by CJ Williams
Luke felt the synergy building between the efforts of Moonbase and J64. If he could find a few more allies they might be able to actually turn the tide of the war, if not at least stem the onslaught.
Luke tasked Carrie to manage the in-system patrols so he could meet and strategize with the local Jiguan officials. After a bit of nervousness when first told of her new assignment, Carrie adapted quickly to the responsibilities of command.
There was a scare when she was out on patrol during their third week. An enemy warship entered the system, headed toward Jigu. The early warning drones in the system’s outer orbits picked up the intruder and launched alert probes with the news to the inner planetary defense systems.
The attacking warship went sub-light ten minutes out from its target. Carrie’s forces intercepted the warship with her command to open fire. The Bakkui spacecraft was destroyed before it could fire a shot.
Luke feared the attack meant the Bakkui were keeping an eye on Jigu. If true, Carrie had managed their probe handily. Nevertheless, Luke took the incident as a sign to increase production of the Jiguan’s space forces. Having their own self-protection fleet couldn’t come soon enough.
Luke met with his senior staff to confirm their next destination, and a month after creating their new base on Jigu, Lulubelle set out for Star J97, sixteen days away and that much closer to the enemy’s advance.
Day 537—Marco Polo
Annie grinned at her neighbor, Millie. “Tomorrow’s the big day. You ready?”
Millie didn’t look at all sure. “I don’t know. I’ll go crazy if we have to keep looking. This is the third system we’ve been to.”
Annie shrugged. “We knew it was one of the risks. We’ll find something eventually. That’s why colony ships are so huge, so we can keep going and still be comfy.”
“I feel like I’ve lived on the Marco Polo forever. I’m ready to land and stay put, but what if the place sucks?”
Annie’s other neighbor, Camila Sanchez, had the correct answer. “What if it doesn’t? Everything we’ve seen so far looks pretty good.”
Millie still wasn’t sure. “What am I gonna do on a new planet? The only thing I know is ship repair and Jason said they’re gonna kick us out.”
Annie laughed. Millie was a sweetheart, but highly impressionable. “They’re not going to kick anyone out. You can stay in the ship as long as you want.”
A rough-looking man plopped down between Millie and Camila. “Who says I won’t? Might be good for her.”
Annie scowled at the man. “You’re not helping, Captain.”
“Not my job to help. My job is to motivate.”
Millie looked at Solomon Andrews with large, puppy-dog eyes. “Would you really throw me out?”
Camila leaned against the captain of the Marco Polo. “Knock it off, babe. She can’t tell when you’re kidding.”
“Who says I’m kidd… Ouch! That hurt.” He rubbed the bruised rib where Camila had elbowed him. She gave him a what did you expect look and turned back to her meal.
“Well, I’m excited!” Annie exclaimed. “I think it will be a wonderful planet. It’ll be nice to see a real sky and walk in a real forest.”
“Just don’t rush it,” Solomon cautioned. “There’s a lot we don’t know about the place. Let the recce crews do their job.”
“I know,” Annie replied obediently. “I’m not in a big hurry.”
Solomon looked at Camila. “Can’t stay. Lots of parties this evening. Everyone is celebrating our arrival so I need to make the rounds. Going to join me?”
“In a bit,” Camila replied. “We’re almost done here and then I’m going to the bridge. Us lowly engineers are having our party there. We can catch up then.”
“Sounds good.” Solomon brushed his lips against hers and left.
Annie and Millie glared at Camila with unabashed envy.
“Don’t give me that look,” she protested. “That was never part of my plan.”
“I know,” Annie responded with a sigh. “But a no-kidding shipboard romance—and with the captain. It’s so story book.”
“Enough,” Camila chided. “I need to get up to the bridge. Let’s get this mess cleared.”
Annie shooed her away. “You go on. This is my job. Have fun and I’ll see you tomorrow on the planet.”
