HADRON Incursion

by Stephen Arseneault

  Bontu pulled back. “You’ve had contact with the Kaachi?”

  Mace took a deep breath. “Call your people over, Mr. Montak. We have more talking to do.”

  Chapter 13

  *

  Twelve Mawga, all loyal to the diplomatic corps, slowly walked up the ramp of the shuttle. Mace gestured for them to take seats as the small craft lifted from the ground. Two minutes later, they were walking onto the captured Kaachi cruiser.

  Mace opened the door to a conference room. “You can all wait in here. I’ll be back in a few minutes. Hey, wait. I recognize you two. You helped us add reactor power to my Jeep and the RV.”

  The two scientists nodded and smiled.

  As the otherwise nervous Mawga crew sat around the conference table, Mace made his way toward the bridge and opened a comm. “Jasper and Jane, I need you to report to conference room C. You’ll find Bontu and a few of his crewmen there. Search them for weapons or comm devices, and please be diplomatic.”

  Mace walked onto the bridge. “Where’s Johnny?”

  Liam pointed up. “He’s out on the hull, welding in the last of those dampener transducers. Should be back inside anytime now.”

  Mace opened a comm channel. “Johnny? What’s your status?”

  “Collecting tools. I’ll be back inside in a couple minutes.”

  Mace turned back toward Liam. “Nav display showing any ships coming in this direction?”

  Liam replied, “As a matter of fact it does. We have three, no,… four of those Mawga cruisers en route.”

  Mace returned to his comm. “Johnny, unless you have something critical going on, you need to get your ass back in here pronto. We have four Mawga cruisers coming this way! I think Stark has had his fill of us.”

  Johnny replied, “On my way. Give me thirty seconds!”

  Liam yelled over his shoulder. “He’s got fifteen!”

  Another comm was opened. “Jane, you and Jasper secure the Mawga for the time being. I think we’re about to have our first fight with Stark’s men!”

  Jane replied, “Got it. Mr. Montak, you and your friends, I want to see all hands laying flat on the table!”

  Hans Mueller yelled, “I’m detecting charged cannons!”

  Mace asked, “Johnny? You wearing your suit and helmet?”

  Johnny yelled back as he ran across the long top of the hull. “I am!”

  Mace sat in the captain’s chair. “You’re gonna hate me. But find a spot on that hull that you can hang on to. We have to move.”

  Hans yelled. “We have weapons fire!”

  Mace countered. “Mr. Hobbs! Get us out of here! And, Mueller, do not return fire! Those ships may be following Stark’s orders, but they are Humans, our people!”

  Two cannon shots impacted the ground near the cave as a rush of air signaled the Rogers rocketing away from its hovering position. The ship rocked as two more plasma rounds made contact with the outer dampener system.

  “Mr. Mallot! What’s our damage?”

  Humphrey replied, “Those were direct hits on our engine nozzles! No damage! All systems showing green!”

  Mace looked over at Liam. “Mr. Hobbs, give us all the speed you’ve got! They have to know we have modifications now!”

  Seconds later, the view on the holo-wall went from bright sky-blue to the starlit blackness of space.

  “Mr. Hobbs, angle us toward the moon for a slingshot!”

  Two more plasma rounds impacted the nozzles. “Don’t think it’s necessary, Mr. Hardy,” Liam replied. “Those cannon shots aren’t doing damage. And we’re pulling away at gargantuan speeds. Already passed through one quarter light-speed.”

  Two new rounds impacted. “Not showing any damage, Mr. Hardy,” reported Humphrey Mallot.

  Mace turned toward Hans Mueller. “Mr. Mueller, can you give me one blast back toward those ships. Maybe off by two degrees? I’d like to discourage the chase.”

  Hans typed away at his console, slapping a button when he was complete. “Plasma away.”

  Liam said, “Ships are turning. Nice, Hans! Half a degree!”

  Hans grinned. “Close enough to make them think twice!”

  Hans pushed the weapons data to the main display. “We are officially out of range and pulling away.”

  Liam added, “Cruising at 34 percent light speed.”

