Archaea 2: Janis

by Dain White

  We continued climbing, one more level to the exit. The kids were moving slowly and I realized none of them had shoes – they were wearing what looked like canvas slippers like common prisoners, and the metal of the stairs was hurting their feet. I took two of the smallest children in my arms and bounded them up the stairs two at a time to set them at the landing.

  “I want a piggy-back! I want a piggy-back!” one of the smaller ones squealed, as I set her down. Clearly the crisis of the moment hadn't really registered on her, and I hoped it never would.

  I checked my holo, kicking myself for forgetting earlier. There was no one between us and the exit, though there were a number of hostiles moving in the vicinity of the landing platform.

  “Jane, we're clear – let's move out.” I waved down the hall, and we set out.

  “Captain, we are 30 seconds to the exit.”

  “Very well Yak, we are inbound.”

  Right then, a shrieking alarm blared out, and all the kids screamed.

  *****

  “Sir, an alarm has been triggered!” Pauli yelled back as we moved up the slope on lifters towards the station entrance.

  “Very well Pauli, do what you can to cover them son.”

  “Aye sir”

  I started the turbines as we approached, the vanes spinning up behind us making a light whining hum as we sighted Yak through the blowing snow, waving anxiously.

  I whipped the gig around smartly and cycled the hatch open while dropping lifters.

  “Gene, warm her up, we are on our way home”, I said as Yak came aboard, followed by what sounded like a bunch of very cold, very scared kids

  “Aye skipper, fly right.” Gene said immediately.

  “Will do Gene, thanks. Pauli, status report.” I asked off comms, turning up the cabin heater.

  “Sir, we have locked down every outgoing channel, and Janis is making a mess of their systems.”

  “Nice. Let's make it cold in there, Pauli.”

  “Cold, aye sir.” he laughed.

  I swiveled my chair, and got my first look at our new passengers, a very full cabin of very little people looking at me with very wide eyes. I whipped on my most confidence inspiring eyebrow, and dazzling smile.

  “Good evening kids, my name is Captain Dak Smith, and I am going to be flying us out of here tonight. You are all very brave, and I am going to need you to be even more brave for me okay?”

  The kids all cheered and started talking at once. This was going great, kids love flying.

  “Kids, Jane is going to come around and help each of you secure into what we call crash bars. They are going to hold you really right, and you'll feel the cushions push up as well, like a great big hug. These are hug chairs, don't be scared!”

  “Sir, their drop ship is ramping up now, it looks like they are about to launch”, Pauli called back.

  “Very well Pauli, keep me posted son”, I called down as I swiveled forward, then added on comms, “One more thing kids, it's going to get pretty loud in here when the engines start, and when we fly you will be tossed around a little bit – but don't worry, we're going to be just fine. This is going to be a lot of fun, like a ride!”

  As I said that, I felt bad. These kids have never been on a ride, they've only seen the inside of this damned station on this frozen damn planet. Thinking about what sort of man could do this to another man, made me want to spit.

  The turbines were ramping up as I slid us back away from the station, one of the last things I saw was a small group of men tumbling out of the entrance tunnel and getting in position to start firing, then I dropped the hammer and we screamed off into the night.

  “Sir, they have launched!” Pauli screamed.

  “Pauli, steady there son... we're fine.” I said, as calmly as I could. “There's no reason to lose control son, we have some scared passengers back there.”

  “Sorry sir, it's just... ok. Sorry.” he said sheepishly.

  “That's fine, Pauli. Stay calm and keep on them son. Anything Janis can do?”

  “Sir she's not resident in their systems, they were never in range of her network. She is jamming them, sir”

  “Well, they have us on thermal now, and we can't really hide from them at this point, son.” As I said that, I knew they had us. We could squirrel around as much as we wanted, all they had to do was hold a high track and keep us on visual.

  “Janis, I am going to go on the offensive here. Can you please take control of the railers?”

  “Certainly sir.”

