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Authors: James Alan Gardner
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just…”
The floor heaved beneath our feet. I grabbed at something to keep my balance; the “something” was Tobit, who was grabbing me too. “No more time,” he growled, shoving me toward the pod. ‘They’re grappling the ship with tractors.”
“They’re really going to steal my ship?”
“York,” he said, “it’s not your ship and it’s not your fault. You’re just caught in a High Council fuck-up. Bad enough that this whole crew died…but the Admiralty must have opened itself a whopping security hole that let all the wrong people hear about Willow. Someone smuggled nano aboard. Someone else heard there’s a crewless ship here, ripe for the taking. It’s a grade A extra large chrome-plated cluster fuck, but you aren’t the one responsible. You’ve stepped in someone else’s dog shit, York; scrape it off your shoe and just walk away.”
“Can’t I do anything?”
The ship lurched again; I barely managed to stay on my feet. Tobit stumbled and went down on one knee, but scrambled up again fast.
“Yeah, one thing you can do,” he said, pushing me all the way into the pod. “Ship-soul, attend,” he called. “Captain is abandoning ship and invoking Captain’s Last Act.”
The computer voice came over the speakers outside the pod. “Captain York confirms Captain’s Last Act?”
“Say ‘confirm,’ ” Tobit whispered to me.
“Confirm,” I said.
“Captain repeats confirmation?” the computer asked.
“Repeat confirmation,” I said. “Confirm, confirm, confirm. And, umm…immediate forced landing emergency.”
The corridor snapped completely black. I couldn’t even see Tobit in front of me in his bright white tightsuit.
“What did I just do?” I asked him.
“The ship-soul EMP’d itself,” he replied. His voice wasn’t piped over the speakers now; it came out unamplified and muffled, straight from his tightsuit. “Every data storage on board just got fried with a massive electric pulse,” he said. “As of now, Willow is a brainless chunk of scrap metal. The people stealing this baby won’t get any navy codes or records…”
Something went clang in front of me. The next second, lights came on inside the escape pod and I could see the hatch had slammed closed, shutting me off from Tobit back in the corridor. The pod had computers of its own, and I guess they’d detected the main ship-soul dropping off-line. The evac module had decided to go automatic.
“Ejecting in ten seconds,” a computer voice announced.
There were no seats or controls. The interior of the pod was just a room-sized cube, five meters on each edge, with grab-bars stuck into the walls, the floor, and even the ceiling. You could jam all of Willow’s crew into a single one of the modules…and now that I thought of it, the whole crew was here. Me.
I dropped to the floor, wrapped my arms around the two nearest bars and tucked my feet under two more. “Five seconds,” the computer voice said.
Overhead, a vidscreen turned on: it covered half the ceiling and showed the outside of the ship. The idea must have been to let people in the pod watch what was happening, rather than making them wait blindly in a closed capsule. That was fine if you wanted to see what was coming for you. Me, I was more inclined to close my eyes; but that would be uncaptainly, so I kept watching the screen.
The black ship had lined itself straight in front of Willow, shooting a snaky red beam back at the bulb on our prow. The beam was just starting to pull our ship forward, drawing us up toward the stranger’s long Sperm-tail. It wouldn’t take long to get us inside; once something starts entering a Sperm-field, it gets sucked in really fast.
Meanwhile, a few klicks away, Jacaranda was just beginning to move in our direction. The crew over there must have been caught totally off guard; they didn’t even have their real-space engines warmed up. Most ships don’t, not when they’re inside their Sperm envelope—no point
The floor heaved beneath our feet. I grabbed at something to keep my balance; the “something” was Tobit, who was grabbing me too. “No more time,” he growled, shoving me toward the pod. ‘They’re grappling the ship with tractors.”
“They’re really going to steal my ship?”
“York,” he said, “it’s not your ship and it’s not your fault. You’re just caught in a High Council fuck-up. Bad enough that this whole crew died…but the Admiralty must have opened itself a whopping security hole that let all the wrong people hear about Willow. Someone smuggled nano aboard. Someone else heard there’s a crewless ship here, ripe for the taking. It’s a grade A extra large chrome-plated cluster fuck, but you aren’t the one responsible. You’ve stepped in someone else’s dog shit, York; scrape it off your shoe and just walk away.”
“Can’t I do anything?”
The ship lurched again; I barely managed to stay on my feet. Tobit stumbled and went down on one knee, but scrambled up again fast.
“Yeah, one thing you can do,” he said, pushing me all the way into the pod. “Ship-soul, attend,” he called. “Captain is abandoning ship and invoking Captain’s Last Act.”
The computer voice came over the speakers outside the pod. “Captain York confirms Captain’s Last Act?”
“Say ‘confirm,’ ” Tobit whispered to me.
“Confirm,” I said.
“Captain repeats confirmation?” the computer asked.
“Repeat confirmation,” I said. “Confirm, confirm, confirm. And, umm…immediate forced landing emergency.”
The corridor snapped completely black. I couldn’t even see Tobit in front of me in his bright white tightsuit.
“What did I just do?” I asked him.
“The ship-soul EMP’d itself,” he replied. His voice wasn’t piped over the speakers now; it came out unamplified and muffled, straight from his tightsuit. “Every data storage on board just got fried with a massive electric pulse,” he said. “As of now, Willow is a brainless chunk of scrap metal. The people stealing this baby won’t get any navy codes or records…”
Something went clang in front of me. The next second, lights came on inside the escape pod and I could see the hatch had slammed closed, shutting me off from Tobit back in the corridor. The pod had computers of its own, and I guess they’d detected the main ship-soul dropping off-line. The evac module had decided to go automatic.
“Ejecting in ten seconds,” a computer voice announced.
There were no seats or controls. The interior of the pod was just a room-sized cube, five meters on each edge, with grab-bars stuck into the walls, the floor, and even the ceiling. You could jam all of Willow’s crew into a single one of the modules…and now that I thought of it, the whole crew was here. Me.
I dropped to the floor, wrapped my arms around the two nearest bars and tucked my feet under two more. “Five seconds,” the computer voice said.
Overhead, a vidscreen turned on: it covered half the ceiling and showed the outside of the ship. The idea must have been to let people in the pod watch what was happening, rather than making them wait blindly in a closed capsule. That was fine if you wanted to see what was coming for you. Me, I was more inclined to close my eyes; but that would be uncaptainly, so I kept watching the screen.
The black ship had lined itself straight in front of Willow, shooting a snaky red beam back at the bulb on our prow. The beam was just starting to pull our ship forward, drawing us up toward the stranger’s long Sperm-tail. It wouldn’t take long to get us inside; once something starts entering a Sperm-field, it gets sucked in really fast.
Meanwhile, a few klicks away, Jacaranda was just beginning to move in our direction. The crew over there must have been caught totally off guard; they didn’t even have their real-space engines warmed up. Most ships don’t, not when they’re inside their Sperm envelope—no point
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