by Dain White
“Comms check” Shorty said.
“Check” Yak said.
“Check” I said, with a little glance around the corner into the prep area. “Oh hell... Shorty, they're here.” I leaned back as far as I could against the wall of the lock. It was a quick glance, but I could see at least six extremely large, ex-military types moving up the corridor.
“Easy Gene, ten more seconds on the door.” Yak said, holding an arm out to press me back.
“Come on damn you”, cursed Shorty, watching the countdown click away
*****
“Captain, we have compiled a précis for you of a Mr. Sergei Dragovich. He appears to be the individual in command of the opposition, sir. The report is on your holo now.” Pauli called back on comms as I secured the bay hatch.
“Pauli, is he a Lune?” I asked as I cursed the lack of crew and an ever-increasingly filled cargo bay.
“Yes sir, and a bad guy, looks like. Janis pulled tons of connections from comms logs with organized crime syndicates throughout this system.”
“You have solid evidence of this?”
He laughed. “Sir, we are in possession of... well, all of the evidence. Everything that is available. This is not a nice guy.”
“Well I wonder what beef he has with my kids? This isn't exactly a common port of call – unless it's the ship, of course – and not us at all. The Archaea was just parked for ruin on the other side of this rock a few months ago.” I was thinking out loud, but it made as much sense as anything else did. Then it hit me.
“Pauli, we're spending a massive pile of money here – maybe enough to cause a spike. I’ll bet they’re trying to find out where all that money is coming from!”
“Well, of course... sir. You just offloaded the fifth completely full hauler, and it's not full with coffee... sadly.”
That reminded me, I wasn't full of coffee either.
“Pauli, I need you to open comms with my old friend William Hartley on the Barracuda. He's probably in near space, if I know him.”
I shifted another stack into my pack and secured it while I waited for the connection to be made. That he would take my hail, I had no doubt.
“Ah Captain Smith, how nice to hear from you again.” he said, about as sarcastically as decorum allowed.
“Mister Hartley, the pleasure is all mine, I am sure. Are you anywhere near Tranquility?”
“I can be... why, are you there? I still owe you a tour of my brig, I believe.”
“Well now mister, I heard you recently received new orders regarding my command, if I am not mistaken”, I said knowingly. The service isn't going to haul me in for blasting from Darkside Station without clearance, not after destroying a rogue destroyer, and rescuing another from certain doom.
“That's true, but it is a mighty nice brig. Are you sure?” he was clearly testing his shiny new captain's eyebrow, and who could blame him... heck, he was practically a midshipman last Wednesday.
“I am quite sure, mister - no thanks. Listen, we've uncovered a significant pile of very interesting information about a Mr. Sergei Dragovich, a resident of Tranquility. Are you aware of him?”
“I am afraid I can't say either way, of course. You know how it is.”
“I do, and understand. You would be interested in this information, though?”
“Yeah, I'd take a look at it. What sort of information do you have, exactly?”
“Well, our technologist has dredged up 'all of it' in his words. Apparently, he is not a very nice person to have around in this system. I'll have him send it right over. It should be coming in any moment.”
“Pauli, transfer everything you have on Dragovich to Hartley please.” I asked on comms.
“Sir, Janis started that transfer a moment ago.”
“Of course she did. Is it a lot of data?”
“It is, but quite compressible. It's going quickly.”
“Very well, Pauli”, I said, and then clicked back over to the hail channel, “Captain Hartley, we're sending you what we have now.”
“I was just informed, and am looking now. This is definitely juicy stuff. Are you in the area?”
“Do I need to be?” I asked with a straight face.
“No, of course not – I was going to say, if you were, now might be a good time to head out… I am about to make it rain.”
“Very well mister, carry on. Good hunting, out”
“You as well Captain, thanks again, out.”
“Janis, how far away is the Barracuda?”
