Blockade

by Craig Martelle

  “If you blinked, you missed it. Those guys work for us?”

  “Everyone on Keeg Station works for the Bad Company. The good work of the Direct Action Branch pays all their salaries and costs,” Marcie explained.

  “Who’s in charge of all that?”

  “The person who kicked us out of Seymour Heine’s.” Marcie looked away, biting her lip to keep from laughing.

  Terry’s mouth hung open as Marcie directed the group to dig into the machines and start working the iron. High weight. High reps. Char sidled up to TH and draped one arm over his shoulder. She ran her hand down his chest until it settled on his hip.

  “Let Marcie run that stuff. You need to focus on the tactics required for the next mission and the one after that. We don’t need any more shitstorms like we had on Poddern. Being up for four days of continuous operations will do more to get people killed than combat.” Char’s purple eyes sparkled, but she wasn’t smiling.

  It was one of the lessons that Terry needed to hear. Balance of what he could control, what was out of his control, and most importantly, what he didn’t need to control.

  The War Axe

  “Smedley, say ‘hi’ to Plato, the R&D Artificial Intelligence working out of my lab on Keeg Station,” Ted said as he settled in to the work station, bringing up the holo screens and immersing himself in the gravitic shield system.

  “Hi,” Smedley said using the room’s speakers. His monotone came across as cold, but Ted assumed Smedley was being efficient.

  “Smedley Butler! I’ve heard so much about you and am happy that we finally have the chance to meet. I’ve been working with Ted for only a little while now, and it has been most refreshing. He has helped us through a couple sticky spots, and we are well on our way to solving some of the universe’s mysteries.”

  “I’m not any of that. I’m a warship, and we fight the good fight, out there, where battles are fought and won.”

  “Hopefully we’ll get your systems online so while you’re out there, your ship isn’t damaged, and you return home in a condition comparable to what we see now,” Plato replied.

  “Now, girls, that’s enough,” Mac said. He’d been given the duty of escorting Ted through the ship, but Ted didn’t need any of that. Upon reflection, Mac didn’t think that Ted had acknowledged his existence. “Ted, how’s it coming?”

  “Plato, I need you to parse this section of code. It’s all gooned up. If it’s unsalvageable, scrap it and write a new sub-routine that works. And, Smedley, I need you to activate the external projectors so we can have the maintenance bots perform a physical check during a diagnostic routine,” Ted directed.

  “We cannot activate the gravitic shields while maintenance workers and bots are outside the ship. The result could be catastrophic. We will need to draw down the current work and re-task the bots before external projectors can be activated,” Smedley explained, talking quickly because he knew that these listeners rapidly assimilated information.

  “Get them out of there! Now! Why would you ask me to come over here and then not be ready for me to work?” Ted grumbled, glaring at Mac.

  I guess he did know I was here, Mac thought.

  “Make it so, Smedley. I’ll talk with the captain personally, and we’ll have you turned loose as quickly as humanly possible,” Mac shouted as he ran from the room to escape Ted’s vitriol.

  Ted leaned back after the commander had gone.

  “Where are we, Plato, on that reprogramming?” Ted asked.

  “Almost there, my friend,” the AI replied.

  “Looks like we’ll have time to streamline the code for the whole system. Let’s pull that up and get started.” Ted disappeared within the holographic representation of the gravitic shield application.

  Keeg Station

  “What do you mean, no more suits?” Terry asked for the second time. His face twisted in frustration, not anger. He held his hands out in a calming gesture. He didn’t need the people on the station to be afraid of him.

  “Our resources are out there working on your ship. You get these four, which brings your inventory to twelve, but we can’t manufacture suits and repair the War Axe at the same time. Our structural resources are stretched thin. We’ll work on more suits once you’ve deployed again,” the station’s logistics chief explained patiently.

  “I understand, Daniel. We all do the best we can with what we have.” Terry looked at a box that appeared in the chief’s hands. He was all smiles.

  Terry raised his eyebrows but didn’t speak.

