Kaylee was about to run her fingernail along the plastic Customs seal and break it, when she stopped, and looked at Manny. “There’s not some kind of alarm, is there, if one of these boxes is opened?”
Manny frowned, puzzled. They had never seen a cargo box being opened, they were supposed to stay sealed the entire journey. There was no reason for the crew to open a sealed cargo box. “I don’t know. The boxes aren’t supposed to be opened in flight. There might be an alarm.” He thought back over their trips with Jen, when that woman had been on her maintenance rounds. Had she ever checked any sort of alarm system? Not that he could remember. “I don’t think we need to worry,” Manny said haltingly, “the main computer is down, right? Any alarm like that would be connected to the main computer. I think.”
Kaylee looked at the box. She turned it over. There wasn’t any sort of alarm attached to it, that she could see. Maybe there was an alarm built into the box, an alarm which would go off if she broke the seal.
What would her mother do? First, her mother wouldn’t think like a child. Kaylee realized she was worried about getting in trouble, if an alarm went off. An adult wouldn’t worry about setting off a stupid anti-theft alarm, not in this situation! “Let’s open it. If an alarm goes off, we take the thing out, leave the box here, and go someplace else.” She still could not help closing her eyes and bracing herself as she slit the seal with her fingernail. No alarm sounded. The box had a latch, she turned it, then swung the cover open. “Huh.” She was disappointed. She had been expecting something that looked like it was worth stealing. This was a piece of junk. Alien junk. Old alien junk. She lifted it out of the box, peeled away the protective layers of plastic, and looked at it closely. ”Ow!” She said, as she got a mild shock from the thing, and dropped it on the deck.
“What is it?” Manny asked.
Kaylee’s eyelids fluttered, and she slumped to the deck. She didn’t seem to have control over her arms and legs, and wild, random images flashed thru her brain, like all of her memories were popping to the surface at once. And there was another voice in her head, a voice like someone screaming from far, far away. The voice faded, faded, and then it was gone.
“Kaylee, are you OK?” Manny asked, alarmed.
“Uh, wow, that was weird.” Her feet and hands tingled, but she could control her body again. She rose to her feet, unsteadily, flexing her fingers to make the tingling go away. “That thing zapped me.”
“Zapped you? I thought all these alien things were dead, no power.” Manny nudged it warily with his shoe. “Kaylee, you were lying there spaced out for like a minute. What is this thing?”
Kaylee shrugged. “A minute? It felt like only a couple seconds. Dad would know what this thing is.” It was about the size of a softball, roughly spherical, with protrusions where it used to attach to something else, and a fragile-looking tangle of wires spilling out of a hole in the bottom. Someone would kill her parents, to get this stupid piece of old junk? She sat down, her back against the wall, grateful for the darkness, so Manny wouldn’t see her tears.
CHAPTER 12
“Come on, come on!” Dooley urged his notepad to move faster cracking the code for unlocking the last door. He had opened both doors in the adjoining compartment, Valjean and Taney were waiting at the other end of this compartment. Five minutes, Dooley had told the pirate leader, it would take only five minutes for him to open this door, and then he and Rocko would go in and, according to Valjean’s plan, force whoever was in the compartment out the other end, right into Valjean’s hands. If, in the meantime, Dooley got killed, Dooley knew Valjean wouldn’t care. In fact, that would be one less person to take a cut of the loot. So Dooley wasn’t planning to take any risks, he would send Rocko in by himself, and let the combat robot do its job. “Yes! Got it!” Dooley exclaimed, as the door was unlocked. He unplugged his notepad, set it aside, and drew his weapon. “Rocko, get ready.” The robot raised its arms, weapons ready, and walked to stand directly in front of the door.
