Blueshift by Joshua Dalzelle

Author:Joshua Dalzelle [Dalzelle, Joshua]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-03-18T07:00:00+00:00

"That might slow them down," Markus said. "Good thinking using the orbital data we took before the crash."

"Looking at the access logs, I can say with certainty that this wasn't the approach they used," Miriam said. "We might have an advantage."

"We're falling further behind, though," Markus sighed. "It's too late to try and head out today. We'll let Jelly rest up one more night, prep our gear, and then head out at first light."

At Miriam's suggestion, they'd booted the servers long enough to access the detailed orbital data Daedalus had collected of Earth before they'd been attacked by ancient military ordnance. It only took her a few moments to identify the valley where they'd landed and then, using the command section's much better com suite, had pinpointed where the lander had touched down. It was then a matter of plotting a detailed route that avoided a host of natural obstacles and loading it onto another tablet. After that they could try to navigate by landmarks; if they set Daedalus as their starting point in the morning and recognized the markers on the map, it should keep them well on course.

After that, and still assuming that Nigel was using his handheld radio to track the lander's beacon, Markus had used his command codes to access the other ship and shut the transmitter down. He also changed the access codes for the main hatches before downloading another full status report and shutting down Daedalus's radio. He wanted to conserve power for the next burst transmission to Mars.

"It looks like Kepler is still fully powered and functional," Markus said. He was reading off the eleven-page status report while Miriam worked on the text he'd read for the next transmission to Mars. "The power system on that ship is far more robust than the emergency cells we have on—oh! Oh, shit! I must not have scrolled down far enough the last time I looked at this. Damn! This isn't good."

"What?"

"According to Kepler's computer, only one of the ascension pods is fully functional. Maybe two since one of them isn't reading as down, it just isn't polling at all." Markus leaned back and ran a hand through his thinning hair, blowing out a breath. "I don't know how, but Nigel must have gotten a hold of this report. That's why they bolted: Only four people are making it off this planet, and that's a best case scenario. It may be only two."

"How could he have accessed it? Did you log into a terminal with your command codes and leave it?"

"I don't think so, but how else would he have discovered this?" Markus asked. "Maybe the crash reset some of the authorizations … half our avionics burned up on reentry. He must've found a work-around."

"No sense in worrying about that now." Miriam dismissed the issue with a wave. "Here's what I think the next transmission to Mars should be … I'm trying to downplay the fact that we're now two groups and that we've already resorted to violence.

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