  “Here you go, Colonel,” Daniel said, turning the box and popping open the lid.

  Two Jean Dukes Specials were nestled in soft fabric, with four magazines stuffed in around them.

  “They are unkeyed at present. Take care of that as soon as possible. We don’t need these falling into the wrong hands.”

  “I know a couple warriors who will greatly appreciate these.” Terry smiled broadly, showing his straight, white teeth while never taking his eyes from the pistols. He secretly called them the World Enders, because of the power they could unleash. “Thanks for everything you do, Daniel.”

  Terry wanted to end on a high note. He was disappointed that he’d only get four more mechs, but with the addition of two JDSs, it almost made up for it.

  Almost.

  Terry waved as he left the quartermaster’s office. He walked through the mostly empty corridors of Keeg Station. It was a working station where most personnel had something to do. Some children played tag on the promenade, the shopping area. A food shop rolled its door into the ceiling, the proprietor hoping the smell of his fare would entice the early diners.

  Foliage trailed throughout, flowers blooming from hanging pots. Terry stopped by the small restaurant with the open door.

  “Come in!” the man called out pleasantly as he rushed from table to table, straightening condiment bottles. “You are our first customer and that is always good luck, or so they say.”

  Terry looked at a figure in the back hunched over a portable computer. “How can I be first?” Terry asked.

  “Him?” The owner pointed at the figure. “He never leaves. Says he writes books.”

  The owner waved dismissively with one meaty hand. “What would you like? Everything is fresh!” the man claimed.

  “What kind of food do you serve?” Terry asked, looking around. Nothing gave away the theme. It looked like a typical dive.

  “The only thing we serve here in Click, Click, Boom is Seppukarian food. It has an interesting blend of spiced meats in a heavy gravy over something that looks like rice to Earthers. It’ll either put hair on your chest or give you explosive diarrhea. You can never tell which until after you’ve tried it. Seppukarian. It’s a rite of passage.”

  Terry twisted his nose and curled his lip. Char refused to enter the place because she considered it an assault on her delicate senses. Once inside, Terry found that he couldn’t disagree.

  “I think I’m good, thanks, but I expect some of my people will make their way here. They are all about rites of passage, whether they make sense or not. It’s something I would have done when I was a bit younger, about a hundred and seventy years ago.”

  Terry waved nonchalantly as he turned to walk out. He cast one last glance at the author, pecking away at his keyboard. Terry thought for a moment about introducing himself, but expected the man was oblivious to all around him.

  And Terry couldn’t be sure of the last time the author had a shower.

  TH shook his head as he left to find Marcie and Kimber, the box carrying two Jean Dukes Specials cradled lovingly under his arm.

  The War Axe

  “Smedley, call Nathan,” Ted ordered.

  “Belay that, Smedley,” the captain replied. “We have to fly the dumbed-down version so no one knows this is a Federation warship.”

  “THAT’S INSANE!” Ted screamed, spittle flying from his mouth. “I will fix that right now, because Felicity won’t let me put our friends at risk. I
f Felicity found out, there would be hell to pay. Smedley, call Nathan, right now.”

  Micky raised his hand to object a second time, but he knew that Ted was right. It was the argument that he’d raised when they left space dock before the ship was finished because Bethany Anne was taking her armada to Earth and wanted the War Axe for the mission that would be Terry Henry and the Bad Company.

  “Nathan Lowell,” the voice said as he tried to figure out who had called him. “Ted, is that you?”

  “You sent this ship to war and you wouldn’t let them use the latest technology? If I tell Felicity, you’ll be in big trouble.”

  Nathan stared at the screen, wondering about Ted’s tirade. “Okay,” he said noncommittally.

  “I don’t care what you say, I’m not sending my friends out there like this. Not again. Never again.”

  “Or Felicity will kick my ass?” Nathan pondered with a half-smile.

  “There will be a long line of people with Felicity at the front and I’ll be right beside her!” Ted stood and stuck his chest out, glaring at the screen.

