“I don’t want him to see you,” Yuan had told her. “It might set him off again.”
She hadn’t argued the point. In fact, she looked relieved. The three other members of the crew were in the infirmary, two with broken noses, the third heavily sedated, his jaw shattered.
Now Yuan raised his free hand to bring his little team to a halt. The hatch that opened onto the generator bay stood before them. It was shut. Holstering his pistol, Yuan pulled out his palmcomp. Its tiny screen showed the surveillance camera’s view of the bay from up in the overhead. He could see Harbin crouched behind the generator, his back to the hatch that was no more then five meters from Yuan and his squad. He was pulling a cover plate off the generator, using one finger of his prosthetic hand as a screwdriver.
Thumbing the palmcomp’s keyboard, Yuan called in a low voice, “Koop?”
A moment’s delay, then the first mate’s face filled the screen. “Sir?”
“We’re in position, ready to go in.”
“He says he’s willing to come out, captain.”
“He’ll surrender?”
“He wants us to guarantee we won’t hurt Ms. Apacheta.”
Yuan grunted like a man who’s just received news that could be both good and bad.
“I’ll have to talk to him,” he said.
Dorik Harbin—Dorn—realized that there must be surveillance cameras throughout the ship. Peering up into the shadows of the overhead support beams, he spotted the unwinking red eye of a camera. They can see me, he said to himself.
He got slowly to his feet and raised his hands above his head.
“I’ll come out,” he said to the open hatch in front of him. He could see Elverda standing there in her threadbare robe, and several members of the crew, all of them armed with pistols.
“I’ll come out,” he repeated, “under one condition. You must promise that you won’t hurt my companion.”
The big, burly Hawaiian stepped in front of Elverda. “That’s a decision that only the captain can make,” he said.
“Then I’ll stay here until the captain decides.”
It took several minutes and a flurry of chatter into handheld communicators. At last Koop told him, “The captain’s in the passageway behind you. He’s going to open the hatch so he can talk to you.”
“I understand,” said Dorn.
“Nobody’s going to come any closer than these hatches,” Koop assured him.
“I understand,” Dorn repeated, knowing that with laser pistols they could shoot him quite easily from the open hatches. The laser beams weren’t powerful enough to do more than singe his metal skin, but they would of course aim for his flesh.
The hatch behind him started to creak open, slowly. Dorn turned to face it.
“I’m willing to surrender to you, captain, if you’ll guarantee that no harm will come to Ms. Apacheta.”
Yuan frowned at Harbin. “You’re in no position to make demands.”
“True enough, but that’s what I want. Otherwise you’ll have to come in here and get me.”
“We’re prepared to do that,” Yuan said.
Harbin lifted the plate he had removed from the generator and held it before him like a shield. “Are you prepared for the casualties you’ll take?”
“Dorn!” Elverda shouted. “Stop this nonsense! Now!”
He turned and looked at her with the human side of his face. She pulled loose from Koop’s restraining hand and stepped through the hatch, toward him.
Harbin dropped his shield. It clattered to the deck.
“No more fighting,” Elverda said, her tone softer.
“No more fighting,” he agreed.
They marched the two of them to the galley, where Yuan offered them a meal. Elverda made herself a cup of tea. Harbin sat in brooding silence at the end of the table that ran the length of the narrow compartment.
“You know I’m under orders to execute you both,” Yuan said, almost casually, as he poured a mug of tea for himself.
“I understand,” said Harbin, “that Humphries wants us dead.”
“I don’t have any choice in the matter.” Yuan sat himself at the head of the table.
“None of us really do,” Harbin said.
Elverda clutched her mug in both hands, soaking up its warmth. “Could you at least wait until our mission is finished?” she asked.
Yuan turned toward her. “You mean picking up dead bodies? That could take years.”
‘Yes, but—”
Tamara Vishinsky stepped into the galley. Harbin tensed at the sight of her and she froze where she stood.
“There won’t be any more interrogations,” Yuan said hastily. “You can relax, both of you.”
Tamara went to the urn and took a mug. “For what it’s worth,” she said without looking at Harbin, “I’m sorry I pumped you. I didn’t know what your reaction would be.”
“I’m sorry also,” Harbin said. “The man with the fractured jaw…?
“Koop injected him with stem cells. The medical computer predicts he’ll be recovered in six days.”
“I regret injuring him.”
Yuan said, “The two of you are under a sentence of death. I don’t like it, but those are my orders.”
“And if you don’t carry them out, Humphries will send assassins after you,” Elverda said.
Nodding, the captain said, “He sure as hell will.”
A gloomy silence filled the galley. Yuan looked from Harbin to Apacheta to Tamara. He felt uneasy, almost sick to his stomach. It’s one thing to ping a ship, he thought. Like a computer game. Bang, he’s dead. But these are real, living people. Even Harbin : he’s half machine, but he’s a human being nonetheless. What am I supposed to do with them? Shoot them between the eyes? Give them lethal injections? Pop them out an airlock without suits?
Tamara broke the silence. “Tell me more about this alien artifact, Harbin.”
“His name is Dorn,” Elverda said.
“I want to know more about the artifact.”
“Artifact?” Yuan asked.
Dorn fixed Tamara with a gaze. “Humphries wants us killed because we saw the effect the artifact had on him.”
“You mean it’s real?” Yuan asked. “I’ve heard rumors, everybody has. Tales… but I thought—”
“It’s real,” said Elverda.
“It made Humphries crazy?” Tamara’s voice was brimming with anticipation.
“Temporarily,” Elverda said, placing a hand on Dorn’s human arm to keep him silent.
But Dorn added, “The artifact merely brought his underlying insanity into the open.”
“And you saw him crumble?”
“He won’t like finding out that you know what happened to him,” Elverda warned.
Undeterred, Tamara asked, “You both saw the artifact, too, didn’t you? And it affected you, too, didn’t it?”
“It did,” said Dorn.
“It changed your lives,” Tamara said, her eyes glittering.
“Yes,” Elverda admitted.
Leaning across the table toward Dorn, Tamara asked, “Where is this artifact?”
“It’s buried inside an asteroid.”
