Running With Argentine

by William Lee Gordon

  "I figured that; I just never heard the term before."

  "Hello, Captain," Marco said as he walked onto the bridge with the chief right behind him.

  "Chief, I need you to power up the rail guns."

  Without hesitation, the chief moved to the weapons station.

  "What's going on?" he asked.

  "There's a ship bearing down on us, fast!" replied Marco.

  "How the hell do you know what's going on?" Argentine heard himself ask.

  "Well, it is a small ship. Right, Captain? Very small…"

  "Chief, get those guns online and then get yourself back to engineering. Have Rory standing by in the shuttle."

  "Captain, I'll get Rory ready to go… But if it's all the same, I'd like to say here on the weapons station."

  When Argentine raised an eyebrow the chief said, "If they do fire on us their first shot will probably be to take out our engines. I'd just as soon not be there when that happens. Besides, all the controls are routed to the bridge anyway."

  Just then, Sami said loudly…

  "Captain! I've got the lieutenant on the comm! He's… It sounds like he's in trouble!"

  Argentine pressed the button and said, "Lieutenant Stark, report!"

  When Argentine pressed the button the conversation went to the bridge speakers. For a moment, all they could hear was hard breathing. And then… Some weird background noise and a definite thud.

  "Captain, we need an emergency extraction. How fast can you get the shuttle here?"

  "We'll launch now. If we go with a hard reentry we can be down in thirty…"

  He stopped in midsentence as he saw Barry wildly shaking his head…

  "No good, Captain. The whole compound just lit up. It's filthy with laser grids and radar. That's got to be targeting sensors for antiaircraft. Our shuttle wouldn't stand a chance."

  "Lieutenant…"

  "That's okay, Captain. I heard," he interrupted. "We couldn’t have waited thirty minutes anyway…

  “Listen, you need to know that this was a set-up. They took the professor’s money when we first arrived and have kept us under lock and key ever since. I don’t know what they were waiting for but we decided not to stick around and find out.”

  “I think I can answer that Lieutenant; we’ve got an Asperian military ship bearing down on us now.”

  It didn’t take long for both of them to put two and two together…

  “They’re trying to scare you off,” the lieutenant said first. “That way you’re forced to leave us behind and nobody is the wiser about the scam they’re running.”

  “Well, they’ve blown their cover, but I’m still not sure how we’re going to get you back to the ship. We’re no match for them and they’ll achieve intercept in about 35 minutes.”

  After a moment of thought, the lieutenant responded…

  “Ok, here’s what we can do… There's a medium-size city almost directly to our planetary East – we’ll figure out a way to get there. We’ll attempt communications everyday at dawn. If you have to run… go ahead. But Argentine… Make sure you come back."

  Argentine was incredibly frustrated. He said, "Lieutenant… Good luck."

  "Thank you Captain. Just don't forget about us."

  CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

  Escape

  On Trinity

  Lieutenant Stark broke the circuit with the captain and returned the communicator to his pocket. He surveyed the scene in front of him again. The three of them were hiding behind a hedgerow that was growing almost flush against the front side of the house.

  He knew their situation was a long shot, but as long as Argentine kept his nerve and didn't strand them on this sorry excuse for a mud ball, they still had a chance.

  The scene in front of him was one of confusion.

  A number of people were running back and forth between the flitter landing area and the main house. It seemed a new flitter was landing every couple of minutes.

  There were also guards.

  Plenty of guards.

  Twenty minutes ago, he'd been right to expect a guard outside their door. He'd opened it as quickly and quietly as possible and Gossip rushed out before it was even fully open. By the time the lieutenant could step into the hallway he was already lowering the inert form of the guard quietly to the ground.

  They were able to liberate the guard’s handgun, but strangely, they couldn't find any type of communications device.

  They'd made their way quietly down the hall and passed through a couple of empty rooms. Fortunately, at this early hour there weren't a lot of people around.

  They’d almost made it to what the lieutenant estimated to be the outside wall of the villa when a voice rang out, "Halt! You're not allowed in this…"

  Without hesitation, Lieutenant Stark shot the guard in the throat.

  Unfortunately, the energy guns weren’t very quiet.

  Gossip had grabbed the second gun and they’d all sprinted down what he’d hoped would be the last hallway.

  ΔΔΔ

  Fortunately, that hallway had led them to an outside room.

  Again, without hesitation, the Lieutenant had fired his gun at the largest window.

