“It’s not your fault Lieutenant,” Kala said, “typically the cargo holds in patrol ships are not equipped with gas as they never carry any cargo of value, we failed to remember that the TRITYTE is not your standard ship. Anyone have an idea where we are?”
“My guess, “said Sgt. Marranalis, “is that we are in one of the smaller holds in a Bunem cargo ship. I suspect that they have the TRITYTE in one of the larger holds. “
At this, one of the guards chuckled, he had been listening without our notice, “Pretty smart for a Feddie. But don’t worry you won’t be harmed, we’ve got orders to just keep you restrained until we get back to Bunem. Then you will be sent back to your precious Federation, if they still want you after you lost their prize of all prizes.” He and the other guard both laughed. Just then the hold door slid open and Corporal Lexmal walked in smiling and looking smug.
“Well my friends,” he began, “I want to thank you for making me a VERY wealthy man, maybe not as wealthy as the Federation would have made you Thibodaux James Renwalt,” he said with a somewhat sarcastic twist, “but then I could never spend such wealth in a lifetime anyway, what the Bunemnites will give me I will be quite happy with. Once they have taken what Solbidyum they need, they will sell the rest to the highest bidders and I’ll get a share. Unfortunately for you, Federation loyalists, I will not be sharing any of my good fortune with you.”
“Lexmal,” Lunnie spat “you’re scum! I hope the Bunemnites treat you with the same disloyalty and lack of fairness that they have everyone else.”
For a minute I thought Lexmal was going to hit her, but then he didn’t and instead instructed the guard. “It would be better for you to stand guard outside the compartment and observe them rather than in here with them.” The two guards looked at each other and nodded and moved outside the door and took up station.
“Tell me one thing,” Kala said, “how did you pull it off?”
“Well that was the tricky part; it was some time before I could get a message off to the Bunemnites what I was planning. Unfortunately it seems that by that time they had all their fleet out, half headed to the DUSTEN and the other half after the fake TRITYTE , just like Tibby planned. I was finally able have a confederate on the DUSTEN send off a gravity wave Pod with a message to the Bunemnites with coordinates where I planned to have the TRITYTE waiting for them at a specific time. I wasn’t sure how I would get control of the ship, but you all made it so easy with your silly exercises in the hold. When the time came I was able to disable you all with the press of a button. Unfortunately the Bunemnites had sent out all their warships out chasing after your decoy Tibby, but they had a freighter that had just come in with a cargo from Kalax and emptied it quickly. They staffed the cargo ship with a few remaining home guards then sent it to the coordinates I gave them. They arrived there about the same time we were and luckily you all were in the cargo hold doing your funny movements when they came into range. I can’t thank you enough for making it so easy for me.” He clapped his hands together and bowed his head slightly, showing his sarcastic appreciation towards us.
Lexmal laughed. “Enjoy the rest of your trip. We should be at Bunem in four days. Now if you don’t mind I think I will head back to my own accommodations, they are a bit more, ahh luxurious.. Besides you all seem to be tied up at the moment.” He laughed as he left the compartment.
“Eat some Dragonian glow worms and die Lexmal,” Kala shouted angrily after him.
“Do you think they have this compartment bugged” I asked the group.”
“I doubt it” Lt. Reidecor said. “This is a lesser cargo storage area; normally there would never be a need for monitoring sound in here.”
“Good, because I think we have a fair chance of getting out of here and this ship could play right into our plans for getting the Solbidyum home safely. Lexmal severely underestimates what we can do with martial arts. Only our hands are restrained we can still use our feet and even our hands if used in unison. Even though you all have very little training these people have no idea about what a person with even a little martial arts training is capable of. Most of you will have to think about what you are doing because you’re not trained enough for it to be an automatic response, that will slow you down some and may be a bit awkward but it won’t matter much because they will be so shocked by what happens they will pretty much in stunned. But before we do anything we need to know how many of them there are.”
