“Perhaps you could upgrade the ship with more scientific equipment one day,” Yumi said, “since you seem to go to a lot of interesting places.”
“Right, I’ll put it on the list, right after the lav upgrades. We wouldn’t want the doctor’s fragile skin to have to deal with harsh water removers.”
Alejandro opened his mouth, no doubt to comment on her decorum.
Alisa hit the internal comm button and spoke first. “Beck, suit up. We’re flying alongside a ship that’s in trouble. There might be some people that need to be brought over here for medical attention. Leonidas would be devastated if you didn’t join him to help.”
Yumi smiled.
“Doctor,” Alisa said, bracing herself for an objection, “why don’t you get a medical kit ready in case someone over there needs treatment?”
“Very well,” he said and walked out.
Alisa turned back to the controls. She would have to line them up even more precisely if they were going to extend their airlock tube and lock on. She hoped one of the two people who were alive over there would be able to answer the door. The idea of forcing their way in made her feel like a pirate, like all those people who had forced their way onto
her
ship. But they might have to do just that. If nobody was in a position to answer the comm over there, chances were they also wouldn’t show up when the doorbell rang.
Her comm flashed. Alisa thought it might be the other ship, finally responding, but it was Mica.
“Is this other ship going to need repairs?” she asked.
“Maybe,” Alisa said. “They mentioned an engine failure in their distress call, and our sensors do show that it’s offline. They appear to be running minimal life support off the battery.”
“We don’t have any spare parts, certainly nothing that would match the needs of that ship.”
“You’ve got gum and cable ties. Won’t that do?”
“Funny.”
“We’ll worry about it after Leonidas and Beck report.” Alisa finished lining up the
Nomad
with the pilgrim ship and stood up. “I’m going down to the cargo hold, Yumi. Will you let me know if anything happens? Such as the other ship suddenly veering away and breaking our tube in the process?” She grimaced at the thought.
“Uhm, is that likely?”
Alisa shrugged. “I hope not.”
“Maybe you should stay up here.”
“Oh, I have no doubt of that, but I’m too curious not to peek around Leonidas’s shoulder as he goes in.” She wished
she
could go explore, even though pilots weren’t supposed to wander off and explore. Neither were captains.
“I’m sure he’ll report whatever he finds,” Yumi said, “though I understand being curious.”
Alisa started for the hatchway but jumped when Abelardus appeared there.
“We’re boarding that ship?” He looked toward the star map floating over Yumi’s half of the console. The line through the coordinates remained in the air. If he recognized its significance, it did not surprise him.
“We’re checking it out, yes,” Alisa said.
“That’s not a good idea.”
“There are a couple of people still alive over there. At the least, we need to see if they need help.”
“It’s too late for them,” he said quietly.
“What does that mean? What do you know?”
A distant clang echoed up from the cargo hold—the airlock hatch being opened? Alisa glanced at the console. Yes, the tube had been extended and secured. Leonidas and Beck could already be crossing over.
Abelardus turned and strode away.
“Damn it, Abelardus.” Alisa leaped to her feet. “What do you know?”
Chapter 3
Alisa dug out her comm unit as she ran after Abelardus. He was heading toward the cargo hold, and he had his staff in hand.
“Leonidas?” she called, speaking into the unit but also yelling. If he was still on the
Nomad
, he would hear her one way or another.
“We’re preparing to board the other ship,” Leonidas said.
Abelardus strode down the stairs, the tip of his staff clanging on the treads. Alisa ran after him, looking around the hold. Leonidas and Beck were already out of sight. The hatch on their side of the airlock was closed. Abelardus walked straight toward it. Alisa ran around him to get there first. Just as she reached the hatch and glimpsed the back of Beck’s helmeted head through the window, Abelardus’s hand latched onto her.
“Don’t go in there,” he said.
“I wasn’t planning to.” Probably. “Leonidas? Abelardus says going over there would be a bad idea.”
Leonidas stood in front of Beck at the far end of the airlock tube. He had reached the other ship’s controls and was examining them, but he paused to frown back at her.
“Does he,” he said flatly. “He say why?”
Abelardus still gripped Alisa’s arm, but he was not looking at her. He bowed his head and closed his eyes.
“Many are dead,” he finally said. “The two who live will not survive.”
