Aces (21 page)

Nelson decided it
was time to check on Sam
’
s progress, in person. Not that
he didn
’
t like the miners, they were nice enough. They
also let him know, gently, that he was now mostly in the way now, as they moved
around, assessing the damage, and cleaning things up. In this tightly-knit
community of people who had served together on unfriendly Ares, he was an
outsider.

What he found was
not what he expected. Sam and Rick were sitting on the floor of the large
chamber which contained the life support core, their tools scattered around.
Somewhere, one of them, probably Sam, had found a bottle of something, and they
were sipping an orange-colored fluid from tiny paper cups. Nelson was
astonished. “Sam, what the-“ He looked around for signs the two men had been
doing anything but drinking.  Access covers had been removed, and stacked
in a corner. Various pipes, coils, wires, and boxes had been pulled out of the
core. So they had at least started working, before they started drinking. In
fact, it looked like the two men had almost completely disassembled the unit,
and had tried to jury-rig something together. There were pipes attached to
other pipes, which clearly weren
’
t designed to fit
together. Tape and sealant connected them, and somebody had gotten overzealous
with the sealant, the pipe joints were coated in big globs of the stuff. It
looked like a half-assed job, and that made Nelson even more angry. “What the
hell is wrong with you two? Drinking booze on the job? Get your asses to work!”

“I wish it was
real booze, man, it
’
s homemade fermented
papaya
juice
, or something like that.” Sam didn
’
t rise
from the floor, instead, he hoisted the bottle toward the pilot. “Might as well
relax and have a drink, Nelson. We
’
re in deep doo-doo. The
oxygen recycler core is shot, I mean, really shot. The pirates went at it with
a rifle or something, one of them must have gotten his jollies shooting it up.
It
’
s busted, man, scrap, no way to fix it.”

Nelson
’
s anger deflated. He should have known Sam wouldn
’
t be so irresponsible. Now he saw what Sam meant, there were
holes shot right through the core, jagged edges around the impacts. “Why?”

Rick drained his
cup, crushed it in his fist, and threw it across the room. “The pirates know
the Navy is eventually going to show up here. When they do, instead of hunting
down the pirate ship, the Navy will have to waste time staying here to rescue
the miners. And us. That gives the pirates plenty of time to get out of sensor
range. Once they do that, they
’
ll probably transfer to
another ship, and be long gone. Sam
’
s right, there
’
s no way to fix this piece of junk.” Rick said disgustedly.
When he first saw the life support unit, he was encouraged to see that, unlike
most mining outfits, this one had good equipment, and maintained it well. Then
he and Sam went around to the backside and saw the bullet holes.
Explosive-tipped slugs, Sam said, surplus military issue. He seemed to know
what he was talking about.

“So, how long do
we have?” Nelson asked.

“The good news is
that butthole Mac wasn
’
t lying about one thing; they did
have fifty hours of oxygen, back when they first called us. We can stretch it
out some.” Sam shrugged.

“What about
putting some people into crawlers, they have a temporary air supply?” Nelson
suggested.

“You been to the
crawler garage yet? No?” Rick answered. “Same idiot that shot this up, shot the
crawlers up real good too. Only one of the crawlers is operational, that one
only holds two people. We are all going to have to put on e-suits in a few
hours, when the oxygen in here runs out. After that, well, we have to hope
somebody rescues us, pretty soon.”

“
Ace
’
s only shuttle is history, man, so we gotta hope the Navy
figures out something ain
’
t right, and gets here pronto.”
Sam added glumly.

“Damn.”
Nelson
’
s shoulders slumped. “Then, I guess,
uh, sure, give me the bottle. I need a drink.”

Seth used the
very last dregs of thruster fuel to stop the command section from spinning. He
turned to Schroeder, and said quietly “That
’
s it, Captain.
We
’
re rotating at one revolution every fifty minutes, that
’
s the best I can do.”

“Very well. Seth,
talk them in.”

“Captain, this
kid
’
s never flown before. He
’
s low on
fuel, and we
’
re running out of time, so he can
’
t take too many tries to lock onto us. And, pretty soon, we
’
ll be into the top of the atmosphere, so we
’
ll
be picking up turbulence.”

“Understood. If
it looks like the shuttle is in danger, I want you to wave him off, get the
shuttle away from here, and into a safe orbit. I
’
m not
risking the lives of those children.” Schroeder said, with one eye on the
childrens
’
mother, who would expect him to save her
children first.

“Yes, Captain.”

“Excellent. Carry
on, Mr. Putri.” Schroeder said in a loud voice, slapping the back of Seth
’
s chair for emphasis. He wanted Joy to hear how well everything
was going. “Gina, Joy, help me bring Vassily to the airlock, please.” Schroeder
ordered. He wanted to get Joy Sanchez far away from the bridge.

