Destiny Earth

by Tony Mazzarella

Ileana removed her access card and looked into the retina scanner to open the door that led to the back of the hangar bay.

  “Remember, there will be a certain level of disarray now that your message has been transmitted, so I don’t know what to expect. Just act as if you are my prisoners until I give the word.”

  “I’ve had a little practice at that, so it shouldn’t be too hard,” said Daniels.

  They proceeded through the door, and as Ileana suspected, people were scurrying all around. A guard approached her with weapons drawn and aimed at Daniels and Will.

  “Dr. Karkovich, where are your escorts?”

  “Those cowards ran off with the news of Mars’s destruction. I killed one of them, but the other escaped.”

  The guard looked at her suspiciously. He knew the training that they had to go through to get to that level, and found it near impossible that they could have run out of fear.

  “That is highly irregular,” he said, keeping his weapon drawn.

  “I don’t have time to argue over your division’s poor conditioning. Take these men to the ship and keep them under guard.”

  The guard once again shot a suspicious look and acknowledged Ileana’s order.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  The guard turned and motioned for Will and Daniels to move through the door, and Ileana broke his neck with one quick motion.

  “Quick. Help me get him into this closet!”

  Will and Daniels looked at each other and both responded at the same time just as the guard had.

  “Yes, ma’am!”

  They dragged him to the closet and pulled the door closed.

  “We have to disable the control room. They can override the hangar doors once they figure out we’re leaving without them.”

  “OK. What’s the plan?” said Will anxiously.

  “You’re holding it,” said Ileana as she motioned to the sonic pistol. Daniels looked at Will and rolled his eyes as they followed Ileana up the stairs that led to the control room.

  “I’ll go first,” said Ileana. “Just blast everyone.”

  “With all due respect, Dr. Karkovich, I’ll go first. This is my station, and I’ve had quite enough of feminine domination for one day. I still have some bloody manhood left in me, and if I go out it won’t be hiding behind you!”

  Ileana looked surprised by Daniels’s obvious frustration at being ordered around and let him pass by.

  “Does that mean you would like to go second, Dr. O’Neil?” said Ileana.

  Daniels proudly nodded to Will with a look of macho pride, as if goading him on to follow.

  “I suppose,” said Will halfheartedly, not wanting to let Daniels down. He now trusted Ileana’s skills in these situations and was quite content to follow her. Now he was following a middle-aged station captain who was worried about his manly pride. Not exactly a recipe for success in his mind.

  20

  THE RED DOOR

  Daniels kicked open the door to the control room. He immediately blasted a guard who stood to the right of him. Will followed and fired, hitting another guard and sending him across the room.

  “Nice shooting, Will. You see the old bollocks still have some life in them.”

  Daniels raised his weapon again and hit two people who had been sitting behind a control console. A blast came from across the room and narrowly missed him, but its force threw him to the floor. Ileana raced past him, firing her rifle and hitting the guard on the far side of the control room. She spun around, pulling another knife from her ankle, and threw it at a second man who stood with a pistol in hand. She hit a button on the wall, blackening the window so the people in the hangar bay couldn’t see what was taking place in the control room.

  “Quick, lock the door.”

  Will helped Daniels to his feet and locked the door behind them.

  “We have to destroy the controls so they can’t close the hangar bay door. Find something to smash these panels,” shouted Ileana.

  Will reached into his pocket and pulled the two orbs that Stanzic had given him.

  “No need to smash anything. I think these will do the trick.”

  “OK. Place one on the door controls and the other over here on the fuel transfer control lines.”

  “Are you sure?” asked Daniels. “We don’t want to destroy the hangar before we can escape, and that’s pretty potent stuff.”

  “We’ll be OK. We don’t want to leave any of this equipment intact. Once we break for the ship, there’s no turning back.”

