Jake sucked in air through his teeth. “It would be the fanciest flying anyone’s ever done with a ship of this size. I’d have to match the velocity of the land, and continually apply enough down thrust to keep from crashing into it or being hit by any of those fast-moving structures, then ‘hover’ over the one spot the ship would fit on—that field there”—Jake pointed down at a lush green meadow.
“Yes, but can you do it?” Weber asked.
“I can, but you don’t want me to,” Jake said. “We’d start fires and destroy all kinds of stuff. Plus, anyone that survived would be deaf.”
“Okay, so that’s not gonna work,” the Captain said.
“Any way we can communicate with them?” Michael asked.
“Their implants are dead,” Nandi said.
“At least they’re moving about,” Daniel said, looking out through binoculars. “I expect they’re pretty surprised to see us.”
Captain Weber scanned the terrain as well. “I’m hoping the aliens aren’t going to come and interfere. Well, we need ideas. Nothing is too far out, people. We’ve come this far; we can’t go home without that crew.”
* * * *
“How much delta-V do we have in an EVA suit?” Zachary said. “Someone might be able to get down to the ground that way…”
“Even if one of us got down, how would that help us get the captives back up?” Nandi asked.
“Maybe… tie a rope to something?” Haruka said.
“Good idea,” Weber said. “Though it leaves them with a long climb.”
“Their weight would reduce quickly as they ascended though. They’d be exceedingly light when they neared the ship,” John said. “Still, as you say, a long climb, especially if someone was hurt.”
“What about lowering a basket?” Grace said. “We have a winch in the cargo area. It’s plenty strong, so we could haul them up a few at a time.”
“That is a truly excellent suggestion,” Michael said. John was taken aback by Michael’s offering so strong a commendation. “We have to figure out something to use as a basket though. And it would have to be anchored to the rope, so we didn’t have the same problem with getting its angular velocity high enough to haul straight up and down.”
“Atlas didn’t come equipped as a search and rescue vessel, though maybe she should have,” Daniel groaned.
“So, we work with what we’ve got,” Grace said. “What do we have, besides EVA suits and ropes?”
“Vee-tols,” Nandi shot back, excited.
“Of course!”
“It would take some fancy flying to hover, but it would be a damn sight easier than trying to do it with the entire ship,” Jake said. “It’s doable.”
“I could write code for a vee-tol’s stability system to compensate for the constant centrifugal force as we maintain our rotational match,” John said. “Then Jake, Zach, or whoever else, could just focus on flying like usual.”
“No,” the Captain said. “It’s an excellent idea in principle, but we don’t have time. Our alien friends could return at any minute. Hell, they could make it dark in here—I assume they simulate the day-night cycle somehow—and that would stop us dead.”
“We have lights on the ship,” Nandi suggested. “Floodlights mind, but they’d still be useful in a blackout.”
“True.”
“We have to somehow tell them all where the rope’s anchored to the ground,” Josh said. “If the diameter is 1.2 kilometers, the circumference is almost four kilometers. That’s a large tract of land, and they could be anywhere…”
“Well, I think it’s a given that we’re using vee-tols,” Oliver said. “I guess we just have to fly around and pick up as many as possible from wherever they happen to be.”
“Flags? Smoke signals?” Max said. “Something emanating from the rope to show its position.”
“Flares!” Catherine said. We have both smoke and parachute flares for overland expeditions!”
“Sweet!” Oliver said. “The smoke ones would definitely work. The parachute ones would go crazy in here and possibly hit the ship, so they’re out. But, they’ll definitely see smoke from anywhere in here, and hopefully understand what it’s for.”
“Lasers, too,” Nikolai said. “The spectrometers. Shine the beam through the smoke and it will light up like a Christmas tree.”
“Excellent,” Daniel said. “No one can say we aren’t a resourceful bunch.”
“That’s for sure,” Weber said. “But, that’s why we made the cut… Still, let’s congratulate ourselves if we actually manage to pull this off. We’ve got a lot to do before then, and the odds are still stacked against us.”
