Zero (11 page)

“
No,” Webb said, rubbing his eyes. “AI will be monitoring them. Fuck it. We'll be at the airfield in an hour... have the medbay ready.”

“
The captain?”

Webb shook his head.
“Not good. This whole thing stinks, Rami. I think they knew we were coming.” She blanched. “Yeah,” he said, grinding his teeth. “Right. Time to haul ass. Oh, Rami...”

“
Don't worry,” she gave a tight smile. “Already wiping the store's camera banks.”

“
And the street cameras too,” he replied, smiling himself. “See you in an hour.”

“
Better had. Out.”

The screen went blank. Webb glanced at his wrist panel, with the captain's heartbeat still flashing in the corner. He pulled up the local area map, worked out a route to the airfield, then hauled himself upright.

He loaded the pockets of the coat and boiler suit with pain killers, bottles of water and energy drinks. He opened and downed one of the bitter drinks as he hobbled back to the doors. The waves of pain coupled with exhaustion were threatening to pull him under. He blinked back the grey tickling at the corners of his vision. All they would need right now would be for him to fall asleep at the wheel.

The dark street was still deserted. Panic jolted him when he got back to the car and it appeared to be empty, but then saw the captain had laid himself out of sight across the front seats. He started as Webb pulled the door open, pulling himself upright with difficulty. In the thin street light his skin looked grey and he even forgot to scowl.

“Here,” Webb said, dumping his supplies in the driver's seat and shouldering himself out of the coat. The captain’s lack of protest as he wrapped the coat around his shoulders was more worrying than the colour of his skin. He opened a bottle of water and handed it over. Hugo took it without a word and dutifully sipped, eyes closed.

“
Report,” he croaked as Webb cleared and then clambered back into the driver's seat.

“
We've got a rendezvous an hour to the north.”

Hugo didn't reply but his gaze slid sideways as Webb swallowed some pain pills.
“Status?”

“
Damn site better than you, Captain,” Webb muttered, blinking through the dizziness and opened another energy drink. The car growled to life and they pulled out. Webb concentrated on not going too fast though his pulse was pounding in his ears and his skin was itching with the sensation of being watched. Even when they pulled out onto better lit roads with more traffic and no one paid them any mind, he couldn't entirely shake the feeling.

He slid another glance at the captain's pale face and switched on the radio, fiddling until he found some loud music.

“Sorry sir,” he said in response to Hugo's scowl. “But you need to try and stay awake.”

Webb saw him grit his teeth but he didn't reply.
Webb let the music fill him and anchor him, whilst he wove in and out of the traffic, bearing always north. He didn't breathe easily again until they pulled off onto another side street and the traffic diminished. He was just daring to think that maybe they were going to get out of the town unseen when sirens started blaring somewhere behind them and lights began flashing in the rear view. His hands tightened on the wheel and he threw a glance over his shoulder.

“
Shit. Guess that's our luck all up. Buckle up, Captain.”

The captain swore as the car leaped forward. The radio was lost in the roaring of the engine. Webb overtook the little traffic there was at a speed that jerked them about in their seats.

“Jeeps,” the captain said.

Webb spared a glance from the road to see the captain had produced some binoculars and was craning to look out the rear windscreen.

“AI and not local enforcement, then,” Webb gritted. He flung them around a bend in the road just as there was a roaring whine and blinding light as two flyers sped overhead. “Shit, shit, shit.”

“
If they were going to shoot us we'd be dead already,” Hugo said.

Webb muttered darkly as they hurtled around another bend. The road inclined steadily as they climbed further up the mountain. It was worse than he'd thought from what he'd seen on the maps, twisting and dark. The captain used his binoculars to keep an eye out the back to start with, but Webb soon noticed the knuckles of his good hand were white and he locked his gaze ahead.

Eventually, even though Webb was the more reckless driver, the fact that the company men knew the roads and were in more powerful vehicles began to show. Their four-by-fours ate the road hungrily and it wasn't long before the headlights were flashing in his rear view again.

“
How much further?”

“
Not far. Hang on, captain,” Webb warned and flung them off the main road and onto a dirt track that had been almost hidden in the trees. The little car jerked and bucked beneath them. The captain grunted and Webb felt a hiss of his own escape his teeth. He blinked past the pain and the tyres bit into the dirt, and they sped off in a cloud of dust and grinding wheels. The flyers did another pass overhead, their lights washing the gaps between the trees in white. Webb cursed again but managed to keep on track. When headlights didn't reappear behind he dared hope they hadn't noticed their change in direction.

