“The gravity coils w ere not essenti al to you r safety while on the ground and the added room, weight and power they require would have reduced your suits working time with each charge unless I reduced your defense armor and systems I include d in your suit. Seven seconds Mark. ”
The ground was rushing up way to fast and Mickey’s count down was way too damn slow. It was all Mark could do not to jam on the safety line’s brake at full power right that instant instead of waiting for Mickey to tell him.
“We will start at half power on the brake Mark. I will tell you to go harder or softer according to our deceleration.. Pay close attention love to the slider I will put up in front of you. Please do not forget to flex your legs and let the suit do all the work when we land. It looks like we will be landing on the back of the number four shuttle changing our landing altitude by some 30 to 40 feet.” Mickey’s count down jumped one number from 6 7 to 5...then 4.
Mark looked from the on rushing shuttle to the gun in his bright red hand at the end of his bright red arm. Making sure it was there and that he had a firm grip on it even though he felt like it was ready to slip out of his sweaty un gloved hand. Carefully moving his thumb onto the brake slide he said a little prayer. “Please Godstar. Let me live through this so I can kill that bitch. I promise to even go to church again.” The time his friends and him had let a whole congregation of holy rollers pray over him as he faked being blind to heal his sight after he and his friends had accidentally stumbled into their compartment during a service and they gasped at his glasses as the congregation surrounded him and immediately asked god to help the pore retarded boy, flashed before his eyes with a dozen other incidents before and after that. It seemed that every congregation aboard ship took it upon themselves to try to heal him as soon as they saw his glasses. “Sorry lord for playing so many jokes on your followers. I promise to make it up to them if you let me live through this.” Mark’s thumb started to slide the break.
“Three... Mark no! wait!”
The Shuttle looked so big that he knew there was no way he was going to stop in time to keep from becoming a big splat on the back of that shuttle. But then it looked like he was going to miss the shuttle entirely as he was drifting out towered the concrete of the pit pit beyond the shuttle. Frowning as he ignored Mickey ’s plea to weight. “Mickey; is this going to hurt much?”
Mark pushed the break lever well past half in his hurry to activate it. “Mickey; is this going to hurt much?”
“You are too soon… Not so much Mark! Back off.!”
Mark slide the break on a little farther as he backed off a little trying tried to ignore the concrete rapidly rushing towered him .
The as the line took forever but finely started tightened letting his feet drop below him to swing in an arc out in front of him pointing his butt at the shuttle before they swung back down and he finally felt comfortable enough was able to easy off of the break but still ignoring and s tart following Mickey’s directions to ease off the break . As the line pulled tight slowing him down Mark he started drifting back toward the shuttle. His mind racing.
Putting his feet together he practiced in his mind what he had seen in a hundred movies when paratroopers had hit the ground holding their feet together and falling over onto their sides to absorb the impact with the ground.
“No Mark. Spread your legs and let the suit absorb the impact. Relax your legs including your back and the rest of your body as you can and let the suit do the work. It will cradle and support your whole body including your neck and head. My improvements to your bones and skull should be enough to keep your back vertebrae from compressing or breaking anything. But you have to relax babe.”
Mark relaxed his legs and the suit seamed to lock them into place bent slightly forward under his chest since the point of support from the safety line was on his upper back and not above his shoulders forcing him to lean forward as the suit brought his arms up above his head and out to his sides in a strange awkward pose. His legs started moving ever so slightly of their own accord as the hard flat hull of the shuttle rapidly approached.
“Godstar this is going to hurt isn’t it.” Mark said as the shuttle rapidly stretched out around him and the hull rushed up to meet him. He pushed the brake to full lock in desperation, ignoring Mickey’s demand request to release the brake completely.
-------------------------------
Captain Cook walked over to the assault shuttle’s bridge viewing port as the shuttle lifted off the ground and started around the ship to head back out the way they had come into the port. The 4 other shuttles taking off behind the first to follow. That is except for the 4th, she had ordered it to come around by the personnel ramp to wait for Commander Collins to finish whatever the hell he was doing without permission. She was going to have to have a talk with that boy soon.
