by Frank Carey
"Get to the bottom of the well. From there, I'll take the fissure to the dig site, then use the charges to make an opening big enough to crawl through. Once I'm inside, I'll get your geologist stabilized, then wait with him until Starguard gets here. Meanwhile, you'll send down some personnel to get the other two people out of the well after I send them out through the fissure, assuming I'm convinced they can traverse it."
"You said you're the copilot?"
"Yes, sir. I'm also the cook and chief bottle washer."
The leader stared at him for a moment before Kralse ran up with two wooden crates--one labeled "Charges" and the other labeled "Triggers." He opened the crates and grabbed a dozen of each which he pocketed along with a remote detonator. Satisfied, he pulled a rope from his pack before heading over to the well. After attaching his line to an anchor, he threw it down the hole, then used it to climb down to the bottom. The leader looked over at Captain Saam who looked back with a glower.
"Damn," was all the leader could say.
CHAPTER SEVEN
OffSec Agent Melinda McKee rued the day she accepted this assignment. "Trust me, it's a simple catch-them-red-handed caper," her boss at OffSec said. "We've got everything we need to charge them with fraud and artifact-trafficking except for physical evidence. Just catch them taking something from the dig, and we'll have them!"
Right, she thought to herself as she put pressure on Dr. Jackson's wound. She estimated he had about ten minutes of life left in him if he didn't get access to a medical kit. "Dr. Manson! Any word from the surface?"
"Nothing! This damn thing is dead," he said before throwing it into a wall.
"It is now," she told him. "Calm the hell down, you idiot! It's getting stuffy in here, and you're not helping the situation."
"How dare you..." he said as he turned to find a blaster pointing at him from Mel's free hand.
"That's how I dare, you imbecile. It would serve you right if I cooked your ass, so park it, and let me think..." She stopped when she heard a muffled pop. She looked around and saw a puff of dust coming from a hole in the far wall, directly above a slowly filling depression in the floor. As she watched, a small cylinder popped out of the hole and landed in the water. "Doc, what the hell is that?"
"I don't know," the geologist said. He hurried over and pulled the object out of the water and brought it over to Mel. When he showed it to her, she saw a flashing light at one end. "Press that light," she ordered.
Shrugging, he did as he was told.
"Could everyone either get as far as possible from the hole in the wall or cover yourself with something thick like a tarp?" a voice asked from the device.
"Who the hell is this?" Mel asked.
"I'm Niall, and I'm here to help, so either duck or cover. You've got fifteen seconds... Mark!"
Mel and Manson carefully moved Jackson behind a pile of rubble. There was a small explosion seconds later followed by the sound of a voice. "Did someone order bandages?"
"Back here," she yelled. A young man ran around the pile with an advanced medical kit in hand. Seeing the condition Jackson was in, he tore off the wrapper and carefully placed the device on the center of the geologist's chest. Immediately, the bleeding stopped while the doctor's color dramatically improved.
He looked over at Mel. "Hi, my name is Niall Thorvald."
"Melinda McKee. My friends call me Red."
"I can see why. Is that it's natural color?" he asked, referring to her hair which was crimson red.
"Yep. I love my parents."
"I can see why." He looked and saw the blaster in her hand but ignored it. Instead, he turned to Dr. Manson. "Niall Thorvald."
"Dr. Andrew Jackson..." He stopped when he saw Niall's blaster pointed at him. "What the...""
"The palm blaster in your right hand. Hand it to Agent McKee butt-first and nice and slowly."
"Agent?" Jackson asked while handing her the gun.
"How the hell..." She asked as she took the weapon.
"Agent, your weapon is standard-issue OffSec. I've stared down the barrels of enough of them to know make, model, and charge status. As for you, Doctor. You're a highly educated tomb robber, and even though you don't know shit about shoring up an underground dig site, I figure you're smart enough to be packing heat."
A large OffSec Agent wearing body armor walked around the corner and pointed a weapon at Niall. "Problem, Mel?"