“
The flyers will have scanners,” Hugo grunted.

“
We just need to keep ahead a little longer... fuck.”

“
What?”

“
We're early,” Webb said, looking back from his wrist panel out the front.

“
How early?”

“
The
Zero
's not due for another twenty minutes.”

Webb didn't hear the captain's reply as the car pitched through a rough part of the track. When the headlight beams levelled out again he slammed on the brakes to stop them ploughing into a pair of metal gates. When the dust cleared he leant forward, seeing the solid iron loom up out of sight into the dark above them. There was wire fencing scattered with signs so old and rusted it was impossible to tell what they had once said.

“This is it.”

“
What
is it?”

“
Our rendezvous site. It's an abandoned airfield. Sit tight.”

Webb didn't wait for the captain to answer but scrambled out. Above the rasping of his breathing there was nothing beside the low hum of the resting car engine. He strained his ears and picked up the distant, faint whine of flyer engines. He shook himself and limped over to the control panel for the gates. He shed the baseball cap, scraping his stiff hair back from his face and pulled the front off the rusted control box. His heart sank when he saw the state of the wiring underneath, all mildewed and cracked. He pulled off his gloves and wiped his hands on his trousers to try and get rid of the worst of the sweat.

It was just as he was reaching in to try and start rewiring that he heard the sound of tyres gritting on dirt and engines growling in the distance.

“
Shit.” His heart hammered in his ears and his fingers shook as he pulled and rearranged the wires. “Come on, for fuck's sake. Come
on
.”

The wires sparked but nothing happened. He was spitting more curses when he felt a hand on his shoulder and jumped.

“You're shaking too much. Get ready to drive.”

Webb let out a breath and obeyed without argument for once. The captain bent to the control panel as Webb scrambled back to the car. He was just shutting the car door and checking it was ready to go when, with a grinding of protesting metal, the gates began to swing inwards.

“Yes,” Webb crowed, impressed despite himself. “Nice one, Captain. Now get your ass back here.”

The captain dropped himself back into the passenger seat and Webb was motoring forward before he'd even shut the door. He could see
flashes of headlights in the trees behind them. The gates had opened about half way and lumbered to a stop but the gap was just big enough for the civilian vehicle to squeeze through.

“
Fingers crossed it's too narrow for the Jeeps,” he mumbled. The captain grunted. One glance at his wrist panel told him there was no way it would delay them long enough.

The car sped through a maze of track and crumbled buildings before careening out onto an old runway. All they could see in the glow of the headlights was the ancient stretch of tarmac with grass growing high in clumps in the cracks and darkness beyond.

“How much longer?”

“
Too damn long.”

A derelict control tower appeared ahead and Webb made for it. He pulled outside the entrance and killed the car's engine before clambering from the car and moving round to the captain's door. Hugo was already struggling out of the seat. Ignoring the captain's protests and grunts of pain Webb grabbed his good arm and heaved it up over his shoulders. Once they were upright they staggered towards the doors.

Webb didn't know how they made it but they did. He kicked the door open and they stumbled inside. He attempted to lower the captain to the floor gently but ended up half falling and dumping Hugo onto the concrete. Resting on his knees, he hung his head and clutched his ribs. The sweat dripped from the ends of his hair and he spent a minute fighting the urge to vomit.

When he blinked himself back into a state where he could focus, he saw the captain had propped himself against the wall, good arm over his abdomen and face screwed up in agony. It wasn't long before the sounds of tyres in the distance filtered through to them and the flashing of approaching headlights appeared on the walls around them.

His wrist panel told him there was still twelve minutes to go before the
Zero
showed up.

“
Captain. Captain Hugo?” He had to say it twice before the captain opened his eyes. “I'm gonna draw them off.”

The captain made an inarticulate noise of protest.

“We don't have a choice, sir,” Webb replied, gathering together the remnants of his strength to haul himself to his feet. “The
Zero
will be here in eleven minutes. If I can just keep them off that long -”

“
No, Webb,” the captain croaked. “That's an order.”

“
Sorry sir,” he said and attempted to grin. “You'll have to throw me in the brig when I come back.”