The shuttle had made it half way around the ship reaching for altitude. She did not get many chances to fly around the ship when they were in port with the time to just look and she was taking advantage of the opportunity to officially check her Queen out though she loved just looking at her. The Star Queen, including the rust streaks down her hull from just about every hatch opening and platform , was the most beautiful ship in any port and she was amazed that she was still commanding her. She was thinking of having the shuttle loop around the Queen one more time just for the hell of it when a bright red speck caught her eyes as it leapt from hold A’s platform. Doing a perfect swan dive.
Captain Cooks mouth dropped open in disbelief as she watched, not being able to take her eyes off the fool committing suicide. She had long before accepted that some crewmen in spite of all her efforts just simply insisted on committing suicide. They lost two or three each year with half of them taking leaps off one of the cargo hold platforms. In her younger years as Captain, she had even put the platforms off limits to everyone with guards on any that were open. Including closing and locking the various observation balconies on the upper passenger levels of the ship. She was stupid and foolish enough to think that she could prevente prevent all suicides by taking away the opportunities and closing all the places aboard the ship a person could commit suicide from or at. Forcing everyone that wanted some fresh air when grounded to go out onto the hard cold or at time s, scorching, featureless closed in pit area that was closed half the time anyway during cargo operations.
But when the suicides doubled and then tripled no matter what she did even with guards at every open hatch and practically e very corner of every deck, with fights skyrocketing with the murder rate. With the ship’s moral nose diving and work around the ship slowing to a crawl with the increase in vandalism. She finely realized with Captain Masses increasing every day for stupid reasons, that the crew was feeling like they were in a prison ship and yet the suicides still happened and even increased. She finally had to open everything back up and settle with a low suicide rate with people jumping off the damn platforms once in a while. But then with this Red sun making everything look so gloomy anyway she should not be surprised that someone had not jumped before during this pitting. She was just sad that it had to be now with her watching. But then they had found out that many of the suicides were actually murders with the Greedly’s using a fancy gun to knock people off the ramps leaving no trace of its use . She raised her arm to call the Chief Master At Arms to have A-hold and it’s platform locked down to find out if this was another murder.
Shaking her head she tried to force herself to say something but she couldn’t as she watched. She tried to force herself to look away but she couldn’t. She had to watch this pore stupid ass hole end his or her life to remind herself why she could not close everything back down to create a prison ship again. No matter how stupidly tempting it suddenly was as a kneejerk reaction to the sight. Refusing the liberal vent to make everyone’s liv es miserable to prevent any accident or death. (That is except for babies in the womb) . Though she decided that it was past time to run the anti-suicide campaign again. Especi
ally since it had been almost a year since the last suicide which she had decided was because of everyone working so hard to get the ship ready for the outback, no one had time to think of suicide in spite of the increasingly crowded conditions on the ship. Or maybe it was the fact that they finally had a w orkable plan to buy a new ship with the increased profits possible in the outback. Instead of going bankrupt by the end of the year. Shaking her head. That is if they could get off this damn planet.
As the bright red body came sailing past. Even though it was a couple hundred yards away, she felt she knew the person. Though she hoped it was none of her close friends, she just felt she knew the person but could not quit put a name to the face. The fact that it was wearing something that closely resembled one of the new suits being issued to the marines and boat crews even if it was bright red meant that it had to be someone off the damn boat in the last few minutes. But they had added a few crewmen and not gotten rid of any.
“That is except Mr. Collin? Damn it! NO! It can’t be!” The Captain’s world nosedived w ith the plunging body. “ To Too much responsibility for the boy after all. ” She bit her lower lip grimacing as she whispered to herself . “ No they finally managed to murder him. Well, they had gone too far this time. ” She would make sure that every surviving Greedly on the ship followed Mr. Collins off that ramp b y the end of the day efore the ship lifted . They had already murdered hundreds on the ship and now cost the ship its life . S ending the entire crew to the planets Tramp Camps . O nly they were not going to get the chance to see them .
