Space Rats

by Jacqueline Kirk

  FIFTEEN

  It was several moments before anyone could gather their wits enough to see what was going on. Troy looked out the front window but all he could see was a dark swirling cloud that obscured everything. Lights were flashing on the console and he quickly checked to see what was damaged.

  “Are we dead?” Ziggy said behind him.

  Troy spun around in his chair to see that everyone appeared to be okay. Even Orla gave him a little smile, much to his relief.

  Turning back to look out the front he said, “No, we’re not dead. We landed on one of the planets. I think that’s just dust that we threw up when we landed.”

  The others looked up in confusion when he suddenly spun the chair around and bolted to the door only to come crashing into Tristan who happened to be entering at the same time.

  “Hey!” Tristan cried, rubbing his chest where Troy’s head had struck it.

  “Oh Tristan!” Troy said with a rush of relief, “I was just coming to check you were okay!”

  Tristan grinned and ruffled his brother’s hair affectionately, grinning even more when Troy smoothed his hair in annoyance.

  “I see everyone’s okay here,” he noted before looking out the front window. “Good landing.”

  Troy frowned a little and said, “How can you say that? We can’t even see outside because of the mess I made with the landing! It’s going to take ages for this dust to settle enough for us to take off!”

  Tristan patted him on the shoulder and explained, “I meant, that you got us down in one piece! Good job.”

  “Oh,” Troy said a little deflated but then smiled with pleasure.

  Krista was focused on her computer screen before turning around. “If my scanners are right, this whole planet is like this. It wasn’t our landing that caused this dust cloud, the whole surface is covered with it.”

  They all looked out the window at the roiling cloud and tried to see if there was any way to see through it. Not even putting on their outside hull lights made that much of a difference.

  “Okay,” Tristan began, folding his arms across his chest, “I know we had a close escape but I still think we need to stop Red Raven. A passenger cruise ship has a lot of people on board and we can’t stand by and do nothing while he kills them all!”

  There was silence for a moment and then Krista spoke, “I could modify the scanners so we can see any obstacles around us if Troy could manage to fly that way. We would at least be off this planet.”

  Troy assured them he could do it then he looked to Lena and Ziggy who were sitting quietly while the rest talked over them.

  “What do you guys think?” he asked them quietly.

  Lena looked at Ziggy who nodded a little then said, “I think we should stop him if we can. I don’t know if we will be able to but we have to try! Orla smiled and nodded in agreement.

  “Let’s do it!” Tristan exclaimed, returning to the engine room.

  “Ready Krista?” Troy asked.

  “Just give me,” Krista said slowly while tapping on her console, “one minute while I adjust the scan power level. There! That should do it!”

  She pressed a button and the front screen showed a computer image of the surrounding area and Troy was grateful no one had suggested he try a take off blind. About twenty feet above them was a ledge that stuck out from the sheer mountainside they were up against. When Star Chaser had landed she must have slid along the ground to end up underneath the ledge like they were. If Troy had tried a take off they would have crashed immediately.

  As it was, with Krista’s computer image on the screen he was able to glide out from under it until they had a clear take off path. Gathering velocity they noted that the covering of dust on the planet was quite high, almost obscuring their view all the way up to the edge of the atmosphere.

  “Okay, Krista,” Troy said and she switched the computer image off and they were left with the normal view.

  It only took Troy a few moments to navigate through the debris of the blasted moons and planets and back out into open space. Tristan appeared back on the bridge and they discussed their next move.

  “We can’t take on Red Raven ourselves, obviously,” Tristan was saying, “but maybe we could create some kind of distraction?”

  “Like what?” Troy asked him with a frown.

  Tristan stood thinking for a moment but it was Ziggy who spoke first.

  “We need to do something that gets the merchant ships on the alert. Make them think they are under attack before they actually are, it might make them notice Red Raven a lot sooner than they might have.” Ziggy looked around at his friends feeling a little self conscious for speaking up.

  Troy nodded with a smile, “That’s not a bad plan Ziggy!”

  “How do we make them think they are under attack though?” Lena asked, “We don’t have any weapons.”

  They all pondered this new problem for a while until Troy finally suggested, “I could do a fly by?”

  He looked at Tristan as he said this, his expression hopeful.

  “That might just work,” Tristan said slowly, “If you can get as close as you can without actually hitting it them just maybe it will shake them up enough to go on alert.”

  “Wait,” Lena said sharply, “You want to fly as close as possible to another ship? And hope we don’t hit it?”

  Troy looked at her and grinned, “That’s right! Don’t worry so much, you’ll get wrinkles!”

  Lena stared at him open-mouthed, obviously not sure if he had finally gone mad or not. Looking at Ziggy for help she scowled to find him also grinning at her.

  “Fine!” she retorted in annoyance, sitting back in her seat and making sure her straps were on correctly then doing the same for Orla.

  “Troy? Just be careful, okay!” Tristan told him before leaving for the engine room.

  “Okay, guys,” Troy said to the others, “Make sure you’re strapped in real tight because this might get a little wild.”

  “You’re not making me feel any better you know!” Lena commented.

  Troy laughed then sobered as he focused on the task at hand. He asked Krista for the co-ordinates of the merchant line and instructed her to keep an eye out for Red Raven. They didn’t want to run into him before they had even got to warn the ships.

  It took them two hours to get within range of the merchant ships and they stayed back while they studied the fleet of ships in the distance.

  Most of the ships were large and rectangular, simple cargo ships that carried the merchandise from one place to another. Amongst these were smaller ships that carried people as well as merchandise. They paid the organisers of the merchant fleet a fee to travel with them so they could benefit from the extra protection it provided.

