by Ryk Brown
Jessica reached down and grabbed Naralena’s hand, pulling her up onto the roadway, then ran across to the other side, moving quickly across the small parking lot and disappearing between the two buildings. Now in the darkness again, she paused long enough to listen for any sign that someone had seen them. After several moments, they continued carefully down the alleyway between the buildings until they reached the back lot.
Jessica looked about. The lot was just big enough for two or three vehicles to park. There was a fence along the back, but there was no separation between this lot and the next two lots down, other than a knee-high rail. “This will do,” she said. She unsealed the front of her dry suit, splitting it down the middle enough to slip it off her shoulders.
Underneath their dry suits, they were both wearing non-descript black T-shirts and shorts. Jessica opened her gear bag and pulled out a pair of black pants which she slipped on. After putting on the shoes contained in her gear bag, she donned the jacket as well, and then the cap. Although the black attire might in itself draw suspicion, the style was in accordance to the signals intelligence they had gathered from this world during the last Falcon cold-coast through the Tau Ceti system. If spotted, they might be suspected of being up to nefarious acts, but they would at least appear to be natives of this world.
Once dressed, Jessica stuffed her dry suit into her gear bag and closed it again. She then took out the remote for the jump sub, punched in a code, and then pressed a button that would completely disable the device, and fry all of its circuits. She clutched it for a moment, making sure that it heated up as expected, then set it on the ground in front of them. “Okay, we find a place to hide out for the night. Preferably someplace where we can watch people come and go for work in the morning. Then we break in and steal some clothes to better blend in, before we head into the city.”
“I know the mission plan,” Naralena replied.
Jessica could feel the tone in Naralena’s voice. “Look, if there…”
“You don’t have to say it, Jess,” Naralena replied. “I know. It sucks, but I know why it had to be done. So, I’m good.”
Jessica looked at Naralena. “Good to know, Avakian,” she replied. “Let’s move out.”
* * *
Sergeant Torwell sat in his jump seat just behind the cargo shuttle’s flight crew, facing aft through the narrow central corridor that connected the shuttle’s flight deck with its cargo deck. He stared at the ten Ghatazhak soldiers sitting in the cargo section, five along each side. They were as they had been since departure… unmoving. “Thirty-seven hours and it’s still creepin’ me out.”
“You’ve said that every hour, on the hour, since we jumped into the system,” the shuttle’s copilot stated as he stretched and yawned. “You would think cold-coasting so close to a Jung fleet would be what bothered you.”
“How can you sleep with those zombies sitting back there?” the sergeant wondered.
Ensign Latfee turned and looked at the sergeant as he finished yawning. “Those what?”
“Zombies,” the sergeant replied. “You know, the walking dead. They eat flesh…”
“You’ve been reading too many old Terran novels,” the ensign replied. “Those things will rot your brain. Try moving forward a few centuries in the literature database… before you turn into one yourself.”
“You know,” the pilot chimed in, “I was seriously considering not warning you that we were coming up on the deploy point.”
Sergeant Torwell rotated his seat to his right, looking over his shoulder at the lieutenant piloting the shuttle. “You suck… sir.”
“Oh!” Ensign Latfee moaned. “You blew it, Kainan! That would have been fantastic!”
“How long?” an unfamiliar voice came over their comm-sets.
The sergeant jumped. “Oh, fuck!”
“You see!” Ensign Latfee exclaimed. “It could have been a hundred times better if you hadn’t opened your mouth.”
“Two minutes,” the lieutenant replied over the comms. He lowered his visor and activated the seal in order to pressurize his suit. “Close up, gentlemen.”
Sergeant Torwell rose from his seat and headed aft as he lowered his visor and activated the seal. He looked at the Ghatazhak lieutenant, who was smiling in the usual sinister fashion of the Ghatazhak. “Very funny, sir,” the sergeant responded as he took his seat at the forward end of the cargo deck.
“Ghatazhak!” Lieutenant Dorn beckoned. “Prepare to deploy.”
