he admitted to himself the next day that Lady Jane’s attractions had more to do with it than his own intentions.
They had managed to get past their quarrel mainly by ignoring its cause. Kas no longer insisted that Jane keep his encounter with Admiral Lu-Jenks secret, and she no longer mentioned it. Of course, since everyone aboard already knew, she no longer had cause to mention it. That detail was also ignored.
But the party succeeded in relieving the tension and stress of the crew. Everyone was noticeably more relaxed, and the banter and jokes that had become progressively more strained were once again casual and relaxed.
The party had one other unforeseen result: Tera and Rom ended the night in the latter’s cabin, to their own and everyone else’s surprise. For the next day or so, they tiptoed around each other. Even their most innocent conversations were nervous and short. They didn’t have much time to explore their new relationship; the timer clicked down toward emergence.
Despite Kas’ concern the emergence went smoothly. By the time Rom got all their accelerations relative to their emergence point canceled, they were several hundred kilometers from it — perfect for placing their buoy.
“All motion canceled, sir,” Rom reported crisply.
Kas nodded. “Very well.” He thumbed his comm. “Toj, you and Lar are cleared to place the buoy. Be careful to make sure that it’s oriented correctly and stationary relative to the jump point.”
Toj’s “Aye, aye sir!” was crisp and the telltale on Kas’ station indicated that he’d triggered the lock’s outer door almost as soon as Kas had begun speaking. Since Edro was busy scanning for the Rekesh and Kas would not permit a crewmember to work outside alone, Lar Tennig had volunteered to accompany him. Lar had been making himself useful ever since they’d taken him and Lady Jane aboard. By now, everyone considered him almost a member of the crew.
It took only a few minutes to place the buoy. As soon as his station indicated that the lock was cycling for their return Kas told Rom to get them underway. He turned to Edro. “Any luck, Edro?”
The little man shook his head. “No, sir. Sensors aren’t detecting anything, and I’m not getting the plague beacon, either. ‘Course, we’re about a light-hour out. That’s a long way.” He shrugged. “We’ll just have to get closer in.” Surprisingly, his tone was nearly conversational. It seemed removing Edro’s line designator had given him a dose of self-confidence.
Kas sighed. “I hope that plague beacon hasn’t gone dead. A solar system is a big thing to search. Millions of cubic kilometers.”
Rom shrugged. “That trader found her, and he wasn’t even looking. I don’t think we’ll have any trouble finding her, sir.”
Kas frowned. “If she’s still here, and if she’s not crawling with a reactivation crew from the Glory or one of the independents,” he added. “All right, she’ll be in the liquid water belt and certainly in the plane of the ecliptic. We’ll find her.”
“But this system doesn’t have any planets in the liquid water belt,” Rom pointed out. “What makes you think we’ll find the Rekesh there?”
“Several reasons,” Kas replied, and began counting them off on his fingers. “First, there’s the very fact that there aren’t any planets there. The Rekesh ’s Captain knew that she might drift here for centuries. Putting her into an orbit well clear of planets would minimize the chances of collision.”
“Second, he was counting on the ship being salvaged some day, and he knew that ships exploring new systems tend to examine the area around a star where water can exist as a liquid first. So it increased the chances that the ship would be detected and salvaged.”
He sighed. “Finally, there’s just plain old human nature. It’s just habit for humans to concentrate on the liquid water zone along the plane of the ecliptic. He might not have even considered the first two reasons, but I’d bet that in the absence of any reason to the contrary he’d just naturally put her there.”
Whatever her long-dead captain’s reasoning, Vir Rekesh was finally detected some twenty hours later — in the liquid water belt, along the plane of the ecliptic.
PART II
Chapter 8
The rest of the crew cheered, but Kas was more reserved. He was pleased that the plague beacon was still running, but his tension mounted as they drew closer. It was only when Edro announced that there were no other vessels nearby that Kas relaxed with a huge sigh.
His eyes were glued to his sensor screens as they approached the derelict. With no planets nearby it was impossible to judge the scale of the ship until they began their final approach. It was then that the true size of the huge derelict became apparent. The hull, its antirad coating pitted by a century of micrometeorites, swelled until it filled the viewscreen then swelled some more, and kept swelling. The half-kilometer-diameter sphere dwarfed Starhopper. In fact, Starhopper could have simply been driven through her open cargo hatches and landed in her hangar bay, had it been empty.
Kas had no intention of docking Starhopper inside the derelict, however. The battle cruiser was a plague ship after all, and while the chance that the plague could get aboard in such circumstances was infinitesimal, Kas was unwilling to risk it. Besides, Rekeash 's hangar deck was crowdeded with nearly a hundred Strengl and Wasp fighters.
So they approached the battle cruiser’s main passenger lock gingerly. Kas canceled all relative motion, leaving only some ten meters between the ships. Then, just as carefully, he rotated Starhopper until her personnel lock faced Rekesh ’s.
After a few moments staring at his console telltales to make sure that they were absolutely motionless relative to the huge derelict, Kas breathed a huge sigh and rose.
“All right, people,” he began briskly, “Time to get to work. Gran, begin reviving the senior med tech. Toj and Edro; we have a complete portable bio lab in the cargo hold. You can begin setting that up. I expect that med tech to want it almost immediately.”
“But I want it set up with its own atmosphere supply and a full decontam airlock. Once it’s set up, we’ll decompress the hold, so no bugs can get loose aboard.” He turned to Lar. “Would you mind giving them a hand, Lar? I can’t order you, but…”
The tall man nodded. “No problem, Capt… uh… Commodore. I’d be glad to help.”
Kas nodded his thanks. “Good. Rom, you’re with me. Nobody goes outside alone, and I have a duty call to make.” He strode from the bridge, Rom following.
Standing in Starhopper ’s airlock the true scale of Vir Rekesh became obvious. Her bulk blotted out the stars. He had to twist his body to see the narrow band of starred space between the hulls. Ten meters in front of him the main passenger lock of the derelict gaped blackly. He was staring at the gaping maw when he saw the magnetic grapple shoot past him. He whirled to see Rom tug on the grapple’s cable to make sure it had solid contact then affix its end to a nearby eyebolt. He forced himself to relax. Rom was just following routine. But somehow it felt wrong — a violation of something sacred. He scowled and shook himself. Damn it, he was no superstitious barbarian from Cutler’s World!
He hooked his safety line to the grapple’s cable and pushed off toward the dead ship. With only ten meters to go, he didn’t even have to pull himself along the safety line. He simply jumped. The blackness of the airlock grew, and he reversed himself to hit feet first. The clang as his magnetic boots gripped the derelict’s hull was plain through his suit. He twisted to see Rom clipping his line onto the grapple cable.
“Rom, I’d appreciate it if you’d give me a few moments before you come over,” He said.
Rom’s bulky figure remained standing on Starhopper ’s hull. If he wondered what Kas was doing, it wasn’t
