Breaking strain by Paul Preuss

Author:Paul Preuss [Preuss, Paul]
Format: epub
Tags: Read, Scifi, Paul Preuss
ISBN: 9780380753444
Publisher: Avon Books
Published: 1987-11-02T05:00:00+00:00

XIV

They left the howling newspack outside the security sector. “I’ve never seen them like this,” Proboda muttered. “You’d think they’d never had a chance to report a real story before.” Sparta had no experience with the media. She’d thought she could use the standard techniques of command and control, the voice and personality tricks, and they did work up to a point, but she had underestimated the mob’s ability to tear at her concentration, to sour her internal functions. “Viktor, excuse me–I’ve got to have a moment.” She paused in a corner of the empty passage, closing her eyes, floating in midair, willing the tension in her neck and shoulders to dissolve. Her mind emptied itself of conscious thought.

Proboda eyed her curiously, hoping no one would come along and he would have to explain. The formidable young Inspector Troy was suddenly vulnerable, her eyes closed and her head pitched forward, floating with her hands up like a small animal’s paws; he could see the down on the back of her slender white neck, bared where her straight blond hair had fallen clear.

Seconds later, Sparta allowed her eyes to open fully. “Viktor, I need a spacesuit. I’m a size five and a half,” she said, and just like that her expression was firm again.

“I’ll see what I can find in the lockers.”

“And we’ll need some tools. Limpet clamps and suction cups. Grip struts. Inertial wrench with a full set of heads and bits. Bags and tape and stuff.”

“That’s all in a grade ten mechanic’s kit. Anything special?”

“No. I’ll meet you at the lock.”

She moved forward, toward the Star Queen docking tube, and Proboda went off to the tool shed. Two patrollers were on duty beside the entrance to the tube, wearing blue spacesuits with helmets on, although unlatched. They were armed with stunguns–air rifles using rubber bullets that were capable of severely injuring a human, even one in a spacesuit, although not likely to puncture crucial space station systems. Metal cartridges and the weapons that fired them were barred on Port Hesperus.

Through the double glass windows behind the guards the enormous bulk of Star Queen almost filled the docking bay. Star Queen was of average size as freighters go, but she was much larger than the tenders, launches, and shuttles that normally docked inside Port Hesperus.

“Has anyone been here since McNeil was taken off the ship?” Sparta asked the guards.

They glanced at each other and shook their heads. “No, Inspector.” “No one, Inspector.” They betrayed it in their voices and they smelled of it: they were lying.

“Good,” she said. “I want you to report to me or Inspector Proboda if anyone attempts to get past you. Anyone at all, even someone from our office. Understood?”

“Right, Inspector.”

“Certainly, Inspector. You bet.” Sparta went into the boarding tube. The red plastic seal was still in place over the rim of the hatch. She laid her hand over it and leaned close to it.

The plastic seal was little more than it seemed, an adhesive patch.

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