by Adam Drake
“Figures,” Ash said.
Both men talked, with Stacks gesturing wildly while Klayd stood immobile.
Ash sighed loudly. “Maybe they'll kill each other and make this easier for us.”
“I don't know,” Femke said. The men then walked into the bunker and the door closed behind them. “I seriously doubt Stacks is intent on murdering Klayd. The Constabulary has the exact position of the ship, so it's not like he can be subtle about it.”
“Now what do we do? Wait?”
Femke scanned the clearing again and settled on the old transport. “Think you can get an engine pulse from here?”
“Not from here,” Ash said, looking at the image of the ship.
When he didn't speak again right away Femke turned to look at him with a smile. “Are you sure?”
Ash let out another sigh, then he pulled out a scanner from his side-pack and thumbed its screen, all the while watching the surrounding darkness. “There's a static screen bubbled over the clearing. The only signs I could read would be graffiti.”
“How far in?”
“About ten meters, give or take. Why?”
“Why don't we go in for a closer look. If the engine on the transport is still alive, then we take it.”
“Take it? While Stacks and the Captain are right there?”
“They're not right there, they're inside, probably drinking a toast to some illicit arrangement.”
“What about the scout?”
“The scout won't care unless we decide to shoot at it. Besides, you can finally use that stealth stuff you've been carrying around with you since forever.”
Ash frowned at the image of the transport. “I'm not convinced this is the best plan. What if they come outside, or we trip an alarm?”
“Then I'll stay up here and cover you,” Femke said patting the rifle. “You know I'm the better shot.”
Ash knew that she was right, even though it was fun to argue with her. It was one of the reasons their marriage had lasted so long. “All right, fine,” he said moving up into a crouch.
Femke grinned at him. She knew it didn't take much prodding to convince him to steal something.
Ash examined an overlay of the clearing. “I'll go around to the northwest and enter the bubble along the rock wall. Then I'll go to the transport and check for an engine pulse.”
“Which there better be.”
“If it's a go, I'll hack the door. Once inside, I'll run a quick diagnostic and see where things stand.”
“And I'll cover your butt from up here. Just me and the waste-worms.”
Ash sighed and moved to Femke. “Wish me luck?”
Femke reached around his head and pulled him closer. Since they couldn't kiss with their breathers on, they rested their foreheads against each other. “I wish you luck, honey.”
“You promise not to shoot me by accident, again?”
Femke flinched. “You'll never let me live that down, will you?”
“You need to promise, Fem.”
“I promise,” she sighed.
Then Ash pulled away and moved off into the darkness.
Femke watched until he vanished around a rocky outcropping. “You do have a nice butt for me to cover, you know,” she commed.
“I know,” Ash sent back. “I suspect it's the real reason you married me.”
Femke laughed. “Suspect?” She turned her attention back to the clearing and sighted the bunker with the rifle.
The door was still closed, and she prayed to whichever gods might exist in this star system that it would stay that way.
Ash moved swiftly, avoiding the huge plants thanks to his night vision. He gripped the scatter-pistol in one hand while holding the scanner in the other. According to the readout, the static bubble nearly overlapped the rocks he was skirting along.
“Best not to flirt with danger,” he said, more to himself than Femke. He paused long enough to activate his cloaking field. Calling it a cloaking field was perhaps a little too generous. To a passive observer he would appear as a subtle smudge against any backdrop. When he moved, he would look like rippling water until he stopped. But the real benefit was it made him virtually undetectable to scanning devices or motion sensors. Usually.
“Okay, I'm hot,” he said as he approached the edge of the clearing near the rock wall.
“Got it,” Femke said.
Ash moved up behind a large boulder and peered around it. The bunker was ahead, maybe forty meters distance. Hunkered down next to it was the Constabulary ship, exhaust ports hissing out steam. The transport was further inside the cave entrance, out of view.
He looked around, trying to see if his goggles picked up anything out of the ordinary. Satisfied there were no nasty surprises he said, “Okay, I'm about to make my grand entrance. All clear?”
A few moments passed, then, “All clear, honey. Go for it.”
Ash stepped out from behind the boulder and tip-toed over to the rocky wall. He was well within the static bubble now, the indicators oscillating on his HUD showed it. With one eye on the scout he moved forward along the wall. As it curved inward, he paused to take a peek.
The large transport sat in profile, a dark gray hulk. Above, the rocky ceiling hung low.
“Whoever flew this thing in here knew what they were doing. Or was drunk enough to make the attempt,” he said moving closer. Approaching the nose section he said, “Entry hatch is on the other side. I have to go around.”
“Okay,” Femke said. She took a brief moment to glance behind her, mindful of any slithering surprises. In the far distance she sensed movement, but whatever it was moved away. She returned to the rifle sights.
