by Jerry Aubin
CHAPTER ELEVEN
I agree with Aleron.
For the second time that morning, Zax was brought back to consciousness by a slap to his face. He opened his eyes and basked in Kalare’s warm smile for a moment before he was overwhelmed with the urge to cough. The uncontrollable spasms triggered by having his throat nearly crushed ended with Zax retching the final remnants of his breakfast on to the deck next to the dead civilian.
“Th…than…thank you,” he managed to gasp. “Wh…what took you so long?”
“Sorry, Zax. I’m really sorry. I know that was close, and I can only imagine how scary it was for you. It looked like that guy just about had you strangled? Am I right? Were you almost dead? Wow, that must have been scary. That guy was huge!” Kalare looked at all the blood pooling around the dead civilian and giggled for a couple of secs before continuing. “I watched you floating for the blaster and wanted to help, but when the gravity came back I landed on my head and was in a daze. Not all of us have the well-practiced zero-g capabilities of Puke Boy! Hah! Well, anyways, my head cleared and I could see he was on top of you, but I didn’t think I had a chance against him without a weapon. I couldn’t get at the blaster because it was sandwiched between the two of you. I looked around for the knife, but it had slid under a workstation and I wasn’t able to reach it at first. Of course, Captain Clueless over there just sat and whimpered the entire time.”
Kalare’s monologue provided Zax with sufficient time to recover. Her last comment reminded him that Aleron was with them, and he looked over to find the boy in the corner quietly sobbing. The cadet’s hands were still bound so Zax stood, grabbed the blade off the deck where Kalare had dropped it, and used the civilian’s pants to wipe off the worst of the blood. After he freed Aleron’s hands, Zax helped the boy to his feet. Being rescued by the frequent target of his abuse was clearly unpalatable for Aleron. He brushed aside Zax’s assistance and turned away to use his freed hands to wipe the remains of tears from his face.
Kalare had the presence of mind to not only pick up the blaster but also secure the compartment hatch shut while he worked to free Aleron. They were lucky none of the roving groups of civilians had passed the open hatch in the middle of their struggles. Zax looked at Kalare, then back towards Aleron, and finally back to Kalare before speaking.
“Now what?”
No one spoke for a min as they each considered the question. Aleron broke the silence.
“We wait here, of course! We’ve got the hatch locked and there’s a possibility no one even knows we’re in here. You saw all those civilians roaming around out there. There’s no chance of us making it far if we try to get anywhere else. Besides, we just managed to take care of this monster, so you’ve got to think other Crew, especially the Marines, have taken care of this mess. It won’t be much longer, I bet, before the Captain is on the vidscreen letting us know this whole damn thing is over.”
Zax was forming a snide comment about the “we” in Aleron’s description of the dead civilian when Kalare jumped in first.
“No. They know we’re in here. He didn’t bring us to this compartment randomly. He knew exactly where he was going. We don’t know what he was supposed to do after securing us in here. He clearly didn’t think we posed any threat since he wasn’t going to stick around and guard the compartment. They might have already missed him and sent more goons here looking for him.”
Aleron and Kalare looked to Zax as the tiebreaker. He took a few deep breaths and then spoke.
“I agree with Aleron.” Zax felt a pang of deep regret when Kalare deflated in response to his statement, but pushed onwards. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think he’s right. That FTL jump was brilliant in allowing you and me, Kalare, to take care of this idiot. I’ve got to think the Marines and Crew throughout the Ship have cut up the rest of these jokers and they just haven’t had a moment to tell us it’s over yet. Wait—the vidscreens are coming back online. I bet this is the Captain now.”