  This extra protection was also why sometimes cruise ships would travel along with them too, especially in this part of space that was a little less civilised than some of the larger galaxies. Besides, the rich people that could afford to travel by cruiser didn’t really think much about the extra cost of added security.

  Looking along the line the children counted six large cargo ships; ten of the smaller privately-owned ships and the large cruise ship that glided along between them all, its gentle curves and beautiful design making it stand out amongst the less pristine transport.

  “Wow, “ Lena couldn’t help saying, “What a beautiful ship!”

  Troy snorted and said, “It costs a packet to get even a rubbish room on one of those!”

  “Kind of stands out though,” Ziggy commented.

  Troy explained about the merchant fleets being able to provide extra security in the less savoury parts of space. They nodded in understanding and went back to studying the ships.

  “How are you going to get close enough to the cruiser to have any effect?” Krista asked, “The smaller ships will be on to you before you get near.”

  Troy thought for a moment, chewing his lip as he did. Krista was right. The cruiser was in the centre of the fleet and if
he even got close to just one of the ships, they would all be on him.

  “Does it have to be the cruiser?” Ziggy asked curiously.

  Troy thought about that for a moment. “Actually, no, it doesn’t! We just need to get them on alert, so any of them will do really.” He looked at the ships thoughtfully and added, “One of the larger ones preferably!”

  “Why not just the one at the front then?” Lena suggested.

  The ship in front was one of the large cargo ships, clunky and not very manoeuvrable. Troy smiled and nodded in agreement.

  “Krista, any sign of Red Raven?” he asked.

  Krista checked her screen and shook her head. “Nothing. But it could just be he has some way of fooling the sensors. There’s nothing he can hide behind so it has to be something like that, unless…”

  Troy looked at her when she had trailed off to see her frowning at her screen. “Unless what?” he asked impatiently.

  “I don’t know really,” Krista said with a slight shrug, “I’ve been scanning the area and I don’t know if it’s because I had to adjust the scanners back on the planet or what, but I keep seeing this dark area here.”

  She pointed to an area just to the right and forward of the merchant fleet where the stars were not quite as brilliant as elsewhere as if there was something in front of them. Troy squinted at the screen but just couldn’t see anything.

  “Do you think he’s got some kind of way to camouflage his ships?” Krista asked him.

  Troy stared out the front windshield and could see that the merchant fleet was approaching this blurred part of space and if he waited any longer it would be too late. Hitting the com button he told Tristan what was going on.

  “I have an idea,” he continued telling his brother, “Instead of targeting the merchant ships, is there some way we could make Red Raven’s ship visible? Even if we’re wrong and he’s not actually there, we will still have got the fleet’s attention.”

  There was a pause before Tristan answered, his voice sounding clearly over the COM system. “If you can get close enough I’ll do the rest, just give me a shout when you are as close as you can get.”

  Troy nodded, forgetting he was on the COM system and turned the ship towards the area they hoped Red Raven was hiding. Telling Krista to try and pinpoint exactly where the edge of the blurring began he sped forward as fast as the ship could go.

  It didn’t take long for Star Chaser to catch up with the end of the merchant fleet and as they continued to speed past Krista pointed out that some of the smaller ships were moving out to follow at a slightly slower pace. Obviously just to make sure the speeding ship wasn’t going to cause trouble.

  “Krista?” Troy asked as they approached the front of the fleet and sped past the lead ship to the other side.

  “Here!” she cried and gave him the co-ordinates, “That is the very front edge of it!”

  Quickly looking down at his own small screen he could see that they had almost reached it and told Tristan to get ready. Leaving the com system open he concentrated as they sped onwards.

  “At the very last minute I need you to do a complete turn around and head back to the fleet!” Tristan told him over the com.

  “What?” Troy asked, completely bewildered.

  “Just do it!” Tristan said forcefully, “Tell me the exact minute you’re about to turn!”

  Troy said no more, trusting in his brother. Looking at his small screen on the console he could see they were just about there. “Okay, Tristan, get ready! I’m turning… Now!”

  Just as he shouted out he turned Star Chaser as sharply as he could and flew back towards the fleet. He heard Krista gasp beside him but couldn’t spare the concentration to ask what had happened.

  “Did it work?” Ziggy asked instead.

  “I think so,” Krista replied with a smile.

  “You hear that Tristan,” Troy called out, “What did you do anyway?”

  “I dumped all our waste on him!” Tristan said cheerfully.

  “Eww,” Lena said, “you mean like all our kitchen waste and stuff like that, right?”

  There was the sound of muffled laughter, “Yeah, all that too!”

  “Whoever was at the front got hit by it,” Krista told them, trying to keep a straight face. “It worked though! Whatever they had been using to camouflage themselves flashed as all the stuff Tristan dumped hit it.”

  “And as you can see,” Troy added, focusing intently on his flying, “it seems to have worked!”

  They looked out the front window and they could see not only the smaller ships but ISF ships they had not seen before that must have hidden themselves amongst the rest. These ships all sped toward them and all of a sudden a blast from behind flashed past them and scattered the smaller ships, which then regrouped and opened fire themselves.

  “Umm,” Troy began as laser blasts flew past them from what seemed all directions, “This is bad!”

  “You think?” Lena cried, gripping her seat tightly as the ship shuddered as one of the laser blasts bounced off their shield.

  “What’s going on?” Tristan yelled over the com.

  “Seems our little plan worked,” Troy shouted back deftly steering the ship around the large ship that had suddenly appeared in front of them. “But we didn’t reckon on getting caught in the cross-fire afterwards!”

  He ignored whatever his brother had said after that. He needed to focus on getting them out of this safely but with ships and weapon fire going everywhere he feared that he wouldn’t manage it.