Stepping Up

by Robert Culp

  Athena speaks: “I suggest a team penetrate the ship and steal the girl. I do not recommend attacking the vessel by means of firepower.”

  “I disagree,” Rangee counters. “We should nuke the piss out of that thing.”

  Aria puts her opinion on the table, “But that would entail significant risk to the child.”

  “Ginny, I mean ‘Chief Berry,’ how about an ion blast or a meson shower? Can you rig up some manner of electromagnetic pulse to scramble them up?” She starts making notes on a pad. To the group I say: “Although I concur with your sentiments, I consider neither this crew nor this ship expendable. Like the XO noted, they are in a very low parking orbit. We will have to board the ship in order to locate and retrieve Gwen. We can’t destroy it. If she dies, our mission fails. Troop Commander, I’m sorry, ‘Chief Sergeant,’ get some of those bloodthirsty killers armed up and armored up—you have an hour. Aria, do we have any ships that can provide support to the entry team? Fighters or such? Doc, you made some photographs of Gwen when you examined her. Please distribute copies to the Troopers. XO, find where those probes they launched set down, and zap them with a laser as firing solutions are acquired. Prepare a missile attack on the cruiser, we may not be able to destroy them, but I’ll bet we can distract them long enough to make other things work. Ginny, can you fiddle with the nuke warheads to maximize the EMP? What effect do you predict from the meson shower or the ion blast? The clock starts now: Missiles to launch in fifty minutes, entry team is five minutes behind them.”

  Rangee nods and begins tapping commands out on his perCom.

  Ginny responds first: “Either mesons or ions should affect their sensors or targeting computers. I recommend the meson shower.”

  “Make it happen. Can you meet my timeline?” She looks at a chronometer, nods and starts to rise, then looks at me. “Go.” I say. She leaves.

  “I strongly recommend you let Athena lead the Troopers. If we are truly dealing with a psionic here, she won’t be affected.” Aria has such a way of pointing out the best solutions.

  “Excellent idea. Athena, draw whichever weapons you have a proclivity for. You will lead the boarding team.” She and the Troop Commander nod.

  When we break up from the conference room, I go back to my apartment. Bethany is dusting. “I’m going to relax and try to meditate for a moment. If something bad starts happening to me, alert Aria or Athena, then do what you can to take this amulet off of me.”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  20 RECOVERY

  I sit back in the Captain’s throne chair. No wonder Prowse liked it. I take off my boots and stretch the kinks from my feet and toes. I do what I can to get comfortable with the amulet around my neck, take a deep breath, close my eyes and think “Gwen, where are you? Can you hear me?”

  “I am with Lunia.”

  I feel my body dissipate, and reality as I know it slips from me. When my eyes open, I’m in a huge room. It is roughly four-hundred meters by ten, with a twelve-foot ceiling. I am on a ship that is not mine. Fortunately, I am in the clothes I was in, and the amulet is still around my neck. I slowly understand that I am in a gigantic TMOD chamber. I’m standing in the aisle. There are double-stacked TMOD units on either side of the room. There are at least four hundred in a line on each side. And of course, the floor is hard and cold. My boots are still in my stateroom on Night Searcher.

  “Hi, Mommy.” Her voice is coming from nowhere, but everywhere. “I missed you. Do I have to come home now?”

  Oh, this is so not good! I hope Aria and Rangee figure out they should continue the attack in my absence. I have nothing better to do, so I look at the TMODs. Every one that I can see is occupied. There are humanoids the size of mountain gorillas in all the berths. I imagine they are what Neanderthal man may have looked like. All appear to be male, have beards, and easily weigh four hundred pounds each.

  I think, “Gwen? Where are you? Can you hear me?” I pull my perCom from my pocket. Good thing I have a habit of sticking it there. “Night Searcher, this is Night Searcher Actual. Do you read me?”

  “Night Searcher Actual, this is Night Searcher. State your location, please.”

  “Irrelevant. Continue attack plan. I authenticate: Gorb, Shownya, Chocolate.”

  I hear a brief buzz of discussion on the other end then a decisive “Affirmative, Captain. Changes are locked out. Night Searcher out.”

