Zero (3 page)

“
Yes, sir.”

There was a clang and a slight rumble in the metal under his feet as the
Zero
detached from her walkway. The stars out the front viewscreen dipped and then levelled out. Webb and More's hands skated over the panel without them having to look and the ship glided away from the Command Centre. As soon as they were at a safe distance Hugo commanded full thrusters. The ship shuddered around him and Hugo dug his fingers into his harness. The juddering smoothed out as the engines reached capacity. The ship turned, and a creamy curve of the Earth came into view, the fingernail of the moon beyond it. “Course set in, sir. Approximate arrival at Tranquillity in six hours.”

“
Good,” Hugo said, taking lead from the others and unbuckling his harness. “Now, tell me more about this contact we're going to meet.”

“
Point.”

“
I'm sorry?” Hugo said, turning to Spinn with a frown.

Spinn turned in his chair, eyes wide as if just realising who he had corrected.
“Sorry, sir.
Point
, sir. Not ‘contact’.”

“
What?”

“
He means, 'contact'
is Service-speak, Captain Hugo,” More explained. “It's best to refer to our connections as 'points'.”

Hugo ground his teeth.
“Very well. Tell me more about this
point
.”

“
Anton Dolgorukov, Captain,” Webb said, leaning back in his control chair and idly steering the ship with twitches of his fingers. “He's a no-one. We trade machine parts with him.”

“
Does he have a record?”

Webb snorted and everyone else looked away. There was a pause before Webb looked over his shoulder at him.
“Sorry, sir. It's just...everyone has a record. Even you do, now. It's the ones without records you need to watch out for.”

“
Tell me more about him.”

“
Rami?” Webb asked. “What's Dolgorukov's sheet look like at the moment?”

Rami tapped on her keypad, eyes skimming text on the display.
“Nothing new from last time. Theft. Fraud. Aiding fugitives. Nothing proved, it’s all Service Analyst data.”

“
Okay, Captain?”

“
Not really,” Hugo said. “What does he steal?”

Webb sighed.
“Trust me, Captain. He's not dangerous. He's a mechanic. He cobbles together oxygen units, mopeds, repairs transports. He buys the odd load of stolen parts but he makes and sells cheap things that people on the outskirts of Tranquillity would never normally be able to afford.”

“
Thief with honour, then?” Hugo drawled.

Webb actually laughed.
“Don't let him hear you accusing him of having honour. Look, Captain: Rami, Bolt and I will drive out to his yard, give him the cargo of parts and then we're out. We're keeping up appearances and maintaining goodwill. We'll probably not even have to pay a second cycle's berthing.”

“
I'm coming with you.”

Webb span his seat round, eyes a little wide.
“Uh, Captain?”

“
What?”

“
It's just...” Webb blinked, exchanged looks with More.

“
Is there a problem, Commander?”

Webb shrugged.
“No problem, Captain. It's just greenguns usually...”

“
I am
not
a greengun Commander Webb,” Hugo grated.

“
No sir,” Webb said, having the decency to look a little embarrassed. “What I meant to say, sir, is that all...all newcomers...I mean...” He scratched his head. “All the other captains took on more of an...
observatory
role, if you get me. For the first few missions at least.”

“
And where did that get them?”

Webb blinked.
“Good point.”

“
I'm coming with you,” Hugo stated. “If I am to command this ship and these missions I need to know and understand them. Lieutenant?”

“
Yes, sir?” Rami said.

“
Have everything we've got on Dolgorukov and our trade sent to the display in my cabin, please.”

“
Yes, sir,” said Rami, turning back to her workstation and started entering commands.

“
Let me know when we're preparing to dock.” Hugo didn't wait for a response but left down the corridor toward the cabins.

When the door to the captain's cabin slid shut behind him he leant against it with a sigh and rubbed his temples against a rising headache. When he felt able to face it he lifted his head. The cabin was tiny. There was one narrow bunk sunk into the port bulkhead, a foldaway table with a chair bolted to the floor beside it and a couple of lockers. His pack was on the bed. There was a wall display above the table with a little blinking light in the corner showing waiting information.

