by Aaron DeMott
Nilre reached over and tapped Major Hood’s forehead.
“Someday I’ve got to learn how to do that,” Tomed muttered.
The major’s eyes blinked. “Funny, this doesn’t look like heaven.”
“We’ve got more work for you before we let you off that easy.”
“Tomed! Nope, not heaven for sure!” Major Hood chuckled and slowly rose to a sitting position.
Tomed slapped him on the shoulder. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. You’re no saint yourself. Get dressed or you’ll miss the next boat home.”
“Wait,” Major Hood looked around the room. His eyebrows were scrunched up and his nose was wrinkled. “You mean we’re not on the Goddard?”
“Nope, we’re on the Heim. Had to bring in a specialist. You almost got that ride on the river Styx.”
River sticks? Bast asked Nilre.
The river Styx. It’s part of an old myth on Earth. Tomed was making a joke.
Oh. I guess I should have studied more Earth history with Rrrark instead of reading about current cultures and technology.
They had only just returned to the Goddard when an announcement about an incoming craft came over the loud speaker in the shuttle bay.
“That’s odd.” Tomed looked up that the light and frowned.
“Oh?” Bast padded over closer to the shuttle bay force field where he stood. “What’s odd?”
“Looks like Ara’s bringing a fighter over here instead of a shuttle.” Tomed glanced back at Nilre, who examined one of her fingernails and—most likely—pretended not to listen.
The fighter landed and Ara hopped out as soon as the hatch opened. She carried two slim white backpacks and a box covered in colorful paper. Ara tossed Tomed and Nilre each one of the backpacks and handed the box to Bast.
Bast watched as Nilre took off her jacket and then removed a small circle from the top of the backpack. Nilre flipped her hair over her shoulder and stuck the small circle to the back of her neck, then slipped the backpack on, and put her jacket on over it.
A hum came from the backpack in the same pitch she had heard in the Heim’s med bay, but lower in volume. Bast sat down in surprise as a blast of presence came out from Nilre. It almost felt as if Nilre was all around her.
“Is that the same thing as over in the med bay?” she asked.
“Yes, only a smaller version,” Nilre said.
“So why didn’t you have these before?”
“They’re not allowed on Earth due to an old treaty, so we sent them with the Heim on its mission of exploration.”
“And I brought two of them back ‘cause I figured Nilre and Tomed could use them with the pirates,” Ara said. “Are you going to open your present now?”
Bast turned the box around in her paws. It had to open somehow. Perhaps the covering was only for decoration? There didn’t appear to be a way to open the box without ruining it.
“It’s just wrapping paper, you’re supposed to rip it,” Ara said.
Bast extended a claw and sliced the paper. Under the wrapping paper was a plain brown box. Bast glanced up at Ara to see if this was just packaging as well. Ara nodded at her so Bast turned the box around to see if there was a way in. One of the long edges had a line down the middle that was covered in a clear film. Bast slid her claw down the line and the box popped open.
Bast reached inside and pulled out a thin black rectangle about the size of her paw. There was a raised bump on one of the large sides. Bast pushed it with the pad of her index toe. A full-color hologram of Earth popped up in front of Bast and slowly rotated.
“Oh thank you! This is wonderful!”
“Touch somewhere on it,” Ara suggested.
Bast poked a random spot on the globe and a small holo-window popped up with a zoomed view of the area and a line of text describing the region.
“Oh! It’s useful as well as beautiful!”
Jake finished his weld and pulled off his welding mask. He leaned back and examined the spot where the launcher frame was now fused to the forward hull of the von Braun. “Crikey, that’s one nice seam if I do say so myself!”
Welding was done mostly by robots in factories and hardly anywhere else these days, but it was a handy skill to have in deep space when a thin piece of metal was the only thing between you and vacuum. He looked over the rest of the project and grimaced. It would work, but it’d never look like it belonged there. He’d told Max that the V-17H missile launcher they’d picked up wasn’t designed to go on a Heim-class ship.
