Abaddon's Gate

“You want us to concentrate there?” Corin asked.

“Don’t concentrate anywhere,” Bull said. “Not until we know what we’re looking at. Just get as many people and guns as you can and stay in touch.”

He had to get a plan. He had to have one now, only his brain wasn’t working the way it should. He was sick. Hell, he was dying. It seemed deeply unfair that he should have to improvise at the same time.

“Get to Serge,” he said. “We’ll worry about it from there. I’ve got some people I’ve got to talk to.”

“Bien, boss,” Corin repeated, and dropped the co

A nurse pushed a rolling table around the corner, and Bull had to put his terminal away in order to step out of the man’s path. He wished like hell he could walk and hold his terminal at the same damn time. He requested a priority co

“Mister Baca,” Pa said.

“Ashford’s loose,” he said. “I don’t know how many people he’s got or what he’s doing, but a couple of my people just drew weapons and took over the security station.”

Pa blinked. To her credit, she didn’t show even a moment’s fear, only the mental shifting of gears.

“Thank you, Mister Baca,” Pa said. He could tell from the movement of her image on the screen that she was already walking away from wherever she’d been. Getting someplace unpredictable. That was what he needed to be doing too.

“I’ll try to get in touch when I have a better idea what I’m looking at,” he said.

“I appreciate that,” she said. “I have a few people nearby that I trust. I’m going there now.”

“I figure he’s going to try to take over the broadcast station.”

“Then we’ll try to reinforce them,” Pa said.

“Maybe it’s just a few assholes,” Bull said. “Ashford may be trying to keep his head low too.”

“Or he may be getting ready to throw us both into a soil recycler,” Pa said. “Which way do you want to bet?”

Bull smiled. He almost meant it.

“Take care of yourself, Captain.”

“You too, Mister Baca.”

“And hey,” he said. “I’m sorry I got you into this.”

Now it was Pa’s turn to smile. She looked tired. She looked old.

“You didn’t make any decisions for me,” she said. “If I’m paying for my sins, at least give me that they’re mine.”

Her gaze jumped up from the terminal’s camera toward something off the screen. Her lips pressed thin and the co

He tried Sam, and almost as soon as he put in the request, she was there.

“We got a problem,” he said. “Ashford’s trying to take back the ship. He’s got security already.”

“And engineering,” Sam said.

Bull licked his lips.

“Where are you, Sam?”

“Right now? Fu

“You got to be kidding me.”

“Not.”

“He’s looking to nuke the way home?”

“Calls it saving humanity from the alien threat,” Sam said sweetly. Her eyes were hard.

“All right,” Bull said, even though nothing about this was all right.

“And he’s not at all happy with you. Are you someplace safe?”

Bull looked up and down the corridor. There wasn’t cover. And even if there was, he was one man in a modified lifting mech and no spinal cord past the middle of his back.

“No,” he said. “I don’t think I am.”

“Might want to get moving.”

“I’ve got no place safe to go,” Bull said.

Someone on the other end of the co

“I’m trying to scramble up all the technicians I can,” she shouted back. “Things have been a tiny bit disorganized. Had a little trouble with the rules of physics changing on us. Maybe you noticed.”

The first voice shouted again. Bull couldn’t hear the words, but he knew the timbre of the voice. Garza. The guy who’d always gotten bulbs of coffee for whoever was stuck in the security office. Garza was one of theirs. Bull wished he’d gotten to know the man better. Especially after the catastrophe, he should have been checking in with his staff more. He should have seen this all coming.

This was his fault. All of this was his fault.

Sam looked back down at the screen. At him.

“Okay, sweetie,” she said. “You should get scarce. Head for the second level, section M. There’s a bunch of empty storage there. The door codes are all on default. Straight zeros.”

“Why are they on default?”

“Because there’s nothing in them, bossypants, and changing the locks on all the empties never made the top of my to-do list. Is this really the time?”

“Sorry,” Bull said.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “Both of us under a little stress right now. Just get your head down before someone knocks it off. And Pa—”

“Pa knows. She’s heading for safety too.”

“All right, then. I’ll try to get you some help.”

“No,” Bull said. “You don’t know who you can trust.”

“Yes, I do,” Sam said. “Let’s don’t argue in front of the children.”

A voice brought him back to the corridor, the medical center. Not the groans of the wounded, not the professional calm of the nurses. Someone was excited and aggressive. Angry. Someone answered in a lower voice, and the first one came back with Do I look like I care?It was trouble, and despite everything, his first impulse was to turn toward it. His job was to get in the middle of things, to make sure that no one got hurt, and if anyone did, it was him. Him first, then the bad guys.

“I got to go,” he said, and dropped the co

The voices got louder, coming close. Bull shifted the mech so that it was walking along the wall. If someone came around the corner behind him, it would give him an extra fraction of a second before he was seen. The thick metal legs slid forward, shifted weight, shifted again.

The doorway was six feet away. Four. Three. He let go of the controls and reached out for the door a little too soon and had to inch the mech forward before he tried again. He was sweating, and he hoped it was only fear. If something in his guts had given way, he wouldn’t have known. Probably it was just fear.

The door opened, and he slammed the little joystick forward again. The mech took him through, and he closed the door behind him. He didn’t have time to wait or think. He angled the mech down another hall toward the internal lifts and the long trip to second level, section M.