On Kota's return to the mother ship, there was a Bug in a space suit waiting for him. He was going out to the freighter to mark which parts of the cargo were the priority. Kota flew him out there and Gus recognized his old boss, Sabah. Ron had jumped off his fliter to help Gus get some of the cargo moved around and ready to load. As Sabah led the two through the cargo bay; pointing out the different priority cargo, Ron would mark it with a marker he had. As soon as he was through, Sabah had Kota fly him back to the mother ship. Tik and Ron continued to make trips and each trip was with a larger load until they were at capacity. Both of the new pilots were getting smoother with each trip and feeling more confident. On the last trip for the day, Gus rode back with Kota. The new pilots were too nervous to start hauling live cargo this soon.
When the cargo was unloaded from the fliters, the group got out of their space suits and went to the galley in Auntie to eat. As they were entering the space ship, they saw the robots shutting down and the decontamination team leaving the hangar. Wurden had already left with his group. After they had finished eating, Ron and Kota climbed up on the outside of Auntie and pulled off a couple of panels to see what they needed to repair on one of the broken systems. They made their list and just laid the panels back in place. While they were doing that, Gus and Tik went to scrounge mattress material for Gus and Kota. They found a substitute and took it back to the crew quarters. There was not much talk tonight because everyone was dead tired. The strain from the new job hit them all suddenly. They went to bed and didn't wake until they heard the bell. The next day was pretty much a repeat of the previous day except they started putting pressure on the decontamination crew to keep up. By the end of the third day, there was still a small pile of cargo left on their side of the shield. Ron and Tik were much more comfortable now and Kota instructed them to try some fancier maneuvers as they were flying out to the freighter. He gave them a routine to try each time. They learned to do barrel rolls and loops. Each step they learned gave them a renewed boost of confidence. Ron traded off with Gus to give him a chance to learn about flying the fliters. He took to it as quickly as the other two.
After a week, they were so far ahead of the decontamination team that Ron had time to start exploring the freighter. One evening he was the one loading cargo. At quitting time he was still on the freighter. He had a pile of parts he needed to repair Auntie and Kota flew back to get him. Kota signaled that the decontamination team had already left so it was safe to bring the parts into the hangar. Tik was on the computer making sure none of the Bugs would see anything in the spy devices. Tik had figured out how to drop the big rear door on Auntie and had it down when Kota flew into the mother ship. He flew directly into Auntie and Gus quickly unloaded the parts. Kota then flew out to the hangar deck and shut the fliter down. He and Ron climbed out of their suits and headed to the galley to eat. That evening Ron and Kota started repairs. Tik and Gus started testing systems as soon as they had them repaired.
A month after they started, they had the primary cargo moved out of the freighter. They had repaired and tested all of the broken systems and Auntie was ready except for food, water, air and fuel. Sabah had come back and marked the next batch of cargo by priority and the escape group was getting ready to start transferring it to the mother ship. The fliters needed refueling and Gus had come up with the plan to tell Wurden they would pull fuel out of the freighter. While he was doing that, he could sneak some into Auntie. Every day for a week Gus got a little fuel put into Auntie. Ron had a hit on the computer search he was looking for. The Bugs were headed for a solar system that wasn't that far galactically speaking from a blue super-giant star that could go super nova at any time. In about three weeks they would be at the optimum point to depart the mother ship and launch out for the blue super-giant.
Everyone had been planning for 5 or 6 days on how they could get out of the mother ship without the Bugs knowing it. They knew that the Bugs were going to jump to hyper-drive some time soon but they didn't know just exactly when. They knew they would get a few days notice because the crippled freighter needed to be anchored to the outside of the mother ship if the Bugs wanted any more of the cargo or salvage. The group talked about a leak of the virus but they had already seen the decontamination team in action when that happened. They would just seal off the affected area and life would go on as usual. They needed something that would panic the kidnapped creatures as well as the Bugs.
Over the next week, they started transferring food and water as they could. One of the side effects of the shield filtering out the virus was that the shield became opaque instead of transparent like it had been. The more the shield filtered, the less you could see through it. The Bugs were deathly afraid of the virus and would not set foot on Auntie's side of the shield dividing the hangar unless they were ordered by the council. They had no idea what the group was up to. Ron's and Tik's flying had improved so much that two pilots could overwhelm the robots and decontamination team. When they were far enough ahead, they would load a fliter with items they needed on Auntie and fly directly in her back door to unload. They had most of their supplies loaded when things changed.
The group was talking after the evening meal one night when Tik said, "I wonder if the Bugs have ever had a big radiation leak and what their procedures are."
"That could be the panic we are looking for," Ron said. "Tik, check in the mother ship computer to see what the procedure is and how they would let everyone know there was a leak."
Tik checked and replied, "The procedure is pretty general. If the radiation leak is too bad, most of the procedure involves getting to escape pods to get off the mother ship. All the slave labor would be left to fend for themselves."
Kota eagerly asked, "How do they know it’s a bad radiation leak?"
"The alarm would have a distinct ring and the lights would flash. They will get dim pretty quickly as the reactors are closed down to almost nothing until the Bugs determine where the leak is and how bad," Tik said.