Camila smiled her thanks and hurried off. Millie helped Annie clean off the table and put the dishes into the disposal. “I’m off to the shop for a final maintenance check,” Millie said. “Wanna come?”
“Sure.”
Scatterbrained though Millie could be, she was an ace mechanic. Her work areas were spotless and her attention to detail set her apart from co-workers.
Her area of responsibility was amidships. Millie’s team took care of levels five through eleven. It included five residential floors and one for mechanical.
In the shop area, Millie inspected the tool lockers. Nothing was missing and the inventory inspections were complete. The equipment cabinets were closed and tomorrow’s task list posted.
After giving the shop a final once-over, Millie was ready to leave. “Should we crash the power systems’ party?” she wondered aloud.
“Not for me,” Annie said. “Those guys get a little too—”
A tremor rumbled from the floor, drowning out the ever-present hum that permeated every corner of the vessel. Then the ship went silent. The girls looked at each other with alarm.
Annie spoke to the ceiling. “Marco? What’s going on?”
Millie’s eyes widened. “Who are you talking to? Is that…”
Marco Polo’s baritone voice filled the room. “We are under attack, Theodora Smith. I’ve been ordered to shut down all drives and force fields.”
“Attack? By who?”
“Standby please,” Marco replied. His voice changed into the mechanical tone used for ship wide announcements. “All personnel report to your assigned lifeboats. This is not a drill. Repeat. All personnel report to your assigned lifeboats.”
Millie ran to the equipment lockers and started stuffing items into a leather bag. She pulled tool belts off a shelf and tossed one to Annie. “Put it on, quick!” From another shelf, she grabbed two personal force fields and strapped one to each of their belts. “We need to get moving,” she said seriously, pulling on Annie’s arm, forcing her out of the maintenance shop, into the public corridor.
“It’s party night,” Annie said, dragging her heels, trying to understand what was happening. “No one is near their lifeboat. Marco, explain! What attack are you talking about?”
“I am unable to explain, Theodora. A level-two-device has entered the system and ordered that I shut down. I have no option in this matter.”
“Is it the Nobility? Is this one of their systems?” Annie looked at Millie. “We checked all of the colony star systems. George said no one was out here.”
“What are you talking about?” Millie was totally out of her element. “How are you talking to the ship?”
Annie cut her off with a gesture. “Marco! Talk to me.”
“Theodora. My conjecture is that this is a Bakkui vessel. It is a level-two-device. I am unable to launch a report drone. Standby.” Again Marco’s voice changed and his voice was heard throughout the ship. “All hands brace for impact.”
“Marco?” Annie had a million questions but had no idea where to start.
“Farewell, Theodora Smith,” Marco said.
Gravity disappeared and the two girls found themselves floating in the empty corridor.
Millie dug into her bag and pulled out work gloves. “Here. Put these on.” She handed a pair to Annie. “This doesn’t make sense.”
“No kidding,” Annie replied absently tugging the gloves onto her hands. “Marco! What…”
The ship lurched violently. Annie thudded hard against the wall and started to slide, careening into Millie. As their slide accelerated in the weightless condition, bounding against the walls, Annie grabbed Millie’s arm and the two girl
s clinched together.
Annie looked down the curved corridor and gasped. The hallway was coming to an abrupt end. She was looking out into the emptiness of space.
“Oh my God!” Annie shouted. “Hang on!”
Millie followed her gaze and screamed.
The ship’s atmosphere was venting into space. Without any gravity the women were thrust into a field of rapidly expanding debris. Pieces of metal, furniture, and bodies flew past. Annie looked back at the ship in disbelief.
The Marco Polo had been sliced in two. The giant sections looked like cutaway dollhouses. The insides were exposed to space and every manner of debris filled the area in between the hulks. Plumes of condensed air spurted out from the jagged openings of concentric corridors. Dozens of colonists who’d tried to respond to their lifeboats tumbled out in gory clusters.
The two sections rotated away from each other like a massive clamshell blown apart in slow motion. One side was spinning slowly toward Annie and Millie.