Seth guided Manny
to within a hundred meters of the command section, and made sure the shuttle
’
s course and speed matched that of the command section. After
that, it would all be up to Manny. A twelve year old boy, who had never flown
anything before. “Manny, this is as far as I can go with you. If I try to guide
you in the rest of the way, I
’
ll only get you confused.
You need to fly over to mate your door with the docking port. It
’
s
a universal docking port, your door will automatically clamp on and form a
seal, but you need to be on target within twenty centimeters, left or right, up
or down. Any more than twenty centimeters off center, and the door won
’
t clamp on, OK?”

“OK.” Manny
replied, in a voice that did not sound confident at all.

“Manny, you can
do this. You flew halfway around the planet, and you arrived exactly where we
needed you to be. That
’
s excellent piloting, you can
’
t ask for better than that. Here
’
s what
you need to do-”

Manny
’
s first couple of tries weren
’
t great.
Seth had said to fly by eyeball, looking out the shuttle
’
s
front windows, judging the distance, moving in slowly. Some shuttles had
systems which would automatically fly the craft in to dock; this shuttle, and
the command section, lacked those conveniences. There were radar systems which
provided information like location and how fast the shuttle was approaching the
command section, but their usefulness was limited, and less useful the closer
the shuttle got. Pilots relied on their experience, which Manny lacked
completely. The first time, the shuttle came in too fast, and Manny had to back
off quickly, which threw the shuttle into a spin. That took twenty minutes to
sort out.

The second, third
and fourth tries were all too far off center. Manny got the shuttle lined up
correctly to start, and moved in at a moderate speed to within ten meters, but
then he had to stop looking out the window, and guide the shuttle in by looking
at a view from the door camera. It was confusing, and he took so long to get
lined up, that the docking port rotated out of range, and Manny had to back off
and start over.

“You ready,
Manny?” Kaylee asked.

“Yes.” Manny said
shakily, wiping his sweaty hands on his shirt. He was nervous, and he felt like
he really needed to pee. The shuttle lacked a bathroom. “One more time. You
watch the door camera. This time, I
’
m going to come in a
little low, so the docking port will rotate towards us as we move in.”

Manny twisted in
his seat, so he had a better view to the left side. He held the thruster
control stick lightly in this right hand, and gently nudged it to the left.

“Closing at two
meters per second.” Kaylee said softly.

Manny watched the
command section
’
s docking port approach. Something was
wrong, it was tilted. No, the shuttle
’
s nose was tilted,
and tilting further. “We
’
re spinning again!”

Seth broke in. “
Manny, we
’
re in the very top of the
atmosphere now, it
’
s going to affect the shuttle, and your
controls. Use the thrusters to bring the nose back down.”

They were in the
atmosphere?! Manny, already a bundle of nerves, didn
’
t
need to hear that. In his inexperience, he overcorrected, and soon the nose was
too far down. Then, he made a mistake, and suddenly they were moving too fast,
headed toward the command section!

“Manny!”
Kaylee warned.

“I
’
m
trying!” Manny slewed the shuttle around, and tried to move away, but he was
too late. The left side of the shuttle
’
s nose hit the
command section at an angle, and the shuttle
’
s cabin was
filled with a horrible screeching, as the shuttle's nose scraped along the skin
of the command section, snapping off two antennas along the way. The shuttle
’
s nose crumpled inward, damaging the radar antenna inside.

“What is that?”
Joy shouted, in fear not for herself, but for her children.

“I will ask Seth,”
Schroeder said calmly, although he knew what that sound had to be.

The shuttle slid
past the edge of the command section, and out into space, spinning nose over
tail. Now without radar, Manny had to rely on the seat of his inexperienced
pants. This was
so
much harder than a sim! “Seth!” He pleaded.

“Manny, you
’
re safely away from us now. Get the shuttle stable again, then
we
’
ll talk.” Seth looked at the displays in front of him,
fed by the datalink. The shuttle wasn
’
t losing air, thank
God for that. On the other hand, they were now too late. Skin temperature of
the command section
’
s leading edge had climbed fifty
degrees in the past three minutes. They were going down.

Schroeder called.
“Seth, status report.”

“Captain, I- they
can
’
t do this.” Seth concluded reluctantly. “We shouldn
’
t have asked them. It
’
s too late. We
’
re in the atmosphere now, and the shuttle will be harder to
control. Plus, we
’
ll start to spin faster now. There
’
s no way, sir. There
’
s just no way. I
’
m sorry.”

Schroeder
’
s knuckles grew white as he clutched the phone. “
I understand.
” He turned toward Joy. “
Ms. Sanchez,
I
’
m terribly sorry. We
’
ve run
out of time. We need to get your children safely away from here, now, before it
is too late for them.”

