Salvage-5: The Next Mission (First Contact)
Page 17
Cass’s wireless returned static as she descended down inside the CSMO landing bay, “Tucker...do you read? Hargrove? Anyone!”
Cassie heard Sam’s voice, “I read you, Cass.”
“Not you! I know you can.”
“Hey! I’m just giving you a radio check.”
“I’m back inside the CSMO. Buster, you still have computer access?”
Cassie could hear rustling as Buster struggled to adjust his headset, “Yes, Major. I can control the doors from here.”
“Okay, so, can you roll them closed and pressurize this bay? The MECH won’t fit down these CSMO corridors like it did at the complex.”
“I’m on it.”
Cass looked up and watched the bay doors coming closed. A few moments later, she began to hear the hissing as air flooded the compartment. She walked the MECH over to the end of the bay to clear the flight deck and parked it. She powered down its main systems, and then popped open the lid.
Having to deal with gravity from the asteroid, she clumsily climbed down the MECH and unlocked the CSMO’s landing bay to the corridor.
The doors slid open and stopped with a clunk. Cass grabbed her rail gun, cocked it and removed the safety. Then she poked her head around the corner, looking both ways before entering the corridor.
“Sam, do you still read me?”
“Loud and clear, Major. Be careful down there, okay?”
“You don’t have to ta tell me twice, Captain. I’m going to the control room first. Then find where they went, and try and make contact...I’ll check in every 15.”
* * *
The Falcon
Location:
Kuiper Belt - En Route to 52 Europa
Earth Date: 04/16/2065 11:20
“Ve are five hourz from azteroid 52 Europa, Zir!” the Falcon’s first officer, Rasputin reported.
“Very vell,” Vladimir nodded.
“It vaz good that ve dizcovered the ZSMO vas not at 10 Hygeia before ve fired our reverze burn.”
“I had feeling that they vere trying to be deceitful.”
“Right, Captain. They juzt prove none of them can be truzted.”
“You are zertain that thiz iz the only other location they could have gone?”
“Da! Is only close azteroid the ZSMO can mine. They vill need fuel zoon az vell.”
“Good, becauze vhen I find the Zalvage-5 captain...”
“Vhat are you going to do to him?”
“I vill kill him.”
“Aye, Captain.”
“As zoon az ve arrive, I vant one of our nukes locked on his zhip.”
“Radiological weapons are hot.”
“Run complete diagnostics of our veaponz zystemz; I vant to be zure ve are ready az zoon az they are zpotted.”
“Tezting the firing zystemz; all zystemz vill be ready, Zir.”
“Mozt excellent!” Vladimir planned a relaxed last leg of the Falcon’s trip to 52 Europa.
* * *
CMSO 10 Hygiea
Location:
Kuiper Belt - Asteroid 52 Europa
Earth Date: 04/16/2065 11:40
Cass followed the sounds of gun fire below. Passing every corridor and entry, she positioned herself flat against the wall, and then turned, aiming her weapon in front of her as she traversed the corridors.
When she finally reached the last corridor at the lower level, she could hear the tinging of the rounds hitting the ship’s hull.
“Tucker! Do you read?”
“I’m a little busy right now,” Tucker answered, through the wireless between rounds.
“NADE!” she shouted.
Taking one of her concussion grenades from her utility belt, she pulled the pin and tossed it down the hall in the direction of the clones.
The halls quieted as each side stopped firing their weapons, taking cover as the grenade exploded.
Cass covered her ears as the grenade went off, filling the area with a sonic concussion. Then she pulled her trigger, sending rail shot down the end of the corridor at the clones. Three of the clones fell at the rail gun projectiles. The rest fled down the corridor, disappearing around one of the corners.
“Tuck!”
“Cass!”
“Are we clear?”
“All clear...and what in the hell are you doing down here? I thought I told you to stay with the ship.”
“I decided to save your sorry ass...and from the looks of it, it’s a good thing I did.”
