Skirmishes (30 page)

Coop will simply have to wait for his fleet of Dignity Vessels. Even though I don’t want to be the one to tell him that.

We don’t have to tell him yet. We crowd near the door and coordinate our clocks. We have decided to use two hours on this dive. We’re fifty-three minutes in.

I go in first, because if there’s any obvious danger here, I want to be the one who discovers it. I still have vivid memories of what a destroyed
anacapa
did to one of my crew members years ago. If anyone ends up trapped and mummified, it will be me. Not because I’m heroic, but because I’m not. I don’t think I can live through that again.

This
anacapa
room is small compared to others I’ve seen, and a bit more centrally located. It has thick black walls covered with the nano-material I first encountered on Vaycehn. I know where the drive should be, and the area, which has all kinds of controls I just barely understand, looks intact.

I signal Denby with my right hand, then hover near the controls. We actually debated turning on the gravity and the environment—from what we can tell, it works just fine—but we decided against it. We’re not doing anything to this ship until we know that it suits our needs.

Denby pulls his way forward, moving as fast as he can toward me. I hope Nyssa is monitoring him for the gids. He seems almost too eager. He has brought a hook with him this time, and he grapples onto one of the side columns so that he can remain in place without holding something.

He bends over and begins to power up the console.

Orlando and Elaine guard the outside of the room. Not that I believe anything will hurt us; mostly I’m worried that there’s some kind of fail-safe and the door will close. Denby and I will be trapped inside, which is not something I want to experience.

The console turns a light blue. Yellow symbols appear. I can read some of them, including the ancient word for
danger
. I glance at him. Denby grins at me.

“So far so good,” he says.

He taps one side of the console, and beside me a compartment opens. It contains one of the larger
anacapa
drives I’ve seen.

“A little newer than ours,” Denby says. “I’m guessing not much.”

I know he means in design, not in age. In age, this thing is thousands of years old. My shoulders ache, and I realize they’ve risen upward, a sign of nerves. Old
anacapa
drives malfunction.

This is the test, for all of us.

“Can you start it?” I ask.

“It looks like it’s completely intact, and the console is working,” Denby says.

“So that’s a yes,” I say.

“No,” he says, “that’s an I’m-going-to-do-my-best.”

I nod. I understand that. One of my divers would be less specific, but Denby’s training makes him about as accurate as a human being can get.

I make myself breathe evenly—once in and once out.
So there, Nyssa
, I think, just in case she’s worried about us.

“Okay,” I say.

He touches the console. The
anacapa
glows orange for just a moment, then fades to silver. I can hear the normal thrum that I associate with the
Ivoire
’s
anacapa
, but none of the harmonies I’ve heard with malfunctioning ones.

“It’s working,” he says. “I’m going to run a diagnostic, but I think it’s a go.”

A go. In more ways than one. We have a ship to take back to Lost Souls. I take in a shallow, shuddery breath.

Holy crap
, I think but don’t say.
This is going to work. This is really going to work
.

FORTY-NINE

I DOUBLE-CHECK THE TIME. We have fifty minutes left on this dive. “How long does it take to get the
anacapa
powered up?”

Denby grins at me. “It’s not like other drives, Boss,” he says, and somehow he doesn’t sound patronizing. “It’s ready now.”

“Can you program coordinates into it and get us out of the Boneyard?”

“I can send us back to the Lost Souls if we want to go,” he says.

I trust him and I don’t trust him. That’s probably not accurate. I trust what he’s telling me; I just don’t believe it could be that easy. But I’m paying attention. He’s here for his expertise, after all.

I think about what he says, then I realize what bothers me about it. Yash would end up in charge of the
Two
. And she’s arrogant enough to believe she can lead another dive, get more ships out of the Boneyard.

With the suit issues, the weird energy signatures, and the Boneyard itself, I’m not willing to take that risk. In fact, it’s less the weird energy signatures that bother me than it is the Boneyard.

