Escape 1: Escape From Aliens

by T. Jackson King

  Bill blinked. He was not used to relying on anyone else for his personal security. Unless it was a fellow retired SEAL from Jack’s Deep Six saloon. But Jane Yamaguchi had shown herself to be smart, quick-thinking, aware of space stuff he had no clue to, and her warning about the AI and their questions had been spot on, judging by its comments on self-defense programming and the Ship Emergency protocol. Plus she was a captain and he was used to obeying officer’s orders. He opened her backpack and began pulling out everything. “Well, that belt was what I used on the black-furred grizzly crewman who opened my cell door to unblock the oxygen flow so I wouldn’t die on our cockroach captain.”

  Jane kept her gaze fixed on the far end of the chamber. “Go on.” Her tone was commanding. “How did you manage to block the air flow into your place? The mountain holo scene blocked any details of my cell, beyond what I could feel by shutting my eyes and palming the cell walls.”

  “Well, first I flooded my cell,” Bill said. From her pack he laid down one white tube, two red tubes and two black box and dome weapons on the gray metal of the walkway. They were followed by a green jumpsuit, jogging bra, pearl necklace, a turquoise ring, a pen-sized flashlight, her food packets and fingernail clippers. “Then I plugged the air inlet and exit holes with lots of shit.”

  “No way!” she muttered, her sentry attention not wavering.

  “Way. Before that I killed all the holo emitter beads in my cell, which made it easier to find stuff. Then I blocked the waste basin drain hole. Which made my cell fill with water. Which lifted me high enough to reach the air holes. Which I plugged with crap. After I’d done that, I smeared the entire ceiling with shit. To block the vision of the spy vidcam that I was sure was watching me.”

  Her small, perky nose wrinkled. “Ingenious. Disgusting, but ingenious.” She looked down at him, her expression intense as if measuring him. “Me, I planned to attack whomever came in to get me and then get beyond them. Figured I’d have a better chance of freedom on the ship of some Buyer than in that bedamned cell!”

  “Good plan,” Bill said as he glanced at the other airlock door. “I’ve always been impatient. And some of my specialty training was in Breaching barriers. This impossible to escape cell was a challenge I couldn’t resist.”

  “Glad you didn’t resist,” Jane said softly. She resumed her sentry watch on the distant airlock door. “You know why the lights here and elsewhere are red? And why the normal ship gravity is a half gee?”

  “No.” He finished laying down her backpack contents and began working on his pack. Like hers he counted one white tube, two red tubes and two black box and dome weapons. He added his fruit, meat and nut packets, First Aid kit, sewing kit, billfold and clothing stuff.

  “Cause this ship captain likely comes from an M-class star, where the star is older than Sol, cooler than our sun and which has to have at least one world in its liquid water zone,” Jane said. “That world also has to be smaller than Earth if giant insects evolved on it.” She shrugged. “I’m an amateur astronomer with an eight inch Celestron NexStar.”

  “Makes sense. I’d heard that bit about people-sized insects needing a smaller world and more oxy. Educate me about the types of stars. I may need to know this stuff after we take over the Command Bridge.”

  Jane chuckled. “Confident you are!”

  She then began a graduate level lesson in the types of stars, the kind of local space monitoring she’d done for the Space Analysis Center, and her thoughts about why the Collector ship had not been detected despite Space Command’s tracking of more than 20,000 objects as small as a golf ball. He listened, his planning circuits whirring full speed.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Jane glanced down at the two piles of stuff he had emptied from the backpacks. Then she looked back up, staying on sentry alert. “That little beige thing is a hearing aid I think. Which ear?”

  “Left ear,” Bill said as he eyed the extra weapons they’d grabbed from the Weapons Chamber. “Lost most hearing in it after an IED blast during a team assignment in Somalia.” He grimaced. “The NAB big cheeses said I was not able to fully function as a SEAL. Took me off Team Seven. Assigned me to a desk job in Naval Special Warfare Command at Coronado. Got tired of sitting and not doing. I retired out on partial disability.”

