The Lost Voyager: A Space Opera Novel by A. C. Hadfield Page A

only about fifty meters from the top of the quarry. If the door did manage to hold out until then, he didn’t want to take hundreds of bugs with them up to the surface.  
    “What are you doing?” Sanchez said. “I don’t like that look on your face. It’s your stupid face—which you always have when you’re going to do something stupid.”
    Mach smiled and reached out for the door handle on the left-hand side. “Ready…”
    “Wait, what are you—”
    Mach flung the door open. Half of the bugs failed to cling to the surface and fell away into the pit below. “Now!” Mach said.  
    Sanchez caught on and started ramming his boot into the single hinge located halfway up the right side of the door. Each strike dented the metal tube, shaking loose a few more of the bugs.  
    One more final kick and the hinge broke, sending the door falling away to the ground, taking with it the bugs. A single critter had clung to the bottom edge and crawled its way into the elevator car.  
    Mach and Sanchez looked at each other. Mach stepped back and swept his hand in front of him. “Be my guest,” he said.  
    Sanchez grinned as he raised his boot and squashed the damn thing with a stomp that reverberated throughout the elevator. “That was satisfying,” the hunter said.  
    Mach switched off the comlink to the facility and hit the emergency stop button on the elevator, leaving them hanging some twenty meters over the quarry, with no door. The wind whipped inside and blustered against their suits. Icy fog rolled in, clinging to their limbs.
    “Mach?” Sanchez said, raising an eyebrow. “What are you doing?”
    Mach stood between Sanchez and the controls and said, “We’re going nowhere until you tell me what’s wrong. And this is not an order to a crew member; this is me, your old friend, demanding you be honest with him.”
    “Damn you, Mach, why do you have to be such an insistent ass?”
    “Why do you have to hide things from me?”
    “Sure, like I’m the only one. You really think I believe this is just an F&R mission? We’re being paid way too much for that. That stinks of danger money to me. What exactly are we doing here?”
    “I can’t tell you that… not yet.”
    “So trust only goes one way, is that it?” Sanchez said, turning away from Mach and taking a deep breath. Mach could tell it wasn’t exasperation, but fatigue. The way his shoulders hunched and his chest heaved were unmistakable.
    “I can see it in you,” Mach said. “Ever since the Ripper job I knew something was up. You’re not old enough to be this out of shape. Hell, you were the fittest human I’ve ever known.”
    Sanchez turned back to him. “Things change.”
    “Like how?”
    “Like life turns into death.”

Chapter Nine

    Mach stood there in the elevator, staring at his friend. “You’re dying?”  
    “Well, we all are, aren’t we? Immortal life hasn’t been discovered just yet,” Sanchez said, rubbing a hand across his shoulder, massaging the muscle as he grimaced. “Look, this isn’t the time for this.”
    It was clear to Mach that his friend was suffering, and it hurt him knowing he couldn’t help. He knew Sanchez was as stubborn as anyone, and if he kept pushing him, Sanchez would just dig in further.
    “You really can’t tell me what’s going on?” Mach said, trying to appeal to him once more. “You’ve told Tulula, I know that much.”
    “Spying on the crew?” Sanchez said, leaning against the back of the elevator.  
    Mach shrugged his shoulders and tilted his head. “The team is my responsibility. You know how I work. Which makes me think that your little conversation with Tulula in the mess was just as much for my benefit as hers. I saw you looking into the camera.”
    “I guess you can use that as your way of feeling better about yourself for spying on us, if you like.”
    Sanchez hadn’t disputed it, giving Mach the confirmation that he was trying to communicate with Mach in an obscure way. But