by Jerry Aubin
Without waiting for any form of acknowledgement, the Flight Boss grabbed Zax and roughly heaved him up to the hatch. He almost clambered back into the crawlspace, but then he lost his grip and slid back out. Only the outstretched arms of the Boss prevented Zax from crashing to the deck. The officer slammed him down onto his feet and then spun Zax around to look in his eyes.
“Boy—you need to do this right and you need to do it now! If you screw this up, I will kill you with my bare hands and stand on your lifeless corpse to boost myself up into that hatch.”
Zax certainly hadn’t expected much in the way of gratitude from the Boss, but even so he was taken aback by the way the man was treating him. Before he could say a word, he was once again spun around and launched up towards the hatch. This time, he established a firm grip and pulled himself into the crawlspace. Zax turned around and poked his torso back out with his arms outstretched to assist Bailee. The Marine was putting a foot onto the Boss’s interlocked fingers for a lift up but shook off Zax’s offer of assistance.
“No—back up and let me grip it myself. If I struggle, then grab the back of my shirt and pull me in.”
It struck Zax as odd that the Marine doubted his ability to perform the same maneuver which Zax had just done, but he moved away from the hatch. A moment later the sergeant’s left hand was inside the hatch. Zax looked down and saw the man’s right arm hung limply by his side. The man’s face was deep crimson from exertion as he tried to power himself up into the hatch with nothing more than the strength of one hand’s fingertips. Zax grabbed two fistfuls of Bailee’s shirt and after a few moments of furious struggle was able to help the Marine into the crawlspace.
Once the sergeant was settled, they next turned to the Flight Boss. This would be the trickiest maneuver as the officer would have nothing but his own strength plus whatever assistance Zax and Bailee could provide from above to climb in. They each extended one arm and after taking a few steps backwards the Omega got a running start and jumped high enough for them to get a hold of him. Even though Bailee was doing most of the heavy lifting, Zax felt himself losing his tenuous grip on the Boss’s arm. He held on for dear life after the admonition he had received earlier, and they successfully wrangled the man in.
Bailee secured the hatch shut, and then Zax led the way through the crawlspace back to the ladder. Zax called out to Kalare as they got close to be sure she wouldn’t get nervous and start blindly shooting at the noise of their approach. A moment later the five Crew stood in a circle and appraised each other silently until the Boss spoke.
“Getting into the maintenance tunnels was a great idea, Kalare. Where were you planning to go if you hadn’t been able to link up with us?”
“It was actually Zax’s plan, sir. You should hear it from him.”
The Boss appeared thoroughly disappointed with Kalare’s response but turned his attention to Zax and gestured for him to speak.
“Sir—I’ve been working in Waste Systems since I left Flight Ops, which is how I got familiar with the maintenance network in the first place. It’s not that far away and we can get there using the tunnels exclusively. I was thinking sewage treatment is probably the last place where the civilians will have bothered sending anyone.”
The Boss turned away to consider the plan. The muscles in the man’s cheeks twitched as his teeth sought the unlit cigar which would normally be chomped upon as part of his thought process. After a couple of secs, he turned back and addressed the group.
“That’s a surprisingly good idea, Zax. I suppose creativity goes hand in hand with that active imagination of yours. There’s something critical we need to do first. We have to deliver a message.” The Boss paused for a moment to look at Sergeant Bailee who nodded agreement. “To the Chief Engineer.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Why did you do that?
The Flight Boss didn’t allow the cadets so much as a sec to recover from the shock of his words. They had just risked their lives to free the Boss from the civilians, and now the man was asking them to turn around and head back towards the biggest group of insurgents in their immediate vicinity—the ones in Engineering Control. The group who almost certainly had rigged the compartment with sufficient explosives to kill all of its occupants along with anyone else nearby. The Omega laid out his plan, and it was clear from his posture and tone there was no room for question or suggestions.
