JESUS & Co. (#5): Space Dragon

by Jacob Lindaman

JESUS & Co.: SPACE DRAGON by Jacob Lindaman

  This book or the parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form stored in retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise – without prior written permission of the author except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarities to actual people, organizations, and/or events are purely coincidental.

  ISBN: 9781311031709

  Copyright © 2014 by Jacob Lindaman

  All rights reserved

  Cover art by Josiah Wunderlich

 

  JESUS & Co.

  SPACE DRAGON

  The need to hijack a space ship can be limited to two types of people: the crazies and the desperates. The difference between the two is not their actions, but their motives. A crazy may seek the thrill of almost dying or perhaps consider this sort of theft normal. A desperate, on the other hand, has thought it through. He’s reasoned it over and decided his best course of action is to steal an abandoned Kliper IV spacecraft from the Egyptian Space Agency.

  Paul was desperate.

  Timothy was both.

  The freezing cold temperatures along the Nile Delta held sway from early September to mid-May. Few people ventured outside unless they had to. Employers either shut down entirely or laid off their workforce during the winter. Everyone had time off. Even military personnel.

  With so few people around Paul knew his plan had a better chance to succeed; something a crazy wouldn’t care about. He looked to his partner, Timothy, who was fixated on the dash of the semi-truck they were driving.

  “They’ll be after us you know?” Paul said. “There’ll be some people on duty. We’ll have to move quick.”

  “You mean they don’t want us borrowing their rockets? We’ll give ‘em back when were done.” Timothy grinned. “Besides, we got our own fuel. It’s not like they’re out anything.”

  “I just hope we don’t bump into any Russians?”

  “C’mon. Russians in Egypt? Don’t tell me you think that old alliance is back.”

  “Just keep your eyes out for anyone.”

  The semi was towing a full tank of premium grade rocket propellant. It had cost the Organization half a million credits and two weeks of winter while they secretly negotiated the deal to obtain it. Once they got it, though, Paul was immediately assigned to the mission. Timothy, he wouldn’t have chosen, was assigned as his partner to make the delivery.

  After making their way through Giza Paul spotted the hangar. Like magic, the giant bifold doors slid open.

  “You must be Paul,” a large black man said shaking his hand. He had more guns strapped to his body than Paul could count. “I’m Paul and this is Timothy.”

  “Nice to meet you both. I’m Captain Ezekial, head of your security team. Call me Zeke.”

  “Has it been a slow day for you Captain?” Timothy asked.

  “It has. And I’d like to keep it that way if you don’t mind.” He turned and pointed to his team who was scattered around the building patrolling doors and working surveillance through windows. “Bart and Matt got the main entry. Enoch is on point on the far end of the hangar. Rahab is waiting in the shadows with Shelby. They’ll be our pilots.”

  “That’s enough talking for now,” Paul rubbed his hands nervously. “Let’s get this thing fueled up. Where is she?”

  After parking the tanker Zeke led them by flashlight to the Kliper IV EOS 9x. He moved the light around the ground until he found a switch next to some plugs. When he clicked his light off it was almost pitch black on their end of the hangar. The building really was much larger than Paul thought it would be. Zeke flipped the switch turning on a couple of shop lights underneath the ship.

  “I’m, afraid this is all the light we can give you. Don’t want to attract any unwanted attention.”

  “All attention would be unwanted at this point,” Paul said pushing his glasses back on his nose.

  “You boys get to work on this. I’ll notify Rahab and the crew. How long do you think it will take?”

  Paul looked at his watch.

  Zeke interrupted his thought, “Because in the briefing they told use 30 minutes tops, but seeing the size of your tanker I’m guessing that ain’t right.”

  “They told us that too and we laughed at them,” Timothy said. “They didn’t listen to us.”

  Paul looked to Timothy and back to Zeke. “We…we’ll be done as soon as possible. We’ll let you know.”