What Dooley didn’t know was that, in addition to a red light glowing on the panel when the door was unlocked, there was an audible, metallic click when the locking pins retracted. “What was that?” Manny whispered, startled, as he spun around. After he and his sister had given up trying to figure out what the alien thing was, they’d put it back in the box, stuffed it in Kaylee’s backpack, and sat down to wait. Manny had gotten bored, so he had crept out in between the crates, to where he could see down the center of the compartment. He had been playing a game on his notepad, with the sound turned off, when he heard the click. He looked aft, and didn’t see anything. Forward, also nothing- no, there was a red light on the door panel! In the gloom of the emergency lighting, it stood out. Someone had unlocked the door! Manny flung his notepad over his shoulder into his backpack, crouched down, and ran as fast as he could to his sister, banging his shoulder painfully on a crate along the way.
“What’s going on?” She asked.
“Somebody’s coming. The door is unlocked!” Manny explained. “Give me the card, I need to open the hatch!”
They both heard the big door begin to slide open. Kaylee’s eyes were as big as saucers as she handed the card to her brother. “You’re bleeding!” She whispered, pointing to the ripped shirt.
“I bumped into a crate.” Manny put the card into the slot, and the light on the hatch turned red. He yanked the card out, gave it back to his sister, and turned the handle to swing the hatch open. “I’ll go first,” he said, retrieving the light from his backpack, and turning it on. They crawled into the access tube, it was a tight fit. Kaylee had the presence of mind to contort herself enough to turn around and close the hatch behind them. Then they crawled into the darkness, illuminated only by Manny’s light.
“What do you see?” Dooley asked, from his position safely out of the line of fire, next to the door.
The combat robot swiveled its head side to side, searching in the visible, infrared and ultraviolet spectrums. “Nothing. No targets.”
That didn’t convince Dooley. “Go on in. See what you can find.” He checked his watch. Valjean would be growing impatient, beyond the door at the far end. Dooley had been surprised not to be greeted by a hail of gunfire coming at him when the door opened. Blasters, or at least stun pistols. Instead, nothing, and it didn’t sound like there was anyone in there. Just before opening the door, he had verified that the box they wanted was still inside that particular compartment!
For five long, anxious minutes, Dooley waited for Rocko to return. Periodically, he peeked his head around the opening, but he couldn’t see anything. Finally, he ducked his head around the corner, and saw the robot coming back toward him. “What? Nothing?”
“No sign of any people.” Rocko reported, and swung his hands up, to point his weapons at the ceiling.
“What the hell?” Dooley’s blood ran cold. If he had screwed this up, Valjean would not be pleased. So much had gone wrong already. He hurriedly plugged his notepad back into the wall socket and searched for the box. Its last reported location was in the compartment! In fact, near Structural Frame 43. Where was the box now? He’d lost its signal. Had whoever possessed the box smashed the radio ID tag? He unplugged the notepad and ran into the compartment, searching for Frame 43. There it was, a big girder, with ‘43’ painted in blue block letters, high above his head, halfway down the length of the compartment. “Follow me.” He told the robot.
“What is keeping that idiot?” Valjean fumed. Dooley should have gotten into the compartment five minutes ago. He’d heard no weapons fire, and both he and Taney had their ears pressed to the door. They should have heard something by now. “Stay here.” He told Taney, and ran off to go all the way through the adjacent compartment, to see what was going on with Dooley and his temperamental robot.
“Try it again!” Kaylee whispered. She and her brother were stuck, trapped in the access tube. She wasn’t claustrophobic, she also didn’t like being in the dark, confined space.
&n
bsp; They had crawled the short length of the tube, bumping their heads, elbows and knees on obstructions along the way. In the middle, the tube opened up, and was tall enough that they could stand up, but now they were at the other end, trying to get the hatch open. Jen’s card didn’t seem to work, the handle wouldn’t turn.
“I am trying it!” Manny shouted in frustration.
“Be quiet! They might hear us.”
Manny didn’t respond, as much as he wanted to shout back at his sister, he needed to concentrate on getting the hatch open. If the pirates could open the doors between compartments, they could open the hatches, including the hatch behind them. He put Jen’s card back in the slot, and keyed in her access code. There was no response, the handle still wouldn’t move. He felt so stupid. What was he doing wrong?
