Captive Galaxy 1: The Bellerophon: Ambush

by J. W. Kurtz

  Ayad and the CHENG knew they were fighting a hostile clock.

  If they could only communicate with the Captain or Alpha, their current situation would be far less precarious and risky. Perhaps they could have even devised a means to salvage the heavy suit, as it was very clear to Ayad that it was time for the Captain to invest in some heavies for ship security and future boarding operations of their own. When this was over he would insist upon the addition of some heavy armor to their inventory. But, with Wray and Alpha being hundreds of meters forward, they needed to solve the problem on their own, here and now.

  It took less than five-minutes to have the hulking half-ton of Ogre armor positioned just right. In the quiet of the space they could just barely hear its enraged occupant screaming at them trapped in the confines of his frozen suit. A thought occurred to Ayad, perhaps the occupant would run out of oxygen if they waited him out, but the thought passed as again he considered the wildcard of time. He hated not knowing how many grains of sand remained.

  Callo had another bright idea. He chuckled to himself at the pun. He broke out a second chem light and affixed it to the targeted coolant pipe. Now, all Ayad had to do was aim for the glowing chem light, and not some grease penned "X" on the pipe.

  From the corner of the compartment, wisely near one of the exits so he could easily escape the expected jet and globules of hazardous super cooled helium, Ayad prepared to shoot the glowing chem stick some 15-meters away. There was no way he could miss. Especially now when there was no such distraction as the target shooting back to interfere with his concentration and aim.

  At the opposite end of the compartment CHENG Callo was holding onto the top rung of the currently useless ladder, to secure himself from drifting off, while he waited for Ayad to pierce the coolant pipe with his shot. Callo waived that he was prepared to engage the emergency stops and for Ayad to proceed.

  "Ok, here we go. Going to be loud. Don't piss your pants in zero-g, CHENG!" Ayad hollered.

  "Roger that!" Callo responded with a laugh. "Whenever you're ready."

  The compartment, lit only by the glow of the two chem lights, was suddenly bathed in light as whatever magic that had disabled everything electric was reversed and power was restored.

  Chapter 24:

  Moments Earlier

  Both Ogre battlesuits, captured just outside the primary life support and environmental control compartment, had been neatly cut open by the plasma torch provided by Chavez and Weston. The crew were rewarded for their efforts as they extracted the two prisoners, neither of whom were no worse for wear other than some minor burns and extremely bruised egos. Not surprisingly both prisoners were exhibiting clear signs of stimulant overdose. At least one of the two appeared on the edge of a psyche break. He was covered in a nervous sweat, his eyes shifting quickly back and forth, and a slight froth of spittle continually escaped from the side of his mouth. The other was far calmer but looked to be suffering from the early signs of extreme fatigue, the stims having burned through and sapped his system.

  Now, after being expertly bound by knots crafted at the hand of Captain Wray himself, the two silent prisoners were towed down the darkened zero-gravity corridor to a nearby ladder that accessed an upper deck. Here they were secured to the lower rungs in the event power to the artificial gravity systems was restored.

  The two prisoners were held at gunpoint by Takashi and Pfeiffer, though with the neutralizing effect of the Minervan relic, the most powerful weapons at their disposal were pry bars and a very sharp and intimidating looking knife loaned to them by Bachman. Takashi currently maintained the knife in his possession, for he had the most experience utilizing one, although it was in the galley during meal prep and never against a person.

  Wielding a knife, like he was now, was definitely a first. But, as Takashi could testify to, today was a day of a great many firsts for him. Takashi was silently wondering to himself whether or not he would be able to use the ultra sharp weapon, the edge honed to a near single atom by nanomanufacturing techniques, against the two prisoners if they broke free from their restraints. But in thinking about the recent events, he was sure that if they forced the issue he'd stick them without hesitation.

  Pfeiffer at least looked the part, in his privately acquired light battlesuit, brandishing a heavy pry bar and an inactive heavy blaster. Thankfully the two prisoners were content to only stare with hate filled eyes at their guards. The prisoners had no idea that their sentries were a cook and a bridge officer with a migraine who was still having trouble seeing clearly at the moment.

