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They lifted with a scream of engines. Atom watched from his bomber’s bubble as they spun. The One Way Ticket rotated into view and he caught sight of the empty pram. A feeling of loss crept into his gut as Daisy lifted the nose of the sleek craft and fed power to the engines.
A pang hit Atom as the forlorn pram slipped from view. He knew, even with all his love, he could not provide a mother for his daughter.
Burying the emotion, Atom turned his eyes to the void. He watched as the bluish-green of Shelley’s sky darkened. The green faded like his sorrow, buried in the deepening blues and blacks of the eternal night. A thought flickered across his mind, how long could he maintain the façade of stoicism. In the depths of his soul he knew the answer. He would persevere until his last breath slipped from his body.
His daughter meant more than all the sorrow in the void.
“Breaking atmo in three,” Daisy interrupted his thoughts.
“Good,” Atom scanned the upper orbits.
“Any idea where we’re heading?”
“They can’t be too far. Not much of a blockade if you can’t see the planet you’re trying to stop up. With By’s nanos dark, we’ll have to track the mercs the old fashion way. Once we get close we can fire a burst to narrow our search, but I don’t want them to even think we might be crazy enough to track them.”
“Cap, where would you place your ships?”
“Four runners at the points of the equator with support squadrons on the poles,” Atom said without hesitation.
“Well,” Daisy appraised. “I’m not picking up any ships on the poles and if there are ships on the ‘quator there sure aren’t four of them,” Daisy leaned out of his pit to look down at Atom’s back.
Atom hunched forward, rotating his bombardier’s seat as he scanned the skies.
They broke through the upper atmosphere with a slight hiccup in gravity. For a second, before the grav systems kicked in, Atom floated. He smiled at the weightlessness. Then the system whirled into action and he settled back into his seat.
“They’re mercs,” he said. “I honestly don’t expect much from them in the way of discipline or orderly naval maneuvers. They may be hell on the ground, but I’ve yet to come across mercs that knew their pan from their whirligigs when it came to really flying their ships.”
“Huh?” Daisy grunted.
“You and I treat a ship like a home,” Atom squinted at the dwindling horizons below. “Ships are like little planets, the people that live there have to figure out how to function. You get multiple ships together and they float like a system. I found that most merc units are like a system with no star to hold them together. Eventually they scatter.”
“No, I meant that,” Daisy nosed the ship up so Atom could see. “That’s the biggest derelict I’ve ever seen. Strange it being in such a low orbit.”
Atom studied the ship as it slipped into view from the top of his bubble.
Concern laced his brow as he swept the ship with a studied eye. “That’s a Bisstein class miner,” he said as if reciting. “She could strip a quarter of this moon’s ore in a week if she were turned loose. I wonder how we missed her on our way in.”
“Dark side?” Daisy asked as he studied readouts pouring across his holo-board. “I’m not picking up any life readings. She might be a derelict. Should we take a look?”
Atom hesitated. More of the ship slid into view, obscuring all but the slightest sliver of the planet below his feet. The ship appeared functional, yet somehow, Atom knew it drifted. Something in her path tweaked Atom’s inner memories. He knew she flew unmanned, a ghost ship.
“The Code?” he muttered.
“There for a reason,” Daisy replied.
“And,” Atom’s eyes darted. “If we don’t do something her orbit’ll decay, and she’ll drop on Shelley. I know it’s outside what we were contracted to do, but we can’t get paid if our employer is buried beneath a small mountain of plasma jellied ship.”
“Her comp seems functional,” Daisy said. “Shi, can you get a good scan with your systems?”
“Seems fine,” Shi said as she scowled at her screens. “My system’s pinpointed reactor and sweetspots. They’re lit like nova bursts on my HUD. Not getting greater depth, just surface level and high output.”
“Do we check her out or put the word on the net for follow-up?” Daisy asked.
“Can’t leave her,” Atom studied the ship as Daisy slowed their ascent and guided their craft toward the open docking bay on the lower surface of the massive craft. The bay, built to handle mammoth ore haulers, swallowed the tiny fighter-bomber. “The only ship on the surface was that scrap hauler that didn’t move the whole time we’ve been here.”
“I reckon they have a ship or three hid up in them hills,” Shi flipped her attention to the lower turret where she swung the auto-cannons in a three-sixty scan of the horizon from the ship to the surface. “I’m ain’t seein’ anything else on our range. Thought it might be a trap a sorts, but I ain’t seein’ nothin’ to show where we’d get strung.”
“Could be rigged to blow,” Daisy cautioned.
“They don’t have that kind of liquid in this system,” Atom said.
“Empire could.”
“Not for this blockade. The whole planet couldn’t cover a tenth of what that ship’s worth. They won’t blow a ship for that.”
“Not even for you?”
Atom laughed. “I’m flattered, but I’m not worth that. Plus, even the people after me don’t have that kind of pull. Only the emp could afford to blow a ship that size for a vendetta. Fortunately, I’m dead to him.”
“So what else could it be?” Shi asked.
Daisy fired the retros and slipped the ship in the descending bracket with casual skill. With a hiss the ship settled into the cradle. Atom looked down at the planet rolling beneath his dangling feet as the ship hung docked in the wide open bay on the refinery’s lower surface.
“Looks wrong for the blockade,” Daisy dropped the ship to a quick standby mode. “No damage to the exterior. She doesn’t even fly armed, too big. She’d usually fly with security, but this bay’s empty.”
“Could be their security force uses one of the other docking bays,” Atom unbuckled and climbed from his bombardier turret.
“She’s a ghost ship,” Shi slid down the ladder to stand beside the bunks.
Hither shushed her from the bottom bunk, gesturing to a sleeping Margo curled between the woman and the wall.
Climbing up, Atom’s gaze drifted between his crew and ended up settling on Margo. He stared at her as the others stood in silence. He dwelled on Shi’s words. “Arm up. We never know what we’ll run on this crate,” he checked his pistols and grabbed his coat from where he’d thrown it on the top bunk. “I’m hoping we’re overkill, and we’ll find some reason for what we’re seeing. If that’s the case we just kick this up to a higher orbit and leave it parked there for another time.
“We stamp our mark on the door and maybe we score a finder’s fee from our employer,” he flashed a cunning grin as he paused before the hatch. “Hell, they could use a piece of equipment like this.”
