The Aftermath

Elverda’s voice on the intercom interrupted him. “The navigation program estimates rendezvous with Syracuse within one hour. I can see another ship mated with her.”

“That’s the scavengers,” Theo said.

“They’ll want this ship,” said Dorn.

“They’ll want to kill us all, including my mother and sister.”

Dorn gestured with his human arm. “We’d better get me back together, then, and hope the arm doesn’t freeze up again.”

Lifting the arm in both hands and working its end into Dorn’s prosthetic shoulder, Theo said, “Maybe we can use a quick and dirty fix.”

“Quick and dirty?”

“Yeah.” The arm clicked into the shoulder socket. As Theo reached for the air hose attached to the workbench’s side, he explained, “We replenish the air in the bearings, get it up to the right pressure, then we spray a plastic sealant around the joint, so the plastic covers whatever pinhole might be in there.”

Dorn thought a moment. “Like spraying sealant on a leaking tire.”

“Right. It ought to hold, at least for a while.”

Dorn nodded. “It’s better than nothing.”

* * *

Valker disabled the circuit that fired the explosive bolts that would separate the backup command pod from the main body of Syracuse, talking to Pauline and Angela nonstop as he bent over the console.

“My crew’s drooling with anticipation over you two,” he said, his usual smile replaced by a tight-lipped, unhappy frown. “It’s not going to be easy to keep you out of their hands.”

“Then let us get away from here,” Pauline urged.

Valker shook his head. “No. That won’t work. They’ll go chasing after you. And when they catch up with you, nothing will stop them. Not even me.”

“Then what are you going to do?” Angela asked, her voice trembling.

“They’ll be busy taking Hunter once it gets here. But after they’ve got her, they’ll want to celebrate.”

“Leave my daughter alone,” Pauline said. “Give me to them.”

“Mother!”

“That might work,” Valker said, “for a while. But only for a while.”

Pauline swept the cramped pod with her eyes, looking for a tool, a weapon, something, anything.

Valker straightened up, the disconnected firing keys to the separation bolts in his hands. “Ladies, I’m afraid you’re in for a rough time.”

CARGO SHIP PLEIADES: BRIDGE

Victor called up the nav program for the eighth time in the past half-hour. “Estimate rendezvous with Syracuse in ninety-three minutes,” he read aloud from the screen. “Ninety-three minutes. I’ll see Pauline and the kids again in a little more than an hour and a half.”

Punching up the radar image, he saw the wheel shape of Syracuse clearly enough, although there seemed to be a strange sort of bulge on one side of the vessel’s hub. And there was the blip of Hunter, also heading toward Pauline. His fingers worked the keyboard and the screen showed that Hunter would arrive at Syracuse’s position in less than an hour.

They’re thirty-some minutes ahead of me, Victor thought. I’ll get there half an hour after they do.

He checked the comm program. No messages from Syracuse since Pauline’s call. Why not? Victor asked himself. You’d think they’d be beaming out a steady call for help. Why aren’t they?

He sagged back in the command chair, unwilling to believe what logic was telling him. That one message was their last gasp. They’re dead now. All of them. Pauline. Theo. My little Angel.

He pounded both his fists on the chair’s armrests. To come this close! And still be too late. Victor bowed his head. He wanted to weep.

But instead he raised his chin and glared at the radar image on the main screen. No. I won’t give up. Not until there’s not a shred of a chance that they’re still living. Not until I see their dead bodies with my own eyes. Not until then. Not until then.

* * *

Valker’s communicator buzzed in his tunic pocket. His eyes still on Pauline and Angela, he fished it out of his pocket and held it up to his ear.

“What?”

Nicco’s voice answered, “Radar shows another ship heading this way. Running silent.”

Valker’s brows knit. “Running silent?”

“And heading this way like a bullet, about half an hour behind Hunter.”

Breaking into a broad grin, Valker said into his comm unit, “What did I tell you, boys? This Syracuse is our good luck charm. She’s like a magnet, drawing ships to us. Now we’ve got two vessels we can salvage.”

“I don’t like it,” said Nicco. “Why’s she running silent? Who is she?”

“Maybe another band of salvage operators, just like us,” Valker mused.

“That could be trouble.”

“Not if we’re ready for ’em and they’re not ready for us.”

Nicco said nothing.

“I’m coming over to Vogeltod,” Valker said. “We’ve got to take Hunter fast and be ready for this other ship when it gets here.”

“An old woman and a priest,” Nicco replied. “Shouldn’t be much trouble.”

“Right. Let’s nail them quick and clean.” He clicked the communicator shut and said to Pauline, “I’ve got to attend to business back on my ship. Don’t do anything foolish while I’m gone.”

Pauline glared at him.

As Valker started up the tube ladder toward the ship’s hub, Angela asked her mother, “What can we do?”

“Wait,” Pauline said, in a hushed voice.

“Wait for them to come and get us?”

“Wait until that smiling ape gets back aboard his own ship. Then we go over to the main airlock as fast as we can and get into our suits.”

“The space suits? Why?”

“We’re getting off this ship.”

“But you heard him,” Angela objected. “They’re going to take the ship that’s approaching us. It wouldn’t do us any good to—”

“We’re not staying on this ship with that gang of rapists waiting to get their hands on us,” Pauline said. “I don’t care if we die of asphyxiation in the suits, we’re getting away from here!”

* * *

On Hunter’s bridge, Theo slid into the communications chair. “We’re close enough