“No, but I got an idea. I’ll get them to open the bay doors. You fly out of here, but keep the stealth on. Stick close by and I’ll hook on to your ship. Once I’m there, I’ll send you a signal and we’ll get the hell outta here.”
“That works,” said Harr as he pressed the button to close the ramp, leaving Plock-Brekka outside the ship.
* * *
The bay doors were closed when Hank and the remainder of Platoon F arrived at Station Command. He put out a landing request, but it was denied. Twice.
Opening a channel, Hank said, “This is Shuttle 132, requesting authorization to dock.”
“Negative, Shuttle 132. We are currently in lock down by order of Admiral Brekka.”
“Ith there another docking location for us, then?”
“Negative…hold one second.” Thirty past. “Shuttle 132, we are reopening bay doors. Please land on platform 74.”
“Thank you, Thtation Command.”
* * *
The Reluctant was moments from exiting when Geezer called up through the comm.
“Chief,” he said, “I’m going to need at least an hour to hook everything back together down here. Those bastards pulled wires from all over the ship.”
“But we still have stealth, yes?”
“Yeah, but that’s a different box. Little guys hooked all that up. Don’t ask me how, though, cause I have no idea.”
Harr checked the main screen and saw a shuttle glide right past his exit. It landed a few bays away and then its ramp came down.
“Do we have propulsion, Geezer?” Harr said, worriedly.
“Only basic, boss. Nothing zippy. Should be enough to get us out of here, though.”
That’s when Harr saw them. His crew. There were a few missing, but he recognized their uniforms as being from the old guard. They weren’t as crisp.
“Geezer, can you communicate with Commander Sandoo on your digital channel?”
“Sure, why?”
“Because they’re right outside of the ship.”
“Seriously?”
* * *
Plock-Brekka saw the ramp of The Reluctant come down as he started walking the Admiral that he possessed out of the bays and into space. He wasn’t worried that she’d come to any actual harm, seeing that she was not made of anything that would react to a vacuum, and he thought the idea of New Segnal’s military commander floating around in the void was kind of humorous.
Of course, Plock was a bit of an oddball.
* * *
“It’s great to have you all back on board,” said Harr with a big grin.
“Great to be back, sir,” Commander Sandoo said, giving a firm salute.
Harr returned the salute, even though that sort of thing usually bugged him.
“We lost Yaen, Prass, Ooster, and Harkam, sir.”
“Killed?”
“They decided to stay with New Segnal, sir.”
“Suicide, then,” said Harr, recognizing that the four would be reprogrammed. “That’s unfortunate, but if that’s what they wanted, who am I to stand in their way?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Honcho?”
“Yes, Geezer?” Harr said through the comm.
“Looks like I was wrong about our propulsion.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, let’s just say that we’re going to have to shut off that stealth thing if you want to launch this ship. The little guys got it tied into the propulsion panels and that means we’re not going anywhere unless I cut power to that unit.”
“So we’ll be fully visible?”
“You got it, chief.”
“Great.”
“If you say so.”
THE GETAWAY
Once stealth was disengaged, Harr ordered Hank to hit the engines and get them out of the bay. As they flew out in space, there was a bump.
“What was that?” said Harr.
“It looks like we hit an android.”
“On screen.”
He saw the image of Admiral Brekka floating between The SSMC Reluctant and Station Command. She looked confused, but slowly she seemed to be gaining clarity of mind because her face was contorting into that look of angst that Harr had gotten used to seeing during his tenure with Platoon F.
“Sir, we’re being hailed,” said Sandoo.
“By Station Command?”
“No, it’s…hmmm.”
“One of New Segnalian fleet ships?”
“Not that either, no. It’s coming from under our hull.”
Harr paused, and then it hit him. “Oh, right. On comm.”
“This is Plock,” said the voice. “Get us the hell out of here. Heading 1933.87, full propulsion.”
“Do it, Hank.”
“Yes, thir.”
“Sir?” said Sandoo.
“Long story, Commander. I’ll tell you all about it when this is over.”
“Incoming fleet,” said Jezden. “Shit, there must be fifty ships!”
“Evasive maneuvers,” commanded Harr, “and get those shields up.”
The ship rocked back and forth as laser blasts hit the side of The Reluctant. Harr knew that the New Segnalians weren’t about to blow up their historical prize, especially since the GONE Drive was on board, but he didn’t want to chance getting caught again either.
“Another hail coming in, sir,” said Sandoo. “Someone named Liverbing?”
“On comm,” said Harr. “Liverbing, we’re out of Station Command and we’ve got Plock attached to our hull, but we’ve got ships breathing down our necks like mad.”
“We’re on our way, Captain.”
That’s when Harr had a thought that relied heavily on the fact that the Synthetic Lifeforms had no strong means of creativity and human-like curiosity.
“Liverbing,” he said with a grin, “what sorts of things can you do with those holograms?”
* * *
Commander Kip walked into the Station Command Control Room to find his worker facing away from the bay room. Not merely looking in the wrong direction, but standing up, hands by his side, standing at full attention, and facing away.