Shi shrugged as she limped the few steps to stand beside Atom. She slapped the long pistols on her hips. “Let’s hurry. My ladies’re hungry.”
“Should I stay with the ship?” Daisy asked.
Atom shook his head. “I want us to stay together. Bad things happen when people split too small. Plus, a refinery like this usually takes more than one pilot to get her to do anything.
“I know you don’t do firearms,” Atom punched the hatch open. “But I’m thinking you should grab one of those bandoliers. Load it up with EMP, conk, and mag grenades. You should be able to fit four of each.”
“I know how to load up,” Daisy grumbled as Atom stood in the open hatch and watched a railed gangplank extend from the docking bay’s central hub. Atom glanced back to catch Daisy looking over the narrow armory. He nodded to Hither who extracted herself from Margo and pointed out the proper grenades in a cushioned box at the bottom of the locker.
With a sheepish smile the pilot loaded his bandolier and checked the power level of his shield and power gauntlets.
As he vacated the armory, Hither stepped in, and after a cursory examination, she selected a shoulder holster and a pair of thin tipped laser pistols. Satisfied with the simplicity of her load-out, she lifted Margo in tender hands and nestled the girl’s head against her shoulder.
As soon as the walkway nudged against the ship’s hull, Atom stepped out. Behind him Shi kept pace, her prosthetic tapping out a solitary cadence along the metal.
“Hold up,” Atom held up his hand as they approached the halfway point.
Daisy and Hither, trotting along behind them caught up. “What’s the story,” the pilot asked, coming to a halt and scanning the walk and central hub.
“Something’s off,” Atom surveyed their path.
“I thought we’d established that,” Daisy looked out to space as if expecting to see a ship rolling in over the planet’s horizon
The black sky remained empty, filled only with stars.
“I’ve got the same feeling in my gut,” Shi rested her hand on her pistol. “The one I used to get right before a drop. That feeling says somethin’ bad’s coming.”
Hither remained silent, but her look matched the others’ words.
“But what?” Atom reached back and pulled a grenade from Daisy’s bandolier. “Koze, are we getting any reading from the ship yet?”
While he waited for the AI to reply, Atom tossed the grenade over the railing. It dropped a few meters then slowed as it reached the limit of the grav field. After hovering a moment it began a slow, floating ascent, drawn by the metal of the walk.
“I’m picking up ghosts,” Kozue stated.
“Told you she was a ghost ship,” Shi frowned.
“I can’t detect real ghosts, if they really exist,” Kozue said. “But I’m detecting anomalies with remnant heat signatures. It’s like people were there recently, but they’re not anymore. The strange thing is that some of those signatures seem to be moving slowly, almost drifting.”
“What was the crew on this ship?” Atom continued his advance and the others followed a few steps behind.
“Eleven-five hundred.”
“And they’re all gone?”
“I detect no life forms, only residuals.”
“Where’d they go?” Shi asked. “That many folk don’t just up and disappear, especially not out here in the black.”
“You’re too right,” Daisy said as they approached the hatch at the far end of the walk. The hatched hissed open and the lighting system blinked to life. “And you’re right, Atom, this can’t be the work of the mercs. There’s no damage to the ship. You don’t take a ship this size without a fight.”
“And my estimation is a ship this size, with a security force would easily hold off any attempts at capture from a ragtag merc force,” Kozue chipped in.
Atom stepped with soft soles into the central docking hub and looked around. The well lit room easily held five hundred people, but now it sat silent and empty. In the center of the room a small information desk huddled with a personal fan running.
“Gives me the jits,” Shi scowled at the desk as Atom left them by the hatch and made his way to the desk.
The hair stood out at Atom’s neck, but he moved with purpose. “Kozue, let me know if you detect any anomalies in our vicinity. In the meantime, get me the quickest route to the bridge.”
He reached down and snapped off the fan.
Just as he raised his head a flash of movement caught his eye. His hand dropped instinctively to his gun. Looking up he found nothing. The long room sat empty, well lit, but empty.
“You square?” Shi approached from behind.
“Did you see anything?”
She froze, but her guns appeared in her hands. “What do you mean?”
“A person, or something person height, over near the far hatch?”
“Ain’t seen nothin’. Plus, that hatch’s been shut since we came in. We’d’ve heard it open if someone had floated through.”
“Could it have been a drone?” Daisy’s eyes roamed as he spun a slow circle.
“No drone,” Hither narrowed her eyes and fixated on the hatch.
Atom shook his head. “You’re right Shi, the hatch didn’t open.
“Why don’t we just turn and burn?” Daisy asked.
“Told you, she’s got a decaying orbit. No telling how long a ship this size will stay afloat and if she hits, we won’t have a job anymore.”
As Atom spoke, Margo lifted her head from Hither’s shoulder and looked around with a curious expression. For a moment she scowled at the room. Then she reached out for Atom. “Dada,” she whispered without taking her eyes from the hatch.
Atom moved through the group to gather in his daughter. With Hither’s help he turned and strapped Margo to his back.
“I’ve only been on a derelict once before,” Daisy broke the stillness. “I knew that ship was dead. The core was cold and life support had kicked a few years prior. That was just plain dead, but this ship has something else in her bulkheads.”
“I feel it too,” Shi said. “Somethin’s off here.”
“Well, even I can see that,” a strange cheerfulness clipped Kozue’s voice. “A ship where everything is apparently operational, flying without a crew, defies logic.”
Atom ignored the direction the conversation warped. Instead he rose from his knee, drew one of his pistols, and advanced toward the hatch with a steady step. Behind him the others fell silent, and while they remained motionless, each continued to scan the flanks.
In a dozen measured steps Atom reached the door. With a hiss it slid open.
Atom froze.
Beyond the dark portal the lights flickered to life.
“It’s empty,” Atom called back. “I must be seeing things. The lights weren’t even activated.”
He slipped his pistol back in its holster. As the others joined him at the door he rolled his shoulders and neck in an attempt to rid himself of the pervasive tension crawling up his spine. Atom shivered and turned back only to find a wide-eyed Shi training her pistol just past his head.
Instinct dropped him to a crouch beside the hatch. He pressed his shoulder to the wall and drew both his pistols.
“What is it?” he hissed.
Shi stood still, her gun clenched in her hand. A tremble ran down her arm and her aim wavered.
