Zero (4 page)

“
What did I tell you, Hugo?” Webb smiled “No one stays mad at us for long.”

“
Hugo?” Dolgorukov looked up, realisation slackening his face. “Kaleb Hugo?”

Hugo froze. He glanced around his crew but they were looking at him, faces suddenly still.
“Yes,” he said carefully.

Dolgorukov ran a hand over his balding pate and took a breath.
“I... I thought I recognised you.”

“
Anton” Webb started, voice low.

“
No,” Dolgorukov said, holding up a hand. “No, it's fine. You want to hire ex-Service that's your choice. I'm not one for poking my nose where it don't belong.” Webb snorted. “Not when it's not in my interest anyway. It's just...” He looked at Hugo again. If anything his skin was even paler. Hugo felt panic fluttering in the bottom of his stomach. “I know it didn't work out too well for you but...I knew some miners on that satellite...on X4-18. Whatever else happened, you saved a lot of lives that day.”

Hugo let out a breath and managed a nod, his throat tight. Dolgorukov ducked his head, looked from him to Webb and his smile was back.

“And anyway,” he continued, more brightly, “you know what they say. Better the sewer than the Service. And they don't come much more sewer than this lot.” Hugo glared at Webb, expecting a sly remark but his commander wasn't looking at him. “I would stay mad at you, Zeek,” Dolgorukov continued, “but you've saved my bacon. I've been out of burn connectors for weeks and I've got a dozen folk clamouring for gravgen units.”

“
I thought Harvey brought you stacks of those from Haven?” Webb asked.

“
Haven't seen hide nor hair of that one for months,” Dolgorukov replied, thumbing through the manifest.

“
You haven't?” Webb asked, frowning.

Dolgorukov shrugged, handing Rami's panel back to her.
“Don't ask me, Webb. That girl's a law unto herself.”

“
Where do you want this?” Bolt said, patting the crate.

“
Over in the store, thanks,” Dolgorukov said, pointing.

Bolt started to steer the lifter in the direction of the large metal structure on the other side of the yard, giving Webb a pointed look as he passed.

“Oh, Anton, alright if Bolt grabs some resistance straps? We need to replace the ones in
Father
and he's picky about these things.”

“
Help yourself,” Dolgorukov said, tapping more commands into his own scratched panel. “There should be a couple in the store. Webb,” he said, not looking up. “Can I have a word?”

Hugo didn't miss the quick glance the point threw at him. Webb seemed to catch it too.

“Yeah, sure...”

The two men wandered off a little distance, heads bent together and started muttering to each other in Hungarian.

“Should I be worried?” Hugo asked.

Rami came up beside him and shook her head.
“I don't think so, Captain. We'll be on our way soon.”

Hugo nodded, glancing around the cluttered yard and forcing himself not to shift on his feet. Bolt returned, straps in hand. Hugo saw Dolgorukov nod and pat Webb's shoulder.

“Now clear off,” the point said in a louder voice, turning to pace away. “I need to get working on these gravgens.”

“
No rest for the wicked, Anton,” Webb called after him. Hugo watched Webb as he watched the short man disappear into the store. Then he looked back. “Let's split.”

They clambered back into the Jeep and Webb started the engine.

“What did he want to talk to you about, Commander?” Hugo said as they pulled back out onto the busy groundway.

Webb glanced up into the rear-view but whether it was to catch Rami's eye or to check the traffic Hugo couldn't tell.
“He wanted to ask me whether having you as the captain was likely to screw up the deals we have with the Service reps that get us engine parts.”

Hugo pondered for a moment.
“Will it? For all they know I was dishonourably discharged.”

Webb looked at him.
“I'm willing to bet that most folk, Service or not, feel the same way that Anton does. They'd've done the same thing in your place. If they had the balls, that is.”

Hugo grunted.

“It's those Analysts Hugo. They'll get you every time. You should never piss off the Analysts.”

“
Well I know that now,” Hugo muttered.

Webb snorted.
“Well done, Hugo. That was almost a joke.”

“
Captain,” Hugo corrected.

Webb ducked his head.
“Sorry. Captain.”

“
Zeek,” Rami said.

Webb blinked.
“Yeah, yeah. Hang on, I'll pull in.”

“
What's happening?”

“
I'm just checking in on the moonframe, Captain. I need a grounded workstation for that.”

“
Rami likes to keep tabs on the set up of all local systems,” Webb said as the Jeep pulled up onto a walkway. “It's a rather tedious hobby of hers.”

“
Commander,” she said coolly. “If you want me to be able to get into and around every system I need to know if they upgrade. I'll see you back at the
Zero
.”

“
Bolt,” Webb said over his shoulder. “You go with her.”

“
I don't need a bodyguard, Webb,” Rami muttered.

“
I know that better than most, Anita. But still. You're more likely to get a seat on the shuttle if Bolt is there, right?”

Rami sighed.
“Very well. Try not to lose the new captain. Captain.”

“
Lieutenant. Crewman.”

“
Cap'n,” Bolt mumbled and they climbed out the back of the Jeep and onto the brightly lit walkway before disappearing into the crowd.

“
You hungry?”

Hugo blinked at his commander. He hadn't thought about it before, but suddenly his stomach clenched uncomfortably. All he had had that day was that cup of engine-oil coffee at the spaceport that morning, that morning that already seemed a million years ago.
“Yes.”

“
Great. I know just the place.”