  “I was wrong in trying to hide the origins of the Bad Company’s Direct Action Branch. I think the value of the reputation alone will help calm things in the entire sector. The fact that the War Axe came from the Federation will be the worst kept secret across twelve parsecs. Go ahead and top it off, Ted. If you know of any new technology that Team BMW is working on that could benefit the Axe and her passengers, install it. Understand?”

  “I don’t care what you say, Nathan, I’m going to install the latest technology in the War Axe and make it the best combat ship there is,” Ted declared as he slammed his fist on the table.

  “I think that’s what he’s saying…” Micky offered, but stopped when Ted glared at him.

  “We’re all agreed. Accept my apologies for the subterfuge, Micky. But there’s one very important thing here. With the technology upgrade, the War Axe cannot fall into enemy hands, no matter what. If it looks like that will happen, Smedley will suicide and take the ship with him.” Nathan leaned close to the screen to make it clear that he was deadly serious.

  “You can’t kill Smedley,” Ted replied, frowning.

  “Then you need to keep the ship out of anyone else’s hands. If that’s all, I’m off to check on the latest Pepsi shipments.” Nathan’s visage disappeared from the screen.

  Ted looked like he wanted to call him back.

  “Time to go to work, Ted. We have a ship to upgrade, you, and all of us. The technology is here. We only need to integrate it into the operations. And Terry Henry has no patience beyond five days, so that’s our window. The bots and structural crews are recovered from the outside. The space around the ship is clear. First order of business is to bring up the gravitic shields.”

  Ted continued to look angry.

  “Ted. Let’s get to work,” the captain declared in a low voice through gritted teeth.

  “But…” Ted started to say.

  “We’re going to fix it, Ted, all of it, and it won’t fix itself. We need you,” Micky said more softly, starting to understand how best to deal with the genius werewolf.

  “Plato, take over the maintenance bots and send them to the gravitic shield projectors. Prepare to run diagnostic Ted Six Alpha,” Ted stated clinically, his face set as the exchange of the last few minutes was forgotten and he focused unerringly on the task at hand.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  “Fuck me! One more day? Come on, Micky, the people of Alchon Prime are running out of food. How much longer is this going to take?” Terry blew out a long breath and closed his eyes in a feeble attempt to avoid getting angry.

  “Ted needs it to finalize some things, and for the record, he’s going with us to keep working with the ship.”

  “How broke was the War Axe?”

  “In more ways than you’ll ever know, but what matters is that the alien fleet won’t know what hit them. You won’t be able to recognize the ship,” Micky said, before looking away. “Get out of here, you mangy beast!”

  Micky jerked in his chair as he kicked at something that Terry couldn’t see.

  “We need to get going, Micky. Is there any way Ted can do what he needs to do while we’re underway?”

  “WENCESLAUS!” Micky yelled before covering his nose. “That cat will be the end of me. And no, TH. Ted is upgrading the engines to their full capability, so we can’t move until they’re ready. Once that’s done, it will expedite our trip in-system, so we’ll be able to make up some time. It will also increase our survivability. We want to make sure you have a ship to come home to at the end of every op. Ted seemed to think Felicity would have our asses if we let you get hurt.”

  “That’s Ted’s way of saying he cares,” Terry offered before pursing his lips. “We’ll bring everyone aboard later today so we’ll be ready whenever the ship can deploy. I promise that we’ll stay out of your way, Micky.”

  “You need to stay out of Ted’s way, if you know what I mean.” Micky chuckled quietly to himself. Ted elicited a wide range of emotions in everyone with whom he interacted. Micky decided then and there that Felicity was a saint.

  “You got that right. You should have known him before he got married, when he was the alpha of a wolf pack.”

  “I thought Char was the alpha?” Micky looked confused.

  “Char is the alpha of the werewolves. Ted had a pack of wolves, I mean real wolves. Anywhere from ten to twenty-five of them. It was the craziest thing. He’d go to war if anyone threatened his pack, but we’d be in the middle of a firefight and he’d check out, start doing something else. That was crazy, too. He doesn’t go into combat with us anymore. We decided that was best for everyone,” Terry explained.