Even though Alisa had seen demonstrations of his power, she shivered as she realized he hadn’t been in NavCom when Leonidas had spoken of how many life signs showed up on the sensors. No, Abelardus knew this independently, through the power of his mind.
“Because of a disease?” Alisa asked. “Some virus?”
“If that is the case,” Alejandro said, appearing on the walkway with his medical kit in hand, “then that is a reason to go help them, not abandon them.”
He wore a determined expression as he came down the stairs and headed toward them. Alisa was surprised he cared about helping and couldn’t keep from being suspicious. His true reason for wanting to go over there might be to make sure nobody had found that ancient staff that he sought.
“But not until we check it out,” Leonidas’s voice came over the comm. “If there’s a virus, our suits will protect us.”
“Yeah, but we can’t let you back over here if there’s some horrible disease in the air,” Alisa said. “The
Nomad
doesn’t have any way to decontaminate you.”
“Then we’ll have to fly the pilgrim ship to facilities that can deal with a medical emergency.”
“You and Beck?”
“You can guide us.”
“Oh, sure. Long distance tutoring is a great way to give flying lessons.”
“Marchenko,” Leonidas said, his tone dry. “Let’s see what we’re dealing with before panicking.”
He tapped at the controls next to the ship’s hatch.
“Alisa,” she mumbled, watching Abelardus’s face for clues that he knew more. Leonidas sounded as calm as ever, but her stomach pitched and heaved with worry.
Abelardus let go of her arm and looked at her. “I apologize.”
“For what?” she asked, bewildered. And afraid. He wasn’t about to apologize for letting Beck and Leonidas walk to their deaths, was he?
“Knocking you aside earlier when I was attacking the mech.”
“Oh.” That was the last thing Alisa cared about now.
“I was angry. My control is usually better than that.”
“His name is Leonidas.”
“What?” Abelardus’s brow creased.
“Not mech. Leonidas.”
“We’re in,” came Leonidas’s voice over the comm.
Alisa stood on tiptoes to peer through the window. The hatch on the far side of the lock slid open, and Leonidas and Beck stepped into a dim corridor.
“Shit,” Leonidas said, halting immediately.
“What?” Alisa blurted, clenching the rim of the window with her fingers.
“It’s not a virus.” Leonidas turned and pointed at her. “The radiation is off the charts in here. Break the lock and get the
Nomad
to a safe distance while we look around.”
“The hull of the
Nomad
—”
“Is meant to protect you from the background radiation in space,” he said. “It’s like someone dropped a nuke in here. Get away
now
.”
“Leonidas,” Alejandro said, leaning toward Alisa’s comm. “Your suits—”
“Mine will protect me. Trust me, they made sure we could withstand radiation out in the field.”
“What about Beck?” Alisa asked. She had no trouble imagining that the empire would have outfitted their cyborgs with the best gear to survive nuclear attacks, but Beck had some off-the-shelf civilian combat armor. He could spacewalk in it, so it had to have some protection built in, but was it rated to last for hours in intense radiation?
Leonidas and Beck looked at each other. Beck’s helmet twisted from side to side.
“He’s not sure,” Leonidas said. “I’m sending him back over, but hurry up and get the ship back to a safe distance.”
Beck came jogging through the airlock, a panicked expression on his face. The far hatch clanged shut, and Leonidas disappeared from view.
Alisa bit her lip, afraid for him, but Beck’s face made her fear for the rest of them too. He stopped at the hatch, closing the outer one behind him. He looked like he wanted to rip the inner hatch open and run into the ship, but he opened his comm instead.
“Get us away before I come aboard, Captain,” Beck said. “And have someone bring my armor case down. It has the means to sanitize and decontaminate. I’ll strip off in here and do my best not to make a mess of the ship.”
With bleakness filling her, Alisa started to speak, but Leonidas interrupted her.
“Do it,” he said, his voice hard.
“I’ll do my best to set up a curtain that will keep the contamination to a minimum,” Alejandro said, heading for the sickbay.
Alisa cursed and ran for the stairs, bumping Alejandro as she went, barely seeing him. She hated the idea of leaving Leonidas on the pilgrim ship to deal with whatever had caused that problem. It had to have been something to do with the engine. Would Leonidas be able to fix it? Was there a point in trying?