Webb pulled them back into the traffic and lapsed into silence as he steered through the tangled groundways. Hugo had been trying his best to keep his bearings but now he just gave up. The hive of lights and metal that arched above them in a never-ending stream of neon and orange went on and on.

“Is this a first for you then, Captain?”

Hugo kept staring out the windsceen.
“I've been to Tranquillity before. For conferences.”

“
Uh-huh,” Webb said with understanding. “I'm guessing that was Southside?”

“
Yes.”

“
Enclosed walkways? Air-conditioning?”

Hugo ignored him and clutched at the seat as the Jeep lurched under him and made its way up a ramp and through an entrance in the side of one of the megablocks. The sign over the entrance declared it to be Imbrium Block. Three of the letters were blacked out and the gate had been wedged open with an empty crate.

“Where are we going, Commander?”

“
For lunch,” Webb replied, pulling over into a parking bay. “Best goulash in town, trust me.” Hugo mumbled under his breath as he climbed out of the Jeep and followed Webb across the parking pool to the wall of express lifts. “Level 102,” Webb said when the lift doors closed behind them. There was a judder and a hiss and then they were zooming upwards. “Captain?” Webb said in a low voice, casting him a sideways glance from under the peak of his baseball cap.

“
What?”

“
Do you trust me yet?”

Hugo narrowed his eyes.
“No.”

Webb paused, then shrugged.
“Too bad. Just take it on faith then that you want me to do the talking here.”

The lift juddered to a halt and
the doors hissed open. Hugo followed Webb as he strode out onto the broad walkway. “I thought you said we were going for lunch?”

“
We are.”

It was a wide and busy level, people rushing back and forth with panels and tools and grim expressions. One wall was a bank of windows looking out onto the blinking neon mess of Tranquillity. The ceiling was high above them and on the far left of the walkway were clustered a myriad of establishments: repair shops, tool merchants, computer supply outlets, transport rental and cubby-hole installations that proclaimed they could service ID badges. Whatever that meant. There were also various stalls and stands selling food from all corners of the Orbit. The smell of spices, cooking oil and herbs warred with the smell of too many people and oxygen that had been recycled too many times.

“Imbrium's a spacer block,” Webb said as the ducked and weaved amongst the crowd.

“
You don't say,” Hugo mumbled, dodging around a harassed tech with trolley full of wiring.

Webb chuckled.
“Good thing for you to learn early, Captain. The Service may set the rules, but the spacers play the game.”

“
And do you consider yourself Service or spacer?”

Webb grinned again.
“Like you have to ask.”

They turned off the main walkway and into a narrower passage. Most of the booth space was boarded up. There was one large unit right at the end of the passage with its large double doors open. A sign above the doors read
Sturm Hafen
.

“
It means -”

“
I know what it means,” Hugo said.

Webb shrugged.
“Sorry, Captain. Didn't think the Academy had any need to teach anything other than English and Japanese.”

“
How long is this going to take?” Hugo said as they got closer. “I have orders to report to Luscombe at Command.”

“
Not long,” Webb said. “Besides, you said you were hungry.”

As they drew closer he noticed a lifter pulled up at the entrance. It was loaded with chairs and tables broken into pieces and boxes full of shattered glass as well as a couple of smashed digiprint frames and other unidentifiable wreckage.

“Shit,” Webb mumbled as he moved past it.

H
ugo frowned then blinked as they moved into the dim interior of the windowless bar. When his eyes got used to the gloom he could make out a wide open space, cluttered with battered tables and chairs. There were booths along one wall and a pool table in one corner. A real one too, not a simulator. The bar took up the length of the room on the right. The mix of bottles on the shelves behind it was unlike anything Hugo had never seen. There were spirits he'd never heard of and some of the labels he couldn’t even read. There were a few people in the booths with plates of food and jugs of drink, sitting alone or in groups of two or three, conversing in low voices or working on computers or the panels built into the table tops. No one looked up as they entered.

As they moved further in Hugo saw that the far end of the room was lacking in furniture. There was a girl sweeping and the sound of tinkling glass and men were piling up the remains of another broken table. There were scorch marks on the floor and wall, and one of the men had a bandaged arm. A very large man with his back to them was overseeing the proceedings, muttering in German.

“Jesus, Jaeger,” Webb said. “What the hell happened?”

The large man turned round. He had very dark brows and hair and his frown was heavy. There was a cut with some livid bruising on his forehead and his lip was split.
“Webb,” he said. “What the fuck do you want?”

Webb shrug
ged and took a seat at the bar. He still moved easily but Hugo was sure he could detect a certain tension across his commander's shoulders. “Just here to eat, man. If there's any of your kitchen left?”

The big man sighed and rubbed his face. He barked something to the girl with the broom, who nodded, put the broom aside and scurried through some doors at the back. He then came round the other side of the bar.
“Kitchens are open. What do you want?”

“
Two of whatever. We ain't fussy.”

The big man snorted, tapped some commands into a panel built into the bar.
“That I know is true.”

“
What happened?” Webb said, looking around.

“
What do you think happened? Upstart kids thinking they're rebels.”

“
Anyone hurt?”

“
None of my lot. The snots won't be back in a hurry though,” Jaeger said as he poured three glasses of something clear.

“
Did this get reported?” Hugo said.

“
Hugo,” Webb warned.

Jaeger eyed Hugo keenly.
“Who's this, then?”