by Chris Lowry
CHAPTER FOUR
"They're coming," he thought and pressed his back against the wall.
He could hear the alien in the armor moving on the other side of the shuttle. Communicating, maybe. Calling in reinforcements. The cavalry was on its way, and they were going to capture him.
Torture him. Kill him. Maybe even turn him into a weapon like they did Chief.
"Son of a bitch," he snarled.
He glared from the pile of rubble at the entrance of the tunnel to the clicking noises coming from the other side of the shuttle.
CHAPTER
Lt sets a trap for the Lick Commander. Loses. Lick Commander lets him live.
CHAPTER
They make a plan to repair the XJS.
"What the fuck are you sitting around here for?"
The Lick Commander snicked his visor up and tasted the air with his flickering tongue.
"What else is there to do?"
"Your soldiers ain't coming."
"It appears not."
Lt lifted another rock and shifted it off the pile of rubble. The stack of stones he had moved over the past several hours towered taller than even the alien stood, yet it didn't appear to make a dent in the blockage stopping the tunnel.
Every crack he opened showed more rock, more dirt.
"This might not be the way, you know," Lt said as he dropped the load in his arms next to the rest of the pile. "We're gonna have to find another way out.
He glanced over his shoulder at the dark outline of the shuttle squatting under the beams of light from the alien's helmet.
Lick Commander followed his gaze.
"It does not work," he hissed.
"Yeah," Lt said. "Thing is, I was kinda obsessed with these things when I was a kid. That Musk guy published all his plans on the internet and I had that shit printed up as a poster on my bedroom wall."
It took several seconds for the translator to work through the language, but Lick Commander hissed in understanding after a moment.
"Your nest was lined with paper."
"Paper? Yeah, you know what a picture is Lick? It don't matter if you do or not. Thing is, I remember a little bit about these things."
The Lick Commander lifted himself off the wall and stared at the shuttle with Lt.
"You know how to repair the craft?"
"I didn't say that. Don't get your balls in a bunch, if you got 'em. I said I read a little bit about them."
Lt moved over to the underside of the shuttle and stared up at the sleek surface.
"Once you get 'em going, these things know how to fly themselves."
Lick Commander joined him.
"Can you get it going?" the hiss whispered in the cavernous semidarkness.
"Well Klink, I sure as hell ain't going to sit on my ass and mope about nobody coming to save us. Look like that shit is up to me."
CHAPTER
Lt repairs the shuttle.
Lick Commander tells him about the Armada and the Lead ship that houses His Imminence.
CHAPTER
Lt discovers the craft has armament, a plasma bomb payload. Lick Commander shows him the armor is airtight.
"I think you might find this funny. That is a word, isn't it?"
"It's a word Klink."
"The correct word? These translation devices do not always use the correct vernacular. The technicians who constructed the program imported a dictionary, but I find your language to be cumbersome."
"I speak American, Lick. Ain't nothing cumbersome about it."
The Lick Commander narrowed his yellow eyes in concentration.
"There, They're, Their," he hissed.
"Where?"
"Three words that mean the same thing."
"There? It means, you know, right there."
The alien shook his head in a weirdly human gesture.
"Now don't mind me," Lt said.
He exchanged the fluid covered ratchet in one hand for a clean wrench and stuck his torso back into the guts of the ship.
"I just got out of school and joined up when you boys showed up looking for a fight. English was never my strong suit."
Lick Commander tilted his head.
"But you speak English," the box hissed.
"I speak American, yeah."
"That is not a language."
"Sure it is hoss, you're speaking it, ain't you?" a clank vibrated through the hull. "Damn it."
The wrench slipped out of the hatchway and clattered to the floor.
"There you go," said Lt as he dropped down beside it. "I think that's got it."
Lick Commander stared at the shadowed hatch, yellow eyes sparkling a reflection from the two lights on his helmet they were using to light the workspace.
"This is going into outer space, yes?"
