“I went to space, remember?” Rose said. “I was in the USSF and on the moon when you were in diapers. I retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. Believe me, I understand chain of command. But some things are too important to ignore. We won’t have another chance to study a life form like that one.”

  “No offense, but I hope not. I learned enough about it to know I don’t want to ever see anything like it again. This way.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “There’s another storage locker down this way. It’s near the airlock where I came out onto the hull. The lockers have some extra utilities stored in them. I guess they thought maybe we would soil ourselves out there or something. You should be able to find something that fits, and it’s better if we keep the spacesuits organized and near…well…space.” He smiled, getting Rose to smile too.

  “You aren’t ticked at me?”

  “I never said that. But it’s over now, and everything worked out.”

  “Did it? I got Turani killed.”

  “No, Turani got Turani killed. She should have been more cautious of the alien. It was careless to move that slow with it so close by. Anyway, who’s to say things wouldn’t have happened the same even if you weren’t there?”

  “Is that how you manage failure? By assuming it would have happened anyway?”

  “No, that’s how I manage not being ticked at people who do stupid things.”

  Rose pursed her lips, her face flushing. “Touche, Prime Cross. Since you seem somewhat understanding of my plight, I hope that means you won’t stay mad at me forever. According to Grant, we’re going to see a lot more of each other.”

  “You aren’t going to try to talk me into talking to the Captain on your behalf?”

  “No.” She sighed heavily. “I hate to admit it, to you or to myself. At the end of the day, I think he’s right about Earth. Nothing we’re doing out here is going to save it. We’ve been working on the problem for nearly a year now, hoping for a breakthrough that never comes. We had our chance and we came up short.”

  “That’s a pretty sudden change of perspective.”

  “It’s a pragmatic change of perspective, especially in light of current events. I wanted a sample. I didn’t get a sample. I nearly got everyone killed. It was stupid and desperate, and in hindsight I wish I’d hadn’t made a such a serious mistake. It’s the curse of being a scientist. You want to understand how everything works.” She stopped walking, turning toward him. “Prime Cross, I’m not trying to be a bad guy. I care very deeply about others, and I really do want to help. Earth, Pioneer, Avalon when we arrive. I’m sorry we got off on the wrong foot, I truly am.”

  Joseph looked into her eyes. Either her sincerity was real, or she was a hell of a good actress. “I accept your apology. Though I doubt Captain Grant will be as forgiving.”

  “No, I don’t expect he will.”

  They started walking again, covering another half a kilometer in silence before Joseph brought them to a stop. “Here it is,” he said, tapping his hand on one of the many doors. He moved his wrist to the security panel and swiped it open. “I can wait outside while you change.”

  “I appreciate the sentiment,” Rose said. “But once you’ve shared a vacuum toilet with a dozen other spacers, you tend to lose your modesty pretty fast. Besides, I don’t expect you’ll be ogling my old ass.”

  “You aren’t that old,” Joseph said.

  “Fifty-three isn’t old?”

  “No. My mother was fifty-three when she died.”

  Rose laughed. “Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

  “Life is a blessing. If the war taught me anything, it’s how quickly it can all end. On so many levels. That’s supposed to make you feel better.”

  They stepped into the compartment. The bulkheads were lined with two racks of spacesuits and two rows of lockers while a bench rested in the center. Rose dropped her helmet onto the bench and started unclasping her suit. Joseph did the same, facing away from Rose despite her openness. He didn’t need to worry about himself. He was wearing body armor beneath his suit, the rubbery spidersteel tight against his form.

  “I guess I should be ogling you,” Rose said as he finished getting out of the spacesuit.

  The cracked helmet was junk, and he wasn’t sure the suit could be salvaged without it. In any case, they seemed to have plenty on board. “These things aren’t exactly modest,” he replied. “I tried keeping the utilities on over it, but there wasn’t enough room.” He crossed to the lockers, opening a few of them. They all had a stack of basic black coveralls inside, in size order. Joseph found a large for him and a small for Rose, turning to hand it to her.

