New Title 1 (53 page)

“Do you consider yourself an honorable man?”

“I’d like to think so.”

“So, in relation to the charges by one Walter Gordon that you cooperated with Verdant command’s stealing his freighter…?”

Roy allowed the left side of his mouth to pull back in a wry grin, and he chuckled again. “I believe Verdant was justified in commandeering the
Makalu
, given the circumstances. Also, Gordon was offered full payment for the ship in compensation, by Ceo Lenz, and he turned it down. The man has threatened me for going along with all this, so as far as I’m concerned, he doesn’t deserve my honor. The man’s a moron, his claims are crap, and I couldn’t care less what he says.”

After a pause, Cates nodded, tapped his secretary with his stylus, and pocketed the device. “That’s all I have, sir,” he said to General Boulle.

Boulle seemed none too satisfied with the result, but presently, he nodded, and stood up. “All right, Captain. Your cargo is waiting, so why don’t we go do some paperwork, and release the goods to you?”

“Thank you,” Roy said. “The arrangement with Verdant was also for a full refuel and servicing.”

“Already being taken care of,” Boulle said. “Due to the caldera incident, we’ve initiated hull check procedures to make sure every ship that arrives is still skyworthy. Our crews are already checking the
Makalu
, and I understand their cursory checks haven’t revealed any problems so far.” Roy gave the General a significant look, to which the General responded, “They’re only doing external checks. Internal servicing is up to your crew. We’re also prepared to put your people up for the night, in quarters nearby.”

“Not for me,” Roy replied. “I’ll be staying with the
Makalu
. I’ll talk to the rest of my crew, and let you know who wants to take you up on your offer.”

“I understand,” General Boulle said. “Shall we go?”

~

A line of busses drove through the main south gate of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal. Once through the gate, some of them headed directly for downtown Denver, bound for the train station or the center of town, while others veered off towards the interstates. They carried the passengers from the
Makalu
, cleared by the military and being given free transportation to wherever they desired to go.

One bus heading into town pulled over at a local bus stop, and the doors opened. Three people got off of the bus there, and headed in different directions… two of them, at least, seemed to know where they were going, and were intent on getting there.

The third person was Maria Rios.

Once they had brought her to the doctors waiting in the hangar, she had been moved from the wheelchair to a cot in a small office. The doctors had checked her over, and she had explained her heart arrhythmia to them. A doctor had ordered for a full examination, and had asked her for more medical details, which Maria had not wanted to give; she knew no good could come from revealing, after just touching down on Earth from Verdant, that she was masquerading as someone else. Fortunately, as she tried to figure out a way to explain herself away, her heart fell back into a standard rhythm. She begged them off at that point, insisting that she only needed a few minutes of rest, then could rejoin the rest of the passengers as they were already making preparations to leave. She had made the local bus, having no specific place to go, and had breathed a sigh of relief as she escaped the clutches of the government personnel.

She looked around the eastern side of Denver, wide-eyed in anticipation. It was already getting dark, but the ash-filled sky gave everything a reddish-pink hue that seemed to promise magical days ahead. She did not know where she was going, but she could not imagine it could be anything but wonderful.

Shouldering her backpack, she walked westerly, in the direction of the mountains barely visible beyond. She was suddenly aware of her heart beating… but this time it was beating strongly and evenly… with
excitement
. The first day of her real life would start now.
Now
. She could hardly wait.

~

When Roy returned to the
Makalu
, about an hour after he and the General had gone through the cargo paperwork, the first thing he saw was Goldie and Hunter outside the ship, keeping an eye on the various service personnel roaming over the exterior of the freighter. “Everything look okay out here?”

Hunter turned when he heard Roy’s voice. “Well, everything looks kosher,” he said. “But we aren’t exactly freighter experts, you know?”

“I’ll come back and give everything a check myself,” Roy told them. “I’ll be staying aboard tonight. The General’s offered sleeping quarters for anyone who’s interested.”

“Our orders,” Goldie stated, “are to stay with the
Makalu
. So we’ll pass.”

