Starhawk

Chapter 5

JAKE ARRIVED WITH three girls and their luggage. All were breathless after doing a spacewalk wearing no protection other than their air tanks and a harness that seemed to do nothing more than produce a soft glow. They filed into the passenger cabin, rolling their eyes and laughing and exchanging comments in Arabic. At that moment there was no need for a common language. Priscilla and Jake helped them out of their gear.

Priscilla brought out juice and cookies, and they did introductions. The girls were Adara, Lana, and Ishraq. “Make yourselves at home,” she said.

Jake was putting the Flickinger units and air tanks into a plastic bag when Priscilla asked him to join her on the bridge.

“Something wrong?” he asked.

“No. I just need to ask you something.” When she was sure no one was close enough to hear, she lowered her voice. “Listen, Jake, I can go over and stay on the Gremlin. There’s no need for you to do it.”

Jake took a deep breath. He looked impressed. “Well, that’s very generous of you, but no. Let’s leave things the way they are. Anything else?”

“Jake, you’re the real pilot on this flight. If there’s a problem, you need to be here.”

“We’ve got a problem, and I’m here. This is what I get paid for.”

“Jake—”

“Forget it. Your job, whatever happens from here on out, is to get these kids home.” She opened her mouth to respond, but he held up a hand indicating she was to be quiet. “This is my responsibility. We’re all going to survive, so don’t worry about it. In any case, I don’t want to have it on my record that I allowed a student pilot to board a ship with problems.” He looked back at her without cracking a grin. “If I did that, I’d never be able to set foot in the Cockpit again.”

“Jake, if there’s a problem, I’m not certified to solo with this ship.”

“Doesn’t matter. I’m certifying you now.”

“All right. How about we flip for it?” One of the girls, Adara, was watching them through the open hatch.

“Keep your voice down, Priscilla. And no.” He looked at the overhead. “We’re not flipping for anything.”

“Why not?” Somewhere in a deep, dark place, she wanted him to refuse her. To keep saying no, he was the senior officer, it was his responsibility. “Jake—”

“Because it’s my call. Because you’re a woman.”

That was irritating. “Women and children first.”

“That’s the tradition.”

“It’s a bit old-school, isn’t it?”

“Listen, just take care of things here, all right? Do that, and we’ll be okay.”

“You have a plan?”

“Yeah.” Jake waved at Adara. Smiled. She smiled back and turned away. “It’s simple enough. When we’ve got all the children over here, Shahlah, Josh, and I will stay with the Gremlin as long as we can. Then when we have to, we’ll come over here and move into our lander. We should be able to live off its air supply until the Thompson shows up. That way we won’t put any additional pressure on the ship’s life-support system.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said.

“Why not?”

“How are you going to know when you have to come over? You wait a few seconds too long, and you’ll all go down with the Gremlin.”

“You have a better plan?”

“Why not put the lander alongside the Gremlin? You’d be able to get to it quicker.”

“We can’t run the engines. There’s too much chance it would get blown away when we start running into atmosphere. No. It’s okay. We’ll be careful, and we’ll leave in plenty of time.”

“How long—?”

“We’ve got a couple of hours on the Gremlin. Then, our lander should be able to sustain three people for about nineteen hours. If the Thompson’s still not here, we can fall back on the Flickinger units. We’ve got five sets of air tanks between the two ships. That’ll give the three of us an extra four or five hours each. We should be okay.”

“What happens if it doesn’t get here in time?”

“You know, Priscilla, I never realized you could be so negative. We are doing what we can. If you can’t handle your end of this, you should find another line of work.” He looked down at her. “Anything else?”

She stared into Jake’s brown eyes. Shook her head. “No, sir.”

He turned away and went back to gathering the Flickinger equipment. When he’d finished, he pulled the bag into the air lock. Then he said good-bye to everybody. “Be back in a few minutes.” He activated the field, and the hatch slid down. Priscilla heard the low, muffled sounds of decompression.

Ishraq appeared beside her. Her smile turned into a frown. “Priscilla,” she said in English, “are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” She was grateful her offer to go in his place had been rejected. And it embarrassed her. Coward, she thought.

* * *

THE THREE GIRLS wore jumpsuits with GREMLIN emblazoned on the back, and the scroll-carrying hawk on the front. They spread out on the seats in the passenger cabin. “We have some games in the library,” Priscilla said. Ishraq translated for Adara. Lana apparently had enough English to get by.

They seemed happy to hear about the games although nobody made a move to consult the library. They were pretty, the way teenage girls always are. Adara said something and Ishraq translated: “How serious is the problem with the Gremlin? They don’t want to tell us.”

Priscilla sat down with them. “It’s serious, but they’ll be okay.”

Lana chewed her lip, and Adara raised both hands to her mouth and switched her gaze to Ishraq while assuming an I-told-you-so expression. Then all three were talking. What’s going to happen now?

“We’re playing it by ear,” said Priscilla. “The important thing, though, is that you’re safe here.”

“I mean,” said Ishraq, “is something going to happen to the Gremlin?”

“I’m not sure what’ll happen with the Gremlin. But you won’t go back to it. You’ll be going home with me. Or on the Thompson.”

Lana’s eyes showed anger. “All this trouble,” she said, “because a lunatic put a bomb in the engines. Captain Miller thinks it has something to do with terraforming.”

“That’s the general suspicion,” said Priscilla. “Listen, would you guys like more to eat?”

That promoted another exchange. But they decided they’d had enough. And then they began to laugh and point at something behind her. When she turned, she saw Tawny.

The cat distracted them for a few minutes. But eventually Ishraq began looking around and frowning. “Priscilla, are we going to be able to fit everybody in here? This ship seems kind of small.”

“We’ll be okay. As soon as the Thompson gets here, we’ll be able to spread out a bit.” She smiled. “One day, you’ll be telling your grandchildren about this.”

Lana folded her arms.

“Are you cold?” asked Priscilla.

“Oh, no. It’s very comfortable in here. I was just thinking—” She hesitated. “Coming over from the Gremlin was scary.”

“Was that the first time you’ve been outside a ship?”

“Yes. For all of us.”

“Well, you guys did pretty well. The first time I went out, I had heart palpitations.”

“Really?” said Ishraq. Tawny had climbed into her lap. “You don’t look like somebody who’d scare very easily.”

“You don’t know me well. But I’ll tell you, if somebody walks out of an air lock out here, and her heartbeat doesn’t pick up a little bit, she’s a pretty tough cookie.”

Barton’s moon hung in the dark sky. She wished the diamond monument were visible somewhere, but she’d already checked. It was on the other side of the world.

* * *

COPPERHEAD LOG

So far so good.

—November 17, 2195