“Use your gloves!” Millie shouted, straightening her arms toward the ship. The work gloves’ small gravity drives in the palms were suitable for maneuvering around a construction gantry in weightlessness, but not for outrunning a crippled spacecraft. Annie followed Millie’s example anyway. Until the last second she tried to get out of the path; then she wrapped her arms around her friend.
“Hang on!” she cried.
# # #
“Miss Daniels!”
“Annie!”
“Annie, wake up! Can you hear me?”
Consciousness came painfully. Annie opened her eyes. She was lying on the floor of a standard shuttle. Millie was sitting against the starboard wall, her knees drawn up. She was looking at Annie with a mixture of suspicion and concern.
The shuttle spoke with a familiar voice. “Annie!”
“Sadie?”
“Annie! Are you well?”
“Sadie? Is that you?”
“Yes, it’s Sadie. Are you okay?”
“Sadie? What are you doing here? Where are we? Millie? What happened?”
“Who are you?” Millie asked in bewilderment.
“Millie! What do you mean? I’m Annie Dan… I mean I’m… I’m…What’s my name, again?”
“This shuttle keeps calling you Annie Daniels.”
Annie’s memories coming back. “I’m Teddy! I mean Theodora! You call me Teddy. We’re roommates.”
“No we’re not.”
“No?” Annie thought about it. “I mean neighbors. That’s it.”
Sadie butted into the conversation. “Repair technician Millie Parrish, the person you are addressing is Miss Annie Theodora Daniels. She is the senior member of the Milky Way Alliance in your colony group. You are ordered to provide her with medical assistance.”
Annie struggled to a sitting position. She ached all over but otherwise she felt fine. “It’s okay, Sadie. I’m not injured. Give me a status report.”
The side door of the shuttle opened.
“Oh my God,” Annie whispered.
The disaster filled her field of vision. The two sections of the Marco Polo had drifted apart and the area between was a horrible mass of death and destruction.
“Is anyone out there still alive?” Annie asked.
“I estimate that several thousand may still be alive,” Sadie answered.
“Several thousand! We’ve got to save them.”
“Awaiting your instructions.”
“My instructions? I’m not sure…wait. How did you find me? What are you doing here?”
“I suggest we delay your second question. As to the first, I managed to open the door to the shuttle hangar. Once outside, I began a search by homing in on your implant.”
“The shuttle hangar is open?” Annie asked. “Are the other shuttles okay?”
“They are.”
“Can you tell them to come here? Millie, we need to use the shuttles and start gathering people up. Can you do that with me?”
“I don’t know how to fly a shuttle,” Millie said.
“You don’t have to fly it. Just tell it where you want to go. Never mind. Sadie, you take Millie, I’ll go in the other shuttle.”
“I cannot allow you to venture out on your own. Vincent arriving now.”
A large shuttle was approaching.
“Any others?” Annie asked.
“Two more like Vincent,” Sadie replied. “Three more like me.”
“That helps. Are the survivors trapped inside the Marco Polo?” Annie asked, looking back at the drifting sections.
“Bulkheads automatically sealed most of the compartments. The colony AI is dead. His core was destroyed during the attack.”
“What about Camila?” Millie asked.
“The bridge appears to be intact,” Sadie said.
Annie nodded. “Good, everyone in the bridge crew is a pilot. Take us to the bridge.”
The shuttle sped to a point above the large dome. Sadie accepted Annie’s proposed strategy and started her replicator. “I have manufactured a cutting tool and several barrier force fields. Arriving at destination.”
Annie clipped the equipment to her tool belt and leapt from the cargo bay to land on the hull of the colony ship. She locked two of the barrier force fields against the hull, three feet apart. Once they activated, Annie used the cutting tool to slice a round opening between them into the hull. She grasped the edge and maneuvered herself inside the weightless ship. The entire bridge crew was there, looking at her with astonishment.
