by DN Farrell
Surely some of the marines on his Landing Craft where still out there, somersaulting in space four days later, and there must be other marines form other Landing Craft in the same boat. He owed it to them to try and save at least some of his fellow brothers in arms.
Kell started scanning the area of space between Exocon and Exugenes, but he knew it was like finding a needle in a haystack. When they were hit they were travelling at full Pulse speed, about seven hundred million kilometers per hour! The marines who got thrown off into space, would continue to move at this speed unless they hit something, or the gravity of a planet sucked them into the atmosphere. Four days at seven hundred thousand kilometers per hour, is a big distance and each marine would have been blown off in a different direction!
On a positive note each marine had a homing beacon, which in theory could be tracked from billions of kilometers away, so kell would at least have a try, maybe his punt would work or maybe it would fail, but at least it would ease his conscience in the process.
Kell set the saucer in the direction of where the Landing Craft crashed and then took it into a slow Pulse drive, just to cover the million kilometer distance within a few minutes. There was nothing there, not even a trace of a signal from any marines. Kell then ran some figures on the ships computer, to access potential trajectories. He checked his left wrist readout and judging by naval time, which counted a day as twenty four hours and not the forty hour day, which kell had been having on the planet Exocon, the Landing craft had being destroyed approximately one hundred and twenty hours before, so at a trajectory of seven hundred million kilometers per hour, the marines would have covered eighty six billion kilometers by now!
Kell immediately slapped his forehead and reminded himself that he had always being useless at math. With the Landing craft moving at two hundred thousand kilometers per second, well how on earth could he expect to find his men anywhere near the spot where the ship had exploded! Following Newton's first law, they would all sail away at two hundred thousand kilometers per second, meaning that by now they had left solar space and had ended up in deep space instead. Or for some of the unlucky one's, they had already been blown into the orbit of some of the planets in this solar system and had probably been burnt up on re-entry by now, or even if they survived re-entry, they probably hit the planet surface at tremendous speed, either way resulting in death!
Kell took a quick overview of his instruments to see if he could see any enemy ships around. There was plenty of activity around the planet Exugenes, but other than that there appeared to be relatively little traffic in the Exugenean solar system. On a plus note, if the rebels saw the Mark IV saucer, they would just think it was some sort of salvagers/smugglers vessel, either way they would more than likely let it pass, so it was worth a try. At a slow warp speed he could cover this distance within about five minutes, but then again the computer threw up hundreds of possible trajectories. Setting up an algorithm on the computer, Kell set up the saucer to go into warp, zoom up one trajectory, slow down for a minute and then zoom up to the next one and so on. It should take about two days to cover every option available, but it was worth a go, even if it just saved one marines life!
The process of flying across the various trajectories was a slow one, taking five minutes to cover the eighty seven billion kilometres in one direction, then having to come out of warp drive, hang around for a minute to assess the situation and then kicking warp drive in again, which took another couple of minutes. All in all kell was covering one trajectory every ten minutes or so, about six an hour and the computer had generated nearly several thousand possible trajectories, which kell had narrowed down to a couple of hundred likely options, still a mammoth task!
Several hours whizzed on by and no marines in sight, So Kell was beginning to despair of finding anybody, then suddenly upon arriving at the twenty ninth possible trajectory, Kells instruments picked up on a marines rescue beacon. Kell paused the ships warp algorithm and started a search pattern with his instruments, it was a marine alright. Switching over to Pulse power, kell brought the saucer close to the marine, which was a difficult job, as the ship wanted to travel either too fast or too slow. Using the ships computer, he locked in the speed of the ship to closely match that of the marine and over the next five minutes or so, he slowly crept up on the him. At first kell couldn't see anything through his Holo Tube, then slowly a little dot appeared and as he came closer, he could see the little dot going round and round in circles.
Moving closer still, he was finally within a few hundred yards of the marine, who just kept on spinning and spinning and spinning. The problem which now presented itself to kell, was how to catch the marine. This was a Mark IV saucer, it had no cargo bay doors and no tractor beam, the only way kell could get the marine was to somehow tether himself to the ship and go out there and get him.
Carefully manoeuvring the ship just past the marine, while been careful to not either tip him with the saucer or even come by at high speed, which could result in shock waves altering his trajectory. Rather coolly and calmly, with the help of the ships computer, kell accelerated from two hundred thousand kilometers per second to two hundred thousand kilometers and one meters per second. It doesn't sound like much, but within sixty seconds the ship had covered sixty meters and had gently bypassed the marine, a feat which was only possible with the help of the ships on-board navigation computer.
Kell then reset the speed to two hundred thousand kilometers per second and then prepared himself for the arduous part. He had to go to the small hatch, at the base of the ship and tether himself in with a winch. He strapped the winch, which he found in the ships storeroom, to the gangway handrail, which looked pretty durable and then attached a one hundred yard alloy chain from the winch onto a winch hook, which had been placed in the back of his suit. The winch he synchronised with his left wrist console and then sealing the corridor, so as to not compromise the atmosphere in the saucer, Kell opened the small hatch and let himself drift off into space.
