Pit Stop Read online

  Pit Stop

  Rebecca A. Demarest

  Published by Rebecca A. Demarest, 2018.

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  PIT STOP

  First edition. October 15, 2018.

  Copyright © 2018 Rebecca A. Demarest.

  ISBN: 978-1386162278

  Written by Rebecca A. Demarest.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Pit Stop

  About the Author

  The mass of tangled wires on Maevis’s workbench twitched as she yanked a capacitor out. “Oh hush, you’ll be right as rain in a moment.” She had just picked up the soldering gun and wire to put in the new part when the alert on her long-range communicator pinged. Touching the activator patch on her right shoulder, she smiled and answered. “You’ve got Mama Maevis, refueling station Airco. Who’s the rascal on my frequency today?”

  “Mayday, mayday, God, is that even right, do you say that on a spaceship?” The link was tinny and breaking up, but Maevis could hear the panic in the male voice on the other end of the connection.

  She dropped her tools and launched her chair across the room to the company computer array, earning a displeased yap from the Jack Russell terrier that had been sleeping in the middle of the floor. “Good enough, partner. What’s your location and status?” She typed in a few commands to access the map of who was in the area.

  “I...I don’t know where I am exactly. Janice was navigating, and she’s...she’s hurt pretty bad. I stopped the bleeding, but she won’t wake up. God, I’m a dead man.”

  Whoever was on the line, he wasn’t one of their long-distance haulers; they didn’t hire people as shakeable as this. “What’s your name, son?”

  “Tim. Timothy. Please, can you help me?”

  “Okay, Tim, take a look at the board in front of you, you should see a line of numbers somewhere on the console. Do you see them?”

  “No, I, yes, yes, there they are.” He read them off to Maevis and she charted them into the system. He was not on any of the approved flight paths, but was pretty close to her refueling station, less than a day by thrusters.

  “Very good, Tim. Now, can you tell me what happened? Do you have atmospherics, control?”

  “I’m not sure. The alarms stopped sounding right before I figured out how to make this stupid radio work. I’ve never even been in a spaceship before this, Janice was the one...”

  “Alright, I gotcha. Just listen to Mama Maevis. We’ll get you down safe. I’m going to give you a list of things to try, do you think you can do that for me?”

  He agreed readily and Maevis closed her eyes, envisioning a standard navigational panel. Running him through a checklist of specs, she determined he was in one of the high speed runners, designed to carry people fast and who didn’t need to bring much with them. It wasn’t a company standard, but she thought she could talk him through resetting the auto-pilot. After a half hour of instructions, she had the ship locked onto her beacon and coming in for a landing. As she hurried out to the refueling dock to prep the catch pad, Maevis conviced Tim to get his shipmate Janice down to the autodoc.

  “Have you got the doc activated?” she asked him.

  “What seems to be the emergency?”

  Maevis grimaced at the memory the quasi-human voice woke in her, but she gritted her teeth, hauled the fueling cables over to the enormous anti-grav net, and started hooking them up.

  “Her leg, it’s just been...crushed.”

  It seemed morbid to be listening in on the kid’s conversation with the machine, but Maevis didn’t want to disconnect her link until she had them safely planetside. There was no telling if she’d be able to get the connection back.

  “I see. I will do what I can.” Maevis knew that line. That was the line the docs were programmed to respond with when the situation wasn’t great. She remembered hearing the same thing right before the damn butcher had taken her right arm and a good chunk of her right ribcage. At least the technology had improved since then. Maybe this one would be able to save the girl.

  The last fueling cable didn’t want to engage, but with a flick of her carbon-steel fingers, it snapped into place. “Tim, I need you to go back to the control room for me.”

  “But Janice—”

  “The doc is taking care of Janice. I need you to give me your coordinates again so I can get the net aimed.” She didn’t, really, but she did not want this boy watching Janice get her leg amputated and the standard cyber-interface installed. They didn’t carry limbs shipboard, but every ship carried the interfaces because accidents happen, and the faster the interface was installed, the more likely the cybernetic prosthesis would work.

  The boy read out his coordinates again and Maevis hurried back to her workstation to get the net up and running. Whatever ship these two were in was fast. A lot faster than anything in the company’s fleet.

  Maevis had just gotten the emergency net up and active when she heard the proximity alerts sound. It was a good thing she didn’t have any company ships docked right now or she’d have had to clear them out for this. There was no telling what shape this kid’s ship was in, or whether it would hold up to the impact of landing, or how much damage it would do to her little asteroid. She crossed her fingers and prayed silently to whatever gods would listen to get her through this one alive.

  “Tim, buckle yourself in, I don’t know how rough your landing is going to be. I’m going to lose our connection here as you enter the approach path because of the net, but I’ll be waiting for you on the dock. I’ll have a lei in one hand and a mimosa in the other.”

  “Sounds good, see you...” His voice crackled out and Maevis hurried to the window and raised the bamboo shades to watch as his ship streaked across the sky and fell straight towards the net. The terrier that had been asleep on the floor leapt to the bench at the window to watch with her.

