Lifeline

Chapter 52

KIBALCHICH—Day 72

The shock did not wear off, as Anna Tripolk had thought it would. Instead, the secret left behind by Commander Rurik unlocked many doors inside her, unleashing outrage, betrayal, anger, despair. She had never felt like this before.

Instead of healing, for more than a week Anna’s emotions had festered, twisting, depriving her of sleep. Without realizing it, she had somehow descended into a personal hell.

Anna remembered going into the command center ten days before, or was it eleven? She had lost track of time. Her attention had been elsewhere. After hearing Rurik’s personal log, his excuses, the rationalization of his suicide and the murders he had committed, she had gone up to the weightless command center alone. She had never felt so alone.

The corridors were empty, echoing. Part of her feared encountering Orbitech 1 technicians, but the Americans had seemed interested in stealing only the sleepfreeze technology, and had left the command center alone.

But the command center was the only place they could radio back to their American colony; they would have to come here eventually. She knew they gathered every day to listen to the inane propaganda broadcasts from the other colonies, cheering for some kind of “spacecraft on a rope” being reeled in from Clavius Base to Orbitech 1; that and more talk of those sail-creatures.

She had to act while she had her privacy. Whatever the Americans were doing could wait. The weightless room stood empty now.

“Computer,” she said, feeling the alien English words roll off her tongue. “Verify my identity. Anna Tripolk.”

She waited a moment as the computer digitized her voice and compared it with the pattern it had stored.

“{{VERIFIED.}}”

“Did Commander Rurik leave any instructions concerning me? Did he designate me as commander?”

“{{YOU ARE COMMANDER OF THE KIBALCHICH.}}”

She felt her insides go watery at the affirmation. What Rurik had said was true. But what had he meant? “Computer, seal all access into the command center. I do not wish to be disturbed.”

The open door from the lift platform slid shut. She heard no bolt-locking mechanism on the other doors, but that didn’t matter. The computer would refuse to open them for anyone else. She floated, lost in her own confusion.

“Computer, the last order transmitted from Earth was received by Commander Rurik. Recall the file and play it for me.”

“{{COMMANDER RURIK DELETED THAT FILE.}}”

That didn’t surprise Anna. In consternation, she held onto one of the fixed chairs and let her legs drift out from under her. She set her mouth.

“Computer, did you store the content of that message—the substance, if not the exact words? Piece together peripheral files if you have to.”

“{{WORKING.}}” Then, “{{COMPLETE.}}”

“Summarize.”

“{{YOU HAVE INSUFFICIENT ACCESS AUTHORIZATION.}}”

“Computer, I command the Kibalchich. Authorize access.”

“{{WORKING … COMPLETE IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED. PLEASE PLACE YOUR HAND ON THE GENETICHECK.}}”

Anna searched out the geneticheck pad, then placed her hand on the device. Seconds later she felt a sharp prick as a minuscule sample of her skin was taken.

“{{IDENTIFICATION CONFIRMED, ACCESS GRANTED: DETONATION SEQUENCE ALEXANDER. COMMANDER RURIK WAS ORDERED TO USE THE KIBALCHICH’S DIRECTED-ENERGY WEAPON TO DESTROY ORBITECH 1. VICE COMMANDER CAGARIN WAS TO ENSURE THAT THE ORDER WAS CARRIED OUT.}}”

“What directed-energy weapon?” Anna demanded. “The Kibalchich is a research station. We have no directed-energy weapons here.”

“{{THIS STATION WAS BUILT FOR THE EXPRESS PURPOSE OF BASING A DIRECTED-ENERGY WEAPON. ALL OTHER CONCERNS ARE SECONDARY.}}”

Appalled, Anna Tripolk pulled herself down into the chair and stared at the holotank in the center of the room.

“Explain. Display graphics. What weapon? How could that be?”

A diagram of the Kibalchich appeared in the center of the tank, etched in glowing green lines against a black background.

“{{A CACHE OF NUCLEAR DEVICES KEPT IN WATER STORAGE IS DESIGNED TO SLIDE DOWN TO THE END OF THE ROTATIONAL AXIS BENEATH THE SHIELD AND DETONATE, ONE DEVICE AT A TIME. X-RAY CONVERTERS EMBEDDED IN THE AXIS FOCUS THE ENERGY TO THE REFLECTING MIRROR ABOVE. THE MIRROR CAN BE TILTED TO DIRECT THE X-RAY LASER TO A SPECIFIED TARGET.}}”

On the image, a small doughnut-shaped disk slid down the central axis to its end. A slow-motion simulated explosion went off and a bright purple ray shot through the center, ricocheted off the overhead mirror, and stabbed out into space beyond the fringe of the holotank image.

“But those nuclear devices were supposed to be for thrust!” Anna whispered. “For thrust! The overhead mirror was going to be our primary solar collector!”

“{{THAT IS A POSSIBLE SECONDARY APPLICATION.}}”

“Secondary application!” Anna screamed, realizing that her emotion would be completely lost on the voice-recognition software. “It was supposed to be the only application! That’s what the Kibalchich was put up here for!”

The computer waited for her to ask a direct question, but she didn’t feel like speaking. Instead, sobbing, Anna let herself drift in the command center. Though her body was weightless, she felt as if a planet-sized brick had been hung around her neck.

Nightmare demons kept rearing up at her in her quarters, jerking her conscience back and forth. Her grief and dismay at Rurik’s death had changed into outrage at him and his betrayal. He had known all along that her work was only of secondary importance to the people who ran the Kibalchich—the ones who really ran it. Her work, her dreams, had been just a cover—something to distract everyone.

Stepan Rurik had known all along, and he had held her and caressed her and let her tell him about her ideas. All the while he had allowed her to go on thinking those things, knowing they would never happen.

Yet he was so devoted to that brutal little secret about the colony that he had refused the last order from Earth. Rurik had, in effect, forced them all to go into sleepfreeze so he could avoid that one command. It had turned him into a murderer, driven him to suicide. There were eleven KGB representatives aboard the Kibalchich, and Rurik had taken it upon himself to dispense justice. Didn’t he trust the other two hundred people aboard to have some sense? Even if Cagarin had taken over the station, he wouldn’t have lasted. Everyone else aboard had come for the same reason that had called Anna Tripolk.

As the days went by she watched the people from Orbitech 1 take away her sleepfreeze chambers—another step in dismantling her hopes for a Mars colony. She remembered the other people who had died, how Ramis and Dr. Langelier had awakened her from deep sleep on a whim, though they had no better future to offer.

This would not have happened if Rurik had followed his damned orders and gotten rid of Orbitech 1. The anger and betrayal made her want to lash out, and she had so many targets to choose from.

Now she entered the command center again. After the computer had verified her identity and again sealed all the access doors, Anna Tripolk strapped herself in the command chair that had once been Rurik’s.

“Computer, I am commander of this station, correct?”

“{{AFFIRMATIVE.}}”

“Commander Rurik had access to the directed-energy weapon, did he not?”

“{{FULL IDENTIFICATION NEEDED TO ACCESS THAT INFORMATION. PLEASE PLACE YOUR HAND ON THE GENETICHECK.}}” Anna complied and the computer responded,

“{{AFFIRMATIVE. COMMANDER RURIK WAS GRANTED ACCESS TO DETONATION SEQUENCE ALEXANDER.}}”

“And since I am now commander of this station, do I also have such access?”

The computer checked through the chain of logic. “{{AFFIRMATIVE.}}”

Anna Tripolk closed her eyes and let a breath out between her teeth. “Good. That is very good.”