‘I will find someone. Carnesto is having better luck. He has already gained the confidence of a human female. I have to go. There are children nearby who haven’t given up yet.’ With that, Brutus was off and running.
***
Penelope stopped shivering. Ascenti had draped a wing over her and pulled her tightly to him.
“Do you sense any people down there? Maybe the ones inside that door, where Leaper can be found. What are the earthers thinking?” the Hawkoid whispered via his vocalization device.
‘Many people. Jumbled thoughts. Confusion. They are arguing over what to do. Cut the strangers open and keep them alive, or kill them and study them more intently. I’m afraid, Ascenti. They all want to kill Black Leaper and I can’t live without him!’ the kitten cried.
“Then we shall go in and save him. Are you okay with that?” Ascenti asked. She looked up at him with her huge eyes, sadness furling her brow.
‘But how?’ she begged, reaching for that lifeline of hope that the Hawkoid had tossed her way.
‘Check in with Carnesto and Brutus. I think they are making some progress,’ Ascenti said, switching to his thought voice. He could hear the others through the mindlink that Brutus had joined them all to, but there were too many voices. The prisoners were suffering and shared their pain. It was too much for Ascenti. It took him back to the blur of Heimdall, where all he remembered was the agony of his injuries.
He tested his wing to reassure himself that he had survived and that he was fit to rejoin the battle. His commander was captive and the private was the only Marine who could do anything about it.
His only tool at hand was a kitten and her innate abilities.
‘Talk with your father and Uncle Carnesto. When will they bring reinforcements so we can recover our people?’
She brightened with the news from Carnesto, who conveniently left out the part where he allowed himself to be hugged and coddled like a soft pillow. Brutus was in the middle of a playground, surrounded by children. He captivated them with the words he delivered directly into their minds. Wondrously accepting the gift without question. The spark of life was nurtured within their young bodies and burst into flame.
Never Cross a Rabbit
“Briz! They are blocking us like nothing I’ve ever seen before,” Jolly said.
“Of course they are! They’ve had thousands of years to improve their programming, but you’ve evolved since then and you know what, Jolly? They never counted on someone like me!” Briz laughed maniacally until he started coughing. Rabbit anatomy was ill-suited to such human mannerisms.
Briz immersed himself in Jolly’s virtual world. The Rabbit jumped into a data stream and headed for Earth Two’s wall. Jolly’s data poured as if from a firehose, splashing against the wall, losing its cohesion, and disappearing as it came apart.
The Rabbit slowed the stream, let it build behind him as he walked forward, refusing to let the bits pass him by. They built higher and higher, but he held them at bay. He walked to a mighty wall, impenetrable in its height and width. He tapped a finger on it, and the wall shouted at him.
He put his hands behind his back as he studied the construction. He walked back and forth to assure himself of the solidity of its construction.
He stopped at a place that looked no different than the last place he’d been and tapped on the wall again. It shouted at him with renewed vigor. He captured the sound and played it back at the wall, then increased its volume one hundred fold. He narrowed the acoustics to a pinpoint and let it dig into the impenetrable wall.
Cracks appeared, stretched out from the point, and parts of the wall flaked off. Briz hummed to himself as he let the wall’s own sound tear it apart.
A light appeared behind the wall through the crack that Briz had made. He opened it up a little more and stepped quickly aside. The data that he’d been holding back rushed past him in a tidal wave and through, creating a tunnel to the other side, shoring up the walls of the entrance that Briz had created, building a doorway of their own design that would respond only to their commands.
Briz watched as Jolly reached inside. The data stream became a solid cable through which information flowed back and forth. It changed colors from an angry red to a calm green. It sparkled.
Briz put one Rabbit hand on it, felt its power, and smiled at its control. He stepped back and out of the virtual reality.
“Can you get our people out?” Briz asked Jolly.
***
“Inbound ships, size of the Ganymede Seven. Cutters,” Starsgard reported.
“I wondered what was taking them so long. How many?” Rand asked.
“Five inbound and one powered up nearby. That may be a freighter preparing to clear the area.”
Chirit and Tandry were pulling in the information from both passive and active systems. They knew that the Cygnus-12 was lighting up every system the earthers maintained, but the commander and the captain had wanted no surprises. They had accepted the risk.
Pickles and Fickle sat at their stations, side by side, looking for anything that the earthers might try to hide behind the noise in the space surrounding the station.
The data analysts expected more subterfuge from the earthers, and they were right to be wary.
“People in spacesuits congregating on the nearest docking framework. They appear to be armed,” Jolly reported, after Fickle focused the sensors and the AI’s attention at what the man had seen.
“Excellent work, Private Foucault, simply excellent. Corporal Starsgard, what can we do about said interlopers?” Rand wondered, hoping for a solution that didn’t involve shooting the docking lattice.
