Ghosts, Part 2
	"Ach, my head," Kristin groaned. She pressed a hand to her temple for
a moment and hissed when it stung. Something warm trickled down her face and
fairies were tapping a merry tattoo in her skull. Carefully she lifted her
head, and groaned again when she saw the condition of her e-frame. A quick
glance at the canopy showed that it was intact and the automated controls had
put out a cockpit fire, but her entire console was warped and melted all
together. Her cyberjack had automatically withdrawn, a sign that the e-frame
was no longer capable of responding to the interface.
	Alain, she thought. Dr. Rhodes. Please let them be alive. First
things first, though. She had to call for assistance and check out her own
damage before she could help them.
	She tried to manually access the radio and gave a soft curse when she
didn't even get static. Just as dead were the manual thruster controls.
Kristin hit the useless console once in frustration, and moaned when that
sent a new wave of pain through her head. She was dead in space.
	Well, she thought, it's not going to get any less dead with me
sitting in here. Might as well see what can be salvaged. She wrestled with
the helmet a moment, then sealed it to her jumpsuit. It was an environment
suit, but sealed properly it was airtight and would help keep her somewhat
warm. Her helmet could recycle her waste gases for a couple of hours. Unless
she could get her e-frame's environmental controls on-line again, that was
all she had.
	She manually unlatched the canopy and pushed it up and out of the
way. Grasping the edge she hauled herself up out of her seat. The e-frame was
listing at an odd angle, half-buried in fine rock that covered the surface of
the moon Metis. One leg stuck almost straight up, perpendicular from the
surface like an odd, thick flag-pole. She dug at the back of the e-frame with
her hands, trying to expose the environmental system. Every time she scooped
the fine-grained powder away it just slid back. Finally she stood up and
brushed her gloves off. Glancing around, she spied one of the flat, broad
sensor antennas.
	Well, it doesn't work anyway, she thought to herself. She ducked back
inside the cockpit and grabbed her small collection of tools. No shovel, but
it had a lasercutter. She turned it on full intensity, careful not to look
directly at the beam as she cut the antenna at its base.
	With a grunt she snapped it off. Falling to her knees she attacked
the powdery rock again, sending it flying over her shoulder. Soon she had dug
out enough of a hole to lie her body down and shine her wristlight underneath
the e-frame. Her jaw clenched as she saw the mangled and twisted mess.
Without spare parts, she wasn't going to be able to revive the oxygen
reclamation system anytime soon.
	Well then, on to Plan B, she mused. I'm sure it will be coming to
mind very soon now. She reached down into the hole and wrestled the fusion
pack out of its housing. Battered, but intact. Didn't look like she was going
to be blown to bits any time soon. She pulled back and climbed up the side of
the 'frame.
	With a sigh she unscrewed the cover over the radio. She pulled at the
melted wires inside half-heartedly, knowing that it would take longer than
she had to rewire and jury-rig the thing with what she had on hand. Maybe she
could scavenge some of the parts from the nav system. Captain Iorweth would
be quite the asset right now, she mused. Well, there's not much I can do
here.
	She scrambled up on top of the e-frame and scanned the horizon,
trying to get her bearings from the topography. There. That funny-looking
outcropping in the distance. It was just a bit south of the caverns where she
had hidden the pirate cannon for the ultrawave test. It was going to be quite
a hike, but there wasn't anything to be gained by staying with the wreckage.
Besides, if he had survived, Alain's heavier e-frame might be in better
condition.
	Mind made up, she hurriedly scratched a note onto her pad and dropped
it in the seat. She clipped her tools to her belt and grabbed her makeshift
shovel. Jumping down off the e-frame's bulky body, she gave it one last
forlorn pat before setting her pace toward the outcropping.

