“What did you
“Killed him.”
Molly shook her head, her eyes never leaving Byrne’s. “He’s not dead. I don’t think he’s human.” She turned to her two friends. “How are we gonna get to
Cole pointed at the cockpit. “Can we fly?”
“I know where sshe iss parked,” said Walter.
Molly nodded. “Cole, round up some space suits, we’ll still be in a vacuum when we get there. Walter, come navigate.”
Cole headed off to the rear of the ship while a giddy Walter followed her to the cockpit. The two of them settled into the flight seats. Byrne had a 500-series, Molly noticed. The seats were closer together in a narrower cockpit, and duplicate flight controls sat in front of each crew member.
“Don’t touch anything,” she commanded.
Walter nodded and pulled the harness over his shoulders, working it tight. Molly started the warm-up for the thrusters. She wasn’t worried about Mr. Byrne getting inside—overriding the atmosphere sensors could only be done from within the airlock—but she did feel a sense of panic rubbing off from Walter and Cole. Yet again, they needed to get away in a hurry.
And the fancy thrusters were taking forever to check themselves out—too many mechanical systems in this model had given way to solid-state electronics.
“What’s the danger, here, Walter? Who’s after us?”
“That guy outsside. And Sstanley.”
“
Walter paused. “
Molly cursed under her breath. The thrusters finally went green, and she saw through the carboglass above that the hangar doors were open. The ceiling of the parking chamber, which held up the underside of the moon’s crust, loomed beyond.
“Going up!” she yelled over her shoulder. She directed the rear thrusters down and routed some of their energy through maneuvering channels to the nose jets. The ship lifted slowly and evenly off the ground.
Walter pressed his head to the glass on his side. “That skinny guy issn’t sso happy,” he said, laughing.
“I bet not.”
Cole ran up into the cockpit. “Bad news. Only one suit on the ship. I checked the staterooms
“Is it an extra-tall?”
“You got it.”
“Okay,” Molly said. “You’ll have to go over to
The cockpit of the GU-500 rose up into the parking cavern where a sea of gleaming hulls spread out in all directions. In the distance, a crane could be seen moving one of the ships further away from them, a new arrival. Several other parking cranes stood idle, but one approached them with a ship in its clutches.
“I don’t think we’re gonna have time for that,” Cole said, pointing toward the crane. It clutched a military hull, the words “LIFE SECURITY” emblazoned across the side. Missile pods could be seen under the wing as the crane lowered the ship into the hangar next to theirs.
Molly heard Cole swallow.
“I think that’s meant for us,” he said.
The roof of the parking bay had several square openings in it from the lowered landing pads above. Molly spotted stars and the promise of open space through them—they should have more than enough time to fly out and make it to a safe jump point before the security ship warmed up. The Stanleys would have to pressurize the hangar in order to board. Just because they were androids, that didn’t mean they could vacuum the entire hallway beyond. Without airlocks, their clients would be killed.
She considered the easy and quick escape, but only for a moment. Whatever was inside her father’s old ship, it felt more like a mother than the one she’d just spent time with. And the ship itself was the only place that felt like home, where the nightmares of being left behind never tormented her sleep. Then there was the Wadi to consider, some sort of national treasure that had become another companion, another part of her family. She gave the stars another wistful glance, then turned to follow Walter’s directions, who was pointing in the direction of
Cole gripped the arm of her flight seat and turned as the ship did, watching the menacing security ship dip into the hangar bay.
“What’s the plan?” he asked.
Molly estimated how long it would take to land near
“How strong are airlock collars?” she asked Cole.
“I dunno. Why? What’re you thinking?”
“You probably don’t want to know.” Regardless, Molly thought she knew the answer: most ships were designed to airlock with the old-fashioned stations that spun up for gravity, rather than manufacture it with expensive grav plates. If ships could hang from their own weight at the outermost ring of those spinning stations, it meant her idea just might work.
“How far to our ship?” she asked Walter.
He checked his computer. “Half a mile.”
“I’m not good with Imperial—”
“Less than a klick,” Cole said.
“Alright. Cole, get in that suit. You might not need it, but just in case.”
He plopped down in the cockpit hallway and started worming into the oversized suit. “What exactly am I gonna be doing?”
“Warming up
Molly slid the accelerator forward, moving off in the direction Walter indicated.
Below them, the hangar doors snapped shut on a furious Mr. Byrne.
Cole stationed himself in the airlock as Molly began her crazy maneuver. He couldn’t believe what she was trying. Through the small porthole, he watched the world slowly turn on its side as Molly rolled the ship over, the gravity panels keeping his boots firmly planted on the deck. Below, he could see
“Ten meters,” he said into his mic.
“Copy.”
They were nearly inverted now. The airlocks on both ships were arranged three quarters of the way up their hulls, out of the way of the wings. Molly was attempting to do something in the gravity of a large moon that most pilots have a hard time learning to do in zero Gs.
“Three meters,” he said, calling out numbers like this was an ordinary docking maneuver.
“Copy,” she said.
“Go one meter aft.” In the reflection of
“Copy.”
Damn. Her voice sounded so calm. As if she’d done this a million times. Cole had seen her work plenty of miracles in the simulators, but watching them in real life, like the rescue from the Palan canyons, it filled him with awe. And made him love her even more.
“You need to rotate a few degrees flatter, honey, and a few more centimeters aft. One meter.” He already
