to Gene and the young man. "One. Two.
Three
."
She bent her knees and pushed off. So did the others. They tumbled away from the ship; the young man had jumped with more force, causing them to spin slowly, the stars wheeling around them. The alien vessel was a long, dark, multi-jointed finger. It continued to accelerate, drawing away.
For what little good it would do, Rada flipped her comm to an emergency channel. "Simm. Toman. Any members of the Hive. Are you out there? This is Rada Pence. And I need a ride."
She repeated this a few times. The ship shrank against the backdrop of stars, its engines a white torch. The countdown ticked on. As it neared zero, Rada blacked out her mask, keeping her helmet's video camera running, the feed displaying on the inside of her visor.