  “Better take cover, Angus,” Maevis whispered, but the dog ignored her as usual. The two of them watched the ship tumble until it hit the anti-grav net and slowed, just enough that when it finally hit the water, it was hardly more than a love tap.

  Maevis decided to leave the field on until she could determine how badly the ship was damaged and hurried down to the docks, though not before snagging her long-sleeved shirt and gloves from the hook by the door. The haulers joked that she was trying to protect her pretty skin from the harsh sun of her pit stop, and she never bothered to correct their misconception.

  She struggled into the extra clothes as she skidded down the trail to the docks, and hit the boards just as the hatch popped on the ship and a young man in his late twenties tumbled out. She steadied him, gave him a once over, and took his chin in her hand to study his face for any signs of trauma. Satisfied he was in one piece, she leaped through the entryway and ran straight to the control room to ensure that the ship wasn’t getting ready to blow and take them with it. Getting to know Tim better would just have to wait.

  “So, Tim, can you tell me what happened?” Maevis studied panel after panel, but couldn’t see anything amiss in the sensors.

  “We were going along just fine...Janice had it all under control when we had an alert about something in the engine room and she went to check it out. All of a sudden I heard this really loud bang and ran back to check and found her pinned under a giant canister.”

  “Show me.”

  She could tell by the way he moved through the tight corridors that he was used to the big open hallways of one of the central planets: he huddled and shied from the bulkheads, unsure where they actually were in relation to his body. Maevis stood tall; they hadn’t made a corridor yet that could challenge her five-foot-two height.

  The engine room was a mess; she couldn’t believe that there hadn’t been any alarms or alert lights on in the cockpit with the amount of chaos she was seeing. But as she looked more closely at the primary drive mechanisms, it became clear that what she was seeing was mostly spare parts that should have been stored around the room. The drive itself was still contentedly humming away in standby. As a precaution, Maevis shut it down completely before heading down to the autodoc’s bay.

  While they walked, Tim kept up a stream of commentary of theories that Maevis mostly ignored, since he obviously couldn’t explain what had happened any better than she could figure out. She’d spent years tending these ships on long-haul supply missions before her accident and they weren’t much different now. But for the life of her, she couldn’t tell what had happened in that room. There was no sign of a failure on the part of the engine—it was fully intact, but the room had definitely suffered some sort of explosion.

  When the two of them reached the bay, Janice was already lying sedated in one of the recovery bays, a blanket neatly covering her up. Even with the blanket, it was obvious that one of her legs was much shorter than it should have been. Tim went to the patient’s side and took up one of her hands, anxiously stroking the young girl’s hair. There was almost ten years difference between the two of them and Maevis couldn’t help but wonder why the two of them had been on the ship together, alone, and she prayed the young girl was Tim’s sister.

  “Doc, how is she?” Maevis couldn’t bring herself to lift the blanket and check for herself.

  The screen on the autodoc flickered to life. “Successful amputation and implantation below the right knee. Small contusion on back of head, presumably suffered in a fall after being struck in the leg. Stable, no concussion
, expect a full recovery.”

  Of what’s left, Maevis mentally added. “Is it safe to take her off ship?”

  “Off ship? Why do we need to get off the ship?” Tim looked panicked and tightened his grip on Janice’s hand.

  “She is stable and is secured for transport.”

  “Thanks, doc, I’ll take good care of her. You, get the gurney up and running. We need to secure the ship and get landside ’cause I don’t particularly feel like hanging around a ship that just had an unexplained explosion, do you?”

  “Point taken. I’ll get her up.” He hesitated briefly as he reached to tuck his arm under where her shin should have been, but then swallowed and picked her up, ever so gently, and placed her on the hovering plank at his side.

  Maevis led the way back out of the ship and onto the dock, helping Tim maneuver the unwieldy anti-grav gurney. After they were cleared, Maevis punched in the code for a high-level stasis field, just in case anything else on the ship felt like exploding. She’d rather not have to rebuild her refueling dock...again.

  She gave a piercing whistle and waited as the trees along the shore thrashed before giving way before Bessie. It was a good thing Maevis had a hand on the gurney, because Tim shouted and just about knocked Janice into the water at the sight of the island’s five-foot-tall robot arachnid caretaker.

  “Yes, Mama Maevis?” Bessie’s voice was much more natural than the autodoc’s since Maevis had programmed it herself, modeled after old-world actress Marilyn Monroe.

  “Bessie, love, can you go get guest rooms one and two all open and aired out? Make sure the good sheets are on the beds.”

  “Sure thing, Mama Maevis.” The machine briefly scanned the gurney, then turned back to her maker. “You’ll be needing your scanner and kit then?”

  “Thanks, Bessie, you’re a doll.” Maevis started dragging the gurney up the dock and Bessie kept pace long enough to reply, “And you’re a peach!” before clattering off up to the house.

  “What the hell is that thing?” Tim had recovered himself well enough to steady Janice’s head as they started the hike up from the beach to Maevis’s home and the island’s command center.

  “Well, it was the island’s repair drone when I got here. But it was just so depressed with the limiters on it, so I took off the AI dampeners and gave her the legs. She picked the voice herself though. Her name is Bessie.” Maevis smiled, remembering the robot’s first teetering steps and excited giggling.