  It shattered, and almost without breaking stride he’d leapt through the opening.

  He’d landed in the hedgerow below. Only slightly worse for wear, he’d quickly clawed his way to the narrow path between the shrubs and the house. He’d then scuttled his way down the side of the house – putting as much distance between them and the window as he could.

  He’d barely paused long enough to make sure his companions were behind him when he came upon the area opposite the flitter Park.

  He'd scanned the chaos in front of them and only then pulled out his communicator to call the ship...

  ΔΔΔ

  So this was their situation.

  They had to get to the city and their only realistic shot at that was to grab one of those flitters.

  He wasn’t worried about who was on the flitter; they would deal with them. He was far more worried about the guards patrolling between them and the car park.

  He counted one small blessing; just like outside of the door to their suit, they seemed to operate independently. Every professional security detail he’d ever known used at least two guards; it was for mutual protection.

  There was a small voice in the back of his head telling him that this was significant, but he didn’t have time to focus on it now…

  “Okay, listen up,” he whispered to the two behind him.

  “We’re going to have to make a run for the next flitter that touches down. Professor, it’s an all-out sprint. Keep your head down and don’t be looking around - just focus on reaching the flitter.”

  “I… I don’t think I can,” he responded somewhat shakily. “I landed bad, out the window…”

  Lieutenant Start shared a look with Gossip and received a small nod.

  “Okay. Then you’re going to have to ride piggyback on our large friend here. Do you think you can do that?”

  The professor looked like he was going to cry, but nodded his head, yes.

  “Okay, here comes our flitter… Ready? Go!”

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  Command Decision

  In Orbit at Trinity

  “Captain, we’re being hailed!” Sami spoke out.

  “Are they that close already?” Argentine asked with some concern.

  “No, not really. At this range there will be a 32 second delay on communications - each way.”

  “Why are they being so antsy-pantsy?” Barry wondered out loud.

  “Because they’re trying to scare us off,” Argentine said with confidence. “Throw it to the speakers,” he told Sami.

  “Unidentified ship! This is the Asperian patrol ship Gideon. You are in orbit around an embargoed planet. Withdraw immediately or you will be boarded.”

  “That’s not right,” Mandi said. “We’re already in violation. They should be arresting us,
not telling us to leave.”

  He nodded at Sami, and then said, “Asperian ship Gideon. Please be advised that our ship has sustained engine damage. Repairs have been initiated and we will leave as soon as they’re back online.”

  After almost a minute, a reply came…

  “Unidentified ship - identify yourself!”

  “We are the good ship Chickenhawk.”

  Argentine noticed out of the corner of his eye that Mandi was grinning.

  After another slightly shorter delay…

  “Chickenhawk, we know… We think it unlikely that your story will hold up. Keep your weapons powered down and prepare to be boarded.”

  ΔΔΔ

  “Of course they know our story is rubbish,” Barry said after the connection was closed. “They’re in on the scam!”

  “Once they board, what will they do with us?” Argentine asked.

  Mandi furled her brow.

  “They can’t really let us go, can they?” she responded. “I’d say the best case scenario is that we all end up in some secret prison somewhere and the Pelican is sent spiraling into the star… but that’s just a guess.”

  “Barry, can we still escape an intercept?”

  “We’d have to break orbit now, Captain. And it would be close - their weapons might still be able to reach us.”

  The bridge was deathly quiet until Argentine finally spoke…

  “Chief, are the railguns online?”

  “Powered up and ready to go.”

  “Did anyone else notice that he told us to keep our weapons unpowered? He thinks we’re defenseless.”

  “No, he said to power down our weapons…” interjected Barry.

  “No, the captain’s right. I caught it too,” the chief said. “He’s not thinking about our railguns.”

  “Why would he?” Mandi added. “No one uses railguns anymore, not for centuries.”

  “Captain? What should I do?” Barry asked nervously.

  “Hold our position, pilot.”

  ΔΔΔ

  "How long before they're in range?" Argentine asked.

  "A lot closer than what they are now," Barry said. "It all depends on how they want to do their station keeping. We're in a low orbit, but if all they care about is taking a shot at us they'll probably want the high ground. With a high orbit, though, they'll be orbiting slower than we are so we'll eventually go over the horizon.

  "It also means they'd be a moving target," he said while giving a quick glance to the weapons station. Apparently he wasn't to certain about the chief's skills.