  Johnny came over the comm. “Anytime you want to slow so I can come inside would be fine with me!”

  Mace replied, “Mr. Hobbs! All stop!”

  Johnny laughed. “I mean the view out here is spectacular. And the light show from those rounds… wow! But I think I’d prefer to be in there. You know, sharing life with everyone else.”

  As the Rogers came to a stop, Johnny moved into the airlock. When the room pressurized, the inner door opened.

  Johnny flipped up his visor. “Before you apologize, I’d just like to say I forgive you.”

  Mace laughed. “Apologize? For what? Your being too slow to get back inside?”

  Johnny smiled. “Apology accepted.”

  Mace gestured with his head. “Come on, follow me to the conference room. I want you to meet the new crew members.”

  Johnny returned a confused look. “New crew? What happened while I was outside?”

  Mace opened the door to the room. “Johnny Tretcher… new crew. New crew… Johnny Tretcher.”

  Jane scowled. “Tell me you didn’t just now come inside.”

  Johnny chuckled. “OK, I won’t.”

  Jane looked at Mace. “You took off with him still out there?”

  Johnny held up a hand. “Relax, I was still inside the dampener field. And it’s not like he had a choice. The life of the one is not worth the life of the few, no wait… how does that go again?”

  Mace sat at the table. “The only thing that matters now is that we all made it out alive. Unfortunately, we’re now without a planet.”

  Johnny said, “We just took those plasma hits from close range with no damage. I say we go back and kick the crap out of them. We could take out all of Stark’s ships with one fight. They can’t outrun us. And apparently they can’t hurt us either.”

  Mace slowly shook his head. “We can’t do that.”

  Johnny pulled back. “Why not?”

  Mace stared off at the wall. “Because those are our people. If it was just Stark and a crew of his thugs on there, we’d be back in a heartbeat. But those are innocent Humans on those ships, caught up in his web of lies and plots and plans of the Mawga military. Some day we may not have a choice in that fight, but we do today.”

  Johnny gestured at Bontu. “What’s he doing here?”

  Mace replied, “Mr. Montak and his friends are now members of this crew. They defected. He found out Stark was coming for us, and that Fatso Geerok had rolled over on him.”

  Johnny sat. “Why would they do that?”

  Mace shrugged. “He argued against the use of Humans to beef up their military. And against Stark, claiming he was too dangerous. His military higher-ups decided he was making too much noise. They were preparing to silence him. And with him, those who were closest to him, these eleven crew members.”

  Jane said, “We checked them all out. No comms, no devices, and no weapons.”

  Mace looked around the table. “Any of you familiar with comms? How they work? How to detect their use?”

  The two scientists raised their hands. “We have a good understanding.”

  Mace looked back at Johnny. “Pick one, take him to the comm console. I want you to make your way through every message that’s come on or off this ship in the last three weeks. If it can be identified as legit, scratch it from your list. The rest, I want to know who originated or received them and why. Consider this our first attempt at counter-intelligence. I want to know that we don’t have any Stark sympathizers on this ship.”

  Johnny lifted his chin in question. “You think someone on here tipped off Stark to Bontu’s defection?”

  Mace shook his head. “I
don’t have any reason to believe that, no. But I think we should start doing periodic sweeps of all comms for anything suspicious. One dirty rat on here and we’re sunk.”

  Jasper snickered.

  Mace asked, “What was funny about that?”

  Jasper replied, “Dirty rat.”

  Mace returned a confused look. “So?”

  Jasper sighed. “If I have to explain it to you, kind of takes the fun out of it.”

  Johnny closed his eyes, planting his forehead in the palm of his hand. “You just have no couth, do you, old man?”

  Jane shook her head. “Really, Mr. Collins?”

  Jasper waved his hand. “So what? You two the politically correct police now? The rats don’t care. Why should you?”

  Bontu held up a hand. “It’s OK, we aren’t offended. Mr. Collins explained the rat reference to me some time ago. It is in fact nothing more than a descriptive reference. No harm was done. We do not have the sensitive egos of many of you Humans.”

  Mace said, “Just the same. I’d like us all to get along and show respect for each other. We might be on this ship together for a very long time.”

