Lennox said, “Seems like we need a diversion. The bad guys will turn their attention to that, and we can swing open the corridor hatch and let ’em have it.”
If we could come up with a suitable diversion, that would probably work. The corridor that led to the enemy soldiers was an enclosed straight passage. The hatchway nearest the enemy was the entryway to the fighter bay, or rather to the airlock that joined to the fighter bay.
The next hatchway—in the other direction down the corridor, toward us—was about sixty feet forward of them.
That was the hatchway that the enemy was watching.
It was also the hatchway that Lennox, Nash, and I needed to enter. Then we had to deal with the eleven Kerleegans and their LU-18. Then we needed to unblock the airlock hatch, and get the hatch closed and sealed.
Nash said, “I can use the catwalk that runs parallel to the corridor. When I’m roughly even with the LU-18, I can rap on the outside of the corridor. Maybe they’ll at least look away from the gun for a second.”
I said, “Any better ideas?” After a pause, I said, “Okay, then, that’s the plan.”
Soon we were in a maintenance area near the target corridor.
Nash stepped out onto the catwalk.
I said, “Don’t fall, Nash.”
He said, “Thanks for the reminder, Amundsen.”
I patted him on the shoulder and said, “I’ll let you know when we’re in position.”
“Got it,” Nash said, and he moved out onto the narrow catwalk.
Lennox and I lugged the grenade crate to the forward hatch, the one we needed to go through. Our plan was to wait till we heard Nash’s rapping. Talos, we hoped, would inform us that the enemy was distracted.
Our grenades were fully optimized for anti-personnel uses. They were truly murderous weapons, but since the life of the Valley Forge was at stake, my heart was flint.
Lennox readied one of the grenades by pulling the pin, but of course she kept the lever depressed.
I did the same to another grenade. I held it in my right hand.
Lennox transferred her grenade to my left hand, and even that little maneuver was scary, because any slip and we were in for a galaxy of hurt.
Then Lennox was standing at the hatch, with her gloved hands grasping the wheel firmly.
I said, “Nash, we’re all set. Lennox and I are in position. Go, any time.”
Nash said, “Three, two, one . . . .”
Immediately we heard the racket that Nash was dealing out.
Talos said, “Amundsen, go.”
Almost before that was halfway spoken, Lennox had turned the hatch’s wheel the necessary quarter turn, and she was yanking the hatch open.
In one motion, I stepped partially into the half-open hatchway and tossed the first grenade.
The quick glance I took seemed to show that all the Kerleegans were looking in the direction of Nash’s disturbance, meaning that the LU-18 wasn’t properly manned. I took a chance with another grenade. While I was throwing it, the first one ignited, and that became the focus of every Kerleegan I saw.
Then the second detonated.
I reached to the crate and grabbed another grenade.
Lennox could tell what was going on. She now had the hatch almost wide-open. Using it for partial cover, she began firing her shotgun into the crowd.
By this time, I had long since stopped hearing Nash’s racket, but that didn’t matter any more.
I threw a third grenade. This time I tried to launch it over the nearest part of the crowd. It would have made it to the airlock hatch, but it collided with someone, fell to the deck, and immediately exploded.
It took Lennox only a few seconds to empty the twenty-four round magazine of her shotgun.
Then she grabbed her M90.
As she was doing that, I threw another grenade.
Next thing I knew, Nash was beside me, grabbing a grenade from the crate. I stepped aside, and he threw it down the hall, hard.
The area down the hall was now filled with smoke, and it was difficult to see anything. I figured that waiting around was not a good idea, so I grabbed my M90 and moved quickly into the smoke. Nash and Lennox followed me.
I said, “I’m gonna try to get to the hatch and seal it.”
44
Taking Care of the Wounded
We began encountering bodies. I figured that few, if any, of the Kerleegans had avoided significant contact with the white phosphorus and napalm. I thought maybe half of them would be dead, but I was sure that every one of them still living was in agony from the effects of the burning phosphorus.
When we got to the first body, I said, “Lennox and Nash, cover me.” I wanted to see what damage the phosphorus had done, so that I could assess what the effects on the other ten Kerleegans might be.
Lennox moved into the smoke, which was starting to dissipate. I assumed that Talos had opened some ventilation ducts.
I quickly dragged the body to a less smokey area. As I did so, I could see the writhing bodies of three or four Kerleegans, who were trying, unsuccessfully, to extinguish the burning phosphorus and napalm.
I heard Lennox discharging her M90 in short bursts. I figured she was delivering death blows to Kerleegans who were still moving—at point-blank range, or more likely, with contact shots.
As for the body I was looking at, significant portions of his suit were burned away. The Kerleegans have what looks like an exoskeleton that covers their torsos, and the incendiary material had burned away a large section of that. This soldier’s insides were exposed. He was plainly dead.
I moved forward past Lennox, and past the twisted mass of Kerleegan bodies, now intent on getting to the hatch as quickly as possible. I was ready with my M90, but found no cause for shooting it.
I soon reached the hatch. It was blocked open by a helmet. I looked into the airlock. Nothing was inside. The far hatch was open about an inch, and those within the fighter bay were trying to open it further, but to no avail.