Since Kell had no jet pack or anything that sophisticated, he instead used a small emergency oxygen can, to give himself a fraction of a second release of oxygen, which gently prodded him out of the ship and into the direction of the marine, who was about a hundred feet behind the ship.
At first it steered of course a tiny bit, so he let go another spurt and moved closer, until now he was about twenty feet away from the marine and about thirty feet below him. He then used the oxygen can again and shot about twenty feet above the marine. So switching on the winch motor he gently brought himself back, until he was on par with the marine. Then Kell tried once again and this time he was on par with the marine, but about five feet away from him. He gave one more blast of oxygen and with that he hit the marine and started tumbling in tandem with him.
Kell, the marine and the winch cable where getting intertwined, so kell felt that this was an opportune time to apply the winch motor. The motor gently tugged on the two marines, until after a couple of minutes the two men hit the hull of the ship, which at least stopped them from tumbling.
The next challenge was getting into the hatch, as both men were completely entangled. Kell started gently pushing the marine and himself over across the hull and into the hatch entrance. Between the two of them, they were two big to fit in the hatch. They had come so far and now only meters away from safety, they were stuck at the entrance of the ship. Kell decided to take the cable out of the equation and holding the ship door with his left hand, he took out his right hand and blasted the alloy cable several times, until it became loose. Then he slowly worked at undoing the cable, which at this stage, the shocked marine was coming around and starting to help kell in the process. It took them a good fifteen minutes but eventually they were untangled. The marine started to drift off into space once more, so kell quickly reached out with his right hand he grabbed the him, just before he drifted off. Pulling him in, kell was able to shut the hatch and depressurize the corridor, at last he had saved one m
arine!
Kell reached over to the marine, whose name on his helmet read "KoKalka". Kell quickly unlocked his helmet and then catching his breath for a few seconds as the last thirty minutes, had been exhausting, he then crouched over the marine and helped him take of his helmet. He found a live and smiling purple headed Agravian, who looked exhausted, but had a beaming smile all the same. Impulsively both men hugged each other and slapped each other's backs, it was clearly obvious that kell had saved this man's life!
The two just sat there for a few minutes in the corridor and then Kell asked him "Marine, how do you feel?"
The seven foot tall Agravian replied "I've felt better but I'm still alive!"
Kell nodded and then asked him "Space sickness?"
"Only the first day or so sir and then I kind of acclimatized." Replied the corporal.
With that Kell helped the corporal up on his feet and brought him around to the sick bay, which on this ship was a small ten by six foot room, with a bed in it and some basic supplies. Kell gave the marine a shot of some stimulants, to bring him back around to normal consciousness. The marine sat there on the side of the bed for a few minutes and appeared to come around. Kell offered him a glass of water, which he drank with gusto and then suggested "Marine, if you feel up to it, take a shower in the bathroom down the hall, have some food and then suit back up and meet me in the command module." The marine simply nodded looking exhausted.
"Oh and by the way, avoid the rec room, there's a bunch of Incenotopians inside, I commandeered the ship from them." Once again the Agravian just nodded, so Kell left him to it.
Kell let the ship continue on its algorithmic chasing of the various possible trajectories and about half an hour later, a still bleary eyed Corporal KoKalka, came up to the command module. "Felling a little better corporal?" Kell enquired and once again the quiet Agravian simply nodded and then finished off by just saying "sir".
"Look here Kokalka, I've set this ship on a search pattern following up the possible escape trajectories of the marines, who got flung of off our Landing craft. Now under normal circumstances I would order you to sleep for a few hours, but to bring you up to speed, about five days has passed since our ship exploded and this solar system is full of bandits." Kell finished off and then looking over at Kokalka he continued, "I need help I can't do it on my own, if we find another marine you have to help me."
"Sir sure, got it." A tired looking Kolalka retorted.
"Catch some shut eye in one of these command module chairs corporal and I'll wake you when we get to the next marine." Kell said and so it went with Corporal Kolalka snoring in the chair next to kell, the ship speeding back and forth from one side of the Exugenean solar system to the other side.
Then once again the marines rescue beacon went off. Kell woke up Kokalka and both men made their way down to the hatch. Once again kell used the winch, but this time instead of grabbing the marine and entangling both of them in the tether, which was dangerous, Kell carried a second alloy cable, which he draped over the rotating marine like a lasso and then releasing the auto-tensioner, which tightened the cable up without Kell having to touch the marine, which in turn would entangle the two of them in the cable. Then first he pulled himself back to the ship and only when he was back at the ship, they attached the second cable to the winch and brought the marine back to the ship. Between the two of them, Kell and Kolkalka, they man handled the marine onto the ship. This time they picked up private Regares, a female marine, who appeared to be in better shape than kolkalka.