In a single, fluid motion, Niall thumbed the weapon to off, flipped it over, and handed it butt-first to Mel before putting his hands up. He gave her a very disarming smile. "I surrender."
"No problem here, Chance. Get a med team in here, then escort these two to the surface. Put the Doctors under arrest... Niall, who the hell are you?"
"Me? I'm the smuggler who brought these ghouls a shipment of illegal foodstuffs in exchange for money and one of those nice, very sellable, illegally obtained artifacts. Captain Saam was an unwitting pawn in all this, so you can let her go."
"Right. Why are you willing to take the fall for the Captain?"
"If I was taking a fall for her, which I'm not, it would be because she's the Captain and deserves respect. The other reason would be that I have been totally captivated by your beauty, wit, and charm. I've been arrested by many agents, but you are definitely the finest of them all."
She stared at him. "Chance, I've changed my mind. I'll deal with Mr. Thorvald."
"Roger that, ma'am,"
"Really? You're buying that horse shit?" Jackson yelled while the medics arrived and tended to Manson. "Thorvald's a damn smuggler. You can't trust him..."
Chance walked around and cuffed the agitated geologist. "Want me to gag him, agent?" he asked.
Mel smiled. "Works for me. We'll be topside if you need me."
"Roger that, Agent."
Mel walked over to the opening Niall had made and stepped though it into the fissure with Niall following close behind. She looked around and saw that the fissure extended over the top of the room they had been in. Water cascaded down the wall and onto the fissure's floor "Let me guess. This is why the roof fell in?"
"I think so. Notice the erosion marks on the wall. I think the people who built this didn't expect it to last too long. A real archaeological team could find out the real story, but these jokers? No way."
"They're your clients. Don’t you have some kind of honor among thieves’ thing going?”
“Not when it comes to stupidity. One rule of smuggling is never point a gun at an agent. Doing so is considered rude, especially if the agent is as pretty as you."
"You do know that all of this can be used against you in court."
"What, you never met a cooperative perp?"
They reached the well and found a lift waiting for them. They boarded it and took it to the surface where a Starguard and an OffSec Ship sat next to the Whisper. Niall turned to Mel. "Agent, I'll confess to transport of antiquities, smuggling, and anything else you need. All I ask in turn is you let Captain Saam and the Whisper go, and you don't ask me about clients."
"What if I ask you about clients?"
"I lie. I don't know any of our clients. I find knowledge like that is for people far above my pay grade."
"Do your parents know what you do for a living?" she asked light-heartedly.
"My family died on Tennosh. They were waiting for me at a restaurant about ten miles from ground zero."
"Me and my big mouth. I am so sorry. Wait a minute. You were on Tennosh when it was destroyed?"
He nodded. I was about twenty miles from the spaceport when the sphere malfunctioned. An elf in a borrowed freighter saved my ass.
"An elf? Does this elf have a name?"
"Harmon Aymar... What's wrong?"
"Nothing... Go join your captain while I make a call." She ran off, leaving Niall to join Saam.
"What the hell are you doing? They tell me that you masterminded this delivery and didn't tell me? Are you looking forward to spending the rest of your life in prison?"
"You
are the Captain. As I see it, the Whisper would get lonely without her captain, and I can't deal with that."
"You're nuts. You know that, right?"
He shrugged. "Hey, at least I got to meet my future wife."
"Excuse me?"
"Agent McKee and I are destined to be married."
"Does she know this?"
"Nope. It's a surprise."
Mel walked up and handed papers to Saam. "I just had a confab with the elf. You're free to go, Captain. Those papers are a contract for you to deliver that crate in your hold to the Cube. Upon delivery, you will receive payment equal to five times the going rate for its contents."
Saam gave Mel stink eye as only an Erdexi could. "What's the catch?"
"Upon delivery of said crate, Mr. Thorvald no longer works for you. He will become a member of the Office of Security where his duties will include piloting a shuttle."
"Do I have any say in this?"
"No!" the two ladies said in unison.
"Kid. You're destined for things far better than smuggling," Saam said. "Agent, it's a deal."
