Chapter 22
A few hours later, Alex called the crew to the bridge, the Martian freighters were less than twenty-four hours out and they had a MCRN Frigate as an escort.
"I guess they don't want to take any chances this time," Holden remarked.
"Well, folks, whatever we're going to do, it best be fast," Alex announced. "Once that frigate gets close, we're not going to outrun it. It's in better condition and has bigger guns."
"Nik," Naomi turned to her in her chair, "you've got an incoming message on a tight beam." She motioned to an empty station.
Nik sat in the chair and keyed the console.
"Nik!" Maggie's worried face filled the screen. "I hope you get this on time. The Martians are looking for you. Yes, you. They stopped and boarded the Eva a few hours ago. You're still listed on the manifest as a passenger. They wouldn't tell us why they were looking for you, though, but they were intense. We told them you didn't make it off Tycho, that we had to leave without you. The captain told them the same thing, but they didn't believe us. They went through every nook and cranny on this freighter before they were certain you weren't on board. I gotta go. I don't know what you did, Niki girl, but be careful!"
The message ended and Nik stared at the screen perplexed.
"What's wrong?" Naomi asked, seeing her look.
"I think you guys need to hear this," she told the crew.
"We can watch it later, Nik," Naomi said. "We've got to figure out what to do about the MCRN first."
"No, trust me, you need to hear this," she insisted and put it on the speaker for everyone on the bridge to hear.
"What the fuck?" Holden asked when it had played. "What did you do?"
"Nothing," she told him. "As far as the system goes, I don't even exist. Or at least I didn't until a few days ago when Maggie got me an ID using my birth record."
"Now is not the time to lie to us," Holden warned her.
"I'm not lying." She thought of the strange death certificates for her parents and the woman that told her to hide. "Look, there's something strange going on and it might not have anything to do with this but…," she hesitated, chewing on her lip.
"Go on," Naomi encouraged her.
"I always thought my parents abandoned me on the station because I was so sick. I was only four at the time. Just after the first time I saw you on the station, you know, that day we stole your food. Maggie, the woman who sent that message, found their death certificates while looking for my files. There were two certificates, just with different dates and causes of death. The first cause of death was torture and having their throats slit. The second said they had been kidnapped by slavers and spaced before the slaver's ship was captured by a MCRN ship."
"Why two death certificates?" Holden asked.
"I don't know, but if you do a search on them, only the second one comes up."
"What does it have to do with the Martians looking for you now?"
"Maybe nothing, but don't you think it's odd that just weeks after I'm back in the system, they are searching ships for me? The only thing that connects me to Mars is my parents. They were Martian scientists, but I don't know what they worked on."
"If they were Martian's," Alex interjected, "they were on the terraforming project. Everyone on Mars in some way or another either works on or supports the project in some way."
"You've been on the station for twenty years, you said?" Holden asked. "Why haven't they come looking for you before?"
"Like I said, I was nothing but a ghost until a few days ago when Maggie got me an ID using my birth record."
"Ok," Naomi said from her chair, "let's go on the assumption that your parents stole something and fled Mars. If they were killed for that, why would they assume you have it?"
Nik held up her hands, "I don't know."
Holden was quiet, contemplating the situation. "Alex, the Belters want to go to Vesta to rendezvous with a ship going to a ring colony. Can you plot a course to take us there that doesn't look like we are going there?"
"In my sleep, Hos."
"Do it."
"Everybody strap in."
"I'll tell the Belters," Naomi volunteered flipping switches on her console.
Alex only took a few moments to lay the course in.
"Okay, folks, this is going to be a rough one. We are going to have to burn hard for a while to do what the captain wants."
"Nik," Naomi's voice said in her ear, "do you want me to put you out now?"
"No, I can take it," she told the woman.
"It's going to hurt."
"I know. But if you guys are going to do this for me, I want to feel it too."
She looked over and met Naomi's eyes.
"Belta lik pahang, Sésata!"
"Belta lik pahang!"
Two hours later, Nik was seriously regretting her bravado. They had been burning in hard spurts with short breaks between the burns. Somehow, the breaks made the burns seem even worse and Nik would have preferred to just keep going and get it over with, but Naomi explained that their bodies needed the short breaks. At the moment, her body felt like it was trapped under a huge weight that made it hard to draw a full breath. The only good thing was that her headache was gone.
"Okay folks, that's it," Alex announced as the pressure disappeared. "We're on the float for the next few days."
With a grunt, Naomi released her harness and pushed away from her chair.
"Nik, can you give me a hand?" she asked.
"Sure," Nik was glad for an excuse to get out of the chair and followed her down the ladder. She was only a little surprised when Naomi led the way to the room she and Holden shared. Ushering Nik in, she closed the door behind them.
"Now," she said, "did you leave anything out of your story?"
"There isn't much more to it," Nik responded, then told her about Lilly-Ann and her disappearance and subsequent death.
"Anything else?"
"No, that's all I know, and I only know that because of the death certificates that Maggie found. Those and this stupid marble are all that I have that connect me to my parents," she held up her wrist and shook it, causing the marble to swing back and forth wildly.
"Huh, I wonder what the hell the Martians think you have," Naomi propelled herself over to Nik's side and absently looked at the marble attached to her wrist. "Pretty. It matches your eyes."
"I think that's why it was given to me. Originally it was a necklace, but the chain broke years ago."
The older woman patted her on the shoulder, "I'll do some research on your parents and get Jim to reach out to someone who owes him a favor or two, but we're going to go silent in a few minutes and stay that way for a while, so it will have to wait for now."
Nik cradled her wrist and rubbed the marble worriedly. She wasn't sure she wanted to find out what her parents were involved with.