  Micky nodded. “We’ll see you later then, TH. Gravitic shields are offline. Contact Smedley when you are underway and he’ll make sure the hangar bay is ready to receive the drop ships.”

  “Gravitic shields?”

  “Like I said, you won’t be able to recognize the War Axe. What a beautiful ride we have. And deadly, too.”

  “I like it, but please, no more than one day, Skipper. The people of Alchon Prime are counting on us. See you in a few. Walton out.”

  Keeg Station

  “Kimber, have the platoon form on the hangar deck for immediate return to the War Axe. Marcie, round up the rest of the derelicts and get them on the drop ship,” Terry ordered.

  “Derelicts? You mean your kids and the pack?” Marcie replied, shaking her head.

  “I thought it was pretty clear.” Terry looked at Char for confirmation, and she nodded in agreement. Terry wasn’t sure what she was agreeing to. He didn’t bother clarifying.

  “Thanks for the thunderstick, TH,” Marcie added, tapping the JDS secured at her side.

  Kimber caressed hers, grinning. “Kae is so jealous.”

  “He’s got a mech platoon. What’s he jealous of? One little pistol?” Terry winked at his daughter.

  “He’s just mad that I got mine first. Sibling rivalries seem to go on forever. Thanks. Now, I’m one up on him.”

  “Use your power for good, not evil,” Terry admonished by giving her the thumbs up and a big smile.

  Marcie headed out to find the tactical teams to get them packed and on their way to the shuttles. Kim punched her dad in the shoulder, before following her sister-in-law out.

  “What was that for?” Char asked.

  Terry shook his head.

  “Another day? Don’t let it give you a coronary, lover,” Char said softly. “You know Micky wouldn’t do it if it weren’t necessary. And it has Nathan’s support because Ted is involved. He doesn’t work for the Bad Company, only Team BMW now.”

  “Necessary or not, we have a mission to complete. I hate to fail and feel like I’ve lost this one before we even started.”

  Char put a hand on his shoulder. “I know,” was all she said, but her look of sympathy and her sparkling purple eyes told him all he needed to hear.

  The War
Axe

  Terry stood in the hangar bay as the last of the drop ships slid through the energy screen, slowed to a landing within the bay, and oriented itself for a return to its launch tube. It taxied in, hovering slightly above the deck using its gravitic thrusters to push it home. The ramp dropped and Timmons staggered out.

  “What the hell?” Terry grunted.

  “If you get to know the people at Seymour Heine, then you can have a good time without beating anyone up,” Timmons slurred.

  “How can you be drunk?” Terry wondered, leaning close to look into Timmons’s yellow eyes. The pupils weren’t dilated.

  “Not drunk. Haven’t slept in three days. Sue and I are looking forward to some groovy sleep time during the cruise.”

  “Groovy sleep time,” Terry repeated, stepping back and jamming his fists against his hips. “Do the words ‘mission prep and training’ mean anything to you?”

  “At the moment? Not a whole lot. We’ll see you in the morning, TH. You be cool, bro.” Timmons sauntered away with his arm draped over Sue’s shoulders. Shonna and Merrit waved as they walked past. Christina waved with one hand as she held her head with the other. She stumbled by, following Shonna and Merrit to the hatch leading to the interior of the War Axe.

  Aaron and Yanmei stopped in front of the speechless Terry Henry Walton.

  “Cat got your tongue?” Aaron asked. Yanmei giggled.

  Dokken strolled up and sniffed Terry’s leg. He reached a hand down to scratch the German Shepherd behind his big ears.

  “I think that I’m going to have to cancel liberty for the Bad Company for the rest of your natural lives,” Terry declared as he hammered his fist into his hand.

  Aaron raised his eyebrows. “It’s too late for the natural lives thing, TH. We are well into the unnatural thing now. Did Ted ever get that comm system working for a direct link back to Earth? We’d like to talk with our kids, if we could, and soon would be great. It’s been too long, TH.”