by Jay Toney
Doc assembled his team taking Jane with him. They boarded one of our Marauders and launched.
"Everyone, make sure you are strapped in tight," Doc announced, "We are going in fast with our inertia dampers deactivated."
The flight down to the moon's surface would be rough without the inertia dampers canceling out the effects of acceleration. The transition to the moon's gravity and the artificial gravity that the outpost used would be easier without the Marauder trying to cancel their effects.
The shuttle settled onto the landing pad with a slight jolt. As soon as the engines shut down, the elevator lowered us to the floor of the hangar. High above us, the hangar doors began closing. Lights came on illuminating the inside of the hangar. Empty cargo canisters lined one wall. Tools and test equipment lined another. The lights in the observation room were on, showing through its viewports.
As soon as the overhead doors were closed, sealing the hangar from the vacuum of space; air flooded into the room. No workmen entered the hangar to service our ship or greet us. Except for Doc's team, there was no one in the room.
"I don't like this; it may be a trap. Ready your weapons, set your blasters to kill."
Jane stayed at Doc's side. Doc never remarried after the death of his wife, Elaunae. Jane was his companion. She never pressured him for marriage; Doc was still grieving his wife after all of these years. Jane was satisfied with the compassion she and Doc shared.
They knew each other for a long time; Jane, Doc, and Natasha's avatar were all that remained of the original crew.
The airlock leading into the interior of the base opened at the press of a button. Our team entered the moonbase and made its way down a long corridor. No one was there to challenge them. We searched the rooms we passed as we made our way down the passageway. Most of the places we passed were repair shops and maintenance offices; they were all empty. The hall ended in a lobby with four elevators. Our team filed into one of the lifts. The control panel showed that we were on the tenth level. There were fifteen levels to choose from. Doc selected the top level, and we all rode the elevator up. Our assault team exited the elevator on the top floor where the command center should be located.
Corridors branched off in three directions. We chose a passage leading back the way we came. Smoke, soot, and the acidic smell of burning insulation filled the passageway. The smoke and the soot grew thicker as we neared what we hoped was the command center. We could hear voices shouting over the sound of blaster fire. The cries became louder as we closed in on them. We approached cautiously.
Our team came upon two groups of Alliance people, exchanging blaster fire. One group was inside the command center, its door blown open by an explosive. The people inside were exchanging fire with soldiers using office furniture for a makeshift barricade.
The troopers noticed us and turned their attention to us. They saw that we were not wearing Alliance uniforms and fired. The soldiers were at a disadvantage, caught in a crossfire. Even so, they were ready to fight to the death.
Our team took cover using the doorways from rooms that lined the corridor for protection. The Alliance soldiers already decided their fate and would die while attempting to retake the base. Their numbers dwindled. The barrier provided little protection from the people in the command center and no protection from our assault team. Their blaster fire darkened the walls. The insulating material smoldered where the energy bolts hit the walls. When their numbers were down to three; the soldiers surrendered.
"Captain Roberts said he wouldn't kill or enslave us."
"That may be so, but I didn't." Doc shot each soldier in the chest killing them.
Someone waved a piece of white cloth from the command center, signaling their surrender. Doc and his team entered the room. All weapons had been piled on the floor to show that they were unarmed. The people inside the operations room were not Alliance military. Their uniforms suggested that they were merchant mariners, commonly pressed into maritime service. They were the officers and crew for the freighter in the hangar.
The freighter's crew cooperated without complaint. They gathered the dead soldiers, took them outside the base and disposed of the bodies where they wouldn't be in the way. Both Doc and Nathaniel hated the Alliance military and government too much to show any respect for them by giving their dead a proper burial. The bodies could rot where they lay.
The base was nearly empty. There wasn't much left in it that was worth salvaging. The Alliance removed anything they considered worth keeping when they abandoned the moonbase. The few people remaining in the base were scheduled to depart aboard the Valley Forge. The freighter crew loaded the tools and test equipment aboard the cargo ship. Even if they couldn't be used by us or sold to Mike, the tools could be sold as scrap metal.
Doc didn't use any of the explosive charges that filled the Marauders cargo hold. There was no need to destroy the moonbase. Besides, Red might have some use for the hidden base. Jane programmed the base's computer to lock the base down after our departure. Doc assigned part of his team, as a precaution, to the Valley Forge to watch over the freighter's crew. He and Jane boarded the Marauder. When everyone was ready, Jane sent a signal to the base's computer. The air was pumped out of the hangar, and the lights turned off. As soon as the overhead doors were open, the elevator platform rose to the surface.
The freighter launched, and we followed. Jane sent another signal to the base. The elevator lowered and the hangar doors closed. Then the lights went out, and the moonbase went into power conservation mode. Anyone trying to enter the base would have to either blast their way into it or use the security code Jane programmed the computer with.
****
"Nathaniel, this is Captain Jenkins of the freighter Valley Forge."
"A pleasure to meet you," I said, extending my hand."
