The Battle of Hollow Jimmy

by Becky Black

  She recalled a story an instructor once told her. Weeks of surveillance had pinpointed the office of an enemy general, a Chiamajan . Weeks of planning went into a surgical strike that would kill only him and scare the crap out of the rest of his people. And on the day they blasted his office to smithereens he'd popped out five minutes before to get a cup of whatever the Chia drank.

  Nothing was ever guaranteed.

  The light coming up through the ceiling vents went out. The voices below grew louder, sounded panicked. At once Maiga's team triggered their explosives. Discs a meter in diameter rained down into the control centre and the Lifers rained down after them.

  Maiga waved to Chervaz and dropped though the hole. The cable attached to a belt at her waist took her weight and she let it out steadily until her feet touched the top of the central tower. In the office below her a dim glow showed. Emergency lighting. First thing to take out once she got inside. And it showed movement, the shadow of someone in there.

  Don't go running off now, Bara. It would be hard for her to run off anywhere, since the lift platform would be inoperable with the power off.

  The top of the tower was slightly convex, smooth and rather slippery and Maiga's shoes squealed on it as she moved to the edge. The cable made her braver than she would have been without it, on that treacherous surface, but even so she moved cautiously. She took a small mine from her belt and stuck it to one of the curving glass panels that were the walls of the office. Staying crouched down; she scooted back, near the middle of the roof top, fearing being shaken off the tower by the explosion.

  A click at the trigger device on her belt and the device exploded. The glass panel shattered and fell out if its place in the wall of glass. Energy bolts instantly sizzled out of the open space, and Maiga waited for a moment. Waited for Bara to stop panicking and start considering her next move. She counted five and then she stood up.

  Maiga ran, shoes squealing and slipping. At the edge she launched herself out into the air. For a moment she flew away from the tower and then the cable caught her and began to swing back towards the gap where the window had been. She twisted in mid air to face the tower, face that gap into the office just before it swallowed her up.

  It took precise timing this move. She had to give herself more cable at exactly the right moment. Past the frame, inside the room, but before the cable hit the top of the frame and pulled her up short. Get it wrong and she could be pulled back out of the office.

  Now! She released the brake and let the reel spin free. Her feet touched the floor running. Even as she ran, trying to control it, trying to stop, she drew her gun, and fired. Not at Bara, but at the dim emergency light, a ceiling panel in the middle of the room. Bara howled with frustration as her only illumination was snuffed out. She fired blind anyway, but came nowhere near hitting Maiga.

  Maiga stopped herself just in time, as she almost fell over the guard rail around the lift shaft. The platform was at the bottom of the shaft.

  Stepping back from the rail, Maiga unclipped the cable from her belt and switched the brake to recall. It snaked away back out up the window, winding up onto its reel above. Stand clear, Chervaz she thought. She'd seen people get nasty whacks from recoiling cables.

  Another window shattered as Bara fired again. Maiga ducked down.

  "Give it up, Bara," she called. "It's over." As soon as she spoke, she moved, and as expected Bara turned her gun in that direction and let loose.

  "My people have seized all the key positions." Maiga again spoke and moved on.

  "No!" Bara went on firing blind, destroying furniture and computer panels and windows. "Your people are old, or cripples and children! My people are soldiers."

  "My people know this station better than yours." Another dodge. "Can't you see we already control it?" Dodge again. "Who do you think shut off the power?"

  "You can't have shut off the power! We control all the systems!"

  "Bara, my people control systems you don't even know about. They own the station. They are the station."

  "I control it. It's mine!"

  "Give it up to me." Maiga moved behind the manager's desk now. Bara followed her voice with the gun, but had stopped firing. "At least I'm human," Maiga went on. "If you don't, then in a few hours you'll have to give it up to the aliens."

  "Never!"

  "You know they're coming. Do you really think you can hold this place against them?"

  "We can hold it," Bara said. "If we work together."

  "Oh, don't tell me you're trying to recruit me again."

  "Recruit? Perhaps… No. Perhaps I'm only asking for an alliance."