“I didn’t see a thing,” Daisy said as he shot a questioning look to Atom.
“Shi, what did you see?”
The gunslinger’s eyes moved first. She blinked. Then she looked over to Atom.
“I saw a woman at the end of the hall,” she said in a hoarse whisper.
Atom leaned and peeked around the corner of the hatch. “There’s nothing there,” he glanced back at Shi and then to Hither.
Hither shrugged.
“There was a woman there. She wore a uni, a white uni,” Shi dropped her arm, but held her gun at her side instead of returning it to her holster. “I’ll swear to it.”
Atom rose to his feet and stalked down the hall with his pistols held at the ready. “I believe you,” he called over his shoulder. “I knew I saw something too. Koze, are you picking any of this up?”
“Nothing more than fleeting heat remnants,” she replied. “It’s almost like you saw something that was there earlier, like you’re seeing a few hours past.”
“I can’t figure this,” Atom reached the far end of the hall and looked down each of the adjoining corridors. “Shi, Daisy, Hither, get up here. The quicker we get this ship up to her opt-orbit the quicker we’re off this thing.
“Kozue,” he holstered his pistols and checked on Margo. “You got that route to the bridge for me?”
“I do, I’ll guide you.”
“Good, and let me know if any of those heat remnants show up on your scanners. There may be a link between what we’re seeing and the heat.”
––––––––
Kozue guided them without mishap. Several more times one or another of the party witnessed the fleeting image of the woman in white. Twice she moved, but the other times she remained motionless until they blinked her away.
“Do you get the bumps every time she shows up?” Shi asked as they entered the bridge. Just like the rest of the ship, the bridge sat eerie and empty.
“Try to ignore it,” Atom said.
“You ignore it,” Shi snarked back.
“I’m guessing she’s some sort of energy surge, maybe tied to the ship,” Atom furrowed his brow as he scanned the dozens of empty consoles and work stations. “You know ships this big have a core that could power a planet.”
“Yeah, she must be an energy imprint,” Daisy shrugged.
Atom turned back to find Shi fixating on them. “You sound like you see ghosts all the time,” Shi said as she backed herself into the corner and drew her pistol.
Laughing to ease the tension, Atom found the main console and began interface. Holo-boards popped up as he tried to shift the ship to a higher orbit. “That was easier than I thought it was going to be,” he leaned back and looked up to the wall spanning display. “You guys didn’t need to come at all. She should attain a new orbit in about five minutes. I gave instructions for her to park in that orbit and lock down until we could get a crew up from the surface.
“And no, Shi,” he punched a final command into the holo-console and turned his attention back to the gunslinger. “I’ve never seen a ghost on a ship before, and believe me, I’ve seen my share of dead ships. Ghosts are outside the realm of my belief, but this just feels off.”
“Off, how?” Daisy asked.
“I still can’t get past the feeling that this ship is a trap somehow. Nothing adds up. A ship like this shouldn’t be here.”
“Atom, she’s back,” Shi called out from the corner as the woman in white appeared at the door.
Atom spun.
“You should have listened to your gut,” the woman said. The words slid from her emotionless face and before Atom could draw or Shi turn, the woman slapped the hatch shut.
“She ain’t a ghost,” Shi limped to the door. “Locked.”
“So it was a trap?” Daisy cocked his head, trying to understand their situation.
“Looks that way,” Hither approached the door and bent to examine the locking mechanism. “But to what end?
“And who set it?” she looked over her shoulder to Atom.
Atom returned the look with a scowl.
“This will just slow us down,” Daisy stepped between the two, shifting his gaze back and forth. “Kozue should be able to get the doors open, right?”
“We might not need her,” Hither pulled her pad from her satchel and slipped a laser tap into an open terminal in the bottom. “Give me a few minutes and I should be able to bypass whatever lockdown protocol she initiated.”
“I’m offended,” Kozue said. “And you won’t have time to complete your task.”
“Why not?” Atom asked.
Hither ignored her words and let her fingers fly across the tiny keyboard.
“I’m detecting an atmospheric leak near your current position and it seems to be growing.”
“Can’t you just balance out the flow?” Atom turned from watching Hither and punched up the holo-consoles of the main board again.
“That’s a neg. Someone’s locked down the atmospheric regulator in this sector and the ship frame has initiated an emergency protocol to counter the leak. I’m connected with the frame, but there’s not a whole lot I can do about emergency protocol.”
“Can we shoot our way out?” Shi asked.
“I can punch a hole with my rail-pistol, but all that’ll get is some holes in the door,” Atom said without looking up from the information churning before him.
“Genade?” Daisy asked.
“I’m worried the pressure would blow out the port,” Atom surveyed the room. “Plus there isn’t a whole lot of cover in here to shelter from the main blast. If we had some demo charges, we might be able to control the explosion, but I don’t want to risk that.
“We’ll find another way.”
Everyone fell silent. Atom and Hither worked feverishly at their keys, trying to solve the problem, while Daisy and Shi worked over the wide room in search of the source of their troubles.
“This definitely isn’t mercs,” Atom said with frustration. “They wouldn’t waste the time or have the resources to pull something like this off. Plus they couldn’t handle pissing off a company or han with these resources. I could see them using a smaller ship and rigging it to blow, but they don’t have a hand in this.”
“Are we still sure this place won’t blow?” Daisy called from the front of the room.
“I had Hither and Kozue scanning. No way anyone is good enough to duck both.”
“Still doesn’t add, Atom,” Daisy shook his head and gave up on the search. He strode to the pilot’s seat and pulled up the holo-console.
“What are you looking for?” Atom asked without looking up from his own boards.
“Who owns this ship? Wouldn’t that give us some direction as to who we’re up against?”
“Could be something,” he shrugged. “Shi, keep looking over that window. There has to be some crack or gap to be triggering the lockdown.”
“Don’t think I’ll be needin’ to look much further,” Shi replied as she squinted up into the corner of the heavy port. “Looks like a laser punch.”
“Melted?” Atom asked.
Shi grunted in affirmation. “But I’d say it ain’t handling the stress too rightly. It’s starting to web.”
“What’s that give us?” Daisy glanced up from his console.
“Five, ten minutes, depending on how fast the ship’s systems regulate our pressure,” Atom said.
“Atom,” Kozue interrupted. “I’m detecting a sudden flare of heat signatures on one of the upper decks. I believe I have located two solid people.”