	Alain shifted uncomfortably in his seat as a coughing fit woke him.
He reached up to brush some grit from his eyes, but his fingers smacked into
the faceplate of his helmet. He blinked once or twice, but the unrelenting
darkness didn't lighten. He felt a brief moment's panic that he was blind
before he thought to switch on his wristlight.
	The beam of light made a cone of dust appear in the air as he panned
it around the cockpit. The e-frame seemed to be completely buried. The canopy
had broken beneath the weight of the rock. He shivered when he saw the size
of the boulder that had shattered the clear canopy only feet away from his
head. The cockpit was partially filled with rocky debris, trapping his legs.
	He aimed the light toward the front of the cockpit, straining to make
out the form of the doctor. She was slumped down in her seat, but it looked
as though her helmet was in place. He felt a wave of relief wash over him
when he saw her slight movement. He couldn't think of anything worse than
being trapped beneath all that rock with a dead body.
	He tried to work his legs out from under the rocks, but a sharp pain
in his lower leg made him cry out. He gritted his teeth and tried again, but
he couldn't make his right leg work. Frustrated, he subsided. He looked
around briefly to see if any systems were powered up. No weapons or radio,
but the right leg servo and some of the scanners were on-line. He settled
into trying to reroute some power to the engines and ignored the weight of
the rock above him.

	Karen stirred, aware of pain that skirted the edge of her mind. She
didn't want to wake. Hurral would be there if she woke, waiting for her next
scream and smiling through his red beard. No, she wouldn't wake up. She
wouldn't let Hurral hurt her this time. She was learning. Learning form
Cookie. Learning to be like Cookie, who could kill a Neo with his bare hands.
She wanted to kill Hurral with her bare hands. She wanted to kill all the
pirates. Even the pirate Cynan, who had said to her "Hush, bychan," and
spared her life. She couldn't kill the Neo on the ship, but she could kill
Cynan. He had spared her life, and he had kissed her instead. That was worse,
she decided.
	Cookie, though. Cookie could kill the pirates. She had begged Cookie
to teach her. To teach her how to kill with her bare hands so that she would
never have to see Hurral in her dreams again. She had watched Cookie fight
the Neo, and had covered her face and cried. But he could teach her to be
more, to drive the Neos and the pirates from the ship. Or was it just the
Neos? She couldn't remember. Hurral laughed at her. She shrank from him and
the pirate Cynan and asked Cookie to teach her.
	She stood in the kitchen surrounded by debris. Cookie lounged back
against the chopping block with arms folded. Hurral stood behind him and
Cynan brushed her hair aside to examine her cyberjack implant.
	"I'm sorry," she said. "I couldn't shoot him. I saw his face and I
couldn't shoot him." The Neo had his hands around Cookie's throat. Cookie
regarded her impassively with his arms folded.
	"I tried," she protested, "but I'm not a soldier, dammit. I'm a
doctor. I put people back together. I never wanted to kill." She paused.
James turned to look at her from where he lay dead on the floor of the
shuttle.
	"I just put them back together again," she finished lamely, sitting
next to Cookie in the hallway. She looked at the dead Neo. Cookie had killed
him with his bare hands.
	"I want you to teach me," she said in the kitchen.
	"Teach you what?" Cookie asked. "I have a nice recipe for a chocolate
amaretto torte."
	"I want you to teach me how to kill," she replied. Cookie laughed.
	"No," he said.
	"But I couldn't kill the Neo, and I couldn't kill the pirate," she
tried to explain. She brushed at Cynan's hands in her hair. "I should have
been able to kill them," she said angrily.
	"No," Cookie said.
	"I couldn't even defend myself," she said, as Cookie turned away. He
paused. "If the neo had killed you, I would have been dead," she told him.
"Or captured, which is worse?" Hurral laughed.
	"I guess I'll have to ask Chief Konig to teach me," she said. Cookie
turned to look at her. Cynan pressed her back against the bulkhead and she
looked at Cookie over his shoulder. "Please," she said.
	"It will hurt," Cookie told her. She cringed, afraid of Hurral's next
blow. "I won't be easy on you." She smiled, grateful. "And I won't teach you
how to kill. Only how to fight." The Neo looked at her, then dismissed her as
no threat.
	"It's a start," she said.

	"Well, I can get them to start," Alain said to himself. "But it won't
do us any good at the moment." He looked up at the rock above them. "As long
as we can't move, all the engines would do is fry us." He checked his weapons
console again, but even if he could get them working the cannons were stuck
in the wrong vector.
	The doctor jerked once in front of him, startling him. "It's alright,
doc," he told her, even though the comm system was down. "We'll get out of
here yet." He lay his head back against the seat and looked at the rock above
them.

	Kristin paused on the small ridge, her heart sinking as she looked
down at the pile of rubble that buried the mouth of the cavern. She blew out
a slow breath. "Well," she said softly, "there's nothing to be done from up
here." Carefully she began to pick her way down the rocky slope.