  “Okay everybody, I am going to do some tricky flying now. Hang on!” I said, as brightly as I could. The terrain mapper showed a spur of a mountain reaching far down into the valley, like a wall.

  At the very bottom, I rolled us to the left and hauled back, feathering the pedals to ride the upward slope along the ridge, climbing to the top of the peak. It was a pretty tight maneuver, and I had us right down on the slope, hopefully it was enough to break their track.

  I flexed my fingers on the stick as the top of the ridge approached, as if in slow motion. At the peak, I hauled back on the stick and kicked us over with the pedals as I lined up on the shot with a picture perfect wing-over.

  The dropship didn't know what was coming, and I knew we weren't going to miss. As my thumb twitched on the firing stud, the railers fired, twin beams of high energy shot blazing into the blowing snow, again, and again. Ahead of us, a titanic flash of light as the dropship was hit, and as it fell, another, and another. I stood on the port wing and hauled us back over, as the dropship impacted on the slope below in a massive explosion that backlit the blowing snow.

  “Nice, sir” Pauli said, in a tiny voice.

  “It's unfortunate that they didn't just let it go, but... that's the way it goes. They didn't really have a chance.”

  I didn't really feel very good about it, but the sound of the kids behind me... that made me smile, despite the burning wreckage on the slope behind us.

  *****

  The tokamak was ramped, and we were as ready for launch as we could get. I took a last look at my screens, and pushed a shiny green status to the captain's boards.

  “Janis, how far away is the Captain?”

  “Gene, the captain is 2 minutes out, according to his current rate of speed.”

  “Thank you Janis, is the coffee hot?”

  “It is, Gene.”

  I made my way out of engineering, and up to the hoist controls. A quick glance to make sure the deck was clear, and I cycled the deck hatch open, filling the cargo bay with blowing snow. I brought the hoist over and started it dropping right as the sound of the gig's turbines winding down filled the bay and the gig slid into view.

  The gig clamp was magnetically driven, once I got it lined up, it was a push-button sort of process, and I had the gig warping in within moments and the deck hatch closing. I held it right off the deck and waved at the captain as soon as the hatch closed. He nodded and the gig hatch cycled open.

  Yak stepped out and jumped down off the wing, his helmet visor popped and a broad smile across his face. He waved up at me, and then Shorty bounced out. Her tactical gear was a shocking pink, with what looked like a yellow racing stripe, and I noticed Yak had what looked like Hawaiian flowers slowly crawling across his armor.

  I was blinking my eyes and wondering if maybe I should have taken a little longer of a nap, when one after the other, small children tumbled out of the gig, laughing and giggling, dangling their feet as Jane swung them out and down, into Yak's waiting arms.

  Children... there had to have been 20, maybe 30 of them, crawling all over everything in the cargo bay, running around. I couldn't keep track of them, they moved too fast.

  Dak climbed out of the hatch, followed by Pauli, who looked as green as the old country. Poor kid. I really felt bad for him, the captain was really an exceptional pilot, but only he knew it, the rest of us feared it. Now Pauli was in that secret club, the small group of people who have seen the edge, who have pushed completel
y through the envelope.

  Dak waved me up, and I started the hoist, lifting the gig clear of the deck as Yak and Shorty led the children up the ladder towards the inner lock.

  “Dak, those are kids.” I said, as he came up the catwalk towards me, a smile plastered on his face from ear to ear.

  “Yes, they sure are. Amazingly resilient. Less than 30 minutes ago, they were prisoners, probably doomed to an inconsequential existence in the darkest heart of the most faceless glom. And now, they're kids. Happy kids too!”

  “What about the indents, Dak? The mission?”

  “Well, it changed, Gene. The indents are all gone. We were too late--” he stopped as he saw my face fall, and reached out. “No Gene, we were fast enough getting here, but we didn't know soon enough. They've been dying here for weeks now, and there's no one left, except one fellow at a seismo station, and these poor kids. They've been isolated from the indents the whole time, they probably don't even remember their parents. They've been living in a room the size of this cargo bay most of their lives.”

