Prophets

Date: 2526.6.3 (Standard) 300,000 km from Salmagundi-HD 101534

All the lifeboats would have jettisoned, and the nav computers would attempt to put them down in a cluster close to population, if there were any obvious population centers. The computers would try to put the boats someplace survivable—no mountain ranges, deep oceans, desert, or tundra.

The operative word there was try.

If they were lucky, the beacons would be working and the survivors would be able to reach each other on foot. Mallory pulled out the emergency kit and found the comm beacon for his lifeboat. He pulled out the little handheld unit and scanned for the other lifeboats. The display showed six active beacons out there, but no sign which of them had survivors—no transmissions other than the standard emergency broadcasts.

Someone has to be first, Mallory thought. He switched the unit to transmit.

“This is Fitz—This is Mallory, from the Eclipse. Is anyone receiving this transmission?”

He repeated himself a half dozen times before he heard a voice return, “Hello, hello, hello?”

It was coming from beacon number five.

“Yes, I can hear you.”

“—bzzt—ron Dörner. I’m with Dr. Pak and Dr. Brody. Dr. Brody’s injured.”

“What happened?”

“—bzzt—during acceleration. His wrist is broken—bzzt—unconscious.”

“Do you have the medkit out?”

“Yes.”

Mallory talked her through treating Brody. The doctor had a compound fracture and a head wound. Fortunately he was breathing okay and his pupils were responsive. Mallory spent a half hour talking Dr. Dörner through stabilizing the fracture and getting Brody strapped into one of the acceleration couches. If they were lucky, that would be enough to get him to ground safely.

“Stow everything you can for reentry.” Mallory told her. “It isn’t going to be pleasant.”

“Yes—”

“When you land, don’t leave the vicinity of the lifeboat unless you’re in immediate danger. These things will try to cluster their landings, and if you stay by the beacon, I can probably reach you before anyone else.”

He could hear the hesitation in her voice before she said, “Yes.”

She is the one who ID’d me to Wahid and Mosasa . . .

The air went dead for a moment, then he heard another voice. “Mallory?”

He thought he recognized the voice. “Kugara?”

“Yes. Had some issues to clean up here before I hunted down the radio.”

“Everything all right with you?”

“We’re alive here.”

“Did you hear Dörner?”

“The tail end. Rendezvous at boat five?”

“Yes.”

“I’m shutting down to conserve power. See you on the ground.”

“See you on the ground.” He shut down his own transmission.