Law's End (11 page)
Authors: Glenn Douglass
Tags: #adventure, #travel, #dog, #future, #space, #rescue, #supercluster
"In another week all this will just be a bad
memory." Kassad replied reassuringly, as he allowed himself to
briefly imagine what this payday would mean for him before
returning to the work at hand. "Strap yourself in tightly. The
atmosphere is thin so I'm going to enter at a very shallow angle to
bleed off our remaining speed. As a result there will be some
associated and vigorous buffeting."
At this announcement Canis rolled into a more
practical and well braced position yipping the report of his
readiness.
At first it was a very detached and surreal
experience. The wireframe model turned and bobbed as they lined up
to the decent. Gradually the wireframe model rose to fill their
view so completely it disappeared out beyond their line of
sight.
With a smashing jolt that made her joints ache
Greene was certain that they had hit something. It was then that
the buffeting began. For Greene the term 'buffeting' was
inadequate. It was an erratic slamming through layers of atmosphere
that shoved the Sabha significantly in random directions with great
violence. The experience quickly erased Greene's doubts that things
seemed to be going too well.
Just as Greene was becoming seriously concerned
the flight leveled out and the jolting was replaced by a sensation
like drifting in a stream. Ahead in the wireframe display the glide
path to their destination showed them to be exactly where they
needed to be. To one side their flight speed relative to the ground
showed them to have slowed below the local speed of sound.
Deftly angling the thrust of Sabha's engines
Kassad slowed them even further until they were in a hover.
Incrementally reducing thrust brought the wireframe swimming ever
closer with new details constantly popping into existence. Finally
with the pull of a lever Kassad extended the landing gear and with
a soft thudding they were down. A whine that Greene hadn't been
aware of began to fade.
"Let's suit up and bring them back so we can
get out of here." Kassad announced, tapping the wrist device built
into his suit which extended the helmet around his face and
activated its life support systems. His electronically enhanced
voice explained. "Just move carefully until you get used to the
gravity. No sense in taking any more chances."
Retrieving her own hard-shell helmet from her
stateroom Greene joined Kassad in Saba's airlock where he was
checking the charge on his pistol. "This is a rescue mission."
Faceless behind the opaque surface of his
helmet Kassad warningly said, "We don't know what prolonged
exposure to Lawless space will do to a person." Then directing
himself to Canis added, "Canis guard the ship."
Canis' barking was enthusiastic in
response.
"It's only been a month." Greene objected after
the cacophony of barking subsided. "You're not shooting
anyone."
"I certainly hope not." Kassad agreed, "I carry
the weapon so that I don't have to use it. Just be alert and don't
make any assumptions."
Sabha's ramp lowered into place revealing the
world immediately surrounding them in muted charcoals. They knew
from the original survey report that this would be a world in pinks
and beige, however their eyes refused to report more than
greyscale. More than a few meters away the world was obscured by a
terrain of large well rounded granite boulders and thin mist. In
part the mist was due to the world's high atmospheric water content
and in part it was residue from the Sabha's energetic landing.
As they disembarked Kassad immediately set to
work inspecting the undercarriage of Sabha and Greene inquired,
"Which direction are the survivors?"
From Sabha's aft, where the ground was still
bubbling from the roasting Sabha's engines had given it, Kassad
called out, "The site is a hundred and fifty meters straight back
from the ramp, but don't wander off too far. Let me check we're
okay to lift off in case we have to go quick."
Rolling her eyes at the excess of caution she'd
already put up with Greene began picking her way across the boulder
strewn sandy plain. Certainly the survivors would have seen or
heard the Sabha's arrival. With any luck she'd find them packing up
and ready to go before even reaching the escape pods.
A pair of strong hands grabbed Greene and
pushed her up against a boulder. "You!" A loud voice accused as the
strong hands Greene found herself in the grip of spun her to face
their owner. "You're not one of them are you?"
Wide eyes bulged in an unkempt unfamiliar face.
