My heart sank. They could hardly miss a gurney trundling past them. Or the siren that had just started to scream at them to move out of the way.
Faces began to stare up at us. I waved them to one side. “Move! Move, you fools!”
One or two hesitated. They knew that the RAMP was not meant to be deployed against a fleet, and they knew that we were far too far from Veka for it to be launched at the Avarak homeworld.
On the other hand, there was a fire in the hold, they were at action stations, the whole ship was shaking, and they were under pressure to keep firing torpedoes. I saw hesitation in their demeanor, then doubt, then acceptance. Most of them simply turned away. One or two squinted up at us, no doubt trying to see exactly who was rolling around in charge of their most dangerous missile. I redoubled my arm waving. “Out! Out of the way!”
The crane trundled inexorably towards these few doubters, eventually forcing them to jump to one side.
We made it almost to the firing tube before the fire was completely put out.
Denaraz was now back at the console, fingers flashing as he opened the firing hatch to allow the missile to load.
And it was over. Our anonymity had lasted as long as it could. As the gurney holding the crane snapped into its final position, as the control station tipped sideways to allow the operator access to the controls on the side of the missile and the firing hatch, I saw that we had been made. There was a large group of armed men running down the passageway towards us, and a heavy-built officer leading them.
I brought the M596 up to my shoulder. It was my turn. I was up. I fired into them. I had no wish to kill any of them, but it was my job to stop them, and stop them I would.
The officer went down with a large hole in his leg. His mouth opened and closed as he screamed instructions to his men. Then I could see him berating them as they carried him swiftly out of my line of fire. He was furious. His hands tried physically to push them back, back towards me.
I brought my attention back to the head of the group. I saw that Zenzara must have entered the fray with her long barrel, for there were two others now rolling around in agony. The rest had paused, unsure whether to drag their colleagues to safety or step over them and continue.
A smart shot right through the hand of the next man decided the matter for them. He slapped back into the following man, who prudently decided to withdraw and regroup. I fired a few shots close by, to reinforce that decision. They ducked into one of the many alcoves made by the huge machines that housed all the armament.
Denaraz slapped me on the back. I turned to see what he wanted. He winked through the helmet at me, then held up his right index finger.
I frowned and shrugged my shoulders at him. As if to say What?
He grinned again. Then the index finger plunged downwards to a small button on one side of the console. It connected.
There was a second’s pause.
Then the whole station shook as the missile tube just beside us emptied.
We were left staring at each other. The euphoria of successful completion of a goal was definitely mitigated by the acute realization that we had left ourselves with nowhere to go.
“Oh shit!” I muttered, even though I knew Izan couldn’t hear me. “Where do we go from here?”
Denaraz’s eyes were wide open too. They darted from side to side, but I didn’t think he was going to see a way out.
We were surrounded.
I made a grab for the control panel, hoping that I could manipulate the crane and make it go back along the trackway. Denaraz slapped my hands away, pointing to himself at the same time, and nodding. He knew what I wanted.
I stationed myself just at the top of the crane, where the ladder tube reached the platform. They could only come up one at a time and I was in a definite position of superiority.
Shots were ricocheting off us from many angles now, but we hunkered down and let the thick steel protect us. Weapons have improved in recent years, but there are no hand held guns that can penetrate six inches of space steel. Not yet, anyway. I breathed a sigh of relief.
Zenzara was still spraying the area with loose M596 fire, creating dismay amongst our attackers.
I figured Zenzie could still see both Denaraz and I, so I hoped she would be able to make out my hand movements. I waved, then pointed to the two of us, then at her general direction. Then I curved my hands to make a curved shape in the air. Then I pointed up and out. I hoped she understood. I certainly had no intention of leaving her behind.
I was pretty sure that we stood no chance of actually launching an escape pod. They would have blocked that possibility as soon as we escaped. However, pods can be blocked from the inside. While we would not be able to escape from them, they would not be able to get at us. Not at first, anyhow. It would take them time to breach the very heavy shielding inside one of those pods. They were made to burn safely through heavy atmospheres and crash land.
I thought I saw a flash of light reflected in return. Maybe off a gun sight.
There were two banks of escape pods. One was to the rear of the bay to port and the other to the front of the bay to starboard. We were heading to the bank of pods at the rear of the bay.
I nudged Denaraz and pointed to the pods. He nodded. The crane trundled on.
The covering fire had stopped. Zenzara would be making her way across and down to the escape pods. I hoped. I had no backup plan if she hadn’t understood my signals.
The Terrans had realized what our plan was. There was a bunch of them against the pods. This was not going to be easy. I could make out several officers now chivvying the men into three-deep barriers in front of all the pods. All were armed, and well armed at that.
I turned to see Denaraz’s mouth open. He was shouting to me. I couldn’t hear a thing. He was trying to show me something above us.