“The Barracuda is located in near-space, sir. They are currently ranged 94,234.23 kilometers on a following orbit, accelerating towards an insertion burn on this location.”
Damn, we were cutting it pretty close.
“Gene, are you kids on the road?”
A slight crackle on comms, “Dak, we're... hold on.” he whispered. “Sir, we are through the lock and loading up. I am afraid they know we're here, it will be a miracle if we can get underway before they come through the lock behind us.”
“Steady on folks. Shorty, Yak – are either of you armed?”
“Always, sir.” she said calmly. “How do you want us to play this sir? This isn't exactly rim space.”
“I understand Shorty; I don’t want shooting if I can avoid it. Here's what I want you to do. Go to the lock right now – Janis, can you open that lock?”
“On your command, sir, I am standing by.”
“Shorty, get over to that lock with something you can use to wedge it open, an air tank, seat cushion – anything. Let Janis know when you're in position.”
“Aye sir”, she said.
“Janis, when she's ready I want you to shut that door, then lock it by whatever means necessary.” I said into the air of the cargo bay, and then clicked on comms. “Shorty, with that outer door wedged open, the interlock will prevent the inner lock from opening. They'll have to build a coffer-lock, or exit somewhere else.”
She replied a few short moments later, “Copy that, sir. Janis, I am in position.”
“The lock is immobile. Be advised the nearest lock to Jane's current position is 360 meters.” Janis said, helpfully. My hackles started to rise. That’s nothing for a grounder.
“Janis... out of curiosity, do those busses have assist?”
“They do, sir – would you like me to assume control?”
“At your earliest opportunity, if you please. Get my crew home, dear.”
“Aye Captain”, she said sweetly.
“Yak, Janis is going to drive you kids up out of there, so I need you to convince the driver to relax and enjoy the ride. Be nice, okay? He doesn’t need a broken arm.”
“I'm on it, skipper.” he said. I felt bad for the driver, but not too bad. It's not like we were going to do anything bad. Just drive a little faster, maybe.
*****
I stepped forward towards the cab as Jane bounced back towards us from the outer lock, and reached the driver right as she came in through the door. He looked up at me in surprise, and I held my hand out in the universal sign for 'relax-I-am-not-going-to-kill-you', a hand gesture I am very skilled at.
“Sir, I am afraid there is an emergency. We are commandeering this vehicle”, I said as the grounder started moving up the ramp towards the surface. Everyone out of their seats found their seats in a hurry, or made an acquaintance with the deck as we started to accelerate.
“What is this?” he exclaimed, I could see his wide eyes through his visor. He shrank back in his seat like I was about to hit him. I took a handhold and did my best to defuse his mounting terror.
“Sir, please remain calm. There has been an emergency inside the hab, and our captain has ordered us back to our ship.”
“How the hell has he taken control of my bus?!” he shrieked in mounting panic.
“Sir, our ship’s technologist is driving through the assist interface. Please remain calm; there is nothing to worry about.”
Even as I said the words, I wasn't sure I believed
them.
We were through third gear and still accelerating, approaching the top of the exit ramp at what I would consider an excessive speed. We weren’t at escape velocity…but we were definitely going to go ballistic off the ramp.
“We are going too fast!” the driver yelled, wrestling ineffectually with the wheel and stomping pedals, flipping switches and praying for all I could tell.
I grabbed a second handhold as we suddenly blasted out of the shadows into the starry sky on a low trajectory. A sky bridge running over a pipe rack sailed past underneath us, as we silently floated downrange. I watched in awe through the sidelights as the tires accelerated, over and over again, in a complex yet articulate series. Janis was adjusting our angle perfectly as we slowly dropped back down towards the road.
“YAAAAAAHHHH!” the man screamed, quite calmly, considering. If I didn't know Janis was in control, I would be looking for a soft spot to leap right about now. It looked terrifying, but it was obvious she had us well in control.
