by James Lay
Chapter 19
Rolf, Olaf, Gard, Jank and Trestin looked absolutely terrified. The security guards were more relaxed. They were all giving Carl the jitters. It was becoming a very arduous task to try and get it into the council's skulls that when they said 'go', the scene of the platform would instantly change to space and was likely to be filled with the view of a Befax 4 ship.
They were really ready to go and were stood in the doorway of Shadow, with their fifty mice hovering around at shoulder height.
“Are you sure the vacuum won't get in here?” Olaf asked for the sixth time.” There is no door, we should have worn our space suits.” Turning to Rolf.
“Pat and Carl have assured us that there will be no problem, we must trust their judgement.” Turning to Carl, he said.” We are ready when you are.”
Bully for him, thought Carl, all they were going to do was wait until we came back.
“’Bout time too.” Said Pat, a little gruffly.
“You 'co-ordinated' well George?” Carl asked.
“I am zeroed within a metre of their ship.” He affirmed.
Neither Carl nor Pat had anything to do with the first jump-and-stop manoeuvre. George and their shield modules were linked, programmed to sequence a move on arrival.
“Ready Pat?”
“S'pose so,” he answered,” on zero George; two, one, zero.”
Shadow jumped, they shot out of the doorway and were immediately stuck to the side of the Befax ship. The mice were all around them. They looked at each other. That was Pat and Carl, not them and the mice, if you comprehend.
They nodded to each other and together powered their cutters in two semi-circles into the Befax hull.
A circle of metal hit them with 'blow-out' force, not felt by either of them, and the mice shot through the hole. They paused a moment whilst they slid sideways, away from the hull section and then they too dived into Befax country.
There were over six enormous hulks of dead Befaxs', in bundles on the floor of the corridor that they found themselves in. The Befax had suffered instant decompression exposure. Not a pretty sight.
Pressure doors were closed along the corridor and none of their mice were to be seen. Their first task was to locate a suitable clamp-on for an interface to allow George to access the alien's computer.
“There.” And Pat pointed out a large push-button console on the corridor wall.
They feverously tore the cover off and pressed the interface in amongst a huge harness of wires.
“You have it Carl,” George advised them,” I am reading now”.
By this time the section of hull they had cut out was back in place and was 90% re-welded. Their large mice were as efficient as ever.
“Hull section sealed,” George reported,” can you feel the pressure returning?”
They looked around and it was a bit misty.
“Can you hear me Pat?” Carl shouted.
“Course I can you bloody loon, I'm only a foot away.” Was Pat's reply.
“Pat, it was a vacuum before.”
“Oh, right.” He mumbled.
The corridor access door ahead of them gave a sharp 'crack' and began to cycle open.
“Oh jesus,” Pat said,” is this them?”
It was. The door slid aside and they had the unpleasant experience of meeting their first real-live Befax 4 'Hyena'. There were three of them and they were grotesque and everything Carl had dreamt they were going to be. Hairy, huge in stature, over eight feet tall with smooth scaly arms. The Befax were all unclothed, Carl assumed because their fur was able to amply hide their bodies, the only 'clothing' they exhibited were crossed bandoleers supporting various articles of war, specifically firearms and minor munitions. They were also caught totally off balance.
“Where are the mice?” Carl shouted.
“This door was sealed already, when they entered,” advised George,” they all had to go the other way.”
“Shit.” Was the un-gentlemanly response from Pat.
Two more Befax arrived and without warning opened their huge mouths, and it was all bright yellow flesh and brown shark like teeth, and leapt at the two wary humans. They were very fast, but Pat immediately cut one in half with a sweep of his cutter beam. Carl cut another but the third had Carl's face in his mouth as he was bringing his cutter to bear. His sight automatically went to I.R. and he was able to see at least half a metre down the Befaxs' throat, before the creature suddenly fell off of him, cut into three separate pieces. There was blood and gore everywhere.
“More.” Pat shouted, as the corridor suddenly sprouted Befax from four separate locations.
The creatures were streaming out of hatchways in the floor, walls and ceiling via sliding doors, there were more entrances than the main corridor sealing doors, it appeared.
Beams of light arced at them, one catching Pat full frontal, he stopped in his tracks, a hoarse cry of pain coming to Carl.
Carl was also caught by the power beams as he returned fire in a side-to-side sweeping motion, catching six of the monsters, inflicting fatal injuries.
The Befax numbers began to increase as he was again swept by the beams, his shield flashed and his view dimmed against the strobe effect of their weapons.
