Marcus saw Victoria turn to face him. «Care to comment on the pitchblende?» he asked.
«I admit, the material would have been of some considerable use to us,» Jorge replied. «But of course, this wreck has changed the Confederation beyond recognition, has it not, Captain?»
«Possibly.»
«Definitely. And so we no longer require the pitchblende.»
«That's a very drastic switch of allegiance.»
«Please, Captain, do not be facetious. The satellites were left on purely for your benefit; we didn't wish to alarm you.»
«Thank you for your consideration.»
«Captain,» Katherine datavised. «Schutz and Wai are in the airlock.»
«I do hope you're not proposing to leave without us,» Jorge datavised. «That would be most unwise.»
«You were going to kill us,» Karl datavised.
«That is a hysterical claim. You would not have been hurt.»
«As long as we obeyed, and helped you slaughter thousands of people.»
Marcus wished Karl would stop being quite so blunt. He had few enough options as it was.
«Come now, Captain,» Jorge said. «The Lady Macbeth is combat-capable; are you telling me you have never killed people in political disputes?»
«We've fought. But only against other ships.»
«Don't try and claim the moral high ground, Captain. War is war, no matter how it is fought.»
«Only when it's between soldiers; anything else is terrorism.»
«I assure you, we have put our old allegiance behind us. I ask you to do the same. This quarrel is foolish in the extreme. We both have so much to gain.»
And you're armed, Marcus filled in silently. Jorge and Antonio were supposed to be inspecting decks twelve and thirteen. It would be tough if not impossible getting back to the airlock before them. But I can't trust them on Lady Mac .
«Captain, they're moving,» Katherine datavised. «The communication block in stairwell three has acquired them, strength one. They must be coming up.»
«Victoria,» Jorge datavised. «Restrain the Captain and bring him to the airlock. I advise all of you on the ship to remain calm, we can still find a peaceful solution to this situation.»
Unarmed combat programs went primary in Marcus's neural nanonics. The black, featureless figure opposite him didn't move.
«Your call,» he datavised. According to his tactical analysis program she had few choices. Jorge's order implied she was armed, though a scan of her utility belt didn't reveal anything obvious other than a standard fission blade. If she went for a gun he would have an attack window. If she didn't, then he could probably stay ahead of her. She was a lot younger, but his geneered physique should be able to match her in this gravity field.
Victoria dropped the sensor block she was carrying, and moved her hand to her belt. She grabbed the multipurpose power tool and started to bring it up.
Marcus slammed into her, using his greater mass to throw her off balance. She was hampered by trying to keep her grip on the tool. His impact made her sway sideways, then the fierce xenoc gravity took over. She toppled helplessly, falling fast. The power tool was swinging round to point at him. Marcus kicked her hand, and the unit skittered away. It didn't slide far, the gravity saw to that.
Victoria landed with a terrible thud. Her neural nanonics medical monitor program flashed up an alert that the impact had broken her collarbone. Axon blocks came on-line, muting all but the briefest pulse of pain. It was her programs again which made her twist round to avoid any follow-on blow, her conscious mind was almost unaware of the fact she was still moving. A hand scrabbled for the power tool. She snatched it and sat up. Marcus was disappearing down a side corridor. She fired at him before the targeting program even gave her an overlay grid.
«Jorge,» she datavised. «I've lost him.»
«Then get after him.»
Marcus's collar sensors showed him a spray of incendiary droplets fizzing out of the wall barely a metre behind him. The multipurpose tool must be some kind of laser pistol. «Katherine,» he datavised. «Retract Lady Mac 's airlock tube. Now. Close the outer hatch and codelock it. They are not to come on board.»
«Acknowledged. How do we get you back?»
«Yes, Captain,» Jorge datavised. «Do tell.»
Marcus dodged down a junction. «Have Wai stand by. When I need her, I'll need her fast.»
«You think you can cut your way out of the shell, Captain? You have a fission blade, and that shell is held together by a molecular bonding generator.»
«You touch him, shithead, and we'll fry that fucking wreck,» Karl datavised. «Lady Mac 's got maser cannons.»
«But do you have the command codes, I wonder. Captain?»
«Communication silence,» Marcus ordered. «When I want you, I'll call.»
Jorge's boosted muscles allowed him to ascend stairwell three at a speed which Antonio could never match. He was soon left struggling along behind. The airlock was the tactical high ground, once he had secured that, Jorge knew he'd won. As he climbed his hands moved automatically, assembling the weapon from various innocuous-looking pieces of equipment he was carrying on his utility belt.
«Victoria?» he datavised. «Have you got him?»
«No. He broke my shoulder, the bastard. I've lost him.»
«Go to the nearest stairwell, I expect that's what he's done. Antonio, go back and meet her. Then start searching for him.»
«Is that a joke?» Antonio asked. «He could be anywhere.»
«No, he's not. He has to come up. Up is where the airlock is.»
«Yes, but—«
«Don't argue. And when you find him, don't kill him. We have to have him alive. He's our ticket out. Our only ticket, understand?»
«Yes, Jorge.»
When he reached the airlock, Jorge closed the inner hatch and cycled the chamber. The outer hatch dilated to show him the Lady Macbeth 's fuselage fifteen metres away. Her airlock tube had retracted, and the fuselage shield was in place.
«This is a no-win stand-off,» he datavised. «Captain, please come up to the airlock. You have to deal with me, you have no choice. The three of us will leave our weapons over here, and then we can all go back on board together. And when we return to a port none of us will mention this unfortunate incident again. That is reasonable, surely?»
Schutz had just reached the bridge when they received Jorge's datavise.
«Damn! He's disconnected our cable from the communication block,» Karl said. «We can't call the Captain now even if we wanted to.»
Schutz rolled in midair above his acceleration couch and landed gently on the cushioning. Restraint webbing slithered over him.
«What the hell do we do now?» Roman asked. «Without the command codes we're bloody helpless.»
«It wouldn't take that long for us to break open the weapons cabinet,» Schutz said. «They haven't got the Captain. We can go over there and hunt them down with the carbines.»
«I can't sanction that,» Katherine said. «God knows what sort of weapons they have.»
«Sanction it? We put it to the vote.»
«It's my duty watch. Nobody votes on anything. The last order the Captain gave us was to wait. We wait.» She datavised the flight computer for a channel to the MSV. «Wai, status, please?»
«Powering up. I'll be ready for a flight in two minutes.»
«Thank you.»
«We have to do something!» Karl said.
«For a start you can calm down,» Katherine told him. «We're not going to help Marcus by doing anything rash. He obviously had something in mind when he told Wai to get ready.»
The hatchway to the Captain's cabin slid open. Marcus air-swam out and grinned round at their stupefied expressions. «Actually, I didn't have any idea what to do when I said that. I was stalling.»