Junkyard Dogs series Omnibus

by Phillip Nolte

  "I...I have a very good memory. I was just studying about the Nexus station a few weeks ago. There was an old picture..."

  "Were they kind to me?"

  "All they said was that you were a recluse and they weren't even sure that you were still alive!"

  "As you can see, reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated," replied Earl, with a wry smile. "Sit down, all of you. We have much to discuss."

  "There is a compartment much like this on the New Ceylon Orbital Station," said Davis-Moore, as he took a seat in one of the chairs facing Earl's desk. "Is including such rooms a standard practice?"

  "It is for me," replied the little man. "I include these kinds of things in the design. Some of the hidden corridors are only used during the construction phase and are sealed up immediately after. They're fairly easy to put back into service...if and when you need them. This particular room was made especially for my own use. In fact, there is at least one like it on each of the ten rings of the station. Each is a little different and you won't find them on any blueprint."

  "Impressive," said Davis-Moore.

  "Yes, and quite useful in times like these."

  Davis-Moore nodded his head, "Times like these...," he said, "...I understand that you've given a lot of thought as to how to go about regaining control of this station."

  "Do you have the necessary naval strength to counteract the enemy's ships?" asked Earl.

  "When the Sheik starts his big powwow," replied Davis-Moore, "and all of the ships are undermanned, I believe that Commander Kresge will have that pretty well in hand, but I must confess that we won't really know until the time comes. What about the station?"

  "I will tell you up front that my plan is going to seem somewhat radical at first," said Earl.

  "Desperate times call for desperate measures," said Carlisle.

  "So true," replied Earl.

  "So just what is your desperate plan?" asked Davis-Moore.

  "I need to give you a little background first," said Earl, "Where to begin?" The old man thought for a moment, seemed to come to a decision, and then plunged into his explanation, "When I designed this station, the tenth ring was to be dedicated to the Military from the beginning. The Federation forces abandoned that ring when the terrorists took over a few weeks ago. The invaders didn't really meet all that much resistance. The ranks of the Military personnel had been pretty well thinned out responding to all of the terrorist attacks that were going on in other parts of the quadrant."

  "That's what Admiral Kingston told us," said Davis-Moore.

  "Harriet made it out?" asked Earl.

  "Yes, she was injured but not too seriously," replied Davis-Moore, "She's back at the Scrapyard near the New Ceylon Colony."

  "That's good news," said Earl.

  "Sorry for the interruption," said Davis-Moore, "Please continue."

  Harley Earl nodded and continued, "The Sheik and most of his people have remained concentrated on the tenth ring. At the present time he has nowhere near enough men to really occupy a station this vast. In fact, his men have to be very careful; some of them have gone missing from time to time." The old man gave them a wicked grin. Carlisle was reminded of a fox. Perhaps this old man was more formidable then he had appeared at first glance!

  "I can give you the names of two of them who I would not mourn should they disappear," said Salaam.

  "All in good time, Salaam," said the little architect. "Another thing you may not know," Earl continued, "is that each of the ten ring structures was constructed separately and then connected to the spindle and the other rings afterwards."

  "And this means...?" asked Salaam.

  "It means that they can be disconnected from one another, 'decoupling' we call it."

  "Are you saying that you intend to physically disconnect the tenth ring from the rest of the station?" asked Carlisle.

  "That's exactly what I am proposing. The Sheik's big summit meeting will mean that the vast majority of his forces will be on the tenth ring. We do our best to get the few remaining station residents that are still on the tenth ring off from it, herd or lure as many of the Sheik's remaining men down onto it as we can, and then decouple the tenth ring. With only scattered enemy forces in the other nine rings of the station, we should have little difficulty in subduing them and regaining control of the rest of the Station. With the bulk of the enemy's forces isolated in the separated tenth ring, without lights or power, they will be pretty much at our mercy."

  The newcomers looked back and forth at one another as they considered the enormity of what the architect was proposing.

  "Do we have to actually separate the tenth ring?" asked Davis-Moore, "Can't we just take control of the spindle, cut off the power and wait for them to give up?"

  "I considered that," replied the architect, "but then I realized that there's just too much of a chance that something vital in the spindle could get damaged if the fighting gets too intense. Damage the wrong thing and we could wind up losing the entire station!"

  "That makes sense," said Carlisle.

  "Audacious!" said Davis-Moore, "but you can be certain that the enemy won't be expecting it. Sounds like a good plan. I like it!"

  "It will only work if you have the naval strength to neutralize their warships," said Earl.

  "We’re working on it," said Carlisle.

  "How are we going to get our people deployed?" asked Davis-Moore..

  "These hidden access corridors run all through the station. There are also the maintenance channels for ventilation, power and what not, that make up the bottom fourth of each of the ring spokes. We can easily gain access to the central spindle or anywhere else, for that matter, just about any time we want. I have a different plan though, something a little bolder, that should work splendidly."

  "And that is...?" asked Davis-Moore.

  "When the time comes, we'll just take over one of the spindle elevators for the duration."

  "How are we going to accomplish that?"

