Misjump Read online

  “Johan,” interjected Meilin.

  “Okay, the comm that Johan left you is straight too,” continued Fumi.

  “And you know this because?” asked Gregor.

  “Because this base has software that has not been updated since it was in orbit around Ironstone and, because of this, I now have control over everything on the damn stalk,” replied Fumi.

  “Ah, is maybe a little hasty, no? What if they found out, eh?” asked Gregor.

  “Not going to happen, big fella. The security software reports to me these days and hasn’t noticed anything is wrong,” replied Fumi.

  Gregor shook his head but didn’t raise the point again.

  “Fumi, have you seen anything that tells you what their trading position is going to be?” asked Meilin.

  “Well, I only have what the stalk's systems have, but it is pretty much what you would expect. When it comes to minerals, they have more than they need. They are good for living space too. Food supplies are excessive even. They are running the farms at over capacity to help with the life support, and there is where they seem to be in trouble. It is patched together and seems to mainly be duct tape these days. It was never what you could call sound with all those junker ships lashed together, but a lot of them are abandoned now. They have to be worried about that,” replied Fumi.

  Meilin nodded. “That would make sense. Gregor, how are we off for engineering supplies? I know we don’t have much food left.”

  “Not good,” growled Gregor. “Air filters for two weeks, three at stretch. Vapour in the tanks. We were equipped for a short jump with most of you in low berth. We were lucky to have as much as we did but is nearly used up.”

  “We don’t have much to trade then,” commented Meilin.

  “Not so quick, sister! Someone pull out a PDA so that you can see the screen,” said Fumi. Everyone put their PDA on their laps or on the table. The screen changed to a video of a grain of rice on the floor. After half a minute, Jax spoke up. “It is a grain of rice.”

  “Yes, it is. It is on the floor of the galley. Let me speed up the video for you,” said Fumi. The screen changed to read “16x” in the corner. Very slowly, one end of the grain of rice changed shape, becoming more squared off. Even at the accelerated rate, it was painfully slow. A white dot formed a small distance away, millimetres at this scale. It moved, rocking in place. It became apparent that it was growing and that the grain of rice was shrinking. There was a suggestion of a line between the two objects. Over time, the smaller object became half a grain of rice as the other grain became half of its size. Eventually, the first grain was wholly consumed and an exact copy lay next to where it had been.

  “Okay,” said Gregor. “You moved a grain of rice.”

  “I made a grain of rice using another grain as the source. That isn’t the same thing,” said Fumi.

  “Nanite manufacture has been done before but is not economical. Is not clear to me how this helps,” said Gregor.

  “Yes, on a commercial scale, it doesn’t make sense because it needs a lot of power and computing. It is cheaper to just make a thing from raw materials or in this case, pay some dirt farmer to grow it,” agreed Fumi.

  “But you said that they have plenty of raw materials here. I do not see this to be helpful here either,” said Meilin.

  “They have raw materials, but they don’t have manufacturing. The same is true of the ship. We have materials, but we can’t make a new air filter,” said Fumi.

  Ivo shook his head. “We don’t have the chemical matrices needed for new air filters. They are specialist things and not on the manifest. No suitable materials to process either.”

  “We have old worn out filters though. We can make most of a new filter from an old filter. Most of the job would be taking away contaminants. Ten old filters would make maybe nine new ones. It makes sense in a closed system like a ship or a mining colony. If it is the only way to make something, it is the cheapest,” said Fumi.

  “Maybe,” said Ivo, “but how much power did it take for the grain of rice and how long did it take? An air filter weighs more than 2 kilos.”

  “Well, yeah,” said Fumi, “that is a lot of mass, and it took pretty much all the processing and power that we had for the rice, but the principle is sound. We just need more power and more processing capability.”

  “A lot more,” said Ivo.

  After a few seconds, Meilin said, “Well then, that is a point for negotiation with Klondike. With two gas giants and mass drivers, they have to be able to create power. The idea may not be terrible.”

