by GARY DARBY
“Think they left the pseudo-grav working?” TJ asked.
“Guess I’ll find out in a second,” Dason answered. “You two stay here. Wait for my signal to board.”
A tiny burst from a micro-thruster sent him through the doorway and into the airlock. As soon as he crossed the threshold, his body dropped a few centimeters, and he landed catlike on both feet.
“Grav generator is working,” he reported to TJ and Sami. “Going in, stand by.”
He drew his L-gun and stepped into an open bay that seemed to run the entire ship’s length. With cautious eyes and footsteps, Dason inspected the room, his lights spotlighting several executive-style seats along with two ornate-looking console desks.
Each desk appeared to have a comm's console embedded along with a touch compu and overhead lighting.
“From what I’m looking at,” Dason reported, “this appears to be something along the lines of a corporate runabout.”
“Time for us to come aboard,” Sami replied in more of a statement than a question.
“Yeah, come on in,” Dason answered. “This ship has the feel of being empty.”
Moments afterward, Sami and TJ joined Dason with weapons drawn. Dason gestured with his laser gun toward the ship’s rear, “You two check aft, I’ll go forward.”
Dason strode forward, stopping at a gleaming door that he felt confident would lead to the pilot’s compartment.
He hefted his weapon, making sure that his suit gloves had a firm grip on the pistol grip. The door wasn’t a pressure barrier, so he had no fear of releasing atmosphere; his concern was that someone might be waiting to ambush him once the door slid aside.
He reached out, pressed the door control button, and slipped to the side so that he presented as small a target as possible.
With a slight tremor, the door slid inside the bulkhead. Dason jerked his head around the corner with his weapon aimed straight into the compartment.
He waited two heartbeats before he took a tentative step into the doorway, waving his gun back and forth. He scooted forward until he stood fully in the compartment.
Satisfied that it was empty, he holstered his weapon and inspected the interior.
The glossy ebony console board was much more elaborate than the standard issue found in scout craft, and Dason could see that it had additional instrumentation that even the newer Zephyrs didn’t have.
He reached out and tapped on the console to see if it was active. After several fruitless efforts, he straightened up with a frustrated sigh escaping his lips.
Locked!
None of the power controls would respond to his efforts, meaning that whoever had left the ship had also left the controls locked in secure mode and only his or her personal password would unlock the controls.
To the scouts, the ship might as well have been gutted of all power systems and controls for all the good it would do them now.
His suit transmitter clicked open, and he heard Sami say, “Raider One, we’ve found something back here.”
“Go ahead,” Dason responded.
“We’ve got six racks for deep-space suits, but only five suits. Somebody left this boat ready to do some business somewhere.”
“Anything else?” Dason asked.
“Same story with their armory,” Sami answered. “Five L-gun in locked arms racks, and one open.”
“So he or she is armed, too,” Dason responded. “But that also means that there’s only one of them.”
“She is armed,” TJ stated.
“How do you know it’s a ‘she’ TJ?” Dason asked.
“Easy,” TJ replied. “The suit lockers are for three males, three females. The one missing is a female-sized suit.”
“What did you find up front? Any help there?” Sami asked.
“The board’s locked down,” Dason answered. “I can’t get anything to fire up; we’re dead in the water as far as using this ship to communicate with anyone.”
“Dason, this is Nase. Any chance we could cannibalize the parts we need to repair our communication gear over here?”
“Might be able to do just that,” Dason answered. “Suit up, bring a tool kit with you and see what you find that might help us reestablish communications, at least.”
“On my way,” Nase answered.
“Sami, TJ,” Dason ordered, “keep looking up here, I’m going to see what I can find belowdecks.”
Dason took the short stairs leading into the lower hold two at a time. What he found was disappointing—a few miscellaneous items, a storage freezer with frozen rations, and nothing else.
With his frustration mounting in their inability to find a way to get inside the device or of finding a way to incapacitate it, he snapped over his communicator, “Sami, TJ, meet me near the pilot pod.”
In a few moments, the three congregated outside the doorway just as Nase stepped through the open airlock.
Gesturing, Dason pointed at the pilot pod and a few seconds later Nase slid under the pilot console and began working on unsealing the panel to get at the board’s guts.
“See anything that might offer a way for us to get inside the device?” Dason asked.
“Nothing of note,” TJ replied, “Sorry, but I think that Shanon was right, there’s someone on board that thing. That’s the only place she could be.”
“I agree,” Dason replied. “The question is what can we do about it?”
“Maybe we should just jet across and pound on the front door and demand to be let in,” Sami offered. “Pretend that we’re going to blow the thing apart with her in it if she doesn’t open up.”
“What,” TJ replied, “we’re going to be the big bad wolf huffing and puffing?”
“Hey,” Sami answered, “it might work, you never know.”
Dason turned away, took several steps, his face a mask of hardness and frustration at what was becoming a stalemate in their efforts to get inside the nova machine.
He took another step before he stopped in midstride and whipped around. “Wait,” he started, “what did you say, Sami?”
“Me?” Sami replied in a surprised voice. “I was just joking around, saying that maybe we should just go over there and pound on the door.”