  "In anticipation of requiring access to an elevator, the number four spindle elevator has been randomly experiencing problems for the last several days. You know, stopping at the wrong level, taking too long to respond when a call is put on it, that sort of thing. When we need it, we'll just light up the 'out of order' warnings at each of the stops and we can move our people up and down within the spindle while we are 'repairing' the elevator. It should pose no problem."

  "And what about the actual decoupling?" asked Steuben, "How do we do that?"

  "I'll have to head up that part of the operation. Essentially, it comes down to this. The rings are held together by a system of clamps that hold the hubs of the rings together. We simply need to release those clamps. After we do that, there are a series of thrusters arrayed around the outside of each ring. They're fired occasionally to maintain the stability of the station and they're used once or twice a year to reposition the station in case we need to dodge an asteroid or a big piece of space debris or something. We will use the thrusters on the tenth ring to push it away from the rest of the station after we've decoupled it."

  "How hard is that to do?"

  "Releasing the clamping system will be the hardest part. After that, we need to activate the thrusters. As I was saying, there are eight sets of thrusters arrayed around each ring. They're located on the outside of the ring, aligned with each of the spokes, The coordination of the thrusters is all handled by computer, so once we get the ring physically decoupled we'll just need to activate the thruster system to push the tenth ring away from the rest of the station. Once the ring is uncoupled, the enemy will be isolated and therefore a great deal easier to handle. Hell, they might even surrender without much of a fight."

  "We can only hope," said Davis-Moore.

  "The population of the station has been lying low and the Sheik's guards haven't had a lot to do. As a result, they have become rather lax," said Earl, "If we're careful and everyone follows my instructions, we should be able to gather down i
n the decoupling area without too much trouble."

  "Sounds like we have a plan," said Davis-Moore.

  "Indeed," replied Earl, he paused for a moment and looked back and forth between Davis-Moore and Carlisle before adding, "There is another issue of some importance, however."

  "And that is...?" asked Davis-Moore.

  "We will need to turn off the alarm systems and authorize the separation sequence using the computer systems in the tenth ring hub."

  "How do we accomplish that?" asked Carlisle.

  "We just need to access the computer control room down there and input the proper codes," replied Earl, "Trouble is, they'll never let any of the station's technical personnel get anywhere near that area. They have it locked down tight."

  "Where is this control room located?" asked Carlisle.

  "It's located in the tenth ring spindle hub," said Earl, "Here, let me show you."

  The little architect swiveled his chair over to his computer terminal where he brought up a schematic of the Nexus Station. He moved the cursor, clicked a few keys and the view zoomed in on the tenth ring. A few more clicks and the control room in question became highlighted. "It's right here, just a short way from the number one spoke elevator."

  "I'm familiar with the basic design," said Carlisle, "We used the control rooms in the spindle of the New Ceylon station when we took it back from a terrorist group a couple of months ago."

  "Excellent," replied Earl, "We just need someone to input the proper codes into this console here." On the schematic, the view zoomed in on one of the computer stations. "I have all the codes, do you think you can get access to that that console?"

  "Can you run those computer systems, Steuben?"

  "Are they any different from the ones on the New Ceylon Station?"

  "That's a single ring station, is it not?" asked Earl.

  "Yes," replied Steuben.

  Earl had to think about that for a moment. "The computers are pretty much standard," he replied, "The single-ring stations also require computer-mediated stabilizing systems. The differences are more in the programming. With my codes in hand, it shouldn't be any problem for you. You just need to get past the guards. Once we input the codes, the separation will be a go. They'd need to input the same codes to halt the process and they don't have them."

  "So...we just need to come up with a plan of some kind to get us into that control room," said Carlisle.

  The room was silent for a few moments.

  "How about a restroom malfunction," suggested Steuben, "They'd probably let us right in."

  "What a novel idea!" said Earl, "I believe that can be arranged. I know just the man to talk to!"

  The conspirators chatted for a few more minutes but everyone was more or less satisfied that they knew what they had to do next.

  Chapter 51.

  Santana Nexus Station, ring three, January 13, 2599.

  Their interview with the station architect completed, the infiltrators reversed their course back through the hidden access tunnels and up the staircase to the restaurant. They made their way out through the restaurant and back into the main corridor of the second level.

  The Scrapyard people were about to part ways with Salaam when, as luck would have it, he spotted the same two guards that been harassing him for the last few weeks and had robbed him under the guise of "performing their duty" just a day or so earlier.

  "By the beard of my Uncle Nabhan!" he hissed under his breath. "These two are nothing but trouble. Keep your heads down and if we are fortunate, perhaps we will pass beneath their notice!"

  But it was not to be. The two goons recognized Salaam immediately and came across the corridor to accost him. The chance for them to terrorize a member of their "flock" of victims was apparently too attractive for the two thugs to pass up.

  "Why if it isn't our old friend Salaam Alwahdi," said Sergeant Hajjar, the leader of the two guards. "You're out bit late, aren't you? Where have you been? Quickly now, or we'll have to send you and your friends down for a little visit with the interrogator."