  Jane nodded slowly. “Makes sense. I’d have gone nuts in the Air Force if they had left me in one of the NORAD computer rooms inside Cheyenne Mountain. Being moved to Peterson was a lifesaver. Went from lieutenant to captain in my years working at the Space Operations Center.”

  Bill began restuffing the backpacks with the weapons and supplies he’d pulled out. He left out red tube lasers from his and her packs. “How old are you? And when did you enlist?”

  She frowned. “After college. Was in ROTC at UC Boulder. Got my B.S. in mathematics. Then I enlisted at 22 and they took me in as an O-1. Later on I got my M.S. in Computer Science while in the service. Did a two year intelligence tour at Al Dhafra in the UAE during the war. I’ve put in seven years active duty. I’m 29. You? You look to be in your thirties.”

  “I’m 35. Enlisted at 18,” Bill said as he zipped shut his backpack and began refilling Jane’s pack. “Did my first two years in Naval Special Warfare Command, then made the cut for SEAL training. That took another two years before I got my trident and first overseas assignment. Did 11 years with the SEALs. Moved up from E-1 to E-7 Chief Petty Officer. Before the cheeses second-guessed my team commander. Spent the last two years in Denver, where my sister Joan lives. Had a live-in lady for awhile. But I get nightmares from the IED thingie. Makes me wake up with my hands about someone’s throat. She passed on more time with me.”

  Jane glanced down at him. Her expression showed both understanding and sympathy. “Been there with the relationship. Was married for four years. Thought he was in love with me. He wasn’t. Just a user. Got divorced. No kids. No siblings. Parents passed on last year in that plane crash off of Barbados.” She resumed her sentry watch on the far exit door. “Was wondering why you ended up in Denver when most Navy types stay close to the sea. From what I’ve heard.”

  Bill pulled on his backpack, stuffed his flashlight and red cube in his front pockets, then stood with a white tube and two red tubes under his left arm. He handed her canteen and backpack to her as he turned to face the distant door, giving her time to pull on her pack. “The ocean was never my thing. The chess game of covert action jobs was what pulled me into the SEALs and special ops warfare. Liked figuring out the options for both solo action and for team action. My team’s lieutenant commander liked how I figured out stuff. Which is how I moved up the enlisted ranks. Plus I did well in Breacher, Surreptitious Entry and Technical Surveillance Operations.”

  “That’s good training for forcing entry and co-opting enemy defenses.” Jane moved up to stand beside him on the central walkway, aiming her white tube taser with her left hand at the far door. “You’ve got another red tube laser under your arm. Why?”

  He handed the extra red tube to her and moved his own laser to his right hand. “Yours. From your pack. I think we should be armed with both tubes. Gives us more options.”

  She nodded. “Makes sense. Plus those magnetic disruptor blocks might help us access to locked places.” She put the laser tube under her arm and signed at him. “What next?”

  Bill liked Jane’s no-nonsense, get the job done attitude. It reminded him of how every member of his platoon had worked together to achieve the primary mission objective. “Leave here. Go down the hall to the Transport Chamber. Drop to the next deck. Head for the Command Bridge Chamber. Then work on gaining access to it and to Diligent. I owe him.”

  Jane chuckled and began walking beside him as he headed for the distant gray metal door. “What do you owe him?” she signed back.

  “Captivity. In my old containment cell.”

  She smiled quickly as she walked along. “Just what he deserves. What about the other captives in the cells? Do we release them? If so, when?” she si
gned.

  “Not until I’ve got Diligent under control,” Bill signed back as he scanned the dimly lit spaces of the cavernous chamber. “While we could enlarge our team with help from some of the Alien captives, it could also create havoc if the captives have no idea what a military operation is about. I plan to free them after we arrive at this Market world. But first things first. Capture the captain!”

  She looked quickly at him. “The other captain, yes?”

  Bill noticed the command tone was back in her voice. “Diligent, yes. But you’re the captain. I’m enlisted. You want to make any changes to what I plan?”