At least two weeks of beard growth and a shock of grey blonde hair
that hadn't seen a comb in as long. A rebreather mask hung limply
about the man's grime encrusted neck. Heavily stained lab coat over
multiple layers of equally stained clothing made Greene grateful to
have an independent air supply.
"Did they send you?" The figure demanded, his
eyes were focused elsewhere and his hands pawed at the air just as
blindly until they came to Greene's helmet. "Which ones? Was it the
law or the Lawless that sent you?" The wild man's face suddenly
became strained and rigid.
Overcoming the shock of the encounter Greene
pried the man's hands off of her. Executing a simple wrestling take
down landed the man on his face with arms pinned behind. She hadn't
put him down with enough force to knock the wind out of him, but
once on the ground his resistance stopped and the figure went limp
as a noodle.
"Oh, good you found one." Kassad said having
rushed to the scene as soon as he'd heard the commotion.
"And here I thought your first words would be
'I told you so'." Greene replied.
"No, but my second words," Kassad explained as
he knelt down beside the two producing a bundle of small cargo
straps from his belt, "are directions to haul this one back to the
cargo bay." With little trouble Kassad secured the man's wrists.
"And secure him in one of the automated medical units while I
finish inspecting the Sabha." He concluded handing Greene another
strap.
There was little difficulty for Greene moving
the man under the low gravity conditions. While occasionally
jerking or twisting against her handling his actions didn't seem
directed towards the goal of escape so much as they were random.
Climbing the ramp to the Sabha seemed to settle him somewhat.
As Greene entered the airlock to cycle them in
she was met by the slightly absurd sight of Canis in a gleaming
white and dark patterned dog shaped pressure suit. If his ordinary
coloration made him look like he was wearing a uniform this was
unmistakable. Canis gave Greene and her cargo an inquisitive head
titling look from within the pressure suit, and as if in response
to this once again the man began ranting.
It was a monotone ranting in quick but almost
conversational tones. "Change. They'll know. They couldn't stop it.
They'll all know. We can't hide it. We couldn't stop it. You can't
hide it. Everyone will know. I tried. No one understands."
In response to this Canis nuzzled the man's
face sympathetically. The dog's helmet came away with a smudge of
grime in reward for the effort to be quickly whisked away by the
self cleaning materials. A friendly bark of encouragement, muffled
by the dog's helmet, fell upon deaf ears.
"You're going to be fine." Greene said trying
to calm the man as the airlock cycled. "We're taking you home. I'm
going to place you in an auto-medic for sedation. Do you
understand?"
The man's face showed no signs of
acknowledgement or understanding. Even as the medical unit encased
him, beginning the process of sedating and cutting the soiled
clothing from his body, he showed no awareness of the world around
him. When the sedatives took hold his face became peaceful and
relaxed. He looked nothing like the wild-man who had accosted her,
and looking more like the thoughtful scientist he, in all
likelihood, truly was.
After only a few seconds a symbol lighted up on
the automated medical unit's console and a soft voice, likely
specifically pitched to avoid inducing panic, stated, "Patient
diagnosis complete, treatment unknown, stasis initiated, recommend
immediate transport to primary care facility."
Immediate transport would have to wait. If this
man wandering around alone had survived then there would be more
survivors. They'd have to find them all before leaving.
Back outside the Sabha Greene found Kassad
waiting for her and as she passed by she asked, "Where did you find
a pressure suit for a dog?"
Whatever reaction Kassad might have had to the
question was concealed behind his pressure mask, but he did explain
as he turned to walk and Greene fell in beside him. "Finding a
pressure suit for a non-technological species isn't difficult.
Finding one that they can put on and take off easily by themselves
is a challenge. It's important for anyone crewing a spaceship to
have their own suit for emergencies."
With distance from the encounter Greene found
herself becoming more concerned about the state of mind of the
survivors. "Should one of us stay? What happens if one of them
tries to take the ship while we're gone?"