“I thought you said the ship was empty,” Atom gave up at his console and moved across the room to join Hither at the door. Shi caught his movement and gave up watching the spider-webbing window and trotted over to join him.
“It was empty,” Kozue sounded perplexed. “I can’t explain where they came from.”
“Airlock?” Daisy asked.
“Neg, there’s been no activity on any of the ship’s airlocks.”
Atom knelt beside the door and examined Hither’s work.
“Uh, Cap, I think we have a prob,” Shi tapped at Atom’s shoulder even as her eyes grew wide with terror.
Looking up, Atom caught the expression and followed her gaze. “Daisy, what is it you’re doing right now?”
“I think I’ve found the corp that owns the ship... why?”
“Well, you might want to wrap it up fast. We don’t have as much time as I thought,” he pointed to the wall window as Daisy broke his concentration and glanced up. From the upper corner of the viewing port a thin crack appeared to crawl diagonally down toward the floor.
Daisy dropped his eyes back to the holo-board. “Guess I should be looking at more important jibber.”
The crack progressed.
“You might want to hurry,” Atom laid a gentle hand on Hither’s shoulder. “Shi, keep eyes on the hallway. If Hither gets this door open I don’t want anyone sneaking up on us.
“Koze, what are the two marks up to?” he kept his eyes on the crack.
A startled grunt dragged his attention back from the nesting web of fine cracks. Shi pulled her pistol and pressed it to the small window in the hatch. Without hesitation she fired a round through the heavy plate.
“The lady was back,” she ventured a cautious peek through the window. “I don’t think I hit her, but hopefully scared her enough to keep her back.”
“Can you hit a ghost?” Daisy asked.
“She don’t look like no ghost. Looked plain solid when she was eyeballin’ me through the window. She just....”
“Disappeared?” Daisy asked.
“Well yeah, but she ain’t lookin’ ghostly. No see through bits. She looks a real lady and then she just ain’t there no more.”
“Well, this might buy us some time,” Daisy punched a key and a blast shield dropped over the wall window.
“Looks good, Daisy,” Atom said. “If it’s standard, it’ll hold.”
The blast shield creaked.
Hither glanced over her shoulder. “Maybe I’ll work faster,” she wore a strained expression.
Shi and Daisy exchanged a nervous look and Daisy moved over to stand beside the gunslinger. Without thought she reached over and took his hand. Atom, focused on the creaking blast shield, paid them no mind.
“Almost got it,” Hither mumbled as characters and icon flew across the screen as fast as her fingers could push them with seeming abandon. “I just need to pretend to know what I’m doing long enough to get it right.”
“You don’t know what you’re doing?” Shi demanded.
“Just toying,” Hither smiled as she took a deep breath to steady herself. “I’m solid.”
“How’re we to trust you if you say things like that?”
“Do you have an option right now?” Hither frowned.
Without another word she allowed her fingers to dance. The hatch gave a deep groan, like an old bear rising from slumber. It slid open.
“Told you I had it,” she hopped up from her crouched position with a cocky smile. As she did so the blast shield creaked again, louder this time. “Probably upset the atmo balance by opening the door.”
Shi moved first. She gimped through the door as fast as her prosthetic leg would carry her. Close on her heels, Daisy glanced back past Atom. Panic spread across his face. Atom shoved Hither through the door, stepped through, and slapped it shut. Behind them the blast shield buckled like cheap metal and flew out into the black.
A blast of wind caught Atom in the chest as atmosphere sucked out the hole Shi had punched in the window. He swore and grabbed at a length of overhead piping.
Daisy bolted back down the hall and grabbed Atom’s free hand. Atom fought against the force just as his feet slid out from under him. Straining against the flow, Daisy’s crushing grip held fast as an emergency door slammed shut to seal the breach.
Dropping to the floor, Atom landed with a grunt and pivoted into a sitting position. He looked to Shi with a rattled expression. “Can’t say I factored that.
“Shi,” he paused to suck in several lungfuls of air. “Next time please don’t put a bullet through the plate. I don’t want to have to worry about getting sucked through a coin-sized hole.”
“Sorry ‘bout that,” Shi stood at the end of the hall, pistol drawn. “I just wish I’d hit the wench.”
“You sure you didn’t?”
“Don’t see no splatter or trail if I’d winged her,” Shi scowled. “And I sure ain’t seein’ no corpse.”
“No trace,” Atom crawled to his feet and wade his way to join Shi.
“Maybe she had nano-meds,” Hither ventured. “You could’ve hit her.”
Shi shrugged. “Possible, but I doubt it. My aim was true, but if I’d hit her she’d be splayed on the floor back yonder.
“So what now?” Shi turned to Atom with her arms crossed and pistols nestled.
“We should be up to a solid orbit by now. That means we can get on with our real reason for being here,” Daisy started retracing their path to the lower docking bay.
Shi followed.
Daisy stopped at the first hatch and looked back. “What is it, Atom?”
“You all go on ahead and get the ship prepped. I want to know what’s going on with this crusher. Nothing makes sense. It shouldn’t be here. I don’t believe in ghosts, but Kozue said she picked up traces on an upper deck. I’m going to check things out there, then I’ll drop back and join you.”
Atom loosened his rail-pistols and turned in the opposite way.
“You want I should go with?” Shi asked, hesitating as Hither passed her to join Daisy in the hatch. “I could give you extra eyes.”
“I don’t need death trailing me on this one,” Atom flashed his cocky grin.
“You sure?”
“Just make sure the ship is prepped for drop in case we need out quick.”
“Will do, Cap,” Daisy slapped the hatch open and motioned for the other two to join him. “Plus, I feel a touch safer with you two than I do alone.”
“Stay together,” Atom called out as he checked Margo’s straps and turned away.
––––––––
Atom crept on eggshells. The scans seemed empty, but Kozue’s ghostly heat signatures and the phantom woman indicated otherwise. Even Margo felt the haunting oppressive air of the silent ship and kept silent herself. From her perch on Atom’s back she clung with childish tenacity to the edge of his jacket.
She looked about like a spooked cat.
“Kozue,” Atom whispered. “Where’d you say you found those heat sources?”
“Deck 311. The hot reads are gone, but the decaying signatures are still present.”
Atom found an elevator and pressed upward in the expansive mining ship. As the elevator flew he checked the loads on both pistols out of habit. Then drawing near deck 311, he checked Margo’s straps.
