Bontu Montak stepped back. “It’s… it’s a founder ship! A dreadnought!”
Mace stood. “Mr. Hobbs, get us out of here!”
The first round from the enormous ship slipped through the void, passing the location the Rogers had only moments before occupied.”
Hans buckled himself into his chair. “That was twice the power of our cannons, Mr. Hardy. I suggest we leave the area!”
Mace nodded. “I agree! Liam, keep us on a zigzag. And Mr. Mueller, target the drives of that hauler. See if we can at least immobilize her!”
Two plasma rounds left the cannons of the Rogers, striking the Mawga cargo hauler just in front of the drive systems. Secondary explosions saw the long ship lose propulsion.
Another plasma bolt slipped past the Rogers as a hail came over the comm.
Mace gestured to Johnny. “Patch it through.”
A highly-decorated alien in obvious military garb filled the comm display. “I am Admiral Hatuk Gar of the Galactic Union Dellus Force. You are ordered to halt immediately. Your ship and your crew are in violation of Galactic Union space!”
Bontu pleaded. “You must stop, Mr. Hardy. You cannot defy a founder. They are too powerful.”
Mace turned, “Mr. Hobbs, give her everything we’ve got. Get us out of here. Mr. Mueller, target those gun turrets.”
Bontu moved next to Mace. “Mr. Hardy, you mustn’t.”
Mace looked down at the cowering, meter-tall alien. “Mr. Montak, we’re Humans. We either live free or we die trying. We turn ourselves over, we’re as good as dead already. I’d rather go out in a blaze of glory than rot in some cell awaiting execution. You’ve said before, they have zero tolerance for rule breakers. You think they’ve changed their minds?”
Bontu slowly sat in the lower chair beside Mace. “I suppose not. I apologize, Mr. Hardy. We lived in fear of the Union for our entire lives.”
Hans Mueller reported. “Targeting all cannons this side of the Dellus warship. Firing! We have only minor damage, Mr. Hardy.”
Mace turned to face Liam Hobbs. “Get us out of here, Mr. Hobbs!”
Liam replied, “Building speed.”
Hans added, “We’ll be out of range of those cannons in five seconds. They don’t seem to be pursuing us, Mr. Hardy!”
Mace took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “You see, Mr. Montak, we live another day.”
A single round left the dreadnought, catching the Rogers dead center back. The ship shook violently for most of a second.
Humphrey yelled! “We have hull breach! Rear transducers are offline! Section forty-eight has sealed itself off!”
Mace stood. “How many do we have back there?”
Humphrey replied, “Six! All working on drive maintenance!”
Mace yelled into his comm. “Mr. Crawford! Take your teams to the back! We have people trapped! Make every effort to get them out of there!”
Mace turned. “Mr Hobbs, add some random to our direction. And monitor those incoming rounds for evasive action.”
Liam nodded. “Will do, Mr. Hardy.”
Seconds later, Jordan Crawford reported in. “Bulkheads are all sealed, Mr. Hardy. We have no way in.”
A voice came over the general comm. “This is Ray Zeal. We have three dead and two injured. “I’ve moved Jenny Taub and Don Foster up to room 48-7. I’ve closed off the room, but we’re still leaking air. We all have our helmets on.”
Mace replied, “Hang in there, Mr. Zeal. We’re gonna do all we can to get you out!”
Jeff said, “Mr. Hardy, I’m here with Mr. Crawford. As he said, the bulkhead doors are all sealed. Until that breach is fixed, they won’t be opening.”
Mace asked, “What can we do, Mr. Moskowitz? Can you cut us a new door?”
Jeff replied, “Not without having this section seal off as well. Hold on. I have an idea.”
Several seconds passed as Jeff could be seen talking to the Mawga, Heeb and Hooba.
Jeff turned back to face the comm. “Mr. Hardy, I think we might have a solution. Will take us about twenty minutes and we’ll have air going into that room.”
Raymond Zeal said, “It’s not a question of air. We have injured here. Both are out cold and I don’t know the extent of the injuries they’ve taken. Jenny looks to have had a severe blow to the chest. And Don was caught between a beam and a wall. I managed to get him free but he’s not looking good either.”
