The Travels of Scout Shannon: Books 4-6

Chapter 3

3

Scout sat on the floor of the space outside the airlock, a dog on a leash close on either side of her. One of the tribunal enforcers had fetched her when they had started their final approach to the planet that was her destination. To her surprise, when she reached the airlock, the rest of the ménage was waiting there for her as if to say good-bye to their guest.

Scout wasn’t sure what form that farewell would take. They were still all just standing and watching her, hands tucked inside their sleeves, faces as blank as ever.

Scout was slipping her glasses up and down her nose to look at the ship around her as she had grown used to seeing it, as a thing of living crystal, and then as it appeared in its unenhanced state, which was nothingness.

The crystal ship was more comforting, but when she was floating in the nothingness, she could more easily see the planet they were approaching.

They drew closer until the white of Schneeheim filled the view below her. Details sharpened the wispy white of clouds against the grayish white of the world below as it gained definition. Some of the gray had more structure, forming long, jagged mountain ranges. The ship settled over the largest of the ranges, matching its orbit to the rotation of the world so that they seemed to be hovering in one place.

The clouds below were dense, only occasionally giving glimpses of something glinting brightly back up at them.

“The harbor ship is approaching,” Warrior told her.

“Harbor ship?” Scout asked.

“This ship is not designed to enter atmosphere, not even the thin atmosphere of the port,” Warrior said. “The harbor ship will bring you the rest of the way down.”

“Just me?” Scout asked. That explained her feeling that the tribunal enforcers were waiting with her to say good-bye. They weren’t going with her.

They weren’t going to be there to explain everything that had happened to Liam’s friends the Torreses. Or to Liam’s family. They weren’t going to be the ones to explain how he came to be arrested.

Scout’s stomach tightened into an anxious fist. She knew it was all her fault. He had broken the barricade just to get to her. He’d had no reason to put his neck out like that except for a feeling of obligation to his galactic marshal partner, the woman who had died saving Scout’s life.

Scout didn’t know how she was going to put half of what she was feeling about all that into words, especially if they were going to be the first words she spoke to strangers. But she was going to have to.

“The harbor ship is close enough for you to see,” Warrior said, and Scout was certain her AI teacher was deliberately distracting her to take her mind off her anxiety. Still, she took the distraction. She wanted to see what a harbor ship looked like before she was inside of it.

Scout leaned forward, palms pressed to the floor beneath her as she peered through the now-invisible hull. The domed city flashed now and again through breaks in the dense cloud cover. She could see the dots of ships clustering around the tops of the towers that protruded beyond the glittering dome.

She scanned the space between her and the city, looking for anything moving her way. It took her some time to find it, but once she had, she gasped out loud.

It was as white as the world behind it, but its surface was sleek against the duller cloud tops. And it was far larger than she had expected. As she tried to make sense of what she was looking at, its floating movement slowed to a halt. Then it jerked and lunged closer, the sudden movement causing the silky surface to ripple.

It was a balloon. She was looking at the top of a truly massive balloon.

A few more jerking lunges and it was even with the side of the tribunal enforcers’ ship, the balloon filling Scout’s view beyond the invisible airlock.

Then the gondola lifted up into view. It reminded her of Bo Tajaki’s ship, its delicate lines reminiscent of boats from the past, if less decorative. Scout could see little rockets in the front and back of the ship firing, angling, and firing again, little bursts as the pilot lined up with the airlock.

“How can they even see what they’re doing?” Scout asked.

“The tribunal enforcers send data to the navigational computers of docking ships. If they didn’t, docking would be nearly impossible,” Warrior told her.

A round port on the side of the gondola began to turn, telescoping out until it met the airlock and attached. Then both doors opened with a whoosh of air and Scout could see down the long telescoped hallway to the interior of the other ship.

A girl about her age was looking back at her, waving a greeting. Her black hair was shaved close to her head, and her arms and legs looked far too thin, as if she were fighting a wasting illness. But her face had a healthy glow and a friendly smile.

