Escape 1: Escape From Aliens

by T. Jackson King

  Jane had joined him at the rack of spacesuits. “I do,” she said as she bent down to put on her hiking boots. “Something I learned during Basic at Lackland. What’s the white tube? And the mask thing?”

  “The white tube shoots a red beam which hits you like a taser,” he said, just before pulling the suit on. “The mask is an oxy breather thing. The giant grizzly crewman who entered my cell was wearing it since the oxy level in my cell had gotten way below normal.”

  “Thanks.” She pulled on her own tube suit. Like him she discovered that once she was fully inside, the bottom of the suit split into two leg-tubes when you pushed out with your legs. The top part of the suit resembled a globular helmet. It settled around his head. Bill pushed with his arms to either side and the suit grew two tubular lengths to either side. Flexing his fingers caused the end of each arm tube to change into five tiny tubes, one for each finger. He looked to Jane.

  “Can you hear me?” he said aloud.

  She looked surprised. “I can. There has to be some kind of automated com speaker inside these things. And the wavelength must be the same for every suit. Which makes sense for emergencies and crew coordination. So I’m sure anyone else in a suit, and our friend Diligent, can also hear what we say.”

  Bill nodded. “So we go to ASL.” He pulled on his backpack, slung his canteen strap over his helmet, stuck his flashlight into his pack, held the white taser tube in his right hand and finger-talked in American Sign Language with his left. “Out that door. Agreed?”

  “Agreed,” she said with her right hand, using finger-talk as swiftly as he did.

  He picked up the red cube he’d laid on the floor while donning the tube suit. Touching the Open spot on the cube made the second giant door grind open just like the door they’d passed through to leave the cell chamber. Before them stretched a long, long hallway. Gray metal walls, floor and ceiling surrounded them. Some distance down the twenty foot-wide hall he could see light coming from the right and left, likely from side hallways. “Jane, you got any idea how this ship might be laid out?” he said out loud, figuring his question was obvious to anyone listening. “Which way is the bridge? The engines? The—”

  “Nope,” she interrupted. “But I bet this ship has a voice-responsive computer that runs most stuff. And it may be linked into the tube suit comlink. For emergency response to anyone in a suit.”

  He blinked. Of course a large spaceship would have a computer that ran most automated systems. No matter the size of the crew, machines were vital. And voice-responsive expert systems had been common in business and mil-intel operations for decades. “So how do we connect with this . . . this ship computer? We’re humans. We talk English, not Alien jabber-jabber.”

  Jane faced the long, empty hallway. Like him she wore a transparent tube suit. On top of which was her backpack with her canteen slung from her neck. Inside the tube suit, which closely hugged the contours of her body, she gave a shrug. “We ask.” She paused. “Spaceship computer mind, do you hear and understand me?”

  A hum sounded inside Bill’s clear helmet. “I hear and understand you.”

  Jane turned thoughtful. “Why are you talking with me? Won’t the ship captain block your communication?”

  “I am required to respond to all bioforms who occupy a vacuum suit.” Another hum sounded in Bill’s helmet. “That is according to Protocol Seven, Emergency Operations of the Ship. The wearing of a vacuum suit by any bioform while inside this ship indicates an emergency situation.”

  Damn.

  “Can you display for me an interior map of this spaceship? So we can reach Captain Diligent Taskmaster with important information,” Jane said calmly.

  Another hum sounded. “I can. Where do you wish the map displayed?”

  Jane gestured to her right. “This wall to my right will do, if you have imaging capability that will appear on the wall.”

  The hum lasted longer this time. “The wall can be made visual. But that choice limits my full display options. Do you wish a three dimensional map of this ship’s interior, similar to what is viewed by ship crewmembers?”

  “Yes!” he and Jane both said loudly.

  “Projecting,” it said with a short hum.

  Before Jane and Bill a man-high holo took form in the hallway.

  A teardrop shape floated before them, similar in shape to the collector pod that had hovered over his lake before it had shot Bill with the red taser beam. The shape shimmered and grew translucent. Two main hallways now appeared inside the teardrop, along with many box-like rooms that linked to the hallways.

