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Authors: Matthew Costello, Rick Hautala
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cockpit door and headed down the stairway to the passengers’ cabin.
~ * ~
TWO
ON THE ROAD
~ * ~
7
SOMETHING AHEAD
Annie walked down the narrow aisle. Most of the passengers were still staring outside at the dizzying display. At first, they didn’t notice her.
Then Bill Nahara—the company man—looked up.
She had to wonder again: What the hell is he doing here?
Had to be some official Road Authority business.
Checking up on me ... or Jordan ... or one of the far system stations?
It’s like he’s some kind of spy.
In a small group and the tight confines of the SRV, that made her a tad suspicious—and uneasy.
McGowan was leaning back with his eyes shut. Could he really have done so many Road trips that he was already napping? Bored?
A wonder of the universe, and you doze off?
Then again, she knew that colony miners saw lots of strange things. Like ice planets with entire ecosystems simmering in the geothermal heat below a half-mile-thick frozen mantle. Or caves where new alloys and metals were discovered that seemed to share some qualities of organic material, responding to heat, light... or even touch.
Miners got used to “weird” pretty quickly.
Not a bad job even if some—maybe most—miners didn’t make it back, no matter how strong an excavation suit they wore.
The pay—fantastic.
She cleared her throat.
“Just wanted to check to see how you’re all doing down here?”
A few people turned to her quickly, nodding. The Seeker at the back— Corso—remained with her head bowed. McGowan opened his eyes to slits and grunted something unintelligible.
“No one feeling any roadsickness?”
Shakes of heads and mumbles all around.
Everyone’s fine here. Thanks for stretching out the molecules in my body until they snapped back like rubber bands.
But Annie had to make sure. She studied each of them, looking for any indication of physical or psychological distress. The portal left even experienced passengers disoriented, and recovery time varied. Annie had one guy snap a year ago, who totally bugged out, wanting off the SRV in the middle of who-knew-where in space.
They’d had to collar him until he settled down.
But this group looked good.
“Okay, then. And we’re up here in the cockpit if—”
She was still looking from passenger to passenger.
Good. No signs of anyone looking edgy except for Dr. Rodriguez. But he’d looked wide-eyed even before he boarded the SRV.
“—if you need help with anything, your CLs will work now. Any questions?”
There were none.
“I’m about to run the authority’s official message—standard PR stuff. So if everyone’s okay...”
~ * ~
“How are they?”
Jordan hadn’t been with her when she’d had a passenger “malfunction.” Everyone working for the authority had heard about it, though. Everyone knew psych screenings were good.
But they weren’t perfect.
“Nice and quiet for the time being.”
He nodded.
“Good.”
They both knew that if someone went off-kilter, it was Jordan’s job to restrain that person.
Collar, restrain, or—if necessary—kill.
Annie pressed a button and started the official Road vid.
~ * ~
The holoscreen materialized at the front out of thin air, and Ruth Corso looked up at the image of a man sitting at a desk. Big smile. The logo of the Star Road Authority was behind him.
His hands folded in front of him on the desk as if he was a bank’s branch manager, he began speaking.
“Welcome to your Star Road vehicle and the amazing journey you have now begun!”
Ruth leaned forward, her elbows on her knees. She looked around and saw that not everyone was paying attention. But this was all new to her. New and definitely exciting.
“For the past two
~ * ~
TWO
ON THE ROAD
~ * ~
7
SOMETHING AHEAD
Annie walked down the narrow aisle. Most of the passengers were still staring outside at the dizzying display. At first, they didn’t notice her.
Then Bill Nahara—the company man—looked up.
She had to wonder again: What the hell is he doing here?
Had to be some official Road Authority business.
Checking up on me ... or Jordan ... or one of the far system stations?
It’s like he’s some kind of spy.
In a small group and the tight confines of the SRV, that made her a tad suspicious—and uneasy.
McGowan was leaning back with his eyes shut. Could he really have done so many Road trips that he was already napping? Bored?
A wonder of the universe, and you doze off?
Then again, she knew that colony miners saw lots of strange things. Like ice planets with entire ecosystems simmering in the geothermal heat below a half-mile-thick frozen mantle. Or caves where new alloys and metals were discovered that seemed to share some qualities of organic material, responding to heat, light... or even touch.
Miners got used to “weird” pretty quickly.
Not a bad job even if some—maybe most—miners didn’t make it back, no matter how strong an excavation suit they wore.
The pay—fantastic.
She cleared her throat.
“Just wanted to check to see how you’re all doing down here?”
A few people turned to her quickly, nodding. The Seeker at the back— Corso—remained with her head bowed. McGowan opened his eyes to slits and grunted something unintelligible.
“No one feeling any roadsickness?”
Shakes of heads and mumbles all around.
Everyone’s fine here. Thanks for stretching out the molecules in my body until they snapped back like rubber bands.
But Annie had to make sure. She studied each of them, looking for any indication of physical or psychological distress. The portal left even experienced passengers disoriented, and recovery time varied. Annie had one guy snap a year ago, who totally bugged out, wanting off the SRV in the middle of who-knew-where in space.
They’d had to collar him until he settled down.
But this group looked good.
“Okay, then. And we’re up here in the cockpit if—”
She was still looking from passenger to passenger.
Good. No signs of anyone looking edgy except for Dr. Rodriguez. But he’d looked wide-eyed even before he boarded the SRV.
“—if you need help with anything, your CLs will work now. Any questions?”
There were none.
“I’m about to run the authority’s official message—standard PR stuff. So if everyone’s okay...”
~ * ~
“How are they?”
Jordan hadn’t been with her when she’d had a passenger “malfunction.” Everyone working for the authority had heard about it, though. Everyone knew psych screenings were good.
But they weren’t perfect.
“Nice and quiet for the time being.”
He nodded.
“Good.”
They both knew that if someone went off-kilter, it was Jordan’s job to restrain that person.
Collar, restrain, or—if necessary—kill.
Annie pressed a button and started the official Road vid.
~ * ~
The holoscreen materialized at the front out of thin air, and Ruth Corso looked up at the image of a man sitting at a desk. Big smile. The logo of the Star Road Authority was behind him.
His hands folded in front of him on the desk as if he was a bank’s branch manager, he began speaking.
“Welcome to your Star Road vehicle and the amazing journey you have now begun!”
Ruth leaned forward, her elbows on her knees. She looked around and saw that not everyone was paying attention. But this was all new to her. New and definitely exciting.
“For the past two
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