Starhawk

Chapter 6

JAKE CAME THROUGH the air lock into the Gremlin passenger cabin to the sound of raised voices. One of the girls was in tears. Another was pointing angrily at Josh. “Limaza satutrukuna huna?”

Shahlah interpreted for the captain: “She wants to know why you and I are staying behind.”

“Tell them it’s all right, Shahlah. Nobody’s staying behind. We just have some reports and things to take care of.” Then Joshua smiled at Jake. “Hi, partner.”

The girls looked at Jake. “It’s okay,” he said, trying to keep it light. “We’re all going to cross over. Look, I’ll be here with them.” Then, with a laugh: “Believe me, I wouldn’t do it if it weren’t safe.”

Shahlah translated, but the girls’ suspicions did not subside.

“Jake,” said Joshua, “did you enjoy the trip over?” He grinned at the girls. “Captain Loomis likes to spacewalk.”

“It’s exciting,” said Jake. He looked toward the young lady who’d asked the question and seemed to be at the center of the growing concern. She was the tallest in the group, almost as big as he was. Her name was Nadia. “It might seem a little scary at first, but you’ll enjoy it.”

“Alkull sayakunu bikhair,” said Shahlah. “Laisa hunaka ma yad’u lilqalaq.” Then she looked at the two captains. “I told them everybody will be okay. That there’s nothing to worry about.”

One of the girls was wearing a crescent necklace. She was watching Jake with no sign of approval. “Min fadlika fassir lana limatha lan ta’tu ma’ana.”

“Karida wants to know,” said Shahlah, “if the Gremlin is going to crash.”

“Yes,” Joshua said. “It is. We won’t be able to save the ship.”

Karida stayed with it. “How long have you known?”

“We’ve known for a while.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

“We didn’t want to say anything until the Copperhead got here.”

The students looked at one another. Priscilla, watching via the imager, thought they lost a degree of trust in their captain. And possibly in Shahlah.

Another of the girls was shaking her head. “’Ana ’ash’oro bil’asaf li’annani ’atait.”

“Layla says she’s sorry she came.”

Joshua tried to take Layla’s hand in his. But she backed away. “I understand,” he said. “This isn’t the kind of flight we’d planned. And I’m sorry. But everything will be okay.”

No translation of his comment was needed; the meaning was clear enough. There were some tentative smiles. Shahlah picked up one of the Flickinger belts and held it out for the nearest girl. “Let me help you, Ashira,” she said, alerting Priscilla that Ishraq had not been the only student who spoke English.

* * *

PRISCILLA DECIDED THAT, since everyone else now knew the fate of the Gremlin, she should share the information with her three passengers. “I don’t think they wanted to go into specifics while you were on board because they were concerned that it would be a bit scary.”

“We’re adults,” said Lana. “They could have told us.”

“Look at it from their point of view, Lana,” said Priscilla. “They were trying to make it as easy on you as they could.”

When Jake and three more girls came through the air lock, the reception was subdued. “To be honest,” one of the newcomers said, “I’m glad I didn’t know. I was afraid something like that was happening.”

The new passengers wasted no time removing the Flickinger units and returning them to Jake. “I see you told them,” he said. “Everything okay?”

She nodded. “They’re fine.”

“Good.” He collected the belts and air tanks. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“Okay.”

“If there’s anything of yours in the lander, Priscilla, you might get it out now.” He went back out through the air lock.

* * *

THE CLOUD-WRAPPED PLANET below him seemed closer than it had been. He stared down at it as he drifted between the ships. Next time somebody takes a bunch of kids on a trip, they should pick a world with a breathable atmosphere.

He found himself thinking about his life back home. His father, who’d been so proud of him when he qualified. And his mother, who’d left them when Jake was only six. Ran off with a banker.

Jake had never married. He’d been swept off his feet a couple of times and proposed once. To Jeri Lockett. The woman he always thought about the moment after the lights went out. They’d been sitting in the Cosmopolitan in Atlanta, and he’d been about to leave on a two-month flight. So he’d taken the plunge. But she had declined. He never saw her again after that night.

He regretted that he’d never had a family. It hadn’t been by design. He’d just been too busy. Or maybe because the right woman had never shown up. Or because, when she had, he hadn’t been able to hang on to her. Now, somehow, it seemed as if those details didn’t really matter very much.

And why, just now, was he entertaining thoughts like these?

* * *

“HOW’D IT GO?” Joshua asked when he reentered the Gremlin.

“Good. Everything’s under control.” He glanced at the four remaining students. “We can only take three on this next run.”

One of them would have to wait. The blonde Priscilla had seen in the photo stepped forward. “I’ll stay,” she said. Her name was Kareema. There was a brief debate while the others also volunteered to wait. But in the end, Kareema got the nod. The others strapped on the belts and pulled the air tanks onto their shoulders.

* * *

FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER, Jake returned to pick up the last of the students. He asked Joshua if he wanted to escort his last student.

“It’s okay,” he said. “You’re doing fine, Jake.”

Jake shrugged. “I thought you might want to say something to them. Just in case.”

“Not a good idea,” he said. “It would scare the devil out of them. Don’t worry. We’re not going down with this thing.”

When it was time to go, Kareema hugged Shahlah. “Good luck,” the student said. Then she turned to Jake. “Don’t let them stay too long.”

“Thank you, Kareema,” said Josh. “We’ll be fine.”

“We’ll join you in a couple of hours,” said Shahlah.

Finally, they activated the force fields, went into the air lock, and crossed to the Copperhead.

* * *

WHEN HE’D RETURNED to the Gremlin, Shahlah informed him that Joshua had gone below to get pictures of the damage. “He’s been transmitting everything back to Union.”

“Well,” he said, “I hope they got the idiot who did this.”

“Let’s also hope we all get home okay.”

“Amen to that.”

“I’ve got a question for you, Jake.”

“Fire away, kid.”

“What exactly are our chances of surviving this?”

“I think we’ll be all right.”

“That sounds fairly tentative.” She took a deep breath. “Josh’s been evasive about it. He says the right things, but his eyes are telling me something else. Be straight with me.”

“We should get through it okay,” he said. “We can’t be sure about anything until we see when and where the Thompson shows up.”

“All right.” She read his eyes. “Thanks. Joshua kept saying there was nothing to worry about. I knew that wasn’t true.”

“What did the girls think of the monument?” Jake asked. “I don’t guess they got a chance to enjoy it.”

“Not really. I’ll tell you what they did get excited about, though. The animals down there.” She pointed at the deck, meaning, of course, the surface of Barton’s World.

“You really think so?”

“Are you serious? They’ve got big furry creatures. The size of mastodons. And whole herds of animals that look like pandas. And giant snaky things that make your skin crawl.” She led the way onto the bridge, looking for something. “He set a countdown running here somewhere. How long we had before we could expect to go down.”

Shahlah touched a pad, and the AI responded: “It would be prudent to stay no longer than forty-five minutes.”

* * *

GREMLIN LOG

Finally, the girls are safe. Now we have to see whether our own luck holds. Let the record show that a quicker response, however that might have been arranged, would have been seriously helpful.

This will probably be our last entry. The log will be recorded on a chip, and the chip will be delivered to the Copperhead and made available to those inquiring into a more effective methodology for responding to emergencies.

—Joshua Miller, November 17, 2195