Miss Marathon

by Joseph Bradshire

  Misty answered for them all. “I love it. Go get him Patty.”

  The Patton laughed, the vibration shaking the street and buildings. She walked down the street stiff legged, sword held high, ready for battle.

  Maggie said, “Wraith. You think you can drain that giant?”

  “Maybe. I’d have to get close to him, he could easily move and toss me away. Draining isn’t exactly instant.”

  “Got it. Stand by. Misty, get ready to fly him toward the giant as fast as you can.”

  Misty evaporated and a cloud surrounded Wraith as he began to hover.

  “Patty. Here’s the plan, I want you to...”

  * * *

  Good. They had a real plan. Finally. And the USS Patton was the center piece. Patty always knew she’d be a hero. Sure, she’d head butted the holy crap out of the Brootstone, but Maggie had done most of the work that day.

  Today it was Patty’s day to give back. To contribute. To say thanks to all everyone had done for her. And she got to do it with a 50 foot sword.

  The sword had been an afterthought when she was putting herself back together. It was basically formed already. The Patton’s beak was long and honed to a razor sharpness. All she had to do was form a handle.

  Patty rounded a corner and there he was. The giant man. 10 stories high just like herself. The difference was he didn’t have a sword and he wasn’t made out of high grade US military naval steel.

  “Everyone back off.” The Patton yelled, watching the Jaunt Troopers and Damon fly to a safe distance. Cannon, Blondie and Maggie’s brother were a little slower, but they too ducked down a side street. With everyone out of the way Patty had the room to move without hitting anyone.

  Here goes nothing.

  The USS Patton. Former submarine in the US Navy, converted into a space ship and then transformed into a huge metal lady, swung her massive sword at the giant man trashing Bay City.

  It was awesome. The Patton hadn’t had so much fun in her short life. The big man didn’t know what to do with himself as Patty hacked at him. He fell back into a building howling in pain. Every time Patty sliced him the man yelled but the cuts kept closing. Healing. He was being hurt but not killed.

  No matter. Killing him wasn’t the plan.

  Maggie came through their mind link. “Patty are you ready?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do it now.”

  With that command, Patty rushed the big man, throwing her sword at him. He put his hands up to block the sword and Patty tackled him at the waist. They both fell into a building, demolishing it, with Patty on top. The big man was pinned under her.

  “Okay. I got him. Do your thing Wraith.”

  Wraith flew in via Misty’s cloud, landing near the big man’s thigh. Wraith took a deep breath and put both hands onto the giant’s leg. A bright light emanated from where he touched the leg.

  The draining was too much. Wraith was down to his knees, trying to keep his hands on the giant. He was screaming. Misty materialized behind him and tried to pull him away.

  Patty watched but the light from Wraith shined too bright, blotting out her vision. Suddenly, quickly, the big man Patty was pinning to the rubble shrank. First down to about half size, then all the way down to a normal sized skinny person. Patty had to be careful not to smash the man.

  Patty used her giant hand to hold the tiny little man down. He looked up in alarm but relaxed when he saw he wasn’t going to be smashed.

  The sun was setting over Patty’s shoulder, the tiny man was cloaked in shadow.

  He looked up and yelled, “Okay you’ve got me. I surrender.”

  “Not good enough little man. Convince me you aren’t going to get big again and maybe I won’t rip you in half.”

  “It’s the light. I need a lot of light to get big, like the sun. It’s getting dark. Don’t kill me.” That last part came out as a pathetic shriek. It turns out giant metal ladies are even scarier than flying submarines. Patty filed that away under ‘awesome’ and did her best to continue to look serious.

  Patty’s palms would be his jail cell, for now, but they needed to find a nice dark room to keep this guy in. Maggie would know the perfect spot.

  She looked over at Wraith and Misty to thank them for the assistance but Wraith was no longer there.

  * * *

  Maggie sprinted towards where Wraith and Misty had landed. She couldn’t see Wraith. Misty was gesturing to her wildly, babbling. Maggie skidded to a stop and looked down.

  There was a baby. No Wraith, just a baby wrapped in his clothes.

