Dreaming of Atmosphere (27 page)

Zoe! Deck 1, O
2
vent. Tac show her where we’re coming out!

Medical Officer Ward has been notified.

I crawled and pulled, dragging Eric’s dead weight behind me. We passed over a grated opening that fed down into a shaft that ran down into the life support machinery, a fresh breeze flowing up into the vent space. I could see a thick blood smear where we’d crawled and dragged. Soon I came to a vent opening, and I could see people waiting for me at the end. As soon as I was close enough I was grabbed and hauled out of the vent shaft. Eric followed soon after and Zoe started to work on him immediately. Mal, Fel’negr and one of the Argen where there as well. I leaned over Eric and started to send my Repair nanites into his body.

“Keep doing that!” called Zoe, “Hand me that scanner!”

She ran a device over his face and neck, then gave him an injection. She cut the bandages off his stumps and attached a metal cup device to one and started to apply a proper bandage to the other. She got Fel to run a blood pack to a needle in his inner thigh, and he held it aloft while she applied several other injections and devices.

“He’s in shock. I can’t get his pulse.” she said, “Seth, hit him with Ionise!”

I looked at her. “Are you sure?”

“Do it! Try and hit his heart directly!” She pointed at his ragged chest, which was welling up with blood. “Everyone clear!”

I reached out and felt for his heart, then shifted the electrons around it with the Ionise paradigm. He gave a quick shudder and a spasm and then was still again.

“Again!”

I sent another shock into his heart. Zoe used the scanner to test this chest area but was getting frustrated. She reached into her kit and pulled out a device that looked almost like a gun and she fired it into his chest. A small dart dug into his ribs and a red flashing light started to strobe. With each flashing light, Eric shuddered and jerked. Zoe avidly studied the handheld device, twisting a dial and pushing buttons.

“What’s happening?” said Mal.

“He’s lost too much blood. I’m losing him.” she said.

Maxine came running down the passageway from the ladder well. She was carrying another medical bag, and she almost threw it onto the deck beside us. Zoe rifled through the bag and drew out a small metal box. She placed it beside Eric’s battered head and used her other hand to hold his head still. She pressed a button on the side and something must have ejected out of the box and into his skull, because it lodged there. Zoe held up another device that showed a multitude of graphs and data streams. She was shaking her head, and great heaving sobs started to shake her.

“I can’t…there’s no…he’s gone…”

Max grabbed her and shook her gently, “You can do this, don’t give up, Zoe!”

“There’s no brain activity. He’s dead!” Another sob wracked her.

“You killed him!” cried Mal, a shaking fist gesturing in my direction.

“That’s enough, Mal.” said Max.

“No! He killed him! You incompetent, self-absorbed fuck up!”

Suddenly, I teleported to him and had my bloody hands around his throat. His surprised face was distorted in a grimace that became a choking gasp as I squeezed.

“Seth!” someone yelled. People were grabbing me, but my blood smeared arms were making me hard to grasp. Mal was going purple and making gurgling sounds. I barely felt the needle that Maxine stabbed me with, but I suddenly lost all the strength in my arms and legs. I dropped Mal and he scrambled away from me as I slumped to the deck.

I could hear people yelling at each other, but they were distant voices as if heard from inside a long tunnel. Then I fell into a yawning pit of darkness.

32.

I dreamt of the warm dark sea, its soft embrace a source of comfort. I was beneath the gentle waves, among the data motes and plankton. I dared not surface, for a storm raged above. I drifted in the silence waters, while lightning crashed and rain hammered down. Then, in the distance, I could see an outstretched hand enter the water and hold itself out for me. I was drawn to it, and could not help but to reach for it. When I was near, the hand grasped me and tried to pull me up. I struggled, but I was not strong enough. As I burst out of the sea I came awake suddenly, startling Zoe as she was wiping a damp sponge across my brow.

“Sorry,” I said, “I was dreaming.”

I could see that she had been crying. She hadn’t changed out of her bloody clothes, and I could see that the sponge she held was stained with blood.

“The Captain sedated you. You were pretty out of control.”

“Yeah, I don’t know what came over me. I’m sorry if I frightened you.”

“No, I was angry at Mal too. What he said was out of line. I’m almost ashamed to admit that I wanted you to hurt him.” She held her hands together in her lap and bowed her head. I was laying in one of the med lab cots. I could see Crege sitting in the other one, across the compartment from me.

