Star Cruise: Marooned (3 page)

“Where the seven hells have you been? Where’s Drewson?” The voice she heard was so strained she could barely recognize the First Officer.

She drew breath to speak, but was cut off.
 

“Never mind, tell him everything’s—”

There was a funny sort of crackle from the link and then silence. She waited a few moments, then tried closing and reopening the connection. Nothing. Ship to space atmospherics could be a chancy thing. Drewson had made it clear he would
not
appreciate her interrupting his private party twice, and anyway, right now there was no talking to the ship.

The panel indicated someone else had entered the shuttle. Callina’s voice came over the internal com. “Meg? Are you here?”

She flipped the switch. “I’m in the cockpit. What do you need?” The last thing she wanted was the woman going near the private bedroom.

“Mr. Thomsill sent me to get you and the medkit. Sharmali’s been bitten by some kind of eel thing and she’s bleeding really bad.”

“I’ll be right down.” Meg rose, staring at the now quiet com board. She decided to leave the ship-to-ship and general hailing frequencies open. With mischievous amusement, she piped the links directly to the luxury cabin, set at high volume. If the ship did call again, Drewson was going to know it. He could make his own excuses when he answered. She could always claim she’d forgotten how to adjust the volume.

When the gravlift deposited her in the galley, Callina was waiting, shifting from foot to foot, tears on her cheeks. Rushing to tell her news, the passenger’s words tumbled out. “Sharmali was in the water and this thing grabbed her, pulled her under. Mr. Thomsill rescued her. I’ve never seen anything like it, outside the adventure trideos. He was amazing, the way he fought the beast in the water with his knife. But she’s screaming and there’s so much blood.”

“He didn’t get bitten too, did he?”

Callina shook her head. “I don’t think so. He was acting normal.”

Deciding at most Sharmali had fallen afoul of a non-venomous water snake, because the sonic barrier kept the serious predators at bay, Meg grabbed the medkit and handed it to Callina. More of the female passenger’s drama over nothing. “Here, there should be all the equipment and medicines he needs to treat Sharmali’s bite. I’m sure the wound can’t be too bad. Tell him I’ll be right there.”

Sniffling, Callina sprinted for the exit. Meg looked around, anxiety making her queasy. Where was she going to leave the precious control panel token? Of course Drewson could operate the shuttle without it—there was a backup hidden where only he knew—but he’d be angry if she kept it. Guild rules and all. Deciding to stash it in his coffee mug, she stepped to the left when something caught her eye—an unmarked, sealed compartment where the officers’ weapons were held. Did she dare? Yes, today she did. Things were definitely going awry and getting scarier. Drewson could give her hell later, but if one of the deadly eels had somehow gotten inside the barrier on the beach, other predatory creatures might be in the vicinity as well. Her passengers could be in jeopardy.

It took only a moment to unlock the panel with Drewson’s token, and withdraw the two small blasters. After resealing the cabinet, she stuck the weapons in a bag meant for cleaning supplies, threw the token into Drewson’s coffee mug as planned, and ran from the shuttle. The door sealed shut after her.

On the beach, there was chaos. An eel, easily two feet in diameter and eight feet long, lay convulsing on the sand, Red’s hunting knife buried to the hilt in one eye. The crewman had the medkit open beside him and was struggling to staunch the blood flow from Sharmali’s lower leg, while she lay on a red-stained towel and moaned. Callina was standing beside them, trying to help. The other men and women milled on the beach nearby, drinking and talking in too loud voices. As Meg headed for the injured passenger, the Primary intercepted her.

“Miss Antille, I demand to know how something like this could happen.” Purple in the face, he waved a hand at Sharmali. “I paid top dollar, if not an exorbitant price, for a safe, enjoyable cruise for myself and my guests, and now the poor girl’s had her foot eaten!” He was so upset he was spitting.

“On behalf of the Line, I certainly apologize, sir. We do everything we can to ensure the safety of our guests under all circumstances, but if she swam beyond the sonic barrier—”

“She was standing in three inches of water right next to me,” Finchon said. “That monster could have just as easily gotten my foot.”