Maala Heeb stepped forward. “Mr. Moskowitz, what if we construct a pass-through chamber? Weld in a box with two chambers and sealed doors, then cut a hole in that bulkhead.”
Jeff looked back at the wall. “Do we have the parts?”
Heeb nodded. “I believe we have most if not all of what we need available, yes. I can have our crewmen begin on it immediately.”
Jeff said, “Mr. Hardy, we’re getting started on a pass-through. Not sure how long it will take until we get going.”
The crew rushed to a nearby maintenance room. Welders were pulled, as well as two small hatch-style doors and enough plating for a two-chamber box.
Jeff attempted to help, but was pushed aside by the scrambling Mawga crewman. Twenty-two minutes later, the hastily welded structure was complete. A crewman crawled through the hatchway, closing it behind himself. Five minutes later a bulkhead plate fell into the room with the injured crew. Jenny Taub was moved into the chamber and the back-facing hatch was closed. Seconds later, she was pulled from the box into the active part of the ship. Several minutes later, the remaining two were through.
Gnaga Klept opened a comm. “Mr. Hardy, I would like to lead a team into forty-eight in an attempt to seal off the breach. That strike has damaged modulating gear for those drives. Efficiency is showing as down 15 percent.”
Mace asked, “OK. Who do you need with you?”
Gnaga replied, “The team here will be sufficient.”
Mace titled his head. “Those are Mawga. You’re OK with that?”
Gnaga nodded. “I have no issue with the Mawga, Mr. Hardy. This is in their best interest as well.”
Bontu said, “He will have no problem with my people.”
Mace gestured. “Get at it, Mr. Klept. And don’t hesitate to ask for whatever you need.”
Liam reported. “Mr. Hardy, we’re out of sensor range. The dreadnought showed no sign of a desire to follow us.”
Mace frowned. “They’re staying to protect that ship. Mr. Hobbs, take us to the nearest of those shuttles we stole. We need transducers.”
Humphrey said, “Our hydrogen store is starting to get low, Mr. Hardy. We’ll be needing to find a water source before long.”
Liam entered waypoints toward the first shuttle. “We can park on the Martian icecap, or Enceladus, or Europa, when we need water.”
Mace nodded. “What about the fuel from the shuttles? They should have some aboard. Can we tap into that?”
Humphrey typed away on his console. “Even if we hit all eighty of those shuttles, and if they were full, wouldn’t give us more than 10 percent over what we have now.”
Mace asked, “How difficult is the transfer?”
Humphrey said, “Relatively easy. I expect we’ll have each of those shuttles in bay three for the transducer removal anyway. We can siphon from right there.”
Jeff came over the comm. “Jenny Taub is conscious. Three broken ribs and a punctured lung. She’ll live. Mr. Foster may not. Scans show a severely damaged kidney and spleen. Both will have to come out. There’s massive internal bleeding as well. We’re working to get that under control.”
Mace replied, “Do what you can, Mr. Moskowitz. I don’t see us getting any more crewmen. Every one of us is critical to the continued operation of this ship.”
Jeff nodded. “Preaching to the choir, Mr. Hardy.”
Mace leaned back in his chair with a heavy sigh.
Johnny asked, “You OK?”
Mace frowned. “I think we just made a new enemy today. Not what we needed.”
Chapter 18
>
*
Six shuttles were scavenged, their transducers collected, their hydrogen fuel siphoned. Section forty-eight had been sealed by Gnaga and the Mawga, the drive modulators repaired.
Jane stood on the bridge deck between Johnny and Mace. “You two sad sacks aren’t doing us any good. Come on, we’re still alive. Be happy!”
Mace slumped in his chair. “I can’t help but think sometimes that we made a mistake. We could have been back at the cave, just hanging out and being oblivious to all this.”
Jane said, “You don’t think they would have eventually come for us? Forced us into those community centers?”
Johnny shrugged. “Would life in those centers really have been that bad? I mean, everything was provided for you.”