  ~

  While the Kliper fueled Paul examined the underbelly of the ship. It was propped up on its wheels. For being 60 years old the thing looked brand new. Zeke’s security team must have removed the canvas covering it. There wasn’t a speck of dust to be found. The tires still had the little rubber nibs on them. Like his truck, the thing was mostly a fuel tank. Only a small portion held the precious cargo.

  He made the long walk across the hangar to Zeke. “You have the luggage right?”

  Zeke nodded. “Rahab and Shelby have it.”

  Paul looked around for a second then Zeke pointed into the darkness, “You walked right by it. There’s a room in the middle of the shadows. Enoch’ll see you before you see him.”

  “Thanks.”

  He walked into the dark until Enoch’s voice greeted him sternly. “Can I help you?”

  “I’d like to sp-speak with the pilots if that’s OK?”

  A flashlight popped on blinding him. “Why don’t you save it for later?”

  “Wait a sec,” he rubbed his eyes then put his glasses back on. “I’m pretty sure I outrank you.”

  The light turned off. Paul followed the heavy sound of retreating footsteps until his eyes adjusted. Enoch stopped in front of a gray door with no doorknob. He quietly knocked twice. When the door opened he said, “You’ve got a visitor.”

  Paul stepped inside. The door shut behind leaving him in pitch-blackness.

  “You must be the delivery man,” a woman’s voice said.

  “And you must be the pilot.”

  “We are,” another woman’s voice appeared from the other side of the room. “What do you want with us?” A pistol cocked eerily close to his head.

  He rubbed his knuckles and took a breath. “I’d like to see what I’m working so hard for. Risking my life for.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “I’d like to see the urn.”

  The next five seconds seemed a lifetime for him. His heart was racing. Palms sweaty. He still couldn’t see a thing. And there was some sort of firearm pointed at his head.

  Click

  He looked towards the sound. A dim red light revealed a corner of the room. It came from a glass tank resting on rollers. The pilot who turned on the light motioned for him to approach.

  On closer inspection he saw the tank was mostly glass reinforced with steel ribbing. The stuff on the inside glowed. It was yellow, but mostly red and floated around in globs that would break apart and rejoin.

  “Those are the ashes of our Lord?”

  “This is Him,” she said. “I know. It’s not what you thought. There was supposed to be a body, right? But no, we lost that and they…they,” she made a tight fist. “They threw it in the fire!”

  “Rahab, enough!” the other pilot yelled. “Get a grip on it!”

  Paul watched a giant red clump separate as two little yellow blobs flew by.

  The other pilot stood next to Paul and Rahab gazing at the goo. “We snuck in. Sifted through the remains. This is what was left. At first i
t was just an orangish muck.”

  “But then,” Rahab continued Shelby’s explanation, “it started moving. We think they compromised His body before they incinerated it.”

  “What?” Paul asked.

  “The Egyptians are capable of anything,” Shelby said shaking her head. “Some people think they were able to genetically modify the dead tissue,” she looked to Rahab. “Somehow, unknown to science, this either prevented a complete death of Christ’s tissues or ensures His body will rise again of it’s own accord.”

  “Either way Christ can’t come back,” Rahab said. “Nothing survives in space. We have to ensure, whatever it is, is dead. Space will kill it if it’s alive or it will kill it when rises.”

  Paul stepped back shaking his head. “But what if you’re wrong?”

  Both pilots suddenly turned their heads in the dim red light. “What do you mean?” Shelby approached him, “Those are the only options.”

  “What if everything’s alright? What if this is what’s supposed to happen? How’s Christ going to return when His remains are spread out over a hundred million miles of space, huh?”

  Rahab walked towards him, her hand on her holster.

  “No, no, you can’t do this. This isn’t right.”

  “Now just calm down,” Rahab said. “You gotta keep quiet.”

  “No! Stay away,” he turned for the door, but Rahab tackled him. While they struggled on the floor Shelby covered the glowing goo leaving the room completely dark. The sound of two bodies ruffling on the ground filled the room. Each verbalized their blows with grunts. Their tussle moved closer to the door then Rahab spoke, “You little cheat.”

