by Jerry Boyd
“Missiles?”
“No, Marines, in suits. Looks like they intend to force a boarding.”
“Ruth, bounce.”
“No can do, Boss. The drive needs time to recharge. Gene has a lot of reserve, but we got to the bottom of it.”
“Topper, do we have any destroyers free, to stun these guys?”
“Nobody who could get here without catching some of them in the disturbance when they emerge.”
“So, we’re going to be boarded?”
“Yes, Boss.”
“Gene, are the Ambassador and his nephew still in the ready room?”
“Yes, Boss.”
“Please secure it so that only a Captain in our service can open it. Inform them they are to remain where they are for the time being. Saucy, tell Jackie to issue the new carbines. Our guests will no doubt be stunner resistant.”
“On it, Boss.”
“Topper, how many Marines do we have to fight them with?”
“Around a hundred and fifty.”
“Have Scotti send someone to the brig to weld the cells shut. That will free up Angus and his boys to help. Your ship, I’m headed to the armory. Nikki, you’re drafted. You’re Topper’s XO. Secure the bridge after I leave. Weld it, if you have the means.”
Topper said, “Understood, Boss.”
Nikki said, “Dammit, Bob! Be careful out there!”
Gene gave me priority, and dumped me out at the armory. Jackie had drafted Bone and Jasmine to help distribute weapons. Charlie came running up when I came out of the transit. “Uncle Bob, can I help? Jackie said she wouldn’t give me a weapon without your okay.”
“You’re as good a shot as most of us. Just don’t go getting shot. I don’t want to have to tell your Grandpa you got your silly hind end killed. You know how to handle an AR?”
“Some dopers put their grow patch too close to Squatch land last year, before Grandpa got bad sick. They dropped one on their way out, and Grandpa taught me to use it. We had to sell it for doctor bills, though.”
I patted him on the shoulder. “If your Grandpa thinks you know how, then I do too.” We got in line. Pete saw us, and came over. “What are you doing here, Boss?”
“Ain’t much to be done from the bridge, right now. Figured I’d come down and lend a hand.”
“I’m not crazy about that idea, Boss, but I suppose there ain’t much to be done about it, is there?”
“Couldn’t go back to the bridge if I wanted to. Told them to weld it shut behind me.”
“What about your buddy?”
“He was trained by one of the best. I wouldn’t challenge him to a shooting match, if I was you.”
“Combat is different from the range, Boss.”
“He’s seen enough to know what’s what.”
“Okay, Boss. I’m just trying to figure out what I’m going to say to your wife, when you get your fool heinie shot clean off.”
“Tell her I was your Boss, and I gave you an order.”
“If you’re going to be that way about it, we do have a place you could do some good. We figure we can hold them for a while, but they’re going to break through somewhere, eventually. Andre wants to let them break through at a place of our choosing, while fighting hard enough to make them think it was their idea. If we had you for bait, that would make them fight harder at the ambush site, and be more convinced that the breakthrough was due to their effort, and not a trap.” I wasn’t crazy about being the bait in their trap, that’s for sure, but if it would help sell it, I was game. Charlie had gotten our gear while I was talking with Pete. He asked, “Where are we headed, Uncle?”
“Pete was about to tell me.” Pete downloaded the location to my watch, and we were on our way, looking out for any early arrivals. Abe met us. “Boss, I don’t like this any better than Pete, but if you’re bound and determined, over here is where we need you. Try to be seen, without being shot, if you can manage that. You sure your helper there is good to go?”
“If he was going to let me down, he’s already had plenty of opportunity. Can’t say I’ve ever seen him in this particular kind of fight, but he says he’s okay, and I trust him.”
“All right. You’re the Boss. I was thinking about putting you right about there. Plenty of cover, but when you stand up to shoot, they’ll be able to tell it’s you.” I looked at the place he was talking about. It looked easy to defend, and there was a place Charlie could snipe from. I said, “Looks good to me. Where is our route out of here, if something goes sideways?” Abe showed me a couple of routes out of the bay, that would let us stay out of the line of fire. I asked, “So, what is the plan?”