  Maiga watched her over the desk top, her figure ghostly through the night vision goggles. She was edging slowly towards Maiga's position. Maiga moved again, not willing to stay in one place too long, stayed low, not speaking now.

  "We're both human," Bara said, the gun weaving back and forth. "Why are we fighting? Humans aren't supposed to fight each other."

  Well that's damn funny coming from her, Maiga thought. She did start this. And she smiled, recalling telling Jaff that excuse only worked while you were still at school.

  "We must be united," Bara went on. "We can only be strong when we stand together."

  Maiga's own beliefs, Bara parroting them back at her. They weren't allies, but Bara was right, Maiga was right. They must stand together. Now if Bara would just put down her gun… Maiga really didn't want to shoot her. She had other plans for Bara.

  "Where are you?" Bara yelled, "Why don't you answer me? You're afraid of me!"

  "Think not." It was only a whisper, but it made Bara turn and move towards the sound.

  Okay, that's it, come to me.

  When Bara hesitated, Maiga glanced down and stood on a piece of plastic, making it crack. Bara moved more quickly then, and fired as she moved forward. Maiga had already ducked down though, and came up as Bara got close enough, slammed into her, knocking away the gun.

  Bara yelled and the two of them staggered backwards. Maiga knew the odds were on her side now. She was heavier and stronger than Bara, and more experienced in hand to hand combat.

  But her weight and strength was nearly the undoing of both of them. She expected to bring Bara to the floor, expected her to topple backwards. But something stopped her.

  Bara slammed up against the guard rail of the lift platform. The Klaff were shorter than humans and the guard rail didn't come quite as far as Bara's waist. With the momentum of Maiga pushing her backwards, she fell over it.

  Maiga went over too, Bara's yell of shock loud in her ear. As they went into free fall, Maiga made a desperate grab at the guard rail. Her hands caught, and almost slipped as her full weight jerked on them. Bara's weight added to that for a moment, still clinging to Maiga. Then that weight was gone. Bara dropped with a scream.

  Maiga, struggled, legs flailing, shoulders screaming with pain, sure she would fall too, until one foot found a rung of the emergency ladder. She managed to inch her way around the guard rail until she reached the ladder and climbed back up out of the shaft into the office, where she flopped onto the floor, panting.

  After a moment, she recovered enough to kneel up and turn to look down the shaft. Just as she did, the lights came back on, making her tear off her flaring goggles.

  Bara lay still at the bottom of the shaft, limbs splayed and graceless. Someone moved down there and Chervaz appeared. He must have dropped down on one of the returned cables. He knelt down by Bara and touched her neck. After a few seconds, he looked up at Maiga.

  "She's alive."

  Maiga flopped down, frankly relieved. Killing Bara had not been the plan.

  "Get the doctor," she said to Chervaz. He stood up nodding and spoke into his communicator. Maiga forced herself back up to her feet, fighting exhaustion. No time for exhaustion.

  Part one of the plan was done. They had taken the station back.

  Now for part two.

  Chapter 44

  Curfew was canc
elled.

  Humans and aliens thronged the corridors, but the station security officers accompanying Wixa, Jaff, Mahtani and Neex persuaded them to move aside.

  "I hope our people haven't made too much of a mess of C and C," Wixa said. "We'll soon have it cleaned up for you." The two Klaff didn't answer. "The humans in maintenance will put in unpaid overtime," Wixa went on.

  "Hey, says who?" Jaff protested.

  "Okay, the ones who were on the wrong side." Wixa laughed. A laugh that turned nervous when nobody joined in. "Anyway," she said, sobering, "I'm sure things will be back to normal soon."

  "Indeed," Mahtani said. Nothing more and Wixa didn't like his tone. A little gratitude would be nice, she thought. The humans got their station back for them. They deserved some credit for that.

  Command and Control was a mess, but people were already working to clear it up. Humans manned the various workstations around the walls, filling in until the Klaff workers returned. The central tower looked the worse for wear, with a couple of missing wall panels. Wixa saw Maiga standing in one of the gaps and raised a hand. Maiga returned the wave and turned back into the office.

  "Well, let's get you back where you belong, Mr Mahtani," Wixa said.