"What is the status of the base?"
"The base was emptied before our arrival. We filled the freighter with what was left. The base is a huge storage facility descending fifteen levels below the moon's surface. Jane has the moonbase on lockdown. Anyone trying to enter the base will need the security code she programmed the base computer with. We had a bit of a problem with the welcoming committee, but we managed to straighten out the misunderstanding."
"I take it; they are locked up in the brig?"
"No, I left them on the surface to keep an eye on the base. They won't cause any problems."
"Nathaniel, I believe David may have some information for you if he can get his mind off of Jewel, for a minute."
"Is that lovely woman married?"
"Officer Stonewall is single and currently not engaged."
"If she would be so kind as to be my guest for dinner, I will provide you with information that you might find useful."
"He's handsome, having him entertain me with dinner would be nice. I accept his invitation."
"You don't need to do this."
"Don't worry; it will be a lot of fun. He won't cause me any harm."
"It's not you that I'm worried about."
"I'll try to be gentle with him."
"Captain Roberts, the Alliance is planning on transporting a major shipment of gold, platinum, silver, and precious gems from the Coria star system to the Alliance capital in the Avalon star system. They have been stockpiling this shipment, stolen from the mines on the third planet."
"What type of defenses are they using?"
"Not much, it is regularly visited by a couple of destroyers or frigates. They show up, unannounced, to maintain obedience from the colonists. They are scheduled to escort a freighter back to Alliance territory with the stolen property. My freighter and crew are assigned this task."
"When?"
Jewel left with David, taking him to her cabin for dinner and whatever else she had planned for him. I hoped she didn't hurt him. Like my wife, Jewel was very aggressive in bed.
We will have to hurry if we are to beat the Alliance to the treasure. "Jane, how are we on paint, we will need a lot of red, yellow, and black paint."
"If we don't have enough, I can mix up what we need."
"Natty, retrieve the Alliance cruiser Ajax's transponder codes and project a hologram of it. We need to see its markings?"
A hologram of the cruiser appeared on the bridge. I was able to rotate the hologram in all directions examining its unique color scheme. It was the gaudiest warship in the Alliance fleet. No one would confuse it with another starship. Its captain had the ship custom painted to suit his taste and make his ship easily recognizable. It had a long history of violence. People feared the heavy cruiser and its captain, Captain Thornton. The transponder codes appeared on a secondary screen.
"Natasha, save transponder codes as default two for our transponder." Every spaceship had a unique transponder code assigned to it to identify it as either friend or foe. They were not something that could be changed, at least they weren't supposed to be. Pirates, myself included, commonly changed their transponder codes to cause confusion and make it harder to identify their ships.
"Nathaniel, our ship doesn't look anything like the Ajax. It is a heavy cruiser, nearly twice our size and it doesn't have a tri-hull design.
"I am hoping they overlook that with our new paint and transponder information. It should work, at least long enough for us to get close."
"I think I know what you are planning. I haven't used a Trojan Horse gambit in a long, long time. But where are we going to get the ship painted? We don't have enough time to return to San Paulos."
"We will be painting ourselves on Thanatos. Natty set course for Thanatos, flank speed.
Doc, what is a Trojan Horse?"
"Long before our ancestors settled in this galaxy when Terrans were just starting to explore there neighboring star systems; there was a galactic war between two rival factions. The Alliance and the Coalition of Free Worlds were unable to defeat each other and fought for over a thousand years.
One side filled an old spaceship with troops wearing powered battle armor. They left this ship to be captured, near their enemy's fortified space station. The enemy, thinking this was an easy prize to seize, towed the old warship into one of its hangar bays. Their scans didn't show any life signs; the ship was shielded from scanning, keeping the troops aboard it hidden.
While the soldiers aboard the space station were celebrating their victory, a hatch opened on the hull of the ship and men in battle armor infiltrated the space station. They fought long into the night killing thousands of people aboard the space station. By early morning the infiltrators managed to disable the space station's defensive shields. Reinforcements entered the base, finishing the battle, and winning the war."
"Who won?"
"The Alliance of course. The Coalitions loss started a mass exodus to our galaxy. Three hundred years before the end of the war, explorers discovered the wormhole that allowed our ancestors to travel here."
We entered orbit with the Valley Forge and started searching for a landing site, far away from prying eyes. Amber located a mesa that was ideal for a landing site. The Persephone had never entered the atmosphere of any planet. Some ships didn't handle very well, even with their repulsorlift engines.
I let Natasha's avatar have the honor of the first landing. She had faster reflexes and could balance the ship's repulsorfield and could trim the controls using her neurolink.
We began our descent. The heat shields glowed, and the plasma generated during our descent obstructed our view. Natasha opened the ship's spoilers, breaking our speed. She kept the ship's nose up, spiraling down to our landing site. When our velocity slowed, the plasma cleared allowing us to view the planet. Natasha lowered our landing gear and began the landing cycle.
