tapped around all sides of the big door
between the command center and the patio. Instead, Mercy had to arrange the dominoes
manually. When set, each held more than 130 kilograms, the weight of both women
plus another board.
“You over-engineered the steps a
bit,” Yuki complained.
“Your safety is worth a little
extra effort.”
“Apart from building a stair you
could march a blind elephant up, you’ve only flipped about twenty meters of
roof planks. The next decontaminees should be arriving in five minutes.”
“Shoot, we need to be there to help!”
Mercy said, rushing down her staircase into the control area.
Yuki leaned over the edge to shout,
“I’ll be down in a minute. I want to make a little more progress.”
Auckland arrived a few minutes
early, and Mercy was up to her elbows in goop. When she called for her fellow
scout over the radio, Yuki’s response was, “Busy. Later.”
Chapter 8 – Defining the Problem
Yuki honestly liked Mercy, but she had work to do. Once
Mercy was preoccupied, the technician’s first order of business was to plant a listening
dot in each room of the ship, plus the patio—that was all but one of the twelve
miniature devices she’d brought with her. What she wouldn’t give for the cameras
she had hidden in the rest of her gear.
Tuning her headset to the first
bug, she could hear the first person was done coughing up a lung and could
croak questions—Auckland. Since the doctor would need to help with the others,
and the bug would give her advance warning about people leaving the showers,
Yuki decided to make a quick run around outside on top of the pergola level.
When that failed to turn up anything, she wrapped sticky strips up to her elbows
and knees and strung together a safety line about six meters long to attach to
her waist. Then she went climbing in ways that mousy Mercy would never approve,
which is why she had to do it before they could stop her.
While leaning over the edge, Yuki
had an idea. What if the locked room had an access hatch outside? Such a hatch
would be hidden from view by the gray panels. Whenever Mercy had asked for
another panel, Yuki had deactivated the panels around the forbidden room and
carried them to the engineer by the armload. Nothing appeared above the
boardwalk, but she still needed to check below.
Yuki started the covert operation
by closing the large, golden entrance. Nothing was audible or visible through
this barrier. Free-climbing to the area beneath her target, she removed tiles
in a diagonal swath. Locating the off switch was tricky, and when the tile she
was clinging to disengaged, she swung completely upside-down, hanging by her
ankles and knees. It was in this awkward position that Mercy contacted her.
“Busy. Later,” was all Yuki could
squeeze out.
She had to strap each plank to her
back and carry them back to the boardwalk one at a time, worrying that the
activation tone might give her away. On her third attempt, she found the seam.
Panicked by her success, she covered the crack back up, as well as the other
holes. Pressing a plank into a snug slot against the hull muffled the
activation sound enough that she grew bolder. Removing and replacing tiles one
at a time, she followed the seam around. The hatch took up most of the room’s
underside, almost like a landing ramp she’d seen on military craft.
What else were the aliens hiding? She
needed to give Mori an edge when the crew returned to Earth. From her bug, she
discovered that Commander Zeiss was the next person out of the soup, but he
wasn’t talking. Something had happened to him that Auckland was refusing to
discuss yet. He muttered something like, “Maybe the mu shielding will help him.
People will be arriving at about four-minute intervals over the next hour.”
“It takes about ten minutes to
shake off the effects enough to clean on your own,” Mercy noted.
“Once we have five more recovered
team members, one per tube, you can go after Yuki.
between the command center and the patio. Instead, Mercy had to arrange the dominoes
manually. When set, each held more than 130 kilograms, the weight of both women
plus another board.
“You over-engineered the steps a
bit,” Yuki complained.
“Your safety is worth a little
extra effort.”
“Apart from building a stair you
could march a blind elephant up, you’ve only flipped about twenty meters of
roof planks. The next decontaminees should be arriving in five minutes.”
“Shoot, we need to be there to help!”
Mercy said, rushing down her staircase into the control area.
Yuki leaned over the edge to shout,
“I’ll be down in a minute. I want to make a little more progress.”
Auckland arrived a few minutes
early, and Mercy was up to her elbows in goop. When she called for her fellow
scout over the radio, Yuki’s response was, “Busy. Later.”
Chapter 8 – Defining the Problem
Yuki honestly liked Mercy, but she had work to do. Once
Mercy was preoccupied, the technician’s first order of business was to plant a listening
dot in each room of the ship, plus the patio—that was all but one of the twelve
miniature devices she’d brought with her. What she wouldn’t give for the cameras
she had hidden in the rest of her gear.
Tuning her headset to the first
bug, she could hear the first person was done coughing up a lung and could
croak questions—Auckland. Since the doctor would need to help with the others,
and the bug would give her advance warning about people leaving the showers,
Yuki decided to make a quick run around outside on top of the pergola level.
When that failed to turn up anything, she wrapped sticky strips up to her elbows
and knees and strung together a safety line about six meters long to attach to
her waist. Then she went climbing in ways that mousy Mercy would never approve,
which is why she had to do it before they could stop her.
While leaning over the edge, Yuki
had an idea. What if the locked room had an access hatch outside? Such a hatch
would be hidden from view by the gray panels. Whenever Mercy had asked for
another panel, Yuki had deactivated the panels around the forbidden room and
carried them to the engineer by the armload. Nothing appeared above the
boardwalk, but she still needed to check below.
Yuki started the covert operation
by closing the large, golden entrance. Nothing was audible or visible through
this barrier. Free-climbing to the area beneath her target, she removed tiles
in a diagonal swath. Locating the off switch was tricky, and when the tile she
was clinging to disengaged, she swung completely upside-down, hanging by her
ankles and knees. It was in this awkward position that Mercy contacted her.
“Busy. Later,” was all Yuki could
squeeze out.
She had to strap each plank to her
back and carry them back to the boardwalk one at a time, worrying that the
activation tone might give her away. On her third attempt, she found the seam.
Panicked by her success, she covered the crack back up, as well as the other
holes. Pressing a plank into a snug slot against the hull muffled the
activation sound enough that she grew bolder. Removing and replacing tiles one
at a time, she followed the seam around. The hatch took up most of the room’s
underside, almost like a landing ramp she’d seen on military craft.
What else were the aliens hiding? She
needed to give Mori an edge when the crew returned to Earth. From her bug, she
discovered that Commander Zeiss was the next person out of the soup, but he
wasn’t talking. Something had happened to him that Auckland was refusing to
discuss yet. He muttered something like, “Maybe the mu shielding will help him.
People will be arriving at about four-minute intervals over the next hour.”
“It takes about ten minutes to
shake off the effects enough to clean on your own,” Mercy noted.
“Once we have five more recovered
team members, one per tube, you can go after Yuki.
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