Planet Bound

by R. A. Mejia

  Andarrian Ale (12 intact cases)

  Seismic Charges (1 case)

  Mark III Drilling Equipment

  Blow torch

  Spiderian Rope (1 case)

  Spare Industrial Pipes

  There are lots of raw resources like the titanium bars, but there are also odd items like the Andarrian Ale that I saw before. It’s these items that give me ideas about how to stall the pirates.

  The next few hours are spent sharpening titanium rods and cutting them to various lengths and attaching some the flexible piping. It’s more sweaty work using the Mark III Drilling Equipment to dig man-sized holes and a long trench in the tunnels that lead to the cargo hold. Between the Spiderian rope and the blow torch, I attach the long pipes with the short titanium stakes above a rocky overhang and counter weight them to fall when the trip line is pulled. The rest of the stakes go into the pits I’ve dug, pointing upwards, and then I cover the holes with thin cloth and spread enough dirt and rock to hide the openings. Lastly, I set up the most dangerous of the traps. All along the dug-out trench, I place seismic charges and activate them. The vibrations made by the charges do just what I’d hoped they would, and all along the ground in the trench white tendrils start to appear.

  As I gather the rest of the Andarrian Ale and the blow torch, I wonder just how long it will be till the pirates to appear.

  Chapter 14

  The work was hard, but the traps have been set. I’ve jerry-rigged some of the cameras from the cargo hold to monitor the surface around the crash site and the tunnels where SAI and I came in. They’re self-powered and wirelessly broadcasting to my suit. The feed should last twelve hours, and after getting a few hours’ sleep, I can only hope that the traps I prepared are enough to buy time for SAI to do what she needs with the military fabricator.

  I wake up to the roar of an engine, chagrined that I’d nodded off. When I pull up the external camera feed, I can see that a transport ship has landed nearby and is disgorging about thirty men in spacesuits. Unlike the one that I met before, these are not lightly armed. These guys look like they’re ready for a fight, and most of the soldiers look like they have armored suits and are carrying rifles of some kind. A couple are even in heavy mech suits that make them look like mechanical gorillas carrying rocket launchers. I guess they’re taking things more seriously since SAI killed the last batch they sent down.

  Seeing the sheer amount of fire power these pirates are carrying, I worry if my primitive traps will be enough to even slow them down. One of the heavy mechs points to the pile of rubble that marks the crash and starts directing the other soldiers to dig. Over half begin lifting boulders and clearing away the rockslide that occurred when the cargo hold crashed through the surprisingly-thin surface. The second mech seems to be directing the other soldiers to form up into smaller units. I’ve no way of knowing what he’s saying, but the remaining soldiers disappear off camera in different directions. I can only surmise that they’re looking for alternative ways down.

  I chuckle. Good luck, guys. The only reason SAI and I found our way through the steam vents and into the underground tunnels was because of our experience on the planet and my suit’s advanced sensors. Even then, I barely fit through the holes. I can only imagine what it would be like for one of those huge hulking mechs.

  Turns out that I don’t have to imagine. Another external camera picks up a group of three pirates approaching a vent. They seem to be arguing about who’s going to be the first one through until the two of the larger soldiers grab the smallest and toss him through. His bulky, soldier-class suit doesn’t even fit, and the steam quickly builds up around him. I can see him waving his arms and making rude gestures at the other soldiers. Rather than help him, his squad-mates simply point and laugh--at least, that is, until the mech unit arrives and fires a series of lasers that cut around the opening, expanding it enough that the pirate stuck in it drops through. The other two pirates follow suit and drop through rather than argue with the person who is clearly their superior.

  The camera I secured at the bottom shows me the three landing hard. The first is impaled on a stalagmite on the cave floor, but the other two maneuver just enough to avoid the rock formations. Their heavy landing kicks up enough dirt and rock that it knocks out the camera there, and I lose the feed.

  It’s frustrating that I’m not able to see them anymore, but I cycle back to the camera outside the landing site. The large group of pirates is still working at digging through but haven’t made much progress. Even with their superior suits, it should take them a long time to get through that much tonnage of earth and rock. The other groups are exploring the mountains for other entrances. Looking through the video feeds underground, I finally pick up the pirates that went through the vent and see that their group has now expanded to five. They must have called down some of their friends. The five of them move in a triangle formation, a single man leading them and acting as point man. Their suits’ lights illuminate their way, and they have their rifles drawn and ready to fire. These guys look ready to kill. I’m glad I decided to use traps to slow them down and not confront them directly: I don’t think they would have even paused to ask my name before shooting me.

  I watch anxiously as they approach my first trap. The rope I found in the cargo hold is the foundation of most of my trap work, but with their tough-looking armor, I’m not sure how well any of the traps will work. I watch carefully as the lead pirate walks around a corner and right through the trip wire without ever seeing it. The camera’s internal microphone picks up a rumble, and two pipes tied with sharpened titanium rods swing around with tremendous force. The lead pirate sees the movement and fires, and the ones behind him fire too. But they can’t stop the inanimate trap, and the sharpened rods impact the lead pirate in his chest, piercing right through his armor. I sharpened the thirty-kilogram bars to as fine a point as I could manage with the laser cutter and then attached them to the spare pipes I found before setting set the trap so that they’d come swinging from the overhanging rocks above after they were triggered. Unfortunately for me, while the trap was able to penetrate the lead pirate’s armor, it wasn’t enough to kill him.