Suddenly his left arm registered terrible pain and he cried out, powering away with his drive module. He crashed into Pat, who was hanging limply in the middle of the corridor and luckily drove him into an alcove.
The Befax were advancing and Carl poured a full power blast of Photon Energy into them, decimating at least ten of them in their tracks.
“I'm ok now Carl,” gasped Pat,” I lost consciousness out there, what's wrong with the shields?”
“Let’s cut through the rear wall here.” Carl shouted, opening up with a blast against the metal structure, Pat assisted furiously and as the wall fell away Carl renewed his onslaught against the Befax.
He now saw new looking monsters approaching, wearing all enclosing white gleaming metallic suits, close fitting. The Photon pulses shimmered on their surfaces causing noticeable damage, Carl could see however that they had 'shields' of some sort as part of the white suits.
“In here Carl,” urged Pat,” it's a passageway fore and aft, let's dodge this bloody lot, and quick!”
Carl streaked through the hole and together they both shot towards the front of the Befax ship.
Carl called up his Hud and selected a diagram of the ship from Georges' sourcing of the ships computer. He noted that they could exit through a hatchway just aft of the main pilotage control room.
Pat received the HUD information as Carl patched through to him.
They were at the hatchway as George called to them.” Your shields are not permitting total protection due to your slight miss-match with Yil bio-chemistry, I seriously stress you exercise extreme caution from now on.”
“Thanks George,” said Pat,” I was definitely going to do that anyway.”
“Knock out any vision tracing devices, or the like, that could tip the Befax off with respect to our position.” Carl shouted.
“Carried out,” said George,” they are blind to your position.”
“Let's get out there and cut the bastards to bits,” said Pat,” link our Huds and shoot on instinct, use full power and needle beam, let's not worry about damaging their ship.”
“Got it.” Carl replied.
They moved out of the hatchway alcove and found this particular part of corridor empty.
“Only four in the control-room,” said Pat,” open the door George.”
The door slammed open and as Pat opened up on the two closest Befax, Carl drilled neat holes in two others who were at vision screens, they all dropped dead.
“Right,” said Pat,” now for the rest, one goes ahead and the other covers. I'll go now.”
With that he accelerated down the main corridor towards a closed pressure door. A portal slid open near the ceiling and Carl powered a needle beam through it and was satisfied with a resul
ting flash and roar of agony.
Another door opened with a whoosh and both Pat and Carl jigged in the air dodging a multitude of beams coming their way.
They replied with short stabs of full power photon and saw the Befax shields being penetrated.
Six beasts emerged from the ceiling and were cut to pieces, they had not been wearing shields of any sort.
Many more Befax entered the fight and Carl was hit twice in the legs and it felt as if they had been cut off. He rocketed across the corridor in a twisting pattern to shake off their aim and let rip with a stuttering series of blasts, picking out the face screens addressing him.
Sparks and shards of material blasted out of the Befax shields and their suits expanded, with flesh and bones ejecting through the face masks.
Pat had stopped all the other attacking fire and the scene was suddenly quiet, only the spatter of falling gore and a generous cloud of obnoxious smoke giving any clue to the last twenty seconds, or so, of desperate action.
Carl daren't look down.” Have I still got legs, Pat?” He asked.
“Course you have you plank,” he laughed,” what the hell do you think you're standing on.”
Carl laughed with relief, he was standing on tip-toes, out of anticipation of another attack. ‘Thank God,’ he thought, his legs were only now having feeling returned to them.
“I was hit in the legs,” he said,” I thought I’d lost them.” Mightily relieved.
“Let's get on with it,” encouraged Pat,” we've got to get them all.”
They moved back towards the rear of the ship and encountered no Befax, but then saw the result of the mice’s entry. There were partially dismembered Befax all over the place.
“The mice don't take any prisoners, do they?” Said Pat.
Further aft, they came upon two mice in static mode, badly damaged but in the hover. They both tensed-up ready for more battle.
“Watch it Pat,” Carl warned,” they will pop out anywhere.”
His HUD came up and indicated no further life on board, followed by welcome information.
“All the Befax 4 are dead,” came George’s reassuring voice,” you can relax whilst I connect Shadow with the Befax ship entrance. The Waterians can bring the ship to their planet and clear it out.”
George's task was to set up a computer lock between Shadow and the Befax ship to enable an automatic transfer of Navigational information and control inputs to enable the alien ship to be set down onto the sea next to the platform on Water. It sounded as if he was ready to hand over to the Council of four.
