Sea Rover Flight

by C P MacDonald

  A high pitched warning tone blared over the ship’s speakers. “Torpedo incoming,” warned Rose.

  Flying on instinct, Calin dove the ship into a deep canyon and spun into wild evasive maneuvers to prevent the torpedo from locking on. He banked the Sea Rover on her side and skidded around a small mountain peak so fast the gravity plates struggled to compensate, the g-forces smashing them into their seats. An intense flash of light filled the rear screen as the torpedo hit the mountain and exploded.

  Rocks and gravel harmlessly peppered the ship’s hull, but Calin knew their luck would only hold out for so long. So far, the PPD had only sent surface ships after them. They were fast, well-armed craft designed to travel long-distances over the surface of the Moon. But they were not equipped for high-altitude flight or orbits. With the Sea Rover’s own altitude capabilities limited, it was a level playing field against the PPD.

  Calin squinted his eyes in determination. If he was an ordinary pilot, that is. Which is not what Captain Neomi paid him for. Gripping the yoke, he twisted the ship in, out, and around the mountains. He dove into narrow valleys and swooped around boulders. The flash of the PPD laser cannons lit up the night around them like a lightning storm. He dropped the ship as close to the surface of the Moon as his nerves would allow. With a jerk of the stick, he slid the ship up and across the face of a mountain, blowing out a thick cloud of dust behind them. The wake of the engine thrust spun it into a whirling vortex. Without reducing speed, he flipped the Sea Rover onto her side, balanced on the one working engine, and squeezed her between two tall pedestals of rock.

  The PPD pilots, as competitive as he knew pilots tended to be, tried to match his maneuvers. Flying through the dust cloud, two emulated his movements successfully, but the third rammed into a pillar of rock and exploded into a giant orange fireball that filled the rear display.

  Dean punched the air in excitement, “Woo-hoo! One down, two to go!”

  The explosion sparked an idea in Calin’s mind. Since the Sea Rover was unarmed, he needed to improvise a offensive strategy. With only one engine, he couldn’t follow the Captain’s philosophy of sneak when you can, run when you can’t. And with her out of commission, the decision to fight back had to be his.

  Calin snapped a warning to Dean, “Hold on to something!” as he yanked and twisted the flight stick to pull the ship up into a loop. With the ship upside down, he looked down through the top viewport to see the remaining two patrol ships zip by beneath them. With a quick snap roll right side up, Calin flew the Sea Rover back toward the pillars of rock in the mountain range.

  Behind him, Dean gulped and gripped his chair even tighter, “Those pilots made it through the first time, they won’t fall for the same trick twice.”

  “Then we will have to make it harder for them. Do we still have those blasting barrels in the hold?” he asked.

  “Yup, never had time to unload them, with all the excitement and all,” Dean replied, a confused look on his face.

  “Get everyone out of the cargo hold and secure them in the corridor, then open the loading ramp. Did you see enough of the Captain’s trick of overloading a mining laser to replicate it?”

  “Yes, I think so,” Dean replied, the light in his eyes sparkling as he began to comprehend Calin’s plan.

  “When I say when, push it out the back. The timing will have to be perfect for this to work,” Calin warned.

  Dean’s eyes widened when a realization hit him, “You want me to make and arm a bomb, onboard the ship, while we are being shot at and chased?” Dean looked at him like he had lost the last bit of sanity he may have possessed.

  Even Rose, normally quiet during crew conversations, interjected, “I don’t think Captain Neomi would approve of this.”

  Calin held up his hands helplessly, “I didn’t say it was a magnificent idea. But I’m open to suggestions if you two have a better one.”

  Dean slumped his shoulders as he unbuckled, “I guess I’m making a bomb,” he mumbled before leaving the cockpit.

  To give Dean time, and to bring their friends in closer, Calin slowed the ship. With random jerks to the stick, he emulated control issues as if the ship was on its last legs. Behind him, the PPD tucked in close, confident their pursuit was ending. He reduced altitude and hugged the bottom of a ravine between two tall mountains and continued the injured ship charade. It only took a minute before Dean commed and said, “One bomb as requested, ready when you are.”

