Harry Heron: No Quarter

by Patrick G Cox

  There was an audible click as the comlink closed, as if someone had used considerable force to deactivate the link.

  The Lieutenant looked across to Harry. “I think we’ll have some angry visitors shortly. Are you still monitoring their end? What is happening at that airtight door they were trying break through?”

  “I think they may be attempting to use the manual system, ma’am. Captain Heemstra just ordered his men to work their way through to Hold Four and access the service tunnel on that side.”

  “Damn, that makes things difficult. We can’t afford to watch two access points. Are the holds on that side under atmosphere?”

  Harry checked. “No, but I think they will go through the hidden compartments, and those are almost certainly under atmosphere, ma’am.”

  “See if you can depressurise the ones that give access to the second tunnel, and warn Sheoba if you do. That will at least slow them down. Do it gradually so that anyone in the tunnel has a chance to escape to a pressurised one.”

  “Aye, aye, ma’am.” Harry searched the network and found what he wanted. After verifying that no one was in the compartments when he vented them — he had already seen the result of a compartment being vented and knew it was not a pleasant way to die — he started the process.

  A check of the sensors showed the access hatches were secure, so he withdrew the atmosphere in the compartments adjoining holds four and five. Satisfied that the process was complete, he turned his full attention to the communication system and heard the Consortium captain ordering his men into EVA suits.

  Realising the danger and guessing what the enemy was planning, he contacted the Lieutenant. “Ma’am, they are rigging in EVA gear. I think they may plan to break through the bulkhead, or perhaps they think we will deprive them of air in their compartment.”

  “Thanks. Any indication of where?”

  “They are in Holds Three and Seven, ma’am. Those adjoin the crew galley and the galley stores for the passenger galley.”

  “Hmm. From there they have access to all the corridors and decks. Damn.” She paused. “I want you to stay in the Command Centre and take control of the ship. Tell Ferghal to stay in Engineering. Your ability to work the ship with that link of yours and to keep us informed is our best asset. Keep me updated. I’ll take everyone else with me and try to stop this.”

  “Aye, aye, ma’am.” Harry contacted Ferghal and conveyed their orders. “I think the Lieutenant has forgotten we can work with the AI from anywhere.”

  “I believe you’re right, my friend, but orders are orders — even if we cannot, at present, do much more than listen to it,” replied Ferghal. “I’m trying to find a means to reroute the control, but they must have uncoupled the drives somewhere aft of the holds. I have my cutlass to hand, and I know that Warrant Carolan has one as well. He has been learning its use for some months now.”

  “Good,” responded Harry. “I have my dirk and a projector should they approach us. I fear this will be a no quarter affair, my friend.”

  “I think they may have more than one way to leave those compartments, Harry, and I am unsure of how we can monitor it,” Ferghal confided. “They seem to be far better prepared for this than seems possible unless they planned in advance.”

  “You are right, Ferghal. We must be prepared. I disabled their network but left it giving the responses they would expect to see if all was in order. What I could not do was transfer the control of the propulsion back to your Centre. They have a separate unit controlling the drives. It is not connected to the unit I have accessed.”

  “I have seen it,” replied Ferghal. “A unit suited to a barge, nothing more. It will not be able to manage the ship’s transit pods for long. Can they surprise us?”

  “All the door and airlock controls are disabled now except on my command, so I think we can be certain they can only escape through some new hole in a bulkhead or by manually opening a door, all of which we can monitor.”

  Harry heard Captain Heemstra leave the compartment. “Heemstra is making for the men in Hold Three, ma’am. They are planning to cut the bulkhead from there.”

  “Well done, Harry. We’ll see if we can head them off and deal with them. Keep me posted on any other developments!”

  “Aye, aye, ma’am. What do you want me to do if they succeed in breaking through?”

  “Whatever is necessary, Harry. Don’t let them take control of either Command Centre. Block the access or whatever it takes, but don’t let anyone take them.”

  “Aye, aye, ma’am, I understand you perfectly. I shall tell Ferghal the same.”

