“OK, but what needs to be done now, before we go back? Bare minimum,” John asked.
“We could leave right now, if everyone is OK with the idea of flying back in a space suit. We’ve got holes in the engine room, and the door from the engine room is well and truly busted now. The bridge door would hold atmosphere in here, but you’d probably want to suit everyone up anyway. Just in case,” she replied.
No one looked really thrilled by the prospect. Beth couldn’t blame them. She felt like she’d had about enough suit time for a while, herself. In fact, the thought of getting back into a space suit was making her queasy. Damn it! She shook herself a little, and hid it, she hoped, with another sip of her coffee. No time for this right now.
“I think we can afford the time to get at least some basic repairs in place,” John said.
Beth sighed, half in relief and half in frustration. She was torn between wanting to get the heck out of here, right now, and hating even the thought of being cooped up in one of those suits again.
“Well, we can get the holes fixed easily enough. Couple hours of work there. Ideally, I’d like to do a better patch to the main conduit as well. Using Majel as a control interface between our consoles and the alien equipment was a decent emergency fix, but I’d feel better if we had direct links back in place,” Beth said.
John leaned back in his seat, rubbing his jaw with one hand. “OK, that sounds reasonable. How can we help expedite things?”
“We can’t just leave without looking around at all,” Dan said.
“I know you think we should go have a look,” John said, holding up a hand to forestall the protest. “And I’m on board with poking about a little. I just want to be able to leave fast when and if we need to.”
“Can any of you use a welding torch?” Beth asked. Andy and Charline both nodded. “OK. So the three of us will get to work on the holes in the actual hull, first. After that, it’s fiddly bits, and you’d be more in the way than a help. Just need someone around to keep an eye on the asshole.” She glared pointedly at Paul, who still sat slumped against the bulkhead. He knew the ship about as well as she did, which made him a deadly threat to all of them as far as she was concerned. If it was up to her...
John looked at Dan and grimaced. Dan looked confused for a moment, then started shaking his head.
“No. No way. Not being left out of this, John,” Dan said.
“And how are you planning to get around?” John replied, not unkindly. “It’s not exactly smooth terrain for your wheelchair out there.”
“I...”
John stood up, clapped a hand on Dan’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Dan.”
“Damn it. First new planet we visit, and I have to stay in the ship?” He slumped forward in his chair, crestfallen.
Beth grinned wickedly at him. “No way. Your wheelchair fits under most of the hull just fine, and there’s plenty of holes down there to patch. You still remember your way around a welding torch, don’t you?”
“Damn it,” Dan repeated.
Poor Dan. This was going to sting more than a little. Beth had a thought – maybe she could make it a little better. “Be right back,” she said, getting up from her chair and leaving the bridge.
A minute later she returned, carrying a heavy pack. Everyone watched her as she handed the pack to Dan.
“What’s this, then?” he asked.
“Repair kit for the hull,” she replied.
He groaned. “You remember how little I love playing with your tools, Beth.”
“Yeah,” she said. “I do. But I thought I’d get you the kit so you could get started. So you could be the first of us out there – making repairs.”
She saw the moment when he realized what she was saying. Saw the grin light up his face.
“That works for me,” John said. Dan’s grin was infectious – John was sharing it too. “No Neil Armstronging out there though, Dan. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Dan started toward the hatch to go outside and become the first human ever to set foot – or wheel! – on a planet in another solar system. But before he left, he flashed Beth a smile so filled with happiness that her breath caught in her throat. She smiled back, her headache forgotten, feeling better than she had in days.
They hadn’t bothered to replace Paul’s gag when they had him get out of the space suit. But he kept his mouth shut and ears open just the same. His face still smarted where Andy had ripped the tape gag off earlier, and he could taste the glue still stuck to his lips. Horrid stuff. He wasn’t going to give them excuses to abuse him any further. Better to stay still.
He was annoyed at first that they had their little conference right on the bridge with him present, mostly ignoring him the whole while. How dare they just act like he didn’t exist? Paul almost spoke up more than once. The fools were playing with fire out here. An alien world, ancient ruins, and missiles fired at them? They were going to get burned, badly. He wanted so badly to taunt them for their foolishness. Then he realized what an opportunity this was and held his tongue, laying there with his eyes closed while listening carefully to every word.
His plans had gone to hell, but maybe there was still a chance to salvage something.
It had seemed so simple, back on the moon. Surprise John and his people with the gun. Haul them all off and lock them into one of the bunk rooms. Then take the ship to Earth – use Dan Wynn to fly it, if he had to – and turn it over to the proper authorities. He’d be the hero who rescued his country from the energy crisis. Worst case, if the pistol didn’t do the trick, he had the bombs. Show them he was serious by detonating the first two. Then force them to capitulate by threatening them with the other two explosives. Even after everything had gone sideways it still sounded like such a good plan.
Then Wynn had taken them on an unplotted wormhole jump. There was no way Paul could have predicted action that irrational. And that lout Andy had broken his detonator, destroying the only way to remotely disable the explosives!