I reached down and grabbed the helmet, thinking to remove it, but the hatch was closed tightly against it. I described the situation to Talos.
Talos said, “I’ve opened the hatch a little. Try now.”
I did. The helmet came out, and I threw it down.
I slammed the hatch closed and twisted the wheel, sealing the hatch.
I said, “Hatch sealed.”
Almost immediately, I heard the explosions from the blowing of the outer bay-door.
I looked through the windows of the airlock hatches as Talos cut the forcefield. It wasn’t a perfectly clear view, but I saw scores of Kerleegan soldiers being swept rapidly across my field of view, out into space.
That concluded this phase of the battle. I thought and hoped that the battle might actually be over now, and that the Kerleegans would depart.
I was struck by the fact that this was somewhat anticlimactic. I had hoped that the decompressing of the two bays would have taken place without any difficulties, remotely.
But God intervened, I think to show me that if wars were conducted that way, we wouldn’t see how ugly they really were.
I had thought I already knew that. Maybe this was a refresher course. So, Lennox and Nash and I had to get our hands dirty. As the French say, “C’est la vie. C’est la guerre.” Such is life. Such is war.
By now, all the phosphorus had burned out. Much of the smoke had dissipated. The ventilation system had cleared it out pretty thoroughly.
Nash and Lennox were studying the eleven bodies, watching for movement. The bodies were mainly in a tangled mess, lying every which way.
I said, “This is pretty disgusting, but we better pull them apart and take care of any who aren’t dead.”
Nash said, in a burst of naiveté, “Take care of?”
Lennox said, “She means, you know, finish them off.”
“Oh, right,” Nash said.
I said, “Lennox, you keep watch over Nash and me, okay?”
S
he nodded.
I was exhausted, and it was difficult work, but Nash and I finally separated all of the bodies.
None of them were moving, and I was sure they were all dead. Still, I took my sidearm and pressed it against one of the bodies and discharged it twice. I did this to three of the bodies in all, so Lennox wouldn’t think she was the only one who had killed wounded enemy soldiers.
Then it was time to move back to the ready-room. We abandoned the remaining grenades and our shotguns. We took with us our M90s and our sidearms.
45
You Forfeit Your Life
When we arrived back in the ready-room, Rabinowitz said, “Good job, the three of you. I’m keeping the crew at the barricades until we know that the threat is gone. We’re either waiting for more boarding craft, or for an indication from the enemy that this is over.”
I said, “Well, I hope it’s over. I’m worn out.”
Talos said, “The six carriers and four of the cruisers are departing the area. All of the fighters have returned to the carriers. Two of the three boarding craft have separated from the Valley Forge and are moving out. One boarding craft remains, probably in order to remove survivors, if there are any who reach there.”
Rabinowitz said, “Talos, seal the fighter bays back up. Begin recompression of all decompressed areas. Bleed pressure from sections that are still compressed, and also pump air into the system.”
Talos said, “Will do, Ma’am.”
I wanted to know about the Kerleegans who had entered the airlock that led from the port fighter-bay toward one of our barricades. They had made it closer to the stern than any of the others who entered the fighter bays. They were isolated in that airlock, without any workable alternatives.
I asked Rabinowitz, “What about the Kerleegans who entered that airlock? Looked like they wanted to head for the stern.”
Rabinowitz said, “They surrendered. There are ten of them in custody.”
Lennox said, “What happens to them?”
Rabinowitz said, “The law and the regs are clear. If you’re captured while boarding one of our ships, you’re executed. You forfeit your life.”
For some reason, this made my stomach turn. I said, “But they’re leaving. We’ve already killed, oh, I can’t even add it up.”
Talos said, “A reasonably close estimate is seventeen hundred.”
I said, “There. And we can’t let ten of their guys, who surrendered, mind you, continue to live?”
Rabinowitz said, “Regs are regs. This is not a time to be charitable. They have their way of fighting. Sometimes they don’t fight to the last man. Those who remain may surrender.” She paused, then added, “And we have our way of fighting. We execute them. Pretty simple.”
I didn’t reply. I knew the law and the regs as well as Rabinowitz.
So we had taken ten Kerleegan prisoners. I didn’t know for certain whether any would actually be executed. The Navy would want to question them. And we might want to have them available to trade for some of our people, if the occasion arose. I wasn’t too worried about anything like summary executions without any inquiry.
I said, “Any enemy left alive in either bay?” I continued to study the monitors that showed the starboard bay. It looked as though three or four enemy soldiers were unscathed. Probably they had been near the interior bulkhead, where the rush of air had been least powerful.
Rabinowitz said, “Waters is checking the bay you just came from. You want to look at the other bay?”
I didn’t really want to, but I did want to be in control of whatever happened to any still-living Kerleegans who might be in that bay. I said, “Yes, Ma’am.” I slung my M90 over my shoulder. About a dozen shotguns were nearby. I grabbed one of them.
Rabinowitz said, “Take Lennox and Nash.”
I said, “Aye aye, Ma’am,” and the three of us headed out to the starboard fighter-bay.
