''You going to shoot me?'' he asked, not looking up. Kris saw herself reflected in the instruments of that station.
''Wasn't planning to,'' Kris said, glancing around for the wrench fellow. Jack followed her in and started doing his own check. Beni held station outside the hatch, but the look he gave the engineer rapidly turned to raw terror.
''Kind of wish you would shoot me,'' the man said. His hand was trembling. ''It would solve all my problems. All yours, too.''
Kris's father hadn't raised dumb kids. ''That what I take it for?''
''Probably. The bridge activated the self-destruct sequence. My job is to finish it by letting go of this switch. That's what they pay me the big bucks for. I let go and the reactor's containment just goes away. Then we do.''
''But the folks who put that in your contract aren't the ones standing here just now,'' Jack said.
''You got that one right.''
''Somebody really doesn't want any evidence, do they. And don't much care who pays the cost for what they want,'' Kris said softly. Her knees were starting to shake, making her glad to be in zero g. Floating, waiting to be blown to atoms was a whole lot more nerve-racking than throwing herself into a shoot-out.
''I'm too old for this shit,'' the engineer said. ''And I kind of wanted to get older.'' He shook his head. ''They can't pay a man enough for this.''
''Any way to safety the destruct sequence?'' Kris asked.
''You can't do that,'' came the half scream, half screech. ''We swore a mercenary's oath.'' The missing fellow launched himself from behind something big and gray. He had his wrench out ahead of him and was aiming straight for the guy holding back the reactor blowout.
Kris stitched him with a three round burst of sleepy darts.
Jack launched himself at the suicide, caught him in midair. The two of them crashed into the Engineering station just at the elbow of the fellow with his finger in a most lethal dike.
''You still have the situation well in hand?'' Kris asked.
''If I didn't, you wouldn't be asking,'' the guy said with a soft snort. ''Listen, my hand is getting a mite tired. You see that blue switch there, just out of my reach if I tried for it?''
''Yes,'' Kris said, gliding softly to the point of interest, but trying to touch nothing.
''And that red button about half a meter away from it?''
Kris looked for it. And pointed at one.
''No, not that red one, the smaller one below it.''
Kris pointed to the right one.
''You throw the blue switch. Then you have five seconds to push the red one down and hold it down until you feel it click solidly in place. You got it?''
''And if I mess up?''
''You really don't need me to tell you, do you?''
Kris wrapped a leg around a stanchion for the work station, stabilized herself, and reached out. For once, she was glad of all of her six feet and the reach that came with it. She had the blue switch under her right hand and wasn't even stretching to reach the red. ''Flip one, then push down hard on the other.''
''Until it clicks.''
The switch flipped easily. The button went down. And did nothing. ''I'm not getting a click, here,'' Kris said.
''You better before five seconds is up.''
Kris leaned hard, wishing maybe there was more of her to lean on that button, but they were in zero g and even if she weighed a thousand pounds it wouldn't matter.
''Can this thing be turned off,'' Kris muttered, as she wrapped both of her legs around the support and bent herself to get more leverage behind her fingers.
The button sank deeper, but still no click. Kris grabbed for the edge of the work station to get more purchase.
Beside her, the engineer was muttering, ''One hundred thousand and four. One hundred thousand and…''
The button gave a gentle click. ''Will it stay down now?''
The engineer eyed his board. ''I think you did it. Keep pushing down on that thing. I'm gonna let go.'' He did. Kris counted to twenty. And found she was still here.
''I think you can let go of that,'' the engineer said.
''You don't sound nearly as sure as I want you to sound.''
''Ain't run this procedure all that many times.''
''How many times have you run it?'' Jack asked.
''This is the first time I've heard of.''
Kris's knuckles were white and several, no, most of her muscles were screaming. ''I need to let go?''
''Try it. If we don't blow up, you did things just fine.''
Kris considered her options and found that standing here for the rest of her life might interfere with too many things she wanted to do. Like going dancing with Ron and Jack again. She let up and counted to twenty.
''No boom,'' Beni said from the hatch.
''No boom is good boom,'' Kris agreed and offered the Engineering officer her hand. ''I'm Nur Chim, Chief Engineer of the Royal Flush.‘'
''Not the Wild Goose?'' Jack said.
''Oh, were we using that set of papers today?''
''How many sets of papers does this ship have?'' Kris asked.
The engineer shrugged. ''Ma'am, I'm paid to run a reactor. The fewer questions I ask, the happier the skipper is.''
''Why don't you help us corral that young fellow that's watched too many mercenary vids. Grampa Trouble always told me the only true oath one of them took was to get a paycheck on a regular basis or walk.''
The engineer produced wire and helped Jack lash the two together. ''Grampa Trouble. You one of those Longknifes?''
''Yep.''
''Just my luck. Any chance I can talk you into keeping me separate from the rest of this bunch? I don't think they're going to be too happy to discover I didn't blow the ship.''
''I think that can be arranged.''
Back on the Resolute, the crew was storing sleepers in three large lockers. Kris might have found their presence a surprise on a merchant ship under other circumstances. She flashed a smile Abby's way and said. ''Glad they have these.''
''Nice of them isn't it.''
The engineer suggested five guys he wouldn't mind sharing quarters with. Captain Jinks and the hard cases got another cell. The others filled up the center one. ''Now let's see what we've captured.''
Captain Drago was on the other ship's bridge. He'd found four sets of papers, each for a different ship of the same description, each from a different port. All ports, however, were in Peterwald space.
''Haven't I heard somewhere that there's bad blood between you Longknifes and the Peterwalds?'' Drago asked.
''Do you believe everything you hear in the media?''
''No, but if I hear something often enough, it kind of makes me shy when I get hit on the nose with something that smells of real proof.''
Kris changed the subject. ''Nelly, can you access this ship's network?''
''No. It's solid-wire access only, no hot spots for remote.''
''Kind of makes you wonder if someone wasn't paranoid about their privacy,'' Kris said, then shouted, ''Chief.''
''I'm here. I'm here. What'cha want, boss?''
''I want to plug Nelly directly into this network. You got an adapter?'' It took the chief a minute and three tries, but he finally found one that worked. ''Nelly, will you be safe wandering around in this thing?''
''Of course, Kris.''
A moment later Nelly muttered, ''Ouch. That was not polite.''
''What?'' came from all four humans in earshot.
''Well, everything on this system is encrypted. Heavily. Several different codes. You are right, Kris, your fake friends like their privacy.''
''You've handled codes before.''
''Yes, but this nasty idiot sister of mine is loaded with bombs. I go hunting for something, and she sends unpleasant little things right back at me.''
''Get out, Nelly. Now!''
''I am out, now, Kris, but there is nothing to worry about. Do you remember that triple-buffer system Aunt Tru gave me to use when I was looking for data on the rock chip from Santa Maria?''