“I’m lookin’”
“I see your point,” Dougherty nodded. “I’ll be ready.”
“There’s never a dull moment hanging out with you three,” Colonel Peters said. “I’m releasing you now, and I’ll use battery power to get aimed in the right direction. Good luck.”
“Thanks, Jas,” Jake called out, as he scrambled out of the pilot seat, allowing Dougherty to slip over from the co-pilot position. “Start working her over to their ship, Tim, while Charlie and I get ready for action. I’ll bring your armored suit up from the back just in case we have to exit a little on the rough side.”
“I’ll pick a likely spot on their hull, and then start matching their drift speed for lockup,” Dougherty replied. “What the heck are you going to use to put a hole in their hull?”
“We have the solvent gun, Nick made up to dissolve the Queen’s chamber shield in the back. Once we get locked on her hull, I’ll use the solvent gun on their shielding, and Charlie can immediately blast through with his particle beam rifle. It’ll be a little risky, depending on how tightly Charlie can hold the pattern.”
“A little risky,” Mercer echoed sarcastically. “Boy, this just keeps getting better and better. Well, come on Ke-mo sah-be, let’s get our costumes on.”
“Hey,” Jake stopped immediately. “Where the heck did you get that Ke-mo sah-be stuff…I…Tim?”
“Ah…you better get moving, Jake,” Dougherty called out. “I’m getting pretty close.”
Jake turned back to Mercer. “You’ve been saving up on me.” “Heh, heh, heh”
“How much more do you have in that addled head of yours, waitingto.”
“Gentlemen,” Peters’ voice interrupted. “I’m in position.” “C’mon, Jake,” Mercer scolded. “Quit fooling around and get your butt in gear. Not everything is about you. What a self indulgent.”
Jake scooped his partner up right off of the ship decking, and propelled him towards the back, with Mercer’s arms and legs churning. “Look Ma,” Mercer quipped. “No hands.”
“Ready Jake?” Dougherty asked. “We’re inches away from thehull.”
Jake waited until Mercer was in position next to the sealed orifice hatch, with his particle beam rifle aimed at the opening. Mercer nodded, and Jake positioned the solvent gun. “Hook her up Tim.”
Dougherty eased the Drop Ship in, and used the field generator to pull them tight up against the hull. As soon as Mercer heard the suction lock, he opened the hatch, and Jake sprayed the solvent all over the area of the Alien vessel hull revealed by the open hatch. They felt the vibration as the Alien ship powered up. Jake smiled at Mercer as the outer coating of the Alien ship hull bubbled and began to run. Mercer’s first blast vaporized the area within the hatch opening. Jake had grabbed up his particle beam rifle, and after Mercer ceased fire, he went through the opening, as the Alien ship shuddered.
Jake headed in the direction of the cockpit, along a darkened narrow corridor, with Mercer at his back. A pulse blast weapon discharged down the way. The blast hit the shoulder of Jake’s armored pressure suit. It knocked him off balance, but his armor held. Mercer fired a long burst at full power, obliterating everything in front of them, including parts of the bulkhead. Mercer crouched on the other side of the corridor, waiting as Jake regained his bearings.
“Thanks, Charlie, I should have been firing, instead of running,” Jake told him. He turned down the power on his rifle. “I’ll go first, steady fire, and you follow me at full power, in case we meet up with anything I don’t get.”
“Engage,” Mercer cracked.
Jake laughed. He rushed forward, hugging the side of the corridor as he kept up a withering stream of reduced power particle beam blasts. Soon, their helmet light beams were the only lighting left. The two men attacked without hesitation, everything around them. As they reached the hatch leading to the cockpit, Mercer let loose a sustained full power burst, which disintegrated the pockmarked door.
Inside the cockpit, three bodies lay mangled on the ship’s deck, where they had been hit by stray blasts during the attack. Sparks and flame shot up from the ship’s control array. The shrieking alarm sounds cut off, as the system generating them went out, and a fire retardant mist blasted out of nozzles all along the bulkheads. The vapor hung thickly in the air, until an exhaust system kicked on, and began dissipating the fog.
