Sabercat (Tommy Reilly Chronicles Book 1) Page 5

  Centimeter by painstaking centimeter, Tommy made his way closer to the leak until he finally reached it.

  "Okay, I'm at the leak. Um, how am I supposed to secure the part?"

  "You're going to have to kneel down on the hull to work anyways. Wedge the part into a gap and kneel on it if you can," Cody said.

  Tommy did a quick scan of the hull, finding a spot that looked like it would work. He pushed the part in, though the fit was slightly loose. Better than nothing, he thought as he knelt down onto it.

  The toolbox's magnets pulled itself toward the hull as he sat it down and opened it. There were only a handful of tools, but ship exterior parts were standardized to such an insane degree for a reason. The fewer tools you needed to carry outside, the better for everyone involved after all.

  "Okay, I'm here. Cut it off," he radioed.

  Moments later, the jet of coolant cut off. A quick look revealed that the meteoroid hadn't hit the coupling dead on, which was why the hull hadn't been breached. Instead, it just clipped the coupling, but a big enough rock—and it didn't take much—and a fast enough speed, and the coupling was screwed. In this case, it was still enough to rip the coupling into two pieces, with who knows how much else floating in the black on its own already.

  Taking off the old coupling proved to be a relatively simple process. A few turns of the spanner and the piece drifted off into space faster than Tommy was prepared for.

  One piece, he grabbed quickly, but the other was out of reach before he could make a move for it. Now, it was another piece of dangerous debris bouncing around in the odd magnetic fields of the Carson Field.

  "The old coupling is off, so now I have to put the new one on."

  "That's going to take longer than you might be thinking," Cody said helpfully. "The old one being busted like that? That made it easier to get around that tight fit. Don't get frustrated, just recognize that's how it goes. Copy?"

  Nodding for no obvious reason, Tommy said, "Yeah, I copy." It was funny how quickly someone would act like they were talking to someone else face to face, even when they couldn't see them.

  Cody's comments proved true as the coupling seemed determined to not fit in the allotted opening. Several times, Tommy radioed to make sure the coupling had been print to the right specs, with a more and more exasperated engineer promising it had been.

  Finally, Tommy somehow got the part into the correct position. He picked up the spanner from its secured location and began tightening the bolts.

  Suddenly, a blur flashed by his field of vision. What the…he thought a split second before a crack appeared in the visor to his suit.

  "Uh, guys? I think I have a problem here," he said as his hands began to move of their own volition, tightening the bolts as fast as possible.

  "Whatcha got?" Harley asked.

  "I think I just had a close encounter with a micro-rock myself."

  "How close?"

  "Visor's cracked," he said. The words had barely escaped his lips when the single crack broke off. "Deermo! It's starting to spider web."

  "Get the hell back in here," Harley said.

  "Not until the bolts are secured. I need a couple more minutes."

  "You may not have a few more minutes, boss," Cody said.

  Tommy ignored their pleas as he tightened the bolt. The visor "glass" was actually a clear polymer that could hold together a bit better than glass would in such a situation, but they wouldn't last forever and he could see the cracks growing slowly as he tried to remain calm.

  The last bolt secured, he put the spanner back in the box and stood up, closing the box as he got back to his feet. The half a part he'd retained now drifted off into the black. He didn't care a bit this time, though. His mind was on other, trivial things…like not ending up floating out there himself.

  "Okay, ladies, it should be good to go. Open up the flow and I'm heading back in," Tommy said, the spider webbing in the glass spreading as he spoke.

  While Tommy had taken very careful steps on his way to the leak, his way back was much, much more hectic. The cracks of the polymer of his visor providing a unique stimulus to quick movement.

  The airlock was barely visible through the cracks in the visor as he swung into it. His fingers fumbled with the safety line as he fought to unlock it. Eventually, it surrendered and released. Tommy yanked it back into the airlock and shut the door. He breathed a bit deeper now that a hunk of hull was between him and infinity.

  He turned and pressed the button to pressurize the lock.