“
Commander,” the captain croaked as Webb half staggered, half fell back towards the door.

“
I'll be back. Trust me.”

“
Webb! Come back, come back now! That's an order! Damn it, Webb!”

The door swung shut behind Webb, muffling Hugo's shouts. Headlights bobbed in the distance. He took a deep breath and
dumped himself back behind the wheel of the car. The engine screamed as he tore it back to life and he threw the wheel round, powering back the way they'd come. He turned the headlights on full beam and was gratified to see the lights of the AI Jeeps turn his way. He actually laughed as he sped across the open space, the enemy gaining all the time but leaving the control tower behind.

A wire fence loomed ahead. He went at it head on, shutting his eyes at the last minute but not letting up on the accelerator. There was a sickening lurch and a crunch and blackness threatened to take him under, but when h
is vision returned he saw he was through the fence and powering along another dirt road. Heart in his mouth, he kept moving and felt the track smooth out under him as he hauled the car back out onto the main road and turned it uphill.

The one working headlight showed the incline steepening. On his right, the sheer cliff face arched up into darkness. On his left, a low iron barrier and then nothingness.

Even better
, he thought. The company men were bound to take these corners more carefully than him. And sure enough, forcing his awareness above the hammering of his pulse that scoured pain through his limbs, he realised the pursuit was falling back. The flyers still made their passes overhead, trying to blind and confuse him with their sweeping lights, but he pressed on. He just needed a bit more ground.

He took the next corner so fast that two wheels left the road
but then swore when the blinking lights of a road block came into sight up ahead.

“
Fuck it all,” he said and steeled himself. His sensible side made him slow before opening the driver's door and flinging himself out. There was a sickening moment of nothingness then everything was pain, heat, spinning, then it all went black.

Hugo cursed Webb in every language he knew. He had tried to scramble after him but his good hand had closed on nothing and the momentum tipped him forward onto his face. He landed on his broken arm and for a minute knew only white light. He came to a couple of seconds later, just in time to hear tyres screech and see the lights that had been flashing on the walls turn in another direction and fade away.

“
Damn him, damn him to Hell.” Hugo clung to his anger, fired it and fed it, not wanting to face what was underneath. When he stopped his cursing he realised how quiet it had become. The air was dark and tasted like dust. There was still five minutes until the
Zero
would arrive and he had to stay awake, had to get his crew scrambled and send them after Webb. He had to get him back safe so he could kick his insubordinate ass.

Everything swirled in and out
of focus and he tried desperately to gather enough energy to watch the little green light still flashing away in the corner of his wrist panel. He breathed in and out, feeling his own pulse racing along with the fevered blinking. Then it went blank. Hugo shook the panel, tapped it with his finger. Still nothing.

“
No,” he ground out. “No...Webb, you bastard!”

The drone of ship engines filled the air and the lobby was flooded with light. The ground shuddered below him and more dust rained down from above. The door flung open and he didn't even try to deny the relief that flooded him when Sub and Bolt's hulking figures filled the doorway. He saw them cast a glance round, note that he was alone and move forward without a word.

“Webb,” Hugo croaked, though the whiteness was closing across his vision. “Commander Webb...” But then he was being hauled up into someone's arms like he was no more than a rag doll and whiteness washed over and swamped him.

ɵ

Pulling himself back took almost more than Hugo had. He could measure the length and breadth of his body with the aching. He felt the rise and fall of his breaths and there was a cool, minty taste in his mouth. One arm moved but one arm didn't. The one that didn't was throbbing. He took three deep breaths, using the pain to rope himself back into his flesh. At last, with an effort of will that almost had him sliding back under, he blinked his eyes open.

He grunted as the lights of the medbay flooded his brain. He felt his heart hammer and heard a beeping close by increase at the same rate. He forced himself to stay calm. Opening his eyes more slowly, he managed to focus on the bulkhead above him. The sounds of the ship started filtering through, the beep and whirr of equipment as well as the steady bleeping of his heart monitor. His breaths
echoed. He raised his good hand and found a mask covering his mouth and nose and pulled it off. He took a deep breath of the metallic air of the
Zero
and his mind cleared.

Spinn's voice came from somewhere close by.
“...they're too good to leave anything obvious.”

“
Well keep digging. Webb's never been wrong before.”

