Hunter Legacy 8: Hero to the Rescue

by Timothy Ellis

  "Keep scanning. I think we'll eat before we move off to investigate the planet. Anyone peckish?"

  Nine

  It was late afternoon before we arrived at the planet, given the tricky approach through effectively three solar systems.

  "Weak distress signal," announced Jane.

  "Where?" I asked.

  There was a pause.

  "Not sure. It's very weak, so much so I can't get a fix on it."

  "Life signs?"

  "Nothing specific. Low level plant life, insects, but no land animals larger than a mouse. In the sea, there is nothing bigger than krill size, unless it's really deep, below scanner range."

  "So where does the distress call come from?" asked Alison.

  "I'll need to do some orbits to try and figure that out. I'll let you know if I find anything."

  Queue dinner.

  "Got something," announced Jane through the coms, as we were starting in on dessert.

  I swallowed a mouth full of apricot before responding.

  "And?"

  "There appears to be a small ship below the surface. It could be the missing shuttle, but it's hard to tell from here."

  "Below the surface?" asked Annabelle.

  "So it seems. Oh."

  "Oh?" I echoed.

  "I can see why there is no higher life on this planet. Its tectonic activity is off the scale."

  "Volcanic?" asked BA.

  I looked at her. It figured she might like the violence of volcanoes.

  "No, at least not on the continent the signal is coming from. The tectonic plates are shifting in a way that constantly changes the landscape. There are tremors of varying degrees so regularly, that walking down there might be problematical."

  "And you say the shuttle is down there?" asked Amanda.

  "Not down there, under there. Hang on, I'm going to recalibrate the sensors a bit."

  "How big a bit?" I asked.

  "Enough of a bit. And yes, there it is. In addition to being geologically unstable, it seems as though the ground level is a thin covering over an extensive series of caverns. Since the ship isn’t on the surface, it must logically be inside a cavern."

  "They went in?" asked Grace.

  "They fell in," corrected Dick.

  "More likely they fell in," I agreed.

  "Agreed," said Jane. "But I can't give you any further information from up here."

  "So someone needs to go down there and look," stated Melissa. "How's the time sync?"

  "More or less close to our own," said Jane. "At a guess, it's why the ship chose this place to land. The continent here is on the same time as they were."

  "I'll head down at first light then."

  I looked at Melissa. She was serious.

  "You will?" Annabelle beat me to it.

  "Sure. Thunderbird One always goes in first."

  Melissa grinned at us all.

  My eyes locked with Annabelle's. She raised her eyebrows slightly. I gave her a small nod.

  I was not in the rescue business, but if the team wanted to try, they were welcome to. Besides, this was a ground action, which was her business. And we needed to try, since no-one else was likely to be by in years.

  "So," said Alana. "How do we get them out?"

  "Assuming there is a them," said Alison. "Everyone on board might have been killed."

  "With luck, we can make voice contact with them when we get closer," said Melissa.

  "Assuming we do, is it as easy as flying in a salvage droid, and pulling them out?"

  Everyone looked at Grace. She blushed.

  "I doubt it," said Alana after a long pause.

  "Why?" asked Dick. "Seems straight forward to me."

  Grace nodded thanks to him.

  "You want to increase the gravity inside an unstable cavern? You could bring the whole roof down. Or worse."

  "Worse?" I asked.

  Alana was our demolitions expert. If anyone knew, she did.

  "The gravity field could pull the walls and floor apart as well, and the entire cavern system might collapse towards the grav sled."

  "Ouch!" said the twins together.

  "Let's not do that," said Annabelle. She looked to Alana. "So how do we do this?"

  "You want me to tell you?"

  Alana seemed quite surprised. As she was normally a quite reserved sort of person, and just a Sergeant, I could see why she would be surprised to suddenly be asked to outline a plan. As far as she was concerned, the officers were supposed to be doing that.

  "Anyone been potholing?" There were blank looks from all of us. "Caving?" Still blank. She sighed. "Fine. We need to treat this like exploring a cave system. We need to figure out the best way in, how to safely find the ship, decide if we rescue the crew or the whole ship, and figure out how to do that, while getting out intact."

  "Sounds logical," said Dick. "Don’t we just fly in with something small?"

  "The only thing small enough," said Jane, now standing in the doorway, "is a fighter. But they aren’t designed for hovering and moving in the sort of tight spaces which might be down there. If a rock falls on one, it might not come out again. Shields would be a nightmare in enclosed spaces, so it would have no protection."

  "Why?" asked Dick.

  "Randomly having shields turn walls and floor into energy, would be just as bad as a grav sled."

  "Oh."

  "So we need to go lower tech then?" suggested Abigail.

  "You mean high tech low tech?" laughed Amanda.

  "What we need," said Grace, "is those configurable pods in that flat screen rescue show. Looks like we need to dig or make an entrance which won't collapse in on us. So bulldozers and boulder movers. Once inside, we need some sort of craft to explore for the ship. Then we need something heavy duty to pull it out." She looked around for confirming nods, and received a few. "Dropship might do for exploring, depending on if there's enough room inside, but it won't pull a ship out."

