Calin, with one eye on the tunnel behind them, asked, “What was that all about Cap’n?”
She only grinned and looked at a timer on her glove. In a calm voice she counted down, “3… 2… 1…” As she reached zero, Calin felt the pressure wave of another powerful explosion ripple down the tunnel. The ground beneath his feet jumped as thick gray Moon dust billowed down the passageway to wrap them in a dark cloud.
Calin could almost hear a hint of giddiness in the Captain’s voice when she replied, “I overloaded the power packs on the mining lasers. The cave-in back there should buy us a few minutes. But we need to hurry. It won’t take them long to find a connected tunnel to bypass it.”
“And where did you learn that interesting trick?” he asked, as their ragtag group continued their trek down the tunnel behind Dean.
Laughing, Neomi said, “What? Did you think I was always this suave, cool Captain of the fastest spaceship on the Moon you see before you? I’ve been wanting to try that trick for years!”
The Captain rarely talked about her past, so Calin grabbed the opportunity and pressed, “Turning the power pack of a mining laser into a delayed bomb? That’s not something you learn on any job I know of.”
The mirth in her voice vanished as she replied, “And you won’t.” She paused before continuing, “A long time ago, I worked with an Engineer once. He spent more time figuring out how to make things go boom than how to fix them.”
“Worked with? He didn’t work FOR you?”
With a negative shake of her head, she said, “No. At the time I was the Admin of a corporate tech lab and he was my Lead Engineer.”
A hint of loneliness in her voice gave Calin the impression the Engineer had been much more than a colleague and employee. “This Engineer, he was a friend?” he asked carefully.
Neomi was silent for a minute as they trekked through the tunnel before snapping out of her memories and replying softly, “Yes, he was.”
“What happened to him?”
“The idiot blew himself up,” was her flat response.
Calin grimaced and backed off, “Sorry,” he offered sincerely.
Even over the suit comms, he could hear the forced lightheartedness in her voice when she replied, “But this was a long time before I found the Sea Rover and became the smuggler extraordinaire you know today.”
While they talked, Dean led the group deeper into the mines. The passageway they were in now was a fresh one, the only light available shone from everyone’s helmets. The tunnel disappeared into blackness both in front and behind them.
Dean, with his head down studying his map display, held up a fist to signal everyone to stop. “Here,” he said and pointed to the wall to their right. “Ten feet through that rock is the cavern with the Sea Rover. This is as close as we can get.” The Engineer pointed at the miners still carrying their mining lasers, “If all of you focus your lasers at this section of the tunnel, we can drill a narrow passageway through. Once you breach through to the vacuum on the other side, be prepared for the decompression.”
Over their private channel, Calin heard Neomi contact the ship’s on-board Artificial Intelligence.
“Rose, do you read?” the Captain asked.
“Loud and clear Ma’am,” came a soft, female voice.
“Are you secure? Are there any PPD troops near you?”
“No, Captain. The PPD are still focusing their efforts on the primary mine entrance.”
“Good. Start warming up the engines, but don’t fire them up. Keep things nice and quiet, got it? And lower the loading ramp,” Neomi ordered the A.I.
“Roger, Captain.”
Calin joined the rest of the miners behind boulders and support columns as several of the miners stood in front of the wall and lit up their mining lasers. The bright flashes and glow from the lasers as they chewed their way through the lunar rock left sparkles floating in front of Calin’s eyes. But the miners knew how to do their job, and within a few minutes there was a sudden rush of wind as the air in the tunnel escaped out to the surface of the Moon.
He led the way through the narrow passage, the edges still glowing red hot, and out into a large man-made cave. There in the center, waiting patiently for her crew to board, was the Sea Rover.
For those that didn’t know any better, she looked like a pile of scrap. But to Calin, she was always a beautiful sight.
