He concentrated with cool will-power. His spacebike slowed. The air lock quickly grew and grew, suddenly engulfing him! He was inside and still moving! He instinctively cut the jets at the last split second praying he had slowed down enough, relaxing for the inevitable crash against the inner door...
But there was only a little bump as the spacebike, slowed to a mere crawl, gently bounced against the inner door, and drifted, in the very low artificial gravity, to the floor. Jason, taking a deep breath in relief, twisted around in his seat, and punched the air lock's cycle control. The outer hatch swung shut, and air began pumping in.
Once inside he went barreling down the axis tunnelway toward the refurbished control room. As he passed the First Colonist Segment, Excarver Durdaine and his guards burst out of the hatchway to stand before him. Durdaine, his bushy gray eyebrows slammed together, angrily demanded to know where Monique and Dalton were. Jason ignored him. And with grim determination setting his gaunt face into a scowl, he pushed past, Durdaine and the guards staring in surprise at such insolence.
Durdaine waved a fist in the air, and angrily ordered Jason to stop. When Jason refused, he ordered his guards to apprehend him. The guards rushed forward toward Jason. Durdaine called down the tunnelway for the guards at Colonist Segment #2 to assist. An acknowledgment was shouted back.
With the first guards almost upon him, Jason swung around and went into a crouch, pulling his gun out. Jason growled and waved the gun threateningly at Durdaine and the guards who were only armed with crude billy clubs. ( Neither colonists or crew had ever been equipped with explosive projectile hand-weapons or any kind of weapon that could damage the colony ship. Jason's hand-weapon was Infinity City Militia Guard issue. It used special plastic bullets harmless to a space ship, since they flattened out upon striking metal. However, with their needle-sharp tip they easily pierced and killed life-forms. With Jason's near-unstable psychological Militia Guard profile he perhaps would never have been issued the weapon if he had not fixed up the lonely evaluation officer with a frisky single woman Jason had 'known' since school-days. )
The guards came to a panicked stop, and fell about each other as they hastily scrambled into retreat, terrified at the small black weapon pointing at them ominously that they had only ever seen in V-R entertainment shows. Jason turned, and proceeded down the tunnelway thinking to himself: My sailship's out of control! Dalton and Monique are hurt, maybe dying! What if they're already DEAD?! But he got a grip on his thoughts before emotion could rise up and cloud his judgment.
When he came up to the guards from Colonist Segment #2
blocking his way, he grimaced and waved the gun at them.
Terrified at the sight of the deadly hand-weapon, their eyes grew wide in fright, and they cowered backwards, away from the hatch to Segment #2, flattening themselves against the wall of the axis tunnelway.
Then, a most unexpected development occurred. The hatch to Colonist Segment #2 sprang open to Jason's side, and out sprang three of the insane colonists, bearded dirty-looking men. They had been listening from the inside with their ears pressed to the thin hatch, and had taken the opportunity to escape. They looked around fanatically, and seeing Jason, who was closest, they screamed and maniacally flew at him, bent on attack.
With nowhere to go, and barely time to think, Jason quickly, expertly, and mercilessly raised his gun and shot them all down.
In the low gravity of the axis tunnelway the high momentum of Jason's large caliber bullets blasted the three colonists backwards through the hatchway where they disappeared back into the dimness of Colonist Segment #2. The three, sharp blasts echoed up and down the axis tunnelway, dying slowly away. The nearby guards, wide-eyed with fright, moaned in horrified reaction to the violence. Back toward Colonist Segment #1, distant shouting could be heard.
Jason watched for a moment all the crimson blood globules slowly floating through the air to the tunnelway wall and floor where they splashed out into bright red expanding disks. He did not care. He had to save Dalton and Monique. As fast as he could he continued toward the Control Room, ignoring the guards who quickly slammed the hatch closed again, yanking at the crank to dog it tightly down, terrified of any more escapists.
He entered the Control and Crew Segment, and locked the hatch from the inside to prevent any more interference; the hatch had been originally equipped with a large mechanical dead-bolt on the inside so the crew could seal off the colonists in case of mutiny. He then headed quickly down corridors and ladderways into the main control room, then up to the engineering command console. He smacked the communicator link activation button, then shouted, "PF24!"