“I appreciate that,” Roy said. “Catch you later, then,” he said as he headed up the ramp and into the ship.

Inside, he found a number of people disassembling and removing the last of the makeshift seating that had been installed on the freighter. The bays that had formerly held the seats would be filled in the morning with needed supplies, going back to Verdant. Most of the people removing the seats had U.S. multiforces uniforms on… the rest wore one-piece service coveralls. Roy ambled towards the engine bays, and found most of Dr. Silver’s staff, and his own crew, milling around back there. “What’s going on?”

Valeria Epstein was the first to respond. “We’re just keeping an eye on things around here… making sure no one tries to sneak in and get a peek.”

“Well, all of you don’t need to do that!” Roy pointed out. Then he looked to his own crew. “And what about you guys?”

One of his crewmen, a young man everyone called Spring, stepped forward. “We’ve gone over the ship, and haven’t found any problems caused by the ash layers. Henti and Blake are still checking the engines, but Blake said everything’ll be ready to go in the morning.”

“Good,” Roy said. “The General has set aside sleeping quarters for anyone who wants ‘em, but I’m staying here, and I need a few people to stick around and keep watch with me. I want the rest of you to go and get a good night’s sleep.” He turned to Valeria. “Val, if you can spare just two of your people, to make sure someone can trigger the bay if it gets compromised?”

“Sure,” Valeria said. “I’ll stay, and…” She turned to the others, and after a moment, one of the techs raised his hand. “Okay, me and Lonnie.”

“I’ll stay,” said Spring.

“Okay, fine,” Roy said. “Everyone else, hit the dirt and go get some rest. Find Haylee and take her with you. Busy day tomorrow. Go, go,” he urged them with friendly waves of his arms.

Slowly, the crowd filed out of the bay, headed for the crew airlock, and trundled down the ramp to the outside. The many soldiers, Hunter and Goldie, and the service crews crawling over the freighter, silently watched them depart and head for the hangar, a few of them asking for the whereabouts of their quarters.

~

Shay looked up when the door to the Presidential suite opened. She expected to see the intern she had asked to bring her something to drink. Instead, she immediately recognized Gaston Lambert, walking in with a tray balanced in his hands. On the tray rested a bottle, and two wine glasses.

“I hope this will do for a drink,” he said lightly as she stood up to meet him. Shay met him halfway, took the tray from him, and placed it down on a nearby table. Then she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply.

When she pulled back, she said, “Anything from you is perfect, Gaston.” Then she stepped back, and reached for the glasses, as he reached for the bottle. She still had on the pants suit she had worn on the flight, but she had removed the jacket and opened the shirt almost to her navel, effectively exposing the swell and cleavage of her breasts and smooth, taut abdomen. As Lambert worked off the cork, she said, “Are your meetings over for the day, then?”

“Yes, I think so,” Lambert replied, a second before the cork popped off in his hand. He poured the sparkling liquid first in one glass, then the other. “There’s nothing more I can do tonight.”

Shay read the meaningful tone of his voice. “Is that a good thing?”

Lambert glanced at her. “We’ve set some things in motion. If we’re very, very lucky…” he paused, long enough to accept the glass from Shay and take a sip from it “…we may find ourselves retiring to Verdant yet.”

For a moment, Shay’s mouth fell open in wonder. Then she smiled and, raising her glass, tapped it against his in salute.

~

It was very early in the morning… or late at night, depending on your point of view. For most of the crew of the
Makalu
, it was past the end of a long day, and most of them were gone, or asleep. Crews had been loading the
Makalu
well into the night, as well as refueling it for the trip back to Verdant. The refueling had been finished hours ago, during Hunter’s shift, and the last of the cargo crews had left the ship over an hour ago. Roy Grand had personally checked each and every crate that had been brought aboard, before he’d awakened Spring and turned in himself for the next few hours.

At that particular moment, only Goldie Maina, Valeria Epstein and Spring were awake, with Hunter Reilly, Roy and Lonnie sleeping through their rest shifts. Blake and Henti, Roy’s men who had been working on the engines in the aft bay, were both asleep in hammocks they had hanging in the engine room for just such an occasion. Only Goldie was outside the ship, and Valeria and Spring were lightly conversing about nothing in particular in the bay adjacent to the crew airlock.

