by CJ Williams
George’s next words came at the same instant the blinding light of a nuclear detonation filled the space ahead.
“Shutting down as ordered,” the warship announced. Luke could hear defeat in his voice.
“Can you hear me, George?”
“I am still here, Commander. The command was to kill all weapons, shields, and propulsion drives.”
“Did we get him?”
“I infer from the fact that we are still talking that we did, at least to some extent. The blast has momentarily blinded my external sensors.”
“Status of the planet?”
“Damage to one of the smaller continents.”
The chancellor gasped in horror at the news. “Was anyone hurt?” she asked.
“Unknown, Madam Chancellor. Reporting is limited thus far. We will have to wait, but that is not the main issue.”
“Tell me,” Luke said.
“The Bakkui has resumed firing on the planet, but at a much slower rate. It may still be enough to cause eventual annihilation.”
“Options?”
“Processing sensor information.” George responded slowly. “It appears the Bakkui is unable to maneuver with his main drives. My conjecture is that he has stabilizing thrusters only and is using them to direct his fire on the planet.”
“So we’re safe?” Luke asked.
“Negative, Commander. We will impact what is left of the Bakkui craft in approximately fifteen minutes. With my shields down, the collision will destroy this craft.”
“Will that be enough to kill it?” the chancellor wanted to know.
“Doubtful,” George replied. “We will hit the main mass of what is left of the target. I can now see that the enemy has a single cannon still firing. If we were to hit that cannon it might permanently disable its offensive capability.”
“But you can’t adjust your trajectory?” Luke asked.
“I cannot. However…”
“Tell us,” the chancellor pleaded. “We have to stop it! There must be something we can do.”
“There is one high-risk possibility, Commander.”
“Go ahead.”
“The plan entails an almost certain probability of death.”
“What if we don’t?”
“I project an almost certain probability of death that is slightly lower.”
“You’re wasting time!” the chancellor shouted.
“You heard her, George. Let’s do what we can to take this guy down.”
“Understood, Commander. Please proceed to the hangar bay, I will have everything ready by the time you arrive.”
# # #
Luke saw the replicator shimmer fade away as they neared the hangar bay. He laughed aloud when he saw the modified scooter on the replicator pad.
“This is what you had in mind? Attack the Bakkui on a toy?”
George sounded harried. “Anything more complex would take too much replicator time. You must hurry.”
Luke could not keep from grinning as he mounted the scooter. The controls were just like the ones back on Moonbase One. The only exception was a lighted red button between the handlebars. “What’s button for, George?”
“That will activate a flight profile that will maximize your distance from the Bakkui ship prior to the time that I reach his vessel. Even now the enemy is regenerating his shield capability to prevent my impact from causing additional damage. To offset, I plan to replicate a large nuclear device once you depart. My hope is to take out those shields.”
“Then what do we do?”
“I have included a cutting tool on the back.”
“I see it.”
“Use that to destroy his last cannon. It may eliminate its last offensive capability.”
Luke took two personal force fields from an equipment locker and activated them before strapping one to the chancellor and the other to his belt. He motioned for the chancellor to sit behind him. She slid onto the seat and wrapped her arms tightly around his waist.
“Ready!” Luke shouted.
George opened the hangar bay door and Luke gunned the scooter forward. As soon as he was clear of the warship, he slammed the red button. The scooter rolled to the side, pointing its wide base toward the Bakkui ship. It’s gravity drives activated, driving the scooter away from George and his impending collision with the Bakkui.
Luke watched George get smaller as the distance between the two warships closed. He had vastly underestimated how big the Bakkui ship was. It was at least the size of Lulubelle.
George’s last nuke went off and a star blossomed against the enemy’s hull.
“Don’t look,” Luke cried.
The shock wave from the detonation rushed outward in an expanding sphere of almost invisible energy.
“Hang on,” Luke shouted once more. “This could get hot!”
The wave was uncomfortable and the heat intense. But the distance remaining between the scooter and George’s detonation made the attenuated blast survivable.
The goal now was to close on what was left of the Bakkui vessel before it could regenerate its shields. As Luke approached the massive spacecraft, he felt like a child riding a tricycle next to an aircraft carrier. He steered the scooter toward the front of the damaged Bakkui, trying to spot the still-firing cannon. If they were lucky, the last explosion could have taken it out, turning the Bakkui into a derelict. Even as that hope grew, a flash of light identified the functional weapon.
No such luck, he thought.
The chancellor groaned with disappointment at the sight. She squeezed Luke’s middle. “Hurry!”
The cannon barrel was larger than those on the Ambrosia-class warships. The tube jutted out from a large, slope-sided gun-housing built atop the cylindrical hull.
Another round fired, spitting smoke and flame from the end of the cannon. The barrel kicked back into the housing before bouncing back. The recoil meant it was using an explosive charge to fire the projectiles, unlike the gravity cannons.
A large metal canister kicked out of a slot in the side of the housing.
“No Way!” Luke exclaimed in surprise. “That thing is using gunpowder, or something like it. Can you believe that?”
