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– Chapter 11 –
Several hours later, a small yellow sun appeared on the viewscreens. A disc of rocky asteroids circled the sun, but no planets. The largest asteroid, spinning crazily, but thick with spacecraft proved to be their destination.
‘That’s Revlon,’ Loren announced.
Once they tracked down the other sled and recovered from their escape, they turned to the task of going home. Revlon turned out to be the only populated world within range.
Solar panels or docking stations cluttered the entire surface of Revlon.
‘Strange no one’s tried to contact us,’ Loren said.
‘Maybe they’re not interested,’ Tarun suggested.
‘There must be a tower to co-ordinate all these spacecraft. I’ll give it a call,’ Loren said. ‘Incoming sleds to Revlon Tower, do you read me?’
A gravely voice responded, ‘What do you want?’
Loren frowned, ‘Sleds requesting permission to dock.’
Silence. Then, ‘If you got credits you can dock. No credits no dock.’
Mervyn leaned forward, ‘Doesn’t waste words, does she. Ask how much.’
‘One hundred credits a day for each ship. Minimum stay three days.’
‘What?’ Tarun screeched, ‘A hundred credits, but that’s starlight robbery.’
‘No credits, no dock,’ growled the tower and cut the transmission.
Someone hit mute, ‘It’s all right, I’ll pay,’ Aurora said, ‘it’s no problem for me.’
‘Oh no you don’t,’ Mervyn said. ‘One whiff of whom you are and someone will kidnap us again. I’ll pay.’
‘But this will eat your entire bursary in a mater of days.’
‘You can pay me back later.’
Loren opened the transmission again, ‘Tower, sleds here. We’ve got the money, where do we dock?’
‘First you pay, then you dock.’ Reluctantly, Mervyn fed his account details across to the tower and once more they waited. And waited.
‘They’ve taken our money and run,’ Tarun said as the silence stretched out further. Mervyn started to think Tarun might be right. A blip from a homing beacon made them all jump, ‘Your money’s transferred. Follow the beacon to the budget docking--’
‘Budget?’ Aurora squawked. ‘We pay a Patriarch’s ransom and all we get is budget docking?’
‘Welcome to Revlon.’
The beacon led them to the far end of the spinning asteroid and a couple of metal tubes snaking out from a cluster of airlocks. With difficulty, they zigzagged through the closely packed spacecraft until the designated docking tubes came into view.
Tarun pointed out a sleek black yacht nestling beside something resembling a large rusty barrel. Guns barrels pointed in every direction, ‘Wow, an Albright Xatrak VI. You don’t see luxury yachts like that everyday.’
‘Are guns part of the standard spec?’ Loren asked as they glided past.
‘Never seen one with guns before.’
‘Personally, I prefer the black one,’ Mervyn quipped.
They manoeuvred around a cargo tug, compensated to match the spin of the asteroid, and sidled up to the docking tube. With a clank, which reverberated throughout the ship, the tube snapped itself onto their airlock. Mervyn tested the seal, ‘Yep, air pressure looks ok in the docking tube. Let’s go.’
He led the way through the airlocks: first crawling from the cabin into the sled’s fuselage, then into the docking tube. His heart fell as he opened the outer door and a blast of icy air rushed past. He slammed the door quickly, ‘Jumpsuits, Loren, it’s freezing.’ An unheated docking tube would be as deadly as the cold of space itself.
Mervyn sealed the jumpsuit which he normally wore while flying sleds. Although it lacked the sophisticated climate control of their full suits it would keep them warm enough in the tube. He retrieved his spare helmet, ‘They weren’t joking when they said budget, were they?’
‘Don’t bother with an air tank, Merv, you could stick in the tube,’ Loren advised. ‘Use the emergency one built into your jumpsuit.’
After checking each others suits, they snapped on their helmets and crawled into the tube. Mervyn found tiny rungs, coated with frost, to propel himself forwards into the darkness. As he negotiated the twists and turns of the tube the asteroid’s gravity took hold and pulled him relentlessly towards it. ‘Should have gone feet first,’ he shouted as he fell towards a circle of light. He burst out into a dimly lit airlock and landed on something soft.
‘Ouch, careful,’ Tarun moaned as Mervyn crashed into another air-lock.
‘No damage done,’ Aurora laughed. ‘You only landed on your head.’
‘Ow, watch out,’ Tarun cried as Loren joined them.
The airlock opened into a heated grey room lined with lockers. They stowed their jumpsuits in a locker. ‘We can get everything into one locker if we squash it all flat,’ Tarun said, cramming in the last helmet. ‘I’m not paying for four at these prices.’
As they turned towards the door, Mervyn grabbed Aurora and Tarun, ‘Whatever happens, guys, no one must suspect who you are. Think up some aliases. You’re worth as much to these people as you were to the Naga, ok?’ The others nod, ‘Come on then, let’s see what this place is like.’ He strode up to the airlock’s iris, but noting happened -- no biolink then. He punched the manual control and the iris obediently slid open.