“Amazing. This room’s a keeper. Let’s keep going and see what else we can find.”
The rest of the officer’s quarters were as bare of personal effects as the first two staterooms. Nothing had been left behind, just a few bars of soap and some dried up shampoo in one of the showers. The rooms were pretty nice, though. All of them had wood paneling, nice carpet on the floors, marble tile in the bathrooms, frosted glass mirrors and gold fixtures, nice heavy hardwood furniture and built in cabinetry. The two girls wandered out of the officer’s quarters hallway and walked further north down the main corridor.
The next two hallways over were more Spartan, just the same old tile as the main corridors only in blue and plain metal doors to each room, with a number on each door. The rooms didn’t have personal bathrooms like the officer’s quarters did. Each of the twenty or so rooms had just a sink and a mirror next to a small closet. There was a communal shower room at the far end of the hallway with all stainless steel sinks and fixtures. A few of the rooms had just two bunks in them, set into the walls for the senior enlisted men. The others had four bunks in each room. The girls didn’t know it, but there were storage compartments under the mattresses. If they had lifted each one they might have found a few personal items, but the former tenants really hadn’t left much of anything behind. Someone had even taken out all the trash before they left, all the trashcans were empty.
At the far end of the main corridor they found another big open room behind a glass wall, the crew’s lounge. In it were a few low end tables and quite a few heavily worn sofas and easy chairs. There were also a couple of card tables set up with colored round plastic chips in dispensers in the middle. The décor was rather plain, solid colors more like you’d find in a lounge in a cheap hotel, with thick dirty carpet on the floor. There was another big vid screen at the far end of the room, with a lowered floor area in front of it full of large worn colored pillows. Opening the cabinets on the sides of the room the girls found assorted board games, stacks of playing cards, a few small old personal vid players, miscellaneous weights for exercising, and assorted plastic cups, utensils and bowls for snacks. There was even a stack of food trays and stands for holding them while sitting in the chairs and couches. The dart boards on the side wall looked about ready to fall apart, they had been used so much. Two doors off the main lounge were locked, but the girls didn’t try to open them. One had a sign above it that said “Ship’s Store” with hours posted below it, and the other said “Library”. Ariel decided the Library needed to be checked out later. The keys should be around the facility somewhere, they just had to find them. The lounge had an odd smell to it, so the girls didn’t stay very long.
Ariel and Tarra headed back down the main corridor back out towards the mezzanine around the upper hanger. “I can hear the boys making noise down there somewhere.” Ariel said with a royal accent and a big grin. “Shall we stroll down and see what they’re up to my dear?”
“Indubitably. Lead the way, my dear.” Tarra accented her speech and began walking as if she were in a large ball gown holding up her train with her fingers, with a stately crown on her head. The two giggled and paraded down the corridor in style to see what the guys had been up to for the last hour.
The guys had headed straight down the corridor towards the pilot entrances to the mech bays. They were all business. Mechs (if they still worked) meant they could defend their ranches and homes against the pirates, and that was serious business. All of the guys were proficient in piloting battle mechs, at least on the simulators at home they were. A real mech might be a bit of a challenge.
Bjorn wanted to get an inventory of what they had to work with first. “Lets see what we’ve got here guys. I see a Shadow Cat and a Vulture, classic designs. Across on the other side I see an ancient Rifleman, probably refurbished and brought up to date with new electronics.”
Sven chimed in next, “I see a brand new Deimos on the end on the opposite side, those haven’t even been out very long. How old did you say this place was? That mech puts it at less than fifty years old. I don’t think this place has been abandoned for as long as you thought it was, Bjorn. That mech’s practically brand new.”
Zane identified the next two mechs, “That one’s a Chimera, it’s practically brand new too. That gigantic Mad Cat Mark II down on the end is only a dozen years older. Bjorn, these mechs are all front line machines. What the heck are they doing here?”
“Well, that ancient Panther over there isn’t brand new.” Dan finally recognized one he knew. “That sucker is almost three hundred years old like the Rifleman.”