There was a pause.
“Any news?” the researcher asked, almost in a whisper.

Hugo turned his head to the side and could make out More's grim face on the screen of the doctor's
medbay workstation. “Nothing yet. We'll let you know when there is.” And the screen went blank.

Hugo dragged another breath in, held it and pulled himself up. The wires and tubes attached to him tightened and he growled, shutting his eyes against the flashing lights in his head.

“Captain!” When Hugo opened his eyes, Spinn was at his bedside, hands out as if he were thinking about pushing him him back down. “Captain, you need to lie down.”

“
Webb,” Hugo croaked, his dry throat cracking. “Webb's in trouble...”

“
Sir, Rami left strict orders -”

Hugo used his good hand to pull off the lead for the heart monitor and detach
his IV line. He blinked against a wave of dizziness. When he came back to himself he screwed his eyes up, trying to bring the chrono display on the wall into focus with a sinking feeling. “How long have I been under?”

“
Almost twenty four hours now, sir.”

“
Twenty four hours?
” Hugo half-barked. “What's happened? Have we found him?”

“
Sir...” Spinn managed. “You must rest.”

Hugo flung off the thin blanket and hauled himself to his feet. Spinn looked like he might object again but Hugo silenced him with a look. He took a second to lean against the bulkhead and wait for his head to stop spinning and the gnawing pain in his abdomen to calm, then left, hurrying toward the bridge. He was clad only in a pair of thin med-issue bottoms and shivered in the corridor, but kept moving. His left arm in its brace he kept clutched against his stomach, right arm out to steady himself against the bulkhead. The drugs were wearing off and the pain flashed stronger with every step. He pushed it down and kept moving, heaving himself up the stairway to the bridge.

“Report,” he barked as he set foot on the deck, causing Kinjo and More to jump and look up from where they were bent over the control panel. The viewscreen showed a wide stretch of stars and the cloudy curve of the Earth far below.

“
Captain,” Kinjo exclaimed in horror. “You shouldn't be up. Rami said -”

“
Report. Now. Where the hell are we?”

“
In orbit, sir,” More responded, more calmly.

“
Get back down to that airfield immediately, Sub-Lieutenant.”

“
Sir, procedure dictates -”

“
Fuck procedure. We have a man down there.” He deliberately refused to think about the green light on his wrist panel blinking to nothing. “Get moving. That's an order.”

“
Sir,” More repeated, infuriatingly calm, raising a hand. “Let me explain. We received a transmission a few hours ago.”

“
What sort of transmission?” Hugo glowered, leaning against the command chair. Kinjo pursed her lips but didn't say anything.

“
It was pretty scrambled,” More said, turning and punching commands into the control panel. “But it looks like it was sent from a public comm booth, not far from the airfield where we found you.”

“
What did it say?”

“
Not much,” More said. “Took some decoding but it looks to be a set of co-ordinates.”

Hugo blinked up at the display and saw More had pulled up a map of that twice-damned mountain range.
“It's Webb. It's got to be. What's there?”

More shook his head.
“Nothing, sir.” A green cross flashed on the map. “There's nothing there. Older reports indicate there's a derelict church on the spot, but nothing else. It's miles from the main groundway.”

“
And miles from the local monitoring systems,” Hugo mumbled. He straightened. “Get us a heading -”

More raised his hand again.
“Rami and Bolt are already there, Captain.”

“
And?” Hugo asked, keeping his voice steady despite the coldness he felt welling up inside him.

“
There was no one there. They decided to wait, but nothing so far.” More said.

“
Well I bloody hope they've taken rations with them because they're staying there until he shows up,” Hugo said.

More just nodded.
“Yes, sir.”

Hugo clutched the command chair as another wave of dizziness caused him to sway. He jumped when he felt warm hands steady him.

“Now sir, please. You must return to the medbay.” Hugo attempted to glower as Kinjo tried to lead him away. She frowned and put her hands on her hips, determination in every inch of her small frame. “Now, sir, with all due respect, it seems Webb went through a hell of a lot to get you back to the ship in one piece. I don't think he’d be happy if you died right here on the bridge from ruptured suturing.”

Hugo g
lared a second more but then sagged. He blinked down at himself for the first time and realised how heavily bandaged he was and how blackened and bruised the skin around the bandages was. Every beat of his heart brought a dull thud of pain from his innards, arm and head and he closed his eyes and nodded. He felt Kinjo's hands on him again, marvelled a moment at the strength in them, and let her lead him back towards the corridor.