“We have our Marines, and Angus’ boys, spread out at all the likely boarding points, with a reserve, if they do something we don’t expect. This bay is a little more heavily protected than most of the others, but it doesn’t look that way. We intend to give way here, and hold the line everywhere else. That should get them to divert their resources here, in hopes of taking the ship. That will let us move some Marines here from the other parts of the ship, reinforcing our position.”
“You’re going to use the transits like Paris taxis?”
Abe thought a moment, looking up the reference. “Exactly. Do you have anything to add?”
“Sounds to me like you’ve got it under control, Abe. Thanks for the good work. I better let you get back to it. We’ll get settled in. How long till the excitement starts?”
“About three minutes, Boss.” I wanted to minimize casualties among the Squirrels, but I knew we didn’t have enough fighters to be able to do anything about that. We had to survive, before we could worry about anything else. Charlie got settled into a place he could snipe from, and I found a good spot. The Squirrels didn’t bother to hit everywhere at once, so we got word they were venting compartments before they did it to ours. Gave us a chance to pull up our hoods and find handholds for when the air rushed out. As soon as the compartment was blown out, they started coming through the gap. We made them pay, but eventually, they managed to get a few people into the ship. If this was Abe’s idea of a fighting retreat, I’d hate to see him trying to hold a position. I managed to show myself a few times, without getting my fool head shot off. I could tell some of the Squirrels recognized me, because they started trying to get to me. Supposedly, there were only a thousand Squirrels, but it seemed like three or four times that many, just in our bay. I hoped the other bays were holding, but I was too busy to find out. Slowly at first, and then more often, more Squirrels showed up to our fight. Abe was careful not to nail too many of them as they came in, even though that wouldn’t have been that hard. Finally, they stopped coming in, and then things began to happen. First, a patch made its way over the hole they had come in through. None of the maintenance bots carrying it was careless enough to expose itself to enemy fire. Soon, red spots were evident, where they were welding it into place. As soon as Abe was sure that the Squirrels couldn’t get out of the bay, he turned loose his reserves. They took a terrible toll on the Squirrels. Very few were willing to surrender. In the end, we won, but it took an awful effort. Bots were down, all over the bay. I looked at Charlie, and noticed his arm was bleeding. I said, “I thought you weren’t going to get hurt?”
He pointed at my leg and said, “I thought you weren’t either.” I looked down and saw that I was losing some blood from my leg. I got out a field dressing, and started to work on it. Charlie said, “Let me, and then you can do my arm.” He patched me up, and I got his arm in shape. Abe came walking up. “Boss, we have ten prisoners, five of them need to go to medbay. The rest fought to the end.”
“How many of our boys need to go see Scotti?”
“Thirty-seven. As soon as they get that patch pressure tight, we’ll start moving people out. What should we do with the bodies?”
“Is there anyplace we can put them in cold storage? I don’t want to just space them.”
“Yes, Boss. There is a place. You mind if I ask why?”
“We had to kill them, but we can at least treat them with respect. I’m trying to get the point across to these hardheads that we are people, too.”
Abe said, “A noble goal, but what we’ve seen so far doesn’t make it seem that achievable.”
“I know that. You have any suggestions on how to get the point across?”
“No, Boss. You’ve done all anybody could ask, trying to make peace with these idiots. Almost seems like they would rather fight.”
“Stopping their fleet cold should wake them up, but I don’t think it will. Seems like every move I make is wrong, and I can’t figure out why.”
Abe replied, “Pretty sure that’s above my pay grade, Boss.”
“Lucky you.” Abe took off to get started organizing the aftermath. I asked Gene, “Connect me to Topper, please.”
“Hey, Boss. Good to hear that you’re still sucking wind. My XO was pretty concerned.”
