Episode Two: The Big Empty
"We're going after them." Holden announced.
Was he insane? What was their shuttle going to do to a gunship? Naomi whipped her head over to the control panel. "Don't do it, Alex."
"They just dusted fifty of our friends," Holden said through gritted teeth, turning his raging grief toward Naomi.
"Well let's not make it fifty-five." She was upset too, but their own survival clearly came first.
"Alex, I am telling you to go after that ship," Holden ordered.
"What if they don't like being followed?" Amos challenged, clearly seeing Naomi's line of reasoning.
"They slip off that screen, they're gone forever. They'll get away with this!" No one moved. "What is the wrong with you, I gave an order!" Holden roared at Alex.
"Do you think rank matters now?" Amos asked incredulously.
Holden ignored him. "Get up," he said to the weary pilot, "I'll do it myself." When Alex refused to move, the raging man physically dragged him from the seat. "Get up!"
Naomi was already moving for the control panel, initiating shut-down of the engine. She was used to circumventing men who weren't in a state to listen to reason. "We're not going anywhere," she announced. They all kicked on their mag boots as the thrust gravity disappeared.
Holden sat sullen for a moment, then lunged to his feet in Naomi's face. She didn't even flinch as he gave her his hardest look. No way was she backing down; he was just pouting. She felt Amos take a protective step toward her, but she had Holden in hand; he wasn't going to do anything. The XO scowled at her for another moment, then stalked off as she continued to stare him down. Amos checked in with her silently with his eyes. You ok? Need me to do anything to him? She answered simply by turning away. It was over.
"Naomi, what's wrong with the radio?"
"Board's cooked, and I'm guessing the antenna array up top has seen better days." They were all exhausted, both physically and emotionally, since the Cant blew up before their eyes. But they had to try to do something. Trapped on this short-range shuttle, they wouldn't survive unless someone came to their rescue.
"See if you can improvise another board. I'm gonna go outside and see what's what." Holden pulled himself wearily to his feet.
"Great, we'll wait here," Amos said with heat, making it clear he felt the man had no authority over him. Naomi stiffened. Holden may have been full of bad ideas all day, but at least he was actually being helpful now. Amos didn't need to be making more trouble.
Before she could say anything, Alex broke in hesitantly. "I don't mean to be a bad news bull or anything, but uh… the airlock's done. The outer door is gone."
Holden didn't miss a beat. "Then we'll have to vent the ship." He said it like it was no problem.
Alex voiced all their thoughts in his own colorful way. "Are you out of your tree?"
"We'll lose all oxygen in the cabin," Naomi stated flatly.
"Everything depends on fixing that radio. We're wasting time."
"There you go," Amos said, a note of warning in his voice, "calling the shots again."
"Amos," she interrupted gently, making her decision, "go with him." She wished he was this willing to mutiny before they poked their noses in and the Cant got blown up, but now their only option was to pull together and try whatever they could to make it out alive. And Holden really did have the best plan.
Amos looked at her for a long moment, then dropped the attitude and gathered his things. Naomi let go of a breath she didn't know she was holding. She still had him in hand; he was going to trust her judgment. She had always been able to keep him out of trouble before, but when he got this emotional she could see the struggle it took to keep his impulses in check. And they did not need Amos' kind of trouble right now.
"As far as I'm concerned, she's the Cap now," Naomi heard Amos say to Holden as they worked out on the antenna; they were still talking on the general channel. She couldn't help but smile at that; while she had no real interest in command, it was good to be reminded the big man was solidly at her back. She might be the only one of them that was really thinking straight in this crisis, and Amos' support would really help her take charge if she needed to.
The replacement radio board had been easier to cobble together than she had thought. She fiddled with some of the settings and watched a few readouts, but she really had nothing to do until the boys were finished outside. She wondered what else they were saying to each other; they must have switched to a private channel. She hoped Amos wasn't making Holden squirm too much. They did all need to work together to survive.
"The antenna's working, but, our signal's still too weak. The antenna was severed from the power grid. It's done." She hated to give up hope, but the facts were the facts.
"Can't we… rig ourselves an amplifier?" Holden suggested, ever the optimist.
Everyone perked up. That wasn't actually a bad idea.
"We're gonna need a shitload of power," Amos pointed out.
