Mitchell whispered back, “Sure thing lover.”
What a smart-ass Rand thought.
Remke hollered up through the hatch, “Son, you alright?”
“Sure am dad,” Mitchell answered.
“Sport, I don’t know who you are but in a few minutes Banshees are going to surround this ship and that’s your end game. Give up now and make it easy on yourself!”
Mitch keeping in fashion answered back, “Well they better hurry, their missing the party.”
Even Remke would have agreed with Rand, Mitchell was a smart-ass.
Mitchell continued the conversation in a darker tone,
“Hey, hear your boy groaning? Wha’d’ya think he would sound like if I start cutting off his limbs?”
Remke thought Mitchell sounded too young to go through with such a threat but then he is or rather ‘was’ a prisoner.
“Son, what’s your name?” trying weakly to sound concerned.
“You can just call me your executioner,” Mitchell laughed silently.
“You think this is funny?”
“I think this is fucking hilarious,” said Rand clearly from behind Remke.
Remke raised his hands and turned around facing Rand, Vallin and Terri. Fully loaded and not one of them smiling.
“You lost the ship,” Rand said confidently.
“You heard me tell your boy the rest of the squad will be here soon.”
“They’ll be here sure enough”, Rand agreed, “but not soon. When we veered off course we put a lot of space between us and our original path.”. Rand took a guess, “I bet we gained an hour minimum, any bets”?
Remke knew he was right.
“So, what’s next?” Remke asked.
Rand kept the commander at gunpoint and took his radio.
“Serena, it’s Rand. Can you hear me”?
Aaron handed Serena the radio, “Hear ya.”
”What’s your condition?”
“We got some fella named Dan, he’s been very cooperative but he’s bleeding from his head.”
“Meet you in the Tracker room, we got the commander.”
“BOOYAHHHH,” came Serena’s response.
Terri glanced at Rand, “Happy girl.”
Rand nodded, “Now commander, tell your boy to surrender and we’ll be careful pulling him out.”
Remke looked up toward the open hatch, “Williams, it’s the...commander”
“Sir”?
“It’s over son, let ‘em get you out”. Remke sighed, “We lost.”
Quieter, Williams answered back, “Uhmm...yes sir.”
The four had been mustered to the Tracker bay. Still Meyers and Hensley remained on the bridge. Rand had assessed the situation and returned to Remke.
“Ok, there’s two ways to do this. You can either tell them to surrender...ooooorrrrrr...we cut the latches and storm the bridge from both sides. Your choice.”
Rand held the radio up to Remke and pressed the button.
“Hensley, Meyers, this is the comma....Remke. Unlock the doors and surrender your arms”.
“Sir”?? Came a voice.
“You heard me, I don’t wanna be responsible for either of you getting hurt. Just..just hand over your arms. We can fight another day,” Remke said beaten.
“You know partner,” Remke said to Rand, “You’re going to be running the rest of your miserable lives.”
“That may be so, but it beats penal labor. At least I’ll die a fugitive than a slave.”
After a few minutes had passed, Vallin and Terri returned with two very young male crew members. The last two were bound and seated with their comrades.
Serena had tied a rag around Dan’s head but the blood had still stained through and Aaron and Mitchell had splinted Williams leg as best they could, using the jump seat legs from the left side of the bay.
“Let’s just dump them into space Rand, you know they’re going to cause problems”, said Vallin.
‘You’re no preacher,” replied Rand.
Vallin laughed out loud. “I never said I was,.HAHAA.”
“I said I was a father, my kid’s name is Haydor.”
“You’re a psychopath,” said Rand.
Vallin’s expression changed rapidly. His voice seethed demonic like, “Don’t you call me that, don’t you ever call me that!”
Vallin swung his rifle at Rand. “You’re all a bunch of cowards. You aint got the guts to kill you’re dead out here”. Then his maniacal laugh came back, “Two bitches, two little punks, a soft douchebag and a fucking giant retard. What a joke!” But Vallin underestimated the giant retard standing behind him, and Perry’s hands lashed out around Vallins throat.
