Torchship (6 page)

“Yeah, but if I let up he’ll
recover.”

“Not soon. And we can’t take
much more of this. The ship’s not designed for this kind of maneuvering. The
passengers haven’t had the health checks we’ve had. We’ve got to stop.”

She cut their thrust. The
captain luxuriated in taking full breaths of air. With the torch stilled they
could hear a whistle around the ill-fitting patch. “Now what?” Mitchie asked.

“Now we go to ground. Hide. Find
an iceberg with a crack we can fit into. Wait for the Navy to come.” He thought
a minute. “We’ve probably got a few hours. That’s a damn rough ride you gave
him.”

“Okay.” She got the mechanic
on the line. “Hey. We’re safe for a bit. What thrust can I use to get us to a
hiding spot?”

Guo sounded tired too. “Safe.
I like that word. If we stay ballistic for twenty minutes and then go at six
gravs I can have everything back in the yellow.” He coughed harshly. Probably
needed a drink.

“Works.” She unbelted and
went to the plotting table. The hardest part of this maneuver would be slowing
down to the speed of the rings.

Schwartzenberger switched on
the PA. “All hands. We have broken contact with pirate vessel. We will be
moving to a safe place to await assistance. Once we’ve done so I will give you
a full briefing. Captain out.”

***

The captain left the hatch
open as he climbed back into the bridge. He poked at the sealant he’d put
around the window patch to make sure it had cured properly. Mitchie thought he
looked calm considering how frustrating his talk with Bobbie and her “uncle” was.
She’d used the corridor intercom to eavesdrop. Other than admitting John was a
professional bodyguard they hadn’t given up a single bit of solid information. “My
father is rich and well connected” had to be true for anyone worth kidnapping.

Schwartzenberger pulled out
another patch and started sealing the hole in the deck. “I’ll take the con for
a bit. Go get yourself a sandwich or something.”

“All right.” Mitchie
unstrapped and started down the ladder.

“Oh, do me a favor?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Break the news to Bing about
her bunk.”

There wasn’t any way to get
out of it. “Yes, sir.”

***

Someone had taken the lunch
fixings out of the galley already. Lacking another excuse to procrastinate she
went down to the hold. The coolers were right by the upper deck ladder. She
snagged a sandwich and ate as she dawdled her way to the other side of the
deck.

Bing had Guo sitting up by
the lower deck hatch. One of his hands held an iced drink. The other arm had an
IV in it. He still looked flushed. “You look done medium rare,” said Mitchie.

The mechanic chuckled. “About.
It’s still pretty warm down there if you wanted to get some baking done.” He
pointed at a bulge in the overhead. “What do I need to fix from that?”

“Um. The captain put some
pressure patches in. The rest is up to Bing.”

Bing looked up from the
rehydration drink she was mixing. “Oh?”

There had to be some gentle
way to say it, but Mitchie couldn’t think of one. “The cannon shot hit your
cabin.”

“How bad?” Bing looked up at
the dent. “Must be pretty bad.”

“We couldn’t see much through
the hole. Looked like it hit your bunk.”

“But it probably threw junk
all over.” Bing looked like she’d be doing some serious cussing if she’d ever
learned the habit. “Hell. My goods are all trash now.”

“Sentimental stuff?” asked
Mitchie.

“No, trade goods. I’ve been
doing some personal trading to build up my savings. Had a bunch of porcelain
crated so it could survive sixty gravs. But it’s probably all trash now.”

“It’s insured.” Bobbie had
wandered over during this discussion.

Bing gave her a disbelieving
look.

“The tourism corporation had
standard insurance,” continued Bobbie. John tried to shush her but she waved
him off. “We checked it when we signed up. None of you have to worry about
financial loss from this . . . crime.”

The spacers quietly absorbed
this. “Thank you, that’s good to know,” said Mitchie.

With a muttered “Fine, you’ve
said your piece,” John sheparded Bobbie back to her friends.

