“You can have a shower,” came Kohl’s voice, “when you help me finish the welding.”
“On my way,” said Nate, giving El a nod and making his way to Engineering. It might end up being a good day after all. Tyche was alive again, living, heart beating, and soon she’d be breathing again.
• • •
Nate had found Kohl and Hope working in silence. They were in the same space, the same room, but it was like they couldn’t see each other. Same old shit, he thought. One day, he figured that he and Kohl would have more of a conversation about that. He’d tried before, because Hope had done nothing wrong, unless you figured that helping your wife out was some kind of crime, but Kohl had just shrugged and asked Nate to go fuck himself.
It’d keep.
Engineering was lit now, all the lights on, like Hope was trying to erase the memory of darkness from her area of the universe. Ravana’s old reactor was in the middle of the bay, larger than the Tyche’s one. The floor plates around it were crumpled, pieces missing, thick cables coming out from the reactor to couple with ports around Engineering. No smoke, which was a good sign, although without atmosphere it just meant something couldn’t burn, not that it wasn’t wanting to.
Kohl grunted. “Great. You’re here. Why don’t you go weld the outside. Double hull, right? It’ll be faster.”
“Why don’t you,” said Nate, “go weld the outside?”
“I’m already doing the inside,” said Kohl.
“I’m the captain,” said Nate.
“So?” said Kohl.
“So,” said Nate. “Completion bonus.”
“That shit’s wearing thin,” said Kohl. But he grabbed his welding rig, stamping past Nate. This in itself was good news — not that Kohl was in a bad mood but that he needed to go out a proper airlock. There wasn’t a hole big enough to fit a human through in the side of the ship anymore.
Nate smiled. He grabbed a welding rig from the deck, hauled himself up, and got to work. Straight welding was easy enough, and truth be told Kohl was doing the exterior welds because the man was just better at it. Nate could draw a weave bead that looked like a series of dying caterpillars. Kohl could draw the Mona Lisa in the face of metal. No way was Nate saying that, though. Kohl had enough problems keeping his ego under control at the best of times, and that was for things he was terrible at.
“It doesn’t need to be pretty, Cap,” said Hope. He turned, saw her looking up at him, her rig’s arms slack behind her.
“Great,” said Nate, “because it was never going to be.”
She flashed him a grin that was all stim jitters. “I’ll fix her. When we land.”
“I know,” said Nate. He went back to his welding. “We’ll make her right.”
• • •
The crew was in the ready room. Helmets still on, but faces hopeful. They’d pressurized Engineering, found the seal good, and were ready to try the rest of the ship. “Okay,” said Nate. “The plan is to haul ass to Absalom. Avail ourselves of the aid of the fine Republic Navy ship we know is in the system. Failing that, avail ourselves of the aid of the planet-side spaceport.”
“Why Navy?” said Kohl. “You hate those assholes.”
“Faster,” said Hope, but sounded doubtful.
“Cheaper,” said El, sounding more certain.
“More professional,” said Grace.
“Exactly,” said Nate. “Consistent quality. That’s what our dearly beloved Republic is good for. And right now we’re in dire need of consistency. We’ll explain our situation, and I’m sure they’ll help us out. It’s what they do. For law-abiding citizens.”
“What about Hope?” said Kohl. “She going to fuck everything up for us? Again?”
Nate saw Hope’s face fall. “Kohl?” He let some steel come into his voice. “We’re alive because of Hope.”
“If she’d been looking after the reactor in the first place, instead of playing hero games on Arlington, we’d—”
Nate took a step forward. “You don’t like the way I run things, Kohl?” He looked around at El, Grace, and Hope, then back to Kohl. “Anytime you want off my ship, you just say.”
“Jobs’d be easier to get,” said Kohl, “if we didn’t have a fugitive onboard.”
“Jobs would be easier to get,” said Nate, “if I didn’t have to worry about you murdering hundreds of people every time you got drunk.” He gave Kohl a stare. “In or out? We can leave you with the Navy. They’ll take you somewhere.”
Kohl thought about that. “Naw,” he said, but he took a while to get there. “Wouldn’t be as fun on another ship, what with this one almost blowing up all the time.”
“Glad that’s resolved,” said Nate. “Engineer? I need air back in my ship.”
Hope nodded, the rig’s arms jerking behind her. Definitely too many stims. She was wired, all her motions erratic, exaggerated, larger than life. Her eyes were wide and bright in her face. “Air coming right up.” She held up an arm, the tiny console on her rig’s sleeve lighting up. She entered a few commands.
The air filling the ship couldn’t be heard right away. There wasn’t an atmosphere to carry the noise. But after a short time Nate could hear a subtle hiss as the Tyche breathed again. He gave El a nod, and his Helm moved into the flight deck. There was a pause, then her voice came back over the comm. “No leaks,” she said. “Hull is sound.”
“Then it’s time,” said Nate, “to drop this transmitter off and get paid.”
“Aye aye, Captain,” said El. “Ready to jump on your mark.”
Grins, smiles, all around. Except for Grace, whose face was sombre. Nate dismissed it as nerves, as tension, as exhaustion. Maybe he shouldn’t have.
• • •
The starscape filled in front of Nate, the jump ending with a soft whine as the Endless Drive powered down.
“Absalom system,” said El. “We’re here.”
“Well then,” said Nate. “Let’s get on the horn and see how those Navy boys are doing. But don’t,” and here, he held up a hand, “make it sound like we know they’re there.”
She gave him a sideways glance across the cockpit. “I figured I could just say, ’Hey, you assholes seen the Ravana?’ and see what shakes loose.”
“Sorry,” said Nate.
“Because that’d be fun,” said El.
“I said I was sorry,” said Nate. “I’m tired.”
“Yeah, so are we all … hmm,” she said.
“What’s, ’Hmm?’” said Nate.
“Well, we’ve got all six planets we’d expect to see. We’ve got a transponder — joy of joy, the Gladiator is still here. I’ve given her a ping, and I’d say in about ten seconds we’ll have them crawling all over us. We’ve got a big rock floating around Absalom Delta, snuggled nice and close to the Gladiator, which I will tell you is strange, but maybe they’re investigating it. But the weird thing is that we’ve got a Guild Bridge, and as near as I can tell it’s still live.”
“You what?” said Nate. “The Bridge is still live? Transmitter still online?”
“Still online. I’m talking to it right now,” she said. After a few seconds, she said, “Hmm.”
“That’s twice,” said Nate. “I don’t like this new verbal communication style. It’s ambiguous.”
“What? Oh,” she said. “Well. That’s because the Gladiator is being ambiguous.”
“How so?”
“No human response,” said El. “Tyche’s said hello, Gladiator’s said hello back, so we know there’s a ship there, it’s not running stealth, but unless their comms officer is asleep or dead, I’d have expected them to be in touch.”
“Jog them a little,” said Nate. “Say ’Hi’ in English.”