She nodded. “Thanks.” Then Dred turned to the unit herself. “The air pallet won’t fit in the access shafts. Is there a working maintenance lift?”
It was a good question. From the look of the bot, he didn’t have the physical capability to go up and down ladders himself. So there must be another way if he serviced decks higher up.
“The lift is on the second level of Salvage and Operations, opposite the supervisor’s office.”
“Sweet Mary,” Einar swore. “That’s the best news we’ve had all day.”
Wills frowned at the big man. “On the contrary. It was better when I reprogrammed R-17 and got him to follow new protocols. And we just received more exciting news still.”
“What?” Dred demanded.
“I didn’t like the idea of leaving the bay unsecured, but I couldn’t figure out how to manage it. If we take the lift, directly from the bay, I can leave the force field on.”
“Protecting our interests in here,” Jael concluded.
Though he pretended to be crazy as a bag of rats back in Queensland, Wills was turning out to be smart as hell. Jael offered the other man a sincere salute, two fingers to the brow.
“Why don’t we take the lifts more?” he asked.
Dred angled a look at him. “They don’t work without an override key. And even if we had a key, in most cases, they’re in such poor repair that we might fall, get trapped—”
“I take your point. This one’s fine, though, because 17’s been using it and keeping it up?”
“Yes,” Wills answered. “It’s also the only lift to which he has override codes, as he uses it to patrol and maintain his section of the ship.”
Einar frowned. “I wish Tam was here. He knows Perdition better than anyone. I’m not sure where we’ll come out, and I’d like to be ready.”
“Just assume we’ll have to cut a path back to Queensland,” Jael advised.
“Probably not far off the mark. You feeling strong, mate?” The big man came over and slapped him on the shoulder.
His affection hurt, but it made a nice change from suspicion. The other convict didn’t seem to care that his body did abnormal things, only that he could kick his share of ass and get up after being all but gutted. Jael didn’t hold it against Einar that he’d wanted to leave him to rot. In his shoes, he’d do the same; that was just the way of the world.
Which makes it more inexplicable how she fought for you. Dred had claimed it was a matter of pride, but he wished her determination to save him meant something more. Jael put that out of his mind as he helped Einar guide the air pallet up the ramp toward the lift. Wills was already waiting up there with the maintenance bot. The princess in chains came last, after taking a last look at the force field. Amber light glimmered across the threshold, preventing anybody else from getting in here and ransacking the place.
“I love that this is our private stockpile,” Jael said.
The big man nodded. “I want to figure out how to get to the spare rounds for the turrets, but we can do that another time.”
“I found some in storage,” Wills said.
Dred shot him an appreciative glance, which she extended to include the whole group. “Great work, all of you. I’m a little surprised we’re still alive, but impressed as hell, too.”
“Damn right,” Einar said.
Since he’d done the programming, Wills commanded, “Enable lift access.”
R-17 beamed codes to the device, and the doors swung open. Inside, it was more capacious than it looked from the outside, providing room for industrial machinery. Good thing, too, or the pallet wouldn’t have fit. As it was, they stood in tight quarters, pressed up against the walls.
The maintenance unit showed no signs of following until Wills said, “Come with me, 17. Repairs are needed elsewhere.”
“Supervisor override required.”
“Damn, it looks like I missed some fail-safes in the code.”
“Probably to prevent the unit from being stolen,” Jael guessed.
“I just need a few minutes,” the soothsayer said.
Jael studied Dred to see what she made of the delay, but she wasn’t angry. The princess in chains merely leaned against the wall and watched Wills go to work. R-17 protested the intrusion to his inner workings, then the other man shut him down entirely. After the bot went limp, Wills finished the work-around swiftly, as he’d promised.
“Fire it up,” Dred instructed. “See how you did.”
This time, when Wills ordered the unit to accompany them, it beamed the deck 47 destination straight to the lift controls, and the thing lurched into motion. The movement made Jael queasy, reminding him of being stuck on the prison transport with so much foul and wretched humanity. He stumbled off the lift first, then turned to help Dred. Who didn’t need a hand, apparently. She pushed past him with an abstracted expression.
Probably wondering where we are. I’d like to know, too. And what needs killing here.
Once everyone else disembarked, Einar maneuvered the air pallet with help from Jael. It took up the whole corridor, which would make it impossible to fight. Furthermore, the thing was piled so high with salvage and parts that it obscured vision for anyone shorter than the big man. Since Einar was already guiding it from behind, it made sense for him to stay there.
“You push, I’ll pull. If it pleases her majesty, she can guard the rear.”
In order for anyone to get to the front of the pallet, they had to climb up and over. Come to think of it, the thing served as a functional portable barricade. Its bulk also meant Jael was responsible for killing anybody who interfered with the convoy.
“Do you know this area?” the big man asked Dred. “How far are we from our border?”
She shook her head, obviously frustrated. “I’ve never been in these halls. And look.” Dred indicated the floor.
From the undisturbed dust, Jael could tell nobody had been here in a long time. If R-17 had done any collecting on deck 47, enough time had passed for its tracks to settle. So getting back to Queensland might prove a problem even though they’d circumvented the ladders.
Wills tapped a finger on his chin, looking thoughtful. “Do you possess a copy of the station layout?” he asked the bot.
“Affirmative. Display on?”
“Yes.” As soon as Wills said the word, a beam came out of the droid’s head, projecting a 3-D holo model of the refinery.