“How are you doing, partner?” I said to him as I sat up.

“Been better.”

“I meant to come down and check on you after, but…”

“No need, friend. Warrior has been wounded in battle. Warrior lives to fight once more.”

“You’re a tough son of a bitch, I’ll give you that.”

I looked down at Zoe, she hadn’t moved much since I’d sat up, except to shuffle down further to give me room. I put my arm around her and gave her a gentle hug.

“What about you, Zoe?”

“He’s dead.”

I blew air out in a great sigh. “There was nothing we could have done. He’d lost too much blood before I got him out. If anything, Mal was right, I was too slow.”

“No. He’d suffered too much trauma to his body, his heart and lungs too damaged to survive. There’s no way you could have saved him either. There were fractures in his skull and his left cheek bone was shattered.” She said all this with clinical dryness.

“I…don’t know what to say. I’m sorry, Zoe.”

“I’ve never lost a patient before.”

“He wasn’t just a patient, he was family. We all are. Even Mal. What you’re feeling, it’s called grief. It’s okay to feel this way. I’m here for you, for anything you need.”

“We both are, little human.” offered Crege. He’d stood up and was using a makeshift crutch to shuffle around the compartment to us. He placed a hand on Zoe’s head and made a kind of clucking sound with his tongue.

After a while, Zoe leaned into me and accepted my hug. She held Crege’s hand then, and I could feel her sobbing gently. It took a few minutes, but she eventually stopped and made sniffling noises. She stood up and started to wash her hands in a metal sink. Crege went back to his bunk after Zoe chided him for walking around. I stood up and gave her another hug.

“I’m okay. Thanks, guys. I mean that.”

“All right, I’m going to find Maxine, but you let me know if you need me, okay?”

“I promise.” She gave me a weak smile and I kissed her before leaving. I headed into the mess deck and looked around. Fel’negr and Denno were at one of the tables talking quietly. They stopped when I entered and Fel asked if I was okay. I nodded that I was and left for the ladder well to Deck 1. As I reached the top I could already hear screaming and yelling coming from Max’s cabin. I almost didn’t open the hatch, but I needed to talk. When I opened it, I could see Max and Artemis standing across from the conference table glaring at each other, both were red faced and there were several mementos scattered over the floor. Artemis had a fat lip and a single drop of blood ran down from her nose to her upper lip. Maxine’s hair was all out of place and her shirt was torn at the collar. They both stopped what they were doing, which appeared to be circling each other, and glared at the intruder.

I held my hands up in surrender.

“I come in peace.”

“I’m going to kill her, Seth.”

“She’s going to try.”

“No one is going to kill anyone. There’s been enough death this last week to last a year.”

“There’s room for one more death. Hers.”

“What would Eric say, if he were here right now?”

“Don’t do that, Donny.” Max looked stricken, almost like I’d slapped her.

“Sorry, but we need clear heads.”

“Control your Captain, Seth. Before I put her down.”

“That goes for you, too.” Artemis turned to look at me, fire in her eyes. “Don’t give me that look. If I didn’t think your dead man switch wouldn’t kill this ship, I’d put a sword through your gut right now and toss you out the ‘lock.”

“You were told! No tampering with the bombs. You did, and you paid the price.” she jabbed a finger at me and Max. I could see Max about to lunge at her so I held up my hand.

“Stop! You really didn’t think we’d try to remove as many as we could? Isn’t that half the reason there are so many?”

She just glared at me furiously.

“Whether we like it or not, we’re already resigned to doing this mission. The difference is, are we going to kill you when we finish or not.” I said.

“You were
warned!
Eric’s death is on
you!
” she yelled, pointing at me.

“That may be, but we’ll never forget who put those bombs there in the first place.”

“You can blame whoever you want for putting them there. They wouldn’t have gone off it you hadn’t decided to play mechanic.”

“You tell us, this minute, what we’re doing here.” demanded Max, “Why we’re risking our lives for a bunch of low life criminals. Why Eric threw his life away for you, for this job. Tell me that, bitch, or so help me I will make the rest of you miserable life…”

“Spare me the platitudes, old woman.”

“Art! Tell her! Now!” I held out my arms and angry lightning played about between my hands. She did a double take and recoiled from me.

“Okay! I’ll tell you. It won’t make a difference. It’s an experimental portable Jump Gate.”