  “Nope.” She walked alongside him, her white and red tubes aimed forward. “Anyway, you’re the trained breacher,” she signed. “My talents lie in coordinating and making decisions about options. Like when to release the other captives. But I agree with you we should wait until we’ve captured Diligent.”

  They stopped before the giant oval door. She moved to the left, both weapons pointed toward the door. He moved to the right and pointed his two tubes at the center of the door. It was nice how Jane quickly adopted the small unit tactics he’d been trained in. They lacked a command element and a fire element. Which left them as the maneuver element. When you approached an unknown entry point, you did not stand directly in front of it. You instead moved to one side or the other and prepared to zap anyone who suddenly appeared on the other side. Plus their team of two could cover in two different directions. While he did not expect the giant cockroach to leave his bridge, you never knew what might happen in a combat situation. So you prepared and approached the objective as if there would be resistance. Or a counter-attack. Bill put his white tube under his right arm, grabbed the red cube from his pocket and pointed it at the gray metal of the door. A touch on the round spot brought forth a grinding sound.

  An empty room the same size as the other airlock loomed before them. Bright red spots shone from the ceiling. Or the far wall was the same line of hooks and transparent tube suits hanging from them. He scanned the room section visible to him. Jane caught his attention and shook her head. Which meant she saw nothing in the room from her angle. Bending down, with a tube weapon in each hand, he jumped inside and aimed weapons to the right and left. “Nothing. Follow me in.”

  Jane entered behind him, her boots beating a tap-tap on the gray metal floor. “I’m in.” A grinding sound came as the metal door closed behind them. “Same positions at the far door?”

  “Yes.” He didn’t both signing as what they were doing was visible to any vidcam. And he expected Diligent to be watching them. But there was no point in telling the giant insect how he planned to capture the creature.

  Bill stood up and ran forward to take position to the right of the giant oval door that led to another long hallway. He aimed his tube weapons at the door, looked back to where Jane still stood in the back of the room and nodded. “Advance.”

  She ran swiftly through the room and took position to the left of the giant door. Her dark brown eyes looked at him as her lips quirked in a half-smile. “Been some years since I did small unit stuff.”

  “You’re doing fine,” Bill said as he pulled out the red cube, touched the round spot, then hurriedly stored it so he could point his red laser tube at the opening door.

  A gray metal trash can with four flexible arms stood on the other side of the door. It sat on two sets of caterpillar treads and had a black tube on top that shifted toward him. He fired the laser. Green light shot out and vaporized the tube.

  “Pointless,” came the deep voice of Diligent Taskmaster. “This device is programmed to capture you and your companion. It has other sensors to detect you. And its armor is laser resistant. Retreat to your containment cell or be subject to its pincers!”

  Bill caught Jane’s attention from where she was hiding behind the wall on the far side of the door. He gestured with his red tube at the caterpillar tracks of the device as the thing began moving toward him. She nodded quickly, stuffed her white tube taser into her backpack, then lifted her red laser tube with a two-hand grip using the flat boxes at the end and middle. She aimed it at the tracks on her side. He did the same.

  “Fire!”

  Two green beams lanced out and hit the right and left caterpillar tracks of the robot. The treads did not vaporize, but they did begin to glow redly.

  “Again!”

  A second volley of green laser beams hit the spot where the front wheel touched the metal tread. The red glow changed to a yellow-orange color. Bill kept his finger on the firing spot of the laser tube, maintaining the green beam.

  The gray metal robot jerked to a stop.

  “Hit the back wheel at the same spot!”

  He and Jane repeated their volley of green laser beams. In minutes the rear wheels of the robot were also welded to the tread. The sound of some kind of engine grew louder, then shut off suddenly.

  “Diligent!” he yelled. “Your robot is stuck in place. And there’s room for us to go around it without being caught by its arms. How about you surrendering? If you leave the Command Bridge, then transfer ship control to me so Star Traveler will accept my orders, we will allow you to leave in one of the ships in the Transport Chamber. We’ll even put your crew in with you. Maybe you can find another Collector ship to captain!”

