Free Archaea by Dain White Page A

that are explosively reactive when the dart hits the moisture content of the human body, but reasonably safe against structures due to the small projectile size.
    You have to make sure the muzzle velocity is kept low, of course, as that prevents the plasmic reactions from a hypervelocity shot that would blow a mammoth hole through just about anything. That wouldn't do on an orbital station.
    On my way to the top hatch, I checked to make sure my K-Bar was easy in the sheath, as any Marine worth his salt knows when good goes bad, bad goes in locked, cocked, and ready to rock.
    "Yak, Captain Smith here – just wanted to let you know that we're on final approach to ring 20. Do you know where you'll need to meet to deliver your cargo?"
    "Thanks, Captain. I need to get to ring 10, lock 5 - is that going to be easy to find?"
    "Sure thing Yak, it'll be pretty easy. When we arrive at ring 20, you'll disembark from the top hatch of the Archaea, and just keep climbing upwards through the ring into the hub. The hub is null-g, so you'll just kick left and count to 10. When you climb down into ring 10, you'll just go either direction until you hit lock 5. Shorty's been here a few times and I know she wanted to run down some reactives – mind if she tags along?"
    Of course, my instructions were clear enough; avoid detection and move as if a giant Indian carrying a locked case belongs wherever he's headed. A pretty lady on my arm wouldn't hurt to blend in a bit as I move through the station.
    "Sounds good Captain, I'm ready to go right away. This should only take a few minutes and I will be back with your portage fee.”
     
    *****
     
    Yak and I climbed up into ring 20 and were met almost immediately by an officious little wart of a man, wearing some sort of insignia on a shapeless gray cap. He wanted to hit us up right there for sludging fees, and looked miserably unhappy when I told him we were not going to be here long enough to even hook up, much less sludge.
    I didn't mention to him we'd only launched the ship within the last few hours, and haven't used our reac drive enough to even have sludge to offload.
    He wanted to know our business far more than I wanted to share, but I referred him to our captain, and let him know we were only here to check local prices on reactives. Not a lie, of course... we needed to top off, having fled Luna station with what we had aboard.
    Yak and I left him fretting at the lock, and wandered through the ring to the egress ladder. The rest of ring 20 looked to be semi-abandoned, there were a few other ships docked on this ring, but most of the other locks were empty. The corridor had a dingy, musty sort of smell and a grimy patina, no place for a lady – it was a good thing we weren't going to be here very long.
    The escaladder leading up to the hub was out, big surprise there, but luckily as we hauled ourselves up, the climb got easier and easier. The hub core was mostly mechanicals, piping, conduits, vents – we followed a yellow line along one wall through and around the hissing, tangled deathtrap of the inner hub. What a mess.
    Each ring was pretty large, large enough to dock the Archaea and leave room on either side, so we had a pretty good hike to ring 10; luckily it was easy going, so long as we had enough light to keep following the yellow line. My business was with Maycorp Reactives on Ring 15, but I told Yak I'd keep him company if he would do the same for me. Not that I needed a wall of muscle around, but it couldn't hurt.
    Yak and I spoke a bit about his mission, and what his plans were afterward. It turned out he was a merc courier, a bonded indie who contracted from job to job, and pulled all sorts of strange duties as he worked his way towards the fringe. He had nothing lined up to do after this contract was completed, and told me he'd probably rack out in a rentable until the next job came along.
    Like hell he was!
    I was going to have a word with our captain about this. I know where