by T. R. Harris
“Very good, Madam President. There’s hope for you after all.”
There was a recessed panel in the door, for use especially during power outages, and as Drake pulled the door open Robert propelled his way into the outside corridor with all of his strength.
Two guards were stationed outside the door, and now they were surprised by the sight of the flying starship captain. Robert’s momentum carried him into the nearest guard, slamming him into the metal wall of the passageway. The man was stunned momentarily, which was long enough for Robert to relieve him of his weapon.
The second guard saw his companion pinned against the bulkhead and drew his weapon, but Bondel Drake whipped around the doorway and planted both his feet into the man’s chest before he could get off a shot. In the zero gravity, the guard went flailing down the corridor, losing his grip on the weapon along the way. By the time he came in contact with a wall, he was fifty feet away, and Drake was in possession of his handgun.
“Let’s go, Madam President,” Robert called out.
The shaken guard watched as Simms floated past him, with Robert keeping the pistol aimed at the man’s chest. “You backed the wrong horse,” he said to the guard. “Now if I were you, I’d find the fastest way off this station and forget about us.”
“I’m sorry, Madam President, I was just following orders.”
“I give the orders, mister, not Patel. Now get out of my sight before I order Captain Kincaid here to shoot you dead for your high treason and misdemeanors against the UPE.”
“Yes ma’am!” The guard kicked off the wall and flew superman-like toward his waiting partner, and then together they disappeared around the nearest corner.
“Where to now, Captain?” Simms asked, a faint smile now on her face.
“This way; I kept track as we were brought in.”
Even though the station was continuing to be struck by massive lightning bolts, the lack of gravity shielded them from the all but the most violent gyrations. Still, occasionally, one or the other would lose a hand-hold and have to be rescued from drifting helplessly in the middle of one of the wide corridors. After only a few minutes they came to the entrance to the security landing bay.
The corridors and rooms were now filled with panicking people, including diplomats, military, police and even a fair number of ordinary-looking civilians. Very few were in the landing bay itself.
Dozens of people instantly recognized Victoria Simms, but they saw her as the leader of the UPE instead of a fleeing prisoner. Very few aboard the station were part of Patel’s coup, so she had nothing to fear from these people. And nearly all were seeking her help and guidance.
“Remain calm,” she said. “We are working to restore power, so just be patient.”
“Isn’t that thing still growing out there?” someone cried out.
“Everything is under control. UPE forces are going to stop the reaction very soon and then the strikes on the station will end.”
Robert was amazed at how convincing and calming her voice and manner was to those they passed, even when the three escapees knew the truth. She was the consummate politician, able to convince others that what they were seeing with their own eyes wasn’t reality but that only the words she spoke were true.
They now entered the huge security landing bay and spotted the Kai Shek sitting by itself at the far left corner of the room. Using hand-holds on the deck, they made it quickly to the ship.
“The engines are dead, the weapons won’t fire and that huge door over there is closed. I suppose it’s now up to me to figure a way out.”
“We did it before. It’s just like getting off the Vixxie space station.”
“Yeah, but I had active weapons at that time.”
Simultaneously, both men turned their heads toward the stack of liquid propellant barrels stacked along the exterior bulkhead of the landing bay, just to the left of the huge pressure door. “Blow the door and let the escaping atmosphere carry us out?” Drake asked.
“Brilliant idea, Mr. Drake, wish I’d thought of the that. Let me round up a trigger while you empty some of those barrels in front of the door.”
“You’re serious?”
“It’s either that or any second now this station is going to pop like a balloon.”
Drake shook his head and then kicked off the side of the Kai Shek. He reached the barrels and after a quick release of their tie-down buckles, was able to move the one-ton objects with ease. He placed five of them at the center of the exterior door and then opened the spigot on a sixth. He looked hard at the pipe, confused why nothing was coming out.
And then he remembered the gravity—or lack thereof. He began to rock the barrel back and forth, agitating the contents until a flow was finally started. But rather than spread out across the deck, the liquid formed diaphanous clouds in the air before him. It would have to do. Drake kicked off from the door and flew back to the Kai Shek.
“Any luck with a trigger? What still works in here anyway?”
“This laser cutter is battery powered. I think I can get it to reach the door.”
“You can’t be outside when you fire that thing.”
“I’ll be in the hatchway. I’ll light it and then duck back inside.”
“Good luck,” Drake said as he slipped past Robert and headed for the bridge with Simms behind him.
The President strapped in at the comm station and then turned to address Drake. “You’re going to set off an explosion within the bay? Won’t that just kill us, too?”
“Hopefully not. That would upset Robert’s plans if it did.”
A minute later, with objects on the surrounding bulkheads being jarred free by the constant barrage of lightning bolts striking the station, Robert stood at the open side hatchway of the Kai Shek, holding an industrial strength laser cutter in his right hand while watching the yellowish cloud of rocket propellant grow ever-larger near the huge exterior door. Even if he could ignite the liquid, he had no idea whether the blast would be strong enough to breach the door. But what he did know for sure of was that they couldn’t stay there. The station could go any second.
He took aim…and pressed the trigger.
