Archaea (27 page)

*****

The captain kicked in, wearing flannels and down slippers, an old cotton shirt, holes and all. Even dressed like some refugee from the Great Nap-Time wars, he
commanded an aura of respect we all did our best to ignore.

“What's the situation, Gene?” he asked, nimbly dodging my pointed look at his jammies.

“Well, Dak... it's these cases here Yak hauled over from the Mantis. They're damnably heavy, and pretty securely locked up...”

“I see...” he said, though I know he didn't. “Why don't you just open them, Gene? Saw off the latches, or cut into the cases themselves... pop the hinges maybe?” he said, trying to roll one over to look at the bottom. “Good grief Gene, these are heavy!”

“Yeah, they are... Now look, Shorty and I can hack them open no problem, but here's the deal. We don't know what they're about, Dak. Those latches may just be some sort of complicated machinery, or hidden catch that requires a special key – they may have a radio-frequency circuit in them that opens when a specific frequency hits them, or they may have a pressurized spansule of high molarity acid, that pops and ignites a reaction that fills the cargo bay with some sort of poison, or just destroys their contents...” As I talked, the captain did his 'these are details, I don't care' face, and I knew he wasn't listening.

“Captain, they could trigger a detanite charge if we try to force them”, Shorty added.

“Well that all sounds bad, Gene. Thanks for letting me know. I think it’s best, if all non-essential personnel named Yak and persons in charge of this vessel should vacate the cargo bay and lock hatches behind them. Shorty, or Gene, should then crack one of these suckers open by... ah... any means necessary, and report their success or failure accordingly.”

“Sounds good Captain”, said Shorty with a smile, “so I'll just be headed on up out of here Gene, because I don't see anyone here named 'Shorty'.”

“Now wait a minute--”

“No, sorry, Captain's orders Gene. Good luck!” she laughed, not going anywhere.

The captain and Yak withdrew to the upper section leading to the gun deck, and dogged the hatch. I made a monkey-face at Shorty, and she stuck out her tongue, and we both smiled.

“Let's try scoping it, Shorty... We can run a feeler all along this seam on the side, so we ought to be able to pop a tiny little hole in there, don't you think?”

“Sounds good Gene” she said, chucking a 2mm drill bit, and clipping on a light. She ran the feeler back into the gap, slowly feeling for depth.

“Gene, it looks like there's about a centimeter before the  feeler stops... do you have a depth set for the bit?”

I handed over a depth set clamp that she attached at a little less than a centimeter to the bit. If the inner section was some sort of spansule of acid or nerve gas, we definitely didn't want her to drill into it.

“Hang on Shorty, did you scan this for RF?”

“No... for the same reason we aren't slapping it with a magnet...if it's triggered with an open dead-man switch, interference could pop the trigger.”

“Well... true, but you know, Shorty... if it was that sensitive, it'd have to be pretty well shielded, right? I mean, you wouldn't make a case that would blow up the first time it was scoped at a cargo terminal.”

She tried on one of my faces, and shrugged. “Gene, that's a good point. Stand back while I scan.”

I kicked off for the far corner of the bay and grabbed the hoist rail, looking down. She pulled out her scanner, and dialed through radio frequencies, looking for any noise.

“Nothing Gene, it's either really well shielded, which is likely, or not RF active, which may also be likely. Back to the drill?”

I nodded, and kicked back over to assist. I held the light and helped steady the case, as she slowly started to drill into the seam on the side of the latch. The bit started to smoke, so I handed over some lubricating oil and took a firmer hold on the case. She braced a leg against a pallet stack behind her, and leaned into the drill a bit more, but the only thing that happened was the bit started to glow a bit.

“Shorty, hold on a bit. That sucker isn't drillable.” I said, stating the obvious. She had scored a tiny little dent into the dull metal, but that's about it. The bit was titanium carbide, and I would have bet long odds it should have slid through the metal of the latch like nothing.

She nodded, and took a deeper look at the latch side with the light, angling it back and forth.

“Gene, what do you figure this metal is?”

I shrugged, “I don't rightly know Shorty... Maybe it's some sort of exotic, like glassed tungsten, though it could also be
really high tempered carbide as well.  Should we try a magnet?”

It was her turn to shrug, and she pulled a telescoping pick-up magnet from her arm pocket and waved it at me. “Go right ahead Gene, I'll be up there, watching” she said with a smile as she kicked off to the far corner of the bay.

I had one of those quick moments, where I ran through all the things I've done, and evaluated my life and my position on it. It seems like the older I get, the longer these moments take to work through, and working with Dak, it sure seems like I have a lot of them. I always recommend to look before I leap, but then, at a certain point, you have to just leap. I figured this was one of those moments.

I carefully tried the magnet on the case, and it wasn't ferrous, and it didn't blow up. Encouraged, I flashed Shorty one of those condemned-men-had-a-last-meal looks, and held the magnet against the latch – then almost browned my shorts when a clack inside the latch popped the latch and opened the case.

*****

When the case opened, Gene flung himself back and launched into a perfect slow cartwheel through the cargo bay. Right on cue, Captain Smith opened the hatch and boosted over to the case.

“Shorty... a little help?” Gene pleaded, between some really exceptional curses.

“Sorry Gene, one moment!” I replied laughing. I would have collected him, but I was already vectored to the case myself, and he was just going to have to wait, spitting and cursing like a real sailor.

Of course, Captain Smith was utterly relentless. “Gene, good job man. Nice to see you got a real handle on the situation. You cracked the case, inspector! Always nice to see you rise up to the challenge! You're really flying now, Gene!”

“Are you quite done...sir?” Gene sputtered, looking for all the world like some groundhog trying to get his space legs.

