Free Mutiny in Space by Rod Walker Page B

just as well. For a while I had the sensation of floating. Or I was being carried. Maybe the explosion that had killed Mom and Sergei and God knows how many others had thrown me into the air and I was flying… until I crashed into ground and splattered like a package of hamburger dropped from a balcony. For a while, I was convinced that Ducarti’s bomb had also destroyed the
Rusalka
, that the ship was careening out of control into one of NR8965’s stars, which was why I felt so hot.
    Then I felt something cool and hard underneath me. It felt nice.
    Angry voices began to echo in my ears, which was rather less nice. It seemed someone was having a loud argument nearby, accompanied by a lot of cursing. I heard something beeping. An instrument panel? No, I recognized the sounds. They were from the various stations on the bridge. That was it. I was lying on the metal floor of the ship’s bridge.
    One of the angry voices got louder. Maybe they were angry that the ship had crashed into the star and melted the crew? That didn’t make sense.
    “Where is the key?” said a man’s voice. That didn’t make any sense either, but after a moment my scrambled brain recognized the voice. It belonged to Thomas Williams, the captain of the
Rusalka
… and the Social Party traitor.
    “What are you talking about, you moron?” snarled another voice. It sounded like John Murdock. “What key? You locked the computer yourself. The boy doesn’t even know who he is! Look at him!”
    Wait. Murdock was dead. He had gone into the maintenance walkway, and one of the commandos had had thrown a grenade down the ladder shaft. The explosion in that enclosed space would have killed him.
    And me. I remembered that I had been with him. The grenade exploded right near me. That meant I should be dead, too. Only, as near as I could tell, I wasn’t.
    Huh. Guess that had been a stun grenade, not a fragmentation one.
    Then the memories of what had led up to the explosion rushed back into my head, and I couldn’t help groaning. Everything hurt. With some effort, I forced my eyes open.
    I was right. I was lying on the deck, and I really was on the Rusalka’s bridge. I saw four Social commandos standing guard, as motionless as statues in their combat armor, their black facemasks reflecting the blinking lights from the bridge consoles. Hawkins and the other bridge crewers were on their knees, their hands held behind their heads. They were all lined up in a row; one long burst from a K7 could kill them all, one after the other. Murdock was kneeling away from the others, and Captain Williams stood over him, a projectile pistol in his right hand and a look of livid fury on his face.
    “Tell me,” snapped Williams, “where it is!”
    Murdock gave him a scornful look. “You’re the one who locked the ship’s systems. You want access to something, go unlock it yourself.”
    Williams snarled and hit Murdock across the face with his free hand. Murdock’s head snapped around, some blood flying from his mouth. He blinked a few times and looked up at the captain.
    “Is that the hardest you can hit?” he said. “You should have spent more time in the gym.”
    Williams’s face went red behind his graying beard, and he leveled his gun at Murdock’s forehead. “I’m not playing around. Where is it?”
    “For God’s sake,” said Murdock. “I can’t believe I’m going to die because you’re too stupid to understand basic computer concepts. You locked the systems. If anyone has the key to unlock it, you do.”
    “Not that key,” said Williams. “I want the key to the grain!”
    Murdock blinked. “You mean the cargo bay? It’s not hard. You can probably even force the bay with the computer locked.”
    Williams let out an aggravated sound. “That’s not what I meant and you know it. What is the key to the grain? I know you and Rovio were part of a reactionary anti-Party cell. So tell me the key to the grain?”
    “It’s just grain, you idiot!”