“I volunteer to fly the EVA suit,” Haruka said. “I’m the lightest, so I’ll get the most delta-V out of it.”
“You’re it, then,” Weber said. He turned to Jake. “You and Zach stay here at the controls, and keep the ship’s rotation precisely locked to that of the wheel.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“We’ll need everyone else down in the cargo area. May God bless us on this, the most important space mission ever flown.”
* * * *
Cargo Door 1 was not unlike that of a Hercules cargo aircraft. It slowly lowered—over thin air. John, Nandi, Michael, Oliver, Haruka and the others looked at each other as they floated, hanging onto cargo nets.
“We have to be extremely careful,” Michael said. “If you float out of there you’re dead—you won’t be able to stop yourself and six hundred meters later, you’ll drift into the path of something moving at 378 kilometers per hour.”
“We’ve got some thin cord back in there somewhere,” said Daniel “I’ll start passing out ten meter lengths. Haruka, go and get into the suit.”
“I’ll go and help her out. We’ll be back,” Oliver said. The pair floated to a hatch at the back right side of the bay, where a passageway would take them to the suit preparation area near airlock number 1.
* * * *
This is absolutely surreal, John thought as he floated in the center of the cargo bay. He was looking at Haruka, who was completely equipped for a vacuum with her bulky spacesuit. She drifted about six meters in front of him, framed by fields and trees. She propelled herself slowly in towards him. “I’m gonna tie this safety cord to the loop on your suit,” he said.
“Roger.” Haruka did a nimble zero gravity half pirouette, the thrusters on the suit’s propulsion pack emitting the throaty hiss of a fire extinguisher. They brought her within range and John tied her off with a length of the half centimeter-thick cord they were all using, latching it onto a carabiner on the rear of her suit. He handed her the end of a blue rope roughly as thick as his thumb, and then twisted around to face Daniel. “Is she gonna be able to hold onto it well enough when she’s at her full weight?”
“Put a loop in the end that she can use as a handhold.”
John nodded and tied a simple knot three feet from the end, before creating a loop just above it. “I knew Boy Scouts would come in useful for something,” he muttered. He handed Haruka the end of the rope, looking at her small face inside the large clear dome of the helmet. “Godspeed.”
“Go get ‘em,” Daniel said. Haruka mentally commanded the suit to back out of the cargo bay, and then began her perilous journey. No sooner was she clear of the door than inertia tugged her to the left. With a small burst from the jets, she was back on track. As she descended, she had to apply more and more thrust to get enough angular velocity to keep pace with the slow merry go round of the wheel.
John held the cargo net at the top of the bay with one hand, and with the other ran the winch in carefully timed short bursts to avoid paying out too much rope.
“So far so good,” Haruka said.
* * * *
“My God, it looks like they’re lowering someone from the ship!” Chris said, dripping wet and still catching his breath. He could just about make out the dot that was Haruka descending slowly, like a slow motion skydiver with no parachute or any other
apparent means of support. She was aiming for a point roughly a quarter of the way around the wheel from them.
“Yesss!” Morgan shouted, looking up.
“Must be using an EVA suit!” Sally said. “They’re going to try and rescue us!”
“Then we need to get over there, and get as many others there as we can find.”
“Right. I’ll split back to the accommodation building and round them up.” Chris took off at a run across the grassy area. He burst into the front of the accommodation building shouting: “Guys! Help’s on the way! We have to get to their landing point—about a kilometer that way.” He jerked his thumb behind him.
“Sweet Jesus!” Max said
Chris turned to Roxanne. “Get Faith out of bed. Carry her if you have to. David, check all the rooms; get everyone out. I’m going to head away from the landing site and find anyone else I can.” Before anyone could say anything else he was off again.
Chris veered left once out of the building and cut a path through the woodland. “Anybody here?” he hollered as he ran. “Get to the meadow! We’re being rescued!”