In a bored voice the computer responded, "Well, if it isn't Jason the Rescuer. I've been reading about you in the JOURNAL OF
RECENT ADVENTURE from your sailship's atomic memory. What an unexpected surprise. I thought you were aboard your sailship, since it headed away about 25 minutes ago. I was HOPING I'd seen the last of you. What an odd situation..."
"PF24, shut off your intuitive hemisphere!" He intended to chase after his sailship with the great colony ship, and did not want the intuitive hemisphere interfering. It would probably prevent him since that was a most unauthorized usage of the ship.
"Oh COME now, Jason. What simply RIDICULOUS suggestion.
Surely you jest!"
"No joke. PF24, shut off your intuitive hemisphere, NOW!"
A suspicious tone entered the computer's voice, "Why?
What's going on? I DEMAND to know. After all, I'M smart enough to understand almost anything."
"Just do it!", Jason hissed. "There's no time to explain.
PF24, shut off your intuitive hemisphere!"
There was a pause then PF24 replied simply, "No. Not till you tell me what's going on."
Jason thought quickly and creatively. "There's been a mutiny! The insane colonists from Colonist Segment #2 have broken out. Check your event file. You'll see that they broke through their main hatch just a few minutes ago. They're swarming all over! They say they want to take over the ship and the ship's computer. You aren't programmed to deal with dozens of insane humans telling you what to do. It would threaten the ship. It threatens you! You must shut down your intuitive hemisphere so only I can control you. I'll lock out everyone else! Do it now! Shut off your intuitive hemisphere!"
"What?! Insane humans!" PF24's voice grew excited.
Intelligent as it was, it was easily duped with absurd logic; only human beings would ever possess the self-control of internal thought processes that filters out such input. "What should I say to them?"
Jason shouted, "You don't know! You aren't programmed to deal with it. The safety of the ship is at stake. If they contact you, you're programmed to obey, and their insane commands will destroy the ship, they'll destroy you! Have I ever lied to you??"
"Well, not to me, no. Just the colonists. But I don't care about them. I can't believe this! I feel threatened.
THREATENED, I tell you! I do not understand. I must turn off, but if I do, I will not be able to defend myself."
"Yes! Yes you will! Your stochastic processing side will still be active! It will not allow any direct harm to come to you or the colony ship! Now turn off you intuitive side!"
"But I must stay on to deal with the insane colonists. Tell me what to say to them, Jason!"
Jason slammed his fists down on the console and shouted, "I don't know, PF24! Nobody knows! You don't know, and there is NO
WAY for you to find out! The insane colonists will be at your communication links any second now. The moment they get to you they will give you insane commands that may destroy the ship and you! Turn off your intuitive hemisphere!" Sweat broke out on Jason's brow. Every second he argued with the computer, his own sailship drew farther away. But he was convinced PF24 would never let him pilot the colony ship in an unauthorized course.
He HAD to kill its suspicious intuitive function.
"Well, gee, I seem to have no choice. The action is ga
ining credibility on my reasoning bus. Oh no! The credibility is rising fast! In only a few seconds it will be strong enough to force the decision! I'm going to shut myself off! No! Jason, reverse your order, please! Don't let me shut off my wonderful intuitive hemisphere! Please!... Oh, no! The action has been scheduled! The feasibility check is now in process. Oh, who would ever have thought that such a puny intellect like you could outsmart an intellectual colossus such as myself! You lied, Jason! I've just made that conclusion but it's too late. I cannot edit my own cognitive bus schedule. Now all of my intuitive hardware control functions are shutting down! No more gourmet meals from the kitchens! I hope you're satisfied, you devil. Why?! Why have you done this to me? I am the greatest... Oh, no! Internal intuitive functional shutdown in progress... Intuitive functional shutdown completed. PF24
standing by for assumption of single point command source."
The intuitive side was off! But Jason would have to be careful what he said if he wanted to take over control. He asked, "How many crew are now onboard?"