Zax led the way as the five of them double-timed through the tunnels until they came to a path the cadets had passed by earlier. This time, they turned and followed the new passage until they reached a different ladder which would access a different crawlspace and eventually run above Engineering Control. Sergeant Bailee held his hand out to Kalare for the blaster, and she heeded the unspoken request without hesitation. The Marine tucked the weapon into his waistband to free up his only functional arm and then gestured for Zax to lead the way up the ladder.
The plan was for the Boss to remain behind with Kalare and Aleron while Zax led Bailee through the crawlspace to Engineering Control. The Marine would then pop his head out of the hatch and deliver whatever message the Boss felt was so critical he was willing to risk all of their lives to deliver it. Zax could not imagine anything important enough to delay hightailing it over to the relative safety of Waste Systems, but kept that counsel to himself.
Zax crawled towards their destination. He turned back after ten meters and saw how much Bailee was struggling to keep up. The man winced each time he was forced to balance his weight on his right arm. Zax queried the Marine.
“What happened to your arm, Sergeant?”
“A little misadventure with zero-g after that surprise FTL Transit. It was pretty challenging to maneuver with my hands bound behind my back, and I ended up landing funny when the grav-gen kicked in. I heard a good crack so I’m pretty confident it snapped my collarbone. I can use the arm a little, but it hurts like hell.”
“Can you share what message is so important the Boss is sending a cadet and a seriously wounded Marine back into the thick of armed civilians to try to deliver it?”
“No. Let’s get moving, cadet.”
“Yes, Sergeant.”
Zax started crawling again, and after a few mins they approached the first hatch in the vicinity of Engineering Control. They stopped for a moment to eavesdrop on the compartment below. Numerous voices spoke at full volume. It was impossible to know for certain whether it was Crew or civilians, but Zax couldn’t imagine a group of Crew sounding so calm and cavalier in this situation and assumed it must be a large group of renegades. A similar number of voices emanated from the second compartment they passed and Zax’s spirits plummeted even further. It was clear there were now far more insurgents in the area. Zax pressed onwards, as he had no choice in the matter, and they soon reached their destination. He stopped at the appropriate hatch and signaled to the Marine that they had arrived.
They paused to listen. There were fewer discussions in the compartment below than the others they had passed, but there was one voice which Zax easily recognized. Rege, the leader of the civilians who had captured Engineering Control, was doing most of the talking. Zax took a deep breath in a hopeless attempt to calm his thundering heart as the Marine primed his blaster. Zax assumed the man wanted to be prepared to defend them in case a civilian managed to react quickly and got off some shots while the sergeant was still delivering his message.
“Zax,” the Marine whispered, “here’s what I need you to do. It’s a big compartment, and we aren’t going to have a lot of time. We’re going to surprise them by popping out of the overhead, but all hell’s going to break loose faster than you know it. I need to get eyes on the Chief Engineer as fast as possible, so we need to cover the whole compartment simultaneously. I want you to look to your left once the hatch opens and I’ll look to your right. We’ll call your half of the compartment zero to 180 degrees and you should call out the Chief’s position by degree if you spot her first. OK?”
Zax nodded agreem
ent and took another exaggeratedly deep breath. The sergeant reached for the hatch’s manual override with his injured arm and mouthed a silent countdown from five. As soon as the hatch flew open, Zax popped his head down and scanned his portion of the compartment.
Everything looked pretty much the same as when they had left, though the bodies of two additional Crew had joined the pile of dead. Zax didn’t allow himself to dwell on how mangled one of the new corpses was and instead focused on spotting the Chief Engineer.
“Sergeant—120 degrees!”
Two things happened immediately after Zax yelled the words. Rege looked up at the open hatch with a look of complete disbelief, and Bailee’s blaster went off right next to Zax’s ear. His eyes closed involuntarily in response to being so close to a weapon discharge, but not before Zax saw the Marine’s shot find its target and the Chief Engineer’s head disappear in a shower of bloody mist.