They all expectantly faced the compartment’s screen as the image of the human fighter pixelated and scrambled. It was replaced not with the Captain’s face but instead cycled through images showing various compartments which appeared to have been torn apart by bomb blasts. Bloodied and dismembered bodies, civilian and Crew alike, dominated the pictures. Zax and Kalare both gasped when Flight Ops, with its unique dual panoramas, appeared on the screen. Zax recognized a few of the dead Crew as people he had worked with previously and imagined that Kalare must know all of them. Each image featured large numbers of dead Marines with their heavy battle armor mangled and shattered. The same voice from the earlier announcement started to speak as the bloody images continued to cycle.
“I regret to inform everyone that your Captain made a very poor choice. She clearly didn’t believe me when I said she had lost control of the Ship and decided to put my assertion to the test with her ill-advised FTL jump. I can only assume her intent was to allow Marines to retake certain compartments. The images you are watching were taken from Flight Ops, Primary Grav Control, and Primary Life Support among others. My teams who earlier took command of critical compartments such as these came prepared with explosives. Members of each team have detonators biologically implanted which will trigger their bombs if that team member dies or is no longer within close proximity of their assigned device. Of course, team members can also choose to detonate manually if they feel they are under threat and want to neutralize the compartment rather than allow the Crew to regain control.”
Zax thought back to the unidentified cases he had seen arranged around Engineering Control after the civilians arrived. He imagined they were close enough to hear the blast if those were indeed bombs and Engineering had suffered the same fate as Flight Ops, but it was impossible to know for certain. He focused back on the screen as the woman continued.
“Captain—I implore you to understand you are no longer in charge. We are. Do not attempt anything like this again. Acknowledge my attempts to communicate with you directly. We can resolve this situation without further loss of life or the Ship’s operational capacity, but only if you respond to my attempts to hail you and discuss the terms of your surrender.”
The voice paused for a moment and then returned.
“I’m pleased to announce we’ve finally established communication with the Bridge. I’m not yet speaking with the Captain, but I hope to do so as soon as she’s ready to work together to resolve this matter. In the meantime, I reiterate my call for all Crew to drop your arms and return to your quarters. There’s no need for any more of you to die today than already have.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Give me the blaster!
Kalare spoke as soon as the vidscreen faded back to the image of the human fighter.
“OK, that settles it. We’ve got to get out of here now!”
Aleron seemed dumbfounded. “Are you crazy? You heard her. They’ve got full control and are talking to the Bridge right now. The Captain will agree to whatever they want and end this any min. Why do you want to risk running into trigger-happy civilians and getting ourselves killed?”
“You’re delusional if you think the Captain is going to surrender, Aleron.” Kalare’s voice became more strident. “I don’t know the woman, but I damn well know the Flight Boss, and they’re cut from the same cloth. That man would sooner cut off the oxygen supply and kill everyone on board before he would give in to a civilian’s demands. In fact, we’re all probably lucky that Primary Life Support got blown up and now it will be more challenging for the Omegas to do exactly that. We’ve got to get out of here and find a safer place to be before all hell breaks loose. You know I’m right, Zax, tell him!”
Zax had intended to back Aleron once again, but Kalare’s observations about the Flight Boss hit their mark. He certainly hadn’t spent as much time with the man as she had, but he had even greater reason to believe the man was ruthless enough to consider the deaths of nearly all ten million aboard the Ship a small pr
ice to pay if it ended the uprising. If that’s how the Boss would solve the problem, it seemed a safe bet to assume the Captain would act similarly.
“Kalare’s right, Aleron. We’ve got to get out of here. Engineering is clearly a hotspot for anyone trying to wrest control of the Ship and we’re likely to get shot or blown up if we stick around here. We’ll have a greater chance if the three of us stick together, though, so please come with us.”
That last bit was painful for Zax to utter, but he believed it to be true and choked it out regardless. He watched as Aleron silently weighed his options.
“Fine—I’ll stick with you two oxygen thieves, but I want the blaster.”
Kalare guffawed and her response instantly triggered a change in Aleron’s demeanor. He stood tall and puffed out his chest as he walked menacingly towards her with his arm reaching for the weapon. He hadn’t quite achieved the height and mass of his (thankfully Culled) mentor Cyrus, but he towered over both Kalare and Zax and was clearly prepared to leverage his size advantage if violence was required. As he approached her, he bellowed, “Give me the blaster!”