Jeff walked onto the bridge. “Mr. Foster didn’t make it. Jenny will be out of commission for at least a month.”
Jane shook her head. “That right there. That’s why we’re doing this.”
Johnny turned. “So we can get people killed?”
Jane rolled her eyes. “No, you idiot. So we can choose our own path. It’s called freedom. If we gave into the Mawga we’d be little more than zombies now.”
Mace replied, “We know that, Jane. We’re just sulking right now. We’ve lost some good people. The odds against us just doubled or tripled.”
Jane slapped Mace on the chest plate of his battlesuit. “Well, get over your little pity party. We’ve got too much to do. Let’s get on with the business of getting all those transducers.”
Johnny said, “We’re waiting for an analysis by Mr. Mueller as to whether or not more transducers would have stopped that dreadnought strike.”
Jane turned. “And?”
Hans Mueller looked up from his console. “I should have results in about a half hour. The field equations are quite complex. David Yancy is helping with those. I’m waiting for several numbers from him right now.”
Jane turned back to face Mace. “It’s time you two got over yourselves and got back in the game. We have too much to do, too much to accomplish for our officers to be sitting around feeling sorry about what’s passed. Get your sad asses back into the saddle.”
Mace chuckled as he held up a hand. “Johnny, you sure we can’t clone her? I’m sorry, Jane. I guess we’ve been doing a little too much thinking and not enough acting. Mr. Hobbs, what’s our ETA on that next shuttle?”
Jane smiled. “Good, get interested. We need both of you driving the bus again.”
Jane left the bridge.
Jasper spun around in his chair. “Ha ha! Looks like the trainer had to come down on the monkey boy again.”
Johnny pointed. “Don’t make me throw feces at you, old man.”
Mace stood. “I should go check on the Mawga. I’ve asked them to build one of those chamber boxes for each section. We take another hit like that, we’re gonna want access. Had that box been in place, we might have been able to save Mr. Foster.”
Johnny replied, “I don’t understand why all these ships don’t have a setup like that.”
Liam turned from his console. “Every one of those holes you make weakens the structural integrity of those bulkheads. Those hatches they are installing, they aren’t blast rated.”
Mace stopped at the doorway to the bridge. “We took that into consideration, Mr. Hobbs. We aren’t cutting through the bulkheads yet, just setting up the mechanism that will allow us to in the future if needed.”
Liam replied, “I stand corrected. Excellent planning, Mr. Hardy.”
Mace smiled. “It wasn’t me, Mr. Hobbs. That one came from Mr. Klept.”
After a short walk, Mace stopped at the chamber under construction. “How we looking, Gnaga?”
The thin alien swished his mouth back and forth in thought. “Coming along. We have three more to go.”
Mace ran his hand down along a welded seam. “Any way to make these more rigid? Liam brought up a good point. Those hatches aren’t blast rated. Has me wondering what we do if we’re in the middle of a firefight. I don’t want to be cutting holes in bulkheads while we still might have people shooting at us.”
Gnaga looked intently at the external hatch. “What would you suggest, Mr. Hardy? We only have these materials to work with.”
Mace stroked his beard in thought. “Anything we can strip off those shuttles we’re bringing in?”
Gnaga shook his head. “The shuttles have no bulkheads, Mr. Hardy. The interior doors are no better than the hatches we are already making use of.”
Mace shrugged, “What about the exterior door? I know the main door is that ramp, but isn’t there a door coming off the cockpit to the outside?”
Gnaga thought. “I suppose that would be a much better alternative. Not quite blast rated, but very close.”
Mace went further. “If we made use of those shuttle doors, do you think we could get by with a thinner welded plate covering the cutout in the bulkhead? Would that then be just as strong as a blast door?”
Gnaga nodded. “I suppose it would. You do realize that every blast door is itself a weak point in those bulkheads. Each door we add weakens our integrity.”
“Could we build deflection walls around those openings to alleviate some of that?”
Gnaga smiled. “We could. You must have some engineering in your background.”
Mace laughed. “Nope. Construction. Mostly commercial. And out of wood, nothing like this. Think about using the shuttle doors, Mr. Klept. I’ll leave you to your business now.”
