by Trent Falls
“Sir. Our warp drive is powering up. Our fighters and gunships are on a return course so we can leave this system ASAP.” Wong answered obediently as he walked quickly alongside the captain.
“Excellent, Lieutenant! We need to get the hell out of here as quickly as possible.” Shin barked back, looking over his shoulder towards Euler and Alex. “See those two over there?” Shin pointed at Euler and Alex.
“Yes sir.” Wong shouted back.
“Have a security detachment take the black gentleman to a Level 1 detention cell. He’s to be placed under armed guard at all times! No less than two armed sentries at a time!” Shin shouted back, holding up two fingers to emphasize his comments.
“Yes sir.” Wong replied back. “Sir….” Wong was nervous to ask. “What happened to the Ao Shun, sir? That light! She was on our scanners one minute, sir, and….”
“I don’t know what happened to her, Lieutenant.” Shin replied, both with a saddened and very angered expression. “I’m sure as hell going to find out! Captain Sands is on the bridge I imagine?”
“Yes sir.” Wong replied.
The two had reached a group of elevators at the back of the hangar bay.
“Sir, what about the human you had pointed to, sir?” Wong asked.
Shin looked up briefly at Euler. Euler was standing somewhat uncomfortably near Alex as the two Xen marines kept them at bay near the drop ship.
“Take Sergeant Euler to a secured stateroom. I want him under armed watch as well.”
“Yes sir.”
John Carn had dressed himself completely in the white pressure suit. Thankfully he and Alex were about the same height. White! Fuck! He would stick out like a sore thumb! He thought of rubbing the suit down with soot or grease from within the Tequesta but that would have risked changing the thermal characteristics and radiation resistance of the suit. If the alien sun was hot enough the dirt and soot could cause his suit to burn up or not insulate him as it should.
It was a good fit overall. The cut was even somewhat sporty and allowed him a degree of flexibility.
“I guess it’ll have to do.” John said aloud, looking to the white gloves on his hands. “Now for a dry-in test.”
John rotated his head on his neck, as though stretching before a big game or prior to exercise. It was to make sure his shoulders were sitting square beneath the neck collar. John flipped open a secured cover next to the computer strapped to his left forearm. There were two buttons beneath the hard slide-open cover, both set far enough apart that he could press them with two of the hard-tipped fingers of his gloves. John pressed the buttons.
The breathing mask set at the bottom of the ring flipped up on robotic tendril arms to cover his lower mouth. A segmented series of white plates extended up over the back and top of his head, extending to just above his eyebrow line. Two wide lenses slid up from the breathing mask to meet the extended hard-shell hood. An airtight whine of gas escaped the seals as the suit pressurized.
A small heads-up monitor displayed inside the top right of the right lens. John didn’t like the placement of the HUD so he tapped a few series of instructions in the arm computer. The HUD disappeared from high and to the right on his right eye to high and to the left on his left eye. The display indicated his remaining oxygen at one hour. Suit pressure was indicated as nominal with 100% seal. Suit power was 100%. The built in com was shown as being wide open and not encrypted.
“Lyle, you hear me?” John tuned into their preselected radio frequency.
“Yes, I do.” Lyle answered back over the com.
“I’m sending an encryption key now.” John depressed a series of keys on his wrist computer.
A few seconds passed.
“Got it.” Lyle replied.
“Switching over.” John activated the encryption system. A short quick progress bar zipped across the upper left of his HUD; noting ‘Encrypting’. “You hear me now?” John asked again into his helmet com.”
“Loud and clear.” Lyle responded.
John walked over towards the side of the cargo bay. He picked up a large white gun, which looked a bit like a shortened rocket launcher tube with an enclosed white drum canister fixed to its side.
“Okay I’m setting up the short lock.” John noted into the com. “How long until we get to the Nanjing?”
“Three minutes. The Ona are ahead of us.” Lyle replied.
