I floated over to it. There was a keypad next to it. I examined it closely with eyes that zoomed in to discover incredible detail. The numbers most punched were 1, 2, 5, and 7. There was nothing to indicate the order or frequency with which the buttons were punched.
What do I know about these people? I paused to consider their politics, religion, and customs. There was a common thread through all these, their mysticism, they call it Penderitaan. Certain numbers are important to them; two—there are two different hells. Seven—there are seven slices ordained to flay a human body. And fifteen—there are fifteen unspoken deaths.
I was about to enter these numbers 2-7-1-5 when I recalled they read from right to left. I entered the numbers in reverse order, 1-5-7-2.
The door opened.
Inside, I discovered controls typical to all reactors. As I floated there looking at the controls, the room began to rotate until the control panel had moved to a position over my head. I was looking at the floor now! What had happened was the lander had altered its position in space, it rotated but I did not. The lander must be lining up to dock with the orbiting spacecraft.
As I corrected my attitude relative to the control panel, I recalled my many hours of study regarding the care and feeding of nuclear reactors received at the IIEA School. I had seen those classes as a waste of time. Now, I was very happy I had been forced to learn.
The first thing I did was to stop the pumps in the condensate polishing system, then the main feed coolant pumps. The computer sounded an alarm, which I silenced as quickly as I could. They knew now where I was and what I was up to.
My fingers flashed over the keys as I reprogrammed the computer. I stopped only long enough to manipulate other controls. I considered the events I was putting into motion and how much time was involved.
After about eighty minutes of slow temperature rise, the primary loop pumps would begin cavitation, due to super-hot vapor, rather than liquid coolant running through them. At about one hundred thirty minutes, the reactor core would melt. The resulting reaction would produce a voluminous amount of hydrogen gas which would result in an explosion in the containment pod sufficient to blow the entire stem off the mushroom.
The problem was that it was going to take way too long. They would be docked before then, I'd be dead, and their technicians would repair the reactor long before it could blow. Having no other plan, I continued.
Chapter 14
Critical Levels
When I'd finished my work, the monitor in front of me flashed red, and then I read in Chinese, "WARNING! Reactor failure imminent! Select from one of the following options."
The options were all methods by which the reactor could be stabilized. However, the last one caught my eye: "Reactor Core Containment Pod emergency jettison."
I opened the file and read on:
"On the center control panel numbered 3b (Alphanumeric designator located in upper right of each panel), locate a locked access cover, yellow with black stripes. With the key, maintained on the person of the control room supervisor, open the box and depress the red button found beneath. Ensure all personnel are well clear before depressing this button. Individual activating the emergency RCCP ejection will have fifteen (15) minutes to reach safe distance before the explosive bolts are detonated."
I located the yellow and black striped box, and having no key, just grabbed it and pulled it off the console. Beneath was the button. I pushed it.
The monitor flashed again. EMERGENCY RCCP EJECTION IN 14:59. I synced my internal clock, and smashed the monitor. I figured this might prevent them from stopping all I'd set in motion, or at least, slow them down. I then exited the room by the one and only door. I made a fist and destroyed the keypad—which, of course, tore up the simulated flesh on my hand, again. I then grabbed the door frame with both hands, and with all the strength I could muster, I bent it.
I decided this would slow them gaining access. I only needed to delay them for fourteen more minutes.
My ears picked up the sound of men and their equipment moving themselves down the tubes and through the hallways. They were coming from around the passage I was floating in and down the access tubes that brought me here. A quick glance confirmed they were headed this way down both tubes.
Quickly, I grabbed a set of elevator doors and forced them apart then dashed in, they closed behind me. I adjusted my eyes to the darkness. I was floating in the elevator car but it was without power. I drifted up and started pulling away at the false ceiling, the pieces floating around me like fish in a bowl. I located the maintenance access hatch, but found it bolted closed by two security screws. No doubt, the janitor had the tool.
