Children Of Earth (Tales from the 23rd Century Book 1)

by Paul J. Fleming

  Then she recalled his private conversations over the comm., always requesting she leave the flight deck when he had to call in to his contacts. She knew of his Martian heritage, but he had declared himself fiercely apart from Martian society on the whole.

  Now, after Maddox voiced his suspicions she began to quickly realise how much in the dark he had kept her and keenly steered conversation away from his past and family. She had been so blind and naïve, an innocent face to lull their target into a false sense of security with her innocence.

  Her eyes began to fill with tears as the realisation took hold. Now she was far from her home, from her old friends and facing a very difficult situation in the company of a complete stranger who had every reason to hate her for this entrapment.

  ‘Oh for crying out loud,’ Maddox exclaimed under his breath. ‘Okay, you come along with me, but if I think you’re trying to hold me back on purpose I’ll leave you behind with no reservations whatsoever. Understand?’

  She glared up at him in complete surprise, his direct offer of helping her escape her seemingly inevitable fate hanging in the air between them.

  ‘Well?’ Maddox urged keenly. ‘You in or out?’

  ‘I’m in!’ She almost shouted, but caught herself in time, looking a little sheepish and repeating in a more hushed voice, ‘In!’.

  ‘Okay then, get hold of your helmet and be ready to make a quick dash for that open gap in the serving counter over there, once you get through we’re heading into the food prep area and out of this place.’

  He paused slightly to check how the Martians were faring against the rather imposing and forceful owner of the diner and slowly he retrieved a small unit from his inside jacket pocket, his thumb poised over the centre of its waiting display, which presented the graphic of a large red button.

  ‘Get ready,’ he quietly said to her, waiting for just the correct moment to effect his planned means of diversion. He did not have to wait long before his moment came and his thumb descended onto the control’s screen and the graphic of the red button depressed on its display, the unit then being discarded to the table as Maddox prepared for his quick departure.

  There was a single occupant of that booth beside the airlock closest to the Martian militia who now stood from his seat and turned to face the troopers, opening the front of his jacket to reveal explosives tightly packed around his waist and a control switch held in his outstretched hand. Their immediate response was shock, weapons being brought to bear on the man, but no shots fired as the senior officer tried to convince him to stay his action.

  The man simply stood there, looking about and remaining silent in the face of his Martian opposition.

  ‘Come on,’ Maddox said to Maia earnestly as he kept a watchful eye on the militia facing the apparent threat. ‘Time we made our exit!’

  ‘Our exit? To where?’ She asked as she knew the main airlock was completely out of the question, then she followed his indication as Maddox nodded and glanced slightly to his left.

  ‘We head out the back way, through the cargo loading bay at the back of this dive. It’s how Dave gets his supplies in regularly. Chances are though that those Martians will be upon us in moments when they realise my little friend down there is just a hologram, only to discover we have made our move. So we need to move quickly and without falter, get through the door to the supply room and then secure the airlock door into the loading bay. Once we’re in there we cycle the system and hope it finishes before they can get their associates outside to come around the building to cut off our exit.’

  Something in the plan was not filling her with the utmost hope and her face seemed to display this uncertainty.

  ‘Don’t worry. Once we’re outside and free to move my ship will pick us up. We just have to keep ahead of those militia until she arrives. Easy really.’

  His statement was finished with a big reassuring grin, but still it failed to encourage her that his plan was indeed simple and foolproof.

  ‘Sounds like you’ve done this before?’

  ‘What? Escaped from the confines of a tacky diner on a backwater asteroid whilst being pursued by at least three Martian Militia inside and god knows how many outside waiting for us to emerge? Can’t say it’s a regular occurrence, but I’m willing to give it a go!’

  She glared at him with a look of abject disbelief, only to be greeted by that roguish grin and a wink. That was the problem with rocket boys, they always tried to wind you up when you wanted a sincere answer on the level.

  ‘Come on!’ he said to her as he darted from his seat, trailing his helmet behind him as he moved quickly towards the open end of the serving counter.

  Maia only took a moment to decide. Stay here and be herded up by the Martians, subject to whatever happened at their discretion in light of their failure here or follow the disturbingly enigmatic Captain John Maddox in some hair brained scheme to escape and fly to freedom with every chance they were going to be captured at some point along the way. Hell, they may even make it.

  Diving from her seat she hurriedly followed in Maddox’s wake. Not the first time she had followed some nice guy on an apparent fool’s errand.

  2 Out of the Frying Pan

  Quickly navigating around the serving counter and darting inside the doorway leading to the kitchen area, Maddox paused on the threshold to allow his new companion the time to catch up and make her way through the door. It gave him precious few moments to quickly review the situation involving the Martian troopers and the holographic man with the explosives, and how their sudden movement had alerted the former who were now torn as to how to deal with the threat before them quickly so they could engage in pursuit of the fleeing targets. Their answer came in the form of a glitch in the holoemitter Maddox had taken the foresight to affix above the booth by the door prior to Maia’s arrival, which cause the man to scramble for a moment in a burst of static before vanishing, re-appearing in his seat and going through the process of standing once more to brandish his now clearly harmless explosives. It was a handy little diversion tactic which he had used before, but Maddox was a little disappointed it had not held the militia for a little longer.