“This is it.” Dooley muttered to himself. Frame 43. One of the electronics boxes mounted on the frame was no doubt the radio sensor that had tracked the box to this spot. “Rocko, can you see anything?” There was a gap in the crates on both sides, leading back to the walls. It was just room enough for a person to squeeze through. The hair stood up on the back of Dooley’s neck. Also, just room enough for anyone hiding back there to have a clear shot at Dooley. He jumped back.
The robot looked down the narrow gap between crates. “I see something.”
“What?”
“Possibly blood. It shows on my ultraviolet sensors.”
“No people?”
“Negative, no heat signatures.”
Dooley screwed up his courage and squeezed in between the crates. He wished he’d thought to bring a light with him. At the end, he saw two things; a few drops of blood on the deck, and a hatch. A hatch to a maintenance access tube!
Dooley hurriedly scrambled back out into the center corridor. He knew where the box had gone, why the ship’s sensor couldn’t locate it. “Come on!” He shouted to the robot, and took off running back through the door they’d come in through.
Manny pulled Jen’s access card out of the slot and shone his light on it. The card wasn’t damaged. Had he put it into the slot the wrong way-
No. He grasped the handle, and yanked it counterclockwise. It was sticky at first, then turned easily. The hatch popped open. Now he really felt stupid. The hatches weren’t locked at all from the inside! The handles on inside and outside were connected, so they appeared to turn one way from the outside, and the other way from inside. Duh!
He crawled out of the tube, and stood up, grateful to stretch his legs. Kaylee followed. “How did you get it open?” She asked.
“I’ll tell you later,” Manny said, embarrassed. This compartment looked like all the others, dimly lit, packed with crates, and a narrow space to squeeze through, leading away from the hatch. That open area looked inviting.
Three things happened at once. Brother and sister stepped out from between the crates, Valjean came through the door at one end, Dooley and his robot came running through the other door. For a split second, no one moved. Dooley skidded to a stop, and was almost bowled over by Rocko. Valjean’s mouth dropped open in surprise. Manny froze in place.
Kaylee saved her brother’s life. She grabbed hold of his shirt collar and yanked him back between the crates, at the same moment both pirates raised their weapons and fired. Shards and melted globs of plastic flew through the air as the energy beams hit the crates next to where Manny had stood, a moment before. The children didn’t waste any time talking, they ran back to the access hatch, which was still ajar. Kaylee had hit it with her foot on her way out, intending to close it, but it hadn’t latched. She got there first, pulled it aside, and dove in. Manny followed, hooking his foot around the inner handle, and pulling it firmly closed behind him. Since Manny had the light with him, Kaylee crawled ahead in the dark as fast as she could, ignoring the painful bumps and scrapes along the way.
“Kaylee, just turn the handle counterclockwise, it isn’t locked!” Manny said as he huffed and puffed his way along on hands and knees. His sister reached the end, and gave a mighty heave on the handle, which wasn’t necessary, because it turned smoothly. They tumbled out of the tube, just as there were loud booming sounds from behind them. The pirates were shooting at the locking mechanism on the other hatch!
Manny slammed the hatch closed behind them, squeezed around his sister, and ran as fast as he could. “The other tube!” He said, almost out of breath. Their only chance, he thought, was to use the tube to crawl through to the adjacent compartment, and hope the pirates weren’t in there also.
“Boss! Stop shooting! You busted the lock!” Dooley protested. Valjean spun around, and Dooley feared Valjean would shoot him, then the lead pirate lowered his weapon.
“Get it open!”
Dooley was about to retort that he couldn’t open it, now that Valjean had shot holes in it. Instead, he gestured with his gun. “I know where they’re going, we can cut them off!”
The pirates ran full-speed down the compartment, joined by Taney, who had come when he’d heard the commotion.
