Dubious Heroes: a novel Read online

  “Is that your command?”

  “Yeah... why not? Let’s do it”, I said. “How long until we can reach them?”

  “At our current speed, almost eight hours”, she replied.

  “Okay, set us up for an intercept, and boost our acceleration to one gee. What does that do for our time?”

  “It reduces it to approximately five hours. Shouldn't we inform Cozi about this?”

  “I intend to inform him, shortly. I just don't intend to ask him his opinion, since I already know what his answer would be.”

  “Aye, Captain”, Angie said. “I'll let Cozi know what we're doing.” Ship-wide, a brief alarm sounded, followed by Angie's voice over all the ship-wide speakers.

  “Standby for course and acceleration change in ten seconds… five seconds… boosting now.” My inner ear picked up the movement as the attitude jets fired, changing our course. I also felt the gravity subtly begin to increase. Depending on what the other ship was doing, we'd be there soon enough. What we'd do when we got there was anyone's guess.

  I reached the Bridge, and decided it might be a good time to read the operations manuals.

  “She's just drifting”, Angie said, as Cozi and I looked at Cooper's Dream on the vid screen. “From her orientation, I'd say they got her moving using the attitude jets. She's coasting along at about six hundred miles per hour. Since we're having to lose most of our speed, it will be another sixty-eight minutes until intercept, and it might take another ten minutes to match her drift and come alongside. Fortunately, there's no axial rotation, or this would be a lot more difficult.”

  “Anyone else around?” I asked.

  “Not that I can tell”, she said. “We're just outside one of Saturn's asteroid belts, so there are objects around, but I'm not detecting any ships. With these limited sensors, I can't say for certain that there are none.”

  “Great”, Cozi said. “Look at this.” He zoomed in on the aft portion of the ship. “Her engines are definitely blown, as are the fuel cells. You don't get that from hitting a rock. Someone shot her up, and we have no idea if they're still around here. We also don't know if there's even anyone alive on board. Isn't it time we hailed her?”

  “We've been holding off using the radio, in case there's someone out there listening”, I said. “I guess it's time we tried, though. If there's another ship around, they probably know we're here by now, anyway.”

  Angie tried hailing the ship. There was no response from them.

  “I think we need to get out of here”, Cozi said. “I'm not sure what the whole point of this is, anyway.”

  “Curiosity, mostly”, I said. “And their radio might be out.”

  “Yeah, well you know what killed the cat”, Cozi said. “If their radio is out, how did they send a distress signal?”

  “Different system”, Angie said. “It's a high-powered, pulsed signal, using special shielded hardware. Someone might be able to modify one for standard communications, but they'd need to know quite a bit about radios.”

  “So we still don't know”, I said, looking over at Cozi. “And there's only one way we'll find out for sure.”

  “Someone has to go over there and check”, Cozi said.

  “We can use the magnetic grapplers”, Angela said.

  “Which may or may not work”, Cozi said, ever the optimist.

  “Well, how are they supposed to work?”

  “I was reading the ship operations manual”, Cozi said, “and from what I can tell, we have four electro-magnetic grapplers. Each one is essentially a big metal disc, about three feet in diameter, connected to a reel of monomolecular cable. The reels are mounted on rings of scaffolding spaced along the axis of the Enigma between modules. The supports are attached to the core of the ship itself. We actually saw them when we were looking for that transponder, but didn’t know what they were.

  “Because the grapplers are maintained on those circular tracks, they can be moved with ease to line up with their target. We'll still have to line up an airlock with the Cooper, but it gives us more options. Anyway, once we line up a grappler on a nice fat section of their hull, we shoot them, or, as the manual says, harpoon them. The grappler is fired over using a charge of compressed nitrogen. The big pad is magnetically charged, so if it hits the hull, it ought to stick to it. Then you line up the other grapplers, and try to hit with them, too. Once we have solid connections, we just reel them in. There's a telescoping 'space walkway,' which is really just another bit of scaffolding, by the main airlock. You can run that out to two hundred twenty feet, then just walk over and knock on their door. Of course, there's no guarantee any of this stuff works. I haven’t had time to check any of it.”