“Pound on the door . . .” Dason mused. He slapped Sami on the shoulder. “And that’s just what we’ll do!”
He strode forward and knelt on one knee next to the prone Nase. “Nase,” he instructed, “keep at it here, if you get the parts you need, let me know, and we’ll come back to help you.”
Nase waved a hand in acknowledgment and kept on working. Dason jumped up and turned to his two companions. “TJ, Sami, c’mon, I’ve got an idea.”
Minutes later, the three were floating near an air-car-sized boulder about a hundred meters from the two asteroids that made up the nova device. “Okay,” Dason called over their suit comms, “you two got it?”
“Yep,” TJ replied.
“Oh, I got it,” Sami answered. “What I don’t got is what this little bitty rock is going to do to that great big rock. It’s certainly not going to—”
“Sami,” Dason questioned in an exasperated voice, “do you understand what to do?”
“Huh? Oh, sure,” Sami replied, “that I got.”
“Good,” Dason quickly responded. “Remember, don’t start until I tell you and make sure you aim that thing at the asteroid and not me.”
“What if this first one doesn’t work?” TJ asked.
“Then we’ll do it again until we get the attention of whoever is in there.”
With that, Dason jetted away until he floated near the leading asteroid’s side. He studied the exterior until he found what he was looking for. He took out his laser and with a pencil-thin beam etched a large “X” in the smooth surface.
He turned and waved at the two scouts. “X marks the spot,” he called out. He boosted to a safe distance before ordering, “Start your run.”
TJ and Sami hunched behind the boulder and engaged their rear
micro-thrusters. At first, the rock didn’t budge, but then it began to gain speed, heading straight toward the asteroid. Using their side thrusters, the two managed to turn the boulder into a speeding hunk of rock right at the X.
The two rode the rock for several more seconds before they let go and hit their forward thrusters, coming to a dead stop fifty meters from the asteroid.
In seconds, the speeding rock smashed into the side of the nova device.
The thunderous impact caused the small ball-shaped boulder to split into numerous fragments that tumbled up and then over the asteroid before splaying out into space.
Using his thrusters, Dason placed himself just above the impact area and with his weapon drawn lay outstretched as if he were a Box-Elder Spider waiting for its prey to show before it pounced.
He didn’t have to wait long. A vibration through the rock signaled that the door was opening. Dason pulled himself closer to the opening, until he was just above the aperture’s top.
A P-suited gloved hand holding a disruptor emerged from the opening. Dason held himself in check until the person’s full arm appeared. Then he punched his side thrusters at full-thrust and shot forward.
He grabbed the arm with both hands, his forward momentum pulling the suited figure completely out of the airlock. In a second, he was hand-fighting a furious tigress who was doing her utmost to bring her disruptor to bear on him.
She managed to tilt her weapon just enough to let loose a disruptor blast that zipped by Dason’s helmet, missing by mere centimeters.
Almost blinded by the flash, Dason clamped a gloved hand around the barrel, trying to avoid another shot.
His unknown adversary managed to push the gun down and got off another shot that passed between his outstretched arm and his torso.
Dason was a good fighter, but within an instant, he realized that he was battling a master of the art. Even in the weightlessness of space, he could feel her strength and agility.
Suddenly, his hand slipped off the gun. Realizing that he had lost his advantage, Dason pushed at his adversary, causing her to spin like a top while the reaction from his shove caused Dason to do a slow cartwheel away from her.
The woman’s micro-thrusters flared once, twice to stop her spin. She brought her weapon around to fire, and Dason knew with a sick feeling, that at this range, she couldn’t miss.
Just before she pressed the fire button, she slumped in her suit and the disruptor floated free from her hand.
Sami glided up next to Dason, his L-gun in hand. Using his thrusters in a judicious mode, Dason stopped his motion and waved a hand at Sami.
“I always wondered if stunners worked in free space,” Sami noted casually. “It appears that they do.”
Dason glanced over at his fellow scout and gave him a lop-sided grin. “Thanks, Sami, I’m certainly glad you got your question answered.”
“You okay, Dason?” TJ asked him from the other side.
“Yeah, I'm all right,” Dason replied. “C’mon, let’s get her and us inside that thing.”
A minute later, Dason and Sami hauled the unconscious woman into the nova apparatus followed by TJ. As the two laid the female on the floor, Dason said, “Sami, please tell me that you used the lowest setting when you fired.”
“Uh, in all honesty, I don’t think so, LT,” Sami replied. “Wasn’t too sure of my aim, so I just fired off a quick shot and tried my best not to catch you in the beam, too.”
Dason gave him a half smile in reply. “Well, thanks for that, anyway.”
The three turned to survey their surroundings. A small arched ceiling composed of barren rock curved down on three sides to meet the smooth floor.
At the room’s front were several large consoles with Mongan markings, no doubt the control center for the device.
Just to the left was a simple console that was Imperium in design and not Mongan. Glancing around, Sami huffed out, “For such a high-fangled techie people, the Mongans don’t put a lot of effort into their interior designing, do they?”
“Would you,” Dason asked, “if you knew this thing was going to be vaporized into nothing at the end of the trip?”
“Good point,” Sami conceded.
