Blue shift protocol, p.4
Blue Shift Protocol, page 4
It was getting late. She pulled the sheets off all the beds and started a load of laundry. Next, she collected socks, clothes, and underwear for the second load.
The printer pinged from the kitchen.
“Samantha? Jenny? Get the plates, napkins, and forks. Dez, you left your drawers on the floor again.”
“Sorry.”
“I told you once already. One more time, and no dessert for a week.”
“We haven’t had dessert for a week,” Jacko said from the couch.
She shot him her best murderous look. By then, the aroma of basil, oregano, and a rich sauce filled the small house. She took the tray of food out of the printer and got the appliance going on the pie.
They sat, ate, and watched dragons fly.
When the dishes were done and the kids were dropping off from pasta overload, Penny got the professor to bed. Went to tidy up the kitchen and put the vid screen to station news.
“That’s boring,” Jacko declared. He lay on the couch where he usually slept, leaving the two upstairs beds in the second bedroom for the others.
“Good. Boring means you get tired.”
“I’m not tired.”
“Then help me with the dishes, smartass.”
Not a peep out of him as the newsreader related the events aboard Nexus. The tethers to the hydroponics habitats needed refitting, and the crews were on a work stoppage. The Housing Department’s internal audit scandal was in its third week of investigation, with the chairperson still under arrest for corruption. Mission statuses on a dozen ships and news from the other habs, too, but that would come after the break.
Meanwhile, the banner along the bottom of the screen declared the station was closing in on its tenth-year anniversary of independence.
Penny was wiping down the table and almost done when a breaking story caught her eye.
Meridian Corp had an incoming ship with a company rep. They had tried before a year ago and hadn’t been allowed to dock. But shortfalls of shipments from the other habitats in Jupiter territory had gotten much worse.
Now, a vocal minority on Nexus wanted peace with Meridian.
She had remembered little about the revolt except that it had gotten nasty. Ten years later, their former overlords remained hated.
An invitation to make a video response to the news appeared on-screen. Links to message boards beckoned. Penny switched the wall off.
“Teacher is throwing up,” Samantha called.
When Penny arrived in the bedroom, Eames was sitting on the floor against the bed with a wastebasket in her lap. “I’m fine. It’s just I should have eaten something.”
“I can bring you up some leftovers.”
“Too late for that. Get me more of my medicine.”
Penny obliged. Shook a single pill from the bottle before handing Eames a cup of water.
“One more.”
“That’s not a good idea.”
“Don’t tell me what’s good and what isn’t,” she snapped. “I’m sorry, Penny. Today was a trial. I had to explain to a panel of station execs why mandatory birthing regulations are not only unethical but bad for our economy. They just regurgitated all the old arguments. I’m so sick of it. So give me my extra medicine.”
“There’s a Meridian rep coming tomorrow.”
“Yeah. That’s why my team forced a meeting with the panel. So we’d be on the same page.”
“Is it going to get better?”
“I don’t know. We stay hopeful and say our prayers, right?”
“I’m worried.”
Eames placed a clammy hand on Penny’s. Her sleeve cuff was rolled back, exposing a series of faded scars on her arm. “I’m worried too. You know I’ll do everything I can to protect you all.”
“I want to go to the terminal to hear what the Meridian visitor has to say.”
“They might not even let him through the airlock. But if you decide to go, I planned on being there and we can go together. If it gets crazy, we leave. Agreed?”
Once Eames was back in bed with her stomach settled, Penny pulled up the sheets and turned off the light on her way out.
Yawned. Her blanket, bedroll, and pillow were bundled in the downstairs closet. She laid them out on the floor by the couch.
Tossed, turned, and clicked on the wall screen with the sound muted.
Changes were coming to Nexus Station, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that her world was about to be turned upside down.
Chapter Eight
On the thirtieth hour of operations, Nightingale rested.
Captain Toussaint set three watches. Everyone now knew about their mission to escort the rock back. Stims and adrenaline gave way to exhaustion as most of the crew took to their racks. Third watch kept two awake.
Trenton caught a nap during second shift but was up again and on the clock. He enjoyed the solitude, just him and the ship. Lowen, the lead pilot, remained in the cockpit. Trenton checked in to let him know he was going to be working on the regen creches.
A bland thumbs-up. Lowen had his eyes glued to a news feed. Radio lag to Nexus was down to a minute.
Trenton’s survey of the activity monitor earned him a reproachful look from Lowen. The navigation screen held no surprises. The rock would be placed in a trailing orbit 50,000 klicks from the station. Mining habs would be towed closer once the rock made it to the top of the schedule for processing.
Which meant it had a year or more before anyone touched it.
So why the hard burn to get to the thing? Why were so many ships assigned?
Lowen paused the newsfeed. “Can I help you?”
“Ops is locked down. I thought I’d confirm there are no bad red blinky lights on your screens.”
A grin from Lowen. Glassy-eyed. “All cool here. You’re not going to be making too much noise, are you?”
“I’ll keep the hatch to the crib rooms shut while I whack away.”
Lowen restarted the vid. The closed captions on-screen read “Meridian Rep Arrival: Opinion Survey.” The pilot stared at the bright buttons and scrolling comments as if mesmerized.
