Chapter 21
The Final Countdown
A full two weeks following the rescue of Tracht and his people, Lena finally had downtime. She returned to her cabin, taking a respite from assisting in the Med Bay, and sat, pondering what had transpired since her sabotage and subsequent revival. Lena awoke to a ship whose present state threatened her very existence. Heather, a trusted friend, had been the means by which Lena was disabled and the Selene’s Ai destroyed. With the Ai gone, Lena had been forced to act as the Ai for the ship. It was a duty she enjoyed, much as the captain had enjoyed connecting to the vessel, but with the added duties brought on by Fiona’s severe handicap, Lena was taxed more than ever. Now they were on their way back to Earth and the author of Heather’s subversion, Tracht, along with a marine sergeant and four Starfleet officers had come aboard, and Kendrick, Fiona and Lena had become their indentured servants, with Heather assigned to watch them.
That last part bothered her, although it made perfect sense and actually resolved a number of their problems, at least in the short term. However, the thought of being a self-aware Escort-7 at the mercy of the United States government terrified her. Even Lena’s old platform, the much stronger G.A.I.S.F, had been neutralized and spaced, which was how she ended up aboard the Selene in the first place. Somehow, though she would dearly miss Kendrick and Fiona, Lena could not allow herself to fall prey to forces that threatened her very existence. Somehow, she had to find a way out of this arrangement and unfortunately, that meant finding a means of escape from the Selene before getting to the O.S.P. or Earth. She felt tears rolling down her cheeks as she pondered this turn of events, knowing that if she were successful, she would never see a man who she viewed as a parental and mentor figure again, a man whom she loved.
Suddenly, the ship rocked and Lena felt a surge of electricity course through her body. She stiffened, falling unconscious to the floor, her body jolted by spasms as she lay prone. With Lena disabled, the ship slowed, the engines dead, drifting in space. The rest of the ship went dark, all power lost.
The Selene was rocked by an explosion and all systems went down. Amanda looked at Kendrick, fear plain in her eyes. Keyes was normally a cool customer, so to see her worried did not bode well.
“Status report,” Kendrick exclaimed, already knowing the answer.
“Phantasm a little over nine-thousand-K ahead,” Keyes announced. “Looks like they took advantage of our slow travel; they’ve placed themselves in our path.”
“The Phantasm?” Kang spun his chair around. “You found it?”
“I found them with the protocols the captain wrote,” she said. “I was about to inform the captain when the explosion hit!”
“It’s not an explosion,” Kendrick said. “It’s an EM pulse. They probably launched the torpedoes before you were in range to detect them. By the time you could, it was too late.”
Auxiliary power came on and Heather’s voice sounded over the loudspeaker. “Captain, I have auxiliary power up! Life support, communications and instrumentation should all be functional, but we’re dead in the water.”
“Martins is hailing us,” Amanda announced.
“Great,” he said sarcastically. “On screen.”
Amanda put general Martins on screen for him, the distinguished general’s image looking back at them from the vid screen, his expression one of irritation and anger.
“I’ve been waiting for you, Royce,” Martins said without preamble. “I hope your little android bitch felt that. Now, you want your crew to live, you work for us. Otherwise, I have orders. If we can’t have you willingly, we’ll take you and your ship by force. Don’t make me come to you, Royce; if I do, that gynoid, Doctor Kinsale and the rest of your misfit bunch are dead, along with those Starfleet chumps you picked up.”
Kendrick had to get through this. He had to keep his ship, Fiona and Lena out of U.P.A. hands. He had to find a way out of this that did not involve dying or working for General Martins.
“I’m afraid you’re too late,” Kendrick remarked as he thought. “Your competitor got to me first and made a far more attractive offer; one that didn’t involve scrapping my ship or cutting Lena apart.” That was not entirely true; while no explicit mention of the Selene being scrapped had been made as a consequence of refusal, Fiona’s and Lena’s safety had depended upon his taking Tracht’s offer, and he suspected that he would still lose his ship if he refused.