  “Where would we put additional power generation and computers? It is not a big ship,” commented Meilin.

  “We don’t need much hold space if we don’t have anyone to trade with,” said Jax.

  “Hold is not rigged for that much power or computers. Is not suitable,” said Gregor, not bothering to hide his irritation.

  Meilin considered the answer. “Is it impossible to rig additional power and computers in there or just difficult?” she asked.

  Gregor rubbed his face, the stubble rasping in the quiet room. “Not impossible but hard. Would need to run cable through or round bulkhead and neither is good. Ship designed in compartments for atmosphere. Is a compromise to put holes in walls. Can be sealed but is a hassle.”

  “It is not like we have that kind of kit laying around anyhow. We didn’t pick any up on Neuholme and I don’t think that that system defence boat is going to let us pop back to get some,” said Jax.

  “Agreed,” said Meilin,” but this colony does. We could trade if there is something that we can spare.”

  “Any reason to think that they would give us a square deal? I don’t know these people and see no reason to think that they are not out for themselves,” said Jax.

  Meilin frowned. “I take your point, but they are by far our best option. If they wanted to cheat us, they could simply take what they want. They have offered us the chance to trade and hospitality. I would give them the benefit of the doubt if there were a choice. As they are the only possible trading partners, there is no choice to make.”

  There was a silence as each of the crew considered this and nodded. “Good,” said Meilin, “let us make a list of what we have to trade and what we need, including parts for modifying the ship to put equipment in the hold.”

  Meilin brought the list to Gregor in his room later that night. She handed over the PDA and he transferred the data by bumping the units together. He handed Meilin’s unit back to her. He noticed that she was not making any move to leave. “Is something on your mind, yes?” he asked.

  Meilin nodded. “There is. We know what happened to most of the people here now, I think.”

  Gregor grunted and waited for her to continue.

  “A terrible thing, certainly. This is not our universe and not our problem, but it is the place that we find ourselves in. I must ask, do we have options here?” asked Meilin.

  Gregor rubbed his hands over his cropped hair. “Da, there are always options, but what are you asking? You know our position.”

  “Yes, we know where we are, here and now, but is there a way home? Do we have a choice?” she asked.

  “Is good question. Good answer is harder. We understand what component failed but not why. Original is too fried to tell us much. Maybe with research, we could make it happen again. Maybe we could survive it or maybe we got crazy lucky. Either way, not knowing how and won’t know soon. Is not covered in flight school, yes. Even if we reproduce fault, which way is home? How far?” he said. “We would be jumping blind. Maybe to better place, maybe to worse. Maybe to place that already has versions of us and I not know that anywhere needs two of us. If there is a way home, it needs smarter heads and time to find. For now, we have this.”

  Meilin nodded. She had relatives, but she had not seen them in many years. Being crew on a freighter made you a stranger everywhere. “If we jump on in this universe, it would be dangerous, I think. While we don’t want to b
e here, I think that the colony is likely to be better than whatever we are likely to find elsewhere. Tell me, Gregor, what is our goal? What do you want me to negotiate for? I will try.”

  Gregor paused, thinking his answer through. “We do what we always do. We solve the problem in front of us. We didn’t choose this but is not a new thing, yes? We never choose problems. Problems choose us. This time, a big one. We do what we can to help but we don’t let anyone screw us over. Get us a deal that works for everyone. These folk are human. They are fighting back. Their fight is our fight. Anyone on crew wants to stay here, is fine. For me, I want to fight back.”

  Meilin nodded. “We don’t have much to work with here, my friend.”

  Gregor half smiled, one side of his mouth quirking up. “We have what we have. We have us and we have the ship. I know you. You have bargained from worse places, yes?”

  Chapter 18

  Nitrauw didn’t call the crew to meet on the next day, explaining that he wanted his life support specialists to go over the inventory and suggested that the crew should take a look at the colony. Jax grumbled, but the others were glad to be out of the Sarafina and to see faces that were not their shipmates.

