The Counterfeit Captain

by Henry Vogel

  “And why should I care?”

  All the loathing the captain’s comment brought out in me burned in my eyes. “Because they’re kids. They’re not involved in our little war. And not even you deserve to be thrown, alive, into an acid bath—which is what the AI tried to do.”

  The captain just raised an eyebrow, as if I’d suggested a place to go for lunch. To my relief, several members of his crew winced and exchanged uneasy glances.

  “And like a good little Fed, you rushed in to save the boys and girls.” The Fringer mercenary shook his head in mock admiration. “I got to say, Fed, you’ve been pretty busy since I saw you last. It didn’t surprise me one bit to find out you’ve been as big a pain in the ass to my new friend Arktu as you’ve been to me.”

  Four robots rolled up from inside D Section and Arktu’s voice boomed from all four. “Captain Dustin Smith, why have you not executed the prisoner?”

  “I’ll kill her when I’m good and ready to kill her. The same goes for the guy with her.” Smith spoke with exaggerated patience. “Don’t you want her to pay for all the trouble she’s caused you?”

  “You raise an excellent point, Captain Dustin Smith. Lock them away until we decide how best to eliminate them. Lock the workers in with them. I cannot spare robots to escort them to their promotion ceremony at this time.”

  “What promotion ceremony?” Smith asked.

  “Remember the acid bath I told you about?” I asked.

  As the robots turned and rolled away, Smith looked back and forth between the kids and robots. “Whatever.”

  Smith moved to one side, motioning his crew to let us pass between them. “Let’s go. All of you.”

  Sko and I gathered the teenagers as close around us as possible. “It’s okay, kids. I promise it’s going to be okay.”

  Mauris, both of his blondes at his back once again, led us into D Section and around the workshop floor. Watching Lilla, I could tell she wanted to turn and look our way, but she kept facing forward. Smith and his crew took up positions around us, prodding any of the kids who moved too slowly for their tastes.

  On the workshop floor, children fed piles of scrapped metal onto the conveyor belts, just as before. I smiled as I recognized where the metal came from.

  “Hey Smith, have you taken a careful look around the workshop?”

  “Don’t need to, Fed. I’ve seen dozens of shops like this.”

  “I don’t mean the machines.” I gave Smith a bright smile. “Have you looked closely at the scrap they’re feeding into the smelter?”

  “Huh?” Smith looked puzzled at my unexpected comment, but his eyes wandered to the piles of metal standing next to the conveyers. “Hey, wait—is that-?”

  “That used to be your ship’s starboard engine, Smith.”

  “What the hell?”

  “Come on, you didn’t think the AI was going to let our ships just lay around in the docking bay, did you? Metal is a scarce resource on any ship—especially a generation ship like the Ark 2.”

  Smith fell into muttering and cursing, but nothing else changed. I hadn’t expected anything else, but there had been a chance he’d run off and try to save the rest of his ship.

  Moments later, Mauris directed us into an unlighted room barely big enough to hold Sko, the kids, and me. To my chagrin, Smith searched each of us for wristbands, taking all of mine and the one I’d given Kath. Before the door slid shut, I heard Smith ordering one of his men to stand guard. Then the door closed and plunged us into total darkness.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Escape

  “Nancy?” In the darkness, Kath’s voice held rising terror. “I can’t see you! Are you in here, Nancy?”

  Kath’s call to me broke the dam and the rest of the kids called out, too. Some began crying, afraid of being taken back to the hydroponics station. Some swore to make the robots kill them rather than let themselves be thrown into the acid pool. Every comment fed the terror already rising among my charges.

  “Nancy!” Kath all but shrieked over the other voices.

  Keeping my voice level and calm, I called, “Settle down, everyone. I’m right here, near the door.”

  I might as well have tried whispering over a tornado. My reasonable-toned voice never had a chance against two dozen scared kids. That’s when Sko spoke up, taking a very different approach than I had.

