by Joe Vasicek
But now, she didn’t know if she still felt that way. Or maybe she did, but Lucca threw an entirely new variable into the mix. All of her meticulous plans were collapsing, with nothing but uncertainty to replace them. These emotions she was feeling, so new and so strange—was any of it right? Was any of it safe? Or did any of that even matter anymore?
She reached the shelter without too much trouble. The bags crowded the airlock, but she managed to climb in anyways. After walking under the open air of the planet, it felt strange to be cramped in such a tiny, narrow space again.
“There you are,” said Lucca, smiling as she entered. “I see you made it with no problem.”
“No problems at all,” said Mariya. “I think I got most of the equipment you asked for, including the spare wrist console. Oh, and here’s the other oxygen mask—it was lying on the ground not far from the landing site.”
He grunted and took the mask and oxygen tank from her, examining them carefully. They were covered in dirt from the incident a few days ago, but seemed intact. The way Lucca nodded confirmed as much.
“Excellent. They have seen very rough time, but are not broken. Even there is some oxygen left.”
“Well, that’s good news.”
“Indeed.”
She took off her boots and placed them with her own mask in the equipment locker. “How are you feeling? Any better?”
“Much better,” he said, rummaging through the other bags. “At this rate, I think my injury will heal in only few more days. Already, I am well enough that I can go out.”
“No, not yet—you’d better stay in here and rest. We can’t risk opening up that wound before it’s fully healed.”
He looked as if he were about to object, but caught himself and relented. “You are right, of course,” he said. “I am just getting sick of this place.”
“Well, one way or another, we won’t be here much longer. Either we’ll find a way off, or the colonists will rescue us when they take over.” If they take it over.
“That is right.”
He pulled out the wrist console and laid back down on the roll-out mattress that served as his cot. Mariya stepped over to the food synthesizer and started to get lunch ready. Even though they were both soon engrossed in their work, his presence was impossible to ignore.
“I think those raptor-beasts only come out in the afternoon,” she said, breaking the silence. “I’ve been watching them, and they never come out in the morning.”
“Interesting. Do they always come out in afternoon?”
“Every day so far, yeah.”
“Good—very good.”
She frowned and glanced at him over her shoulder. “Why is that?”
But he was too busy with the wrist console to be interrupted. He stared at the tiny screen with eyes that were almost crazed, and his fingers flew across the miniature keyboard as if with wild abandon.
“Good, good,” he muttered again. A grin slowly spread across his face.
“What is it?”
“I have accessed sensors on the Gagarin, and they show projected path of your Hope of Oriana. If nothing has changed, your ship will dock with station in seventy-nine hours. That is perfect.”
“Perfect?” Mariya asked, turning around to face him. “Why?”
“I have been thinking about this for some time. At pirate station, there are two parts, yes? One rimside section with boarding transports and barracks for troops, another at hub with docking bays for starships. Rim section uses rotation for gravity simulation, hub uses artificial generators.”
“Yeah—what does that have to do with the raptor-beasts?”
“One minute. If Hope of Oriana docks at hub, there will be many pirates waiting for her, no? Many troops for controlling prisoners. Your friend will hack into network and help close off rest of station, but even so your friends will have to fight through all those pirates to take control. It will be very difficult.”
Mariya folded her arms and nodded. She hadn’t thought much on the colonists’ plan to take over the station, but what Lucca said made sense—a disturbing amount of sense.
“However, if we can board station before Hope of Oriana, we can make distraction. On rim, it will be easier to fight pirates, with narrow corridors and many blast doors that your friend can hack. Since transports dock there, if we can capture one, we can go there first instead of hub. And once we make distraction, troops at hub will come down to rim to capture us.”
“A distraction? You mean, return to the station just as the Hope of Oriana starts to dock?”
“Exactly. If we send distress signal, pirates will send transport down to capture us. But if we capture that transport, we can fly it back to station and dock on rim. It will draw pirates away from Hope of Oriana and help colonists take station with minimal losses.”
“And just how do you want to go about capturing one of those transports?”
“This is where raptor-beasts come in. It takes perhaps one, maybe two hours to come from orbit to surface, and same to go back. But Hope of Oriana will dock when it is evening for us. If raptor-beasts come out in afternoon, we can time distress signal so that pirates will land just as they fill the sky.”
He grinned again, this time with a devious glint in his eye that made her shiver.
“So the raptor-beasts attack the pirates, and while they’re distracted we steal their ship?”
“Exactly.”
She took a deep breath and put a hand to her forehead. “I don’t know. There are so many ways that could go wrong—”
“But if it goes right, it will be perfect. And when will we have another chance?”
As nervous as it made her, she had to admit he was right.
* * * * *
Lucca winced a little as he walked through the jungle, but he took care not to show it. It was too late to turn back now, and Mariya was nervous enough as it was. And honestly, he was too. The fight with the raptor-beasts had shaken him, even though that was more than a week ago now. He heard them screeching above the canopy, and a small part of him shuddered at the sound.
