Chapter 6  – Will-O-Wisp

“I thought you said there was plenty of fuel left,” Ulran said as Merley sat the sled down next to the orange tarp used on most mining claims to cover solid fuel stores. The crumpled tarp lay next to several empty palettes.

“I said there could be fuel. I didn’t say I was sure,” Ulran defended. “We don’t need much, anyway. A kilogram would more than do it.”

“It’s not what you said,” Merley replied, pulling the atmo reclamation lever next to the batwing styled door of the ore-sled. Priloe’s ears, even though protected by a vac-suit, popped as the sled withdrew the precious oxygen and nitrogen mixture.

“I see some from here.” Ulran pushed the opposite door open and a small amount of remaining atmo expanded into the surrounding vacuum.

Priloe followed Ulran through the door. He marveled at how the boy negotiated the arc-jets of his suit, gliding easily over the surface of the asteroid. He was grateful for the time he’d spent with Silver playing podway, but though he wasn’t entirely lost, he wasn’t anywhere near as agile as either of his companions.

Merley had already caught up with Ulran where the two were inspecting one of the pallets. “Told you,” Ulran said to his brother, pointing at something Priloe couldn’t make out.

Too late, Priloe realized he’d applied too much thrust to his AGBs. He swung his arms forward to activate the glove’s jets in an attempt to arrest momentum.

“Whoa there.” Merley looked up just in time, grabbing Priloe’s outstretched arms. “Too much! You’re over-adjusting. Stop a minute,” Merley instructed calmly as the two of them tumbled away from the asteroid.

Priloe had to fight the instinctive terror of being out of control.

“Looks like someone needs time in the pod-ball court.” Merley gently chided as he corrected their flight and brought them back to where Ulran was transferring the end of a cracked brick of crystalized fuel into a mesh pouch.

“No pod-ball on Grünholz?” Ulran asked.

Priloe knew his face was flushed with embarrassment and was thankful for the poor light of the asteroid. “Zero-g is kind of a new thing for me.”

“Let’s check out that ship,” Ulran said, having already moved past the conversation.

“What about whatever Priloe saw?” Merley asked.

“It was probably a reflection from the sled’s lights. Nothing could be living here. We’d know about it.”

“How?”

“There are no ships. No fuel for mining. No ore piles.” Ulran looked back at his brother. “What? Someone or something is just hanging around looking to eat curious kids who want to check out broken down old ships? That’s stupid and I’m going,” he said. “You coming, Priloe?”

Priloe recognized that he was being used as leverage between the two and knew better than to take sides. “I’m in for whatever you guys want to do.”

“See, Priloe isn’t scared,” Ulran taunted.

“I didn’t say I was scared. I said we should be careful,” Merley retorted, releasing Priloe and flying off in the direction of the broken ship.

Ulran pushed off in his brother’s wake. “Bring the sled Priloe. We’ll need good light.”

Priloe bounded across the surface of the asteroid and jumped through the still open hatch. His AI, having listened to the exchange, pulled up his flight checklist and he quickly checked off the items.

“Hey, are you coming?” Merley called over the comm channel.

Priloe knew better than to admit to the preflight. “I’ll be right there. I’m just being careful.” He skipped the last two items on the list and slowly lifted the craft from the surface of the asteroid. He’d spent enough time helping Big Pete with other machinery that the ore sled, while heavier, didn’t give him too much trouble. Slowly, he turned toward the broken-down ship and closed the distance.

“Where do you want me?” Priloe asked.

“At the bow, put the lights through the armor glass. If we can’t get the systems on, it’ll give us the best visibility,” Merley responded.

It took him three passes to orient the sled just as he wanted, but finally he had the powerful beams of the forward lights illuminating the glass at the bow of the broken ship.

“Twenty meters long,” Merley said. “Hardly a ship you’d want to bring all the way out here.”

“You find a make yet?” Ulran asked.

“No. AI hasn’t ever run across this before. Definitely not Sol-based manufacturer,” Merley said.

“All the writing is Russian,” Ulran said.

“Sounds like Oberrhein to me,” Priloe added as he joined the brothers by the airlock. “How are we getting in?”

“Just waiting for you. We need someone who can squeeze in the side here,” Ulran pointed at a rent in skin of the ship, a meter forward of one of the ship’s two top-mounted engines. “We’re too big to fit, but we think you would.”

Priloe looked at the boys. He doubted there was more than five kilograms separating the three of them, but this was his chance to prove himself. A nagging feeling made him question the validity of what he was doing. He’d ignored those types of feeling enough times. Each ensuing consequence had been survivable, but without exception, he’d come to regret it. He just wished he knew what was causing the feeling. It was like he’d forgotten something.

“What do I do once I’m in?” Priloe asked.

Ulran smiled. “See. I told you he’d go for it.”

“You don’t have to, Priloe,” Merley said. “But if you do, you just need to use the manual release on the airlock from the inside so we can get in and out.”

Priloe turned and without hesitation slipped through the broken metal. While he might not be physically smaller than the Licht boys, he wasn’t the least bit uncomfortable in tight spots. What most people feared, Priloe had often turned to his advantage.