He plugged in the last of the optical connections and ran the computer through a test cycle. This time it came back with an okay status.
“Finally!”
The last four times he’d run the test cycle the computer had kicked out an error code about a pressure leak. He gathered his tools and went off to report to the bridge that the latest addition to the arsenal was on-line.
Jake trudged into the bridge and dropped into a chair along the back wall. Max Loker looked over his shoulder at him from where he sat in the command chair.
“Is our new missile launcher ready?”
“Yeah,” Jake stifled a yawn. “It’s ready.”
“Good. Take that ship you came in on and head to these coordinates.” Max flipped Jake a holo-chip. “You’re supposed to escort a transport ship to the Paradise Colony.”
This time Jake did yawn. “Sure you don’t need me here to install whatever else they forgot on this boat?”
“We’ve got some engineering type people coming in with the supplies we’re picking up shortly. You get out of unloading them this time.”
Jake grinned. “Bonzer! I’m on my way.”
He couldn’t stop another yawn as he stood and headed for the shuttle bay. Once he was clear of the shuttle bay and had the course punched into the nav computer, he lay back in his chair for a nap. The sound of an alarm woke him three hours later. The comm system had a message. A quick check of the nav console showed that he had arrived at his destination.
The message in the communications system was an automated acknowledgment from the ship he was supposed to escort. He punched a command into the helm to follow the transport and leaned back for another nap. An alarm would probably go off if he needed to do anything.
Jake woke to the sound of several alarms at once. A quick check of the board showed a red light for almost every system. He glanced out the window and almost wished he hadn’t. A small fighter headed straight at him.
“Can’t ever get a fair go, can I?”
Jake slapped the shields up and slammed the ship hard to port at the same time. Then he wished he’d strapped himself into the seat. Inertia flung him out of the chair and smacked his head into the wall.
Jake groaned and clawed his way back into the pilot’s seat. He fumbled with the restraints and secured them as fast as possible. He dodged two more fighters, and then he had to pull into a spin and release counter-measures to evade a pair of missiles on his tail.
The comm status light was blinking red and most likely signaled a message that would explain what was going on. He ignored it to focus on turning aside from an incoming plasma beam.
Who or what was attacking him? It looked like UGAL fighters out there. He pivoted the ship around in an attempt to locate the transport.
Something wasn’t right. He found the transport, but it returned fire with the fighters. The last he’d heard, Nebula-class transports didn’t have weapons.
“Crap, now what?” he muttered as he continued to evade the UGAL fighters. “Blow my cover and report in or attack UGAL fighters?”
Jake pondered for a moment and then grinned.
“Ah, bugger that! I haven’t learned anything except they have a lot of heavy supplies. Tomed’ll have fun getting these charges cleared!”
Jake powered up the plasma cannons and veered after the closest UGAL fighter.
He leaned back in the chair and stretched when the last fighter exploded in front of him. It felt like the battle had lasted hours,
but the chronometer showed it had actually been only thirty minutes. He rolled his head around to loosen sore muscles and again noticed the blinking comm light. He reached over and flipped it on.
“Transport ship Stardust to escort vessel, come in!”
“Escort here, this is Jake. Are you okay over there?”
“No. We’re leaking atmosphere, artificial gravity is offline, and there’s a fire in the passenger compartment. Can you evacuate the passengers?”
Jake swore softly under his breath. “I reckon I can. On my way right now.”
Jake docked as quickly as he could and ran down to the docking collar. The airlock on the ship slid open smoothly—to a closed door on the other side.
“Crap.”
Jake grabbed a spanner from a toolbox along the wall of the airlock and heaved on the manual release for the transport’s airlock. After a few turns it was open enough to slip through.
A film of smoke filled the passageway on the other side. As soon as he stepped through the airlock, Jake’s feet lifted off the deck. He grabbed the handrails on the wall and pulled himself down the hall.