  Carlisle did her best to stay out of sight behind Salaam. Meanwhile the rest of the corridor had rapidly and mysteriously cleared out. In less than thirty seconds, the four of them were virtually alone with the two thugs.

  "Good evening, Sergeant Hajjar," said Salaam, doing his best to keep his voice even, "I treated my daughter and my two friends to dinner at the restaurant across the corridor."

  "You never told us that you had a daughter," said Hajjar. He pushed Salaam roughly out of the way so he could have a better look at the merchant's "daughter."

  Carlisle had begun to mentally prepare herself for action as soon as the Sheik's men had showed up, should any be needed. She flexed her stomach muscles and did her best to stretch her healing ribs so that any sudden move she might need to make wouldn't aggravate her injury. As she often did in situations like this, she also began to pull on her anger to help focus her energy. The nerve of these goons! She stood calmly, getting madder by the moment, but not allowing it to show. Maybe if these idiots left within the next ten or fifteen seconds, no one would get hurt!

  Some men are born foolish and others are born unlucky. In this particular instance, Salaam's tormentors had the great misfortune of suffering from both of these maladies simultaneously. That and they were rather dimwitted to begin with.

  Sergeant Hajjar circled around Carlisle. "I rather fancy a small woman," he said as he looked her over. He then irrevocably crossed the line when he went from looking to touching. As he circled around to Carlisle's right side, he reached down behind her to clumsily grope at her bottom. "She's a bit muscular for my taste but I must say that she does have the most remarkable eyes." He ended his "inspection" standing directly in front of her. "What do you suppose the rest of her face looks like?"

  He reached up and tore the scarf away from Carlisle's face.

  The man froze in shock at what was revealed with the veil torn away. He saw an enraged woman with a feral grimace on her face and a feared Spacer clan tattoo emblazoned across her left cheek.

  His moment of shocked inaction was all that Carlisle needed.

  Just as it was beginning to dawn upon Hajjar that something about this situation was totally wrong, she was upon him!

  Using her combat training and her gymnastics abilities to concentrate the already enhanced power of her Spacer trained muscles, she leaned forward and stepped up into him, placing one of her hands on each of his shoulders. With her weight temporarily supported by her left leg, she concentrated all of her strength and all of her forward momentum into her right knee, swinging it in a swift and powerful arc that caught Hajjar right between the legs. The vicious blow lifted her would-be assailant a good five centimeters off from the floor! As his feet came back into contact with the deck, he bent forward, doubled over in pain.

  Carlisle, having taken a step back after the initial strike, simply recocked her body and moved in again, repeating the same powerful combination using her left knee, this time catching her attacker full in the face. The man's head snapped back and he sailed over backwards to end up sprawled spread-eagled on the deck. His head made a sickening thud as it made sharp contact with the floor. The Sheik's thug lay there, limp and unconscious, with blood from his nose and mouth streaming down his face. The entire altercation was over in mere seconds.

  His companion, who had been staring in open-mouthed wonder at the spectacle, went down as well after Salaam bent him over with an elbow to the solar plexus and Sergeant Kelly hammered him across the back of the head with one of the potted plants that lined the corridor.

  All of the action was over in less than a minute. The corridor, which had been so quiet before, suddenly saw a flurry of activity.

  "It's about time someone did that!" said a man who appeared at their side, apparently having watched the entire altercation through the front window of his apartment. Several other of the nearby residents also appeared.

  The man who had been first t
o arrive said, "The four of you should go, quickly! Have no fear, we'll take care of these two scumbags! Go, before more of these goons come calling!"

  One of the residents was already cleaning up the potted plant while several others were grabbing onto the unconscious thugs to drag them off the thoroughfare. Salaam briefly wondered where the two henchmen were being taken and what was going to happen to them but immediately realized that he really didn't care. In the last few weeks, these two men had earned whatever punishment that was dealt out to them many times over. Good riddance! Salaam and the other infiltrators thanked the residents and made their way as quickly as possible from the scene of the altercation.

  They had little time to spare in any case, their task was to gather up the other Federation personnel and get them ready to begin the task of herding the Sheik's minions down on to the tenth ring before they uncoupled that ring from the rest of the station.

  Chapter 52.

  Santana Nexus Station, ring three spindle area, January 13, 2599.

  An hour later, Harley Earl and a contingent of the Junkyard Dogs were ready to begin working on the decoupling process. Earl had been able to get everyone outfitted in Nexus Station uniform coveralls and the invaders were all posing as station maintenance people. An assortment of toolboxes, utility carts and backpacks did an excellent job of concealing hand weapons and other items that might be useful for executing an invasion or performing a partial demolition on a space station. As Earl had promised, the number four spindle elevator was sitting with the doors open and the "out of order" light on the panel over the top of the doors illuminated. The bored guard told Earl what he thought about it.

  "You the elevator maintenance crew?" asked the guard.

  "That's us," replied Earl.

  "Well it's about time! The cursed thing stranded me between floors for more than ten minutes just yesterday!"

  "Sorry to hear that," said Earl, "but that's why we're here." The rest of the "repair crew" said nothing and just nodded their heads and watched as the exchange took place.