by Mike Luoma
“Not entirely sure,” BC admits, “But it should distract them, keep them busy and maybe drain the ship’s power. I’ve been on their ships. Strangely enough, their stuff isn’t that different from ours. At worst, the takeover tech won’t work. At best, we get control of one of their ships.”
“You are an optimist,” she says grimly, but then she smiles at him. “That surprises me.”
“Me? I’m just full of surprises!” BC jokes lamely.
I might seem optimistic on the outside. Inside? Not so much. The human race is in real trouble if I’m humanity’s best hope for winning this...
“Do you think your big-brain boys out here can adapt that UIN takeover tech to make it more likely to be compatible with Eldred systems?” he asks her.
“Maybe,” she says. “I’ll tell Krish and Dell to start working on that while they’re on their way back here from Mars. We’ll need to make sure they get a UIN ship with the system built into it.”
“Great!” BC says. “Next, we’re going to need a highly reflective asteroid with a hole in it. Reflective so it’s ablative, so the Eldred’s weapons won’t penetrate easily,” he explains. “It’s gotta be big enough for a ship to fit inside, big enough so we can make a ship-size hole in it. Tunnel into it… Any candidates come to mind?”
“Not right off,” Anita answers. “But that’s a little outside my area of expertise. I’ll check with our mining and prospecting guys, and let you know.”
“Good.”
Anita looks at him, another puzzled look crossing her face. She breaks eye contact and nearly runs out of the room.
“I’ve got to catch Krish and Dell and let them know about the takeover tech before they leave,”
she calls over her shoulder. “Don’t want to be broadcasting that later,” she says, her voice trailing off. What was look?
Chapter Nine
BC’s plan comes together over the next few weeks. The Project finds an asteroid that fits the bill, about half an orbit away from the old Project base. The rock is large, reflective, and has a big tunnel already in place inside of it. They clear more space as needed. At BC’s instruction, Project technicians mount twin lasers on each side of the tunnel entrance. They mount the UIN takeover tech’s energy draining coil in the base of the tunnel, and the tech itself in the tunnel roof overhead. Krish and Dell have been working on the UIN ship they brought back in a hidden part of the Project Base’s landing bay, mounting the Transpace drive and turning it into a close duplicate of one of Dolomay’s ships. The ship is now ready and waiting.
The Domo representative has been in contact with BC, keeping him informed of Dolomay’s raids and whereabouts. Dolomay’s ships and crews have continued to be active in Flaze and Domo space, and hitting targets on the edge of Eldred territory. BC asks the Domo to keep telling him where Dolomay is attacking, hoping to find the right moment to launch his decoy and his plan, to catch the Eldred’s attention. The Eldred won’t believe the decoy’s really Dolomay if he’s actually off hitting them somewhere else worlds away at the same time. Dolomay doesn’t need to be back in the solar system, just away from Eldred space.
Where are you, Dolomay?
BC has spent nearly a month playing the waiting game. Playing hide and seek with Dolomay while watching over the preparations for his mousetrap. Supervision. He tells himself that’s why he’s staying out at the Project base. Certainly not just to hang out with Anita. Truth is he hardly sees her. The Project base is large. BC occupies much of his time exploring. He tries not to get in Anita’s way as she runs full speed through her days. Many days he doesn’t see her at all, just hears from her over the com when she calls his quarters with news or a question.
I think she keeps busy to keep avoiding me. Or maybe I’m just paranoid. Then again…
What’s not to be paranoid about? After all… They are out to get us! I wish Dolomay would get on with it!
The waiting game. I hate it! At least the Eldred haven’t attacked us again. Yet. I know they’re out there. Probably nearby. But we can’t find them.
That’s why we need one of their ships. Gotta figure out their shielding. Weapons. See what their drive system is like. Dell and Krish and the boys will have a field day!
Once we get
them a ship.
“BC?” Anita calls him up out of his reverie over the com. “M’Bekke for you. Line one.”
M’Bekke? How long has it been?
“M’Bekke!”
