Children Of Earth (Tales from the 23rd Century Book 1)

by Paul J. Fleming

  Activating the beacons, they began to fire their propulsion and departed at tangents to one another, firing off and out through the debris field and out into the vast starry blackness of space.

  Maddox quietly appeased his sense of disappointment with the thought that the bridge of the patrol vessel would be awash with confusion and indecision over which transponder signal to chase after. Give them a short time and then make a hasty exit, but the problem was where they could head for to find a safe berth. The message indicated that all operatives were to keep low profiles and that normal harbours were now to be considered unsafe as the Martians may be monitoring them actively.

  Pondering their options, Maddox knew that there were many places in which they would now be unwelcome for fear of reprisals, and others he would not trust to not sell their mothers if it meant extra credits. Their only remaining option in the nearby area was to head for Salvation and hope they were not in complete lock down until the storm passed.

  That’s if it did pass.

  Once those Martians got the bit between their teeth, it could take a long time for everything to settle down again and normal business to resume, and many people to suffer in the interim.

  6 The Escape Goes Awry

  ‘Okay folks,’ Maddox casually announced over the ship’s comm.. system. ‘We’re about to make our exit from the hospitality of the McCarthy brothers’ graveyard and hopefully be underway for a safe harbour to see the storm pass.’

  Ezri’s voice from behind him on the flight deck caused a slight stir as he had not heard her approaching, but at the same time he was relieved as her abilities on the flight deck might just be desperately needed should their little plan go slightly awry.

  ‘Captain, I was just conversing with our passenger below decks and I have discovered that she has spent various tours on many different maintenance groups at the Venusian space port. As such her knowledge of both electrical and mechanical systems is quite extensive and impressive, even if her level of social interaction is a little wanting.’

  Maddox turned his seat about in order to address Maia and apologise once more for Ezri’s rather undiplomatic statement, but then regarded Ezri with curiosity when he noted she had entered the flight deck alone.

  ‘So where is she then?’ he asked quite simply.

  ‘She has remained in the aft quarter of the ship to monitor our propulsion systems, offering her services during our efforts to evade capture to maintain the system and perform repairs should it prove necessary.’

  Maddox held his gaze upon Ezri for a few moments before turning back to face the flight controls. His mind quickly running through the possibilities this new development could pose and how much he thought he could trust Maia deep within the belly of his ship, with access to their core systems.

  It was not a promising start that their initial meeting had been founded on a deception, which in turn was part of a greater deception to flush out operatives of resistance groups and lay them open to capture by Martian troops. However, he could not fault her actions from the moment that the truth was exposed within the diner, and her efforts in the interim period between then and now. She certainly did seem genuinely keen to lend a hand and become involved in some part in their flight from capture. There was also a naivety which endeared Maddox to her, a genuine lack of understanding how nasty the Solar System could actually be although she obviously had some understanding of stories bandied about on Venus from various ship crews, yet lacked the actual first hand experience which forced a person to be more guarded or measured in their approach to others.

  Then there was Ezri who was by no means infallible, but due to her unemotional nature and ability to quickly sum up a person by their body language and speech patterns through analysis software contained within her program, it gave Maddox a certain level of reassurance that if she had permitted Maia to take on this role then she had obviously passed scrutiny of the highest level.

  ‘Okay then, we have an engineer on station after all this time I guess,’ he concluded realising his silence would be speaking volumes about his thought processes whilst Ezri moved over to her station but awaited his response. ‘I guess once the sparks start flying I won’t have to run back there like a man possessed to kick the core back into life at least,’ he added trying to lighten the tone a little.

  ‘Indeed, Captain, I do believe her abilities could prove beneficial to us for the duration of her stay on board,’ Ezri said, adding further reassurance to his still slightly troubled mind.

  ‘Okay, I have prepped the core and checked our systems,’ Maddox advised as he turned his thoughts back to their task in hand. ‘Also laid in a course back along the one we took entering this place. Chances are that the patrol ship has gone off hunting our transponder ghosts so is less likely to be sitting out there waiting for us to pop out.’

  Out of sight of his companion, Maddox crossed his fingers almost unconsciously as there was always the chance that the Martian Captain would have seen this as a ruse and waited, plotting the course of the beacons should no result emerge after whatever period of time he deemed acceptable. That meant they would fly out right into the path of the Martian Patrol cruiser. An outcome to this little venture which Maddox kept to himself as he always held the belief, however implausible, that fate listened closely and if you dared to voice your fears, then it would try its best to accommodate you with its wicked sense of humour.

  ‘Captain? I have Roland McCarthy calling.’ Ezri announced to break through his silent ritual.

  ‘Roland? Again? What does he want now?’ Maddox asked in a slightly incredulous tone as he gestured for Ezri to open the channel and put him through.

  ‘Ah, Captain, I see from my readings you are powered up and ready to leave,’ said the slightly older brother as he appeared on the screen before Maddox.

  ‘Yes, Roland, we’ll be out of your hair soon,’ Maddox replied and suddenly realised the unintentional pun he had made for the second time, trying to keep his face straight as McCarthy glared for a moment back at him from the screen.