He pulled the pack up onto the table and began unpacking whilst queuing up Rami's data. It didn't take him long to stow the couple of hard-copy books he'd brought with him and the little clothing he had. He would have to find time to get some more. He'd spent so long in uniform that he had pitifully little civilian clothing and even less that was suitable for this assignment.

Last of all he pulled out the lockbox that contained his guns. He keyed in the combination and took them out, laying them on the table side by side. They hadn't let him bring his Service-issue semis with him. These were new, unmarked and probably with no official licence anywhere. They were black, not silver like his service guns, and Hugo felt they carried more weight than the ones he had before.

He sat down at the table to clean them whilst flicking through the data from Lieutenant Rami. There was pitifully little there: a copy of Dolgorukov's criminal record (nothing proven, as Rami has said) and a little information on his repair and maintenance business. There was also a copy of the
Zero
's manifest, including the consignment of parts they were to deliver to their point.

It only took him a few minutes to go through it all but Hugo went through it backwards and forwards anyway and then searched for whatever else he could find in public records that might be relevant. He found little and tried searching Service records and found even less. He chewed his lip for a minute then shook his head. Webb seemed confident enough. Then again, he was beginning to wonder whether Webb wasn't confident about everything.

He finished reassembling the guns, strapped them into his shoulder holster and set it aside. Then he lay down on the bunk, threw his arm over his eyes to block out the view of the cabin, and continued trying not to think.

“Captain?”

Hugo started, hardly believing he'd fallen asleep. For a moment he was horribly disoriented, the metal walls of the bunk swirling and refusing to solidify into something real. Then everything came screaming back along with his headache.

“Hugo here,” he mumbled.

More's face appeared on the
cabin display. “We're entering moon space now, Captain.”

Hugo sighed and sat up.
“Do we have a dock?”

“
Not yet, sir. Webb's just on the comm with harbour control.”

“
Fine. Is the Jeep ready and loaded?”

“
Yes, sir.”

“
I'll be up in a minute.”

The display went blank. Hugo pushed back the clench of nerves in his belly and heaved himself upright, straightened his clothes, strapped on his holster and shrugged his coat over the top. The ship was shuddering again as he made his way back onto the bridge. Hugo got himself back to the workstation chair and strapped himself in just as the
Zero
lurched as it came under the influence of the moon's artificial gravity.

Webb and More were at the controls. Hugo watched as the two men mumbled to each other and used the thrusters and dampers to steer the ship between the skyways towards the harbour. He watched the spacescraper towers of Tranquillity, a thousand bright lights against the orange-tinged sky, rise
out of the view screen. Flashes of flyers zoomed back and forth, and soon the entire viewscreen was taken up with sheet metal and blinking lights.

“
Shit, More, watch out on your left.”

“
I see it,” More mumbled.

“
Where exactly are we?”

Webb turned in his seat, making Hugo extremely nervous.
“Tranquillity Northside harbour, Captain. Don't tell me you've only ever been to the classy ports?”

“
Are there any classy ports on the moon?”

Webb barked a laugh and turned back to the panel, much to Hugo's relief.
“Not a fan of the moon, huh?” The ship shuddered and lurched but Webb's hands danced on the controls and it smoothed out. A flyer passed dangerously close to the viewscreen but neither of the pilots flinched. “Relax, Captain. Could be worse. Could be Haven.”

With a clang the ship settled into its berth. Webb stretched and More set about running shut down checks. Hugo unbuckled his harness and went for a better look out the viewscreen. Despite himself, he was impressed. The Northside Harbour was a clamorous and jumbled affair and the berth they'd been given was only just big enough. There was a hulking freighter on one side of them and a barque on the other that wasn't big, but was badly berthed. Webb and More had brought them right down in between with room to spare.

He glanced at Webb and saw he was grinning.

“
Right. Shall we get this over with?”

“
Sir, yes, sir,” Webb said a little too cheerfully. Hugo noticed he had changed into a scruffier t-shirt and that there was knife in a sheath strapped to his forearm. He'd also put on a battered baseball cap, pulled it down low on his face, his long black tail of hair pulled through at the back. He gave Hugo a glance up and down as he pulled his jacket on. “Urm, sir... you're really coming with us?”

“
Yes.”

Webb sighed, glanced at More for support, but More was still purposefully running diagnostics on the control panel
and not looking up. Hugo saw Webb steel himself.