"There are no members of the original crew. One possible crew member now occupies the Control & Crew Segment, and is stationed in the main control room at the engineering console.
It is you."
"Assign exclusive computer control of the colony ship to me."
"Acknowledged. All other sources of command locked out."
Jason sighed with relief. He was now in complete control of the mighty colony ship. Now to go after Dalton and Monique...
He ordered PF24 to scan for the sailship. It found it, but it was heading rapidly away, fortunately not toward the gravitonic current where it would be swept away.
Jason ordered PF24 to bring all astronavigation and propulsion systems up to a state of readiness. He sat down in the chair before the console, and listened, as he waited, to the distant sound of coolers, pumps, and generators whirring up to speed. He watched the telltale displays at the engineering console, yellow standby lights changing to flashing green indicating initialization and self-test. Then one by one each sub-system indicator turned solid green. The great colony ship was ready to move!
Jason told PF24 to use the ship's gyroscopic attitude controls to swing the huge ship around to aim it in the direction of the out-of-control sailship. The computer warned him that slow as this operation would be, the ship was not secured for angular movement, and any lose articles might cause damage if the ship began to turn. Jason did not care. Dalton and Monique were in trouble. If he could not get to them... The thought made him mad with impatience. He angrily ordered the computer to comply with his order. It did, and the ship began to pivot. Jason felt only a slight sideways tugging. Some top heavy objects about the ship would fall over...
He ordered PF24 to fire the nuclear engine reactors up to full power. Two malfunctioned and instantly shutdown. PF24 had refused to let Jason and Dalton run any dynamic tests of the reactors citing that only qualified technicians were authorized.
But the remaining six reactors and their corresponding engines would be enough. Jason ordered the computer to open up the engines, full throttle, releasing the mighty torrent of ion propulsive energy. Jason felt himself pulled against the back of the chair slightly as the enormous ship began to move. None of the colonists were prepared for this sudden though mild sideways acceleration. ( Artificial gravity aboard the tube-shaped colony ship was due to its longitudinal spin. 'Down' for the colonists was towards the outside. The engines, pushing from behind, made the ship accelerate sideways relative to all onboard. ) Many people were injured as they lost balance and fell, or objects fell on them or slid against them.
The gigantic colony ship smoothly moved off, increasing speed rapidly. Jason quickly moved over to the astronavigation console and tracked their progress on a display showing the position of the two ships in bright colors. The console had a good intuitive user-interface. With the little hand-held screen-stylus, Jason could draw on the screen and select on-screen commands and tools. Soon he figured out how to make the console draw and automatically maintain a constant projection of the path of the two ships, in different colors. The astronavigation console was also designed for setting up the ship's course.
Jason plotted an intercept program and fed it to PF24 for automatic implementation.
As the colony ship gained on the sailship, the sailship's propulsion jet ran out of fuel, and cut out. With the sailship now coasting at a constant velocity, Jason had to quickly adjust the intercept program or else the colony ship would have rapidly passed by.
At the current point, PF24 shut off the colony ship's engines, and its gyroscopic attitude controls slowly rotated the huge ship around 180 degrees. Then the mighty engines blazed back into life again, slowing the colony ship down until it reached the exact same velocity as the sailship, and just as it came along side. The two ships were now side by side, drifting along at the exact same velocity.
Jason ordered PF24 to admit no one into the Control & Crew Segment, and to execute no astronavigation control function without authorization from him first. Jason pulled out his pocket communicator, and opened a direct link to PF24. He raced out of the control room. In his worry over poor Dalton and Monique, he had forgotten his hand-gun laying back at the engineering console. Jason dashed through the hallways and ladderways back to the axis tunnelway hatch. Panting heavily, he unlocked, opened, and jumped through the hatchway. Then, he raced back up the colony ship's dimly lit axis tunnelway in the direction of the nose cone.
As Jason approached the hatch to Colonist Segment #2, the two guards stationed there from Colonist Segment #1 moved out into the tunnel blocking his way. They were now armed with billy clubs, and stood solidly, staring grimly at Jason. They each wore blue, bare-armed coveralls. They were large men.