  “Excellent,” Jane said. “Identify which chamber is the command bridge, which the engine room, which the food service area, which . . . identify all areas accessible to a crew lifeform with English lettering that indicates the room function.”

  A long hum sounded. “As you wish.”

  Bill blinked, then stared. He had an excellent memory for spatial forms, which had aided him in his Technical Surveillance Operations work. He gestured to Jane. “Me now,” he signed.

  She nodded understanding. He looked intently at the identified spaces and hallways. “Ship mind,” Bill called loudly, “can you display the locations of all ship crew, including the location of Captain Diligent Taskmaster? Do so if you can. Also show the location of myself and the other bioform next to me.”

  “I can,” it said with a low hum. “Displaying.”

  Seven red dots now appeared on the teardrop holo. One red dot was nearby, in the cell he’d occupied. That must be the grizzly bear Alien. It occupied a place labeled as Containment Unit Chamber. The remaining four dots were at the far end of the ship holo, in the round space marked as Command Bridge Chamber. He and Jane were located near the narrow end of the ship, just ahead of what was labeled an Engine Chamber. The tunnel they faced led to that space. Side hallways showed in the holo, the first of them lying just ahead of them. The side hallway led to another long hallway that ran the length of the ship. That hallway reached the nose of the teardrop, where the Bridge room was located. In between were rooms marked as Food Chamber, Habitat Chambers, Fusion Power Plants, Factory Chamber, Air Renewal/Production Chamber, Waste Recycling Chamber, Collector Pods Chamber, Greenery Chamber, Water Pool Chamber, Weapons Chamber and a Transport Exit Chamber. What bothered him, though, was the presence of three red dots at the far end of the other long hallway. While a single red dot was stationary in the Command Bridge, three crew dots had left the bridge and were moving down the hallway toward them.

  “Is the Weapons Chamber accessible to us?” Bill asked as he noted it lay between them and the oncoming crewmen.

  A long hum sounded. “No. That chamber is accessible only to ship crew as identified by Crèche Master Diligent Taskmaster.”

  Jane gestured to Bill she had questions. “Ship mind, in the case of conflicting commands from the crew or other bioforms like us, to whom do you give priority obedience?”

  “To Crèche Master Diligent Taskmaster,” it said after a short hum.

  “The Transport Exit Chamber,” Jane said hurriedly. “Does it contain a small craft able to travel through vacuum and back to the planet you just left?”

  “That chamber contains three such craft,” the ship mind said. “However, this ship currently resides in what your world calls an Alcubierre space-time modulus. It is how this ship travels from one star to another. Exiting this ship is not permitted while the ship travels in Alcubierre space-time.”

  Jane looked to him, her expression worried. “What next?”

  Confrontation with the three approaching crewmembers was what lay ahead. Could they reach the crew before the crew reached the Weapons Chamber in the middle of the hallway? “Ship mind, can you alter the gravity field of any chamber or hallway within this ship?”

  “I can,” it said with a low hum.

  “Good. Show on this holo a route from our present location to the location of Crèche Master Diligent Taskmaster.”

  “Illustrating,” it said
.

  The giant teardrop of the ship now showed a green line running from them to the nearby cross hallway, along it, then up the adjacent hallway to the Command Bridge Chamber at the front of the ship. The green line ran through the three moving red dots of the crewmen. “Good. Show the spaces where the access hallway is blocked by a pressure wall and hatch.”

  “Showing,” it said, the hum very brief. “All such pressure walls and hatches are presently open to travel by crewmembers and other sapient bioforms. As required by Protocol Seven, Emergency Operations of the Ship. They will close only upon loss of vessel integrity. Further inquiries?”

  “Yes!” Jane said hurriedly. “Show us the images of all crew and Diligent Taskmaster. Display in holo form adjacent to—”

  “Discontinue compliance with bioform request!” a harsh voice interrupted. “End holo display now! And stop talking to these bioforms! Command Sequence Larva Four Red.”

  “Holo discontinued.” The ship holo vanished. “However, Protocol Seven, Emergency Operations of the Ship requires that I respond to any bioform who wears a vacuum suit.”