  Misty looked at Maggie in obvious distress, crying. “Maggie I don’t know what happened. Grandpa was here and now there’s a baby.”

  Maggie knew immediately what had happened. Wraith could absorb life energy, doing so kept him young. That’s how a man of over 60 could appear as a man in his mid 20’s. It stood to reason that absorbing too much energy could reverse aging to a catastrophic degree.

  That’s what Wraith had done. A huge sacrifice. He’d turned himself into an infant to stop the giant man.

  Maggie knew just what to do, exactly what people all over the world did in these situations. She picked the baby up and started bouncing him.

  “Who’s a good little Wraithy? Yes you are.” God, she sounded like a bobble headed ninny. Babies. Turning adults into gooey softies since time began.

  Misty was beginning to get it. “So. Grandpa turned into a baby? From draining the big man? Oh my God.”

  The Jaunt troopers were landing in a perimeter around Patty. Damon had landed and was walking over, powering down to his 16 year old normal self. Cannon, Chris and Blondie were walking over as well.

  Misty, never one to waste the opportunity of an audience, announced, “Hey everyone, look, grandpa turned into a baby. Isn’t it cool. I was totally there and saw it happen.”

  Maggie was beginning to relax, leaning against a car and making cooing noises to baby Wraith when a deafening signal boomed into her mind.

  “Miss Marathon, Patton Base, Earth Defense League, this is Alexander Kursk warning of imminent invasion by Galactic Control forces. Maggie, are you picking this up? This is Specimen. Get ready.”

  Maggie handed the baby over to Misty, “Here. Babysitting duties start now.”

  She turned to Cannon, Chris and Blondie, “Put that guy in a dark cell, it’s the bright light that makes him big. Put him in my old cell with the lights off, it should work.”

  Cannon began to protest. “Maggie wait, where are you going?”

  “Space. Hold down the fort Cannon, watch the kids, I’ll be back soon.” Maggie kissed him, then turned and sprinted over to Patty.

  Patty was standing upright. Maggie didn’t see a door.

  “How do I get in?”

  Patty used her capture beam, the emitter was now located in her forehead, and lifted Maggie up. The bridge was in the head, Patty’s mouth opened and functioned as the door. Clever.

  Maggie and Patty were in orbit 15 minutes later.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Specimen had his hands full coordinating and getting everyone on alert. Warning an entire planet was a much bigger task than he’d anticipated. His direct line to director McMurphy helped but apparently there’d been some disaster in Bay City that was holding everyone’s attention.

  Maggie was already on her way though, and the Brootstone was on high alert. Other than ground based missiles that was the sum total of their space defense anyway.

  Specimen turned to Raseen and asked, for at least the tenth time, “Are you sure we need to scramble immediately. I mean, we might be weeks ahead of any quarantine fleet.”

  Raseen didn’t reply. His face was buried in a monitor, he had a head set on, maybe he hadn’t heard.

  “Raseen, I asked are you...”

  “Yes, human, yes.” Raseen usually didn’t snap like that. He was on edge.

  “Sorry Specimen. Yes. I am now 100% positive. Fleet arrival is imminent. Markete agents at Galactic Cont
rol have beamed out a bulletin to all ships. The signal is garbled at this range but I was able to make out the basics. Fleets are converging on Sol.”

  Specimen thought a moment. “Well I thought this ship was fast, didn’t we outrun them? Doesn’t it take time to mass a fleet?”

  “Yes. And yes. But they can send a signal much faster than we can travel. Galactic Control has the most powerful FTL transmitter in the known galaxy. Meaning they could signal ships much closer to Sol. We are lucky to be the first to arrive.”

  Raseen would have continued his lecture but a red light on his console started blinking. They’d detected a jump footprint. Several. About a light minute out from Earth.

  * * *

  Maggie could feel the new ships blinking in. Three Torvin battlecruisers. No, four. Seven. A whole fleet of them. They kept popping up in her mind. They were more sophisticated than anything Earth had ever created, very distinct and easy to spot, even at such a long range.

  They weren’t closing in though. The Brootstone was talking to them, Maggie was listening in. They were keeping their distance. Waiting.

