The getaway special (7 page)

"Told you so," Carl said smugly.

Turning around so she could see Allen in the equipment bay behind her, Judy said, "Well, it looks like we're in for a long wait in a closet until they have another shuttle ready to fly. Unless you have another trick up your sleeve."

He shook his head. "It wasn't supposed to work this way. People were supposed to be overjoyed. We were supposed to go home to parades and speeches."

Carl laughed. "Oh, there'll be plenty of parades, all right, with our heads on spikes out in front of

'em."

"Not funny," Allen said petulantly.

"Neither is upsetting the global economy," Carl said. "Or giving every country on Earth an instantaneous delivery system for nuclear bombs. Or—"

"It can't be used for that," Allen said. "You can't open a pathway into the atmosphere; there's too much matter already there."

"How long you want to bet it'll be before somebody figures out how?"

"They won't, because it's impos—"

Mary's incoming voice cut him off. "What are your intentions,
Discovery
?"
I intend to stay free
, Judy thought, but aloud she said, "I don't see that we have much choice."

"Neither do we. Do I have your word that you'll submit peacefully to arrest?"

"No," Judy said automatically. "I mean, give us a minute to talk this over. We weren't expecting quite this kind of reception." She turned off the radio. "Well?" Carl said, "Well what? We don't have any other option."

"Sure we do," Judy said. "We've got over a week's supplies left, don't we?" Carl nodded reluctantly.

"We've got twice as much oxygen as we'll ever need now that we can't use the OMS engines for landing, and the fuel cells will keep providing water, so we could actually stay two
or
three weeks before we
have
to give ourselves up. The question is, would we be any better off if we did that?"

"Nope," Carl said. "You'll still be guilty of treason and piracy. They'll just add resisting arrest to the charges."

"If they can catch us. Allen, isn't there any way you can use that drive of yours to set us down on the ground? Someplace out of the way, where we'd have time to escape before they caught up with us?" Allen shook his head. "Like I told you before, it won't put something into a space that's already got something in it. Not even air. It takes too much energy to open the gateway. I could maybe drop us down to thirty miles or so above ground, but anything below that would burn out the engine." She felt a moment of irrational annoyance. What good was a hyperdrive if you couldn't land once you got where you were going? She pushed the thought aside and tried to visualize the problem. "Can't you transport what's there into space, and put us in the vacuum left behind before it closes?" Allen shook his head again. "No. Not without another engine on the far end, and split-second timing. And you'd have to have the calibration down
cold
, to within a foot or two, or it wouldn't work. I suppose it might be possible, eventually, but with the way the jump field is affected by mass you'd have to account for so many variables that it'd take forever to calculate. The density of the air itself would probably affect it, and the composition of the ground below, and—"

"Okay, okay, I get the picture." Judy looked out at the space station, its habitat module shining white in the direct sunlight. The airlocks sticking out of either end were surrounded by machinery and tool lockers; placed where they would be easy to reach during EVAs. Half a dozen emergency descent modules clustered around the airlocks as well, poised for quick evacuation in case the habitats lost pressure or came under enemy fire. Nobody had ever actually ridden one down from orbit, but they were basically the same system as the old Gemini capsules, two-seat reentry vehicles with ablative heat shields and parachutes. NASA had originally intended to build a miniature shuttle for a lifeboat, but the X-38 program had fallen to the budget axe along with so much else.

Judy eyed the descent modules critically. "Carl, what's our ground track, anyway?" she asked. He called up the display on the center monitor. The station and shuttle were over western Australia, heading northeast. Not good. If they were to de-orbit now, they'd wind up in the north Atlantic, or worse, in the Middle East. But in one more orbit they would pass over the U.S. If they timed it right, they could make like they were going to dock with the space station, then grab an EDM and be gone before Mary and the rest of the station crew could react. The modules were mostly composite material; radar couldn't track them. If Judy and Allen switched off the emergency beacon, they stood a good chance of making it to the ground without detection. NASA could only calculate where they would land to within a few dozen miles; that was a big area to search. With any luck at all, they could make a clean escape. Provided they survived the descent.