Outside, seven of the glowing silver triangular Norn drones zoomed out in space ahead of the Tequesta. Two of the Xen fighters turned back to try and intercept them but were vaporized by the Ona’s white laser weapon. The rest of the Xen squadron scattered, only to be destroyed by the swift Ona fighters.
The triangular fighters continued on towards the Nanjing. The battleship grew quickly ahead of the glowing silver drones. The Nanjing’s main phase cannons opened up on the Ona. Several dozen missiles flew out at the seven triangular fighters. The Ona flashed several quick laser blasts, destroying the missiles. They fired concentrated bursts into the Nanjing, destroying three out of five of its main phase cannon batteries and striking several other points on the ship.
The bridge of the Nanjing rocked just as Captain Shin exited the lift. Shin was thrown into a bulkhead by the impact force. His hands flew up at the last moment to deflect his sudden forward momentum, allowing him to glance off the wall.
“Damage control!” Captain Sands yelled out to his crew.
“Three main cannons destroyed. Heavy damage to life support on decks seven and eight. Our main engines were struck too. The warp drive is damaged.”
“Shit!” Sands blurted.
“They’re trying to stop us from leaving.” Shin said aloud, his eyes searching around to nowhere in particular in wild thought.
“Captain Shin!” Sands yelled out to his uniform equal. “What the hell happened? Where’s the Ao Shun?!?”
Shin didn’t answer at first. He merely jumped from the bulkhead towards Sand’s command chair. The artificial gravity seemed to flicker out for a moment, causing Shin to jump in a huge stride.
“Captain! You have a Northwind shuttle?” Shin demanded.
“Three of them. Why?” Sand’s asked.
“I need one fueled and ready to go STAT!” Shin ordered him.
“A Northwind?!?” Sands was genuinely confused. “Captain! What the fuck happened to your ship?!? What’s attacking us?!? You want to leave in the middle of battle?!?”
“Captain Sands! I have in my possession the single most important find in human history!” Shin yelled back. “Councilor Agrev, Hedges, and Zao are all dead! They destroyed my ship! If we don’t get this person, this find, back to Xin’Shi they would have all died for nothing!!!”
“Don’t presume to give me orders, Shin!” Sands shouted back. “My vessel is under attack and it is my primary responsibility to….”
“Get the fucking ship ready Sands!!!” Shin turned his back on Sands. The artificial gravity had flickered out again. Shin used a handrail to push himself towards the lift elevators behind the bridge.
Sands watched Shin float, then run down the short corridor at the back of the bridge towards the lifts. He did nothing to stop him.
Chapter 27
“Okay, I’m shortening up the cargo bay and getting ready.” John spoke into his helmet com. He had tethered himself to one of the metal tie offs mounted on the side walls of the hangar bay. His white lanyard was made with reflective material that shimmered under the long row lights of the cargo bay roof.
John grabbed the mag line cannon and walked over to an access panel on the side wall. He depressed a series of instruction on the keypad and pulled a red lever within the panel.
A number of yellow rotating beacon lights activated within the cargo bay. The standard lights above lowered in power. Part of the ceiling lowered behind John, angling down on powered arms like a garage door. A section of the floor behind John moved in a similar fashion, angling up on a pair of heavy pistons. The two sections met behind John, overlap
ping in a vacuum tight seal. John heard a faint hissing outside his spacesuit helmet; a sound that vanished rather quickly. The HUD inside his helmet showed a pressure bar sinking from 101.3 kPa down to 5 Pa- continuing down to 17 µPa. Moving became easier. He could feel less of a load on his shoulders as well. The artificial gravity emitters in the floorboards were dialing back G in preparation for the rear ramp to open.
“We’re almost there.” Lyle Rodriguez’s voice called back over the com.
“Okay open her up.” John called back.
The yellow caution lights continued to rotate in the shortened cargo bay. The main overhead lights cut off. Slowly, the seam at the top of the main rear fold up cargo ramp of the Tequesta parted. It was odd to see something that heavy move without sound after all those years away from space. All John could hear was the sound of his own breath in his helmet and the occasional chirp from his pressure suit’s onboard computer.
