The Ballad of Bad Jack by Anthony Ryan

Author:Anthony Ryan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Anthony Ryan
Published: 2014-12-09T11:05:40+00:00

The war had left me well educated in finding inventive ways to blow stuff up and the colonel’s refresher course had added some new wrinkles, but the destructive potential offered by the Malthus II’s back-up power source was of a different order. This was no home-made plastique or hyrdogen-peroxide taped to a Fed Sec guard post, this was a fission reactor with a potential yield of five kilotons. Fusion had supplanted fission in the vast majority of orbitals and interplanetary ships well over a decade ago, but some deep-belt vessels still retained uranium reactors for back-up and auxiliary power in the event deuterium stocks ran low. It was aged but near-perfect technology, the flaws of the old twentieth century reactors designed out long ago and augmented by an extensive array of state-of-the-art safety protocols. Even with my unrestricted access to the ship’s systems, I was obliged to spend several hours circumventing or deactivating a myriad of software and hardware designed to prevent me doing this very thing.

“Why don’t you just use the nuke you attached to the Dead Reckoning?” Markov was framed in the doorway, limbs spread to clutch at the edges, a pale four-legged spider regarding me with a cocked head.

“Not enough bang,” I replied, guiding the bot with the new ingredient inside the spherical reactor core and uploading a command to its memory. When the time came, it would simply open the container.

“Then our target must be sizable,” Markov said.

“Quite.” I closed up the core and put the reactor in stand-by mode, ready for a rapid power-up.

“And well defended,” he persisted.

“I expect so.”

“We’re not going to survive this mission, are we?”

“I thought Belters were all about accepting the destiny offered by the void.”

“My exile was not accidental. I have issues with blind acceptance of fate.”

“Well, now you have a chance to reconnect with your faith. Good luck with that.”

He tensed in the doorway, muscles knotting on his spindly limbs, face flushed red with anger. “I’ll have no part in this. Whatever kamikaze mission you’re on, count me out.”

“Then find a corner to hide in and stay out of my way.”

“There are working lifeboats aboard. I request permission to leave.”

“No. You’re a wanted felon with a trial and a prison term waiting. Anyway, a Fed Sec security sweep might pick up your beacon.”

“The chances of that are minimal…”

“Not minimal enough. And don’t forget what remains of the defensive net is now under my control, so any unauthorised excursions are going to be very short.”

His tension went up a notch making my hands itch for a weapon. I had no confidence in the outcome of a straight-up fight with a Belter in his native environment, the control I had over this ship was my only real protection. I just had to hope his rationality outweighed his fear.

Markov’s long face twitched and he gave a final impotent snarl before twisting about and propelling along the tubeway with his usual fluency. I sighed, watching him go and knowing I’d grown too soft for this kind of work.

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