“The barrier’s off,” Red informed her, not glancing up from his task. “Can you argue with him later? I need your help.”

Meg ran to his side, the Primary matching her step for step, yelling at her about lawsuits and refunds. She tried to stem the tide of his vitriol so she could concentrate. “Sir, please, let us assist Sharmali, and then I’ll be happy to discuss the legalities.”

Trever, the retired pro athlete, came forward and took his host by the arm, shoving a drink into his hand and drawing him aside. Meg took a deep breath of relief and knelt beside Red. “What do you want me to do?”

“Apply pressure to the wound for a minute while I see what antivenom we’ve got.”

Gulping against her nausea, Meg set her hand on the makeshift bandages and pressed hard. “You said the barrier was off?”

“Must be. There was more than one of these things right in the shallows at the beach. We were lucky no one else got attacked. I got her out of the water as fast as I could so the blood wouldn’t attract other predators.” He sat on his heels, frowning, holding an inject. “This is only a generic. Will it work on eel venom?”

“It’s all we’ve got on the shuttle. It’ll have to hold her until we get to the ship’s sick bay.”

As he gave Sharmali the inject, Meg eyed the wound with deep misgiving. The woman’s leg was definitely swelling and there were ugly purple streaks advancing toward her knee. “This is my fault,” she said.

“How do you figure?” Red applied a light tourniquet.

“I should have known if the ranger station was closed, the barriers might be shut off, but I didn’t check.”
 

“Well, keep your voice down, the Primary is pissed off enough right now. Don’t add fuel to his fire. We’d better get her to the shuttle and hustle offplanet, to the ship. What did you find out?” He turned to take more towels from Callina with a murmured thanks and wrapped the oversize, gaily colored fabric around Sharmali. “She’s going into shock, gotta keep her warm.”

“Drewson said he hadn’t heard anything. I called the ship myself, but we got interrupted. Signal failed or something.” Meg rose as he did, admiring the smooth manner in which Red lifted the injured woman, not jostling her.

“We’ll know soon enough.” He shifted Sharmali to lie more comfortably against his chest and walked away as if her weight was nothing to him. “Guess it’s our turn to leave the equipment behind, at least temporarily.”

“Oh, Lords of Space, of course.” Meg grabbed the cleaning supplies bag, since the blasters were in there, thankfully unneeded. She detoured to flip the switch turning off the power grid, dropped the bag inside the nearest robo’s storage cavity to leave her hands free, and then caught up to the guests at the base of the walkway leading to the landing pad.

The rumble of the shuttle’s engines caught her by surprise. How could Drewson possibly know about the emergency? As she decided he must have checked the beach-facing vidscreens for some reason, the tenor of the sound changed from warmup to full power. In disbelief, she saw the shuttle rising from the pad.

“What the seven hells is he doing?” Red yelled.

“Stay clear, don’t get caught in the backflare,” Meg screamed, pulling at the guests. Most shrank away from the landing pad, but the Primary strode up the ramp, shaking his fist and yelling curses at the pilot. Red set Sharmali in the sand and sprinted to tackle Finchon before he got crisped. The two men rolled on the ramp, the ungrateful host trying to punch Red.

As the crewman laid their passenger out with a swift right hook to the jaw, the shuttle cleared the trees and shot into the sky, leaving them behind in the blink of an eye.

“Now what?” Callina said, shielding her eyes with one hand as she watched the shuttle grow smaller and smaller in the sky. “He won’t forget to pick us up later will he?”

“Of course he won’t,” Meg said, fear making it hard to enunciate. The captain would send Drewson or someone to collect them. He wouldn’t abandon half his passengers and two of his crew, would he?

“What do we do now?” asked one of the female passengers in a shaky voice.

Realizing the entire group was all watching her with varying degrees of puzzlement, fear, and annoyance, Meg cleared her throat. “I think Mr. Thomsill and I need to see if we can get the ranger station open. Sharmali would be better off there while we wait for the shuttle to return, than lying on the open beach. But if you’d like to resume your picnic, there’s no reason not to. We’re scheduled to be here for two more hours. I’m sure the crew’ll come pick us up on time.”