“I think I can help you out there,” Lunnie said, “When I was training to become an engineer we had one of these old freighters as a training ship to work on. It’s the same model used by the Federation for the past two hundred years. It only has space for a crew of eight so it’s unlikely they have more than that onboard unless they set up extra quarters in the main cargo hold where they now would have the TRITYTE.”
Lt. Reidecor said, “I doubt they have more than nine people at the most counting Corporal Lexmal with two to four of them guarding the TRITYTE. So that would leave five in the rest of the ship and we know two of them are guarding this door. If we take them out and we can get the remaining three, two are likely to be on the bridge, and the last would be Corporal Lexmal, in his luxury suite. We should be able to disarm them and arm ourselves and take the Cargo hold by surprise.”
“Precisely,” I said Kala, “you’re the ranking officer here, what are your thoughts?” Up until this point Kala had kept quiet, only listening to our plans.”
“Tibby you’re in charge, the Captain made that clear at the start of this mission, even though you hold no rank you still are in charge.” Kala said.
“I know,” I said,” but I asked you for your thoughts as the senior ranking officer, and I still would like to know what you think.”
Kala looked at me for a moment and smiled, “I think we should kick some Bunemnites ass and take the Solbidyum to Megelleon.”
“Ok, now all we need is a way to get both guards in here at one time, wait for me to make the first move before any of you do anything,” I said.
Fortunately we didn’t have to wait too long.
It was obvious that the crew that manned the Bunem System freighter definitely were not the elite of the fleet. That they were even able to get into space and find preset coordinates only attested to the skill of the ships computer and those who built it and not those managing it currently. In all likelihood all the best fighters and space crews were out hunting the TRITYTE and the Solbidyum and every available ship and body that could fly one had taken to space when Corporal Lexmal’s message drone arrived at Bunem. There was probably still weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth and finger pointing and fist shaking among the high government officials when they realized there was nothing, and no one, to send to the rendezvous point to pick up the TRITYTE . It was surely with much relief and celebration that they welcomed this one lone freighter home. Only part of the original crew was retained to fly the ship while others of the non-military crew were replaced with whatever bottom of the rung military men Bunem Had left to scrape together.
It came as no surprise when a bit later the door to our holding space was opened and BOTH guards came in with trays of food for the prisoners. Both of them, grinning like the fools they were, carrying their trays to the ladies first as though they believed that by this act they would be smiled upon. As they bent down to hand the trays to the ladies I rocked back onto by back and then whipped forward bringing myself off the floor and landing on my feet. Both guards spun around a bit slowly, but just in time for one, and then the other, to have their jaw meet by my foot. The action lasted only a second and two guards lay on the floor out cold.
Kala quickly sprung forward getting the electronic locking mechanism from one fallen guards and had the restraining devices off all our hands in seconds. Lieutenant Reidecor quickly disarmed the guards of their side arms and tossed one to Sgt. Marranalis. Marranalis quickly ducked outside the hatch only to reappear seconds later carrying the two rifles the guards had conveniently lef
t when they came in to serve the food. Marranalis gave a rifle to Lunnie and a pistol to Kala, keeping a rifle for himself.
I ducked out into the corridor and could hear someone in what appeared to be the galley on the freighter. I took a quick peek in to see only one person there loading another food tray, as I stepped into the compartment he said without turning, “Back for another tray so soon?” Before he had a chance to move I rendered him unconscious with a quick karate blow. Marranalis quickly came in with another pair of restraints that he placed on the third man’s wrists, only Marranalis placed the restraints behind the prisoners’ back and not in front like they had done with us. He then tossed the unconscious guard across his shoulder and carried him back to the cargo space. I saw Lt. Reidecor moving cautiously down the corridor, stopping briefly by a closed door and listening for a moment and then motioning to me while quietly mouthing the word “Lexmal” before he moved on toward what I assumed would be the bridge. Lexmal could wait, most likely he was unarmed and basking in his day dream of fame, glory and wealth in the Bunem System. Reidecor slipped into the bridge area and placed his gun against the head of the sole individual in the control room, other than for a whimper of fear the man made no sound as Marranalis arrived to cuff and gag him and carry him off to the holding cell. By our count this left four or five of the crew still free. Corporal Lexmal was too easy; all it took was a knock on his door which he answered without calling out to see who was there. No sooner had his door slid open then he rendered a shocked look as Marranalis huge fist slammed into his face. Lexmal dropped like a sack of bricks and Marranalis whispered, “Man I really enjoyed that,” and then he broke into a huge grin.