  Will placed the first orb on the panel that controlled the hangar door. As before, it adhered to the surface when he put pressure on it and transformed into the color and characteristics of the panel. He then placed the other on the fuel lines, as Ileana indicated.

  “Now what?” asked Daniels.

  “I tap them twice, and we run like hell.”

  Jonas continued climbing down, only hesitating to wait for Oria to go before him. He could see that they were about fifty feet from the bottom now, and still no one had emerged through the hatch.

  “We’re almost there. Just a little bit farther.”

  “I can see the bottom now,” said Oria gleefully.

  “Me too. We’re going to make it!”

  No sooner did Jonas speak those words than the bottom hatch was kicked open.

  “Oh no. What do we do?” shouted Oria.

  “Climb back up. Now!”

  They both started back up the ladder in the narrow crawlspace. Jonas looked down to see two guards emerge through the hatch. One was the man he and Oria had pushed through the elevator door. He looked up, smiled at Jonas, and pulled a large knife from his belt. He put the knife in his mouth to hold it as he began climbing after them. Oria hadn’t looked down to see this and was focused on climbing back up. He shouted to the other guard, who scurried back through the bottom panel.

  “Don’t look down. Just keep climbing as fast as you can.”

  “My arms and legs hurt Jonas. It’s getting harder.”

  “I know, but you have to keep climbing as fast as you can.”

  A few minutes later, Jonas and Oria saw the elevator going back up. It was obviously the second guard going back up to the top to intercept them. Things began to look grim, and Jonas started to abandon hope. He felt that the one good thing he could do at the end of his life was to comfort Oria in her last moments.

  “Oria, it’s going to be OK. You’re doing great.”

  “I’m trying, but it’s so hard.”

  “It’ll all be OK. You’re doing fine.”

  The one positive thing was that the guard wasn’t making a great effort to catch them. He knew there was nowhere for them to go, and he was taking his time relishing the fear he knew they felt. He wanted it to last as long as possible before he killed Jonas. As for Oria, he had other plans for her before she met her end.

  Will tapped the two orbs and ran to the door where Ileana and Daniels waited. They ran down the stairway with their weapons in hand and stopped at the hanger door.

  “Once we enter the hangar bay,” said Ileana, proceed right for the ship as my prisoners. Once the control room goes, pull out your weapons and cover me. I have to take out the pilots so they can’t close the door to the ship. Are you ready?”

  Both Will and Daniels nodded in agreement.

  “What are they doing with those men?” asked Will, pointing to a large group of about twenty Cholanese who were being prepped to board the ship.

  “The plan is to bring them with us, as I said back in the interrogation room. That was all true. They plan on using them as slaves,” said Ileana.

  “We’re taking them with us,” demanded Will. “They’re innocent in all of this.”

  “Dr. O’Neil, it will complicate our departure.”

  “You just take out the pilots and get the ship ready. Daniels and I will take care of it.”

  “Damn right we will!” said Daniels, reinvigorated by Will’s courageous stand.

  “Yo
u’re taking an unnecessary risk that we can’t—”

  Just as Ileana tried to convince them to leave the workers, the control room exploded with a huge blast. The tinted glass shattered and rained down upon the hangar deck. A second, larger explosion blasted out from the control room shaking the deck and knocking several of the frightened workers to the floor. They tried to run for cover but were prodded by several guards to stay put.

  “This is it. Go now!” yelled Ileana as she ran toward the ship, firing directly at the two pilots who had already started running up the gangway of the ship for shelter. She hit one, and he immediately smashed off the support strut that held the door and fell unconscious on the deck. The second pilot continued running into the ship, pulling a weapon. He stopped and turned to fire, and she quickly picked him off with a rifle blast. He was crushed instantly by the high-powered sound waves. He rolled down the gangway as Ileana leapt over him, not missing a step.

  “She’s in, Nigel!” yelled Will.

  “OK. Let’s get these people and get out of here.”