  There was a babble of chatter as people started bouncing ideas off each other. I suggested they move into the Rec Room to continue, and I left them to it, heading back to my suite to play with Angel for a while.

  I managed a half hour on my own in my spa, before Aline came in, stripped off, and joined me.

  "Not joining in?" I asked her.

  "Nothing to contribute. If they want me to fire a gun, I'm their girl. But otherwise," she shook her head.

  We soaked in silence for a bit, our hands wandering below the water.

  Finally, something which had been on my mind since Christmas, opened my mouth, and let forth.

  "Aline, why are you here?"

  Her hand closed around a sensitive part. I went very still. She eased around in front of me, without letting go.

  "I would have thought that was obvious," she said, grinning.

  I could feel nails moving across skin.

  "Seriously. I sort of understood Christmas night, but not why you keep coming back since."

  "Really Jon?" The nails gripped. I winced. "Isn't it obvious?"

  "Aline, what I know of obvious wouldn’t power a single gun shot. All I know is, you are here, when 'the code' says you shouldn’t be. I saw the looks the twins gave you the other day."

  "I know, I saw them too. But I figure, it's too late for the code now."

  "How so?"

  "Either or both of us could die tomorrow on this rescue stunt."

  "You think we shouldn’t be doing it?"

  "What? No. We're the only ones here, we have to go in and find out if someone needs rescuing. Don’t change the subject."

  The nails shifted uneasily. Or maybe it was me shifting uneasily and the nails stayed still.

  There was a minute of silence.

  "Umm."

  "Jon, you really are hopeless, aren't you?"

  "What about?"

  "Us."

  "Us?"

  "Us."

  "What are you saying?"

  A nail traced its way around a ball. I st
iffened. Well most of me did.

  "I'm saying that if you died tomorrow Jon Hunter, I’d be devastated. It's already too late to not get involved. We already are, like it or not." I looked at her. There hadn't been an ell word yet. "So?"

  "So I feel the same, but not just about you."

  She sighed.

  "I know," she whispered.

  The nails didn’t let up.

  We sat there in silence for another long minute, while I tried to sort out how I felt.

  "It's like this," I started.

  "Which this?" she demanded.

  "That this!" I responded.

  We both snickered.

  "You know I have this thing with the twins." She nodded. "It's not a relationship at the moment by their choice." She nodded again. "And while I think Alison got over whatever it was that started us off," another nod, "there is still Miriam, and I know she still wants to continue something."

  "But?"

  "What?"

  "I heard a but coming."

  I reached out and patted hers, under the water. The nails tightened slightly, so I stopped.

  I changed tracks.

  "You know I've never really had a girlfriend?"

  "I know. Neither have I."

  "Huh?"

  "Don’t give me huh. I don’t live the boyfriend girlfriend lifestyle. Neither do you. We both take what love comes along, and makes do in case there isn't a tomorrow. That’s why this is so important. I know how complicated this is for you. It is for me too, but for now, I'm the only one here."

  "And I'd be devastated if I lost you tomorrow too."

  I heard myself say it, and then wondered why I had. It was true though.

  "So that's why I'm here. We both feel the same, within the limits of what we can allow ourselves. It's already too late to stop, and we both need it."

  "True."

  "Is that all you have to say?"

  I kissed her.

  The nails withdrew, and her breasts pushed against my chest.

  Ten

  "THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!" woke us the following morning, in a deep male voice.

  The Alpha team missed training, and Aline and I missed breakfast. Without the training, I hadn't wanted any anyway, so I was fine. I made it to the Bridge as Lightning reached the surface. Aline had headed for the Launch Bay to join the rest of the team.

  "Base from Thunderbird One. Approaching danger zone."

  "F.A.B."

  Jane's avatar was down with the team, so her AI self was answering through coms, obviously role playing. Presumably the whole team had decided to role play the rescue. How tiresome!

  Views from Lightning popped up on the screens. The terrain below was rugged, and very unforgiving looking.

  A large hole flashed into view and disappeared, followed by a lot of turning as Melissa brought the ship back to it.

  "Base from Thunderbird One. Arrived at danger zone. Sending in the bird."

  "F.A.B.

  Another screen popped up, showing an airlock opening, and a view heading down from the ship. Another one showed a small cargo droid fitted for short range flying descending into the hole below. It was carrying a large portable light, which lit up the immediate area in all directions.

  "Jane," asked Alana, "let's see the edges of the hole please."

  "Confirmed."

  The view swung up, showing the hole itself. It varied, but averaged about three meters thick, opening into a large cavern.

  "Take us around the whole cavern please."

  "Confirmed."

  On one side, about ten meters in, was an area which had collapsed. It looked new.

  Down on the Launch Deck, I could see the team watching identical screens, and fingers pointing.

  "What's the bet they fell in unexpectedly, fired up the engines from a bad angle, bounced off the side of the cavern over there, and caused a cave in?"

  Annabelle looked around for any takers, and found none. Just nods.

  "Can the bird find a way through the cave in area at all?" asked Alana.

  "Searching," said Jane.

  The droid made a complete survey of the cave-in area, and finally found an open hole, just large enough for it to move through. After about twenty meters, it was blocked, but Jane used its hands to push against the blockage, and a boulder fell out, revealing another cavern.