  Was that who he thought it was? “Diligent, I’m coming to capture you!”

  Low rasping sounded. “Human captive Bill MacCarthy, your escape from your containment module must be reversed! Return to your module. As must your female companion. Otherwise, my crew will render the two of you unable to function!”

  He gave the finger to the hallway’s ceiling. “Nope. We’re coming for you.” Bill took off running. Which felt easy in the lower gravity. He looked to Jane, then finger-talked. “Follow the green track route. Down that side hallway. You got any kind of weapon with you?”

  “None,” she gestured back to him as she fell in beside him, matching his running speed. “But I’ve trained in zero gee, if that matters. On the Vomit Comet. And I can shoot decently.”

  He gestured back. “It matters. We move as fast as we can along that green route. I want to meet the three crew before they reach the Weapons Chamber. When we get close, be ready to jump away from me and then toss your pack and canteen at two of the Aliens!”

  Jane nodded, picking up her running pace as Bill sped up to full bore down the side hallway. In less than a minute he turned left into the other main hallway that led to the Weapons Chamber. “Sounds good,” she said. “Hope you know how to use that white tube thingie.”

  “I do.” Bill had noticed how the grizzly bear crewman fired the tube even as he flew through the air to the creature’s back. “And I’m better than a good shot.”

  “Good. Three with tubes versus us with one tube are not the odds I like,” Jane signed.

  Bill signed back. “But they all may not have taser beam tubes.”

  She nodded as she kept pace with his running. “Which is why we need to intercept them before they reach the Weapons Chamber?”

  “Exactly!”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Bill and Jane reached the hallway section that contained the door to the Weapons Chamber just as the three crew Aliens came through the pressure wall hatch door fifty feet ahead of them. Shock filled him as he took in the distant shapes of the three Aliens.

  Something that resembled a giant praying mantis held a white tube in its upper arm pair. In the middle lumbered a six-legged, sausage something that had armor plate-like skin, a blocky head and neck tentacles that waved wildly. To its right stalked something that looked like a two-legged vulture with black wings, a pair of chest-arms, a yellow beak and two red eyes. Those eyes locked onto him just as fast as he had fixed on the vulture. Which suggested the bird-like Alien might be the fastest moving actor of the three now approaching. The green-skinned praying mantis turned its triangular head and fixed two black eyes on him. It lifted the white tube, aiming it their way.

  “Ship mind!” he yelled. “Kill all gravity in this hallway section!”

  Bill ran left toward the hallway wall while Jane did the same to the right side of the hallway.

  A red taser beam shot down the middle of their hallway, missing them both.

  Gravity vanished.

  Bill kicked the side wall lightly to move him upward and back toward the center of the hallway. Aiming his own white tube at the praying mantis, who now tumbled end over end with the loss of gravity, he fired.

  The red taser beam hit the mantis’ thorax. It went into spastic convulsions, with the white tube flying loose from the clasp of its two thorny griparms.

  The six-legged sausage Alien seemed to understand what had happened. Although its running momentum now propelled it toward him and Jane, it was stretching out its body in the hope of contacting a hallway surface so it could do a ricochet movement similar to what Bill had done.

  Jane threw her backpack at the sausage Alien and her canteen at the vulture Alien. Which action sent her tumbling backward in mid-air.

  “Bombs!” he yelled over the helmet comlink, betting the Alien crew would hear the translated version of his words. “Watch out! If they contact you they will explode!”

  The sausage Alien twisted in mid-air, its body clawing frantically for a hallway surface.

  The vulture Alien flapped its black wings, dived to one side to avoid the canteen, then fast-flapped toward the tumbling white tube. Clearly it aimed to grab the weapon and zap him.

  Bill took aim as he rose toward the hallway ceiling, calculating the angle to hit the black-feathered midbody of the vulture Alien.

  Several things happened at the same time.

  Jane’s backpack hit the sausage critter in its belly, which caused the Alien to kick it away with two of its hippo-like legs. That sent it tumbling toward the side of the hallway.

  His red taser beam missed the vulture Alien as its wings moved it up and away from its effort to grab the floating white tube weapon.