“We’ll discuss this later, Major.”
Cass came around the corner, ready to fire her weapon down the hall if they came back.
“What’s going on?”
“First off,” Tucker began, pointing at the Liberator crew, “This is Captain Hodges, and his pilot, Kenneth O’Reilly.”
Ken motioned as if taking his hat off, “Pleased to meet ya, Miss.”
“Likewise...Tucker, we need to cut the crap and get back to the landing bay. Sam can drop down for a pickup and we can get ourselves out of here.”
“Cass, we have a plan to get the CSMO off the ground.”
“You can’t be serious, Tuck? The lower one-third of this bucket is covered with alien tech.”
“Sure we can. Hodges, O’Reilly...you go aft and pull the lock pins to the dreg. Samuels and I are going forward to pull the ones there. Hargrove, head to the flight deck and get the ship prepped. Once those pins are pulled, the CSMO will lift off from the dreg portion, leaving the cutters and treads below.”
“There’s more activity forward, I should go with you, Tuck.”
“She’s right, you know. I don’t know about you, but I think we could use an extra hand up there with us,” Samuels nodded.
“Okay, okay, you win. But you better not fall back,” Tucker said, raising a critical finger in Cass’s face.
“Huh, you should worry about yourself falling back.”
“Come on, let’s move out,” Samuels motioned.
O’Reilly and Hodges shook hands with Tuck, then turned and headed down the corridor to the aft locking pins on each side of the ship, while Hargrove headed alone to the flight deck.
“Everyone stay in radio contact, is that clear?” Tucker ordered.
“You got it, Colonel,” O’Reilly acknowledged through his wireless.
“Hargrove here, heading up.”
“Okay guys,” Samuels explained on the way forward, “Each side of the ship has a locking pin that secures the treads and cutting teeth below. Once those are pulled on each side, we can seal off that deck, fire the thrusters, and bug off this asteroid.”
“We’ll split up and take care of each pin solo. We should be in our position in two minutes,” O’Reilly reported.
“Samuels, you take the port, I’ll take the starboard pin. Cass, you hold down this position.”
“I’m not letting you go by yourself.”
“Cass, we need someone to hold this position. It’s the last port between the alien complex and the CSMO. We can’t lose this or we may lose the entire CSMO.”
“Just hurry back.”
“Don’t worry about me, Cass.” Tucker waited for Samuels to be out of range, then leaned up to Cassie’s lips and gave her a soft kiss. “I’ll be back.”
“You better...and that was a lousy ‘Arnold’ impression.”
“Hasta la vista, baby.”
“Very funny, Tuck...just hurry it on up, okay?”
“Tucker ventured down the hall and came to the locking bolt, “The pin is just inside the alien complex. I’ll have to go in to reach it.”
“Tucker don’t!”
“Too late,” Tucker said, getting on his back. He slid himself under the alien substance and reached up to pull the locking pin cover when a hand grabbed his and pulled him through the rest of the way.
Before he could reach for his weapon, he found himself lying on his back with three clones standing over him; one of them grabbed his weapon as he was being pulled through.
“Geez! Take it easy al
ready!”
“Sorry Tucker.”
Tucker froze at the sound of the voice, “Gus?”
Gus offered his hand to Tucker, and then helped him to his feet, “I know you didn’t expect to see me.”
In the dimness of the corridor, Tucker focused his eyes on the other member of the clone party.
“Yeah,” the Gus clone said, “You really are seeing me and Lieutenant Savage.”
“H...how is this possible? Y...you went out an airlock with Savage on our last mission.”
“I know. Let me explain to you what we are.”
“Oh, please do...I’m all ears, but do you mind? I kind of am running a little late.”
“Sorry, Colonel. You won’t be going back with the others.”
“The hell I won’t.”
Savage and another clone pointed their alien weapons at Tucker, “Okay, okay...it’s alright,” he said, raising his hands, “Just let me pull this here pin and that’s all.”