  “Quiet!” Sko yelled from right next to me, nearly bursting my eardrums and easily drowning out the teenagers’ combined voices. To my amazement, every voice fell silent. In his normal voice, Sko said, “That’s better. Now, keep your voices down and stop panicking. That just makes the situation worse—something we don’t need right now. Is that clear?”

  “Yes, sir,” chorused the kids in chastened voices.

  “Good. First things first—Nancy is right here next to me.” Sko’s hand groped for me in the dark, turning into an intimate grope when he laid it on my left breast. I barely kept from laughing at how quickly his hand jumped up to my shoulder and I staunchly resisted the sudden temptation to guide his hand back there. “Uh, say something Nancy.”

  “Something Nancy.” That response is corny and older than dirt, but the situation required some kind of humor. The kids laughed as if they’d never heard the joke before. Trapped down here for years, slaving away for the AI, maybe they hadn’t heard it.

  “Second, remember that we’ve got help on the outside. If we can’t get out on our own, Lilla will find a way to get us out—and she’ll do that long before Arktu can gather any spare robots.” Sko’s voice held absolute confidence in our young ally, which had a further calming effect on the kids around us.

  “And third,” Sko continued, “we aren’t as helpless as Arktu and those men think we are.”

  “What do you mean by that, Sko?” I asked

  “Well, Captain, I’ve got a surprise for you in my pants.”

  If I thought the kids laughed hard at my little joke, they just about busted their guts laughing at Sko. Somehow, despite Sko’s obvious lack of sexual experience, I got the idea Sko knew exactly what he was saying this time. While the kids roared, I felt Sko lean close and speak quietly into my ear.

  “Teenagers respond well to a firm hand, my Captain, especially when they’re scared. Act confident when you tell them what to do.” Then Sko put something metallic and cool to the touch in my hand.

  Unable to resist, I asked, “Why, Sko, is that a laser in your pants or are you just happy to see me?”

  Laughter rose around us again as the kids closest to us overheard my question and passed it along to those farther away.

  “It’s a laser, of course,” Sko replied. “I can’t be happy to see you because it’s too dark to see.”

  And that set the kids off again, though not quite as uproariously.

  I heard sudden pounding on the door from outside and asked, “Gee, do you think all this laughter is bothering our guard?”

  “Now that you’re armed, perhaps you can end the man’s irritation, my Captain. Can you open the door?” Sko asked.

  “No, they took the piece of robotic arm when they took the wristbands. Too bad I didn’t hide that in your pants, too.” And then a question occurred to me. “I saw the men search you for wristbands. How did they miss the laser?”

  “There aren’t many men who are willing to search another man’s…nether regions. Apparently, Smith’s men are no different than most other men in that regard. With no way to open the door, though, how can we use it?”

  “Our guard has given me an idea. Hey kids, yell at the top of your lungs if you’re ready to get out of here.”

  The teenagers all yelled and yelled. Then one of them began banging on the door like it was a drum. Within seconds, every kid in the room pushed past me and joined in the drumming on the door and wall.

  “Hey, move away from the door, kids. If it opens, I don’t want anyone between me and the guard.”

  The drumming moved to the side, picked up speed, and settled into a pat
tern as all the kids got in synch with each other. I thought I heard banging from the other side of the door, but it was hard to tell over the racket from the drumming.

  Then the miracle happened. A sliver of light appeared on the right side of the door and widened quickly. I squinted against the blinding light but never took my eyes from the doorway. The guard was against the far wall, his blaster pointed at the door, shouting something which got lost in the noise.

  Without a bit of remorse, I raised the laser and shot him between the eyes.

  As the Fringer guard slumped back against the wall, a neat hole burned into his forehead, Sko hurried out the door and caught the man’s gun before it clattered to the floor. Then he hefted the man over his shoulder and carried him into our room. In the light shining through the open door, I saw the man wore three wristbands. I pulled all three of them—one red, one blue, and one white—from the man’s wrist, then Sko dumped the body in a back corner. The kids shied away from the corpse, but still looked at it in morbid curiosity.