  Gregor and Ivo borrowed a skiff from the stalk and took a tour of the colony. The miner’s vessel was simple and showed signs of heavy use but was well maintained. It seemed painfully slow, even compared to a cargo ship, but high accelerations were not welcome this close to a deep space facility. The skin of the colony was as thin as possible to reduce problems with cosmic radiation slipping past an EM shield; that made for cheap and light construction but was delicate even with the best manufacturing. Low relative speeds kept everyone alive.

  The stalk resembled a deformed mushroom, more or less conical with a central trunk and arms extending from it, bridged by structures and old ships. The curved top contained the primary farms and living areas as well as a system of foil mirrors concentrating the light from the distant primary. The re-purposed ships that had been added to the sides were a mixed bunch ranging from old bulk carriers to something that could have been a Corvette class military ship from a few centuries back. There were multiple cargo modules connected into the chain, perhaps as habitation or storage units. The rudimentary sensors on the runabout didn’t offer IR, but several sections of the conglomerate were dark, either uninhabited or sealed up. Cables and pipes connected the ships in a piecemeal way, and the whole thing resembled a nest more than it did a space station. Mismatched laser turrets had been welded into the matrix to give some defensive capability along with some kind of slug thrower.

  “Is a mess,” commented Gregor.

  “No shit,” agreed Ivo. “One hit from a rock and half of that would tear away.”

  “How are they not dead already?” asked Gregor.

  “Hell if I know,” said Gregor. “Power core in middle of stalk either big or armoured,” he added.

  “Yeah,” replied Ivo. “What do you make of the weapons welded into the matrix? They don’t look as if there are enough of them to be a lot of use.”

  “Yes and no. Against attackers, no, would be pretty useless. However, against rock fragments moving fairly slow? Pretty useful then. Is old installation and may not have much deflection tech. Is bad engineering solution but good engineering if it is all you have got. Environmentals is more your thing. What do you think they have? Good or bad situation?” asked Gregor.

  Ivo shook his head. “I am surprised that they have any life support at all. It must be running on luck, duct tape, and spray lube. These old stations were designed to be largely self-sufficient, but they have to be hurting for renewables. I have no idea how they are still running a fleet, but there are several in-system bulk carriers docked.”

  Gregor gestured to a large pit in the stalk. “Is small shipyard. Not meant for big work, but with a decent engineer and patience, could do useful stuff and maybe build a mining rig if they use bits of old one. They have done much with not so much, eh?”

  “I can respect that,” said Ivo.

  “Da. Me too,” replied Gregor.

  #

  Lori sat in front of the old-fashioned viewer and reviewed the video of the dissection. It was digital and had not degraded despite its age, but the lighting and camera work had never been good. The subject was a human girl, perhaps a young woman, skeletally thin. As the video progressed, she became a collection of parts. Still shots of tissues under an optical microscope were interleaved with the video. The editing was rough, but the video told a clear story. Her tissues were pale, red blood cells damaged by radiation before being destroyed by a failing immune system. There were multiple tumours throughout her body and it seemed likely that her death was due to multiple organ failure. There had been no obvious wounds before the dissection, only multiple shallow lesions. Lori turned to the head of the medical team. “Do you know how this cadaver was obtained, Dr … ” She trailed off, unsure of the title.

  “Van Loo, but call me Laura. I am not sure that I deserve the ‘doctor’ part, but I was the apprentice to the old doctor, and he was an apprentice to the one before. We didn’t create the video. The notes say that the specimen was jettisoned from a colonised ship and recovered by a military vessel. The autopsy was carried out on a disposable ship, which was sensible but may not have been so good for filming.” The medic adjusted her long hair and touched her glasses, apparently nervous.

  Lori nodded. “The doctors were wearing what looked like environment suits. Does that offer protection against infection?”