  ‘Well, at least they’ll leave the other poor sods in this dive alone if they’re concentrating on us,’ he muttered as he slammed the door shut and pulled a precarious stack of boxes over to block the doorway.

  Turning and glancing about their new accommodation, his gaze was drawn along the long, narrow passageway set between metallic work surfaces running along either side of the rectangular kitchen area, which were filled with various dishes and pans, cooking implements and numerous scattered piles of food debris. In his mind, he could not help but be thankful that he’d not ordered from the food menu on arrival as the sight of the blackened pots bubbling away on the stove over to his far left surrounded by rather dubious looking pools of hard baked on remnants from previous culinary endeavours made him suspicious that the diner had any food rating at all. The smell emanating from the bubbling creation was almost as nauseating as the sights he was taking in. How it didn’t waft out into the main body of the diner was a mystery, but not one he had time to contemplate as the door behind him shook under the impact from a Martian shoulder. Thankfully the tumbled boxes had lent support to the rather flimsy catch to prevent their pursuers access for the time being.

  ‘Over there at the far end,’ he said to Maia. ‘Through the open doors into the storage area. Let’s move as I don’t know how long these boxes will prevent our Martian friends from gaining entry!’

  Hurriedly the two of them passed through the kitchen and exited through the large double doors into the widened storage area which was lined with shelving on both sides and in front of them. As Maddox crossed the threshold he heard shouts from behind and glanced backwards to see the door he had blocked being shoved open and the first of their three pursuers trying to squeeze his torso through the resultant opening gap. To Maddox’s dismay the Martian had the forethought to shove his rifle
through before himself and now held the normally two-handed weapon outstretched rather clumsily in the general direction of Maia and Maddox.

  Ducking backwards slightly as energy bolts streamed wildly along the length of the kitchen area and splattered against the wall in which the double doors were set, Maddox hurriedly glanced about the door pillars for the control panel which would seal the entrance to the store room.

  ‘Hey! The door controls are over here on this side!’ Shouted Maia as she too ducked back to avoid falling prey to the wildly fired energy blasts. She had been watching Maddox keenly, her initial impression that he was the more experienced when it came to fleeing from the authorities under threat as there was a nagging suspicion growing in her mind that the majority of this impression he gave off was more from bravado than experience.

  ‘Well get these doors closed then and cycle the pressure. It will automatically seal the doors preventing those guys from simply opening them from the other side,’ he shouted back a little more earnestly than he intended to, however the distance between them both and the noise he was enduring from repeated fire from the laser rifle simply cajoled a more emphatic response from him almost automatically.

  ‘Okay! No need to shout,’ was her slightly embittered response as she faced the panel beside her and then keyed the control to seal the doors and cycle the pressure.

  ‘Now I’ve sealed us into the store room would you care to enlighten me as to how we intend to get out?’ She asked of him keenly, waiting to hear the carefully thought through next step of his escape plan.

  Maddox could hear a mix of both fear and frustration present in her voice as she asked the question he was still quickly formulating the answer to. So far she seemed to be going along with him out of deference to his apparent calmness under the circumstances, so the last thing he wanted to actually go and do was to admit he didn’t have any set plan as such, rather he was just making the whole thing up as they went along. He knew that their ticket off this little rock was presently awaiting his call, after which it would be inbound to their position, but it was the bit in-between their current predicament and then sitting in his comfy captain’s chair on the flight deck of his much beloved ship that was confounding things.

  Glancing over towards her he held up both his hands in her direction to encourage both patience and his desire for her to just wait for a moment as he turned his gaze to the store room. There was a sinking feeling as his sight took in the shelving running unbroken about the three walls facing him and for a brief moment he experienced a sense of panic that they had just sealed themselves into a dead end.

  It made no sense. Why put an airlock system in a sealed room? In a sudden flash of realisation he noticed the air was definitely very thin within the room and his helmet was still firmly grasped in his right hand. Gesturing for Maia to follow his example, he raised it upwards he slipped the transparent helmet over his head and it soon made an automatic seal with the collar of his smart suit, micro circuitry establishing contact and his suit systems establishing a pressurised environment to protect him from the lack of atmosphere externally. Albeit safe for the time being, without the provision of air tanks to connect into the suits’ systems they both had a very limited amount of time in which the suit could cycle the emergency supply before they would be forced to emerge from the depressurised room and into the waiting arms of the Martians, who by now would have gained access to the kitchen area only to be frustrated once more by the sealed pressure doors. Pulling on the protective gloves he retrieved from his jacket pocket, he pushed away the negative thoughts in his mind as the gloves made a seal with the cuffs of his jacket. An idle glance over to Maia told him she had followed his lead too, now fully contained in a limited protected environment. It would suffice for the moment.

