Halman felt the breath rush out of him as if he had been gut-punched. He had half expected the shuttle to be out there somewhere — after all, it had been his idea to route a fair portion of their precious power into the hangar. But this? Eli had it? Surely not. . . how long had it been out there? How long had his friend deceived him? Halman himself was a fairly simple creature, and other people’s deviousness often took him by surprise.
‘Hang on. . .’ said Lina. ‘I’m coming in. . .’
‘Lina–’ began Liu, but Halman shoved him on the shoulder, forestalling any further objections about her flightpath or velocity.
‘Just shut up and let her land, okay?’ he suggested, but not unkindly. Liu stepped back, his smile faltering for the first time that day.
Lina’s Kay rose to within twenty metres of the glasspex floor, rolling gracefully to present its wheels to the hangar’s ramp. The two watchers held their breath without realising it. The ship loomed large and then passed directly beneath them. Halman stood tensely as it disappeared from the floor-screen and came into view through the window that overlooked the flight deck. The ship coasted into the hangar, still firing retros at full blast, filling the space with vapour, and touched down.
Liu was at the terminal, working the controls, both hands flying over the panel with the unconscious ease of long use. The ramp shuddered, sending a tremor through the superstructure of the station, vibrating the glasspex floor of the control room, and began to close. Lina’s ship had decelerated almost to walking speed, bouncing gently on its suspension. It coasted past the central desk and the dead-lifter, arriving at its usual space and turning smoothly in a half-circle. Halman felt an incredible, cooling wave of relief wash over him. At least one of his endangered and diminishing crew had returned intact.
There was a rushing sound from behind the wall of the control room as the air pumps spun up and began to flood the hangar again. Lina’s Kay came to a final rest and the landing lights went off almost at once. A throbbing blue strobe filled the hangar as soon as she opened the hatch, indicating to the ground crew that there were live, unsuited personnel on the deck. She swung herself out, using the Kay’s tool arms as handholds, and climbed down. She looked up at Halman, who stood at the window watching her, and waved. He raised one hand in return, attempting to smile, and just about managing a grimace. Lina’s blonde hair was a matted tangle, even more so than usual. Her head, face and upper body were virtually covered in what looked like blood. She came towards the hangar door at a brisk walk, one hand held to the small of her back.
‘Open it up!’ called Halman to Liu.
The hangar door began to rise, albeit it with its customary slowness, as soon as Lina got to it. She waited impatiently, fingers drumming on one thigh, until it was high enough to duck under. Twenty seconds later there was a knock at the control room’s door. Liu hit the pad to open it and Lina walked in, slightly bent over and obviously in pain.
‘Lina!’ Halman cried, seizing her and hugging her briefly but tightly, forgetting that she was clearly injured. ‘You dumb shit!’ Her face was startled and uncomprehending as she stepped back. ‘What the hell were you doing out there?’
‘Glad you made it back, Li,’ said Liu from his seat at the control desk. He was, of course, smiling. ‘But you’re hurt.’
Lina ran a hand through her hair, then looked at the blood on it as if she hadn’t seen it before. ‘Yeah,’ she said flatly. ‘I guess I am.’
‘Liu — get Hobbes,’ ordered Halman, but Lina waved his suggestion away.
‘No, it’s — I’m fine,’ she said. ‘I’m fine. I’ll go see him later, okay?’
‘Okay,’ agreed Halman reluctantly. ‘Just tell me what’s going on.’
‘He — Eli — he tried to attack Marco,’ she began shakily. ‘Rocko saved his life — both our lives, I guess. Then he fled — Eli, that is — and I guess I just kinda followed. I don’t know what I was thinking to be honest.’ She looked as if she may be about to cry, thought Halman. He didn’t blame her really, but he still hoped that it wouldn’t happen.
‘Hey,’ he said. ‘It’s okay.’ He struggled for something more comforting than this that he could add. After a second or two, he came up with: ‘Marco’s all right. I think he’s still with Rocko.’
‘Yeah,’ Lina sighed. ‘Good. That’s good.’ She took a deep breath in and seemed to pull herself together. ‘Eli killed Jayce and Tamzin. And he killed Sal, too. That’s how I knew about him. He started spouting some weird shit when I went to medical to visit him. About how he wasn’t done yet. I knew something was up. I came down here and inspected his ship.’ She looked from Halman to Liu, making sure that they were following her. ‘There was an impact mark on his Kay.’ Liu started to interject, but she held up a finger to stall him. ‘Not from a belt object,’ she explained. ‘But from hitting another ship. I’ve been here long enough to know what a belt-impact usually looks like. You can check it for yourselves, of course. But I know I’m right. That last cry of hers — she called his name — it wasn’t a cry for help. It was a cry of shock as he nudged her into the path of an asteroid. He must have sabotaged K6-8’s safety systems, too.’ She shook her head, crestfallen. ‘When I got back to medical he was gone.’
‘Surely he didn’t actually expect to be able to fly away, though?’ said Halman. ‘As far as he was aware, the power was off here, right?’
‘It was almost as if he knew. At my place, it was like a lightbulb went on above his head. Maybe he overheard someone talking about it,’ Lina said uncertainly. ‘And he just ran off. I followed him here. He knocked me out–’ she indicated the area on her head where the blood seemed to be the most concentrated, ‘–then left me to die in the vacuum. I came to just in time and followed him. I almost hit the ISL with a mass-driver bolt,’ she added disbelievingly. ‘I almost hit it.’
‘And where is our shuttle? Is he fucking living in it out there?’ asked Halman.
‘It’s weirder than that,’ said Lina. She looked a little unsteady on her feet and Halman considered forcing her to see Hobbes immediately after all. But in truth, he wanted to hear this first. He took her by the elbow and led her instead to the office chair that he himself had vacated, where she plonked herself down exhaustedly. ‘It looks like he’s attached it to some asteroid — one of the largest I’ve ever seen out there. As for why, I couldn’t begin to guess.’
‘Right,’ said Halman, his brows descending and one hand going to his stubbled chin. He could feel the cogs beginning to turn inside his head. They felt a little rusty to be honest. ‘Anything else you can tell us?’
‘No,’ she said after a pause. ‘I don’t think so.’ But her face looked distant and wondering.
‘You’re sure?’ Halman pushed.
‘Yeah,’ said Lina, looking down at her feet. Blood had dripped onto her boots, staining them.
‘So what’s all this bullshit about dragons?’ asked Halman. Ella had said something about dragons, hadn’t she? Dragons and emissaries and crazy mining-team bosses and metal pipes and scalpel-murders. Halman’s knees felt suddenly weak. His head was buzzing, as if it was filled with flies — lots of activity but no sort of order.
‘Dan. . .’ said Lina, still not looking at him. ‘I don’t know what’s going on. But Eli has gone properly insane.’
‘Mmm,’ grunted Halman. He looked up at Liu, who was listening politely from his seat, unsure as to whether he was still involved in this or not. ‘Liu — I’m going to send two people up here — one to replace you, and one as a runner. If anything else comes out of that belt, or even so much as fucking stirs, I want that runner to make for my office as fast as their little legs will carry them. You’re with me, okay?’ Liu nodded. ‘Lina — I want yourself and one other representative of the mining crew — Ilse Reno, I suppose — to report to my office. But first, I want you all-cleared by Hobbes. If he wants to keep you in, you stay. And yes, that is an order. I’m going to talk to maintenance, too. And Ella. . . Where the hell is Ella, actually? She’d better bloody get me my sec-team soon!’