The Aftermath (41 page)

“Okay,” he said, tracing a path on the main display. “The bridge is this direction.”

They started along the passageway, Kirk in the lead, the two men with the welder grumbling right behind him, then the rest, with Nicco bringing up the rear.

Kirk tried to raise Valker on his suit radio, again to no avail.

“They musta killed him,” he mused aloud.

“Then we're gonna hafta elect a new captain,” said one of the men toting the laser welder.

Kirk grinned toothily. “I nominate me.”

From up the passageway they heard Valker's sneering voice, “Over my dead body!”

“It's the skipper!”

The passageway ran along the rim of the ship's wheel, so that although it felt flat as long as the wheel was turning, it curved up and out of sight in both directions. Valker came striding toward them, smiling grimly. The two men Dorn had disarmed came into sight behind him.

“Where've you been?” Kirk demanded.

“They ganged up on me, that half-robot priest, the kid, and some other guy—he must be from
Pleiades.
”

Grinning at the bruise on Valker's jaw, Kirk said, “Only three of 'em?”

“They caught me by surprise. Then they locked me in a storage bay. Then they brought in Gig and Kelso, here.”

Nicco came pushing through the group. “How'd you get out, skipper?”

Valker gave him a sour look. “Accordion-fold door. They thought locking it would keep me inside. One kick is all it took.”

“So the guy from
Pleiades
is aboard?” Kirk asked.

Nodding, Valker added, “And the two women from
Syracuse.
They're all up in the bridge, one tidy little package.”

Raising the power drill he was carrying, Kirk shouted, “So let's go get 'em!”

*   *   *

Victor and the others watched the scavengers' impromptu reunion in the main passageway. Turning from the bridge's screen, Victor muttered, “We've got to stop them.”

“Yes,” agreed Dorn. “But how? There are ten of them.”

“Close all the emergency hatches.”

“They'll burn through them with that big laser.”

“I know. But that will take them time.”

“So what good will that do?”

“Theo,” Victor said, pointing to the belt lying on the deck, “get those grenades and come with me. You,” he said to Elverda, “seal all the hatches. Now.”

As Elverda called up the life support program, Victor and Theo headed for the hatch.

Pauline reached for his shoulder. “Victor, what are you going to do?”

“Stop them,” he said.

Dorn watched the two of them go, then, after a moment of indecision, followed after them.

*   *   *

The hatch up the passageway swung shut with a sharp clang. Turning, Valker saw the hatch behind them bang shut. They could hear more thumps in the distance.

“The bastards're sealing all the hatches,” Kirk growled.

Valker grinned at him. “What else can they do? They're just postponing the inevitable.”

“They might try to pump out the air.”

“So we stay in our suits,” Valker said, pulling up his hood and inflating it.

He motioned to the two men carrying the heavy laser welder. “Now ain'tcha glad we brought this beauty along with us?”

Nicco laughed. “We'll burn right through the hatches.”

“No need to,” Valker said, pointing to the control keypad on the bulkhead beside the sealed hatch. “Just burn out the pad and get to the manual override. Won't take more'n a minute.”

“For each hatch,” Kirk said.

“So what?” Valker snapped. “They're not going anywhere. And we're not going away.”

*   *   *

Following his father's example, Theo peeled back the plastic sheeting that covered the passageway's structural tubing and wedged the pebble-sized grenades into the exposed metal framework in a complete circle, from the deck to the overhead and then back down to the deck on the other side.

Dorn stood in the middle of the passageway, arms folded against his chest. “I see what you intend to do. But blowing away this section of the wheel won't stop them. They're already in space suits. They'll merely jet through the open area to the next hatch.”

“Not if they're in the section that we blow away,” Victor said.

“No, they'll still be able to jet back to us,” Dorn countered. “Unless they're killed or injured by the blast.”

“That's the general idea,” said Victor.

“I can't be a party to that.”

“You don't have to be. Just stay out of my way.”

Theo spoke up. “You can show us how to fuze the grenades so we can set them off from the bridge.”