  Bang!

  “Rahab! Tell me that was you.”

  “It’s OK. He missed. The recoil hit him in the face and knocked him out.”

  ~

  With the ship fueled Zeke called his team together. He explained they needed to board because they would lift off soon. They needed to act quickly since the launch process would expose them.

  “What do you want to do with him?” Bart nodded towards the tied up guy.

  “We can’t leave him behind. He’ll lead them to us,” Rahab said.

  “Let’s take him with,” Zeke said. “You,” he pointed his finger into Rahab’s sternum, “can ensure he makes it on board.”

  Rahab formed a furrow between her eyebrows. “Thank stink”

  “Relax,” Shelby said. “He’s not going to be a problem.”

  As the team boarded and Shelby loaded the cargo Timothy stuck around to watch Rahab figure out how to get Paul into the ship.

  “You better not try to cut him loose,” she warned.

  “Ha! Like I’d care to do that. You think I want to end up like him?”

  “I’m not sure how to get onto the top of the ship.”

  “Whoa chica, you got to get him in the ship, not on the ship.”

  “The only way in is through the porthole on the top, idiot. I’m not about to cut the rope just to see him scamper off and alert the world blowing the mission.”

  “What if you used that thing?” Timothy pointed to an ancient cockpit along the wall. It was dark and dusty, but it was easy enough to see the controls for the gantry crane. With luck it would still be operational.

  Rahab climbed the ladder to the cockpit and blew the dust off the console. Egyptian. She was no good with hieroglyphs, but there were only two levers and two dials. She pushed the only button and to her otherwise dreary day the machine clicked on and a smile made its way across her face.

  She hooked up Paul’s rope to the crane, lifted him into the air and moved him across the factory above the ship before lowering him inside. It would only be a matter of minutes before they were out of the warehouse.

  ~

  The cargo was loaded, the ship fueled, the team on board and the pilots initiated the start procedure. They reviewed the map one last time. Maneuvering the ship through a few small streets and onto the highway should be easy enough so long as it was empty. Once they made it to the highway they could build enough speed to takeoff. The plan was to use a nontraditional launch process similar to an airplane takeoff.

  The hangar doors slowly opened before them. The light was almost blinding. Rahab and Shelby were prepared though. Polycarbonate glass face shields automatically tinted to the change in lighting. The cabin windshield also changed from clear to a hue of light blue.

  The inexperienced pilots were tempted to fire up the booster rockets, but Shelby shook off the nerves.

  “No thrusters. We just need to use the auxiliary engine power until the highway.”

  Rahab took a breath. “You’re right.”

  They drove as fast as a retired ship could go on the auxiliary engine navigating around corners until they made it to the highway. So far so good. No one had noticed their presence. It was no small miracle they made it so far.

  “Grab your cans ladies and gents. This is where it gets fun,” Shelby yelled while she jacked the throttle up to the max. “Yee-haw!”

  The twin boosters on the sides of the ship blew fire and brimstone like angry dragons attacking a medieval village. The sound of all that torque waiting to be released squealed louder. As the sound increased so did the rattling of the ship. But neither pilot was concerned.

  “Punch it!” Shelby yelled. Rahab released the breaking system inviting a wall of G-forces none of them had encountered before. It was incredible. Enoch was stuck in his chair facing his right looking directly at Matt who was looking at him. Had he eaten a lunch Enoch would have lost it. Matt too.

  What amounted to no more than a minute turned from one of the worst experiences Paul had ever known into one of the best. “That concludes our take off,” Rahab said. “Everyone can relax now.” Paul looked out the nearest window. It was a small porthole, but through it he could see the brown sands of the Sahara. The featureless landscape soon incorporated the contrasting blue of the Mediterranean Sea. A small splotch of clouds wandered into view. They shrank smaller and smaller until it was nothing but brown and blue again. Then, finally, he saw the bright blue curvature of the Earth spreading wider in the distance. The scene crescendoed into a majestic feeling of grandeur and awe when the Moon, subtly, slipped into the background of an all black sky. Still he watched, wide-eyed, as little blinking and yawning stars awoke to his viewing pleasure.