“
Very well sir. But... can I just..” He reached out.

“
What are you doing?”

“
Not everyone knows you're ex-Service. Word'll get around fast, especially if Dolgorukov has anything to do with it. But until then it's probably best not to look too... regimented.”

“
What are you going to do?”

“
Just.. hold still.”

Gritting his teeth Hugo begrudgingly allowed Webb to mess up his hair, turn up the collar on his jacket and untuck his shirt. The commander stood back with an appraising look.

“That will have to do. Don't shave for a couple of days. And try not to stand so straight. You're disenfranchised, remember.”

Hugo glared and ran his hands through his hair.
“I can't believe this. Come on then. Let's go.”

“
Sir,” Webb nodded and gestured towards the door.

Rami and Bolt were waiting in the hold
with the loaded four-by-four. Webb climbed into the driver's seat and Hugo climbed up next to him. Rami and Bolt clambered into the back, sitting either side of a large metal cargo container on a lifter. There was a rush of cold air as the hold hatch opened and the ramp lowered, bringing with it a tangy and metallic smell of oil and mass-produced air. A wall of noise rushed in, the clanking of motors and the whining of flyers, the hum of electricity and the clatter of a million people and machines.

“
Here we go, Captain. Still sure you wanna come and play?”

“
Just drive.”

Webb sniggered and the started the engine. The Jeep rumbled down the hold ramp and hit the tarmac of the harbour. Hugo felt a little light headed and took a few deep breaths to try and adjust to the air. They wove between other ships' landing gear and made it out onto the exitway.

“Let me know if you're gonna hurl, Captain,” Webb said. “I can pull over.”

“
Just keep going,” he snapped again, breathing deeply until the dizziness passed.

Ships of all shapes and sizes were crammed into the berths on either side of them and people were moving everywhere, zooming around on mopeds or shouting orders, clanking tools and wrestling with cargo. Their Jeep joined the queue of other vehicles on the exitway waiting to leave the harbour and Hugo craned his neck for a better look ahead. There were distinctly few hovercraft. He'd never seen a place with so many wheeled vehicles that wasn't
Earth.

“
Here's the manifest, Zeek,” Rami said, handing a panel through to Webb as they waited in the queue. Hugo took it before Webb could and glanced at it, but it looked exactly the same as the copy he'd seen in his cabin.

“
See, Captain,” Webb smiled, taking the panel off him. “We're legitimate businessmen here.”

“
Do you even know what it is your selling?”

“
We're not selling him anything,” Webb replied, easing the four-by-four forward as the queue moved. “We're giving it to him.”

“
You're
giving
...what, no credit?”

Webb shook his head.
“We owe Dolgorukov. This'll keep him sweet until we need the next favour.”

“
So we're
giving
him Service-level machine parts...in case we ever need a favour?”

“
It pays to stay in Anton's good graces,” Webb said. “You wouldn't believe what he can get his hands on.”

“
Captain...?” Hugo twisted in his seat to face Rami. She glanced at Webb and then back. “In all seriousness, sir. Dolgorukov's not dangerous. As far as points go he's got to be one of the lowest risk. But, even so...”

“
Yes, Lieutenant?”

She swallowed.
“No disrespect, sir. I just think its important you realise that we've spent a long time building up our relationship with him -”

“
Rami,” Webb warned.

“
I just think the captain shouldn't -”

“
Rami,” he said again. “It's fine. Like the Captain said, learn by doing.”

Rami nodded. Hugo didn't say anything, just turned in his seat to look back out the windscreen, trying the ignore the prickle that crept up his spine. They were nearing the exit terminal. The flyer in front moved forward and the gates of the terminal creaked shut behind it. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Webb pull his cap down lower on his face and slouch further in his seat, fingers drumming on the wheel. A glance in the rear view showed Rami and Bolt with backs straight and arms folded. No one seemed nervous exactly, but there was tension strung between them like wire and it seemed they were all purposely not looking at him. He shifted in his seat and glared ahead.

The exit terminal gates heaved open. Webb moved the Jeep into the bay and they clanged shut behind them. A bored looking customs agent took a swipe of all their ID cards and glanced at the manifest on Webb's panel. They were then waved back out the other side. Hugo let out a gust of breath when the gates of the harbour closed behind them.