The Sea Rover was a decommissioned Solar System Authority Small Corvette. She had the smooth atmospheric lines of a fleet shuttle, but with more range than most cargo ships thanks to her twin large engines. Normally, when the military retired old ships, the craft were torn down, recycled, and sold for scrap. But somehow, Captain Neomi got her hands on the Sea Rover before she had reached the scrap yards. Over the years her old hull had been patched and welded in a dozen places with mismatched plates, all of which only added to the perception the ship was a flying hunk of junk. But inside, Neomi had updated the engines and tech to the very best military hardware available on the black market.
The Sea Rover had interplanetary flight capability, tech usually only available to the ultra-rich or the government. She had plenty of cargo space and two crew cabins for long runs. With the flight range the Sea Rover had, the Captain never had a problem finding jobs or clients. Hell, he’d even flown her on a few Saturn runs.
And even though he had worked for Neomi for years now, she still wouldn’t reveal the details on how she had acquired the Sea Rover and the A.I., Rose. But as long as he got to fly her, he didn’t care.
In Calin’s opinion, the ship’s only real weakness was her lack of weaponry. Captain Neomi absolutely refused to install any. She operated by the philosophy that smugglers sneaked when they could and ran when they couldn’t. A space battle with the PPD, or worse, the Solar System Authority, would only bring you a ton of unwanted attention. She always loved to lecture; don’t poke them and maybe they won’t poke you.
Calin peeked around a boulder and drew his blaster. Well, that philosophy didn’t seem to fly anymore. Today the PPD seemed to have begun a new, more aggressive policy for smugglers, illegal mining, and the Moonies working in them. Waving his arm forward, he urged the miners, “Hurry, get on board! They would have seen the decompression!”
And on cue, blaster bolts and military powered laser cannons from the troops in the crater outside poured into the cavern.
Everyone loped as fast as they could in the low gravity, using the enormous boulders scattered across the cavern floor as cover when possible. Calin and Neomi guided the group of miners toward the rear of the Sea Rover and up the loading ramp. Dean rushed to his station to complete the preparations for launch. Two miners joined Neomi at the bottom of the ramp and used their mining lasers to provide cover fire. The mining tools made for clunky and inaccurate weapons, but the fireworks show they added was impressive.
Calin used a landing leg as cover and added to the cover fire with his blaster. He picked off targets one by one, praying his damn arm wouldn’t malfunction on him again. Cranky cybernetics or not, he would not go down without a fight, even if he had to throw rocks at them.
Neomi, after retrieving a blaster rifle stored next to the loading ramp, opened up a continuous stream of blaster fire toward the mouth of the cave. Making the PPD troops dive for cover brought a gleam to her eye and a smile Calin could see even through her helmet. He couldn’t help but shake his head in amusement, regardless of the danger of imminent capture or even death, she was enjoying this! Even though he admired her for her courage and leadership, there were times he was afraid that his Captain might be a bit space crazy.
Life among the outer fringes of modern society, especially on the Moon, was a less than civilized one. It was a dangerous life where you were always on the run, looking over your shoulder or watching your sensors. So older Moonies, like Neomi who had spent most of their adult life operating outside polite society, were generally given some leeway on their public behavior. Calin had to admit that Neomi may be mor
e temperamental and less restrained than the regular Moonie, But damn! She was a lot of fun to work for.
As the last miner loped up the ramp, a laser bolt flashed by Calin’s head so close he swore he heard its sizzle even in the vacuum of space. But immediately after, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Neomi stumble back a step. His eyes widened and his breath caught in his throat when he saw a fresh burn mark appear on Neomi’s chest-piece. A slight puff of smoke curled out, replaced by a stream of air freezing in the coldness of space. His safety training kicked in and he instinctively grabbed a quick seal patch from his belt and slapped it over the burn mark in her suit. Neomi grabbed his arm hard, her face turning pale with shock. Ducking another barrage of laser fire, he wrapped one arm around her and fired a stream of return fire wildly at the mouth of the cavern. He bounded up the ramp into the ship, the Captain’s small frame light in the low lunar gravity.
Once Calin was inside he barked over the ship channel, “Rose! Close the ramp and emergency air!” Around him, the room filled with foggy jets of air as Rose flooded the compartment before the ramp had fully sealed. When the gravity plates activated, the sudden increase in weight almost caused him to drop the Captain.