“Watch the back, Charlie, and I’ll see if I can find a survivor. You see anything alive on the other side of the hatch, where the first blast came from?”
Mercer ducked back out to look around, while he covered the rear of the ship with his rifle. “There ain’t anything alive out here. I don’t even see any parts left. There’s a hatch at the back, past where we broke through. It may be their living quarters.”
“One of these things up here seems to be moving a little,” Jake added. “You getting all this guys?”
“Yes Sir,” Colonel Peters answered. “Man, that was a little too thrilling for my taste.”
“You okay, Jake,” Dougherty asked. “I saw you take a hit.”
“The armor held,” Jake replied. “Keep an eye on the tail of the ship. If we get into trouble on the way back there, I might need you to throw a burst into there, and take our chances with depressurization.”
“Will do, Jake,” Dougherty answered.
Jake joined Mercer outside the cockpit. “You ready?”
Mercer nodded. “You leaving one alive at our backs?”
“It ain’t moving anything other than its head,” Jake assured him. “It lost a couple of appendages. Let’s throw a long burst, full power, into the back there, and worry about more prisoners later. Some of them could be on the other side of the hatch waiting to tear us out a new one.”
“Sounds good to me,” Mercer agreed. “I was hoping you weren’t planning on any touchy feely stuff with a closed hatch. If they’re by the door, they won’t be happy.”
“Gee, that’s tough,” Jake said. “I.”
The whole ship shook, as they heard what sounded like a weapons discharge.
“That was me, guys,” Dougherty yelled. “I had to throw a MAG50 round at another ship off our starboard side. It was coming on fast.”
“Nice shot, Tim,” Peters’ congratulated him. “The coated shot worked great. I don’t see anything but debris. They must have a base close by, or their planet. I’m scanning now.”
“Charlie and I will hurry this up,” Jake stated.
Both men fired a sustained full power burst at the rear bulkhead, which blew inward with the consistency of dust. They both moved slowly towards the gaping hole, as the ship’s exhaust system cleared out the smoke. Choking sounds came from the direction beyond the blasted hatch. Two creatures stumbled out of the clearing smoke, gesturing weakly. They were approximately the same height, about six feet tall. Their hairless heads were ridged with what appeared to be tendons snaking under the skin, with foreheads extending out over recessed eye sockets. The noses were flat, and spread out, ending just over the thin lipped mouths, which were contorted as the Aliens coughed in the thinning dust cloud. Slim of build, and wearing one piece, slate gray uniforms, the two aliens halted outside where the bulkhead had been. They peered up the corridor, as Jake and Mercer moved their helmets to illuminate the creatures.
“What do you think, Charlie,” Jake asked. “We do have plenty of room on the Drop Ship.”
Mercer shrugged. “If it was up to me, I’d put a thin shot through their heads, and then drag the bodies back. What the hell can we get out of them?”
Jake was already turning down the power again on his rifle. “I think you’re right.”
As Jake raised his rifle, the Alien in front gestured wildly with his arms. “Do not kill us,” he cried out in a bass, guttural voice, his face contorted in what looked like a plea.
Jake lowered his rifle in surprise.
“Gee Jake, ain’t this cozy?” Mercer said, grinning. “Hey, you guys hear that? These things speak our language.”
“I heard, Charlie,” Colonel Peters acknowledged, “but I’m scanning more company coming, and they’re only about a half hour away.”
“Bring them on board, Charlie,” Dougherty added with enthusiasm. “I bet they’d be glad to help us as scouts once you introduce them to Mr. Snappy.”
Both Jake and Mercer laughed out loud at Dougherty’s reference, which caused the Aliens to cringe back against the bulkheads of the corridor. “Let’s get them on board Alpha, Charlie, and then join up with Jas again. We’ll drift away from here a little ways and watch the fun.”
Mercer nodded, and motioned the Aliens to come forward. “Get down on your faces, while I check you clowns out. One move I don’t like, and Jake here will trim you off at the waist.”
