The airlock seemed to take forever to cycle. I shifted from one foot to the other, my eyes flicking from the one progress monitor to the next, my head bouncing into and through the programs running the doors to making sure they were running smoothly, and then back out again. I stopped just short of running around in circles, but it wasn’t by much. When the doors finally slid open, I was the first through them.
And Delight was right there with me—which was a good thing, because I went through way too fast and lost my grip on the first rung outside. She grabbed my boot before I went too far, and pulled me back to the hull.
“That way,” she said, pointing at something on the other side of the station. “We need to get to it before it can drop a shuttle. The ship’s locked into the station.”
Man, that was going to be a hard call.
“Is he on board, yet?”
I was already moving, but Delight’s reply reached me loud and clear through the suit’s comms.
“Not yet. We reckon you have five minutes before the Wanderer registers on the orbital’s scans, ten until Costoganzi makes it to his yacht. Maybe another ten before he tries to launch the shuttle and skip down to the surface. Reckon you can make it?”
I didn’t stop. It’s possible to run on an EVA but not wise. I was gonna to have to do something creative to beat Costoganzi on board. As soon as I thought it, I heard Pritchard groan, and Delight swear.
“Shit.”
That was kinda funny, but I was already hacking the orbital’s schematics and this time I didn’t lose my view of the world around me. Whatever Delight had put into that auto-injector, it was GOOOD. I found the nearest maintenance bay, and liberated myself a small EVA Vehicle. Using the implant to pilot the damn thing down underneath me, I pushed off the hull of the station, used the suit’s small jets to stabilize my drift, and snagged the vehicle as I drove it past where I was floating.
Two startled voices said some pretty uncomplimentary things regarding my genealogy, but I just opened the throttle and laughed as I pushed the tiny vehicle to its limits and made for the bay where Costoganzi had docked his yacht. Other voices came through the comms unit—angry and official, ordering me to return the vehicle to the maintenance team, and turn myself in.
Like that was gonna happen!
I ignored them, and they attempted to use the emergency override switch to cut the power and take over. Well, I could more than handle that.
“Uh, Cutter… We’ll meet you there. Just keep the shuttle in the dock, and don’t kill anyone, okay?”
What?
“You kill him, we’ll never find out what’s happening with Mack.”
I guessed what she should have said was that if I killed Costoganzi then Odyssey would lose its lead into what the arach were doing in this part of the universe, because that’s what I was reading in her head. She was just lucky I was feeling charitable—that, and I wanted the arach gone just as bad as they did. Maybe even worse.
I turned off the comms, hacked the orbital’s docking allocations and then used the maps Delight had sent my implant to locate Costoganzi’s yacht. Looked like her Hack Team were already in the station’s systems, because that yacht was locked down tight. Short of the pilot busting it loose and taking the station couplings with it, there was no way they were moving that thing out of there, anytime soon.
I took a moment to peek through the traffic control system and make sure there weren’t any big boats coming in, or leaving, but it looked like Odyssey had taken care of that, too. The only thing coming in was the Wanderer.
Cool beans!
I backed off the power on the EVAV, and then worked out I hadn’t given myself enough space to cut the momentum. I hacked in the reverse thrusters, and then flipped the little vehicle up and away. Away from me and the station, and into the path of the incoming ship. Damn! That was going to leave a mark!
“Cutter!”
“When you get back, young lady, you are so grounded!”
Pritchard’s response made me laugh. Yeah? Him and whose army?
“You’d be surprised….”
He’d be lucky if I didn’t finish what I had to do here, and then go and kick his ass.
“Stuff should have worn off by then, right?” he asked, but, from the quiet tone of his voice, I don’t think I’d been meant to hear him.
What stuff?
I shoved the question aside as the consequences for kicking away from the EVAV took effect.
At least I didn’t break the yacht when I slammed into its hull, but, man! Talk about leaving a dent. That was never buffing out. At least my little flip maneuver had bled off enough speed for me not to break myself hitting the damn ship.
“You’d better hope you didn’t puncture the suit,” Delight remarked. “It’s not built for that kind of shit.”
Girl had a point.
I caught my breath, and decided using the yacht’s hull as a stopping point had been a bit more stupid than I’d thought. At least I’d stopped. I peeled myself off the shuttle bay doors, and began the long slow crawl over to the emergency hatch. I had to admit, I was actually starting to feel a bit tired.
“How long before this stuff wears off?” I asked, but neither Delight, nor Pritchard gave me a response.
Figuring they were busy and I was on my own, I contented myself with reaching the hatch, and then trying to work out a way to get inside. Took a bit. I hooked my arm through an emergency hold point, and tried to find a way into the yacht’s security system, but the bitch was locked down tight.
Fine.
I looked for a point I could jack straight into the system with, and discovered it was locked down tight, too. Hell’s Bells, man. What