  The cracks spread.

  The light shifted from red to yellow as the cracks spread. Come on, Tommy thought. He then took a deep breath and held it, knowing the integrity of the glass wouldn't last long. As if sensing his thoughts, the alarm on his suit warned him that suit atmo was now leaking.

  Tommy's lungs screamed, begging for air. His throat felt like it was tightening, trying for force him to gulp for oxygen, but he didn't dare. He felt lightheaded. Fear grasped his mind, fear that he might pass out soon and be forced to breathe, only nothing would be there for him.

  He teetered on the edge of unconsciousness for a few precarious moments until the amber light shifted to green and the door to the interior of the ship opened.

  Tommy fell forward, his outstretched hands catching him as he gulped air.

  ** ** **

  Tommy sat on the couch in the common area. Cody handed him a cold soft drink. Harley leaned against the wall across from him.

  "You're chafing nuts. You know that?" the big man said.

  "How do you figure?"

  "You should have brought your ass back in," Harley said, crossing his arms.

  Tommy leaned back on the sofa and took a sip of the cold drink, it's carbonated bubbles rubbing his throat on the way down. "And do what? We'd all be dead if I had."

  "What about the other suit?" Harley asked.

  Cody cleared his throat. "Yeah, uh…the suit seal went out of date two days ago."

  "WHAT?" Harley barked.

  The engineer shrugged. "Skipper knew it, but said he didn't have the funds for a new seal. I thought he was just being a cheap bastard. Didn't know he got humped by Port Control," he said and looked at Tommy. The look on the engineer's face told Tommy that the other man was sorry. It wasn't much, but it was enough.

  "No big," Tommy said. "How are we running?"

  "I've got the engine pushing full burn to make up for lost time."

  Tommy's eyes widened as he said, "Really?"

  Cody beamed. "Told you those new inertial dampeners were good, didn't I?"

  Tommy nodded. He couldn't help but agree.

  "You going to be okay?" Harley asked.

  "Yeah, I'm good."

  Harley nodded and headed out of the room, Cody right behind him.

  Tommy sat the drink on the low table sitting in front of the sofa and studied his hands. They shook a kilometer a minute. For the first time, Tommy let the mask go. He'd been terrified, and even now was still scared. Despite the line of work he'd chosen, he was terrified of dying in the cold vacuum of space, and here he'd been just seconds away from it.

  He fought to keep his breathing under control, refusing to start hyperventilating when he was perfectly safe. This was just the adrenaline dumping from his system after all. He just needed to let it run its course.

  A soft knock from the door way drew his attention. He turned and saw Dianne. "Hey," she said, her voice soft.

  "Hey," he said, trying to keep the terror from his voice.

  "I heard, well…I heard things got a bit interesting out there."

  He smiled in spite of the fear he still felt at her description. "Yeah, I guess that’s one way to put it."

  "May I?" she asked and pointed to the couch.

  He gestured for her to sit next to him.

  She moved across the floor with such grace that Tommy wondered how he could possibly have not noticed it for all these years. When she sat, she didn't reach down to steady herself on an
ything, as if she had some incredible control over her muscles since she landed on the cushion as lightly as a feather.

  "Are you okay?" she asked as her eyes bored another hole into Tommy's soul.

  Tommy started to bluster once again, then found himself stopping. "Not…not really. I almost…"

  She simply nodded.

  "I mean, I didn't want to die, obviously, but I didn't want anyone else to either. I didn't have a choice, but…God, what was I thinking," he said, ashamed of his blathering.

  A soft hand rested on his shoulder. "Thank you," she said.

  Tommy shook his head, trying to clear his mind. "Thank you? For what?"

  She smiled at him. "For saving my life, you dummy. That's what."

  He started to protest, but a single finger of hers pressed against his lips silenced him. "Shhh," he said. "You did, and you didn't have to."

  With a heavy sigh, Tommy finally nodded. He didn't think he'd done anything particular, but he didn't have it in him to fight right then.

