Mission to Sector ZZ1219

by Jerry D. Young

  As was often the case, Captain Butler fell back and let the rest of the flight go to the base when the patrol ended. He ran his long-range sensors, again as he often did. When he saw the two blips he almost called the flight back, but the speed and vector convinced him to just hold position.

  It was not long before the other two Dominators pulled up beside him. He saw Guy Richardson’s hand signals and set the communications frequency and code on his communications unit.

  “How is Isis?” came the other voice he still did not know.

  “Weary unto death,” an equally weary William Butler said. “We’re chasing red herrings. I don’t have a clue why we’re running these patrols where we’re running them. No contacts at all. Just using up fuel and stamina.”

  “That is the point,” Johnny said. “They want you dead tired, and then dead, period. I expect you will be ordered, soon, to go out, just the two of you, since the others will be so tired, and you will volunteer anyway to protect them.”

  “I won’t let her go out again,” Captain Butler said with some force.

  “You have to,” Johnny said. “Don’t worry. Everyone is going to be very surprised at what happens, when it happens. Everything will come to a head in less than two days.

  “Try to hang on for now. If you get the order for just the two of you to do a patrol, send word.” Johnny motioned another frequency and code.

  They saw Captain Butler nod. He fired up and headed toward the base again. Willi followed as Johnny vectored them further out into space, even further away from the Moon-Ship base and orbiting transport terminal.

  When they reached it, Willi was surprised that the vessel floating there in space had not appeared on any of the sensors. At least until they were well within close-range sensor range. Then she actually got a good look at it.

  “Talk about stealth,” she muttered. The vessel was essentially a signal trap. An entire, very wide spectrum of signals, trap. Not much could reflect, including light.

  It was too small to dock with, so they exited the Dominators, tethered them, and entered the eerie vessel through a personnel airlock.

  “What the hell is this thing?” Willi asked as soon as their helmets were off.

  “An experiment. Effective sensor suppression, but they never could figure out how to make it work with a propulsion unit, so it sort of just fell off the R&D books. I managed to acquire a couple of the test beds like this one.

  “Effective hides, if positioned correctly. We’ll rest here, eat something and clean up a little. Unless I miss my guess, Telstar and Isis will be heading out to their planned deaths in less than eight hours.”

  Willi blanched. “What do you mean?”

  “What I told Captain Butler. They want the two of them dead tired, and all the members of the flights. It looks like they’ve had everyone on high alert, sending them out to tire them out. They know what kind of people the two Captains are. Probably several other dedicated people in various positions, as well.

  “Telstar and Isis have done a lot of damage since they teamed up on these flights. They are going to use their dedication to get them killed in a manner that will bring more support for the Governor, while getting the two out of the way.”

  “But we are going to prevent that,” Willi replied, never doubting the fact that Johnny already had a plan to do so.

  “Yes, we are,” replied Johnny. He waited until the two had stripped out of the flight suits and were tethered to the wall next to the food locker, so they could consume one of the zero-gee meals without needing to maintain position in free fall, before he filled her in on his plan.

  Willi’s eyes were wide when Johnny stopped talking. At first, she had been entranced as he laid out the first part of the plan, and then appalled with the last part.

  “You can’t do…” Willi was protesting when Johnny cut her off.

  His eyes were on hers, his face devoid of emotion, when he said, “Willi, it is not up for discussion. It is the only thing that has any hope of working. To buy enough time for Confederation forces to get here with enough resources to make sure the Ecronians will not follow through on their plans.

  “And your part is just as critical as mine is, now that things have developed the way they have. I am not one hundred percent sure what my plan might have been were you not here, but I would have found a way. At least I like to think I could have. Anyway…

  “You will stay here, monitor comms, and bring Telstar and Isis here if they are ordered out. And wait here with them. Until I return, send verified word, or Confederation forces arrive.”

