Drifter's Run (11 page)

Melissa had considered using the tractor-pressor beams to reach out and grab Lando but she was afraid to try. One little mistake and she could push him beyond reach or smash him against the hull. No, it was simpler and safer to suit-up and go after Lando in person.

With her suit sealed Melissa waited for the outer hatch to cycle open and tried her radio. "Pik… this is Melissa. Do you read me, Pik?"

No answer.

The circular hatch was only half-dilated when Melissa dived through. Pylax floated like an amber-colored jewel against the black velvet of space.

But Melissa ignored the planet and everything beyond to concentrate her attention on a single point of reflected light, the steady tone that emanated from it, and the actions necessary to reach it.

Suddenly all hesitation was gone. Space was Melissa's element, her playground, the place where she'd grown up. She'd been going outside for five years now, and even Cap said she was good, better than most grown-ups.

Melissa fired her suit jets in a long steady burst of power, watched the gleam of light turn into a space suit, and did a half somersault. She waited for the jets to slow her down, cut power at just the right moment, and threw her arms around Lando's left leg.

Melissa wasn't a bit surprised at her success. Only impatient to reach the tender, scared of what she might find when she got there, and worried about her ability to handle it.

What if Lando needed emergency medical attention? What if she had to dock with a habitat or, Sol forbid, land on Pylax? Could she do it?

These questions and others plagued Melissa as she grabbed onto Lando's external power pak and blasted for the tender. It was awkward, but Melissa had handled large loads many times before, and this wasn't much different. Lando's external air gauge was in the red so speed was of the essence.

The little ship came up quickly, and Melissa gave thanks for zero G, as she followed Lando's inert form through the hatch and cycled the lock.

Pushing Lando over to a suit lock Melissa engaged the electromagnet and did the same for herself. After that it was a matter of listening to the pulse pound in her head and waiting for the lock to pressurize.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the green light came on and Melissa could break her seals.

Pulling herself over to Lando, Melissa tried to see through his visor and failed.

"Pik? Can you hear me? It's Melissa. I'm opening your suit, Pik. Oh, please, Pik, say something, anything. Tell me you're okay. I promise I'll be good. I'll learn all the math the auto tutor can teach me, I'll clean my cabin twice a week, and I'll wet vac the hydroponics tank without being asked. Please, Pik… wake up."

Melissa pulled his helmet off and saw that he was breathing. Thank God! His eyelids fluttered and popped open. Slowly, very slowly, Lando's eyes came into focus. His voice was little more than a croak.

"You promise?"

"Pik… I'll get some help…"

"You promise about the math?"

"Sure… listen, Pik…"

"Say it."

"I promise to do my math."

"Good girl," Lando replied with just the trace of a smile. "Now drag whatever's left of my body to a bunk and strap it in. I need a nap."

8

Lando looked in the mirror and winced. His face was black and blue. Even though a complete medical examination had failed to turn up any broken bones or internal injuries, the pressor beam had ruptured thousands of capillaries just under the skin and turned Lando's body into a giant bruise.

In fact, the doctor Cap had flown up from Pylax had pronounced him "lucky to be alive," and had shaken her head in amazement.

Lando agreed. He
was
lucky to be alive. Lucky there'd been plenty of open space behind him, and lucky that Melissa had come after him before his suit ran out of air.

Lando remembered the fear in her voice, the pale little face, and the joy when he spoke. He smiled and it hurt.

Fumbling around in the medicine cabinet, Lando found a couple of pain tabs, placed them on his tongue, and chased them with some water.

The doctor had suggested a zero-G environment for his convalescence, but Lando had refused, pointing out that the movements required during weightlessness would hurt just as much or more. Besides, this way he could sleep in his own cabin, and that felt good.

The intercom bonged gently over his head.

"Yeah?"

"How're you feeling?" The voice belonged to Cap. A day late and a credit short as always, but very solicitous.

Especially after informing Cy and Lando that he'd used
their
salaries to buy coordinates for what
might,
or
might not,
be the
Star of Empire,
based on a fuzzy photo obtained from a woman in a bar.