Satisfied with his prep, Atom rolled his shoulders and waited for the lift to whisper to a halt.
The doors opened on a long, dim hallway. Atom’s brow furrowed.
Bodies lay strewn about the floor, cast aside like a flood’s detritus. Intermingled with the mangled bodies and bloody offal, sat items of everyday use: a clipboard, a shoe, a small stuffed beast.
The scent of a slaughterhouse roiled into the elevator.
“I think we found our missing miners,” Atom grimaced as he edged through the doors.
“I think we found why the ship is derelict,” Atom grimaced as he edged through the door.
“I wonder if I was reading residual body heat,” astonishment laced Kozue’s voice. “Everything’s been shut down other than long range scanners from our ship. I had no eyes aboard the ship until you carried me here. This is unheard of.”
“Massacres?” Atom scanned the lifeless bodies scattered down the hall.
“Well, no, but on a ship of this size. A ship with this kind of security force would never fall without signs of a large-scale battle. For the entire crew of this ship to be killed would require a small scale invasion.”
“Aye, a ship this size can rival the population of a small planet.”
“Other than these bodies there is no sign of a struggle,” Kozue continued. “And all the bodies I am able to scan fit the bill of defenders.”
“Maybe the attackers took their dead with them.”
“Statistically possible, but I detect no foreign blood samples amid the spatter.”
“You can detect that?” Atom asked in amazement.
“You have not yet tapped my full potential.”
“Good to know,” Atom began moving down the hallway, dodging pooled blood and bodies with each step. “Are you still detecting the hot signatures?”
“There is only one remaining. It appears to be small in stature.”
“Woman?”
“Probable.”
“That’s what we’ve been seeing around the ship.”
“I know.”
Atom rolled his eyes.
“Don’t do that,” Kozue snapped. “You know I hate it when you roll your eyes at me. Plus, your actions and stats would demonstrate a lack of focus.”
“Is that bad?”
“I’ve no desire to see you dead,” Kozue stated.
“Agreed,” Atom smiled with a dry laugh. “Where am I headed?”
“The heat signature appears motionless, ahead and to the right. If the schematics of this vessel are to be believed, the signature is standing in the entrance to the residential sectors of the ship.”
“That fits with what I know of planet crackers like this one,” Atom moved at a steady pace, his pistols undrawn, but ready. “The operational parts of the ship are down below with storage in the mid-section. Families live topside where they don’t have to look at the planet they’re carving.”
“I advise caution, Atom. It appears the heat signature has taken a step toward the portal you are now approaching.
“Strange,” Kozue sounded perplexed. “A second heat signature has suddenly appeared. I detect no approach. It simply materialized. I understand why you keep referring to the woman you have seen as a ghost.”
Atom stopped outside the broad hatch. A splashed swath of blood smeared the surface like a gory street-sign.
“Keep your eyes open and don’t let anything sneak up on me,” Atom whispered, then he keyed the hatch.
The double doors slid back in silence, revealing a room just as bedecked with death as the hallway. Margo peered over Atom’s shoulder in trepidation. In the middle of the carnage a pair of women stood in casual indifference to the scene surrounding them. One of the women wore a uniform complete with crimson cape. The other appeared nothing more than an adjunct.
“Greetings,” the woman’s cordial voice unnerved Atom as he stepped through the door.
“Hello,” he said with suspicion.
He stopped a step inside the door, appearing unthreatening, but his hand held unwavering at his hip. With narrowed eyes he knelt and unhooked Margo from his back.
“Your daughter?” the woman smiled.
Atom nodded.
The woman studied the father and daughter for a moment. The silence held steady, leaving Atom to wonder why she stood in the middle of the carnage.
“I’m the captain of the Diamond Horizon. As you can see we are in the middle of a crisis. You caught us at a bad time,” the woman’s smile remained unchanged, like plastic.
“What happened?”
“We were hit by rogue mercs.”
“Lies,” Kozue whispered.
“And they did all this?” Atom asked in disbelief.
“They infiltrated my crew. Even my security force was unaware of their presence until they wiped out my entire population. I don’t know how I’m supposed to keep this ship functioning without a crew,” the woman dropped her eyes, a crack flickered across her façade, but grief replaced the mysterious emotion and pulled at the woman’s mouth.
Atom watched as her hands clenched involuntarily. Behind her, the aide’s shoulders tensed.
He hooked his thumb in his pistol belt with affected nonchalance.
“You got any survivors?” his eyes drifted between the two women and he waved Margo back with a flip of his fingers. The girl pouted and shuffled to the door.
“A few, but I doubt they’ll be ready to work any time soon. Look around,” the captain spread her arms wide and shifted toward Atom. “They’ll probably never work a miner again.”
The woman clutched her hands to her breast and dropped her head in shame. She stumbled toward Atom, overcome by her grief. As she staggered the aide moved behind her, as if to offer assistance or prevent the woman from running into Atom as he stood before the door.
Atom moved quicker. In a whir his hand flew and drew his pistol. A single shot rang out and the aide dropped to the floor, a blaster clutched in her lifeless hand. With automated grace he shifted his attention to the captain.
Her face altered again. Despair disappeared, replaced instead with steely determination. Her shambling footsteps gained power and she launched herself at Atom.
A knife appeared in her hand.
Atom slipped sideways and tried to deflect, but he moved a step slow. He blocked the drive to his chest, but the knife skipped along his side, slicing through his coat and laying open his side. The knife danced over his ribs, opening muscle, and ending lodged in his side, near his kidney.
A grunt escaped as Atom flinched away. With a brutal reaction he slammed his pistol into the side of the woman’s head, dropping her to the ground.
“You are wounded,” Kozue said.
“Thanks for that,” Atom growled through clenched teeth as he dropped to his knees. “I thought I’d wet myself.”
He fought muscle spasms as he pulled the knife from his abdomen.
“That is also a possibility, although I doubt someone with your martial experience would wet themselves in combat. However, there are instances of intense shock that can cause a person to lose control of their bodily functions. Then experience means nothing.
“I don’t register any such levels of trauma,” Kozue stated.
“It’s just a cut,” gasping through the pain, Atom turned away from where Margo peered around the door to open his coat and examine the damage beneath his blood soaked shirt. “Lucky she was angling down. The knife just skimmed my ribs.”