  “Mommy, I can hear you, but I don’t know where you are. I am in Lunia’s room playing with her dolls.”

  “How did you get to Lunia’s room?” I’d give a year’s wages for a light machine gun, or a pistol. Even a heavy club. But I see no weapons lying about, nor anything I can use effectively as a weapon.

  I see iris valves on either end of this room. Since I’ve no idea which direction is which, I approach the door closest to me. The iris valve opens as I approach. It’s an engine room. There are what look to be Maneuver drives present and running...big Maneuver drives.

  “Oh, that’s easy,” I hear Gwen say. “1211 Danfellows Ferry. Hers is the big yellow house.”

  That brings me up short. “You’re not on a ship? Are you sure?” I back away from the iris valve and walk to the other one. I look in every TMOD I pass. All contain men, no females, child or otherwise. But I am confident she is on this ship. It makes no objective sense, but I feel it. They couldn’t have dropped out of Transit to jettison her somewhere. Surely they don’t have teleportation technology.

  “Mommy is being silly. You know I am at Auntie Lunia’s; you brought me here. She works in a cyborg factory.”

  “Is Lunia at work now?”

  “Of course she is at work. She works every day. She works very hard, too. Like you.”

  “Do you see her every day?”

  “Every day, before and after work. She is taking care of me until you come to get me. Do we have to go now? I am having a lot of fun playing with the dolls.”

  “I know you enjoy playing with the dolls, sweetie, but can you tell me specifically what you are doing with them? They may look sturdy, but I bet they break easily. You aren’t hurting them are you? You wouldn’t want to do that, you’re a good girl.”

  “What?? I never hurt people!!! Why did you say that?!?”

  I was afraid of that. She equates the dolls with people. The ship rocks violently. The gravitational stabilizers go offline for half a minute. I float upward slowly until I can grab a piece of wall and hold on. Gravity restores. My head feels like someone hit me with a crowbar. It’s like she yelled inside my head.

  “Calm down, sweetie. I know you would never want to hurt people. But people who make cyborgs sometimes don’t care like you and I do. I’ve heard about cyborg makers. Some of them are bad people that like to hurt others. They enjoy it. I know if you were doing that and didn’t know it, you would get very sad. Has Lunia shown you that you can take dolls apart and put them back together differently?”

  I open the other iris valve. It opens onto a huge control room, probably for the TMODs. I eyeball it to be about twenty meters wide, forty deep. There are two attendants about fifteen feet away, sitting in swivel chairs at a control station. They have not turned in my direction. Yet.

  I step back, trying to get out of sight or at least close the door. And I kick a small wrench, which clangs down the companionway. This is also very not good. Am I the only engineer who insists on a clean work area?

  The attendants look at me in disbelief, like they aren’t sure I’m really there. One of them runs for the door, and the other shouts what can only mean ‘intruder alert’ into a microphone.

  Well I suppose there’s nothing for it but hand-to-hand. Although, I’d prefer to bring a gun to a fistfight any day.

  The one heading for the door makes it out. The other is so shaken that one hammer fist strike to the back of the head takes him right out. His momentum pushes his head into the microphone, the wound starts bleeding terribly, and he falls to the deck, unconscious. There is a device on his belt with a lot o
f buttons on it. I see a diagram on the wall of the control room. Schematics are the true universal language. I can discern the purpose of about half of the writing. This appears to be a troop ship, probably for a massive planetary invasion. One in a fleet of…could that mean 200?

  I remove the device from the tech’s belt. I don’t know what it is, but I have a feeling my situation is not hampered by having it. Unless it has a locater beacon in it. I take his boots, too. I need to reestablish contact with Gwen. I turn on my ‘mommy’s mad’ voice. I say aloud, “You listen to me, young lady! If you have hurt those dolls you are going to be in big trouble, do you understand me?” It’s time to test my theory. Sadly, his feet are much larger than mine, but I take his boots anyway. Blisters I can deal with, not being able to move quickly and surely is a much bigger issue.

  I take one of the elevators up to the next deck, which leads to a huge supply room. There are hundreds of crates of all sizes.

