by Chris Hechtl
“Frack,” Bishop One said, cursing softly under his breath.
“We're up here; they are down there. We can't do anything about it.”
“Can we … no, I'm assuming they took life support and put it on local control. Security as well?” Miss White demanded.
“Yes,” Queen answered.
“Damn it,” Miss White muttered, thinking hard. Nothing came to her though.
<===@^{:::}{<
Knedson was riding high on adrenalin and not quite gleeful at how successful the mission was going. They were underway. They'd suffered some casualties, but they were still kicking. Hell, he might even survive it he thought as he heard footsteps approaching. He flashed out a hand sign, but the two guys in front of him couldn't see it of course. One held up a fist just as the footfalls came closer. They caught a group of sailors armed with improvised melee weapons as they rounded the corner. “Kill them quickly,” he snarled, putting words to deeds as he cut the first guy down.
His partner cut down the second but then a white blur flew over the bodies. He gasped, stepping back involuntarily and firing wide eyed at the monster coming at them with blinding speed.
<===@^{:::}{<
Commander Montoya was an angry ape. So angry that when she and her techs stumbled onto a quartet of armed men wearing skull masks and carrying plastic weapons, she went on the attack instead of trying to run. There was no point to running. She was unarmed, and they weren't. But they didn't expect an attack, nor did they realize plastic weapons with tiny bullets were useless against an angry 150-kilogram ape, especially one who could dodge and move in unexpected ways. She grabbed the overhead pipes like she was in the gym, swung, then dropped on one with brutal force. As he crumpled under her weight her long arms lashed out to punch one of the goons while her right hand slapped a pistol away to fire into one of the men.
Her powerful legs and feet snapped the neck of the first guy she'd dropped as she reached out, ducking her head from the fourth guy's aim to sweep the second guy into him. They went down in a tumble of legs and arms, weapons firing.
She waded in, pulling limbs out of their sockets and pounding flesh into mush until there was no more resistance.
When she realized it was over, she looked up panting into the eyes of two terrified nurses. She slowly straightened as the adrenalin started to wear down and her implants and body signaled injuries. She grimaced. “Medic,” she said just as one nurse fainted dead away. The other caught the girl and fanned her.
“Never mind I guess,” the XO said sitting down heavily. She flicked gobs of flesh and blood away from her and then looked down at her fur. “I so need a shower,” she sighed.
<===@^{:::}{<
With the death of Knedson, their team leader, the remaining Pawn Teams came apart as cohesion left them. There were only seven Pawns left on the ship, two in engineering and five in a consolidated fire team. When their team leader didn't reply to their calls, the fire team headed to the nearest known friendly holding, which was engineering.
They found themselves cut off; the locks shut blocking their path. When they tried to double back, the path was also blocked. They were trapped and low on ammo with one of their number injured. Their calls for help went unanswered as the air was evacuated from the companionway they were in.
The masks they were wearing had less than a minute of usable air. Something told the group that it would take far longer than that to get out of the trap they'd found themselves in.
<===@^{:::}{<
“We're sweeping the ship now, sir, but it looks like we've gotten their roving kill teams,” Petty Officer Maui reported. “Commander Young relayed his report. According to Miss Sharp Eyes, they have five in main engineering. We have no eyes on the bridge.”
“So, they've got the computer, the bridge, and main engineering. I doubt they'll surrender,” the captain said.
“Highly doubt it, sir,” the PO agreed.
“They've got five in engineering … all armed …”
“The doors are secured, sir. Spot welded and sabotaged. All but one which is covered according to Commander Young's report,” Maui stated.
“Find out if he checked the Jeffery tubes lately and get him some help.”
“Aye, sir. The marines are going room to room in a sweep, but it'll take hours.”
“And while they are doing that, the enemy still holds the two most critical points on the ship. We need to do something about that,” the captain stated, thinking hard.
<===@^{:::}{<
The crew took the ship back compartment by compartment, deck by deck by severing the network connections and throwing the computers into local manual control. Those actions, the simple unplug of a couple ODN cables and Wi-Fi nodes made the bridge and main engineering redundant. But they still had to be taken back. Main engineering was nestled between two power rooms, with the hyperdrive one deck below and the sublight drives behind it.
It was situated where the engineers could gain easy access to some of the most critical parts of the ship in a hurry, much like the captain's ready room and office were situated near the bridge. Both the bridge and main engineering were not places you wanted to have a fire fight, not if you could help it.
Commander Young was still trying to figure out a way to flush the bastards out when a small group of grim faced marines showed up. They wore MP armor and carried stunners and improvised weapons, but he was in no position to complain. Quite the opposite. “Sir?” the corporal asked, eying him.
“This is your show. We've got eyes inside. There are seven tangos, two stragglers just came in, both wounded. Four of the tangos are covering the main door. I was trying to figure out a Jeffrey tube to use, but our eyes told me that they spot welded them shut as well.”
“Okay. So, the only way in is to cut our way in or frontal assault,” the corporal said with a nod. He grimaced as he touched his temple with two fingers. When he finished his eyes seemed to snap back to reality. “Check in from higher. SITREP, the marine birds are still ten minutes out. Possibly longer if we keep building speed like this. They can't get through the ship's shields though.”
