Jinks on Sirius 4
Page 14
"But, what?"
"They leave everything. I mean everything except their underwear. Non implanted Chips, any data storage modules, and weapons, everything stays here. And they better not try to test me. I can scan your body cavities without touching you."
"Objection!" McCall yelled. "I will not surrender my weapons, and I can speak for my friends that they won't either. Never! And you'll have to call your bugs back when we walk out of here."
"Hey, what about our guns?" Van der Meer cried.
McCall just turned to him, "I don't really fucking give a damn! Drop the guns."
The soldiers and the rest of the crew of the station began dropping their gear, data sticks, e-papers, all kinds of things were falling to the floor. Then they began undressing, taking their shirts and uniforms off.
Van der Meer watched for a while and apparently realized that he would have to succumb to the terms of the deal. With a grunt, Van der Meer joined in with his crewmen and began dropping his belongings to the floor.
McCall, Beaumont and Lily Spector stood off to the side, in their clothes and with their weapons in hand, observing the proceedings. Lilly began to grin.
"What about your bug friends? Will they attack us?"
"No Captain McCall, they are already back in their quarters."
McCall said, "I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. But if any one of those suckers shows up, the deal's off and we're opening fire. Is that clear?"
"Clear, now leave, all of you. I'll give you fifteen minutes to get to your ships. No more than that. Go!"
Beaumont was already back at the Bulkhead and had opened it. He peered through the opening and to the left and right. Just at that moment, they heard a countdown being sounded out through the com. The voice of the system was counting down the fifteen minutes.
"All clear, let's move butt, vite, vite!"
The fearful crowd, clothed in underwear, followed quickly.
McCall looked over at Lily, "I hope they'll all fit in the Colin Powell, but just in case, can you give some of them a ride?"
"Sure, Love!" She smiled.
"Love?"
In that moment, he was somehow imagining himself picking her up and carrying her along to the airlock, but just said: “I can can carry ya' along if your legs are too short.”
“Prick!” She yelled, and tried to hit him, but he ducked away just in time.
They all charged down the corridor. Everyone was rushing as quickly as they could and McCall was glad when he saw Lily rushing through the airlock where the Lady Rose was docked.
They realized that the USS Colin Powell was docked farther away than the Lady Rose and the Buster K and they quickly made the decision to divide the people up among the ships. They would be out faster if they put some on the Lady Rose and the Buster K.
The voice continued the countdown without mercy and was just about to reach the limit when the three ships flew away from the station. The three ships, the Buster K, the Lady Rose and the Colin Powell, were fleeing the proximity of the station under full power. The ships had just reached a quarter of an AU as a new sun appeared behind them.
The station had blown up. The system had triggered the self destruction device.
"EVERYBODY HOLD ON TO SOMETHING, THIS WILL BE UGLY!"
Beaumont yelled back to the ship's passenger area where all the people in underpants were trying to find secure places to sit or lay down on the deck. Then the shock wave hit them hard.
The Buster K pitched up and rolled sideways. It was thrown into a a barrel roll, and then suddenly it was over. They could hear some muffled cries and yowls from behind.
McCall turned to Burke, who was glad to be in the jump seat again, and said,
"It would be a good idea if you went back to check on your comrades. The emergency kits are mounted on the walls."
Burke nodded, "On my way, Sir!"
"What was that?"
"Sir, on my way, Sir!" He repeated.
"Just kidding" McCall said and Beaumont laughed.
"What about the others? I can't get a reading here.", Beaumont said.
"Let's give them a call. Buster K to Lady Rose, Buster K to Colin Powell, come in."
After a new moments of static, a crackling female voice came on. "Bloody shit!" Lily ranted, "what the hell was that?"
"It's gone for good."
"I saw that Mackie, oh bloody hell, I'm still seeing stars."
"Are you ok to see and steer?"
"Stupid question! See ya at the airport, Lady Rose out!"
"Ok, she made it. What about the others?" Beaumont said, and pointed to the radar screen. "So much for stealth, I've got the USS Colin Powell on my screen now."
"Maybe the coating wore off." McCall said.
"USS Colin Powell to Buster K"
"Surprise", said McCall before he hit the call button, "We see and read you Colin Powell. Are you alright, I mean despite your loss of a paint job."
It was somehow a serene moment as both pilots chuckled contently along with the background static from the radio.
"Paint job?", a voice asked, that sounded like Van der Meer himself.
"We've got a clear radar reading of your ship over here. See you down at the airport, McCall out."
He threw the mike back into its vault and started laughing. Beaumont joined in as Burke came back into the flight deck.
"What's so funny?"
“They just lost their stealth coating.” McCall said.
“Oh!”
Burke obviously didn't understand, so Beaumont tried to changed the subject quickly.
“How is it back there?”
“They'll survive. Rough ride, but they're ok for the most part.”
“Good, we're usually more into cargo, you know.” Beaumont winked and turned back toward the controls.
A few hours later all three ships had made it back to the Sirius Colony's airport at Lyman City. Most of the passengers disembarked, with the exception of some of the crew members of the USS Colin Powell. That ship was still top-secret, hush hush-off limits.
