The Aftermath

BOOK IV ATONEMENT AND REDEMPTION

For this alone on Death I wreak
The wrath that garners in my heart;
He put our lives so far apart
We cannot hear each other speak.

In Memoriam A.H.H.,

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

SMELTER SHIP HUNTER: BRIDGE

“There’s something strange here,” Elverda called as she sat in Hunters command chair, eyes riveted on the main screen.

Dorn replied over the intercom, “Strange? In what way?”

“I’m getting a radar image of Syracuse” she replied. “It’s rather fuzzy at this range, but it doesn’t look right.”

“I’ll come to the bridge.”

He was in the workshop again, she knew. Elverda worried about him; his mechanical systems needed maintenance, a thorough overhaul, much more detailed than the two of them could provide aboard the ship.

Dorn stepped through the hatch and stood behind her.

“It looks like a double image,” Elverda said. “Could there be something wrong with the radar’s resolution?”

He glanced at the console settings, then said, “Perhaps there’s another ship mated to Syracuse.”

“Another ship? But they didn’t say—”

The radio speaker came to life. “This is Syracuse, testing its communications system. Testing, testing, one, two, three.”

“Nothing about another ship,” Elverda said.

“Why would they be testing their comm system?” Dorn mused. Pointing to the radar image on the screen, “Look. They’re emitting a tracking beacon and telemetry now.”

“Maybe their comm system was down?”

“That is a second ship mated to them, but it’s not emitting any signals.”

“Curious.”

Dorn turned Elverda’s chair so he could see her face. “It might be dangerous,” he said.

“Dangerous? How?”

“Remember that scavenger ship, Vogeltod, and its captain?”

“Valker,” Elverda murmured.

“Suppose someone like them is using Syracuse as bait for a trap, to lure us to them. Then they could seize this ship and…”

“And kill us,” Elverda finished for him.

Dorn nodded solemnly, but then his eye caught a small blip on the radar screen hurtling away from the image of the doubled ship.

“That’s a body!” Dorn said, with absolute certainty.

* * *

Valker was at Syracuse’s backup command pod, frowning unhappily as he talked to Pauline through the locked hatch.

“It wasn’t my doing,” he said earnestly. “They did it on their own.”

“You murdered my son,” Pauline said. Her voice was muffled by the hatch, but he could hear the anger and hatred in her voice.

“They murdered your son. Not me.”

“They’re part of your crew.”

Valker bit back a nasty reply, took a deep breath. “All right,” he said. “All right. They boy’s gone and there’s nothing that either one of us can do about that.”

“Go away. Leave us alone.”

“I can’t do that, Pauline. And you’ve got your daughter to think about now.”

No response from beyond the blank hatch.

“They know she’s aboard the ship. They’ll turn your ship upside down searching for her. And when they find her…” He let the thought dangle.

After a few heartbeats, Pauline said, “You can’t let them hurt her.”

“I might not be able to stop them,” Volker said.

“We’ve got to protect Angela.”

“I can try,” he said, “if you’ll cooperate with me.”

“Cooperate.” Pauline pronounced the word as if it were a death sentence.

A smile easing across his attractive features, Volker coaxed, “Look, my crew of lowlifes are all back in Vogeltod, getting ready for Hunter’s arrival. You and me and Angela are the only ones here aboard Syracuse. If we’re quick enough we can get Angela out of wherever she’s hiding and bring her to you, here at the command pod.”

“Then what?” Pauline asked.

“Then while my crew’s taking over Hunter, you can disengage from my ship and take off for Ceres. You and Angela. You’ll be safe there.”

Another silence, longer. Valker counted off the seconds. She’s no fool, he told himself, but she might be desperate enough to go for it. After all, what other choice does she have?

“You’ll let us go to Ceres?”

“Sure! It’s not that far, you’ll be able to make it there in a few weeks. My guys’ll be busy taking over Hunter. It’s a fine ship, intact. It’ll bring a good price when we take her in to Ceres. They’ll forget about you and your daughter. Once we get to Ceres with Hunter to auction off, they’ll have their pick of the women there.”

Valker nodded, pleased with his logic. It almost made sense to him. As long as she doesn’t remember that she’s got no propulsion fuel.

“But we don’t have any time to waste,” he added sternly. “We’ve got to get your daughter out of hiding and set up your command console so you’ll be able to disengage from my ship at the touch of a keypad.”

* * *

Pauline was shaking like a palsied woman as she sat in the command chair, listening to Valker’s honeyed words, frantically trying to decide what she should do. She heard Valker’s voice, muffled by the locked hatch, heard