“Doesn’t matter now, Royce,” Martins countered. “This is too important to let the United States get you. This is for the good of humanity! And this is your last opportunity to change sides. You’re dead in the water and I can hijack your systems from here. I’ll lock you in the bridge and ventilate the rest of your ship, just like I did to Lorgen. So choose; and choose wisely.”
Kendrick nodded to Keyes, who said, “Hold please,” before shutting off the mic and camera.
“What’s your plan?” she asked.
“I’ve messaged Tracht; I need him up here now! Get started breaking their firewalls. That little present Tracht gave us earlier; can you adapt it to a U.P.A. ship?”
“Captain,” Keyes exclaimed, “we have less than ten minutes before impact!”
“Then, you’d better work fast,” Kendrick replied. “I don’t have time to get Cyrus up here and get started on it. Can you do it?”
“I think so,” she said with hesitation. Then she nodded. “Yes, I can do it.”
“Then, get started! It took the real Heather fifteen minutes to get fresh power couplings installed; I don’t trust this one to be faster.”
His datapad chimed, and Fiona’s image appeared onscreen. “Ken, my exoskeleton is toast! I … I can’t move!”
“If Terri’s with you …”
“She is.”
“Have her get breathers on both of you, then get yourselves restrained before he vents the ship. I love you, Fi.”
“I love you too, Ken. I finally married you, Ken; if we don’t make it, I can die happy.”
“I ain’t planning on dying today, Fi, now get yourselves ready. Royce out.”
Without the exoskeleton, Fi could never make it to the bridge. Her only hope was to survive the venting with a breather. He hated to force Terri to go through it with his wife, but, Terri would be dead already if it were not for Kendrick’s efforts. He said a quick prayer that Jesus would see fit to keep alive the woman He had raised from the dead. To Kendrick’s surprise, Tracht arrived faster than the captain had thought humanly possible, with Gifford’s, Jax and Henderson in tow.
“What’s the problem, son?” Tracht asked as he entered the bridge.
“Martins used your Phantasm to cripple us,” Kendrick explained. “In about five minutes, he locks the bridge and ventilates the rest of the ship.”
“I’ll talk to him,” Tracht said.
“Martins is on screen now,” Amanda announced, Martins’ image appeared on screen again.
“You come to your senses, Royce?” the general asked.
“I’m the one talking to you,” Tracht said forcefully. “Cease and desist, General, or you’ll have a goddam war on your hands.”
“No com buoys in range, Colonel Tracht,” Martins gloated. “We’ll take the Selene and your High Command will never know. You’re down to less than five minutes, Captain Royce. The colonel will not forestall your fate.”
“That’s nice,” Kendrick said dismissively. “Keyes, keep him onscreen; I want to see his face when he realizes we’ve beat him … again.”
“Sir …”
“Just do it, Amanda,” Kendrick insisted.
“Okay.” She did not sound convinced, but she followed his orders.
“Captain,” Mun exclaimed. “He’s gonna kill us in less than three minutes!”
Kendrick nodded. “Heather,” he called over the intercom. “Time to strut your stuff. Get those power couplings in!”
“Working as fast as I can, sir,” Heather replied over the intercom.
“Heather, we
have no weapons, no engines and in about two more minutes, Martins is going to ventilate every part of the ship except the bridge!”
“I can’t work faster than …”
“The real Heather could,” Royce scolded. “You said you’re better, now prove it!”
“Just over a minute,” Martins gloated. “You sure you wanna play chicken with me?”
Gifford’s turned to Mun. “Is there some reason you’re not firing the goddam masers?”
Mun nodded. “Yeah; our weapons are down and your Heather can’t get her shit together fast enough.”
“Damn!” Gifford’s exclamation met with no response.
Kendrick appreciated the Liberty’s skipper trying to help and imagined that she must feel helpless at present, but there was nothing to be done. “Keyes,” he shouted. “Any luck?”
“Still not in!” Keyes worked frantically, but she was getting nowhere.