“She’s not half as glad as I am. Did the other breaches get under control?”
“Yes, Boss. Compared to the bay you were in, everybody else had it easy. Yours is the last bay to report being back in control.”
“That was the plan. Lure them in here, thinking they could capture the infamous monkey, and then pound the snot out of them.”
Nikki’s voice came over the comm. “So, you didn’t get hurt?”
“I got a little boo-boo on my leg, it doesn’t amount to much. Charlie got hit on the arm, I’m not sure, but I think his might be the worst of the two.”
“I should have known, with you two together, that you would wind up comparing injuries.”
“We had to patch each other up. The hull isn’t pressure tight here yet. Gene is pumping in air, but I’m sure we’re losing some. Probably making it harder for the bots doing the repair to get it welded, just to keep us organic types something to breathe.”
“You had to cut your suits to bandage your wounds, didn’t you?”
“You would rather we bled out?”
“You need to take the battle first aid course. There’s a command to get the suit to open around a wound, in a way that it can repair quickly.”
“Now you tell me. I’ll get on that, as soon as we’re back to something that looks like normal.”
“Glad you’re okay, Caveman. Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
Topper asked, “Anything else you need, Boss?”
“Nope. Talk to you later.” Damage control must have gotten a good seal, because Dixie came storming in, looking for me. She said, “Aren’t Commodores supposed to be on the bridge, where they are protected?”
“Had to bait Abe’s trap, so he could catch all these Squirrels. If they hadn’t come here of their own accord, we would have been all day cleaning them out of the ship.” That gave me a thought. I asked, “Gene, are there any Squirrels not in custody aboard ship, other than the Ambassador and the crews from those two spy ships we caught?”
“No, Boss, but one of the people from the spy ships is doing something that doesn’t look like it is in the best interest of the ship.”
“Please direct whatever Marines are available to apprehend him, would you?”
“Angus is already taking him into custody, Boss. I notified him earlier.”
“Good work, Gene. The rest of the crews are behaving themselves?”
“Captain Dressi the younger is pretty upset about being detained in the ready room, but other than that, no problems.”
“Thanks, Gene.” While I was talking, Dixie ran some kind of patching machine over my uniform. She said, “That will hold pressure till you get a chance to change, Boss.” I pointed to Charlie, and said, “Don’t forget my good help over here.”
She went over and looked at Charlie’s wound, and patched his uniform. Then she said, “Both of you need to run by medbay, to get those wounds taken care of, so you don’t have to wait for them to heal naturally.”
Charlie and I managed, “Yes, Ma’am.” in unison. Dixie said, “Cute, but make sure you get to medbay.” She took off to start working on prisoners. I said, “We might as well get that over with, don’t you think?”
Charlie replied, “I sure don’t want to wait till I get back to the planet. Grandpa worries about me. Seeing a wound like this would set him right off.”
“We don’t want to upset him. Better have it all over with, before you go back.”
“You mean make it like an old Italian car?”
“Say what?”
“An accomplished Fiat.” I failed to move air for a little bit. “How long have you been saving that one?”
“A while, I guess. It’s one of Grandpa’s.” We went and got squared away. Charlie actually had to go in the ‘doc for a few minutes, but they were able to run some gadget over my leg and put it right. I waited for Charlie to get out, and then I asked, “You headed back?”
“I was meanin’ to stroll through Engineering and say hi to some folks, if you don’t mind, Uncle.”
“I don’t know of any reason we’d be moving the ship, so I’d say it’s fine.”
“Good. Janet gets lonesome, and Milly feels left out if I don’t say hi to her, too.”
“How do you mean, Janet gets lonesome?”
“Gee, Uncle, she left all her people behind, to come out to the stars, what do you think I mean?”
“Guess I hadn’t thought about that, to tell you the truth. Seems like I mostly fix what’s in front of me, and don’t have time to think about other things.”