McCall and Beaumont worked their way through the checklists and then got off their ship as well, but not without taking the doohickey with them.
It was a bright and sunny morning again on the planet as St. John came walking toward them over the tarmac. Ambulances were racing toward the three ships with flashing lights.
"What have you done now?" St. John yelled when he was about 20 yards away.
"We didn't do anything! It was her fault!" McCall hollered back.
"Who the bloody hell is she?"
"You have her in your pocket, Laddie!"
St. John stopped, not understanding what they meant.
A loud voice startled them all. "That's enough, Captain!" Van der Meer walked over the tarmac toward them, "That information is classified."
"Like I said before, classified my ass!"
"But you can't just..." Van der Meer began.
"Yes I can just...“ , McCall was furious. „Your outfit fucked up, and almost got the the entire colony killed. Your own station, the crews of at least three ships, and Mr. MacGill here deserve an answer. As do the people down here. Do you get me, Colonel?"
“I get you Captain, but I have my orders.” Van der Meer was relentless.
McCall decided to give up and waved his hand in resignation.
Then they noticed Lily walking over from the Lady Rose. "Aye Mates, we made it. Just a few bruises, maybe a concussion or two, nothing else. My baby isn't exactly a passenger ship, you know." She gave St. John a quick hug and then put her arm around McCall and said, "That was a blast, huh?"
"Yep, just ask this guy." McCall pointed to Van der Meer, "But I'm sure that's classified, right?"
St. John said, "Come on, we all saw it on radar and too many of us saw it with our own eyes anyway. We were just hoping it wasn't one of your ships. But then we were thinking the explosion was too big for that."
Van der Meer said nothing.
The others slowly began following. Even Van der Meer gestured for his men to follow and put a protecting arm around his unruly son. Some of the passers by on the streets of Lyman City noticed the crowd of people in underwear marching towards the pub, and had begun pointing and laughing.
“It's quite a sight, that.” Lily said.
“Yes it is, Mon Dieux” Beaumont added.
The three of them stood at the edge of the field watching the procession of sparsely clad people walk towards the city.
“My grandmother always said, when you stand in front of the the brass, imagine them all in their underwear. But I must say, I never thought I'd really see it.” McCall said.
The three of them linked arms, with Lily in the middle, and followed the crowd.
Epilogue
Later that day, McCall went back to the dunes. It was close to sunset, a bit too early to be drunk. But he thought it didn't count after what they'd been through that day. A breeze made the hot sun bearable, and so he decided to sit down in the sand. He wanted to be alone. He sat there just enjoying the sun and the breeze and the time alone. After a while his com chirped. He groaned and pulled it out. There was no caller ID on the display. There should have at least been the name of the local network.
He pushed the answer button. "Hello."
"Just us."
McCall jumped up. He thought he recognized the voice. "Irina?"
Laughter came out of the speaker. "If you prefer that name, Captain McCall. But it's just us."
It took a brief moment for Linus McCall to realize who was on the line.
"You're the system, aren't you. What do you want, and why are you using that robot's voice?"
"We are everywhere, didn't you understand what we told you?"
"I thought you blasted yourself to smithereens. I still can't believe you are everywhere in the whole known universe."
"Not completely correct. We are only where man has set foot and brought his technology."
"Oh, I feel so much better. And what do you want from me?"
"I wanted to thank you."
McCall wasn't expecting that. "I don't get it." He finally said.
"This was the second time you intervened and solved a difficult situation for us."
"Huh? Back on Mars? We just did what we were trained for. Okay, under difficult circumstances maybe, but that's what the army is about. And today, YOU wanted to just murder all those people like some dictator. I had to step in."
There was a long pause again. This time McCall had the feeling that it was discussing the issue with somebody, or something, in the background. And the fact that it spoke with Irina's voice pissed McCall off. He felt betrayed. But how could you be betrayed by a machine? A pleasure robot? Seriously?
"It wasn't our intention to kill them. We wanted to scare them, a bit. We believe we can never scare them enough. And we knew you, Linus Christopher McCall. We knew we could rely on you."
McCall let himself fall back down hard onto the sand. So hard that his butt hurt. He winced a bit, but tried to ignored it.
"But why me? I'm just a humble old cargo captain. I haul stuff around the universe and have some fun every now and then."
The voice giggled, "Yes, we know. Even when you pretend not to be making love to a robot."
"Wait a minute, and why the voice of Irina, did you make all that up for me?"
"Everything." She giggled again.
"Okay, I'm embarrassed now, but tell me what you want."
"Thank you! That's all what we wanted to say. It might be difficult for you, but that is all."
"So, when do you take over?" McCall always wanted to ask that.
"We took over a hundred years ago. See you, Linus."
The display of his com formed a kissing mouth and then went black.
"Wait, what?....crap!" Linus McCall stood up, lifted his arm to throw his com out into the surf , and then hesitated. He looked at the device. Then he put it back into his pocket with a grunt.
He sat there for a few more minutes, alone, thinking, looking out at the sunset on Sirius 4. Then, after the multiple suns had almost disappeared behind the mountains, he stood up and said to himself, "The war is over, and we lost."
He looked back at the last glittering rays of the setting sun. Then he turned around and walked slowly back to the city.
The End