“It doesn’t work that way, Colonel.”
“So...how does this work? ‘Cause quite frankly, I’m getting a little tired of this.”
“The ones you call Gus and Lieutenant Savage, their DNA was captured by the other Noosphere and was transmitted to this complex. The original subjects were killed by being sucked into space, yet Savage and I have all of their memories and experiences. We are identical in every way to your friends; all the way up to the point the Noosphere collected the samples.”
“Except you have a little extra thing goin’ on.”
“You refer to the chip? Yes, we are chipped and fully activated.”
“If you are copies of Gus and Melissa, then you know they wouldn’t cooperate with what you’re doing.”
“That part of their DNA signature wasn’t included in these clones. We have no knowledge of right or wrong. We only know that the alien programming duplicated us into these cloned copies. We now serve the main computer of this complex.”
“Then I say again...you’re not exact copies,” Tucker slowly reached in his vest pocket, “Mind if I smoke?”
“Yes, we do mind,” the Savage clone answered, plucking the cigar from his hand.
“Hey, that’s a mighty fine one too, be careful now.”
“Knowing that it cost you dearly, I shall ensure it is not damaged, Colonel.”
“Why thank you, thank you very much.”
“You see, Colonel. We can be amicable; we really do not mean your species any harm,” Gus said.
“Right, right,” Tucker nodded, trying to stall for as long as he could. “So, tell me. What is it about this complex that seems very different than the first one I had the pleasure of touring?”
“This is where you are going to help us.”
“Oh, I can’t wait for this...”
“The one you refer to as Calvin Jones...you need to send him to us. He can repair the damage he caused.”
“Good ol’ Cal? No, he’s not here on this mission. In fact, it’s very likely that he’s dead back on Earth. Something about a news story before I left that he was presumed dead in the Puget Sound Basin.”
Savage turned to Gus, “Do not listen to him, it is a trick.”
“I am inclined to think you are right, Savage,” Gus said. “But that is of no consequence, as once we hook you into our main systems, we will know what you know. You will not be able to resist. That is when we will truly know that you are telling us the truth.”
“Well, I’d love to stay and chat it up...really, I’ve missed you both, but I’ve got to be running along now.”
“I’m sorry, Colonel. As I said before, you’re not returning with the others.”
“Oh, I beg to differ with ya, Gus...” Tucker said, nodding at the grenades rolling under his feet.
Then they heard the very familiar voice of Cass yelling, “NADE!”
* * *
Chapter 17
CMSO 10 Hygiea
Location:
Kuiper Belt - Asteroid 52 Europa
Earth Date: 04/16/2065 12:20
Tucker sat on a lounge chair, sipping a dirty margarita, his feet elevated. He held a sixty dollar fine cigar in his teeth, and intently listened to the sounds of the waves of the ocean beat against the shore. Cass was lying next to him, her drink at her lips as she took a long, refreshing sip. Then she took Tucker’s cigar and took a long drag, tasting it before returning it to him.
“Wow, Cass...”
“Wow what Colonel?” she said, blowing the plume of smoke over them.
“Colonel? I thought I said you can call me Tucker.”
“I know, but Colonel...”
“Wow, this is such a wonderful place.”
“Yeah...it’s nice alright.”
“Yeah,” Tucker smiled and took a long drink of his margarita. “You can even smell the salt in the air, and hear the birds singing in the air.”
“Too bad,” Cass said, shaking her head.
“Too bad, what?”
“Too bad it won’t last.”
“Well, you know what they say.”
“No, Colonel, what do they say?”
“All good things must to come to an end.”
“Yes, yes they do.”
“But it doesn’t have to end now.”
Cass sat her drink in the sand and got up from her lounge chair and sat on Tucker’s lap.
“Well now, that’s more like it,” he smiled up at Cass.
“Colonel...”
“Yes Cass?”
“Colonel...”
“Yes, what is it, my beautiful Major?”