The first thing he noticed as he pulled himself through the twisted metal was that he wasn’t the first person to have used this particular entrance. It was a detail he was not unaccustomed to looking for and, in this case, the bent back edges of sharp steel were a dead giveaway. It wasn’t necessarily a problem. The ship had obviously been wrecked for quite a while and the likelihood of finding someone at home was low. The niggling memory of movement when they’d first passed over the ship still played through his mind and he fought to not allow fear to direct his actions.

“What are you seeing?” Ulran asked.

Priloe breathed out. He wasn’t used to someone talking to him while he steadied his nerves. He decided not to share what he’d learned about the entrance, at least for the moment.

“Not much,” Priloe grunted as he finally floated free into the debris-cluttered engine room. Every direction he turned, he ended up running into another piece of junk, causing it to fly off away from him and run into something else. “Pretty messy is all. I’m working my way forward.” He’d stopped all of the junk from bouncing around and had discovered, if he flew low, he could avoid the majority of what remained.

“What if Priloe saw a Will-O-Wisp?” Merley asked, his voice a low and sinister whisper.

“You’re stupid,” Ulran said. “That’s just a stupid, old tale.”

“What are you talking about?” Priloe asked as he worked on a closed hatch, using the manual wheel to open it as his AI had instructed. Initially, Priloe was afraid he wouldn’t be successful, the wheel refusing to move. Finding a length of steel, he was able to wedge it in and finally open the hatch. A small plume of atmo escaped into the compartment where he had been working to free the door.

“A Will-O-Wisp is an old-wives’ tale,” Ulran said. “Lights made to lure the curious into bad places. Mom reads these fairy tales to us to try and scare us.”

“How do you know it’s not true?” Merley asked.

Priloe smiled. He’d witnessed a dozen similar arguments already. “I’m at the airlock,” he said, looking at the lock. “I’m working on the first door.” Unlike in the engine room, the primary airlock’s manual handle spun easily. Leaving the first door open, Priloe set to work on the exterior and soon, it swung inward.

“Did you see that?” Merley asked.

“I sure did,” Ulran said. “Someone left it pressurized? Did you have to reclaim the atmo, Priloe?”

“No. Are you talking about the puff of air?”

“Yes!” The twins exclaimed together.

“I ran into the same thing at the back of the ship in the engine room,” he replied.

“So, it wasn’t pressurized?” Merley asked.

“No. Not at all,” Priloe answered. “What’s the big deal. Atmo was trapped inside and settled. Right?”

The twins exchanged looks and finally Ulran shrugged. “I guess that’s it. You just don’t expect to see that if something has been sitting empty.”

“What’s with all the crap?” Merley asked.

“Someone’s here,” Priloe said.

“Now, don’t you be getting all spooky on me too,” Ulran said.

“No. When I came through that hallway, none of that junk was moving,” Priloe said, pointing down the passageway.

“Frak.” Ulran dove toward the airlock. “Tell me you locked down the ore-sled!”

07 – Theft

“Hey, get away from there,” Merley broadcast over the public comm channel. There was no guarantee that the figure rustling around in the cab of the large ore-sled was even listening, but it was worth a try.

Security lockout, Hoffen ore-sled. Attempted hijack in progress, Ulran ordered, close on his brother’s heels, Priloe not far behind. A red light flashed inside the cockpit and a head poked up over the controls, peering out.

“He’s making a run for it,” Merley exclaimed as the vac-suited figure jumped free of the sled on the opposite side and blue arc-jet cones brightly lit his retreat.

“Don’t, Merley,” Ulran called after his brother, following more slowly.

It was an all too familiar scene for Priloe. Attempted theft, followed by a chase.  He wondered if his newfound friends had considered what they’d do once they caught the would-be thief. Life on the streets, however, had taught him one important lesson and that was not to be drawn away by emotion. Big Pete’s ore-sled was considerably more valuable than catching whoever they’d run across and he wasn’t about to put it at risk.

Upon entering the ore-sled, Priloe acknowledged a prompt on his HUD to squelch the alarm Ulran initiated. Struggling to slow his panicked thoughts, he reasoned that the first order of business was to secure the sled and he scrambled to pull the doors closed, locking them as he did. Second order was to retrieve Ulran and Merley. If they were being led into danger, the ore-sled might help.

Without strapping on the harness, he pulled the sled from the ground and spun it in the direction the boys had taken.

Locate Ulran and Merley. Provide a good route to them, Priloe requested. He cursed himself under his breath, unable to remember the words he’d so often heard Silver use to bring up the directional indicators.

Two diamond-shaped reticles appeared in his HUD with textual tags beneath, reading Ulran and Merley. They’d disappeared around the curvature of the asteroid and Priloe’s heart pounded in his ears as he urged the large ore-sled forward, digging one of its legs into the rough surface of the asteroid.

“Ulran, what’s going on?” Priloe asked once he leveled out his flight, gaining altitude to avoid an approaching swell.

“We lost him,” Merley replied. “Did he take anything?”

“I’m not sure,” Priloe answered. “I’m headed your way.”