He gently lowered her to the deck and popped the quick releases for her helmet and chest-plate. Sliding his own helmet into his collar he immediately commed the bridge, “Dean, get those shields up now!” he ordered. The thud of the blasters and cannon fire against the ship’s hull diminished to a dull roar as the shields activated. He knew they wouldn’t hold up for long, the shielding was designed to deflect high-speed micro-meteors and space dust, not to withstand a constant barrage of military blaster fire.
As the rush of fresh air hit her face, Neomi’s eyes snapped open, and she took a shaky, rattling breath. “Damn, that wasn’t part of the plan,” she muttered with a forced smile. The smile melted into a grimace as waves of pain racked her body.
“Getting yourself shot usually isn’t, now hold still,” Calin said as he ripped the blackened hole in her shirt wider to examine the wound.
A miner crouched down next to them, “I’m the mine medic, let me help. Do you have any medical supplies?”
“Med-pack… my quarters…” Neomi whispered between labored breaths.
Gingerly, Calin picked her up. With her cradled like a child in his arms, he carried her to the Captain’s cabin and laid her out on the bunk. The noise of the PPDs assault against the hull increased in tempo. He knew, at this rate, they would shred the shields in minutes. He needed to get them out of there, now!
Calin wrapped safety straps over Neomi as the mine medic removed the med-pack from the wall and positioned it over her torso. With a series of squeaks and pops, the pack activated and worked to diagnose the wound.
Calin stepped back to give the medic room to work. Hitting the comm panel on the wall, he called the bridge, “Dean, is the ship ready?”
“Warmed up and ready to fly.”
“Good. Comm the cargo bay and tell them to strap in, it’s going to get bumpy.”
“Roger.”
Calin leaned over Neomi and gripped her hand, “You hang in there, OK? I need to earn my pay and fly us out of this mess.”
The Captain gave a slow nod of her head, the painkillers from the med-pack already kicking in. But when he stood to leave, she gripped his hand hard with surprising strength. “Keep my ship safe,” she ordered in a whisper.
Chapter 3
Calin left the Captain’s quarters at a run, tearing up the center corridor to the cockpit as the staccato of blaster bolts hitting the hull increased. Dean, at his Engineering Station at the back of the cockpit, held a thumbs up sign to signal the engines were ready. Sliding into the pilot chair, Calin strapped himself in. And with well-practiced, automatic movements his hands flew through the pre-flight procedure for takeoff.
For a split-second his eyes fell on the empty seat beside him, the Captain’s seat. The cockpit was cramped but efficient, with just enough room for his chair, the Captain’s, Dean’s station behind them, and a passenger seat crammed into the corner.
He gripped the flight stick and advanced the throttles. Under his hands, he could feel the vibration of the ship intensify as he increased the power. The downward thrust of the twin engines raised the Sea Rover off the cavern floor into a hover inside a cloud of moon dust. The beating of the lasers on the shields increased. Rotating the ship’s nose to aim at the entrance brought the attacking PPD forces into view. Outside, scattered across the crater, were a dozen troop carriers. And hovering above them were six surface patrol ships. Several squads had taken up defensive positions outside the mouth of the cave.
“They’re really intent on ruining a perfectly fine day, aren’t they?” he grumbled to himself as he double-checked his safety harness.
He took a deep breath to steady himself, then rotated the engines to forward flight and slammed the throttles forward. The Sea Rover exploded out of the cave hard and fast, the roar of her engines shaking the ground. As he flew over the PPD troops, he tilted his engine thrust downward. The exhaust blew a squad of soldiers across the crater floor, bouncing over each other like tumbleweeds in the low lunar gravity.
He flew straight at the surface ships hovered in front of the entrance. The pilots barely had enough time to slip sideways to avoid a collision. Banking the Sea Rover onto her side, he blasted a patrol ship with the engine thrust. He smirked in satisfaction as it blew the patrol ship into the crater wall, followed by a crash to the floor. Calin continued his barrel roll until his ship leveled out, then pulled the nose up to to climb the crater wall.