That had left him helpless, watching them fumble through trying to rescue the ship. He thought they all were done for, at the end there. But Dan had brought them through yet another wormhole and saved the day. The guy thought fast in a crisis, and he had guts. Paul had to hand him that much. He’d need to be careful dealing with Dan. That wormhole had taken them here, to this new world – and that had brought some interesting possibilities to light. If he thought quickly, and played it smart, there might just be a way to turn this mess around after all.
Five
With all of them working together, they had made short work of the hull patches. Satori was air tight again much more quickly than Andy would have believed possible after seeing all the damage. Beth ran the pressure up to a little bit above the outside pressure, and they couldn’t detect any leaks. Then she assured them she was fine doing the rest of the work on her own, and told them to get out of her hair.
Andy’s excitement had been building the whole time they worked. This was a new world, after all! The chance to explore something no human had ever seen. But he wasn’t going to let common sense go out the window. He stepped up to a locked door in the ship’s main corridor. The door was sealed with a retinal scanner, and admitted him after he stared into the camera for a moment.
Inside was the ship’s weapons locker. Part of Andy’s job was making sure everything in there was ready to go at a moment’s notice, and he’d gone to some trouble to ensure they had a decent supply of small arms on board. There was no telling what they might run into on this planet. They hadn’t seen any signs of animal life on the flight in, but there could be something still alive out there. On Earth, he’d seen predators survive in places much less hospitable.
He bared his teeth and chambered a round into his rifle. If they ran into anything nasty, he’d demonstrate how humans became the apex predator on their own world. Mostly through superior firepower.
The weapons had been carefully selected. They were Heckler & Koch G-18 rifles. T
hey had a sleek, deadly look to them, like something from a science fiction film. The rifles had a switch for selecting either single shot, three round burst, or fully automatic – although the last setting depleted the forty five round magazines in seconds. The weapons fired caseless ammunition, so if the team had to use them, they wouldn’t leave brass scattered on the ground for someone else to pick up, the better to keep their capabilities hidden. And the recoil absorption system was good enough that you could use them in low gravity without being kicked all over the place.
Andy grabbed three of the rifles, one for each crew member who was going out to explore. Dan couldn’t travel on the rough ground in his wheelchair, and Beth was still too weak from her ordeal. Plus, she had further repairs to do on the ship, she said, so she wasn’t interested in going out. Andy wasn’t sure if that was real or just sour grapes, but either way he was glad Beth would be staying behind. She’d been through a lot already and needed a break.
Then he scooped up three vests, each loaded with a few spare magazines and a large canteen. Shouldering the load, he stepped back out of the room and closed the door, locking it behind him again.
“Armed for bear?” John asked, raising an eyebrow when he saw Andy coming down the hall with the guns.
“Or whatever we might run into out there,” Andy replied. He passed John one of the rifles and a vest.
“Makes sense,” John said.
Andy was glad they’d worked together as many years as they had. Early on, John had been stubborn about taking his advice on security issues. These days John accepted his expertise without asking why he was hauling out guns. It was an improvement.
He handed a rifle to Charline. She was the newest of the crew, and he hadn’t had a chance to check her out on the rifles yet. Andy hoped she would be able to carry the thing safely, but he was prepared to give her some quick instruction. Instead, Charline took the weapon from him like she was used to carrying one of the things. She held it in her hands, turning it to look it over, all the while keeping the muzzle pointed in a safe direction. Andy was impressed. Then she snapped back the bolt, checking the chamber expertly, and peeked around the left side at the safety. It was on; Andy had checked before he handed it to her.
“Used one of these before?” Andy asked.
“Nah. Nothing like this. But most rifles are pretty similar,” Charline said.
“Maybe we can give you some live fire practice while we’re out here. Find a nice rock to shoot at or something,” Andy said.
Then he quickly walked her through how to manage the front loading magazines. About halfway through, he realized that he was humoring her and stopped.
“You’ve done this before,” Andy said.
“Yup,” Charline replied.
“A lot, I’m guessing?”
“Also yup. Mom and Dad taught me to shoot when I was about this high,” Charline replied, holding her hand a little below her waist.
Andy flushed, a little embarrassed. He wasn’t used to civilians knowing their way around guns. “Sorry, didn’t mean to mansplain it all.”
“No worries,” she replied, flashing him a broad smile. “I liked the one on one attention.”
Andy turned away before he could stick his foot any deeper down his throat. He walked over to where Dan was sitting. He’d moved his chair to the other console in the front of the ship. His own had been trashed, so he and Andy had unbolted Paul’s old chair from the other front console and stowed it in a bunk room. Now Dan could control the ship from a front facing console. He said it felt more natural to him that way. Dan was sitting at his new station, staring out the front window at the ruins, looking depressed.
“Got something for you, too, Dan,” Andy said.
“Oh?” Dan looked up at him hopefully.
It had to be hard to be told to stay home from an adventure like this. Andy would be livid if he was left behind. Dan was taking it better than he would have guessed, but it still sucked.
“Yup.” Andy pulled Paul’s pistol from a pocket. He’d checked the weapon out. It was a fairly nice automatic pistol. It had six .45 caliber rounds in the magazine, and one in the chamber.