"Controls keyed to my mobile," Kassad waved his
wrist with the device mounted on it, "however from what I saw it
looked like he was blind, and Canis knows how to work the
airlock."
Ignoring the fact that this meant she was
trapped on the surface with everyone else should anything happen to
Kassad Greene forced a positive attitude on herself, and after a
few more steps a thought occurred to her. "So, does this mean you
had a spacesuit for a monkey and a parrot as well?"
"That surprises you?" Kassad wondered aloud.
"We've been a space faring species for thousands of years now. You
well-dwellers may not put much thought into such things but over
that much time you can be assured that someone has at one point or
another."
"I suppose I haven't ever given such things
much thought." Greene admitted, and privately wondered about those
who did.
It was odd to think about how people
transported animals across space. Greene supposed fish would be
fairly easy since even keeping such creatures in a zoo aquarium
required some life support equipment. The why was a much easier
question as why was answered by a combination of utility and
ornamentation.
Misreading Greene's silence Kassad tried to
reassure her as they weaved amid the boulders. "Don't worry. I'm
sure they'll be fine once we get them back to normal space."
Slightly annoyed by Kassad bringing up what she
just put aside Greene insisted, "I'm not worried."
"They probably won't even remember most of
this." Kassad continued.
Greene restated emphatically, "I said I'm not
worried."
Clambering over a particularly large but gently
sloped boulder Kassad cautioned, "You should be. This is going to
be harder on us than them." Determined to take on the abandoned
role of worrier Kassad continued, "If they're all blind and out of
their minds then this could be a problem."
Again openly annoyed by Kassad Green said,
"These people are scientists. They're trained to think things
through and not personalize events. If anyone could have gotten
through this it would be them." She began forging ahead to put some
distance between them.
After Greene had opened a distance of not more
than a few meters Kassad called out, "Wait up, we're drifting off
course."
Impatiently Greene turned to see Kassad
checking their position on his mobile device. She guessed it to be
an inertial navigation application of some sort tracking their
movements against a predefined position. It was the sort of
frontier software that was always useful on worlds with weak
magnetic fields.
As she waited for Kassad to reorient them
Greene took in the surrounding terrain rapidly forgetting her
annoyance as the threat of becoming lost loomed very real. Boulders
in the foreground obscured most of what was immediately around
them. Through the few stony gaps that permitted further viewing a
thin mist rendered distant landmarks invisible and navigation
difficult.
"There's not much of a field of view." Greene
said.
After working his software against the map
constructed from a single orbital pass of the area Kassad
announced, "Sixty degrees right of our present course and about
thirty meters on."
"Are you sure that was as close as you could
land us?" Greene inquired wondering if moving closer could still be
an option. "It's going to be difficult to get them back through all
of this."
"That's the problem with escape pod landing
routines." Kassad complained. "They always pick the clearest bit of
ground leaving rescue missions to work with whatever is left."
In spite of the man's infuriating attitude
Greene had to concede that Kassad seemed to have thought everything
through. "So you do have a plan, don't you?"
With an exuberant optimism Kassad said, "We'll
focus on just one problem at a time, and we can deal with
everything as we come to it." It was the sort of flippant attitude
Greene had come to expect, but she decided to let it pass
unanswered.
Over another massive boulder sunk deep in the
ground and protruding into a gradual slope they saw the camp. It
was nestled on a small sandy plain in front of a mass of vegetation
that went as far as the eye could see in either direction and
beyond to the horizon it obscured. In the grayscale their vision
had been reduced to it all looked very unnatural and surreal, as if
constructed by workmen who would be returning soon to add a coat of
paint.
As they'd seen from above the escape pods,
twenty four of them and many presumably packed with supplies
instead of people, had been moved to form a rough circle. Outside
the circle local flora had been cut and crudely woven together as a
windbreak in a semicircle outside the windward side escape pods.