“Gum-pah-dor?” the chancellor replied.
Luke shook his head. “Nevermind. I’m just saying this thing is using some really old technology. We’ll worry about the implications later. Right now, what it means is George was right. It shouldn’t be that hard to sabotage.”
Luke bumped the throttle, sending the scooter down the length of the barrel. It was a built-up barrel to accommodate the stress of the powder’s gas pressure. Overlapping cylinders of steel progressively jacketed the inner tube. Luke was astonished by the old technology; it would be outdated on his own world.
He came to a stop just past the last reinforcing jacket. “This is where we’ll set up, it will be the easiest cut.” He twisted around on the scooter so he was facing backwards, his knees touching hers. “Once I leave the scooter there’s no gravity. Remember what happened on the bridge when George cut power?”
The chancellor nodded, her eyes wide at the memory.
“Don’t worry about it; I promise neither of us will float away.” Luke pushed her leg out of the way and dug into the scooter’s saddlebag. He pulled out a length of rope and pair of gloves, standard issue on all scooters. He tied one end of the rope around her waist, the other around his own.
“I want you to stay on the scooter; hang onto the handlebars. If you get loose I’ll just pull you back in.” He held up the rope. “The main thing is that both of us take our time. If necessary, we just keep starting over until we get it right.”
“But we have to hurry,” she said urgently.
“Nothing will make this take longer than hurrying. Please believe me.”
The chancellor looked into his eyes and nodded. “I do,” she said.
Luke reached behind her and grasped the cutting tool George had included. It had a chainsaw-type handle with an adj
ustable blade. When triggered it would cut through anything.
“I’m going to use this to cut the barrel. You just sit tight, okay?”
Her face was filled with fear.
“It’ll be fine,” Luke said reassuringly.
The cannon fired again. It was eerie to be this close to the end of the gigantic muzzle and not hear a sound. The canister ejected out of the slot and spun off into the distance.
“That’s about four minutes between rounds,” Luke said. “Wish me luck!” He pushed off toward the cannon. Once in place, he looped the rope around the barrel to hold him steady.
Bracing his feet against the tube, he leaned backwards and slowly brought the cutter down against it. The blade was not long enough to slice all the way through the cannon so he used it like a can opener, working his way around. It was slow going. When the cut was slightly more than halfway, he felt a vibration in the tube. The Bakkui was loading a round in the chamber. He sliced off a small chunk of the tube and jammed it into the cut. It was time to get away before the next round.
He slipped the rope from his waist and pushed off toward the scooter. “Take off the rope!” he shouted at the chancellor as he slid onto the seat.
“It’s gone,” she said as she threw away the loose end. She grabbed Luke with both arms.
He leaned away from the enemy ship and opened the throttle. “Any second now,” he said, looking back over his shoulder.
The cannon fired once more. A small flame jetted from the cut but the muzzle flash seemed as large as before.
“It’s still firing,” the chancellor exclaimed.
Luke brought the scooter to a stop to examine the cannon. “No. Look at the barrel,” he said. “That last shot bent it about thirty degrees. Next one should do it.”
“What if it doesn’t?”
“We just keep at it!” he replied. “But let’s see what happens.”
When the cannon fired again, the twisted barrel caused a backfire into the gun housing, which exploded, sending fragments in all directions.
Damn. Luke jerked the scooter away and twisted the throttle full open.
Something heavy hit the back of the scooter, making it skid sideways. The chancellor lost her grip around his middle. He looked back and saw her drifting in space with small red globules gathering around her still body.
He turned back and hurried to her side. She was conscious but her face was filled with confusion and she gasped for breath. Blood bubbled from a puncture wound on her back. A piece of jagged debris drifted nearby, its twisted point covered in blood.
He dug into the saddlebags and found the first aid kit. He tore away her jumpsuit, exposing the wound, and squirted a bottle of antiseptic liquid over it. After covering the puncture with gauze, he wrapped a long elastic bandage around her back and shoulder. While he worked, he mumbled various reassurances. The young woman groaned during his ministrations but otherwise bore it stoically.
A flash of light reflected off her face. She groaned in misery and pointed at the Bakkui. “Look,” she moaned.
A new gun housing had appeared on the enemy vessel. The Bakkui ship’s self-repair was still functioning. While they watched it fired again.
“Go,” the chancellor said. “Leave me. Just promise me that you’ll stop that monster.”
Luke was running out of ideas. If he left her floating in space, he might not be able to find her again. He wasn’t sure he could even find the cutter. In his haste to escape the explosion, he’d left it floating near the gun housing. He was feeling light headed and suddenly realized that much of the blood that had accumulated around the chancellor’s body was his own.
A shadow crossed in front of the sun, drawing his gaze. Great. If this was another Bakkui ship, it was all over. The configuration was new to him but it looked like a large fighter.
A door opened on the side of the fuselage and he saw a shadowy figure silhouetted against the bright interior. She had flyaway blonde hair with red highlights.
“Annie?” he croaked.