Vallin struggled while being shook and discharged the laser rifle. The shot was wild but managed to find flesh. It went through Williams other leg.
“AAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH”! Williams screamed.
The laser rifle flew to the floor. Rand kicked it away and raised the pistol. Terri quickly grabbed the rifle and covered Vallin as well.
Williams was visibly crying, both legs were severely damaged and his uniform trousers were smoking. And while it was a tense moment, Mitchell busted out laughing at Williams demise.
“Perry, bring him with you and follow me.”
“Ok Mr. Rand.”
The four fugitives and the five crewmen watched Rand duck through the hatchway and Perry had to squat and duck, dragging a screaming and thrashing Vallin behind him.
Perry was unaware of what Rand intended to do but Perry wasn’t about to let go of this wild man. They went to the corridor that led right through the ship. They passed through two hatches then came to a hatch that said airlock.
Vallin began begging for his life as Rand quietly opened the airlock hatch.
“Now Perry, throw him in.”
Trevor tossed him flailing and kicking.
Rand closed the door. Vallin jumped to the door beating his fist and crying “No, No, Please No!!”
Rand said calmly, “Perry, you can go back now. It’s going to be ok.”
“He’s a bad man, isn’t he?” Perry asked.
Rand nodded, “Yeah, he’s a very bad man,” Rand said quietly.
Rand watched Perry leave.. He turned his attention to Vallin.
“You said you were going to eat my heart didn’t you?”
“I was joking,” cried Vallin.
“I wasn’t laughing when you pointed a fully loaded laser rifle at me.”
Rand asked one more question, “Who’s your orthodontist?”
Vallin gave a quizzical look. Rand looked down at the floor and pressed the release button.
ROOKIES
Lt.Commander Davis and Lt. Commander Blanchard had arrived at the recharge point on schedule but Commander Remke’s ship was nowhere to be seen.
“Commander Davis, Blanchard here.”
“I receive you Blanchard,” said Davis
“:Looks like we lost Bo Peep.”
“Looks that way. What say you we give him five more minutes?” Asked Davis.
“Maybe their calibration was off.”
“Could have been, either way we have to recharge before we can head out.”
Davis scratched his head, “I’ll send a message to Proxima Centauri Command; let ‘em know we have a situation.”
“Sounds good,” replied Blanchard. “I’d like to drop off our passengers as soon as possible.”
“I heard that,. I don’t feel like babysitting.”
There was only one jump left and Davis had his crew prepare a message buoy. It was a self propelled torpedo that had a built in time/space compression antennae that was retrievable and re-usable. It was basically an un-manned shuttle that could ignore harmful Gs’ and was used by nearly all space fairing vessels when they were close to a base or planet. While quite useful, it was limited to 1.5 light year travel due to power requirements.. The very reason Remke was not able to send one as Remke’s Banshee was two light years from either point when
they dropped from hyper.
In either case, it would be two hours minimum before a search commenced.
###
Rand returned to the bay to find Terri patching up Williams leg.
“Serena, how’d you guys shut down the Hyper?”
“We did it from the circuit room.”
“Oh good, no damage.”
“Terri, can you get our passengers some water from the galley and if they need a break., make sure they are under guard and only one at a time. I don’t want to have to re-take the ship. Use Perry to help escort and Serena can watch guard. I want to teach these two boys how to operate a Banshee.”
“Yea, sure. We’ll be fine”.
“Aaron and Mitchell, will you two join me in the bridge?”
Aaron and Mitchell both seemed excited and jumped right up.
The three of them entered the bridge.
“Aaron, left seat navigates and handles all functions pertaining to buoys’, communications and secondary functions, oh, and radar controls. Mitch, you take the right seat. You have helm, let me reiterate that, helm, not pilot; and can over-ride the weapon systems.”