Silent running was one of the ways a ship could avoid being tracked. By shutting down all power, ceasing all transmissions, and limiting heat generation, the Roci was rendered practically invisible to all by the naked eye. Of course, if they were already being tracked before they went quiet, their course could be extrapolated with a small margin of error. Hopefully, the MRCN frigate hadn't been tracking them, but on the highly probable chance that it had been, Alex had a trick up his sleeve.
With the temperatures on board dropping close to freezing, Nik and the Belters took to their quarters and stay bundled up in their bunks, or wardrobe in Nik's case. She still wasn't using the bed in her room. On the odd occasion that she emerged for food, she usually found the galley empty.
When she went for food on the second day, Amos was standing near the table eating with quiet determination.
Grabbing a bulb of coffee and a pouch of red kibble, she sat opposite him at the table wrapping her feet around the post of the bench to hold herself in place.
"Anything good?" she asked just to break the silence.
"Just some leftover lasagna that Alex made. It sucks cold but it's better than that stuff," he gestured at her pouch.
"What? Red kibble? This stuff is the best." She popped a handful into her mouth and chewed.
"Then you've never had real food."
She frowned, "I have. Remember those boxes of combat rations in Maggie's room? We ate them for over a month. My favorite was curried soy protein, but it still wasn't as good as this," she shook the pouch at him.
"Must not have been too good, then," he grunted.
She just grinned and continued eating her kibble. This time the silence that stretched out between them wasn't uncomfortable. When Amos finished his food, he dropped the empty container into the recycling chute.
"You bored?" he asked.
Nik looked up at him, "yes."
"Want to go outside and help me?"
"Aren't we supposed to be running silent?" she asked.
"Yep, and this will help keep us that way."
Curious, she dropped the rest of her kibble down the chute with her empty bulb and followed him out of the galley.
"You stay here with this one and wait for Naomi to give you directions. I'll go strap this one down by the comm array," Amos told her as he stood up from strapping an oxygen pack to the hull. "I'll be where I can see you. If you get into trouble call me." He tapped the side of his helmet.
She nodded with her fist, "got it."
Amos left her by the pack and carefully walked to his destination, leaving her to her thoughts. She was starting to get used to the way he spoke in brief, precise clips and how his demeaner changed depending on who was around. She had not decided if she liked or even trusted him yet, but she was more at ease with him than she had been. He seemed to care about her safety, but she was sure if it came down to choosing between one of the others on the Roci's crew and her, she would be on the losing side. That's just how it worked out here, though. Your crewmates were your family and you protected your family. She wasn't their family, but she wondered what it would be like.
"Nik?" Naomi interrupted her thoughts.
"Go ahead."
"I need you to position the nozzle 32.45 degrees up from the hull and 72.1 degrees from the center line of the ship while facing the thrusters."
"Got it. Give me a moment," she responded.
Using a laser protractor, she positioned the nozzle as directed. After verifying the angles again, she told Naomi, "kay, 32.45 degrees up and 72.1 degrees from the center line. Ready."
"Make sure you're clipped to something in case your boots fail," Naomi warned.
"Ya, I'm good."
"Get ready in three, two, one, activate."
Nik triggered the pack, directing the discharge of air into space and waited for the signal to turn it off. As the Roci shifted course slightly, she could feel the change in velocity pushing against her and was glad she was clipped to one of the pad-eyes embedded in the hull.
"Okay, turn it off in three, two, one, and off."
"Confirmed, it's off."
"Good job, Nik. Stay there. We'll need one more burst from you in a few minutes."
The concept was simple, the force of the packs would change the Roci's trajectory just enough that the MRCN ship couldn't predict its true course. The original course Alex had plotted was to Ganymede, but their altered course would take them near Vesta. They would have to use their thrusters once they got close, but until then, nobody would know where they were heading.
Naomi kept the comm open for Nik to listen to her instructions to Amos. His discharge lasted almost twice as long as hers, all but exhausting the pack. As he began dismantling his set-up, Naomi gave Nik her next set of angles. He waited until her second discharge was over before he unclipped his tether and headed over to her.
"Well, I guess our excitement for the day is over," she smiled as he approached even though he couldn't see her face.
"Give it a couple days, then it will be safe to use more power. There are still some repairs needed, if you want something to do."
"Ya, by then I'll need something to do to keep me from losing my mind," she eagerly answered.
"Don't get too excited. One of them is on the bio-waste recycling system."
She made a face, but answered, "anything is better than nothing."
"You might change your mind once we get started and you're up to your neck in shit and piss."
Nik was still smiling when they reached the airlock hatch.
"Hang on, guys, we got incoming!"
Amos yanked her into the airlock and slapped the close switch.
"We're inside. What is it?" Amos barked over the comm link.
Before Alex could answer, the ship jerked sideways and the two of them flew across the air lock to slam into the inner hull. Nik was between Amos and the wall and bore the brunt of the impact, knocking the breath out of her.
"What the hell was that?" Amos demanded over the link.
"Just a stray baby asteroid. It struck us a glancing blow," Alex replied. "Ya'll okay?"
"Yeah, I guess." He paused, "you okay, Kitten?"
"Ya," she croaked, still trying to take a breath. "Try not to…hit…the mother…Alex."
"Hey!" he protested. "It hit us, not the other way around."
She gave a pained laugh as she pushed away from the wall, then stopped when she saw her bracelet. "God damnit."
"You hurt?" Amos turned her around towards him, his eyes skimming over her body searching for injuries.
"Na," she frowned and held up her wrist, "just cracked my marble."
The corner of Amos' lips twitched, and she burst out laughing at what she had said.
"Good thing the one on your shoulders is harder," he finally smiled.
"Ya, there're worse things I could have cracked, I guess."
They were still smiling as they left the airlock.