Burnt Ice (18 page)

The captain powered
Basalt
down-range from the LP; they pulled the antimatter containment unit away from
its damaged engineering support, disconnecting the service piping and
electrics. With the gravity still switched off and a gaping hole overhead, they
had to work in their harsh-environment engineering suits, which they were all
used to, except Jan.

‘Hey, Jan. You’re showing a real
aptitude for this shit. Sure you weren’t an engineer in a previous life?’

‘No, Fritz. But then your
internal plumbing isn’t that different, really. I can handle it.’

‘Mutant bastard, eh, Fritz?’

They all laughed.

‘Fuck off, Marko!’

‘Right, Marko. Fritz, lift it
out. Jan, watch the power cables,’ said Harry. ‘Yeah, maybe the best way is to
shove it straight out of the hole, rather than dragging it back to the airlock.
Lotus, please have two engineering drones waiting outside the hole. We need
another five minutes. Also bring up the additional hull sheathing. We might as
well tack that into place before we jump anyway. You know what? I’m starting to
wonder if those bloody things were trying to pinch this, rather than destroy us
with it. Maybe, maybe not. It
is
badly damaged. Oops, boss, we have
forty minutes max before it loses containment and makes a huge big bang. The
system was too long without power. It’s degrading. OK, Marko. Rig up the long
cables. We’ll boost this out.’

They gently lifted the
four-metre-diameter, five-tonne unit up and out through the hull, where the
engineering drones latched onto it to take it aft to the skua docks. Jan and
Marko paid out the power cables, as Fritz, with the ever-present monitor,
started to attach the emergency hull plates in place. They were diamond-shaped,
designed to lock against each other, fusing and sealing when programmed. Marko
placed a hull plate over the area that the power cable was laid through and
programmed the plate to seal against the cable.

‘Hurry up, people!’ said the
captain. ‘You have seven minutes before I initiate serious acceleration — if we
want to use that bomb.’

‘Charges set. Missiles in place.
Programmed. Lotus, you have control,’ Harry said.

‘I have control of the device,
sergeant major. The emergency repair plates are in place, but will not hold
atmosphere. The lander is beside you. Go to it immediately.’

They all climbed onto the rear
ramp of the lander as Lotus and the captain started to accelerate both ships.
The lander docked hard against the hull, creating a harsh shudder through the
framework. The three pilots quickly exited the lander, going back to the skuas,
leaving Fritz and the monitor behind. Marko sealed himself in and brought up
the exterior view over the skua docks.
Basalt
was accelerating hard.
Marko grimaced, watching the fuel levels for the fusion engines steadily
dropping. He also looked hard at the antimatter available and ran some
calculations. He concluded that they would have enough for one small jump and
then the big one.

‘Close up your shields, everyone.
Stand by.’

Marko, without a shield, frowned
and hoped that whoever had designed and fitted his canopy knew what they were
about, as
Basalt
jumped and entered the Lagrange point, in front of the
gas giant, right at its very edge. He didn’t see the AM bomb leave. It happened
so quickly. The engines came back under full power. They all felt a few
concussions on the outer hull as they rocketed through the edge of the LP and
into normal, gravity-influenced space. A minute, and a thousand or so
kilometres later, there was a huge flash behind them as the antimatter was
released after the explosives had sliced the housing in half. A few seconds
after the all-consuming reaction, the captain started to slow
Basalt
down. Six hours later they coasted back up to the empty Lagrange point, then
jumped to the distant star system.

As they emerged back into normal
space the astronomical sensor drones automatically deployed, seeking out the
nearest comets to the Langrage point that they had emerged from. The huge stony
one that created the Langrage point between it and several other nearby
asteroids was of no use to them as it was mainly nickel. A decent-sized ice
comet was located a few hundred thousand kilometres sunwards. They set a course
for it, the captain ramping up the fusion engines to fifteen per cent then
issuing his commands.

‘OK, people. Get onto repairs.
Fritz, start looking for anything of interest in the surrounding area. Jan,
could you assist Harry and Marko to carry out a full hull check with the
drones? Stephine and Veg, if possible, your assistance would be greatly
appreciated. Once that is done, an internal as well. We’re down a lot of
sensors, so look at everything twice. Prioritise the repairs and hook in. I
would like the galley and living quarters with air and warmth as soon as
possible, then the bridge and control, followed by engineering. Then engine
spaces, and finally the hangars.’

‘Boss, I’m picking up nothing —
on any frequency or spectrum.’

‘Right. Thanks, Fritz.’

They swam, bounced and floated
back to their workstations, clambered into their seats and locked themselves
down. Marko then checked the reserves. As expected, they were well down on
everything. Running the calculations, he figured that it would take them thirty
hours at good speed to RV with the slow-moving comet — at least it was still
rising away from the local star and heading in the right direction back towards
the Octopoid Library system. Another few hours before they could start filling
the water tanks after they had fixed themselves against the comet, run out the
heater units and started pumping water through the filters. Then, with plenty
of power available to them, they could start making the modules for the new
antimatter containment as well as repairing the hull properly.

‘Captain, I make it closer to
twenty-two days before we can jump.’

‘Agreed, Lotus.’