  “And she picked that name herself as well?”

  “Oh, no, that’s just a shortening of her designation, Build and Servicer, Series E.”

  Tim stopped as they reached the top of the trail, frowning. “Isn’t it illegal to remove AI limiters?”

  Maevis made a rude noise. “They’re like intentionally brain-damaging a child. I won’t stand for them. Besides, what kind of harm could Bessie do out here on the ass-end of the galaxy? She’s more likely to commit suicide out of boredom by leaping into that forsaken ocean covering this asteroid than she is to try and take over humanity. Now, let’s get your girl here inside and comfortable, shall we?”

  Her reasoning didn’t seem to comfort the young man, but that didn’t bother Maevis. She’d been questioned by the company before regarding her decision, but they seemed more interested in watching the robot’s development in this controlled environment than they were in fining her for her indiscretion.

  Bessie had just finished prepping the guest rooms when they reached the house, and she graciously bowed them into the room nearest Maevis’s own. “I’ll just go run and get your kit, b-r-b!” she trilled, and off she went again.

  “Here, on three...” Maevis held Janice’s shoulders, making sure to support her head on her forearms, and the two of them gently placed the girl on the bed. Tim started to adjust the blanket to more fully cover her, but Maevis stopped him. “I’ve got to start by taking some measurements.”

  She steeled herself a moment before pulling back the blanket. The girl’s whole left leg, from just below the knee, had been completely severed. “Well, the good news is, she can still work on a ship if she wants to.” Maevis took the bag that Bessie brought in and pulled out her holo-scanner.

  Tim paused in his anxious pacing in the doorway. “I’m sorry, what?”

  “Less than ten percent’ll be mech. If she wants to work shipboard, the company will let her. If she passes the tests, that is. And if she still wants to after this.”

  He laughed, harsh and hard. “If her father ever lets her out of his sight again. But I doubt he’d have let her fly for the company even if she hadn’t pulled this stunt.”

  Maevis carefully didn’t look up from her scanning. “So who’s she to you then, if you’re not her father?”

  “Not what you’re thinking, I promise you that.” Tim slumped into the wicker chair at the window. “She’s my student.”

  “Your student.” The holo-scanner beeped and she flicked on the display to get the measurements for Janice’s new leg.

  “She is the daughter of Viceroy Collins of Theseus. I’m her tutor. And right now? Her hostage.” He groaned and slumped forward, dropping his head into his hands. “I am so dead. Take her to see the shipyard, he said. Maybe it’ll show her ships are big and dirty and not for little girls, he said.”

  Maevis pulled a carbon-steel rod from her bag and started marking lengths on it. “Considering you’re all the way out here and she was piloting a ship, I take it that didn’t go over so well?”

  Tim snorted and ran his hands through his hair. “She talked them into giving her a ride on the new prototype courier vessel. Then, as I’m throwing up in the toilet like the terrible spaceman I am, she knocks the pilot out, barricades me in the bathroom, and doesn’t let me out until she’s already launched the poor sap in an escape pod with a note to her father informing him that she’s running away.”

  “Wait, if you were just up for a trial run, did you guys get swept for hydrogen ticks before you left?”

  “Hydrogen what?”

  “Well, shit. That’s why you had an explosion. You left Theseus without a tick sweep. Hold on a minute.” Maevis let out two separate whistles and within moments both Bessie and Angus were in the doorway. “We’ve got a tick ship at dock. Angus, guard.” The little dog ran off, barking until he was answered by several other canine voices. “Bessie, can you get the rest of the crew and sweep the island? Full spectrum.”

  “Yes, Mama Maevis, right away.” Bessie took off at a trot and a few moments later was followed out the front door by an assortment of mechanical beasties.

  “Were those...more Bessies?” The look on his face was begging for a “no” answer, and Maevis was tempted to say yes. She never understood why people found the poor machine so frightening. She was sweet when you got to know her.

  “No, those were other bots I’ve got programmed up to help around this place. I think the chef, the landscaper, and the maid, so it looks like dinner is going to be my responsibility tonight. Hope you like omelettes, ’cause that’s about all I’m rated to cook.” Maevis went back to the task of measuring and cutting the carbon-steel rod in her lap. As soon as she had it trimmed down, she mounted it in the socket of the interface on Janice’s leg. Using the holo-scanner for a quick measure, she confirmed it was the right length to form the skeleton of the girl’s new leg, then took the rod off and gathered her tools. “Come on, let’s let the poor girl sleep and I’ll make us something to eat.”

  Tim didn’t eat much of the omelette Maevis made, but she wasn’t too offended. It seemed like the man had a lot on his plate, and her appetite probably would have deserted her too, if she was in his place. When it was clear he was going to fall asleep over the dining table, Maevis led him back to his room and ordered him to bed, offering her usual array of sleeping supplements. It was sometimes hard for the company men to fall asleep landside after being accustomed to sleeping in the reduced gravity of their ships, so she had quite the selection. But he refused, thanking her before closing the door. Maevis went back to tidy the kitchen, then headed to her workroom with her kit and worked late into the night on Janice’s new leg. She only took one break to go out and check on the status of the tick hunt.