An hour into his repair, Trenton fought off a yawn. Once first watch came around, he’d get sleep.
The first thermostat went in without a hitch. He stood outside the housing and stretched his back as a pressure test ran.
A smell caught his attention. Was it a leak? A quick check with his flashlight confirmed no drips. The aroma of spray lubricant, along with something else. Body lotion, soap, or deodorant, like a musk scent. Not his. As if someone had just slathered themselves after getting out of the shower.
He was alone in crib room A and the wash stalls were quiet.
The lubricant smell puzzled him. He hadn’t used any. Was his can leaking? Had someone used his tools? He dug through the toolkit. Both the tube of synthetic grease and his can of graphite were both capped and sealed.
The air felt frigid. A hand to the nearest vent confirmed 22C air blowing at a steady rate. Chills could mean a bug coming on. He hated the idea of checking with Doctor Tan, but it was protocol.
From the corner of his eye, a shape darted past. Someone had ducked into the showers.
“Hey! If you’re turning anything on, let me know. I’m running tests down here.”
No answer.
The screen on his device continued to relay the pressure levels within the regen plumbing. He pocketed it as he walked to the shower door.
If Lowen was here, off-station, and sick from whatever meds he was on, Trenton would need to wake the XO. Maybe just Ziska and Phinn going for a shower romp, despite the water restrictions. If they wanted their rations wasted, he wouldn’t say a word, but he wanted nothing to disrupt his diagnostic measurements.
No one inside the showers. They couldn’t have slipped by him.
Fog coated the bottom of the mirror. It was fading by the time Trenton wiped a finger through the condensation.
“I need sleep.”
He let the current test finish as he packed up his tools.
“ISN’T IT WEIRD HOW people die in alphabetical order?”
Trenton had thought he’d get the mess all to himself as second shift was at their stations. He was up early, had finished a workout in the rec room, and now this?
Phinn, one of the remote pod jockeys and Ziska’s current fling, sat at the corner table and was scrolling on his device.
“What?” Trenton asked.
“Five deaths on Nexus this past month. All the usual stuff, nothing sus. But it’s Ali, Dodge, Petri, Ro, then Wagner. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. All right here in the community news. Weird, huh?”
“Sure. Weird. Hey, were you asleep during third shift?”
“Yeah, sure. Like a baby.”
“Anyone else bumping about?”
“I don’t know, Trent. Like I said, out like a light.” He swished a sippy bag of juice before offering it. “Partaking today?”
Trenton offered his best smile. “I’m hitting work early and I need steady hands. Any news worth reporting?”
“You haven’t been keeping up? Station has a Meridian rep incoming.”
“I heard.”
“Then you know we need to send messages to, like, the union people in charge. Why would they even talk to the corpos after everything that happened?”
“I liked this conversation better when we were talking about the obits.”
“Dude, what happened with you? Ten years ago, we get a Meridian watchdog on our ship. You’re on him like a tattoo on ass. We kicked them out of Nexus. And now you’re going to sit back and let them worm their way into our jobs and our lives?”
“That was a younger me. And they might help expedite trade, right?”
“You’re joking just to joke with me. Meridian needs us, not the other way around. Them stuck out on Pallas? We’re the hands that fed them last time they had a food production shortfall.”
Trenton wasn’t sure it was so simple. He had assumed the Meridian visit would be just another failed attempt at reconciliation. Nexus and her circuit of Jupiter habitats were the biggest bloc in the system. Meridian held sway over the rest even as the corporation continued to pull itself into fragments.
Were there shortages for Nexus? Sure. But even when things were hunky-dory under Meridian oversight, Nexus experienced supply problems.
“If they want to send someone to talk, let them come.”
“They’re not worth the oxygen. And anyone who even tries to cut a deal should be spaced.”
HALFWAY THROUGH THIRD watch, Trenton found Saanvi on the elliptical exerciser in the rec room.
Each motion of her arms and legs caused the weight/resistance machinery in the walls to purr. Sweat streaked her face. Her eyes drooped half-mast.
“Hey,” he said.
She didn’t appear to notice his presence. When he waved, she started, as if surprised he was standing next to her.
“S...sorry, I didn’t hear you.”
“No problem. You okay?”
Her breath came in ragged gasps. “I just needed to clear my head.”
The timer on the elliptical read 1 hour, 48 min.
“Can’t sleep?” she asked.
“I’m on shift. You know that.”
She checked her wrist device. “Yeah, I guess I do. Forgot how late it was.”
“Early. You’re on in a few hours.”
“If I wanted a wellness check, I’d make an appointment with Tan.”
He stepped back as if to leave. “Okay, sure. I didn’t mean to pressure you. I was worried.”
“Sorry. I’m a little strung out right now.” She stepped off the machine and toweled her face.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Can’t sleep. Bad dreams when I do. Thought I could clear my head but it’s not working.”
“I hear that if you do two hours at 100% resistance on the bike, you can make the Nightingale go faster.”
Her laugh was genuine. “Maybe next time. I’m done here.”