  “Do that. Here they come, Harry. The bastards have a plasma cutter and are slicing through the bulkheads with it.”

  IN THE PASSENGER STORES DECK, LIEUTENANT ORLOFF checked the disposition of her people.

  “Corporal? What’s the situation at your station?”

  “They’re using a plasma cutter to cut the door, sir. We’re ready for them.”

  Shutting off the link, she remarked to Paul Carolan, “I hope they don’t have grenades, but just in case, we’ll pull back behind those cabinets. That’ll put us behind them and between the door to the passenger lounge and them.”

  “With you, ma’am.” He glanced at the smoking bulkhead. “They’ll be through any time now.”

  Taking her position, she signalled her team. “Let them show. Then give them hell.” Even after reducing the Consortium crew by three and taking into account that they would probably have to leave some of their people to run the ship from their improvised control room, her team were heavily outnumbered.

  The intense flame of the cutter completed its final cut, and the section of the bulkhead slowly fell into the companionway.

  Two grenades were hurled, and the detonations were shattering, but their preparations protected them. The first figure dived through amidst a hail of plasma fire, the second took several hits and fell, but the next pair made it through the gap covered by a storm of fire from behind.

  “Damn, there’s too many of them. And they’ve got armoured EVA.” She signalled the others as the smoke thickened from a fire started by the plasma bursts. “Pull back to the lounge.” Firing off a series of rapid bursts, she had the satisfaction of seeing another of the attackers fall.

  “Go, Lieutenant. I’ll cover.” Paul Carolan laid down a series of bursts and saw at least one of the suited figures take a hit. He dove through the door seconds before it closed.

  “It won’t hold them long.” The Lieutenant contacted Harry. “We’ve a fire in the passenger stores, Harry. Can you activate the suppression system?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Satisfied the system had operated, he checked the disposition of the intruders. “Ma’am, there are eleven of us, but there are sixteen of their people, two in their hiding place, six engaged with our Marines, and eight at yours.”

  “Make that six. I think we got two of theirs.” She ended the connection. “Get this place ready for a hot defence, Warrant. Here they come.” Shifting as much of the furniture the five defenders could move to form a barrier, she watched as the incandescent glow revealed the progress of the cutter. “They’ll pull the same trick with the grenades. We’ll fall back to the bar area and wait for them there.”

  Grenades bounced into the lounge, the detonations ear shattering, followed by the attackers, who were unable to find their targets at first. Then the firing became desperate.

  The defenders shifted position in short dashes in the former passenger lounge and dining space. There was only one opening through which the attackers could approach.

  “If we hold them here, we have them contained.”

  “We’ve a problem if they cut another opening, ma’am.”

  “Doubt they’ll use the cutter in here, Warrant. Let’s hope not anyway.”

  She was wrong. A second opening appeared in the bulkhead.

  “No you don’t, you spailpin!” bellowed Warrant Carolan, using an old
Irish insult, and he blasted the man before destroying the cutter itself with a well-aimed discharge of plasma.

  Another grenade burst, the shrapnel ricocheting off the bulkheads, and everyone ducked for cover. “Bastards are trying to split us up,” yelled the Lieutenant. A pair of Consortium men managed to get to a position from which they could target her. She changed position and ran straight into a bolt that burned away most of her leg. She heard herself scream in agony even as she blacked out.

  THE MEN IN THE SECRET CONTROL COMPARTMENT LOOKED up when the door opened. No one entered, and nothing further happened. The senior man said, “Must be a short in the door circuit. Bloody thing was a jury rig anyway. See if you can sort it, Max.”

  Max levered himself out of his seat. “Hope the Captain deals with these Fleet idiots fast. These AI units aren’t up to running a ship this big for much longer.”

  Moving toward the door, he studied the control unit. There appeared to be something odd about it, but he could not see what. Reaching for the door control he gasped as something seized him. He got a brief glimpse of a grinning reptilian face and then he was airborne.