  After a bit of looking around, I see some crates marked with an unknown language and what I think are warning signs. Upon further examination, I realize that they are laser carbines. They’re a little primitive; but that’s what they are. I help myself to one and hope I’m sharp enough to figure out how to turn the stupid thing on. I find the power stud and stick another power magazine in a cargo pouch on my thigh, then make my way forward, pausing at the entrance to the other TMOD room.

  “Gwendolyn! Don’t you make me tell you a second time! You answer me right this second! I want you to stop playing with those dolls right now!”

  The ship rumbles, the lights flicker.

  “Whoever you are, stop yelling at me!” she screams between my ears. Apparently I’m not the only competitor for her attention.

  The ship rocks as if buffeted by an asteroid. The lights and pathway indicators flicker. Then the room goes pitch black. The only visible light now is the faint glow of an indicator of my carbine.

  “When you tell me you’ve stopped playing with the dolls, I’ll stop yelling at you! And what do you mean ‘whoever you are?’ You know very well who I am!” All of the doors I try are locked. But I can’t tell if they are barred from the other side or just because the power is out. Gwen doesn’t reply to me. The ship continues rocking. I go back to the TMOD room, through the drive room, and to the other TMOD bay. I make my way to the stern control room. In the other TMOD bay there are tubes full of similar humanoids.

  The iris valve to the stern control room is locked.

  I can ‘hear’ Gwen, but she’s not talking to me: “But she wasn’t in the toy box, I can’t play with her. That’s your rule, not mine.” There’s a pause. “She says that what I’m doing hurts people.” Another pause “No, I will not take her arms off, No! Ouch! That hurts! Oowwwww!”

  I hear Athena, broken and staticky on my perCom: “I don’t know where the Captain is...we are looking...” the rest of her message dissolves in static.

  The tech’s handheld unit! I forgot I had it! When I pull the handheld out and hold it close to the valve, a button lights up. I press it and the valve opens.

  “Gwen, I’m looking for you, baby. We miss you back on Night Searcher. I’m going to take you home. Hang on for me. Can you make any of these doors between us open for me?”

  I try to call Athena on my perCom: “If you can hear me, I’m in the TMOD area. I have a feeling it is on the lowest deck.”

  I get no reply from Gwen.

  Athena: “medical room...can’t rea...”

  “I love you, Peanut.” I say to Gwen. “I’m not leaving here without you!”

  I hear Athena, but I don’t think she’s talking to me: “I’m making my way aft. The Captain is sure Gwen is aboard somewhere.”

  “Mommy, I can’t leave now. Auntie Lunia says we are in trouble. You and me. She’s really mad.”

  Three laser shots come through the valve as I open it. One catches me in the thigh. Good thing the laser magazine is in the pocket on the other side. I’m in pain, but I’m still in the fight. It makes me stagger a bit to the side, which as things turned out is a good thing, as it gets me out of the firing line.

  There are two explosions in that room. Grenades. The explosions are followed by the familiar sound of Sherri’s voice. “Sonia! Are you in here somewhere?”

  Praise the Gods the cavalry is here. Now for a fight on the other front. “Gwen, there’s a fire in the kitchen! Do you smell the smoke? We have to leave! Guide me to you! I’ll get you out of here!” In a much louder voice I yell “Sherri! I’m here!” To Gwen I shout, “If the kitchen burns up, we won’t have cookies!!” The ship rocks from side to side and gravity goes off line completely.

  I start to float. Sherri catches my foot. “Hey, baby—I mean Captain—here, put this on.” She hands me an APE suit. “Is that a laser burn? Here, come closer to me.” She pushes her helmet visor up. “The displays and scanners are nice, but I need the Mark I eyeball right now.” I see the welcome sight of five suits of the new armor behind her.

  It would probably be a comical sight, seeing me float sideways in the air and Sherri treating my wound with an injector and a QuickPatch dressing. In a few short minutes I am in my APE suit—except for one thigh—and ready to go. Sherri pulls out an inertial tracking device. A handy little gizmo—once a ‘starting place’ is defined, you can run, jump, fly, whatever, and the gizmo will guide the operator back to the starting place. She shows me the “companions” display. “Here’s where we are.” Sherri points to the Control Room, “Here’s where Athena’s team is.” She points to an area above and forward of us.