I braced my feet on the handrail on the walls inside the elevator car and pushed on the hatch. It popped right open and started to shoot up into the shaft. I jumped upward to grab it. I didn't want it rattling all over the shaft telling everyone where I was.
In jumping, I caught my right shin on the edge of the hatch, ripping my trousers and the simulated flesh beneath. The shiny titanium bone was quite visible.
I floated up toward the first floor of the disk, from where I had begun my descent, and where I'd seen the escape pod sign.
When I got to where I thought I should be, I pulled the doors open just a little and looked out. The walls were a green color. I clearly remember the walls in the passage I had first emerged into as being a purplish gray color. "Great! Up or down?" I again pulled the doors open looking for a clue. I could see nothing to help. I thought a moment and decided to go up one more floor.
I pulled these doors open, and this time, saw bluish walls. I looked for some information but found nothing to indicate my location within the ship.
I checked my internal chronometer. Four minutes and thirty-five seconds had passed. I opened the door again and looked up and down the passage. It was quiet. I floated out of the shaft and looked about. As I turned around to re-enter the shaft, there was a directory on the wall. It seemed the bottom of the mushroom’s disk was ringed with escape pods. I had gone all the way to the top, and so had to descend five floors to gain access to them!
I was about to reenter the elevator shaft when I noticed another sign. "Chuanshang de giao" and "Kapal Jembatan" followed by two arrows, one pointing right, the other pointing up. It meant the bridge, the command deck, was to my right and up. I checked the time again. Almost seven minutes remaining. I turned right and saw a ladder attached to the wall leading up to a passage identical to the one I was in, except it was on the ceiling. I pushed off the floor and drifted into the passage. Instantly, my perspective changed. Instead of drifting up, I was just floating down a hallway a few centimeters off the floor. At the end was a closed door. I pushed an illuminated button to the right side of the door and it instantly slid open.
In front of me was the control room, bathed in blue light. At the far end, the entire wall was transparent. It was an observation port looking out into space. The room was a large one with three consoles attached to the floor. Two up front for the pilot and co-pilot, I assumed, and one to the rear for the engineer. Every surface in this room was covered with illuminated instruments and monitors.
Through the window, I could see the enemy's mother ship. It did look like a space station. However, a secondary structure, a propulsion and navigation unit, had been added to it in order to propel it through space. As I looked, I could see the flag of the Russian Federation painted across the side and the name Черноморский or Black Sea. It had been painted over, roughly and by hand, with a green scimitar and two stars, the station's name replaced with the word Pembalas, meaning Avenger.
Docked to the station were the two Earth re-entry vehicles. On them I could see the Flags of China. They, too, and been replaced with scimitars and stars. Everything these guys possessed, it seemed, was hijacked.
There were three men sitting in this room; the pilot, copilot, and the engineer. They were all looking at me. I was rather beat-up looking after my fight with Brunhild
e, ripping open equipment, bending doors, and tearing my shin open. The nearest guy to me looked me over and asked if I was okay, "Apakah Anda baik-baik saja?"
I leaned against the door and said weakly, "Bantuan." Help. He and the copilot leapt up to assist me. I chopped one in the throat and punched the other hard in the jaw. Both were out for the count. The pilot sprang out of his seat and started to unbuckle his holster. I grabbed the copilot who floated unconscious near me, and threw him at the pilot, who ducked. This gave me time to spring at the pilot. Moments later, all three were out and I had a pistol.
I looked at the control panel. The computer had turned remote access over to the mother ship, which was guiding the lander in for docking. I noticed on the holographic monitor a simple button marked, "melepaskan akses jarak jauh," or "disengage remote access".
Yeah, I pushed it. Again, I destroyed the monitor. Exiting the room, I locked the door and smashed the panel.
I checked my chronometer again. About four minutes. Well, I never expected to get out of this, anyway.
I went to bend the door frame as I had done before, but as I exerted pressure, a red indicator flashed in my field of vision. "Warning, power levels critical. Seek recharge immediately."