  The manager's office was badly damaged, but most of the debris had been swept away to one side of the room. Maiga rose from the desk as they stepped off the lift platform. Wixa wanted to grab her and hug her tight. She'd had been right all along. Maiga was the right choice.

  "Sir." Maiga bowed her head briefly to Mahtani. "I relinquish the station back to your control. There's an urgent message waiting for you from the ships heading this way. I've already told them Bara is no longer in control of the station."

  The Big Four ships were barely twelve hours away, Wixa knew. But now the Klaff controlled the station again they wouldn't be likely to attack. She suspected there'd be a condition to make them leave though. Mahtani sat at his desk and looked at the computer panels, while Maiga joined Wixa and Jaff. They both clapped her on the shoulder and grinned.

  "I'm sure you can guess what they are demanding," Mahtani said. "They accept Bara no longer controls the station, so will not attack. But they want her handed over to them. If we don't comply they will board and take her by force." He looked up at Maiga. "I am told she was injured during the fight to seize this office."

  "Yes," Maiga said.

  "She is with your doctor now?"

  "Yes."

  "And you will hand her into our custody?"

  "No."

  Mahtani blinked and Neex flushed dark blue. Wixa and Jaff both stared at Maiga.

  "No?" Mahtani said. "Then you mean you will hand her over yourselves when the ships arrive?"

  "No. I'm not handing her over to anyone."

  "Captain…" Neex began, but Wixa and Jaff, acting as one grabbed Maiga's arms.

  "Excuse us a second," Wixa said. The two of them turned the unresisting Maiga around and hustled her across the room.

  "What the hell do you mean, you're not handing her over?" Wixa demanded. "That's what this is all about!"

  "For you perhaps," Maiga said. "Would you let go of me please?"

  "Not until I shake some sense into you!"

  "Yeah, stop screwing around," Jaff said. "Those ships are close and they'll kick the stuffing out of this place. If they board, then Neex's security force will be massacred! Or they'll stand aside and let our people be massacred."

  "Thanks for your input," Maiga said. "Excuse me." She pulled away from them and walked back to Mahtani's desk.

  "She's ours. We need to try her for mutiny and murder."

  "You have no courts," Neex said, his skin still dark. He'd been speaking into his communicator, no doubt ordering his security people to find Bara.

  "As long as we have five officers we can convene a court martial. I refuse your request."

  Wixa couldn't believe what she was hearing. Maiga had won and now she was screwing it all up on some point of principle.

  "I'll find the bitch. I'll hand her over!" Wixa ran for the lift platform.

  She reached Sheni's clinic in record time. Well, she did know a few shortcuts. Lon stared at her astounded as she walked out of a treatment room cupboard, one he obviously hadn't known had a false back. He froze, standing over a man with some nasty burns.

  "Er, how did you get in there?" he asked.

  "Never mind that. Is Bara here? Where's Sheni?"

  "No, and no I don't know where they are." Lon frowned. "And we could use the doctor. Do you know how busy we are?" He nodded through the open door and the waiting room that had become a busy triage area.

  No Bara and no Sheni. Maiga must have Bara and the doc hidden away someplace. That implied Bara must be badly hurt, if Maiga had persuaded Sheni to stay with her when there were so many other patients to take care of. Well, that could be good news. Maybe Bara would die. The aliens should be happy with her dead body.

  "If you see Bara or Sheni, message me," she said to Lon. "It's a matter of life and death." Wixa strode out of the treatment room, through the triage area, where Major Jax and her girls were distributing blankets and water to the waiting patients. Once out in the corridor she took out her Snapper and called Gry.

  "I need your help. Maiga's stashed the bitch someplace. You must be able to find them. Even if you can't see them now, you must have seen them moving around."

  "I can't help." Gry's voice sounded strange, shaking, catching, almost a sob in it. "It's all over."

  "What? What's wrong?"

  "I'm sorry." And now he really was sobbing. Wixa stared at her Snapper, horrified.

  "Gry, talk to me!"

  But the call cut off and though she tried to reconnect at once, there was no answer. Her knees shook and her chest felt tight. She should go down there now, he needed her help. But if she didn't find Bara then the whole station was in trouble. She had no choice. Gry would have to wait until she found Bara. No choice.

