“What are you waiting for?” said Julexi. It was an accusation as much as a question. It was as if she were saying: You see how she hesitates? You see how she’s afraid?
It was exactly the motivation Rena needed to shatter the fear. She reached up, pulled herself through the hole, got her feet outside on the hull of the ship, and pushed off hard toward the wreckage, moving a little faster than was necessary to prove she wasn’t afraid.
She flew, heading straight for the flat side of the wrecked ship’s hull, which they had determined was the safest place to land.
She knew the others were behind her. She could hear their grunts and exhalations as they launched from the Gagak’s hull and made for the wreck.
Right at the last moment, Rena tapped the retros on her shoulder pack, which shot out small bursts of compressed air and slowed the forward movement of her upper body. As she had hoped, the lower half of her body continued forward and she rotated so that her feet were now in front of her. She landed expertly feetfirst with her boot magnets turned on, anchoring herself to the wreck. Then she quickly turned around, saw the others coming, and shuffled back out of the way.
Abbi came next, but she didn’t land nearly as gracefully. She failed to get her feet under her in time and hit the hull with her shoulder and bounced away, nearly spinning off into space. Rena caught her by the arm and pulled her back, helping her to a standing position. Abbi was breathing hard, eyes were wide with terror, but she nodded her thanks and worked to compose herself.
Julexi twisted her ankle on her landing, and when Rena approached her to help her up, Julexi waved her brusquely away. “Don’t pretend to care. I’m fine.”
They found a hatch and went inside, entering into the airlock of a cargo bay. It was completely dark, and when Rena shined her spotlight around the room, the beam fell upon two corpses twenty meters away. They had expected this, but Rena still gave a quick intake of breath. The bodies were both men. One of them was turned away from them, but the other seemed to be looking at them, his expression pained. They wore heavy, nonmatching jumpsuits, which meant they were probably part of a clan; corporates would have had uniforms.
The women crowded around Rena, staring at the bodies. Rena lowered her beam and faced them. “We knew we’d find corpses in here. Ignore them. Let’s focus on the equipment.”
A quick scan of the cargo bay revealed all sorts of useful tools and heavy equipment: suits, helmets, mining tools, even a few digger mechs that looked to be in perfect working condition and worth a small fortune each. Most of it was anchored down tight and thus had not been thrown around and damaged during the battle. Rena radioed back up to Arjuna and rattled off what they had found.
“Not a bad find for your first wreck, Lady of El Cavador. We are opening the nets now. I’ll send down some men with cables and wenches to pull in the mechs. What about elsewhere?”
“We haven’t explored beyond the bay yet.”
“Leave most of your team there to recover what you’ve found and send a few out to check the rest of the ship. This is a sizable wreck. There might be more worth taking.”
“Roger that.”
Abbi was shining her light at the two dead men. “Doesn’t seem right, Rena. Taking from the dead like this. These were free miners like us.”
“We’ve salvaged from dead ships before, Abbi. A lot of our equipment on El Cavador came from things we found.”
“Yes, but I never had to be the one to take it. And anyway, we were doing that to stay alive. Crows take to make a profit.”
“It’s no different, Abbi. It’s all survival. Now come on, I need your help.” She pulled her away from the corpses. Several of the women had their drills out, removing the anchor bolts to the equipment they were hoping to bring in. “Julexi,” said Rena. “Abbi and I are going to scout the rest of the ship. You’re in charge of the recovery here.”
Julexi seemed surprised then narrowed her eyes, suspicious. “Why me?”
“Because if anyone can handle a big job like this, you can.” Rena figured it would help Julexi to feel some ownership for their success today. Arjuna had agreed to give them 30 percent of whatever they recovered, so today’s haul would be a decent sum. It was nowhere near what they would need to buy their own ship, but it was a start. If Julexi felt responsible for that, it might mend things between them.
“So we work while you two play explorer?” said Julexi.
“We won’t be poking about,” said Abbi. “We’re looking for other parts. That’s why we came.”
Abbi’s response surprised Rena. Usually Abbi was all too eager to echo Julexi’s complaints, but here she appeared to be siding with Rena. Maybe the infighting was beginning to subside.