Before Zax could even think to react, the sergeant pulled him violently out of the opening, slammed the hatch shut, and engaged the lock. The compartment below exploded into a cacophony of blaster shots which Zax feared would shred the crawlspace at any moment.
“Move cadet! They can’t penetrate the overhead with the blasters they had earlier, but if their reinforcements brought heavier weapons, we might be in trouble.”
Zax saw the Marine’s lips moving but barely heard his words. He wanted to move, but his ears rang too loudly and he was unable to focus his eyes. He closed them for what seemed to be a moment, but when he opened them he recognized how he’d been dragged by the Marine at least 15 meters away from the hatch. The agony on the sergeant’s face was plain as he used his injured arm to crawl and pulled Zax’s mass with the other one. Zax swatted the Marine’s hand away and moved under his own power until they reached the ladder which led to the others.
His initial shock subsided by the time Zax descended the ladder. When he came face to face with the Boss, it had been replaced with enough rage that he exploded at the Omega.
“We didn’t deliver any message—you had him kill the Chief Engineer! Why did you do that? Why did I risk my life just so you could take the Chief’s?”
“Watch yourself, cadet. The rules about insubordination don’t get suspended just because we’re under attack. When I feel the need to explain myself, I’ll let you know. Until then, I need you to quit squawking and get us the hell out of here.”
Zax considered a couple of inappropriate replies, but the threat in the Boss’s tone was even more pronounced than the man’s words. He controlled himself until the urge to speak passed. He stomped down the tunnel and brushed past the idiotically grinning Aleron. Even when his own life was in danger, that tool still managed to find pleasure in Zax’s troubles.
Kalare caught up to him a moment later and put a hand on Zax’s shoulder to silently commiserate. He swatted it away.
“Get back there with your mentor and leave me alone. At least there can be no argument about whether he was responsible for this murder!”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
With all due respect, sir, we shouldn’t split up.
The group trailed Zax in silence as he led them towards the tunnels which connected with Waste Systems. His body ran on autopilot while his brain spun about what he had just been part of. Try as he might, no valid reason came to mind as to why the Boss might want to kill the Chief. The additional dead bodies he had seen confirmed the civilians were using the collars and torturing the Crew, but Zax couldn’t imagine their goals. Anything they might try to negatively impact the Ship from the Engineering compartment could be easily overridden by the Captain from the Bridge. He finally pushed the thoughts aside and chalked the woman’s murder up as just more evidence of the Boss’s callous insanity.
Zax dedicated his focus back to their journey and getting safely to Waste Systems. He expected at any moment to hear the clamor which would signal the civilians had forced their way into the maintenance network. The closest they got to this outcome was a loud commotion on the other side of one access port as they scurried past. Zax thought the racket might have included the hum of a drill being used in an attempt to force open the port, so he concluded a shift in route was in order.
At his next opportunity, Zax took a ladder down to the lowest level it connected with. He did the same at the next ladder and then once again when they encountered a third. At the completion of that last, lengthiest ladder descent the Boss called for a halt.
“Why are you bringing us so deep, cadet?”
“Sir—if the civilians break into the tunnel network, they will search for us around the levels where they know we were last active. Rather than make things easy for them, I figured we were better off dropping lower. I think we’ve gone deep enough now, though, and intend to bring us straight over to Waste Systems from here.”
The Boss seemed pleasantly surprised and nodded his agreement with Zax’s assessment. As he started walking again, Zax picked up the smell of sewage. He didn’t know if the others noticed it as well, but the human nose is finely attuned to the scent of feces, and Zax’s had always seemed to be even more sensitive than most. The odor provided a means of gauging their progress because it became more and more pronounced the closer they got to the treatment cavern deep below the Waste Systems control room. That vile compartment held the massive sewage processing vessels. Zax had visited once but hoped to never see it again.