  She was in her underwear, her arms and legs lightly toned with muscle, her small, slightly sagging breasts leading to a nearly flat stomach and a cesarean scar just above her panty line. None of that interested him much.

  What did interest him was the uneven, oily blob of matter sitting on her left hip.

  “Doctor,” Joseph said as calmly as he could. “Do not move.”

  “What?” she replied, tensing slightly. “What’s wrong?”

  “Stay completely still and calm for me, okay?” He moved slowly, leaning and reaching for his rifle.

  “Prime, it would really help me stay calm if you told me what the problem is. Right now.”

  “It’s on your left thigh,” he said.

  Her eyes widened, and she surprised him by staying collected enough to turn and lower her head slowly to look down.

  “It got through my suit?” she said. “Without exposing me.”

  “It seems so,” Joseph replied. He didn’t really care how it got on her, not now at least. It was here, inside the ship. Was it still alive? He wrapped his hand around his rifle.

  Rose shifted her attention back to him. “What are you going to do with that? You can’t shoot it off me.”

  “We pull it off, and then we shoot it,” Joseph said. “It’s the only idea I’ve got. I don’t have any other weapons on me.”

  “I should probably expect a Marine to think with his rifle. I didn’t intend to capture a sample of the membrane in my hands.” She slowly pointed toward the floor next to the bench, where a small metal canister rested. “It’s a vacuum canister. Open it up and there’s a small suction tube inside. We can suck it up in there.”

  “And then shoot it.”

  “What? No. I wanted a sample. I didn’t plan for this, but here it is. ”

  “We can’t let this thing stay on the ship, Doctor. We know absolutely nothing about it or how dangerous it might be.”

  “Which is exactly why it should stay on the ship, Prime. What if there are more of these things out there? What if another one of those alien rocks appears and lands on us again? The more we know about the aliens, the better we can fight them.”

  “That’s what they all said about the trife. It didn’t really help.”

  “That’s not totally true. The trife pushed forward technology at a pace we hadn’t seen in years. The combat armor, the Butchers, the augments and limb replacements. Medical patches, railguns, plasma weapons, even the hibernation pods and the list goes on. It wasn’t enough to stop them, but it was enough to keep us alive while we built the worldships like this one. This sample could be the difference between surviving the next attack and becoming space junk.”

  “Captain Grant would never allow it. He doesn’t want the trife on board, and from what I’ve seen of that stuff so far, it’s a hell of a lot more dangerous than the trife.”

  “Assuming it’s even alive, which it may not be.”

  “It might not. But let’s say it is. Do you have any idea how to handle it? How to keep it contained? What if we put it in that canister and it gets out like it got through your suit?”

  “Like I told you before, the entire Research module is built with containment in mind. We have equipment to hold it safely and examine it without ever having to interact directly with it. Come on, Prime Cross. This is an unexpected opportunity we shouldn’t waste.”

  Joseph stared at the small black mark on Rose’s leg. It wasn’t moving at all. Maybe it was dead. It was such a small part of a much larger whole, it probably couldn’t survive this way. “It isn’t my call to make. It’s Captain Grant’s.”

  “You just said he would never allow it, and I agree with you. His intentions are good. He wants to protect the ship. So do I. The only difference is how we want to protect it. He wants to go on the defensive and get rid of anything that might be a threat. I want to go on the offensive and learn everything I can about what that threat might be. It’s only you and me down here, Prime. He doesn’t have to know.”

  Joseph locked eyes with her. Grant had let him think he had taken Levi to an airlock and disposed of him in the name of safety and limiting his risk. But now Levi was with Nash in Metro, as angry as ever, even after Grant had spared his life. Now the choice was in his hands. He wasn’t about to let Rose have the blob to get even with Grant for lying to him about Levi. he wasn’t that immature. But like he had told her earlier, he believed in the strength of knowledge. Know your enemy. It had attacked in three different ways over the course of their two interactions. Who knew what other capabilities it might have. On one hand, they would never find out if they destroyed it. On the other, those capabilities had the potential to destroy them.