  “Damn, sir.”

  “Yes, I agree. I couldn't leave them. Cal Emerson and the rest of his people on Vega 6 need them.”

  “Absolutely sir, well done.” I knuckled away a tear that welled up in my eye, and swallowed a lump.

  Captain Dak left me there, leaking at the corners, as I warped the gig up to the racks, and got it locked.

  *****

  Yak was completely covered in kids. He had kids holding on to each of his legs, kids on each arm, kids on his shoulders, and kids hanging from his elbows as he tried to walk around in the ward room. Gene had stowed the table and chairs, and installed acceleration hammocks two deep all the way through the room. It was the perfect little bunk room for a room full of little kids.

  “Don't let him get away!” I yelled across the room, as he struggled under the mad crush of the children, desperately trying to pull him flat. Yak was having none of it, though. He was laughing, a great big belly laugh that rang out across the Archaea, as he fought to stay standing.

  Finally, it was too much. Two of the bigger kids had managed to wrap themselves around the backs of his knees and slowly, surely, and probably on purpose, Yak was falling. He fell with grace and style, collapsing slowly along a hammock as the kids shrieked with delight, they had felled the giant!

  “All hands, please secure for launch in five minutes. Five minutes on the clock.” The captain said on the 1MC.

  “Okay kids” I yelled across the screaming wiggling pile of children covering every inch of Yak. “That was the captain, let's get you ready for launch!”

  They were great kids, and listened to 'Miss Jane' as they called me. I really preferred that to 'Shorty', of course. Seeing these little kidlets all racing around and having fun really made me glow inside. Yak and I got them snuggled in to each hammock, and explained to them that it was only for a short while, then we would be floating like birds.

  They didn't know what a bird was, and the reality of what we were doing really crushed down on me for a moment, and I suddenly couldn't see through the tears. Yak touched my arm, and looked down at me with his big dumb old smile, and I smiled back. I smiled down at the little boy with the apple-red cheeks named Avery, and he smiled back.

  “60 seconds to launch, please get to your stations at this time.” the captain said, as we secured the last little one deep into her hammock. I explained to her that an acceleration hammock was like being inside the warmest, softest hug, the inner web was going to inflate, and hold them tight, and before they knew it, we'd be back. They were all very excited, this was a big adventure.

  Yak smiled at me as we climbed up the ladder toward the gun deck, and I chucked him on the shoulder as he headed up to the bridge. Yak was good people, the best. I watched him go with a smile so secret, I hardly knew it was happening.

  *****

  Yak slipped through the bridge and into his station like his feet were on fire, perfect timing with twenty seconds to go. As he pulled down his crash bars and clipped in, I worked through my boards, racing my own deadline for launch, trying to win. It was a game I played every single time, sometimes I won, sometimes I lost, but we always launched on zero.

  “Are they all settled in back there Yak?” I asked.

  “Yes sir, what a great bunch of kids. They're more excited than scared.”

  “Well, this is going to be a nice mellow launch, I have already scared them enough today.”

  “Captain, if I told you I was scared, would you take it easy on me?” Pauli asked innocently.

  “Pauli, I always take it easy on you son”, I said with a smile so effortless, it even surprised me.

  Pauli and Yak both groaned, and I started lifting the Archaea for orbit on a nice flat parabolic arc.

  “Sir, please be advised, orbitals are showing an incoming vessel on orbital insertion burn.”

  “Very well Janis. What mass please?”

  “Sir, I am unable to confirm via gravimetrics as we are currently on the opposite side of Solis, but from orbital data, I believe it to be a capital-class ship.”

  “Yak, please designate this new target Sierra-two”

  “Sierra-two, aye.”

  This was shaping up to be one of those days. A capital ship was a significant threat, enormous, very well armed and heavily armored. A destroyer was one thing, but a fleet of destroyers might not have enough firepower to take on a capital ship. The service only has a few, I've only been on one in my entire career, when I was brevetted captain and enjoyed a luncheon with the Admiral.