  Around the corner of the L-junction, and a dozen-meters further down the corridor, the Minervan box floated quietly near the position where its perfectly fit lid had been removed. The relic was surrounded by the foursome of Wray, Bachman, Weston, and Chavez. The four were all plainly relieved that the assault forward had been halted, but they were collectively concerned about the lone wolf that had brought death and havoc to engineering and propulsion aft.

  They understood, that as with any engagement, time was of the essence. However they were absolutely mesmerized by the contents of the box itself. They were drawn to it and the contents that they suspected few if any humans eyes had ever seen. Captain Wray, without reviewing the mysterious datapad entries, or interviewing the captured crew of the Osprey, which he was very inclined to do at the earliest opportunity now, had no idea what he was looking at exactly.

  As far as Wray and the others gathered around could see, the box contained...nothing. In the bright glow of the multiple emergency chem lights providing illumination the box appeared to be completely empty. Just shy of a cubic foot of empty.

  Chavez, out of bravery, or ignorance sometimes confused for stupidity, was of course the first to attempt to touch the inside of the empty Minervan box. Just before he was able to poke an exploratory finger into the "nothing" of the box his hand was swatted away by Weston floating weightlessly at his side.

  "Hey, what are you doing dumbass?!" Weston said with her most irritated voice. A voice often reserved for Chavez alone. "Don't go sticking your hand into weird places. What's wrong with you?"

  "You're the one that opened this thing. If the genie hasn't killed us yet, then what the hell, right?" Chavez answered.

  Chavez, Weston, and Bachman all looked at their boss for direction. Wray carefully considered the relic before them. The strange nothingness was startling to say the least. He nodded for Chavez to continue his scientific finger poking into the box experiment. Weston let loose an exasperated sigh. One that very much conveyed her annoyance in being surrounded by stupid boys pretending to be men. She held her breath, half closing her eyes, as Chavez poked a finger into the ancient vessel. Just as his finger passed the lip, before the tip of his gloved index finger had gone even a centimeter into the empty space, he progress was halted abruptly. The box was pushed away as if he had contacted a solid surface.

  "What the hell?" Chavez let loose. The box drifted in the direction of the Captain, who retrieved the wayward container and returned it to a somewhat stable position to hover once again before the four.

  "Well, that was unexpected," Bachman shared. "Chavez...do it again."

  "Ummm, ok. Sure...why not?" Chavez asked not entirely in a rhetorical manner. There was not a word from Weston. This time he removed his glove to inspect the empty box barehanded. And again, just after passing the lip of the container, he came into contact with a solid object. "It's warm," Chavez observed. "Not hot, but warm, a kind of radiating and pulsing warmth. There's nothing there, but the box is full of something. This is some spooky shit."

  "That's quite the scientific observation, Chavez," Weston quipped. "Probably not a good idea to keep messing with it. How do you know it won't disintegrate you or fling you into an alternate dimension of something? I'm betting that pulsing warmth you're feeling is that weird radiation noted when we first scanned it. When you feel radiation it can feel like a pulsing warm rain."

  "Yeah, it feels like warm rain
is landing on my hand. Shit! It can do that?" Chavez said as he quickly withdrew his bare hand and shoved it back into his glove in the belief that the thin layer of ballistic and heat resistant material would offer him protection from the advanced alien artifact.

  "Do what?" Bachman asked.

  "Disintegrate or the alternative dimension thing," Chavez said worriedly.

  "Wow...you are lucky you're pretty," Weston said evenly. "It probably would'a been a good idea to poke it with the muzzle of your carbine or a chem stick light or something instead of your hand. The Doc should run a scan on you later," Weston suggested.

  "Yeah, probably should have poked it with a stick first...where were you with the good ideas two minutes ago?" Chavez retorted.

  "I've got a question...if this thing cuts everything that's powered within range why doesn't it stop us? Isn't the human body just a machine that relies on electric impulses from the brain to muscle and stuff?" Weston asked.