It was pure Cap, or crap, depending how you viewed it, and Lando was pissed. But in his present condition the pilot was too beat-up to do more than grit his teeth and go along. "I feel even worse than I look."

"Sorry to hear that," Cap replied, doing his very best to sound sincere.

"Would you know anything about a dead body? We just got a com call from some naval lieutenant. A guy called Itek. He's looking for an Imperial Courier. A man named Nugleo. According to the lieutenant this Nugleo guy turned up missing three or four weeks ago, and for reasons that aren't clear could be orbiting Pylax in a space suit.

"I told him no, we didn't know anything about it, but Mel says you found a body. True?"

All sorts of thoughts raced through Lando's mind. The bounty on his head, the dead body wired to the inside of the trap, and the gold-filled satchel.

Great Sol! The gold! Where was it? Still connected to his suit? Lando hobbled toward the door. "This lieutenant… where is he?"

"On his way up from Pylax," Cap answered curiously. "Why? Is that a problem?"

"It might be," Lando answered tightly. "Meet me at the tender."

Fifteen minutes later Lando opened the tender's lock while Cap looked on. The older man wanted to ask a lot of questions but something about the expression on Lando's face kept him from doing so.

The space suit was right where he'd left it, and yes, the satchel was still in place.

Lando unsnapped the satchel and its sudden weight jerked his hand toward the deck. Wincing at the effort, Lando carried the bag to the outer hatch and dropped it into Cap's waiting arms.

Cap staggered, recovered, and did a double take when he saw the Imperial crest that was woven into the satchel's fabric. "What the… ?"

"Take a look inside," Lando answered impassively. "I think you'll find the contents rather interesting."

Cap fumbled the satchel open and looked inside. Lando smiled at the look of pure unadulterated avarice that came over the other man's face. "That's right… gold. Enough gold to keep all of us happy for the next year or so."

Cap looked up. "The courier? You didn't…"

"Don't be silly," Lando replied scornfully. "The courier had been missing for weeks, remember? No, I didn't kill him, I found him, that's all. He was drifting around Pylax with all the other junk. And that means the gold is ours, right?"

Cap frowned and hefted the satchel with his right hand. "I don't know, Lando . .
,
our contract gives us salvage rights to whatever we find… that's true enough. But Imperial gold? Chances are it's covered in the"fine print."

Lando swore softly as he climbed down and rubbed the back of his neck. Like the rest of his body it hurt. Cap was probably right. It was just like his father had always said: "Governments are all the same, son, they take most of what you make and spend it on themselves."

Lando cleared his throat. "That being the case… maybe we should forget the gold. You know, stash it somewhere. After all, somebody killed the courier, that's clear, and your lieutenant will assume
they
took the gold."

Cap forced his eyes up and away from the gold. "Killed? Why do you say that?"

"Somebody drilled him with an energy weapon," Lando replied patiently. "He was wearing one of those top-end self-sealing suits, but the bolt went clear through, and that made him extremely dead."

The intercom bonged over their heads. The voice belonged to Cy. "Cap, a navy shuttle just came alongside, and a Lieutenant Itek requests permission to come aboard."

There was a long moment of silence during which nothing was said but the two men continued to look each other in the eye.

Cap was the first to speak. "All right, Lando… let's stash the gold and hope for the best. You've got the body?"

"It's inside the trap."

Cap nodded and yelled toward the overhead. "Okay, Cy. Give us a moment to get clear, tell Itek to come aboard, and depressurize the bay. We'll meet him when he clears the lock."

"That's a roger," Cy answered crisply, and clicked off.

Forty minutes later the gold was safely hidden, Cap and Lando had phony smiles plastered across their faces, and Lieutenant Itek was stepping out of the lock.

He was short as naval types go, about five feet five or six, but athletic in a low blocky way. Itek's space black uniform hugged his considerable muscles and suggested a good tailor. He had short sandy hair, a nose that was a little too large for the rest of his face, and intelligent brown eyes.
Extremely
intelligent brown eyes. So much so that Lando felt his heart sink as he shook the other man's hand.

"Pik Lando, Lieutenant, and this is Cap Sorenson."