“What?” both Max and I said simultaneously.

“You’re doing a gaol break. Get into Ambrose Station, set up the portable Gate and get one individual out.”

“Who?”

“An associate of Benedict.”

“Why? Why all this trouble for one person?”

“They’re important to Benedict’s organisation.”

“Quit fucking around with the half-truths and tell me who?” growled Maxine.

“His name is Osiris Blackburn. He’s a business associate of Benedict, like I said.”

“Osiris fucking Blackburn?” said Max, her mouth agape.

“Who’s that?” I said looking between the two.

“I thought he was dead.”

“Almost was. Got stuck on Ambrose during the Ghantri take over.”

“Who’s Osiris Blackburn?” I repeated

“Why the Jump Gate?”

“You really think the Protectorate blockade inspectors will let you leave the system with him on board?”

“Who the fuck is Osiris Blackburn?!” I shouted.

“Seth!” chided Max, “He’s pretty much the bogey man of the underworld. He ran both the Iloz Cartels and the Acheras Raider Guild for almost a century. That and he was pretty much the overseer of anything illegal in the Eridani System for the thirty years. Right up until he just vanished.”

“I’ve never heard of him…”

“Most people think he’s dead.” explained Artemis, “Rivals who filled the vacuum when he disappeared worked hard to make sure his name was forgotten. But Benedict never forgot.”

“And by busting him out of Gossamer, Jenner expects Osiris will reward him?” asked Max.

“Of course he will. Benedict is his nephew.”

Max threw herself into a chair with a great sigh. She worked a hand through her hair and gestured for me to sit. She took one look at Artemis and simply said “Get out.”

Art obliged, leaving the two of us alone as I sat opposite Maxine.

“I’m sorry about Eric.”

“It wasn’t your fault. I know that. So does Mal. He was just shocked is all.”

“I’m sorry I attacked him. I was out of line.”

“I’m sorry I drugged you.”

“Liar. You might want to ensure we don’t pass each other in the passageways for a few days.”

“I’ll keep him in engineering as often as I can. He’s still on watch with Hergo at the moment.”

I said nothing for a few moments. I could see Max was studying me.

“What happened?” she asked after a time.

“I don’t know. We had the charge out and Eric took it from me. He was putting it in a box to take it out when I turned around to put the tuning rod back in the Davian chamber and next thing I knew I was blasted into the bulkhead.”

“How’s Zoe?”

“She’s shaken up pretty bad. Crege and I showed her some family strength and that seemed to make her better. It’s a hell of a thing for her to go through.”

“It’s a hell of a thing for us all.”

“Yeah, I didn’t mean…”

“I know. Eric was one of my oldest friends.”

“One of mine too.”

“She’s right, though. We brought this on ourselves.”

“Artemis? Hell no. There’s no way we wouldn’t at least
try
to get these bombs off. This isn’t on you, Max. No way.”

“In a way, it is. It’s okay, I’ll carry that. Burdens of command.”

“Eric knew the risks. We all did. We all knew we had to try. End of story.”

“Well, no more attempts from now on.”

“Okay, that’s your call.”

“It is.”

We were silent again for a few more minutes.

“How are you holding up?” I asked. I got up and moved to a seat next to her and put my hand on her arm.

“Numb. It hasn’t hit me yet.”

“It will.”

“Yeah. I plan on being well and truly drunk when it does.”

“Really? Is that wise? With the Xerxes on our tail like this.”

“Fuck it. I’m too old to worry about death. All I can do is flip it the bird when it brushes against me.”

“How am I supposed to respond to that?” She looked me in the eyes then, and I could see the pain in them.

“I need this. Can you give me one ship day to get over this?”

I held her gaze for a full minute before answering. “Promise me you’ll be okay after? We all need you functional. I need you functional, Max.”

“I promise.” She reached over and gave me a fierce hug, then abruptly pushed away and stood, walking over to a cabinet near her bunk. She drew out two mugs and a decanter of something dark and smoky. “Share the first one with me?”

“Is it going to wipe me out?” I remembered that Max likes her drink
strong.

“No, it’ll just put hairs on your chest.”

“Okay, but then I’m out.”

She poured a splash into each mug and we stood in a moment’s silence, saluted with the mugs and then downed them. The liquor was strong, but slightly sweet. It only half stripped the lining of my throat on the way down. I left before Max could see me cough it up.