Right before we touched down, the tires accelerated precisely to the speed over ground, and the moment we hit, she smoothly accelerated us through a bounce, and eased off as we came off the pavement onto the hardpan.
“Yak, there are grounders behind us!” Gene called on comms.
I looked back and nodded, then looked down at the driver. “Sir, please relax. This is under control, and we are safe. I am going to step back for a moment, okay?”
I couldn't see his face through his filters, but he nodded his helmet fast enough to snap his neck. I hopped back through the crowd of people who were clutching on for their lives while we roared across the crater.
“Where are they Gene?” I said when I made it to the back of the bus.
“They are in the dust right now, and probably slowing down – they pulled out from the right a few moments ago, two, maybe three small grounders.”
I nodded again. “Are you boys with the Service?” a man asked over local comms.
“Not actively sir, though we are working with the Service at the moment.” I suppose that wasn't technically a lie, and it definitely wasn't a justification for what we were doing, but it seemed to be enough for the other riders. They seemed to relax, once they realized someone was in control.
The rest of the ride was surreal. One man played some app on holo nearly the whole way out. A few others had their screens out, covered with equations and arguing heatedly. It was as if they didn’t even notice the fact we were literally flying a few moments ago. Overall, there was definitely far less screaming than I expected.
Lunes are a strange breed.
Captain Smith broke my reverie. “Gene, I am lowering the ramp, you're within 500 meters. Get ready to disembark and prepare for launch as soon as you get on the ramp.”
“Aye sir”, he replied. Of course, we all knew what to expect. Get on board and grab on. Our captain was not going to wait around.
The grounder bounced to a halt across the blast pan and we piled out as it was slowing down. The moment my boots hit the pan, Janis immediately sped off across to the far side of our blast pan, putting the Archaea between the bus and our pursuers. As we hopped at speed up the ramp, I saw the lead ground car come over the rim of the pan, and accelerate down towards us. The captain raised ship before the ramp had been secured.
“Are they shooting at us?” the captain asked on comms as I kicked onto the bridge.
“If they are, they’re a bunch of idiots, trying to bring down a frigate with needlers.” I scoffed.
Janis agreed, “Sir, I am tracking incoming small-caliber explosive rounds at hyper-velocities. Be advised, while they will soon deploy a more significant served weapon, it will be insufficient to pose any sort of threat.”
“Well, at any rate, it's damn impolite. Folks, get to your stations, I think we have some time here. We're going to hang around a bit and give Janis time to roll the grounder clear.”
I leaped for the forward ladder with Jane, while Gene headed aft. We moved as if our lives depended on it, as very soon, it may. The captain says hop, and we don't even worry about coming down, we continue to go up until he says otherwise.
“Everything cool, Yak?” the captain asked, as I kicked through the bridge towards my station.
“Sure thing sir, nothing to it… definitely a nice day for a drive”, I laughed as I slapped down my crash bars and got secured. “Do you want me to hail the driver of the bus? He was scared right out of his mind.” I swiped the comms channel across to my center screen.
“I do, but first open a hail to Station Control please. I don't mind spending money here, but I don't want to spend it on traffic tickets.”
“Sir, hail channel is open.” I called back, while we swung around slowly back towards the center of the blast pan. The men had assembled a tripod-mounted howitzer.
“Captain, that’s a big gun down there, sir” I said through a dry throat.
“Janis, is that worth concern, dear?”
“It is not, Captain”, she said sweetly. One of the men was in the rig, aiming the gun, bringing it to bear on us. I involuntarily ducked down a bit, and made sure my crash bars were tight. A howitzer at this range was considerably more dangerous than I wanted to see.
Captain Smith didn’t show the slightest bit of alarm as he swiped through screens and checked through his systems.
Suddenly, they fired, the overpressure wave lit from within from the white blast of the explosive. Immediately the blast enveloped our forward screens and I felt a slight kick as our bow rocked ever so slightly, but it really wasn’t enough to be worried about. I took a breath and tried to calm down a bit.