The first door he came to opened when he pressed the button. He ducked his head in the door and counted four people huddled in the middle of the room. He wasn’t sure if there were more or not in the semi-dark of the emergency lights.
“All right everyone, we’re evacuating! There’s a ship at the end of the hall. Stay with each other and make sure everyone gets out!”
Jake pushed himself to the other side of the doorway and continued down the hall as the passengers started to float out of the first room. Doors opened along both sides of the hall. Jake pointed them all back to his ship and headed farther into the transport to check for injured.
A few meters down the corridor Jake saw a young girl spinning in the micro gravity. He reached down to grab her by the ankles.
“Hold still!” he shouted as he flung her back toward the airlock.
The reaction spun him to the ceiling. He kicked off to continue on down the hallway.
Jake reached the end and was about to turn around when he spotted a door that was only open about a centimeter. He thought he heard a cry for help from inside. Nothing happened when he pressed the door release button. He grabbed the door and pulled while he braced his feet on the door frame. The door opened another few centimeters.
Jake coughed from the smoke filling the hallway. It had only been a light haze when he first boarded the transport; now he could only see a meter or so down the hallway. Not good.
He jerked on the doorway and it gave enough for him to slip inside. A woman and two small children clung to the couch. The woman held the older boy. The younger one was crying and had his arms wrapped around her right leg.
“Come on. We’ve got to leave. Now!”
The woman looked up at him. “We need help. My left leg is injured and John is unconscious.”
Jake swore again and pushed off the doorway into the room. He caught the arm of the couch and swung around to land on the deck.
“What’s your name?”
“Andrea Vincent.”
“My name’s Jake. Can you hold them while I pull you out?”
Andrea nodded.
Jake grabbed her upper arm and pushed off from the couch. They made it through the door and into the hallway. The smoke had thickened, and the alarm echoed all around.
“Crikey. The reactor’s going critical. Sorry, Andrea, but this’ll be a rough ride.”
Chapter 12
Bast waited next to Rrrark and Hrrarr at the back of the bridge when the Goddard dropped out of hyperspace in the middle of nowhere. In a few minutes a pirate ship should arrive to pick up supplies from the pirate group they had caught on Alkask.
The Heim was originally supposed to accompany them, but halfway to the pirate rendezvous point they were called off to check out a raid on Mining Outpost Two.
A movement on the viewscreen caught her eye.
Tomed slumped in his chair. “Oh, not again!”
The von Braun.
“Shields up! Arm torpedoes, power up the plasma cannons!” Captain leaned forward in his command chair. “Let’s see if we can get something out of them at least.”
“Should I hail them, Captain?” Lieutenant Strouse asked.
Captain Trenton turned to Tomed. “Do you want to talk, or do you want me to handle it?”
“Eh.” Tomed shrugged. “Why not? I’ll take it. Wait a moment for Nilre to get here, then open a channel, please.”
Nilre walked onto the bridge at the same moment that Lieutenant Strouse acknowledged the order.
Tomed stood as Max Loker appeared on the Goddard’s holo-screen.
“Ah, Tomed. Nice to see you again. I assume since you’re here I won’t be getting my supplies?”
“Something like that. We caught your ‘delivery men’ raiding Alkask for no reason we can discern. Care to shed any light on that?”
“Sorry, can’t help you there. As far as I know I’m just supposed to pick up more supplies. You wouldn’t happen to have said supplies with you by any chance? ‘Cause, you know, it’d be less work for me…”
“Nope. Shipped ‘em back to where they belong. Any chance your employer will forgive you?”
“Sadly, no. I suppose I’ll just have to take whatever you’ve got with you.”
Tomed motioned for the Lieutenant to close the channel and ran off the bridge.
“I suggest you fire a few shots and then set a course for Mining Colony Two. Tomed is going to make sure we can outrun them. Captain, I need to see you in the conference room please.” Nilre turned and made her way to the back of the bridge.