“First thing we need to do is plot a course. Aaron, are you familiar with three dimensional radar plots?”
“You mean like rotating the screen and closing in and rotating again until you pull up the exact point?”
“Exactly.”
“I can do that, I took secondary level astrophysics,” Aaron grinned.
“Good man, Aaron,” Rand looked pleased. Aaron was more versatile than He had hoped for.
“Ok Mitchell, unlike stealing a shuttle this ship has extra controls. You’re probably used to pedals to turn, a collective for lift and drop and a stick or wheel for pitch and yaw, but these sticks have a center toggle for a side slip. Give it a try. Don’t worry, I reset the breakers down below.”
Aaron seemed a bit nervous but they were nowhere near obstacles so he eased the toggle right and the Banshee gently eased over. He switched directions and gently eased the ship left. It felt responsive yet smooth. “Wow, it hardly jerks at all!”
“She’s heavy but that toggle is pressure sensitive, if you push left or right really hard you could throw us all over the place.”
“That’s wicked, man!”
“Now give us a good shove sideways.”
Mitch gradually but quickly pressed right again forcing them to the side of their seats.
“Oh, this is too much fun!”
“Ok, now throttle forward.”
The Banshee felt just as smooth and responsive surging ahead effortlessly.
“Now I want you to thumb her right and pull left.”
Mitch did as instructed and felt the most complete barrel roll he had ever performed. He fell in love immediately with the response. He realized the old man knew what he was talking about.
“Rand, how did you know?”
“I piloted these for four years. I took a Banshee through a thick asteroid belt on a rescue mission to haul out a lifeboat. Even got a commendation.”
“That is too freezing, old man.”
Rand was getting used to the ‘Old Man’. Even somewhat endearing.
“It’s time to get going. Aaron, see if you can plot a course to Sirius”.
“That’s where we’ll drop our unwanted guests and that poor kid might get some medical attention”.
Aaron and Mitchell both laughed. Talk about bad luck.
“A spot in particular”?”Aaron asked.
“Nope, but we’ll find something.”
Aaron pulled up Sirius. “Where’s my destination marker?”
“The blue and green button,” Rand answered.
“Now the blue and red button will bring you back to where we are once you lock the destination.”
“Which one is that?”
“All two tones are radar imaging with blue.” Rand continued, “The amber and blue locks whatever operation you’re doing so if you make several plots you will be pushing that button a lot. Believe me, everything will become second nature in a week or two. Assuming we’re together that long.”
Aaron locked in the Sirius system and the digital read out indicated the Right Ascension and Declination as well as distance from their current location.
“Now Mitch, turn the ship to those coordinates,” Rand instructed.
Mitch followed suit and soon without overcompensating he was on target.
“Mitch, tap the hyper keyboard.”
The monitor lit up brilliantly with engine condition, temperature, microwave input levels and numerous other information that wasn’t necessary for this application.
Rand further explained, “Tap the square for distance, you will see a check mark, then enter the light years to travel.” Mitch followed Aaron’s information.
Rand explained further, “Ok, now put in the speed at 80%,. That’s optimal without overheating. If we were running from someone I’d say push it to the max but let’s not get carried away.”
Mitch again did as instructed and the monitor displayed a green border. Inside the green border were two words. One engage and the other cancel. Mitch didn’t hesitate. He pushed the accept and the Space/Time antennae buzzed drawing the stars inward as the ships main drive hummed mildly. They entered hyper space.
“And gentlemen, we’re flying,” Rand Smiled. “Now your display shows how many jumps, and recharges there will be plus total time for the trip. If it isn’t canceled.”
All three felt very confident about themselves. Not to mention they just stole one hell of a ship
Rand thought about the girls and Perry doing guard duty and decided it would be easier to do what the crew had done to them with a few exceptions.