  “Why wouldn't it work?” I asked.

  “Why don't half of the doors on this tub work?” he asked. “I've no idea whether these things have even been used before. Even if they were, it was a long time ago.”

  “So, who operates it?” I asked.

  “That would have to be me”, Angie said. “You could use the IR system and do it yourselves, but since neither of you are trained for IR, it probably wouldn't work. If the hardware works, I should be able to do it.”

  “Just in case, do we have a backup plan?” I asked.

  “Yeah, we call it in to the UP, and get our asses out of here”, Cozi said.

  “There is one other way”, Angie said. “Someone can put on a spacesuit, go outside, tether themselves to the hull, and try to jump over to the other ship. I really can't get us closer than about fifty yards using the attitude jets, not without risking a collision, so while it would work, it might require several attempts, and that takes time.”

  “What about a jetpack?” Cozi asked. “I've seen those on vids before.”

  “You mean an EVA suit“, Angie said. “Yes, that would work if we had one aboard. Inventory doesn’t show that we have one.”

  “Someone is going to have to suit up and go over, anyway”, I pointed out.

  “I volunteer to man the Bridge”, Cozi said, and grinned evilly at me. “You're the one intent on playing hero, so here's your chance, Lancelot. Go slay the dragon and rescue the damsel in distress.”

  “I have no such intention”, I said, annoyed that there was an element of truth to his comment. “Besides, we have a ship, we have the gear, and we're here. We at least ought to try to use it for something. It's not like we’ve got anything else going on.”

  “Which is another thing we need to discuss, when His Excellency has a spare moment”, Cozi said. “I'd hate to think we swiped a spaceship just so we could joyride all over the solar system.”

  “Bite me, Cozi. It’s not like I’ve heard-”.

  “Gentlemen “, Angie said. “There is something else you could be doing.”

  “I thought we had about an hour”, I said.

  “You could be checking out the space walkway”, she said. “While the walkway itself is outside the hull, most of the hardware that extends it is inside the hull, next to the main airlock in the Habitat module.”

  “Can you tell if it works?” Cozi asked.

  “No idea”, she said. “Which is why I suggested you go take a look. That is, if you’re done arguing.”

  We were.

  Chapter 12

  The telescoping rig for the walkway was crammed into a tiny space near the airlock, as Angie had said it would be. Getting to it involved crawling through a claustrophobic access tunnel from a nearby passageway. Most ships have extending walkways, since sometimes you need them when in port. Bigger ports have their own, but a lot of smaller ones just have gantries, and you'd have to run your own walkway out to it. So, the hardware was neither uncommon nor complicated. Still, if you're looking at a bunch of machinery, trying to figure out if it will actually work, it can be a little baffling.

  Everything looked okay, so we checked all the electrical connections, and oiled up anything that looked like it ought to be oiled. We were crawling back out to the passageway, when Angie came on the interc
om.

  “We're in position”, she said. “I've lined up our main hatch with theirs. We're precisely matching their movement. Range is one hundred yards and is holding. Still no response to our hails.”

  “Okay”, I said. “Let’s see if this stuff actually works.”

  I went down the passage to the suit room, and began climbing in to my suit. Cozi headed the other way, presumably on his way back up to the Bridge. We were now at zero gee, which had a way of making even the simplest task an adventure. Spacesuits usually hang facing out from a wall, where they attach to sockets which recharge their power and air. To get in one, you back in ass first, then your legs go in, and finally, your arms. Then you stick on the helmet, and zip, twist and lock, until the whole setup is hopefully airtight, confirmed by a readout on your wrist. In zero gee, when you touch something, unless you grab on to it, you're going to head off in the opposite direction. I did this three times, before mastering inserting my butt into the opening of the spacesuit. I hoped I wasn’t teaching Angie any bad language she didn't already know.