After we touched down on the mesa, I had a team of people in powered armor form a perimeter around the ship, using flamethrowers to keep the area clear of scorpions. Jane directed groups of people, copying the Ajax's gaudy paint scheme on our hull. The graphics quickly disguised our ships clean appearance, taking on the gaudiness of the Alliance warship.
Packs of scorpions attacked us, looking for an easy meal. Time and time again they were burnt alive by our security detail. The arachnids fed on the cooked meat of their predecessors before renewing their attacks on us. When the crew members finished painting the hull, and they were safe aboard our ship, our security team swept the mesa with flames killing any remaining scorpions before retreating to the starship.
We took off rejoining the Valley Forge in orbit and changed our transponder codes to match the Ajax's.
Treasure
"Natty set course for the Bonifer system and transfer the coordinates to the Valley Forge." It would take a little longer, nearly 20 hours for us to reach a safe jump point. The Valley Forge was an old freighter, even older than the Lucy. It has a maximum sublight speed of 0.09c. Its engines were operating at full power to reach that speed.
"Jewel, we will be entering hyperspace soon. It is time to say goodbye to your new friend so he can get back to his ship."
" We already said our goodbyes. I don't think David will be visiting with me again."
"Why not?"
"He asked to see the real me. I think I was a little too much for him. I thought he was having a good time, but when he left, he was limping and holding his left shoulder. He didn't even wait until morning to leave; he left right having sex with me."
It was a long shift, waiting to reach the jump point. Reaching it took over twice as long as it ordinarily would have. Once we entered hyperspace, all of us would be able to relax. Our ship didn't have enough officers for a second or third watch, so we relied on the ship's AI, Natasha, to monitor the ship's systems and to alert us if there were any problems. We would be in hyperspace for 149 hours. That gave us plenty of time to rest. The Bonifer star system was 6.2 light years away. It was a short trip in hyperspace for our new hyperdrive, but for the Valley Forge, it was a long jump, nearing its limit of 8 light years.
"Captain, we have reached safe distance and can enter hyperspace any time you wish."
"Set up a synchronized jump with the Valley Forge and enter hyperspace."
Our viewscreen turned blank, and our ship shifted into hyperspace. My father tried explaining what hyperspace is. I didn't understand it and couldn't visualize it, but I knew it existed and worked. He told me that hyperspace existed in a higher dimension of space where the laws of physics allowed faster than light travel, at the same time it coexisted with our universe and laws. I understood multidimensional space. What I couldn't understand was how we existed in two places at the same time. He tried explaining that too. He told me that time flowed differently in the other universe and we didn't exist at the same time. How could we exist and not exist at the same time? It was something I just couldn't comprehend. It worked; that was good enough for me.
****
We reentered real space. Natasha angled our sensors, so they were facing the sun. From our distance, it was just another pinpoint of light, but slightly brighter than the other stars in the starfield. None of the five planets orbiting the star were habitable.
Jewel sat at the sensors station with Amber. She was taking Jewel step by step through the basics of using the long-range sensors. Amber was a lot more patient with her friend than Tanya was. Jewel was learning, slowly. Once Jewel understood what she needed to do, she didn't forget. She responded much better to Natasha instructin
g her. Tanya made her nervous. Her repeated threats to cut Jewel's head open to see if it was empty didn't help. Jewel believed she was serious. Natasha spent hours running communication simulations in the holosimulator for Jewel. Her performance was much better without Tanya standing over her. At the end of the third day in hyperspace, Natasha pronounced her as proficient to man the communications station.
"Captain, I'm picking up comm chatter. The signal strength is extremely weak. They are not communicating on frequencies regularly used by the Alliance. I believe they are coming from grauping rock hoppers. Excuse me; I meant independent miners."
Tanya was working on her vocabulary. The language she often used resulted in more than a few fights. I urged her to refrain from using some of the more colorful language, not because it often caused conflict, but because she lost several of the last brawls she started with it.
Tanya was running out of excuses for her frequent injuries. Doc suspected most of them came from fighting. The way he put it, "Nobody was that accident prone." Any wounds, he believed were caused by brawling would have to heal naturally. Lately, Tanya was a frequent visitor to sickbay. Doc was tired of the frequency of nanite treatments she needed to mend her numerous bruises and lacerations.
"The screens on my scanner things are blank."
"What she means is, our sensors..."
I interrupted Amber's translation, "I think I know what she is trying to say." I was wondering if I made the right decision making Jewel an officer. Beverly was right; there was no way she would last as a crewman. It would be easy to let her off on the next friendly planet if I wasn't involved with her and she wasn't Amber's best friend. Somehow we would have to make it work.
Jewel and Amber sat together quietly whispering, at the sensor controls. I was sure it had nothing to do with training her to use our array of sensors. It was okay. We all needed something to do while our jump capacitors recharged. It took a lot of power to establish the necessary energy field to create a pocket or bubble of space-time and use it to slip into the higher dimensions of n-dimensional space in the multiverse. That much I understood.