  "Can I ask you a question?" she asked.

  Tommy nodded.

  "Did you agree to go to Armstead because you felt like you owed me something?"

  He opened his mouth, intending to protest, but stopped. He'd been more honest with her than he meant to be already at this point, so why not keep the streak going.

  "Somewhat. What you're wanting to do helped, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel like I needed some redemption from you too."

  She smiled and leaned forward, her hands cupping his face. She turned it to the side and pressed her lips against his cheek. "Well, I owe you now, so if you don't want to do this, don't. You don't owe me anything."

  Tommy nodded his agreement. Not that he felt any such thing, but he knew he wouldn't.

  "Maybe," he offered, "but there are some folks I owe something to. It's time to pay up."

  Chapter 5

  Tommy looked at the crew assembled in the galley. Dianne stood at the back, her hands folded behind her back as she leaned against the bulkhead, her eyes locked onto him. So were every other set of eyes.

  "Okay, here's the deal. I've already laid out what was going to happen on Sabercat. Now I'm going to tell you why. If you decided to get off at Ararat, I want you to have all the information. Everyone okay with that?"

  The assembled heads bobbed up and down.

  "Dianne?"

  Eyes shifted toward the woman. She pushed herself off of the bulkhead and stepped forward and said, "What we need to go to Armstead to get is a data chip. On it is proof that Senator Dwayne Sowards, the man who has blocked every single colony's petition for independence, took a bribe to push through Armstead's."

  Stunned silence permeated throughout the room.

  "Now," Tommy said, pulling every ounce of attention from the crew toward him, "here's the deal. We have an approved cargo on Ararat that will justify us getting on Armstead. If this goes like it should, Dianne will get the chip, then be back on board in a few hours. We lift off, hit the gate, and then we get back to Ararat with the information. Armstead's government, or more precisely the Church, will be oblivious that we know."

  "Why would they care?" Adele asked. "They have their independence. What would the Terran Congress be able to do?"

  Tommy nodded. "Fair question. Unfortunately, if it turns out that they got independence through illegal means, that means the Earth Defense Command would park a fleet in their space, blast every warship they have out of space, and then demand back taxes. Armstead could probably cough it up, but between that and replacing their fleet?"

  Harley interjected, "Plus, anyone who wants off that rock will be able to get it. No Armstead fleet means they can't control who leaves."

  "Right," Tommy said. "We know the Church was bad before it left Earth. Attacking enemies, blackmailing officials, the works. Hell, they broke into government offices to try and plant evidence against people who badmouthed the Church for crying out loud.

  "Now, put this on a planetary scale where there's no one to tell then 'no'. That's what those people have been living under for the last two hundred years."

  The crew looked at one another for several moments until Cody said, "I'll be honest. I thought you were full of it. I thought this ship was your great adventure, but you'd run home to mama eventually. What I've heard, what I've seen, all of it tells me that you're here for the long haul. The fact that you're willing to risk your life for people you've never met though? That makes you…"

  "An idiot," Michelle said, her French accent stronger than usual. "But you are my kind of idiot, so I am in. For now, at least."

  Adele nodded. "Captain, there are still many who would not have me on their ship. You did not care. You only cared whether I could fly. That was all I needed."

  Tommy looked at Harley. The big man shrugged. "I'm too stupid to get off while the getting's good."

  Tommy looked at each one, pride welling up within. It was too early to say if they were reaching that point he wanted, that point he prayed for, but it looked like they were at least on the right path for a change. Feeling his mouth broaden, he said, "Okay, I appreciate it. We're a few hours out from the gate, then it's two or three days to Ararat. Dianne, you want to walk us through the plan?"

  The woman nodded and said, "We'll make planetfall at the Wyattsville Spaceport. Ararat is a new enough colony that some of their founders are still alive. Max Wyatt is one of them. We'll meet with him and get the gold loaded up. He'll have approval for Armstead already. We can resupply—and get new seals for space helmets, as well as new helmets," this bringing a chuckle from the whole crew. "After that, we take off and head to Armstead."

