“Androids are tough to destroy,” Leonidas said.
“Unless you rip a lot of their limbs off, I know. But if we can distract them long enough to get out of their sensor range… at the least, they would have to find us all over again out there.”
The two closest ships were floating near the wreck, but neither had sent any of their crew members floating over to investigate it yet. Alisa wasn’t surprised.
“We’ll have to send a couple of people in there so they’ll believe we’re looking for the staff,” she said. “And they can plant the gas at the same time.”
“I will, of course, go.” Leonidas rested his hands on his helmet.
“I suppose you’ll forbid me to go.”
“Absolutely. I can’t have inappropriate thoughts about you in the bedroom if you blow yourself up.”
Yumi’s eyebrows flew up. No, those weren’t typical comments for Leonidas.
“Didn’t we decide that those thoughts were appropriate if a bed was nearby?” Alisa asked, then tapped the comm again. “Make sure your gas is portable, Mica. And divide it into several containers. All with remote detonators please.”
“Now you’re getting pushy.”
“It’s what captains do. Don’t forget that I keep bumping your pay up.”
“To multiples of nothing, yes, I remember.”
“I paid you after we left Arkadius and I collected fares,” Alisa said dryly.
“I was expecting back pay.”
“Now who’s being pushy?”
“I have needs,” Mica said.
“What needs? Your cabin and meals are supplied here on the Nomad.”
“A woman can’t live on food alone. I need vids, books, art, and handcuffs that weren’t broken and left behind on a mining ship.”
“I’m sure you can afford your sex toys on what I’m paying you now.”
That sent Yumi’s eyebrows upward again.
“Just get my gas spruced up, Mica,” Alisa said.
“That command begs a dirty comment.”
“We don’t have time for more of them.” Alisa closed the comm and eyed the treasure-hunting ships. One was still lingering back by the tunnel entrance. Guarding the tunnel entrance, she decided. Would it open fire on the Nomad if she tried to zip away with a treasure? Maybe. Would it open fire on them if she blew up its compatriots? That had to be a certainty.
“I’ll grab my weapons and wait in the cargo hold,” Leonidas said, rising from his seat.
“You know the plan?” Alisa said, rising with him and grasping his arm. Even though she knew he was the logical one to go and that he would be tough to kill, she worried about sending him out where he might encounter a team of armed androids.
“I’ve gathered the gist.” He laid his hand on the back of hers, and she wished they were touching skin to skin instead of gauntlet to skin. “Sneakily plant gas grenades throughout the wreck, race back to the ship once the androids are searching, and detonate the grenades after I’ve gotten away, and preferably before they have.”
“That’s the plan, yes.”
“If this works, the owner of those ships may send bounty hunters after you when she learns how much monetary damage you were responsible for.”
“Then it’s a good thing I plan to start sleeping with a cyborg,” Alisa said.
“Hm,” was all he said to that, and she wondered how his sleep had been the night before. It was silly to think that whatever brain tinkering Tiang had done would solve his nightmare problems, especially so soon after the surgery, but it had sounded like the two were related.
Ostberg jogged into NavCom, almost tripping over his robe as he navigated the threshold. He wore a wide grin as he looked around.
“Be careful,” Alisa told Leonidas, releasing his arm.
She thought about kissing him, but having Yumi and Ostberg looking on made her hesitate. He shifted toward the hatchway, and she figured she had lost the opportunity, but he turned back toward her and surprised her by leaning down to initiate a kiss on his own. Ostberg nearly tripped again. Alisa noticed that, then promptly forgot about him, as the kiss turned far less chaste than Leonidas’s previous ones had been. Her toes curled in her boots, and she was on the verge of slinging her arms around him—and maybe her legs too—when an alarm beeped on the console.
Leonidas released her quickly, as if he had been caught doing something illicit. He glanced at Yumi and Ostberg, and his cheeks colored. He gave Alisa a choppy wave and almost sprinted away.