The PPD behind him recovered from his surprise exit and opened fire, laser blasts showered the crater all around him. Dancing the ship side to side, he focused on the black sky above. Once he gained enough altitude, he could leave the surface ships behind. The Sea Rover had rudimentary stealth tech that could make them disappear from any PPD sensor or radar. But he had to put some distance between him and them for it to work.
The top edge of the crater wall quickly came into view. “Today is not the day, assholes. Better luck next time,” he snorted as they cleared the rim. The smile fell from his face as the Sea Rover slammed sideways, and an explosion filled the cockpit windows. The ship rocked violently as he felt them lose speed.
“Dean?” he shouted above the shaking of the ship.
Behind him the Engineer’s fingers flew over his control panel, a schematic of the ship displayed on his screen, the left engine pod flashing red. “We took a hard hit on the left engine.”
With the nose of the ship plunging back toward the surface of the Moon, Calin had to resist the urge to pound his fist into his chair. “Shit!” he exclaimed.
With only one operational engine, they could not reach orbit. His fingers flew over his control panel to increase the power of the remaining engine to 110% as the ground rushed up. Pulling back on the flight stick with a sweaty hand, he struggled to pull the ship out of her death dive. Outside the window, large boulders flashed by as the ship skimmed the surface, leaving a swirling dust trail in their wake.
A quick glance at sensors showed two surface patrol ships darting up and over the crater rim behind them. Quickly he pulled up a topological map, overlaid on the front viewport. His hope was to find a hiding spot and get out of this mess, a deep pit or cave system they could disappear into for a little while. But unfortunately, the map only displayed a nearby mountain range. With no alternative, he pushed his one engine as hard as he dared and flew straight for them.
Dean stared out the window at the fast approaching mountainsides and gorges. With a cringe he asked, “We’re heading in there?”
“I thought we’d take the scenic route home,” Calin replied with one eye on the rear scanners. A third blip on the screen made him mutter, “Oh, come on!” A third patrol ship? He gritted his teeth. “Any chance you can get that engine back online?” he asked.
Dean ran a few quick diagnostics, “Maybe, but we need t
o land. I’m not crawling out on that engine pod while we’re flying.”
“Chicken,” Calin said, trying unsuccessfully to lighten the mood. With a negative shake of his head he added, “Stopping is not an option at the moment. Can you think of anything in this area that we can use to get out of sight?” He jerked a thumb behind them, “With only one engine we can’t outrun our friends back there for long.”
Dean tapped the projected map on the window, “I remember this mountain range now. We had a delivery to an operation here a few years ago. The head Engineer was that cute brunette, you remember?” he asked with a wide grin.
“Oh, the one that turned you down?” Calin replied with his best innocent expression, “Was that the large open tunnel? The big one that went all the way through the mountain?”
“That’s the one.”
“All right, it’s our only shot. Give me the coordinates, but first we need to lose these clowns.”
When Calin checked the rear sensors, his stomach dropped. They were close, right on his tail. He needed more speed!
“Rose?” he asked, tilting his head toward the ceiling.
“Yes Calin?” replied the A.I.
“I need emergency power transferred to the right engine, pump it up to 130%,” he ordered.
“I’m sorry Calin, I cannot comply. The Captain’s authorization is required for safety overrides,” Rose answered.
Calin exhaled sharply, “Then how much power can you transfer without the Captain’s authorization?”
“122% is the maximum safe power level.”
“Do it then.” Calin felt the vibration of the ship increase through his seat as Rose shunted more power to the remaining engine.
The coordinates from Dean flashed on the navigation screen as the Sea Rover hurtled into the lunar mountain range. Another glance at the rear sensors told Calin the PPD ships had edged even closer and were almost in firing range.
Dean gripped the armrests of his chair until his knuckles turned white. The mountainsides streaked past the windows uncomfortably close in a high speed blur.
Sea Rover Flight Page 2
