Free Drifter by William C. Dietz Page B

emergency quarters on its cargo carriers. The keyboard would have to do.
    Although his gloved fingers made it difficult to type, Lando entered: "Cargo… Percentage of capacity utilized this voyage."
    Words flashed on the screen: CAPACITY UTILIZED 98.7%.
    Lando swore under his breath. "Damn!" So much for slipping the concentrate into an empty slot. Every freighter lost some of its hold space to odd nooks and crannies, the gaps between cargo modules, and sloppy stowage. The 1.3 percent of supposedly available space wasn't really there.
    "Did you say something?"
    "Yeah," Lando replied. "I did. This baby's fully loaded."
    "Oh," Wendy said, obviously disappointed. "Well, that's that, I guess."
    Lando tapped his fingers on the console. His gloves made a clicking sound against the plastic. "Maybe, and maybe not. We could dump some of the company's cargo and replace it with the concentrate, or locate some of your supplies and do the same thing."
    Wendy thought out loud. "If you dump the company's supplies, they're almost sure to notice the discrepancy and investigate. And if you dump our supplies, then we lose something we need."
    "That's about the size of it," Lando agreed. "It's a tough decision."
    A buzzer sounded in The Tink's cockpit and made itself heard over the radio.
    "We've got company, Pik! It looks like there's a tug headed our way!"
    Lando felt his pulse pound in his head. He knew he should pull out, run like hell, but they were so damned close. "So what's your decision?"
    "My decision? You mean you're still willing to try?"
    "It'll take them hours to get here. What's your decision?"
    "But they'll detect us when we break away!"
    "Maybe, and maybe not. What's your decision?"
    Wendy killed the buzzer. The sudden silence helped her think. An investigation was out of the question. The timing would be terrible. What if the company found out about… No, she mustn't even think it.
    That left the second alternative. Dumping some of their own supplies. Which would the elders prefer? The concentrate,
    or whatever else was aboard this particular vessel? Short of checking the manifest, and actually asking them, there was no way to be sure. Wendy took a chance.
    "Okay, dump some of our stuff. Anything but medical supplies, replacement parts, or lab equipment."
    "Roger."
    Lando instructed the computer to display all non-company cargoes. A manifest rolled up. He skimmed the list. Tools, clothing, medical supplies, food paks, lab equipment, replacement parts, and a long list of data cubes.
    "How about clothing, food, or data cubes?"
    Wendy bit her lip in frustration. Every one of the things Lando had named was desperately needed. Still, the concentrate was absolutely critical to Angel's future. "Dump the clothing first, food second, and data cubes last."
    "That's a roger," Lando replied and went to work. Here at least he could get some help. The cargo carrier was highly automated and capable of loading and unloading itself. The first problem was to locate the cargo he wanted to dump.
    Lando ran the cursor down the manifest and highlighted the items in question. With that accomplished, the smuggler asked for and received a 3-D schematic showing the location of each item.
    Now Lando saw that the cargo was stowed in vertical stacks under the topmost surface of the ship. The same surface The Tink had landed on. So, unless the cargo he wanted to dump happened to be on top of a stack, other modules would have to be removed and then put back. A time-consuming chore even with automated equipment.
    The clothes were towards the stern, packed under five of the company's cargo modules, making them impossible to access in the time available. They would stay.
    The food was located amidships, not far from the landing zone, second in a stack of twelve.
    The data cubes were in a perfect location, extremely close to the landing zone, and right up front with nothing blocking the way.
    The problem was that the data cubes had an insufficient mass. The