“How about the lander?”
“Lander’s full.” Thirty-five altogether. Plus Eric and herself.
“Moonriders are sixteen minutes away,” said Bill.
“Where’s the WhiteStar?”
“Estimate twenty-four minutes.”
Well, there was nothing she could do about it. It was time to get clear. Get as far away as she could.
She activated the allcom. “Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll be getting under way in about sixty seconds. We’re going to take it slowly, but anyone who’s not in a seat please find something to hold on to. I’ll tell you when you can move around freely.”
“What’s wrong?” Eric asked.
She shook her head. Nothing.
Behind them, a female passenger sat on the deck in the hatchway. She was using a breather.
The ship’s scopes had picked up the black globes. They approached side by side, straddling and slightly above the tube.
“Where’s the Granville?”
“They made up some time,” said Bill. “They’re one hour fifty-three minutes out.”
An hour and a half behind the moonriders.
“Bill, I assume you haven’t been able to contact them?”
“Yes,” he said. “I’ve been in constant contact.”
“With the moonriders?”
“With the Granville. I apologize. I misunderstood. No, I have been transmitting constantly to the moonriders. They do not respond.”
“We’d better get started, don’t you think?” Eric’s voice. Somehow far away.
“Yeah.”
He activated his harness. He wasn’t going to need it, and he knew that. He was sending a message.
Nobody subtler than Eric.
“Valya.”
“No,” she said.
“No what?”
“I can’t do this.”
Outside, the long narrow dock pointed toward the stars.
“Can’t do what?”
“You’re captain, Eric.”
“What?”
“I’m going back.”
“What do you mean, going back? There isn’t time.”
She got up. The woman on the deck watched them curiously. Eric grabbed her arm. Held on. “You’ll be okay,” she said. “You don’t need me.”
“You’ll get yourself killed.”
“I’ll take an e-suit with me.”
“What will you do with an e-suit?”
“If I have to, I’ll jump off the platform.” She shook her head angrily. No time to argue. “Bill?”
“Yes, Valya.”
“When Eric tells you to, I want you to pull away to a range of three hundred kilometers.”
“Okay.”
“Do whatever Eric says. He’ll be my alternate until you hear otherwise.”
“Yes, Valya.”
“Eric, the Granville will be here in about an hour and a half. The Bloomberg and the Tanaka are running right behind it. Set up a rendezvous plan with the incoming ships — ”
“I can’t manage this,” he said.
“Sure you can. All you have to do is tell Bill what you want him to do, and he’ll take care of it. Transfer everybody with a breather to one of the other ships. There isn’t plenty of time to do it, but there is time.”
“All right.”
“After you’ve done that, get the people out of the shuttles. The shuttles here.”
“Goddam it, Valya, I wish you wouldn’t do this. I don’t see what you can do for them.”
“Eric, please — ”
“Just tell me why.”
She had no answer. Maybe she could help. Maybe she just couldn’t bear the thought that Estevan was a better woman than she was. Or Angie. Or a bunch of other people.
She collected an e-suit harness from the maintenance locker. But it had no oxygen. The tank had been given to one of the passengers. She looked down at the young woman on the deck. “May I have the breather?” she said.
The woman stared back at her, frightened. “Why?” She had a Russian accent.
“It’s okay. You won’t need it. There’ll be one less rider.”
SHE DIRECTED BILL to reopen the airlock. Eric watched her leave the bridge. Listened to her reassure her passengers — his passengers now — as she passed through the common room. Then she was gone and the airlock hatch closed.
Dumb.
He changed seats. Felt his authority increase. He was the captain.
The young woman who’d given her breather to Valya still looked confused. He indicated the chair he’d just vacated. “Climb in,” he said.
OTHER THAN VALYA, eighteen people were left in the tower, most of them gathered in the dining area with whatever they planned to take with them. Estevan sat up front with Julie, Angie, and Ho. They were talking softly, two conversations going at once. Estevan looked up, startled to see her. “What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Same as you. Trying to figure a way to get everybody off.”
“Can’t be done,” said Ho.
“You’ve lost your mind, Valya,” said Estevan. “Has your ship left yet?”
“Probably.”
“Call it back.”
“You need help.”
“What can you do?”
“I’m still thinking about it.”
“You’ve got a suit,” said Angie. “You can jump for it, if you have to.”