  “Noted,” said Jasper. “I’ll try to restrict my barbs to the ape-man here.”

  Johnny held up his hands as Mace nodded approval.

  Bontu said, “Would you like to continue our prior conversation?”

  Mace sat. “I still have a few questions. Like the fertility treatments. Whose idea was that?”

  Bontu replied, “Our scientists thought it best to get your population back on the upswing. It was a completely voluntary program, though with one major flaw. The drug made each of the community center inhabitants euphoric. All of them came in as volunteers. By the time we had recognized what was happening, Geerok had taken control and pushed the procedures forward. Approximately five months from now, your population, Earth’s population, will increase by nearly a billion people.”

  Johnny raised his eyebrows. “Wow, that’s a lot of babies coming all at once.”

  “They will be well cared for. However, as a consequence, the admiral has decided to keep your people on the drug indefinitely—the people who reside in the centers that is. Your warriors of course are not on the euphoric drug.”

  Johnny asked, “The warriors, are they on some other drug? Something else to keep them in line?”

  Bontu shrugged. “I suspect so, but of that I am not certain. The food supply for the crews was coming through a different source. My attempts to find that source were turned away.”

  Jane frowned. “So that’s it, then. We really are without a planet. What do we do now?”

  Bontu asked, “How is it you were able to outrun the Stark ships? And without damage?”

  Johnny looked at Mace.

  Mace nodded. “Go ahead and tell him.”

  Johnny leaned back in his chair. “We salvaged four reactors from the destroyed Kaachi ships. We have them wired into this ship. And we managed to round up fourteen of the inertial dampener transducers from the wreckage. I just finished installing the last of those on our hull when those ships attacked.”

  Bontu frowned. “You are in violation of the Union rules?”

  Johnny laughed. “Tell me you’re not still hung up on those stupid rules? Look, we are outcasts from our peoples. They catch us, we’re dead. I could give a flip about any stupid made-up rules from some dictatorial founders. Now tell me, Mr. Montak, how set are you on following Galactic Union rules?”

  Bontu thought for a moment. “I suppose we are no longer even citizens. You are right, Mr. Tretcher, the stupid rules no longer apply.”

  Johnny grinned. “Now we have an understanding! So, Mr. Montak—and this goes for the rest of you Mawga too—start spinning those little wheels in your brains about how we can take advantage of not having rules. Faster engines, more powerful weapons, those are the things that will keep us alive now. Forget about any compliance with any rule-sets other than those of physics itself.”

  Johnny pointed. “Heeb, wasn’t it? Maala?”

  The Mawga scientist replied, “Yes.”

  Johnny stood. “Heeb comes with me. We’ll get started checking comms.”

  Jasper snickered. Jane groaned.

  Mace turned to Bontu. “Are your crewmen trained on all of the ship’s systems?”

  Bontu nodded. “They are.”

  Mace said, “Bontu, you come with me. The rest of you split into teams of two. I’ll have someone come in for each of you. Might as well get started on familiarizing yourselves with our stations. You’ll each be spending many hours at them as part of your new duties.”

  Bontu looked around the room. “You will have their full cooperation.”

  Mace walked with Bontu toward the bridge. “Mr. Hardy, you mentioned additional reactors. What kind of speed differential have you obtained?”

  “We managed 38 percent light-speed before adding the final three.”

  Bontu’s eyes widened. “That is approaching the theoretical speeds of the founder ships.”

  Mace laughed. “Theoretical? You mean you don’t know what they’re capable of?”

  Bontu replied, “We are discouraged from speculating about such. If caught doing so, imprisonment or even death are certain. Those are rules the Union has little flexibility with.”

  “So you couldn’t even talk about it?”

  Bontu shook his head. “Only in the most private of surroundings. From time to time you would hear rumors, all based on speculation. The rumor I once overheard at a diplomatic party told of tracking a founder ship at 42 percent light-speed.”

  They walked onto the bridge. “I have to think we can beat that now. And from what you said, you thought founder ships had sixteen reactors. We only have eight, although from what you described, this ship is much smaller.”