“Not necessarily.” Hai was the real statistics fan of the group. “Some of the older designs are still being manufactured, only with upgraded weapons systems and electronics suites. I’ll bet they’ve been heavily upgraded, especially since all of the other mechs are newer. They appear to be in decent condition too, no battle damage that I can see.”
“What do you suppose they have parked in those garages down there on the end by the Mad Cat?”
“I don’t know, but we’re almost to the stairs in the north east corner. Let’s go down and find out.” The guys clattered down the stairs three levels to the floor level of the hanger bay and walked over to the first open garage.
“Looks like a couple of Myrmidon Tanks, two heavy Demolisher tanks, and several lightly armored sand rails. Wow, Sven. We’ve got enough heavy hardware in here to start our own army.” Bjorn was in awe of all the equipment that was stored in hanger.
Zane pointed off to the last garage on the opposite side of the hanger. “It looks like this last garage was for Battle Armor, but they took all of those with them. Dang! I was hoping to try out an Infiltrator or something. I’ve always liked those, they look really mean.”
“What, Zane, a full sized mech just isn’t enough for you?” Sven said with a sneer on his face. His eyes had glazed over, he couldn’t wait to get in one of the Battle Mechs and try it out. “This is SOOO RAD!”
“Alright, guys. Which one do we want to start with? We’ll get farther faster if a few of us gang up on one machine. Hai, you’re the electronics guru, you’re with us.” Bjorn was the most organized in his thinking. He was also a bit older than the others.
“How about the big Mad Cat?” Sven had always liked that design, plus it was the biggest machine in the lot. “Back to the top, men. We need to see if we can figure out how to open the cockpit hatch. That would be first on the list.”
“Hey Zane, lets see if we can get that old tank moving. I’ll bet we get in there faster than they make it into that mech!” Dan liked tanks. They were simpler to pilot and in some ways a lot meaner.
“Right, I’m right behind you. Wow, this is amazing. Just don’t pull any triggers, we don’t want to destroy our own base. Wait until we get it outside first, got it?”
“Yah, right. We don’t want to do what that guy did in that movie we watched last week. He really screwed up.”
The guys scattered in different directions to try, but not one of them had any idea what it took to actually get into any of the machines…”
Chapter 13 “Mech Startup” –––––––––––––––––––
Ariel and Tarra came walking from the mezzanine onto the landing at the top of the Mad Cat Mark II where the guys were working on the mech. Hai had his code cracker out, plugged into the card slot on the side of the mech at the end of the access bridge. “What’cha doin’ guys.” Tarra said with a smirk.
“What does it look like, Queenie. We’re trying to get the cockpit door open on this mech. It’s not cooperating.” Sven was frustrated, they’d been at it for a while and still were totally locked out of the machine. “Hai’s door cracker isn’t working very well. We don’t have the access card and it’s got a military encrypted lock on it. Every time we try the cracker, it blocks us out of the software for ten minutes before it resets. We may not be able to get it open this trip.”
Ariel
winked at Tarra and nodded towards the hallway with a sly look in her eye. Tarra knew right away she had an idea and casually followed Ariel off the landing. Sven was too focused on Hai to notice. Bjorn was holding the cracker for Hai, he was busy too and Jake was leaning over Bjorn trying to see what was going on with the mech on the access screen.
Ariel leaned towards Tarra and whispered “I’ll bet the key cards are in one of these offices. All we have to do is figure out which one.” The girls strolled down the hallway towards the cafeteria so they could start checking all of the rooms all the way around the mezzanine. “I’ll bet the office we want is closer to the mess hall on this side rather than the other side. Remember all the parts rooms we saw on the other side? We know it’s probably not over there.” Tarra nodded in agreement.
The room just east of the cafeteria looked interesting through the window, it looked more like the main administration office. “Let’s try in here. The door is unlocked.” Inside they found two secretary desks, lots of file cabinets, and a door leading to the administrator’s office. “Rifle through all the drawers, see if you can find any keys or key cards.” Ariel and Tarra went through all the drawers, with no luck. “Just a bunch of pens, papers, tape, and boring paperwork. Nothing in here. Let’s try the next one.”