Her eyes grew as large as gulf balls as the body suddenly went from falling flat with its arms and legs spread eagle to dangling its feet down as it seemed to slowdown. The flicker of a thread in the bright red sunlight arched back up toward the platform growing taught. Relieved at first as she thought he was going to miss the shuttle and not delaying their departure even longer . Only to realize that without him they had no reason to depart. The body started as she suddenly realized that he was arching back towered the shuttle that was settling down to wait for him as the body took up a pose of a bird diving on it’s prey with its wings spread and back arched ready to strike with its talons as it plunged down.
The figure rapidly slowed down as she watch the monofilament line trailing behind him catching the sun’s rays and sparking like a fine thread along its length under the strain. “Don’t break now. Don’t break.” The Captain chanted as hope started to return. The officer at the console next to her looked up wondering what she was talking about.
Then the figure hit the shuttle feet first all too fast. D d ropping down into a butt touching the hull crouch ed with his hands slapping the hull hard enough to bounce. The body seamed to smoothly leap back up into the air as the stretched line pulled him back up. He was only a couple meters off the hull when the line suddenly went slack but the body kept going, arching up a good 10 meters before dropping back down to land on its feet and crouching only half way down this time. He slowly stood up to take a couple of steps and then fell to his knees , his out stretched hands slapping down as his head touched the hull . The figure s and s e e a m ed in g to kiss the hull a few times before he started pounding the hull with his hands and then his helmet.
“Comm! Get me Commander Collins , NOW.”
The speaker was suddenly filled with words. “Damn good for nothing little bitch. How could you do that to me. You said you had everything under control so I jumped when you told me to and then you tell me you didn’t install don’t have gravity coils into the suit with all the other crap ? I jumped from 700 fucking feet without gravity coils. Are you fricking crazy you damn good for nothing bitch” Mark jumped to his feet and started stomping around with his hands beating his head after he retracted the helmet.
“It was only 672 feet love and the safety line worked perfect. I am proud of you love.”
“Frick the safety line bitch. Safety lines break all the damn time and that one has been sitting on the damn shop's cabinet for years because it had been thrown out as flawed and unsafe damn it. Even though I fixed it, it still was never made to do this. Jesus Godstar! No one ever uses safety lines in a gravity well damn you. How could you. I could have been killed damn it.” Mark started alternating between jumping and running around the hull of the shuttle pounding his head helmet and cursing at Mickey.”
“But they were leaving without you love and that was the only way to get you down fast enough. Besides you landed on the shuttle. You cannot get any closer than that.”
“Get out of my head you stupid bitch. I don’t want anything to do with you anymore. Do you hear me. Get out and stay out now!”
Captain Cook smiled. “Well Mr. Collins. As soon as you are done dancing around the hull of the shuttle, will you please enter so the boat can join the expedition? I hope what you insisted on picking up is useful in our coming endeavors. Shuttle 4 you can belay that order to sit at the personnel ramp. Our Mr. Collins seems to have joined us already. Have him give me a call when he gets inside. Captain Cook out.”
Mark stopped stomping as he stood for a few seconds look ing ing around and spotted the shuttle above him with a big red O ne on its fin. After a few seconds staring at the shuttle high above , Mark then started simply walking toward the bow of the shuttle. T as he t urn ing ed to glance look up every few seconds at shuttle number 1 slowly glide away. He still felt like he had a marathon to run and wanted to pound and break something but the rapidly increasing wine of the lift coils told him it was time to get below. “Ok bitch; where is the fucking hatch” His request was met with silence. Total and complete silence.
Looking across the flat top hull of the shuttle stretched out ahead of him, around he could see a several large cargo hatch es outlined in the hull near him but the only small personal hatch he could see clearly marked at a glance, was far forward were the hull started narrowing to a blunt point between a half circle of ports. He started jogging toward the hatch as the shuttle started picking up speed with the roar of the drive engines in the stern blasting his ears without the helmet on.