The ramp lowered further, revealing the eternity of stars behind the Tequesta. The sight was nothing short of breathtaking. John forgot how vast the view of open space was outside of a vehicle. His stomach turned as the Tequesta banked, turning the entire night sky ahead of him around in a great wheel. A missile trailed by his field of vision out behind the Tequesta in a glowing trail.
“One pass?” Lyle’s voice called back over the com.
“One pass.” John confirmed. “Make it a good one. You need to get within a hundred and twenty meters.”
“That’s close.” Lyle replied.
“It needs to be.” John knelt down. He aimed down the barrel of the mag line cannon.
John detached his lanyard and waited. All that held him in place was his mag boots and inertia.
The massive grey and green form of the Nanjing’s hull began to scroll by. The sight of the Xen destroyer so close was intimidating to say the least; like swimming near a super tanker.
John knelt down to take aim. He took a breath, checked his sights, and fired. The line gun kicked like a bazooka. The cylinder shaped end was shot from the barrel on a mini rail gun system. The rail gun also served to increase the magnetic charge of the cylinder end. A steel cable flew out behind the weight, winding out from within the barrel of the launcher cannon.
It took a few anxious seconds for the magnetic end to fly out across space. All the while the hull of the Nanjing flew past John’s left field of vision. He silently prayed he hadn’t miscalculated. He watched his sights, waiting to see if he had succeeded.
A green light indicated contact!
John ran out of the back of the Tequesta’s cargo bay and out into open space.
“I’m out!” John yelled into his helmet com.
Far behind him the white and light blue form of the Tequesta banked away as a barrage of fire from the Nanjing swarmed around it.
John was free in space. The mag line gun had been secured to his waist. He was full EVA, floating partially backwards from his remaining forward momentum from jumping out of the Tequesta. He had to jump out prior to the steel line being pulled taught, otherwise he would have risked the magnetic end loosing contact with the Nanjing’s hull. His own breathing was loud inside his helmet.
John depressed a key on his wrist computer. A small amount of air shot out of the small air tank on his back, slowing his momentum further to the point where he was drifting slightly forward. The steel line floated in space ahead of him – slack. The other end was stuck to the hull of the gigantic grey and green ship floating in front of him.
He could see spots on the Nanjing that had been damaged by the Ona. The Nanjing was an impressive warship, though nowhere near as terrifying as the Ao Shun class of carrier. John held the switch on the mag line cannon to start reeling himself in. The slack steel cable soon tightened, eventually springing tight. The contact light remained green. The motor of the cannon’s built in winch pulled John forward through space towards the large Xen destroyer.
The hull of the Nanjing grew ever larger ahead of John. The sound of his own breathing filled his ears. His suit HUD noted he had twenty one minutes of air. He had to get inside fast. The grey and green hull of the Xen vessel eventually took up his entire field of vision. He grew nervous as he drew close. All it would have taken was an eagle-eyed Xen marine to look out a window to see him coming in his white spacesuit.
John finally landed on the outer hull of the Nanjing. The silver cylinder end of the mag line was only a few feet away. John locked the gun winch and let go of the firing cannon, leaving it floating in space on the steel cable. Magnetic elements in John’s gloves and boots allowed him to crawl along the surface of the ship. The area he landed on was fairly smooth. One of the destroyed main turrets was about thirty meters away looking over the top of the vessel.
John crawled to the nearest airlock. It was a standard airlock, likely used for the ship’s hands to board and disembark in port before and after a cruise. A single three foot by two foot multilayered window was set into the airlock door. John pulled out his combat knife and pried open the outer access panel. The panel was easy to get open. The numeric keypad behind it and the thick lever release appeared more imposing. John sheathed his knife carefully then opened another pouch on his suit. He pulled out a small pocket laser cutter. The cutter was a four inch cylinder tank with what looked like an elaborate spray nozzle at its top. John worked quickly with the cutter. He pointed it at the thick screws attaching the control panel. The laser cutter flashed blue white as it melted each screw, allowing John to pull the panel free.