"How long would it take you to set up something to trigger that alarm?" Gus asked.
"About 5 minutes. The big thing would be doing something to keep the Bugs from finding out the leak is a false alarm. I would have to keep tweaking things to make the alarm grow."
"I think we've found the diversion we need. Let's set the day for escape two weeks from today. We still need to get to the Bug's storeroom to get a few things; but maybe during the confusion, we would be able to get in there and get back here," Ron said excitedly.
Everyone agreed on the date and determined to double their efforts to get the needed items off the crippled freighter; however, Kota was unusually quiet. He looked thoughtful and then asked, "What happens if the Bugs move some of us? Do we still try to go? How many do we need to go ahead?"
The questions floored the rest of the group. They had never even considered that possibility. Finally Ron answered, "If I'm moved and you three have a chance, get out of here. Get to the Charter Navy and tell them about us. I don't know how many we would need to run the ship. You have more knowledge about that than we do. How many do you think?"
"Two could do it but three gives better odds of success. I echo your sentiments also. If I'm not here and you have a chance, get out of here."
The other two agreed that they would stay behind if it meant getting the others out. Little did they know that Kota's feelings would be prophetic.
The next day, Kota got the call to come back to the hangar. The Bugs wanted him back in the training area. Something had come up and they needed his expertise. Reluctantly he took off his space suit and went in Auntie to gather his personal things. Just before he left, he turned to the group and saluted them. They knew he meant for them to go ahead with the escape even if he didn't make it back. He went through the shields and then through the sealed entrance where a Bug led him off to the training area.
The trio was heartbroken but determined to go ahead and get to the Charter Navy as quickly as possible. They had only wo
rked two more days when the order came down to shut down the operation and secure the freighter to the mother ship. Ron and Gus went to the freighter to use its tractor beams to help hold it to the mother ship. Tik worked on the inside and the freighter was secured. Ron and Gus grabbed one last load and flew directly into Auntie. Tik closed the rear door with the fliter still in the cargo bay. They hoped the Bugs wouldn't look inside but it was a chance they would have to take. Wurden passed the word that the decontamination team was going to be coming in to start decontaminating the rest of the hangar. Ron moved the remaining fliters back behind Auntie and put some of the salvaged parts from the freighter in front of them. If no one looked too closely, it looked like there were three fliters there, as well as the salvage.
The decontamination team had help from two more teams and it only took three days to get the rest of the hangar decontaminated. They took one more day to run all of their tests and then; after they were satisfied, Ron, Gus and Tik started taking the shields down. Tik secretly changed the code to get into Auntie. If any Bugs tried to get in, she would say that she had rebooted the ship's computer and something must have scrambled. She would tell them she could work on getting it open. All of the supervisor Bugs including Wurden seemed to give Auntie an even wider berth. They weren't totally sure that some of the virus hadn't invaded the inside of the old ship and they were not taking a chance.
Wurden announced, "The mother ship will make a hyper-drive jump in two days. We need to get everything secured here in the hangar. During the jump everyone will stay in their quarters."
Ron glanced at Tik and Gus as he thought, "We need to move tonight. We're not where we want to be, but we have no idea where they are jumping and no time to really find out."
Tik thought back, "What about Kota?"
"If he makes it here, he goes; otherwise, do as he said. We leave and find the Charter Navy."
"I agree," Gus thought. "I don't want to leave Kota but this may be the last chance we get for a long time. What if the Bugs decide to kick us out of Auntie again and find all the things we've moved in? They'll know we were planning an escape."
They worked all day securing the hangar and were on pins and needles wondering if they would be allowed to stay in Auntie that night. At the end of the day, Wurden rounded up his group and they went to the back of Auntie. Wurden didn't say a thing as they entered the ship. All three went weak in the knees when they made it inside. They were too excited to eat so they packed away the last of the items from the freighter. They had 'appropriated' some netting that day and they used it to secure the fliter. They had everything as ready as they could expect it to be.
Ron said, "Tik, check and see if you can find Kota. If you can find him, unlock his door when we set things in motion. We can't wait on him but maybe that will give him a chance to get here."
Tik started checking as Ron and Gus made one last sweep to make sure everything was ready. They climbed up on the surface of Auntie and double-checked all of the panels and work that they had done. Everything was in order so while they were on top of Auntie, they checked the hangar. They didn't see anything they had missed. They climbed down and went back inside the ship. Another hour and it would be time.
The minutes dragged by like days until Tik looked at Ron. He nodded and she told the computer to proceed. Tik had found Kota's cell and she now unlocked it. The sirens started to wail, declaring a radiation emergency. The lights flashed for a few minutes and then started to dim. Ron quickly and gingerly turned Auntie around so she was pointing out the door. The trio quickly headed for the storeroom where they hoped to get the final items they needed.
Ron had just finished his part of the story when Auntie's alarm went off. All three thought their heart would stop. Had the Bugs found a way to turn around quicker than they thought? Were they about to capture them again? They all rushed to the cockpit to see what the alarm was about.
