Hero of the Rebellion (2nd Class)
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"It was by now many years since I had last been in space, so I had to be subjected to a crash re-training course. To be honest, I would have needed it just because the technologies involved had advanced so much. EVA suits, in particular, are now much easier to use and can be put on single-handedly in less than ten minutes. Still, ten days at fourteen hours a day was enough to turn me, and my boss too - I can't remember which one it was - into a cosmonaut again, apparently." The tray of comestibles was running low by now, but at least was doing its job of slowing down the effects of the vodka. "Then there was the job of actually getting out to the Belt,” he went on, "Spaceship design had advanced in leaps and bounds since I took that joyride in the rattily old Buran. Getting to the orbital transfer station was no more difficult than a trip on a military transport plane, that is to say, noisy and cramped for thirty minutes. The flip to the Belt was worse. Even with inertia nullification to reduce the impact of the acceleration and military-grade high-G suits, it was still twelve days of low-grade discomfort before I got there." "So, eventually we were holding station with the slowly tumbling wreck of the Expansionist ship whose name, I found in Lim's database, was the Mary Rose. From the outside, I could just make out the holes where the depleted uranium penetrating rods had drilled their way through the carbon-carbon ceramic shell of the craft. Otherwise, the ship looked undamaged. It was a different story when we got inside." "I need more vodka," he muttered suddenly. I signalled the bartender once again. The drinks arrived as quickly as ever; the bug Russian picked up his shot glass immediately and downed it in one. "I don't know if you've ever seen the body of someone who's died from violent asphyxiation after sudden decompression, followed by freezing mummification in deep space?" I shook my head. "It's not pretty," he went on, "The entire crew were still there, dead. I was very glad of the standard anti-nausea tablets, I can tell you. Still, I had my job to do. I went over every centimetre of that ship, recording notes, taking photos and samples." He paused, looking into the middle distance. "The view out of an EVA suit, even a modern one, is not great, but I gradually came to realise several things. Firstly, the Mary Rose seemed to have been run by a skeleton crew. There were barely enough people to operate the essential functions, and certainly not enough for a naval three-watch system. Besides, although it was hard to tell from the mummified corpses, the crew had been either old or unwell, physically frail or even disabled." He glanced again at the tray of food, then pushed it away in a matter that suggested he could not eat any more. I had eaten enough, too. "Most of the equipment aboard was old, worn or broken," he went on, "It was far from clear that the ship could actually have functioned at all, let alone been effective in any kind of battle. At the time, I kept these thoughts to myself, rather than committing them to my recorded notes. Back on the ship that had brought us to the Belt, I mentioned these observations to my boss. 'There probably aren't enough people loyal to their cause to properly man their spaceships,' he answered, 'And the apparent ill-health is probably the result of years spent in microgravity. Besides, the Mary Rose is an older ship. It was probably being stripped for parts for a newer craft. I wouldn't worry about it.' So, I didn't." He shrugged. "Anyway, a few weeks later, back on Earth and at my desk, I re-read my notes and proceeded to produce a voluminous report on the military readiness and technical capabilities of the Expansionists. I had forgotten about those missing people, the absent or worn-out kit. I went on with my job, day after day, until the end of the war was announced." He paused again. "I only remembered the missing people when those plasma drives lit up the sky," he said, with a self-deprecating snort, "When we suddenly had hundreds of new blue stars."
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Part 3