Mica walked out of engineering as Alisa ran along the walkway. “We going somewhere?” she asked.
Alisa only shook her head and continued on to NavCom. Yumi looked at her curiously as she slid into the pilot’s seat. Someone had already hit the button to retract the airlock tube into the
Nomad
. Alisa fired up the thrusters and steered them away from the pilgrim ship. An alarm started flashing on the console, warning her about elevated radiation levels. She grunted and turned it off.
“Leonidas,” Alisa said as the pilgrim ship grew smaller on her rear camera display, “tie yourself into the ship’s comm as soon as you can so you have more range. I don’t want to lose contact with you.”
“You want me to transmit my camera feed?” He sounded a touch dry, as if he wasn’t seriously considering it.
“Hells, yes,” she said. “I want to know what’s going on over there.”
“I found the first body,” he said, his voice growing somber.
Mica walked into NavCom in time to hear that. She pulled down the foldout seat behind Alisa. “I see nobody’s been sending memos down to engineering again.”
“Send your feed, anyway, Leonidas,” Alisa said, ignoring her. She wasn’t in the mood for humor. “In case there’s more going on over there than an engine leak. We should record it for—for—” She rubbed her face, not sure what she wanted, just that someone should know what had happened over there. The Alliance. Or the families of those who had been lost on the ship. Three suns, there were two people still alive over there. Did that mean that they were slowly dying of radiation poisoning? Unless they had sheltered themselves or had combat armor of their own, that was exactly what was happening.
“I will,” Leonidas said quietly. “I’m in their navigation cabin.”
“Are there bodies?” Alisa said.
“Yes. I believe I see the woman who sent the message. I’m still looking for the two people alive we saw on the sensors. I’m hoping they were shielded somehow, otherwise—”
“I know.” She didn’t need Alejandro to tell her that it would be too late to save anyone who had been exposed to that much radiation over hours. Maybe days.
She glanced at the star map hovering in front of Yumi. It would have been a day and a half since the pilgrim ship traveled through those coordinates. Of course, their engine failure could have happened at any point in their journey. The coordinates should not have anything to do with it.
“Except, why don’t I believe that?” Alisa muttered.
“Captain?” Yumi asked.
“Just talking to myself. Ignore me.”
“Transmitting my helmet feed now,” Leonidas said.
Alisa leaned toward Yumi to access the controls on the far half of the console. She sent the feed to her netdisc, so they could see it on the holodisplay. The view of an unfamiliar corridor came up, the panels along the side seeming to move as Leonidas strode forward.
Alejandro walked into NavCom, took Alisa’s wrist, and clipped a dosimeter onto her finger. She pointedly did not look at the readout, instead focusing on Leonidas’s camera feed.
“I’m heading to engineering,” Leonidas said.
“Right, make sure you really test your armor by going where the radiation will be the worst,” Alisa said.
He did not answer.
“I’m sorry,” Alisa said. “That was inappropriate humor, if you weren’t sure.”
“Yes, I’ve learned to identify it.”
Alejandro moved the finger clip to Mica and then to Yumi as Leonidas passed several doors, moving toward the back of the pilgrim ship. His head turning to look at plaques. The long, narrow vessel only seemed to have one corridor.
“Ouch, Doctor,” Mica blurted, spinning in her seat. “What are you stabbing people with?”
Alisa glanced back in time to see Alejandro retracting an injector.
“A bit of a cocktail. Some potassium iodide for your thyroid, and a drug that will bind with radioactive plutonium, americium, and curium in your body and help you piss it out.”
“Is it just me or do all of your cocktails make people piss?” Alisa asked, though her blood had gone cold. Even though she’d seen the warning alarm flashing on the console, she hadn’t realized there had been that much exposure for those on the
Nomad
.
“It’s one of the ways the body clears toxins. I can make you sweat, too, but I know you have an aversion to butt prints.” He leaned forward and touched the injector to her neck.
By all that was blessed and holy, he was going straight for the veins, wasn’t he? Alisa almost batted the injector away, but fear of what might happen if she wasn’t treated stilled her hand. She swallowed, staring into his eyes and remembering that he had been willing to have her killed not that many weeks earlier. The injector hissed, and a soft, quick jab delivered the substance.