Every pod entrance was hung with the thin emergency blankets that
came in the supply kits, some were pinned neatly and others just
hung haphazardly from one corner.
memory." Kassad replied reassuringly, as he allowed himself to
briefly imagine what this payday would mean for him before
returning to the work at hand. "Strap yourself in tightly. The
atmosphere is thin so I'm going to enter at a very shallow angle to
bleed off our remaining speed. As a result there will be some
associated and vigorous buffeting."
At this announcement Canis rolled into a more
practical and well braced position yipping the report of his
readiness.
At first it was a very detached and surreal
experience. The wireframe model turned and bobbed as they lined up
to the decent. Gradually the wireframe model rose to fill their
view so completely it disappeared out beyond their line of
sight.
With a smashing jolt that made her joints ache
Greene was certain that they had hit something. It was then that
the buffeting began. For Greene the term 'buffeting' was
inadequate. It was an erratic slamming through layers of atmosphere
that shoved the Sabha significantly in random directions with great
violence. The experience quickly erased Greene's doubts that things
seemed to be going too well.
Just as Greene was becoming seriously concerned
the flight leveled out and the jolting was replaced by a sensation
like drifting in a stream. Ahead in the wireframe display the glide
path to their destination showed them to be exactly where they
needed to be. To one side their flight speed relative to the ground
showed them to have slowed below the local speed of sound.
Deftly angling the thrust of Sabha's engines
Kassad slowed them even further until they were in a hover.
Incrementally reducing thrust brought the wireframe swimming ever
closer with new details constantly popping into existence. Finally
with the pull of a lever Kassad extended the landing gear and with
a soft thudding they were down. A whine that Greene hadn't been
aware of began to fade.
"Let's suit up and bring them back so we can
get out of here." Kassad announced, tapping the wrist device built
into his suit which extended the helmet around his face and
activated its life support systems. His electronically enhanced
voice explained. "Just move carefully until you get used to the
gravity. No sense in taking any more chances."
Retrieving her own hard-shell helmet from her
stateroom Greene joined Kassad in Saba's airlock where he was
checking the charge on his pistol. "This is a rescue mission."
Faceless behind the opaque surface of his
helmet Kassad warningly said, "We don't know what prolonged
exposure to Lawless space will do to a person." Then directing
himself to Canis added, "Canis guard the ship."
Canis' barking was enthusiastic in
response.
"It's only been a month." Greene objected after
the cacophony of barking subsided. "You're not shooting
anyone."
"I certainly hope not." Kassad agreed, "I carry
the weapon so that I don't have to use it. Just be alert and don't
make any assumptions."
Sabha's ramp lowered into place revealing the
world immediately surrounding them in muted charcoals. They knew
from the original survey report that this would be a world in pinks
and beige, however their eyes refused to report more than
greyscale. More than a few meters away the world was obscured by a
terrain of large well rounded granite boulders and thin mist. In
part the mist was due to the world's high atmospheric water content
and in part it was residue from the Sabha's energetic landing.
As they disembarked Kassad immediately set to
work inspecting the undercarriage of Sabha and Greene inquired,
"Which direction are the survivors?"
From Sabha's aft, where the ground was still
bubbling from the roasting Sabha's engines had given it, Kassad
called out, "The site is a hundred and fifty meters straight back
from the ramp, but don't wander off too far. Let me check we're
okay to lift off in case we have to go quick."
Rolling her eyes at the excess of caution she'd
already put up with Greene began picking her way across the boulder
strewn sandy plain. Certainly the survivors would have seen or
heard the Sabha's arrival. With any luck she'd find them packing up
and ready to go before even reaching the escape pods.
A pair of strong hands grabbed Greene and
pushed her up against a boulder. "You!" A loud voice accused as the
strong hands Greene found herself in the grip of spun her to face
their owner. "You're not one of them are you?"
Wide eyes bulged in an unkempt unfamiliar face.
