Horizon, Page 2

asked.

  “Yeah, the one of the hulls down in the bay looks to be spaceworthy,” he said. “Its engine appears to be mostly intact, too. It looks like someone just ripped out all of the electronics and didn’t bother with anything else.”

  “Wouldn’t those be a pain to replace?” Ava asked.

  “No, those shuttles are decades old, at least,” Remi said. When she saw that her explanation did nothing for Ava, she continued. “That means that people have had a lot of time to work on them, which means that the whole thing has probably been duplicated by now, you could run it on a handheld.”

  “You mean that we basically have a free shuttle down there?”

  “Basically, yeah,” Vance said.

  “So are there any other reasons why we might not want to claim this station, because if we do this, we’ll be out of range of Habitat in less than a day.” There was a long silence after Ava spoke as they all gave the question serious consideration. She would have preferred to sleep on it, but she knew that it was probably a once in a lifetime opportunity.

  “I honestly think that we can make this work,” Remi said.

  “I’m with Remi,” Vance said.

  “Then it’s agreed,” Ava said. “We have time for me to make one trip to Habitat and back before it’s out of range, so tell me what we need.”

  Together they came up with a list of what they needed: food, water, suits, tools, spare parts, the contents of their apartments, and a couple of other miscellaneous things. Ava left Vance and Remi at the station to start working on things, and took the shuttle back to Habitat station. She didn’t really know what she was doing, but it knew its way home and Vance had programmed in a flight back.

  They had transferred all of their funds to her account so that she would be able to take care of supplies. First, she hired a crew to pack up all of their stuff, because if she had done it herself, it would have taken a week. After that, it was a trip to one of the general stores on a lower level, where she took care of most of what they needed, splurging on nice EA suits and a full set of tools. The spare parts were a bit more difficult, as they didn’t know exactly what they would need. Ava purchased several large crates containing mixed lots of parts from shuttles and large ships.

  Still, it wasn’t until she was as the Merchant office that what she was about to do hit her. Her number was called, and for a heartbeat she just stood there. When the man behind the counter started to call the next number, she rushed forward with her slip of paper outstretched.

  “What can I help you with, miss?” he asked. She could tell by the tone of his voice that he was preparing to tell her that she was at the wrong place.

  “I would like to claim a piece of abandoned equipment,” she said, going by the script that Remi had given her.

  “Where is it located?”

  She gave him the location of the station, and saw his eyes widen with surprise as he pulled it up on his screen.

  “You are aware that in order to claim an abandoned station, you have to occupy it, right? But if it’s just salvage rights you’re looking for, you don’t need a permit.”

  “I’m aware of that, yes,” she said. “And I plan on occupying it.”

  “You’re sure you want to do this? There are any number of things that can go wrong out there–”

  “I’m aware of the risks, and I’m sure,” she cut him off.

  He looked at her for a long moment before handing her a piece of paper. “Just fill this out, then.”

  A few minutes later, she brought it back, completely filled out. The three of them had agreed that it would be easiest for her to put everything in her name, they could change it over at their leisure after that. He scanned it through the reader, then smiled at her, which took her off guard.

  “You know, even though you might die a horrible death out there, I sort of envy you.”

  “Thanks, I guess,” she said.

  “One piece of advice, though, if you don’t mind?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Buy a gun. It’s not always friendly out there.”

  “Thanks,” she said. They had discussed it, and decided that a gun would be a bad idea. It could only cause trouble, and wouldn’t really afford that much protection anyway.

  “Good luck out there.”

  By then, the new title to the station was printed out. She took it and headed out to where her gear and shuttle were waiting for her. She had to rent a much larger shuttle to hold everything that she had purchased, but it accepted Vance’s flight plan without any complaint, and she was off. She made sure to have the shuttle make a full copy of the video log, not knowing if they would ever see Habitat Station again.

  By the time Ava arrived back at the station, Remi and Vance had already gotten a lot done. The communications rig was back online, and she was welcomed by a recording of Remi’s voice. When the airlock cycled open, the air inside the station smelled much fresher than it had before.