  But where to start looking? It suddenly occurred to her that she hadn't seen Chervaz for some time. Not since he went with Maiga to attack Command and Control. He could be guarding Bara and the doctor. Maiga would trust him. Right, first place to check, Chervaz's office.

  Got to find the bitch, before it's too late.

  ~o~

  An hour later Wixa ran back into Command and Control, trembling and sick with rage and fear. Near the entrance to the tower Jaff was standing by a rail, arms folded, and shoulders tense. Maiga sat in a chair, looking as if she was waiting for something.

  "Where is she?" Wixa yelled at Maiga, making Jaff turn around. "Stop this right now. Hand her over. People are going to die!"

  "Wixa, you may have succeeded in manipulating me for a while. But I don't take orders from you."

  "Manipulating?" Jaff said, curious. But before any of them could say anything else, Neex strode over to the three humans.

  "The manager wants to see you in his office. Now."

  They rode up on the elevator, Wixa still fuming. It was lucky for Maiga that Neex had asked for their weapons before taking them into the office, because right now Wixa didn't feel responsible for her own actions.

  "Ladies, Mr Jaff," Mahtani said. "I have heard from my superiors. We will not allow you humans to fight your battles on this station. And we will not shelter you from the Alliance at the cost of having this station attacked. You have one final chance. Hand over the pirate Bara to our custody immediately. If you do not, then all humans on this station will be evicted. And will be barred from visiting or residing here until further notice."

  Wixa gasped. Worse than she had feared. Monumentally worse, her nightmare. This was supposed to end with the status quo restored. Everything back to the way it had been before Bara started making trouble. And now…

  "You can't!" Her voice had pleading in it, and she didn't try to disguise that. "Some of us have lived here for years. We defended the station against her. You can't evict us."

  "Captain?" Mahtani ignored Wixa's pleas and
looked at Maiga. "It's your decision."

  "I'll need help organising the evacuation," Maiga said.

  Mahtani flushed, losing his cool at last. "You humans are the most extraordinarily stubborn species it has ever been my misfortune to encounter. Very well, I will provide help. You have six hours. I am putting you three in charge of the evacuation."

  "Me?" Jaff cried. "I'm just a maintenance man."

  "No, Mr Jaff," Mahtani said. "You are a soldier. Remember that now and organise an orderly retreat."

  "I won't help!" Wixa yelled. "I don't even want to go!"

  "Well, it seems to be too late for that now," Mahtani said. "I suggest you get to work. The sooner you leave the further ahead of the Alliance fleet you can stay."

  Maiga led Wixa and Jaff away and out of Command and Control. Neex followed, talking on his communicator. Through the air, on a station wide comms channel, Mahtani's voice came, making the announcement. Telling the humans they were no longer welcome on Olojimi.

  "Right," Jaff said. "I'm going to go to the docks and start organising ships, see what space we have. Can we use the Trebuchet?"

  "Oh by all means." Maiga said. "Don't let it leave until last."

  "Okay." Jaff turned to leave, and then looked back at Maiga. "Are you sure about this?"

  "I'm sure. Please, Jaff, we must be quick." He nodded, accepting her words and ran. Wixa didn't accept the words. When Maiga strode off, Wixa hurried after her.

  "I believed in you, Maiga. I chose you. But I was wrong. You've failed."

  "I'm sorry you think that." She stopped and looked at Wixa. "But don't stop believing, Wixa. You've been here so long you've forgotten that this is deck plating under your feet, not solid ground. That you have no sky here. No sun, no rain. This is not a place to live. It's a place to take shore leave. It's a place to visit, and then move on."

  "And who the hell are you to decide that for everyone?"

  "I'm what you chose me to be. I'm the leader."

  "You're even worse than Bara!" Wixa spat the words, as Maiga turned to walk on. Maiga turned back and smiled.

  "No. I'm better. By the way, when the aliens arrive they'll scan the station for any human life signs. So we all have to be gone. All of us."

  Wixa scowled, understanding. She ran to catch up to Maiga.

  "If Gry leaves the station, he'll die."