It wasn’t difficult for John to breach the outer lock. He had some practice in it during the war and airlock design had changed little in all those years. Getting in the lock wasn’t as dangerous compared with getting past the guards likely waiting behind the inner door; waiting to kill him.
John pulled the power wire from the outer doors mag lock. He then took the power line and fed it into the motor power lead. The door hissed open but didn’t open fully. The cracked door was opened wide enough that John could dig the heel into the opening. He was in space, he remembered. He needed to anchor his upper body down before pushing the door open with his feet. He opted to use the control panel itself. He turned his boot around so his toes pushed down on the door. He braced his upper body on the open control box and pushed down with his legs. It was a dangerous move. One slip and John would have shot himself out into space to certain doom.
The outer airlock door slid open with some force on John’s part. Once confident he had enough room to get inside he rotated his body through the crack.
The inner lock was dark. He could see a faint red light behind the window of the inner door. Warning lights were flashing beyond. It looked to be smoky inside. John continued floating inside the airlock. Cautiously he approached the window to the interior door. He drew his pistol. No one looked to be on the other side. Confident that he was safe for the time being he holstered his gun and turned his attention to the inner panel.
John found himself thankful he knew the Xen language. The airlock interface had been locked down. It took him a few moments to bypass security and power up the lock.
The outer door closed behind him. John’s feet gradually sank to the deck as the artificial gravity decking powered up. Air began to filter into the lock. The atmospheric indicator inside his helmet lenses reappeared. The bar graph showed the outer pressure in Pascals rise quickly to a standard atmosphere. A green light appeared on his helmet visor at the same time a green light appeared on the airlock console, indicating it was safe to expose himself to the air.
John depressed the helmet control on his wrist. The air mask over his face lowered its thick glass lenses and the unit recessed again to his chest. His helmet covering retreated back over his scalp and into the rear of his neck collar.
John pulled out his Xen pistol again. He pressed his back to the inner bulkhead next to the control panel and hit the release for the door. His pistol aimed ahead of him as the inner door slid open.
A thin veil of sm
oke wafted into the airlock through the open inner door. The smoke puffed in again in another thicker pulse.
There was a fire somewhere nearby, John surmised. On earth or in space, fire was still the deadliest occurrence on a vessel. John took a quick look outside to see if the corridor beyond was clear. With no one around he hurried out of the airlock, closing the door behind him. He moved quietly out into the hazy corridors. Thankfully, the red alert lights reflected off his white space suit in a similar manner to the bulkhead walls. It wasn’t much but combined with the haze it allowed John to be somewhat obscured has he moved cautiously down the corridors.
The interior of the Nanjing where John had entered appeared to be hellish. Red lights flashed down another corridor. John pressed himself against a bulkhead wall, pistol up at his side, as three Xen navy hands ran by an adjoining corridor. Their boots slammed into the deck as they ran. None saw John as they passed. John waited a moment before continuing.
John found a remote duty station at the far end of the ship. It was really more of a small information alcove, John surmised. A flat picture frame touchscreen directory was set into the wall. Such alcoves were typical on Xen and Terran ships alike. They served as call boxes for station hands as well as information terminals.
John’s gloved fingers tapped the glass surface of the interface. A menu popped up in Xen. John brought up a map of the ship. It was a standard destroyer similar to the ones John had seen during the war. Most of the hangar bays were at the back of the ship. The brig was two levels down on the starboard side of the ship. John oriented himself of the map with the red ‘you are here’ dot as being on the starboard side of the vessel as well.
He could only hope he’d find Alex there.
John hurried down the corridor ahead of him. He remained as cautious as possible for signs of any sudden threats. He got thirty feet down the narrow side corridor when he spotted an open metal railed stairway. As the stairway came down from the deck above he hoped it would take him down two levels where he needed to be.