  Two others quickly respond to help him, but the pipes that pierced his suit fall out when they move him. The lead pirate starts flailing around, pushing at his comrades. Something must have been damaged in his suit because the remaining four pirates don’t seem to understand what’s happening. Instead, they grab their crewman and gesture at him. I intently watch the scene, because I do understand what’s happening. That man is asphyxiating. I remember very clearly what that was like when I first woke up on this planet. The atmosphere is unbreathable to humans. Even if the trap I set didn’t kill the pirate, it punctured his suit, allowing the planet’s toxic atmosphere in. It’s a cruel irony that the man’s suit saved him from the quicker death. It takes a full six minutes for him to stop moving while his comrades watch him. One of the other pirates walks away from the others and starts gesturing wildly with his hands. He’s either very mad or is talking to someone over their comms.

  I swap to the surface cameras and see that the other groups that went out searching for a different way under the mountain are now returning. The crew trying to dig their way through landslide is still going, so that means that there’s an additional ten pirates that will soon be joining the team underground. I worry that I haven’t set up enough traps, but there’s really nothing for me to do but sit and watch. I don’t have any weapons, and even if I did, I couldn’t directly confront that many soldiers.

  So, I watch as the extra ten pirates drop through the expanded vent hole. I can almost feel the impact of their drops to the ground beneath and only hope more of them impale themselves as they drop. It’s another twenty minutes before the four pirates are joined by their reinforcements. Together, the now fourteen-strong group moves forward.

  Two of them drop into the pit I dug with the Mark III Drilling Equipment I found in the cargo hold and fall onto the
sharpened pipes I laid at the bottom. Only one is seriously injured, but both of their suits are breached, and both men are left to die by asphyxiation. Why didn’t anyone think to bring repair equipment? I’ll never understand, but it may have something to do with their decision to come in soldier-class suits. Perhaps they don’t have the same tool options I do on mine. Or it may just be that they don’t mind not sharing the loot with as many people later.

  Regardless, I watch as they approach the large trench I dug. There are hundreds of long, thin, white tendrils, each sticking up through some recently dug hole in the ground and attracted to the site by the seismic charges I’d set off after I dug the trench. The pirates don’t know what to make of the tendrils and, instead of cautiously testing them, walk right through the field. There’s just enough space for the lead man to get across if he’s careful. They stomp into the trench headfirst, which sends the graboid beneath the ground into a frenzy. Myriad white tendrils shoot from the ground like springing tigers, each aiming for the noisy vibrations caused by the pirate’s boots. The first five pirates go down as a mass of graboids take hold of them. First one and then another is dragged underground. The remaining men start firing indiscriminately at the creatures, killing their crewmen in the process. The unaimed fire finishes off the three remaining trapped pirates, but some of the tentacles back and forth before withdrawing underground only to appear under new targets. Another pirate is sucked away as a wide hole opens under his feet. The remaining pirates finally get the picture, and instead of trying to kill the graboid tentacles, they instead fire in front of themselves and charge through the trench and past the deadly creatures. They don’t stop firing and running until they’re well past the ambush I’d setup.

  Okay. That means there’s only one more trap, and it’s my last resort. I can only hope that I don’t have to use it, because it just may kill me too.

  I don’t have many more cameras underground, but the ones on the surface shows me that the two mechs are using their lasers to reinforce the hole that they’ve dug. They’re making a surprising amount of progress, but considering exactly how much tonnage dropped into the hole that the cargo hold made, I’m still not worried. I have to wait until the crew underground makes it right up to the cargo hold before I’m able to spot them again. Surprisingly, one of the pirates from the rear of the group unhesitatingly walks right up to the hatch that SAI and I used to get in and connects a cord to his suit. The hatch opens, and the pirates crawl through. I sit and stare, flabbergasted. I’d thought the pirates would be stumped for hours trying to figure out how to get inside, hopefully wasting hours trying to cut their way through. Instead, at least one of them seems to know exactly how to get in. The captain’s suspicions that there was a traitor among the crew comes back to mind, and I realize that any competent plan to steal from the ship would have included information about its layout, methods of access, and any needed door codes.

  The surviving eight pirates are inside the ship, and if they have the knowledge to find the hatch on the outside, it’s not too much to think they’d also know their way through the crawl spaces. It’s only a matter of minutes until they arrive, and then I’ll have to make sure to greet them properly. I get up off the floor where I’ve been sitting near SAI and the military fabricator. With one last look at my friend’s unmoving robotic form and the code still scrolling across the screen, I silently wish her good luck and walk off toward the hatchway that opens into the hold. I take a case of the Andarrian Ale with me and drop it right in front of the hatch. A few kicks break the bottles inside, and I cringe at the waste of such good liquor. I repeat the same action with the remaining cases, and my last trap is prepared. I even have a few more bottles that I plan to throw to make sure everyone gets my fiery greeting.