The remaining nine Ghatazhak soldiers, all clad in Ghatazhak space-jump suits opened their eyes, nearly in simultaneous fashion.
“You see, that’s creepy as well,” the sergeant exclaimed. “Maybe you guys could open your eyes one at a time or something.”
The sergeant was met with more sinister smiles from several of the Ghatazhak soldiers, as well as a look of casual disapproval from Lieutenant Dorn.
“Just a thought,” the sergeant replied as he swung the control console out from the side and in front of him. “Starting depress cycle.”
“Minute thirty,” the copilot called out over the comms.
“Decreasing cargo bay gravity to fifty percent,” the sergeant added. “Releasing clamps and umbilicals.”
The Ghatazhak rose carefully from their seats as the clamps holding them in place disengaged from the mooring points on their jump rigs, then they turned aft.
“Depress complete,” the sergeant reported. “Deploying cargo ramp.”
The top edge of the aft bulkhead parted from the ceiling of the shuttle, and began to swing outward, pivoting on its deck-level hinges, slowly revealing the starry blackness of space behind them.
“One minute,” the copilot announced as the cargo ramp leveled off.
“Ramp gravity is at twenty-five percent, gentlemen,” the sergeant announced, “so tread carefully.”
The Ghatazhak did not respond as they slowly lumbered out the open aft end of the cargo shuttle. As they stepped out onto the bulkhead that was now a ramp extending into open space, they felt themselves, and the massive jump rigs they carried, become lighter. The moved slowly out onto the ramp in two lines, then, once in position, they turned to face forward.
“I trust you have us facing in the correct direction,” Lieutenant Dorn said as he turned to face forward.
“Pitched up to the correct attitude more than an hour ago,” the copilot replied. “Thirty seconds to deployment point.”
“Final checks,” the lieutenant instructed his men.
“Ten, good.”
“Nine, good.”
“Eight, good.”
The Ghatazhak continued to count off, one by one, until all nine of the lieutenant’s men had reported ready for deployment.
“One, good,” the lieutenant said, ending the count off. “Ready for deployment.”
“Ten seconds,” Ensign Latfee reported. “Stand by to disengage ramp gravity. Stand by to translate down relative.”
“Standing by,” the pilot replied.
“Deploy in three……two……one……”
“Ramp gravity off,” the sergeant announced.
Lieutenant Dorn felt his body become even lighter as the ramp’s gravity disappeared.
“Translating down relative,” the pilot reported.
The lieutenant watched the open aft end of the cargo shuttle in which they had spent the last fifteen hours slowly move downward and away from them. He could feel his feet lose contact with the cargo shuttle’s loading ramp, as it moved away from them. “Positive separation,” he confirmed over the comms.
“One meter separation and increasing,” the copilot reported.
Sergeant Torwell watched as the legs of the ten Ghatazhak soldiers rose upward, finally disappearing from view. “Jumpers are clear,” he announced. “Closing up.”
Lieutenant Dorn looked downward as the shuttle’s large aft cargo ramp began to swing upward again. Being the forward-most element in the formation of free-floating Ghatazhak meant that if
the ramp would clear him, it would clear them all.
“Two meters separation,” the copilot reported.
The lieutenant watched the ramp swing closed, once again sealing off the aft end of the cargo shuttle. “We are clear.”
“Changing course,” the copilot announced. “Turning to departure heading. Three meters separation.”
The lieutenant watched as the cargo shuttle fired its maneuvering thrusters, yawing to port and pitching down and away from the Ghatazhak. A moment later, it fired its four main thrusters at very low power and began to pull away from the formation of Ghatazhak, heading for one of the nearby moons of Weldon.