I peered upwards into the space beyond the lighting. Sure enough, there was a thin walkway set right up at the top of the bay. I squeezed my eyes to try to see better. It didn’t really work, but it seemed to me I could make out a platform at the back of the bay and another small ladder leading to a hatch.
Denaraz might be right. If that hatch led to the deck above – and I couldn’t think where else it might go – then we would come out right in front of the escape pods on the next deck up. Escape pods that were likely unguarded, or at the very worst, only lightly guarded.
But would Zenzara follow our lead? Was she still trying to follow our movements? I had no idea.
I grinned at Izan, and made the universal signal for going up with my right hand – a circular motion with my forefinger pointing at the ceiling. Denaraz closed his eyes tight shut for a couple of seconds. He looked as if he were begging Zeuma to intervene. I wished I believed in some deity. I would be praying too.
Denaraz let the crane rumble onwards. Shortly before we came beneath the high walkway, he pulled off the belt to his suit and tied it firmly around the controls of the crane. Then he gave me a what-are-we-waiting-for tilt of his head.
We both jumped at the same time. The crane slid out from underneath us but by the time it cleared our position we were both lying flat against the meager planks, hoping not to have been spotted.
We gave it a countdown from twenty, which I mouthed out loud so Denaraz would follow the intention. At zero we leapt up in tandem and sprinted along the narrow walkway, which in essence was little more than a hanging horizontal ladder with slats laid over it.
There was fire. It took a few seconds for them to pick us out from the background, and it took a couple more for them to get us in focus. By that time we had reached the steps up to the hatchway.
Shots rang to the left and right of us as Denaraz grabbed the hatch door and began to spin the wheel lock. I raced up to put my own pressure aga
inst it too.
The shots were on us now. They had the range and the position. One thudded into the metal about one inch to the left of my head, then I was hit.
I felt my body sag as my lungs struggled to pull in air. Denaraz grabbed at me as he pulled the hatchway open. I don’t know how he managed it, because he was winged himself as he dragged me to safety, but he got both of us through and the hatch closed again.
I looked around. The first thing I noticed was the relative silence. We were in a corridor. An empty corridor. But there was a large hatchway to our right. It led into what looked like a zone of sleeping quarters.
Denaraz helped me towards the hatchway. Sure enough, there was a row of pods against the back wall of the corridor. He half dragged, half carried me towards the nearest.
“Stop!”
We both turned. A very junior officer was pointing a pulser at us. He was ranked by two burly security officers. He narrowed his eyes and tensed. “Don’t try anything. If you do—”
As he collapsed to the floor with a large wound in his shoulder, Zenzie’s voice came from behind us. “You shouldn’t talk so much,” she informed the prostrate figure.
She sprayed the corridor in front of the security officers with fire, forcing them to take cover down one of the residential corridors. Then she pulled a face.
“Got yourself shot, did you? I knew I should have stayed with you both. Honestly! Can’t you two do the simplest of things without getting into trouble?”
Denaraz held up his hands. “I did my best!”
I was too out of breath to speak, but I hope my look told her what I was thinking.
It didn’t, or if it did, she didn’t take any notice. “Now look at you both! I suppose you think I am going to attend to those wounds?”
Izan pressed some sort of code into the pod’s keypad, and the heavy hatch gave a click.
He grunted. “Here kid, help me with this and stop nagging. The captain won’t be able to stand for much longer.”
She did, but the glare she treated him to threatened retribution at a later date.
“And stop those men from coming back!” ordered Denaraz in a sharp voice.
She turned and sprayed the area with more fire. The men, who had just about decided to attack, prudently retreated once more.
“There!” The hatch swung open and between the two of them they bundled me inside. Zenzie slipped in after me and Denaraz brought up the rear, pulling the heavy hatch shut after him. He threw himself at the control panel and instigated a lockdown.
After around five minutes, he threw his head back and laughed. “If you had told me we could carry that off I would have thought you were crazy!” He looked up at the ceiling. “Never in a thousand years …!”
I tried to hold my sides together. It felt as though I was lying on a knife. “W-Where … did you … send … the … missile?” I struggled to get enough air for each word.
“I programmed it to drop into a low orbit at the same Zuben planetoid we used when we arrived at the Lakshmi Disc. It should remain well-hidden there until we get a chance to recover it or dump it in Zuben’s corona.”
Zenzie had grabbed the first-aid kit and helped me out of my helmet. She ignored the metallic thumping coming from the other side of the hatch. It was going to take them a very long time to get through that.
“Lie still,” she snapped. “This tear in your body is quite severe.”
“Yes Granny,” I said meekly.
She looked up. “What is a Granny?”
I shook my head. I was too exhausted to explain. I could feel my head swimming through some sort of jelly that was getting thicker and thicker and blacker and blacker.
I passed out.