Relief washed over Annie. “Camila!”
“Teddy! My God!” The two girls hugged while the other bridge crew voiced their own amazement.
Captain Sullivan broke into their reunion. “Theodora, how did you get here?”
“Solomon. Good to see you. I hardly know myself. I woke up on one of our shuttles. I think Millie must have pulled me in. Here!” She handed out three of the personal force fields. “The shuttle is waiting. Come on!”
In groups of three the bridge crew levered themselves out of the new ceiling exit and then pushed off into the waiting shuttle. Annie made five trips back and forth, returning each time with the personal force fields, until everyone was aboard the shuttle.
“Solomon,” Annie said, cutting into the subdued euphoria developing among the rescued crew. “I’ve got five more shuttles lined up here. Pick your best pilots. We need to save as many as we can. Sadie thinks there are thousands of people still alive.”
“Sadie?” he asked.
“This shuttle’s AI.”
“Got it. All right.” Solomon pointed to five individuals, naming them aloud and then explaining what they needed to do.
“Where do we go?” one of the pilots asked.
Annie answered by pointing to the nearest three. “You go to the other section; the rest of us will work this one.”
“I mean where do we go when we fill up the shuttle. Where on the planet?”
Annie looked at Solomon. “Had you selected a landing site?”
Solomon shook his head. “We’ve only just started our survey.” He searched through familiar faces. “Camila. Any ideas?”
The planetary engineer’s face answered the question.
“If I may?” Sadie’s voice intruded quietly.
“Go ahead Sadie,” Annie said.
“Have the other pilots start retrieving survivors. The captain and I will approach the planet with the rest of the bridge crew and select a location. I can relay the coordinates to the other shuttles.”
“Got it!” Solomon said. “Let’s go with that, people.”
Sadie maneuvered around to where the open cargo bay was facing the other five shuttles. They were stacked one atop the other, their cargo doors open, ready to receive their pilots.
Annie spoke to Sadie. “Tell the other shuttles to replicate barrier force fields and cutters.”
“Acknowledged, Miss Daniels.”
Annie looked at the five bridge crew members. “Remember to put on
work gloves; you’ll need them to move around. They are always located in the equipment lockers.”
The pilots stepped to the cargo door and one by one jumped out, silently crossing the gap between the shuttles. Annie watched until all of them were safely aboard.
“Okay, Sadie,” Annie said. “Let’s go.”
“Course set, Miss Daniels. However, I have detected several individuals who were thrown free while wearing their personal force fields. Would you like to pick them up along the way?”
“Absolutely! Thanks, Sadie.”
The shuttle navigated in and out of the debris field with her cargo door open. Annie and Solomon stood in the doorway and snagged the frantic survivors until the shuttle was packed.
“Diverting to the planet,” Sadie announced.
“Is that all of them?” Annie asked.
“Negative. But that’s all we can take on. We will return momentarily.”
The shuttle descended toward the planet while Annie and Solomon sat in the cockpit trying to pick out a suitable location for the castaways.
“We’d prefer a beach at the mouth of a river,” Solomon said. “Since we’ve lost most of our equipment, let’s at least have fresh water and a source of food.”
“Acknowledged,” Sadie responded. She adjusted her course. “On the nose.”
“Too small,” Solomon said. “That barely qualifies as a continent. I saw some large continents on the initial planet surveys. What about those?”
“Those are on the night side at the moment, Captain.” Sadie explained. “Confirm you wish to land all your survivors in darkness?”
Solomon looked at Annie in disgust. “It figures.”
Annie shrugged. “You really shouldn’t leave everyone in the dark. Not right now.”
“This spot is fine, Sadie,” Solomon acknowledged. “Take us down.”
Sadie landed and opened the cargo bay door.
Solomon shouted at his colonists. “All right everyone. Time to get off. I’m going back for more survivors.”
No one moved.
“Let’s go people! I need to get back.”
“They’re all in shock,” Annie observed.