“How are the mice George?” Carl asked.
“Two had malfunctions and are prone but shielded, they will be repaired on Shadow, it is an electronic component failure in each case, other than that they are all A1.” And George sounded quite pleased with the outcome.
“What was it like having your head halfway down that bastard's throat?” Pat enquired about the Befax 4 tonsil inspection tour Carl had carried out earlier.
“I've seen better views in my time but I have to admit it was a close thing about clean trousers.” He laughed out of relief.
“When I saw that ugly bugger jump on you I thought you'd had it,” he muttered,” it was automatic to think that, even though I knew your shield would look after you.”
“I'm not so confident of the shield anymore, but thank God it did!” He exclaimed.
“We are joined now,” came George’s voice, having set up a ‘shield’ passageway between the two ships,” and the Waterians want to know if they can come aboard.”
“We'd better let them know it's safe.” Carl suggested.
Their return to the boarding place and past it to the air lock was much further than they had realised. It was only then that they took stock of the size of the Befax 4 ship. At a rough estimate it was the size and shape of the Albert Hall. That's ruddy big.
The Waterians were crowded together just inside the Befax-to-Shadow join.
“What of the Neft.” Rolf asked, as soon as he saw them. Not an,” Are you ok!”
“There are no Neft alive on the ship, we have destroyed the lot, over one hundred.” Carl responded.
“Good grief.” Said Olaf.
“Our mice did most of them in.” Pat said.” They're the best pals you could ever want, better then a bloody dog any day.”
“A dog?” Enquired Olaf.
“A friendly animal from our planet.” Carl added.
“Oh.” said Olaf, with a puzzled look on his face.
“Right,” spoke up Pat,” you all know what you've got to do.... yes?” The guards nodded.” We'll sod off with the council and see you when you get back. It's a bloody mess here. I suggest you boot the lot out of the lock before you get to Water.”
“Thank you Pat.” Jank answered.” The guards will do that. It is a good idea, and George will be with them, won't he? They know they must not use the radio.”
“George is your Befax computer contact now,” Carl assured him,” he will guide your guards every inch of the way if need be. Now, we're going to Shadow and back to Water. You coming?”
“Yes, thank you, and we'll see you in a few days.” He said to the senior security guard, and with that the four Water crew entered the Befax ship and immediately had to start clambering over oozing dead bodies in their journey to the control room. They waved them farewell and told them to take it easy, and stepped into Shadow. Three minutes later the Befax airlock door slid closed as Shadow moved away from the connection and Shadow was then instantly back on the platform on Water.
“Thank God for that,” Pat said,” nice move George and none too soon, 'Anchors' away I think is the phrase I use now.”
“Damn right there, I definitely need a booster.” Carl agreed, and the council seconded the suggestion.
They all dived for the hatch and were soon into their second beer before any of the Waterians knew they were back. It was then a complete de-brief of the action and George gave them the exact moment they would have a friendly Neft ship next to the platform. That would be in four days time, George was putting a bit of a spurt on, meaning the security crew would suffer a little on deceleration.
After three hours of solid talk Carl and Pat were invited down for a meal and a rest, which sounded like a very good idea. Carl fancied the promise of the Waterian food, if it was anything like the kippers it would be good.
They were given comfortable seats, which felt pretty brand new, possibly especially manufactured for them.
There was plenty of talk on the attack and they were surrounded by Waterians clamouring to hear of their exploits. The story brought some lovely ‘oos’ and ‘ahs’ from the audience, they were really enjoying it. Then Pat stuck his foot in it, he mentioned that this was not the only excitement they'd had, and so started an evening of story telling by both of them. They were both guilty of exaggerating what they had been doing, but what the hell, it was harmless and it was enjoyed by all.
Pat soon had a couple of girls hanging on his arms, he'd been eyeing them up all evening. The other Waterians didn't mind in the least. Carl thought that he must remember to ask Pat if they are built the same as Earth females. Pat seemed quite pleased about them so they most probably were.
To put this last exploit in the correct context, they had just saved the lives of, possibly, over two hundred of these people, in a couple of hours. That was a pleasing thought.
It was whilst Pat was on about the Karv that Carl had a sudden idea.
“George,” he murmured,” the Befax 4 atmosphere, is it very Earth/Water similar?”
“It is Carl.” Came George’s reply.
Right, he thought, tomorrow.........