  Bontu nodded. “Yes, well, in the void of space, with inertial dampening, size doesn’t matter.”

  Mace tilted his head. “I suppose that would be true, but I’m not much of a physics guy either. This would be an interesting discussion for Jeff.”

  Mace looked around the bridge. “Anyone seen Jeff?”

  No one replied.

  A general comm was opened. “Jeff Moskowitz, please come to the bridge.”

  Several minutes passed. “David Yancy, pick up your comm.”

  “Mr. Hardy? What you need?”

  “Do you know where Jeff is?”

  David replied, “I think he might be in his bunk. Let me check.”

  Bontu said, “Can you track his suit ID?”

  David came over the comm. “Not in his bunk or the showers, Mr. Hardy. He had mentioned heading down to the cave earlier. He might be down there.”

  Mace said, “You do realize we’ve left Earth, right?”

  David shrugged. “Didn’t realize. I’ve had the headphones on while sorting through starmaps.”

  Mace sat back. “Mr. Hobbs, we may be heading back. It seems Mr. Moskowitz may have been off-ship when we left.”

  Liam asked, “We risk us all for one man?”

  “He’s important. Smartest guy we have. And besides, he knows everything we’ve done to this ship.”

  Jordan Crawford held up his hand. “How about we circle around and come in at full speed from behind the Moon? Would only give them minutes to react. You set this ship right down on the dirt with a doorway aiming toward that cave mouth and we might have as much as a minute or two to extract him. Once we’re in comm range, yell at him to meet us at the cave door.”

  A circle maneuver was made, lining the Rogers up behind the Moon. The eight reactors pushed the long slender Kaachi cruiser to 48 percent the speed of light. A full deceleration was calculated and entered in as a waypoint. At four minutes out, the Rogers began to slow.

  Liam said, “No turning back now, fellas.”

  Jordan came over the comm from airlock five. “Johnny and I are in position, Mr. Hardy.”

  Mace took a deep breath.

  Humphrey Mal
lot said, “Comm range in three… two… one… go.”

  “Jeff! This is Mace. Are you there?”

  The comm was silent for several seconds. “… I’m here. Up at the Davidson house.”

  Liam said, “Adjusting coordinates!”

  Mace pushed the image to the main display. “Hold that adjustment, Mr. Hobbs! Jeff, we’re coming in hot! I would not be inside that house. Get your ass back in the cave! We’ll be hitting the ground fast and you’re gonna be in the middle of one heckuva windstorm when that happens. Get inside that cave mouth and lay your ass on the ground! And move it now or lose it!”

  Jeff replied, “Already on my way! And thanks for coming back!”

  “You just be ready. If Stark’s ships show, and you aren’t aboard, we’re gonna have to leave you!”

  “Understood.”

  Liam gave status: “One minute! We’ll pass into the open at twenty-seven seconds!”

  Humphrey Mallot turned. “Mr. Hardy! The Mawga cruisers are moving our way! They picked up our comms!”

  Mace yelled at the display. “Jeff! They’ve got us coming in! Tell me you’re in that cave!”

  “In position!”

  Liam yelled, “Twenty seconds! The cruisers are turning to intercept!”

  Mace pleaded under his breath. “Come on, let this work … we need this to work.”

  Liam yelled, “Eight seconds… six… three…”

  A rumble could be heard. “On the ground!”

  Mace yelled over the comm to Jordan. “Go! Go! Go!”

  Jordan replied, “Airlock 5 is open… we’re on the ground. I see him. Crap! Cave entrance has him pinned in! Must have blown in from the wind!”

  Johnny pulled on the twisted lumber. “Can’t budge it! Graahhh! It won’t move!”

  Jasper entered the image in his exosuit. “Out of the way, monkey boy!”

  Liam yelled, “You’ve got probably twenty seconds before they start pounding us!”

  Jasper pulled hard on the lumber. The two-by-eight pinning Jeff Moskowitz to the cave floor snapped. Jasper fell back, cracking his helmetless head on a rock.

  Jordan yelled, “I have Jeff!”

  Johnny swung around, scooping an unconscious Jasper Collins from the ground.