Zero (32 page)

“
What's that?” Hugo said, attempting to glower.

“
You need to sleep.”

“
I'm fine, Midshipman,” he said, standing stiffly.

She set her jaw.
“Sir, if our lives are in your hands I think we'd all be happier if you were well rested.”

He opened his mouth to protest again but found he was just too tired and allowed her to administer the shot. She had to help him back to his cabin and he'd slipped away before she'd even turned the lights out.

He'd only started dreaming when a bleeping sounded somewhere close by. Whilst he tried to claw back from oblivion the bleeping became sirens, lights flashed and he could taste smoke and blood. He snapped his eyes open and blinked at the bulkhead until he pulled himself back together. He was breathing like he'd run up the stairs of a megablock and sweat was cooling on his skin.

Bleep, bleep, bleep
.

He rubbed his face and sat up. There was a blinking light on his wall display. Kinjo must have set it to sleeping mode.

“On screen,” Hugo grunted and Webb's face appeared.

“
Hugo? Rami might have found something...”

“
Report,” Hugo said as he came up onto the bridge.

“
I don't know that it's anything, sir,” Rami said, clicking keys on her workstation, her eyes scanning the data on screen. “It's just...”

“
What?”

Rami turned in her chair, frowning.
“I managed to dig up the satellite's equipment manifest...”

“
And?”

Rami exchanged a glance with Webb who was leant against the copilot chair with his arms crossed and a deliberately blank expression, and then with Kinjo, who was hovering
nearby, nodding encouragement. Rami sighed. “All the mining and processing equipment is Albion Integrated.”

Something jumped inside him.
“AI?”

“
Yes sir,” Rami said, raising her hands “Now, it might not be of any significance. AI are one of the biggest suppliers of this sort of tech.”

“
But, Captain,” Kinjo interrupted the lieutenant. “It's not that simple...”

“
Go on,” Hugo said, trying to keep the impatience out of his voice.

“
Some of the tech on this list, sir,” Kinjo said. “It's highly advanced. I know for a fact some of it is still registered at prototype status. I don't see how this little satellite could put together a rig like this unless - ”

“
Unless AI are involved with more than just selling them their equipment…”

Kinjo nodded.

“We need to get this information to the Analysts,” Hugo said.

“
Sir, the Analysts probably already have it,” Rami said. “It wasn't hard to find. It's only significant to us because of what happened on Earth.”

“
Luscombe got the orders for our AI mission from somewhere. Kinjo needs to tell him just what she's told me.”

“
It's not enough,” Rami said. “The Analysts can't move on hunches.”

“
Damn it, I'm not letting whatever's happening here get buried,” Hugo said. “If the Analysts need more evidence, we'll get them more evidence.”

“
Pharos is expecting the whole thing, evidence and all, to be drifting dust by tomorrow, Hugo,” Webb said.

“
Rami, Spinn,” he said. “Find a way for us to get a ground team into that satellite. Webb, follow me.”

Hugo paced off the bridge towards the galley. He heard Webb sigh and follow. He was just trying to untangle where to start when he was brought up short by the sight of Harvey with her feet propped up on a galley table, chewing on a ration bar and watching a newsfeed on the wall display.

“Is now a good time to discuss you getting me home?” she said, not looking up.

Hugo swallowed.
“I'm sorry, Captain,” he said, hating the formal tone his voice took on. “I'm afraid we have something to take care of first.”

She frowned at him.
“You've taken on another contract already?”

Hugo resisted looking at Webb for guidance.
“Something along those lines.”

Harvey shook her head and stood.
“I'll never get my head around this ship. Look, Hugo, not to be a pain in the ass but I'm done. Officially out. I've done more than I said I would.”

“
We're grateful -”

“
Stow it,” she said. “I wanted a chance at Armin and I got it. And I think the Splinters will have more things to worry about now than tracking me down. So I thank you, but that's my lot. Take me to the nearest colony.”

“
We can't.”

Harvey scowled.
“This isn't a negotiation, Kaleb.”

“
There's a deadline, Marilyn,” Webb said, coming forward. “We will be finished by this time tomorrow,” Webb threw a significant glance at Hugo. “We'll take you all the way to Haven after that, okay?”

Harvey scowled at one of them then the other. Then she sighed and shrugged.
“Fuck it. Fine. But you owe me. Big time. And I'm staying in the crew cabin until Haven. I'm done getting messed up in any more
Zero
-grade shit.”

“
Of course,” Hugo said. “Marilyn?” She paused at the door. Hugo tried to untangle his tongue from his teeth. “Thank you,” he managed.

She hesitated, seemed about to speak. Then she glanced at Webb and just nodded and left.

“You know that whole thing where sometimes I know better, Captain?” Webb said, slouching down on the couch and rubbing at his bruised jaw.

Hugo turned to face him and straightened his back.
“There's something going on here, Webb. Don't tell me you don't see it.”

“
I can see it,” Webb said, propping his chin up on his hands and tracing a finger through the crumbs on the table. “I just think you're borrowing trouble is all.”

“
Webb,” Hugo said. “Whoever or whatever owns that satellite are the ones responsible for trying to stage a coup on your home colony. How can you follow orders that you know will result in destroying evidence that could bring them to justice?”