“I can see how that would be. You’ve got a thing or two going on, most of the time.”
“I do, but that ain’t no excuse for not paying attention. I thought Janet was doing better, now that she has Alice.”
“She is, a lot better, but she could still use some folks, you know?”
“You mean, like parents?”
“Yessir. I can see how you might think she’s all grown-up, and can take care of herself, but she still isn’t quite ready to be on her own. I guess I understand better, ‘cause I thought I was going to be in that boat when Grandpa died.”
“You’re saying she needs herself some parents?”
“I am. She gets all misty, when she talks about you and Mrs. Wilson taking her in, when she was having trouble sleeping.”
“Hang on a second. You’re trying to get me to talk Nikki into adopting her, ain’t you?”
“Busted, I am.”
“You’re about the right height, and after you tried to scam me, I surely would enjoy painting you green and stretching your ears, there, Yoda.”
“Catch me, you won’t.”
“You’re probably right about that.”
“You could do a lot worse, you know. She’s smart, and for the most part, she’s a good kid.”
“For the most part?”
“She like to broke my arm once, when I patted her on the shoulder. Thought I was trying to put the moves on her.”
“I can see how that would make an impression. Listen, I can’t promise you a thing, so don’t get your hopes up, or go running your mouth. I’ll see what Nikki has to say, that’s all I can do.”
“Thanks, Uncle. Can you do me one more favor?”
“Don’t tell your Grandpa I got you in a firefight?”
“Right on the first guess.”
“Do you really think I want the talking to that I’m going to get when he finds out?”
“I see your point. It’s in your best interest to keep quiet about it, ain’t it?”
“Surely is. If he asks me straight out, I ain’t gonna lie for you, though.”
“Fair enough. I better get going. You guys coming down for supper any time soon?”
“Lordy, I hope. These Squirrels are driving me up the wall.”
“Good luck with that.” He headed for Engineering. I grabbed a transit, and headed for the ready room. I knew that I was in for a chewing, but I hoped I could smooth things over. When I got there, I said, “Let them out, Gene.”
“Mrs. W
ilson had Captain Sloan get me to do that as soon as the ship was clear of boarders, Boss. They are down in the galley, having some lunch.” I looked over at the door to the bridge, where I could see the remnants of the welds that had held the door shut. Scotti’s crew had just done enough to get the door open. I assumed they would be back later to get it back to its previous condition. I got back on the transit, and headed for the galley. Stella asked when I went in, “What would you like to eat, Commodore?” I hadn’t realized I was hungry, until she asked. I said, “Just bring me the special, if you would.”
“Of course, Boss. Unsweet tea?”
“Please.” I found Nikki talking to the two Squirrels. She said, “Topper said he didn’t need me on the bridge once the battle was over, so I came down here to keep these two company till you got back. Were you in a hurry, or why didn’t you go by the cabin and clean up?”
“Mainly because your husband is an idiot, dear. You mind if I have a bite to eat before I take care of that?”
“You’re already here, have a seat.” I looked at our visitors. “Sorry for my appearance, I didn’t realize that Nikki had gotten you out, and I was rushing to open the door for you.”
The Ambassador said, “Snappi and I were fine, Commodore. No need to hurry on our account. Gene gave us a good view of the whole thing.
“I regret not being able to capture more of your people. The boarding troops were stunner resistant, so we didn’t have that as an option.”
“I understand, Commodore. Tell me, is it common practice for an officer of your rank to lead the resistance to a boarding?”
“Not at all, Ambassador. My Marines were convinced that with no more people than we had to resist, the boarders would break through eventually. They decided on a plan of appearing to fall back in a place of our choosing, so that we could ambush and overcome the majority of the force. When I went to help, we all decided I would make good bait to get them to concentrate in one place. Once they were all in, Scotti’s team patched the hole they came in through, and from there, it was just a matter of making sure that we won the fight.”