The three inspected the consoles in silence for several minutes before Sami grumped, “Well, it all looks pretty much Mongan to me. I can’t make heads or tails of it.”
Dason and Sami turned their attention to the comm's console, but similar to the Faction ship, apparently it too was locked down, and they were unable to power it up.
TJ, who had been peering at a small metal box that seemed to be attached to the Mongan console reached over and grabbed Dason’s arm. “Hey, take a look at this.”
Dason bent down to examine the box before TJ tapped on the side. “Here.”
Craning his head lower to peer at what TJ pointed to, his eyes widened at what he saw and edged forward for a closer look. “Hey,” Sami asked, “what is it? Tell me you found the key to turn this thing off.”
“How I wish,” Dason replied. “No, I’m looking at a serial number and manufacturer’s date on the side of this thing, and they’re in Imperium Common Language.
“There’s also a numbered keypad which tells me that this box is opened and closed by a coded numbers sequence.”
“Great, just great,” Sami muttered. “That means there’s only about a bazillion possible combinations to open it.”
“Yeah, unfortunately,” Dason replied. “But for what it’s worth, this proves that the Faction is in league with the Mongans. My guess is that within this box is the activator for the device, and it’s remotely controlled.”
He turned to his comrades and declared, “And whoever is on the other end of this, can activate the device at any time.”
“You mean with us in it?” Sami asked.
“Yes, Sami, with us in it,” Dason answered somberly.
“In that case,” Sami questioned, “why don’t we just fire this thing up with our lasers? Turn it into Swiss cheese.”
“Oh, sure,” TJ uttered, “and what if slicing and dicing this thing we manage to hit the circuit that sets it off?”
She gave Sami a stern look. “With us still in it?”
“Just an idea,” Sami muttered.
Dason walked around the console eyeing the structure, one hand sliding across the top and sides. “Whatcha looking for, LT?” TJ asked.
“Just seeing if there was a way we could open it up and inspect the guts,” Dason replied. “But it looks as though it’s one solid piece, except for that box.”
He came back to the small metal case and tapped on it several times. “I’m certain that this is the key to both activating and deactivating command sequence.
“Something tells me that the Faction wanted a way to control this without having to use the Mongan process, whatever that is.”
He turned and nodded at the woman lying on the floor. “And I think she’s more than just a guard.”
Sami glanced over at the prone form. “You think that Sleeping Beauty here has some part in making this thing work?”
“I do,” Dason replied. “I believe that the Faction didn’t entirely trust the Mongans, so they devised a way to ensure that only they controlled the machine.”
He gestured toward the woman. “I suspect that she was the one who came up with a fail-safe method that short-circuited the Mongan process and put the device solely in the hands of Adiak Peller.”
Dason took a step to stand near the unconscious female. “And that means she’s probably the only one who could show us how to stop it, too. But I suspect we don’t have the time to wait around until she wakes up.”
“Sorry, LT,” Sami muttered, looking embarrassed. “Guess I messed that up royally. Uh, you won’t mention this to Missy Romer, will you? I mean after I gave her a hard time over zapping that Mongan and all.”
Dason laugh lightly. “Your secret is safe with me, Sami. Besides, if you hadn’t fired, I’d have a fist-sized hole in my belly �
��bout now.”
Dason turned back to the console but just then he heard over his suit communicator, “Dason, this is Alena, do you read me?”
“Go ahead,” Dason returned, “your signal’s weak, but I read you.”
“Bad news,” she answered. “I managed to get a few of the sensors working, there’s a mass of ships headed inbound. If they stay on their present course, they’re going to pass close to our position.”
“Can you tell if they’re friendlies or not?”
“Sorry,” she replied, “I barely got that much before the sensors went on the blink again. One more thing, and I’m not totally positive about this because the sensor return wasn’t clear, but there may be a smaller group of ships out there, too, but they’re not moving, just sitting in one place.”
Dason asked, “Anything to indicate that they’re on a course for us?”
“No,” she replied, “but, it wouldn’t take much change in direction to bring them right on top of us.”
Raising his head, Dason found TJ and Sami staring at him. He could virtually read their thoughts. If it was an enemy fleet, the question was, were those ships headed for them or Sarpens Two?
Dason ran his tongue over dry lips. He could order a retreat back to the Zephyr, and chances were good that they could hide themselves among the asteroid field well enough that the Faction would have a hard time finding them.
But it also meant that they might be abandoning their one chance to disable the nova machine.
He drew in a deep breath and let it out. He wasn’t willing to give up that chance, even with such formidable odds.
“We stay here,” he stated in a firm voice. “Shanon, shut down your distress beacon,” he ordered. “Alena, put some rock between the Zephyr and that incoming fleet. We go silent and dark, and hope that they’re not coming for us.”
“And if they are?” TJ asked.
Dason jabbed a finger toward the console. “Then we try Sami’s Swiss cheese method of destroying this thing.”
“And maybe us with it,” Sami muttered.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Star date: 2443.115
Peller’s Star Dreamer Yacht
Furiously pacing back and forth on the Star Dreamer’s bridge, Peller’s impatience and irritability rose with each passing second.