  “But you said that could be a month!” Willi was feeling herself panic. She breathed deeply a few times, as Johnny watched her. She knew that he knew, what was happening with her. She was furious, frightened for him. For Telstar. For Isis. For herself. And the millions of humans in the sector. And he waited patiently until she could speak again without being totally irrational.

  “There has to be another way!” The words were soft, but urgent.

  Johnny shook his head. “No. Not at this point in time, with the circumstances as they are.”

  “I can go with you, at least to the meeting and then…” Willi’s words trailed away as Johnny just looked at her.

  She knew she had tears shimmering in her eyes. In freefall, they would not fall, just accumulate until she wiped them away. There were far more than enough to enable Johnny to see them, without a doubt.

  He said nothing else as he turned away to suit up again. Just before he donned his helmet, he gave her another long look, where she was still tethered, watching him. “Some of the rumors are true,” he said softly. And then he was gone.

  Willi did not even untether to go to a viewport to see him leave in his Dominator. She wiped away the tears then, did what little cleanup was required, and then, tethered at the small comms console, let herself doze off and on, the volume up on the receiver that would carry word from Telstar and Isis if they were ordered out on patrol again.

  Less than six hours later, right after another quick meal and trip into the tiny lavatory, Willi was fully alert. The coded message was repeated, and then silence.

  Hurrying, but being very careful, Willi was quickly in her flight suit, and had the Dominator headed on an intercept course that would put her in a sensor dead zone just as Telstar and Isis arrived at it, on their way to the coordinates to which they had been vectored after leaving the Moon-Ship base.

  It was patently obvious that the Captains had been sent out to their deaths. That course would take them directly into the heart of the pirate hideout area that Johnny had found.

  Between the overwhelming numbers of pirate fighters that would undoubtedly be waiting on them, and the dead zone they would have to pass through, the two did not stand a chance, even in the Dominator and the F-777.

  Telstar caught the blip of Willi’s Dominator just as she caught his right before both entered the dead zone. The quick, scrambled, comms burst Willi sent was acknowledged by Telstar just before all three of them entered the dead zone.

  Immediately slowing to the equivalent of a crawl, in space, to avoid any chance of a collision, since only at extremely close range within the dead zone would any of their sensors ‘see’ the other craft, Willi and the two Captains stayed on their respective courses, by not activating any guidance controls at all.

  When the sudden ping came, Willi brought her Dominator to a dead stop, relative to the others. After a series of single sensor pings, the three craft were within a few meters of each other.

  Even in the dead zone, none of them were willing to trust further communications, other than the ‘follow me’ sign that Willi gave the other two pilots.

  Immediately she began to accelerate, leaving the dead zone at high speed, on a vector completely different from the one any of them would have been on if they had continued the courses they were on upon entering it.

  Not only was the course not one that anyone that might have had sensors searching in the a
rea would be watching, it was such that most of those sensor searches would be through the dead zone, and more or less ineffective, anyway.

  Telstar and Isis formed up on Willi, who maintained a speed somewhat below Isis’s F-777 maximum economical cruise speed.

  Neither Isis nor Telstar could tell why Willi suddenly began to slow, as there was nothing showing on any of their instruments. It was only when they came within unmistakable visual range of Johnny’s hide, as he called it, that the two knew they had reached their destination. At least, temporary destination.

  Tethering their craft the way they saw Pipeline doing, the two joined Willi inside the vessel, all three going through the airlock at the same time.

  When Willi undogged her helmet and removed it, Janet did a double take, and Bill’s eyes literally bugged out a bit. “Marylin?” Janet asked, just floating in the zero-gee of the vessel.

  An amused look on her face at Bill’s reaction, she nodded, and then finished slipping out of the space flight suit and secured it in a locker. Bill and Janet did the same.

  With the same dazed look on his face, which Willi did attribute, at least partially, to how exhausted he was, Bill continued to stare at her when she rotated slowly in the air to face them. A slight motion of her hand against a wall, and she drifted gracefully over to the small table that was part of the furnishings mounted against what was considered the floor when inside the hide.