Judy flipped on the radio again. "Mary, you still there?"

"Still waiting. Have you made a decision yet? Ground control is getting a little nervous."

"We're still thinking about it. Have you got any idea just what they've got planned for us?" Mary laughed. "Well, what do you expect? They were willing to give you a simple trial and execution until you pulled that stunt with the communication satellite, but now I think they're leaning more toward public humiliation and stoning."

"Not funny," Judy said. She looked out at the descent modules again, wondering just how far off the mark Mary was. Not far enough, she was afraid. All right, then, time for plan B.

"I'm willing to stand trial," she said, "but I want some assurance I'll
get
a trial. If the President promises us safe conduct, we'll surrender." There, that ought to ensure a long enough delay to get them into position.

In the meantime, she made Allen keep breathing oxygen so he could get back into his spacesuit when the time came, and she began washing the nitrogen out of her own system as well. Normally a transfer from shuttle to space station didn't require suits, but Judy explained that she wanted to be ready in case they had docking problems, and she made Carl and Gerry breathe oxygen, too, so they wouldn't suspect her real plan.

But ten minutes later, Mary came back on the radio and said, "Switch over to ground control. The President is waiting."

If Judy had needed any assurance that she was in deep trouble, she'd just gotten it. President John

"Private Interests" Stevenson didn't respond that quickly to a call from his stockbroker. That was his voice on the radio, though, saying, "Well, Miss Gallagher, you've certainly caused a ruckus, haven't you?"

Judy was beyond being impressed by politicians. She said, "It seems to me that whoever spread the virus on the internet is the one who caused the ruckus."

"That will be a matter for the courts to decide." He cleared his throat, then said, "You've asked for my word that you'll be treated fairly when you return. I can assure you that you will receive the full protection of the law in your prosecution for high treason, piracy, hijacking, computer hacking, and violation of Federal communications regulations."

He had to be reading that from a note card. Good. If she ever wound up in court, Judy would subpoena the document and every memo that led up to it. There were bound to be some interesting surprises in the paper trail.

She didn't plan to let it get that far. She said, "Thank you, Mr. President," and switched back to the space station frequency. "All right, Mary, we've got what we asked for, I'll bring it in for docking, but I'm going to take it slow. That hit we took could have screwed up our maneuvering engines." Mary evidently didn't want to risk a shuttle crashing into her space station, either. She said,

"Understood,
Discovery
. Take your time."

Judy did, using the aft work station controls to inch the shuttle closer to the habitat's airlock with tiny bursts of the smallest thrusters. She managed to stretch it out for over an hour, which gave them just fifteen minutes before they would be in position to make their break.

Carl had been watching her work, criticizing her timid piloting all the while. She'd been counting on that; when the shuttle was still a couple hundred feet away, she turned to him and said, "All right, then, you finish it," and pushed away from the controls. He leaped to the task like any backseat driver given a chance to prove his superior talent, and while he concentrated on the docking, Judy pulled Allen with her down into the mid-deck.

"Okay," she said when they were out of Carl's hearing. "You get a choice. You can go back on the next shuttle and stand trial, or you can leave with me in one of
Fred
's emergency descent modules. We've got a twenty-minute window of opportunity opening up about ten minutes from now." Allen blinked in surprise. "You mean there's another way down?" From his bunk, Gerry said, "No, there isn't. Those things were never meant to be used. They were meant to make the public think NASA was doing something for safety." Judy had been filling her spacesuit's pockets with valuables from her personal locker; she stopped and looked over at Gerry. "The cynical spy speaks," she said.

"Spy or not, I'm trying to save your lives. If you take an EDM, you'll burn up in the atmosphere."

"What makes you so sure of that?"

"I was on the committee that approved them."

Was he? Judy tried to remember, but astronauts were on so many committees she could never keep straight who was on what. But even if he was, should she believe him about the modules' safety?

NASA would never approve an emergency system that didn't work, would they? If an emergency ever happened, it would make them look even worse than if they had no system at all. Gerry said, "I mean it. Judy might survive if she goes alone and skips a couple of times before she takes the final drop, but Allen, you're fifty pounds too heavy. Even if you take your own module, you'll go down like a meteor the whole way."