  Gloms, however... money is absolutely no object for a glom like Americo Ventures. They own entire planets, entire systems... they practically own this entire arm. I was starting to get that little feeling, just a little tiny feeling...of doubt.

  “Janis, our current course has us slipping in twelve hours, roughly. Is there any possibility we can slip earlier?”

  “Sir, I am sorry, Solis has moved into a system zone that has a high incidence of meteoric activity, and we need to get clear first. I am unable to plot a slip course at this time, sir.”

  My heart started to sink, but just a bit. Maybe a few inches in the bilge – not a real leak, just seepage. I stomped my foot down on it and ignored the little stream of water that flooded in. Analogies be damned, I had to save these kids. Time to do what we do best.

  “Shorty, I need maximum ramp on our main gun. Please prep for continual burn, and report soonest.”

  “Maximum ramp, prep for continual, aye sir”, Shorty said calmly. A low rumble started vibrating the deck.

  “Yak, I need a firing solution as soon as possible. I want a solution for maximum range, son”

  “Maximum range solution, aye” Yak said, whispering to Janis on comms.

  As we clawed our way to space on our reasonably flat, long parabolic curve, I knew that it was only a matter of time before they had us. We were on a classic low delta-v Hohmann transfer, climbing towards high orbit, and they were moving much faster, braking for orbital insertion.

  In other words, they already had speed on us, and the only way we could remain in front of them, was crush those poor kids in an 8g burn. I could do that to Pauli or Yak without even a first thought, but I had plenty of second thoughts doing that to kids that have never been to space.

  If I changed our angle of attack, or altered course to try and reach a different course, we would slow down even more, which would require yet another kid-crushing burn.

  The more I hammered on orbital mechanics equations, the more I realized we were probably in for a fight.

  “Pauli, are the systems on that ship hackable?”

  “Sir, we are working on that now. They are in range and communicating with orbital systems, and Janis has been trying to block their comms traffic and get a hook on their internal network, but... she can't, sir.”

  “Can't? Impossible. Janis can do anything.”

  “Well, yes... but... something's different here.”
<
br />   “Is it another AI?”

  “It could be sir, we are working pretty hard to crack it.”

  “Pauli, you have... less than 5 minutes, son. If that ship ranges us, we will be roasted in our own juices. I can't stress enough how important this is.”

  “Weapons, outgoing turret fire!” Shorty had to speak loudly into comms, the background sound in her station was sounding pretty ominous.

  I punched the collision alarm, and realized that I probably just scared our passengers half to death. I mashed the 1MC and took a deep breath.

  “Hi kids, this is Captain Dak Smith again – I hope you're having fun! We're currently climbing for a higher orbit, and will be headed out-system to Vega 6 just as soon as we can. I know this is all very strange, but I want to reassure you there is nothing to be scared about. Miss Jane is going to be making some noise soon as she powers up some of her systems, and it might be a very big noise... but it's completely normal, she ends up doing this pretty much every time we fly.”

  Yak and Pauli almost collapsed in gales of nervous laughter, laughing until they were both choking and spitting. Despite an ominous sense of impending doom screaming for attention, I couldn't help but join in. If we were going to go down, we might as well go down with a serious case of the giggles.

  The moment didn't last very long, unfortunately. As I watched the clouds of Solis below us rolling past, I knew the clock was ticking, counting down towards an inevitable conclusion, our fates were set. All I could do, was the best I could – and maybe a bit more if the opportunity presented itself.

  “Sir, I am now tracking... forty-five fast-movers inbound from 180, range... 16,800 kilometers, closing at 22km/s... designate Masters five through fifty.” Yak said in a voice that sounded admirably calm.

  “Very well Yak, please keep an eye on them.”

  “Sir I will... sir, targets are down!”

  I raised another eyebrow. “Janis dear, nice shooting.”