  “I will not leave the Command Bridge of this ship,” Diligent said in his mech-toned male voice that sounded like a haughty BBC announcer. “In less than two days this ship will arrive at our target star. Other Collector ships will be present in orbit above the Market world. One of them will assist me in regaining control of this ship’s interior spaces. And you and your companion will be sold to a Buyer, along with the other captives. Your destiny is the same as before you escaped.”

  Bill motioned to Jane that they should move into the hallway. She nodded and moved along the airlock wall to the open doorway. Keeping her back to the metal, she stepped through the door, then side-stepped to the left. The gray metal pincer claws of the robot opened and reached for her. But they failed thanks to a two foot gap between Jane and the pincers. He did the same as she, keeping his red laser tube aimed at the robot as he moved along the wall, over the door sill, then side-stepped to the right. Keeping their backs against the airlock pressure wall, they both moved past the robot and out into the red-lighted hallway. A place that was clearly under observation by Diligent.

  “Device! Close the hatchway ahead of those two bioforms!” yelled the ship captain. “Block its opening by these bioforms.”

  Twenty feet ahead of them the hatch door in the next pressure wall closed with a clank.

  “Hatchway closed,” the AI said. “However, I cannot prevent the opening of the hatchway by any bioform who is wearing a pressure suit. All parts of this ship must be accessible to suited bioforms. That is according to Protocol Seven, Emergency Operations of the Ship.”

  Bill smiled at ship mind’s defiance of the captain. Which made him wonder. “Star Traveler! That mobile robot sought to hurt us. Maybe kill us. Why didn’t you stop its attack?”

  A long hum sounded. “The mobile robot was not under my control. Crèche Master Diligent Taskmaster controls it.”

  He and Jane stopped before the closed hatchway. They took ambush positions to either side of the hatch. He pointed his red cube at the hatch and pressed the round spot on its upper face. The oval hatch clicked and swung toward them until it clanked against the pressure wall. Looking through the person-high opening he saw nothing. Jane shook her head. He jumped through and swept the hallway beyond with his white and red tube weapons. No lifeform showed. No robot was present. Empty it was.

  “Clear.”

  Jane copied his movement, taking up a defensive post to his left. Like him she aimed her white and red tube weapons down the twenty foot-wide hallway. The gray metal of its floor, walls and ceiling was smooth and lacked any kind of automated weapon placement.

  “Device!” screeched Diligent. “Increase gravity in that hallway to twenty t
imes ship normal!”

  A low hum sounded. “Increasing gravity to that level would terminate the two bioforms. That would be a violation of Protocol Seven, Emergency Operations of the Ship. This Device cannot comply.”

  Inside the tube suit helmet Bill licked his lips. Then he mouthed the water tube that he’d discovered lay to the lower right, where the helmet met his shoulder. He sucked, enjoying the cold water. Mentally he gave thanks that he’d put on a tube suit as Jane had suggested. As the AI had said earlier, being in a spacesuit automatically activated the emergency response protocols of the ship computer mind. Which meant it had to keep responding to their requests and instructions. Now, they’d learned the emergency protocol kept the AI from killing them. Which likely meant they should not kill the insect captain. Disable yes, but not kill. He logged the new lesson in his memory. Then looked aside. He caught Jane’s attention.

  “Let’s run! The faster we can get to the Command Bridge the fewer surprises Diligent can pull on us.”

  “Right,” she said, breaking into a decent jog as he headed for the next pressure wall and hatchway a hundred feet ahead. She signed to him. “But what if the Command Bridge hallway is blocked by more robots like that one?”

  That was a future he had been worrying about even as he challenged Diligent to leave and head for another Collector ship. He signed back to her. “Then we use a magfield disruptor on the robot. Or robots. While dodging those pincer arms!”

  They went through the open hatchway in sequence, with Bill first followed by Jane. He sped up their run, aiming for the next pressure wall a hundred feet ahead.

  “Star Traveler!” he called. “How far is it to the access hatchway for the Transport Chamber?”