This is some adventure, he told himself, grinning inwardly as the adrenaline gave him chills. It is probably best adventure I have ever had. As always, the optimism helped him to shake off his fear and focus on the task at hand.
The clearing with the lake was just up ahead. On the other side, they’d placed the emergency transmitter. A little less than an hour had passed, so the pirates were probably on their way.
He got close enough to the edge to give him a small view of the sky, without exposing himself to the raptor-beasts. Mariya waited a few meters behind him, underneath a particularly large tree. He crouched and drew his energy pistol, making sure that it was charged.
If they do not come …
The sky had already filled with almost a hundred of the fearsome creatures. The sun was low behind the clouds, turning everything into deepening hues of orange and yellow. A light rain trickled over the leaves and ferns, dribbling harmless moisture on his clothes and skin. He settled in for the wait.
The one thing he regretted about the plan was that it left the Gagarin in a place where the pirates would be able to get to it. He didn’t relish the thought of them swarming across her decks. But at least that would make it easier for him to find the ship again once the fighting was over. He doubted they would deactivate the distress beacon, or go into the wilderness with their minimal supplies.
A high-pitched scream sounded in the distance. At first, Lucca thought it was just another raptor-beast, but it was followed by a slowly-building rumble. The pirates, he realized. The scream became louder, then gradually dropped in pitch as a contrail broke through the clouds.
“They are coming,” he told Mariya. “Stay ready.”
She nodded, her eyes wide.
The contrail passed over near the horizon, then made a wide circle as the transport came back for a second pass. As it approached, the raptor-beasts scattered, making Lucca’s stomach s
ink.
Where are you going? Don’t leave us now!
The rumbling grew as the supersonic scream died down. It shook the ground and made his knees tremble. He clenched his teeth and gripped his pistol with a clammy palm. Soon, the rumbling was replaced with the sound of thruster jets, just on the other side of the clearing. Lucca ducked behind a trunk just as the blunt-nosed transport came into view. Its dark gray hull was pocked and dented, its wings showing the residue of paint that hadn’t quite been scrubbed completely off. The thruster flames made the air beneath the transport ripple and dance, while the plasma cannons glowed hot, ready to fire.
The transport circled the clearing once before coming down for a landing. At first, Lucca feared it would touch down on the other side of the lake, but it hovered over the water, casting violent, furious waves across the shore. It landed next to the Gagarin, about fifty meters from where he stood—right where he’d hoped it would.
But what about the raptor-beasts?
An airlock door open near the back, and nearly two dozen men in black body armor came out. They carried heavy assault rifles, probably of Gaian manufacture. Some of them were missing gloves and helmets—one even wore a modified EVA suit with bits and pieces of armor tacked on. At least that would make them easier to hit, if it came to that. His energy pistol wasn’t much good against full Imperial battle armor.
A screech sounded overhead as the men split into two groups. Lucca’s heart skipped a beat, and he looked up into the cloudy sky. What he saw made him grin. The raptor-beasts, which had been scattered by the transport’s arrival, now swarmed thicker than he’d ever seen.
“Get ready,” he said softly. Mariya came forward and crouched beside him, ready to run.
The pirates were in the center of the clearing now, some headed for the distress signal, the rest for the Gagarin. None of them was watching the sky. Wary from their last human encounter, the raptor-beasts gathered until there was almost a hundred of them circling the sky. When the first of the pirates reached the top hatch of Lucca’s ship, that was when they attacked.
Six beasts dropped out of the sky like giant winged darts. The first one struck the men atop the Gagarin, knocking one over and carrying the other away. He screamed and fired wildly as the other beasts fell on the rest of them. With shots, screams, and screeches filling the air, the pirates ducked and scattered.
“Now!” said Lucca. “Go!”
He ran with Mariya straight for the airlock, which was thankfully still open. Another pirate ran blindly for the cover, so he shot him with the energy pistol, hoping that the others wouldn’t notice in the confusion. Shots filled the air as the pirates started to regroup, but they were firing at the raptor-beasts, not at them.
Panting for breath, he leaped into the airlock and pulled Mariya up after him. Another pirate rounded the corner, and without thinking he shot him in the chest. The armor absorbed the shot, but the man stopped short in surprise. He wasn’t wearing a helmet, so Lucca shot him in the face and palmed the airlock door shut.
“Let us in!” the pirates shouted over the intercom. “Let us in!”
It took almost half a minute for the air to be pumped out. Lucca waited a few seconds, then took off his mask and laid it on the ground with his oxygen tank. Mariya did the same.
“What now?” she asked, her hands trembling. “What do we do?”
“Stay with me,” Lucca said softly. He took off his oxygen mask and held his pistol at the ready.
The door hissed open, and he scanned the interior of the transport. It was one large room, the partitions gutted to make extra space. There were seats along the walls for the soldiers to seat themselves, and pull-down compartments on the ceiling containing weapons. A couple of them were still pulled down. The main part of the transport was empty, but up near the front, the pilot and copilot sat behind the controls.
“Get up!” he said, running forward. “Up, you bastards! Put up your hands!”