“BC!” he calls back, after the slight delay that accompanies Earth to Asteroid Base communications.
“How are you?”
“As well as can be expected. As good as the Pope can be,” M’Bekke says. “Things are pretty bad here, BC. Despite the vaccine, the plague is still claiming victims. I’ve reinstated the OPO to help me keep order, but UTZ people are abandoning their posts. Or dying. Then there was your ‘announcement’
last month. We saw rioting here after that.”
“I’m sorry to hear all that, M’Bekke,” BC tells him. “I’ll be coming back Earth side once I finish a little project I’m working on out here.”
Can’t say anything more on this channel. Hell, on channel! Don’t wanna blow it now!
“Right. A ‘Project’ project?”
BC just nods.
“I see, can’t say what it is,” M’Bekke says.
“I’m not even sure our old CCU’s would be secure from them,” BC admits. “Given our current circumstances and opposition.”
M’Bekke gets it.
“I understand. Well. I hope to see you soon. I agreed to run the NcC, not the whole planet!”
M’Bekke exclaims.
“And I didn’t expect to be in charge of anything,” BC fires back. “Never mind Everything! ” He laughs an ironic laugh.
“Rising to the level of our incompetence, eh?” M’Bekke says. “Well, let me know what’s happening. When you can.”
“Will do. Good luck to all of us, huh?”
“Luck? What about the power of prayer, BC?”
“I’ll take whatever edge I can get,” BC jokes.
“M’Bekke out,” he says, signing off.
People are still dying, M’Bekke says. But Wentworth seems convinced it’s cured, at least for now. So why are people still dying?
“BC!” Anita calls over the com.
“What is it?”
“The Domo called while you were speaking with M’Bekke. It’s Dolomay. They’ve found him!
His ships are heading back towards the Solar System!”
Funny… that really shouldn’t be good news.
But it is!
“Great! Let’s do it!” BC commands.
BC’s plan is put into action.
The decoy Dolomay ship is launched and travels over to lurk around the trap asteroid. The Project launches Stinger ships to go after the fake Dolomay UIN ship as it appears. A small fleet of Eldred ships soon appear. Their sleek silver forms hang back up above the plane of the elliptic, avoiding asteroids.
Right on cue. Although I didn’t expect to see so many Eldred ships! I just need one…
BC boards a Stinger ship and heads out to be closer to the action, to see his trap at work and watch his plan take shape.
Get to the asteroid, boys, make it fast…
Eldred ships begin to drop and swarm around the decoy, but it manages to elude them and head towards the trap asteroid.
BC watches from the bridge as his ship pulls alongside the other Project ships, now disengaging from their “attacks” on the decoy as the Eldred ships approach.
Well. Let’s see if this actually works…
BC can’t really make out too much of the action from his vantage point.
“Can you give me some idea as to how it’s going?” BC asks the captain.
“Sure thing,” she says. “Hold on and I’ll get a viewscreen up for you.” She punches in some commands into the control panel in front of her.
A light blue, three dim
ensional panel appears in the air in front of BC, a holographic heads-up display. Asteroids and ships dot the screen, labeled and represented in varying colors: Eldred ships are blue, Project ships are green, asteroids are purple, and the decoy ship is bright red. As BC watches, the red ship darts away from the blue ships and towards an asteroid of a different color – white. It has no label.
“Is the white rock the trap?” BC asks.
“Yeah. We don’t want to label it that, though. Probably shouldn’t even be a different color,” the captain tells him. She sounds a little put off.
Sounds like someone was overruled on the tactical display decision…Hey, there it goes!
The red ship has disappeared inside the white rock on the display.
“The decoy’s in the trap,” the captain informs him. “Let’s see if an Eldred ship takes the bait!”
Blue ships surround the white rock.
“Are they firing at it?” BC asks. “I can’t tell from this.”
“They’re blasting at the rock, but it’s doing what we’d hoped it would, reflecting and ablating the energy,” she tells him.
One of the blue ship dives in towards the rock.