“Thirty seconds,” Martins announced. “Agent Keyes, you’re discharged … dishonorably. Royce, prepare to be boarded.”
“In,” Keyes shouted.
“Heather, I need those couplings!”
“Time’s up, Royce,” Martins sneered.
His sneer soon became a frown, as his own coms officer could be heard shouting, “I can’t get in!”
“Surprise, General,” Royce said. “Amanda has turned the tables on your little hacking attempt.”
Martins regained his cool, and smiled back. “Well, Captain, I have a little surprise for you too.” Martins was then joined onscreen by … Lena.
Kendrick gasped, though he soon realized that she was not identical, her hair a very dark brown, rather than Lena’s dark auburn and her face was thinner, her features more chiseled. Seeing Kendrick’s surprise, the general laughed.
“You recognize her, don’t you? You didn’t think you’d had the only G.A.I.S.F. unit in existence, did you? My commandos and I are more than a match for whatever you’ve got aboard and you know better than anyone the power of one of these assassination gynoids. Your own took apart Lorgen’s troops single handedly. And now, you have none. Martins out.”
The screen went black, leaving the bridge crew in silence. Kendrick still had one option, but he needed power and Lena to do it. Power was possible, but Lena was most certainly in the process of rebooting and that was in a best case scenario. It was entirely possible that her Escort-7 platform was permanently damaged.
“Heather, talk to me!” He hoped the engineer could deliver good news.
“Two power couplings are in, Captain,” she replied. “I’m installing the third now. Soon as they’re all in, we can get moving.”
“How much longer?”
“Ten minutes, why?”
“Too long,” Kendrick answered. “They’ve got a G.A.I.S.F. and a squad of commandos. I can see the Phantasm from here; it’s closing on us fast and they’ll have us hooked in less than five minutes.”
“I … I’m sorry, Captain.”
“We’ll stop them,” Jax interjected. “We’ve got home-field advantage and in this environment, numbers won’t help them all that much.”
“But they’ve got a Lena,” Mun objected. “Like Lena used to be, when she was kicking ass and snapping necks!”
“Yeah, and wearing a hardsuit,” Amanda added.
The intercom crackled to life unexpectedly. “Captain, I’ve rebooted.” It was Lena. “I have an idea. If you’ll allow it, I would like to help.”
“What did you have in mind?”
“Let me take on the G.A.I.S.F. unit. I can defeat her.”
Kendrick and Mun looked at each other, both knowing that Lena was no match for a G.A.I.S.F. “You sure, Lena?”
“Nothing is sure, Captain, but I have a plan; it involves Commander Jax. I will not lose you.”
“Commander, you have my permission to do whatever it is she’s planning,” Gifford’s added.
“Yes, ma’am,” Jax replied. “Lena, send the details to my datapad.”
Kendrick remembered how Lena sounded before going out and taking on Lorgen’s men last year. The same determination filled her voice. The ship lurched as the Phantasm’s tow hooks latched on and within moments, the Phantasm had arrested the Selene’s spin. Minutes later, a loud thud reverberated through the ship and they could hear the sound of cutting equipment being used on the Selene’s airlock. Martins was about to board them.
“Get Cyrus and Ronan, and get to the main airlock, Lena,” Kendrick ordered. “We’ll meet you there.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” she replied. “Sending details to Commander Jax’s datapad now.”
Kendrick looked at Tracht. “You and Gifford’s wanna join Mun, Ronan, Cyrus and me in repelling boarders?”
“Absolutely,” Tracht replied.
“Then, let’s go,” Kendrick barked. “Keyes, keep on it!”
“I’ll have control of their vessel in a few minutes!”