It did not take long before the air passing over the shuttle’s hull started pushing on Mark and it became hard to jog against. Forcing him to start walking to keep a foot anchored to the hull to keep the wind from pushing him backwards and make any head way as he passed another large cargo hatch in the hull .
The boat climbed, was passing a thousand feet as it settled into line behind the other shuttles doing a hundred knots. While slow by ship standards, by walking standards it was a hurricane forcing Mark down onto his knees to keep from being pushed back along the hull and over the stern. He was just putting his hand on the hatch with a bright red ring and stipes around it, surrounded by the ships bridge ports, when number 3 shuttle crossed over behind number 2 shuttle to take up position off its Port wing . The and the e e ngine exhaust from the other shuttle hit him full force blowing him back along the hull rolling him over and over.
He was rolling to too fast to see anything in time to grab exce pt the rapidly approaching stern of the Shuttle . Just before he went over the end of the hull , until Mackie finely showed him the hand holds he was approaching before he got there in time to grab one. Hanging on for dear life as h e f lopped around in the hurricane blast until the exhaust stream blast passed the shuttle; Mark finely relaxed to catch his breath.
“I am sorry Mark. I should have showed you a closer hatch than the one you found but I was mad at you for being mad at me and calling me names. There was a hatch you could have used only 10 feet from where you landed you when you started for the one at the bow . Now there is a personnel hatch just a few feet to your right at the corner of the hull into one of the upper engine room side compartment s . The row of hand holds you are on will get you there.
Mark looked at the hatch she told him about and pursed his lips, took a deep breath and turned toward the hatch he had originally started for even though it was now a good 10 5 0 + feet feet farther away at the other end of the Shut
tle .
“Mark that hatch is too far away. The Shuttle will be out of the port and picking up speed by the time you get there. You could be blown off the hull before you can enter the hatch Mark.” Mark kept crawling along the hand holds recessed into the hull for personnel to use in zero gee Shuttle’s spine . “Please Mark: I am sorry. Please Love. You have no safety line now and could die. Please head for the closer lock or at least tell the shuttle to slow down until you are inside.”
“Go get fricking bitch ! . ” Mark said gritting his teeth with exertion as he kept pulling himself along the row of Zero Gee hand holds recessed in to the hull away from the lock she indicated.
“Yes Mark I would love to be your fricking bitch. Please go back to the lock I showed you.”
Mark ignored her. He was over half way to the lock when the shuttles left the port and started climbing for altitude and increasing speed still in formation. Mark tried to pull faster but the added air speed over the hull kept buffeting him. Making it hard to reach into each recessed hand hold to pull himself along. Luckily the traffic speed for the lane the shuttles were assigned to was still only 200 knots as they climbed into the thinning air, making it barely possible for Mark to hang on as he approached the hatch.
With the shuttle again accelerating as they turned toward their final trajectory for Suborbital insertion while still and climbing for altitude , Mark stuck his hand into the hatch’s slot and grabbed onto the hatches control lever and tried to pull twist it but it refused to move. Even when he pushed in the thumb button the Star Queen’s emergency hatches required to o pen. Cursing to himself. “What the hell is the E nglish override control damn it? I should know wrong with this hatch damn it . ? ”
“No Love. Nothing is wrong with the hatch You should not know . The English have been using emergency systems a hundred years newer than anything you have ever seen. After pushing in It is the recessed button on the top of the handle next to the pivot shaft . Pus h it in with your thumb as you did. You need to and turn the handle counter clockwise as hard as you can until it moves 90 degrees and you hear or feel a pop of air equalizing then push in. There is no airlock here because the double hulls are only 6 inches apart. This is purely an emergency escape hatch. That is why it is so clearly marked. You will have to follow it in and close the hatch as soon as possible love. Another couple thousand feet altitude and the outside air pressure will be too little to allow the lock to operate even with the emergency controls. If it is set as specifi cations dictate ed . If it is set for a lower altitude you may not be able to open it. Please hurry love. You do not have time to get to an airlock before they go supersonic making it impossible for you to hold on any much longer. Please let me tell the shuttle to slow down.”
Trampship Wars 2 Page 60