Ballistic (The Palladium Wars), стр. 58
“You’ve been here before, right?” Tristan asked him when they were on final approach for docking at Acheron’s enormous spin station. The planet was spread out behind the station and taking up most of the forward array’s field of view, ochre swirls and intermingling streams that never stopped moving.
“A few times,” Aden said. “Long before the war. I was in my early twenties. Gods, was that really twenty years ago?”
“Not much has changed down there. The war just kind of passed this place by. Their fleet yards actually had more business. The Rhodies and the fuzzheads were going through new ships like they were made for one-time use. Lots of replacement orders.”
“I wouldn’t really say the war passed us by,” Maya said from above. “Ten thousand navy spacers killed. For casualty rates, we had higher losses than anyone else. Hefty price to pay for more ship orders.”
“But you didn’t get occupied for four years,” Tristan said. “With the fuzzheads hauling off half of your output every year.”
Maya just chuckled.
“That would have been a fun sight,” she said. “Watching Gretian drop ships trying to land troops on CoCity. Hard enough to land there when you have permission.”
Aden watched the scenery while Zephyr was going through its AI-controlled docking ballet with the station, matching rotational speed and lining up with the assigned docking berth, then letting the station controller reel the ship in like a fish on a line.
“All right,” Decker said when they had latched onto the station and Tess had throttled down the reactor to standby mode. “Once we’re off the ship, the overhaul crew has her for a week. Make sure you pack everything you want to take down to the surface with you. We get one free ride down and back as part of the service contract, or it’ll cost you a thousand ags just to get back up to the station to fetch it.”
They went through the security locks at Acheron Station and met up with the liaison from Tanaka Spaceworks, a bubbly young woman who was reasonably fluent in Oceanian. She ushered them through the commercial part of the station and to a small private charter shuttle terminal, where the Tanaka people had prepared refreshments for the Zephyr crew while the shuttle was prepped and cleared for their ride down to Coriolis City.
“This was all part of the purchase price,” Captain Decker said as they were sipping drinks and watching the launch preparations from the terminal’s VIP lounge. “Full three-year overhaul package included. But if you think all these smiling people are going to give us so much as a napkin for free when we show up for the five-year overhaul, I would love to talk to you about some oceanfront property I have for sale on Hades, right near the equator.”
“Two weeks of idle time,” Tess said. “I’ll not touch a single wrench.”
“What are you going to do with all that time?” Aden asked.
“There’s a racetrack in CoCity,” she said. “It’s like a regulation track, but scaled down for karts. Whenever they don’t have any league events, you can rent twenty-kilowatt karts and flog them around the track. Ten kilometers from start to finish. They charge eighty ags per lap.”
“How much did you spend there again last time we were here?” Tristan asked.
“Look, you have your vices, I have mine. I like things that go.”
“I’ll have to try that,” Aden said. “Not that I have anything else planned.”
“Let me know when you want to check it out, and I’ll take you,” Tess said. “Two weeks on CoCity, and you have nothing planned at all? You don’t know anyone here?”
Aden thought of Torie, the girl he’d met on Cloud Dancer three months ago. He wondered if she had ever started that job with Hanzo she’d accepted, or whether the near-death experience in the life pod had realigned her priorities. But wherever she was now, she probably wouldn’t appreciate the physical reminder of that day if he showed up at her residence unit to say hello.
“Not really,” he said. “Nobody I can just drop in on.”
“You have a big fat ledger full of ags and no attachments,” Tristan said. “Coriolis City is made for people like that. Walk around for an afternoon. Check the service directories. Just go out at night and hop into whatever place looks interesting. If you’ve forgotten how to spend your leisure time, this is the place to learn that skill again.”
“Spoken like a subject-matter expert,” Decker said. “All right, they’re sending over the chipper one to come fetch us. Let’s get down there and turn our brains off for a while. After this week, I’m ready for some mindless debauchery.”
The flight down to Coriolis City was so smooth that it felt like they were in a gentle simulator ride, and the lack of portholes and viewscreens in the shuttle’s luxurious cabin only contributed to the effect. When Aden asked about the absence of visuals, Maya told him that it was standard procedure to leave the external views deactivated because too many off-worlders found the daytime descent into the planetary atmosphere terrifying instead of interesting.
Aden had seen the main atrium at the Coriolis City spaceport before, but the effect was still every bit as stunning as it had been the first time he had walked up the ramp from the