Escape Velocity
In the telescope, the Nixia had grown from a tiny speck, a single pixel of dim gray against the dark black of space, into an object whose outline was almost legible in the viewfinder. There was the yellow station light, and the blue one just visible on the far side. Two or three pixels of dim red represented the viewports of the command deck. And behind them small cylinders that made up the crew, science and engineering decks lay dwarfed by massive spheres clad in white ceramic tiles that held their fuel reserves. In less than six hours, Essa would be aboard again, captain of her ship once more, or she would be hurtling out into the void of interplanetary space. The navigator who was working with her said they stood a good chance of making it. Ninety-seven percent. But there was one problem that still needed to be resolved.
Essa climbed down out of the launch and into the tall grass. At one edge of the forest lay their encampment, where a bonfire was continually burning. From the other edge of the clearing, about three kilometers distant, there came a whistling hoot, like a bird maybe. It wasn't a bird, though. It was one of those creatures, hideous as a monster, but perhaps not so monstrous after all. She had killed a number of them a fortnight ago, and wrecked the launch in the process, forcing she and her crew to make hasty repairs and modifications, that now led to this last decision.
Damaged as it was, the launch could still easily reach low planetary orbit. But something had happened to the Nixia, an emergency vent of one of their four main fuel tanks had left them with only enough fuel for a single pass, not orbital insertion and then return to escape velocity. The launch would need to be traveling at escape velocity in order to rendezvous, and that meant that, even after they had dumped all but the most necessary gear, and even some of the food, even after they had removed all dead weight that would never be used again, including most of the heat shield, there wouldn't be enough lift capacity to carry all of them back to the ship. Out of the twenty-three who had landed on this goddessforsaken planet, and of the seventeen who were still alive, only twelve could return to the Nixia. Five more would remain stranded indefinitely, probably for the rest of their lives, on a planet that was already inhabited by a species of intelligent and hostile animals.
Essa looked across the clearing at the bonfire, and then in the other direction. There came another hoot, and this time it was answered by a chorus of voices. Were they preparing another attack? If they did, the mission was finished. She balled her fists and then checked her watch: five hours and twenty-three minutes. On this planet that meant one more sunset, and about half a night. They had to hold out that long.
Turning back to the bonfire, she saw figures moving across the pink-red light. They were waiting. She put her head down, put on her captain's face and strode through the tall grass to meet them.
Nerai was waiting for her at the edge of the camp. Her child, now nearly three, clung to her hip. She was out of uniform, having tanned some of the creatures' hides and turned their shaggy white pelts into a shift and leggings. Her daughter wore similar clothes. "Captain," she said. Something was on her mind. "Have you given any more thought to my proposal?"
"Huntress," Essa said. She would have said more, but Orie approached from by the fire.
"Captain," she said, "we are ready for you."
Essa found the rest of the crew arranged in a semicircle. At one end stood Commandant Razia, head of the detachment of commandos who had come with them. Beside her was Liss. Orie took her place at the other end, leaving the rest of the crew, science officers and technicians, none of them suited to the way the had spent their last three years, scraping their living out of the forest as best they could. Essa surveyed their faces. Razia and Liss both looked weary, but ready. Orie terrified. The rest of them appeared to be somewhere between defeated and broken. None of them met her gaze. Nerai approached with her daughter.
"Captain," she said again. "Before you do this at least consider my offer."
"I have, Huntress," Essa said. She examined her crew again, and then began to speak. "Twenty-three of us landed here three years ago. Sixteen of now stand before me. We have left the bones and ashes of our friends, and of our—" her voice caught "—our beloved here. But I am afraid we shall have to leave a few more behind. Five of you must stay. You have all worked to make our launch as ready to fly as possible, and you have all worked with the hope of returning once more to Thessia. I cannot ask you to sacrifice that hope—"
"Captain," Nerai said again. "I must—"
"I will not ask anyone to volunteer to remain, but in accordance with the law, I will ask you to draw your own fate." Essa produced a bag she had fashioned out of a scrap of tarpaulin. "Inside are metal bearings, each identical, but for their color. Blue lots give you a space on the launch. Red lots will remain. May the goddess smile upon you." She held up the bag, and bid the first crew member come forward. She drew her bearing and returned to her place, the marble sized bit of metal hidden in her hand. "Show us," Essa said. The crew member opened her fist to show a blue bearing. A murmur went through the rest of the crew. Essa watched them counting.
"Captain," Nerai said again. "I must insist."