  One more annoying thing about zero gee was that when you did have gravity, you tended to leave stuff laying around; data chips, tools, food, dirty clothes, trash, you name it. Once the gravity is gone, all the shit you left lying around is suddenly floating around, getting in the way. I suspected this was something ship crews had long ago figured out how to avoid, probably by cleaning up after themselves and stowing crap where it belonged. In our case, I figured we had a pretty good excuse; we still didn't know what the fuck we were doing. It's not particularly comforting to be reminded of the fact at every turn, though.

  Once suited up, I walked over to the vidscreen in the suit room, and had Angie put up the view of Cooper's Dream.

  “Okay”, I said, “Here's the plan, such as it is. We try to grab the ship using the grapplers. Whether that works or not, I still have to try and get over there, and see if there's anyone still alive we can help. If there isn’t, then that makes her a derelict, and under UP law, she's ours. If we can figure out how to get her to a port, we'll sell her as salvage. If there are people there, we'll have to play it by ear. Maybe they'll want a lift, or a tow to port. We'll deal with that if and when it arises. Sound okay to everyone? Suggestions?”

  “Let's just get this over with”, Cozi said, from the Bridge. “Sitting around here is making me nervous.”

  “You and me both”, I said. “Angie, are we ready?”

  “Awaiting your command.”

  “Then fire the grapplers”, I said.

  I felt a distinct thump as a grappler launched toward the disabled ship.

  “Grappler One has connected”, Angie said. “Grappler two is not firing. Grappler three is also not responding.” I felt another thump. “Grappler Four fired, but missed. I'm reeling it in, and re-aiming for another shot.” I waited in silence, as half a minute crept by. There was another thump, as the grappler launched again.

  “Grappler Four is connected.” Angie said. “I'm engaging the winches and pulling us closer. This will take a few minutes, we have to go slowly. I'm now getting strain data from the grapplers themselves, and we're well within acceptable tolerances. It looks as though there are automatic cut-offs which will disable the winch clutches, and even disconnect the grapplers, if the load gets too high. Probably intended to keep from ripping the grapplers from our hull.”

  “That's doesn't sound nice”, Cozi said.

  “Relax”, Angie said. “We're currently at twenty percent of maximum load. I'm guessing that if we had all four grapples attached, they'd have a hard time getting away from us, even if they wanted to. They could tow us all over the place, but they wouldn't be able to shake us loose. Not that they'd try that, as it would probably result in a collision, pretty quickly. I'll know more in a few minutes. This subsystem didn't come online until I deployed the grapplers, so I'm just seeing it for the first time.”

  “That would explain why it's supposed to be damn near impossible to get loose from a UP ship, once they've grappled you”, I said. “At least, that's what I heard from Kyra.”

  “Eighty yards and closing.” Angie said.

  “What kind of ship is that?” Cozi asked.

  “It's a small cargo vessel, unknown manufacturer”, Angie said. “I show only eight cargo bays, which makes her about a third of our size, capacity-wise. There are standard ramjet and ion pulse drives, but probably no star drive. We outmass her by at least a factor of two. Sixty yards.”

  “Can’t you speed this up a little?” I asked.

  “Patience, Captain”, she said. “The faster we reel them in, the more incoming velocity we give them, and that much more I'll have to counter with our attitude jets.”

  “Or they'll just keep on coming, and bump into us”, Cozi said.

  “Precisely”, Angie said. “Although I'd hardly classify half a million pounds hitting us as a bump. Just looking at this system, I can see that there are different algorithms for towing, or even for grappling a ship that's under acceleration. That's one I think I'd rather watch from another ship.”

  “You and me both”, I said. “How close can you bring them in?”

  “Not much closer”, she said. “Fifty, possibly even forty yards.”

  “So the walkway ought to reach them”, I said.

  “Of course it will”, she said. “Okay, this is it. Forty-eight yards. Firing attitude jets. You should be suited up, Cozi.”

  “Why?” he asked. I'm staying here on the Bridge.”