  "Shit, who knows how this thing works. I'm scared to even ponder the possibility. Can we close this thing up now before our brains turn off or our hearts stop?" Bachman suggested.

  "Too late! It already shut Chavo's brain down! Oh man!" Weston laughed. Inwardly she found it both sad and amusing at the same time that this group so often pulled her down to their level.

  "Huh?" Chavez grunted after missing the comment.

  "Okay, okay," Wray interrupted, "let's put the lid back on this thing and reestablish comms with the bridge and Ayad. We need to get this where it will be effective to help Ayad. We don't know the range of the nullifying effects. For all we know this effect only ranges locally, like a hundred meters or less. I wish we could warn everyone that the power is coming back on and artificial gravity is about to be restored...I hope it'll be restored anyway. Be ready."

  Wray snatched the heavy lid hovering weightlessly nearby in a slow spin. The perfectly fitted lid was replaced on the 50,000-year-old vessel with a click. The lights flashed back on, nearly a ton of heavy armor 20-meters down the corridor abruptly slammed to the deck, and the master alarm signaling life support failure began to blare.

  Chapter 25:

  Ayad pulled the trigger on the antique firearm and once again, the confined space of the main engineering compartment, newly returned to a powered state, was filled with the thunderous boom of the discharge. Due to careful prep and close range, his aim was exactly true. The .30 caliber bullet tore through the short distance and pierced the designated pipe carrying pressured super cooled liquid helium to a minor system somewhere on the Belle'. Just as the jet of ultra cold liquid sprayed from the pipe, to coat the well positioned Ogre heavy battlesuit, the recent bane of Ayad's tepid existence, the artificial gravity system kicked in and took sudden hold of the half-ton mass of armor and man that was now accelerating through the weightlessness across the compartment, propelled by the jet of highly pressurized coolant.

  The spinning ice cube that was the lone wolf crashed mightily to the deck. Once nearly invincible, the ferro-ceramic armored suit had been reduced to a state as fragile as crystal. The suit, armor, weapon, and man shattered into pieces no bigger than a fist as the battlesuit exploded on the steel deck. A rain of once weightless globules of coolant also peppered the deck, scoring the steel with pits from frozen burns on the plating and grates.

  An uncontrolled jet of coolant continued to gush on a now severely damaged, but thankfully unimportant bulkhead, as CHENG Callo, dangling from the top rung of the ladder near the emergency stops attempted to keep himself from plummeting to the deck 10-meters below. The jet of highly pressurized liquid, hovering just above the temperature of absolute zero, finally abated as Callo successfully engaged the manual stops with his free hand.

  Callo let out a shout of surprise from the unexpected event that had just transpired. He hugged the top rung of the ladder in a stiff embrace as he continued to dangle precariously above the deck for a moment before his feet also found purchase on a rung.

  "Holy shit!" Callo screamed. "Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!" He paused only long enough to take a breath before exclaiming once more, "Holy shit!"

  Ayad sat on the deck and smiled at the youthful exuberance being displayed by his colleague. He should have assumed power would return at or about the worst possible time. Murphy's Law existed everywhere in the universe it seemed. Ayad was trying to act like he'd been there and done something like this before...despite never even being close such a crazy action in his dozen or more years of combat. As much as he tried, he couldn't contain his surprise or excitement as well, "Holy shit! Exactly!" And they both laughed together in celebration. The stress and adrenaline losing its bite and exhaustion moving in to fill the vacuum.

  The personal communicator carried by Ayad, silenced for the purposes of stealth, vibrated gently in the pocket where he'd stashed it. Ayad withdrew the communication device and opened the tactical network line.

  "This is Beta actual, over," Ayad answered.

  "Beta, this is Alpha and Bellerophon actual, sitrep. Forward hostile team neutralized. Repeat, forward hostiles neutralized. Do you require assistance? Over, " the all business voice of the Captain called over the comm line.

  "Threat in engineering neutralized. Hostile is...very KIA. Medical assistance required in captured shuttle in hangar with one casualty in sedation on board. Will be transporting one casualty in engineering to medical momentarily. Sitrep requested forward. I can hear a master alarm in the background, Boss. Everything okay?" Ayad asked.