Trying to figure out how we were going to get into the hanger and get the guards there was now another matter. We could wait for one of them to come out. No telling what arrangement they had for being relieved, fed or whatever. We still didn’t know how many guards there were in the hanger bay either, nor where they were or if there were any onboard the TRITYTE.
By now Lunnie and Kala had taken over controls on the bridge and were bringing the ship around on a course to Megelleon, but the men guarding in the cargo hold had no way to know that. As we were contemplating this situation Kala came out of the control room and approached me whispering quietly, “Good news, there’s a monitoring camera in the main hanger, Lunnie has been able to activate it and says she can only see one guard outside the TRITYTE and he appears to be sleeping on a cargo bale.”
“There doesn’t seem to be any other activity out there but the main hatch on the TRITYTE is open and I suspect there is someone inside.” Lunnie said.
One problem opening the door from the main part of the ship to the Cargo hold was that the Cargo hold door was a pressure door and made a noise when opening and closing. Unless the guard was really in a deep sleep he would hear the door opening, of course we could shoot him from where we were as soon as the hatch opened, but the sound would most likely be heard in the ship and alert anyone inside, causing them to take a defensive action. I went into the control room with Kala, leaving Sgt. Marranalis and Lt. Reidecor guarding the inside of the door to the main cargo hold.
As we debated how we were going to get into the cargo hold and onto the TRITYTE one of the guards inside the TRITYTE came and called out to the guard sleeping on the bale. Lunnie reached over and turned on the sound so we could hear what he was saying.
“…n’t look like they remembered to bring us grub, but there’s a good synthesizer in the galley here. The captain said we should not leave the ship for anything, but he didn’t say anything about us going into it or eating food from it. It’s more comfortable in here too.”
“I don’t know,” said the guard who had been sleeping on the bale, “I think one of us should be out here, don’t you?”
“Yeah, like the captain wouldn’t be all over your ass about you sleeping right now. Shit he could have had you shot for that, least he could do for guarding from inside the ship is chew your ass out really good.” replied the guard in the ship.
“Good point,” said the outer guard., “what the hell, I’m hungry and I got to take a piss.” With that the outer guard got off the bale; stretched and yawned and walked up the ramp into the TRITYTE.
“Great”, I said when he went inside, “now if there were just some way to open the pressure door between the accommodation area and the cargo hold without it making a loud noise.”
“You can hand crank it!” Lunnie said.
“Hand crank it?” I asked bewildered.
“Yeah in case of total power failure on ships the pressure doors all have emergency hand cranks, they’re slow but much quieter, very unlikely they would hear it from inside the TRITYTE. Kala, if you can watch the controls, I’ll take this handsome dancing machine back and show him the ropes, on opening the doors that is,” she looked at me with a wink and grinned. Kala dropped into a chair staring at the screen with a sour look on her face, but said nothing.
On the way back to the cargo door I asked Lunnie “what’s the deal with all the digs that you toss to Kala, they seem to upset her? You both seem close but it’s like you enjoy hurting her with some private joke.” Lunnie stopped and turned toward me placing one hand on my shoulder, “Lover boy if you haven’t figured it out yet I for sure am NOT going to tell you.” and then with one of her famous chuckles and hip swings she preceded me down the corridor humming.
