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To Bell te Belle - Chapter 2
Time: Day 1Location: Eureka Maru - The Rock
In a virtually unmapped region of the Pieces dwarf galaxy an undistinguished medium sized asteroid orbited around an equally undistinguished K7 star. The asteroid's one clam to fame was that it had once been used as a minor research base by a pre-Fall Perseid scientific expedition. At the moment however, the asteroid's solitude was in the process of being interrupted as a battered space craft touched down on its surface.
"Ok, gang," said Beka Valentine. "Time to suit up. We have a bit of a walk to get to the airlock."
"How do you know about this place Beka?" asked Trance as she began dressing her daughter in the space suit that Harper had built for their child. "And how did the Abernathys find it in the first place?"
"All of the Guild Houses have at least one bolt hole where a family can lie low or a ship can stop for supplies or make repairs," replied Beka as she adjusted the helmet of her space suit. "I know about this one because House Valentine is a client house of House Abernathy. According to Abernathy family history the place was found when an Abernathy ship accidentally exited the stream here and detected the beacon the Perseids had left on the asteroid. When they discovered that the base was still more or less intact the family decided that it would make a good refuge should they ever need one. There's supplies sufficient for a six month stay here at the main compound and fuel storage facilities on the other side of the asteroid.
"Everyone suited up? Harper, Trance, you have your kits?" Both Harper and Trance nodded their affirmative. "Ok then final suit check."
Each person checked their suit then checked their crew mates suits. When the checks were completed Beka began to de-pressurize the airlock. A moment later the crew, and Aurora who was cradled in her mother's arms, stepped out onto the surface of the asteroid. Twenty minutes of careful walking later they were inside the base.
The base was located in one of the numerous craters that pocked the asteroid. It was nothing more than a large cave with three connecting smaller caverns. The original scientific expedition team had sealed the cave's rock surfaces with an air tight coating and had installed an airlock at the entrance. When the Abernathys had discovered the abandoned base and made it their bolt hole they installed a power plant in one of the smaller caverns and converted the other two smaller caves into a communication center and a dormitory. The main cavern where they were now standing would have been big enough for the Maru to fit into had it been able to pass through the airlock. There was no illumination in the cavern, apparently the power plant had been secured, but the beams from the lights mounted on their helmets showed the room to be packed with storage crates and drums.
"Air pressure is holding constant at the 4500 meter level, Beka," said Trance studying the display on the portable atmospheric analyzer she had brought with her. "Ambient temperature is five degrees Celsius. The air's a bit low on water vapor but we won't have any trouble breathing it, at least for a few hours. We'll just have to remember not to get into any foot races. If we're going to stay here for any length of time we're going to need to increase the air pressure to at least the 2,000 meter level."
"We won't be here long, Trance," said Beka as she removed her helmet and indicated that the others should do the same. "We're just going to find out where to meet the rest of the clan. Harper, see what you can do about getting us some lights and some decent gravity. The power plant is down that way." She pointed towards the tunnel on the left.
Harper headed down the tunnel while Trance placed Aurora down on the cavern floor and removed her spacesuit. The little girl crowded up against her mother's legs, clearly not liking being in a micro gravity environment.
"Come on, Trance," said Beka. "While Harper's getting power back up, lets look around a bit and see if we find anything interesting. Keep an eye on Aurora though and don't let her wander off."
Thirty minutes later the lights and artificial gravity generators were both online and House Valentine had assembled in the hideout's communications center waiting for Beka to activate the center's computer.
'Damn," swore Beka as the computer rejected her access code for the third time. "They must have changed the codes. We're going to have to hack our way in."
"Let me try, Boss," said Harper. He moved past Beka, sat down on the console chair, presented his palm to the scanner, and typed in a series of letters and numbers. The computer beeped happily and displayed its menu system and an alert stating that there was a message for the Maru.
"Karl told me that they had changed to access code when we crossed paths with the Puffer on Sinti IV. I guess they decided that since they had given me the codes they didn't need to send them to us."
"And you didn't think to tell me?" growled Beka.
"I guess I forgot," said Harper defensively. "But I did enter them into the Maru's computer. If you'd bothered to check you would've found them. Even Trance knew the codes had been updated." His last comment earned him scowls from both Beka and his spouse. Deciding that a graceful retreat would be in order he added, "I'm in, Boss, but you'll probably be better able to understand the coordinates. Why don't you take over now," he said as he stepped away from the computer.
Beka took over Harper's place at the computer and called up the message. As Harper had predicted and George Abernathy had promised it was the coordinates of the rendezvous point. She quickly transferred the data to a flexie and then erased the data.
"Ok, that's it," she said. "Lets suit up and get out of here. We know where we have to go."
"Beka," put in Trance as she started to pick up her daughter. "there's a good chance that Andromeda might be heading this way." Seeing Beka's startled look she explained. "You know Dylan. He's going to think it's his duty to take care of Bellamy and since Andromeda has a copy of most of the files on the Maru's computer I'm betting that she'll be able to figure out where we are. So maybe we had better leave them some sort of message letting them know where we're going. Assuming you want them as backup that is."
"Trance's right, Boss," said Harper. "The Belle will be bad enough and then there are those other ships that helped her, but suppose they have other allies as well, other pirate ships. We might need Andromeda's help."
"You guys are right," admitted Beka grudgingly. "This should be strictly a Guild affair but if Bellamy has allied himself with outsiders all bets are off. But I don't want to leave a message on the computer. It's too obvious and we have no guarantee that the FTA doesn't know about this place. They probably don't, but I don't want to take a chance of having a squadron of FTA fighters showing up and hacking this computer. The message has to be something that will make sense to Dylan but not to anyone else."
She sat back down on the console chair and cupped her chin in her hands thinking. After a moment she spoke. "Got it. But I'm going to need a little bit of help from you, Harper. Get Aurora suited up. We need to get moving, if the Abernathy's move on from the rendezvous point we'll be on our own."
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