Dorn did not reply.

Victor strode down the passageway to where Dorn was standing. “Now listen. These scavengers would kill you and your friend without blinking an eye. They'd kill my son and me. They'd rape my wife and daughter and then kill them, too. You expect me to let them do that?”

For several heartbeats Dorn did not reply. At last he said, “I spent a lifetime killing. My soul is drenched in blood. I can't help you to commit murder.”

And he walked away, past Theo, back toward the bridge.

Victor glowered at his back. “Finish the job, Thee,” he said to his son. “I'm going to the bridge.”

SMELTER SHIP
HUNTER
: MAIN PASSAGEWAY

“Ow!” Nicco yelped, wringing his hand. “That's hot!”

Valker laughed. “What do you expect? The circuit's been melted by a laser beam. Put your gloves back on.”

Nicco scowled at the blackened hole in the bulkhead where the hatch's control pad had been. Kirk pushed past him, wiggled his nanogloved fingers in the air, then reached in and found the manual switch.

The hatch popped open a crack. Kirk kicked it all the way open, then made an exaggerated bow. “This way, gentlemen.”

“That's three,” Nicco said, still wringing his burned hand as the scavengers trooped through the open hatch. “How many more?”

Valker turned to the wall screen display of the ship's layout. “Four … five … and then the galley and finally the hatch to the bridge itself. Six more to go, men.”

“And then we've got 'em!” one of the crewmen exulted, waving the laser pistol he carried in the air.

“And then we get the women!” shouted Kirk.

*   *   *

Back on the bridge, Theo saw his father's jaw clench as he watched the main screen's camera view of the scavengers advancing along the passageway. And then we get the women, Theo repeated silently. He's one of the dog turds that tried to murder me. Dad's perfectly right: Kill them or they'll kill us.

Dorn still stood with his arms locked across his chest, immobile as a statue, except that his head swiveled back and forth from watching the main screen to staring at Victor. What's going through his mind? Theo wondered. He said he'd killed a lot of people and now he doesn't want us to kill these scum. But what else can we do?

Suddenly the cyborg let his arms drop to his sides and started toward the closed hatch.

“Where are you going?” Victor demanded.

“To them.”

“What? What do you think—”

“You're going to kill them. Kill me, too.”

Before he realized what he was saying, Theo blurted, “That's crazy! You're not one of them!”

“I was, once. Just like them. Worse. I'll die with them.” Dorn reached the hatch and started to tap out the command code with his prosthetic hand.

Victor said, “You're going to warn them?”

“No,” Dorn replied. “I'll simply join in their fate.”

Elverda protested, “They'll kill you as soon as they see you!”

“What difference does that make?”

Pushing herself up from the command chair, Elverda crossed the bridge to Dorn's side. “I can't let you kill yourself.”

“I'm going to die anyway,” he said softly. “We all will, sooner or later. Why prolong the misery?”

“Because I need you,” Elverda answered. “If you die, I'll die too. I'll have no reason to go on living.”

Theo stared at them. The cyborg with his death wish. The old woman trying to save him from himself. His mother and sister, frozen speechless. And his father in that fierce beard he'd grown, looking as implacable as death itself.

Turning to the main screen, Theo said loudly, “They're through the third hatch. They'll be entering the section we mined next.”

Everyone turned to the screen.

Theo went to the command chair. “Might be a good idea to pump the air out of the passageway before we blow the grenades,” he said, leaning over the control panel.

*   *   *

Valker himself was now taking a turn at lugging the laser welder. Trotting up the passageway behind him, Nicco toted the power pack.

“How're we doing on juice?” Valker asked over his shoulder.

Nicco peered at the colored bar of the indicator. “'Bout halfway down. We can recharge off the ship's current if we hafta.”

Valker said, “That'd take some time. I don't want to keep those ladies waiting.”

Nicco laughed. Behind him, Kirk was leading the other seven men. They stopped at the closed hatch. Nicco lowered the power pack to the deck; Valker propped the bulky welder on one hip and aimed it at the control pad.