Webb looked up at him for the longest time. He wasn't grinning but he wasn't angry either.
“This is bigger than us, Hugo. I've said before we're not meant for stirring up Orbit-wide politics. We follow orders. Our orders on Lunar 1 were to stop the Splinters. That's what we did.”

“
And Earth?” Hugo said. “That whole shit storm that nearly got us both killed? And now it looks like it might all be linked, and you just want to stick your head in the ground and follow orders?”

“
You've been doing this for ten weeks, Hugo,” Webb said. “I've been doing it for fifteen years. This is the deal. You risk your life, you get screwed over but you take your pay and you thank the Service and pray you will still be useful in the morning.”

“
They made me captain for a reason,” Hugo insisted, stabbing his finger on the table top. “And I say we can do more than just blow it up.”

“
If you're so sure,” Webb said quietly. “Then why are you justifying yourself to me?”

Hugo blinked. Webb looked up at him, eyes clear.
“Because I want you on my side,” Hugo said eventually.

“
I am on your side.”

Hugo tried to read his pale eyes but couldn't. He felt something go out of him and he slumped on the bench, staring at a motorbike poster on the bulkhead without seeing it.

“I can see why you were made captain,” Webb said eventually, looking at his hands. “And I will follow your orders. Just...” he sighed then looked him in the eye. “Just be aware even if we find something, the Service may not want to know.”

Hugo remembered Pharos and her clipped words and steely gaze. Then he remembered Doll and her sombre, defeated air. But he shook both memories away and stood.
“We will see what we can find,” he said. “Then we'll know at least we've tried. Whatever the Service do with it is up to them. And the consequences will be on their heads and not mine.”

“
Okay, Captain,” Webb said after a pause. He stood and something like his old grin spread over his face. “That's an attitude I can get on board with.”

ɵ

“Are you sure you're ready, Midshipman?”

Kinjo nodded, eyes bright and hands compulsively checking over her vacuum suit.
“I am, Captain.”

“
And you know what you're looking for?”

“
I do. I won't let you down, sir.”

“
Hugo,” Webb leaned out
Father
's cockpit.. “We'll be showing up on their sensors any second.”

“
Get aboard, Midshipman,” Hugo said and Kinjo nodded again and clambered up, taking Webb's hand and cramming in with him behind Bolt's pilot seat. Hugo took
Son
's ladder two rungs at a time and slipped into the squat-space behind More just as he hit the hatch control.

“
Helmet on, Captain?”

Hugo pulled his helmet up over his face and zipped it up.
“Sealed and ready.”

“
Hold on.”

The
fighter hummed as the engine fired up and there was a lurch and clang as the hold depressurised. The ramp lowered and Hugo tried to shift so his knees weren't protesting and found a handle just as More engaged the thrusters and
Son
was zooming out into space. Craning his neck, he could see the rocky bulk of the mining satellite up ahead, its surface pocked with shadows. There were already fighters streaking towards them.

“
Are they on an attack vector?”

“
Looks like it, Captain,” More said, pulling the fighter over.

“
How many?”

“
Twelve, sir.”

Hugo cursed and braced himself as the first hammer of fire rammed into the fighter's shields. More ducked and swerved to avoid the next burst.

“What happened there?”

“
I don't know, sir. They're aiming for non-vital systems.”

Father
and
Ghost
arced by on either side and the enemy fighters split to follow them. More brought
Son
back round just as a flurry of cannon fire burst through the space they were in. They got closer and closer to the asteroid until Hugo could make out the blinking lights of the mining installation on its surface
“
Are you ready, Captain?” More said.

“
Move in.”

“
Aye, sir,” he replied, opening fire on the surface of the asteroid.
Father
came in above and concentrated its cannon fire on the same spot. There was a burst of suckered flame and a cloud of debris, then More was pulling up and spinning round to twist the fighter's course around the satellite. Enemy fighters swerved to follow and More managed to take out one and wing another as he arced around the asteroid.
Ghost
was a white streak across the viewscreen and then it was gone again, three enemy fighters in pursuit.

As Son came full circle the Zero came into view, moving fast and firing on the fighters in pursuit of Ghost. Hugo caught himself gaping. He'd never seen her in action before. She went by as a streak of light just as another enemy fighter exploded in a ball of flame that was sucked into nothing. She sped around the satellite in a blur, cannon fire crashing into the rock, then passed out of sight as More slowed Son's course.

Hugo felt every heartbeat like a hammer in his temples as More manoeuvred
Son
onto the rocky surface, still firing as the cockpit hissed and the hatch opened.

“
Go, Captain, move, move!”

Hugo didn't let himself think but clambered up from the squat-space and fired his wire launcher before he could even aim properly then pulled the recoil trigger. With a jerk that nearly pulled his arm from his socket he was hauled from the fighter and hurtled towards the surface of the satellite. The darkness of the crater caused by
Son's
cannon fire loomed ahead, wreathed in drifting debris. Rock and metal pinged off his visor and then there was a flash of light as
Son
took off again. His heart clambered into his throat and every breath echoed in his helmet but then his boots were connecting with the solid surface. He clutched the wire to keep him anchored then moved over the surface in uneven bounds that his zero-g instructors at the Academy would have been ashamed of. But they got him to the hole quicker than approved, controlled jumps would have have done. He got a grip on the broken edge and peered in, seeing the remains of some sort of store room. Craning his neck he watched the fighters and the
Zero
chase each other across the silent span of space. “Webb, I'm on the surface. Where are you?”