I was down to twenty-two percent. Guess I should have listened to Ava.
I abandoned the door and started to fly as fast as I could for an escape pod. At the elevator, I pulled the doors open and dove head first into the shaft. I counted the five floors down, then stopped and yanked the doors open. There stood five enemy soldiers, armed to the teeth. I quickly snapped off five rounds with the pistol and they balled up in the zero 'G' and just floated there. I released the pistol and grabbed one of the dead guard’s rifle. An AK 110, with a bayonet. Sanyo would be pleased.
With very little time remaining, I sped down the passage as fast as I could. I saw the sign again that indicated the way to the escape pods and followed the path that led to a long, curving chamber that must have followed the curvature of the bottom of the mushroom. It was brightly illuminated in a harsh, bluish-white light. Every eight meters, there was a circular hatch to an escape pod in the floor. At least, they looked to be on the floor when I entered; now, they looked to be on the wall. I stopped at the nearest and punched the escape button. The door began to open and lights began to flash.
Just then, the entire behemoth lunar lander shuddered. The lights flickered, went out a moment then came back on, but noticeably weaker. The Reactor had just been jettisoned into space, and the ship was not being guided.
I felt it before I heard the shot, a hot stinging pain in my right side. I attempted to shut the sensors off, but they did not respond. I tried to modulate the pain down, but that didn't work either.
I looked up the instant I was shot. There, some fifty meters from me, floated a large man. He had braced himself against the wall next to the door to fire his weapon, and now he was reloading and shouting obscenities at me. He had emptied a thirty round magazine at me and only hit me once. "Hey!" I shouted at him, he looked up. "Anda tidak bias menembak untuk omong kosong!" I said, being critical of his marksmanship. Then I brought up my rifle and put one round in his face. The recoil caused a pain to rocket through my entire body.
I climbed into the escape pod, sat down, and strapped in. I then powered up the pod and closed the hatch. In the hall I'd just left, warning lights began to rotate. An automated voice inside the pod said, in all the languages in use on the ship commanded, "Stand clear of pod door," with that, the inner hatch slammed shut. As the pod began to pressurize I looked through the view port and saw the exterior cover fall away from the lander, revealing a million stars. Then, with a jar, the pod shot into space.
I could see the Moon below me now. I rotated the pod so I could see the lander. It was still headed toward the mother ship; however, when the reactor was ejected out the side of the stem, Newton’s third law caused the lander to start tumbling—slowly, but obviously tumbling out of control, toward the mother ship, which had already fired its main engines trying to get out of the way. It was apparent they were not going to make it. With no other recourse, the mother ship fired several missiles at the lander, destroying it. Of course, large pieces slammed into the mother ship, causing a great deal of damage. Those people on that ship now had a new priority mission: Survival.
I turned the pod about and looked now to my own survival. Lights were flashing in my vision. "POWER LEVELS CRITICAL!" I set the selenographic coordinates on the nav computer to return me to JILL, then I just sat back. The pain had not abated one lick. Something inside had been damaged, causing me to lose power. My systems were shutting down, trying to preserve as much power as possible. I would soon lose consciousness.
I knew I had to turn on the emergency transponder; otherwise, when I landed outside JILL, no one would know I was there. I'd eventually die of power loss or freeze to death. Of course, I was in an enemy pod. Perhaps the only ones to hear the transponder would be the enemy inside the base, and they would come, thinking I was one of theirs. The matter suddenly became academic. I lost consciousness.
○O○
When I awoke, I was inside a glass tube in the robotic maintenance bay. The lights in the room were dim, but were slowly coming up. There stood Dolph, Walker, and Oscar, with several other bots. Dolph's left arm was in a sling. My recharge tube stuck out of the floor at a forty-five degree angle, but slowly elevated and became horizontal. The glass tube slid back and I was left on a sort of gurney. Everyone walked, or rolled, up to me. I tried to sit up, but one of the CYB-techs cautioned me to lie still for a while.
"Hey, guys," I said.