"Take everything apart," Naomi said, thoughts racing almost faster than her words. There was absolutely a chance this could work; she could see the design building in her mind already. "Be fast, and careful, we're inside a balloon with a pin here. If it has a battery, a power pack, any charge capability, it goes into the pile."
Naomi jumped down the hatch, grabbed the first suitable part she saw. She banged it back up on the ops deck, noticed not one of the others had moved. Seriously? "I'm sorry, does anyone need a backrub first?" she barked. Sure it was a long shot, and everyone was exhausted, but she knew she could make it work. Even in what could be the final hours of her life, she was still being underestimated? Unbelievable.
"Even if anyone hears our SOS, they're just going to think we're pirates," Shed said bitterly as they stripped the cargo hold for parts.
"Well we're just gonna have to pray there's another caring soul out there like Ade." Alex commented.
"Ade?" Amos asked.
"She's why we're in this shit right now." Shed complained. "If she hadn't gone and logged that stupid distress call-"
"Hey!" Holden barked. Naomi had to think fast to head this off. "You don't know what you're talking about." He was turning menacingly toward Shed. "Wanna keep your teeth in your mouth?"
She didn't have time for finesse. She banged the dead transmitter in her hand against the nearest pipe, the sudden crash drawing the attention of everyone's reptile brain. "We're wasting air," she said pointedly, staring them all down. Naomi was not going to let this crew turn on each other, no matter how willing the boys all seemed to be to do it. If Holden wasn't up to his job, she would fucking step up. One by one, they turned and got back to work.
"You want to unburden your soul," she hissed lowly at Holden when he came over to her, "do it on your own time. On the remotest chance we get off this alive." Wasn't he trained as an officer in the UN Navy? He had handled Shed's panic with finesse, earlier. She knew he could do better than this. "We have enough problems right now."
"Yes, sir," Holden replied sullenly.
The MCRN Donnager was bearing down on them. "Listen, we're the only ones who know what happened on the Cant. If we get on that ship, chances are we're never coming out." Holden looked over at the comm panel. "Unless…"
"What are you doing?" Naomi asked, already dreading his next bright idea.
"Buying us insurance." He sat down, opened up a transmission. "My name is James Holden, speaking for the five survivors of the Canterbury. Our ship was destroyed answering a bogus SOS from a ship called the Scopuli. We discovered a false beacon and identified it as Martian Naval technology. It was a trap. We are about to be taken aboard the MCRN Donnager…" he went on doggedly as everyone tried to protest.
"Alex, shut him down!" Naomi ordered, ready to relieve Holden of command completely. This was way too risky. The rest of the crew struggled in vain as he kept on talking.
"We intend to cooperate in hopes this means we won't be harmed."
Naomi heard a gun cock. "Should I smoke him?" Amos asked.
Holden stopped talking. Everyone froze in horror.
"Say the word," he said calmly to Naomi, face soft and open. Like a knight placing his sword at her feet. When he looked at her like that, the rush of power was incredible. She was transfixed for a moment.
"We're dead anyway," Holden said.
Then her mind finished processing the situation, realized how far things had escalated. This transmission was a shit idea, but it didn't call for a summary execution. Of course no one was shooting Jim Holden. She shook her head incredulously no, looked away in disgust. Killing was never going to be the right call.
"Any such action would only confirm that the Canterbury was destroyed by Mars," Holden finished.
The tension dropped out of the room, though Amos didn't lower the gun until Holden sat back, transmission complete.
Naomi hung her head in utter exhaustion. Managing these boys was going to be the death of her. The thought of even turning to look at Amos right now filled her brain with an almost physical pain. She was aware of him still, rummaging around behind them doing God knows what. But the comfort his presence used to hold for her was being corroded. He had jumped several orders of magnitude past a sane response. Not only was Amos perfectly willing to kill the man they had been shipping with for years, but he thought that was something she might want? She was seeing a side of her friend she had really only glimpsed before, and it was scary as hell.
It wasn't going to be long before they were boarded by the Martian marines. The Donnager was already maneuvering to line them up with its docking bay. Naomi and most of the others just sat, conserving their strength. Naomi had a thought that came with a sudden spike of anxiety. "Amos, get rid of that gun," she called, turning her head in the direction he had gone.
"Already taken care of," he said loudly, voice full of false cheer as he came back up the ladder. "Threatening a bunch of Marines while we're in the belly of their warship ain't gonna accomplish anything."
Well, at least he knew that.