“Scout Shannon?” she asked.

“Yes,” Scout said.

“Welcome to the airship Hikosen! I’m Minato. My father Umi and I are here to take you down to the surface. They said you needed a change of clothes. Here!”

She tossed a bundle of clothing. The bundle left her hand in a straight-line trajectory Scout recognized from her times in free fall, but when it reached the edge of the tribunal enforcers’ airlock, it fell to the floor.

“No gravity over there,” Scout said as she reached for the bundle and untied the sleeves of the shirt that had been holding it all together. “Wait a minute—how is there gravity here?” Scout asked. “We’re not spinning.”

“The two Tajaki family dynasty ships you were just on also had artificial gravity that wasn’t generated by spin. Didn’t you notice?” Warrior asked in a particularly teacherly voice.

“No, actually,” Scout said. She could feel her cheeks heating up as she pulled on the leggings and then slipped off the robe the tribunal enforcers had lent her. Not that she was embarrassed to be naked; the AI and her dogs were the only ones looking at her, and they had seen her naked before.

No, she was embarrassed because she should have noticed about the spin. Of course, she had never seen the outside of the Months’ ship, and she had only seen Bo’s ship after she had left it. It made sense that she assumed they were spinning wheels or cylinders like the space stations she had been on.

“This is common, then? Artificial gravity?” Scout asked as she pulled on the tunic-length shirt and adjusted her belt over it.

“Not really,” Warrior said. “The Tajaki trade dynasty is the richest in the galaxy, and the tribunal enforcers have government funding. But the technology is spreading.”

“No gravity on the harbor ship, though,” Scout said.

“No. And remember the planet itself has far less gravitational pull than you are accustomed to,” Warrior reminded her.

Scout folded up the robe and held it out to the tribunal enforcers. The nearest stepped forward to take it, then they all bowed together. Scout returned the gesture, feeling awkward. She could have made it look more regal if she’d still been in the robe, but the floral-patterned leggings and pastel tunic didn’t have the same gravitas.

She missed her own clothes. The leggings didn’t even have any pockets, and the shoes were little more than slippers.

At least she still had her belt. She buckled it around her hips, adjusting the double straps to sit one around her waist and the other lower on her hips. The pouches were all bulging, stuffed with everything she owned in the universe.

“Come on, dogs,” Scout said, picking up their leashes to lead them down the airlock. They were nervous until the moment they saw the ship’s interior before them, then they surged forward, anxious to return to a world that made sense around them. Scout skipped to keep up.

Then the dogs reached the end of the artificial gravity and went sailing through the air, pulling the now-weightless Scout after them while they followed diverging trajectories, making a V shape out of their leashes.

Minato caught Gert in her thin arms before she could collide with a computer panel. She slowed Gert’s momentum without tumbling away herself or even losing the two-fingered grip she maintained in the doorway. Scout hadn’t spent a lot of time in microgravity, but she had spent enough to appreciate this girl’s mastery of moving in it.

“Sorry,” Scout said as she pulled Shadow into her own arms to keep him contained. “They’ve been in free fall before, but I don’t think they ever really got used to it.”

Minato hugged Gert close to her side. Gert tried to twist around to see who was holding her. She was far more suspicious of strangers than Shadow, but she wasn’t doing her low-pitched warning growl, and the hair on her back was smooth and flat, not rankled up. Still, she wasn’t going to be satisfied until she was free, and she squirmed mightily.

She was a big girl. Minato’s thin arms must be stronger than they looked.

“One of the other harbor pilots has an old shaggy dog, but he doesn’t have nearly as much energy as these two,” Minato said to Scout. She turned Gert around and set her moving down the long hallway that ran perpendicular to the airlock. Then she propelled herself gently across the room to lean past Scout and close the door behind her. Scout managed to half raise her hand in one last farewell to the tribunal enforcers who had rescued her before the outer door clanged shut. Then Minato closed the inner hatch, and Scout could hear the harbor ship’s connecting tube telescoping shut, metallic pings and grinds echoing around her.