The Aliens hurried forward on small, booted feet, dropping forward onto their knees. Using their thin, segmented, six fingered hands with opposable thumbs, they eased face down on the deck, with their long arms splayed out above their heads. Mercer patted them down expertly, as Jake held the particle beam rifle close on them. Mercer had them flip over, and finished the search. They remained unresisting throughout the pat down.
“They’re clean, Jake,” Mercer said, “but it wouldn’t hurt to do a real scan on board.”
“Okay boys, let’s go,” Jake motioned them up, and Mercer guided them through the Drop Ship hatch. Jake closed it up behind them. “Tim, you back at the controls?”
‘Tea Jake, I’m disengaging now.”
The Drop Ship shook a bit, as it released the Alien vessel. They moved away to join with the Command Wing Fighter, and Dougherty switched off the cloaking shield, so Colonel Peters could hook back up with them. Once Peters activated the field control, he powered down, and released control to the Drop Ship. Dougherty reactivated the cloaking shield. He moved them well away from the Alien vessel, and lowered power to a holding pattern.
Jake and Mercer used energy cuffs to restrain the Aliens. Mercer retrieved a personnel scanner, and checked over every inch of the creatures.
“Let’s put these two in a holding cell,” Jake said. “I want to watch what happens when their buddies get here.”
After depositing the Aliens in one of the dozen small holding cells the Drop Ship had been fitted with for Colony policing actions, Jake and Mercer joined Dougherty in the Alpha cockpit. “Any sign, Tim?”
“Oh yea,” Dougherty affirmed, pointing at the large scanner screen on the console. “They’ll arrive shortly. Did you guys ask the Aliens if they had any warning we were near at all?”
Mercer looked over at Jake, who grinned sheepishly. Mercer stood up. “I’ll be right back. I’ll keep the audio up.”
A few minutes later, they heard Mercer ask one of the Aliens if they had detected the Drop Ship on their scanners, or if they had any warning at all. There was silence for a time, and then a weapon’s discharge Jake recognized as a sidearm. A low stuttering grunt, sounding like pain, broke the silence, as both creatures began speaking at one time.
“You hear that, Jake?” Mercer asked.
“I got it. They didn’t have a clue. What happened?”
“For some reason, they were reluctant to discuss the matter, so I burned a piece off the inside calf of the one who spoke to us on the Alien ship. I’m on my way back. Did I miss anything?”
“Nope,” Dougherty answered. “We have your seat saved. They’ll be here in a couple of minutes.”
“You scanning for the origin point, Jas?” Jake asked as Mercer came in and sat down.
“I have a lock on it, Jake, and it’s a planet, unless they make their bases a little larger than Casserine. What kind of stuff do they breathe anyway?”
“Almost the same as us, but with a little more Nitrogen,” Jake answered. “I’m sending the readings we took over to you even as we speak, Jas. Just ignore the fires and smoke mix.”
“Got it,” Peters confirmed. “I’m scanning for details on their solar system here. We’ll be able to take some solid information back with us. We still going for a visit? I sent an information burst back through the Gate, but I told them not to communicate with us. I figured I better warn them, in case this bunch coming at us now, decide to follow where they think we’ve gone. They may be looking for payback after they see what’s left of their other two ships.”
“They’ll sure have a surprise, if they don’t see us,” Jake replied. “We’ll have the surprise if they do.”
“Here they come, my friends,” Dougherty announced.
Three ships, the same size as the two they had destroyed came into view, with a mammoth Gallant size cruiser backing them up. The bodies of the crew who were aboard the ship they had attacked were floating in space, having been sucked out when the Alpha Drop Ship had pulled away. All of the loose debris from the battle hung in a cloud around the crippled ship. Very little of the ship Dougherty had targeted survived the special MAG50 round.
“Man, I hope that big one doesn’t get wind of us,” Jake commented.
“I’m locked on him, Jake,” Colonel Peters said. “If he powers up his weapons array, I’ll blow the crap out of him.”
“Ah, Colonel,” Mercer cut in. “We’re still in the blast radius of one of your big ones, aren’t we?”
“I’m afraid so Charlie,” Peters admitted, “but I’ll try and out run the blast if it comes to that.”
“Relax, they’re heading for the Gate,” Dougherty said.