“Tranquility Control, Archaea, requesting clearance for launch”, he said, waiting a few moments, then repeating.
“Archaea, Tranquility Control, you are cleared for launch at this time. Be advised, we have a heavy on approach, we are sending their vector now.”
“Copy Tranquility Control, We do not need orbital clearance at this time, requesting low lane to Applied Dynamics berth.”
“Copy that, Archaea, You have a direct shot to Applied Dynamic, come about to 225.”
Another shot streaked in, rattling dust off the pan deck in concentric rings from the end of the muzzle. This one hit us amidships, and I hardly felt it.
The captain sounded like he was about to fall asleep. “Copy 225, Archaea out.”
He took another moment to stare at the target set I had for us. “Yak, you may let the grounder driver know we are returning control, but that he should stay clear of this area.”
“Will do, sir”, I said, and opened the channel to the bus. “Sir, this is the Archaea. We greatly appreciate your cooperation, and are returning control of your vehicle at this time.”
There was no answer, but I didn't really expect any. At least he didn't have a broken arm, so he had that going for him.
“Are they still shooting at us?” the captain said, leaning forward to get a better view as he hauled us around.
Pauli looked up from his screens. “They appear to be repositioning for a shot on our engines.”
“Well, it's damned rude. I think it might be helpful if they were given a time out. Janis, dear?”
“Yes sir?”
“Would you please vaporize those grounders? Try not to hit those idiots with the shrapnel, but I want those grounders gone. As soon as they throw themselves clear of that popgun they have there, I want it atomized.”
“Atomized, aye sir” she said sweetly.
Immediately, flashing pulses of plasma streaked into the grounders from our turret guns, and one, two, three they were blown into chunks and then shredded into bits – and she kept pouring it on until there wasn't anything on the blast pan bigger than a boot in a blackened patch of debris. Well, except for three very unlucky hitchhikers laying on their faces in what must have been pretty stinky suits, filled with shame.
“Nice shooting, my dear!”
“Thank you sir.” she said proudly while he
pulled up into the sky over the prone figures of the gunmen. We pulled past and left them where they lay.
*****
The mooring crew at the Applied Dynamics dock seemed surprised to see us, but I played the dumb wrench monkey that didn’t know better, and referred them to check their schedule – which showed us right on time. They didn't realize it was Janis that had modified their schedule, and probably didn’t care. A job was a job.
We were all suited up again, and airless all the way from engineering though the aft lock and cargo bay up to the forward inner lock. Shorty and Yak were openly armed and stood guard at the bottom of the ramp near a docking clamp that had a good line of site across the dock towards the AD lock compartment. As one might expect, no one had much to say about it – Yak and Shorty tend to stifle any argument, geared out in full mimetics, with rifles at the ready.
I worked like a fiend in engineering, swapping parts throughout the reac drives as fast as the dockside 'mechanics' could haul them in, but of course, it was time consuming work. I may have bitten off a little more than I could chew, but I was going like gangbusters.
Once I had the ion grates installed in the new housing they had machined, I set a trickle charge on the grates and set Janis loose with simulations via handset prompt.
“Captain, the internal work is done, and we're making great time. We're going outside to replace the nozzles in the bell housings.”
“We have nozzles?” he said innocently. “Just kidding Gene… so we can launch in ten minutes?”
“Not a chance sir, and don't tell me I have five minutes. We can't possibly be done that fast. It's simply not possible.” I repeated firmly, just to make sure he understood. As I spoke, I was hooking over the ladder and dropping to the deck of the cargo bay, with machinists and engineers chasing to keep up.
“Well Gene, I was afraid of that. Unfortunately for us, in about ten minutes there isn't going to be enough sky to fly, it will be filled with dropships.”
“I'm afraid we're going as fast as we can, Dak”, I replied as we bounded down the ramp to the dock and headed sternward.