"Good. Now, I must get back to work." She held out her hand. "I look forward to working with you, Mr. Thorvald."
Niall took her hand and kissed the back of it. "As I look forward to working with you, Agent Melinda McKee."
She smiled, then walked away, leaving Saam to stare at her copilot. "Are you for real?"
He nodded. "There goes my wife."
"He's crazy. OK, lover boy. Get inside and get going on the pre-launch before they change their minds."
"Yes, ma'am," he said with a sloppy salute. He turned and ran up the ramp, leaving Saam to wonder why she ever thought having a copilot was a good idea.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Niall sat down on an upside-down "U" of pipe jutting from the floor next to a wall. He looked down at the pipe. "Max?"
"Yes, Niall?"
"Who the hell thought it was a good idea to have a pipe-U sticking out of the floor?"
"I hear the designer was a fan of old Earth science fiction television shows. Bare pipes were all the rage back then."
"Wonderful," he noted. He examined his holographic map of the module but stopped when he saw something useful. "Max, I think I found a way into Leesta's lab."
"Let me guess. You're going to ride in on a trans-dimensional unicorn."
"Not quite. Tie into my gauntlet."
"Give me a second... OK, I have your display up."
He pointed to a section just down the corridor from his present position. "That's one of several primary maintenance tubes that runs from one end of the module to the other with connecting conduits over intersecting corridors. They're used as cable and piping runs between the labs. I can use it to access Leesta's laboratory."
"How? The penetrations into the labs are tiny and sealed."
He held up a small gray sphere. "I'll use one of these excavator charges to make my own penetration. Leesta, are you still monitoring?"
"Yes. Please hurry. A panel on the far wall has a light that just went from green to yellow. It's Labeled 'Drive Lab.'"
Niall got up and ran down the hall. Reaching the access door to the maintenance tube, he typed in his security code, then slapped the open button, the massive door swung open on motorized hinges. As he stepped into the tube, Niall heard a noise coming from the direction he had just come from. He looked and saw the alien robot running toward him.
"Dammit," he yelled as he stepped inside, hitting the close button on his way. The massive door slammed shut just as the robot arrived. Once more, Niall used his blaster to weld the door shut. "Max, reprogram two of the pedes to hunt that thing down and kill it."
"Yes, sir!
Niall took a hand torch from his pack, activated it, then aimed it down the pipe. Around him were pipes, conduits, and cable trays. Along the sides were signs which labeled what lab was on the other side. After a short sprint down the tube, He found the lab he was looking for. He took a small multitool from his pack, then called Leesta. "Leesta, are you still with me?"
"Of course. Where would I go?"
"I thought maybe the vending machines down the hall for some coffee." He banged on the wall with his multitool three times. "I just hit the wall three times with my multitool. Did you hear it?"
"Yes! The noise is across the room, near the lab's storage cabinet."
"Great! Is there a clear area of the wall, some place without equipment on it or in front of it?"
"Yes, there is. Look for a large cable bundle marked 'Experiment 30." There's a large open space directly to my right of it."
"Found it. Now, can you hide behind something? Like a table or something that won't move?"
"Wait a minute... OK, there's a big, built-in table between me and the wall. What are you going to do?"
"Make a doorway. Give me a minute, and I'll be back with you." He withdrew six spheres from his pack and rolled them out--they were made from a putty-like material--into long strings which he used to outline a three-foot-diameter circle on the wall just to his left of the cable bundle. When he finished, he took out a trigger and stuck it in the sticky putty, then ran a safe distance down the tube before kneeling behind a piece of heavy equipment. "Fire in the hole," he yelled before pressing a button on his gauntlet, detonating the putty.
###
Leesta hid behind the big table and waited for the explosion she knew was coming. "Fire in the hole!" came over the radio. She put her hands over her ears just as a muffled "Wump," came from across the room. It was followed by smoke and the sound of something metal hitting the floor. Moments later, a human male wearing a Space Patrol uniform found her. "Doctor Merser?"