Walker just looked at me a moment then exhaled. "Why didn't you tell me? I thought we were friends."
"Walker, I wanted to. I told them I was going to. But we SUBs are classified crypto. They detailed all kinds of nasty shit they were going to do to you if I told you."
He frowned deeply and just nodded.
"What happened?" I asked. "This is the RMB over in sector nine. How did I get here?"
"A lot has happened," Walker said.
"And there has been great misfortune," Dolph added.
"What?"
"Ava was the one who saw the pod fall out of the sky," Walker began. "You landed northwest of JILL in the hills over there. I volunteered to go because Ava said it would be you. The colonel was skeptical. I banked on Ava. I followed the same path through JILL we took on the mission to shoot down the lander, and Ava directed me to the garage. I nabbed an LPC and headed out. As I was driving out there, I asked Ava how I would get you out of the pod and into the LPC if you weren't in an Ess-CEPS. She told me not to worry—either way, you would not be exposed long enough to cause you any harm.
"I was damn confused by this and asked her to explain that statement. She said she couldn't, and that I should not worry about it.
"When I reached the pod, I could see it had hit the surface hard and most of it was scattered over a two click area. I found the main pod section, got into my Ess-CEPS, and went looking for your body. The hatch to the main section was popped out of its seat and it took me a hell of a long time to pry it open enough to get in.
"When I first laid eyes on you, all I could think about was that day in Arizona when the LPC rolled, and…well, here I was seeing you dead all over again. When I got up to you, I couldn't believe my eyes. A lot of your skin had been ripped away. I was not looking at flesh and bone, but, you know what I saw. If it hadn't been for your uniform, I would have thought sure I was looking at some robot the enemy brought with them.
"Driving back with you on the floor behind me, I remembered that we talked about those remote control robots. That was still on my mind when I got you back here to sector nine. I demanded the colonel explain to me what was going on. He spoke some authorization code to Ava, and then the colonel, Ava and I had a long talk. They explained it all to me.
"But, dammit Matt, you are my best friend, you could have told me on the sly."
"
I didn't want to see you go to jail or suffer a memory adjustment," I replied. "I wanted you here with me, Jasper. So, okay, I'm selfish."
Walker continued as if he'd not heard me. "Little Doc Louie, here, patched you up. That took twelve hours and a lot of spare parts. Then you had to have a total recharge that took twenty-four hours. All in all, it was thirty-nine hours ago that you hit the Moon in that pod."
"Thirty-nine hours?" I was stunned. "And in that time, something bad has happened, I take it. What's this talk of misfortune?"
Dolph took up the story. "After you were captured, we all of us here became distraught—Ja, even Ava. Walker and the bots managed to get the launcher aimed, and fired the three rockets, as you had ordered. There was damage, but the lander kept going.
"The war seemed to stop so that everyone could see what happened. We all knew if it docked successfully, it would be repaired and enemy reinforcements would start arriving. And frankly, that was what most were thinking. Ava said she knew you were trying to sabotage the lander, but no one gave you much of a chance. Sorry.
"Once the lander exploded, the enemy down here became enraged. They would not surrender, despite knowing there was no escape for them, now. Their support ship would depart, and before the passing of much time, COMs with Earth would be restored and rescue ships would this way come, loaded with fresh, allied soldiers.
"It appears that they decided on a glorious death in battle. The enemy attacked the Alamo with all their remaining troops. The battle lasted five hours, and Matt, our little robot friends, here, were giants. They stood their ground and fought with great fury. However, a series of unlucky rocket attacks killed a great many of our warriors, reducing our numbers to a point very dangerous. Understand, Matt, we killed a lot of them; but the colonel, he ordered us to withdraw and come to his aid at sector nine. He had already seen probing attacks against his defenses and there was great concern for the civilians. I called Ava and informed her; she of course already knew. She told me to gather the survivors and get away. She explained she would be all right that all of her defenses were up and functioning.
The Battle of Broken Moon Page 19