“If we focus our arrays, we can send a narrow jamming signal that would probably cause them a great deal of discomfort. It’ll be like putting them in the middle of a thunderstorm. They’ll get the hint not to come closer,” Starsgard answered and then immediately began preparations to send an electronic whirlwind toward a group of people in spacesuits, simply doing the job they were ordered to do.
Daksha swam closer to the main screen to look at the expanded image that Fickle had dialed up. Six people in spacesuits, carrying a variety of gear. There were no other ships around. The only reason they were there was to do something to his spaceship.
“Jolly. Can you please give me a comm link to those individuals?”
“Now that we are into their system, all things are possible!” Jolly exclaimed.
“I’ve never known you to be a braggart, Master Jolly, but your accolades are well-deserved. You’ve gone from being the child to the master,” Daksha said warmly.
“You are live,” Jolly announced.
“People of Earth who are on the dock lattice and looking at our ship. We would appreciate it if you would stand down, return from where you’ve come. I won’t make a threat. I only need you to stand down,” Daksha said with a tinge of sadness. He knew they wouldn’t stand down.
They couldn’t tell the body language of the space-suited humans, but they could clearly see that they weren’t retreating. The first one jumped from the girder and activated a mobility pack as he started flying through space toward The Olive Branch.
“Now, Dr. Starsgard. Give them a taste of our dismay,” Captain Rand ordered.
Starsgard touched a button on his screen. The effect was immediate.
The mobility pack ruptured, sending the individual into a spin as its compressed gases discharged explosively. The other five reacted as if their helmets had been filled with angry bees.
Their magnetic boots lost grip and the people drifted away.
“That’s enough,” the captain directed.
Starsgard didn’t have to move within his gimbaled weapons chair. He didn’t have to move more than a few centimeters to touch the button and stop the jammer from radiating.
The bridge crew watched as the figures in spacesuits flailed trying to get back to the docking lattice. The jammer had disabled their mobility devices and they were drifting.
“Please let me talk with them again, Jolly,” Daksha requested.
Jolly gave the commander a thumbs up.
“We asked nicely. You refused. We are able to dispatch a drone to gather you all up and return you to a place where you can get back inside. Would you like us to do that for you?”
They waited. And waited some more. The suited figures finally gave up trying to swim against open space. They knew that rescuers would be afraid to help those in need. Their spaceship was too powerful.
“Dispatch a drone, Jolly. Grab that individual spinning toward the station first, then drag a line across the others. Take them to whatever airlock they came from. We do this because we are the good guys, no matter what the earthers’ actions. We will show them that they want to be our friends, not our enemies.” Daksha turned and swam from the bridge.
Jolly sent one of the many drones that all ships in the SES carried. They were used to recover space samples or satellites, or help crew who worked outside the ship.
Daksha stopped in the open hatch and turned back to look at the command deck. “One last thing, Captain. The Olive Branch didn’t work as a ship of peace. This ship is the Cygnus-12. The universe seems hell-bent on burning our branch, so we are going to bring our sense of integrity and morality. We do that as the people of Cygnus, not emissaries with our naïve hands held out just so they can get slapped.”
The captain returned to his duties, nodding. He could not have agreed more.
***
“Now that we are in, Jolly, show me what we can do,” Briz said, bouncing with excitement.
“The AI running the station is very much like Holly, a successor of some sort, but constrained. I am systematically planting activation codes in systems throughout Earth Two. It is taxing me to the utmost, I have to warn you.” To emphasize his statement, Jolly’s holographic form disappeared from both engineering and the bridge.
He sent a note to the crew to stand down certain activities while he was engaged with activities external to the ship. He was building a foundation from which they’d be able to launch a recovery effort.
“Jolly, bring up the cameras from our people on board the station.” Briz waited while Jolly cycled through views from the people two at a time. Most had their eyes closed. Their vital signs suggested they were under duress.
All of them. Black Leaper’s were the worst. “Jolly, how does Leaper’s vitals compare to the average Wolfoid, to what we should expect from him?”
“He’s dying, Master Brisbois,” Jolly reported.
Briz activated the comm link with the bridge. “We need to do something now. Leaper is dying,” Briz said, his vocalization device capturing his anxiety. His nose and whiskers twitched almost out of control. He’d seen life and death before, but watching his friends dying slowly was too much.
“I’m working on something,” the captain replied. He sounded confident. Briz was comforted, if only a little.
“Let me know what you need from me,” Briz offered.
“Direct Earth Two’s flight control to turn those inbound ships away. That would be a great help, Briz.” The captain signed off.
“On it,” Briz said to himself.
***
Night Stalker hopped from one foot to the other. She was too distracted to continue working in maintenance. She needed to know what was going on. Lieutenant Peekaless was near the weapons locker, running diagnostics on blasters, launchers, and lightning spears. He’d put the Marines on a ten-minute leash.
They needed to have full kit, including ballistic vests and cloaks, and meet him on the hangar deck ten minutes from notification.
Many of the Marines hovered near the spindle, ready to go immediately. Spence was angry. He wanted to take Tobiah into the heart of the beast and extract retribution for the earthers’ treatment of the people from Cygnus VII.
