Part 63 (1/2)

On such a small s.h.i.+p, the drill required everyone to stay in die pods until all had reported in. Dupaynil listened to die s.h.i.+p's com as die pods filled. He

GENERATION WARBIORS.

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diat die captain would preserve the fiction of a real drill. If nothing else, to cover his tracks with his Exec, and actually enter and lock off his own pod.

Things could get very sticky indeed if the captain discovered before entering his own pod, diat Dupaynil had some of his crew locked away. Four were already ”podded” when Dupaynil checked in. He secured dieir pods. It might be better to wait until everyone was in. But if some came out, then he'd be in worse trouble. If tiiey obeyed the drill procedures, diey wouldn't know they were locked in until he had full control.

One after another, so quickly he had some trouble to keep up widi diem, the others made it into dieir pods and dogged die hatches. Eight, nine (die senior mate, he was glad to notice). Only the officers and one enlisted left.

”Captain! There's something . . .”

The senior mate. Naturally. Dupaynil had not been able to interfere with die s.h.i.+p's intercom and reconfigure the pod controls. The mate must have planned to duck into his pod just long enough to register his presence on die computer, then come out to help die captain s.p.a.ce Dupaynil.

Even as die mate spoke, Dupaynil activated all his latent sensors. Detection be d.a.m.ned! They knew he was onto diem, and he needed all die data he could get. His control locks had better work! He was out of his own escape pod, widi a tiny b.u.t.ton-phone in his ear and his hand-held control panel.

Ollery and Panis were on the bridge. Even as Dupaynil moved forward, the last crewman checked into his pod and Dupaynil locked it down. Apparently he hadn't heard die mate.

That left the captain and that very new executive officer who would probably believe whatever the cap-tain told him. He dogged down the hatch of his escape pod manually. From the corridor, it would look as if he were in it.

Go forward and confront the captain? No. He had to ensure that the others, especially the mate, stayed locked in. His fix might hold against a manual unlocking, but 130.

might not. So his first move was to the adjoining pods where he smashed the control panels beside each hatch. Pod fourteen, his own, was aftmost on the main corridor side, which meant he could ensure that no enemy appeared behind him. He would have to work his way back and forth between corridors though. Luckily the fifteenth pod was empty, and so was the thirteenth. Although the pods were numbered without using traditionally unlucky thirteen, most crews avoided the one that would have been thirteen. Stupid superst.i.tion, Dupaynil thought, but it helped him now.

Although he was sure he remembered which crew members were where, he checked on his handcomp and disabled the mate's pod controls next. Pod nine was off the alternate pa.s.sage. He'd had to squeeze through a connecting pa.s.sage and go forward past ”14A” (the unlucky one) and pod eleven. From there he went back to disable pod eleven and checked to be sure the other two on that side were actually empty. It was not unknown for a lazy crewmember to check into the nearest una.s.signed pod.

He wondered all the while just what the captain was doing. Not to mention the Exec. If only he'd been able to get a mil-channel tap on the bridge! He had just edged into the narrow cross pa.s.sage between the main and alternate pa.s.sages when he heard a feint noise and saw an emergency hatch slide across in front of him. Ollery had put the s.h.i.+p on alert, with full part.i.tioning.

/ should have foreseen that, Dupaynil thought. With a frantic lurch, he got his hands on its edge. The safety valve hissed at him but held the door still while he wriggled through the narrow gap. Now he was in the main corridor. Across from him he could see the recesses for pods ten and eight. He disabled their manual controls, one after another, working as quickly as he could but not worrying about noise. Just aft, another part.i.tion had come down, gray steel barrier between him and the pods fiirther aft. But, when he first got out, he had disabled pod twelve. Just forward, another.

A thin hiss, almost at the edge of his hearing, stopped him just as he reached it. None of the possibilities

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looked good. He knew that Ollery could evacuate the air from each compartment and his pressure suit had only a two-hour supply. Less, if he was active. Explosive decompression wasn't likely, though he had no idea just how fast emergency decomp was. He had not sealed his bubble-helmet. He'd wanted to hear whatever was there to be heard. That hiss could be Ollery or Panis cutting through the part.i.tion with a weapon, something like a needier.

In the short stretch of corridor between the part.i.tions, he had no place to hide. All compartment hatches sealed when the s.h.i.+p was on alert. Even if he had been able to get into the galley, it offered no concealment. Two steps forward, one back. What would Sa.s.sinak have done in his place? Found an access hatch, no doubt, or known something about the s.h.i.+p's controls that would have let her get out of this trap and ensnare Ollery at the same time. She would certainly have known where every pipe went and what was in it, what each wire and switch was for. Dupaynil could think of nothing.

It was interesting, if you looked at it that way, that Ollery hadn't tried to contact him on the s.h.i.+p's intercom. Did he even know Dupaynil was out of the pod? He must. He had normal s.h.i.+p's scans available in every compartment. Dupaynil's own sensors showed that the pods he had sealed were still sealed, their occupants safely out of the fight. Two blobs erf light on a tiny screen were the captain and Panis on the bridge, right ; where they should be. Then one of them started down the alternate pa.s.sage, slowly. He could not tell which it was, but logic said the captain had told Panis to investigate. Logic smirked when Ollery's voice came over the tatercom only moments later.