  Janet joined her, and then Bill. Janet opened her mouth, and to stave off what she knew would be a very long series of questions, Willi began to explain.

  “Actually, I am Willi McKindrick; Wilhelmina, more precisely; but I always go by Willi.”

  “Except when you go by Marilyn Monroe,” Bill muttered.

  Willi had to grin. “Well… Yes. But that has only been since very recently.” She told them about her first meeting with Johnny Oneshot, what had happened, and her subsequent successful attempt to find him.

  Bill interrupted her. “Okay. That is fine. But how does this Sir Guy Richardson guy fit into this? He said he was Johnny Oneshot, at first. Just who is he?”

  “He is Johnny Oneshot,” Willi insisted, having trouble keeping another grin off her face. Even Janet was finding it hard to accept. Willi decided they needed a bit more convincing.

  “And you know that swamper working at Smokey’s? That was him, too. And I have seen him in a couple more disguises. That I am sure of. Not sure who else he has been at different times. But I really do not want to talk about that now.”

  Willi sighed. “I need to fill you in on the rest of the plan.”

  “Joh… Guy… Whoever!” Bill said rather forcefully, already filled us in. You were there.” Janet put a hand on one of Bill’s forearms.

  “Yes,” Willi said calmly. She knew Bill was only reacting because of his exhaustion. “I think you two could probably use some water, and a sustainment meal pouch.”

  Neither contradicted her. Willi skillfully flitted about the interior of the small craft and returned to the table with the items stated. When she noticed Janet and Bill looking at her, she asked, “What?” She turned around to see if she had let one of the pouches leak.

  “How do you do that in here?” Janet asked with amazement. “I think you did more twists and spins than a dozen corkscrews have.”

  “Yeah…” was all Bill could get out.

  Willi scrunched her nose slightly, flipped her left-hand fingers, negligently, and in her split toe spacecraft deck slippers, grabbed the platform and eased herself into position. “Just practice,” she said, again, as if it was nothing, handing out the pouches to the other two, keeping one of the fortified drink pouches for herself.

  “Okay, back to it,” she continued as Bill tore into the meal, relatively speaking, and Janet downed almost one half of her drink in one long series of swallows. Which, Willi noticed absently, seemed to fascinate Bill.

  “He just will not tell me what exactly he is going to do, but Johnny plans to stir up something today, and then again tomorrow. We are to stay here until he contacts us with a secure transmission or wait for the Confederation Forces that should be here in about a month.”

  “A month! I am not waiting a month to do something,” Bill replied vehemently.

  “Nor am I!”, added Janet.

  Bill’s tone was suddenly lower. “Well, perhaps in your case… And Mari… Willi’s, that might not be a…”

  Janet glared at him and he shut up. “Go on,” she said to Willi, finally looking back toward her.

  “He did say,” Willi continued, without comment on Janet’s and Bill’s abbreviated conversation, which, apparently, Janet had resolved to her satisfaction, if not Bill’s, “That things should be over in two days.”

  Willi’s eyes slid over to one of the view ports. Janet and Bill exchanged a glance, suspecting what she was thinking. But Willi brought her eyes back to the two Captains and continued, if not cheerfully, at least with confidence. Confidence in Johnny Oneshot, they were both sure.

  “So, we wait to hear from him in the next couple of days. And then we will decide what to do. Because I can tell you, he IS NOT going to do what he said he was going to do to delay the Ecronians.”

  With that, Willi slipped away without really saying anything else. She tethered herself to one of the sleeping nets, turned away from the cabin, and went very quiet.

  Again, Bill and Janet exchanged a glance, after watching Willi for a few moments, but neither said anything. With a shrug, Bill flipped a foot and went to the sleeping net the furthest away, and then did the same as Willi.