“Do you have a trauma kit?”
“Neg,” Atom tried to keep his core still as he shook his head. “I’ll need to get back to the ship to patch this up.”
Seeing that the women no longer posed a threat, Margo trotted out from her hiding place behind the door. She squatted down next to the unconscious woman and studied her face with childish intensity. Atom watched with pained amusement as Margo poked at the woman’s cheeks and then wiggled her nose.
“Funny face,” Margo played with the woman’s ears.
“You are experiencing moderate blood loss, Atom,” Kozue interrupted. “I recommend finding a med center to allow a bot-doc a chance to patch you up.”
“Not a chance. They probably rigged the bot. I’ll make for the ship.”
“You will be pressed at current levels of blood loss.”
“I’ll manage.”
Atom scanned the room, his face pinched. Bodies lay strewn about as they had in the hallway. Margo hopped up and began wandering, studying the dead with a concerned expression.
“Margo, come help find that knife,” he commanded.
Panting as he fought through the pain, he knelt and tugged the captain’s boots off. With a smile Margo trotted over and scavenged around until she surfaced with the bloody knife. After handing Atom the blade she helped him pull the woman’s pants off. Sitting with emphasized stiffness, Atom cut the pants into strips and used them to bind up his chest.
As he cinched the strips tight, his vision swam.
He thrust himself up to his knees and screamed out the pain.
Margo fell back a step. Then she regained her childish composure and reached out a tender hand.
“Dada hurt?” she asked, tilting her head to look up into Atom’s ashen face.
He smiled, then forced himself to his feet with a grunt. He stood over his fallen foe.
“What will you do with her?” Kozue asked.
Looking to Margo he weighed his actions. She smiled up at him and reached out to take his hand. He lifted his head as the wound forced him to pant. Atom turned them to the door with exaggerated stiffness.
“Can’t leave an enemy at my back,” he pulled his rail-pistol from its holster and fired a shot into the woman’s head. “They never stop.”
“There is a high probability you are correct.”
“Dada,” Margo tugged at Atom’s hand, drawing him to the door.
“She’s right, Atom. You’ve no time to waste,” Kozue said. “Trust our daughter’s instincts.”
Atom tensed at the words, but moved forward favoring his wounded left side. They made for the hallway to retrace their steps when Atom paused in the doorway. “Koze, are you picking up any new heat signatures?”
“No, why?”
“Just a feeling there are more of them out there.”
“Why do you think that?” Kozue asked with concern.
“First off, the woman we saw earlier wasn’t one of those two, and second, I don’t for a second believe two could wipe out the population of this ship.”
Kozue fell silent for a brief instant. “I calculate the smallest number would be eight. That number has a 51% chance of success against the defenses of this vessel. They would need to infiltrate and flush the atmosphere to kill most of the population. There was still a fight, as we can see.
“Eight would be the optimum number to achieve their goals,” Kozue calculated. “Optimally.”
“Eight seems right,” Atom pulled at his memory, blood loss already challenging his mind as he led Margo down the hall at a shamble.
“That means you have eliminated two of a probable eight.”
Atom spun at a sound behind them. One of the bodies had moved. Which one? The corpses splayed across the back end of the corridor. Broken and bloodied they lay like human debris.
One of the lights flickered and dimmed.
“Koze, there’s someone here with us.”
“I’m not detecting any spikes.”
“Trust me, they’re here.”
Shifting Margo behind himself with a gentle hand, Atom backed down the hallway, keeping his gun trained. His offhand remained on his daughter’s shoulder even as he grimaced in pain. Blood seeped through his impromptu bandages, dripping from beneath his brown coat and soaking down his pant leg.
Atom scowled as he studied each body in turn. Then one of them vanished. Atom’s reactionary shot slammed into the mesh flooring in the vacant space.
A curse slipped from Atom’s lips.
With narrowed eyes he shuffled Margo toward the elevator.
“Are you detecting any anomalies?”
“Just a flickering in the ambient heat,” said Kozue.
“Where?”
“Directly in front of you, twenty feet or so. It’s hard to pin down, but the flicker appears to be moving in a straight line.”
Atom fired from the hip without hesitation. The bullet punched a ripple through the air in front of him before slamming through a bulkhead beyond. The ripple continued to expand outward into the shape of a person. Then, with a groan, a woman materialized out of thin air and sank to the ground.
“Now I can detect her heat signature, nothing different than all the other corpses surrounding you.”
“Did you register her movement?”
Kozue hesitated. “Yes, I did. Unfortunately, I attributed it to rigor mortis. I’ll pay closer attention to any movement in your surroundings from here on out.”
“Well, once we’re off this floor I don’t know that we’ll need to worry too much about extra movement. We didn’t see any bodies until we got up here.”
Exercising caution, Atom put another round in the fresh corpse as he approached. He knelt beside the body. A fist sized hole punched cleanly through the woman’s sternum. Atom did not bother checking for a pulse, instead he searched through her loose white clothing.
“What are you looking for?” Kozue asked.
“She must have some sort of shielding mech. I haven’t heard of a personal cloaking device.”
“Like what ships run?”
“It would be my guess, but anything I’ve seen in use takes up the better part of a small corvette, and it can’t conceal the energy output of anything much larger. We used them as scouts and covert ops deployment ships. If they’ve managed to reduce them in size to be personal, we could be in for a whole world of hurt.
“This was stupid of them,” he mumbled as he strained against the pain to roll the woman over. Lifting her shirt he found a small pack attached to her lower back. “They should have come at me out of a crowd, easier to blend in.”
“Also easier to be detected by a passerby,” Kozue chipped in.
“True,” Atom clutched his side with one hand as he tried to remove the pack with the other. The pack moved, but remained embedded in her flesh.
Rocking back on his haunches, Atom rested and contemplated.
“I would like to point out that at current levels of blood loss you will lose consciousness in less than ten minutes.”
“I’ll move, but I can’t leave this behind. I need to know how this works so I’m not looking over my shoulder all the time, wondering if I heard a shadow move or I’m about to end. I don’t plan on ending with a knife in the back.”
“So what will you do?”
“Give me a second,” he rose to his feet and stumbled back through the door to the captain’s body, leaving a wide-eyed Margo standing alone in the hallway.