This is frustrating… can’t tell what’s really happening.
“Aren’t there any cameras on the trap rock?” BC asks. “I’d like to see a visual feed, see what’s going on.”
“We’ve got cameras and other tactical equipment on there, but the plan is to keep the rock quiet until we get an Eldred ship in there. Then they’ll start broadcasting.”
She notices something out of the corner of her eye.
“Here we go! They’re in. I’ll switch to the video feeds.”
BC’s blue screen blinks off, replaced by four camera views from inside and outside of the trap. There are bright flashes and two of the feeds go blank. The energy draining coil rises into the picture on one of the two remaining screens as the hull of the Eldred ship glides across the top of that screen. The other remaining feed shows the decoy ship, docked inside the trap rock alongside the small base built for this very purpose.
The energy draining coil glows blue as it generates its field. As BC watches, the coil contacts the hull of the Eldred ship above it. The camera pulls back as someone adjusts the zoom. BC sees the energy field grow to cover the Eldred ship, hopefully draining the energy from it.
“The Eldred ship is powering down!” a voice announces over the com. “The decoy crew is off their ship. Automated protocols are engaged. Stay clear, we’re blowing the other side of the rock open.”
There’s a flash on the feed that shows the decoy ship as they blast open the other side of the rock, the other end of the tunnel bored through the trap asteroid.
“We’ve got the Eldred ship! Let the decoy go!”
The now unmanned decoy ship decouples from the dock and flies out from the other side of the trap asteroid.
“Could you put up the other display?” BC asks the captain. The light blue tactical screen reappears. BC watches the red ship streak across the screen. A swarm of blue ships give chase, leaving the stranded ship behind in the Project’s trap asteroid.
The decoy, the red ship, disappears off the edge of the screen.
“Can we follow the decoy?” BC asks, and the red ship is back on the screen as the display adjusts. But the blue ships soon reach it, and the red ship then disappears from the middle of the display.
“The decoy ship has been destroyed by the Eldred,” the captain confirms.
“Show me the feed with the captured Eldred ship,” BC asks. The feed reappears, the Eldred ship still bathed in the blue glow of the energy draining field. Small glowing dots, like fireflies, are appearing around the ship.
“What are those?” BC asks. “What’s going on? What are they trying to do?”
“That’s not them, it’s us,” the captain says. “That’s the UIN’s takeover tech. We modified it some, loaded it into little ‘bots shielded from the effects of the energy draining coil.”
The lights descend upon the Eldred ship as the ‘bots affix themselves to the ship’s hull.
“The takeover tech is attached and attempting to compromise the Eldred ship’s systems,” the com says. “Prepare to deploy the simulated explosion.”
Here comes my favorite part!
“Show me the other feed. Please,” BC asks.
The video feed changes. BC watches as a round mass of metallic particles is propelled out of the newly blown open end of the trap asteroid. A flash blinds the camera and the screen glows white. As the camera adjusts, BC can see the debris field spreading out from the end of the trap asteroid. It’s a carefully constructed debris field, made up of bits and pieces of salvaged Eldred ships. Not that they left us a lot to work with. We gathered all the bits we could from around Mars. Hopefully it will convince them the ship we just captured has blown up, and they’ll leave it to us!
Let’s see if they buy it…
“Can I get the heads up display back?” he asks.
“Sure thing.”
BC watches the blue ships on the screen buzzing around the fake “wreckage” of the Eldred ship and the trap asteroid, and around the area where they destroyed the decoy ship. One by one, the blue ships begin disappearing from the screen.
“Yes!” BC can’t help but let out a yell as the last blue ship disappears. “Give me the asteroid cam feed again!”
“So demanding,” the captain says with a laugh, but she puts the interior feed back on for BC. On the screen, the blue-glowing Eldred ship sits with the energy draining coil attached to its lower hull.
Doesn’t look like they’re going anywhere… And the others think they’re dead!