  ‘Indeed Captain. Now it may interest you to know that the Martian vessel is still standing off from our debris cloud, almost in the vicinity of your entry point,’ he explained, but then leaned slightly closer to the screen as if for emphasis, making the orange freckles on his rounded cheeks quite clearly visible. ‘However, despite your quite obvious dismay at the receipt of this news I would quickly add that she is not responding to calls, nor does she appear to be making any effort to follow your quite ridiculous efforts at deception. In fact if I were a betting man, I would wager that there has been some event over there which has rendered her unable to perform either task.’

  Roland McCarthy sat back from the screen once more and smiled a wide, yellow toothed smile at Maddox over the comm. channel.

  ‘That and the fact that my passive scans have detected no discernible life forms on board that ship, but then again, I am not the one about to risk my ship in an attempt to flee am I?’ Roland added with smugness.

  Maddox paused for a moment before giving his response, his gaze fixed on the pudgy visage on the screen and only raising his right eyebrow to give away his careful curiosity.

  ‘Not responding to calls?’ He asked quite thoughtfully. ‘How could you know that unless you have tried?’

  The smile on the pudgy face depicted on the screen vanished quickly and McCarthy seemed to lower his gaze slightly, as if suddenly he was a child caught doing something naughty and was being admonished.

  ‘Yes, Captain,’ another voice cut across any reply which Roland was about to make to cover his actions. ‘My own dear brother is always keenly seeking the acquisition of more credits, even at the expense of those to which we both owe our lives. In this case he was attempting to discover whether there was a reward leading to the capture of the fleeing rebels.’

  ‘Be quiet Marshal!’ Roland growled in sheer frustration as he raised his gaze upwards towards the ceiling.

  ‘Wh
y, dear brother? After your own actions led us here to this life of exile and frugal offerings when our lifestyle on Mercury had us within the Regal court enjoying the company of dukes and princesses, why should I retain my silence at your behest? John Maddox stepped in and saved our lives and not without cost to himself. If it were not for him we would be dust upon the surface of Mercury and now you act to sell him out to those who would see harm done to both him and his crew?’ Said Marshal in response, an undertone of anger quite clearly evident in his voice.

  ‘Guys,’ Maddox interrupted quickly as he feared an argument between the two brothers taking over from their pressing predicament. ‘We all know what happened back then, let’s focus on the here and now shall we? Now did you actually make contact with the patrol ship Roland?’

  Rather begrudgingly Roland acknowledged that fact, then after a moment or two of careful thought decided to come clean.

  ‘Yes. I spoke with their Captain to enquire whether there was a reward, but before I was able to ascertain your worth the signal was interrupted and I lost contact. I tried to re-establish contact but to no avail.’

  Maddox raised his eyebrow, making a mental note that at some point when he was not so pressed for time he would return here and kick Roland’s backside for his transgression.

  ‘Okay then, you asked and they cut you off,’ he surmised, pursing his lips as thoughts flooded through his mind as to what was going on over on the Martian ship.

  ‘No Captain,’ Roland retorted indignantly. ‘I was not cut off. The signal was interrupted. The Captain was speaking when the transmission was quite obviously interfered with then dropped. I’ll send over my record of the conversation if you do not believe me, but further to that I have sensor records of the ship taken not too long after that event. I’ll send those over too. You have your little android check them over and you will see for yourself that there is something that has gone wrong over there on that ship.’

  ‘I concur with my brother,’ Marshal interjected. ‘I was actively monitoring his efforts at deceit and the subsequent sensor records he took. They have issues out there.’

  Maddox acknowledged them both and noted the receipt of the files Roland sent over to prove his story. Cutting the channel before Roland could annoy him any further than he already had, he turned to Ezri and fixed her with a curious gaze.

  ‘So? The McCarthys seem quite unanimous in their determination that the Martian ship is somehow otherwise engaged internally or having problems. Roland I would not trust as far as I could throw him, but Marshal is another matter. He was always the more honourable of the two.’

  Ezri regarded the screen in front of her with intent, scouring the records for the merest sign of some deception, or some ruse by their unwitting hosts at persuading the Erstwhile to leave and end up in the clutches of a more than ready Martian patrol ship.

  Despite her efforts, which were much more thorough than any organic being could effect in such short a time, she could not fault the validity of the data stream nor the fact that the Martians did seem to be disabled and floating outside the debris cloud. Her gaze raised from the screen to meet the waiting and expectant gaze of her Captain.

  ‘I am forced to concur with our hosts Captain,’ she reported. ‘There does appear to have been an event which has affected our pursuers leaving them disabled.’

  Maddox turned away and glanced down at his flight controls. He was still not fully convinced that this was not some elaborate ruse, but at the same time it was an opportunity to make their way clear of the graveyard and the patrol craft in an effort to reach their safe harbour.

  Setting in the reverse course, he brought the engines online and steadily increased their output to bring the ship about and progress towards the inner edge of the cloud.

  ‘Ezri, send my thanks to the brothers for their hospitality during our stay,’ he murmured over to her. Mentally, he imagined Roland’s intense frustration that his latest scheme to earn a windfall of credits was about to fly away. That at least brought a small amount of satisfaction.