Itek smiled. "It's a pleasure, gentlemen. Sorry to take your valuable time, but the Emp gets rather protective when it comes to his couriers, and it happens that one is missing. Interesting ship, Captain… a custom design?"

Cap replied that it was, and as he led Itek toward the cabin that he used as an office, he proceeded to describe
Junk
's dubious merits.

Lando had a bad feeling as he followed along behind. For all his casual chatter, and flip references to the Emperor, Lieutenant Itek was no fool. Quite the opposite. Under the friendly surface Lando sensed an agile mind and a heart of pure steel. And unless Lando missed his guess, they were in deep trouble.

Cap's office showed signs of a recent cleanup, Melissa's doing no doubt, and the three men were able to sit down without clearing stuff off their chairs. The piles of printouts, worn-out ship parts, and keepsakes from Cap's more memorable tows were still present but neatly stacked. If the ship's argrav shut down, it would take years to collect the stuff and get it under control.

Doing his best to look relaxed and confident, Cap leaned back in his chair and clasped both hands over his stomach.

"We're glad you came, Lieutenant. As it happens we
do
know something about the missing courier. Unbeknownst to me, Lando here found him, and was on his way back to our tender, when parties unknown hit him with a pressor beam. Well, that put Lando out of commission for a while, so he couldn't tell me about the body. I heard about it a few minutes ago."

Itek raised an eyebrow. "Excellent! The search is over. Body you say. Poor Nugleo. The Emp will be quite upset. Any signs of foul play?"

Lando nodded. No doubt about it. Itek was a dangerous man. The naval officer was way ahead of them. Lando felt a trickle of sweat run down his spine.

"I'm afraid so, Lieutenant. The light was poor, but it appeared as if Nugleo had been hit with some sort of energy weapon. Whatever it was went straight through and out the other side."

Itek nodded as if expecting to hear something of the sort. "And the location of the body?"

"It's inside the trap. As Cap indicated I was on my way for help when somebody gave me a love tap with a pressor beam."

Itek pulled a communicator off his belt and spoke into it. "Ensign Davison, do you read me?"

"Loud and clear, Lieutenant."

"Keep an eye on item Tango. No one in or out without my permission."

Davison answered, "Aye, aye, sir," and clicked off.

Lando felt the trickle of sweat that ran down his back become a river. Itek had provided himself with a backup, a backup that was close enough to watch the trap. Now why would the naval officer do that unless he was suspicious?

Itek returned the communicator to his belt. "Sorry about the pressor beam, Citizen Lando… you're lucky to be alive. Parties unknown? A bit unusual, don't you think?"

There was just the hint of a smile around Itek's mouth as he spoke, as if to say that they could claim whatever they wanted, but he wouldn't believe it.

The truth was that Cap wanted to report Willer, but they had no proof, and without it the accusation would do little more than cause more trouble. All Melissa could do was testify that a darkened ship had passed through the area, that someone who sounded like Jord Willer had made threatening comments, and presumably hit Lando with a pressor beam.

Lando shrugged.
"Very
unusual. And
very
unpleasant."

"Yes," Itek agreed. "I'm sure it was. Well, enough of that. There's another matter to discuss however… and that's the satchel that Nugleo wore prior to his death."

Lando started to speak but stopped when Itek held up a well-manicured hand. "Please, Citizen Lando, let me finish. You'll be glad you did. Even seen one of these before?"

Lando stared at the little black box that the naval officer had removed from his breast pocket. He knew exactly what it was, and a single glance told him that Cap did too. Still, there was no point in admitting any more than he had to. When he spoke Lando's voice was a croak. "I don't think so… what is it?"

"A low-powered detector," Itek answered conversationally. "It doesn't have much range, but when it gets within a few hundred yards of the proper transmitter, this light blinks on and off."

Cap stared at the ruby red light as if transfixed.

"The really interesting part," Itek continued calmly, "is that the transmitter's woven into the fabric of the satchel that Courier Nugleo carried, and it's somewhere aboard this ship."

A moment of silence passed before Cap cleared his throat. "Yes, well, I, that is, we were going to mention that. I didn't want to say anything over the air lest the wrong ears hear, but when Lando discovered Nugleo, he fastened the satchel to his suit for safekeeping. I'll go get it."