by Randy Noble
John Krane and Paula Brillter flew the ship behind the runner. They were the only partners in the group so close in rank, John with a 3 and Paula with a 5. George grouped them together to avoid the others from bitching about their habit.
The air filtering system in John and Paula’s ship worked hard to clean the air of all the smoke. Neither could fly without a cigarette going. Some of the buttons, switches, and non-metallic panels became yellowed and gunked up from day after day of exhaled smoke.
The runner started coming towards them.
“Watch out, Paula,” John said.
“Got it.” Paula backed off as the runner tried to bash them.
”Good job, kid.” John smiled. “This guy ain’t going nowhere but where we tell him to.”
John, only six years older than Paula, who was twenty four, always called her kid, like she was his sister, but she hoped he didn’t think of her that way. Tall, dark, and handsome at six foot six, John was all she could think about sometimes. When it came to doing her job, nothing broke her concentration, but she did manage a little smile as he called her kid.
“There’s the gate,” John said. The markers, now within site, continued on for a short distance through the gate, and then ended.
From a distance, the gate did not appear that impressive, but once they got closer its massive size overwhelmed anything near it. The bottom part of the gate ran over 2500 meters long and the highest peak at the top was 3000 meters high. A rectangular base and rounded sides curved inward into a giant looking arch. It shone a bright, red color because of a special type of metal used to construct it.
Before they got to the gate, the runner came to a complete stop; Paula was not prepared for it.
John and Paula’s ship slammed into the runner, breaking the field from the rear and leaving a hole for the runner to get through.
Paula figured whoever piloted the runner panicked when they saw the gate and didn’t know what else to do. She bet if John had taken control right away, he probably would have been able to block them in, but he did not do that. Paula appreciated it even though she knew her reaction time needed more work in a simulator.
The runner reverse-thrusted out of its prison, knocking John and Paula’s ship again. The runner jumped forward, banking to avoid the others, and then went directly toward the gate.
Immediately, Mary’s voice came over the speakers on their eyeglasses. “Who’s piloting, John? You or Paula?”
“That would be me, 1C,” Paula said, before John had a chance to speak.
“Paula, I want you on navigation. John, take over.”
“You got it, 1C,” John said as he shook his head at Paula that it was not going to happen.
The comm channel remained open so Paula took her hands off of the yoke and shrugged her shoulders, not sure what to do.
John pointed at her and then at the yoke, and Paula nodded, taking control.
The runner went for the middle of the gate, looking like a speck compared to the massive size of the gate. It didn’t matter though, and everyone in the group knew it.
Sure enough, the runner went right through the gate and came through the other side, as if it was there for decoration.
The SPARS’s ships gained on the runner.
Chapter 11
Regina charged down the hallway, her legs pumping, adrenaline flowing, eyes sharp, mind focused. Her heart pounded with some trepidation, but mostly her heart pounded with rage, fueled by thoughts of what she would do to anyone victimizing another. Snap. Break. Torture. Kill. Take your pick. She had done them all and slept well at night.
She hooked around a hallway that ran by a basketball court with high plexiglass walls, running for the exit along the wall halfway down the court, right beside some bleachers.
Regina got to the stairwell, her gun out and pointed down. She heard some scuffling noises above her in the stairwell.
As she ran up the stairs, she caught a flash of movement from the corner of her eye, and immediately turned toward it. Nothing there.
She kept climbing, jumping two and three stairs at a time. When she got up three flights of stairs, one floor up from the previous level, she stopped and listened. Nothing.
And then she saw what she missed before. A white t-shirt came floating down, a floor above. It fell onto the banister below her and then slid onto the stairwell. Whatever fell before must have been so heavy; offering no resistance, it fell fast. A shoe? A toe? A foot? A head? Jesus, she thought.
“Whoever you are, you’ve got seconds before I find you. Know this: I’m a SOAD officer and if I discover you’ve harmed one fucking person I’ll drop you dead where you stand. You got that? YOU GOT THAT?” She regretted saying what she did as soon as she said it. She knew it was stupid. Stupid to threaten anyone. Stupid to expect anyone to wait around after that tirade. Stupid to tell anyone she was a SOAD. Regina ran up the stairs.
A flash of orange light filled the stairwell one flight above, moving towards her.
Regina stopped. Her heart raced. She pointed her gun up the stairwell.
She backed down the stairs, slowly, her gun steadied at the wall above. And then she turned just as another orange flash occurred. She caught it out of the corner of her eye. It was closer. Not only did it look closer, but she felt it, like a presence, the hairs on her neck and arms stood up, electric.
As she turned and started down, she slipped on one of the stairs, quickly flipping her gun to her left hand and grabbing the railing to steady herself as another orange flash consumed her.
For a moment, the moment the flash occurred, she froze. The light blurred her vision and she smelled a strange odor, like burning leaves, but she didn’t feel singed in anyway. There was no pain. She felt odd. What was it? That feeling? And then she placed it. She felt sick. Not because the light made her sick, but because the feeling the light evoked as it consumed her made her want to be sick. She felt violated.