Chapter 7
They all stared at the gauges trying to find the cause of the alarm. Suddenly Tik pointed and said, "Look. Something is coming from the port side at about a 30 degree angle. It's quickly overtaking us and will pass very close."
"What is it? The radar shows that it's huge. Is it big enough to be the mother ship?" Gus exclaimed.
"Doesn't Auntie have outside cameras?" Ron asked.
Tik growled, "It's too dark out there for cameras and I really don't feel like announcing our presence with lights. Let me try something here."
She made some adjustments and turned on another system. Suddenly the monitor showed an image. It looked like a giant deformed potato almost like two potatoes had grown together. The two pieces were at a slight angle like a shallow 'v' with the lower portion being larger than the top and both marked with pits.
"It's an asteroid and man is it moving. I'll bet it's traveling two to three times as fast as we are," Tik exclaimed excitedly.
"How close will it pass to us? Will it hit?" Ron asked anxiously.
"Let me see…. I think it will miss us by at least half a mile," Tik said.
"How big is that thing?" Gus asked incredulously.
Tik checked the instruments and did some figuring before she answered, "It must be 3/4 of a mile long and 3/8 mile wide at the widest. It'll be here in 20 to 30 minutes."
"Just for practice, run a spectrograph to see what it's made of," Ron suggested.
Tik turned on the instruments and started working. About five minutes later she started reading the results, "It looks like a lot of it is rock. There is some metal hmmm… I think its silver and zinc. Look right here at the bottom of the v. That's water or I should say ice. Too bad we couldn't get that on board. That would solve our problem of the water shortage."
"Not only water but oxygen as well. Remember our experiments with letting the oxygen pass through the shield but excluding hydrogen?" Ron said excitedly. "Check to see what it would take to match speed with it. Can you plot a trajectory where it's headed too?"
Gus asked, "Even if you match speed, how would you get the water off of the asteroid and into Auntie? We could haul it on the fliter, but how do you put a block of ice into the water tank?"
"I hadn't thought of that. What if we set Auntie down right there on top of the ice?" Ron mused thoughtfully.
"That would take a lot of fuel to do all the maneuvering and would leave a pretty good trail if the Bugs come sniffing around," Gus declared.
Tik broke in, "That's not true. If we just match speed fairly close, why not use the tractor beam to pull us down?"
"Yeah, just like we did with the crippled freighter. Being in outer space, it didn't seem like we were moving but the mother ship was actually cooking along at a pretty good clip. How fast do you think they were going when they did the hyper-space jump? I'll bet the freighter is still there," Ron said.
Tik said as she pointed, "Here's what we need to do to match the speed. We'll also have to move closer. Auntie shows that we need to fire the engines here. I don't know where this bad boy is going yet. I need a little more path to plot the probable trajectory."
Ron quickly sat down in the pilot's seat and told everyone to strap in. He strapped himself in and made the setting suggested by Auntie. Tik counted down for him and at the right time, he fired the engines for just a short period. He looked out the window and could see the asteroid off to his left. He gingerly maneuvered Auntie closer to the big rock. Tik switched on the external lights and he could now see the ice in the bottom of the v. The engines were now off and he was maneuvering with jets of compress air. Gus sat at the controls for the tractor beam and, as they came within a hundred yards of the asteroid, Ron directed him to grab it.
Gus was staring at his monitor and stretched out the tractor beam. The beam grabbed the asteroid and they felt a slight bump as the two matched speed exactly. Gus started pulling Auntie down to the surface. He had to roll her some to make sure she sat down on the bottom instead of her side. They came closer and closer to the surface with Ron calling off the distance
. Finally, they gently touched down.
There was silence and the three looked at one another as they realized they were now sitting on an asteroid flying to who knows where. They all wanted to get outside to see what it was like. Tik checked the gravity level and said, "We'd better leave the tractor beam on. There's hardly any gravity and we might float off. I wonder if we stand out like a big black blot on this ice field."
"That's a thought. Would the shield make a difference? Maybe we could set it to reflect about the same amount of light as the ice field," Ron said. "If we set the shield to a minimum, we wouldn't use very much fuel."
Gus commented, "I don't know about you two, but I'm beat. What have we been up, 35 or 36 hours?"
Ron nodded as he said, "I agree. I want to explore but right now I need sleep. Before we explore, we need to unlock the rest of Auntie. There may be other things in the locked area that could help us. Besides, we need to find a way to store the water and air and I think those will be somewhere in the locked area."
"Well, big boys, you don't have to invite me twice. I'm ready for bed now, and then we can tackle these problems when we're fresh. Tomorrow, I'll plot the trajectory for this asteroid."
The trio headed to crew quarters and slept that night like the dead. Tik was the first one up and she was an hour and a half later than her normal time to get up. She was in the galley making something to eat when Ron and Gus came in.
"Morning, big boys. I thought of something else this morning. We need to catalog all of the supplies and other items we took from the freighter and the Bugs. We really have no idea of what we have and we might need to ration some things to survive. Why don't you two do that while I work on unlocking the rest of the doors?"
"Now wait a minute, little red one. I want to be there when you open the locked area," Gus snorted.
Alcantaran 1: Alien Abduction Page 14