Dubious Heroes: a novel Read online

  “I hate to interrupt, gentlemen”, I said, “But Cozi has a date in MedLab. Let’s go.”

  Cozi scowled, and followed me out.

  We walked around to MedLab, after Eng went off to suit up again, saying something about getting some tools from Engineering. Lola was still sleeping so I had Angie disable the MedCuff, and I moved her over to the acceleration couch in the room. There were only two exam couchess with MedCuff hookups in MedLab, and I’d need both of them to do the transfusion.

  “Up on the table”, I said, motioning to Cozi. He sat on it, and laid back. I strapped him in loosely to keep him from floating around. “Here, hold this.” I handed him the MedCuff.

  “Is this thing sterile?” he asked, looking at it.

  “Beats me”, I said. “Ask Angie.”

  “It is”, she said. “Just like the sampler, it sterilizes itself.”

  “What do I need to do this transfusion? I asked.

  “Just put the MedCuff on him, and I’ll handle the rest”, she said.

  “Simple enough”, I said and put the MedCuff on Cozi’s arm.

  “Too bad we didn’t make a bet”, he said.

  “What bet is that?” I asked, as I plugged the MedCuff into the wall.

  “That I’d get inside Kyra before you do”, he said, grinning wickedly.

  “I’ll let her know you said that”, I said.

  “Forget I said anything”, he said.

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

  A few minutes later, the transfusion was under way. I tinkered with the Med system a bit, trying to get a better idea of what was going on, and finally gave up, letting Angie handle it.

  Poking around, I did find a portable x-ray unit, and after a few minutes, had it working. As gadgets went, it was very cool. You held the thing over whatever you wanted to look inside of, hit the trigger, and the screen would display a real-time, millimeter-wave scan. I x-rayed various body parts of my own, before Cozi suggested I check Kyra to see if she still had any bullets or shrapnel in her. I kicked myself mentally for not coming up with the idea on my own.

  I scanned her from head to toe, but couldn’t find anything that didn’t look like it should be there. There was some sort of artificial joint on her left knee, which I hadn’t known about. It certainly hadn’t impeded her fighting ability. I considered getting her out of the bloody, tattered coveralls, and into a clean smock, then thought that it might not be such a good idea after all. I wasn’t particularly body conscious, and I doubted Kyra was either, but in this case, it didn’t feel like something I’d be comfortable doing. I’d get Lola to do it later.

  The transfusion went smoothly, but I couldn’t see any improvement in Kyra’s condition. Angie said not to worry, it would take a while for us to see anything positive. A little more than an hour after we’d begun, the transfusion was done. I sent Cozi down to his quarters to rest, and moved Lola back to the exam table, and reconnected her IV. I couldn’t think of anything else to do, so I sat down in the couch, belted myself in, and waited.

  I might have fallen asleep, too.

  It had been a long fucking day.

  Chapter 15

  The next two days were a blur, as I divided my time between the Bridge, MedLab, and the Science Module. I caught catnaps at whatever couch was convenient, and ate most of my meals on the move. Cozi and Eng repaired the hull, got the solar panels installed and working, and were wrapping up repairs to the reactor, which, they mentioned, would go a lot faster if I’d leave them alone.

  Lola spent most of her time in MedLab watching and tending to Kyra, who was finally conscious, but still sleeping a lot. Lola eventually made it clear that if I wasn’t filling in for her and playing nurse, I ought to go make myself useful elsewhere. That left the Bridge, where there wasn’t much going on, and the Science Module which was largely packed up.

  Poking around in there, I did find something that had the potential to get us out of our current jam a lot faster: a high powered survey telescope. I uncrated it, and spent a few hours at a science workstation, reading the instructions for it. It would have to be mounted outside the hull, once the higher priority stuff was taken care of. Still, since I had the time, I got the survey system software up and running, and interfaced it with the Enigma’s main system, which also gave Angie access to it. The telescope was thousands of times more powerful than the external vid cameras, plus, the survey software had been specifically designed to chart stars and positions. It also had a far more extensive cosmological database than the one used by the Enigma’s navigation system.

  I was testing the software from the Bridge, when Cozi called me via the intercom.

  “The reactor is online, Doon”, he said. “We’re going out to remove the solar panels before they get damaged by something. If you want that telescope installed, bring it to the main airlock.”

  “On my way”, I said. I left the Bridge, and dropped down the core, through the Habitat module, into Science. I muscled the telescope back up the core, and onto the top deck of the Habitat. It would have been impossible for me to move it alone if we’d been under gravity, as the thing was bulky, at over three feet long, and probably weighed more than I did.

  I was heading for the main airlock, when the door to MedLab slid open, and Kyra stepped gingerly into the passageway. She was wearing a fresh set of coveralls, and moved tentatively, as though she still might be in some pain. Her skin, normally creamy white with a pinkish glow, was even paler than usual, and seemed to have a faint bluish hue to it. There were dark circles under her eyes. She smiled when she saw me.

  “My, what a big… whatever that is, you have”, she said.

  “Very funny. It’s a telescope. And, welcome aboard the Enigma.”