  Calin took a deep breath, cracked his neck sideways, and slowed their speed even more. “Come on, closer, closer!” he urged. When he believed they wouldn’t come any closer, he barked over the comm, “Now!” and shoved the engine throttle all the way to their stops.

  Distracted by the sudden acceleration of the Sea Rover, the pilots didn’t notice a barrel roll off the ship’s ramp and bounce off the lunar surface. Calin’s timing was perfect. In the low lunar gravity, the barrel bounced high to explode directly in front of the PPD ships. The lead ship didn’t have time to react and flew straight into the expanding fireball. The second pilot swerved to avoid the explosion, but flying chunks of his wingman hit him broadside, punching holes in his hull. But even damaged and flying slowly, the pilot continued his pursuit of the Sea Rover who was slowly getting further and further away.

  Chapter 4

  Dean, back at his station, studied the sensor readings. “I’m pretty sure the remaining pilot has radioed for backup by now. We need to disappear.”

  “I’m working on it,” grumbled Calin, scanning the map projected on the window.

  “And not to add pressure, but I stopped by the Captain’s room on the way up.” Dean shook his head worryingly, “She’s not doing good, we need to get her real medical attention. ASAP.”

  In a tight voice, Calin repeated, “I’m working on it.”

  From the cabin speakers Rose offered, “We are 6 hours and 35 minutes away from the nearest civilian medical facility capable of dealing with Captain Neomi’s injuries.”

  Calin scowled out at the lunar surface flying by, “It will take a few minutes for the PPD backup to arrive. I need time to think.” He kept the ship flying straight for the coordinates of the large tunnel Dean had provided earlier as his mind raced for ideas.

  He turned to Dean and said, “Take the controls, I need to see the Captain.”

  “Uh, you are aware I’m not a pilot, right?” Dean pointed out nervously.

  Calin stopped with a hand on the cockpit doorway, “Just keep her flying straight, Rose will guide you. And keep an eye on our friend back there, if he gets within a klick call me.”

  When he entered the Captain’s cabin he whispered to the medic, “How’s she doing?”

  The medic pursed his lips and shrugged, “She is still in the touch and go stage. If she was in a hospital, I would say she stood a chance.” He gestured around them, “But out here? With only a med-pac?” He silently shook his head.

  Calin crossed his arms, “The closest medical care on this side of the Moon would be the PPD armada back at your mine. They might treat her, if they don’t shoot us out of the sky on sight.”

  Neomi’s soft voice interrupted them as she opened her eyes, “You will do no such thing.”

  Calin jerked his head toward the door at the medic, “Let me talk to her for a minute.”

  “I’ll be right outside if you need anything.”

  Calin pulled a chair up to Neomi’s bunk. “How’re you feeling?” he asked, taking her hand.

  “Like shit.”

  Calin forced a laugh, “The medic said you’re doing great. You hold out a bit longer and we’ll get you to a medical center soon. You’ll be shipshape in no time.”

  Neomi snorted, “Don’t try to con me. I’ve been awake for a few minutes, I heard what the medic said.”

  Calin gripped her hand tightly, took a deep breath, and asked, “Then what do you want me to do, Captain?”

  With a hint of her familiar authoritative command voice she replied, “You
will not, under any circumstances, surrender to the PPD to save me. I couldn’t live with myself knowing I was the reason my crew, and those miners, got arrested.”

  He tried to insist, “But you need real medical care, and soon!”

  “I won’t allow it!” she replied with a sudden burst of strength in her voice. But when she spoke next, the weakness was already creeping back, “After all the jobs we’ve pulled, after all the close calls, I can’t believe I got taken down being a good samaritan.”

  Calin raised an eyebrow, “Well, I tried to warn you we didn’t have time to help them. We should have lifted the second the PPD showed up.”

  She dismissed his objections with a shake of her head. “You talk all cold-hearted now, but I know you Calin Aku. Over time, knowing you left those miners behind, it would have eaten you up.” She had to stop to cough weakly, then continued, “What’s your plan to get us out of this mess?”