  "Great job, Ayad! We'll definitely have to talk about that raise now! Has a master alarm ever really been 'okay' to hear? Seems that the employment of our little secret weapon here may have caused some collateral systems damage. Bachman's turning the damn alarm off now but I expect others are ringing across the ship. Transport who you need to for treatment. The bridge will dispatch someone to the Osprey to recover wounded. Van Vorst is down and a team is already near her. Medical looks to be busy. Standby for 1MC shipwide announcement in 5, over."

  "Roger that, Boss. Unfortunately the butchers bill's going to be mighty on this one. We lost some good people. Good people. Ayad, out." Ayad let out a long sigh and looked about the heavily damaged space.

  The compartment was in near complete disarray, with much of it in absolute ruins, much like the rest of the path leading from the main hangar. He suspected repairs would be difficult, extensive, and expensive. Ayad hoped that the success here, in halting the scuttling of the ship by the lone wolf, wouldn't be for naught. For if primary systems were beyond repair, their options, if any existed, would be extremely limited.

  Ayad slung the old rifle over his shoulder and he and CHENG Callo, now on the deck after making it down the ladder without mishap, got to the task of procuring a nearby grav sled so they could more easily transport the injured Clark Swanson to medical.

  Chapter 26:

  Approximately 5-Minutes Later

  The ship wide speakers hummed and buzzed momentarily as the 1MC line opened. The voice of Captain Wray was broadcast over the functioning loudspeakers throughout the Bellerophon, as well as through the speakers of the personal communicators and datapads linked to the ships wireless data network and carried by the crew.

  "This is the Captain. The ship is clear of hostile boarders. I repeat, the ship is now clear of the hostile boarders. My thanks and congratulations go to all of you for coming together to face this threat. In our victory we have suffered a great many casualties as a result of today's actions. A great many. The Bellerophon has also suffered heavy damage to primary and secondary systems alike. Major systems such as propulsion, power, and life support have all keyed master alarms. Over the next two-hours all departments are to gather casualties and get them to medical. Fatalities are to be transported to designated storage near medical. All department heads, and acting department heads, are to compile as detailed a report as possible for a video staff after action conference to occur at the end of those two-hours. I believe we have a long way yet to travel bef
ore the light even appears at the end of the tunnel people, but I believe if we continue to work together as professionals, that we will reach our goal. I will see department heads in two-hours. Captain, out."

  ***

  Throughout the ship the surviving members of the Belle's crew took a short collective breath, and then as one, they went to work. Over the next two-hours the injured, such as the critically wounded Sophia Van Vorst, Frederick Gessle, and Darius Protochenko among others, were transported to the medical bay. One of those "others" was Jason Petty. He was critically wounded and looked to lose most of his limbs but he was alive. For now.

  Dr. Skansi and medical assistant Mikkelsen, who thankfully had remained uninjured throughout the ordeal of the day, began the arduous task of mending the wounds of their colleagues. An out of character moment occurred when Dr. Skansi slapped Takashi on the back for the fine first aid and field medicine applied to Darius. Further placing the moment into the realm of strange was the then vocalized praise from the Doctor who followed up the congratulatory back slap with a "well done." Two consecutive words from the Doctor was a truly rare thing. Rare enough that those in attendance were stunned by the enthusiasm displayed by the eccentric and virtually mute doctor.

  ***

  The bridge was left in the capable hands of Pfeiffer as Wray left for his cabin to prepare for the upcoming after action and status conference. He did not depart however without quickly finding as many pieces of his shattered mug as he could. He'd failed to lock it in place again and the heavy collision with the frigate earlier had tossed the ceramic mug about and smashed the memento. Again. It looked like he would have to put in another order with one of the ships 3D fabricators to prepare yet another facsimile. Luckily, he had the specs saved in the system down to the chip along the rim and the faded paint obscuring a portion of the insignia, because a cursory inspection of the pieces in his hands brought him to the obvious conclusion that a repair attempt was a cause lost before it was started.