"That's the idea, ain't it. Hot damn Lick, all you alien sons of bitches this dense?"
Lick Commander tapped his arm.
"Our musculature construction is indeed thicker than humans."
Lt grinned.
"I meant in the skull."
He tapped the side of his head.
"Studies of the human anatomy indicate our skull bones are twice as thick as the human, on average."
"Yeah, how'd you find that out?"
"Prisoners."
"Careful Colonel Klink. Thinking about what your kind does to mine gets me a little pissed off."
"Why? I am not angered by what you did to my species."
Lt drew his breath for a retort, but held it back.
Later. There would be time later to show the alien how he felt. To show payback.
But for now, there was the ship.
"Let's just fire this thing up, alright?"
He scooted the rolling ladder over to the cockpit and double timed up the steps to the narrow opening.
"Stand behind the engines and let me know if they come on," Lt shouted.
"But wouldn't that fry the flesh from my bones?" Lick Commander called back as he ascended the stairs.
"Why don't we check and see," said Lt.
Lick Commander leaned his snout over the edge of the entrance.
"I feel this is another expression that gets lost in translation."
"Maybe so," said Lt.
He held out one finger, leaned forward and pressed the ignition button set in the cockpit console.
The computer screens around him flared to life, clicking and chattering with lines of code as system after system booted up.
They followed the line of lights as each blinked on around the cockpit console, a rainbow array of colors indicating systems go, systems in stasis, and status updates.
After three lights on the center of the yolk turned green, the engines fired up with a gentle whine. A blue glow emanated from the rear of the shuttle.
Lt reached out and shut it down.
"It was about to work," said the Lick Commander.
"Yes," Lt answered. "But we're not ready yet."
"I am ready to depart from this place."
This time, Lt used his finger to point at the roof.
"We've got to find the controls to get that open first, or the only place we going is face first into a human Lick pancake."
CHAPTER
Lt finds the control to open the roof. Gets a shock when he bypasses the system. Wakes up to see the roof complete opening and the thrusters on the shuttle glowing blue as Lick Commander prepared to take off, leaving him behind.
"You son of a whore," Lt shouted, though his voice was lost in the whine of the engines as they reached an ear splitting pitch.
Lt rolled over on the floor and launched himself toward the rolling staircase still resting against the edge of the star craft. The alien kept the canopy raised.
He only planned to launch from the cavern and return to the tarmac for a landing. He hadn't thought beyond repairing the shuttle, and needed to consult with the Nestmate to determine the next step.
Lt mounted the steps, feet pounding on the metal tha
t vibrated against the hull.
Lick Commander had enough time to look up as the armored human leaped from the platform at the top of the stairs and landed on top of him in the cockpit.
The two bodies went down in a swirl of hissing confusion. Lt landed a hook, then rabbit punched the visor, glad the gloves protected his hands as he rained blow after blow into the alien.
Lick Commander lifted him up and tossed the human back.
Lt cracked across the back of a chair, half flipped over. He had enough time to right himself as the Lick Commander leaped at him. Lt lifted a boot, caught the alien in the midsection and fell over backwards.
He kept his leg straight, used the alien's momentum and sent him flailing over the edge of the star craft to clatter on the floor below.
No time to celebrate. He spun around, fingers punching the controls to close the cockpit hatch. It whirred, interminable, slow and sealed with a hiss.
Or maybe that was the Lick Commander screaming, the noise cut off as the cockpit was wrapped in the roar of the engines.
Lt followed the code, and hit a button to launch the ship.
A blue plasma ball created a miniature sun behind him as a giant invisible hand reached down from the heavens and tried to suffocate him by shoving him into the back of the seat.
The black star craft lifted through the open retractable ceiling and blazed toward the black expanse of sky that stretched across the horizon.
CHAPTER
Flying in space was awesome for the first ten minutes. Five minutes after that, he was bored. There wasn't much for him to do. Nothing for him to do in fact.
The starcraft flew itself.