“I’ll definitely be having inappropriate thoughts about you while you’re gone, Leonidas,” Alisa said, not bothering to yell the words, knowing he would hear them.
She turned off the proximity alarm. She had already known that second ship was sailing down to join the Nomad next to the wreck. Indeed, it had nestled up right on the other side of them, hulls almost bumping.
“Which one have you been trying to tinker with, Ostberg?” Alisa asked, checking another flashing alarm on the panel. The Nomad’s airlock tube had extended to the wreck, but it had failed to obtain a seal. Not surprising. It hardly mattered since there was no atmosphere on the other ship.
“That one.” Ostberg pointed to the lead ship.
“You have an idea of something you can do to disable it?”
“I do. If I knew more, I bet I could make it blow itself up. Wouldn’t that be stellar?”
“I suppose in this instance, it would be convenient,” Alisa said, trying not to shudder at his youthful enthusiasm for making things explode, “but since ships usually have people—human beings—on them, such tactics would be less than desirable in most cases.”
“But these are enemy ships, right?” Ostberg said. “And we have to stop them from chasing us, right?”
“Indeed we do. Before you tinker with that one’s engines, can you also see if there’s anything you can do to that one guarding the tunnel up there?”
If need be, the Nomad could take off through a passage at the other end of the chamber, but that led deeper into the asteroid, and she had no idea if there was another way out.
“It’s too far away,” Ostberg said after gazing toward the ceiling with his lips and nose scrunched up. Apparently, that was his concentration face. It was similar to some people’s constipation faces, but she would tactfully not point that out. Maybe, as a teenager, Abelardus had spent time looking at himself in the mirror as he concentrated, so he could perfect his vacant expression to ensure he appeared handsome while performing his art.
You know me well, Abelardus spoke into her mind.
I figured mirrors had some role in your upbringing.
“This place is great,” Ostberg said. “Did you see all the wrecked machinery? And tools? I love the way it’s all floating around. It would be a fun obstacle course. Someday, I want to get a ship of my own and be a pilot. I’d go hunting for treasures in old asteroids like this. I could push the wreckage around and block the tunnel.” He met Alisa’s eyes, his own eyes bright. “Would that help?”
“I don’t think so,” Alisa said, though she appreciated his enthusiasm in brainstorming, however youthful his ideas were. “As Leonidas already demonstrated, it’s fairly easy to use a ship’s weapons to blow away the wreckage.”
“I saw that. With my mind from the cargo hold. Can I come up and push the button the next time we need to blow something up?”
“We’ll see.” Alisa pointed to their new neighbor. “Can you look at the engines on that one and see if something can be done to disable it?”
“Yes, of course!” He gripped the back of the co-pilot’s seat, his mouth twisting up in his concentration face again.
“I’ve calculated the amount of gas that will be needed to fill the cargo hold of that vessel,” Yumi said, “allowing for leakage through the holes in the hull. It would be more effective if Leonidas could plant the gas grenades up in the personnel area of the ship and lure the androids up there. It would take significantly less gas, and explosions would do more damag
e.”
“I’ll tell him.” Alisa left NavCom to do so in person, wanting to check on Mica’s progress. She also had a feeling Ostberg might have an easier time with his task if she wasn’t there to answer his questions about blowing things up.
You sure you’re not simply looking for another excuse to lock lips with him? Abelardus asked into her mind. At least he sounded more teasing than sullen. Dare she hope that he was finally grasping that she would never have Starseer babies with him?
No, she responded silently as she trotted through the mess hall, I don’t want my sexy allure to distract him overmuch while he’s working over there.
I’m certain I’m not the only one who spent a lot of time in front of mirrors growing up.
Perhaps not.
Alisa jogged through the cargo hold, nodding toward Leonidas, who stood near the airlock hatch in full armor now and with two rifles on his person. She was about to head into engineering when Mica stepped out, carrying small drums in her arms with improvised spouts on the top and detonators hooked up to them.