  “You need to decide, Prime,” Rose said. “Before that thing decides for you.”

  Joseph glanced at the blob. She was right. If it was alive, it could decide to move at any second. He carefully lowered the rifle, stepping around the bench and inching toward the canister. Rose didn’t move at all, remaining still and keeping an eye on the alien.

  “Let’s neutralize it first,” Joseph said. “Then we’ll see.”

  He picked up the canister by its strap, bringing it to his chest and unlocking the top, which opened on a hinge. The motor for the vacuum was in the lid, a small plastic tube curled at the top of the main body.

  “The power button is above the strap,” Rose said.

  Joseph found it with his thumb. He used his other hand to take out the small tube, stretching it forward as far as it would go. “Turn to me a little. Slowly.”

  Rose pivoted slightly, getting her thigh in line with the bench, the membrane just above it. Joseph tapped the power button, the vacuum making a soft whooshing noise as it turned on. He winced at the sound, nervous the alien might react. It didn’t move, remaining inert on Rose’s leg.

  “Here we go,” Joseph said softly, slowly reaching forward with the tube.

  It sensed the motion or the suction or something, because it hardened suddenly, falling off Rose’s leg and landing on the deck. Small tentacles grew out from it, and it began running across the floor toward the open door.

  “Ah shit!” Joseph said, pivoting and diving toward it, stretching the canister out in front of him. He landed on his stomach, reaching out for the alien at the moment it tried to jump through the hatch. The suction tube caught it in mid-air, pulling it into the canister.

  Joseph held the containment unit up to keep it from smashing onto the floor. Inside, the alien was pulling at the one-way flap, trying to get loose.

  And the flap was moving, breaking in its grip.

  “Yank the tube free and shut the lid,” Rose shouted.

  Joseph pulled the tube out and pushed the lid down on the canister just as the alien began clearing the flap. He locked the top, blowing out a breath of relief before pushing himself up.

  “I’m sorry, Doctor,” he said, glancing at her before looking away again to bend down and pick up his rifle. “We can’t risk this thing getting loose. It’s too quick, and who knows how dangerous.”

  “I’m sorry too, Prime,” Rose said. “I just don’t agree with your point of view.”

  As Joseph began turning toward her, he caught a glimpse of the helmet swinging toward him from the corner of his eye. It connected with the back of his head, and then…

  Nothing.

  52

  Grant

  Pioneer. Passageway. 11.12.2052. 2330 hours.

  “That could have gone better,” Tyson said, riding on the passenger side of the small loading cart driven by Lieutenant Wall.

  “It could have gone a lot worse, Captain,” Siraj replied from her position on the flat bed behind him. “The plan was a success. The object was destroyed.”

  “It cost us one of our Guardians.”

  “But only one. I’m not happy about it either, sir, but considering what we were dealing with, and the weapons it put on display, we’re fortunate to get away with two casualties and one injury.”

  Tyson nodded. He did feel fortunate, but also uncomfortable. “My problem is that the alien could have used its beam weapon against us at any time. It preferred to cling to the hull instead of destroying or disabling us. It wanted something. But what?”

  “Prime Cross said it had a giant mouth. Perhaps we were intended to be a food source.”

  “It didn’t eat Doctor Rose, and it had every opportunity. Why not?”

  “Perhaps she doesn’t taste good,” Siraj offered.

  Tyson huffed in laughter. “She certainly left a bad taste in my mouth. Although I can’t say I’m not happy she gave me a reason to reign her and her team in. We need to know what they’re doing down there. And keeping living trife on board? No.”

  “I agree. How can she contain the trife if she can’t even contain herself?”