Manny hesitated only a second when he came out from between the crates, checking that no pirates were in sight, then the two of them shot across the open area, and in between the crates on the other side. Kaylee snagged her shirt on the corner of a crate, and tore a piece off, she kept going. There was a moment of panic when Manny couldn’t find Jen’s card, until he remembered he’d stuffed it into his back pocket. Manny entered the passcode wrong the first time. He took a deep breath, and forced himself to move slowly the second time, even as he heard shoes pounding on the deck plates behind him. They got the hatch open, and Manny handed the light to Kaylee, letting her go first. His heart was in his throat as he crawled in behind her, the sound of people running was loud now, and he heard shouting. He reached behind him, grasped the handle, and pulled the hatch closed. As he heard the latch click shut, a sharp, burning pain flared in his hand. “Ow! Ow ow ow!” His hand felt like he’d stuck it in a power socket.
Valjean fired again in anger at the door handle. It had been turning as he came around the corner, now it was latched shut! He had been so close! “Get in there and open that hatch!” He shouted at Dooley.
“Right away, Boss.” Dooley squeezed in between the crates, dropped to his knees, and plugged his notepad in. The flaw in Valjean’s plan was obvious now, they should have opened the doors in both adjacent compartments first, not just on one side. Pointing out that flaw to his boss, Dooley figured, would not be a good career move. Especially not right now.
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me about these access tubes?!” Valjean fumed.
“I didn’t know, they weren’t in the ship plans you got!” Dooley answered defensively. Valjean was always saying how smart he was, how he would do all the planning. Great plan so far, Dooley thought to himself! The shuttle crew down on Ares were still alive, our ship is busted up, and now we’re chasing after a couple of bratty children in a damaged cargo ship. With the Navy surely on its way, soon, if not right now. Great plan. Maybe, Dooley considered, he should shoot Valjean, before Valjean got rid of him. Except, only Valjean knew who had hired them for this job, only Valjean knew how to get the money. Dooley figured it would be best if he made up a good lie. “When I came into the other compartment, I saw them, but they ducked between the crates before I could get a good shot. I winged one of them, there’s blood on the deck, that’s how I tracked them to the hatch. I only saw the two of them. A girl and a boy.”
“Two kids? No adults?”
“Not that I saw, boss.”
So, Valjean considered that he was only dealing with children, two scared children. That could be good, or bad. Children were unpredictable. They were certainly frightened, and alone. He had double-crossed them, they would be angry. Would they follow through on their threat to smash the item he wanted?
Kaylee crawled out of the hatch at the other end, offering a hand to her brother. Manny had crawled on his elbows, holding his left hand with his right, wincing in pain. His left
hand still burned and tingled. That was good, he guessed, it meant the nerves in his hand were still alive. Kaylee held a finger to her lips. “Shhh. Wait here, I’ll check if anyone’s in here.”
Manny did what he was told, and tried to flex the fingers of his left hand. They moved, barely. Kaylee gestured to him, waving him into the open area. “I don’t think the pirates are in here yet. Are you OK?” Her brother’s shoulder was still bleeding, and he had bruises on his face, from bumping into things in the tube. She hurt too, for the same reasons.
Manny nodded. He kicked the hatch closed with his foot, making sure it was latched. “Where do we go now?”
Kaylee looked around. They could run across to the hatch on the opposite wall, and keep going. “Watch the doors, make sure they’re locked.”
“Yup, they are.” Green lights shone on both panels.
Kaylee’s eyes stopped on a discolored deck plate, in the center of the corridor, aft of where they stood. “We need to get out of this cargo pod.” She decided. Jen had told them that access tubes connected one pod to another, in addition to connecting compartments within a pod. “Manny, can you use your hand to climb?”
“Uh-huh, I think so. It's numb, but it's starting to tingle, I think the feeling is coming back.” Gradually, his fingers were able to flex, he could almost touch his index finger to his thumb. The tingling hurt like crazy, like ants crawling under his skin.
They ran over to the deck plate. Next to it was a small door, set into the floor. Kaylee got her fingers under one end and flipped it open, exposing a control panel. Manny stuck Jen’s card into the slot, keyed in her access code, and hit the button. The deck plate slid aside, and they looked in. It was a tube, going straight down. A long way down, with handholds along two sides. Kaylee took a deep breath and lowered herself in. “How do we close this door behind us?”
Aces Page 14