He tried to bend over, but his wound opened wider, allowing a fresh wash of blood to seep down his side. Closing his eyes he steeled himself against the pain and knelt to pick up the captain’s knife.
Without a word he returned to the hall and cut into the woman’s back without hesitation. Margo looked on without emotion. Atom cut with surgical precision, trying to preserve as much of the wiring as possible as it tied into the woman’s nervous system. When he finished up he handed the box of flesh and metal to Margo. The girl glanced up at Atom with childish curiosity, but accepted the offering without a word.
“You’ll have to hold onto that for me,” he wiped the knife on the clean leg of his pants and turned to offer his back to Margo. “Up you go.”
Making sure she clicked into her harness, Atom rose with a focused grunt. He noted the bulk of the ghost box pressed between them and shifted Margo into a more comfortable position.
“Three down, maybe five to go,” he muttered to Kozue as he moved to the elevators. “How am I doing on time?”
“Just under eight minutes.”
“I can make it,” he grunted as the elevator doors opened.
“Can you?”
“I better,” he slapped at the button with drunken fingers, closed his eyes, and rested his forehead against the cool ceramic wall of the elevator.
“Dada?” Margo cooed after the elevator began its rapid descent.
Atom’s eyes flashed open, but he kept his head pressed to the wall. His hand crept to his gunbelt.
“I’m detecting a fluctuation behind you,” Kozue whispered. “Over your left shoulder. It’s identical to the fluctuation....”
Before she could finish, he sidestepped and in one fluid motion he whipped his pistol free of its holster. A shot ripped out and another assassin slid to the ground behind them.
“Four,” Atom wiped the cold sweat from his brow.
As he holstered his gun a tremor ran from his hand up his arm. His vision blurred. In response he closed his eyes and pressed his hand to his wound.
The door slid open, revealing an empty hall.
Atom took a steadying breath and he lead-footed his way out into the hallway. A trail of blood dripped in his wake.
“Four and four,” he muttered, his words slurred.
His hand trembled and he clutched it to his wounded side. Atom shuffled. His breath came in short gasps as he fought the pain tendrilling from his wound like a poisonous octopus engulfing prey.
“Are you sure there are four left?” Kozue asked. Atom started as she appeared to his left. “What is it?”
“I can see you,” he moved toward her, but she glided out of his reach.
“You must be suffering from hallucinations.”
“But you’re so real,” his eyes grew wide with wonder. “If I could just touch you.”
“Atom,” she crossed her arms and tapped her foot with impatience. “You don’t have time to worry about me. I’ll take you to safety, but you’ll have to trust me.
“Trust me, and protect me,” she turned to hurry down the hallway.
Atom followed, his steps staggered and slow. His vision blurred as cold sweat dripped in his eyes.
“Hide, Atom,” Kozue commanded.
Moving with blind instinct, he ducked and slipped to the side. A blaster round slammed into the wall just above his head.
“Who’s there?” a voice called from the end of the hallway. “Are you one of them?”
“One of who?” Atom asked, his voice hoarse as he pressed his shoulder to the wall of the alcove, shielding him from the prying eyes of the woman with the blaster. “I just came to try and save the planet. This ship was in a decaying orbit and if it had crashed Shelley wouldn’t be there anymore.”
“Sounds like feek to me,” the woman said. Atom followed her voice, tracking her as she edged down the hall.
He closed his eyes. “Can I come out? Can you promise you won’t kill me or my kid?” he pleaded as his energy and life flowed away, one drop at a time.
Atom peeked around the corner to find a wide-eyed woman holding a blaster in shaking hands. She wore a dark blue work jumper. “I’m just a nemo with no stake in nothing,” Atom said as he held his hands out. He moved with exaggerated slowness from the alcove so as not to spook the woman. “I just want off this crate. I got no reason to be here. I reset the orbit so my people down low should be safe.”
The woman hesitated. Then as her wild eyes searched the rest of the vacant hallway she lowered her gun.
“I thought there were more of you,” she said in confusion.
“Sent them back to my ship a while back,” Atom tried to blink his eyes into focus as he faced the woman. “Name’s Atom Ulvan. You got a name?”
The woman hesitated.
In that moment Atom jerked his pistol and punched a hole through the thickness of the woman’s chest.
“Why?” Kozue fixed him with a demanding look.
“She was one of them,” Atom said as the woman sank to the floor. As her blaster slipped from lifeless fingers to the floor Atom slumped to a knee.
“How’d you know,” Kozue turned to stand over the body.
Atom drove himself to his feet and painful steps carried him to stand beside his dead wife. There he dropped back to his knees and unzipped the woman’s jumper. He flipped her collar to reveal a fine, translucent tattoo of a scarab just beneath her collarbone.
“I know this mark.”
“But how did you know she was one?”
“I am the target,” Atom rolled the woman and rapped his knuckles on the now familiar implant on her lower back. He rose to his feet and began shuffling back down the hallway. “She recognized my name and hesitated. I saw it in her face. Instinct won, and we’re still alive.”
“So what now? Do you still think there are eight?”
“After seeing the mark I know there are eight,” Atom punched through the far hatch with his gun held at the ready. “Three more.”
“I see,” Kozue stood beside Atom at the door.
Stepping forward to protect Kozue, Atom surveyed the broad terminal where they had first entered the ship. While empty at their first pass, three women now stood waiting, one by the far entrance and the other two ranging to either side.
“The Eight Astral Points?” Atom asked as he stepped forward with a grunt.
“You know our technique?” the woman seemed surprised, but she covered it with a threatening step forward. “Then you know you have no real chance here?”
“I’ve faced worse,” Atom returned the threatening look with a cocky smile. “And come out the other side.”
Without waiting for a response Atom dropped to a knee. There, shielded from the central assailant behind the central desk he drew his pistols and fired across his body. The two outer women dropped in the process of tracking his movement with their own weapons.
Atom holstered his off pistol at the back of his gunbelt and gave Margo’s leg a loving squeeze. He caught his breath at the effort. Then on all fours he skittered in close to the central desk and leaned against solid framing. Weariness overtook him, and he closed his eyes as he rested.
After a few steadying breaths, he opened his eyes. Kozue stood in the doorway where he had left her. A concerned look seemed her only human trait as she observed the situation. Then she raised her hand and mimed looking to where Atom crouched.
A shot rang out as the final assassin fired into the desk, then silence settled over the expansive room.