  Tyson leaned back. He had been up and active all day, and now he was hungry and tired. “Commander, Lieutenant, I intend to head for the galley when we arrive back near berthing. Would either of you like to join me?”

  “I appreciate the offer, Captain,” Siraj said. “But I really should get back to the bridge.”

  “Novitz has things well in hand,” Tyson countered. “You’ve been working a lot harder than he has. And when was the last time you had something to eat?”

  “Yesterday, I think, sir.”

  “Let’s make my invitation an order then, Commander. I need you to keep up your strength.”

  “Aye aye, sir.”

  “Lieutenant Wall, what about you?”

  “I’m starving, Captain.”

  Tyson smiled. “Good man.”

  Tysons comm beeped. “Captain Grant, Chief Oslo here. We’ve completed our review of the landing site. The charge left some scuffing on the alloy, but it’s otherwise spotless.”

  Tyson tapped his badge to open the channel. “Chief Oslo, this is Grant. I thought you said the review would take hours?”

  “Yes, sir, I did. But the damage is much lighter than I expected. This new alloy they cooked up is a lot more durable than I would have guessed.”

  “Didn’t you tell me we needed to roughen the surface to get the alien vessel to detach?”

  “Yes, sir. I did. And there is some scuffing and roughness consistent with what we were after. But it’s less than I planned. Honestly, just looking at it, I’m a little surprised it was enough to dislodge the object. But then, the exact equations are impossible to calculate without a better understanding of the alien tech.”

  “What’s the bottom line, Chief?”

  “Either we overestimated the level of effort needed to remove the object from the ship, or it decided to let go on its own.”

  Tyson considered the statement. Either was possible, but he couldn’t imagine the alien giving up Pioneer intentionally. Not after it went through so much effort to stay. Like he was discussing with Siraj, it could have probably destroyed them outright but didn’t. It had wanted something.

  It didn’t get it, and had wound up destroyed for its effort. “Then it all worked out in our favor, didn’t it, Chief?” Tyson asked.

  “Yes, I suppose it did, sir. Less damage is always a good thing. In any case, we’re headed back inside. I’ve got my team running some basic diagnostics to ensure there are no changes with the reactors or the thrusters. Assuming no issues, we’ll be clear for acceleration. Let’s say thirty minutes, give or take.”

  “Thank you, Chief. I’m on my way to the galley. I expect you’ll have resolution by the time I return to the bridge?”

  “Yes, sir. Oslo out.”

  They continued down the passageway to the forward elevator, leaving the cart on the deck with the hangar and riding it on foot up to deck eight. They headed for the galley from there.

  “Attention!” one of the spacemen said as the trio entered the common area. “Captain on deck!”

  There were half a dozen crew in the galley, from one of the bridge rotations and Oslo’s engineers. They stood up in response to the call.

  “As you were,” Tyson said.

  They returned to their pursuit of sustenance, heading for the chow line. With the reduced numbers outside Metro, the cook had only put out a single thick stew and some bread. Once they were ready for hibernation the cook would be in the last group headed into the city.

  Tyson, Siraj and Wall all took a helping of the stew, spooning it into a bowl and grabbing a chunk of bread. They carried their trays to an empty table and sat down. Tyson could feel the eyes of the other spacemen on him as he lifted his spoon, so he stopped and stood up. “Attention all hands,” he said, his voice immediately bringing them to silence. “I just wanted to ease any concerns you might have about our lack of acceleration. The issues that caused us to cut thrust have been resolved, and we’ll be regaining velocity within the hour. I appreciate your patience while we worked out the kinks.”

  “Thank you, Captain,” one of the bridge crew said. “We appreciate the update.”

  Tyson sat back down, picking up his spoon and digging into the stew. He breathed in the scent of mushroom and spices, and looked down at the chunks of vegetables, probably grown in Metro’s hydroponic facilities. If only there was beef to add to the meal.

  “It’s delicious,” Siraj said before he took his bite. “Better than I expected.”