“
Don't worry sir,” she said in a softer voice, though Hugo could hear the tightness in it. “It's not the first time the commander's disappeared on us.”

By the time they were back in the medbay, everything was throbbing so badly he was grateful to clamber back onto the bunk. He let Kinjo re-attach his heart monitor but held up a hand when she brought the IV line round.
“No,” he mumbled. “I need to be able to wake up...”

She pursed for a moment but then softened. “Very well, Captain,” she said, turning away. “On one condition.” She rifled in a nearby cupboard and produced a protein drink and a bottle of tablets. She shook two onto her hand and held them out to him along with the drink.

Hugo eyed them suspiciously.

“
They're just painkillers, sir,” Kinjo insisted.

He took the pills and swallowed them with the protein drink. She stood with her arms folded until he'd finished the drink, then nodded, though her frown didn't ease.

“Rami's so gonna kill me,” she muttered as she took away the empty bottle.

“
Don't worry about the lieutenant, Midshipman,” Hugo mumbled, ignoring the roiling in his stomach as it attempted to hold in the protein drink. “You were following orders. I will talk to her.”

Kinjo sighed, though some of the tension left her face. She leaned over him to try and pull the mask back over his mouth.
“It's just oxygen sir,” she said, cutting off his protest before he could form it. “And something to encourage healing. Your body needs both right now.”

He let her settle the mask back over his mouth and nose and the minty coolness sweetened his mouth and filled his lungs again. He felt himself relax and the pain ebbed back to a dull thing at the back of his awareness.

“Thank you,” Hugo heard his own voice from far away, but drifted off before he heard whether Kinjo replied or not.

ɵ

The part of Webb that was still capable of cognitive thought was glad that he could only measure time with the pulses of his heart that pushed the agony around his body. He thought that if he knew the actual amount of time it took to pull himself back to consciousness, blink open one working eye and haul himself to his feet, he would have probably given up on the whole thing and laid back down and died right there at the roadside. As it was, he took it one heartbeat at a time and concentrated on the memory of the captain's last order…

“
Webb! Come back, come back now, that's an order! Damn it, Webb!”

He had to get back. He had to prove he knew what he was doing. He had survived worse. The other thought that kept him pulling his breath in and out was knowing that if he died, Rami would kill him.

The pull of the grin that this thought brought him caused pain to lance through his face and he gave up on the idea of facial expressions and cognitive thought for a moment in order to lean against the rock and concentrate on not passing out or throwing up. He was upright, at least. That was a good thing and frankly more than he expected of himself. Only one leg would take his weight. He didn't look down to see the state of the other one. It seemed every inch of skin was raw and sticky with blood. He quickly found out deep breaths were impossible, but was relieved to discover that the blood in his mouth had come from his split lip and smashed teeth and not from his lungs.

He spat the mess out and
opened the one eye that would obey. The air was grey and chilled but whether it was early morning or late evening he couldn't tell. The road was deserted. There was scattered glass and scorch marks on the tarmac. Fluttering yellow tape roped off the gap in the barrier. He marvelled for a moment that the AI security force had failed to find him lying in the two-foot stretch of scrub and dirt between the side of the road and cliff, but then it probably never occurred to them that anyone would be stupid enough to fling themselves out of a vehicle going at that speed on a mountain road.

He was reminded again that he couldn't grin and instead attempted putting one foot in front of the other. He found if he was slow and careful, he could just about move. He made it over to the other side of the road and peered down the mountain. The wreckage of the car was gone. Not even a tyre or twist of metal left behind. He turned away, not having the energy to follow the thoughts to any sort of conclusion, to be faced with the ugly reality that he was going to have to decide what to do next. His wrist panel was a shattered, unresponsive mess. Guilt nagged at him as he realised his heartbeat feed would have blinked out on the captain's panel.

It had darkened since he'd come round which meant it was evening after all, which also meant he must have been lying by the road for a full day. He guessed he was still here because of one of the few Service statutes he agreed with: no crew member or vessel is to be risked for the retrieval of the dead. So in order to prove he knew what he was doing and had in fact survived, he needed to get another message to the
Zero
. Somehow.