The Aftermath

Kirk shrugged. “How should we know? We found the vessel abandoned and adrift.” Turning to Nicco, “Right?”

“Right!”

“It’s not that simple,” Valker insisted. “It never is.”

Scratching intently at the scar along his cheek, Nicco said, “I don’t know what’s wrong with just taking their ship and the two women, bang! Like that.”

“We’re going to do it my way, share and share alike.”

“That’s what I’ve been saying,” Kirk argued, with a smirk.

“Just like in the army,” said Valker. “The officers and the enlisted men share everything fifty-fifty.”

“Only there’s a hundred enlisted men for every officer,” Nicco grumbled.

“That’s right. And there’s nine of you apes and only one of me. But we’ll share everything fifty-fifty.”

“Yeah?” Kirk asked, suspicious.

“Two women. The nine of you mugs in the crew get one and the captain gets one. Fair enough, eh?”

“The hell it is!”

“All right,” Valker said, laughing. “Suppose I appoint you two to be officers? My first and second mates.”

“Then the other seven—”

“They get one of the women and the three of us get the other one.”

“And the kid?”

“We push him out an airlock—after he rebuilds the ship’s antennas. I’m not towing a vessel into the Ceres sector that’s deaf, dumb and blind.”

Kirk looked at Nicco, who made an affirmative shrug.

“Fair enough?” Valker asked them.

“Fair enough,” said Kirk, grudgingly. Then he added, “Uh, which of the women do we get? Or do we take turns with the two of ’em?”

* * *

With Valker directing them, Kirk and Nicco set up a flexible access tube that connected Vogeltod’s main airlock with the zero-g hub of the wheel-shaped Syracuse. Now they didn’t need space suits to transfer from one ship to the other. Valker was the first to glide through the spongy tube and enter Syracuse, with his two crewmen close behind him.

Without much enthusiasm Theo greeted them as they floated through the inner hatch of Syracuse’s airlock. Speaking hardly a word he led them along the tube tunnel to the lockers that fronted the main airlock, where Pauline was waiting for them.

“Welcome aboard, gentlemen,” she said, forcing a minimal smile.

“Where’s your lovely daughter?” Valker asked, his teeth showing.

“She’s been taken ill,” said Pauline. “Some sort of a fever. I’ve confined her to her quarters.”

Valker’s grin didn’t diminish by a millimeter. “That’s too bad. Awful sudden, wasn’t it?”

Looking more serious than ever, Pauline said, “I don’t know what it could be. I’m hoping it’s not contagious. Once you get an antenna working I can query the medical people at Ceres about her.”

Valker nodded understandingly. Turning to his two crewmen, he ordered, “All right, you heard what the lady said. Let’s get the materials aboard and start building a new set of antennas.”

Neither man moved.

Then he said to Theo, “You’d better get into your suit, son. We have a lot of work ahead of us, outside.”

“Right,” said Theo. He turned to the row of lockers and began pulling out his own hard-shell space suit.

“Still using those?” Valker asked.

Pauline replied, “We’re not rich enough to afford the nanosuits, I’m afraid.”

“Too bad. If I had an extra one I’d loan it to the lad.”

Theo sat on the bench and began tugging on his leggings.

“Nicco, give the boy a hand. Kirk, you get back to our ship and start transferring the antenna materials.”

Kirk started to say something, but a glance at Valker made him shut up and head back to Vogeltod.

Theo obviously did not appreciate being called a “boy” or a “lad,” but he said nothing as he reached for his thick-soled boots.

“I useta work in a suit like this,” Nicco said, tapping his knuckles on the torso of Theo’s suit, still hanging in the locker. “The nanosuits are a lot better.”

“I suppose they are,” Theo said guardedly.

Valker said to Pauline, “I can get a diagnostic handset from our infirmary, maybe find out what’s ailing your daughter.”

“I think not,” said Pauline. “If she has something contagious I don’t want you and your crew coming down with it.”

“I understand,” Valker said, thinking, You don’t want me to see the girl in bed, eh?

Nicco held the space suit torso high enough for Theo, crouching, to get his head and arms into it.

“You take care of him,” Valker told his crewman, “then go back to Vogeltod and help Kirk bring up those supplies.”

With a sly grin, Nicco touched one finger to his brow and said crisply, “Aye, skipper.”

To Pauline, Valker said, “I’ll have to see your communications setup if we’re going to rebuild your antennas.”

“That’s up in the command pod,” she replied.

“You’d better lead me there.”

Pauline shot a glance at Theo, who was pulling his glassteel bubble helmet over his head.

“I’ll be all right, Mom,” Theo said.

“Nicco will take good care of him, don’t worry,” Valker assured Pauline.

Without another word, Pauline went through the hatch that led into the family’s living quarters and, beyond that, to the tube tunnel that connected with the command pod. Valker followed behind her, close enough for her to feel his breath on the back of her neck.

SMELTER SHIP HUNTER: GALLEY

Elverda held both her gaunt, bony hands around the mug of hot tea, feeling the warmth seep into her palms. She stared at her hands: all bones and tendons, like a bird’s claws, their skin mottled with age spots. Once, these hands carved monumental sculptures, she said to herself. Now they can barely lift a cup of tea.

Rejuvenation therapies have their limits, she thought. So do old women who’ve outlived their usefulness. Then she recalled the vision the artifact had revealed to her. One last sculpture, she told herself. A final tribute to him. Can I hang on long enough to do it? How much longer can I go on? And once I’m dead, what will happen to Dorn?

As if on cue, the cyborg stepped through the hatch and sat heavily in the chair at the head of the table. He stretched out his prosthetic leg and flexed it several times, slowly.

“Are you all right?” Elverda asked.

“The leg feels stiff. The bearings need lubrication.”

She started to get up from her chair. “I’ll find—”

“No need,” Dorn said, stopping her with one upraised hand. His hand of flesh. “I can handle it later.”