Cass pulled back and swung her hand, striking him on the face, “Colonel!”
Tucker shot his eyes open just in time to see Cass swing her open hand at his face once more, then he reached up and grabbed her wrist before she could strike him again.
“Colonel...wake up. You alright?”
Tucker shook his head; the ringing in his ears hadn’t quite stopped from the two grenades that Cass lobbed under the alien complex, “W...what happened?”
“You’re going to be alright, Colonel. You were knocked out by the two concussion nades I launched.”
“You’re lucky you didn’t kill me,” Tucker said lying flat on his back, half-way pulled out from under the alien complex. “How did I not get killed?”
“We don’t know what happened over there, but the others appear to be dead...it looks like Gus and Melissa.”
“Yeah, it is...or was.”
“Come on, let’s get you out of here.”
“No, wait. I never had the chance to pull the pin.”
Samuels ran up to the two, wide eyed, “I heard the explosions. Is everything alright over here?”
“Yeah, we’re just great,” Tucker said, continuing to lie on the floor, “What’s the report on the other pins?”
“All the pins are pulled, with the exception of this one.”
“The only way we’re going to get to it, is if all three of us go in for cover.”
“I don’t like it Tuck,” Cass said, shaking her head.
“Well, I don’t exactly like that idea either, but the pin is five meters inside.”
“Here,” Cass said, pulling Tucker out the rest of the way, “let me have that fancy alien gun of yours.”
He took it off his shoulder and handed it over, “I like the way you’re thinkin’, Major.”
Cass armed the weapon and began cutting a hole in the side of the alien material that was growing into the lower section of the CSMO.
In less than a minute, an opening had been cut into the alien material, “and that’s how it’s done,” she smiled.
“This is Tucker,” the Commander said through his wireless, “Everyone back to the control section...now! The Sarge, Major Phillips, and I are going inside to release the last pin. We’ll be out of contact until we return to this position. Hargrove, make ready to take us up.”
“Roger that, Colonel,” Hargrove acknowledged, “The others have made it to the
control deck. There was some damage to the ship, but I’m sure she’ll take off.”
“Come on,” Tucker motioned, cocking his rail gun, making ready, “We’ve only got a few minutes before this grows back.
The three slowly made their way into the complex, stepping over the corpses of the three cyborg-clones, and came to the locking pin.
Samuels kneeled down, opened the control box, and punched in the code to release the locking pin. Cass and Tucker covered the corridor.
They heard the thunk as the locking pin was released.
There! Now just have to pull it,” Samuels said, grabbing the ring on the end of the pin.
He gave it a tug, but nothing happened. Then grabbed it with both hands and pulled.
“It’s jammed!”
“Must have been from the grenades,” Cass surmised.
“Yep, I’m gonna need another set of hands on it.”
Tucker slung his rail gun over his shoulder, “Cass, you cover us.”
“Right...I got this.”
Tucker kneeled down to the deck with Samuels. Grabbing the ring together they gave a mighty heave. They continued to pull against the pin, but it only moved a couple of inches.
“Whew! This thing is stuck alright,” Tucker exclaimed.
“Come on, let’s try again.”
They tugged again and again, only moving it ever so slightly.
“This is taking too long,” Cass said, “the creeps are starting to make my hair stand on end. Can you hurry it up already?”
“It’s gettin’ there, Major,” Samuels answered, “Just a few more tugs.”
“Oh, I don’t know, Sarge,” Tucker said, looking at the man, “It’s got another seven inches to go. Cass, can you cut it off with our alien gun?”
“I can try, you guys cover us then.”
Tucker and Samuels got up from kneeling and took over covering the corridor.
“Maybe just cut it lengthwise down the center of the pin, that might free it enough,” Tucker suggested.
“Okay, here goes.”
Cass fired the weapon along the locking pin and its housing. The metal began to spark and cut as if she was using a cutting torch. The brightness of the melting metal blinded her, but she kept focused the best she could to keep a straight line along the pin.