  "Assuming everything goes okay," Harley offered as he leaned in, resting his arms on the table.

  "Assuming," she said with a soft nod. "Are you expecting something to go wrong?"

  Tommy stepped forward. "Don't take it personally. Harley comes by his paranoia honestly, but he's got a point. Anything that can go wrong usually does. We need to be expecting something to go wrong. How much do you trust this Wyatt guy?"

  Dianne stepped over to the galley counter and grabbed her pad that was sitting there. She set it on the table and pressed a button. A hologram of the planet popped up. "I trust Max completely. The man has a longstanding beef with Simon Hatcher. Hatcher was the pathfinder commander who picked the site for the first settlement. Something to do with a disagreement with the settling of the planet. For what it's worth, Wyatt is on one of the areas that can be self-sustaining, so he was probably right."

  Tommy studied the rotating planet. His eyes kept being drawn to the Eastern coast, just beyond the twin mountain ranges that surrounded Wyatt's river valley. He forced himself to process the information Dianne had just given. "So let me guess, Hatcher landed on the precious metal deposits to make a few bucks."

  She nodded. "He knew that gate technology was coming, and guessed he'd still be alive to see it, so he landed the colony there. Unfortunately, a bad windstorm chafed up the hydroponic pods he'd landed with, so he sent Wyatt to the river valley to plant crops. Turned out that Wyatt figured out pretty quick that he didn't need Hatcher, but Hatcher needed him."

  Tommy nodded, "And since power means control, that meant Hatcher didn't have any."

  "Pretty much," Dianne said. "Anyways, Wyatt and Hatcher have butted heads since. There's even been some shooting here and there, but since the gate arrived, the EDC has kept that in check."

  Cody chuckled mirthlessly, "Why do I get the feeling that the EDC wasn't a fan of the new status quo?"

  "Because they weren't," Tommy said. "They showed up and immediately put Hatcher back in power, put Wyatt in check, probably through regulations and taxes, and life went back to how it was. Right?"

  Dianne nodded, surprised. "How did you know that was what happened?"

  "Because Harley and I were waiting for rescue from home, or Hatcher City. Not Wyattsville. It was considered a non-entity."

  Tommy looked at Dianne, her eyes
studying him. Despite everything since they'd reconnected, she was still surprised.

  "Why?" Michelle asked. "Why give it back to someone like this man, Hatcher?"

  "Because he'd play the game," Harley offered. "Wyatt sounds like the kind of guy who would tell the EDC to blow it out of their asses. Hatcher wouldn't."

  Dianne nodded. "Pretty much. Hatcher has the control of the planet, but mostly because he has the EDC backing him. Most of the population sides with Wyatt."

  Cody leaned back in his chair, rocking it up on the rearmost two legs and said, "Why don't they do something about it?"

  "You're talking revolution?" Dianne asked.

  Cody shrugged, but Tommy suspected that's exactly what he was talking. Cody was a hothead, after all, and he seemed inclined to punch his way out of problems more times than not.

  "No guns," Tommy answered. "There's like five on the whole planet not in EDC hands from what we were told when we got there. Mine made number six."

  While 3D printing was a centuries old technology, modern weapons weren’t like the chemical weapons of long ago. Printing most of the components for a modern railgun was a simple matter than even a grade school student could accomplish.

  No, the problem was in the more technical components that were more tightly restricted. They could be exported, but only to planets where the EDC’s regional government—in this case, this Hatcher guy—approved in advance.

  Though Tommy suspect more than a couple of techs with the know how were running black-market shops. No law really stops someone from doing what they really want to do anyway.

  The engineer studied him for a moment, then asked, "How did you get yours down there?"

  Tommy smiled innocently, "You didn't know? I'm Tommy Reilly of the Atlanta Reilly’s. I got whatever I wanted."

  Cody cocked his head to the side quickly, acknowledging the point and said, "Fair enough."