The glasses—of high quality and in good repair, unlike the broken mirror and the flimsy scaffold—revealed human figures slinking through the dark shadows under the Rift wall. Haze quietly grunted in surprise. “Must be ten or twelve of them. You don’t need that many to steal the box.”
“They may be after plundering the station and taking everything valuable, like our sand-crosser,” she said grimly. “But if they think we’re undefended academics they’re wrong. We’ve got six people with military experience.”
He lowered the glasses. “Everybody but you and me and—?”
“The Lees aren’t fighters. But even they are small-arms qualified. Everyone else was once in the Goyan Guard, Alliance Starfleet, or Faxen military, and Mikal does war games in Wendis, which takes its war games seriously. He uses a pike for a weapon so he doesn’t mind me, but the rest would rather I stay away. Weapons can jam if they’re too close to me.”
This information was unusual enough to make his head spin. “Would a shot coming at you miss?”
“Yes, but it might be bad for somebody next to me, but if we’re friends, it won’t get them either.” She took the night glasses back.
He could still see a lot in the bright starlight. “The copter is out in the open. Would they try to steal it to take the box?”
“If they do we’re ready.” She indicated the other side of the deck.
Haze recognized a burly shape and the glint of a weapon. “I see Hopper. What if somebody sneaks up using the copter for cover, though?”
“See where the Rift wall has a knob? We chiseled some paths in the Rift wall to sample the geology. Jud is perched over there. He and Hopper have the copter in crossfire range. By law, if the looters touch the copter, we’re protecting our own valuable goods. Tellan artifacts would qualify as valuable, of course, but we don’t have any in that box. We wouldn’t want to defend that in legal proceedings. But the copter is indisputably valuable.”
Haze got the impression that the Pastfinders were a capable little military force.
Hopper’s shape tensed. His weapon softly spat. Then there were shouts from outside the compound. A crackle came from a communicator in Mercury’s pocket. “Mercury, safe room!” That was Tai’s voice.
Mercury led Haze to a trapdoor in the floor of the observation deck near the rock wall where the deck ended. The trapdoor opened to a ladder. She gestured Haze down ahead of her and shut the trapdoor behind them. Their movement made low lighting come on, showing a windowless space with lockers on one wall, a small bank of equipment on another wall, and a door. “Not even explosions could break this room open and it has hardened comm equipment and water and food.”
“You Pastfinders think of everything,” Haze managed to say.
The door opened and Tai quickly entered the safe room, shutting the door behind her. “There are a gaudy lot of those looters and they’re out for plunder. It’s possible they’d try to kidnap you,” she told Haze. “Old family?”
His head spun. Yes, his family was old Tellan, not to be confused with Old Tellan, and it did make him a kidnap target, though that was a crime situation he’d never actually experienced in his life. He just nodded.
Facing the door, Tai pulled out a small, deadly-looking gun.
“No gaudy great rifle for her!” Mercury whispered approvingly. “That’s a deadly gun and she knows how to use it.”
“Stay back.” Tai faced the door.
Mercury’s communicator and Tai’s both erupted with familiar voices. “Three went after the copter. Two down.” That was Hopper sounding matter-of-fact.
“They broke open the station gate. Seven intruders in the courtyard.” Silk sounded as calm as ever.
“By letting our enemies into the courtyard, they have us right where we want them,” Mercury whispered. Haze found himself holding hands with her.
“Last copter thief down,” Hopper reported.
“Storeroom door hit, it’s holding,” said Ria. “Two intruders down. Intruders running away.”
A few minutes later, Silk said, “Clear in the courtyard.”
“Clear on the landing pad,” came from Hopper.
“No incursions to the storeroom.” That was Ria again.
Tai quickly left the safe room.
Haze felt his adrenaline running high. “They know how to deal with looters.”
“They know how to deal with spies too.” Mercury sounded deadly serious. “Don’t be an enemy spy.”
“I’m not. Just a puzzled bureaucrat.”
The tone of his voice must have told her he was telling the truth. “Don’t be.” She touched his face, pulled him close, and kissed him.
She tasted sweet as honey. He put his arms around her, his arms fitting around her waist as though he’d known her shape forever, and kissed her back eagerly and hard.
4 Complex
Dawn came suddenly here. The sun’s first light flooded through the Rift.
The Pastfinders did a wary sweep of the station and its surroundings, looking for lurking looters or dangerous debris—in particular, explosive debris, their gate having been blown open by the invading looters. With the station and the site declared clean, Silk served kavva to everyone when they gathered outside the gate. It was excellent kavva, possibly made from real beans from the planet Goya.
The sandbox had been overturned, but not stolen, and served Tai as place to sit. “Reports?”
After the night’s danger and then kissing Haze in the dark before dawn, Mercury’s nerves were singing. She exchanged long amazed looks with Haze as they heard accounts of how the fight had gone.
Hopper gestured at the copter. “As soon as they touched it with the first dirty hand, we shot the three coming after it. No injured or dead were anywhere to be found later. Must have been carried away.” He sounded indifferent.
Silk reported, “There’s nothing in the station too damaged too repair. The gate they blew open was the old one we replaced last expedition and rehung late last night.” She gestured. The old gate lay in pieces. The newer and much more impervious gate was already back on the frame. “Mikal did good work with that pike of his,” Silk added. “He brained two of the intruders in our courtyard. I shot one more. The rest ran for it dragging their casualties with them, but we got their leader. He’s in our body bag to deliver to the authorities.”
Haze stared into his strong black kavva. “The Pastfinders make even the biota of Faxe sound harmless,” he murmured. “I’m not a fighter myself.”
“Me either,” Mercury murmured back.
Their eyes met. His hazel-green gaze warmed her heart, like the hot kavva warmed her hands in the cold morning air.
Tai said, “Good work everyone. This close to the release from the lake, that should prevent any more problems from those looters. Today, Hopper, Gerro, Ria and I will go to Site B with Haze. The rest of you stay here. Let’s see what your luck brings next.” She nodded at Mercury.
Mercury wished she could spend the day with Haze. His visit here would be so short! Of course getting him away from here had the desirable effect that any consequential discovery in Site A today need not be known to him, and not reported to the planetary government, either. Mercury understood Tai’s reasoning. She still didn’t want Haze away even for a day.