  The other two leapt to their feet as their companion smashed into the bulkhead behind them. Both froze as they saw the reptilian intruder, its mouth slightly open and its eyes blazing yellow as it struck. Sheoba seized their weapons and broke them, tossing them to the deck as if they were toy guns.

  “On the deck,” she hissed. “Any other move, and I will kill you.”

  Their pain and the immobility of their companion warned that this creature did not make idle threats. With no regard for their injuries, Sheoba secured them using cargo straps she had removed from somewhere on her way to their lair.

  Chapter 38 – No Quarter Asked, None Given

  “It goes badly for our people,” Harry told Ferghal. “I fear the enemy is at an advantage. They know this ship well.”

  “It would seem so,” responded Ferghal. “I too am following it on the monitoring system. I hate this sitting idle when there is fighting to be done.”

  “I can find no sign of Sheoba,” Harry said. “Can you hear her?”

  “Nothing — I have no sign of her, but they will have a watch for her now, I’m thinking.” Ferghal added, “The Lieutenant is down. I heard her fall. Sounded like she was in a lot of pain, and then she was silent. Our people are divided and in retreat.”

  Harry’s expression was grim. “I thought I heard her fall as well. I will contact the rest of the crew and direct them to assault from behind the Consortium men. See if you can find out if the Lieutenant survived, and the state of her health if she did.”

  Harry searched the AI and found the second part of the prize crew. “Corporal, the Lieutenant has fallen. I need you to assist Warrant Carolan.”

  “On my way, sir. We’ve taken out three of their people. The other two made a break to join their mates.”

  “Do your best, Corporal.”

  Harry contacted Jürgen Sørensen. “TechRate Sørensen, the enemy have Warrant Carolan and the Lieutenant trapped in the passenger lounge on Deck Three, Corridor Port Alpha. Take your people through the dining area and attack the Consortium people from behind.”

  Paul Carolan reported, “We can’t get to the Lieutenant to get her out, and the bastards are pushing us back, sir.”

  “Do your best, Warrant, The Marines are on their way.” Hesitating, he added, “I’ll see if we can give you some help.”

  With the Lieutenant down, Harry realised that he was now technically the senior officer. He made a decision. Contacting Ferghal, he said, “How did we deal with an attempt to recapture a prize ship in our time?”

  Harry listened to the response and nodded. “Then let us do the same in kind. Destroy every control panel and make sure it cannot be repaired. Then join me, my friend. It is time to show these scum how we fight.”

  He stood and looked about him. Collecting a heavy lever from the emergency locker, he smashed every console, tearing out the innards and methodically destroying every part.

  FERGHAL JOINED HARRY WITH HIS CUTLASS IN ONE HAND and a plasma projector in the other, and a second projector tucked into his waistband. Giving him a grim smile, he said quietly, “I have laid a few traps for any who attempt to come this way. Do we give quarter if it is cried for?”

  Harry returned the smile. “Only if it does not endanger us to do so. Leave no one standing who can use a weapon, as old Mr Treliving was wont to say — and he was a wise tutor. Now, my friend, I think it is time we showed these scum a taste of cold steel.”

  Ferghal snorted. “Sounds good to me. Which way?”

  “If we go this way, we can strike at them from the flank as they pass the officers’ lounge.” Hesitating, Harry added, “I wish I could see their faces when they see the control centres, but there will be time enough for that when we deal with them.” He gave Ferghal a grin. “Cold steel, I think. They are in armoured EVA suits. The suit will rupture and the systems malfunction, and the armour is designed to deflect plasma bursts, not blades.”

  Ferghal nodded. “Aye, and if the malfunction sets off the alarms, they will be unable to retaliate for a few seconds and may even act as our shields if the others try to intervene.”

  “So I hope.”

  They went down two decks and into the short companionway that led to the officers’ lounge.

  Cutting across this space side by side, they reached a door that opened into another short corridor that connected to the main one that ran the length of the accommodation deck. They opened the door with caution, standing on either side of it to listen to the fighting to determine the positions of the two parties.