“Where are Lindy and Sam?” someone asked, voice rising in alarm.
 

“And Pirankai?” said Trever, scanning the faces around him, forehead wrinkled in a frown.

“Pirankai was on the shuttle, um conferring with Mr. Drewson,” Meg answered, rapidly, remembering that the retired athlete had been quite cozy with the lithe blond passenger for the last day or so. She hoped he didn’t put two and two together about what Drewson and Pirankai might have been doing, or the entire crew’s tip might be diminished. Counting heads, all worries over the eventual tip fled as she realized she’d failed in yet another duty. Two of her passengers were missing and would have been left behind temporarily if the rest had gone in the shuttle with Drewson. “We’ll have to find them,” she said. “Does anyone remember what direction Lindy and Sam went?”

“Right now, we have other priorities,” Red interrupted. “The two of them’ll probably come wandering in of their own volition soon enough. I’m sure if we searched we’d find them, uh, admiring the scenery someplace close by, which would be embarrassing for everyone concerned. Okay, folks, I think Miss Antilles had an excellent idea—you might as well relax, and follow the original plan for now.”

 
“Can I get two volunteers to help us get Sharmali settled at the ranger station?” Meg asked. “Keep an eye on her?”

“Well, don’t look at me,” Harelly said, as several of the other guests glanced in his direction. “I only
play
a doctor on the trideo shows. The sight of blood makes me ill.”

Callina and her husband, Peter, volunteered. As the other passengers slowly hiked through the sand to their pavilion by the lake, Meg, Red, and the volunteers headed for the ranger station on the far side of the landing pad.

“What about him?” asked Bettis, who Meg remembered was Finchon’s employee, a personal assistant or something. He and his wife filed past the groggy charter Primary, who was sitting now, holding his jaw.

“I’ll deal with him later,” Red said.

“He’s gonna be pissed. He’s gonna sue you and your company for every credit,” the man predicted, excitement in his voice. “He’ll probably end up owning the whole cruise line before he’s done.”

“Not my problem right now.” Red’s voice was cheerful.

Meg admired his attitude. She was dizzy with anxiety and worry, happy to follow his lead for the moment. What in the seven hells had Drewson been thinking, taking off without them?

The ranger station was ominously quiet. The storm shutters were latched and the usually immaculate landscaping had become overgrown, weeds running riot, untrimmed vines establishing a foothold on the ornamental fence, and even scaling one wall.
 

“How long do you guess the rangers have been gone?” Meg said, eyeing the building. She glanced at the living quarters to the left, noticing the same general run down air. The three small houses were tightly sealed, as if hunched against a coming storm.

“The forest grows fast,” Red said. “Probably not more than a few months. I wonder why we weren’t warned, though.”

“Warned?” Callina Bettis picked up on his remark. “Are we in some kind of danger?”

Red and Meg exchanged glances. “He means we should have been notified there wouldn’t be any immediate help onsite,” Meg said, forcing herself to speak the lie calmly. “In case of an emergency, like the unfortunate bite Sharmali suffered.”

Setting the injured woman on a picnic table, Red went to the front door of the station, Meg on his heels. She tried activating the portal to no avail, punching the tabs hard. “You think the last person out would have left it set to open, general access, in case anyone needed help the way we do.” She thumped her fist on the door.

“Unless the staff didn’t expect anyone to be here,” Red said. “Are you sure there’s not something you forgot to tell me?”

“I swear, you know as much as I do.” She leaned closer and lowered her voice. “Drewson was boning Pirankai in the private cabin when I got to the shuttle, coms off, so if there were any bulletins, he missed them.”

“Idiot.” Red retreated a step or two, eyeing the door. “Well, nothing for it.”

“Are you going to break it down?”

Eyebrows raised, he gave her a glance. “Thanks for the compliment but it’d take a battle robo to get through this storm portal by brute force.”