The bright blue beam shot out of the cutter and entered the yellow cloud a fraction of a second later. What followed was something Robert hadn’t been expecting.
The atomized cloud of highly-flammable rocket propellant ignited all right, and the other five full barrels did what they were supposed to do—they exploded. But then a giant, roiling ball of bright yellow flame flashed out toward the Kai Shek, filling half of the huge bay in a fraction of a second. Robert ducked inside and pulled the hatch shut behind him, managing to dog it just as a massive trembler hit the ship.
He could see into the bridge, which was now lit with a blinding yellow light.
And then it all suddenly disappeared. As quickly as it had expanded, the massive flame was sucked out through a gaping hole in the exterior pressure door. Drake kicked off the bulkhead and flew onto the bridge. He slid into the seat behind Robert and strapped in. He could see through the forward viewport as everything that wasn’t nailed down began streaming toward the opening. In the zero gravity, objects even as large as shuttles and police cruisers were being drawn out. The Kai Shek began moving as well.
“Looks like this is going to work!” Drake called out. But then his eyes grew wide—as did Kincaid’s—when the ship began to slide to the right.
“Will it fit through there sideways?” Simms asked.
“Highly doubtful, Madam President.”
The ship picked up speed as it lifted off the deck. Something hit them hard from the right. It was a forklift, and the impact set their course back straight again.
They reached the hole in the pressure door. The forward section of the Kai Shek popped through, but an ear-piercing screech was heard from the port side of the ship as it scraped against the jagged edge of the breach. The ship ricocheted off the left side of the hole and then hit the right e
dge—where it abruptly stopped.
“We’re caught on something!” Drake reported. He was barely heard above all the thumps and pounding of dozens of flying objects striking the ship. With the Kai Shek filling most of the opening, the escaping atmosphere now sped up as it passed on the left side of the ship, sending the flying debris into them at even higher velocity.
“We’re going to be pummeled to pieces if we don’t break free!” Robert cried out.
“No shit! I’m open for suggestions as to what to do, Einstein.”
Just then an awful tearing sound was heard and the three occupants of the Kai Shek held their breath, expecting the ship to rip apart, spilling them into vacuum. Instead the Kai Shek tumbled through space, free of whatever had held them. As they spun, Drake could see back to the space station and noticed that the Kai Shek’s starboard engine was still hooked on the jagged rip in the pressure door.
“I never did like that engine anyway,” he said out of defiance, knowing full well that his mangled ship was destined for the junk heap—if not a cloud of ionized gas and debris.
What was left of the Kai Shek moved away from the massive space station at a snail’s pace. The Council Center Space Station was miles in diameter, and at the rate they tumbled away from it, it would take them an hour to reach safe distance. They had also become fair game for the ropy tendrils of lightning flashes filling the space around them. It was if they had stepped inside a static electricity globe such as kids traditionally receive for Christmas. Discharge threads propagated around them.
“Is it my imagination, or is the planet getting larger?” Simms commented.
Kincaid and Drake took notice. They were in a freefall directly toward the surface, and in a useless tube of metal to boot.
The two pilots began thinking hard on what they could do to get the systems back on line, when the Council Center Space Station exploded. Robert estimated that the Kai Shek was no more than ten miles away; far too close to escape the effects of the blast.
As with all explosions in space, the heat and flame was short-lived, and with no air concussion to propagate, it was only the force of the blast and the expanding debris cloud that evidenced the event. The Kai Shek was swept up in the leading edge of the debris field and propelled forward at an ungodly speed. Her occupants were jostled in their restraints as the ship tumbled freely.
The buffeting against the hull began to lessen the farther they got from the point of the explosion as the debris cloud expanded and began to dissipate. Yet now the tiny, mangled starship was heading even faster for the upper atmosphere of Mother Earth.
“You said you wanted to visit Earth, Kincaid. Well, Earth is about to visit us!”
“Did you just see that?” Robert asked, ignoring Drake’s snide remark. He thought he saw a flash, and not coming from the viewport but from his control panel.
“Just a reflection…no wait, I’ve got something, too.”
“She’s rebooting!” Robert cried out.
Both pilots began to shut off systems and turn them on again, resetting the circuits. Some would be burned out, while others simply had breakers tripped. Soon their panels were ablaze with a confusing mix of lighted panels and dead screens.
“Deploy the masts and mainsails,” Robert ordered. “That should stabilize our fall and might even slow us down some.”
“Good idea. But I’m not going to fire the engines. I’m sure we have fuel leaks everywhere.”
“Yeah, don’t blow us up. That would just piss me off.”
“You sure are a touchy cuss aren’t you, bud? But your suggestion about the masts and sails seems to be working. Our glide path is stabilizing.”
Drake was right, they had stopped tumbling. In fact they were now bottom down on the descent even though the Kai Shek was not designed for a rapid entry landing such as this was turning out to be. She had no special shields to protect her against the heat of reentry, and the interior was already showing the signs of the friction they were experiencing with the atmosphere of the planet Earth.
“You know I have that oversized jib that gives the ship its extra speed. What if I tried using that like a parachute?” Drake asked.