  More slowly, Janet did the same. But not until after a long time watching Willi, and then a longer time with her eyes on Bill. But, finally, like the other two, she was sleeping the sleep of exhaustion.

  A klaxon sounding woke all three. Willi was the first out of her tethers, which amazed Bill and Janet yet again with her skill in zero-gee. But they too were at the comm console moments later.

  If Willi had not IFFed the signal herself, she was not sure if she would have believed it was Johnny Oneshot speaking. The decoding computer was working just fine, but Johnny’s voice did not sound right. Something was wrong, Willi was sure. But she did not have a chance to query him.

  “The hide will be compromised shortly. Drop planetside immediately, in the fighters. The information is in a burst to follow. When you have grounded, look for a small flat spot, just inside the lower left of the hatches on all three craft.

  “Each of you touch the one in your craft and only the one in your craft. They will go into deep stealth mode, but will be available when needed. Willi has the additional instructions in her comm device.

  “After the craft are cloaked, head for Smokey’s and make sure Cherokee knows you are in a hurry. He will know what to do. Follow his instructions to the letter.

  “I will be in contact again as soon as I can. Oh. I suggest the hiding set. Burst beginning now.”

  That was it. A fraction of a second later came a squeal that was too high in frequency for Janet and Bill to hear, and was just barely audible to Willi.

  Willi pulled the chip from the comm console, slid it into the comm device after retrieving it from her garment, without either Bill or Janet seeing where it had been hidden.

  All three were now donning their flight suits as quickly as possible. Only enough time was taken for the three to check each other, just to be safe, in case in their haste something was amiss. There was not a single thing that was not textbook correct.

  The three were headed away from the hide at the highest speed Isis’ Triple Seven could make, following the course that Willi had transferred to the other two ships from her Dominator as they brought the systems online.

  Although they were well away from the hide, and already dropping into the atmosphere when their passive rear sensors picked up a massive explosion in the direction in which the hide was located. Or had been, all three thought immediately.

  They were in radio silence, of course, so none of
the three stated what all three were thinking. A nuke had been used on the hide. A massive one. Probably of a size that could blow a crater the size of some small moons in a planet. For something that was barely the size of a very small home.

  And nothing was said for some time after their landing at a very out of the way area of the planet. Each touched the flat panel switch in their respective craft, that Johnny had described, and the three craft first disappeared from visible sight, except for a slight shimmer, and then obviously flew away on their own, still cloaked. A few seconds later there was no indication, by sound, sight, or smell, of the three craft.

  All three pilots exchanged glances. “Uh… F-777s don’t have cloaking,” Janet managed to say.

  “Neither do Dominators,” Bill added softly. “At least not like that, and not from the factory. And how could I have missed that switch…”

  Another exchange of glances and the three turned at a sound, Willi, wishing she had retrieved the PDW provided by Johnny, drew her sidearm, the one issued by the Trinity Home. Though not near the weapon the PDW was, the weapon was highly capable, and Willi was an expert in its use.

  Bill and Janet were doing the same, bringing their service weapons out and up, ready for whatever was making the sound just beyond a low rise of ground.

  “I may kill him myself!” Willi muttered when she saw the small wilderness transporter that he had apparently arranged to be there for their use. Robotic, using minimal AI programming, which was mostly just a smarter than usual version of the positioning units in field survival kits, the transporter was an idiot proof ride for six-year-olds.

  Not to mention, this one was in the shape of a very large, very gray/pink, cottontail bunny, Old Earth style. It was a children’s school field trip transporter.

  Janet could not keep from laughing, and though Bill felt more like Willi, he did smile, as well.

  The three clambered aboard, finding three low profile back packs on one of the bench seats. When the packs were opened up the three handed them around, so the correct pack was with the person for which it was meant.

  All three had an identical note, however. Wasn’t sure of what might be needed. Dress appropriately. Blending, running, hiding, fighting.