  Will fired first, hitting one of the guards who was keeping the Cholan workers at bay. The other two guards began firing and took cover behind a large cargo lift. Daniels fired his weapon at a support beam above the cargo lift, and after several shots, it came crashing down, hitting one of the guards and knocking him unconscious.

  Will used the opportunity to run to where the workers were still standing and motioned for them to follow. They began running to the ship when they heard several shots fired from above. Bodies flew everywhere as the high-powered sound waves hit their intended targets. More guards began lining up on the scaffolding above the hangar deck and firing down on Will and Daniels. They took cover, along with as many of the Cholan workers as could follow.

  “We’re in over our heads, Will. We have to go,” shouted Daniels as he hid behind several crates.

  Will nodded in acknowledgment and motioned for the remaining workers to follow him. The deafening sound of EC2’s engines firing shook the hangar bay as Ileana brought them to life. Four large thrusters glowed bright blue as she continued to power them up. Will began to break for the ship when a huge blast landed in front of him, throwing him back. He raised his pistol and fired several volleys back at the growing number of government agents high above.

  “Nigel! We’re pinned down. We’ll never make it.”

  Daniels continued firing as he shouted back to Will, “Do you have any bright ideas?”

  Just as Will shrugged to say that he had none, a large gun turret spun from the top of the waiting ship. It began firing plasma blasts toward the agents, causing them to run for cover. One man was hit and fell from his perch, slamming into the deck with a loud thud.

  “I have one now,” Will answered. “Let’s get the hell out of here!”

  Will and Daniels stood and motioned for the other men to follow. They ran toward the ramp of the ship, continuing to fire as they looked back at the scrambling agents. Both Will and Daniels waited at the bottom, ushering the others up the ramp of the ship as they provided cover. Several plasma blasts once again fired from the ship, slicing the scaffolding in two. Metal and bodies rained from above as it slammed to the floor.

  “That’s it. Let’s go!” shouted Will.

  They followed the last of the workers up the ramp, and it began to close behind them. Sounds of sonic blasts hitting the hull began to get louder as the agents outside recovered and regrouped. Will motioned for the workers to stay in the ship’s cargo bay as he and Daniels ran for the command deck. Ileana was already prepared for departure and was busy working the controls. Daniels slipped into the seat next to her and began to assist.

  “What are we waiting for? Let’s go!” shouted Will impatiently.

  “Something is preventing the doors from opening. I tried several times, and there’s no response. It’s like someone is—”

  “Overriding the controls?” said Daniels as he pointed out the window to the far side of the hanger deck. The agent Will had blasted through the wall was at the control panel, looking battered and bloody. He had overridden the door controls and forced them to stay shut. He looked angrily up at Ileana as she worked the controls, and his look then turned to satisfaction, as he knew they couldn’t leave either.

  “We have to go out there and open the damn door!” shouted Will, becoming increasingly agitated. He hadn’t gone through all the things he’d experienced in the last few weeks to be stopped by some angry government thug, and he was ready to charge out and try to fix the situation.

  “You’ll never make it mate. It’s too late for that now. Listen.”

  The sounds of sonic blast impacts were hitting the ship so close together that there had to be at least twenty agents firing down now.

  “Well, what are we going to do?”

  “I really don’t know,” said Ileana.

  “Well, I do!” said Daniels as he stood excitedly and took a second look out the window.

  “Turn the ship around and fire the engines full power at the hangar bay door. Can you do that and keep us stationary?”

  “I think so, but for what purpose?”

  “Several years ago when we had all of that terrorist trouble up here, we couldn’t get into the sections they held because the doors were refined lauridium. We couldn’t just cut through that stuff, so we had to blast them open. A lot of good and bad people died that probably didn’t have to. We made the decision to replace the access doors with a different material so if we ever had this problem again we could get in from the outside. It’s a special material that can be heated to allow someone to cut his way in, but it doesn’t affect the integrity of the door at normal temperatures. In this case, we’ll need to smash our way out, but it’s the same difference. We need to heat that door red hot. Trust me. Do it!”