“Hey, it’s okay. We’ve been through something. Sitting at our stations or in our racks with little but time means our heads get to chew on bad things. Trust me, I know.”
“You? Are those actually worry lines around your eyes?”
“I’m a troubled soul, like the rest of us. You have work to do on your shift? Anything I can help with?”
“Mostly on monitor duty. Shuttle might deploy tomorrow when we ditch our load, and then we’re done with this mission.”
Knowing they’d separate from the rock sooner than later filled Trenton with enormous relief.
Chapter Nine
The all-stations alert pulled him from sleep like rough hands clawing him out of his skin.
He was the only one getting dressed in the cramped changing area between the racks. While everyone else had a seat on the bridge or in Ops, Senior Tool-Pusher First Class Trenton Keller’s place was wherever he was needed.
First, a chat with XO Isles.
“Glad you could join us,” Isles said. Strapped in like the rest of them, with his hands typing out a message over the com relay. Saanvi was on the back console along with Lucjan.
“I don’t smell smoke. What’s the situation?”
“Prepping for maneuvers. They’ll take a couple of hours, nothing too hard. While you’re in your seat, run full prep diagnostics on the pods.”
“Heard. Which ones?”
“All of them.”
“We just stowed them.” A stupid statement. Isles would know that. “Tell me what we’re doing.”
“Things have gone screwy over on the Otter. Some sort of com disruption. We need our pods on that rock to finish what they started.”
“What about the Cyprus or the Dragonfly? They’re in position already, aren’t they?”
“The Captain will brief us soon. Strap in.”
HALF A SHIFT LATER, Trenton needed to be in three places at once. Phinn and Monty needed him to assist with the pod prep. That was priority.
Doctor Tan radioed that he was experiencing a low gas pressure message on the autodoc. “Not serious, at least not yet, but you better get up here and take a look.”
Captain Emma Stanwich, the last survivor from the Kingfisher, remained in critical condition within the autodoc’s embrace.
He keyed in an acknowledgment. A work order appeared on his task tracker.
The third request for his attention came from Saanvi. She was once again aboard the Nightingale’s shuttle. “Issue with the com relay.”
“Shuttle’s only on standby,” he replied via text. “I’ll add it to the list.”
“I don’t want to fly blind if we hit any snags with the pods.”
He sent a thumbs-up emoji. Looked at the pods arrayed in the cargo bay. The two pod techs had them strapped down and mostly assembled. They ran their software checks on their tablets. Batteries showed green. The retrieval system would deliver the pods to the shuttle or airlock.
The backup pod still needed to be reassembled. It had its own cockpit and could be directly piloted or flown remotely. None of its tool racks, claws, or grapples had been attached, with the techs waiting on Trenton to do the heavy lifting.
“I’m needed in the shuttle.”
He ignored the looks of betrayal as he slipped his tools into his belt and hurried off.
Saanvi sat alone in the cockpit. He slipped into the copilot’s chair next to her. It only took a moment to confirm the coms were online and synced with the Nightingale’s computer.
She switched her headset off. “Thanks for coming.”
“Where’s Lucjan?”
“He’s in back running hydraulic tests. We have a few minutes.”
“What’s up?”
She pressed a screen and they were looking at trajectory projections. It took a moment for Trenton to understand it was for all the ships in their flotilla.
There was the rock, a bland green square on a black map, with the Otter on a neighboring track. The Nightingale trailed just behind. The crippled Kingfisher was being towed by Otter, but it was the path taken by the Cyprus and Dragonfly that caught his attention.
They had diverted course, running a long arc that took them away from the rock’s projected path. They weren’t heading back to Nexus.
He leaned over and swiped the screen larger. “Where are they going?”
“I haven’t been briefed. Wherever it is, they’re doing it together. And Otter fixed their coms but aren’t talking to anyone but Captain Toussaint.”
This level of operational secrecy was unheard of. Toussaint’s briefing over the PA had been devoid of details. They were to take over the mission to shepherd the rock. Because of an equipment malfunction, the Otter would need the Nightingale’s pods to slow the thing down.
“I’m sure the captain will explain everything,” Trenton said with little confidence. “We’re the backup; that’s the job.”
“Otter has a dozen pods. Double the amount that they might need for the task. The rock is big, but it’s not that big. I watched them deploy four pods. Judging by how fast we were all going during acceleration, I know that rock isn’t that heavy.”
“Looks big enough to me.”
Saanvi’s index finger drummed a fast rhythm. “If it were solid metal, it would have taken her entire complement of pods to change course. While a good chunk of it is silicon and carbon, it’s still light for something that size.”
“So why do they need us? We have less than half the pods of either Otter or Cyprus.”
“I know. Cyprus recalled hers before the course change. I’m guessing if Otter had her malfunctions after the decision to pull Cyprus, we need to step in to make sure that thing slows down enough to park it where the miners can take over.”
“As is, it’s not going to get close to Nexus, is it?”
“No. No chance. Even if we screw up.” She touched the screen and zoomed out. “As you can see, we’ll need to reduce its speed and divert it so it doesn’t just shoot back around Jupiter the long way. They should have taken that into account and had all of it ready before we even started the op.”