“I’ll fire off a warning to the Gallant and Intrepid as soon as they get in the Gate,” Peters replied. “There, I’ve warned them. Those boys will be in for a big surprise when they emerge. Sara has five Command Wing Fighters with them too.”
“I guess we’ll stick around and question the prisoners until we hear word back from the other side,” Jake said. “If there’s no other trouble, we’ll be able to take our time, maybe even do a couple of bombing runs.”
‘Tea,” Mercer agreed, “just a little thank you for dropping off those lovely Bug Queens. I’m real interested in how the hell they know our language. Any ideas?”
“Maybe they’ve been monitoring the colonies for quite a while,” Peters ventured.
“Charlie and I will go down and ask them, while you two wait for the results from our side of the Gate,” Jake said, as he stood and motioned for Mercer to follow him.
As they walked back to the holding cell, Jake smiled over at Mercer. “I guess you’ve laid the ground work for this interrogation, huh?”
“They did seem more cooperative after I explained it to them,” Mercer agreed. “You know, of course, they could have learned the language from prisoners.”
“That was my thought too,” Jake admitted. “I want to play it along those lines. We’ll act like we already know they have prisoners, and see if we can get them to tell us how many.”
“Oh, they’ll tell us all right,” Mercer stated, taking Mr. Snappy out of his vest pocket. “We’ll find out where too, along with everything else they ever learned since they were born.”
Chapter 30
Unexpected Opportunity
Dougherty looked up as Jake and Mercer entered the cockpit with the lead Alien they had talked with before, and who Mercer had removed a piece of with his sidearm. “Tour buddy there looks like he’s in distress.”
“Tea, well Binky here, and his buddy, Stinky, didn’t take to our questions concerning their home planet,” Mercer explained, as he guided a visibly shaken Alien into one of the seats.
“After Charlie had Mr. Snappy discuss the breakdown in communications with them, they decided to be fully cooperative,” Jake added.
“You know, of course,” Dougherty reminded them, as he kept his eyes on the ship control panel, and guided the cloaked ships towards their goal, “we could end up being tried as war criminals. Those devices have been outlawed on every colony in the galaxy.”
“I won’t tell if you don’t,” Mercer replied. “Besides, Binky and Stinky informed us they’ve been hijacking ships for nearly a decade, and no
w have nearly five thousand human slaves.”
Dougherty’s mouth dropped open as he whipped his head around to look at Mercer, hoping for some indication he had been joking. “C’mon, Charlie, you’re kidding, right?”
“I wish I were, Tim.”
“What are we going to do?” Dougherty asked, looking over at Jake.
“Just as we had planned, Tim. We don’t have enough room to take on five thousand passengers, even if we could rescue them,” Jake said. “Binky here has agreed to guide us, and we’ve agreed not to torture him to death. Once we get this place scouted out, we’ll go back through the Gate with enough fire power to vaporize their planet.”
“I noticed we’re heading out somewhere, so I gather the reception committee took care of business on the other side of the Gate,” Mercer commented.
Dougherty looked at the Alien, and then over to Jake, who motioned for him to proceed.
“Don’t worry, Tim,” Jake assured him. “Binky will not be rejoining his friends any time in the future.”
“Colonel Stavros told Colonel Peters the Alien force was wiped out at the Gate, and they have many prisoners from their main ship, which was disabled and boarded by a Marine force. Colonel Peters told them about the prisoners probably knowing our language.”
“Casualties?” Jake asked.
“Only five killed, and about forty wounded in the boarding process,” Dougherty answered. “They took nearly five hundred prisoners.”
“My ship,” the Alien put in with a shaking voice in his guttural tone, “had many thousands on board. What.”
“Actually,” Jake cut in, as Mercer shook his head in a disapproving manner, which shut the Alien up instantly. “My orders were to not take any prisoners, if there was any doubt as to the safety of my fleet. Someone acted with misguided initiative to try and gain as much intelligence as possible, and to capture the ship for study. You infested our mining colonies with whatever you call those creatures you planted. Thousands of our people were torn apart and eaten. Do you think for a second, your people will not be made to pay for those deaths a hundred fold?”
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