“You might as well end it now,” the woman said. “I know you took a wound up top. I can see the blood on the floor now. You don’t have much time either way. Your head’s worth a lot. What say you give it up, and I’ll make sure we take care of Margo for you? There’s no price on her head, she’s just an innocent caught up in all this. You have my word.”
Atom stiffened at the mention of his daughter.
“I’d be willing to set a tenth aside for her,” the woman called out, and Atom watched Kozue indicate the direction she crept. “A tenth would give her a good life, Atom. Think hard on it.
“You stand now, back to me,” the woman’s voice slid closer to the shielding desk. “I put you down quick and clean. Margo grows up knowing her daddy did right by her.”
Blinking away the sweat and dark spots clouding his sight, Atom looked to Kozue once more. Determining that the last assassin stood opposite his crouched position, Atom gripped his lone pistol and weighed his option. Right or left, the odds seemed the same.
Atom shrugged at Kozue and gave a sad smile.
“You know I can’t ever give up,” blood-loss slurred his words.
“Not even for the life of your daughter?” the assassin asked.
Atom gave a weak laugh that twisted into a groan of pain. “We’re bound together still. No soul has proven worthy to join with her. So we must die together it seems.”
“It doesn’t have to be that way.”
“And who are you to be worthy of my daughter?” Atom’s rage rose, his adrenaline flowed once more, and his wound slipped to the back of his mind.
“I...” the woman faltered.
Atom prepared to slide out to the left when the far hatch hissed open. Chancing a quick glance to Kozue he registered surprise on her face. Seizing the moment, he dove from cover.
Before he emerged from behind the desk a flurry of shots rang out from the door. By the time he popped up to find his target, the last assassin lay bleeding on the floor.
“You still with us, Cap?” Shi called out from the door.
With a deflating breath Atom slipped to the ground. His pistol dropped against the ceramic floor with a thud.
His eyes drifted closed.
“Atom,” Shi yelled as she closed the distance. “Stay up.
“I gotcha,” she slid on her knees, crawling the last few feet to the fading form. Without hesitation she unhitched Margo and using one of the loose straps she bound the girl with her bloody package to her side. Then, gripping Atom under the arm, she heaved. “Up, old man. We’ve places to be, and they ain’t here.”
Atom followed Shi’s direction like a piece of meat and clambered to his feet with a rolling of his bleary eyes. “Don’t forget Kozue,” he mumbled as Shi began maneuvering him toward the outer hatch.
“She’s always with us. That’s how I knew you were troubled.”
“No,” Atom fought to slow and look over his shoulder. “She’s back there.”
“Ain’t a body there, but us bokes now.”
“No,” Atom slurred. He managed to look back and found the room empty. “Where’d she go?”
“Maybe she ran ahead to get the ship prepped.”
“Yeah, that sounds like her.”
Shi showed her hidden strength and carried Atom along, moving at a slow, but regular pace toward the ship at the end of the docking strut. Made for larger ships, the catwalk extended several hundred yards from the terminal.
Shi reached her exhaustion point halfway to the ship.
“Atom, I gotta drop you for a touch,” she eased Atom to lean against the rail and kneaded her leg just above the prosthesis. “I’ll run Margo ahead and get her tucked on the ship, then I’ll get Daisy and we’ll be back for you.”
“Right,” a sleepy nod bobbed Atom’s head. The dripping blood slowed. “Just leave me here for a bit. I just want to close my eyes, and I should be right as light. Koze tells me I’ve still got a few before my stats flat.”
“I’ll hustle.”
Atom watched as his gunslinger ran as fast as she could with an infant on one hip and a prosthetic weighing down the other. A dreamy smile crossed his face as he watched Margo. He waved to her.
Margo waved back and gave a childish grin.
“Why’d you lie to her?” Kozue knelt beside him in the dim light of the space-bound catwalk. “You know you have less time than that.”
“I guess I do have a soft core inside that wants Margo to be free from this life,” Atom reached out and traced a tender finger down Kozue’s cheek.
Cupping his hand in hers, Kozue locked eyes with her lifemate. For a moment they stared at each other, longing and haunting smiles exchanged, then a look of alarm crept across Kozue’s face.
“Oh, Atom,” fear replaced the alarm. “I’m sorry....”
Before she could say more a controlled explosion ripped through the catwalk, separating struts from the overhead ship and shearing through the unsupported walk. Atom tumbled like a ragdoll, thrown clear by the force of the string of explosions. Only instinct saved him from the cold death of the void.
His clutching hand grasped at a passing rail. Atom’s momentum swung him over the edge with his feet dangling precariously near the extremity of the ship’s atmosphere.
“Thought you were free, did you,” a dark shrouded man called out with a laugh as he walked down the drifting catwalk. “You knew of the Eight Astral Points, just like I knew you would. The Walkerhan doesn’t pay fools.
“I knew you’d let your guard down after you thought you’d eliminated the eight assassins. Now I’ll finish the job I started. And the nice part,” he pulled a long energy lance from over his shoulder and ignited the blade. “Now I don’t have to split the bounty nine ways.”
The man raised his weapon to strike, but as Atom’s death drew near, Kozue materialized on the far end of the ruined catwalk. The man froze under the specter’s stare.
Atom seized the moment. Reaching up, he pulled the mag grenade he had tossed earlier, from where it hung magnetically attached to the underside of the catwalk. Without hesitation he thumbed the trigger and tossed it toward the shrouded man.
The grenade locked to the man’s energy lance.
Startled, the man tore his eyes away from Kozue’s apparition and focused on his weapon with sudden clarity. He shook the weapon once before the grenade detonated.
The force of the blast launched the man backward over the far rail. For a moment Atom lost sight of him, but the man reappeared just before he hit the atmospheric field. The ship’s grav threw the man down with enough force to carry him through the field and into the vacuum beyond.
His body decompressed.
The man screamed in silence as his body inflated like a twisted carnival balloon. For a moment he hung in the shadow of the ship, but soon enough, he spun into the direct light of the system’s sun. Burning in the unshielded radiation, the man spasmed a final time and fell motionless.
Atom watched, clinging tenaciously to the rail. He held, but his blood-soaked grip slipped, as did his consciousness. He looked once more to where Kozue stood on the far end of the damaged catwalk.
With a final nod of farewell he let go.
Blackness closed about him.