  “D-did you have to kill him?” one boy asked quietly.

  “Yes, she did,” Sko responded as he stood after searching the body. “He would have shot my Captain without a second thought.”

  I slid the red band over my wrist and gave the other two to Sko. “He was left on guard to make sure all of you remained locked in this room until Arktu could take you back to the acid pool. He was no friend of ours.”

  At my mention of the acid pool, a shudder ran through the kids. I hated reminding them of that horror, but they had to remember the stakes we were fighting for.

  “I know all of this is strange to you, but you’ve got to prepare yourself for what’s to come.” Sko traded guns with me and I admit it felt good having a blaster back in my hands. “Sko and I will have to shoot more people before this is over and some of you might even be forced to fight and kill, too. Those men won’t hesitate to kill you, so let that knowledge guide your actions.”

  Some of the kids nodded, determination on their young faces. The rest looked less certain, but you never really know how combat affects people until they find themselves in a life or death situation.

  “Sko and I will do our best to keep you out of the line of fire,” I added. “With those men helping Arktu, my original plan of giving you data pads and sending you to warn your sections won’t work anymore. That’s why the first thing we do when we leave this room is get all of you kids up to the settled part of the ship and into a village.”

  “My Captain, we cannot just send these children to the surface and leave them on their own,” Sko protested. “They might starve before they find a village.”

  “I know.” I wrapped my arms around Sko and laid my head against his chest. “That’s why I’m sending you with them.”

  Sko stiffened in my arms and several of the teenagers gasped in surprise.

  “My Captain…Nancy, you cannot send me away from your side.”

  “I can and I must. Not only can you take these children to safety, you can get the blasters we left with your village. With the Fringer mercenaries down here, we’re going to need them a lot more than the villagers are.”

  “So you want me to return to you after the children are safe?”

  I looked up into Sko’s eyes. “Always.”

  I lowered my eyes and pulled my arms back. Then Sko’s strong, calloused hands gently caught my head between them and turned my face back toward his. His kiss was deep and loving and lingering and full of the promise of a future beyond anything I could have imagined a mere three days ago..

  “And what will you do while I am gone, my Captain?”

  “Sleep.” Dream of you.

  Taking a deep breath, I turned to face the kids and Sko let me go. “Okay, here’s the plan. We’re going to do our best to sneak back to the D Section door. Once there, Sko will take all of you back to the world within the ship. The world where you grew up.”

  “Will I get to see my parents?” Kath asked.

  “Unless you’re from Sko’s village, not yet. Once we’ve taken care of Arktu, though, I promise to do everything in my power to reunite every child with his or her parents. Okay?” Heads nodded all around. “Good. Now, which of you kids is from D Section?”

  When the boy and two girls raised their hands, I motioned them to come forward. “Can you find your way to the workshop floor from here?”

  “I can,” the boy said and one of the girls nodded.

  “We’re going to divide into two groups and I’m assigning one of you to each group. You’re with me,” I said to the boy, then turned to the girl. “I’m putting you with Sko, but don’t you go flirting with him, you hear? He’s mine.”

  The girl grinned and took Sko’s arm. I quickly divided the kids into two groups and then sent him and his kids off into the hallway.

  I turned to my guide once Sko’s group was out of sight. “Do you know a different way to the workshop than the one she’s taking?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Take us by that route.”

  The boy headed off into the corridor, the others quietly trailing after him. Blaster at the ready, I fell in behind the last kid in line. As long as Smith hadn’t assigned any of his men to patrol the hallways, I didn’t expect any trouble. With the exception of Mauris, Milla, and Lilla, the kids working down here stuck to the direct path from the dormitory to the workshop and back again.

  I felt a pang of worry for Lilla, hoping she didn’t come to free us and, when she found the room empty except for the Fringer corpse, think I’d abandoned her. Finding her was my top priority once Sko and the kids were on their way. Unable to do anything else about Lilla at the moment, I put her out of my mind.