The flash lasted for only a second, and once it disappeared, Regina ran down the stairs. At the bottom of the flight, she dared a look back.
Regina waited, staring up the stairs, her eyes wide, heart still racing, gun at her side.
And then, making a sound like a suction cup snapping from glass, something came at her.
It beat out the pile after pile of clothing as the strangest thing she had seen yet.
Chapter 12
In the commander’s shuttle, Travis talked with the gate patrol officers, via a microphone built into the holographic display panel in front of him. “Gate patrol, this is SPARS group one with precinct ship Lancer, clearance code Zulu, Bravo, Tango, Quebec, Five, Alpha, Foxtrot, Niner. Verify.”
The response came seconds later, a female voice. “SPARS one, this is gate control. Code verified.”
Travis leaned forward, closer to the microphone. “We are in pursuit of a runner who has stolen a SPARS ship. As soon as we surround them again and lock them in, we need to take them through to Gate Quadrant Seven, Section B. Confirm.”
“That’s affirmative, gate set to Quadrant Seven, Section B, whenever you’re ready.”
“Thanks, Debbie. You’re a doll.”
George shook his head. “Kids.”
“You owe me a drink,” came Debbie’s voice from the speakers, also a part of the holographic display.
“You got it.” Travis clicked a button on the display to cut communications and the link between his ship and gate patrol ended. He then looked over at George. “What do you mean – kids? I’m forty three.”
“Yeah, but she’s like nineteen.”
“Good point. I better buy her more drinks.” Travis smiled. George did not, but Travis rarely saw him smile since he’d known him.
After the runner went through the gate, it moved towards the gate patrol guard tower, a three-storey building with a control level, kitchen and leisure level, and a bunk level. It had a dock on the right side of it, with one ship, similar to the SPARS ships, but smaller. A tunnel to the left of the build
ing was used as a service tunnel, connecting to the gate and running all the way through for any service that needed to be done. There were two more docks, empty, on the other two sides of the building.
As hard as the runner tried, the SPARS had no problem catching up and re-capturing it with the magnetic towing beams. The runner tried to bump and smash them, but with everyone on the ball, including Paula, they captured the runner just below the guard tower. Immediately, they came about and towed the runner toward the gate. The gate hummed to life.
Like rippling water, the space between the massive, red structure that formed the arch rippled inward, caused by the vibrations from inside the gate. Just seconds before, stars were clearly visible through the gate, but now it became a ripple of darkness. All five ships disappeared through the gate as they splashed through the blackness.
Chapter 13
Regina watched a tennis ball-sized, brown blob fly at where her head used to be, out of thin air, and thump against the back wall of the stairwell. It stuck for a second and then fell with a thud onto the carpet.
She watched the brown blob flatten. It looked like a muddy puddle of water, and then it did something uncharacteristic of a puddle of water. It moved, towards her. Regina backed down the stairs, not taking her eyes from the blob.
She raised her gun and fired six shots in quick succession, but not at the blob. She hoped to hit whatever she couldn’t see, but felt was there. All six shots went into the wall, leaving six large holes clustered together. Surely somebody somewhere developed stealth tech by now, she thought. It wouldn’t surprise her. And don’t call me Surely. She smiled. It seemed crazy to smile in such a situation. Her father always responded to her with “And don’t call me Surely” whenever she used the word, since she could remember, back before he muttered to himself and before the fits of anger.
The blob spread out more and more, making its way towards her, oozing down the stairs.
Regina turned, jumped down the stairs four at a time, no problem with her long legs, and then halfway down, she grabbed the railing and hurled herself over to the next flight down.
She ran down two full levels, before taking an exit onto the Casino, Restaurant, and Shops level of the ship, the level she had been on the night before. She ran toward the front of the ship and zigzagged down hallways, taking a right, running forward, right, and so on. She ran past several signs advertising different kinds of food from various planets, and then past bars and lounges offering drink specials. Finally, after zigzagging to the right side of the ship, and passing places like Planet Osiris’s Monster Lobster, The Ocean Blues, and Lover’s Palace, she found it.
Regina took an exit. A sign picturing a tube with wavy lines running through the middle of it was affixed to the wall beside the doorway.
She walked into a small alcove with a large, clear tube that had a diameter of six feet. A sign beside the entrance to the tube read: Access restricted. Pyramid Staff Only! In case of emergency, under supervision by Pyramid staff.
Regina debated taking the elevator, which would be very quick, run by magnetic technology like the tube in front of her. Something could be waiting in the elevators. It would be a perfect opportunity for an attack, especially for desperate people wanting a quick way out.
She looked down at the tube button and saw that only a fingerprint identification was needed. Normally, only the Pyramid staff would be able to gain entry, but her title of SOAD gave her privileged access to areas most people did not have. She had even been through security so restricted that it required not only fingerprint I.D., but also an eye scan, voice recognition, and a DNA sample.
Regina stuck her right index finger on the button by the entrance to the tube, and a clear door slid upward to let her into a smaller tube inside the larger one.