“Warning,” said a deep voice. The men all looked up at the intercom speaker set into the overhead. “Warning. This passageway will be evacuated to vacuum in thirty seconds. Air pressure will be reduced to zero.”

“Bastards!” Kirk snapped.

Valker was grinning inside the inflated hood of his nanosuit. “Seal up or breathe vacuum, boys,” he said, almost cheerfully.

“They think they can stop us?”

“They're gettin' scared.”

“Desperate.”

“They can't think of anything else to do, I guess.”

Should be enough air in the suit tanks for an hour, at least, Valker thought. Plenty enough to get through the last of these hatches and into the bridge. I'll let Kirk lead the charge: that guy with the beard took my pistol. Let Kirk go in first. He's a hothead, he'll charge right into the gun. Then we can cut the bearded one down and the kid and the cyborg, too.

“Everybody okay?” Valker asked. They heard him through their suit radios and nodded.

“Then let's get through these frigging hatches!”

*   *   *

“The entire passageway is in vacuum,” Dorn announced, his eyes on the control board, his back to Victor.

“Why'd you warn them?” Angela asked.

Dorn glanced toward Elverda, but did not answer.

“They're going into the section where we planted the grenades,” Theo said, feeling perspiration trickle down his ribs.

Dorn started toward the hatch again.

“Where do you think you're going?” Victor demanded.

“Dorn!” Elverda said sharply. “No!”

“I have to,” the cyborg replied.

Victor stepped between Dorn and the hatch. “Stay here. You can't stop this.”

For a long silent moment Dorn stood eye to eye with Victor, unmoving. Then he said, “I belong with them. Kill me too.”

“I don't want to kill you,” Victor said.

“Yes you do. You simply don't know it yet.”

“They're entering the section we mined,” Theo said, turning from the main screen to the two men confronting one another. “If we're going to blow those grenades we've got to do it now.”

Before Victor could reply, Dorn said, “I'm the man who attacked your ship. I am Dorik Harbin.”

“What?”

Theo felt his guts clench with shock. He saw his father reach for the pistol he'd tucked into his waistband.

“He was Dorik Harbin,” Elverda said, rushing to Dorn's side. “But he's changed, he's—”

“I wiped out the
Chrysalis
habitat,” Dorn said, his voice flat, emotionless. “Then I attacked a ship named
Syracuse.
”

Victor stared at the cyborg. He couldn't get a word out of his throat. But his right hand pulled the pistol from his waist.

“He's not the same person!” Elverda pleaded. “He tried to kill himself. He's spent his life atoning for his sins.”

Victor raised the pistol to the level of Dorn's eyes. “You attacked my ship? You nearly killed my whole family!”

“So kill me,” Dorn said softly. “Release me from life.”

Theo stood frozen at the control panel and stared at his father. His father held the gun at arm's length, unwavering, pointed at the cyborg's face. His mother and sister were clutching each other, still in their space suits, their faces torn with fear and uncertainty.

“Please!” Elverda begged, pushing herself between Dorn and Theo's father.

Dorn grasped the old woman by her shoulders and lifted her off her feet. Placing her down gently to one side, he turned back to Victor.

“So kill me,” he said.

SMELTER SHIP
HUNTER
: BRIDGE

“You attacked our ship,” Victor said, the words barely struggling past his gritted teeth. “You tried to kill us.”

Dorn said nothing.

“But you survived,” Elverda reminded. “You lived through it.”

Victor grimaced. “No thanks to this … this … monster.” “So kill me and get your revenge,” Dorn said.

Victor stared at the cyborg. Kill him! urged a savage voice within his mind. Kill him. He deserves to die. He
wants
to die.

Victor's finger froze on the pistol's trigger. He closed his eyes briefly, but when he opened them again Dorn still stood before him.

“No one will blame you,” Dorn said.

“Don't do it!” Elverda pleaded.

“I can't,” Victor groaned, dropping the pistol to his side. “By all the fiends of hell, I can't do it.”