Essa turned to Nerai. "Your opinion is noted," she said, "But I will not leave you here. Not with a child so young." Nerai shook her head and stormed off. Essa held out the bag once more. The next crew member came forward, took her bearing and returned to her spot. Blue again. Two more times with the bag, two more blues. Only five spots remaining now, one belonged to Essa herself, given that she was the only one who could fly the launch. So far, one from engineering, one from the science deck, Razia and one of the other commandos had drawn seats on the launch. Liss was next. Hers was red. As was the next, for one of the science officers.
Orie had slowly begun crumpling in on herself as the process had dragged on. Two days earlier she'd told the captain the same thing as Nerai, that she would stay, in the hopes of some day being rescued. That was not how things were done, Essa had told her. The choice must be left up to the Goddess.
Essa wondered why she was bothering with the formality, though, except that it was required by asari maritime law. It wasn't, she reasoned, likely she would ever face an inquiry, she thought now, as one crew member drew another red bearing, and her companion yet another—not because she was blameless. Far from it, but because she knew the likelihood of surviving even the next stage of their journey was incredibly unlikely.
Now. There were two bearings left in the bag. One red, one blue. Nerai had drawn a blue bearing for herself and her daughter, and now stood apart from the rest, looking furious. The crew who had drawn red, Essa saw, were not the fittest to survive for an extended period in the wilderness. An engineer, two scientists, and one huntress. They faced long odds.
The last two came forward to either receive their clearance to leave, or their orders to remain behind. Orie and Mennia, the final tech. Orie's hand trembled as it went into the bag, and she spent a good long while feeling each bearing, as though that would tell her which to choose. Essa kept her eyes steadfastly ahead of her, while the steward hesitated, and then finally drew out her lot. Red.
Mennia looked relieved, then as though she were about to be sick. Essa put down the bag and turned to the crew.
"The lots have been drawn," she said. The crew members who had drawn red had all gathered together, a little closer to the fire. "Fate has decided, but the orders are mine to give. If you have drawn a red lot, you will remain here to await rescue. I know that hard years await, and for that I am sorry, but we shall unlock the mystery of these installations and return to find you. That I promise. May the goddess be with you." She took a breath and clasped her hands behind her back. "All other crew are to say your farewells, and muster at the launch in one hour. Fall out."
Essa made her way through the camp. The commandos had foreseen the reality that lay ahead, and spent what time they could fashioning weapons and tools, and rigging a defensive perimeter around the rough shelters, one or two still patched together with old tarpaulins, most made of thatch. The fire was burning well, but fuel to keep it going for any length of time would be hard to sustain. Perhaps with fewer mouths to feed—but then, fewer arms to defend, as well, and only one huntress.
Essa found Orie, who was taking the news especially hard, crouched down at the tree line, holding her stomach. Seeing Essa, she stood, but looked only at the dirt in front of her feet.
"Captain," she said.
"Steward," Essa answered. She searched for something encouraging to say, but found only this: "I hate to leave you here, but safety is no more assured aboard the ship."
Orie was quite for a long time. At last she said, "Thank you. I wanted you to know that I've got family in Tenaris. If you get home before me, will you—" she stopped herself and then tried to go on. "Would you find them and tell them what happened to us? I mean, out here?" She gestured up at the stars, which were now just coming into view beyond the smoke of the bonfire. "Will you tell them for me?"
Essa nodded. She took Orie's hands in hers. Under normal circumstances she never would have allowed herself such familiarity with the crew, but this was an exceptional evening. "Orie," she said. Her voice was gentle, "Show them to me."
Orie nodded and stepped closer to place her forehead against her captain's. In an instant they were somewhere else, a group of asari were seated around a shared hearth, at one time a communal place, in farming communities they were nearly as important the well, and just as busy with activity. No longer strictly necessary, in modern times they remained an important place for gatherings. Looking through Orie's eyes, she saw several bondmates warming themselves at was Orie's mother, dressed in the orange coverall worn by mechanics all over Thessia. She had a gap between her front teeth, and eyes that were an unusual shade of green. She spoke with a lisp. When she laughed, she clapped her hands, and in this particular memory, was dancing with four or five others. And there was Orie and one of her many aunts. She was only a few years old, and dressed in a coverall like her mother's, part of a toy set that came with little wrenches and drills that clipped to a belt. The temple of Athame rose in the background, but no one paid it much attention, even when the bells rang for evening.
It was wonderful, and Essa said so.
"Tell her about me, and all I did out here," Orie said. "She'll be happy to know. I know she will."
Then there was a flash of light, and the memory receded, and Essa and Orie were drifting in the calm, blue dark of their shared minds, a wonderful place to linger, but there simply wasn't time, and Orie knew it. She broke contact a little before Essa did, and the change in state left her feeling ill at ease.
