"Quietly now," Fitzsimmons breathed over the combat channel. "Show me what's inside." Deckard spidered up to the forward window of the shuttle and paused just out of sight of anyone inside. Tugging one of his shoulder cameras free, the marine eased the filament up to the edge of the window. The sergeant, watching the spyeye view on a tiny, postage-stamp sized popup inside his helmet, made a scooting motion with his hand. "Just a hair more…"
Then he could see inside the cluttered, dirty cockpit of the shuttle, and – through the pressure door into the main cabin – two people sitting on facing piles of bedding. As he watched, the man tossed a playing card onto a pile between himself and the woman. Moisture was dripping from the walls of the shuttle, and the sergeant made a face. Mold? They're certainly alive. Not disintegrated at all…
Taking a breath, Fitzsimmons dialed up the volume on his comm.
"…the ship is entirely safe," Gretchen said, again, her voice rising slightly. "We've had men aboard for two hours and no one has been affected, there are waste gases loose in the boat bay, and they have not been destroyed -"
Hadeishi, his patience fraying – though only the sergeant or one of the crew would have been able to tell – interrupted. "Doctor Anderssen, I will not put my men, or my ship, at risk. Until we know exactly what happened and why, I will not put another man or woman aboard the Palenque."
"Ah, sir? Hadeishi-san?" Fitzsimmons made a face in the privacy of his suit. Luckily, the cameras only pointed forward, not at his grinning mug. "Chu-sa?"
"Hai, Gunso?"
"There are at least two people alive inside the shuttle, sir. They've been there quite awhile. Shall I go aboard and see what they know?"
"No," Hadeishi said, a slight edge in his voice. "If the contaminant is still loose on the Palenque, you'll only place them in danger. Hook up your exterior comm to the shuttle's data port and talk to them that way."
One of the other channels carried a muffled voice, and Fitzsimmons realized Anderssen-tzin's voice channel had been muted from the command deck.
"Aye, aye, sir." Fitzsimmons signaled to Deckard, then took two long, bounding steps to reach the shuttle's airlock. The corporal walked sideways down the hull to meet him, spooling up the monofil as he went. "Time for first contact, Corporal. Undog the comm port cover, would you?"
"We don't really know what happened. They just fell over, you know, and we couldn't raise anyone on the ship-to-ship comm channel."
Gretchen suppressed a sigh, staring at two grimy faces framed by the shuttle's v-cam. On her left, security team crewman Carlos Fuentes' bearded visage stared out at her with sick desperation. Beside him, nose screwed up in a grimace, her entire body turned away from Fuentes, crewwoman Delores Flores seemed equally despondent.
"Tell me what you saw," Gretchen said, again. "From the beginning."
"Well, ah…" Carlos groped for the proper words.
"Shut up, idiot," Delores said, pushing him out of the field of view. "I'll tell you, ma'am. We've been having problems with the shuttle engines since we arrived," the crewwoman began. "After five or six trips down to the base camp, they started showing warning lights in the afterburner and air intake ducts. Finally, shuttle two refused to power up groundside – claimed the engine would overheat. So we took number one down to base camp and pulled the entire engine assembly out of number two." She jerked her thumb over one shoulder. Something large and bulky, wrapped with shockfoam and cables, filled most of the cargo space on the shuttle.
"We brought up Doc Clarkson at the same time – he was in a big hurry! And Doctor McCue – she wasn't in such a hurry. They went upstairs, but we were working down here to prep this bastard to unload."
"Did anyone else ride up with you? Did you close the airlock after Clarkson and McCue left the shuttle?" Gretchen was chewing on the stub end of a pointing stylus.
"Always!" Delores nodded sharply, waving her hand off to one side. "Standard procedure. The bay doors are airtight, but the boat bay is considered an unsecured environment. You lock in and out of the bay, or the shuttles when they're aboard. And it was just those two. No one else wanted to ride up with them, not when they were in such a mood!"
"When did you notice something was wrong on the ship?"
"An alarm went off shipside," Delores said. "We heard the horn go off and I ran into the cockpit. Carlos -" The crewwoman's lip twisted slightly "- called the bridge. We heard some noise, some shouting for maybe thirty seconds, and then nothing." She pointed off toward the front of the shuttle. "Then the lock cycled and engineer PГўtecatl and two others ran into the bay. I called on the comm, and she said something was attacking the ship. Then she made sort of a choking noise, we saw a hot glow inside their helmets – and all three of them fell over."
"And then?" Gretchen frowned at the ragged plastic end of her stylus.
"They didn't move. We couldn't get anyone on the ship-to-ship channel." Delores shrugged. "The bay doors were closed, and we couldn't get them open by remote. We didn't dare go outside, not with three people dead in suits right in front of our eyes. With the shuttle parked inside the bay, we couldn't even raise groundside on the comm. So we've been waiting for weeks, hoping something would happen. Something good, I mean." She ventured a smile. "Can we get out of this tin can now and get a shower?"
"You can have a bath when we get you out," Gretchen promised with a smile. "But right now we have to figure out how to get you out of there safely. I'll call you back in a moment."
She shut down the channel, then turned to face Hadeishi. The captain and Lieutenant Kosho were talking, heads close together, at the exec's display board. "Captain Hadeishi?"
"Yes, Anderssen-tzin?" He seemed tense, and she knew he was bracing for another argument about the quarantine.
"I would like to transfer my crew and supplies – and the loan of a fuel cell, if you will – to the Palenque."
For a moment, Hadeishi said nothing, staring at her with narrowed eyes. At his side, the lieutenant allowed herself the ghost of a smile. Then the captain visibly shook himself and nodded.
"You're sure of your analysis? Sure enough to risk yourself and your team?"
"Yes," Gretchen said in a firm voice. Oh lord, I hope so! But we can't just sit here for weeks. Every day burns away at our nonexistent budget and our tiny little bonuses.
"Very well." Hadeishi glanced at his exec, who had stepped down to her own board, attention already focused on her lading schedules, thin rose-colored lips moving silently. "Kosho-sana, we will leave Sergeant Fitzsimmons and Corporal Deckard aboard as a, ah, loan to Anderssen-tzin and her group. For the moment. After the quarantine period has passed, we will want them back." The captain raised an eyebrow at Gretchen, who smiled in relief.
"Thank you," she said, making a heartfelt bow.
"Please don't damage my crewmen," Hadeishi responded on his private channel. "Good luck."
"There is one more thing…" Gretchen felt her stomach clench, knowing she was probably overstepping the bounds of hospitality. "If you could loan us an engineer's mate, I think we could get the power plant on the Palenque working again."
Hadeishi frowned. Gretchen kept her face impassive. The captain looked sideways, listening. He frowned again and said something into his throat mike. While Anderssen watched, the captain argued momentarily with someone, then gave up.