He went to the left maintenance shop and found what he was looking for. A portable welder. It was light and extremely versatile using sonic waves to weld metal. He returned to the Tracker Bay and, while everyone watched, he welded the entire edge of the maintenance shaft hatches’. Next was the Tracker, he removed the tool bag and Remke frowned. Remke realized he should have done that in the first place. Rand then removed the canvas and drug it ‘outside’.
Rand returned and removed all the tie-down chains. Rand left again, this time he was gone for over 15 minutes. He returned with a new camera and replaced the busted one. He went to the bridge to check if it worked properly. It did.
After one hour his tasks were nearly complete. He came back with a cutting torch and cut a rectangle out of the hatch that led into the lower turret control room. Everyone still watched but said nothing. He left again and returned with empty sealed containers. Now everyone's curiosity was peaking.
Rand scanned his captives.
“Alright, I’m going to cut you guys a deal, in a day or so we’ll find a place to drop you off. Until then I’m going to release you in this room and this room alone. Now, if by some chance you find a means to escape, I have wired all the grav plates in this bay to one switch. If I see any tampering I’m gonna throw the switch and you will go floating like balloons, then I will have my illustrious loud-mouthed pilot practice his flying skills while you smack the walls like meatballs. Got it?”
They shook their heads in agreement except Williams, and he was in no condition to attempt an escape.
“Here’s how we are all going to do this, each of you will undress one by one with two rifles pointed at you except for Mr. Legs over there. I feel semi nude soldiers lose a lot of their ‘hoorah’. Then we are going to close this hatch and weld the latch. We’ll bring you food and water momentarily and feed you through this opening I just made. The buckets are for your....uhmmmmm..excrements. Sorry about the accommodations but I don’t want you carousing through ‘MY’ ship. Are we in agreement?”
Only four nodded in agreement except pink cheeked Meyers and Williams.. Rand disregarded them..
“Alright ladies, rifles up.”
Terri and Serena checked their cells and leveled their weapons.
“Lets start
with you, commander,” said Rand.
Rand untied Remke’s wrist.
Remke stood behind the Tracker, removed his shoes and socks. Then pulled out his shirt, unzipped it exposing a chest full of white hair, and finally removed his trousers.
Rand motioned him to throw them in the back cargo area of the Tracker.
“Ok commander, you untie the next and move to the back door.”
“Next, lets do you,” and Rand pointed to Dan. Again the same routine only Dan looked considerably younger than Remke, and again was ushered to the back.
Three more to go minus Williams.Rand chose the light blond, pink cheeked Meyers.
“You’re next.”
Meyers hesitated.
“Come on, don’t be shy; you can keep your unders on.”
Meyers face flushed red, even his ears were burning.
“I’m losing patience mister, and these girls haven’t shot anyone yet.”
Meyers slowly removed his shoes and his shirt then he paused and started shaking. Tears welled up in his eyes as he fought to contain them.
“Son, if you don’t finish I’m gonna have Perry pull your arms off!” Rand commanded.
Hesitating, Meyers slowly unzipped his trousers and pulled them down as slow as a stripper doing a tease. He stepped out of them and threw them with the other pile of clothing.
Everyone went briefly silent.
Serena and Terri just blinked, emotionless.
Rand put his hand over his mouth but his eyes were smiling.
The other captives also wide-eyed were speechless. But not Perry. With a grin showing all of his front teeth Perry blurted out, “He’s wearin’ girlie panties!”
Sure enough, Meyers was wearing a pair of lacy hot pink lace panties.They currently matched the skin tone of his face.
Rand tried, unsuccessfully, to stifle his laughter; but, Remke just looked pissed off and said,“Soldier, I believe you’re out of uniform.”
Then Serena asked inquisitively, “What size are you?”
The entire bay started laughing except Williams and Remke, whom kept his disagreeable scowl.
“Alright, enough everybody. Back to the wall.”
The embarrassed Meyers reluctantly shuffled to the back, wishing he were dead.
“Next.”
After five of the six undressed, Rand picked up the uniforms and told the girls and Trevor to follow.
SIEGE (TRAMPS Book 1) Page 7