Starhawk Read Free Page A

really want to do that?” Priscilla was thinking about the shape the
Forscher
’s captain and passengers would be in after nine years.
    He straightened and looked down at her. “There’s a code, Priscilla. We owe it to them.”
    â€œOkay.”
    â€œWe don’t leave people adrift out here if we can help it. It doesn’t matter what the book says. We go over to the
Forscher
and take a look at the situation.”
    Â * * * 
    WHEN THEY ARRIVED in the vicinity of the radio source, they did not find the ship. What they saw instead was a lander. It was a Voltar II, a later model of which rested inside the
Copperhead
’s own launch bay. “I wonder what happened?” asked Priscilla.
    Jake shrugged and looked at the scattered stars on the display. “It explains why they used a radio.”
    â€œThey had to abandon ship.” The lander didn’t have a hypercomm.
    It looked undamaged. Its registry number, VC112, brightened when the
Copperhead
’s navigation lights fell on it. Its ports were dark although there was still enough power to cause a flicker in the fore and aft warning lamps as they drew near. Priscilla turned her forward lights on the vehicle.
    The pilot’s seat was occupied.
    Jake climbed out of his harness and opened the storage bin. He took out a set of air tanks, the Flickinger gear, and a jet pack. Then he looked at her.
    She had an obligation to go with him. It shouldn’t have been a problem. She’d done EVAs in training. But she wasn’t excited about what they were going to find in the shuttle’s cabin. “I’m coming,” she said.
    Â * * * 
    FLICKINGER FIELDS HAD long since replaced the cumbersome pressure suits. The generator provided an electronic shield against the vacuum. A passerby, had there been one, would have seen nothing like the astronauts of an earlier era. Rather, there were only two people wearing blue-and-silver uniforms.
    They crossed to the shuttle and looked in through the ports. Only one body was visible. It was in the pilot’s seat. It appeared in much better condition than Priscilla would have expected after nine years. “The environment,” Jake explained. “In a case like this, you don’t get all the microbes and whatever else is involved in decomposition. A corpse is more likely to look a bit mummified.”
    He opened the hatch, climbed into the air lock, and made room for her. She squeezed in beside him. She noticed he’d brought a laser. “Just in case,” he said. “You’re going aboard a vehicle that has very little power. You wouldn’t want to get trapped in the air lock.” He touched the control pad, and the outer hatch closed. Next, it should have begun to fill with air. But nothing happened.
    â€œSee what I mean?” He used the laser to cut a hole in the inner hatch. There was air pressure inside, and it quickly equalized. Then the hatch opened, and they floated into the cabin.
    They turned on their wrist lamps. Jake went up front. Priscilla sniffed the air, told herself it was no problem, and joined him. She recognized the body immediately.
    â€œSimmons,” they said simultaneously.
    Priscilla stared. Somehow, even now, he was sprawled beneath the restraints in that easy charge-the-hill manner she knew so well. Good-bye, Dave, she thought. Growing up, she’d loved the guy. “What do you think happened?”
    â€œWe’ll have to wait for somebody to find the
Forscher
to be sure,” he said. “But whatever the breakdown was, it probably killed Kobayashi and Trelawney.” Fudoki Kobayashi had been the pilot. Jake shook his head. “Poor son of a bitch. Die out here, like this.”
    â€œI’m surprised he didn’t end it,” said Priscilla. “He could have walked out of the air lock.”
    â€œI suspect he kept hoping somebody would come. He’d sent out a distress