“So, we need to take them down.”
“Yes, sir. And the drive.”
“Great,” the commander said frowning.
“We can probably wait a few more minutes. We took your plan with the torches, and we're cutting into one of the armories. But it's slow going,” the corporal offered.
The commander sucked in a breath then let it out slowly. “No, I don't know if we can wait that long. There is no telling what they'll do now that they are running scared and turtling.”
The corporal nodded.
The commander frowned until a sailor came up behind them with a cleanup drone and a DCC remote. “What are you doing?” he asked.
“Getting a start on the repairs,” the sailor answered. He endured the looks for a moment then shrugged. “Sorry, should I have waited?”
“Normally, yes, the damn investigation and all that. But in this case …,” Commander Young reached out with his implants and logged into the two drones. “Come here, Junior; I think we have a job for you,” he said almost lovingly.
<===@^{:::}{<
“Well, this is some pickle we're in,” Mister Blue said, shaking his head.
“Tell me about it,” Knight Four said. “We're so fracked.”
“Think we can get out of it?” Knight Three asked.
“Doubt it,” Knight Four replied. “You're smoking something pretty potent if you think so.”
“Right,” Knight Three said, eying his weapon. “Well, nice knowing you and all. Wish it'd been longer and that we'd never bitten off more than we could chew like this.”
“It was fun for a while,” Knight Four agreed with a slight grin.
“Knock off the doom and gloom. We're not dead yet,” Rook One, aka Mister Blue, growled.
“You have a plan to finish the job?”
“Not yet. Not my place,” Mister Blue replied.<
br />
“Yeah, right,” Knight Four said dryly just as something came buzzing up the corridor. He frowned. The enemy had knocked the lights out, and he didn't have night vision. He turned a flashlight on and pointed it in the direction of the buzzing just as something swooped high.
“Incoming!” he warned, triggering the door to shut.
It began to shut slowly, oh so slowly, since it was a massive door over four meters wide. He stepped back to give it room and to stop triggering any sensors preventing it from closing. The buzzing was high; he angled the light up in time to see a cleaning drone fly through the opening.
“Drone!” He snarled, trying to get a bead on it.
“Kill it. But conserve ammo and watch where you shoot!” Rook One barked.
All eyes were on the drone, so they didn't see a second much larger drone come in behind the first, this one low, hovering off the deck. The DCC drone lashed out with its robotic arms once it came between the two guards at the airlock. One arm had a cutter, the other a drill. It impaled Knight Three on the drill just as the man began to react. He gaped like a fish.
Knight Four had started to turn when searing pain and heat cut into his right leg. He looked down as he toppled over to see his leg had been cut off at the knee. He screamed, dropping his weapon as his hands clutched at the cauterized stump. The screams ended abruptly as a gripper hand from the DCC remote came down like a hammer into his skull.
“Shoot them!” Rook One waved, taking word to action by firing into the remote. The remote spun, keeping one of the bodies in-between the incoming fire and itself. The weapon fire was small caliber, not enough to get through the fresh corpses. It lashed out with one gripper arm and triggered the door to open again and then moved in to stop it from closing fully.
“No!” Rook One snarled, firing as he rose from his seat. “No, damn it!” he snarled as the first drone dove into one of the Pawns and marines arrived on the other side of the doors. They'd used the closing doors and drones as a distraction to get through the corridor to the door. Now they used the feed from the drones to fire.
Two hands holding weapons angled around the corner and began to fire seemingly blindly. But wherever they targeted, a body crumpled and fell.
One of the Pawns whimpered and tried to hide. Rook One ducked as the weapon fire started up. He realized from the blue coronas it was stunners. “Damn it, you ain't taking me alive,” he snarled. He shot the two wounded Pawns then put the gun under his chin and squeezed the trigger.
<===@^{:::}{<
“Sir, Commander Young reports the marines have secured main engineering. The drive and shields are shutting down,” a rating reported, smiling broadly.
“Now we're getting somewhere,” Captain J'ck'zR'll stated, buzzing in relief.
“Sir, marine shuttles are on final approach. They are doing a hard dock on each flank, well away from the boat bays. They won't tell us where though.”
“Caution in case they think we're the pirates or people under duress,” the captain observed. “Good. Give them a SITREP. Tell them to take the bridge,” the captain ordered.
“Aye, sir. IFF challenges … we're sending the counter response and non-duress response word,” the rating reported.
“Good.”
<===@^{:::}{<
“Almost over, sir,” a rating reported, looking up to Commander Sindri. The dwarf was beyond pissed. He turned expectantly to the comm rating.
“We've received reports that the crew has retaken main engineering. They believe the only hijackers left are those that have control of the bridge, sir.”
“Good.”
“The shuttles are inbound now that the shields and drive are down. The marines will put an end to this mess,” the rating said.