Chapter 17
When I came back to my senses, nothing much seemed to have changed. I could hear weak banging against the pod’s hatch. We hadn’t moved. The only thing that was different was that I had been securely bandaged up and that Denaraz was sporting a huge white plaster over his shoulder.
Zenzara was frowning down at me, her wrinkles sagging. “… shouldn’t have been out for so long,” I heard her mutter.
I struggled onto one elbow. “I’m all right!”
She started back and hit her head against the console. “Don’t do that! You startled me!” She massaged the back of her skull in a ginger sort of way. “I nearly knocked myself out.”
“Who needs enemies?” I asked, rolling my eyes.
Izan grinned. “We have quite enough of those, thank you. They have been busily trying to break in.”
“How long have we got?”
He pursed his lips. “Maybe a few hours. Ten or twelve, at the very most. And that is only if they want us alive. If they decide we are worthless, they could simply zap the whole pod with an enormous electrical discharge and fry us.”
“Oh, nice.” I thought for a moment and then clambered up. “Put me through to them, will you?”
He nodded and moved his fingers deftly about the console. The somewhat disheveled face of Admiral Ellison appeared. She was not happy.
“You have made yourself an enemy of the people,” she said coldly.
“I was afraid of that. However, if you want your RAMP missile back I suggest you don’t try to exterminate us, however much you want to. If we die, the co-ordinates die with us.”
She looked cross. “You haven’t destroyed it then?”
I shook my head. “It is still in one piece. Retrievable. So kindly give your men orders to treat this pod with great care.”
She hesitated, before looking to one side and nodding to somebody out of frame. “It is done.”
“Thank you. Then I imagine we will be seeing each other in a few hours.”
“Why don’t you come out now?”
“We would, except that a lot can happen between now and then. Who knows?”
“Have it your own way, then. It is not a matter of great relevance to me.”
She cut off the communication. Zenzie shook her head. “She was lying.”
“Of course she was. She is furious. She has lost one of only three RAMP missiles. If she doesn’t get it back she won’t be fleet admiral for very long.”
“She should have listened to us.”
“She should, of course, but these Terrans are pretty stubborn.”
“What are we going to do? They are still using ABlasers to try to cut a way to us. I can hear them.”
I shrugged. “I assume Denaraz tried to get this pod out of here?”
She nodded. “We are locked down.”
“Hmm. I wonder what would over-ride a manual lockdown?”
Izan, who had been listening, raised one eyebrow. “Ahh. Yes.” His eyes stared into the far distance. “Yes!” He leapt up and went back to the far console. “Of course! We need to make the software think the ship is about to explode. If we can do that, evacuation protocols will automatically be triggered and all the pods will be remotely released, overriding any previous instructions. Yes, that would work!”
“Can you do that? From here?”
“I have no idea. But I can try.”
Zenzie scooted over to him. “I will help.” They went into a huddle and I was able to lie back against the bulkhead and get my breath back. The pain was still pretty severe. It made me gasp as I spoke. I knew I was losing my ability to think clearly. It was frustrating. I was in need of a triage tank. As soon as possible. The pulse had affected one of my lungs, and it was quite hard to keep the panic at bay. It was frightening not to be able to get enough oxygen. Just keeping upright was a struggle.
Zenzie seemed to know what I was feeling. “A few hours in a Zeroth and you will be like new,” she told me, over her shoulder. “It is a very
clean wound. It just needs closing up.”
“T-Thank you for the bandage.”
“I am good at bandaging. I took a course. You are lucky I did. You might not be alive otherwise.”
I suspected that Denaraz had also taken a few first-aid courses as part of his training, but said nothing. He looked up and smiled with his eyes. He had. However, he said nothing either.
I let my eyes close, and must have slept for a short while, for the next I knew was a gasp of satisfaction that woke me up with a jerk. “W-What …?”
They were doing some sort of silly jig, holding each other’s hands and jumping around in circles. “What is going on?” I felt a little left out.
Zenzie turned to me and did another small dance on the spot. “We found a way!”
“You’re kidding!” I wished then I could get up and join in.
“No. I am brilliant.” She looked over her shoulder at Denaraz and rectified, “We are brilliant.”
Izan laughed. “It’s all right. It was your idea, Zenzara. Own it!”
She did. “I am brilliant. I am brilliant. I am brilliant!”
“You can hack their system?”
“Theirs, and all the other ships in the convoy!”
I think time stopped for a couple of beats. I may have heard trumpets far away with some kind of fanfare. I do know my jaw dropped open. “No!”
She danced some more. “Oh yes!”
“How the fitz did you figure out a way to do that?”
“They are Terrans,” she said simply. “They don’t think in the same way we Tyzarans do.”
“I can see that.” I would have kissed them both if I had been able to stand up.
“So?” Denaraz raised his shoulders. “Do we go ahead?”
“Wait!” I half-raised one hand. “You are telling me that if we do this all of the fleet will instigate emergency evacuation protocol?”
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