  Van Loo shrugged. “Possibly. I don’t think that there was any risk though. From what we can find in the records, the Colony recover individuals before discarding the corpse. There were other corpses recovered, and none of them had any live colonists.”

  “Colony? You mean the greenies?” asked Lori.

  The doctor tugged at her sleeve, not making eye contact. “Well, yes and no. The Colony is all of the infectors, the parasites. We don’t know if they have groupings within the larger population, but we think that they must do even if it is just on a level of all the organisms on a ship. Perhaps that would be the closest thing to an individual, but that would be made of many colonists. Each colonist is tiny, of course. We say that someone that has the parasites inside them is a host. Greenie didn’t seem very respectful to sick people.”

  Lori nodded. “So, how do you feel about your colony flinging rocks at sick people? Doesn’t that represent something of a moral problem?”

  Van Loo’s eyes flickered to meet Lori’s and then broke contact. “Well, yes, if we had any kind of cure then it would. As it is, we have nothing, and the people are going to die sooner or later. Okay, yes, that is true of everyone, I know. It keeps the people here safe though, and it is the best of a bad set of options.”

  Lori nodded. “Makes sense, I guess. Do you have any data on the parasites themselves?”

  Dr Van Loo nodded and moved to the keyboard, pulling up more records.

  #

  Jax and Ivo sat in the bar, trying a beer. This was something that they attempted on every planet that they visited. Each sipped in silence, the first pull on the drink cautious. The two men reflected for a moment and then took a second drink.

  “Clean. Not a complex flavour,” commented Jax.

  Ivo took another pull at the drink. “That isn’t hops. Yarrow?”

  The barman nodded, overhearing. “Better yield for the same area.“

  “Not bad at all,” said Ivo, finishing his beer. “Three more beers, please. Same for us, whatever you like for yourself.” They had changed some of their imperial credits for local scrip at an exchange rate from a hundred years ago; Ivo wasn’t sure that they had got a square deal but he was also not sure that his credits were valuable anywhere since the greenies. When the drinks were set up, Ivo casually asked, “So, what is it like here?” The barman was happy to talk as long as the beers and cash kept flowing.

  #

  Meilin lay in her bunk, staring at the ceiling
. “Fumi?” she asked.

  “Hey, sister. How are you doing? Didn’t you feel like seeing the station? I wish I could,” replied Fumi.

  Meilin smiled. “I thought that you had all of the cameras in the stalk reporting back to you. You have probably seen more of the station than any of us.”

  “Okay, fair point. There are not all that many working cameras, and I don’t want to push their network too hard, but I suppose that I have seen a fair bit of it. A lot of it is in rough shape. They are in a mess. I don’t think that Nitrauw would like it if he knew that we knew,” said Fumi.

  Meilin thought about this for a few moments. “If Nitrauw wanted to hide the state of the stalk from us, wouldn’t he be controlling what we saw rather than letting us discover whatever we want? It is almost as if he wants to put all of his cards on the table. I wonder if he has told people to present a good face to us.”

  “Not according to his email,” said Fumi. “He told people not to pester us with questions and to answer any questions that we have that didn’t put the stalk at risk. He seems to be 'a cards on the table' kind of guy.”

  “Fumi,” asked Meilin, “did it seem to you that the security of the base had been weakened to give you access?”

  “No, seemed routine to me. A couple of mistakes in the configuration and really, really old software, but nothing that looked like a deliberate back door. I don’t think that they know that we compromised them,” said Fumi.

  “No, I suppose not. You have done a very impressive job, I think,” said Meilin.

  “Thanks. It wasn’t that tough though. Like I said, seriously old software,” said Fumi.

  “Setting up your VR was impressive too. I think that I would have struggled with that,” continued Meilin.

  “Yeah, well, necessity is the mother of invention,” said Fumi.

  “Programming the nanites to disassemble and reassemble that grain of rice was really impressive. I would have expected that to need a team and months,” said Meilin.