Chapter 25

When Kat activated the release mechanism on the escape pod, Helios could feel the mechanical locks release though the hull of the little craft. The sudden weightlessness came as a surprise, though he should have realized it would happen. The pod had been included in the artificial gravity field generated by the ships engines. When it was disconnected from the parent ship, the field would no longer have a way to flow through the hull of the pod and it would become dependent on its own, internal systems for everything from that point forward.

Helios floated towards the controls and the single acceleration couch mounted there. The rest of the couches lined the rear walls of the pod. There wasn't much room for the six people who were supposed to be inhabiting an emergency pod, in fact you could not have all six standing at the same time. An extended period in a pod this small would be a trying experience, even if it wasn't part of an emergency.

For a single person, it wasn't that bad. It was about the size of a commuter cube, those short-stay closets you could rent at spaceports when you had to lay-over and catch a connecting ship. The rear walls of the pod, above the acceleration couches, was lined with cubby holes filled with pouches and packs of every shape and size. Each cubby was closed off with a small net that attached to hooks on each side. They contained rations, water packs, first aid, emergency air bottles, exposure suits and a hundred other items that could save your life if you were stranded in space.

The actual escape pod, on the outside, was about the size of a small house. The shell contained multiple layers of shielding to protect the occupants against the vacuum of space and the hazards that might surround it if, for example, their ship had just blown up. The shields were proof against micrometeorites and even against shrapnel, but would not stop a military grade weapon projectile.

The control area was compact, slotted into a space as wide as three acceleration couches, and contained very simple controls for navigation and communication. Large type instructions were engraved into the control surfaces along with little pictograms in case the occupants could not read Standard. There was a vidscreen that was larger than the pod actually needed, but could be used to show entertainment vids to keep the occupants busy while they waited.

Helios could survive in here, with the supplies on hand, for about six months on standard rations, or up to eight or nine months if he started conserving right away. Since he had no plans to be out here even that long, he didn't bother to try and calculate. If he wasn't picked up in a couple of weeks, he wasn't going to be rescued at all. That didn't even take into consideration the danger that Kat would be in, once the ExTran's identified her.

He was wracked with guilt about leaving her there to face them alone. He knew that it was the responsible thing to do, that he had done it for the right reasons and that she had pushed him to go, but it didn't help ease his mind. He was here and she was there and it was too late to do anything about it.

His mind kept drifting to Pan. He and Pan had been contemporaries, and had even shared a few classes at the Citadel when they were in training. They had never been friends, exactly, but since there were so few Agents around at any time, they had ended up spending time together. He liked the man, for the most part, and he was dreading having to explain to Pan how he had escaped and left Pan's fiancé to face the ExTrans alone.

Helios sat in the control chair and worked to memorize the location of each control. There was not a lot he could do until the ExTrans left and even after they did, he couldn't risk contacting the ship again. If they left men aboard her, he would be just sticking his neck under the blade.

The rudimentary drive wouldn't hit anywhere near the speeds needed to cross the vast distances between systems, but it would be enough to get him within hailing distance to Calysto. They had been pulled out of hyper about 0100, so they should be a little over halfway already. He couldn't be sure, of course, until he could bring the systems back online and check the astrogation computer, but it gave him something to do.

He waited for hours, alternating between reading the emergency manual and pacing around the cabin, though pacing might not be the right term when he could only go a couple of steps before turning. He had enabled the internal power, but only just enough for the Comm and the external video feeds. It was chancy, but since he was still close to the passenger liner, the chance of anyone sensing his presence, or even distinguishing his tiny spark from the greater whole of the giant ship, was minimal.

He was seated at the controls again, leafing through the emergency procedures manual for the fourth or fifth time, when motion in the external vid feed caught his eye. He could see one of the shuttles moving away from the ship, probably heading back to its own berth. He watched until it was almost too far away to see with the naked eye, and then fully activated the camera system. Zooming in, he watched as the shuttle slowed, and then stopped, about three quarters of the way between the passenger liner and the ex-Military ship that was its point of origin.

He was puzzling over the odd behavior when the whole universe seemed to explode, sending him, and his tiny pod, tumbling outward like a cork riding a tidal wave.

It was an alarm, insistent, annoying and echoing in his aching head that woke him. The interior of the pod was pitch black, except for a series of red, flashing lights that blinked insistently.

Helios groaned, his whole body on fire with aches and pains, the coppery taste of blood in his mouth made him want to gag. He realized he was only seeing out of one eye, and when he reached up to touch the other, he felt congealed blood holding the eyelid closed. There was a gash in his forehead, not that deep but head wounds bled freely, and it had evidently flowed into his eye when he was unconscious.