They turned, and their eyes widened. He fired a shot at the wall, and they both ducked for good measure.
“Into airlock! Move, you bastards—move!”
They didn’t need to be told twice. He held them at gunpoint until the door hissed shut, then locked it and handed the pistol to Mariya.
“What? What do I do with this?”
“Make sure they do not come in.”
He got behind the controls and looked them over. They were remarkably similar to the controls on his own ship—enough that he wondered if the design wasn’t Tajji in origin. There wasn’t any time for that, however. He started up the thrusters.
Outside the forward window, the pirates had regrouped and were shooting down the raptor-beasts left and right. Several of them lay dead on the ground. When the pirates saw their ship rise up, however, their faces lit up with shock and horror. Several of them ran forward waving their hand, but it was too late.
“So long!” said Lucca, laughing as he gave a mock salute. He opened the outer airlock door to let out the pilot and copilot, then blasted off into the sky.
* * * * *
We did it, Mariya realized. We really did it.
“You can stop watching door,” said Lucca. “Our friends are out now.”
“What, you just dropped them out of the sky?”
“Don’t worry, I released them before takeoff. In any case, airlock is empty now. Come, sit up front.”
She lowered the pistol and walked forward as the floor rumbled from the thrusters. Out the forward window, the raptor-beasts circled almost at eye level, while shots lanced through the sky.
“Strap in,” said Lucca. “This will be rough.”
She sat down in the oversized copilot’s chair and pulled the shoulder straps down across her chest. Lucca checked the large holoscreen between them, which showed the planet complete with all of its satellites. Two of them were so close that their orbits nearly converged.
The Hope of Oriana and the pirate station, Mariya realized. They’ve almost docked.
“How much time do we have?”
“Until colonists arrive at station? Less than one hour.”
“Can you get us there in time?”
“Yes, I think I can. But you must handle communications so that they will let us dock.”
“Right,” said Mariya. Communications. That was her post on the Hope of Oriana, though she’d been in more of a supporting role than anything else. But to get the pirates to let them back—that shouldn’t be too difficult. She’d have to modulate her voice to make her sound like a man, but she could do that. She had to.
“What if they won’t let us dock?” she asked.
“Don’t know. Maybe they shoot us? Hang on.”
Behind them the engines roared, filling the ship with noise. An invisible hand pushed her against the back of her chair until it seemed like she was lying on her back. Through the forward window, the clouds sped faster and closer overhead.
“Switching to ramjets,” said Lucca. “Stand by!”
The roar died down, replaced by a rumbling under the floor. It grew until the vibration made her teeth rattle and her hands shake. She gripped the armrest and tightened the muscles in her stomach.
“Breathe quick, keep legs firm! Only little more—scramjets now!”
The rumble grew to a roar and filled her ears, while the pressure grew until it was almost unbearable. It was as if she were trying to breathe with a thousand pound weight on her chest—and not just on her chest, but her whole body. She tightened her legs like Lucca had said, and it helped somewhat, but the pressure continued to grow until her vision began to turn gray.
“Seventy five kilometers and rising. Scramjets off, switching to sublight engines. Stand by for orbital insertion.”
The pressure slowly died down, leaving a buzzing sensation in the tips of her fingers. The roar of the engines returned, but it was quieter now, a bit more muted. She opened her eyes and gasped.
They were in space again. The cloud canopy extended like a pearly
-white floor beneath them, turning to blackness as they passed over to the night side of the world. The horizon glowed a deep burnt orange, fading to purple and black just ahead of them. A few of the stars peeked out from the velvet blackness—the stars! How long had it been since she’d last seen stars? And up ahead, two distinct points of light came into view.
“That is station,” said Lucca. “They are hailing us.”
“Right,” said Mariya, leaning forward. She took a deep breath and opened the channel.
“Argo, what’s happening? Why are you coming back?”
“Uh, Argo is hurt,” she said, “hurt very badly.” The feedback from the modulator showed a drop that wasn’t perfect, but hopefully enough to be believable.
“Hurt? What are you talking about? Who is this?”
“There was an accident,” she said, sweat forming on her forehead. “An accident—no, an attack. The bastards were waiting for us. We’ve got wounded—several wounded. We need to offload them right away.”
Silence. They’re not buying it, Mariya thought. I sound like an idiot and they’re not buying it. If we can’t get on that station—
“Who is this? Is this Corporal Chan?”
“Yes,” said Mariya, hoping that the relief wasn’t too evident in her voice. “This is the corporal. We need to dock and offload immediately. Do you understand me?”
“I understand, corporal. Stand by for docking. Do you need medical?”
“Yes, definitely. Some of our equipment may have been damaged as well. They got onto the ship and shot us up pretty bad.”
“Salazar isn’t going to like this. I hope you’re ready to tell him about it, because I sure as hell won’t.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll tell him personally.”
“Right. Flight plans transmitting now.”
The plans showed up on the holoscreen, and Mariya shut the transmitter off. She sighed and leaned back in her seat, her heart still pounding, while Lucca cracked his knuckles.