”Check every compartment. I want voice report on fnything out of the ordinary.”

” He could not hear the Jig's reply. He must be wear-; f.a.g a pressure suit and using its com unit to report. .Didn't the captain realize that Dupaynil could hear the ^intercom? Or didn't he care? Meanwhile there was his problem: that emergency part.i.tion. Dupaynil de- 132.

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cided that the hissing was merely an air leak between compartments, an ill-fitting part.i.tion, and set to work to override its controls.

Several hot, sweaty minutes later, he had the thing shoved back in its recess, and edged past. The main pa.s.sage forward looked deceptively ordinary, all visible hatches closed, nothing moving on the scarred tiles of the deck, no movement s.h.i.+mmering on the gleaming green bulkheads. Ahead, he could see another part.i.tion. Beyond it, he knew, the pa.s.sage curved inboard and went up a half-flight of steps to reach Main Deck and access to the bridge and three escape pods there.

Dupaynil stopped to disable the manual controls on pods six and four. Now only three pods might still be a problem: five and seven, the two most forward on the alternate pa.s.sage, and pod three, accessible from the bridge and a.s.signed to the weapons tech. Tliat one he could disable on his way to the bridge, a.s.suming he could get through this next part.i.tion. Five and seven? Panis might be able to open them from outside, although the controls would not work normally.

How long would it take him? Would he even think of it? Would the captain try to free the man in pod three? At least the odds against him had dropped. Even if they got all three out, it would still be only five to one, rather than twelve to one. With this much success came returning confidence, almost ebullience. He reminded himself that he had not won the war yet. Not even the first battle. Just a preliminary skirmish, which could all come undone if he lost the next bit.

”I don't care if it looks normal,” he heard on the intercom. ”Try to undog those hatches and let Siris out.”

Blast. Ollery was not entirely stupid. Panis must be looking at pod five. Siri: data tech, the specialist in computers, sensors, all that. Dupaynil worked at the forward part.i.tion, hoping Ollery would be more interested in following his Exec's progress, would trust to the part.i.tion to hold him back. A long pause, in which his own breathing sounded ragged and loud in the empty, silent pa.s.sage.

Then: ”I don't care what it takes, open it”

At least some of his reworking held against outside tampering. Dupaynil spared no time for smugness, as the forward part.i.tion was giving him more trouble than the one before. If he'd only had his complete kit ... But there, it gave, sliding back into its slot with almost sentient reluctance to disobey the computer. Here the pa.s.sage curved and he could not get all the way to die steps. Dupaynil flattened himself along the inside bulkhead, looking at the gleaming surface across from him for any moving reflections. Lucky for him that Ollery insisted on Fleet-tike order and cleanliness. Dupaynil found it surprising. He'd always a.s.sumed that renegades would be dirty and disorderly. But the s.h.i.+p would have to pa.s.s Fleet inspections, whether its crew were loyal or not.

He waited. Nothing moved. He edged cautiously forward, with frequent glances at his handcomp. The captain's blob stayed where it had been. Panis's was still in the alternate pa.s.sage near the hatch of pod five. At the foot of the steps, he paused. Above was the landing outside the bridge proper, with the hatches of three pods on his left. One and two would be open: the a.s.signed pods for captain and Exec. Three would be dosed, with the weapons tech inside. The hatch to the bridge would be closed, unless Panis had left it open when he went hunting trouble. If it was open, the captain would not fail to hear Dupaynil coming. Even if he weren't monitoring his sensors, and he would be, jhe'd know exactly where Dupaynil was. And once Dupaynil came to the landing, he could see him out the Open hatch. If it was open.

Had Panis left the bridge hatch open? Had he left the part.i.tion into the alternate corridor open? It would fluke sense to do so. Even though the captain could Control the part.i.tions individually from the bridge, over-the computer's programming, that would take a seconds. If the captain suspected he might need , he would want those part.i.tions back so that Panis any freed crewmen had easy access.

He started up the steps, reminding himself to breathe 134.

deeply. One. Two. No sound from above, and he could not see the bridge hatch without being visible from it. Another step, and another. If he had had time, if he had had his entire toolkit, he would have had taps in place and would know if that hatch . . .

A clamor broke out on the other side of the s.h.i.+p, cras.h.i.+ng metal, cries. And, above him and around the curve, the captain's voice both live and over the intercom.

”Go on, Sins!”

Then the clatter of feet, as the captain left the bridge (no sound of the hatch opening: it had been open) and headed down the alternate pa.s.sage. Dupaynil had no idea what was going on, but he shot up the last few steps, and poked his head into the upper end of the alternate corridor. And saw the captain's back, headed aft, with some weapon, probably a needier, in his clenched fist. There were yells from both Panis and the man he had freed.

It burst on Dupaynil suddenly that the Ollery intended to kill his Exec. Either because he thought he was in league with Dupaynil or was using this excuse to claim he'd mutinied. Dupaynil launched himself after the captain, hoping that the crewman wasn't armed. Panis and Sins were still thras.h.i.+ng on the floor. Dupaynil could see only a whirling confusion of suit-clad bodies. Their cries and the sound of the blows covered his own approach. Ollery stood above them, clearly waiting his chance to shoot. Dupaynil saw the young officer's face recognize his captain, and his captain's intent. His expression changed from astonishment to horror.