“Do it.” Captain Trenton rose and left the bridge.
Nilre motioned for the Meskka to follow her out the door.
Andrea woke with a splitting headache. She groaned and blinked and slowly pushed herself to a seated position. Where were her children? From the sunlight that peeked in around the edges of the curtains, Andrea guessed she was on a planet. Which planet, she had no idea.
The last thing she could remember was being dragged off the transport. She looked herself over and found that someone had bandaged her whole torso and both legs. Funny, she didn't remember being that badly injured. She said a quick prayer of thanks for being alive.
Andrea stood and groaned. That's right… her leg was broken—or possibly just sprained. She limped to the door. It was unlocked. She opened it and stepped out into a long hallway. Bright sunlight splashed in through the windows.
"Ugh." Andrea rubbed her temples. The bright light didn’t help her headache.
"Hello?" she called out into the hallway.
A short, fat man with mostly gray hair stepped through a side door. "Ah, Mrs. Vincent, you're awake!"
"Um, who are you? Where am I? And where are my children?"
"Ah, I'm sorry. Where are my manners?" The strange man bowed to Andrea. "My name is Jokim Smarthe. I'm a minor bureaucrat in the great cogs of the Paradise Colony government."
"We made it to Paradise? Are Fred and John here too?"
"Yes. It seems a passing cargo ship heard your distress call and rescued quite a few of the survivors."
"Are my sons okay?"
"Why don't you come this way, Mrs. Vincent?" Jokim grasped her elbow and helped her down the hallway. "The doctor wanted to see you when you woke. You would be in the hospital, but it's rather full and—"
Andrea shook off his arm. "Mr. Smarthe. Where are my sons?"
"Oh," Jokim scratched behind his ear, "Fred is fine. He's with his father—"
"Jonathan is here? Wait, what about John… Where is my oldest child?"
"Well, I don't quite know how to say this..."
Andrea's face paled as she feared the worst. Jokim looked up at her.
"Oh, I'm sorry. It's not quite that bad. He's alive, but in the intensive care unit. I don't think I should be the one to tell you this—"
"How bad?"
"Not
good, I'm afraid."
"Take me to him. Now."
Andrea had to ignore several nurses, and physically threaten a few doctors, before someone would take her to her son's bed. They wouldn't allow her in the room no matter what she said to them. She peered in the window and discovered why, He was covered in bandages with a half-dozen monitors hooked up to him, and several IV bags hanging from the frame next to the bed.
"How—"
One of the doctors took her arm and guided her to a chair. "It seems there was an explosion. According to the cargo pilot that brought you in, your son woke up when you were most of the way to the transport ship. He helped the pilot get you and your younger son into the cargo ship but was severely injured doing so."
"How bad is it?"
The doctor exchanged a look with one of his colleagues.
Andrea knew that look. "That bad, huh?"
"I'm sorry ma'am. We did everything we could. He’s not making any progress. We’re going to place him in a medically induced coma. Hopefully that will help."
Andrea took several deep breaths and tried not to cry. The door opened, and her husband came in and rushed to her side. She buried her head in his shoulder and sobbed.
Andrea couldn’t concentrate on the scenery out the window as they drove away from the hospital. They were on their way to pick Fred up from her husband’s friend before they went to wherever they were staying. Either John’s condition hadn’t hit Jonathan yet, or he was trying to hold it together for her sake. His jaw was clinched and he gripped the steering wheel tightly. Tension increased the wrinkles around his narrowed eyes. Why did he seem angry?
They picked Fred up at nine o’clock local time and drove for another fifteen minutes. The car stopped in front of a large house. Andrea peered out the window at it.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“Home.” Jonathan sighed. “I was going to surprise you with it. We’re moving here.”
Andrea didn’t say anything else until Fred was asleep in one of the upstairs bedrooms. She tiptoed back downstairs to confront her husband.