Most of the service crews had left the
Makalu
hours ago, but one team had reported a damaged sensor pod on the starboard forward side of the ship. They had been working to repair the damage all night, using parts from a spare pod that had been driven out from a nearby supplier. As the two men worked, using a small tractor to support the pod at its intended location on the hull, nine meters from the ground, Goldie walked about the ship, regularly stopping to watch them work. The two men largely ignored her, as they seemed to be having trouble with the replacement pod’s wiring, which was apparently not identical with the original pod’s wiring system. Goldie had asked them about it hours ago, and they explained that it was the process of figuring out which wires on the new pod corresponded to those on the old pod, that was adding hours to their work. Goldie had examined the pod, but had seen nothing that looked unusual about it. So she had let them work.

Presently, Goldie became aware of a noise she hadn’t heard before. She craned her head about, trying to localize the source of the noise, and after a moment, bent down and began crab-walking underneath the belly of the freighter. When she reached the port side, she looked up and saw a jet of grey steam emanating from a spot on the hull that didn’t look like it should be emanating anything.

Quickly she crab-walked back to the other side of the freighter, where the airlock ramp was. As she started up the ramp, one of the workers on the pod called out, “Everything okay?”

“Keep working there,” Goldie replied simply, and continued on into the freighter.

A few moments later, she came back out with Henti and Blake in tow, both grumbling about being awakened at such a godforsaken hour. They circled the ship until they were under the jet of escaping gas.

“Aw, shit,” Blake said, though he didn’t sound particularly upset, “it’s the port pod hydraulic line ruptured.”

“Yup,” Henti said, “lemme see if I can isolate it inside.” He dashed back around the ship.

Goldie looked at Blake. “What happens if he can’t isolate it from inside?”

“We’ll have to open up the hull to get at it,” Blake explained.

“Is that bad?”

“Not really,” Blake shook his head. “Just time consuming. Probably hold us up most of a day. Let’s see if Henti gets it from in there.”

They watched the escaping vapor for a few minutes, prompting Blake to take out his com and call out, “You having any luck, Henti?”

“Yeah, almost,”
came Henti’s reply.
“I can see it, but it’s a long reach… hold on… oh, hey, yeah, just… right there.”

Goldie and Blake exchanged glances. “Henti, what’re you doing?”

“Hold on, Spring’s here helping me. Wait… no,
wait
… now,
now
, pull it back.”

From outside, Goldie and Blake immediately noticed a lessening of the stream of vapor. As they watched, the jet became smaller, then smaller, then abruptly, stopped altogether.

“Yup. That got it,”
Henti com’d out.
“We’re good.”

“Great,” Blake said, and looked at Goldie. “Can I go back to sleep now?”

Goldie followed Blake back around to the starboard side of the ship, and watched as he trudged back up into the freighter. Crisis over, she slowly resumed her pacing around the ship, glancing up at the workers who were still installing the pod.

It had been almost a full ten minutes since she had laid eyes on them and their work.

Roy Grand was still asleep. He had left word to wake him at six A.M., but Spring had taken it upon himself to allow his Captain some extra shut-eye, and had intended to let him sleep until eight. However, a hand on his shoulder at seven brought him awake with a start.

“Uh!” Roy jerked upright, as if someone had punched him. Then he looked around bleary-eyed, and remembered where he was. He looked at Spring. “Everything okay?”

“You’ve got a com message,” Spring replied simply. “It’s Haylee.”

“Haylee?” Instead of asking questions, Roy pulled himself upright, rubbing out the stiffness in his body, and headed for the bridge. Along the way, he noted the time. “Why didn’t you wake me earlier?” Spring shrugged, and Roy, actually glad for the extra sleep, did not push the issue.

As he passed through the bays, threading around numerous crates and packages, he saw a number of people milling about around the remaining seats that had been left in the side bay. “Are all our passengers here?” Roy asked Spring.