  Bill pulled in his legs to make his body rotate in mid-air, which caused his feet to be the first to contact the hallway ceiling. He kicked lightly. Then, upside down and facing the oncoming forms of the sausage and vulture Aliens, he allowed for motion drift, took aim and fired again.

  “Yawk!” cried the vulture as the beam hit its mid-body.

  “Nooo!” Jack heard over his suit comlink.

  Jane signed to him. “Should I grab the six-legged thing?”

  “No,” he gestured back to her even as his upside down position made him feel weird. And worried as the floor grew closer. “I want it knocked out like the other two!” Bill aimed, allowed for free-fall motion drift and fired.

  The red taser beam shot out and impacted on the belly of the slowly tumbling sausage Alien.

  Like the mantis and vulture critters it too went into full-body convulsions.

  “Ship mind,” he yelled, “restore hallway gravity to one-half of prior level.”

  His headlong fall to the floor sped up.

  Twisting into a ball with the tube weapon tight against his belly, Bill hit the floor with his left shoulder and rolled. The impact at a few miles per hour was barely noticeable. His low altitude chute drop training at Tactical Air Operations worked nicely inside a spaceship!

  “Nicely done,” Jane said as she landed on her feet, went to a low crouch, then ran toward the white tube weapon that had fallen between them and the three convulsing Alien crew persons.

  Bill jumped up, ran to the spasming mantis Alien and wrapped his leather belt around its two griparms. With a tight pull on the end he cinched it, pulled the end through a knot, and stood up, ready for another Alien attack.

  “Thanks,” he said, breathing a bit fast. “My BUD/S class did the usual free fall chute drops at San Diego. Came in handy today.”

  “Quite,” Jane said, a quick smile showing before she moved to the right side of the hallway, the mantis Alien’s white tube cradled in her arms. “Got you covered up and down the hallway. What now?”

  Bill looked to his left and back. An eight foot tall oval door outline showed in the left side wall of the hallway. “The Weapons Chamber is behind that door. I want something stron
ger than these taser tubes! Can you drag that vulture Alien over here? Maybe it has an unlocking device on it. Or maybe the door will open to its hand contact. What do you think?”

  Jane moved the white tube to her left hand, bent down, and grabbed one of the chest arms of the vulture critter. “I think anything is possible, including voice activation of the door by a crewmember. In which case we are out of luck. But it’s worth a try.”

  In seconds she dragged the vulture Alien, who seemed to weigh much less than he or Jane, over to the door. Of course the hallway was now down to one-fourth of Earth’s gravity, which might explain the ease of her carry of the Alien. With a glance back the way they had come, then toward the hatchway by which the crew critters had entered, Bill satisfied himself that Diligent Taskmaster was not coming to rescue his crew. A matter he had worried about, given the laser-like nature of the red beams. The taser shot of his that missed had traveled down the hallway, through the hatchway and far down the hall until his free-fall movement cut off his view of the beam shot. He really didn’t want to be hit by a red beam fired from a thousand feet away. Shifting his shoulders to make his backpack settle on his back, he bent down, grabbed the right chest-arm of the vulture Alien, saw it had three talon-fingers and a talon-thumb, and pressed the black-skinned hand against the door.

  “Whoosh!”

  The door slid to one side faster than he could follow. Beyond lay a chamber as big as the module chamber. Five bright red spots shone from its ceiling. Ten low walls stretched before him and Jane, receding into the chamber’s distant back space. On top of each slab wall was a series of round basins. Inside the basins lay objects of different shapes. Bill saw three white tube taser beam weapons. Beyond them lay several red tubes. Only the red tube had a flat box below one end and a second flat box under its middle. Beyond the two tube weapons, sitting in larger basins, were black boxes with a dome on top of them. Lettering covered one side. The golden letters had weird shapes, like the pictographs he’d seen while studying Mandarin Chinese. The same grouping of three weapons types were arranged on the top of adjacent walls. Beyond them, to the right and left, dumpster-like boxes with slanted lids were lined up against either wall. Jane walked over to one, lifted its lid and looked inside.