“You can’t at this altitude and speed. You’d just rip it to shreds. We need to find a way to slow down before you try that.”
And then Robert spied the pressure suits enclosed within the two emergency evac stations on the bridge. “Let’s get into those while we have a chance. And inflate them to max. That might give us a little extra padding during a bumpy landing.”
The effects of gravity began to be felt the closer they came to the surface of the planet, and because of that it was a struggle to get Simms into her suit. The two space veterans were in theirs in less than thirty seconds, yet Robert was still struggling with Simms when the ship suddenly began to rock back and forth.
“What’s happening?”
“I’m using the comm dishes to slide us back and forth. It’s helping to slow us some.”
“Will it be enough?”
“I don’t know, but look down there. It’s a city and with a lake off to the southeast.”
“That’s Austin, Texas,” Simms informed them. “I’m from San Antone, not far from there, and that would be Lake Travis.”
“I think I can steer us in that direction using the comm dishes—if they don’t break off. I’d rather land in water than on solid ground.”
“Depends on our speed if it’s going to make a difference.”
“Strap back in; I’m going to deploy the jib.”
The huge sail was made of a special mesh material designed to capture neutrons escaping from dark matter currents. It was extremely tough, much stronger than a conventional sail, yet not designed to carry the weight of an A-16 hauler. When Drake released the sail, it did billow out—for a moment—and then a large tear appeared near the center. The ship whipped around tail down, with the hundred meter-long sail flopping above them through the viewport. Yet it still caught air, and the hole in the center seemed to be helping to keep the rest of it from tearing apart completely.
“I think we’re lined up for the lake, but now I can’t be sure. Hold on, it can’t be much longer—”
There came a thunderous boom and the three occupants of the Kai Shek were crushed backwards in their seats. Pressure assailed their ears, and the air was ripped from their lungs by the sudden deceleration. But then they could see water sloshing across the viewport—just as a huge rip appeared along the port side of the bridge.
Torrents of water gushed in and rapidly filled the chamber. The forward viewport cracked and shattered, allowing even more water to flow in. And then finally what was left of the Kai Shek hit the bottom of the lake and came to a rest.
In the moment after Robert shook off the shock of the landing, he saw Drake release his safety harness. Enclosed in the overinflated environment suit, he shot upwards like a cork, striking the bulkhead just to the left of the broken out window, before bouncing and disappearing through the opening.
Robert did the same, but he was prepared for the sudden rise. He, too, hit the side of the forward bulkhead, yet he held on to a hand-hold and looked down to where Simms was seated.
She was still there, with part of the comm console now collapsed in on her. She struggled to push the metal away so she could reach the central harness release latch, but it was covered with debris.
Robert reached out for other hand-holds and struggled to reach her, but the buoyancy of the suit was too strong of a force. He tried again, and once again ended up pinned against the forward bulkhead.
He met Victoria’s desperate eyes. She pursed her lips and then sat back, giving up on her attempt to break free.
Robert twisted around until he could see out the broken viewport. He could see flickering light above, so they weren’t too deep. He sighed, before he began to hyperventilate. And then after taking in one exceptionally large breath, he unlatched the helmet to his pressure suit.
Immediately, th
e helmet shot off his head, the small air bubble within carrying it up and through the opening. And then the suit itself quickly filled with water, and the heavy metal boots, now with no counteracting influence working against them, pulled him down to where Simms was trapped.
He kicked out of the suit and then grabbed a side of the collapsed comm panel. He positioned his feet on either side of Simms’ shoulders and using the back of her seat as a brace, pushed and pulled with all his strength. The panel pulled way, not much, but enough to where Simms could reach the release latch. And when she did, she shot out of the seat like a cannon ball.
Robert reached out a desperate hand and managed to grab a utility loop on the suit just before she soared out of range. But then Simms hit hard against the forward bulkhead, helmet first. Robert crawled up the suit until he could look through the visor. Her eyes were closed, and there was a trickle of blood coming from her nose.
He kicked off from the wall, pushing the two of them toward the broken out viewport. They reached the edge, and suddenly Robert was rushing through the water holding onto the suit with all his strength as they shot upward.
They broke the surface of the lake at what seemed to be light-speed and were for a moment airborne before plunging back into the water. Robert lost his grip on Victoria’s suit, but he was able to grab a quick breath before sinking back under the surface again. He kicked out and soon he was on the surface and able to take in a more leisurely breath of the life-giving air of the Planet Earth.
He looked around until he saw the bobbing suit of Victoria Simms’ floating face down and twenty feet away. He quickly swam over to her. He turned her over and looked in through the visor. It was now completely fogged, and yet with an abundant mix of blood also coating the interior glass. Robert unlatched the helmet and pulled it away. Water rapidly filled the balance of the suit, and just as had happened with him, the metal boots began to pull her under.
Robert held onto the metal attachment ring for the helmet as he was pulled under the surface. As they sank deeper and the water pressure increased, he reached out with his right arm into the suit in desperation, across Simms’s left breast and under her armpit. He released his hold on the helmet ring and kicked out, pulling the unconscious woman from the environment suit as it continued on into the abyss. Another couple of kicks and they were on the surface.