  ‘Captain, may I point out that if the Martian ship is in distress, but unable to put out a call, we have an obligation to render assistance?’ Ezri remarked in reply.

  Maddox slumped visibly as he piloted the ship into the cloud and towards their previous pursuer. It was the one fact he had hoped to avoid in their flight away from this place, but now she had vocalised it he could not ignore.

  ‘Sometimes I wish you weren’t such a stickler for detail,’ he grumbled as he adjusted their course slightly to bring them out of the cloud and aside the Martian patrol ship.

  7 Ship of the Dead

  As the Erstwhile had pulled closer to the patrol ship, Maddox had been ready to push the throttle wide open and make a run for it, waiting for the target vessel to flare up into life and begin their capture attempt. He was almost convinced this was a ruse to lull them into a false sense of being the good Samaritan only to end up ensnared.

  Repeated hails had proven ineffectual and active scans of the ship bore no revelation of life remaining on board. However, despite all this Maddox still held his reservations. He never trusted Martians, even dead ones.

  ‘No response Captain,’ Ezri reported after her latest attempt to open a communication channel. ‘If they are playing dead as you suspect, they are very good at it.’

  Maddox brought the Erstwhile into station keeping alongside the drifting vessel, keeping the reactor warm and on standby to ready to provide them with the burst of power he suspected they would require. However, despite all his reservations he could not deny the evidence of all their instruments, and the analysis of his most trusted companion.

  ‘Okay then,’ he resigned himself to admit. ‘Let’s suppose for a moment that they’re in real trouble over there, how do you think we should approach this?’

  ‘All our instruments and readings show no evidence of radiation leak or any other easy notable contamination over there, thus no evidence for why the crew should have perished.’

  Maddox turned his seat away from the controls and unstrapped the belt across his waist, pushing himself to a standing position and starting to make his way over to the hatch as he turned his head towards Ezri as she continued to speak.

  ‘I therefore would propose Captain that an on-site examination is conducted for the purpose…’ she paused as she glanced up from the screen and saw his progress across the flight deck.

  ‘Of visually confirming they are all dead,’ Maddox said as he finished her statement. ‘Yes, I thought that was what you were going to say. I think I will ask Maia to come over there with me,’ he added thoughtfully. ‘I would prefer you, but then again, I’d rather you were here and ready to pull me out should this prove some scam they are running. If she can hold it together and also hold a pistol, it would be nice to have someone watching my back whilst I poke about over there.’

  ‘She may fall prey to nerves,’ Ezri commented as she returned to her work scanning the ship sat aside them. ‘Remember that her experience of this sort of thing is practically non-existent. Please bear this in mind Captain when taking her into such a potentially disturbing environment.’

  Maddox paused on the threshold of the flight deck, slightly taken aback at the comment as he was not used to Ezri showing such concern. Although her programming allowed her to learn and replicate emotive responses in situations that she deemed required it, he noted that she was taking a shine to their newest crew-member.

  ‘What about me?’ he joked, shooting a smile her way as she quickly looked over to him and then back at her screen.

  ‘You Captain? I gave up worrying about you many moons ago!’ was her dry curt reply, but Maddox could not help but laugh as he exited into the waiting corridor beyond the hatch.

  Whilst he knew this was not the case at all, he was also pleased to see her practising her humour subroutines so effectively after so many months of study into the material available on SOLnet.

  Maia stood by the person
nel airlock, already suited and ready to go with her helmet grasped in her hand as she watched Maddox approach along the corridor. He had planned on heading aft to put the whole excursion to her, but her presence and readiness suggested that Ezri had already put the mission to her.

  ‘A bit keen aren’t we?’ he teased slightly as he opened the lockers by the inner airlock doors to retrieve a helmet and EVA suit for his own use. ‘You do realise there may be a whole bunch of dead bodies over there? For that fact,’ he paused slightly as he looked down at the deck plating contemplating his own words. ‘We have no idea what we’ll find over there. That’s why we need to go take a look. I take it you can shoot that thing straight if the need arises?’

  His slight gesture towards the laser pistol strapped at her hip accompanied the words, bringing an almost reflex action from Maia to bring her free hand to rest on the hand-grip on the weapon and a smile to spread across her face.

  ‘Oh yes, Space Port shooting champion at the local bar contest three seasons in a row,’ she replied with some pride.

  ‘Okay, but have you ever shot a real live person? I mean someone who is threatening you, shooting back, moving and dodging?’

  Maia’s smile faded as she realised her inexperience was about to come to the fore again.

  ‘No. No, I haven’t,’ she admitted. ‘Never had the reason to. I mean, within the port the authorities dealt with disputes and took a mighty dim view if you began threatening another person with a pistol.’

  Maddox had finished climbing into the EVA suit and sealed it, then proceeded to heft his helmet up and over his head, bringing it down to seal around the collar. Checking the micro-circuitry had engaged, he nodded to her to follow his lead and spoke over the open comm. link.

  ‘Okay then. Just remember if it comes down to it, it’s either them or you walking away. Debate it all you want later and go for counselling if it helps, but none of that is possible if you’re shot full of holes.’