“I could do that.” That was what she intended to do if necessary.
Estevan studied her. “I’m tempted to crowd everyone on board the WhiteStar.”
“The cabin’s way too small. No way you could do it even if you had an air supply, which you don’t. You’re lucky it can fit seven. They’ll be on top of one another as it is.”
“Well,” said Julie, “welcome to the Short Timers Club.”
ON THE DISPLAY, the moonriders were burning another set of accelerator rings. “That’s the last,” said Angie. “They’ll be here in ten minutes.”
The Bergen called in. “We had a good jump, Origins. Will see you in two hours.”
And the Zheng Shaiming. “Two and a half hours, Salvator. We will be able to take twenty-six of your people.”
They drank coffee, and nobody said much. Estevan sighed, put her cup down, and got up. “How far away’s the WhiteStar?”
“Fifteen minutes,” said Angie.
“Not going to make it.”
“Don’t be so quick to give up,” said Valya. “The moonriders won’t open fire right away.”
Estevan seemed exhausted. “Good,” she said, pushing herself out of her chair. “Glad you have things under control, Valya.” Her tone had an edge. She got up, walked over to one of the other tables, and asked how they were doing. There was a whispered exchange between Angie and Julie, and it wasn’t hard to interpret. Say good-bye.
All heads turned in her direction. People hoping she had news and immediately seeing she did not. Estevan managed a smile. “I want the people who are going on the WhiteStar standing by the airlock. When it gets here, we’ll open up, get on, and clear out. Okay?”
They weren’t going to be hard to persuade.
A telescopic window opened on the displays. They saw lights.
The WhiteStar.
TOA: thirteen minutes.
Estevan gently tugged Valya out of her seat and looked at the breather. “You, too,” she said. “Go with them.”
Valya wanted to say yes, please, get me out of here. Kleigmann nodded, smiled, gave her a thumbs-up. Angie mouthed the words good luck. Someone had mentioned that Angie had a family. Three kids.
And Julie and Santos, about whom she knew nothing.
And Ho Smith.
“We see you,” said the WhiteStar pilot. “Valya, we can see the moonriders, too.”
Estevan answered: “WhiteStar, I don’t think you can beat them in here.”
“Have your people ready to go. This will have to be in and out.”
“We’ll be ready.”
“How many of you are there?”
“More than you can carry. We need you to take seven, plus two wearing your breathers. And one more who already has a breather.”
“Seven exceeds our life-support capacity.”
“It’ll only be for an hour or so. You can exchange when the other ships get here.”
“You’re making me liable.”
“It’s an emergency, WhiteStar. Please.”
“Okay. Do it.”
Valya hated the moonriders. Absolutely and unequivocally. She would happily have killed whatever rode the globes had she been able to reach them.
Estevan was jabbing a finger at her. “Get going,” she said.
Valya shook her head. “Not on the WhiteStar. I need somebody to get me a go-pack.”
“Why?” demanded Estevan.
“Maybe I can buy some time.”
“What? How?”
“I need a lamp. Brightest one you have.”
SHE STRAPPED ON the go-pack and went out through the main airlock, past the people waiting for the WhiteStar. There were a couple of remarks, how come she gets to leave? Wish I had one of those.
Then she was outside. The gravity unit was located in the central deck. It projected in both directions, so there was a distinct up and down along the hull. It was tricky. Had she lacked the go-pack, she could not have maneuvered, and in fact might easily have fallen off the tower and drifted away.
She used the thrusters to climb the tower, which was mildly flattened at both poles. In the distance she could see the WhiteStar, a single point of light, growing steadily brighter. The stars seemed very far, and the collider tube was lost in darkness.
So were the moonriders. She didn’t see them until they were on top of her. Two polished black spheres, dwarfed by the tower. She watched them approach, still side by side. She switched on the lamp and raised it above her head.
Eric picked that moment to call. Was she planning on getting aboard the WhiteStar? What was happening?
“No time now, Eric,” she said. “Talk to you later.”
“You are going to get clear, right?”
“Yes,” she said. “Later.” She moved the lamp back and forth, pointing its beam toward the globes.
They kept coming.
“Come on,” she said. “React.”
Gradually, they changed their angle of approach and rose higher in the sky. They were slowing down, keying on her. Maybe.
They moved into position above her, directly in front of where she stood. One on either side.