I have the odd sense that it’s alive, watching us, waiting. I’ve felt like that since it expelled us earlier in the mission. I don’t want to rile up whatever is here, if anything is here.

“We’re not going to Lost Souls yet,” I say. “We’re heading to the
Two
.”

He moves just a bit, as if I surprised him.

“You’re going to need me in engineering, right?” I ask.

“Just in case something goes wrong,” he says, as if I can make one of the Dignity Vessels work. But better me than Orlando or Elaine. Yash would have to talk them through everything. I can guess at some of it and probably not do any damage.

“You want Elaine or Orlando with you?” I ask.

“No,” he says a little too fast, which gives me an adrenalin spike. He’s worried about something. I am not going to ask, though.

“What’s bothering you?” I ask.

“Boy,” he says, “there are a million ways to answer that question.”

“About being alone,” I say.

“Nothing,” he says, which makes me wonder if I guessed wrong. I’m not going to push further, however. If he thinks it important, he’ll tell me.

As I pull my way out of the
anacapa
room, I hit the comm. “Yash, you listening to all of this?”

“I am,” she says after a delay that’s about five seconds longer than I want.

“I hope you’ve already removed the line,” I say.

“I was waiting for confirmation from you.”

I curse silently. Sometimes the military aspect of Yash irritates the hell out of me. I would have preferred more initiative, even if she got it all wrong.

“Do it now, then get the hell out of here,” I say. “I want the skip out of the Boneyard before we move the ship.”

“That means you’ll be in the ship longer than the agreed-upon two hours.”

She’s exacting to the very end.

“Yes, it does,” I say. I don’t want to point out to her that if something goes wrong, it doesn’t matter how long we’re in the ship. “Get out of here.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” she says and signs off.

I’m glad she’s off the comm, because I wanted to tell her that she’s right: I don’t have to tell her twice. I have to tell her at least three times.

I keep my mouth closed, and ease out of the room. Elaine and Orlando wait. Orlando’s closer to the door than I like.

“You want me to come with you?” he asks.

I’m in new territory here. I have no idea what I want or need. I’m not sure where the potential problems are, here or in engineering. I shrug.

“We’re going to need one person here at the door,” I say to him and Elaine, “the other with me in engineering. You guys figure it out.”

“I’ll come with you, Boss,” Elaine says. “I’ve been working with some of the Dignity Vessels at home. I might be useful.”

I look at her in surprise. I hadn’t known that. If I had, I might have made other choices earlier in this mission. Maybe the military way of doing things isn’t so bad after all. At least you know what everyone’s doing most of the time.

“You’re right,” I say. “You might be useful. Come with me.”

We make our way through the wide corridor, using the handholds we’d set when we first dived Ship One. As soon as we get to engineering, I’ll tell Denby to get us out of the Boneyard.

I hope that gives Yash enough time to get the skip out.

At least she’ll have it away from Ship One. That might be enough. With all of the various weird energy signatures in the Boneyard, I’m not sure if adding one more from Ship One’s
anacapa
drive will have an impact.

Or maybe I should say have a negative impact.

I’m pretty sure there will be an impact. I just don’t know what the impact will be.

FIFTY

THE ENGINEERING SECTION on Dignity Vessels isn’t one room or even a manageable area. It’s large enough to be a ship in and of itself. In fact, I would wager all of the
Two
would fit inside of the engineering section of Ship One, and leave room for at least three more
Two-
sized ships.

Denby tells me that the rows and rows of equipment, the consoles, banks, closed off areas, are all normal on certain types of Dignity Vessels. He says this is a different class than the
Ivoire
, but from the same period, which is why he can get so much done here. He also says that everything inside this section is intact.

Which is why I’m so grateful that I’m familiar with this kind of ship. Otherwise I would have no idea where the control panels are, the ones that can override the bridge, if need be, or act as a secondary bridge when the main bridge is out of order.

Or shut down.