  Ileana raised the landing legs as the ship now hovered above the deck. She swung it around one hundred eighty degrees and began to run the engines to full power. The blue fire poured from the ship’s engines and roared loudly as it began heating the doors. Will could see the agent still holding the wires to the bay door, and looking confused as EC2 shook the hangar deck with the power of her engines at full. The doors now began to glow red as Ileana and Daniels fought the controls to keep the ship stable.

  “Karkovich! Where are the controls for the heat shield?” yelled Daniels, barely able to be heard above the roar of the engine.

  “To your left!” shouted Ileana.

  Daniels engaged the sophisticated heat shield as an almost invisible energy field surrounded the front of the ship, still allowing for visibility to the deck below.

  “More power!” shouted Daniels. “It has to be at least two thousand degrees for the structural integrity to degrade. Otherwise we’ll just smash off!”

  Will looked out the window that faced the rear of the ship and could see the doors now bright red as the engines continued to fire against them. He looked at his com and realized they were only minutes from the impact on Mars. With all that had happened, he’d almost forgotten about it.

  “We only have a few minutes to impact! We have to get out of here now!” said Will.

  “Right you are,” said Daniels in a much calmer tone. “Dr. Karkovich. Spin us around and run the engines to one hundred percent and release the stationary dampers.”

  Ileana worked the controls and spun the ship as Daniels had requested. As she swung the ship back one hundred eighty degrees, the blast from the engines vaporized the agent as he stood smugly holding the door controls. Will and Daniels both smiled at each other, seeing that justice was done in their eyes.

  “I hope you’re right about this, Captain Daniels.” said Ileana.

  “I’m right. I just hope you heated that door enough or we won’t be here to argue about it.”

  Ileana took one last look at Will as she reached to release the damper control. Will braced himself by holding the back of Daniels’s seat. She pulled back the lever, and the ship lurched forward.
Will could see the red-hot door approaching as they built up speed. He closed his eyes as the moment of impact arrived but felt nothing. The ship sliced through the molten door like a hot knife through butter and emerged into the cold blackness of space. Will looked back at the silhouette of the ship where it had crashed through the doors, and could see the icy vacuum of space already turning the red door to gray as it cooled. Debris, men, and machinery were being sucked out into space behind them as they sped away.

  “We have to make a higher orbit and fast. I don’t know how far the impact wave will reach out.”

  “Oh no!” shouted Daniels as he now saw the immense asteroid approaching in the distance. Both Will and Ileana were speechless as they looked back at the station in the distance and could see it behind the planet. A beeping sound filled the cabin as Will reached into his pocket for his com.

  Will could see the shaky image of Jonas’s face as he climbed the ladder, trying to escape the large man who followed him and Oria.

  “Jonas! Where are you?”

  “Boss! Just leave. I’m not going to make it. I’m trapped in the com tower maintenance corridor, and they’re coming for me. Just go. I can’t get back to meet you.”

  “Jonas…I’m sorry. We’ve already left. We had no choice. Impact is only minutes away.”

  Jonas now stopped his ascent as he looked out the airlock window and could see the asteroid in the distance.

  “It’s OK, Will. I understand. Thanks for the message to my mother. That meant a lot.” He looked down at the man who was continuing to climb after them with his knife in his mouth.

  “Will! Did I hear him say he was in the maintenance corridor of the com tower?”

  “Yes—Why?”

  “There’s a bloody airlock in there!” shouted Daniels.

  Will understood what Daniels was getting at and jumped to attention.

  “Ileana, turn the ship around!” said Will.

  “We only have a few minutes to escape.”

  “Turn the Goddamn ship around!” yelled Daniels.

  Ileana reluctantly swung the ship back toward the station at full power. The station, that had become just a small dot against the planet, began to grow large in the window.