“Ready so soon?” Alisa asked. “You’re amazing, Mica. You didn’t even use green bean cans this time.”
“I already had the detonators from the pile of equipment that your Commander Tomich left us. He must have anticipated that you’d need to blow things up.”
“We worked together for a while,” Alisa said, gingerly taking a couple of the big canisters out of Mica’s arms.
“So he knows you well?”
“I feel like I’m a simple person who’s easy to know.”
“You are simple,” Mica said amiably.
“Thanks.” Alisa turned to find Leonidas standing behind her. “These are for you,” she said. “Actually, wait. Can we find a bag for him?” She trotted into engineering and located something that would do, then carefully placed the canisters inside of it. She did not know how well sealed the homemade grenades were and did not want Leonidas to lose one and have it go off prematurely.
Mica watched in bemusement as Alisa took the rest of them from her, carefully placing them in the bag. She then handed the bag to Leonidas.
“You know,” Mica said, “some women pack lunch boxes to hand to their men before they leave for work.”
“That’s more of a job for Beck.”
“You called?” came Beck’s voice from the walkway.
Clad in his armor and with a rifle in hand, he trotted down the stairs and past the Starseer camp to join them near the airlock.
“You’re going along?” Alisa had thought about sending him over, but figured that the fewer people they had on the wreck, the less chance of delays. The androids shouldn’t see anything suspicious about a cyborg being sent alone.
“Leonidas did just have a surgery,” Beck said. “I wasn’t sure he’d be as fearsome and deadly as usual.”
“I feel fine,” Leonidas said.
“Fearsome and deadly?” Alisa asked.
“Always. But Beck can come along and carry the gas, so my hands are free.” Leonidas patted one of his rifles.
“I’d rather carry lunch boxes,” Beck said, accepting the bag gingerly.
“Let’s go.” Leonidas strode toward the airlock hatch.
Since it didn’t look like Alisa would get another kiss, she said, “Be careful. Both of you.”
“Always,” Leonidas said, looking back and holding her eyes before disappearing through the hatchway.
Chapter 14
As soon as Alisa stepped into NavCom, Yumi said, “Three androids just floated over to the wreck.”
She pointed to the camera display that was focused on an opening in the hull, and Alisa glimpsed someone’s legs disappearing inside.
“They have jet packs and weapons,” Yumi said.
Alisa slid into her seat and tapped the shield controls and the comm. “Leonidas? You’re free to cross over. Three androids are already inside the cargo hold. It looks like going in through the airlock hatch will place you in the personnel area of the ship—that’s where Mica said to plant the gas bombs anyway—so you shouldn’t see the androids right away, but keep an eye out and also keep me apprised.”
“I will,” he said.
Alisa waited until the control panel informed her that the Nomad’s outer airlock hatch had been opened, with Leonidas and Beck heading through it, before looking at Ostberg. His face was still scrunched up, and his eyes were closed, so she didn’t bother him. She checked the locations of the three ships, verifying that none of them had moved, and leaned back in her seat. She hated waiting and wished she were over there with Leonidas.
She tapped the comm. “Alejandro, are you around in case we have any injuries?” She had barely seen him that morning and hadn’t noticed him in sickbay on her way past. Durant hadn’t been there either. He had moved out and was being cared for by the rest of the Starseers, though from what Alisa had heard, he was functioning fairly well on his own now.
A few seconds passed before Alejandro responded. “The admiral and I are in the rec room.”
“Couldn’t stay away from the video games, eh?”
“We are discussing a project.”
“Anything I should know about?”
“No.”
Alisa decided there was too much going on for her to bother bristling at the dismissal.
“Be ready in case we need your services, please,” she said.
The grunt that came back wasn’t enthusiastic.