Kalare’s posture shifted from defiance to acquiescence as she moved the weapon towards Aleron’s outstretched hand. The boy was half a stride away from her and a satisfied grin was forming on his lips when Kalare’s weight shifted to her back leg and her forward foot shot off the deck and connected with his testicles. Aleron emitted no sound as he crashed to the deck in the fetal position. Kalare turned to Zax and spoke as if nothing had happened.
“Do you have any ideas about where we should go?”
Zax pondered alternatives for a moment, but he couldn’t think of anything better than the first thought which had come to mind. “Waste Systems. It’s not that far, and I know how we can reach it through maintenance tunnels rather than the main passageways. I can’t imagine the civilians care enough about sewage to send anyone there to take it over.”
Kalare nodded in agreement. “Perfect.” She paused and appeared contemplative for a moment before speaking again. “I think we should first figure out how to free the Boss and Bailee and take them with us.”
“What? No way! It’s bad enough we have to deal with Aleron. What makes you think I want to put my neck on the line trying to save that man?”
Kalare sighed. “Trust me, Zax, I’m not about to throw away my life trying to help the Flight Boss out of any sense of duty or anything silly like that. But think about it. Won’t we stand a much better chance of staying alive if we have a little more help than Captain Clueless here? Can you think of anyone better than Bailee to have by our side in the middle of all this craziness?”
Zax hated to admit it, but Kalare was right. Connecting with the Marine would increase their odds of survival substantially and, unfortunately, getting access to him meant throwing their fate in with that of the Boss as well. Zax tried to find solace in the possibility they’d get caught in a firefight along the way and he might be able to witness the Boss get killed by a civilian.
As Aleron continued to writhe on the deck, Zax visualized the maintenance tunnels and crawlspaces he had studied months earlier. His ability to vividly recall the details of imagery like maps and schematics had served Zax well during his time as a cadet, but this was the first time he’d rely on it in a truly life or death situation.
“OK. This can work. It would be so much easier and safer if we could just access the crawlspace directly above us, but our Plugs are blocked by these damn collars and I can’t release the lock on the hatch. There’s an access port around the corner though that has biometric controls. I can get us in there, and it connects with a shaft that will put us into the crawlspace above the compartment where they put Bailee and the Boss. If they are still in there, and if the guards are still outside, we can use the manual override for the hatch from the crawlspace to get them out.”
Kalare smiled at Zax before looking down at Aleron who remained on the deck grasping his crotch. Her grin widened as she gave him another (reasonably light) kick to get his attention. “Quit your sniveling and get your butt up. We’re getting out of here.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
We have to deliver a message.
Kalare led the way out of the compartment with the blaster hidden under her shirt in the small of her back. Aleron shambled along directly behind her. Zax brought up the rear once he removed the sheath from the dead civilian’s boot and secured the blade in his own.
Zax was most worried about the first fifty meters of the trip. They would be totally exposed as they made their way from the compartment to the access port for the maintenance tunnels. If they ran into any civilians, their plan was to pass themselves off as random cadets desperately trying to make their way back to their quarters, but Zax didn’t hold out much hope that would work.
They approached a T-junction where they needed to turn left when suddenly Aleron sprang to life and grabbed a fistful of Kalare’s shirt. He dragged her backwards and pushed her up tight against a closed hatch while using his other hand to pull Zax in alongside them. It seemed like the bully was making his play to reestablish dominance until Zax heard voices and footsteps approach from arround the corner. He held his breath and waited until a group of three civilians walked past in the connecting passageway without looking their way.
The voices faded and eventually Aleron released his grip and backed away from Kalare and Zax with a smirk. “Who’s Captain Clueless now?”