The next room was the Captain’s and XO’s offices, with a secretary office in front. The tile was marble and all the furniture in it was carved wood and very heavy. “Hey, I’ll bet the keys are in here somewhere. Wouldn’t you think the CO would end up with the keys right before everyone left for good?”
“Right.” Tarra commented with a nod. “We’d better make a thorough search of these two offices. You take the Captain’s office, I’ll take the XO’s.” The girls dug through every drawer and underneath every set of files in every corner of the offices. “Keys! I found some keys!” Tarra came up with a big wad of metal keys all hooked together on about a dozen smaller key rings. “They were in the back of the bottom file cabinet drawer, underneath the file folders. The XO had ‘em.”
“Yes! Now we just have to figure out where all the access cards went. Let’s try the next door down.” The two walked quickly to the next door, which happened to be locked. Ariel peeked in the small window to see what it looked like inside. “Hmmm, it’s got a lot of big brown chairs in rows on landings facing a white board lower down. Kinda like a fancy classroom or somethin’.”
Tarra started trying keys. It took a few minutes, but she managed to unlock the door. “Hey, this looks like a briefing room, a nice one too, big leather chairs and all. And there’s a door off the side that goes into the XO’s office. I’ll bet this is the pilot’s briefing room.”
“Look around. See if you can find a locked box somewhere, I’ll bet the key cards to the mechs are in here.”
“There’s a box attached to the wall down there on the right, just past the lecture thingy.” The box was locked.
Tarra started checking keys again and finally tried the one with the brown leather-like finger tab on it. “Here it is. I got it.” Opening the wooden door to the box, inside were rows of slots with a couple dozen key card badges, one for each vehicle in the hanger below. “Hey, each badge has a nice little picture on it. Neato. Find the one with that big ugly mech on it the boys were working on.”
Ariel found it, it was on the top left inside the box lid. “Ok, I got it. Let’s go show the boys and watch their mouths drop open!”
Ariel tried to bite her lip to keep from smiling too much while she scurried down the corridor towards the landing where the boys were struggling. The two girls giggled and walked up behind the guys who were still stooped over the side of the mech, still trying codes ten at a time and getting blocked out of the software over and over. Ariel leaned over and waved the key card in front of Bjorn’s face and said “Looking for thiiiiis?”
“Whoh! Where’d you get that!”
Ariel jerked the card back and held it next to her body.
“Oh, we just went down the hall and found it locked in the pilot’s briefing room. Tell me how smart I am, give me a kiss and I’ll let you have it.” She was grinning ear to ear.
Bjorn stepped up to the plate, put one arm behind her shoulders, gave her a big dip and kissed her roughly right on the lips. “You my dear, deserve a thousand kisses!” Picking her back up, “Now hand me that key card, please.”
Ariel had a stunned look on her face, but held up the card so Bjorn could take it. She was as surprised as everyone else. Bjorn had never shown that much affection for her in front of anyone else before. Ariel stepped back and licked her lips… She’d have to follow up on that one! I’ll get you later was what she was thinking. Tarra’s mouth was wide open. But, they’d already lost the guys. Hai had pulled the cracker card out of the side of the mech and Bjorn was inserting the key card into the slot. Jake and Sven were anxiously trying to see over Bjorn’s shoulder to see what would happen next. Bjorn winked back at Ariel.
A female voice emanated from the machine. “Access Granted. Please Stand Clear.” They heard a snap-click, then a hiss as the hatch started to open slowly. It didn’t open very far, though. Bjorn gave it a shove upwards and it opened the rest of the way. Lights were winking on inside the cockpit as systems powered up for the first time in years. The cockpit smelled of ozone and leather. “Reserve Power, Low. Recommend Reactor Startup.” Bjorn stepped over the sill and clambered down into the pilot’s seat.
Looking around the cockpit, “Where the heck is the reactor startup button? Guys, help me out here.”