Mace turned away, smiling as he congratulated himself on coming up with a solution. Next up was a visit to the infirmary. Jenny Taub, with her freckled face and sandy brown hair, sat up in bed as Mace entered the room.
“Miss Taub, how you feeling today?”
“Hurts to breathe.”
Mace smiled and nodded. “You’ll have that for a few weeks. It does slowly get better though. You’ll definitely want to take it easy between now and then.”
Jenny said, “How are my gravity drives, Mr. Hardy? I can’t seem to get a satisfying answer out of anyone.”
Mace sat on the end of the bed. “The hole’s been patched but needs work. We’ve replaced the transducers on the outside. And the modulators are all fully functioning. Mr. Montak’s crewmen know their stuff. When you’re up and about, you can quiz them on what they did.”
Jenny smiled. “Finally, a simple straight answer.”
Jenny winced as she eased herself up higher in the bed.
Mace held up a hand. “Don’t move on account of me.”
Jenny laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m not moving on account of anyone for a while. If I don’t at least move some, I get incredibly uncomfortable.”
Another painful motion had Jenny Taub settled. “Mr. Hardy, I know we don’t really know each other and have hardly spoken a word to one another, but I just want to say that I am grateful for all you’ve done.”
Mace replied, “Sometimes I have to wonder if dragging everyone else into this was a good thing or not.”
Jenny scowled. “How could you even think that? We are free, Mr. Hardy. I know the hours suck, and the work can be ultra boring when everything is working properly. But where else could I be fighting for my freedom as well as the freedom of all mankind? Where else would I have seen Saturn and her rings filling the black sky of Enceladus?
“This has been the most fantastic adventure I’ve ever been on. We’re fighting the good fight. I’m sorry, Mr. Hardy, but if I was back on Earth I’d just be another one of those bleary-eyed drones squeezing out triplets.
“I tracked my brother to one of those shelters. He’s now got six children on the way from two girlfriends, and he’s oblivious to the responsibilities they will tax him with. He spends almost all his waking hours in those entertainment simulators. Sorry, but I’ll keep my freedom.”
Mace laughed. “Funny, I just got chewed out for asking that same question of Jane Tretcher. She essentially said the same thing.”
Jen
ny smiled. “Sounds like a smart lady.”
Mace nodded. “I might be the captain calling the shots, but she’s the rudder that keeps us moving in the right direction.”
“What are our plans, Mr. Hardy? I know we needed those refiners. Can’t we build our own?”
Mace frowned. “We don’t have the resources or the know-how. The refiners, the reactors, the gravity drives, the plasma cannons, those are all made by the Union founders. They sell them at a fair price to all the members of the Union. It’s against the rules for others to even study what they do or how they work.”
Jenny laughed as she shook her head. “The rules, that’s the craziest governmental system I’ve ever heard of.”
Mace smirked. “It is, isn’t it? I believe it’s also the reason we’re alive today. If you don’t mind my asking, what’d you do before all this happened?”
Jenny looked up at the ceiling. “I flew an Apache helicopter. Until I got out, that is.”
Mace pulled back. “I wouldn’t have guessed that. Who for?”
“Seventeenth Cav out of Hunter in Georgia.”
“I was at Hunter. See any action?”
Jenny nodded. “Middle East theater. Was part of the second invasion force.”
Mace scowled. “I was part of the first. It got political, I got out. Tended bar and worked construction up until this all started.”
Mace continued: “Let me ask you … our military aircraft: why didn’t we see anything flying after this all started?”
“We were grounded. Not that we needed Apaches in the air anyway, but the president sent out orders to keep everything on the ground. We weren’t to use anything against civilians.
“What that really meant was we couldn’t use anything for civilians, either. That event, with communications taken out, too, threw everybody into a wait-and-see mode. I can’t tell you how insanely mad it made most of us. All that sitting back and hoarding while our people starved.
“I heard President Canon had the generals who spoke out reprimanded. Thing is, we could have used those choppers and planes for communications. We could have saved half those people with just a little coordination of resources.”
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