“
Piece of cake, eh Captain?” Webb said.

They went down the ramp onto a very busy groundway. Webb steered them amongst the mass of traffic easily enough but it was still an odd sensation to be in amongst so many ground vehicles. Hugo leaned forward to see the towering spacescrapers blink up into the darkness above. The lights from the skyways snaked between the towering buildings and made him feel very low down.

The rest of the journey went by in silence. Hugo watched the thronging streets of Northside Tranquillity pass by. The neon was not helping his headache, but he didn't close his eyes. He kept sneaking glances at Webb and at Rami and Bolt in the back. Rami tapped away on the computer panel, the light washing her skin sickly white. Bolt sat straight and stared out the window. Then he had to look back out the front again because the unfamiliar motion of the wheeled vehicle was making him nauseous. He blinked as the Jeep climbed to the apex of a ramp and emerged onto a better-lit level of the city. The traffic was thinner and they picked up speed.

Finally they turned another corner onto a virtually empty side street and pulled up beside some unmarked gates. There was no sign of any control panel or comm unit. They just sat there for a moment before Webb leaned out the driver window, grinned and waved up at one of the cameras mounted on the wall.

“Hey, Anton,” he yelled. Hugo cringed. “Long time no see.” Nothing happened. “Come on, Anton. We've got presents.” Still nothing. Webb slumped back into his seat with a frown.

“
You don't suppose he's still mad at us do you?” Rami asked.

Hugo glared at Webb.
“Mad?”

“
Nah,” Webb said, waving his hand. “He couldn't still be mad...”

“
Want me to try and get him on his personal comm?” Rami said.

Webb opened his mouth to reply just as there was a clunk and a hiss and the gates started to open. Webb cast Hugo a glance but the smile on his face was a little
too
relieved. “See?”

“
I suppose there's no chance there's an ambush waiting?” Hugo said.

“
Not Anton's style,” Webb said and drove the car through the gates and into the cluttered yard beyond. Twisted metal and broken machinery were piled high against the walls. There were a couple of gutted flyers and more sheet metal than Hugo could quite believe was all legitimate scrap. There were a couple of people in overalls in amongst the piles of junk but they had stopped work to watch them as they parked up.

“
Ezekiel Webb, you goddamned asshole,” bellowed a voice from across the yard. “Where the hell have you been?”

“
We'd've been here sooner, Anton, if you'd opened the gates,” Webb said as he climbed out. Hugo got out too and stood close to the Jeep, getting a good look at the point as he came over the oil-stained yard towards them. He certainly didn't look threatening, even storming towards them brandishing a computer panel. He was short and round, hair thinning on the top and his skin had the pale, doughy look of someone who had spent their entire life under artificial light.

“
Baszódj meg
. You're a cheeky sonabitch, Webb,” Dolgorukov drew level and folded his arms over his ample paunch. “You're lucky I don't...who's this?” His sharp eyes looked Hugo up and down.

“
New captain,” Webb said.

“
Another one?”

Webb shrugged.
“We're demanding.”

“
Demanding. Yeah. That's the word,” the man said, still glaring.

“
We come bearing gifts, Anton,” Webb said with another disarming smile just as Rami and Bolt came round from the back of the Jeep, pushing the crate on it's lifter. Dolgorukov narrowed his eyes at Webb then pushed past the taller man to open it.

“
Here, Anton,” Rami said, handing over her panel which once again displayed the cargo manifest.

“
Thank you, Anita,” the short man said, taking it from her and glancing down it. “Still hanging out with these reprobates? You disappoint me, child.”

“
They're my reprobates, Anton,” Rami replied with a small smile.

Dolgorukov chuckled.
“Yes, I suppose they are. And good thing too. If it weren't for you and More the whole crew would have drifted themselves years ago.” Bolt grunted and folded his arms, glaring. Dolgorukov looked up from the panel to the big man and his face suddenly cracked into a wide smile and he slapped Bolt on the shoulder, not something Hugo would have been prepared to do, even for a handsome amount of credit. “You know I'm only kidding, big guy. Webb, this load is almost enough to make me like you again.”