Honestly, I felt bitter about Rabinowitz’s cold statements regarding executions. At least she could have expressed a hope that the executions wouldn’t be carried out. Or she could have said she didn’t like it any better than I did. Anything would have been better than “regs are regs.”
I was also annoyed that Rabinowitz was simply running a pushbutton war from her place of safety in the ready-room. It was all basically, “Waters, go kill those people,” or “Amundsen, make the enemy regret what they’re doing.”
Yes, I’m paraphrasing, but my point is that Rabinowitz wasn’t the one tossing incendiary grenades into an enemy-held corridor, and she wasn’t the one dropping a Coffin Nail missile into an enemy boarding ship, and she wasn’t the one taking out a Banshee to launch missiles at incoming boarding craft, killing hundreds.
Rabinowitz did make at least one clear misstatement. She said that “we have our way of fighting.”
Not true.
She has her way of fighting.
And I have mine.
46
Clearing the Fighter Bays
My group soon reached the barricade located aft of the starboard bay, and it was wonderfully dense and protective, made up of everything from old chairs and desks, to heavy sheets of armor, which were in plentiful supply on the Valley Forge. It was all cleverly arranged in two levels, one behind the other, so that there was a fallback position. We saw plenty of crewmen nearby, probably around thirty, plus four of the Marines.
With difficulty, Lennox, Nash, and I made our way through the barricaded area. About thirty yards in front of us was the airlock hatch. Between the hatch and us was a mass of concertina wire, and that is vicious stuff.
I didn’t even know we had any of that on board. I assumed that it belonged to the Marines. It was an interesting arrangement of two coils stretched across the corridor, on the deck, and a third coil on top of those.
When we got halfway to the wire, a Marine caught up with us.
It was Alec. He patted my helmet and said, “Didn’t really get a chance to talk with you after that section-N business. Thank God you made it, Astrid. You take awful chances. You should have been dead at least twice there. I was proud to be in there with you.”
I said, “We were pretty lucky.”
He tapped my weapon and said, “Told you, Astrid. Shotguns.”
I said, “And we’ve fired quite a few rounds. What about this razor wire?”
Alec said, “That wire’s all on a collapsible rack. I’ll show you.”
And sure enough, when we reached the razor wire, we could easily see the framework. Alec pulled a six-inch release-lever, and then Nash and Lennox and I helped collapse the thing, so that it was about three feet wide. Alec locked it into position, and we were able to get past it easily.
Alec said, “I better go with you.”
I said, “No, thanks. You know, we midshipmen like to think we’re making our own way in this world.”
Alec laughed. He said, “This world? What on Earth does that refer to? Well, don’t get killed at this stage of the game!”
I smiled and waved.
The airlock hatch was closed. The red light meant that the lock was decompressed. Since the corridor, the airlock, and the bay were all decompressed, Nash, Lennox, and I could have moved straight through the airlock and into the bay.
But we closed the hatch behind us, so that the lock would be back in its normal state. We then moved to the hatch that led into the bay. We looked through the hatch’s window.
Four or five enemy soldiers were trying unsuccessfully to open up the airlock at the far end of the bay. Apparently they wanted to retreat to the one remaining Kerleegan boarding ship. None of them were holding weapons.
I said, “Talos, can you let those guys into the lock, so they can get out?”
Talos said, “Certainly. But they all have dropped their weapons, and it would be a simple matter for you three to eliminate them.”
“What about taking them prisoner?” I asked.
Talos said, “We already have ten prisoners, some of whom appear to be
leaders. If we need further prisoners, we can acquire more in the future.”
I wasn’t at all surprised to hear Talos say that. I said, “Who programmed you, anyway? We’re not killing anyone else. The fight is over. Let me ask you this. If Lennox and Nash and I were in the situation these guys are in—say we had boarded an enemy ship, and we lost the fight, and now we wanted to depart for home—should the enemy execute us? Remember, it’s Lennox, Nash, and I. We didn’t kill anybody. We simply want to leave in peace, and hopefully live to see our families again. Would that be the right strategy for the enemy? Just kill us outright?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
I shook my head and said, “You are cold-blooded. Maybe you need to brush up on the Golden Rule.”
“I know the Golden Rule, Ma’am,” Talos said. “I don’t follow it.”
“Talos, forget it. Just let them into the lock.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
We could see them enter the lock and close the hatch behind them.
I said, “We can enter the bay now. Everyone, high alert.”
We entered. I had my shotgun. Nash also had a shotgun, and Lennox carried her M90. A quick look around showed no one anywhere on the deck of the bay, or at least no one living, as far as I could tell. We still needed to check the Banshees.
Talos said, “Enemy soldier in Mabel’s Nightmare.”
My ears perked up when I heard that, since Mabel’s Dream was the ship I had piloted a little earlier. This one must have been a sister ship. The engine compartment was open, and I realized that this was one of the inoperable Banshees. The three of us approached the ship carefully.
No enemy soldier was immediately evident. I climbed up onto a wing, wondering what I might see. Cowering within the cockpit was the enemy soldier. I gestured with my shotgun for him to exit. The canopy popped open, and the soldier began to stand.
Astrid's War Page 13