evacuations

 

The Belle Starr looked a lot better in the golden glow of gaslight inside the dusty hangar than she did in the harsh light of day. The pale yellow light transformed the rusty patina of her oft-repaired surface into a pattern of bronze and copper colored swatches that seemed almost intentional. A romantic soul might say she looked like an abstract sculpture of a lobster.

Of course, a person depending on her to fly safely through a wormhole might see her through a less romantic lens as a somewhat lobster-shaped deathtrap.

Since this was the moon world of Mebarik, she'd only see the full light of day briefly. Mebarik's orbital path traveled through an asteroid belt created by another moon, destroyed eons earlier. Once a month, and occasionally in-between, the surface was pelted with a heavy rain of meteors. All settlements and permanent structures were in gas lit caverns below the surface.

Shaen and the Belle Starr spent a good bit of time on Mebarik. The monthly meteor cycle had resulted in an interesting path of ecological development. Local plant life had a 21 day growing cycle. When the UHC determined some of the plants had viable food and commercial uses, the moon became a key staging area for galactic settlement. The surviving animal species on Mebarik were strange, chitinous creatures. Hard to kill -- and they tasted awful -- but their armor was processed and used to reinforce spacecraft hulls.

Lots of ships, materials and people passed through Mebarik, some of them looking to disappear. That made it an ideal place for a coyote pilot to pick up cargo and fares.

Shaen pulled her goggles down and tapped open an audio link to the Belle Starr. She could hardly afford an AIN, but the ship's computer systems came with a Simulated Holographic Interface and Voice Activation, or SHIVA, for ship-to-crew communication.

"How we doing, Belle?" she chirped.

"All scheduled cargo for this jump has been loaded and secured," a smoky feminine voice replied. The speakers in her beat-up goggles made it sound a bit muffled, with pops and static like an ancient vinyl recording from the days of Old Terra.

"We still have our jump window?"

"As expected, an exit aperture is scheduled at 0600 hours for an official transport convoy. Six carrack-class cruisers full of settlers accompanied by a galleon-class military vessel, the UHCV Benedict. There should be plenty of room for us to ride along."

"Any idea where we're coming out?"

"This convoy is headed to the N'Bari system, as your android passenger indicated. From there, we'll have a two day layover till we can catch the next scheduled jump to the Geben system, where our contact is waiting for the main cargo."

"What about our passengers? Any sign of them yet?"

"The android is entering the security clearance code to access this hangar as we speak."

Sure enough, in less than a minute the android came rolling into view around a stack of crates. It hummed up to Shaen, raising a waxy celluloid hand in greeting.

"Good morning, Captain Morris."

"Morning, Mr. Bot! Are you all there?" She was still a little suspicious of making incriminating statements in the open if this deal went sour.

The android tilted its head as if puzzled, then flashed its optics in a sign of understanding. "Ah, yes. All here. Have you received and loaded the other cargo I sent?"

"I have, as well as your payment. Haven't transported a goat in a while. She's already sedated in the hold." Shaen smiled broadly, clapped her hands together and rubbed them for warmth. "Lets get aboard, then. You know what they say. 'Time, tide and government-controlled wormholes wait for no android.'"

~*~

Shaen was beginning to wish she'd left the android and its baby on Mebarik.

The child wasn't the problem. He was quietly sedated in a stasis pod in the cargo bay, still wrapped in the ratty utility blanket from the previous day. However, when she'd instructed the android to power down for the flight, it had refused.

"I can better protect my ward if I remain active during the flight," the android had calmly insisted.

"Ward is a weird name for a kid, but he's in no danger. I've flown this route a hundred times."

"The word 'ward' means a child in one's custody. Although, I suppose it will need a name at some point, and that might work as well as anything. I appreciate your confidence, Captain, but we both know each flight you take increases the risk that you'll have a disabling psychotic break. I must remain active to subdue you and pilot the ship in case that happens."

"First of all, you can't subdue me. Trust me. Better bots than you have tried. If you're really worried, you can set up an alarm with the ship's SHIVA to activate you if that happens." She'd turned towards the console, considering the matter closed, but the bot piped up, still determined to remain active.

"A SHIVA is not an AIN. It can't determine your mental state. You could disable it before it became aware the ship was damaged or off course."

Shaen growled in frustration and kicked a bulkhead. In a contest of rational, lucid arguments, she had a distinct disadvantage, particularly against the pure logic of a bot. She had no real reason for it to power down other than she preferred her passengers unconscious.

Especially the chatty ones.

"Fine. But you stay anchored in that spot, unless there's an actual emergency. Especially during the jump. The last thing I need is you sliding across the cockpit and knocking my instruments around."

"That seems a fair request, Captain." The machine emitted a quiet hum as it magnetically anchored itself to the deck.

As the Belle had indicated, there was plenty of room for the small ship among the bigger colony ships and their escort. They were at least a week from the meteor fall. The Belle Starr hovered up out of the hangar bay doors, engines screaming. They shot up the carved tunnel of bedrock, blasting out into the spore-choked atmosphere of Mebarik just behind the convoy.

The aperture was a glowing, pulsing rip in the sky. It undulated between two orbital stations, like a glowing ring of orange fire. Within the circle of the aperture, the inky depths of the Passage awaited. Along with who knew what else.

Shaen maneuvered the Belle below the middle of the convoy's V-formation. It required a huge amount of energy to keep the aperture open. The UHC made no active effort to stop coyote pilots from using their interdimensional portals, but they certainly wouldn't hold one open waiting on one. Then again, some of the twitchier UHC officers would shoot you out of the sky if you got close enough to a colony ship to seem like a possible threat. It was a delicate balancing act, flying close enough to make it through the portal while giving the convoys enough distance to avoid unpleasant attention.

Suddenly, a blip on the holoscreen caught her attention.

Dammit.

Vahnu was trying to slide into her jump window.

"You see that?" she asked the SHIVA.

"Affirmative. It's the Johnny Ringo, coming up hard starboard."

"You'd think that idiot would learn. Let's take care of this. I miss this jump window, my cargo will spoil before the next connection I can make to Geben."

Shaen dropped out of formation. She needed to get enough distance to avoid causing one of the bigger ships to decide she was risking their safety. The Belle Starr rolled and plunged towards Mebarik. She disappeared into a pink cloud of spores and moisture vapor. For a moment, all that could be seen was a series of sparkling explosions within the cloud.

Before the Johnny Ringo could reach the convoy, she reappeared below and directly behind it. She opened up a local channel to Vahnu.

"Get the hell out of my window, punk."

"What makes it your window, brat? I got a payin' fare. He's in a hurry. You can wait like the rest."

"It's my window because I got here first. And because I've got perishable cargo on board. But mostly, because the Belle's guns are trained on your main power coupling."

There was a moment of silence. The Johnny Ringo maintained its heading towards the convoy.

"Vahnu, if you're waiting for your big brother to come rescue your ass, I'm sorry to inform you that the Cole Younger is currently dropping to the surface, thanks to a destroyed inertial inhibitor. What? You didn't see those fireworks coming out of the atmosphere?"

She rattled off a quick warning volley within feet of the Ringo's hull. It dropped and rolled precipitously back towards the surface of Mebarik.

"Damn right, it's my window," said Shaen, returning to her place in the formation just as the lead ship swept into the rippling aperture.