  Ten minutes later, our guide led us around the activity on the workshop floor. I released a pent up breath I hadn’t realized I was holding when we found Sko and the others waiting at the door. Sko and I shared a quick smile, then I motioned to the touch pad for the door. Sko touched one of his wristbands to the pad.

  I winced as the door rumbled open, sounding louder than a spaceship lifting off to me. I kept an eye toward the workshop floor, but either the door opened so often no one noticed it anymore or the noise on the floor drowned out the rumbling of the doors. Either way, no one came to investigate.

  As soon as the opening was wide enough, Sko started sending kids through the door. Within twenty seconds, the last kid slipped into the corridor. Giving me a smile and a wink, Sko followed the kids and touched the wristband to the pad in the corridor. The door reversed itself and I exchanged one last look with Sko before the door closed.

  A sudden and thoroughly unfamiliar feeling of loneliness swept over me. Pushing it aside as best I could, I set off to find Lilla.

  Not knowing where she might be, I climbed up onto the catwalk that ran around the outer wall of the workshop. If she was directing the work on the floor, her height and blonde hair ought to stand out among the other kids. Smith’s men ought to stand out even more, so scouting from above served a dual purpose.

  Seconds later, I gazed out at the sprawling workshop floor. As before, older children sliced large hunks of metal—from the remains of my ship and Smith’s—into manageable pieces while younger children fed those pieces into the smelter. A few robots patrolled the floor, giving Arktu a view of the work.

  I spotted Smith right in the middle of things, obviously shouting at one of the robots. All the while, Smith waved his arms wildly and pointed at what was left of one of his ship’s engines. The robot didn’t look at Smith or even respond to him, as best I could tell. It just rolled on with its patrol pattern. Finally, in apparent desperation, Smith yanked his blaster from its holster and waved it about in a threatening manner.

  That got Arktu’s attention. Every robot wheeled about and rolled toward Smith. The robots also obviously issued orders to the children, who all followed behind the robots. The kids with cutting torches kept those in hand while the empty-handed children picked up spanners, crowbars, or hamme
rs.

  In seconds, Smith and one of his men found themselves surrounded by as menacing a gang of children as I’d ever seen. One robot rolled closer to Smith and I assume Arktu spoke to him through the robot. I couldn’t hear anything the robot said, but I watched Smith’s man pale visibly. Smith, on the other hand, reddened in anger but very slowly and carefully holstered his blaster. The robot spun about and the mob of children returned to their work.

  As Smith stalked off toward the dormitory, I considered what I’d just seen. In my experience with the kids, they’d been excited to see Sko and me. I could imagine them reluctantly following Arktu’s orders to hurt us, but never with such obvious menace as they’d shown to Smith. It looked like the idiot mercenary captain had shown the children the same winning personality he’d shown to me. And that meant I might be able to count on support from the children if I made any moves against Smith.

  Tracking Smith’s progress off of the floor, I spotted Lilla coming into the workshop from the dormitory. She gave Smith a hard look and walked wide around him before setting off toward the office. Smith said something to his man, who turned and trailed after Lilla.

  An unsettling feeling grew in the pit of my stomach as I spotted the furtive glances the man gave the working children and their robot overseers. I all but ran down the stairs and vaulted the rail when I was halfway down. Cursing the need to stick to the shadows, I flitted around the edge of the work floor. Once I got around that, I sprinted between hulking, abandoned, and gutted machines toward the office at the back of the workshop. My fear ratcheted up several notches when I saw the blinds were drawn down, blocking any view into the office.

  Pulling out my blaster, I skidded to a stop at the office door, slapped the red wristband against the contact plate, and slid through the opening as soon as it was wide enough. Smith must have left another of his men in the office, as the furtive one had his arms wrapped tightly around a struggling and crying Lilla while the other man pulled her pants off.