  “I see you’ve been hard at work out here,” she said when Remi and Vance greeted her.

  “Yeah,” Remi said. “I managed to route the station communications through my handheld, and Vance figured out how to get the CO2 scrubbers working properly.

  “Good work, guys,” Ava said, producing the station title. “After we add your names to the form, we will be the proud new owners of Station . . . X1311879.”

  “We’re going to need a new name,” Vance said.

  “I know, but that can wait. We need to unload the shuttle before the rental runs out. I don’t want it returning with half of our stuff.”

  After they finished unloading the shuttle, Vance dug through the box with the food supplies and pulled out three bars in metallic grey wrappers. Ava opened hers and took a bite. It tasted like clay.

  “Are you sure this is food?” Remi asked.

  “Sorry, I was looking for stuff that would keep us alive, these are more emergency rations than anything. They’ll keep forever, though.”

  “Yeah, it tastes like they already have,” Vance said.

  “I did get us some real food, enough to last a couple of months, I think. But if we don’t want to live on the rations, we need to get the garden going.” At the mention of real food, both of the others looked relieved.

  “In order to prevent us from being blanded to death by those ‘rations’ as you call them, I’ll volunteer to work the garden,” Vance said.

  “Vance, do you even know anything about gardening?” Remi asked.

  “Well . . . I know that you put the seeds in dirt and then eat the stuff that comes up.”

  “It’s a good thing that I have a copy of the Wiki, then,” Remi said, looking at the five crates that had been labeled simply ‘electronics’.

  “All of that is well and good, but before this shuttle flies back home, I want to make sure that our EO suits work, okay?”

  The packages that contained the suits were easy to find, as they were the only things that looked expensive. The suits inside weren’t the exotic skin tight ones that the rich kids wore when they were out on their needleships, instead, they were utilitarian, designed to be comfortable, reliable, and practical. It took everyone some time to figure out how all of the pieces fit together, but once they did, all of their diagnostics checked out.

  The shuttle let out a loud beep, indicating that their rental was almost up.

  “Are we sure about this. When that shuttle leaves, that’s it. If anyone wants to go back, now is the time,” Ava said.

  “I’m good,” Vance said.

  “Me too,” Remi said.

  “Well, then I’m sending it home.” Ava went into the shuttle, and activated the homing system, then closed the door behind her. After the airlock closed, the three of them stood there as the shuttle detached itself from the station and started back towards Habitat.

  “You know, I hate cooking in other people’s kitchens,” Remi said. “Nothing’s in the right place, and you don’t want to fix it because it’s not yours to fix.”

/>   “Well, no need to worry about that anymore, Remi, this is your kitchen, now,” Ava said. Something about the words caused Remi to stop working and just look around.

  “You know that Ava says that because neither of us wants anything to do with it, right?” he asked.

  “I figured,” she said.

  The fourth deck had a relatively large balcony, and they found a spot where they could set a table and also see the stars through the atrium. For the occasion, Ava had purchased a dried ingredient package and tofu. The small herb garden that Remi had kept in their flat, now transplanted in a small plot of the garden on the top deck, had provided spices.

  “To a new life,” Vance said after they had finished, holding his glass of rice-wine out for a toast.

  “To Remi’s wonderful cooking,” Ava said.

  “To us three,” Remi said.

  They clinked the glasses together before drinking. As they set the glasses down on the table, the lights blinked out.

  Ava froze, thinking that her worst fears had just come true, and the station had just died, and was going to take them with it. When the lights came back on, she could see the others letting out their breath. The lights didn’t return to full brightness, though, but only provided a gloomy dimness. What was worse, she could no longer hear the near silent fans running.

  “What just happened?” Ava asked, getting up from the table.

  “If I had to guess, power failure, but I would need to be in Central Ops to be sure,” Remi said.

  “Then get yourself there,” Ava said. “Vance, come with me.”

  Vance didn’t say anything as they went