“An end?” Sindri snorted. “I highly doubt it. This mess is unfortunately just getting started. JAG and others will be all over us like flies for months,” he said in thorough disgust. “And we won't be able to make much headway on repairs until they release the ship and docks from their forensics. Depositions alone will tie people up for weeks and months. They'll want to know everything, right down to where a person was, what they ate and drank for the past year, and every damn bit that flew in that station,” he said, shaking his hand in disgust.
“Over? For some of us this is just getting started. The exciting part is damn near over thank the gods. But the rest … that'll come later,” he said with a grimace of distaste.
The rating nodded. “As you say, sir,” she said dubiously, turning away and back to her station.
<===@^{:::}{<
When the five-minute check-in with main engineering didn't get a response, they knew the end was nigh. “It's all over but the crying now,” Bishop Two said, shaking his head. He looked about ready to cry Bishop One thought. She too. “Frack, we were so close!”
“Fire on them. With anything we've got,” Mister Black ordered.
“Can't you tell it's over?”
“It's over when I tell you! Just fire!” the hijack leader stormed.
Bishop Two shrank back away from him and then grimaced. He tapped at his controls. “We've got one, count ‘em, one point-defense laser. It doesn't have a good angle on the shuttles,” he warned.
“Move the ship to get the angle you need. Do I have to do everything?” Mister Black demanded, coming up behind the man. He brusquely shouldered him aside to tap at the controls. “Why isn't it …?”
“They took main engineering. We're locked out,” Queen reported.
“Fire! Damn you … Fire!” Mister Black snarled, pounding on the weapon console. The laser began to spit coherent light into the docks and area, ripping and gouging at the docks until someone cut off the power or overrode it.
“Damn it!” Mister Black swore.
“We've got people on the approaches to the bridge. They are disabling my access there and to the security system. I've taken Boogeyman offline; I no longer have the room to support us both,” Queen reported.
“Can you do something? Cut the power? Life support is obviously out but …,” Mister Black's eyes moved from side to side, trying to find an answer in his crew. They all looked crestfallen.
“I can't do a damn thing. I've lost complete control,” Queen said in disgust.
“Then we don't need you,” Mister Black said. He leveled his weapon and shot her brain box, then went over and disconnected it.
“No!” Mister Gray screamed as he clawed for his own weapon in his pants pocket.
Mister Black heard the scream, but as his eyes turned to Mister Gray, he felt something punch into his chest, once, twice, three times, spinning him. His arms went up, and he got one shot off before he crumpled. His free hand clutched at his chest as if to stave off the bleeding. He looked at his assailant. “Like that, huh?” he demanded. “Why?”
His errant shot had actually hit however, Mister Gray was clutching at the side of his neck, trying to put pressure on the wound. “I loved her, you bastard,” he said, leveling his weapon and pulling the trigger.
Mister Black went down as the fourth shot tore through his hand and burrowed its way into his heart.
“Anyone who wants to surrender, go for it. I'm not going to make you kill yourselves for Horath or crap like that,” Mister Gray said, setting his pistol down gently. He stumbled over to the box as the lights changed from yellow to green. “I'll just sit here,” he said, letting himself slump with his back against the A.I. pedestal. His free hand went around the box as if he was hugging it.
Miss White whimpered. She cut her eyes to the others, but no one had any answers. The bridge locks were secure, but she didn't know for how long. After a moment the lights dimmed and then went out.
The emergency lights came up a moment later, but she could already feel the gravity dropping off.
“We're so screwed,” Mister Yellow said, rocking in his chair. She saw him shake then put his weapon up. He screwed his eyes tight as he put the weapon in his mouth. But after a moment he whimpered. “I c
an't,” he whispered.
She looked over to Mister Gray, but the man had let the hand covering his neck wound slip off. His head had lolled to the side against the box as the blood had gushed out. The blood seemed to float as it drifted downward and away from the body in spurts as his body bled out.
“I'll do it,” Mister Tan said, coming over. Mister Yellow looked up with lost eyes and then he closed them again as his partner put the gun under his chin. He whimpered then gurgled as the weapon went off, cutting off his life.
Mister Tan let the body down easy. “Anyone else?” he asked.
“We all make our choices,” Miss White said. “I'll go down fighting,” she said, nodding her chin to the lock just as a spark and flame came through it. They'd started to cut through the lock. It was only a moment of time before they were through.
“See you in hell then,” Mister Tan said. He put the gun to his ear and pulled the trigger.
Miss White watched his body fall then put the weapon in her lap almost serenely. She looked over to Miss Green and Mister Purple. Both were clutching at each other and crying for all they'd lost. She shook her head. Like it mattered now. They'd made their choices, now they had to live with them.
Or not she thought, imagining the fury that was about to come through that door.
Queen of Space
Proofread by Thomas Burrows, Tom Stoecklein, Jory Gray, Wayne Gaskin
CAST:
Carib Queen:
Vanessa Mayweather: Captain. Daughter of Shanna Mayweather. White uniform, gold braid, riding crop. Squat portly female captain. She had a classic spacer's buzz cut with a jeweled earwig in one ear. She had a strong face; it lacked humor or empathy.
Troy: Helmsman.
Randy: Chief Engineer.
Lora, Navigator.
Firefly: