The False Admiral by Sean Danker Page A

going to get out of here. Now that we’re staying it’s an issue again.”
    â€œAre we in danger? Apart from this?” Nils motioned at the ship in general.
    â€œI don’t know,” I told him honestly. “I don’t see how we could be. But they’re dead, and ending up that way was not their goal—so something happened here. I can’t explain it. We’re missing something.”
    â€œHow do we wait for rescue without life support?” Deilani was doing her best to stay on task, but she was afraid. I couldn’t blame her. We could have died in that shuttle, and that wasn’t something any of them would forget.
    â€œTwo ways.” I got off the examination table and started to pace. Salmagard had been standing by the door with her hands behind her back and head bowed, but now she looked up to watch me. “First, the sleepers. We rig up some kind of power supply and just go back to sleep. The problem with that is that mine’s no good, and even though your suspicions are
completely
unfounded, I’m sure you wouldn’t be comfortable going under with me still up and about. And repairing my unit is probably beyond even the ensign’s abilities. Likewise putting me in one of your sleepers would let the other two rest easy, but the third would be awake and alone on a dead ship on what looks to me like a dead planet. No power, no life support. Survivable, but not ideal.”
    I looked them over as they digested that.
    â€œI think that at the end of the day, this is something we’re better off facing together.”
    If I had three Salmagards, this would be easy. But Deilani wouldn’t be willing to take her eyes off me, and there was enough doubt in Nils that neither would he. None of them were keen to get back in their sleepers—especially after seeing what had almost happened with mine. How could they trust anything when it seemed as if literally everything on this ship had been sabotaged? The sleepers were off the table.
    â€œThen we’re agreed,” I said, sweeping my hand at the medbay. “This is our new home. We’re lucky. We’ve got lots of resources on this tub. There’s plenty of air and water—we just have to get at it, and use it intelligently. We have everything, or at least most of what we need. We’re going to turn Medical into our own little tree house.”
    â€œOur what?” Deilani glared at me.
    â€œGet some culture. Don’t you know Old Earth history? I don’tknow how long the air’s going to last. If we seal off a room like this, rig up a recycler and bleed in oxygen, we can last a while.” Trainees or not, they understood the concept of an air pocket. “But we also need heat.”
    â€œEV suits will keep us warm,” Deilani pointed out. Evagardians and their blind faith in Evagardian technology. I envied them.
    â€œUntil they run out of power, which will be sooner than you realize once the temperature equalizes. Which it will,” I promised. “It’ll get cold, and the suits will have to work harder to keep us warm. The EV charges won’t last. We need to conserve them, and think about O 2 in case we have to leave the room once the air’s gone out there. For water, for example. We can’t go breaking open pipes in here. We’ll have to bring in water by hand.”
    â€œWe can just use a grav lift.”
    â€œWe still have to open the door, and we’ll lose air every time we do.” I sat down on the examination table again, and they gathered around me.
    I hoped my facade of confidence wasn’t the only thing holding them together. It was a good thing I was used to being the center of attention.
    â€œWe were in deep space travel,” I went on. “Most of the ship was sealed off and depressurized. There’s not as much air as we think. We have to get to work. We don’t have to rush. We don’t need to panic, but we