  Ferghal peered round the edge of the door then darted out, his cutlass thrusting as he cut open the fabric joint in the suit of the crouching enemy sheltering in the entrance to the corridor.

  Harry used his dirk on a second man, driving it through his uniform and wrenching it hard across, evidently finding flesh and bone. The man staggered back, his face twisted in shock, and the suit’s controls shorted out in a bright flash. Wrenching his dirk free, Harry made sure of his victim by slashing at the man’s fingers as he tried desperately to open the fastenings on the suit. Pressing the attack, Harry drove him over the first man, who was struggling to free himself from a suit that had been slashed in several places by Ferghal’s skill with a cutlass and was leaking fluids amidst bursts of sparks as the systems destroyed themselves.

  Leaving the helpless and disarmed pair in a tangle of arms and legs, Ferghal took off to deal with more enemy combatants, and Harry hurled himself into the lobby across the corridor, colliding with another figure in an EVA suit. The man’s weapon swung downward, and Harry rolled aside as a bolt of plasma burned the deck where he had stood moments before. He rolled to his knees and slashed desperately at the man’s legs with his dirk, and had the satisfaction of seeing the suit rip, the edge of the tear turning red as escaping air and coolant drew blood with it.

  The man tried to train his plasma projector on him, but Harry was too quick. The dirk stabbed upward into the suit’s exposed arm joint and sank home, the man’s face registering shock and pain as the projector fell from his paralysed hand. Harry wrenched the blade free and smashed the hilt hard across the suit’s control panel. The blow was rewarded by a satisfactory signal of malfunction.

  He aimed another stab at the other arm as the man desperately tried to grab Harry’s blade. Fending this off, Harry stepped back and watched as the man slowly collapsed against the bulkhead and slid to the deck. There was another burst of fire in the corridor and then Ferghal’s voice bellowing, “No you don’t, you scum!” followed by the sound of steel striking something hard.

  Harry leapt out into the main companionway to see Ferghal driving an EVA-suited figure back to where Warrant Carolan had emerged from another lobby, his cutlass slashing at yet another retreating man while he held the first at bay. Ferghal’s combatant desperately tried to set his
plasma projector to a bearing he could use to shoot his attacker while warding off the slashing attack of that lethal blade, and he failed miserably at both. His suit bore signs of the damage Ferghal had inflicted, and he was obviously aware of the danger behind him.

  Harry checked the opposite direction and found the corridor clear except for three more suited figures lying motionless. Behind him he heard the sound of a struggle and turned to see the Warrant Officer force the Consortium man to the deck and then rip the suit open, no mean feat, and a clear indication, Harry thought, of how angry the Warrant must be.

  Sheoba materialised beside him. “Navigator, are you well?”

  “Yes, I am well, but we have several of their people here, and I know not how many more at large. Do you have news of the rest of them?”

  “They have gone to the control centres, Navigator. They did not see me, but they are not pleased with what you have done, and I could not surprise them this time.”

  “At least we know they are there. Do they have the Lieutenant with them? Has she survived? She is not among those here.” He turned as Warrant Officer Carolan joined him. “Where is Lieutenant Orloff?” Harry asked him.

  “I think she’s with them, sir, but I don’t know if she survived. She got hit by a plasma bolt in the passenger lounge where these bastards came through the bulkhead and jumped us.” He looked troubled. “We had to leave her in the lounge, and when I tried to get to her so that we could bring her with us, they grabbed her and pulled her out.”

  “You did your best, Warrant. What has become of the others in our crew? Where are Sørensen, Werner and Mann?”

  “All with us now, sir. I detailed them to take charge of the wounded prisoners.”

  “Very well. Ferghal, take Warrant Carolan, Werner, Mann and Sheoba and search this deck and the control centres. Have a care, my friend, for this Captain Heemstra is a man entirely without honour.” Addressing the Corporal, he said, “Your men took down three, but two escaped?”