* * * *
Haruka had no time to admire the vast structure in which she dangled. She could only concentrate on keeping the line up to Atlas perpendicular to the ground. Now that she was most of the way down, meters above the trees and grass, this was proving to be very difficult. She had built up a considerable angular velocity, but the lower she got, the more was required. The suit’s propulsion system could no longer keep up. “Wait up, guys,” she said, as she drifted backwards over the forest. They stopped lowering her almost immediately, and she felt the force in her chest and limbs as the thrusters struggled to push her. It was never built for drag racing, she thought. Her right hand ached from holding onto the rope, that lone hand bearing so much of her weight.
Agonizingly slowly, she managed to get back to being directly under Atlas. “Okay, lower.”
“How far up now?” John asked.
“Estimate about ninety meters from the treetops.”
“You’re doing a great job.”
Little by little, Haruka was lowered, stopping intermittently to accelerate. The lush, green meadow curved up ahead of her, the edge of the forest directly below. A landing point chosen to allow the best combination of available anchors for the rope and ease of access for the people coming down it. One more jog closer to the ground, and—
“Guys, my suit’s run out of fuel!”
“Fuck,” Michael said. “How far to go?”
“Maybe sixty meters.”
“Okay. Well we’re going to have to work with what we’ve got. Guys, keep lowering.”
As Haruka neared the ground, her inertia pulled her backwards over the forest, taking her further and further from their aim point the lower she got. “Guys, I’m not sure how much longer I can hold on. You gotta get me down.”
“Understood,” Michael said. “Guys, let the rope out at about three meters a second.”
“Here we go,” Haruka said. The tops of the birch trees came up quickly to meet her. She held onto the rope with her last ounce of strength, glad that the helmet was keeping branches from whipping into her face. Then sky became earth and back to sky again. She hit the ground with a thud. “Aaaargh!”
“What’s going on?” came John’s worried voice.
“It’s… my shoulder. I landed on it. It hurts pretty bad.”
Captain Weber floated just outside the cargo door and looked down through binoculars. “Can’t see her,” he said.
“Haruka, you did an outstanding job,” Daniel said. “Can you tie the rope to something?”
Before Haruka could answer, a woman in gray sweatpants and a white t-shirt ran up to her. She slid one arm under Haruka’s good arm and lifted slowly. Haruka looked up through the glass bubble at her. The woman was saying something, but to Haruka it was as muffled as if she was underwater. “What?” she mouthed. Comprehension dawned on her compatriot’s face, and she reached for the clasps on her helmet. She scrabbled at them, frantic, and twisted it off with a heave. Suddenly Haruka was a part of the new, alien world. “You made it! You fucking made it!” her helper said. “I’m Morgan, by the way.”
“My shoulder…” was all Haruka could manage. “Tie the rope to a tree.”
Morgan nodded. “Lay there and don’t try to move.” She took the rope and passed it around a stout trunk. Then she pondered for a second, looking at the problem in front of her, before passing the looped end around itself and back through in a knot.
“Mission accomplished,” Haruka said.
“Sweet mother of God!” Daniel shouted. “Now, let’s get it done.”
Morgan caught a flash of light from somewhere to her left. She turned, and a silver sphere rolled towards her. Morgan instinctively jumped between it and Haruka, who was propped up on her one good arm.
“Oh hell, no! Get back!” Morgan yelled. The ball morphed a tentacle, just as it had done to capture the crew. It swiped at Morgan’s lower legs, but knowing what to expect this time she jumped, grabbing a low sturdy tree branch, and the tentacle swept beneath her feet. Then it hit Haruka’s forehead hard, knocking her to the ground, before swinging back to press its end against Haruka’s side, emitting a short hiss as it made contact.
“Screw you!” Morgan yelled at it from the tree branch where she dangled. The tentacle swiped at her, but couldn’t reach high enough. Morgan climbed up onto the branch, holding onto higher ones to keep steady, then pulled herself up higher still. Adapting to the situation, the metal creature morphed into a snake-like form and set off up the tree after her.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
“Oh, dear God,” Captain Weber said, looking at the others in dismay. They had all just heard the same thing in their heads: a British woman’s voice shouting “Oh, hell no! Get back!” Then Haruka’s audio went silent.