Ash ducked beneath the nose which contained the cockpit and watched his step for any traps or odd wiring. “I see the power-couplers are hooked up, probably to the bunker's cells, I'd guess.”
“So it has juice. Take that as a good sign.”
The exit ramp was extended to the ground, about halfway down the starboard side, but the hatch was closed. He didn't know whether that indicated someone was inside, or was just too lazy to retract the ramp when they'd left.
“You're quiet,” Femke said.
“I'm in stealth, honey. Space-ninja's aren't suppose to talk a whole lot when on a mission.”
Femke scoffed. “Space ninja, ha!”
Ignoring his ever supportive wife, Ash moved toward the engines but did not go further than the ramp. “Okay, I'm close enough. Running scan.”
“Gotcha,” Femke said. The bunker door remained closed, so she glanced behind herself again.
The little valley now roiled with movement. Waste-worms slithered through plants and crested the ridge on the opposite side. For a moment Femke stared, stunned. It was like some kind of mass migration. Then she realized it. She looked over at the dead worm, with several legs still kicking. “By the stars,” she whispered, cold fear washing over her.
“What?” Ash said, alarmed. “What is it?”
“I think our dead friend managed to send out a signal of some kind. There are other guests coming to join the party.” She shifted her body so she could watch the bunker and the valley behind without wrenching her neck.
“How much time we got?”
“About as long as it takes you to crack that ship open.”
Cursing, Ash looked at the scanner's monitor. Almost immediately it showed that the engine core was still alive and could be fired up. “We're good here. Gotta pulse. Going to crack the door.” But before he pulled away, he noticed an odd reading. Something was inside. Faint and small. The numbers didn't indicate that it was a person, but something else. Rats? Or the Jorduss Three equivalent?
Whatever. He pocketed the scanner and moved up the ramp. At the hatch he placed a small device against its keypad. The device's hacking program instantly threw up a bunch of red warning messages declaring the security could not be overridden.
Ash cursed again and tried another sequence. “Working the door. How are things on y
our end?”
“About to get really crowded here in a moment,” Femke said. Ash could hear the strain in her voice.
The hacking program stubbornly repeated its message again and again. The security on the door was unusually complex. Why?
Femke said, “I think I may come around to you, static field or not.”
“No!” Ash said, emphatically. “The cannons on the scout will blow you off this rock.”
“I think I can out run them, besides I might not have much of a-,” she went quiet.
Still tapping at the device, Ash said, “What? What is it? Fem?”
Femke cursed, something she never did out of principle. “They're coming out.”
“Who?”
“Stacks and the constable,” she said. “Uh-oh.”
“What?”
“They're moving away from the bunker.”
“The constable is leaving?”
“No,” she said more urgently. “They're heading to the transport!”
Ash muttered a curse as he worked feverishly to hack the keypad. Sweat dribbled down his neck to be absorbed by his suit, making him itch.
“How close are they now?” Ash said, his fingers tapping harder on the device's little monitor.
“Close enough to be a problem,” Femke said. Stacks and Captain Klayd moved purposely along the length of the transport toward the nose of the ship. “They're directly opposite of you now. Maybe you should find somewhere to hide.”
Behind her the waste-worms moved closer. Nearly all of them seemed to be searching the valley. Suddenly a worm emerged from a thicket of plants to her right. She swung around and aimed her rifle at it, but the thing marched by like a slow moving train. It ignored her and went over to inspect the corpse.
Ash glared at the keypad, willing it to open, but the security sequence completely flummoxed the hacking device. Somewhere to his right he heard voices echoing through the cave.
Femke edged back to the ridge line as more worms appeared and converged at the sight of the dead worm, their massive forms writhing with agitation. “I'm out of time here, honey,” Femke said, concerned. “You in yet?”
“Not yet,” he said. Shadows played against the rock walls, the men were underneath the nose of the cockpit coming this way. Finally, the device beeped a confirmation and the security override went from red to green.
One of the worms turned its blunt head around to key in on Femke, mandibles extended, searching.
“Uh-oh,” she said and moved into a crouch gripping the rifle with both hands. Then as one, all the waste-worms turned their massive heads in her direction. They hissed in unison and surged forward.
The hatch slid open much to Ash's relief. As he rushed inside, he caught sight of the two men ducking out from under the nose of the transport. Did they see him?
“I'm in!” he said as he palmed the hatch closed. He was in an airlock, something smaller ships did not have. With another palmed command the opposite hatch unlocked and swung open, revealing an interior anti-way. He quickly went through it and pushed the inner hatch closed again, all the while expecting alarms to sound and armed men to appear.
