Falling Free

“I’ve modified more solderers, Leo,” Pramod began unnecessarily—three of his four hands clutched the improvised arsenal to his torso. “One each for five people.”

Claire, hovering at his shoulder, eyed the weapons with dread fascination.

“Good. Give them to Silver, she’ll have charge of them until the pusher gets to the wormhole,” said Leo.

They made their way down the hand grips to the next hatch. Zara swung within to begin her pre-flight checks.

Ti craned his neck after her nervously. “Are we leaving right now?”

“Time is critical,” said Leo. “We don’t have more than four hours till you’re missed at the Transfer Station.”

“Shouldn’t there be a—a briefing, or something?” Ti too, Leo appreciated, was having trouble committing himself to falling free. Well, jumped or was pushed, after the initial impulse it would make no practical difference.

“You’ll have almost twenty-four hours, boosting at one gee to midpoint and then flipping and braking the rest of the way, to work out your plan of attack. Silver will be depending on your knowledge of the Superjumpers. We’ve already discussed various methods of achieving surprise. She’ll fill you in.” “Oh, is Silver going?”

“Silver,” Leo enlightened him gently, “is in command.”

Ti’s face flickered through an array of expressions, settled on dismay. “Screw this. There’s still time for me to go back and catch my ship—”

“And that,” Leo overrode him, “is precisely why Silver is in charge. Your capture of a cargo Jumper is the signal for a quaddie uprising here on the Habitat. And that uprising is their death warrant. When GalacTech discovers it cannot control the quaddies, it will almost certainly be frightened into an attempt to violently exterminate them. Escape must be assured before we tip our hand. The ship you must catch is out that way.” Leo pointed. “I can depend on Silver to remember that. You,” Leo smiled thinly, “are no worse than anyone else.” Ti subsided at that, although not happily. Silver, Zara, Siggy, a particularly husky quaddie from the pusher crews named Jon, and Ti. Five, crammed into a ship meant for a crew of two and not designed for overnight use in any case. Leo sighed. The Superjumpers carried a pilot and an engineer. Five-to-two wasn’t altogether bad odds, but Leo wished he could have loaded them even more overwhelmingly in the quaddies’ favor.

They filed through the flex tube into the pusher. Silver, at the end, paused to embrace Pramod and Claire, who had lingered to see them off.

“We’re going to get Andy back,” Silver murmured to Claire. “You’ll see.”

Claire nodded, and hugged her hard.

Silver turned last to Leo, who was gazing doubtfully at the flex tube through which the crew he’d drafted had gone.

“I thought the quaddies were going to be the weak link in this hijacking operation,” jittered Leo, “now I’m not so sure. Don’t let Ti cave on you, eh, Silver? Don’t let him bring you down. You have to succeed.”

“I know. I’ll try. Leo… why did you think Ti was in love with me?”

“I don’t know… You were intimate—the power of suggestion, maybe. All those romances.”

“Ti doesn’t read romances, he reads Ninja of the Twin Stars.”

“Weren’t you in love with him? At first, anyway?”

She frowned. “It was exciting, to be beating the rules with him. But Ti is… well, is Ti. Love like in the books—I always knew it wasn’t really real. When I got to looking around, at our own downsiders, nobody was like that. I guess I was stupid, to like those stories so much.”

“I suppose they’re not realistic—I haven’t read them either, to tell you the truth. But it’s not stupid to want something more, Silver.”

“More than what?”

More than to be worked over by a lot of self-centered legged louts, that’s what. We’re not all like that… are we? Why, after all, was he being moved now to lay a load of his own on her, when she needed all her concentration for the task ahead? Leo shook his head. “Anyway, don’t let Ti get confused between his Ninja-whatsit and what you’re trying to do, either.”

“I don’t think even Ti could mistake a company Jumpship crew for the Black League of Eridani,” said Silver.

Leo could have wished for more certainty in her tone. “Well…”he cleared his throat, inexplicably blocked, “take care. Don’t get hurt.”

“You be careful too.” She did not hug him, as she had Pramod and Claire.

“Right.”

And don’t ever believe, his mind cried after her as she vanished into the flex tube, that nobody could love you, Silver… But it was too late to call the words aloud. The airseal doors shut with a sigh like regret.

Chapter 10

The freight shuttle docking bay was chilly, and Claire rubbed all her hands together to warm them. Only her hands seemed cold, her heart beat hot with anticipation and dread. She looked sideways at Leo, floating as seeming-stolid as ever by the airseal doors with her.

“Thanks, for pulling me off my work shift for this,” Claire said. “Are you sure you won’t get into trouble, when Mr. Van Atta finds out?”

“Who’s to tell him?” said Leo. “Besides, I think Bruce is losing interest in tormenting you. Everything’s so obviously futile. All the better for us. Anyway, I want to talk to Tony too, and I figure I’ll have a better chance of getting his undivided attention after you’ve got the reunion-bit over with.” He smiled reassuringly.

“I wonder what condition he’ll be in?”

“You may be sure he’s much better, or Dr. Minchenko wouldn’t be subjecting him to the stresses of travel, even to keep him close under his eye.”

A thump, and the whir and grind of machinery, told Claire that the shuttle had arrived in its clamps. Her hands reached out, drew in self-consciously. The quaddie manning the control booth waved to two others in the bay, and they locked the flex tubes into position and sealed them. The personnel tube opened first, and the shuttle’s engineer stuck his head through to double check everything, then whipped back out of sight. Claire’s heart lurched in her chest, and her throat constricted dryly.

Dr. Minchenko emerged at last and hovered a moment, one hand anchored to a grip by the hatch. A leathery-faced, vigorous man, his hair was as white as the GalacTech medical service coveralls he wore. He had been a big man, now shrunken to his frame like a withered apricot, but, like a withered apricot, still sound. Claire had the impression he only needed to be re-hydrated and he’d pop back to like-new condition.

Dr. Minchenko shoved off from the hatchway and crossed the bay toward them, landing accurately by the grips around the airseal doors. “Why, hullo, Claire,” he said in a surprised voice. “And, ah—Graf,” he added less cordially. “You’re the one. Let me tell you, I don’t appreciate being leaned on to authorize violation of sound medical protocol. You are to spend double time in the gym for the duration of your extension, you hear?”

“Yes, Dr. Minchenko, thank you,” said Leo promptly, who was not, as far as Claire knew, spending any time in the gym at all these days. “Where’s Tony? Can we help you get him to the infirmary?”

“Ah,” he looked more closely at Claire. “I see. Tony’s not with me, dear, he’s still in hospital downside.”

Claire stifled a gasp. “Oh, no—is he worse?”

“Not at all. I had fully intended to bring him with me. In my opinion, he needs free fall to complete his recovery. The problem is, um, administrative, not medical. And I’m on my way right now to resolve it.”

“Did Brace order him kept downside?” asked Leo.

“That’s right.” He frowned at Leo. “And I’m not pleased to have my medical responsibilities interfered with, either. He’d better have a mighty convincing explanation. Daryl Cay wouldn’t have permitted a screw-up like