“Safety’s on,” Andy said, handing the pistol to Dan. “I’m sure you can handle a rifle from your chair, but thought the pistol might work better for keeping Paul in line. Besides, it’s poetic justice.”
“Guarding him with the pistol he was pointing at me earlier?” Dan laughed. “Yeah, I can see that. Still wish I was coming with you guys, though.”
“Next time.”
“Better believe it.”
John was lowering the ship’s main ramp. Andy joined Charline behind him, and the three started off toward the ruins. Dan had landed quite close. Whatever had been slung at this city had missed, by just a bit. Instead of smashing the entire city into dust and raising a crater where it had been, it looked like it had come in at a sharp angle, striking the city’s edge. The result was a crescent-shaped crater wall curving along one side of the city, and a flat plain in the center of the crater where the Satori was sitting. If there had been any crater debris on the city side, it had long since eroded away.
The buildings nearest the impact site were trashed, of course. The impact would have created a massive firestorm that burned everything away nearby, and would have hurled debris even further. But it looked like the structures went on for at least a mile, maybe more. If there was anything interesting left here, they’d have to hike a bit to find it.
This planet was a blast furnace. Andy was perspiring before they’d gone ten feet. This was going to be a hot walk. Andy didn’t have particularly fond memories of deserts on Earth. Last time he’d been to one, people were shooting at him. He was hoping for better from this trip, but ready for whatever might come their way.
“We’ve got two quarts of water each,” Andy said. “You’re going to sweat a lot, in this heat. But you may not notice it until you’re already dehydrated. So drink – make sure to use your water. I figure we can be out here for maybe three, four hours tops. And only that long if we keep the pace light and make sure we drink water,” He pulled out his canteen and took a drink. After a moment, John and Charline followed his lead. He didn’t mention the extra three quart bag he wore like a small backpack. You never went out into the desert without a water reserve.
Together, the three set off into the ruins. Andy looked back over his shoulder to where he knew the Satori had landed, so he could find it again later. He couldn’t see it, of course. Not with the cloak on. But it was comforting to know it was there.
Six
Landing on a planet in a distant solar system should have been an amazing adventure. The last thing it should have been was boring, but Dan was bored. He was also frustrated. He was stuck on the ship watching the asshole who’d tried to get them all killed. He spent the first fifteen minutes after the others left trying to tinker with his pilot console, but the controls were trashed. He had a vague idea about hotwiring them into the other console. Wasn’t happening. Half the systems were charred or broken from the blast, and the rest? Well, it wasn’t as easy as plugging a new monitor into a computer. The console which had been carefully constructed to make flying the ship easier was toast. They’d have to install a new one when they got home. That meant Dan would need to make do with a regular console until then.
He set up a few macros, just in case they needed to pull some fancy flying before then. Anything that made his job a little easier would be a good thing, and he certainly had plenty of time on his hands. Majel made that process quick and easy, though. He was soon left without anything to do. Again.
Dan tried reading on his tablet for a bit, but the book just wasn’t holding his attention.
So now he sat, twiddling his fingers. Alternating between staring outside and staring at the closed ramp door, the one John and the others had walked out. He sighed heavily and switched his gaze back to the ruined city out the front window. He’d long since lost sight of the trio out explori
ng. They’d been gone...he checked the time on his watch...half an hour. It was about time to check in with them, actually. He keyed the radio microphone.
“John, how’s it going out there?” Dan asked.
“It’s hot, Dan. Way too hot.”
Dan grunted. John wasn’t going to get any sympathy from him on this one, no matter how hard he panted into the radio. “Find anything interesting?”
“Not yet. We’re just getting past the worst of the impact damage. Starting to see some buildings relatively intact. We’re going to keep moving another half hour or so, then arc around and come back by another route.”
“Sounds good. Stay in touch. Satori out,” Dan replied.
Dan picked up his tablet and tried to read again. He got about halfway through a page before he realized he’d stopped reading and was staring out the front window again. Sitting around here was driving him nuts. He wondered what Beth was up to. Maybe he could help her with the repairs? But no, she’d just chase him off, and his ego wasn’t up to dealing with a tirade from her just then.
He looked at Paul. The guy had hardly moved since they’d landed. Hadn’t said a word. Charline had brought him some water, before she left with the others. Paul had drunk in silence, and handed the cup back to her without so much as a thank you. Paul was zip tied to the stanchion again. Additionally, his wrists, knees, and ankles were paired together with duct tape. It can’t have been comfortable, but he just sat there. He wasn’t much of a threat, at this point.
Dan shook his head. Hard to believe the man had turned on them so completely. He hadn’t known Paul long, but John and Beth had both worked with him for months. They obviously knew and trusted him. The betrayal had astonished Dan, but it had to have really crushed his friends. John seemed to be taking it more or less in stride, but Beth was still being way more quiet than her norm. Dan wasn’t sure how much of that was from her brush with death, and how much might be caused by guilt she felt over Paul’s actions. He knew her well enough to know she’d be feeling guilty over it, for certain. She always tended to feel responsible for things that couldn’t possibly be her fault.
Adventures of the Starship Satori: Book 1-6 Complete Library Page 14