  Another ship blinked in but Maggie couldn’t feel it in her mind. All the other ships knew it was there, but to Maggie’s mind sense it was invisible.

  “Patty are your scopes still working?”

  “Yeah. I put them in my eyes,” Patty vibrated. She was good natured and happy even when facing an enemy battle fleet. Best friend ever.

  “Can you zoom in on that new arrival? I can’t feel it in my mind.”

  The main view screen showed a blurry image, at first, then coalesced into an image of a giant squid clam floating in space. A space monster?

  Maggie pinged the Brootstone with her mind, asking for an ID on the new arrival.

  The Brootstone replied, “That is an Ophiuchi cruiser. New member of Galactic Control. Their ships are completely biological in nature.”

  Great. The other ships were Torvin. She could tame them like she did the Brootstone. Ask them to shut down or space their crew if needed, like she’d done before. This bioship though, the Ophiuchi ship, she couldn’t even talk to it.

  Patty said, “Maggie that clam ship is advancing. Fast.”

  Maggie saw it through the eyes of the other Torvin ships, as well as Patty’s scopes. It was moving toward Earth.

  “Patty, send out a message on all frequencies.”

  The ship vibrated affirmative.

  “Torvin and Ophiuchi vessels. Please respond. You will be destroyed if you approach Earth without invitation.”

  Maggie concentrated on the Torvin vessels, asking them politely to please aim and lock their weapons on the Ophiuchi ship and each other. They were surprised at first, but were happy to comply.

  There. That’ll make them think twice about who’s in charge here.

  Maggie’s success was short lived. The Torvin vessels, one by one, powered down. Dead in space. Their signals ceased to exist in Maggie’s mind. They were smart. The Torvin had figured out how to shut Maggie out by depowering their ships.

  Still, that cut down the odds considerably. It was now Maggie, the Patton and the Brootstone against one Ophiuchi ship. Patty could feel Maggie’s emotion, getting ready for a fight. Patty got ready too, she lifted her sword in two hands.

  The Ophiuchi vessel kept coming. It passed lunar orbit, 8 light seconds away.

  “Okay. This is it. Brootstone, Patty, spread out, we’ll try to catch her between us.”

  In her mind’s eye Maggie could see the Brootstone edging away, aiming her cannons at the Ophiuchi vessel, as ordered. Then the Brootstone abruptly angled back in, heading on an arc that would put her between the Patton and the Ophiuchi vessel.

  Patty said, “Maggie I think the Ophiuchi fired something. It’s hard to tell. A bunch of bubbles on the surface popped and something flew out.”

  The Brootstone was maneuvering to intercept the missiles, or whatever you called what was being fired. Or squirted. The ex-Torvin vessel had excellent turret tracking and rapid fire defense cannons. It tracked 17 missiles on intercept with the Patton.

  It shot down 12 of them and the other 5 changed course to intercept the Brootstone. The course change caught the Brootstone’s targeting computer by surprise. All 5 impacted on the Brootstone’s front armor.

  There were no hull breaches, but Maggie imagined all the scientists and workers in the Brootstone felt quite a jolt. At least they’d stopped trying to get Maggie on the com to ask her to stop controlling their vessel. Maggie had shut down their radio link to the Patton as soon as she hit orbit, but she could tell they were still trying to reestablish contact.

  Maggie didn’t have time to figure out who was in charge of what. The Brootstone herself made no arguments, happy to do what Maggie asked. Maggie liked that.

  The Brootstone pinged Maggie, everything was good. Her hull had taken a beating but no significant damage. Torvin vessels were built to last, that’s for sure.

  The Ophiuchi vessel was rushing past them, accelerating. They had planned to do a hit and run, to shoot them on the way past.

  “Patty do you think your sword can cut open that ship?”

  “We’ll see.”

  From the Ophiuchi’s angle of approach the Patton was obscured by the debris field created by the missile impacts on the Brootstone. The particles, both large and microscopic, temporarily muddled their scopes. Maggie and the Patton had the advantage of input from all Earth bound data, all the satellites orbiting as well as sensor data from the Brootstone. They knew exactly where the Ophiuchi was and where it would be. As the clam ship cleared the debris field Patty and Maggie were waiting.