  “Gwen,” I say into empty space, “did I tell you about the cookies my mom used to bake? It’s a secret recipe passed down in my family for years. I don’t have anyone to pass it to. I want that to be you. I was looking forward to you helping me with a batch tomorrow, but I need to get you out of here first. Has my friend, Athena, found you? Sherri has found me, but we still don’t know where you are. You remember Sherri? From Night Searcher? From home?”

  “Cookies are so nice, I want to help,” Gwen says. “What? Who is a cockroach?? No, no, nooooo!”

  “Ow!” I yell at Sherri as she dabs burn ointment on my wound. “That stings! Okay, thanks.” She puts the QuickPatch in place then turns her face up to mine. “Stop grinning like that.” I take a few seconds to tell her what I know about the storage rooms and the drive rooms.

  “I think they have plugged Gwen’s consciousness into this thing.” I explain to Sherri. “Long story short, I think this ship is a cyborg factory, and they have her doing some of the vivisection work. They have punished her for not hurting me. I guess it’s me anyway.” I point to the passageway running along the right, “Is this the way you came? By the way, if we get out of this, I may have to take you up on those ‘tongue and groove’ carpentry lessons you’re so interested in giving me.”

  “I’m happy to be your instructor, but that will have to wait.” Her grin disappears. “No, we came off the elevator. Let’s get to where Athena is. This way.”

  The ship’s intercom comes over very loud and very clear: “Self-destruct sequence in two minutes…one minute fifty five…one minute fifty…”

  The team moves quickly and furiously towards the elevator. The point man shouts in horror as he identifies at least sixty cyborgs heading our way. His warning is his last act. He should have been moving. He falls in a hail of weapons fire. Night Searcher troopers take a knee and start sending ordnance towards the enemy. Sherri should have closed her helmet visor. The accelerator round tears into her cheek. The round proceeds through her skull and bounces around on the inside of her helmet. It penetrates her cranium again and again. Her head is ground to nothing in seconds. The grenades make the cyborgs explode like sacks of rotten fruit. Sherri’s lifeless body falls to the deck. I doubt she even felt the round that killed her.

  The amulet starts to vibrate against my chest.

  “If you can still hear me, baby, this is very important. Lunia is not your aunt; she is not a
friend. She has tricked you into doing some very bad things. That isn’t your fault—it’s hers. She lied to you. She tricked you into making cyborgs. Those cyborgs are now trying to hurt Athena, me, and many of our other friends. They just killed Sherri. I promise you, sweetie, if you want to break some of her cyborgs, it’s okay with me. You will not be punished for it.”

  I press my APE suit, pushing the amulet close to me, and mutter a silent prayer to any gods that may be listening. “Gwen, I’m here. If you can, come to me. If you can’t do that, bring me to you.”

  Through my APE suit headset, I tell the Troopers: “Weapons free on any adult humanoids that didn’t come from Night Searcher.”

  A man’s voice says, “About bloody time.”

  A firefight of epic proportions breaks out. I can hear the explosions and gunfire reverberate throughout the massive ship.

  I feel myself dissipate again.

  I “wake up” in our old room on Night Searcher. The ship is rocking back and forth. Over my headset, I learn that Night Searcher is engaging three additional starships of an alien design. Each of the new ships is roughly a 200-ton design. Neither is a match for us, but collectively they are a threat. But even between the three attackers, Night Searcher is holding her own.

  “Bridge, Captain. Advise boarding party that I am aboard Night Searcher, alive and intact. I’m on my way up.” It would have been nice had I materialized in my current stateroom. I run to the bridge. Once I get there, I yell, “Brief me, you have one minute.”

  Rangee looks dumbfounded. Aria speaks, “We began destroying the probes. Three ships came out of the ocean loaded with armored troops. The troops dismounted and began moving towards Night Searcher. When we fire on the ships, we are subject to the high-energy weapons of the dismounts. When we target the dismounts, the ships hit us. We have been in a fierce battle with them ever since. We cannot maintain this much longer. We will have to get out of here, or we will be boarded. The EDS is currently active, so I am very curious as to how you transported aboard. I must insist you do it no more.”