The lieutenant angled his head upward, looking at the distant planet ahead of them. At their current speed, it would take them nearly five Takaran days to reach their target and begin their descent to the surface. It would be the longest low-metabolic state sleep he and his men had ever attempted, and it would take them right to the limits of their life-support systems. Unfortunately, it could not be helped. Had they allowed the shuttle to move any closer, the likelihood of being detected by the Jung forces in orbit over Weldon would increase dramatically. As it was, they had to time their transition precisely to remain far away from the ships orbiting above the planet, in order to increase their chances of reaching the surface undetected. If any of those ships were to change orbit, if a new ship was to arrive at an inopportune time, or if one of those ships happened to notice a small, man-made metallic object coasting past them a few hundred kilometers away, the mission would be over.
“Seven meters separation,” the shuttle’s copilot reported as the shuttle continued its low-power burn to alter its course to take it around the far side of the nearby moon. “We’ll be beyond local comms range in ten seconds, Lieutenant.”
“Understood.”
“Good luck, sir,” Ensign Latfee said, his voice becoming faint and garbled as the shuttle continued to move away from them.
The lieutenant did not respond, knowing that the shuttle was already beyond the range limits of their local comms. He glanced at the data display on the inside of his visor. Their trajectory and speed was perfect, and the countdown timer to the next way point was running. “Gentlemen, time to go back to sleep.”
Sergeant Torwell returned to his jump seat at the back of the flight deck and swung up his faceplate. “I still can’t believe those guys are going to float out there for five days.” The sergeant removed his helmet. “Are they really going to zombie-sleep the entire time?”
“How the hell did you even find such books?” Lieutenant Kainan wondered. “There have got to be millions of titles from the last Terran century alone, and from all of them, you chose zombies?”
“Josh turned me onto them.”
“Figures,” Ensign Latfee said.
“And why would you listen to Cadet Hayes?” the lieutenant wondered. “The kid’s an idiot.”
“He’s one hell of a pilot, though,” Ensign Latfee defended.
“Being a great pilot doesn’t mean he’s not an idiot,” the lieutenant insisted.
“I don’t know,” the sergeant said. “He seems pretty smart to me. He’s well read, that’s for sure.”
“It’s only because he has so much cold-coast time under his belt,” the lieutenant insisted.
“One minute to orbit,” Ensign Latfee reported.
“Perhaps you should be taking your reading recommendations from Cadet Sheehan,” the lieutenant suggested. “He appears to be the brains of that team.”
“Perhaps you’re right,” the sergeant said. “He reads mostly tech manuals. At least they would put me to sleep. Then I wouldn’t have to stare at those damned zombie Ghatazhak the whole time.”
“We’re on orbital intercept trajectory for Markus,” Ensign Latfee announced.
“Very well,” the lieutenant replied. “We should be on the far side in about seven hours. Then we can power up and jump home.”
“I can’t wait,” the sergeant exclaimed with a sigh of relief. “Being this close to the Jung just does not sit right with me.”
“It doesn’t sit right with any of us, Sergeant,” the lieutenant agreed. “But someone has to do it.”
“Just do me a favor, sir, and don’t volunteer us next time. Give someone else a chance, will you?”
CHAPTER FOUR
“What makes you so sure no one will come home?” Naralena asked in a whisper as they moved along the back side of the small home.
“We’ve been watching this house for hours,” Jessica explained, “ever since sunrise. Hell, we’ve been watching all of the homes around here. Only one person left for work, and no one came home from work the entire morning. It’s early afternoon already,” she continued, pointing at the sun’s position in the Koharan sky. “I’m pretty sure that most of these are vacation homes.”
“What are vacation homes?” Naralena wondered.
“Small homes outside of big cities, usually someplace quiet and relaxing. People go there on the weekends to get away from the city.”
“You people have more than one home?” Naralena was shocked at the luxury.
“Not everyone,” Jessica replied as she stepped up on the back porch of the home. “My family didn’t. Of course, we lived in an area where most people wanted to have a vacation home, so…” Jessica lifted her jacket’s waistband and pulled a small, Takaran energy pistol out of her belt.
“I thought you said no one would be home?” Naralena wondered, noticing the weapon.