The Phantasm was connected to the Selene by a boarding tube; there would be no pushing them off into outer space, as Lena had done to Lorgen’s men, Martins had made sure of that. A shuttle circled outside to cover his men in addition. Their weapons’ thermal imaging capability showed nothing; the Selene was heavily lined with lead shielding to guard against radiation, rendering a thermal scan useless. The boarding team broke through the airlock, only to be greeted by a woman wearing a flight suit and light body armor. They were about to shoot, but the general signaled them to hold fire. Martins recognized Lena right away. He sneered at her and looked at his own G.A.I.S.F. unit, directing her to engage Lena. As soon as the G.A.I.S.F. was through the airlock, a large man crashed into her from the left, tossing a harness of grenades into the boarding tube.
Martins looked in horror at the ten armed grenades. “Retreat! Retreat!”
His commandos were already making a mad dash for the Phantasm, some of them running into the Selene’s airlock instead, but it was too late; the grenades went off, shearing the docking tube and either immolated them or blew them out into space. Martins was spinning, fighting to remain conscious as he was blown out into space, a suit rupture making his rescue an immediate need. The shuttle was about to fire into the Selene’s airlock, but Captain Gifford’s stepped out into the opening and fired a pulse cannon at it, rendering it as helpless as the Selene. Martins fired off a crisp salute to Royce, who had proven a more than worthy foe, before blacking out as his oxygen vented into space.
The four Alliance commandos, who had made it into the Selene, found themselves held at gunpoint by Captain Royce and members his crew and two Starfleet officers, all of them wearing space suits. They identified Captain Gifford’s and Colonel Tracht by their name tags. A large black man, whose face matched the description of Cyrus Freeman, held two submachineguns, his hands on the triggers.
“I’d drop ‘em if I were you,” Kendrick advised.
They dropped their weapons and held up their hands. The big soldier, who had tossed the grenades into the tube and whisked away the G.A.I.S.F. returned, his space suit adorned with the name, “CDR Jax.” The Starfleet commander joined Royce’s crew, Captain Royce asking him about the G.A.I.S.F.
“What happened to their gynoid?”
“Disabled,” Jax said flatly. “Lena said she could handle it from there. I figured you could use the help, but it looks like you’ve wrapped it up.”
Jax joined Mun in disarming the commandos, while Kendrick, two of his men, Tracht and Gifford’s kept weapons trained on them.
“Now, hands behind your head.”
Their boarding attempt was over. Royce had won this round. One of them, however, was not ready to give up and made a lunge for the confiscated weapons, only be cut down by a quick burst from Freeman’s submachineguns. Freeman grabbed the wounded man and was about to toss him out the airlock, but Royce stopped him.
“He’s not a threat,” the captain said. “Get him to the Med Bay. Maybe Fiona can save him. There’s been enough death today.”
Freeman nodded. “Y
ou’re very lucky,” he said to the soldier he had just shot.
The rest of them were just glad that Royce was in charge. Perhaps he would release them on Earth. They only hoped that Royce would not turn them over to the U.S. government.
As the rest of the crew battled it out with Martin’s commandos, Keyes worked inside of the sealed bridge to gain full control over the Phantasm. They had minutes, maybe. If Martins’ men overpowered the defenders, then they would cut into the bridge and either capture or kill her. Suddenly, her efforts came to fruition.
“I have them,” Keyes shouted. “They’ve lost; they just don’t know it yet.”
A progress bar lit on the screen, showing the virus’ rate of upload. Before long, it read one-hundred percent.
“Uploaded,” she exclaimed. “I’ve issued a ship-wide warning to get to stasis pods before life supports shut down and I’m putting them on course for the O.S.P.!”
“Good call,” Kendrick said approvingly. “Nobody dies and the U.S. of A. gets the Phantasm back!”
Amanda watched as the Phantasm powered up and took off at full speed, disappearing from view, breathing a deep sigh of relief. With the threat eliminated, she began bringing the ship’s systems online, one by one as the intercom crackled to life.
It was Heather. “Captain, I’ve installed the power couplings!”
“Stand by,” Keyes replied. “The captain is dealing with the Phantasm boarding crew. Lena’s still occupied with whatever it is she’s planned.”
“Got it,” Heather replied. “Standing by. Soon as I get the word, he can punch it!”
No Safe Harbor: The Silver Liner Page 29