  Patty boosted forward for a close intercept on the Ophiuchi vessel, slashing out with her sword. The bio-ship was hard-shelled but not as hard as steel. Patty’s sword put a nice long gash down its side on the way by.

  “Got her!” Patty yelled.

  The alien ship kept going, momentum driving it past and toward Earth. Liquid and gas were streaming out of the vessel, leaving a line of ice particulates in its wake.

  The vessel stopped accelerating.

  “Maggie we have an incoming transmission, I think it’s the Ophiuchi.” The main screen lit up.

  At first Maggie couldn’t understand what the Ophiuchi were saying. She was too distracted by how terrifying they looked. Absolutely hideous. Spines, arms, and teeth all writhing together. By reflex she took a step back.

  What they said finally began making sense, either she was getting over her initial shock at their appearance or the translators were catching up. “Mayday, mayday, hull is breached, life support fluid critical. We require immediate assistance.”

  “Ophiuchi vessel this is the USS Patton. Surrender at once or we’ll split you in half.”

  “We surrender, please, quickly. We do not have life pods. Our environmental demands are too intensive for something that small. We must seal the breach. It is too wide for us to heal it before losing everything.”

  “We accept your surrender. If you can move towards us that would aid in your assistance. Patton out.”

  Maggie closed off the coms with the Ophiuchi. She checked the scanners to see that they were coming back toward her.

  “What do you think Patty? Let them die? Chop them in half maybe?” Maggie had half a mind to fling them into the sun as soon as she got close enough.

  Patty was a bit more measured. “We can sow them up. I’m already thinning my sword into a cable and needle.”

  Maggie could see that in her mind’s eye. Patty was stretching out her sword in her hands like taffy, twisting it into a long thread with a sharp needle point.

  The Ophiuchi vessel stopped next to the Patton, an arm’s length away, for Patty.

  The damage was severe. A jagged gash had opened the entire ship up, front to back. Ships like this were probably good at healing up holes made by cannons or the stray space rock. A gash like that, however, was too much raw damage. She could tell by the smoothing of the sides of the rip that
the ship was trying to heal itself. The fluid from inside continued to spray out. The lifeblood of the ship was bleeding into space.

  She was surprised the ship wasn’t completely empty of fluid already.

  “Go ahead Patty, sow it up.”

  Patty used her huge metal hands to pinch the start of the rupture closed, then stabbed the needle through. It seemed to work. The breach was closing. Where the two edges of the gash were forced together by the stitching she could see them growing together. Healing. She continued that process, pinch and stab, until she closed the entire wound.

  A little fluid still leaked here and there but the rate was slowing. Within a few minutes there was no more bleeding.

  “Keep a hand on those stitches Patty, be ready to rip them out if needed. Hail the Ophiuchi vessel.”

  The Ophiuchi again filled the screen. Hideous.

  “Did that fix your problem?”

  “Yes. Crude but effective. We are sealing the breach now and doing our best to replace lost fluid. We will need access to water and organic nutrients soon to replace the losses, but the immediate need is met.”

  “Good. You are my prisoner now, do not move, or we’ll rip out your stitches and you can bleed out. Understood?”

  “Oh yes Miss Marathon, we are an intelligent species. We understand our role here. We do apologize for attacking and have removed our former captain from command. We were made to think your species, and you in person, were overly violent.”

  The Ophiuchi spun, twirled, and continued, “But violent sentients do not save their enemies. The Torvin appear to be mistaken, misled us. We apologize.”

  Maggie said over the channel, “They weren’t mistaken, they are liars. Hateful liars. Remember that.”

  “We will.” The Ophiuchi cut the line. Apparently, they were done talking.

  Patty said, “Maggie, Specimen’s vessel is hailing us. Urgently.”

  “Yes Specimen, what is it?”

  “Maggie there are a bunch of ships about to jump in. Try not to cut any in half or space anyone. They’re the good guys.”

  The Patton’s scanners lit up, past lunar orbit but nearer to Earth than the shutdown Torvin fleet, an avalanche of signals burst onto screen. Maggie pinged the Brootstone to identify them.