Against Gravity

"Only Smeby." Kendrick nodded at the man in question. "He's not to be trusted under any circumstances."

There was a commotion, and they glanced over to see that Sabak had opened a hatch. Behind it lay a tiny porthole, and Draeger had floated over to stare out through it.

Looking around at the other passengers, Kendrick could see from the consternation and anger on their faces that they were now well aware who their unwelcome guest was.

Sabak floated over and put a hand on Kendrick's and Buddy's shoulders. "Gentlemen, I want you to come and see exactly where we're going."

As he guided them forward, Kendrick flailed about uncertainly for a moment but Buddy kept a firm grip on his shoulder as they eased through a pressurized door into the cockpit area.

There was a crew of four, and Kendrick suspected that one or two of them might turn out to be Labrats. But it was impossible to tell since they were all wearing spacesuits.

Beyond them he could see stars, the bright curve of the Earth visible over to one side, and something else in the far distance: a dark grey cylinder floating against a sea of black velvet.

Sabak moved forward to chat to the pilots. They all looked relaxed and happy, and Kendrick wished that he could feel the same.

Sabak returned to their side shortly. "We're coming in for an approach pretty soon."

"How close did it get down there?" asked Kendrick.

Sabak raised his eyebrows. "Pretty close. I find this difficult to admit, but Draeger's the only reason we got this far." He shook his head. "I think he must be obsessed with the Archimedes, wanting to come here in person. That does take a certain kind of guts."

Buddy nodded. "Yeah, but he's only going to stay friendly for as long as we serve his purpose. We've got to start being real careful."

"Sir?"

Sabak glanced over at the crew member who had spoken.

"We've got visual contact with the two Los Muertos shuttles."

Kendrick peered forward intently to where the Archimedes was growing visibly larger. He saw a rough-hewn tube covered in fragile-looking gantries and docking facilities. Kendrick noticed that one of the shuttles was still locked into an external gantry, its nose pointing inwards towards the main body of the station. The other shutde, though, appeared to have ripped itself free and only dozens of powerful-looking cables kept it co

Sabak spoke up. "Looks like they've got something burning inside. Wouldn't be possible unless something was feeding it – probably broken fuel and air lines. Can we get a zoom on that?"

"Sure," said one of the pilots, and a screen displayed a close-up of the damaged shuttle.

"It looks like one of its engines exploded," said Buddy. "Something blew up on the inside and ripped through the hull."

"What the hell could do something like that?" Kendrick asked.

"There's no other ships in the vicinity," replied the pilot, turning a little in his seat to give Kendrick and the rest a significant look. "If I didn't know better, I'd say it looks like they tried to get away from it."

The second pilot glanced over her shoulder with an expression clearly saying Tell me what in God's name is going on here. Kendrick caught her eye and shrugged feebly. She frowned at him and turned back.

Kendrick continued to study the Archimedes with interest, as Sabak consulted with the two pilots about docking strategies. After a few minutes' discussion they settled for another gantry that was positioned a little further around the circumference of the station. They were closer now to the exterior of the Archimedes and Kendrick gazed at the ripped-apart shuttle in horrified fascination. Nobody could have survived that sort of damage, he thought.

Their view changed further as they approached their selected gantry, the Archimedes' speed of rotation slowing to an apparent nil. Sabak guided them both to the rear of the cockpit where a row of tiny plastic seats were attached to the bulkhead.

They buckled in and waited. Soon a heavy, clanging reverberation rattled through the hull, as gravity returned.

The sudden change was jarring. Kendrick pictured the shuttle being whirled around now by the station as it rotated, providing artificial gravity as it tried to fling the incoming ship loose. They'd docked with the shuttle's underbelly facing outward, allowing them to walk around inside the shuttle without feeling as though they were the wrong way up.

Sabak unstrapped himself and motioned to Kendrick and Buddy to do likewise. Then he led them back into the short corridor co

"Wait just one second," Sabak told them, pulling open a section of the wall to reveal a deep cabinet. There were weapons stored inside – rifles, pistols and what appeared to be grenades. There were also bricks of plastic explosive.

Sabak extracted a pair of side arms and handed one each to his companions. Buddy handled his with practised efficiency, nodding with apparent satisfaction.

Kendrick stared down suspiciously at the gun in his own hand.

"Just hold on to it," Buddy advised him. "I don't think it's likely that you'll have to use it. Give it here." He took the weapon from Kendrick and slotted in an ammunition clip. "This catch here on top is the safety, so just leave it where it is unless you feel you need to use the gun. Got that?"

"I think so."

"Meanwhile keep it out of sight. We don't want Draeger's men knowing that we're armed. Any small advantage we have can only be good for us."

Kendrick caught Sabak's eye. "Draeger and his men -did anyone check them for weapons?"

"There was neither the time nor the opportunity," Sabak replied sourly. "Which is another good reason for making sure we're ready for anything."

The flight crew caught up with them and Sabak doled weapons out to them as well, keeping a cautious eye on the door to the passenger area. Several Labrats – the only one Kendrick recognized was Veliz – slipped through from the passenger bay, and Sabak armed them too.

"What about all the rest of them?" said Buddy, nodding towards the door. "None of that lot came up here expecting to be combatants."

"I'm well aware of that," Sabak replied darkly. "We should split into two groups once we're further in. Some of us will move ahead and deal with any Los Muertos who may have been left behind. The other group can stay near the docking area and guard the rest of our lot."

"And Draeger?" asked Kendrick.

"The question is whether he's likely to try anything once we're inside."

"I'm sure of it. But then there's the matter of whether we're really going to let him have what he wants." Kendrick looked at Sabak questioningly.

"I didn't expect we'd have to deal with Draeger when we got here. Which may have been a glaring mistake on our part." Sabak turned to Buddy. "You've got as much military experience as I have, so when we're in there I want you to help us keep an eye on Draeger and his goons. The question remains: are they likely to be armed?"

Buddy shrugged. "Heavily, I'd be inclined to guess."

Sabak nodded in agreement. "Okay, let's go ahead on the assumption that we'll be dealing with opposition at some point. If we find no survivors from the Los Muertos shuttles, maybe we can step things down a little, except where Draeger is concerned."

"Draeger's going to be searching for the same records that I want," Kendrick reminded them.

Sabak squinted. "The Archimedes is a big place. You'd need a couple of weeks to find something that specific. And a couple of weeks is what you don't have."