That control panel is three banks in, hidden in the middle of what looks like very mundane equipment consoles. The design is purposeful. Anyone who tries to take over the ship from engineering would need to know where the consoles are, which isn’t something the average space-faring person could easily figure out.

I pull myself there, and power up the console with the touch of a hand. Yash had assured me that the entire vessel would power up for me because of the marker, but I hadn’t believed her until now. I’m relieved to see the blue lights becoming yellow, even if I’m suddenly annoyed at myself for failing to learn the old language.

None of the words on this panel look familiar.

I do recognize the configuration, though. I’ve watched Yash work the same configuration on the
Ivoire
, and I helped navigate the
Shadow
on her maiden voyage. I really didn’t fly her at all, but I pretended I did, just because I wanted her to be my ship from the very beginning.

“Hey, Denby,” I say, “I’m ready, but I hope to hell you can do most everything from there.”

“Me too,” he says, and he sounds extremely serious. What I would have given for a touch of wit at that moment.

Then Yash comes through the comm. “The skip is almost out of the force field. I’ll make sure it closes behind us.”

“Thanks,” I say. I guess we’re ready. I let out a small breath. My heart is pounding hard. I suspect I’ll hear about that from Nyssa later.

“Coordinates are in, Boss,” Denby says to me. I guess he wants me to give the go-ahead.

“Then let’s go,” I say.

He doesn’t have to tell me it’s done. I can feel it as the ship makes that stutter I’ve become so familiar with on the
Ivoire
. My heart stutters too, both in surprise and wonder, and just a little fear. We’re using an ancient vessel and attempting to move it out of a place we don’t entirely understand, using a drive we’re not certain about.

I can’t see any of the screens—I haven’t powered them up—so I have no idea if we’re looking at a new and different star map. Then the ship stutters again.

“We’re out, Boss,” Denby says.

My knees wobble. I am much more relieved than I expected. “I guess we can turn on the environmental controls, then,” I say.

I reach for them, then slid sideways. The entire ship vibrates and something flashes on my console, something I can’t read.

“What the hell?” I ask.

“The Boneyard is firing on you!” Yash says.

It takes a moment for that to compute. The Boneyard itself?

I slam my hand on the console, trying to get the screens up. Elaine pulls herself closer to the controls.

“Do you know where the shields are?” I ask.

“Yes,” she says, sounding calmer than I feel. “I’m turning on the gravity too.”

“How’s the
anacapa
?” I ask Denby.

“No trouble yet, but that shot was frighteningly close.”

“Screens up,” Elaine says.

“Can’t tell,” Yash says through my suit’s comm. “I’m coming to you.”

“No,” I say. I don’t want to wait for the skip. The ship vibrates again.

“Boss,” Denby says, “they’re aiming for the
anacapa
.”

I curse. This is what happened to Coop, to the
Ivoire
. A shot on the
anacapa
.

“Put in the coordinates for Lost Souls,” I say to him. Then I contact Yash. I hate being blind, and the screens aren’t coming up. “Are you being fired on, Yash?”

“Not yet,” she says. “Although a few shots have hit the
Two
. They have their shields up. Do you want them to fire back?”

“No,” I say. “Dock with them. We’re getting out of here. We’ll meet you at Lost Souls.”

“Boss, I’m not sure if that’s a good—”

I cut her off. “Let’s go, Denby. Right now.”

THE THIRD SKIRMISH

NOW

FIFTY-ONE

“GET ME FLAG COMMANDER JANIK,” Trekov said to Sherwin.

Sherwin pointedly looked around the bridge. The crew did their work, but stiffly, as if they weren’t certain what would happen. Sherwin was clearly scared. He had become scared when this Captain Cooper made his threat to do the same thing he had done at the Room of Lost Souls. So Sherwin did know the details after all. Trekov hadn’t been certain.

“I need him
now
,” she said, since it looked like Sherwin froze. She didn’t blame him. Group Commanders usually didn’t go to Flag Commanders in the middle of a battle.