Kalare straightened her shirt and glared at Aleron. “I might have been able to hear them a little more easily if I wasn’t so distracted by how slowly you were moving your sorry carcass.” Her expression softened a bit. “But thank you—that would not have been good to run straight into that group.” She held up her hand to signal quiet and then peeked around the corner until she was satisfied the next passageway was now empty.
They walked the last ten meters without incident and the three cadets were soon through the access port into a world entirely unknown to almost everyone who called the Ship home. The network of maintenance tunnels was a motley collection—some were the same size and build quality as the main passageways while others were nothing but crawlspaces roughly hewn into the mammoth asteroid that formed the foundation of the Ship. Civilians were not allowed unescorted access, and most Crew never bothered requesting the security credentials needed to open its hatches and access ports. The tunnels were universally considered a warren best left to those with the lowest Leaderboard rankings, so Zax had never encountered another person during his travels within them.
Frequent usage of the tunnel system made life in Waste Systems more efficient which is what inspired Zax to study and explore it in the first place. Thankfully his eidetic memory meant prior glances at the schematics for Engineering were sufficient for him to recall how its maintenance network was laid out as well. Zax confidently led the other two cadets through seemingly random twists and turns until he stopped them at the base of a ladder and spoke.
“This goes into the crawlspace above the compartment where the Boss and Bailee are being held. I want you two to wait here with the blaster. If you hear any commotion, I want you to run. I know you don’t have a clue where you’re going, but it doesn’t matter. Just run. Better to be lost in the tunnels than dead from the civilians. Any exterior hatch you find will have a manual override which will let you exit the system. Be careful, though. If you let a hatch shut behind you, you’ll be stuck wherever you exited because neither of you has the access credentials to get back into the tunnels.”
Aleron leaned against the wall and pouted. The bully clearly didn’t appreciate being stuck in a situation where Zax’s low Leaderboard status actually provided the advantage which left him in charge. Kalare appraised Zax with a worried expression. She took a deep breath and opened her mouth in the fashion which usually kicked off a monologue, but then she appeared to think better of it and turned away. When she looked back, she graced Zax with a tight smile and simply wished him luck.
T
he journey through the crawlspace was uneventful. Zax stopped to listen at each hatch he passed, but every compartment below was empty until he came to the one which held the Boss and Sergeant Bailee. He sat quietly to ascertain whether the two men were by themselves inside the compartment or if they were being more closely guarded. He couldn’t make out their words but after a few mins had only heard their two voices. Civilian guards wouldn’t be likely to let them carry on a conversation for so long uninterrupted and Zax hoped the lack of unknown voices meant they must be alone. There was no other way to find out for certain, so Zax took a deep breath, triggered the manual override, and lifted the hatch.
The utter confusion on the gruff Marine’s face when he saw Zax’s head pop down from the overhead was priceless. The Flight Boss was speaking with his back to the hatch, and it took him an extra moment to react to the sergeant’s expression and follow his eyes up to the hatch opening. Once he made eye contact with Zax, however, the Boss didn’t waste any additional time before addressing him in a forceful whisper.
“You’re not quite the rescue party I was hoping for, but I suppose you’re not entirely worthless. Get down here and get our hands loose!”
Zax was tempted to shut the hatch and leave the obnoxious Omega to whatever fate the civilians had in mind for him, but then he thought about Kalare waiting back in the tunnel counting on Bailee’s assistance. He shimmied out of the hatch and lowered himself down slowly so as to land on the deck as quietly as possible. He cut the binds holding the Flight Boss’s hands and then freed Sergeant Bailee. There was something about the expression on the Marine’s face and the way he carried his body that made Zax think something was wrong, but the Boss started hissing commands before Zax could ask any questions.
“I’ll boost you up first, Zax, and then Bailee. You can both help me climb up. From down here the hatch looks just like every other panel in the overhead so if we can manage to do this without moving any equipment underneath then just maybe these idiot civilians won’t be smart enough to figure out where we went.”