Joy nodded, tears
in her eyes. She wiped away her tears, and erached for the phone. “I
’
d like to talk to my children, please.”

“Certainly.”
Schroeder handed her the phone, and pushed himself away, to give her a small
measure of privacy.

“Manny, Kaylee,
babies, listen to me.” Their mother
’
s voice came over the
speaker in the shuttle
’
s cabin.
“I
know you tried, we all do, we know you tried really hard.”

“
Thanks,
Mom.
” Manny answered warily.

“I am so proud of
you. I want you to listen to Seth, and do what he tells you to do. You need to
get away from here, now, or-“

“What?
Mom! No, we
’
re not leaving you!” Kaylee
shouted.

“Kaylee, Manny,
you need to do this.” Joy
’
s said sternly. “Your father
needs you. Think about him.”

Manny broke in.
“Mommy, that
’s crap! We don’
t have the fuel to fly down to
get Dad! We
’
re coming to get
you
!”

“Manny, no. This
is not a sim, it
’
s not a game, you tried real hard, but it
’
s too-“

Kaylee angrily
stabbed her finger into the button to cut off the radio. She looked her brother
in the eye. “We are
not
running away. You need to do this, for real.
Right now.”

“You got that
right, sis.” Manny blinked away tears, extended his arms in front of him, and
cracked his knuckles. He tugged his seat straps tight. “Enough screwing around,
let
’
s do this.”

Kaylee stared at
Manny for a moment, wondering who this strange creature was, who had taken over
the body of her annoying little brother. “Sure. Yes. Ready.”

“
Standby
one.
” Manny announced, and grasped the control stick. “Radar
’
s down, we
’
ll have to eyeball it all the
way in.” He puffed the thrusters. “Closure rate?” Forget about the shuttle,
Manny told himself, this is a sim. He had done this a million times in sims,
when the fate of the entire galaxy was at stake! He wasn
’
t
Manuel Sanchez, twelve year old kid, flying a shuttle, instead he was his sim
avatar,
Commander Raul
‘Razor
’
Salvio,
at the controls of his FA-45 Dragon starfighter. And this time, the fate of the
whole
universe
was at stake.

“Three point five
meters per second. That
’
s fast, Manny.
”

“I
’
m
coming in fast, because the command section is starting to rotate faster. The
docking port will move out of range soon.” He puffed the thrusters once again
to speed up, then once again to stabilize the shuttle in the mild turbulence.
“Come on, come on, come, on,come on, fly straight!” He said through clenched
teeth. That was something Razor would say.

Kaylee didn
’
t know what to make of that comment, so she stuck to the facts.
“Closure rate four meters per second. I can see the docking port in the
camera.”

“Switching to
camera view.” It was close, too close. “Slowing now.”

“Two point three
meters per second. Manny, we
’
re drift-“

“Shut up. I see
it.” Manny puffed the thrusters. “On center. Slowing.”

Kaylee sat back
in her seat, silently reciting a prayer. Talking would only distract her
brother.

“
On
center, drifting, come on, come on, come on, come
on
! On center,
got it!” Manny shouted triumphantly, as the shuttle was jolted when it touched
the command section. There was a series of banging sounds, as the door adjusted
to match the docking port, when a whooshing noise. A green light came on, above
the door. Manny popped his harness buckles open. “
Kaylee, get
that door open
now now now!”

The first face
they saw, once the door, and the airlock beyond, opened, was their mother. “You
are in big trouble, young lady.” Joy sobbed, before flying forward to hug and
kiss her two children.

“Move the robot
out.” Schroeder ordered, as people began to crowd into the little shuttle.

“No!” Both
children shouted at once.

“
Manny,
Kaylee, we don
’
t have room for your robot. It
’
s heavy, and we
’
re already packing seven
people in here. We barely have enough fuel to establish a stable orbit.” Seth
explained.

“No! Rocko saved
my life!” Kaylee protested.

“He saved
everybody, you too!” Manny added. “If he didn
’
t give me
the code for the shuttle, we wouldn
’
t be here!”

Schroeder looked
to Joy for support. Before Joy could say anything, the robot ended the
argument. “I must leave. You are in danger, and you must climb into orbit
immediately.” In the zero Gee, it began to pull itself along toward the door,
squeezing past Schroeder on the way.

“No!” Manny held
onto the robot
’
s foot.
“Rocko, no!”

The robot
stopped, and turned around to look at Manny and Kaylee. “I am programmed to
protect children. You must not stop me.” With its right hand, it popped open a
door on the side of its armored head, and pulled out a shiny cylinder. It held
the cylinder out to Manny. “This processor unit contains my personality
program, and my memories. You may install it into another chassis, if you
wish.”