When they’d gotten halfway
across the hold Bing whispered, “If there’s insurance that covers damage to
personal possessions from third party criminal behavior it has to cost more
than we were paid for this job.”

“She sounded pretty certain,”
said Guo.

“Certain that we’d be paid,”
said Mitchie. “She’s not caring much about the insurance policy. I’d bet we’re
covered some other way.”

“At least rich girl is
noticing that she’s not the only one suffering here,” said Bing.

***

A dense cluster of icebergs
looked like the best hiding spot.
Fives Full
drifted through the middle
of it. One chunk had a half-klick deep chasm in it, as if it was starting to
split in half. “Can you fit us in there?” asked Captain Schwartzenberger.

“Yes, sir,” replied Mitchie.
He nodded. She fired the maneuvering thrusters to back them into the gap. The torch
was shut down. Guo trickled water out the nozzles to cool the system down. The builders
rated the base plate to handle a water landing at max temperature. Putting a
hot base into space-cold ice might crack it.

As the ship entered the chasm
snow began flying past the bridge windows, blasted loose by the thruster
exhaust. As the snow cloud cast a shadow on them Mitchie hastily turned on the
running lights. The reflections were startlingly bright on the ice. Mitchie cautiously
guided them down. The captain breathed calmly, not reacting even when she
needed multiple jets to fix an overcorrection. His hands were folded out of her
sight.

350 meters in she started
looking for a safe parking place. She’d maneuvered around some outcrops that
would have held the whole ship. This stretch had smaller lumps on the chasm
walls. Trying to edge past one the base caught on it, tipping the ship toward
the other side. Her counter burn was too weak to overcome the momentum. The
starboard side leaned into the ice with a hiss as it melted the crystals in
contact. More snow flew up from the base melting into its foothold. A few
coughs from the thrusters broke them free of the melt. The ship floated free
and still. This close to the center of the iceberg it had no noticeable
gravity.

Schwartzenberger burst out
laughing and instantly apologized. “I’m sorry. No complaints about the landing.
That was tougher than any I’ve done in my whole career. It’s a great landing.
It’s just—we’re not going to walk away from it.”

Mitchie giggled. She wouldn’t
want to take a vacuum suit across those crystals either. She turned off the
running lights. “What now, sir?”

“Now we wait. Get some rest.”
She nodded and partially unstrapped. With just the hip belt on she curled up
and fell asleep. Schwartzenberger went below.

The captain’s briefing to the
passengers had no new information other than, “Wrap up, it’s going to get cold.”
They still seemed reassured by his hold on the situation and confidence that
the Navy would arrive soon. When he finished his first mate insisted he take
time for a sandwich. The passengers returned to their positions. Bobbie and her
friends stared at the sliver of sky still visible. John watched everyone from a
perch behind her. Everyone else clustered around the observation device,
pretending they were attracted to it instead of repelled by John’s glare.

“How’s Guo doing?” the
captain asked between bites.

Bing answered, “Fine. I gave
him an IV to get his fluids back up. He fairly well cooked in there. Didn’t
complain but he flunked a pinch test. His color’s a lot better now.”

“Good. And Billy?”

“Just some bruises from
crawling around during the high accel. Some of the maneuvers rolled him around.
I sent him and Guo down below for a nap.”

He nodded and chewed. He
relaxed a bit as the food replaced some of the energy he’d burned off in
stress. He could actually believe they were safe for the moment.

“Captain, could I have a
word?”

“Certainly, Professor . . .
Tsugawa?”

“We were studying the
composition of this object as we descended. I’ve never had the chance to
examine a ring component so closely before. It’s really an excellent
opportunity to research the origins of the ring system.”

“Well, I’m glad this side
trip had a silver lining for you.” Schwartzenberger hoped he’d managed to keep
most of the sarcasm out of his voice. This was still a paying customer.

“I’m wondering if you’d be
willing to do us a favor as long as we’re going to be here for a while.”