  “Plan? I’ve been too busy keeping us alive to come up with a plan.” He shrugged, “The closest thing I have to a plan is to fly into a gigantic hole in the ground and hide. And that’s only if we can lose the remaining patrol ship still tailing us.” He purposely did not say how some ship-to-ship weaponry would have been really useful right now. But he promised himself, if they got through this alive he was going to very strongly suggest the Captain revise her no-weaponry rule.

  Neomi weakly slapped his knee, “Come on, Calin! I know you can do better than that. Think! The only way they will ever stop searching for us is if they think we are dead.” She frowned at him, “You know how the PPD works, how they operate, their protocols. Use it against them.”

  Calin gazed blankly at the wall above the bunk, thinking hard. She had a point; the PPD didn’t search for dead people.

  “If we can’t blow them up, maybe we can blow ourselves up,” he muttered as he rubbed his chin.

  Neomi raised an eyebrow, and a worried frown crinkled her mouth when she saw an idea flare in his eyes. “I know that look, and I’m not sure if I like it. Especially right after you mention blowing us up.”

  Calin sprang from his chair, “Cap’n, as you said, they will only stop chasing us when they think we’re dead. You’re a genius!” he said enthusiastically as he ran from the cabin.

  When he entered the cockpit, Dean started back to his Engineering Station. “Hold up,” Calin said. “How many of those barrels do we have left?”

  Dean squinted his eyes suspiciously, “There’s two more. But you know we can’t pull off the exploding barrel trick again, they’ll be watching for it.”

  Calin smiled, “I’ve got a better idea.” He paused, frowned and said with a shrug, “Or maybe a worse one. Get to the cargo hold and prepare both barrels like you did before.” He grinned and tapped on the coordinates still flashing on the screen, “We’re going to crash into that mine.”

  “Um… crash?” Dean asked in confusion.

  “I’ll fly us in as fast as our engine will push us, and at the mouth of the mine you’ll eject the barrels. If we time it right, it will look like we crashed and blew up in our insane attempt to fly into a mining tunnel.”

  Dean shook his head as he headed out the door, “As long as it only looks like we crashed and blew up.”

  “Well, that’s the goal,” Calin said to himself as he strapped himself back into the pilot’s chair. He adjusted the ship’s trajectory and struggled to squeeze just a little more distance between him and the remaining PPD ship. He had edged to the outer limits of the patrol ship’s sensor range when the large entrance to the abandoned mine came into view over the horizon. Then the warning light for the loading ramp flashed on his console, Dean was ready.

  Squaring his shoulders, Calin forced himself to keep a light touch on the stick as he dove toward the lunar surface. Skimming the surface close enough for pebbles and rocks to fly up and pepper the hull, the engines blasted up a thick dust cloud in their wake. The cloud screened them from view for a precious few seconds as they shot into the mouth of the tunnel.

  “Now!” he ordered over the comm.

  The power packs overloaded a lot faster this time, right under their stern. Close enough for the shock wave to buck and jump the ship under Calin’s feet. The explosion was bigger than he had expected, causing the mouth of the tunnel to collapse in a rain of boulders and rocks. With the Sea Rover on the inside and the patrol ship on the outside.

  Calin punched the reverse thrusters to full emergency power to bring the Sea Rover to a hover so fast the ship around him groaned and screeched in protest. Letting out a long nervous breath, he started the landing cycle and leaned wearily back into his chair.

  When the ship had safely touched down on the rocky tunnel floor, he quickly shut down all non-essential ship systems. But he left the engine on a trickle charge, just in case they needed to hightail it out of there. His plan was contingent on the mountain of rock around them hiding them from any sensors or radar. For all appearances, it looked like they died in a spectacular crash.

  Wiping his sweaty palm on his pants leg, he unbuckled and raced to Neomi’s cabin to find Dean already there. Looking up from the readings on the med-pac with hopelessness in his eyes, Dean gave a slow shake of his head.

  Carefully, Calin sat on the side of the bunk and picked up Neomi’s hand. Her petite fingers, dwarfed in his, felt limp and weak. The Captain’s eyes fluttered open and lock with his. He waited patiently as she struggled to take a breath.