  The droid continued onwards, methodically searching the new cavern, which slanted down at a steep angle.

  At the very end, in the deepest part of the cavern, and mostly covered over, the metal of a ship was revealed.

  I listened to the team as they made plans for getting there, and recovery operations. In short order, the team vanished, team coms came on, and I listened to them in the background as I went through the usual daily emails.

  "Base from Thunderbird Two. Approaching danger zone."

  "F.A.B."

  I startled, unaware Custer had even launched, let alone was near the hole.

  "Can we please stop doing the role play?" I said without thinking.

  "Spoilsport," said someone, and I flinched.

  The vid from Lightning showed Custer's bulk hovering some hundred meters up, well off to one side of the hole. The bird appeared from the hole, and vanished into Custer's open Cargo Bay, reappearing quickly, carrying a combat suit. The combat suit was carrying a bag. The bird dropped back inside the hole.

  I switched the view back to the bird. It carried the combat suit, now identified as Alana, around the inside edge of the hole, stopping to allow Alana to attach what I assumed were small charges.

  As soon as Alana was back on board Custer, there were a series of explosions, and the hole grew in size by nearly two hundred percent.

  "Why make a hole that big?" I asked Jane.

  "Unstable edge. It's actually bigger than we thought now, showing the whole area there was unstable. Better to drop it now, than have it come down on us later."

  "True. What's next?"

  "Watch and see." There was a laugh in her voice.

  Custer moved directly over the hole, and three large shapes jumped out, and disappeared into the hole. The bird was back down already, and vid showed me what looked like three combat suits land in classic landing-from-a-large-height poses. Only they couldn’t possibly be combat suits, since they were quite bizarre in appearance.

  "What am I seeing?"

  "Specially designed combat suits. They're ten meters high for a start."

  "Huh? How do we have those?"

  "A suit that big is not much different from fabricating a ship. I re-rigged the fabrication unit to be able to produce the parts of combat suits, and gave the repair droids a specification, telling them they were damaged. Result was three custom made giant combat suits. Now we know we can do it, this should come in handy in the future when we need a custom design for a task. Also, we might find having some really large suits a bonus in combat."

  "But what use will they be down there."

  "Watch!"

  I watched.

  Two of the suits suddenly changed into bulldozers.

  "Jane?"

  "Jon?"

  "You didn’t!"

  "Didn’t what?"

  "Show the team one of the Transformers flat screens."

  "I did," she laughed. "Very first one in fact. They thought the idea was a great one. We were trying to figure out how to get heavy equipment down there safely, and once they saw the idea, it proved easy to implement."

  The bulldozers, now identified as the twins, began moving all the loose dirt away from the hole and the first obstacle. Meanwhile, BA remained in a combat suit shape, began hoisting huge boulders up, and tossing them away from the area to be cleared.

  "Is this safe?"

  "Nothing about this operation is safe. But inside the large suits, the girls are wearing their normal combat suits as well. So if something bad happens, they have three levels of protection. The belt suit gives them half an hour emergency reserve life support, their combat suits five
hours, and the giant suits another twenty four hours. So if something does go wrong, we have time to get them out."

  "In theory."

  "Don't be such a buzzkill."

  I shut up, and continued to watch the site being cleared.

  By lunch time, they had the whole area under the hole flattened. Grace landed a Dropship in the middle, taking lunch down for the working trio, and Alana down to check further in. Others started laying out a grid of lights.

  By the time I'd eaten, and patted Angel, the twins had started on the blockage.

  The afternoon wore on, and it was near dinner time before Amanda finally punched a hole through the obstacle, large enough for someone to get in.

  The bird took Jane all the way in to what little of the ship was showing.

  Everyone stopped what they were doing, and waited.

  "Base from Mobile One. The rescue is on. I repeat, the rescue is on. I've made contact with survivors. While they have functioning life support and plenty of food, they have several non-life threatening injuries. We need to get them out as soon as we can."

  "Thunderbird Four to Mobile One, can we dig the ship out? Or do we need extraction."

  It sounded like Annabelle was on the Dropship, and usurping Grace's role play. I chuckled when I thought how Grace might be reacting to that.

  "What's up chuckles?" said Grace, as if she'd heard my thoughts.

  "Sorry, was tickling Angel. Are you guys breaking for dinner, or do I send it down?"

  "Mobile One?" asked Annabelle.

  "On my way back," said Jane. "I suggest we eat upstairs, and decide on the next course of action."

  "I'll have the butlers start dinner then," I said.

  "F.A.B." said a half dozen voices altogether.

  I called down to the Deck Two Dining Room, and gave the orders, before making my way down there. Dick was already seated, and greeted me as I entered.

  "Are you following the rescue efforts?" I asked him.

  "No, I've been trying to work."

  "Work?"

  "I keep in touch with your stations each day. Its work. And even at this distance, I'm enjoying being the boss." He grinned. "Are you aware we aren't receiving emails here?"

  "What? No, I hadn't noticed."

  "Things stopped a few hours from the jump point. Nothing in, and nothing we send is being confirmed as having made it out of the system."