“Oh?” The captain
diplomatically suppressed several variations on
Get to the point
.

“Would it be possible for you
to obtain some samples from the object for us? Doing a chemical analysis of
their composition could provide an immense amount of insight for us.”

“Huh. Maybe. I don’t know if
we have anything we could store that in.”

Bing offered, “We’ve got
three days’ worth of empty food coolers. Wouldn’t be hard to make them
airtight. You’d still have slush when you got home though.”

The professor smiled. “Slush
is fine. Thank you.”

“Don’t thank us yet,” said
the captain. “We’ll have to see if we can do it safely. I’ll talk to my crew
when they’re back on duty.” He suppressed the urge to charge him for the extra
services.

“Of course, sir. Thanks for
your consideration.”

When Billy woke he was eager
to do the vacuum work. The captain and mate were unsurprised. The deckhand was
always up for anything he might be able to impress girls with. Bing had stacked
half a dozen coolers and a roll of vacctape in the airlock. To Billy’s dismay
the captain insisted on both a safety tether and a maneuvering pack.

“The girls won’t think any
less of you for it,” whispered Schwartzenberger as he checked the straps and
seals of Billy’s suit.

“I’m not—hmpf.” Billy put his
helmet on and locked it in place. “Comm check, do you read?” His voice came
from the comm the professor held. “Comm check.” Bing nudged Tsugawa.

“Oh! Yes, I hear you clearly.”

“I hear you. Getting in the
lock now.”

The bodyguard took the
captain aside. “Wait—you’re broadcasting? How is that hiding?”

Schwartzenberger put on his
tolerant face. “Suit radios are very low power, Mr. Smith. If they’re close
enough to pick that up our thermal signature will be as strong as a flare to
them. It’s not adding any danger.”

“So you’re sure we’re still
safe here?”

“No. I think if that pirate
goes iceberg by iceberg looking for the warm one the odds are good he’ll still
be at it when the Navy gets here. Even if that takes a week.”

“All right.” John seemed a
bit abashed. “It’s my job to worry about her.”

“Fine. You worry about the
people. Let me worry about the ship. That’s my job.”

They turned back to the
window. It framed Billy in the center, filling a cooler with a scoop Guo had
welded up. He cut a few lengths of vacctape to seal it and hooked it back onto
his tether. Tsugawa started talking him to the next target. “Warmer-cooler” had
proved to work better than trying to agree on a common left and right in
micrograv.

The grad students pressed
against the window, debating which odd-colored chunk should be sampled next.
Mussa had drifted behind their gadget to stay out of the way. The teenagers
were unusually quiet as they watched the show.

Billy took full advantage of
his freedom to show off. Instead of carefully crawling over the ice to the next
target he kicked off it to the ship and bounced back. He picked grace over
precision. An extra couple of leaps was a chance to do more flips.
Schwartzenberger frowned at the wasted time. The professor kept a deliberately
cheerful tone as he persuaded Billy toward the next intriguing bit of ice.

Eventually all the coolers
were full. Billy placed them just inside the hold before unsuiting. Bing herded
the grad students as they took their samples to the freezer. The captain met
Billy at the suit locker. “Hydroponics maintenance.”

The deckhand’s face fell. “Isn’t
it Mitchie’s turn today?”

“She’s sleeping. We’re going
to let her sleep as long as we can. We need her rested.”

For once the captain didn’t
get any more argument. “Aye, aye, sir.”

***

Mitchie’s dreams were visited
by icebergs and cannon shells but none woke her. Eventually her bladder forced
her out of the pilot couch. The pull-out was private enough with no one else on
the bridge. She spared a paranoid look at the stars but nothing moved.

A brief chat with Bing
established that most aboard were asleep. Mitchie was too slept out to take her
suggestion to nap some more. She busied herself putting away the navigation
aids she’d strewn about while finding this hiding place. The emergency radio
channel was quiet. No Navy yet.