  It’s another five minutes till I hear clanking near the hatch. It opens slowly, and then the pirates spill out one after another. They don’t seem to notice the broken crates or the liquids at their feet. And why would they? Just about everything around them is broken up.

  As the last pirate comes through, I turn on the external speakers on the helmet and shout, “Filthy pirates! Surrender or I’ll have to destroy the lot of you.”

  The eight of them raise their rifles and search for the source of the shout, but I’ve already moved into position. Not seeing me, the lead pirate shouts back. “John, is that you? Why are you threatening us? We’ve only come to rescue you.”

  That voice is almost familiar, but more disturbing is that this person knows my name. I quickly realize that the scout I killed would have forwarded the information he gathered when his ship took off. I had told him my name, so now all his buddies know it as well.

  “Rescue me? You mean that you want the military fabricator, right? I know what you’re here for, and you’re too late. I already control it. If you don’t surrender, I’ll blast you to kingdom come.”

  The pirates shuffle in place and look anxious. One fires a shot randomly into the crates surrounding them, knocking them over. The lead pirate waves her hand to stop further shooting. “John, I don’t believe you. While I applaud how you have survived here, I don’t believe you have control of the fabricator. Otherwise, you would have made an army already, and the eight of us would be dead.”

  Realizing I’ve been out-bluffed, I decide to set off the last trap and hope that it’s enough. I start the plasma blowtorch I have setup and put the flame to the trail of alcohol. I know that I only have seconds before the light from the torch is seen and leads the pirates to my position, but no matter how many times I put the torch to the alcohol, it just won’t light up. There’s only a small bit of smoke and the liquid bubbles just slightly. There’s no fire.

  While I wonder what’s gone wrong, the pirates have already located and surrounded me. I look up into the helmet of the lead pirate as they raise a wide pistol at me and fire. An electric bolt of energy blasts into me, and my suit goes haywire. Sirens blare, and the lights start to flicker. My O2 readout disappears, and I finally realize why my last trap didn’t work: the was no oxygen in the atmosphere to sustain a fire. I bemoan my lack of forethought as a second bolt of electricity hits the suit, and I pass out from the shock.

  Chapter 15

  I wake up with a pounding headache and a twitch in my right eye. I guess being electrocuted will do that to you. Sitting up, I find myself without my space suit and in a small metal room with a bench, a toilet, and a sink. I try the door but it is locked, and even my mechanical arm can’t pry open the thing. What bothers me is not knowing why I’ve been captured. After all, it would have been simpler to just kill me and take the military fabricator. Why leave a witness? They can’t think that they can ransom me, can they? I mean, measured against what they can get for the fabricator, that would be chump change.

  Still, I’ll have to keep my guesses to myself. I get up and start looking for something that I can either turn into a weapon or for some way out of this room. Everything is firmly sealed to the walls, and there are no exposed nuts or bolts for me to work with. I guess that I could try to pry faucet from the sink, but I’d just get a small cheap piece of metal and a leak for my trouble. I’m tapping all the walls to see if they’re all solid when I hear something or someone tap back. It’s a faint sound at first, but I follow it to the wall above the sink. Pressing my ear to the wall, I tap it again with the metal knuckles of my right fist, three times then twice. The sound repeats back in the same pattern.

  I rejoice knowing that someone else is there. I don’t want my captors to know that I’m awake yet, so I speak quietly and hope whoever is on the other side can hear me. “Hello. Is someone there?”

  A voice answers, “Hello? Yes. I’m here. Who is this?”

  I consider not giving my real name in case it’s some kind of trick of the pirates then, just as quickly, dismiss the thought. After all, the pirates know my name already. “My name is John Espinoza. Who are you?”

  “John? Is that you? It can’t be!”

  The famili
arity of the voice niggles the back of my mind, but I just can’t place it. “Yes. My name is John Espinoza. I’m a prisoner of the group of pirates that attacked the Argonaut. I crashed on the planet below but was captured.”

  “It is you, John! It’s me, Aaron Joseph.”

  It takes a moment to connect the name, and when I do, I can’t help but exclaim, “Crewman Joseph! Of course, that’s how I know your voice. But I thought you died, sucked out of the Argonaut as escape pods were blown away by weapons fire. How did you survive?”

  There’s a moment of silence, then Crewman Joseph answers. “I was saved by those dirty pirates.”

  “But why would they save you and then put you in a cell?”

  “Cause Susan asked them to save me.”

  “Susan?”

  “I mean Crewman Yoe.”

  The name causes me to recollect the face of the pirate that shocked me. “Oh, that dirty traitor!”

  “You know about her already?”

  “Yeah. Who do you think led the pirates that captured me? That two-faced sneak-thief, that’s who. I recognized her right before she shot me with some stunner or something. But that doesn’t explain the rest of this mess.”