  “Thanks”, she said. “By the way, we… I owe you at least a thank you for rescuing us.” She held out her hand, and I took it. She felt cool. Leaning forward, she lightly kissed my cheek. I felt myself blush, and couldn’t stop myself from grinning.

  “What can I say?” I said. “We just happened to be the right idiots in the right neighborhood at the right time.”

  “Ouch”, she said, wincing. “Lola told you about that.”

  “Yes, she did”, I said, “But don’t worry about it. In your defense, you were right.”

  “Don’t interpret it as a low opinion of either you or Cozi”, she said. “I was counting more on your ignorance and inexperience than anything, and neither of those are going to last long. If we had to make that distress call now, we’d probably be screwed, because you guys would not show up.”

  “In that regard”, I said, “You’re right. As for how much else we’ve learned so far… I dunno. We seem to be just bouncing from one situation to the next, without having much of a clue what we’re doing.”

  “Give yourself some credit”, she said. “There are damn few people walking around who can figure out how to steal a starship, and get away with it.”

  “It’s borrowed“, I said, trying to sound convincing.

  “Whatever”, she said, and smiled again. “Regardless, thank you.” She nodded at the telescope floating behind me, which I’d all but forgotten about. “What are you doing with that?”

  “Cozi and Eng are about to take it out and install it”, I said. “I had the foresight, or, as Cozi calls it, blind luck, to swipe a ship with a Science module. It’s a survey telescope, and we’re hoping to use it to figure out where the hell we are. So far, Angela has had no luck using our standard cameras and sensors.”

  “Does it work?”

  “I have no idea” I said. “We’re about to find out. It’s been packed away for over thirty years, so keep your fingers crossed. Shouldn’t you be resting?”

  “Just stretching my legs”, she said. “I’m feeling much better. I am pretty tough, you know.”

  “Yeah”, I said, “That, I do know.”

  She smiled again, and again I forgot what we’d been talking about.

  “Hey”, Cozi said, as he trudged aroun
d the curve of the passage, wearing his spacesuit, helmet in hand, “Oh, hi Kyra. Should you be up yet?”

  “I’m fine”, she said. “I understand you and Eng have been working mechanical miracles down below.”

  “Tell Lola I said thanks”, he said, “Since I know Doon didn’t say that.”

  “Hey, I just haven’t had time to thank you guys yet.”

  “Whatever”, Cozi said, sighing dramatically. “You want that thing mounted, or what?”

  “Mounted”, I said. Grabbing one end of it, he towed it toward the main airlock.

  “You know”, I said to Kyra, as we watched him vanish around the passageway, “He pretty much saved your life.”

  “I know”, she said. “The blood transfusion thing. He wasn’t alone, though. It took some balls to come over to the Cooper and get us. I owe both of you. I won’t forget it.” She moved back to the MedLab door, which swished open.

  “Okay", I said, opting for brevity. My face must have betrayed my thoughts.

  “I expect you to behave, Captain”, she said, accurately interpreting my carnal imagination, “Or else. I can still kick your ass.” She stepped into MedLab, and the door closed behind her.

  At least she’d been smiling when she said it.

  Day three involved repairing some of the more minor problems aboard the Enigma, as well as getting the survey telescope working. Cozi and Eng had installed it, but then the software wouldn’t recognize the hardware as being there. Working from the Bridge, Angie and I had debugged the code, and we were about to test it again. I had the Bridge to myself for a moment, but everyone else was due to come up shortly for another meeting I’d called.

  It was time to make some decisions, and while I didn’t feel like a captain, I was going to have to start acting like one, or give the job to someone else. The Bridge, and my place at the helm, always made me feel like I was in charge. Maybe it was just the chair.

  “Angie”, I said, “Have you ever heard of any... um… unusual experiences during transits?”

  “I assume you mean for humans”, she said, “And the answer is yes. Some people claim to have seen things, or even to have experienced things in a transit. Usually people don’t talk about them, since it’s a good way to lose your psychological clearance, and subsequently, your spacer rating. It’s supposed to be pretty rare, though.”

  “How is it possible at all?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. A transit is supposed to be instantaneous. I’ve only done as many transits as you have, which is to say, one. But I’ve spoken to a lot of crew and AI’s who’ve made many more. The actual transit itself took us almost a fifth of a second.”

  “Which is quite a long time, for you”, I said. “What happened during that time?”

  “I checked ship functions two thousand and eleven times, but aside from that, nothing. What happened to you during that time?”

  I was silent for a moment.

  “This is just between us, okay?”

  “Always”, she said.

  “I did see something, but I’m not sure what it was”, I said. “But I don’t think it could have happened in a fifth of a second.”

  “That’s where there’s a bit of controversy among the physicists”, she said. “Personally, I can tell you that zero time passed during the portion of the transit where we left normal space. Neither my internal clocks, nor the ship’s, moved at all. The fifth of a second occurred at either end. There have been quite a few experiments conducted during transits, and all of them showed one thing for certain - in that other dimension we use for a shortcut through our own, time doesn’t seem to work the way we expect it to, if at all. Some of the other physical laws are different, as well. I can pull up the references, if you like.”

  “That’s okay”, I said. “So time doesn’t exist there.”

  “Or at the very least, I behaves differently that we’re used to”, she said. “One school of thought- not scientific, by the way- says that what humans see or experience in transit are visions from the future, or even brief snippets of actual events from some future time. Since there’s no real way to test any of it, there’s no way to know if it’s true or not.”

  “Great”, I said.

  “What did you see?” she asked.

  “I was in a place I’ve never seen before”, I said. “I’m pretty sure it was on a planet.”

  “What else?”

  “I’d rather not to go into it”, I said.

  “It bothers you?”

  “Yes. No. I don’t know. It disturbs me.”

  “You know, you can talk about anything with me”, she said.

  “Is that you talking, or your shrink subsystem?”

  “That’s not fair”, she said. “After all we’ve been through, you know me better than that.”

  “Do I really?” I asked. “Then tell me why you’re here.”

  Silence.

  “I could just as easily ask why you’re doing what you’re doing”, she said, finally.

  “We’re back to that, huh?”

  “Apparently.”

  “My answer is the same. I’d rather not discuss it.”

  “Perhaps it involves that woman you loved, back on Luna?”

  “I’ll answer that with a question”, I said. “Again, why are you here?”

  Silence again. I waited it out.

  “Maybe we should talk about something else”, she said, after what had to be an eternity, for her.

  “My point, precisely.”

  “Lola is on her way up”, she said.

  “Let’s try the telescope again”, I said, and pushed the touch screen to activate the new code I’d installed.

  “Survey system online”, Angie said. “I think the telescope is responding. Wait a second. Yes, I have control of the telescope.”

  “Woohoo”, I said. “About damn time. Try to aim and focus.”

  “Aim and focus are working fine”, she said. “The tracking drive seems to be moving the telescope too slowly.”

  “Everything moves slowly to you. I don’t know how you tolerate us mere humans.”

  “It isn’t’ easy”, she said.

  The hatch slid open, and Lola came onto the Bridge.

  “What’s not easy?” she asked.

  “Dealing with humans” I said.

  “Most of the problems can be traced to the male of the species”, Lola said.

  “So I’ve noticed”, Angie said.

  “Save it for later, ladies”, I said. “Angie, put the scope view up on the big screen, please.”

  I spun to look at the eight-foot screen mounted over two of the consoles. The screen lit up brilliantly white, with the stars showing as dark spots and blotches.”

  “Why is the image in negative?” I asked.

  “Because that’s how astronomers look at things”, Angie said. “The system is set up to invert the image automatically.”

  “So, is it working?” Lola asked.

  “I think so”, I said. “Angie?”

  “I’m pretty sure it’s working”, she said. “Very sure.”

  “So, all you need to do is start scanning, and logging stars and systems, right?”

  “Probably not”, she said. “I think I already know where we are.”

  “Say again?” I said.

  “Unless the survey software is in error, it just pinpointed our location. It even passed the data to the astrogation system”, she said. “I’ll have to run a confirmation manually. It may take a few minutes.”

  “Holy shit”, Lola said, echoing my own sentiments pretty closely. The hatch cycled open again, admitting first Cozi, then Eng and Kyra.

  “Guess what?” Lola said. “We’re not lost anymore.”

  “Since when?” Cozi asked.

  “Since about a minute ago”, I said. “We’re not completely sure yet. We just got the survey system working. Angie pointed the telescope at a section of space, and the system identified it. She’s confirming the results.”

 
; “It does take me longer”, Angie said. “The survey system was designed for this type of work, but I have to do the equivalent of taking the long way around to get to the same place it did. Hopefully, I’ll come up with the same answer.”

  “Why did you originally want us up here?” Kyra asked.

  “Well”, I said, “We were going to have a little meeting, and maybe discuss what we should do next, but that’s obviously changed, or may have. While we’re waiting, we can still take care of a few things.”

  “First”, I said, “I just wanted to thank you all for busting your asses and getting us operational again. Things are looking a lot better than they were three days ago.”

  They all nodded, and murmured their assent in one way or another. Kyra sat silently at one of the consoles. I continued.

  “We may still be months away from making it to a port, so I thought we should probably formalize what we’ve all been doing anyway. This is all voluntary, so if any of you have a problem with it, speak up.”

  “Cozi, I assume you want to continue hanging out in engineering, so you continue doing that. If it has to do with engineering, it’s your call. You okay with that?”

  “I’m okay with that”, he said.

  “Eng”, I said. “I’d like you to be my Executive Officer. You have a lot of experience which I’m sure we haven’t even scratched the surface of, and I could really use your help.”

  “No problem”, he said. “I’ll just be doing what I enjoy doing anyway.”

  “Kyra, you know what I’d like you to handle”, I said. “When you feel up to it, of course.”

  “I feel fine”, she said, “But I don’t know if I’m the best person to handle ship security. I didn’t do very well on my last assignment. I should probably stick with freelancing.”

  “Bullshit”, I said. “You managed to save both your ship, and at least some of the crew, after being ambushed by some very nasty characters, who were clearly intent on killing you all. The fact you’re even here is a testament to your ability. I can’t make you take the job, but I’d sleep a lot better knowing you’re looking out for us.”