Regina walked inside her transport, held in place by a support platform below it. Once inside, she grabbed a handle above her, realizing now how people got hurt in them, with a metal bar just above to bash your head against if things went wrong.
A sign above the controls told Regina that there was a four person maximum. She saw this as a disaster waiting to happen. Granted, with only vertical movement, people shouldn’t slam into one another. Who was she to judge the engineering experience that went into this thing? Not many things made her nervous, yet she could not deny using the tube gave her pause.
She looked at the console inside the tube, like a normal elevator, with floor descriptions instead of numbers. She considered the shuttle bay, but that would not get her closer to the control room. She pressed the button reading: Observation.
The door slammed down.
Jesus! Regina exhaled heavily.
The tube support platform below released just as the magnets kicked in. The smaller tube dropped slightly, and then hovered inside the larger one.
And then, without warning, the smaller tube flew upwards at an incredible rate, faster than any magnetic elevator she had ever been on.
The area surrounding the tube blurred as she whipped upward. Even if she did have a clear view, the jump up four levels took a fraction of a second and viewing anything would have been impossible at that speed.
The tube shot past its mark by five feet, and then quickly came down to the exit for the Observation Level so quick that Regina’s stomach rose with an uneasy feeling.
Thank Christ! Regina waited for the tube door to open, her gun in hand down by her side.
She came out of the tube onto a narrow, gravel pathway, which connected to an intersection with three choices. Two paths ran along a beautiful forest of lush pine trees over fifty feet high, and the third ran directly into the forest. A simulated sky of gray, misty clouds moved slowly over her. The illusion was incredible as the clouds seemed to be miles in the sky, but she knew that was not possible. The area seemed immense. The wall opposite the forest had moving images projected onto it, or from behind, adding to the overall effect. Even more incredible to her was a simulated wind, soft and warm, blowing in the same direction the clouds were going. As the tops of the pines gently swayed in the wind, the images on the wall matched them with the direction of the sway. Her trench coat flapped slightly in the breeze. Regina could hear a stream in the near distance.
Regina walked straight, taking the path into the forest. Through the trees and then forward, ever forward, was the plan, ultimately getting to the control room eight floors down at the front of the ship.
She walked slowly through the trees, taking her time, keeping a watchful eye and an open ear for any strange sight or sound. She did not stick to any path, winding around the trees, moving towards the front of the ship. Darkness spread in the trees, the gray clouds above not allowing much of the simulated sunlight through. Regina kept close to the outer edge of the forest in case she needed to get off the level quickly.
As she walked, her thoughts wandered to her father. When younger, she thought him a cruel man. Just days after Regina’s sixth birthday, her mother, a planet realtor, had been killed showing the amenities of a small, lush planet, with no industrial or chemical plants or large cities. She was in a village, showing a quaint cottage to a man who had many names, none of them real. He raped her and then slit her throat on the front porch, and nobody saw a thing.
Regina’s father lost his job as a SPARS officer trying to hunt the man down, never finding him. He made money as a bounty hunter, making quick jobs of catching wanted criminals before returning to his main search for his wife’s killer.
Her father always made it home, every night, and since her mother’s death, he taught her to defend herself first and then how to fight back, including hand-to-hand combat, and then weapons, mostly gun training.
He prepared her for the reality of the world she had been brought into. “Don’t think, Regina,” her father told her. “Just react and all your natural instincts will make the right decision for you.” Since that time, her father reinforced this ideal in her mind by surprising her when she least expected it. At first, some of he
r dad’s surprises scared her so badly, they made her cry, but it didn’t take long to curb her fear and react with instinct, putting her emotions on hold. Many a time, her father jumped out from behind a door or grabbed her leg from under a bed, and after initial times of screaming, she eventually learned to defend herself, even knocking her dad back or throwing him to the floor when she got older and stronger.
Before her mother’s murder, she had a normal life, playing with her friends and family, starting school, not a care in the world. And then, her world changed. She continued school and continued a pretend life that no longer existed for her, and in secret, a secret only she and her father ever knew, she began training that shaped the path for the rest of her life. Regina didn’t know it at the time, but she knew it now.
SNAP!
Regina’s head, bowed down in thought, came up as soon as she heard a branch, behind her, break. Footsteps. Maybe two pair.
Chapter 14
Five diamond-shaped ships came through the dark, black opening, four surrounding the runner just like when they entered the gate. As soon as they came through, stars became visible inside the gate.
In the near distance, precinct ship, Lancer, a square vessel with rounded corners, moved slowly towards the SPARS ships. Each side of Lancer was 300 meters long and eight stories high. It was a large, black mass of floating metal.
Four small panels slid up on the bottom section of Lancer, on the section facing the SPARS ships. Four landing platforms slid out and away from the vessel, each with a SPARS ship on it. Once the platforms fully extended, each ship took off from the platform and flew towards the others, the platform retracting as soon as they took off.
The runner desperately tried to free itself as Michael, George, Mary, and Paula kept it locked between them with the magnetic tow, steering it towards the large vessel.