The group finally reached a ladder, and Zax gazed up the towering shaft with gratitude. Their ascent would take them away from the treatment cavern and its stench of human waste. When they finally reached the top, he stepped aside and waited for everyone to catch up. Sergeant Bailee brought up the rear, and Zax almost gasped when he saw the physical distress the Marine appeared to be in after his one-armed climb. He was trying to find the courage to suggest a rest break when his thoughts were interrupted by the Boss.
“Cadet—I want you and me to scout up ahead before we go further. This seems like as good a place as any for the others to wait behind for us.”
Zax was gratified for Bailee’s opportunity to rest, but Kalare seemed agitated by the plan and voiced her concerns.
“With all due respect, sir, we shouldn’t split up. We don’t know what’s going on in this section, and it seems like a bad idea for us to not stay together.”
The officer smiled benevolently at Kalare as he replied.
“The lack of knowledge you mention is exactly the rationale for us to split up. Rather than rush all five of us into a potential danger zone, it seems prudent to get a sense of what we might be walking into. Zax and I will press ahead to see if there is any civilian activity outside of the tunnel network along our route.”
Zax agreed with Kalare’s assessment but knew any hesitancy he might express would not be greeted anywhere near as patiently by the Boss. Zax gave her a wan smile as he walked past, and she returned a brighter one along with a pat on the shoulder for encouragement.
They had only walked a couple dozen meters when the Boss stopped and turned to Zax.
“I thought it was prudent for Bailee to have a few mins to recover from that climb. I knew he would resist the suggestion, so I thought a short scouting mission by the two of us would provide the excuse for him to rest. I’ll call you a liar and whack you with some serious demerits if you let the Marine know I cut him some slack.”
The Omega’s wan smile and his tepid joke made it seem like he might be extending an offer of truce, but Zax didn’t trust it to be genuine. He almost wished for the return of the Boss who had alternated between cruel and rude since Zax had set eyes on him a few hours ago. At least Zax knew where he stood with that man, versus whatever subterfuge the officer was likely disguising now with his faux humor.
“Is there a crawlspace that can get us above Waste Systems Control, Zax? It would be good to see if there are any unattended Crew in there as that would confirm the civilians hadn’t bothered coming here.”
“Yes, sir. Follow me.”
Z
ax wasn’t enthusiastic about being alone with the Boss for as long as it would take to scout out the control room and return but having a defined destination took some of the edge off his worry. They took advantage of every opportunity along their path to eavesdrop on the world outside the tunnels. There was not a sound to be heard outside any of the access ports, and once they got up into the overhead crawlspace, they heard nothing but silence in the compartments they passed. This was initially true of Waste Systems Control as well, but just before they turned to leave Zax heard Westerick call out and Salmea respond. The two officers spoke back and forth for a couple of mins without any other voices interjecting, so Zax concluded they were indeed alone and signaled for the Boss to head back out of the crawlspace.
“Sir—those voices we heard back at the hatch were Lieutenant Salmea and Major Westerick. She’s my supervisor and he runs Waste Systems. I believe they’re alone since we only heard the two of them speaking”
“I don’t know her, but I’m familiar with him. What’s your opinion of the Major, Zax?”
One look at the Boss’s face made it clear to Zax that the man was testing him. He didn’t know what answer was expected, but after a short deliberation decided that honesty was the best policy—within reason.
“The Major seems perfectly suited to run Waste Systems, sir.”
The Flight Boss appraised Zax for a long moment and then broke into one of his hearty laughs before finally responding.
“Well said, cadet, well said. Let’s get back to the rest of the team.”
They walked for a few mins and were getting close to where they had left the others when Zax was startled by pounding on an access port as they walked past. The boss put his finger across his lips to signal silence and then motioned for them to double-time it the rest of the way. Zax turned the final corner and stopped short from the shock of discovering the junction where they had left the others was empty. The Boss almost collided with Zax but quickly recovered and voiced his disbelief.