Marko nodded as he deployed the
engineering drones under his control and started the checks of his designated
area. He quickly checked over everyone else’s areas as well, before programming
the internal checks by the drones. Five hours later, feeling hungry and tired,
he collated the data and brought the gravity back up — much to everyone’s
relief. While zero gravity was fun for sex, that was about it. The airlocks
throughout the ship came into their own, as they were able to re-atmosphere and
warm parts of the ship, making life a little bearable. It was also nice to have
a proper meal for a change. Repairs were under way throughout the ship, with
Lotus taking control of most of the engineering drones.

‘Boss, I am seeing a very slight
power outage on the antimatter converter.’

‘Better go eyeball it, Marko. If
we have a problem there we’re really in the shit, big time. Suit up. Anyone
available to ride shotgun?’

‘Very happy to watch over Marko.’

‘Thanks, Veg.’

Marko made his way to where his
suit containers were and was locking on his engineering suit when Veg arrived.

‘Are you going to suit up, Veg?’

‘Already done, mate. Very latest
in suit tech. Like it? Shall I do a little swirl just for you? It will decide
if there is a problem or threat, and look after me accordingly.’

Marko grinned at Veg and looked
at the long knife riding high on Veg’s left hip, with its off-white,
intricately carved handle, inlaid with precious stones, in a titanium-gold
sheath.

‘And I have never seen you
without a blade of some sort, Veg. Not some part of a religion, is it?’

Veg bellowed with laughter. ‘Me!
Religious! Hell, no. Just really like blades. Have for a very long time. Make
them, in fact. If you want to make some, I can show you how. A guy with your
skills would pick it up fast.’

‘That’d be good. I’ll hold you to
it.’

They walked aft until they
arrived at the airlock to the main engineering section, which was still without
atmosphere. As they were about to pass through the airlock door he looked
across at Veg. A sleek elegant helmet folded up out of his collar and sealed
around his head. The rest of his black and grey leather-like suit also sealed
itself, thin gloves forming over his hands. Marko looked carefully for the air
tanks.

‘Um, how are you going to
breathe?’

‘There is a catalytic converter
in the suit fabric. It breaks the carbon dioxide bond. I can go for a day
recycling my own breath. The carbon is leeched through the fabric to the
outside.’

‘That’s seriously nice. Am I
allowed the specs?’

Veg just smiled down at Marko and
shook his head as they walked into the main engineering space and over to the
considerable bulk of the antimatter converter.

Marko pulled a small, hand-sized
flattened box from his equipment belt and placed it against the closest power
junction on the outer casing of the converter. A diagnostic came up inside his
faceplate showing him the readouts and the nearest inspection panel to the
source of the problem.

‘This is not good. The outage is
slowly increasing. OK, this panel here.’

He pulled out his powered
screwdriver to open the panel. He lifted it out of the way, then looked into
the unit. ‘That’s weird! The whole surface is moving.’

‘Fuck! Urchin! Get out of the
way!’ Veg yelled.

As he pushed himself back the
flashing red alarm strobes activated. In the rest of the ship the biological
threat alarms sounded.

A segment of the urchin lunged
out towards Marko and, with a touch as light as a feather, snatched away his
left arm, including part of his shoulder, pulling it back into itself before
more of the creature pushed out above him. Blood sprayed out.

Marko crouched there, looking
stupidly at the wound.

Veg roughly shoved him aside,
drew his small sword and sliced at the approaching urchin. Someone was
screaming very loudly in Marko’s ears. As he watched, the urchin convulsed back
into the unit, severing large amounts of cables and controls, as it tried to
get away from Veg’s blade. Marko realised that the screaming was coming from
his own mouth. He promptly shut up. The arm was gone; he could not see it
anywhere. There was a roaring in his head as the trauma nanotes in his
bloodstream were activated by his bioware, closing down the main arteries and
shutting off nerve bundles. His suit was sealing itself over the gaping wound.

Veg plucked him off the deck with
one arm and ran back towards the other side of the engine room. He held Marko
up, ripped off what appeared to be a pocket from his own suit and slapped it
against the severed shoulder, reinforcing the existing seal, talking all the
while. Marko looked at him stupidly, not understanding what Veg was saying. The
emergency ejection unit activated. He looked back for his arm, watching as the
entire remaining antimatter containment unit, and more importantly the
converter, was ejected into space, the entire unit powering as far away from
the ship as quickly as possible on the solid fuel rockets. There was a powerful
flash from outside the gaping hole as the antimatter containment failed.

~ * ~

An
hour later he awoke. Jan and Stephine were looking down at him, with Harry
watching him from the end of the bed.

‘Hey, Marko. How are you doing,
mate? Anything I can get for you?’

Marko looked for his watch, but
could not find his arm. He felt a rising panic, looking at the bandage, then
looked up at Jan.

‘I have no arm, Jan! How am I
going to work without an arm?’

She looked at her friend and felt
a great sympathy. She leant down and kissed him on the cheek, resting her hands
on his remaining arm.

‘It’s OK, Marko. I have put a
growth node against the primary nerve group. You’ll have a new arm in about
eighteen weeks, my friend. Now, get some sleep.’

‘Can’t — need to get up and help.’