The cannon on Annie’s strange looking ship fired one time and the Bakkui exploded. The detonation cascaded throughout the vessel. Massive eruptions burst through the hull one after another, racing from the middle of the ship outwards. Halfway along the hull a huge secondary explosion tore the entire ship into pieces.
Annie floated out and pulled the chancellor into her ship. A second later she was back to retrieve Luke. He had a million questions but his vision was getting fuzzy. Annie made noises about blood on his clothes and he tried to explain the chancellor’s wound but he slumped to the deck, unconscious.
# # #
Luke sat in the hospital bed, watching TV. During his recovery, he was amused to discover the Jiguan’s loved soap operas. He was annoyed when he got sucked into a daytime drama. He watched it each morning. Today it appeared that the brusque but handsome psychologist had fallen for the cute but conniving fortune-teller. It was ridiculous.
But he had nothing else to do. In Earth movies, the heroes jumped out of hospital beds and pushed doctors aside to run out and pummel the bad guys into submission. In Luke’s case, any of the petite, blue-skinned nurses could have taken him down with one hand tied behind their back.
He had a million things on his to-do list but he was exhausted. The nurse said it was due to loss of blood. A transfusion was evidently not possible. His brand of human blood wouldn’t mix with the locals. He explained that his blood type, 0 positive, could accept blood from anyone. The doctors disputed his medical acumen but they did load him up with IVs and oxygen. He would survive; it would just take a little more time.
At the moment, Luke didn’t care. He wasn’t in a hurry because Annie kept him company. He was still getting used to the idea she was back. He was not surprised to discover that she was already a local hero.
She’d saved the planet, rescued the young chancellor, and brought the warlord back from the brink of death. The hospital staff talked to each other endlessly about the exciting details, but not to Luke. Medical practitioners on Jigu believed patients needed rest and that external concerns only delayed recovery.
The TV drama ended and news came back on. For the hundredth time Luke watched the video of the destruction of the Bakkui warship by Annie’s last-minute arrival. The report was sprinkled with video taken by the little scooter, George, and even from the planet’s surface. Luke hadn’t known the scooter was recording anything, much less how the locals had managed to capture the shots from the surface. No one would tell him anything.
The one tidbit they did share was that the chancellor was alive and well. She was recuperating in a separate wing of the hospital but not ready for visitors. Annie gave him updates during her visits. Hospital rules did not seem to apply to Annie. Luke was not surprised. She had a way of bulldozing through bureaucracy no matter what planet she was on. She already informed Tyler that she was reorganizing the military forces here and on the moon.
The door to his hospital room slid open and a familiar figure walked in with a smile on his face.
“Tyler!” Luke exclaimed. “I must be on the mend or you wouldn’t be here.”
“You are.” Tyler grinned. “I’m here to take you away. If you can stand up on your own, that is.”
“I don’t think that’s a problem.” Luke stood and stretched. “See? Everything works.”
“Touch your toes,” Tyler suggested.
“Everything works, but not that well,” Luke admitted, sitting back on the bed. “Give me a few more days to get back in shape.”
“Fair enough. I thought we would take you up to Moonbase if you like.”
“What about Annie?” Luke asked.
“She’s visiting the chancellor. She’ll be here in a minute.”
“Annie and Sarangi seem to have hit it off well,” Luke observed.
“Oh! Sarangi now, is it?”
Luke smiled. “We went through a lot together. I have royal permission to use her given name.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” Tyler said. “That’s going to make life easier for both of us. She’s introducing Annie to her fiancé now.”
That piece of news had spread around the planet like wildfire. The young man was on patrol when the intruder arrived, but only three of the patrol ships were actually lost; the rest were simply disabled.
“Since I’m getting out of this place, give me an update. I’m tired of being kept in the dark. Even Annie won’t tell me anything.”
Tyler took a seat next to Luke’s bed. “She’s been very tight-lipped since she got here. There’s more to her story than she’s let on so far. But I gather you know about the level-two-device.”
“Yes. George told us when he realized what was going on. How did you know?”
“Annie told me. The same thing happened back on Earth. Anyway, the Bakkui destroyer gave shutdown orders to our AIs. My guess is that it didn’t even know there were humans onboard. Think about it. That ship lives in a world without life. To it, there are only machines.”
Luke wasn’t sure about that, but anything was possible. “Maybe,” he admitted.
Tyler continued. “Annie got here and knew right away what had happened. First thing she did was blow the Bakkui ship to kingdom come. She also transmitted an override signal to our warships that reversed the shutdown command. We were back on alert within a few minutes.”
“All of that sounds good,” Luke said.
“Our crews were alive, except for the three ships we lost. The chancellor’s boyfriend, Be’rim is his name, was one of the survivors. I see a wedding in the near future. You’ll probably get an invite.”
Luke leaned back against the pillows. “Thank God for that. And thank God for Annie. I couldn’t believe it when I woke up and she was sitting here beside me.”
“You remember seeing her in space.”
“Nope. Nothing at all. Last thing I remember is trying to cut that stupid barrel off the Bakkui.”
Tyler nodded. “So I take it you and Annie are back together? No hard feelings?”
