"There is," Marchero declared. "I'll take the escape capsule out and check from that."
"No you won't! Even the motors in that will be detectable without the stealth device. Someone is bound to investigate if they see it pop out of nowhere."
"Sorry," Marchero muttered.
"Go down to the bridge. Turn off all scanner functions and wait."
This time Marchero did what he asked without arguing. Kirrik disappeared back into the equipment level.
Marchero sat in the cockpit for an hour. The now blank displays might reveal anything were they active - just space, or a group of ships on an intercept course? Eventually Kirrik's voice was faintly heard. "Turn on passive sensors."
Marchero turned them on quickly. The main monitor jumped back into life. The scanner ellipse illuminated, empty, although that was not a definite sign that you didn't have company when running on passive mode.
"Start braking," came Kirrik's voice.
"At what power?" Marchero shouted back.
"Minimum to get us there, of course!"
"Which is?"
"Hang on." Kirrik extricated himself from the equipment level and headed back to the bridge. "Let me do it, then," he called down to her. She climbed out, and Kirrik dropped in. "Fifty-two percent will do from here," he said, after spending a few moments on the computer. The buzz of the engine started again as the Viper started to decelerate to meet the base.
"Right, that's it," he declared. "If this isn't working they'll know we're here in about an hour."
If the stealth device had failed any EM signatures would take about an hour to travel seven and a half astronomical units. Any alert broadcast by the target, perhaps to alert patrols, would take another hour propagate out as far as the Viper. How long it would take for any ships to reach them would depend upon the vessel, but would be at least a day. And without active scanners the first sign of company might be the screech of laser fire on the shields. Or death. The effect of the stealth device on the shields was a worrying unknown.
A new tenseness gripped the small police vessel. Marchero's abrasive manner receded, but instead was replaced by a tendency to become angered by the slightest incident. Kirrik was supposedly trained to cope with pressure, and as a veteran of all sorts of campaigns he had come under it plenty of times before. Dealing with this kind of unknowing wait, though, began to try him too, and he often misread Marchero and heard insults where none were intended.
Once they tried to put aside differences and discuss a plan, but because neither of them had much of an idea what they were going in to very little was achieved. Marchero produced a probably very inaccurate diagram of the base and they identified a couple of possible landing spots. It wasn't long, though, before they started arguing again. Kirrik was clearly frustrated with the lack of Marchero's knowledge, whereas she was becoming very annoyed with him continuously asking her about things she had already stated she did not know.
They tried agreeing to avoid each other, but before long Marchero started bickering again. She eventually confessed that she found it less of a strain than sitting around waiting.
Despite their worries the ship moved closer, unmolested.
They did, in the event, reach the base safely. A confusion of lights marked its location. They were mostly clustered around one side of a vast, dark mass of the asteroid. Further points of light were ships patrolling the space around the base, or moving to and from nearby platform.
Sat on the platform was a Python class deep space cruiser, made ugly by the four fuel scoops that had been fitted when it had only been designed for one. It was most likely doing service as a tanker, jumping to a lone, uninhabited system or an outer member of a multiple star group where it could collect Quirium Witchspace fuel without being spotted. Bright lights around the platform edge revealed a multitude of robots crawling in and out of the cargo bay.
Kirrik was sat in the pilot's seat with Marchero clinging to the bridge ladder, watching the screen. "That's where we had to land," she pointed out, indicating the platform. "AutoShuttles took the cargo."
"Anything changed since you last saw it?" Kirrik asked her.
She indicated a structure on the edge of the main complex. "That looks new." As far as could be judged from their current location the new building was a processing station of some kind, perhaps for ice extraction and hydrogen production.
"Hold on," Kirrik warned suddenly. "There's something coming this way." He nudged the Viper away from the flight path of the approaching ships. They made no move to intercept. Three Copperhead class fighters, barely recognisable in the gloom, swept quietly past.
"I'm going to put us down on the edge of the base. There's a nice, dark spot where we won't be seen." The Viper started moving again, slowly edging towards the asteroid. Kirrik manoeuvred it away from the concentration of lights on the surface. When he a mere three hundred feet above the asteroid he swung the ship around to approach low from the barren side of the rock. When the first lights appeared over a hill he slowed down even further, now moving no faster than a running man, and dropping down lower until the ship was almost touching the ground. The ship jolted several times as it moved to avoid bumps that were invisible until they were almost crashed in to.
Landing a ship like the Viper was a tricky business. Designed purely for use in space it usually docked with other ships or space stations, guided to rest by subtle manipulations of gravity generators or docking arms. Touching down in one piece on a high-G planet would be impossible. The comparatively tiny mass of an asteroid would hold it to the surface without it being damaged by its own weight.
Kirrik managed to bring the ship almost to a stop, and let the feeble hold of the asteroid's gravity do the rest. The landing, when it came, was still uncomfortable. Without any legs to absorb the shock the whole ship was jarred. Marchero lost her grip on the ladder and collapsed on top of Kirrik. Clattering from behind indicated things falling over in the communal area.
When Marchero had managed to clamber off the swearing Disian Kirrik ran a quick damage check through the ship, but everything appeared to be intact.
There were two spacesuits secured in a locker in the cabin. Over a millennium of development and the space suit was still an encumbrance. The necessity of self-contained life support, to protect the entire body against the vacuum and intense heat and cold inevitably resulted in a piece of equipment that was a little awkward to use. Emergency systems, such as the RemLok survival mask, could protect against space with an almost invisible film. Similar devices using the same technology were sometimes used by crew making emergency repairs. None of these offered the same degree of protection, and operational time, as a full suit, though.
Marchero was to leave the ship with Kirrik. Her technological expertise was unknown, and it was felt unwise to leave her alone on board where she might be able to over-ride Kirrik's lockouts. Taking her with him was perhaps an even greater risk. He watched with some concern as she struggled into the suit.
"How much low-G experience have you had?"
"A few hours in zero gravity," she replied.
"Oh." This really should have been brought up earlier. "Zero gravity is nothing like low gravity. Jump too hard and you'll put yourself in orbit here. Not that that would bother me too much, but your body floating around might attract attention."
She was about to retort when she noticed the grin on his face. "Thanks."
With the suits on and system checks completed Kirrik hoisted a bag onto his back, and they moved into the Viper's entrance area. Clad in the spacesuits there was barely room for Kirrik to find the controls. With the bridge and communal doors shut tight the air was pumped out. The iris hatch lensed open, and they climbed out of the confines of the Viper.