  “It is good,” he couldn’t help but say to himself. Despite the team’s distrust of him they recognized they all held a common bond. A sacred brotherhood in Christ. And they knew he was right. They had fallen, years ago, but this was still a wonder to behold.

  The ship zoomed through space. An international community had lived out there, somewhere nearby, until recently when an asteroid destroyed it. There was nothing the inhabitants could do. They were defenseless against an attack like that.

  “What’s that?” Zeke said pointing to the red flashing screen on the dash in front of the pilots.

  “No,” Rahab said. “It can’t be.”

  “Can’t be good,” Zeke said. “What’s it mean?”

  She was staring out a side window, but looked like a surgeon who had just performed an impossible nine-hour operation only to end up with a cadaver on the table. “Look,” she said without an ounce of emotion.

  “It’s a Russian ship!” Timothy said. “The Russo-Egyptian alliance is alive and well.”

  The Russians gained ground on them. No use trying to outrun them. Shelby turned the ship to face the Russians and dove straight in. “Let’s take this fight to them!”

  As they neared the team zipped up their spacesuits – pressure sealed, air cooled and armor plaited. Enoch looked at Paul and loaded a fresh magazine into his gun, “What should we do with him?”

  “Leave him here with the pilots. I’m sure they can manage,” Zeke said.

  “Wait,” Rahab said. “This ship is equipped with warrior class androids. You don’t need to fight. Not yet anyw
ay.”

  “Listen up,” Zeke pushed his finger into her chest, “we’re going out there to fight whether or not you like it. You need to work on getting that urn out there.”

  She understood. It was a suicide mission for all of them. They knew that when they signed up for it.

  “I’ve activated the distress signal,” Shelby said. “If there’s anyone nearby this party’s going to start bouncing.”

  “Woohoo!” Luke was ready for action.

  “Or just pray that they answer,” Enoch said.

  The Russian ship got closer. It wasn’t a destroyer, so it wasn’t able to fire on them, but it was equipped with ton of androids hanging on the side of the hull ready to fight. Hundreds of them dangled from the hull, bridge and wings of the vehicle. It looked like a carcass with insects crawling all over.

  “Must be a miner out here digging on asteroids,” Matt said. “My dad died on one of those. Left home when I was a little bugger. Out here for years slaving for credits. That was before the androids.”

  “I’ll bet Russian miners have lots of friends,” Bart said without an ounce of comfort. “They won’t be the only ones here for long.”

  Shelby piloted the ship while Rahab loaded the tank onto the cargo release. “Get that goo out of here!” Shelby yelled to Rahab over the mic in her helmet. “It’s go time!”

  As comfortable as the space suit was Rahab was working up a sweat. The tank was heavy, even in microgravity. She rolled it onto the airtight lift, locked it shut and pressed the release. From the window she could see the tank float slowly away. “Oh Lord, help us.” In 60 seconds a timer would reach 0. Over the course of the next hour a pump would spew the red and yellow gelatinous contents all over like an unmanned fire hose.

  The ship suddenly heaved tossing her into the metal wall. For lacking any significant gravitational presence she really was experiencing Earthlike symptoms. What’s going on? She sat on the floor trying to rub her head through her helmet. “Officer Rahab,” Shelby’s voice appeared in her helmet, “your presence is requested in the cabin.”

  Before Rahab left the cargo hold she noticed an oddly shaped object fastened to the wall. She walked closer.

  It was old, just like everything else on the ship, but it was something she’d never seen before. It was covered in dust and very large. She spread her arms out to measure. Longer than fingertip to fingertip. It looked like it was supposed to be a gun, but after examining it she couldn’t tell. The butt was missing or it wasn’t designed to have one. In place of a nice carbon fiber cushion was a round metal ring of canisters with paint dripping down their sides. Behind this were exposed wires that lead to a coiled mess. No trigger.