Voyage of the Valkyrie by Robert Horseman

Author:Robert Horseman [Horseman, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Visual Systems Workshop
Published: 2015-03-31T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13, Platform 2

“Cale, while I get this tin can moving, please see if you can find some food and water, and a couple of stims would be great. I’m running on vapors. Oh, and figure out what that creep used for head facilities.”

“Right, I’m on it.” Cale got up from his chair and went into the inner compartments. She could hear him pulling open cabinets and occasional exclamations as he found interesting items. Meanwhile she brought up navigation control, and saw that Rae had included a familiar software upgrade for that system as well. She’d have to thank the AI for it later, assuming they got through the next day alive.

The propulsion & navigation diagnostics showed all systems in the green, except for one yellow overdue maintenance light, which she ignored. At least it wasn’t red. She sat back in her seat and considered their next move. If they went straight to the Valkyrie, the enemy might call in reinforcements from the other platform and outflank them. If they took out the other platform first, then the enemy in their big ship would know they were coming. Unless…”

She turned and considered the drone, which still had a secondary arm plugged into the rear of the console. “Rae, did you record any visuals or audio of this station’s former crew member?”

“I have a small audio sample. I went into sleep mode on your capture as ordered, so I did not record any visuals.”

“If I make an audio transmission, can you alter my voice to sound like his?”

“Yes, however my local processing capability is limited. There would be a three second transmission delay while I reprocess your speech due to differences in your speech pattern and vocal frequency.”

That wasn’t going to work. Even a one second delay might be suspicious. Cale returned from the inside compartments, his hands full of small packages. “The guy ate junk. It’s all prepackaged dehydrated, de-tastified fiber. It’ll keep us going for a while, but I’d hate to live on the stuff. There’s plenty of drinking water though. They installed a distiller that condenses moisture out of the air recycler. As far as bathroom facilities, there are none. From the stench in one of the compartments, I gather he was using a bucket and dumping the waste into a portable recycler. It’s unpleasant but we won’t be here long anyway.” He cocked an eyebrow. “Right?”

“Only as long as necessary. Hand me a couple of the food-like items. Did you find any stims?”

“Yes.” He tossed over a few food packets and a stim. “The stims are about a year past expiration, but should still have some effect.”

She bit into the food bar, and instantly regretted it. Chewing turned it into a tasteless paste, and she struggled to swallow. Cale handed her a water bottle, and she drank in great gulps. She hadn’t realized how thirsty she had been.

She peeled off the stim’s liner and taped it to her cheek, since the suit left little skin exposed. Her cheek was instantly itchy, so she knew it was working.

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