“Not quite, Gene, but I need a little time to think of some more. Can you hang around a bit in the meantime?”

“Dak, honestly...”

“Don't fly off the handle, Gene, I know you're up for this.” I groaned, this was getting painful. I took pity on him and boosted him over to the far wall of the bay.

“Thanks Jane”, he said in a voice pitched low enough for only me to hear.

“No problem Gene – let's finish cracking that case open now” I said, as we both boosted back over to the case - - before the captain killed us all by opening it.

“Captain, hold on a second sir, if you please” I said, in my most affirmative, commanding voice.

He fixed me with a glint, and ramped an eyebrow. “Nice Jane, very nice. Very well, you first.” he said with a smile and a gesture towards the case.

“Now stand back folks... the latch is open, but I need to scope the inside, and make sure there's no secondary trigger or failsafe.” I waited until they moved back to some sort of cover, and then slowly slid the scope into the crack by the latch, and clicked on the ring-light at the end.

“What's in there Shorty?” Gene asked.

“Jane, please be careful dear” the captain added.

*****

“Are you hungry, Thom?” He looked like he hadn't eaten in a week.

“I am starving, Pauli”, he said eagerly.

We kicked over to the galley, and I made him a standard-issue PB&J, the signature meal on the go for a crew-member on the go, and we talked briefly about his time on the Mantis, and what sort of work he did.

He was still pretty overwhelmed by his experience, and didn't really seem to want to talk much about it. I offered to give him a tour of the Archaea, but when we got to the bridge, no one was there. Heading aft through the gun deck, Yak was hovering just inside the inner lock, looking through the port.

“What's going on Yak?” I asked, floating up to get a look.

“Gene and Jane are working on some mystery cases we looted from the Mantis, Pauli... they're not sure what's in them, but they're pretty worked up over it. Of course, now that the captain is involved, he's egging them on and they're both trying to out-cool each other. Right now, Jane's showing some pretty solid nerves of steel, and Gene and the captain are behind cover.” he chuckled.

“What cases?” Thom asked, looking through the port.

“Some cases we found locked away on deck five, right near the port lock”, Yak said. “They were pretty slagged, and are really solidly locked, but it looks like Gene figured out how to pop them open. Jane's scoping them now with a snooper, trying to see what's inside”

Thom shrugged, saying “I don
't recall cases like that in that section. They were locked up?”

“Yep, in wire racks. I had to burn off their locks just to get to the cases, so they looked like they were pretty valuable.”

“Must have been something Red Martigan scrounged off a ship after they locked us up” he said, watching through the port.

*****

“Come on Jane, what's in there” I asked, getting less comfortable by the second, crouched in my flannels behind the best cover in my cargo bay. “Don't make me pull rank, now” I warned, though to be honest, if this had Jane spooked, I wasn't going to get any closer to that case for love or money.

“Hold your britches, sir” she said, through her teeth as she scoped around the interior of the latch and case. She stood up and smiled at us, and waved us over.

Gene and I kicked over, and behind and above us, Yak and Pauli boosted through the companionway hatch, followed by Thom, looking a little wobbly on his feet.

Gene and I took positions behind Jane, as she opened the case. For once in my entire career, I was speechless. The case was packed solid, with what looked like solid gold.

I thought of how many upgrades we could buy for the Archaea, how far that would bankroll us across the rim... That gold was the real deal. That was what we were here for, that was mission accomplished. 

“Good deal” I heard myself say, from a really far distance. Thom wasn't the only one with wobbly knees at this point – we were all swaying a bit.

“Well, I guess we should all take this opportunity to thank Yak, who had the presence of thought, the foresight, and the audacious temerity... to secure the booty!”

Jane burst into tears, and Gene kept shaking his head back and forth, as if he hoped it would just fall off. Yak looked like the hero he was, and Pauli laughed.

Chapter 13

Yak made contact with a research station orbiting around the airless rock of Vega 4, a blacked out ghost station that we were assured did not, and would not ever exist.

They paid a nice bonus, and Yak forced us all to take a share. He was a full crew member of the Archaea, and after all the work we all did on behalf of delivering that canister, I let him. I think we all realized the bonus, as nice as it was, was chump-change compared to what he had stowed in the cargo bay.

As I flew him back over to the Archaea on the gig, he told me a strange story of identical suited clones with mirror eyes, of formica and ultra-plush leatherette lounge areas, of DNA scans and non-disclosure agreements signed and delivered. Strange clients, but then most gloms are strange when you get a chance to see how they operate from the inside.

We decided to call a beer-and-steak break, a furlough in Vega 6, as we were in-system, and it was a pretty nice place to recreate. Gene and I were originally from there, so we had all sorts of fun showing everyone around, from seedy blast-pan clubs on the darker side of New Turiana, to the warm pebble beaches of the inner sea, reflecting the mauve sky with a warm breeze rippling through our hair.

Shorty worked on a tan, and looked thoroughly out of place in a bikini, but not all that bad, I guess. We'd been in the Archaea for a while.

Yak smiled a lot, and showed us how a Marine can drink. None of us were worthy to walk even one staggering inch in his shoes. We all damn near died, but I think we all learned to appreciate life a little more, after we woke up.

Pauli stayed busy, he spent a lot of time working remotely with Janis, and writing code, but that's what he does for fun, I guess.

I dropped Thom off outside the Service Consulate, and they wanted to give me a medal or call me back up for my part in the rescue and subsequent destruction of the Mantis. I respectfully declined both, and then declined a followup call from the station commander, who also wanted to call me up.

I am retired, and nothing was going to pull me away from my destiny, my future, my Archaea.