Jake pointed at the flashing orange light on the dash on the left side. “Try that one over there, it seems like it wants you to push it.”
Bjorn leaned forwards and read the label underneath the light “Reactor Power. Yup, that’s it. Nice goin’ Jake.” Bjorn pushed the button and the mech rumbled heavily behind the cockpit. Red lights lit up all over the left indicator panels… then silence.
Picture Pack: Madcat Mark-II Cockpit
“Unable To Comply. Low Reactor Coolant Level.”
“Dang! I knew this was too good to be true. Alright guys, we need to find the maintenance diagnostic panel and the servicing manuals so we can figure out how to fill up the coolant tank. Sven, hunt around for the coolant hose and pump. See if you can figure out where it goes into the mech. Hai, see if you can find the maintenance computer panel.”
All of a sudden the lights in the facility dimmed appreciably… Then the mech had more to say. “Shore Power Level Dropping. Recommend Alternate Power Supply.”
Bjorn had a puzzled look on his face for a moment. “Oh, crap. We’ve been running the entire facility on batteries this whole time. Jake, find out where the fusion reactor is for the base. We need to get it online fast, before all the lights go out.”
Ariel piped in, “We know where the equipment room is by the cafeteria. Is that where the reactor would be?”
“Nope”, Jake said with a concerned look on his face. “I saw the reactor room door down below, down where Dan and Zane are. The door was locked, though.”
Bjorn had climbed out of the mech. “Come on, Jake, we need to head down below and find the controls to start up the reactor. Ariel, do you have the keys?”
“Nope, I’ve got ‘em.” Tarra held the big wad of keys up as she started jogging down the corridor to the stairs just to the north. The guys followed and headed down towards the power center for the facility.
It took some time, but the guys figured out how to get into the reactor control room and started up the fusion reactor. It wasn’t that different from the one installed at each of their family’s facilities. Fusion reactors were pretty common, they were the one thing everyone on Wayfarer had imported with them when they colonized the moon. Once all of the large breakers in the control room were closed, the lights came up to full power and they were able to get more equipment in the facility to power up.
The girls took a trip with Sven and Jake in the Ripsaw out to the
trailer to fix dinner and brought back food for everyone. All of their personal gear was in the two vehicles, and since nobody wanted to quit they decided to spend the night in the officer’s quarters in sleeping bags. It wasn’t too bad, once they figured out where the janitor’s equipment was located back by the kitchen. Ariel even managed to get the water pumps turned on, which drew in water from the river down below and filtered it before it flowed out of the faucets. Ventilation was another story, dust came pouring out of the vents and just about gagged everyone when the fans were turned on. It took a half hour for the air to clear, and then they had to re-vacuum all the rooms they wanted to use all over again.
It took Hai time to figure out where the coolant pump ‘ON’ switch was in the repair bay, where the hoses ran, and how to fill up the mech’s coolant tanks, but the guys managed. The manuals were thousands of pages long and multiple volumes, but at least they were illustrated. Hai spent an hour digging through the manuals on the maintenance panel screen until he finally managed to find the manual for the repair bay equipment and matched it up to the mech’s maintenance manual to locate the fill nozzle for the coolant on the mech. By the time the guys figured out the coolant problem everyone was exhausted. At least they had a nice place to sleep for the night. The girls took the CO’s and XO’s quarters, the guys moved into the other rooms down the hall past the wardroom, which had the guys in shock. The medieval armor was over the top radical, and the alien skull had Hai absolutely mesmerized.
The next morning the team met in the wardroom for breakfast, donuts, eggs, sausage, and some juice. The refrigerator still worked in the butler’s panty once it was turned back on, as did the hot plates now that the power was back up all the way. A lot of the lights that hadn’t worked before were now on, all it took was the right amount of power. Ariel found a frying pan in the kitchen and brought it down to use, along with some of the silver serving trays she found in the butler’s pantry. Sven cooked his own eggs since he wanted them scrambled a specific way, with cheese and a little maple syrup on them. Jake didn’t care, he ate anything.
The Styx Strikers Page 15