Alisa closed the comm and resisted the urge to check on Leonidas or to ask him to send the feed from his helmet cam to the Nomad’s computer so she could watch his progress. She also resisted the urge to poke Ostberg and ask about his progress. All the resisting was hard. She clasped her hands in her lap to keep from fidgeting.
Movement on the view screen made her unclasp them and lean forward. Three more androids had left from the main ship, using their jet packs to navigate. One of them also wore a bulky backpack. Excavation tools?
As Alisa had expected, none of the androids wore spacesuits. Why bother when they were impervious to the cold vacuum of space? She imagined they might have some internal fluids that could freeze out there, but if these fancy models had been purchased with space exploration in mind, any vulnerable insides must be protected.
“They look the same as the last group,” Yumi said. “I can’t tell if one of them is the captain.”
“Probably not. Echo stayed on board last time. He—uh, why is that one coming toward us?”
Two of the androids continued toward the hole in the wreck, but one was tapping his handheld jet pack controls and maneuvering toward the Nomad. He was the one wearing the backpack.
“I couldn’t guess,” Yumi said.
“We had to lower our shields to extend the airlock tube. This could be trouble.”
“Can we retract the tube and raise them for now?”
“We’ll have to.” Alisa tapped the controls and commed Leonidas and Beck as she worked. “We need to raise the shields, so you two are isolated over there for the moment.”
“Not sure how I feel about being isolated with Leonidas and his gas,” Beck said.
“Hopefully, it won’t be for long,” Alisa said, watching as the android drew closer.
She checked the yacht next door to make sure there were not any androids sneaking up from that side. Thus far, none of the crew had flown out of that ship yet, but a giant laser drill was being extended. There was something that looked like a reciprocating saw, too. Did they plan to cut open the hull of the wreck? Or were they only preparing themselves in case an excavation was needed?
“That one’s unpacking something,” Yumi said.
The android had stopped just outside the Nomad’s shields. Having them raised had not deterred him. He removed his pack, his synthetic hair floating around his head as he dug into it. A black device came out wrapped in strands that seemed to crackle with energy. It reminded Alisa of a giant fluidwrap.
“A bomb?” Yumi wondered.
; Ostberg opened his eyes but did not say anything.
The android spread his hands, and the strands unspooled, occasional white sparks appearing where the pieces tangled. They unraveled themselves and spread.
“Are they attaching to the shields?” Alisa asked as the android continued to manipulate the device and the net. “I think he’s planting an anchor. To make sure we don’t escape if we’re the first ones to get the imaginary treasure inside the wreck.” She groaned. Her plan to fool them was working too well.
She wished she could jump into the other seat and fire at him with their new e-cannons, but they were meant to attack targets from a greater distance, and to the front and rear of the ship. There was no way to curve their blasts around the hull. She would have to lower the shields and go out in her combat armor if she wanted to shoot the android.
“Ostberg,” Alisa said. “Can you mess with what he’s working on? For that matter…” She reached for the comm. “Abelardus and any other Starseers that want to get out of this asteroid and find what we’re looking for, there’s an android outside trying to trap us here. I’d appreciate it if you could thwart him.”
She had no sooner spoken the words than the android flew backward, as if a huge gust of wind had struck him. At first, he moved independently of the net and device, but then those items wadded up into a tangled mess and also floated away.
“Thank you,” Alisa said. “If you could keep him from doing that again, I’d appreciate it.”
“The far yacht is firing,” Yumi said.
“What?” Alisa had barely uttered the word when an e-cannon blast lit up the dark chamber.
It slammed into the Nomad’s rear shields. Even though they absorbed the attack, the force moved the ship just enough that the nose bumped into the wreck.
“What’s going on?” Leonidas promptly asked.
“We’re handling it,” Alisa said. “Continue with the plan, please.”
“Beck is nervous about holding my grenades when the bulkheads are shaking.”
“Holding a cyborg’s grenades is always dangerous. Next time, tell him to leave that to me.”