Over the next ten hours or so they would repeat this task multiple times, until finally six marines had been picked up. Kolkalka, Regares and Ceres where healthy, although Ceres was still feeling very space sick, as for the other three, for one or other reason they didn't make it. Kell wasn't a doctor so he wasn't sure of the cause of death in each case, maybe internal wounds, while hitting parts of the ship, while being blown of off the ship or perhaps their full air recycling system had given out or they had a heart attack, but whatever the case, they were dead now.
Kell would continue on for another six hours, but no more marines to be seen. Finally Kolkalka, who had taken a few hours' sleep, came up to kell who looked like he was ready to pass out and holding his shoulder he said " Sir, I think you can't go on like this, you have to rest."
Kell looked up, big black bags under his eyes and said "But Kolalka there has to be more marines out there!" He exclaimed, turning back towards the instrument panel and continuing on with his search.
"Sir, I'm just a corporal" Kolkalka offered his opinion," but in my opinion we're not equipped to save every marine, when the navy comes back they have special search vessels, which can easily detect them."
Kell turned back and faced Kokalka once again, "But Kolkalka you wouldn't be standing here if I hadn't done this." Kell said and a tired looking Kokalka responded, "I know sir and I appreciate it but we're not home yet, you could spend the next couple of days searching for marines and not find any, and in that time we might run out of luck and run into some bandits sir."
Kell nodded in agreement and then asked Kolkalka "So you're saying we should give up?"
"Not give up sir," Kolkalka replied, "but we have to be pragmatic." Kokalka then sat down in the chair next to Kell and looking up at the monitor, he said "Colonel, nobody could knock your efforts, you'll probably get decorated for them, but I think you're getting a little too close to this." He paused and then thinking himself to familiar he finished of by saying "sir."
Once again Kell nodded reticently, he sighed and then looking over at Kolkalka, he tapped him on the arm and said. "You're right bud, I'm compromising the safety of the four of us, we have to do what we can to get out of here alive."
Kell then paused and asked Kolkalka. "I have to rest for a couple of hours, what about the other two?" To which Kolkalka responded, "Ceres is in sick bay lying down with a bucket in his hand vomiting, so I put him on a drip and Regares is sleeping sir."
"Can you fly this tin can?" Kell asked, to which Kolkalka simply nodded in the negative.
"Okay I'll tell you what we'll do Corporal, we'll park the saucer in an orbit around the nearest planet and then I'll catch some zzzz's. In a few hours we'll all meet up and work out a plan for escape, in the meantime I need you to keep an eye on things here."
With that Kell plotted in a flight to the nearest planet, which was about ten minutes away at warp level four. Then parking the ship in orbit he clarified with the corporal. "Corporal do you know anything about space navigation, handling a Mark IV saucer or anything like that?"
Kolkalka simply shrugged.
"I tell you what, just keep your eyes peeled," Kell said while pointing at the Holo Screen " and if anything comes within a hundred millions kilometers of the ship, just wake me up, I'll be in the captains quarters catching up on some sleep." And with that kell was off to sleep and Corporal Kolkalka, who knew absolutely nothing about space ships, as he was an artillery grunt, was left in charge of the saucer, as it gently orbited around a peaceful looking planet.
Day Five
Chapter Fourteen- Uninvited Guests
Several hours later, refreshed after a quick nap, kell was up and about and checked in on Regares and Ceres. Ceres was still very sick, so he left him to take it easy in the sick bay, while kell and Regares made their way to the command module. Kolkalka was sitting there in the captain’s chair, just staring at the screen. When he saw kell coming, he jumped up and stood to attention, kell indicated for the two marines to sit down, while he sat in the captain's chair.
"Well marines it's decision time," he said, "we either park around here somewhere and wait for the cavalry to arrive or we head out of here." He then looked across at Corporal Kolkalka and Private Regares, who looked a little unsure of what to say or do. Technically speaking Colonel kell could order them on what to do, but kell only liked to lead this way in battle, where one head was better than two or three, but in normal situations he liked to get a fee
l from the troops as to what they felt and often they had better insights than he had, the key to good leadership being to know when to follow someone else's idea and when to stick to your guns.
"Any ideas marines?" He said and lifting his hands up in the air to indicate a willingness to take on ideas.
Kolkalka was the first to speak up. "Sir I think we should get out of here, we just don't know when our numbers up, sir."
Then looking over at Regares she said "Sir, I think kolkalka's right, we have a ship and we can get home, there's no guarantee that the navy is coming back, or if they come back it could be days from now."
"Right so." Kell responded, as he had been thinking along the same lines, then looking back at the instruments, he dialled in the co-ordinates of naval HQ and engaged warp drive to warp level three, so as to spare the engines, for the near three week journey time, that it would take to get to naval HQ at warp level 3.
Kell turned back around and looked at the two marines sitting in front of him and inquired "Marines designation please?"
Kolkalka replied "Artillery" and Regares replied "Infantryman."