At least two weeks of beard growth and a shock of grey blonde hair
that hadn't seen a comb in as long. A rebreather mask hung limply
about the man's grime encrusted neck. Heavily stained lab coat over
multiple layers of equally stained clothing made Greene grateful to
have an independent air supply.
"Did they send you?" The figure demanded, his
eyes were focused elsewhere and his hands pawed at the air just as
blindly until they came to Greene's helmet. "Which ones? Was it the
law or the Lawless that sent you?" The wild man's face suddenly
became strained and rigid.
Overcoming the shock of the encounter Greene
pried the man's hands off of her. Executing a simple wrestling take
down landed the man on his face with arms pinned behind. She hadn't
put him down with enough force to knock the wind out of him, but
once on the ground his resistance stopped and the figure went limp
as a noodle.
"Oh, good you found one." Kassad said having
rushed to the scene as soon as he'd heard the commotion.
"And here I thought your first words would be
'I told you so'." Greene replied.
"No, but my second words," Kassad explained as
he knelt down beside the two producing a bundle of small cargo
straps from his belt, "are directions to haul this one back to the
cargo bay." With little trouble Kassad secured the man's wrists.
"And secure him in one of the automated medical units while I
finish inspecting the Sabha." He concluded handing Greene another
strap.
There was little difficulty for Greene moving
the man under the low gravity conditions. While occasionally
jerking or twisting against her handling his actions didn't seem
directed towards the goal of escape so much as they were random.
Climbing the ramp to the Sabha seemed to settle him somewhat.
As Greene entered the airlock to cycle them in
she was met by the slightly absurd sight of Canis in a gleaming
white and dark patterned dog shaped pressure suit. If his ordinary
coloration made him look like he was wearing a uniform this was
unmistakable. Canis gave Greene and her cargo an inquisitive head
titling look from within the pressure suit, and as if in response
to this once again the man began ranting.
It was a monotone ranting in quick but almost
conversational tones. "Change. They'll know. They couldn't stop it.
They'll all know. We can't hide it. We couldn't stop it. You can't
hide it. Everyone will know. I tried. No one understands."
In response to this Canis nuzzled the man's
face sympathetically. The dog's helmet came away with a smudge of
grime in reward for the effort to be quickly whisked away by the
self cleaning materials. A friendly bark of encouragement, muffled
by the dog's helmet, fell upon deaf ears.
"You're going to be fine." Greene said trying
to calm the man as the airlock cycled. "We're taking you home. I'm
going to place you in an auto-medic for sedation. Do you
understand?"
The man's face showed no signs of
acknowledgement or understanding. Even as the medical unit encased
him, beginning the process of sedating and cutting the soiled
clothing from his body, he showed no awareness of the world around
him. When the sedatives took hold his face became peaceful and
relaxed. He looked nothing like the wild-man who had accosted her,
and looking more like the thoughtful scientist he, in all
likelihood, truly was.
After only a few seconds a symbol lighted up on
the automated medical unit's console and a soft voice, likely
specifically pitched to avoid inducing panic, stated, "Patient
diagnosis complete, treatment unknown, stasis initiated, recommend
immediate transport to primary care facility."
Immediate transport would have to wait. If this
man wandering around alone had survived then there would be more
survivors. They'd have to find them all before leaving.
Back outside the Sabha Greene found Kassad
waiting for her and as she passed by she asked, "Where did you find
a pressure suit for a dog?"
Whatever reaction Kassad might have had to the
question was concealed behind his pressure mask, but he did explain
as he turned to walk and Greene fell in beside him. "Finding a
pressure suit for a non-technological species isn't difficult.
Finding one that they can put on and take off easily by themselves
is a challenge. It's important for anyone crewing a spaceship to
have their own suit for emergencies."
With distance from the encounter Greene found
herself becoming more concerned about the state of mind of the
survivors. "Should one of us stay? What happens if one of them
tries to take the ship while we're gone?"