“Telles taught me a trick,” she replied as she manipulated the controls on the weapon. “If you put this thing on a super-low power setting, you can use it to discharge a small amount of superheated plasma. The Ghatazhak use something similar to start campfires in the field.”
“You’re going to burn the door down?”
“No,” Jessica replied, shaking her head in dismay. “I’m going to try and melt a hole in the glass so that I can open the door.”
“Sorry,” Naralena said, noticing Jessica’s reaction. “I don’t have much experience in special operations.”
Jessica placed the tip of the weapon’s barrel against the window glass just above the doorknob and pressed the trigger. The pistol began to emit a barely audible whine as a red-hot circle appeared in the glass around the tip of its barrel. Jessica instinctively pulled the weapon away as she released the trigger, feeling the intense heat from the melting glass. “Damn, that is hot,” she said. The glowing red circle gradually faded away, revealing a ten centimeter hole in the glass, with still-molten glass cooling and congealing around the edge. “It worked,” she declared as she positioned the weapon for a second shot. A moment later, the ten centimeter circle had become an oval, and after a third shot, it was more than big enough for Jessica to stick her hand through without getting burned by the still-hot edges.
“What if there is an alarm?”
“Does this place look like the kind of home that would have an alarm?”
Naralena looked at the dilapidated structure and the unkempt yard. “I guess not.”
“There is only one way to find out,” Jessica said as she reached down the inside of the door and unlocked it. She carefully withdrew her hand, then turned the knob and pulled the door open slowly, pausing after it was open about twenty centimeters to see if an alarm went off. She looked at Naralena for several seconds. “Nothing. No alarm.” She pulled the door all the way opened and slipped inside. “Come on,” she instructed, ushering Naralena inside and closing the door again behind her.
Jessica reached up and pulled down the shade over the window she had just burned a hole in and then stood upright again. “First we do a quick search to make sure no one is home,” she whispered.
“What do we do if we find someone?” Naralena asked, her eyes widening and a look of uncertainty on her face.
“Subdue and detain.”
Naralena’s eyes became even wider. “Of course,” she whispered following Jessica into the next room.
> They entered the living room of the home and moved quietly across to the small hallway on the other side of the room. Jessica could see out the small, eye-level window in the front door to the street outside as they passed, noting that there was still no traffic going by.
Jessica moved down the hallway, her small energy pistol still in her right hand. She stopped at an open doorway to her left and peeked inside. It was a small bedroom, with a single bed, a dresser, and a small desk. It appeared to be a child’s room, and it was unoccupied.
Inspections of the next two bedrooms revealed similar results. Beds, dressers, chairs, wardrobes… but no people.
“It looks like no one is home,” Jessica announced. “And judging by the temperature in here, they haven’t been here within the last day or two.”
A look of relief washed across Naralena’s face. “What do we do now?”
“You start going through the master bedroom. Look for anything that might be of use to us. Clothing, whatever kind of currency or payment devices they might use. Portable comm devices, wireless phones, computing devices.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I saw something in the living room that looked like a computer terminal. Intel says this world has a global public network, so I’m going to see if we can access it.”
* * *
Abby sat at her desk, studying the most recent expansion proposals for Terran settlement on Tanna. Although she often thought about her days on the Aurora, as well as the years she had spent with her father developing the jump drive, she was happy to have a normal life once again. As mundane as her job might seem, it did allow her to keep regular, predictable hours, and it even provided a degree of flexibility as well. The lack of mental stimulation was a small price to pay for the ability to be with her family, to share meals with them, and kiss them goodnight… every night. It was a luxury that had all too often been sacrificed during the decade-long development project. Even worse had been the fact that, as a result of that decade of sacrifice, she had been separated from her family for nearly a year. However, that was all in the past. Now, she was where she wanted to be, living the life that she had so desperately missed all those years, and with each and every moment, she tried her best to make up for all the lost time. Never again would she return to that life. Never again would she put her family second… Not for anything.