Meanwhile the departing crew had gathered at the bottom of the ramp to the launch. Those who would be left behind, had arranged themselves to watch. Essa approached the crew and studied them, and it was only after having counted them twice that she realize that Nerai wasn't there.
She wheeled around, and looked behind her, only to spot her standing with the others. She had lifted her child up onto her shoulders. Essa checked the time. They would need to be underway in less than fifteen minutes. Nerai had made sure to orchestrate it this way, to avoid a lengthy conversation. All the same, Essa ran to where she was standing.
"You're disobeying a direct order, Huntress."
"I'm not under your chain of command," Nerai said.
"Did Razia order you to remain?"
Nerai shook her head. She gestured at her daughter, and said, "I only take orders from her now." After a moment she added, "Pray come back for us. In the meantime, though, I'll look out for this lot, and you look out for them. Good?"
Essa nodded. She had to go. She and Nerai shook hands, and then separated, one toward camp, one toward the launch.
#
Essa ran through her final preflight checks, while the navigator, who was presently her acting XO, saw to securing the remainder of the passengers. The copilot's viewport had a crack in it that they'd covered with an adhesive mesh that would probably hold once they were in the hard vacuum of space. Probably. Everyone was wearing EVA suits just to be sure, though there weren't enough to go around, so Commandant Razia had decided to forgo hers.
The Nixia's locator beacon was still pinging, good and strong, and was now only sixty-two minutes out. Essa had trained on maneuvers like this hundreds of times in the simulator, and done more than her share in real life. Only in all those cases, she had solid ground beneath her, or just a short distance away. In this case, the escape burn would expending nearly all of their fuel reserves. Not that it mattered. The heat shield was gone anyhow. Either this would work, or it wouldn't. She focused on the switches and dials in front of her. At least she could control them.
And then the last switch was done. She radioed the Nixia as she completed the main engine start sequence. The launch rose from its makeshift cradle. Essa pulled the lever that jettisoned the landing struts, then angled the ship upward. As she went, she rolled the launch onto its back, circling once over the camp at about a thousand meters, before she turned again, over a low mountain range, then passing over a narrow sea, before finally breaking through a dense layer of clouds near the dawn side of the planet. Atmospheric resistance dwindled. The viewport made an odd pop, but if anything there was only a slow leak. It only needed to hold for a little while longer.
The planet dropped away, and the ship came into view. A speck, but much larger on the telescopic eye. Now she could see what looked like figures in the cockpit. The ship was rolled on its back relative to them, and Essa took note of this as she planned her approach.
The launch's tracking beacon made contact with the Nixia again, and everything seemed to be going well, in spite of not receiving answers to the navigator's hails.
"Why aren't they answering?"
"We'll ask them when we see them," Essa said.
The rest of the maneuver went smoothly. In ten minutes they had pulled alongside the ship. Essa did a slow pass of the exterior. The crew's earlier report was true. One of their main fuel cells had ruptured, a small meteoroid impact, by the look of it, that had smashed right through the shielding and burst a hole big enough to crawl through in the upper quadrant of the vessel. It was a miracle that there hadn't been more damage. The rest of the ship looked to be intact. All the lights were working, and the main and secondary airlocks were all in good condition. The flight deck still wasn't responding to hails.
"Their comms seem to be working," the navigator said. "I have tone on all major and backup frequencies. They're just not using them."
"Let's find out what's going on."
Essa coupled the launch to the ship's main airlock, and began powering it down. The passengers unstrapped. Some of them gasped when they were set free of their harness. After three years on solid ground, they had lost their feeling for weightlessness. One of them vomited, while Razia worked the airlock.
Perhaps that was why Essa didn't notice anything amiss until the navigator came to fetch her.
"Captain," you need to come right away.
"What is it?"
The navigator didn't speak, but only took Essa's arm. Essa allowed herself to be dragged out of her restraints and through the airlock. It was then that she noticed the smell.
All long-endurance space vessels have a certain smell. So many bodies, with so little opportunity to wash, the scents of work, of cooking, of digestion, all the other smells associated with being alive, mixed together to produce an odor that often made the uninitiated recoil. Entering the Nixia was different. The pungent stink of life was gone, and in its place was the fungal, odor of death. Essa covered her mouth and nearly vomited. After a moment, in the companionway to the flight deck, her mind somehow took control of her stomach, and forced the urge away. "What happened?" she said.
The navigator only covered her face with her hands, and gestured. As Essa emerged onto the flight deck, she saw first her XO, two navigators, and a comms operator, buckled into their seats. By the look of it, they'd been dead for a long time.
"They're all like this," the navigator said. "The entire crew is dead."