  He whispered, “Shh… don’t try to talk. The PPD will leave soon and we’ll be free to get you to a hospital.” He winked with a forced smile, “You’ll be bossing us around before you know it.”

  “Don’t be an idiot, we all know I’m not going to make it,” she said as the color drained from her face and the strength from her eyes. “I need you to make me a promise.”

  In a subdued voice, Calin replied, “Of course Captain, anything.”

  Before she could speak her body convulsed with a hacking, coughing fit. When she stopped, a tiny trickle of blood dripped from the corner of her mouth. Flicking the blood away with a frail finger she whispered, “Promise me, keep my ship safe, keep the Sea Rover flying.” Her hand clumsily swiped at the comm panel next to her bunk, leaving a bloody smear, “Rose, you there?”

  “Yes, Captain?” replied the A.I.

  “Initiate transfer order A2-3 to Calin Aku, authorization Captain Neomi Otani,” Neomi ordered.

  “Ownership transfer accepted and registered,” Rose said.

  Neomi grabbed Calin’s arm and said, “She is all yours, treat her well and she will take care of you. Captain Aku.” Her voiced trailed off so softly he had to lean forward to hear her.

  Before he could protest that he didn’t want the ship, Neomi’s grip loosened before her hand fell limply from his arm.

  Chapter 5

  Calin peered up at the new engine pod Dean was installing on the Sea Rover. The sparks from the welder rained down around him. He couldn’t believe it had already been a week since they had limped back from the dark side of the Moon. On only one engine, he had flown the ship through a winding tunnel deep under a mountain and out the other side. That flying had pushed his skills and nerves to their very limits, but somehow he had navigated safely through to freedom.

  After they made it back to civilization he had dropped off the miners at a outlying settlement and arranged for transportation back to their families. Now he and Dean were hiding in an old abandon military outpost. It had been carved into the side of a mountain a couple of kilometers outside Caldera City, the main metropolis on the Moon. He’d discovered this old station back when he flew patrols for the PPD and had mentioned it to no one, not even Captain Neomi. The hanger doors, hidden from view deep in the mountain side, were big enough to handle the Sea Rover. And now the ship, his ship, sat in the center of the hanger bay.

  At first, they used the Sea Rover’s power generators to bring the life support and gravity plates of the little garrison back online. But yesterday Dean inst
alled new power cores, so with luck by the end of the day the hidden base should be fully operational. Off the grid, concealed from view, and forgotten from history. The perfect smuggler’s den to call home.

  They buried Neomi on the rim of Peary Crater, with a beautiful view of the Earth rising over Caldera City every day. The Moon had always been her home, and he believed she would have wanted to stay here forever.

  Over the years, flying for her on their smuggling runs, Calin believed he had built up a solid knowledge of the Captain’s business structure and contacts. And as the Captain and owner, he now had the authority to access all of Rose’s database and records to fill in any gaps.

  He yelled out over the loud ZAPS of the welder, “Hey Dean!”

  “Yea?” a reply floated down from the top of the ship.

  “I’m headed into the city, need anything?” he asked.

  After a brief pause, Dean replied, “Some new power converters without a million flight miles on them would be useful.”

  Calin groaned, that sounded expensive. He needed to pick up some new clients, and soon. These repairs were burning through his credits faster than a supernova.

  He climbed into a surface skiff parked in the hanger, and just as he was shutting the canopy he heard Dean yell, “And some beer!”

  The drive into Caldera City gave Calin time to think. It was just him zipping across the surface of the Moon, the glow of the Earth filling the sky. He could almost forget about power converters, the PPD, or the death of old friends. Almost.

  His spirits picked up as he crested the ridge of Peary Crater and Caldera City spread out below him. He had a meeting with a guy about a prototype cybernetic arm. Supposedly, the arm paired with a contact lens implant to display live targeting data for enhanced shooting accuracy. So from now on, when he killed a client, it would be on purpose.

  It was time for both he and the Sea Rover to get some much-needed upgrades. His contact also had a tip about some military-grade ship weaponry that might be available. He would keep his promise to Neomi, to keep the Sea Rover safe and to keep her flying. But from now on, it would be done his way.