  "If they're really serious about boarding us, though, they'll probably want to match us in a low orbit," he continued.

  "That means as long as they’re in orbit and we have line of sight, they'll be a stationary target and we can hit them. One good thing is that a low orbit approach will effectively reduce the range of their weapons. They can't shoot over the horizon, so we both have to be above it at the same time.

  "They'll still have an advantage on us, but it will be seconds not minutes.”

  "How much time do we have before they're in orbit?"

  "Just a bit over seven minutes, by my timing."

  "Okay… Chief, track them all the way in. Barry, be prepared to break orbit if things go south, give me a signal once we're in their weapons range, and another when they're in ours. Sami, I'm going to want you to work the comms for me and make sure they only hear what I want them to hear… Also, in case we do make it out of this godforsaken gravity well in one piece, make sure we have a vector to skip out on."

  "Already plotted," she responded.

  Argentine took a quick moment to reflect on his crew. Up until this point he'd mostly thought of them as simply a group of people running away together. But now… Now they were his people and he felt proud of them.

  "Okay Sami, open a channel and let's see if we can't talk this guy into where we need him to be."

  ΔΔΔ

  "So you see, Captain Bismarck. There is no reason for everyone to be so out of sorts. The repairs are almost complete and we’ll be on our way before you even know it."

  Out of the corner of his eye, Argentine saw Barry hold up one finger.

  They were now in range of the enemy ship's guns.

  Captain Bismarck of the Asperian ship Gideon wasn't having any of it.

  He glanced to the side and apparently liked what he saw; a small smile spread across his face.

  "It's not up for debate, Captain. You're now within our weapons range and if you try to resist our boarding, we’ll destroy you. I hope that's perfectly clear."

  Barry raised two fingers.

  "Are you sure we can't talk this out, Captain?" Argentine asked one last time.

  Captain Bismarck just laughed.

  Argentine looked over to the chief and both men held each other's gaze.

  Argentine rubbed his eyes with his left hand. He then moved his gaze to the ceiling.

  With a sigh he raised his right hand in resignation…

  "Fire."

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  On The Run

  On Trinity

  The sun had already dawned but the sky was still dark enough that the intense flash made false shadows on the ground before the flitter.

  Steadying his flying, he looked up through the canopy to see the remnants of what must've been a high-altitude explosion.

  He quickly looked back to his front – nape of the earth flying was dangerous.

  Lieutenant Stark was not a naïve man. One of the ships in orbit was no more, and he wouldn't know which one until dawn tomorrow.

  It was only a few minutes ago that they'd made their mad sprint for the flitter.

  To his amazement, even with the professor on his back, Gossip had been outdistancing him. Of course, he'd had to slow slightly a couple of times to shoot a guard… at least that would be his excuse.

  They'd reached the flitter and started throwing the passengers out on the ground when they’d started taking serious fire.

  The lieutenant had jumped into the pilot’s seat and given a quick glance back to the passenger compartment to make sure his people were onboard.

  So as disturbing as the thought of losing their ship was, he had more immediate things to think about right now…

  When he’d glanced back, the professor was fine… But gossip's left side was a bloody mess.

  ΔΔΔ

  The flitter kept wanting to gain altitude.

  The city was now clearly visible in front of them and its screen kept highlighting mid-tier or rooftop landing pads.

  He kept the nose down. They needed to be on the ground level. The last thing he wanted was for them to be trapped halfway up some tall building.

  Besides, if this city was going to be anything like all the others he'd ever known, the class of off the books, below the radar type of people that he was looking for would only be found on the street level.

  He brought the flitter in fast and low; its alarms started blaring as soon as he hit the city's edge. He didn't slow down and he didn't take the time to try to figure out how to turn them off; the airspace this close to the ground wasn't designed for flying. There were all types of aerials, poles, and wires to occupy his attention.

  They'd taken the flitter hard and fast; apparently nobody had been expecting it. So that meant nobody was immediately on their tail. It was a situation that wouldn't last forever, though.

  He zigzagged a course in deeper and deeper into the city until he finally found what he was looking for.

  A large section of the lower floor of the building in front of him was open to the sidewalk. He didn't have time to figure out what it was used for, but at least it was mostly filled with closed stalls rather than people.

  He literally bounced and skidded the flitter into the opening.

  They came to a sliding stop; now he knew they couldn't be found from the air.