Judy finished loading her pockets. "Bullshit, Gerry. The EDMs are old technology. It worked with the Gemini capsules, and it'll work now. Allen, put on your suit." He didn't move. "Are you sure, Judy? What's Gerry got to gain by lying to us?"

"I'll tell you what he's got to gain," Judy said as she straightened out the bottom half of her spacesuit, did a half somersault, and stuck both feet at once through the waist ring into the legs. "Two more scapegoats to share the blame with. Without us, all the heat's going to fall on him." Allen didn't look convinced, especially not when Gerry laughed and said, "Nice rationalization, Judy, but it doesn't change anything. Those EDMs are death traps." Judy didn't have the time to argue with him. She would have just ignored him, but Allen wasn't suiting up, and they had to be out the airlock before Carl docked the shuttle with the space station; otherwise their airlock would open directly into captivity. So she said the only thing she could think of to convince him.

"All right, Gerry, I'll call your bluff. How about if I let you come with us?"

"What?"

"If I turn you loose, I'm betting you'll opt for an EDM, too." Gerry bit his lip, then laughed. "No way. Besides, there's only two spacesuits."

"I'd carry you in a rescue ball. Unless those are bogus, too." Rescue balls were another cost-and weight-saving idea: instead of providing spacesuits for the entire crew, the shuttle carried half a dozen yard-wide airtight balls. In an emergency, the odd men out climbed inside them with portable oxygen tanks, zipped them tight, and had the astronauts with spacesuits carry them through the airlock to safety. Gerry thought it over for a long moment, then he said, "All right. Let me go." Judy nodded. "Okay, just a minute." To Allen she said. "There, you see? He was lying. Put on your suit."

Allen looked once more at Gerry, clearly not convinced, but he began to suit up. Judy reached for the top half of her own suit and pulled it on, linking the waist rings, then putting on the gloves.

"Let me out first," Gerry said. "I'll get the rescue ball."

"Hold on," Judy told him. She helped Allen on with his own suit and gloves, then before she set his helmet in place she said, "Don't use the radio. Carl will overhear us if you do. I don't want him to know we're there until we're already out the airlock."

Allen nodded. Judy secured his helmet and helped him into the airlock, then started to follow him. She was lowering her own helmet into place when Gerry shouted, "Hey, let me out of here!" She twisted around to face him. "You lied to me, I lied to you. Consider us even, Gerry." He growled and tugged at the sliding panel that held him captive, but the wire tying it shut held fast.

"I wasn't lying about the descent modules!" he shouted. "I never planned to get that far! I was going to take over the ship again and fly it to
Mir
."

Mir II
was a duplicate of the old Soviet space station, launched by the Russians in a fit of nationalistic pride when they got kicked off the American project, but they had quickly run out of money to maintain it and had to sell it to the French. Judy supposed Gerry could still get political asylum there, if he ever made it that far. But he never would, and he knew it. He'd be a sitting duck for days while he transferred from
Freedom
's orbit to
Mir
's. If the U.S. didn't shoot him down, somebody else was sure to.

"Sorry, Gerry," she said as she pulled herself into the airlock, "but I just don't believe you."

"I hope you go down in flames!" he shouted. "I hope you feel it the whole way down! I hope you—"

She slammed the airlock door and cut him off.

8

Two people in an airlock made for a tight fit. "Are you sure about this?" Allen asked, his voice about half an octave higher than usual. Even with full air pressure around them he was barely audible with two layers of glass between his mouth and her ears; she read his lips as much as heard the words.

"Sure
I'm
sure," she said with exaggerated mouth motions. She turned the airlock depressurization control knob to 5 psi, held it a minute to make sure the suits weren't going to leak, then turned it to zero. While they waited for the air to bleed out, she turned her head until her face was right in front of his and said, "As soon as we get out, grab your hyperdrive canisters and follow me to the descent module."
I can't hear you
, he mouthed, leaning in to touch his helmet against hers.