Rand looked calmly at the screen, then tipped his head toward the ceiling. “Jolly. I intend to take the Cygnus-12 through their screen and into the station. We’ll send the shuttle down the ramp and park it outside that door. The Marines will deploy and get our people back. Stun clubs? Those security guards are in for a rude awakening, wouldn’t you say, Marines?” Rand declared.
“We will fit, but we will have to maintain our orientation along the axis of the station. The ship will be close to multiple catwalks and various access points, increasing our vulnerability. Is that an acceptable risk?” Jolly asked.
“It is. What do you think, Nathan?” Rand asked the orange ‘cat standing in his lap.
‘I don’t know. I can only hear the crew and they are ready to do as you ask,’ the ‘cat answered politely.
“My thoughts exactly, Nate. And since we don’t have a pilot or navigator, it’s time to earn my pay.”
Rand held the ‘cat in one hand as he moved from his seat to the pilot’s station. The hatch opened and Daksha reappeared. He swam onto the bridge. Nathan passed to BJ who in turn passed to the commander that it was time to act.
The Tortoid nodded slowly. “Let’s go get our people, Captain.”
“All hands. We’re taking the Cygnus-12 into the space station. Marines! You are activated. Be prepared to deploy the second we are stable within Earth Two. I think our people will know when we have arrived. Starsgard, I need you for ship’s defense since we’re going to be vulnerable once inside. Foucault, follow the orders of your lieutenant.
Fickle saluted and dashed from his seat.
“Jolly. Tell our people that we’re coming. Tell Ascenti to rally the troops. We’ll be there soon. Briz, work with Jolly to lock out their security. Keep them away from us for as long as you can.”
***
Briz hopped back and forth on his big Rabbit feet. He’d launched himself back into the VR world. There was nothing with the ship’s engines that needed done. The most impact he could make was in the digital world, helping Jolly seize the station’s systems and then control them for their own purposes.
Briz followed the data stream into a whole new world, organized as Holly and Jolly were.
Different but the same.
He headed into the logistics area where access tunnels and doors were located. He started locking them, isolating the rooms where Cain and the others had been taken. The major concern was the ramp. He sent a note through his neural implant to Ascenti.
“We must close off the ramp access to keep reinforcements from coming. Can you do that?” Briz asked.
Ascenti had his wing over the kitten, who had started to shiver again. Her life-link was in pain and descending toward darkness. She couldn’t filter the anguish that bombarded her senses.
‘I need you to tell the other ‘cats that we have to block the ramp. That the ship is coming, the Marines are coming. We need you to do this so we can save Black Leaper. Please, little sweetheart, talk to them for me,’ Ascenti pleaded over his mindlink with the kitten.
‘They are coming to save him?’ she asked, her eyes wide with renewed hope.
‘They are on their way right now. Tell Brutus and Carnesto. They’ll know what to do.’ Ascenti bobbed his head happily. He also felt the hope of an imminent departure from the situation in which they found themselves.
‘Thank you, Ascenti. We can hear you directly. We will expedite our actions,’ Carnesto replied.
And Ascenti understood why it had been so important for him to re-learn how to fly, why Cain had supported him without taking no for an answer. Ascenti’s role in the Marines was unique and no one could do what he did. From the deck’s rafters, he watched the door through which the security guards had taken their people. He knew the ship was coming. He was the only one with a way to contact the ‘cats. And he’d saved a kitten.
It was what Marines did, not because they wanted to but because they had to, and there was no one else to do it.
***
Brutus heard the kitten’s voice and told her that he’d take care of his end of the ramp.
‘Listen up, my wonderful students,’ he told
them, strutting in a circle, tail held high as he looked from one face to the next. ‘We need to block the bottom of the ramp, just for a little while. You will save lives by doing this, because you all have a higher calling. Space is out there, waiting for you, but only if you have the courage to take your place. Now come, children. Let us get to work.’
Brutus ran toward the ramp, followed by a small army of children. Like the pied piper, he danced and dashed back and forth, letting them keep up with him but only by running. They saw it as a great game. He thought it was necessary to keep from being seen by adults. He didn’t have time to win anyone else over.
When they reached the ramp, he had them sit in rows across the bottom of the ramp and he begged them to teach him a song. They didn’t know any. Music had been lost to them. Brutus closed his eyes and shook his head. He couldn’t believe what he was about to do.
‘Listen first and then when I say, follow along with me.’ Brutus took a deep breath, and in his best thought-singing voice, he began. ‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star…’
***
When Carnesto heard Ascenti and Penelope’s call to action, it forced him to change his approach. ‘Jane Jane. Please put me down. We have to block the top of the ramp because my friends are coming for me. Can you help me do that? Block the ramp?’
“It’s just Jane,” she answered, continuing to hug the large black ‘cat tightly.
Cygnus Arrives: Humanity Returns Home (Cygnus Space Opera Book 3) Page 26