A hatch dilates open in the smooth side of the ship. The Eldred crew begins emerging, wearing atmosphere suits. They look around suspiciously, but seem dazed, confused. Some leave the ship and merely stand aside, almost catatonic. As BC watches in his monitor, Project scientists approach the Eldred crew. The Eldred put up no fight, and allow the scientists to lead them away, off camera, to a waiting Project ship.
Well, well, well… we’ve got ourselves an Eldred ship!
BC and his ship return to the
Project’s main asteroid base. Krish and Dell are waiting for him in the landing bay as he leaves the ship. We did it! Now that we’ve actually managed to capture one of their ships, the boys here have gotta be salivating over the prospect of reverse engineering that Eldred tech!
“Great job, BC!” Krish greets him, and slaps him on the back. The short scientist is grinning broadly. “Our cargo carrier is loading the captured ship on board right now, bringing it over here so we can get to work! We’ll keep it in the hidey-hole we made for working on the decoy, it is perfect! We’ll be dissecting her in no time!”
Dell nods down his approval, characteristically reserved, but even he can’t help crack a little bit of a smile and add his approval.
“Well done, BC,” the tall English scientist says to him.
Dell then looks over to Krish. “We should go get ready for our delivery.”
“You make it sound as if we’re waiting on take-out!” Krish says, and then laughs.
“Have fun, you guys. Hey! Where’s Anita?” BC asks the two men.
“She’s supervising the captured Eldred crew,” Dell tells him. “They’re bringing them in now on the other side of the landing area,” he says, pointing past BC to a Stinger ship landing by the bay’s distant other side. “We should go,” Dell says to Krish.
Heh! Dell tries to hide it, but I think he’s more excited than Krish is about taking that ship apart.
“I don’t want to keep you guys. Go ahead! But remember to be very careful, gentlemen,” BC
says to them. “Watch out for booby traps, automatic self-destructs. The takeover tech has infiltrated the systems, but…”
Krish waves BC’s warnings aside.
“We know! We know all about these things. Don’t you
worry!”
; “We’ll take every precaution, I assure you,” Dell says with authority.
“You, I believe,” BC says, and laughs.
“That hurts!” Krish says, in mock pain. The two turn and leave, leaving BC standing alone next to his ship.
Let’s go meet the crew. See what they’re like. What sort of fuzzy blue koala bears do we have here?
BC strides across the vast landing area. Anita is trying to shepherd the twelve aliens across the landing bay as BC approaches. The aliens look lethargic and dull, and seem more inclined to wander aimlessly than follow Anita. Two Project security guards are futilely trying to help. The “Leader of Responsibility” for the ship is obvious by decoration. He’s also obviously not well at all. Instead of the Eldred’s usual light blue coloring, the leader is turning gray.
“BC!” Anita greets him. “Am I glad you’re here! Can you try talking to these Eldred? They don’t seem to be listening to me!”
What’s wrong with them?
The Eldred crew members show no sign of recognizing their surroundings. All of the crew members are losing color, fading to a dull gray.
“I’ll try… Hello! I’m Bernard Campion.”
They remain silent, non-responsive. And gray.
BC walks alongside the alien. The Eldred “Leader of Responsibility” continues to ignore him.
“There’s no need to be so heroic,” BC tells the leader.
The Eldred leader pays no attention to BC. Instead, its eyes close. It collapses at BC’s feet. What the fuck?
“Medic!” BC calls out.
Several come running, but stop in their tracks when they see the Eldred.
“Um,” the closest med tech says to BC, “we, um, we really don’t know what to do with one of these, sir.”
One of the others pushes past and kneels over the prone alien. He tries to find a sign of life, a pulse, anything. He stops and looks up at BC.
“I think he’s dead,” the med tech says.
What?
Huh… looks like he is. Hard to tell.
The Eldred does appear to be dead. Suddenly, the Eldred next to the leader’s body also collapses.
Shit! Another one down!
Then the other Eldred drop, one by one, like a cluster of fuzzy gray dominoes, apparently from highest rank to lowest. BC and the med techs check the bodies for any signs of life. All dead.