  Almost instinctively he glanced upwards, more out of frustration than expectation, but the sight of the large hinged hatch set within the roof of the room almost made him physically jump for joy. This was tempered at his apparent stupidity for not realising that delivery ships would simply establish a stationary orbit above the store room and lower the crates of supplies down into the room without any of the crew having to disembark to manhandle the delivery. The staff of the diner would then be tasked with opening and storing the goods on the shelving about them once the room re-pressurised after the delivery was complete.

  The problem they now faced was that there was no need from within the store room to have a detailed control panel. Just a simple pressurise/depressurise over-ride control for safety requirements. The main panel with the more detailed controls, including the opening of the roof hatch, was now on the other side of the sealed doorway within the kitchen area.

  Moving from his secluded position to the side of the now closed doorway, Maddox moved to the large observation window set within the double doors. Maybe there was a fleeting chance their pursuers had given up on following their quarry and were exiting via the customer entrance in expectation of the potential escape route Maddox and Maia had chosen. His hopes were dashed as he found himself staring into the face of a rather amused looking Martian trooper who simply waved at him through the transparent alloy view port and then pointed upwards, indicating that he wished Maddox to look in that direction.

  They were annoyingly confident and the resounding clunk and grinding noise which began from above Maddox’s head signified that they had begun the process of opening the outer hatch set into the roof. That meant they had obviously arranged a reception party to be present up above for when the two fleeing targets tried to emerge. Frustration began to take hold over his thoughts as he heard Maia almost pleadingly asking him what they were going to do now.

  The simple fact was he was running short on ideas.

  Out of that frustration and a further act of defiance, Maddox grabbed one of the foam fire extinguishers which was sat on the floor to his left by the door pillar and pulled the release pin, bringing the hose upwards and then squeezing the trigger to liberally coat the observation window with thick gloopy foam. He decided he’d rather not have his impending capture watched and gloated over by the Martians in the kitchen, at least he could deny them that small pleasure.

  The pressurised jet of foam streamed out and covered the window and door as desired, but the resultant pressurised stream caused Maddox to be pushed backwards with surprising force into the centre of the store room. As he released the trigger, he gazed down at the container and then upwards at the now rapidly opening gap above them both. It would not be long before whatever reception the Martians had waiting for them was sprung into action. However, even though there was artificial gravity plating in the body of the Diner itself, the store room did not seem to be outfitted with it and subsequently they were subject to the very meagre limited natural gravity the asteroid exuded as it spun around on its travel through the belt. Above him, he could see the blackness of space scattered with a myriad of pinpricks of light from the multitude of stars in the universe.

  ‘Maia, grab that extinguisher from over there and come over to me quickly. We’ll only get one shot at this,’ he urged her intently over the open comm. channel of his helmet.

  ‘Captain,’ chimed in another voice over the open channel. ‘I have been monitoring your situation with regard to your unexpected guests and presently am moments away at high velocity. There is a naval patrol vessel standing off the Diner’s location at station keeping which I am just starting to receive identification requests from as I continue my approach. We have to assume they intend to intervene should I refuse to respond, which I have done so far. I fear that making ground-fall for any period of time may prove difficult under these circumstances.’

  ‘Ezri, you’re a very welcome sound to my ears. We’re about to take our leave of the Diner rather hastily via the store room delivery hatch. Can you get a lock on my comm. unit?’

  There was a moment's pause before Ezri responded positively, within which Maia arrived at Maddox’s side, clutching the extinguisher she had lib
erated from its stand.

  ‘Mind telling me what the hell we are about to do?’ Maia asked with urgency in her voice.

  ‘Hang on, Ezri get ready for a low pass. We’re going to try a bug-swallow,’ Maddox said as he tried to sound as confident in complete contradiction to the feeling he was having about his current hazardous plan.

  ‘Bug-swallow?’ came two voices almost in unison over the comms in response to him.

  ‘Yes, bug-swallow. We’re about to have unpleasant company so I hope you’re going to be passing by very soon,’ Maddox quickly answered as he retrieved the second extinguisher from Maia and tucked the pressurised cylinders under each arm and grasped the hose of each, one in his left hand and one in his right. ‘Maia, for this to work I need you to hold onto me, wrap your legs around my waist as tightly as you can and grab the trigger of each extinguisher with your hands. Whatever you do hang on tight and when I say squeeze those triggers hard. I’ll direct the flow to propel us up and out of the hatch and hopefully away from anyone who might be about to jump us from us there.’

  ‘Are you completely deranged?’ she asked incredulously, but whilst still harbouring deep seated doubts about this plan she could see no possible alternative aside from throwing herself on the mercy of their impending captors. Even though she was not widely travelled, she knew the stories of how the Martians treated their prisoners from the privateers who passed through the space port where she spent most of her adolescence.

  Resigning herself to the rather up close and intimate embrace they had to enact to ensure they were not parted from each other’s company in the effort to escape, she placed her hands upon Maddox’s shoulders and lifted herself off the ground with limited effort in the low gravity well of the asteroid to bring her legs either side of him and wrap around his waist, trying to hook her feet together behind the small of his back. Tensing her thighs against his hips, she released her grip on his shoulders and reached down to grasp the trigger mechanism of the extinguishers in either hand.