Lunnie said that cranking the door open was slow and she was right, first a panel had to be removed by the door revealing a sort of jacking mechanism that one had to crank back and forth. Each crank opened the door about a half inch, opening the door large enough for a person to fit through took several minutes, fortunately no one in the TRITYTE came out. Once the door was opened far enough Lt. Reidecor, Sgt. Marranalis and I slipped into the cargo hold and carefully worked our way to the cargo ramp. From the open door we could hear the voices of the two guards but heard no sound of any others.
“Do you think there are only two?” Lt. Reidecor whispered.
I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head. “I’ve no idea I replied, we need to assume there are more.” I motioned for Reidecor to follow me and for Marranalis to guard the door. Reidecor and I slipped aboard the TRITYTE and moved toward the galley.
From inside we could hear the guards talking. We were about to pass the crew quarters on the way to the galley when Lt. Reidecor motioned for me to stop, he carefully looked inside and motioned indicating someone was in there. I crept over and peeked in to see a man sleeping on one of the bunks; he was laying on his side with his back to us. Lt. Reidecor whispered to me, “I’ll take care of this,” and he quietly slipped inside, a few seconds later he just as quietly marched the man out the door with the gun to his head and down the corridor away from the galley only to return shortly, “Where is he?” I asked.
“Taking another nap,” Reidecor said with a grin.
Ahead from the galley we heard two guards talking, “Do you think we will be heroes when we get back?” one guard asked.
“Probably, but the Captain and that Corporal Lexmal traitor fellow from the Federation will probably get all the glory. I suspect we’ll get a nice promotion and some sort of recognition though. Plus, I’m sure there will be lots of women wanting to be with us.” The second guard said, a hint of excitement in his voice.
“Yeah” said the first guard dreamily “having the women is almost as good as having the money.”
“Sure would be nice if we could open that container back there in the hold and take just one grain of that Solbidyum stuff. They would never miss it, millions of grains in there and all.” Guard two mentioned.
“It would never work, I heard them say back on Bunem that the container is rigged. If you try to open it wrong it is booby trapped, it would kill you. There are alarms and poison gasses and other protections. Without knowing what they are, there is no way to get into it.”
“Then how the officials going to get into it,” Guard number
two said emphatically.
“Because they got the codes dummy, got them back when we was still part of the Federation. They know how that thing is put together.” The first guard said in an insulting tone.
“Don’t you getting high and mighty on me; you’re not any smarter than I am. You’re always acting like you’re so much better than me but I know that you never would have pasted the qualification tests if you hadn’t cheated, at least I didn’t cheat!” retorted the second of the two.
“Yeah and you only passed by one point, at least I was smart enough to cheat, got a lot better grade than you did too!”
Suddenly there was a sound of fighting in the galley and I motioned for Lt. Reidecor and I to make our move. We both burst into the galley guns at the ready; it took a second or two for the two guards to realize what was happening and to raise their hands. Guard number one looked at guard number two and said, “If you was so smart, we wouldn’t be staring at these guns right now.” Reidecor and I just laughed.
With all the crew and guards in wrist restraints and locked in the very same hold we had been earlier I met with my crew in the cargo ships galley. We had the ship on autopilot and I felt it would be safe long enough for us to have a brief meeting.
“It’s highly unlikely that the Bunemnites know the TRITYTE was ever captured. If we keep the TRITYTE aboard this ship we can fly pretty much undetected all the way from here to Megelleon. Even though we know the Bunemnites were prepared to attack the DUSTEN, as far as we know peace still exists between the two systems, so a cargo ship flying to Megelleon will not be strange. Since the Bunemnites have all their ships off either chasing after the decoy or stationed by the DUSTEN its unlikely we will see a Bunemnites ship, but if we do they would only assume we are either on a cargo mission or hunting the TRITYTE ourselves, and pay us no mind. If we encounter a Federation ship it will assume basically the same thing and again ignore us, same for any mercenaries trying to acquire the Solbidyum by means fair or foul. Unknowing to the Bunemnites they have given us the perfect disguise to get to Megelleon without detection. By my calculations we are still about a week and a half out of Megelleon.”
Solbidyum Wars Saga Book 1: Battle of the New Orleans Page 13