Lifeline

Chapter 61

ORBITECH 1—Day 72

Brahms exited the control bay with as much grace as he could muster to face the uprising. He held himself rigid to quell his anger and astonishment. His expression was like a mask of ice. The watchers in the control bay had bolted out into the maintenance corridor upon seeing the attackers—mutineers?—charge out the spoke-shaft elevators.

Two bodies drifted in the docking bay, surrounded by droplets of blood. They had murdered two of his Watchers! They had killed two people.

Brahms forced his outrage down. He wished he had his eyeglasses to hide behind, to make him look dignified.

Allen Terachyk floated up to Brahms. A mass of his supporters followed, and dozens more emerged from the elevator shaft. Terachyk wore a defiant, victorious expression.

Allen Terachyk—his only remaining division leader. They had all failed him—McLaris, Arnando, and now Terachyk. And Brahms himself had RIFed Tim Drury, perhaps the only one worth keeping.

As Brahms watched the approaching group, he drew himself up. He grasped the handhold on the wall, but found it slippery with his sweat. He would not—could not—allow the mutineers to know they had frightened him. It was the easiest way to lose control. He had come so close to bringing things back to normal, and now Terachyk was going to ruin everything. Brahms took a moment to center himself, to clear his thoughts. This was going to be the most difficult negotiation of his life.

The people behind Terachyk pushed off from each other. Brahms recognized a few of them, but couldn’t pin down names. The motion sent them spreading out in a pattern that surrounded Brahms, above and below. Two women hit the bulkhead and bounced back out into the shuttle bay, coming in over his head. They must have practiced the effect.

Brahms scanned the faces. Some had their eyes open wide with fear and uncertainty, others carried a righteous anger, some just stared back diffidently. He realized that Terachyk must have contacted the low scorers on the Efficiency Study and convinced them that another RIF was in the making. Perhaps he had also banded together those who had lost friends or family in the first RIF. What most surprised Brahms was that Allen Terachyk had actually done it. And he had chosen a time when the entire colony would be watching.

Brahms had never expected to see Terachyk, who moped about and did nothing but complain and wallow in misery, adopt any kind of cause—especially not one like this.

Terachyk hung in midair, facing Brahms, but a few inches below eye level. In the back of his mind, Brahms faulted him for that—as a psychological advantage, he should have tried to tower over the director. Brahms decided to use it to his own effect.

Terachyk waited until the shuttle bay became silent before he spoke. “It’s over, Curtis.”

Brahms’s mouth twitched. He debated how to play his own hand. “Before the fat lady sings? I appreciate your concern, Allen, but until the Phoenix arrives, we don’t know for sure we can connect the colonies. Your timing is a little off.”

“Nice touch, Curtis—but it isn’t going to work this time. Everybody here knows you were responsible for the RIF. It’s time to pay the piper.”

Brahms widened his eyes in a condescending expression. He used his position to glare down at Terachyk, ignoring the others around him. He felt so weary of all this. “I was responsible? I seem to recall you were there, too, Mister Division Leader Terachyk, and you did nothing to stop it. If you’re going to dump blame on me, you’d better take your own share.”

Terachyk blinked, caught off balance. “It wasn’t me who—”

Brahms pressed his advantage. “Shall we call up the minutes of the meetings and show all these people exactly how much you were involved?” He raised his voice so it would carry to all the other people in the shuttle bay, but he kept his tone even, conversational. He knew the minutes of the meetings would show little or nothing, but the gathered people wouldn’t realize that.

He didn’t let Terachyk answer. “Why do you insist on harping on the one bad decision and ignoring everything else? Do you think you would have been able to get the wall-kelp from the Filipinos? Do you think you could have gotten the sleepfreeze chambers from the Soviets? Do you think you could have established a weavewire link between us and Clavius Base?”

Brahms knew he was taking more credit than he deserved, but his life was on the line. “Really, Allen. Do you honestly think the other colonies are going to help us, unconditionally, if push comes to shove? What’s in it for them? Think! What does an alliance mean if everyone is not a player? The Phoenix is on its way, and so are the Filipino solar sails. We’ve got to have them in with us; otherwise, it will be one Lagrange colony against another—”

“At least we won’t have to worry about another RIF, dammit!” Terachyk was losing control.

Brahms felt confidence surge up in him. He tried to make his voice soothing. “Of course not. With everything I’ve done to help us survive, we’ll never have to worry about a RIF again.

“Allen—” Brahms turned to face the other mutineers. “All of you. We’re so close. I can’t tell you how sorry I am for the bad decisions that were made in the past. But if we’re going to bring in a new civilization, at least make sure we’ve got all our players in place.”

He set his mouth and waited. He hoped he had stalled them long enough to defuse the mob psychology Terachyk had whipped up in them.

The loudspeaker broke the mood. “Attention in the shuttle bay. ConComm reports one minute until Phoenix deceleration. We have lost contact with the Aguinaldo emissaries, and a salvage crew has been dispatched to recover them. They will rendezvous with Orbitech 1 shortly after the Phoenix arrives. ETA is five minutes.”

Brahms spoke up even as the PA clicked off. “Well, Allen? Can you afford five more minutes, or will you bow to anarchy? Why don’t we wait and see how this all turns out?” Terachyk set his jaw; Brahms could see the muscles working in his cheeks. Around him, dozens of eyes glittered, staring, angry, uncertain.

Brahms sensed them faltering and tried not to show his relief.