Oliver exhaled loudly through his puckered lips. “I was hoping we wouldn’t have to use these.” He held a long, thin case of pistols that had been brought for personal defense in the case of emergency. He tossed another similar sized case to Weber, who opened it to reveal stun guns that were silver and resembled large electric razors.
“Those things aren’t going to win on my watch,” Michael growled. He pulled himself over between Weber and Oliver and grabbed one of each weapon. Then he yanked himself to the back of the bay, where he sprang forward, lunging at the rope where it hung over the end of the door.
“Your safety line!” Nandi said.
Michael let go the main rope for a minute to untie the cord from around his waist. He then pulled himself along to where their precious pathway to and from the ground went down.
“Be careful!” Weber shouted.
“I will!” answered Michael as he disappeared over the edge like an acrobat.
“We need as many as possible to fight,” Nandi said. “I’m going. Toss me one of each.” She nimbly caught the pistol and stun gun, shoved them in her flight suit pockets, and called “Knife please!” at Daniel, who had a collection of five inch folding blades. He tossed her one and Nandi cut her safety cord two meters from where it was tied to her waist. “I’ll tie it to the rope. I suggest you do the same,” she said to the others, before pulling herself to the edge of the precipice.
“Godspeed!” Daniel said.
And then, without another word, Nandi was over the edge.
“Do you need our help down there?” came Jake’s worried voice from the flight deck.
“No. You two stay there and keep the ship in one spot. That’s the most important job of all,” Weber said.
“Yes, Sir.”
Following Nandi’s lead, Nikolai cut his cord a little way from where it was attached to him. “Gimme a glove. I’d really rather not have rope burn when I reach my full weight.” Daniel turned and tossed him one of the thick gardening-type gloves. “The others are gonna have a problem with that when they get down there.”
“Yes they are,” Weber said. “But, th
ey’ll figure it out. We will pull this off, one way or another. Those damn things aren’t going to win this time,” he growled.
“We should take an entire cache of weapons down there, for other people to use,” Josh said. “I’ll take five of each with me in a backpack.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Daniel said. “I dug out backpacks and flares. We should start leaving a smoke trail on the way down.”
“Excellent idea. Grace and Max, go figure out how to attach some sort of basket to a second rope so we can start hauling them up.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Josh donned the backpack, tightened the straps, and clicked the front fasteners together, while Daniel busily applied many layers of duct tape to the back of it. “Making a heat shield of sorts here. Don’t want the flare setting fire to you.” He then taped the long, tube-like flare to it. Once Nikolai was at the edge of the cargo bay door, Daniel pulled the cord on it. Smoke immediately started to billow out, drifting back into the bay.
“Just got down to the tree canopy. I can hear shouting and scuffling.”
“They just appeared out of nowhere,” said Morgan in the background. “The one after me’s formed into a snake to climb my tree!”
Shots rang out, causing everyone aboard Atlas to wince as the sound expanded inside their heads. A second later, they heard the muffled thuds that echoed from the walls of the cavernous habitat. “I hit a couple of them!” Michael said. “Here, have a Taser.”
“What about Haruka?” Morgan said frantically, both her and Michael now in the treetops as more silver balls advanced and thinned out into snake-forms. From the ground, Haruka’s vacant stare was fixed and unblinking, looking skyward.
“Let’s repel these bastards first.” Morgan and Michael abseiled to the forest floor and fired their weapons. The Taser projected an electrical arc that stunned their targets on contact, while Michael’s bullets put holes in their metal skins. The bullets stopped their advance and set them reeling. Though not all of them stopped moving entirely.
“It’s working!” Morgan said, frantically zapping as many spheres as she could. Then the Taser whined.
The Lost Colony Series: Omnibus Edition: All Four Volumes in One Page 15