Kip looked the other direction and saw a plethora of ships firing weapons at The SSMC Reluctant and he nearly dropped a pint of oil.
“What’s going on in here?” he asked, shocked.
“Admiral Brekka’s orders, sir.”
“What orders?”
“She told me to face the back wall and to ignore everything that was going on, sir.”
“But why?”
“Because she said so, sir.”
Kip gave the crewman a funny look, and then he heard a knock on the window at the other side of the room. Admiral Brekka was floating there, and she didn’t look happy. Of course, she never did look happy.
“Uh oh,” said Commander Kip as he reached for the robotic arm lever.
Then he stopped.
If she floated away, his life would be much simpler. Admiral Brekka had always been a pain in the rump. She’d spoken condescendingly to him every time they met. If she floated away, only he’d know about it, and that was fine with him. What could she do about anyway?
That’s when, as if she were able to read his thoughts, Admiral Brekka held up a transponder chip.
She would be tracked and picked up within the hour.
Sighing, Commander Kip activated the robotic arm.
* * *
“Shields are down to 20% around the engines,” announced Commander Sandoo. “Rerouting power from the bow to compensate.”
Harr was impressed. It wasn’t like Sandoo to act without orders, unless he were left in charge. Any time Harr was on the bridge, Sandoo basically froze up.
“Back up to 55%.”
“Smart move, Commander.” Harr pressed his comm, “Geezer, have you got that stealth device back in play yet? We’re losing shields quick.”
“Just about, honcho. Hopefully I got it right.”
“Can’t be any worse than being
recaptured.”
“If you say so, big cat. Okay, it’s ready.”
“Liverbing? Are you set?”
“Flipping on holograms now!”
“Activating stealth mode, chief,” Geezer confirmed a few seconds later.
Harr felt slightly disoriented during the shift this time, which was something that had not happened before, but he assumed that it had to do with being in stealth mode.
On a hunch, he looked up at the viewscreen to see a field covered in what seemed to be purple snow. There was also a very odd distortion to everything. Standing in the snow was a solitary figure. He had three legs, four arms, purple spots, and two heads, leading Harr to the conclusion that Geezer had done it yet again.
“Geezer,” Harr barked.
“Working on it, honcho.”
“What the hell happened this time?”
“Seems that when I hooked in to the stealth device, it caused us to jump, but I can’t get a fix on our coordinates. It’s like everything is jumbled.”
Something Liverbing had said earlier suddenly popped into Harr’s head: Lief had taught the little guys multidimensional travel. That must have been fired off because Harr had a difficult time accepting anything that looked like the creature outside of his ship could possible exist in his own dimension.
“I think this mistake, Geezer, might have moved us into a parallel universe.”
“That’s it Prime,” Geezer replied. “You nailed it. I’ll have us out of here in a jiffy.”
Harr turned to Moon and said, “Open the external speakers and activate the Universal Translator, please.”
“Yes, thir.”
“This is Captain Don Harr of The SSMC Reluctant,” he said, firmly. “We mean you no harm.”
To Harr’s shock, deja vu kicked him in the gut as the figure in the field turned around, dropped his pants, and bent over.
“Not again,” said Harr, slapping his forehead with his palm
“This is interesting,” said Parfait with a devious grin.
“Chief, I think I got it figured out,” Geezer piped in.
“Thank you,” Harr said, exasperatedly. “Would you please get us out of here and back to our own dimension at the exact we moment we left?”
“Activating now, big cat.”
Feeling that momentary disorientation again, Harr grabbed the armrests of his command chair.
“Thir, we are back at the same position as we were before the shift.”
“Good! Liverbing, please key up the explosion sequence we discussed.”
“You got it.”
A flash of light and an exorbitant explosion scene unfolded behind where The Reluctant had been. All laser fire stopped immediately and the crew of Platoon F continued drifting further away from where their holographic double continued to visually disintegrate.
* * *
Admiral Brekka stood in the bays watching the firefight with Commander Kip.
Things looked to be solidly under control until, out of nowhere, The SSMC Reluctant exploded. One second she was moving along with minor lasers taking measured shots at her engines, carefully eating away at her shields; the next she was flying apart in a billion pieces.
“What’s that word that the Jezden model always says, Commander?” Admiral Brekka said in a voice that sounded very shaky indeed.
“Shit, sir?”
She nodded, understanding for the first time why the Jezdens always said it.
“Shit.”
THE SHORT GOODBYE
Liverbing and Plock, along with their Chief Engineer, Goozer, stood on Geezer’s desk. Goozer and Geezer were comparing notes and working through re-outfitting the GONE Drive and adding in all of the enhancements that the creature named Lief had suggested.
“We owe you a debt of gratitude,” said Harr.
“Nonsense,” Liverbing replied. “I’d say we’re even. Wouldn’t you, Mr. Plock?”
“Dead on even, yep.”
“What will you do now?” asked Harr.
“Pretty much whatever we choose to do, I suppose,” said Liverbing. “There is a lot to explore in the universe, after all. But don’t you worry, Captain Harr, Mr. Goozer is going to make sure that our two peoples can instantly communicate whenever the need arises.”