He studied the layout in front of him, trying to become more familiar with it, but he knew the buttons for go, bomb and self destruct. Everything else had a function, he was sure, but he'd be damned if he knew what they were for. One might make the cabin pressurized, or it might flush him into the void.
No need to take any chances.
He pointed the starcraft along a trajectory and set the computer working to calculate the flight plan. Lt hoped the eggheads who put the program together had planned it out for a few years. The voyage of their experiment was later than they thought.
If he was wrong, it was going to be a long, lonely flight.
"Lost in space," he said inside his helmet. "Danger Will Robinson."
Flashing lights on the starboard side of the ship caught his eye. Stars winking in reds and blues, streaks that cut across the darkness next to the moon.
He adjusted the yoke, and miniature thrusters on the side of the craft blasted to turn him in the indicated direction.
It took two minutes to find a way to increase thrust, and he felt stupid that it was as simple as a button on the yoke handle, a small white nub he could touch with his thumb.
He drew closer to the flashes and gasped.
It was a battle. In space.
He spied the alien armada and what must have been the lead ship floating in an orbit around the moon. The Lick Commander was right. They had been coming to earth.
But what made him gasp was the other ships. The ones attacking the armada.
Lt files craft into the armada- sets the self destruct button.
Other Books by the Author:
Lunar Hustle- Prequel to The Dipole Shield
The Dipole Shield - The Dipole Series
Planet 9 - The Dipole Series
Phalanx - Invasion Earth
Pyrrhic - Invasion Earth
Beachhead - Invasion Earth
Bridgehead - Invasion Earth
Lodgement – Invasion Earth
Ultima Thule – Invasion Earth
Moon Men
Epoch - The Future Templar
Eon- The Future Templar
Era - The Future Templar
Super Secret Space Mission
The Herd Shot Round the World
High Steaks
Battlefield Z
Children's Brigade
Sweet Home Zombie
Zombie Blues Highway
Mardi Gras Zombie
Bluegrass Zombie
Outcast Zombie
Renegade Zombie
Flyover Zombie - the Battlefield Z series
Headshots - the Battlefield Z series
Overland Zombie
Conscripted - the Shadowboxer files
Mission One - the Shadowboxer files
Shadowboxer - the Shadowboxer files
Decreed - the Shadowboxer files
Suspect - the Shadowboxer files
True Nature – the Shadowboxer files
Nazi Nukes - a Shadowboxer story
Witchmas - a Marshal of Magic story
Witchmas Eve - a Marshal of Magic story
The Holy War
Evasion - Destruction Earth
"I don't know if we can live in peace with the Lick," said Lt. "They have sworn our destruction. They ain't men, but if I take a man at his word, and his word is his bond, and that bond is gold, then the Lick don't plan on peace with us. They plan to kill us."
He studied Babe and Lutz, Chief and Oakley, and Kitsune.
"Do you feel like dying today?"
"Today is a good day to die," Lutz rumbled.
It earned a few half hearted grunts from the others.
"I appreciate a man who brings Klingon to the table, Lutz, but I suspect you don't want to do no dying. None of you."
He eyeballed them, squinting in the growing twilight. The setting sun was to his left, golden rays bouncing off the side of his helmet but casting his face in gloomy darkness.
"Ain't none of us going to do no dying. I ain't allowing it. Matter of fact, I'm ordering it. No one is allowed to die today. No one is allowed to go meet the Almighty Maker until you settle your debt with me. And your debt is still high boys and girls. You owe me. So if you decide you're going to die before you pay up, I will chase you across the god damned River Styx and kick the ferryman in the fucking nuts to drag your sorry ass back up here to kill me more Licks. Do I need to explain that further or am I perfectly clear?"
"Perfect, Lt."
"Lutz?"
"I read you Sir."
Lt ran the squad and earned an equal agreement from each of them.
"Alright then, now that we got that settled, who's ready for some clobberin time?"
ECHELON
BREACH
DEFILADE