Roger released his straps and pushed off. He flipped over the seat, pushed off the bulkhead, and ended up on the deck behind his seat. His boots clicked as he hit the deck and held him there.
They were almost to the newly-claimed asteroid mining station. They had not even had to fight to get the locals to surrender and switch sides.
As, "Second shift has the boat," was called out he watched as all three stations were changed.
Everyone looked as tired as he felt.
"I'll meet you to help in an hour, hopefully. Got some paperwork to do—I'll meet up with you when I get done and help with the maintenance," Roger said to the two others who left the cockpit with him.
The crew only had a few hours of zero-G to rest in. The boats were being run so hard that they had begun to travel at one and a half G's where possible. They were only in freefall then because they had to do maintenance that required it.
It had been almost a month since the council had voted to go ahead with Roger and Adrian's plan. So far, it was working, almost too well. The four gas giant stations each had a small force on them and were shipping out as much gas and ring material to the Erikson as they used to mine for their leader back on Palace.
They just had to hang on for a couple of months. They should then be repaired and have enough supplies to make it back to the grid after that.
---
When Roger emerged from the airlock, Adrian and four guards were waiting for him. They all looked tired but alert; guns were drawn low but ready. After clasping hands, Adrian said, "Good to see you, haven't seen you since we negotiated a surrender of the station.
"Your people will be able to unload cargo shortly, just have to get the Marines into position," Adrian told Roger.
Roger nodded and asked, "Mind if we go for a walk?"
Adrian said something into his radio then and said, "Sure."
They walked with the guards on either side of them, appearing to look everywhere at once. The odd gravity was hard to get used to. It was just enough to feel without enough to really be useful. The only way Roger could walk was to use the grip on his boots. It felt like being in a cave, the walls were rough like they were in a mountain on a planet. The locals had not even bothered to even out the floor that much. It felt dead, like a house that had been finished but not moved into yet. Devoid of life and color.
Most of the locals they passed had scars all over their bodies. They looked malnourished, they also had the look of people who had been in zero-G without enough exercise or meds.
Roger had to see it for himself; it was his idea, after all. The people did not look threatening; they looked pitiful. He doubted any two of them had the strength to beat him in a fistfight.
They were out of sight of the dock when he asked, "Do we really need the guards?"
"I know the locals don't look like much but trust me, they are deadly. Nothing more dangerous than a man who has nothing to lose. The local leader knows them better than we ever will, and he kept them on a short leash by controlling their food supply."
"They should have enough food for everyone. Why do half of them still look malnourished?"
He stopped and looked Roger in the eyes, "Roger, we barely have the manpower to monitor the major systems and enough marines to intimidate them. Things like food distribution are left to the locals in charge. We did what we could to stop them from killing each other, but we can only do so much. We must work with who they are, and this is who they are."
Roger decided to change the subject.
"We should probably head to your office. I would rather not be recorded. The locals should not have radio's but its best to be sure."
---
They were not walking for long; all the corridors and rooms were as depressing as the docks. The asteroid mining base was large for one of their stations, but still not half the size of the Erikson.
Adrian brought out a couple bulbs of wine.
Roger asked, "So, overall, is this really working? Are they really loyal to us?"
Adrian chuckled and said, "Of course not. They hate us almost as much as they hate the local leader. For now, we have the power and they are happy to eat our food. At least some think they're hitching themselves to a winner."
Roger sat down, deflated. Then he said, "It's just... I'd rather not think about what will happen after we leave. I hope the leader realizes that the people on the stations had no choice but to work for us.
"Any chance of gaining their real loyalty? We could sure as hell could use more help." Roger asked.
"You saw the same reports I did. You even talked to them. They only care about themselves. To them, everything else in the universe exists solely for them. No one else is of any worth. There's a reason the charter forbids sociopaths or narcissists from becoming passengers on the Erikson.
"But that's not why you came. Why did you want to meet in person?"
Roger paused then said. "I want to talk about The Plan."
There were many plans of course, but The Plan meant the plan to leave. It was something that Adrian oversaw.
"Of course, you do."
"We need to get our people back off-world. Their shitty politics helped for a while but there's a real search for them now. The latest version didn't include a way to get them off."
Adrian sighed and looked Roger in the eye, saying, "How many lives are the four of theirs worth? There's only one way to get down to the planet and back fast enough to not be blown up and it's not pretty. It should work, it's is how Earth marines would invade a planet. Not that I have the slightest idea why we would have wanted to do that.
"We're going to need a pilot to volunteer, and no, it can't be you," he said before Roger could open his mouth.
"You're an amazing pilot, by far the best combat pilot we have, but you have no real experience in atmosphere. Nor will I order anyone onto that boat. If we don't have enough volunteers, I won't even bring it to the council. So yes, there's a way. I've spent the last couple of weeks looking for a different one."
---
Patel slapped his wristcomp onto the vac suit. It showed as having a good thermal and electrical connection to the suit.
After the radio, pressure and about a dozen other checks, he gave a thumbs up. He and Commander Harken entered the lock.
The light strips changed from green to red and the door opened.
On their private channel, Chief Harken said, "If you want to slave your systems to mine, I can get us to the plate."
Patel smiled and said, "I spent a decade on a shipyard, I think I will be fine." He engaged the controls and moved the fingers on his left hand.
He deftly shot out quickly a few hundred meters then turned and headed to the aft of the ship, to the rear plate.