Harr nodded while glancing over at the two robots as they worked together. He couldn’t say whether having two Geezers on one ship would be a wise thing or not, but the fact that they would be able to share knowledge, even at vast distances, seemed like a fine deal.
“We’re all done here, honcho.”
“Good deal, Geezer. Thank you, Goozer.”
“Yep,” said the mini robot, while wiping his hands unnecessarily.
Liverbing stepped up and did a little wave as he got behind the cart to push Goozer back on to The Ship. “I guess this is goodbye for now.”
“I wish it were possible for us to visit your ship as you visit ours,” said Harr. “I can only imagine what it would be like to be your size.”
“And we can only imagine the same about you,” said Liverbing with a laugh.
“I’ll take me as I am,” said Plock while lighting up a cigar.
“Size doesn’t matter anyway,” said Harr.
Ensign Jezden, who was serendipitously walking by at that moment, called out, “You just keep telling yourself that, Captain.”
THE DECISION
One of the worst things about traveling back in time was the very likely possibility that whatever you did would have far-reaching effects into the future. Everyone knew this, and that’s why people never did it. Well, that and the fact that the technology didn’t exist, unless you were on the bridge of either The Ship or The Reluctant.
Harr stood on the main bridge, looking over his crew, and, of course, Parfait.
“I’m proud of all of you,” he said, sincerely. “We’ve all seen what your descendants have done, but the future doesn’t have to be like that. You’re not like them. You’ve all acted with pride and strength. You’ve looked adversity in the face and fought back. Each of you has special qualities that should never be squelched. You’re all special.”
It was silent on the bridge for a good ten seconds, and then Jezden said, “Gay.”
A few of them giggled, notably Geezer, Curr, and Ridly.
“He’s got ya there, honcho. That was a lame speech.”
“I rather liked it, thir,” said Hank.
“Me too, Captain Harr,” said Parfait with a weak smile. “Me too.”
“Again,” Jezden said, “gay.”
There was no point using heartfelt speeches with half of this crew, which meant getting down to business.
“Geezer and I spent a lot of time talking when we were on display in that exhibit, and we came up with a plan.” Harr clasped his hands together. “The idea is to go back in time before all of this started.”
“You mean like with that creature on Earth with the little hands?”
“Not that far back,” said Harr. “We’re talking about going back to the day I was to be executed.”
“Why?” asked Ensign Middleton.
“Because that’s where we can stem the tide of everything that’s happened,” said Harr. “That’s when Special Agent Yek had finally convinced the SSMC to go to war with the Kortnor, and that’s when Rear Admiral Parfait and the rest of the brass put the order in to have all of you made.”
Nobody said a word. They all just looked at him in shock.
“You mean we’re going to go back so that you can let yourself be killed, sir?” said Sandoo. “And, also to make sure that we never are even…born?”
“Not precisely,” said Harr. “You see, the day I was to be executed, they put a dummy in my place—”
“Who was it?” asked Jezden.
“What?”
“Who was dumb enough to go in your place to an execution?”
“No, not a dumb person. A dummy is a…” said Harr and then he paused, gave Jezden a funny look, and then decid
ed to forego answering the question. “Anyway, since it wasn’t really me that was publicly executed, the plan is to go back and do a cell swap on Special Agent Yek. We’ll make him look like Orion Murphy. He’ll be the one executed in my place. This way you”—he pointed at Parfait—“won’t have to put in that rush order with the Kortnor to build the androids at all.”
Again, it grew quiet.
Harr knew what they were all thinking. Hell, he was thinking it too. The fact was that, even if they were in the past, wouldn’t they disappear the moment that the order wasn’t made? It was a risk, certainly, but was it any worse than what would happen if they didn’t stop the manufacturing of Harr’s crew?
The bottom line was that Special Agent Yek was the catalyst for all of this. Sure, there was always the chance that the androids would eventually be made anyway, but it could be that their purpose would be vastly different and, therefore, wouldn’t result in such a bleak future for either them or the Segnalians.
“What are the chances that we’ll still exist after we alter the past, sir?” asked Ridly.
“Geezer?”
“I did the calculations,” said the robot, “and it’s about 50/50.”
“Oh.”
“But it may not be that bad. Remember, I’m not a mathematician.”
“So it could be even worthe.”
“There is that possibility, Hank.”
“How did you do the calculations?” asked Harr, since Geezer had never really explained the math. “I mean, what did you use as data?”
“That’s simple, honcho. I just thought about the chances of them making it or not and figured it was probably pretty bad. I didn’t like that, so I decided to just go with 50/50.”
Harr blinked at him. “You do realize that’s not even remotely scientific?”
“I’m an engineer, big cat, not a scientist. But look at it this way: My hunches so far have gotten us propulsion, instantaneous travel, time travel, holograms, stealth, wormhole generation, multidimensional travel and the knowledge regarding how to capture something called a Anatosaurus.”
Platoon F: Pentalogy Page 35