"Controls keyed to my mobile," Kassad waved his
wrist with the device mounted on it, "however from what I saw it
looked like he was blind, and Canis knows how to work the
airlock."
Ignoring the fact that this meant she was
trapped on the surface with everyone else should anything happen to
Kassad Greene forced a positive attitude on herself, and after a
few more steps a thought occurred to her. "So, does this mean you
had a spacesuit for a monkey and a parrot as well?"
"That surprises you?" Kassad wondered aloud.
"We've been a space faring species for thousands of years now. You
well-dwellers may not put much thought into such things but over
that much time you can be assured that someone has at one point or
another."
"I suppose I haven't ever given such things
much thought." Greene admitted, and privately wondered about those
who did.
It was odd to think about how people
transported animals across space. Greene supposed fish would be
fairly easy since even keeping such creatures in a zoo aquarium
required some life support equipment. The why was a much easier
question as why was answered by a combination of utility and
ornamentation.
Misreading Greene's silence Kassad tried to
reassure her as they weaved amid the boulders. "Don't worry. I'm
sure they'll be fine once we get them back to normal space."
Slightly annoyed by Kassad bringing up what she
just put aside Greene insisted, "I'm not worried."
"They probably won't even remember most of
this." Kassad continued.
Greene restated emphatically, "I said I'm not
worried."
Clambering over a particularly large but gently
sloped boulder Kassad cautioned, "You should be. This is going to
be harder on us than them." Determined to take on the abandoned
role of worrier Kassad continued, "If they're all blind and out of
their minds then this could be a problem."
Again openly annoyed by Kassad Green said,
"These people are scientists. They're trained to think things
through and not personalize events. If anyone could have gotten
through this it would be them." She began forging ahead to put some
distance between them.
After Greene had opened a distance of not more
than a few meters Kassad called out, "Wait up, we're drifting off
course."
Impatiently Greene turned to see Kassad
checking their position on his mobile device. She guessed it to be
an inertial navigation application of some sort tracking their
movements against a predefined position. It was the sort of
frontier software that was always useful on worlds with weak
magnetic fields.
As she waited for Kassad to reorient them
Greene took in the surrounding terrain rapidly forgetting her
annoyance as the threat of becoming lost loomed very real. Boulders
in the foreground obscured most of what was immediately around
them. Through the few stony gaps that permitted further viewing a
thin mist rendered distant landmarks invisible and navigation
difficult.
"There's not much of a field of view." Greene
said.
After working his software against the map
constructed from a single orbital pass of the area Kassad
announced, "Sixty degrees right of our present course and about
thirty meters on."
"Are you sure that was as close as you could
land us?" Greene inquired wondering if moving closer could still be
an option. "It's going to be difficult to get them back through all
of this."
"That's the problem with escape pod landing
routines." Kassad complained. "They always pick the clearest bit of
ground leaving rescue missions to work with whatever is left."
In spite of the man's infuriating attitude
Greene had to concede that Kassad seemed to have thought everything
through. "So you do have a plan, don't you?"
With an exuberant optimism Kassad said, "We'll
focus on just one problem at a time, and we can deal with
everything as we come to it." It was the sort of flippant attitude
Greene had come to expect, but she decided to let it pass
unanswered.
Over another massive boulder sunk deep in the
ground and protruding into a gradual slope they saw the camp. It
was nestled on a small sandy plain in front of a mass of vegetation
that went as far as the eye could see in either direction and
beyond to the horizon it obscured. In the grayscale their vision
had been reduced to it all looked very unnatural and surreal, as if
constructed by workmen who would be returning soon to add a coat of
paint.
As they'd seen from above the escape pods,
twenty four of them and many presumably packed with supplies
instead of people, had been moved to form a rough circle. Outside
the circle local flora had been cut and crudely woven together as a
windbreak in a semicircle outside the windward side escape pods.
Every pod entrance was hung with the thin emergency blankets that
came in the supply kits, some were pinned neatly and others just
hung haphazardly from one corner.
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