She got up and winced from the pain in her ankle. "You must be Niall."
He grabbed a chair and had her sit in it. "What happened?" he asked while pulling a scanner and medical kit from his pack.
"I was waiting for my escort to return when something slapped the lab. I fell and twisted my ankle. Is Doctor Manka OK?"
"Max? Any word on Doctor Manka?"
"He's fine and very worried about Leesta."
Niall tapped something into his gauntlet. "I'm sending the pedes back out into the corridor to keep an eye out for the bot," he said as the two probes scampered off.
"How did they get in here in the first place?"
He handed her a bottle of water and a nutribar. "Tan's eaten those things, so you should be safe. As for the bots, they're loaded with whatever schematic we have of the structure. They're also programmed to find any way in including ducts, drain pipes, conduits, and any other pipe-like structure. They return to the corridor the same way, only now they'll be looking for an angry alien robot." He scanned her ankle, then wrapped it with a compression bandage. "The scanner shows only a sprain, so this should help." He looked up at the annunciator panel and saw the yellow light flashing, a sign they were running out of time. "Max, the good doctor and I need to leave."
"Roger that. There's a lab at the far end of the maintenance tube. I found an airlock that's not in the schematics."
"Ummm, girlfriend, isn't the micro-FTL drive in that direction?"
"It's in the lab next to the one with the lock..." He stopped when he heard muffled explosions outside the room. Quickly putting his stuff away and donning the pack, he helped Leesta to her feet. We have to go."
"What were those explosions?" she asked.
He held up his gauntlet and pointed to four lights, three of which were dark. "Three of the pedes have been destroyed..." The sound of metal hammering on metal came from the main entry to the lab.
"Is that your friend?" she asked, her eyes wide.
"Yes, and he's very angry." With Niall's help, she made her way to the hole in the wall and stepped through into the maintenance tube. Behind her, Niall stopped and threw his pack into the room before entering the tube. "Move, Doctor. Max! Cut a hole!"
Ahead they could see sparks spraying into the tube followed by four ratbots running past them. "Th
ey'll slow it down," he explained. They made it to the hole where Max was waiting. "Get her to the ship, Max!" Niall said as the wall at the back of the lab exploded inward. Through it walked what was left of the bot. Half its arms were gone and it was covered with burn marks from its battles with the bots. Niall looked and saw Max and Leesta entering the ship. Before he could follow, the thing grabbed him and threw him into the wall. His body wracked in pain, he realized he wasn't going to make it. "Max! Immediate evac! No questions, girlfriend, get the Doctor to safety!" He pulled his pistol out of its holster and fired it at the thing, only this time he aimed at the stump of an arm. It turned and screamed at him in anger.
He glanced at the lock and saw Max dragging a screaming Leesta into the ship. Moments later, he heard the Loki break seal. The robot was now standing over him with a large microscope in its hand, as it prepared to deliver the coup de gras. Behind it, he saw a warning light go bright red. A large hand pushed him and the bot into a wall as massive solid-propellant rockets blasted his module into space. Moments later, the micro-FTL drive overloaded, sending the module, the robot, and Niall out of real-space to somewhere else.
CHAPTER NINE
Niall landed the Loki just as a freighter blew out of field using a zero-roll takeoff. He recognized the freighter as belonging to his current assignment, a Tralaskan named Furbesh. What worried Niall was Furbesh's cargo. With his engines still spinning down, Niall ran over to an Alue standing next to the Space Patrol Ship Leprechaun, Red's ship. "Max! What the hell is going on? Where's Red?"
Max pointed toward the retreating ship. "Standard inspection. There's no reason for the pilot to run off like that..."
"Why aren't you in pursuit?"
"We've got two cruisers waiting for it in orbit..."
"There's an unstable twentieth century Earth-built BGM-109G Ground Launched Cruise Missile in its hold. That ship could go-off without warning, and it's shipping container is scanner proof," he explained as he ran into the Leprechaun, but stopped when he saw Max standing there. "Come on!"
She ran in while wondering what he was going to do.