  “Standard procedure”, she said. “When Doon goes EVA, someone else needs to be suited up, in case there's an emergency. Since you're the only other human aboard, that would be you.”

  “Is it really necessary”, Cozi asked. “I hate spacesuits. And I’m here on the Bridge. Gotta be the safest place on the ship.”

  “Well, there could also be a collision, and we could lose the atmosphere.”

  “I wouldn’t worry about it, Cozi”, I said. “What are the chances anything might go wrong? I figure it’ll be a cakewalk.”

  Three minutes later, he walked into the suit room. His eyes were bugging out a little more than was normal.

  “Calm down, Cozi”, I said. “And look on the bright side; you've finally found someone who can out worry you.”

  “I doubt that”, he said, as I put his helmet on him, and twisted it closed.

  “What exactly is a cakewalk?” he asked.

  “Beats me”, I said. “Old clichés never die, we just forget where the hell they came from.”

  “I'm heading back up”, he said. “Don’t fuck up; I don’t want to have to come out there.”

  “Yeah, yeah”, I said, and patted him on the back as he left the suit room. “Angie, what's the range on these suit radios, anyway?”

  “Five miles, line of sight”, she said. “Less, with obstructions. We're holding steady at forty-eight yards. It’s time, Captain.”

  “Okay, then extend the walkway. Looks like a nice day for a stroll.”

  “I'm back on the Bridge”, Cozi said.

  “I'm getting no response from the walkway”, Angie said.

  “Try the manual deploy”, Cozi said.

  “Where's that?” I asked, exiting the suit room.

  “Inside the airlock”, he said. “Next to the controls to the blow the hatch.”

  “Don't confuse the two”, Angie said.

  “You two are hilarious”, I said, as the interior hatch irised open. I stepped through, and it closed behind me.

  I looked around and found the manual controls for the walkway. They were indeed next to the ones to blow the exterior hatch, but there were a number of safeguards on the latter. I went over to the panel, and punched in the sequence to deploy the bridge. Fortunately, all the controls in an airlock are oversized, built for glove-clad fingers. I didn't feel or hear anything happening.

  “Anything?” I asked.

  “Try again”, Cozi suggested. “It didn't budge.”

  I tried again. />
  “Did you try again?” Cozi asked.

  “Yes, I tried again. The damn thing isn't working.”

  “I'll add it to my to-do list”, he said.

  “Gee thanks. That's a big help”, I said. “Angie, what do we do now?”

  “On the left wall of the airlock, there's a small locker. Inside, you'll find an EVA security cable. It's on a small motorized spool.”

  “Got it”, I said. “There's also some short cables in here, with hooks on them.”

  “You don't need those”, she said. “Just leave them alone. Clip one end of the spool to your suit belt. Then you'll want to open the outer airlock hatch. Go ahead and do that.”

  I clipped the reel to me, and punched the buttons to cycle the airlock. A siren bleated, and a yellow strobe began flashing. Twenty seconds later, the door was open, and I was looking out into space.

  “Okay, now what?” I asked.

  “Outside the airlock, you'll find handholds on the hull-”

  “Which way?” I asked. “Up, down, left, right…?”

  “Whichever way you go”, she said. “They surround the door.”

  “Gotcha”, I said, as I reached around and grabbed one. They were substantial and easy to hang on to.

  “I can read this verbatim from the manual, or put it into plain English for you, your choice”, she said.

  “Plain English, please”, I said. “Just don't forget anything.”

  “Aye Sir”, she said. I think she enjoyed the whole naval lingo thing; in all honesty, I kind of did, too.

  “It's pretty straightforward from here”, she said. “Find one of the clips on the hull, and hook the other end of your tether onto it. You'll need to hit the cable release button, and unspool some. Just leave it so the cable feeds freely from the spool.”

  “Okay, done and done”, I said.

  “Now, aim yourself toward the airlock on the Cooper, and jump over to it.”

  “Do what?”

  “Jump over to it. It's only forty-eight yards, and there's no other way to get there”, she said.