“Come on,” Minato said from the doorway. “It’s more comfortable in the cabin.”

“Okay,” Scout said, tucking Shadow under her arm and following Minato down the hallway, past a pair of closed doors to the main cabin at the front of the ship.

Screens showed the world around them, the crystal ship defined by the ship’s computer in green lines connecting points that were defined by strings of numbers that changed as the ship receded. The planet’s atmosphere dominated the screens before them, the tops of the towers under the city dome hidden in the clouds but also defined by the computer by outlines and numerical values.

Gert was hovering near something in the front of the cabin, something like a ball covered in long shanks of hair resting on top of a large, round tank that was anchored to the floor with retractable legs.

Then the ball moved to look up at Gert, and Scout realized it was a man’s head. Everything from the man’s earlobes down was inside of the tank. Lights were flashing in panels on the sides of the tank, and a small screen occasionally updated a list of data, adding a new line to the bottom and pushing everything else up one line every moment or two. Was it medical equipment, or something necessary to pilot the ship?

Because the tank was positioned where all the screens were converging. He had to be the one controlling things. The pilot, Minato’s father, Umi. But how could he with his hands and mouth out of view? Did he have controls unseen inside the tank?

“You’re lucky; there are no storms today. Pretty calm winds,” Minato said as she brushed past Scout to look at something on one of the panels. She made an adjustment and moved on to the next panel. “It’s a short trip. We just have to sink down to match altitude and then glide in.”

“I’ve never been on a balloon before,” Scout said. She didn’t feel like they were sinking, probably because she was still floating weightless in the air. Minato went to her father’s side and murmured something to him as she caught hold of Gert, then towed the big black dog back to Scout.

“They are pretty unique to Schneeheim as harbor ships,” Minato said, pushing Gert over to Scout. She hooked a foot around a handle set in the floor so she could remain near Scout and the dogs. Scout had an arm around each dog, which left no hands to spare to hold herself steady. Minato caught her elbow to gently hold her in place.

Scout felt like she was being assessed and guessed that while Umi piloted the craft, Minato made sure the passengers were comfortable. She gave Scout a reassuring smile and continued speaking. “Schneeheim was very volcanic in its past. At the same time, it’s so small its gravity is only about a third of standard. That makes for huge mountains. The tallest peak is nearly higher than the atmosphere here at the port city. Perfect for high-altitude airships. Airships combine balloons, where the atmosphere is thick enough to float, with small rockets for where it’s not.”

“This is only the second planet I’ve been to,” Scout admitted.

“Me too,” Minato said with a sudden smile. “I was born on Agate, nearer to Galactic Central. I haven’t been back there since I was eight, though. I can’t handle full gravity for long, and my father not at all. But don’t worry, I can manage just fine on Schneeheim. I’ll be taking you through processing and handing you off to the Torreses, who are waiting for you.”

“You know the Torreses?” Scout asked. Relief started to bubble up inside her. She could ask Minato all about them, get a sense of who they were before she met them. But then Minato shook her head, and that momentary feeling of relief evaporated in a flash.

“Not personally,” Minato said. “They arranged for my father and me to pick you up. The tribunal enforcers don’t really talk, you know.”

“Yes, I know,” Scout said. She must have sounded more miserable than she felt because Minato’s hand on her elbow gave her a little squeeze.

“Long journey?” she guessed. “It’s nearly done, and I’ll be with you the rest of the way. You’re not alone here.”

Scout mustered up a smile and hugged her dogs. Clearly, that silent journey had been too long, leaving her too much time to worry. The Torreses were Liam’s friends and had put themselves at risk just as he had done, all to get Scout off her world before festering hostilities erupted into outright war. They had to be good people.

Scout just wasn’t used to depending on others. It felt unnatural to have to do it now. But she knew she wasn’t alone.

Of course, she had the dogs. The three of them would get through all this together, even if two of them didn’t actually know what was going on. It was a comfort just having them there with her.

No one with dogs was ever alone.