Free Matt & Michelle 1: The Fugitive Heir by Henry Vogel Page B

gave me an annoyed expression, but she wasn’t thinking about our proximity to the star any more. “I don’t see what’s so clever about losing a messenger drone and its messages because someone was too stupid to program a course away from the star.”
    Once again, as soon as she said it, Michelle figured it out. “It’s a kind of self-destruct system. If the message’s intended recipient can’t get to it, the star destroys the drone before anyone else can get it.” But Michelle took that line of thought one step farther than I had. “Crap! Shut everything down, Matt. Run dark now !”
    Without another word, my fingers flew across the control panel, shutting down everything except the life support system. Michelle did the same with sensors and communication. A minute later, the air scrubbers and the passive sensors were the only systems still running.
    “Now that we’re running dark, Michelle, would you please explain why we had to go dark right now?”
    Michelle turned a devilish smile my way. “It’s just logic, my dear. I bet you can figure it out if you try.”
    “You turn my own words against me. How-”
    “Appropriate? Fitting? Irritating?” Michelle asked.
    “I’d been going to go with ‘appropriate’ but I’m leaning heavily toward ‘irritating’ now. And you can wipe that smug look off your face. I’ve figured it out.”
    Michelle propped her head on one hand. “I’m breathless with anticipation, honey.”
    “The drone will get pulled too close to the star to survive after just a few hours. It’s an effective message self-destruct system because no ship can get in here fast enough to save the drone unless they’re positioned close to the star and watching for the drone’s signal. That means a ship should be here soon to pick up the drone. And if we weren’t running dark, they’d pick us up on the sensors, too.” I leaned back in the pilot seat and put my hands behind my head.
    “Yes, you’re very smart, Matt. Almost as smart as the girl who figured that out first.”
    “Which she only realized after the smart guy figured out the solar self-destruct procedure.”
    The passive sensors beeped, cutting off our one-upmanship. We both hovered over the sensor console, watching a ship match courses with the drone and then merge with the signal. We waited for the ship to pull away, but it maintained its course. Ten minutes later, the ship still held its position. Meanwhile, the temperature inside the M&M rose to twenty-six degrees. It wasn’t much of a rise—only a couple of degrees—but the cooling system had only been off for twenty minutes.
    “What do you think they’re doing?” I asked.
    “Sending a reply, maybe?” Michelle ran a hand across her brow.
    “But why is that taking so long? Drones are dead easy to program—just upload messages, set coordinates, and turn it loose.” An idea occurred to me. “Unless that crew is just the pick up and delivery team. In that case, they’d have to talk to someone with authority to find out what message to send back.”
    “So we’re going to burn up because the evil genius sent minions to pick up messages from their crony, Hector?”
    “They’re going to have to hold position for more than ten hours before we need to worry about burning up.”
    “Yeah, but what about broiling? The temperature in here is rising pretty fast.”
    I didn’t have an answer for her. The minutes dragged by and still the other ship maintained its position. The temperature inside the M&M continued climbing, passing thirty degrees after another fifteen minutes. Both of us sweated freely as the pick-up ship continued to hold its position and the temperature reached thirty-five degrees.
    “Matt, what are the chances that ship’s sensors will pick up the cooling system if you turn it on?” Michelle’s sweat-soaked clothes stuck to her body and she looked as miserable as I felt.
    “I don’t know. The star might cause enough interference to mask it or the