The rear plate was one of the most important parts of the ship. Just behind it was where the fusion bubble was maintained. The radiation was so intense when the torch drive was on that the ship needed the shielding to survive.
The slightest flaw and everyone on the Erikson could be killed.
Patel was far enough from the Erikson that he could see the whole ship at once. It really was beautiful. A ship of peace. A people who spent their time building and exploring. Every time he saw it from the outside, it was like the first time when he saw it sail majestically into the docks around Mars.
He really should get out more often than the four times a year which his officer checkout required.
The commander must have sensed that Patel wanted to be left to his thoughts, so he left him alone.
The plate was lit by a grid of lights. More than a dozen robots were moving along the surface, leaving no mark the captain could see.
Patel broke the silence by saying, "Will it work?"
After a pause, Harken said, "It should. The plate was over-engineered to start with. The patchwork should be enough for one trip. The 'bots are putting down a nano slurry that is patching the fractures. Once a week, we slowly heat it up with the mag field projectors we normally use for the fusion bubble. Each time we do it, more of the plate's weave is alloying correctly."
"Three more times, two and a half weeks, and we should be ready for a minimum power test."
That was new. "Will we really need it?"
"Yes, we will," he chuckled, "its albedo map will be different once it's done. We need to get some idea of how it's going, given we might be taking fire, I don't want to do it on the fly."
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---
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Somehow, they made it before dawn.
Kat could see the start of dawn as the compound came into view, turning the drab city yellow and orange. It's plain concrete walls were not inviting.
They were just in front of the compound when Ardon walked out of the gate with two guards, neither of whom had guns. There were guards on the walls with guns though, more than normal and most of whom were looking at them.
Isaac looked like he was ready to run when he saw the guns. Jacklyn kept herself close to him. Unlike him, she was trying not to look at the wall.
Ardon put his hand up, telling them to stop when they were just in front of him. Kat did so. When he then spoke, she translated. "He wants us to stop and take off all our clothing and gear except for the translator."
That is what she and Ardon had agreed to the day before.
Kat handed her gun to one of the guards and stripped, handing her clothes to the guards.
"They need to trust that we're not going to turn on them, that we have no hidden weapons."
Bruce followed suit, but Isaac and Jacklyn were hesitating.
"Hurry up, I'm cold." She had almost told them everything that happened, but doubted that they would have agreed to come if they knew the whole truth about the previous day...
---
Until the day she died, she would remember how she felt when the knife came at her. She had been under fire before, but that was different. With a gun, she could do something about it, and she was so angry that she never even thought about dying.
The feeling of helplessness, of knowing she was going to die and couldn't do anything about it. Knowing she would never see Roger, or her siblings, again reminded her of the Snowball.
But she didn't break; didn't tell him what he wanted to know. As with so many things, she had Roger to thank for that.
Then the most amazing thing happened. He used the knife to cut the bindings that were holding her down. He had a smile on his face that was more honest than any she had ever seen from the locals.
"You are an impressive woman," he said as he cut the last of her bindings.
She just sat there in shock, rubbing her wrists. That was when she noticed that the screams behind her had stopped. All of a sudden, a man with blood all over him, and a knife in his stomach, walked in front of her. He was standing there like nothing had happened.
With her watching, he grabbed the knife sticking into his stomach and pulled. It came away and she saw that the blade was sawed off and had been glued to his stomach.
That was why they had only given her a glimpse. The whole thing had been a trick.
"We were never going to hurt you. We're not like them. We test everyone who we think might be like us. We must know for sure. Adults would not even know to fake being upset by someone else's pain.
"But for you...We needed more. We needed to know if you could really be trusted. You're asking us to risk everything.
"I had to know who you really were, and what you would die for. A woman who would die to protect her friends is someone I can trust." He smiled, it was wide and looked genuine.
"My name is Ardon and I'm in charge. We will grant your people what safety we can offer. When you're ready, you can leave and get them.
"If you want to, you may stay here and calm down for a while. I suggest you don't go back out into the city looking as scared as you do now."
---
Shaking her head of the memory, she looked at Bruce, Jacklyn, and Isaac. She tried to look like she was bored and impatient, not scared. It must have worked because soon all four of them were naked.
Ardon motioned for them to enter the gates. The guards who had their clothing hurried ahead.
He walked ahead, leaning on his cane. Kat realized he was the first local she had seen with any kind of disability. For that matter, he was one of the few who looked to be over forty years old.
The doors closed behind them and they marched forward.
---
It was not going how Kat expected.
They were marched to the far side of the compound by Ardon, with two new guards trailing. The silent tour came to an end at a small building in the corner of the compound.
In it were beds—, real beds in a real room. There was even clothing for them. Large and formless.
There was even a bathroom. Strangest of all was a painting hanging on the wall, a portrait. It was not that good, but it was the first time she had seen any kind of art from any local.
After she finished taking everything in, Ardon started talking.
"He says we'll talk in the morning but that we should rest for as long as we need," Kat relayed for the others.
He left, leaving only one guard on the other side of the door.
Without even trying to keep his voice low, Isaac said, "This look familiar to anyone else?" He pulled on a set of baggy pants and a shirt.
Bruce responded with, "They need us, and they allowed us in. That has to be enough for now."
He was just echoing what Kat said to get them to come, probably because he knew as well as Isaac that they were stuck there one way or another.
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