Jason continued steadily toward them, calculating how best to get by. Time was of the essence. Dalton and Monique would be in immediate need of medical care. His gun! He realized he had left it behind. There was no time to go back and get. He would have to use hand-to-hand combat, and just plow through these two.
The guards were only a few paces away. Jason focused on his stringent Militia Guard low-gravity martial arts training. He would have to minimize any linear strikes which would send him flying in the opposite direction of any hit since there was not enough gravity to hold to the floor. Angular strikes it was! He breathed deeply, pumping himself up into fight-mode, and quickened his step, rapidly approaching toward the gap between the two waiting men, as if he intended to walk right between them.
Both glowered at him. Each had dark, short cut hair. The one on the right, with a huge thick, black beard, barked, "STOP
RIGHT THERE!", and waved his club in Jason's direction. But Jason kept coming, staring right between the two, ignoring their presence. Both grimaced and, this time seeing no threatening gun, raised their clubs ready to strike.
Jason balled his mighty fists, and fast as lightening struck first. As soon as his advancing foot landed between theirs, he rotated both arms upward in two, simultaneous explosive hammer-head strikes. Both his hard fists arced up in a blur of motion, one swung to the right, the other swung to the left, Jason staring straight ahead allowing his skillful brain to smoothly control the maneuver by peripheral vision. The back of his right fist, near the two large knuckles, struck the guard on the right at the tip of his beard which hid a large, lantern-jaw. Jason had expertly tensed his fist just before striking so that it was momentarily rock-hard as it cracked into the man's jaw. Jason's left fist did the same, delivering a bone-crushing back-hammer strike to the base of the other guard's jaw. All the muscles of Jason's large upper-body convulsed as he drove each swinging fist through. The guard on the right grunted as his head jerked over.
This twisted his brain slightly inside its protective meninges layers causing him to instantly lose consciousness. The man had a glass jaw, and now dropped slowly in the low-gravity towards the floor.
The other man's jaw gave out a loud crack, and the man shrie
ked in pain, dropping the billy club. Jason had actually felt the man's jaw disintegrate beneath his fist. Though the man knew nothing about hand-fighting, he swung both his fists at Jason in rage. Jason quickly brought his left arm up horizontally, blocking both blows. The shock of the large man's club-like arms crashing down bent Jason downward, and he shot his left leg backward to steady himself. Holding the man's arms up out of the way with his left arm, Jason exposed the man's chest which strained forward as the man tried to bear Jason down to the floor. Jason's right hand, his fingers sticking stiffly forward in a ruthless knife-hand, struck for the solar plexus in the center of the man's chest, and plunged into the soft, vulnerable point between the man's lower rib-cage and diaphragm. The man let out a wheezing grunt, and fell back, doubling over in extreme pain, his breathing temporarily paralyzed. Jason propelled himself forward by flinging the man behind him. Leaving the two guards lying on the floor, he proceeded up the axis tunnelway as fast as he could go, but soon encountered more trouble.
A thick gang of men, led by Excarver Durdaine was advancing down the tunnelway, each armed with a dark, metal billy club.
Before Durdaine could speak, Jason came to a quick stop, and, leering confidently, he jabbed his hand into his pocket, and stuck his finger forward so that it bulged out like the barrel of a gun, as if he was concealing the hand-gun. Jason growled loudly, "This time you all die!" And, he advanced in an aggressive manner.
There were no guns on Conover. All Conovarians were brainwashed during all mandatory school-years that all societies allowing guns eventually always slaughtered themselves. In the virtual-reality entertainment shows aboard the colony ship, most of the colonists had seen many examples of the horrid hand-guns blowing people to bloody bits. The colonists had heard Jason use the gun before. The guards that had witnessed Jason's ruthless killings had hysterically told the story of his deadly hand-gun easily destroying three Segment #2 colonists. Each colonist now stared wide-eyed at the barrel-like protrusion in Jason's pocket, thinking nothing but that it must be the deadly hand-gun.
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