Deciding things had reached a head Femke stood and fired at the worms. The shots bounced off or left bright blemishes on their armored skin.
Ash moved fast to the cockpit, pistol at the ready. All the interior lights were dimmed or off, which he took as a sign the ship was unoccupied.
The cockpit was empty and had a standard four seat arrangement. As he examined its readouts he spotted a monitor which showed the entry hatch's exterior. Stacks and Klayd were walking up the ramp. He thumbed the pistol to its stun setting. “Might have myself a little shoot out here. How is the worm situation?”
“Worms are very angry!” Femke said as she backed against the rocks, firing a board swath of shots. She wanted all of their attention and she certainly got it. “Going to give you a distraction of epic proportions.”
Ash rushed back down the main hall which ran along the length of the ship. He took up position behind a bulkhead and aimed at the airlock's inner hatch. An indicator light on the airlock's panel showed the outer hatch was opening.
Femke fired more, hollering into the comms. Then, just as the closest worm descended on her, she turned and ran over the ridge line in a blink of an eye.
Now at the edge of the clearing she was detected by the Constabulary ship and a gunport swiveled to lock onto her.
Then she did the one thing any sane person would avoid when confronted with a twitchy ship bristling with guns. She shot at it.
The scout responded in kind and opened up with a hail of fire from two of its rear guns.
Femke dodge every shot, dancing around the clearing with incredible speed. Behind her, the waste-worms surged over the ridge line like an advancing army from a Dust-addict's fevered nightmare.
Ash could see Stacks on a monitor standing at the inner hatch waiting for Klayd to close the outer door. This was going to get ugly.
The dull thudding sound of gunfire permeated from outside through the airlock. Both men stopped and listened.
“You okay, Fem?”
“Just great!” she panted over the comms. “Making friends where ever I go!”
Not sure what to make of that, Ash settle to simply aim his pistol at the hatch door. But Stacks and Klayd quickly left the airlock and went back outside. The outer hatch slid shut behind them.
Ash breathed a sigh of relief. “They're leaving! They're coming to you!”
“Get that bird flying!” Femke shouted. The intensity of her movements was draining her. Each shot from the scout had the power to atomize her in an instant, but her insane acrobatics bought her time.
The waste-worms slid into the clearing from all approaches, like the tide of a dark ocean. It was then the guns on the scout keyed into their obvious presence, calculating they were the greater danger, and fired into them.
Waste-worms screeched and hissed as the ship's high plasma shots melted through their armor and bore into them. Like one living thing, they turned to the ship.
As all the ship's gunports reassigned themselves to the wave of worms, Femke ran toward the transport feeling her energy depleting. But she stopped as Stacks and Klayd ducked out from under the ship's belly, pistols in hand.
The two men took in the incredible scene with wide eyes.
The worms surged across the clearing by the dozens. The sound of gunfire, screeches and the marching of thousands of legs filled the night air.
Ash raced to the cockpit and dropped into the pilot's chair. He hooked up the hacking device to the cockpit panel and his fingers flew around. “Working on the override. Hang in there!”
Femke detoured away from the men as they opened fired on her and raced to the bunker building, the only other cover which wasn't crawling with giant worms. “Get it out of there fast! Things have gotten crazy!”
An auto-cannon suddenly dropped down from the edge of the cave ceiling and swiveled around to fire at Femke. She narrowly avoided the first shot which singed off a shoulder-pad. Cartwheeling along the ground she fired the rifle one handed at the stationary cannon.
The cockpit override was much easier than the outer hatch and Ash gained control. “Got it! Firing it up!” His fingers danced over screens and he felt the ship vibrate as the engine come to life.
Outside, Femke immobilized the auto-cannon and zipped to the rear of the bunker. Crouching down for a breather she peeked around to see where the men were.
Stacks had dropped to one knee and was firing his pistol at the worms which now swarmed over the scout ship. His weapon seemed ineffectual, but that didn't deter him from shooting, anyway.
Amazingly, Klayd was running to his ship and firing while shouting orders into a wrist comm. The ship's gunports on the starboard side adjusted their aim and concentrated their fire on the worms nearest the scout's entry hatch. The intensity of the barrage turned the worms into glowing pulp. Klayd navigated through a gap in the roil
ing chaos and climbed the short ladder to the hatch.
Ash punched in a set of commands. “Honey, can you get to the hatch?”
Femke fired at another auto-cannon which popped out of the ground deeper in the cave. “Don't worry about me. Get it out of there first!”
As the transport's engine roared to life, Stacks did a double take, then ran back under the ship. Femke fired at his retreating form but the auto-cannon kept her down. “You're going to have company in a second!”