Priloe breathed a sigh of relief when the two boys appeared over the top of a hill, heading his direction. Setting the sled down, he released the lock on the starboard door and directed it to open. Once Ulran and Merley were aboard, he lifted from the surface of the asteroid, slowly moving back to where the scuttled ship lay in ruin.

“What the frak!?” Merley laughed. “That was insane.” He punched his brother on the shoulder.

“Did you get a look at him?” Priloe asked.

“No. Whoever it was can scoot,” Merley replied.

“He trashed the cockpit,” Ulran announced, holding up an empty box of loose fittings. “Everything’s dumped all over the floor back here.”

Priloe leaned back, looking over the shared seat and took in what Ulran had already observed. “He was looking for something. Is there anything missing?”

“Like we’d know,” Ulran said. “Help me clean up.”

“We better get back,” Merley said. “Remember, no word of this to Silver or Pete. Right, Priloe?”

“It’s between us,” Priloe agreed.

“At least I picked up enough fuel to cover our trip,” Merley said, pulling the small corner of the fuel brick he’d found from the mesh pouch hanging from his waist.

“You guys see my drink pouch?” Ulran asked from the back seat.

“Where’d you leave it?” Merley replied. “Weren’t you sitting up here?”

“Look in the door,” Ulran said, still shuffling around, scooping parts back into overturned boxes.

“You won’t find it,” Priloe said.

“Why?”

“My meal bar and water pouch are gone too. Think about it, without a working ship, where would they come up with O2, food and water?” Priloe asked.

“Seriously? That’s messed up. You can’t leave someone without that, they’d die.”

“Making them pretty desperate,” Priloe answered.

“We’ve gotta help ’em,” Ulran said.

“Are you ready to tell Dad and Big Pete we came over here?” Merley asked. “You know what Dad would do to us.”

“But, we can’t leave someone to die,” Ulran said.

“Then we figure this out before we say anything,” Merley answered. “I’m not getting my butt kicked for no good reason. It’s not our fault there’s someone down there.”

“Doesn’t let us off the hook, either,” Ulran answered.

“What do you think, Priloe?” Merley asked.

“We don’t know anything, right now,” Priloe reasoned. “But, I’ve seen plenty of squatters in my life and that ship looked like someone had been living in it. What if we brought supplies back? Would that be so bad? We wouldn’t have to tell anyone.”

“We better get that ore delivered back to the Co-Op,” Merley said. “After that, maybe we could take one of our own sleds. At lease we wouldn’t have to worry about Big Pete getting involved.”

“Right, like Dad’s not enough,” Ulran said. “We come back tomorrow after our shift or I’m outing the whole deal.”

“You think you could convince Silver to let you stay with us tonight?” Merley asked, flicking a navigation path to a shocked Priloe.

“You’re going to let me fly it back?” Priloe asked.

“Just take it slow and conserve on fuel,” Merley answered.

Unwinding their route back to the Licht homestead, Priloe thought about the events of the last hour. Where he came from, things would have ended much differently. The conversation wouldn’t be about how to save the person, but rather how to take advantage of them.

“That’s the container we’re supposed to fill.” Ulran highlighted a steel container on the asteroid in front of them. “Let me load. I can make up for lost time.”

Priloe agreed and put the ore-sled down next to machines that sat in a neat line. Ulran hopped on the grav-sled and made quick work of the designated pile of ore. Priloe marveled at how efficiently the boy moved the machine back and forth.

“I’ll pick it up and you can fly it back,” Merley said as he took over the controls and deftly positioned the sled atop the container, snugging it to the bigger ore-sled’s ribs.

Twenty minutes after arriving, they were off again, sailing to the Co-Op where they quickly unloaded the container and made their way back to where they’d left the remainder of their family.

“Remember, not a word,” Merley said. “Silver used to be a teacher. She’ll smell it if you’re weak. Best to know what you’re going to say when she asks what took us so long.”

“They’re back,” Pete announced as the three boys re-entered the room. “How’d it go, Priloe?”

“You boys play nice?” Annalise asked before he could answer.

“It was great,” Priloe answered.

“Actually, Mom, we were wondering if Priloe could spend the night. We want to show him that new game we got,” Merley offered.

“I don’t see why not,” Annalise replied. “As long as you finish your chores and Priloe is back in time to get his work done.”

“You could leave Wilma with us tonight,” Silver said. “She and Milenette are getting along so well.”

“You want us to empty the container and take it back?” Merley asked.

“Who are you and what have you done with my son?” Annalise asked.

“I was just thinking we could go play the game now instead of waiting for you guys to get done talking.”

“We were just about done,” Annalise said.

Pete grinned at the boys. “Won’t hurt to let them take the container back.”

“That was pretty slick,” Ulran said once they’d reattached the container and were flying back to the Licht claim. “Do you want to run over there now?”

“No way. You heard Mom, they’ll be coming home soon. We have to play it cool, Ullie,” Merley replied. “Besides, I really do want to play that game.”

Ulran punched his brother’s helmet. “I told you not to call me that.”

“What? Are you crazy? I’m flying. Take the frakking helm, Priloe.” Without further warning, Merley jumped from his seat and piled into the back where his brother eagerly awaited.